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Spring 2025 notes
Thoughts on Innovation Ultimate, Fellowship of the Ring: The Trick-taking Game, Faraway and Black Forest.
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New game notes, December 2024
Short comments on the best new games I’ve played in the later half of 2024.
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Forest Shuffle and new games
The post provides reviews of multiple games. I enjoy Forest Shuffle, particularly when played with two players, and find All Roads to be a compact, minimalist game with cooperative elements. The urban tactical combat game Invasion: Free State is also noted. Other games mentioned include The Quest for El Dorado: Dragons, Treasures & Mysteries, One…
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Horseless Carriage and more
Horseless Carriage is Splotter’s latest game tackling the early automobile business where players try to fulfill customer needs and manipulate market trends. Other games mentioned include Brass: Birmingham, a fine game; Spots, a quick, dog-themed game; and Cascadia, the Spiel des Jahres award-winning, tile-laying game ranked well on BoardGameGeek and comparable to another game, Akropolis.
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Forest Shuffle and more
I write about my experiences playing three different board games – Forest Shuffle, Fit to Print, and Moon. I had mixed feelings about Forest Shuffle’s balance and gameplay but plan to explore it further. I found Fit to Print, a tile-laying, real-time game about creating newspaper layouts, exciting and enjoyable. However, I remain indifferent to…
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SpellBook
SpellBook by Phil Walker-Harding and Space Cowboys. I received a review copy from Asmodee Nordics. Elevator pitch: SpellBook is a race of collecting magical resources, using them to unlock spells and then using those spells to unlock more spells. What’s in the box? There’s a bunch of spell cards and a familiar board for each…
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Xiangqi, Shogi, Riichi and Brass: Birmingham
Here are some random notes on games I’ve played recently. Xiangqi and Shogi. Thanks to a book project, I’ve returned to Chinese and Japanese chess. I tried both about 15 years ago, but those were just single attempts. Now I’ve delved slightly deeper, thanks to a son who is keen to explore these games with…
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Earth and Space Base
I’m usually not interested in new games, but apparently, I can be persuaded. Something in Earth attracted me; I’m not sure what it was. I checked the rule book, which seemed complicated at first sight, and then went and learnt the game. It’s not that tricky, really. It’s a game of many cards, tableau building…
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Texas Showdown with Seas of Strife rules
Texas Showdown is a very good trick-taking game for five or six players. The point is to avoid taking tricks. The main twist in the game is the suit-following rules: you have to follow suit, but if you can’t, you play anything, and other players can then follow your suit. The trick is won by…
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Drawing tube lines in London
Next Station: London by Matthew Dunstan is another game in the X-and-write genre; in this case, a flip-and-write (I prefer the Finnish catch-all term “coupon-filler”). Each player has a fairly abstract map of London in front of them and must draw four underground lines to generate as many points as possible. The tube lines are…