Known for its beautifully colored houses, Burano is a captivating island. The lace produced on the island has been held in high regard since the Middle Ages. And of course, it wouldn’t really be an island without a healthy fishing economy. So what are you going to do when you live on the beautiful, canal filled Burano and your family needs jobs? Obviously, you’re going to send them off to work in the lace shops and to be fishermen. At least that’s how it works out in the b...
War of Kings is a medieval themed 4X strategy game. Players are trying to expand their kingdom in order to accumulate the most victory points. To do this, you'll need to carefully manage your resources (timber, wheat, cattle, and stone), build settlements, and conquer unexplored territories while defending your own. Each territory can produce up to two different resources, but in order to do so, a town or city is required to harvest the secondary resource.
In additio...
Some things just go well together: peanut butter & jelly, Sifl & Olly, milk & cookies, board games & friends. The latter is probably my favorite combination, so when a board game mixes two great things together, like steam punk & time travel, I’m sold. Steam Time does just that.
The theme/setting of Steam Time is this: In the current year of 1899, a fantastic discovery of unusual crystals, with spacetime bending properties, has sparked the inventio...
I got to talk to Jamey Stegmaier about the Stonemaier Games upcoming release, Scythe. The transcription of the interview is below and you can always subscribe to iTunes and listen to the podcast there. In addition to talking about Scythe and the hype engine that surrounds the game, I also ask Jamey a few unusual questions, which serve as the beginning of a, hopefully ongoing, segment I like to call "Inside the Designer Studio" or something like that. The name is a w...
There aren't enough games with mining as the theme, but if you lend your support to the Mining Maniac Kickstarter campaign, there’ll be one more game in that category. Mining Maniac, from X-Axis Production, is an economic game with a slight mining theme. Fairly straight forward and easy to learn, Mining Maniac is a light weight card game where players mine different resources in order to turn those resources into coins/money. At the end of twelve rounds, the player with...
A couple of years ago, while I was neck-deep into other board games, I kept reading praises about “the Robinson Crusoe board game”, and how wonderful it was. I was instantly intrigued, however, I procrastinated on picking it up. The game sold out worldwide, and was practically unavailable. I emphasize “practically”. Yes, you could score a copy of Robinson Crusoe on Ebay or other random site from time-to-time--at an exorbitant markup. This premium precluded me from buy...
The battle for the Shadowstar Expanse has begun!
A game of starships, ground troops, politics, and technology on Kickstarter through March 24th, 2015.
Ryan Wolfe, creator of the popular Future Armada line of starship designs, uses his well-established ships and setting as the foundation for a rich and exciting boardgame. Short-term tactical combat combines with long-term strategy decisions to create an immersive and unforgettable experience.
The playing pieces inc...
In future world where the icecaps have all melted, new global alliances have risen up and vie for control. That’s the backdrop of The 5th Land, a new board game from Prime Alien Watch Squad, which is now live on Kickstarter.
The beauty of The 5th Land is that it blends economics, combat, and resource management together into a fun and engaging game, that doesn’t take too long to finish. The game board, which is made up of multiple hex tiles, has over 11,000 different ...
Behind the lighthearted theme of Livestock Uprising is a solid game that combines resource management and player versus player combat with a randomized game board. The game is both fun and funny, at least if you find cards named Dynamite Donkey and Bloodthirsty Llama humorous. While the tongue in cheek humor will keep you laughing at the table, Livestock Uprising actually packs in a decent amount of strategy and depth.
Gameplay
The game play area is comprised of a set ...
Snowdonia is a unique worker placement game with a railroad theme and a built-in auto mechanic that lets you not only play with players but also play against the game itself. It’s a competition between who can excavate the most rubble, lay railroad tracks, build stations and fulfill contracts.
Gameplay
Each player starts with two labor pawns. They send each to do one of seven different tasks.
• Take Resources from the stockyard (Iron, Stone, or Coal)
• Excavate (Rubb...
