This is a very interesting game, from Stonemaier Games, that was an eye opener for all of those that played the game with me. Do you remember the books from the late 70’s the own adventure ones that were still popular until the 90’s, The ones that you had to chose what to do from a sedate walk to explore or you try a fast run away to escape or several other options, That is basically what this game is. You work co-operatively to try to first survive and then you try to escape together. Let me start more from the beginning of the story.
There is little that the game inventor wanted you to know about this game as it is meant to be an adventure. In fact they said that if you have a part of the story that does not match with you all, that you should discuss it among yourselves and see what feels right. Here is the basics of the game start. You are travelling through space and there was an accident, You are one of the survivors who grabbed an escape pod each of you has landed at a different location. You each roll two skill dice and depending on your roll you work out where you have landed, there is a chart to work this out. You receive a card for your location then you can choose one of the options on the card in front of you. As you can’t see each others location views but can talk over radio you can describe your view but cannot show each other your cards. You can explain what you are seeing on your card and the choices you have, you just can’t show your card to anyone else. You can order this at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/other-games/vantage/vantage
I will say that there are bonus skill tokens you can gain I can recommend getting the wooden replacements for the skill tokens as they are more solid than the cardboard ones and it is the same for the packs of metal coins you can get to replace the cardboard ones with as the clink of metal is so much better when counting out coins. There is also a dual-layered playing mat pack that does make this game that much more compact and I highly recommend them as they are all of higher quality and beautiful for the game feel as they give you the perfect holder for the eight cards that you collect and put around your character card that are also contained in the dual layered boards. You can order these at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/other-games/vantage
In another life, I was infatuated with Neuroshima Hex. Almost exactly 10 years ago, I wrote this soliloquy at Fortress Ameritrash extolling the virtues of Michal Oracz’s design. The game was already nearly a decade old at that time. This thing is grizzled as hell. The truth is I no longer play Neuroshima Hex. While…
For the fourth time we have awarded our annual Most Popular New Game Award. This year the award went to Johan Benvenuto for his game Harmonies!
This year the award could not be handed over at Spiel, so it was send to the designer in France.
Congratulations to the winner Harmonies, designer Johan Benvenuto, and the whole team behind creating this game!
Harmonies box with the BG Stats award and a golden BG Stats button
How is the winner of the Award determined?
Games that are released in 2024 are eligible. The popularity of the game is determined as follows: we looked at the unique users that logged at least one play of a game between 7 October 2024 and August 2025. The new game that was logged by the most unique users, Harmonies in this case, won. This means it doesn’t matter how many times a user played the game, or how many people were in the game.
You say „board game fair“, I say “SPIEL” at Essen. It’s the Mecca for the tabletop gaming faithful. Four days of playing, trying, and buying. 200,000+ visitors. I’ve been therea few timesover the last yearsfor two days each and found it an intensive board game experience. I’m looking forward to going again this year!
As always, this is not meant as a „must buy“ list or whatever other consumptionist term some people use. It is likely that I will buy only one or two of these games. Why? Because I have quite some good games already, and I like to make them count before I plunge into new adventures. Generally, there are no musts in buying. And there are no musts in attending board game fairs or conventions – obviously those can come as pretty big expenses for travel and accommodation. Bottom line: No musts. You do you.
One note beforehand: Board gaming is getting ever more international, and this list shows it: The six designers come from six different countries, and, for the first time in the nine years I’ve been making this list, none of them is from Germany or the United States.
Without further ado, on to the games! They are sorted by location on the fairgrounds.
1-6 players, 60-150 minutes, for sale, MSRP: 50.00 €
Many games have great nations compete on the global stage. Yet Limit is different. Few games of this kind have a robust section of domestic affairs beyond the usual political-economic-military competition. Fewer dare to zoom out so much that the game spans not years, but generations over two centuries. And barely any are based on a model that neither promises eternal improvement for everyone nor zero-sum competition between the powers, but rather the limits of industrial development. If you think you have heard of the latter before: Yes, this game is based on the World3 model of the Club of Rome’s The Limits to Growth. All of these uncommon features combine into a game which I expect to feel unique.
Designer Alexandre Poyé will be at the booth to teach the game (not all around the clock, but you have a reasonable chance to meet him there).
Archaeology is a popular setting for board games, and I’m here for it. While I love the civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean as much as the next person, I’m happy to see games shedding light on less-known cultures – like the Marajoara from the Amazonian island of Marajó (in modern-day Brazil), famous for their distinctive style of pottery. You will excavate, restore, and display vases while maintaining the finances of your museum. Mechanically, the game combines inspiration from (peg) solitaire with dice movement. I would have loved the game to lean a bit harder on the unique visual style of the Marajoara pottery (mostly limited to the cover art and the large vases), but I’ll take what I can get!
3-6 players, 45-60 minutes, for sale, MSRP: 35.00 €
If your main takeaway from watching Conclave was how exciting it would be to elect a pope, Pako Gradaille has you covered. Habemus Papam puts you in the Roman curia at the time of a papal election which you aim to influence according to your public (an old pope! An innovator! Someone from the New World!) and private (finish the election early! Have a pope who is exactly like yourself!) goals. You will expend your curial influence to advance the cause of candidates whom you like (or hamper those you don’t), but conserving influence is also valuable in its own right. Whoever balances their competing interests best takes the victory. Sacramental wine and vapes are not included in the box.
