I’m deeply suspicious of “cozy.” For much the same reason I’m suspicious of “nostalgia,” come to think of it. In the mouth of business executives, “cozy” becomes something we already own, or at least already have within our grasp, now repackaged and sold back to us as a subscription service. A monthly box of curated snacks. Ten ideas for cozymaxxing your nostalgia shelf. And that’s before we even consider the way institutions and politicians propose that coziness and nostalgia are the way things “used to be,” before someone came along to take away our picnics and crime-absent streets. What if we could go back to the Way It Was? What if all it took was getting rid of a few undesirables?
In other words, I am way too cranky to be Cozy Stickerville’s target audience. “More like Cozy Fascistville,” I probably frumped to myself. Then I learned it was designed by Corey Konieczka. Then I figured it might be a nice thing to play with my twelve- and six-year-old daughters. Then, as the undertow of commercialism swept my legs out from under me, it appeared in my shopping cart, one click away from arriving at my doorstep within three to five business days.
Then, those three to five business days later, it was winning me over.
Looking for a hidden object.
Cozy Stickerville strikes me as a very Corey Konieczka design. Aesthetically, it bears so little in common with The Mandalorian, Star Wars: Rebellion, and Runewars as to make such a statement nonsensical. But I’m not talking about visuals. I’m talking about the maximalism of the thing. The maximalism contrasted with the sheer action economy.
I’ll explain.
Cozy Stickerville opens on a cozy not-yet-village. Gifted a tract of land by a distant and condescending father — hoo boy, does this game have daddy issues — you immediately take it upon yourself to transform this tract of riverland into a home. Or, in game terms, to affix eight stickers onto a grid, creating a pastoral scene right out of a Western. (Back when there was room for everybody, the cranky part of my brain intones. I tell it to shush. My kids are right there, man.)
From there, Cozy Stickerville slips into a comfortable routine. A cozy routine, one might say. Every turn consists of the metronome rhythm of resolving an event card and then resolving an action. These resolutions are steadfast in their simplicity. Events generally present a decision. Build this or build that. Answer A or answer B. Fulfill a need right now or put it off till later. The actions are more diverse primarily in their range. Some appear on the stickers as entries in a little storybook. Others appear on cards. Most of the time, they also present straightforward options. Gather wood from the ground or spend food to possibly gather some extra. Build a house for an eccentric inventor or build a house for some woodcutters. Plant flowers or pave a road.
Despite this simplicity, the actions very quickly display a wonderful range of possibilities. It isn’t only that stickers will be added, first to the board and then atop other stickers. It’s that their addition unfurls new adventures. Sometimes Cozy Stickerville turns into a hidden object search. Other times, it becomes a resource optimization game. There are branching paths to a spelunked cave, uncovered over many in-game weeks. An observatory on the hill becomes a chance to peek at celestial objects; a post office transforms into a test of how well we’ve come to know our neighbors.
That’s what I mean when I say it feels like a Konieczka design. It has that economy of action but maximalism of discovery that have always been the hallmarks of his design. It feels large inside, certainly larger than I expected of a game about putting stickers on a grid.
Potential actions are easily tracked.
Even the format feels generous.
Over the course of ten sessions, each no longer than half an hour, your village takes shape. Some of that shape is more or less what you would predict from a game called “Cozy Stickerville.” In our town — Happy Riverside Valley, if you care to know the name my girls came up with — we opened a bird-watching tower and animal refuge, a pet shop and a newspaper. We ran for office. We flirted with capitalism, but in a way that wasn’t too destructive. Only two copses of trees were felled, and only one lump of trash came to occupy the area. We dumped it right next to the big golden statue we had erected of ourself, a statement on how it didn’t resemble the way we imagined our unseen avatar.
But at points, Konieczka presents challenges and setbacks. Cozy challenges, to be sure, cozy setbacks. But challenges and setbacks all the same. When we borrowed money from a shady lender, the interest kept coming due at exactly the wrong moment. When we encouraged one character to date another, we were reminded, gently, cozily, that we could instead pursue the romance for ourselves. “Ew!” my girls moaned. When we failed to build a fire station… well, that was the one moment that maybe struck a little too close to my six-year-old’s heart. In real time, we invented the myth of the Farm Upstate, where all ferrets go to live after their house burns down.
These aren’t spoilers, as such. Not really. Mostly, they’re emergent properties, the result of one sticker placed atop another. Or else they’re the common-sense outcome of taking shady loans, engaging in pranks rather than doing your yard chores, or chopping down all of a valley’s trees. Cozy Stickerville sticks to obvious morals, but at least it sticks to them. Is it a spoiler to say that things turn out all right in the end? That you will be vindicated of your father’s disdain? That you will place more stickers on this sticker-grid? The storytelling rarely deposits us in expected places. It’s the trails and switchbacks it travels that are the delight.
