Tabletop Reviews

When it comes to choosing board games that fit Big Boss Battle and what I think our readers are interested in, I always look for bright, accessible games that have deep, competitive hooks to grab the players attention. Following a second…

Rurik: Dawn of Kiev is the latest design from Stan Kordonskly (previously known for Dice Hospital, among others) and the first big-box game from Piecekeeper Games. Rurik is a eurogame with worker placement, bidding and area control aspects…

Whist most of the hype surrounding the Kickstarter for Unbroken has been for the wrong reasons — due to supply issues and some very suspect comms from the publisher — the game is now finally being sent out to backers.  Whilst Unbroken…

When I first became aware of Paris: La Cité de la Lumière, I was taken aback by how stunning it looked in pictures. When I saw it in the flesh, however, I was even more awestruck. Paris, from Jose Antonio Abascal Acebo and Devir Games must…

There are a lot of chocolate-themed board games around! Previously, I played Chocolatiers, which has players creating boxes of chocolates to score points and now have taken on Chocolate Factory, where you are now running a factory that…

A popular and often sought after release, Pret-a-Porter has just been printed for a third time by Portal Games. But how does this fashion themed economic game continue to draw in the crowds almost ten years after its original release?…

Battlelands: Aftermath Edition is a card game that pits players against each other in a series of battles that will determine the outcome of a post-apocalyptic war. Players must manage their resources from battle to battle, choosing when to…

With so much praise lavished on the first two games and such a simple game concept to work with, I couldn’t imagine how Azul: Summer Pavilion could possibly have improved on the first two games, yet somehow, it has. After all, just a…

Crimson Company is a small box card game that centres around wagering cash and recruiting troops in order to secure control of two out of three central castles. The version you see in these pictures is the Deluxe Edition which features…

When it comes to a choice between a salad or a pile of fries I know exactly what I am going to order. In Fry Thief, a two player game, one of you has made the silly choice of purchasing a salad but now wants to steal some fries from the…

Whilst I don’t play tons of party games, I tend to favour those which rank as at least “mid-tier” in terms of the complexity. I’d much rather invest a bit more time and effort into a crunchier game, and I suppose in general that’s why I…

Slamwich is an intense version of slam/snap, where everything looks like not so tasty sandwiches.  The game itself is pretty simple, you divide out the Slamwich deck between all players. Without looking at their card, each player puts down…

Once upon a time a designer called Martin Wallace decided that every game should be card driven, and once he had made war games, area control games and deception games thus, he rested. After pondering for a while, he thought “miniatures…

Sometimes it seems that games of a similar theme come in runs. I assume this is because of a particular theme across popular culture, but I’ve never been able to put my finger on it. One theme that we’ve seen a lot of in board gaming…

Whilst it’s a bit of a niche area, Victory Point Games have become known as the almost undisputed champions of solo specific board game experiences, having created a number of systems specifically designed for lone play. Nemo’s War is one…

A little while back, you might recall that we previewed an inventive and unusual worker placement and retrieval game that was coming to Kickstarter, called Thieves Den. Well, the good news is that it successfully funded and is now a fully…

From time to time, I stop playing with my little tabletop group and instead play board games with my family. Some members of my family are quite small, so when Orchard — a board game about counting and numbers — came up, it just made sense…

Only a few months ago we reviewed Valeria: Card Kingdoms, and I really enjoyed its accessibility, speed of play and how generous it felt overall. Today, we’re taking a look at its sibling — the travel sized Villages of Valeria, which is…

As a board game reviewer, I sometimes have to accept that it can be hard to get some games to the table. Where Secret Unknown Stuff: Escape From Dulce is concerned, I have to hold my hands up and say that I wish I had done it sooner. The…

Making beautiful cakes is a great pastime, especially if you do it without making the entire kitchen a mess. In Frenemy Pastry Party, you and your friends are working together to make pastries, while also trying to get the most points that…