1-4 players, 45-60 minutes, for sale, MSRP: 35.00 €
We turn from the wealth and austerity of the Catholic Church to the poverty and indulgence of fin de siècle Parisian artists! You chase the inspiration for artistic achievements by living life to the fullest, crafting exquisite days by skillfully combining activities as varied as wandering aimlessly through the city, discussing philosophy, meeting a muse, or losing yourself in your work. Speaking of work: You’ll have to do some of that, too – mean labor to support yourself lest you avoid the hardships which come with the life of a free spirit (which range from poor hygiene over abject poverty to syphilis). Bohemians is a mechanically light, but thematically rich deck-builder, and, as befits a game about artists, is strictly gorgeous.
2 players, 90-150 minutes, for sale, MSRP: 69.00 €
In 1920, the old world of European empires had been shattered. What the new world would look like was still up for contention, as in this struggle of two nascent states: On the one hand, new nation-states came into being – like the (Second) Polish Republic, the first independent and united Polish state in over a century. On the other hand, ideology transcended nations, and the Soviet Republics (of which the Soviet Union would spring soon after) were emboldened by their success in the Russian Civil War against the old monarchist forces. As Poland reached for the east, the World Revolution got ready to spring to the industrial centers of western Europe. The two sides were to clash in one of the most mobile conflicts in history.
1920: Nest of Eagles is a re-implementation of Rok 1920 (published in 1995 by Encore) which has received the typical Phalanx treatment of pairing wargame mechanics with euro production quality.
I’m a sucker for a Faustian bargain… literarily speaking, I mean. My soul is still mine. Why would you even ask me that? – Anyway, Faust vs Mephisto takes the man and his devil and puts them on even ground (maybe like in the Study II scene of Goethe’s Faust): Mephisto tries to dominate by winning all tricks in a given round – or tempt Faust by winning none of them. Anything in between is a success for Faust. If Mephisto manages to pull it off twice in four rounds, he wins, otherwise Faust has proven that “A good man, through obscurest aspirations // Has still an instinct of the one true way.” Faust vs Mephisto seems like a snappy little card game to play before or after a more involved game – or whenever you have a little bit of spare time with a fellow gamer.
What are the games you are anticipating most eagerly? Let me know in the comments!
Is Batman a better superhero than Superman? And where does Green Lantern fall in that lineup? Which card will win the trick when there are truffle mushrooms and Agatha Christie on the table?
I’m a child of the 90s, so when I hear the words tag team, I think of the Bushwhackers, Harlem Heat, and the Outsiders. Gricha German and Corentin Labrat’s Tag Team isn’t that. Well, maybe it sort of is. Instead of prescribed duos, each player slams together two distinct fighters to form an impromptu team…
Peter reviews the protoype of B.E.L.O.W. The Asylum, by Awaken Realms, coming to Gamefound on October 16.
Awaken Realms have really ben churning out the games lately. I was very impressed with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for example, and Grimcoven is on the way. Their new one is B.E.L.O.W. The Asylum (oh no, another cheeky acronym!), a horror themed game that at first glance appears to be another ‘minis on map tiles’ game, until you start discovering its interlocking game systems and discover it’s something quite a bit more interesting. With thematic elements that bring to mind Stranger Things, Silent Hill, and J-horror in general, the game is very fun in prototype form and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it expands and getting my hands on the final game.
Check out my video for a rules explanation and my detailed thoughts, then if you think this is up your dark horror-haunted asylum corridor, get along to the Gamefound campaign, which launches on October 16. Tell ‘em the Esoteric Order sent you!
Making high quality tabletop gaming content at the EOG takes time and money. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter or making a donation so I can continue this work! Thankyou!
I’ve been informed that Bill Cleary (BGG User Puffinge) passed away this morning. (I don’t use facebook, but if you do here’s the link).
I met Bill Cleary after he allowed a local gamer to bring me and Mrs. Tao as a “plus two” (sight unseen) for a weekend of gaming at his place (‘BillCon’) which occurred 2-3 times a year. A dozen-ish gamers would descend on Casa de Cleary. One perk of showing up as a married couple was that Bill magnanimously declared we’d get a guest bed and not have to sleep on the floor.
I met Alan Moon at BillCon and that’s how we got invited to the Gathering. Alan has just posted a note saying that the Gathering literally would not exist except for Bill (who prodded him into doing it), which means that not only do I directly owe my introduction to hundreds of gamers to Bill, but a good chunk of the gaming world was introduced to each other (indirectly) by Bill’s actions.
I’ve seen Bill almost every year since then … as the convention got larger I’d spend less time with him each year, but still chatting at least a few minutes here and there. But it was a far cry from the early years where we’d play together for days. Board games, party games, card games, video games (Bomberman!). Anything.
At one BillCon (they blur together in my mind) Bill played Celebrities partnered with a young man (possibly a college freshman?) and together they shared exactly zero common knowledge. Bill was a pop culture obsessive with an extensive Rock/Pop/Motown CD collection. The kid (Nate) had grown up without a TV and listened to classical music. Needless to say, their score was disastrous, but their team was dubbed “Geezer and the Fetus.” I remember thinking “Bill’s not that old, probably less than two decades older than us….” but it was funny, one of those jokes that might have been memes, if memes had been a thing.
20 years is a much bigger gap as the years go on, at least physically. But when I saw him earlier this year, he didn’t look great, but …. I didn’t think it would be the last time I’d see him, either.
Dynamite Entertainment has been publishing Army of Darkness comic books for two decades, feeding hungry fans with further tales featuring Ash Williams and the entire extended mythos.
Philosopher Mara van der Lugt’s 2025 book Hopeful Pessimism challenges ideas of motivation and the role of despondency. It’s a revelation of sorts, especially for those plagued with eternal pessimism. That’s me. A relentless worrywart, down to my bones. Van der Lugt argues that it’s possible, nay encouraged, for those suffering from pessimism in a…
Anmelden