Some of the many milestones your village might unlock.
And then, when it’s done, the game permits a second outing. This one is more constrained than the first, flipping the board to its reverse side and using most of the remaining stickers. All those decision cards must be made in the other direction, building the inventor’s house rather than the cabin for the woodcutters, making dialogue choice B instead of choice A, pursuing the agenda you left by the wayside on your inaugural play.
For a legacy game, a format that is often rightly criticized for producing waste, Cozy Stickerville proves only marginally more wasteful than your average children’s stickerbook. I’m not going to pretend it has limitless miles in its soles. There’s no playing the game once it’s finished, unlike some legacies, and the hours contained within are relatively brief.
But those hours and precious ones. I rarely have any trouble getting my kiddos to play board games, but Cozy Stickerville swiftly became such a highlight of our evening routine that it eclipsed all other contenders. My children cooed over their pets, debated where to place every berry bush and flower patch, and quibbled over whether to establish a summer camp or a candy shop. They decoded secret texts with all the reverence of archaeologists and positioned inhabitants with an eye for the view from their bedroom windows. More than once, in between sessions, they discussed which story threads they would pick up next or asked me to open the box so they could study their town. Even before we had finished our first ten-year campaign, upon learning that we could only play the game twice, they asked if they could contribute some of their own money to buying a second copy. Now they insist we should frame the board, spaced halfway between their bedrooms so they can appreciate equal ownership over it.
On the one hand, this doesn’t exactly beat the accusations that Cozy Stickerville is commercialism in a box. But on the other…
Look. I know what our hobby is about for most people. We buy stuff and we sell stuff and hopefully in the middle we enjoy the memories and moments and messages these things create. There’s so much crass commercialism out there, all those boxes of miniatures with barely-developed rules, all the FOMO and churn and Cult of the New.
On the scale of worst offenders, Cozy Stickerville doesn’t even rate. It’s unapologetically cozy, but it also makes good on its word. This is coziness not as a symptom of a culture in decline, or not only that. This is coziness as a shared moment between families. This is coziness as something bespoke and human-crafted, as opposed to slopped from the mouth of the slop monster. This is the coziness of a six-year-old in my lap, eyes glittering as she debates whether to place her kitty near that berry bush or chasing the naughty goose in the lake.
Stickers over stickers! What will they think of next?
I still don’t know whether we’ll buy a second copy. I hope not. Too much of a good thing can spoil its memory. But for those two campaigns, I’m grateful to have bought and played this thing. Because Cozy Stickerville is a reminder that “cozy” is a four-letter word — but so is “love.”
(If what I’m doing at Space-Biff! is valuable to you in some way, please consider dropping by my Patreon campaign or Ko-fi. Right now, supporters can read about which films I watched in 2025, including some brief thoughts on each. That’s 44 movies! That’s a lot, unless you see, like, 45 or more movies in a year!)
I spent the last weekend hosting friends at the Gamers Ranch, a gaming-focused vacation property in the middle of Missouri. I had an amazing time, and I loved seeing the power of the tabletop community in action, especially in seeing different gaming friends intermingle.
As I reflected on the weekend, I realized that among the dozens of games played, there were 5 games that hit the table more than any others. I thought I’d briefly look at each of those games to see what made them work particularly well for events and conventions, which can sometimes be the difference for a game to break out.
Moon Colony Bloodbath: I taught and played this 6 times over the weekend, and nearly everyone played again later. Even though it’s heavier than the other games on this list, the single deck of cards (flip a card and everyone does what it says) helps a teacher to guide everyone through the first few turns. It’s also entirely simultaneous, so there’s no downtime. There’s also the dark humor of the theme and the bold name, which seemed to attract curiosity from those who hadn’t played.
Lord of the Rings Trick-Taking: The cooperative nature of this game creates a sense of camaraderie; camaraderie is often a primary motivator for someone to attend a gaming event. Also, the short playing time and the variety of each chapter–all based on a simple core system–created a “just one more game” mentality.
Bomb Busters: I’ll continue what I said above about the Lord of the Rings trick-taking game, as this applies to both: I’ve noticed at gaming events that many people are hesitant to commit to a 3-hour game, yet they’ll end up playing short, escalating, cooperative games like Bomb Busters for hours. I love the idea of breaking a longer game into bite-size pieces.
Magical Athlete: Everything about the product design of this whimsical racing game lends itself to events. While it asks players to make a key decision before the game starts (which characters you select in the draft), the rules are so bare-bones that this isn’t a problem. I noticed that people seemed to gravitate towards this game after playing a heavier game, as it’s a great brain break.
