Join me for an exciting hybrid stream where I sit down with designer Wolfgang Klein to talk about Assault Sicily ’43: Gela Beachhead, and then jump straight into a fast-paced demo of the game!
Set during the 1943 Allied landings at Gela, this tactical wargame puts you in charge of combined arms across 40 gripping scenarios—ranging from isolated beach assaults to a sprawling dynamic campaign. With modular geomorphic maps, a unique formation–card driven system, and a bespoke dice mechanic, every battle unfolds with high tension, deep decision-making, and cinematic flair.
We’ll explore the game’s design principles, its storytelling ambitions, and then showcase how the systems work in practice— from landing waves to firing squad engagements. Whether you're new to tactical ops or a seasoned grognard hunting for jewel-like gameplay, don’t miss this revealing and action-packed session.
If you would like to donate to Drive Thru Games, you can use the "Thanks" button under the video, or please check out the Gamefound Pledge Manager - https://tinyurl.com/2p8tbhpu
Intro (00:00);
game overview (01:47);
final thoughts and review (11:06);
This time last year I went to a friend's cottage, and recorded one of three mailbag episodes. This year, as I prepared to visit that same cottage again, I realised that I never finished answering all the questions I received! So, here they are: The last Q&A of 2024. Only eight-plus months late. 😔
00:00 Intro ▶️
00:53 Most intriguing gem? 🤔
02:45 Most wanted but hard to find gem? 🔎
05:22 What designer deserves more recognition? 📣
08:06 What designer you wish still made games? 🔚
10:56 Games from only one designer for rest of life? 🧓
12:15 Most want to see on virtualtabletop.io? 🛜
15:55 Heavy game? Small-box game? Unexpectedly good game? 🧑🧑🧒🧒
Board Gems highlights older board and card games that are still great games today, and deserve to not be forgotten!
At PunchedCon earlier this year, Pierre Vagneur-Jones and I sat down with Mark Benson and Alan Hardy for an After Action Report of an epic Commands & Colors: Napoleonics Grande Battles game. A fully customised game on the battle of Waterloo, complete with hand-built terrain and beautifully upgraded components!
Mark and Alan share how they created this incredible setup, why they tour UK conventions with it, and how it’s helping to bring new players into the world of wargaming. We also recount the key moments of our battle, from daring cavalry charges to the final desperate stands.
Timestamps:
00:00 🎲 Introduction
00:26 🎨Theme
01:06 ⚙️Mechanics
02:17 ☁️How it Feels to Play
08:07 🎯What Surprised Us
08:37 🛠 What We'd Change
11:53 ✅ Is it Shelfworthy?
Thanks for stopping by! We're Amy & Maggie aka ThinkerThemer. We're an Australian couple with two very different perspectives of what makes a great board game - Amy (Thinker) is all about the mechanics and enjoys tight, competitive games, and Maggie (Themer) is all about the storytelling and the theme of the game, and the 'world' that the designer is trying to create. Subscribe to our channel to hear us talk about these two elements of a game, and how well integrated we feel these are in delivering a cohesive and wonderful game experience.
#boardgames #tabletopgames #thinkerthemer ❤🏳️🌈🇦🇺
If you would like to donate to Drive Thru Games, you can use the "Thanks" button under the video, or please check out the Gamefound Pledge Manager - https://tinyurl.com/2p8tbhpu
Intro (00:00);
game overview (01:55);
final thoughts and review (23:19);
Timestamps:
00:00 🎲 Introduction
00:35 🎨Theme
01:00 ⚙️Mechanics
03:26 ☁️How it Feels to Play
09:45 🎯What Surprised Us
11:57 🛠 What We'd Change
14:30 ✅ Is it Shelfworthy?
Thanks for stopping by! We're Amy & Maggie aka ThinkerThemer. We're an Australian couple with two very different perspectives of what makes a great board game - Amy (Thinker) is all about the mechanics and enjoys tight, competitive games, and Maggie (Themer) is all about the storytelling and the theme of the game, and the 'world' that the designer is trying to create. Subscribe to our channel to hear us talk about these two elements of a game, and how well integrated we feel these are in delivering a cohesive and wonderful game experience.
