Category: Reviews

Within Himeji Castle’s walls, minor clans vie for influence through calculated positioning and resource management in The White Castle. Juggling iron, food, and mother-of-pearl resources, players strategically place dice to advance their clan members up the castle’s prestigious hierarchy. With only nine tense turns, every decision carries weight in this tightly designed game of social climbing and political finesse.

Companion Quest delivers a masterfully designed cooperative dice adventure. With premium components, it blends luck, strategy, and teamwork flawlessly. Manage energy cubes to collect dice, complete quests with unique rules, and outmaneuver the mischievous Gu’Gu. Scales superbly for families or veteran gamers across four difficulty modes. Creates genuine excitement through collaborative play without being overwhelming. A charming, replayable gem.

Rattus Big Box delivers a compelling medieval survival game set during the Black Death, masterfully blending accessibility and strategic depth through clever class cards and expansions. Its push-your-luck plague mechanics and area-majority gameplay create tense, replayable experiences. While occasionally punishing, the uncertainty generates memorable moments. The modular design allows infinite customization, with highlights like the Pied Piper’s unique movement and Universities’ upgrade paths.

Wingspan Fan Art Pack celebrates community creativity, reimagining birds through diverse artistic styles while preserving gameplay. From Aboriginal dot art to origami folds, digital collages to typographic wings, this visually diverse expansion offers a fresh perspective on familiar gameplay. High-quality production with thoughtful details enhances integration with original components.

Apiary: Expanding the Hive subtly enhances the acclaimed base game with meticulously curated additions like unique frames, new hive mats, expanded explore tokens, and tiles that create strategic intersections. Rather than reinventing mechanics, it weaves new threads into the existing tapestry, respecting the core while introducing fresh perspectives. An exemplar of thoughtful refinement over dramatic overhaul, elevating an excellent game without overwhelming complexity. A must-have for enriching your apiary experience.

The announcement of Viticulture World marked an intriguing evolution in the Viticulture series....

Look, we’ve got a Christmas present! Hidden in Russia’s northern frontier traditions...

In the world of board games, some classics deserve a fresh coat of paint. Diamant (2024) by IELLO...

Stamp Swap delivers a refreshing twist on drafting mechanics, blending open drafting with the tense “I cut, you choose” mechanism. This unique combination creates genuine tension and captivating decisions as players split their collections to mislead opponents. With diverse scoring paths through contest cards and specialist abilities, strategic depth emerges from simple choices. The solo mode’s challenging Pinzetta opponent captures the psychological elements of multiplayer. Stonemaier Games has crafted an engaging, highly replayable experience that transcends its unassuming theme.

SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is a stellar eurogame with a unique rotating solar system mechanism. Explore space, launch probes, and discover alien life through strategic card play and resource management. Beautiful components and high replayability make this a must-have for heavy strategy fans.

Explorers of Navoria blends worker placement, set collection, and exploration mechanics into an engaging strategy game. Manage resources across three rounds, carefully recruiting townsfolk and expanding into colorful territories. With multiple viable paths to victory, solid components, and great scaling across player counts, it’s a fresh yet accessible experience.

Re;ACT: The Arts of War is a two-player card-driven combat game where players control anime-inspired artists who duel with their craft, from calligraphy and painting to summoning fish through dance. Each artist plays differently, with unique mechanics like dice-rolling for the Painter or flooding the board with clay constructs as the Sculptor. The deluxe edition offers premium components like acrylic standees and stitched playmats. The “React Chain” system and asymmetric gameplay create tense battles of strategy and timing, constantly keeping players on their toes.