Mindbug: This snappy two-player dueling game has a unique hook that seemed to intrigue people (twice per game when your opponent plays a card, you can claim it as your own instead). An accessible, quick 2-player game is really nice for an event when a few people are waiting for longer, larger-group games to finish.
Also note that all of these games are super fast to set up.
One other commonality between these games is that they all had someone championing them. This can make a huge difference at an event or convention: If there’s someone visibly excited to play a game they already know, people will gravitate towards that game.
Have you noticed a game spreading like wildfire at events or conventions? What is it about that game or the situation that resulted in the game returning to the table over and over?
I remember when I first encountered Chicken Fried Dice way back at PAX Unplugged 2024. At the time, I gave it the award of “Game That Made Me Fall in Love With a Mechanic I Thought I Hated” (roll and write) and promised a more in-depth review once it hit Kickstarter in a few months. Then those few months turned into more months, and then tariffs wrecked our industry, and then more delays… but FINALLY, I was able to catch up with designer Ashwin Kamath at TantrumCon 2026, where he handed me an almost-final production copy of the game. Later that evening, I gathered some friends, and Ashwin walked us through our first play. Puns were flying, people were giggling, and everyone at the table was having a great time.
Since then, I’ve sat down with friends to put the game through its paces. The concept is cute and simple - you’re trying to become the Top Chef at a food truck competition by serving your customers delicious meals. The more complex their order, the more points you stand to gain. However, the longer you take to finish their order, the more stars they dock you on their review. The better you do, the quicker…
Zurmat is a small Pashtun district south of Kabul. In 2007, It was a tense region with a fragile sense of order. The Taliban moved throughout the villages and roads at night, issuing threats to dissuade cooperation with the Afghan government. Zurmat is also a wargame. Some soldiers write about their experience. Tim Densham designs.…
Welcome to this week’s batch of crowdfunding campaigns. We have a variety of offerings here, so we hope you will find something that catches your eye. Also, if you want to chat with the BGQ team, join our Discord Server where we talk about games, movies, sports, and other fun stuff. Or, if Facebook is […]
Editor’s note: GAMA is one of the sponsors of the BoardGameWire newsletter
North America’s biggest board games industry trade show, GAMA Expo, has sealed another record attendance as it prepares a move to Baltimore to contend with rapidly growing demand.
More than 3,820 attendees showed up to this year’s event in Louisville, Kentucky, up almost 12% on last year’s previous record of 3,425 – which had already left the show pressed for space across the exhibition hall and its extensive programme of seminars.
The shift to Baltimore next year will be GAMA Expo’s second new home since 2023, when it was relocated from Reno, Nevada after the growing attendance numbers eclipsed their pre-pandemic highs.
GAMA Expo’s attendance this year is more than double its pre-pandemic record of 1,800 set in 2019, and up more than 87.5% compared to the event’s final Reno show in 2023.
A presentation at this year’s GAMA Expo
GAMA initially signed a three-year contract in Louisville for 2024 to 2026, but agreed to extend that for a year after the KICC helped GAMA shift the dates of last year’s Expo, when the trade organisation realised it had outgrown the footprint available across its original dates.
The organisation later decided to bring its move to Baltimore forward to 2027 as demand continued to grow, paying a fee to break the KICC contract a year early.
GAMA told BoardGameWire last year it had earmarked 300,000 sq ft of exhibit space for year one in Baltimore – almost double the roughly 176,500 sq ft of this year’s vendor hall, and with room to grow to 500,000 sq ft by year three or four at the new site.
Chicago and Minneapolis were also in the mix as potential destinations, with Baltimore being praised by GAMA’s site selection committee for its selection of hotel options, reasonable convention centre rate and incentives to bring the show there.
Several publishers BoardGameWire contacted after this year’s GAMA Expo were all positive about how busy it had been, with two first-time exhibitors both particularly excited about how the event had gone for their companies.
BoardGameWire asked GAMA on March 9 for a breakdown of this year’s attendance for its respective member groups, which it provided last year to show the growth of individual areas, but is yet to receive those figures.
One complaint which has been emerging post-Expo revolves around GAMA’s plan to get rid of ‘priority points’, which have rewarded repeat exhibitors with the ability to exert more power over where their booths are positioned within the vendor hall.
That system has been scrapped for both next year’s Expo and this year’s Origins trade fair, GAMA’s long-running tabletop gaming convention set to take place in Columbus, Ohio in June.
Some frequent exhibitors have expressed dismay at the decision, which came to light as a bullet point in the renewal documents for next year’s event rather than being highlighted for discussion with members ahead of GAMA implementing the policy.