#boardgames #tabletopgames #thinkerthemer ❤🏳️🌈🇦🇺
In Patrician, by Michael Schacht, players play cards to place tower pieces, hoping to have the most and highest pieces in the tallest towers. Where they play determines what card they get next, leading to a do-this-to-get-that-to-play-there kind of process. A game in which planning in advance, but not too far in advance, is necessary. Easy to learn and play, with quick turns and a nice flow.
Patrician first appeared from Amigo in 2007 — an OG-style game released a bit outside the OG era. Calliope re-released it in 2024 with some QOL improvements and a smaller box, at a very reasonable price.
00:00 Intro ▶️
03:32 How to Play 🎲
10:32 Is It a Gem? 💎
Board Gems highlights older board and card games that are still great games today, and deserve to not be forgotten!
0:00 Introduction
0:30 What's the point of making more games?
7:04 Is playing existing games helpful?
11:49 Should first time designers design the game they like to play?
16:47 Re-pitching rejected board games
19:13 Fun is all that matters in playtesting
21:59 Deckbuilders stole their name from TCGs
TT meets TT in this review! We take a look at the new title from a new publisher, to see if it earns it's 'thinky' label underneath all of that cuteness... will it make it to our shelf?
Timestamps:
00:00 🎲 Introduction
00:36 🎨Theme
01:14 ⚙️Mechanics
02:14 ☁️How it Feels to Play
06:11 🎯What Surprised Us
08:00 🛠 What We'd Change
09:27 ✅ Is it Shelfworthy?
Thanks for stopping by! We're Amy & Maggie aka ThinkerThemer. We're an Australian couple with two very different perspectives of what makes a great board game - Amy (Thinker) is all about the mechanics and enjoys tight, competitive games, and Maggie (Themer) is all about the storytelling and the theme of the game, and the 'world' that the designer is trying to create. Subscribe to our channel to hear us talk about these two elements of a game, and how well integrated we feel these are in delivering a cohesive and wonderful game experience.
#boardgames #tabletopgames #thinkerthemer ❤🏳️🌈🇦🇺
If you would like to donate to Drive Thru Games, you can use the "Thanks" button under the video, or please check out the Gamefound Pledge Manager - https://tinyurl.com/2p8tbhpu
Intro (00:00);
game overview (06:09);
final thoughts and review (35:43);
Playtesting is the heart of game design. Ideas flow thick and fast for many designers, but it is only by getting them on the table in front of players that we see what we have created.
Playtesting is the process by which designers turn ideas into experiences.
This book describes:
- The purpose of playtesting
- Types of playtests
- Protecting your idea
- How many playtests are necessary
- Documenting playtests
- Forms of playtester feedback
... and then goes on to describe 100 questions you should ask during the playtesting process, with a detailed rationale for each of them.
About the author
Adam Porter is an award winning game designer from the United Kingdom, known for making accessible games suitable for families, and for his popular YouTube channel Adam in Wales where Adam talks candidly about his experiences pitching and licensing games to publishers. Many new designers have looked to Adam for guidance when taking their first steps in the board game industry. Adam's published games include Pikoko, Doodle Rush, Kompromat, Qwuzzle, Zooligans, Thrown, Big Bazar, Happy Hoppers, Ballot Battle, and Zing-a-Zam.
Adam's previous book 'Adam in Wales: Board Game Designer Journal' is available as a physical book from Amazon worldwide, or as a download from DriveThruRPG.com
Playtesting is the heart of game design. Ideas flow thick and fast for many designers, but it is only by getting them on the table in front of players that we see what we have created.
Playtesting is the process by which designers turn ideas into experiences.
This book describes:
- The purpose of playtesting
- Types of playtests
- Protecting your idea
- How many playtests are necessary
- Documenting playtests
- Forms of playtester feedback
... and then goes on to describe 100 questions you should ask during the playtesting process, with a detailed rationale for each of them.
About the author
Adam Porter is an award winning game designer from the United Kingdom, known for making accessible games suitable for families, and for his popular YouTube channel Adam in Wales where Adam talks candidly about his experiences pitching and licensing games to publishers. Many new designers have looked to Adam for guidance when taking their first steps in the board game industry. Adam's published games include Pikoko, Doodle Rush, Kompromat, Qwuzzle, Zooligans, Thrown, Big Bazar, Happy Hoppers, Ballot Battle, and Zing-a-Zam.
Adam's previous book 'Adam in Wales: Board Game Designer Journal' is available as a physical book from Amazon worldwide, or as a download from DriveThruRPG.com
4.5 years reviewing games and we've learned a lot about what types of games we like, and even more about the types of games our wife doesn't like. Let this one be a lesson in the latter, and we hope it helps you decide if this game is for you. Will Toy Battle make the shelf?
Timestamps:
00:00 🎲 Introduction
00:43 🎨Theme
01:14 ⚙️Mechanics
02:42 ☁️How it Feels to Play
04:56 🎯What Surprised Us
08:37 🛠 What We'd Change
10:40 ✅ Is it Shelfworthy?
Thanks for stopping by! We're Amy & Maggie aka ThinkerThemer. We're an Australian couple with two very different perspectives of what makes a great board game - Amy (Thinker) is all about the mechanics and enjoys tight, competitive games, and Maggie (Themer) is all about the storytelling and the theme of the game, and the 'world' that the designer is trying to create. Subscribe to our channel to hear us talk about these two elements of a game, and how well integrated we feel these are in delivering a cohesive and wonderful game experience.
#boardgames #tabletopgames #thinkerthemer ❤🏳️🌈🇦🇺
Remember when Saltfjord was the talk of the town in late 2024? Well, we couldn't get our hands on a copy here in Australia, so we're late to the party. Fast forward to 2025 and we're now able to put that FOMO to bed... but was it worth the wait? And will we keep it?
Timestamps:
00:00 🎲 Introduction
00:28 🎨Theme
00:55 ⚙️Mechanics
02:28 ☁️How it Feels to Play
05:49 🎯What Surprised Us
09:30 🛠 What We'd Change
10:50 ✅ Is it Shelfworthy?
Thanks for stopping by! We're Amy & Maggie aka ThinkerThemer. We're an Australian couple with two very different perspectives of what makes a great board game - Amy (Thinker) is all about the mechanics and enjoys tight, competitive games, and Maggie (Themer) is all about the storytelling and the theme of the game, and the 'world' that the designer is trying to create. Subscribe to our channel to hear us talk about these two elements of a game, and how well integrated we feel these are in delivering a cohesive and wonderful game experience.
#boardgames #tabletopgames #thinkerthemer ❤🏳️🌈🇦🇺
Great Western Trail is one of our favourite games, period. So when we heard that there was going to be a new version that would be easier to table and teach, it instantly made both of our most anticipated games of 2025 list. So how does it fare? Will it be joining our other three GWT titles on our shelf?
Timestamps:
00:00 🎲 Introduction
00:35 🎨Theme
01:21 ⚙️Mechanics
02:49 ☁️How it Feels to Play
05:54 🎯What Surprised Us
08:31 🛠 What We'd Change
12:08 ✅ Is it Shelfworthy?
Thanks for stopping by! We're Amy & Maggie aka ThinkerThemer. We're an Australian couple with two very different perspectives of what makes a great board game - Amy (Thinker) is all about the mechanics and enjoys tight, competitive games, and Maggie (Themer) is all about the storytelling and the theme of the game, and the 'world' that the designer is trying to create. Subscribe to our channel to hear us talk about these two elements of a game, and how well integrated we feel these are in delivering a cohesive and wonderful game experience.
#boardgames #tabletopgames #thinkerthemer ❤🏳️🌈🇦🇺
If you would like to donate to Drive Thru Games, you can use the "Thanks" button under the video, or please check out the Gamefound Pledge Manager - https://tinyurl.com/2p8tbhpu
Intro (00:00);
Reviews (01:59);
Bee Lives (02:05);
Cosmo Lancer (07:09);
Pax Illuminaten (13:01);
The Gang (20:29);
Rumble Nation (25:19);
Hot Streak (31:34);
Games in 100 Years (34:59);
Goldland was a German-only exploration board game by Wolfgang Kramer and Goldsieber, originally published in 2002. Old, but not forgotten! Daryl Andrews has re-worked the game into a new 2025 edition, Donald Duck in Happy Camper, published by Maestro.
This new development is significantly different from the original, so they maybe could have gotten away with not giving any recognition to the original designer. But Andrews and Maestro did the right thing and co-credited Kramer. Class acts!
Board Gems highlights older board and card games that are still great games today, and deserve to not be forgotten!
Anmelden