The vendor hall at GAMA Expo in Louisville
GAMA president Nicole Brady said of this year’s GAMA Expo, “Every year, GAMA staff and volunteers strive to make GAMA Expo better than the year before. That was evident this year in various areas such as the extensive educational programming, overflowing interest at networking events and engagement during game nights. Beginning with registration on the first day to exhibit hall tear down on the last, GAMA Expo 2026 was top notch.
“This would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of the staff, the community members who brought their passion to the event and, of course, the sponsors that supported the various events and initiatives.
“Throughout the week and beyond, I’ve heard or read on social media countless people praising the event. Many comments about the ability to conduct business with others in the industry. This annual event is the place to be and people are already making plans for next year in Baltimore!”
Zaria Davis, GAMA’s interim executive director, added, “As a first timer at GAMA Expo and someone still very new to this industry, I was blown away by the experience. I loved getting to meet members face to face, ask questions, and better understand how the business side of tabletop games really works.
“Having the chance to share my own insights in sessions made me feel welcomed and valued, and I’m leaving excited, inspired, and eager to come back.”
February 2026 Games I played for the first time this month, from worst to best, along with my ratings and comments. Linko – 5/10 Linko belongs in the same category as games like Cabanga. Both are lightweight card games that … Continue reading →
Neva Game Press is really exploring the space of wargame publishing and have games that are being worked on spanning all of history including modern and ancient. They also are looking at non-traditional topics to cover such as the Reformation. Their newest pre-order offering is called Reformation: Fire and Faith and is designed by Clint Warren-Davey. I am keenly interested in this one and have been working with Clint on this interview and maybe a series of other articles on strategies.
Grant: Welcome back to the blog Clint. With 4 published games to your credit what lessons have you learned about the design process and been able to put into practice?
Clint: Thanks for having me back guys! Yes I have learned a lot. Mainly, my iterative loop has become faster. I use mainly digital prototypes on PowerPoint and can get a prototype up and running pretty fast. This means I don’t need to print components and then reprint when things change. I also have a larger “toolbox” of ideas to draw from as I’ve played a wider variety of games. I still have a core design philosophy though – I want games that give players lots of meaningful decisions and a minimum of busywork, plus I generally prefer a high level of player interaction and interdependence.
Grant:How do you pitch games to publishers? What is your approach?
Clint: First I make sure the game is ready. I play-test the game myself a minimum of 20 times. Then I give it to external play-testers (basically my followers on Twitter/X). I keep refining it and make sure all the rules are nailed down. Once I have a fully functional and viable digital prototype, I send an email to a lot of different publishers to see who wants the game. So far, I’ve usually found at least one publisher who will accept each game.
Grant: What is your new game upcoming game Reformation: Fire and Faith about?
Clint: It’s about the wars and religious struggles that tore Europe apart during the Reformation, from 1517 (Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg cathedral) to 1555 (the Peace of Augsburg). This is during the “pike and shot” era, which I love. It also includes a lot of political, religious and military conflict that is fascinating on multiple levels. It’s the perfect setting for an asymmetric wargame.
Grant: What image and feeling did you want to convey to players with the subtitle “Fire and Faith”?
Clint: Well this subtitle was decided by my publisher, Jose Neva of Neva Game Press. He wanted to convey both religious and military struggle in the title of the game, hence fire and faith. Before that the game title was undecided – it was either going to be just “Reformation” or “One Hour Reformation” – though upon further development it was clear this game doesn’t really fit with my other “One Hour” games.
Grant: Why was this a game you were inspired to design?
Clint: I am fascinated by the Reformation – both from a religious and a historical perspective. When I converted to Christianity about 10 years ago I had to choose which church to join, which forced me to read more on this time period, and read the arguments put forward by Protestant and Catholic apologists, then and now. I should state here that although I decided upon Catholicism, I hold no ill-feeling towards Protestantism and I understand the impetus behind it.
I was also drawn in by the fascinating geopolitics and tactical level military transformations of the time. The struggles between the French, Habsburgs, English, Ottomans, Venice, Scotland, Hungary, the Papacy and many other much smaller states were kaleidoscopic in their complexity but endlessly entertaining. To take one example of the political maneuvering of the time – the French lost the battle of Pavia to the Habsburgs, partially because 5,000 of their Swiss mercenaries just left and went home to defend their own cantons from rampaging German Landsknechts. Losing Pavia meant that King Francis I was captured. This in turn meant the English sensed weakness and struck in north-eastern France.
Seeking allies against this double threat, the French turned to the one great power that might help them – the Islamic Ottoman Empire! This outraged the Habsburg Emperor Charles V, who had his hands full containing the spread of Protestantism in Germany. The Saxons, Hessians and Brandenburgers following Luther’s lead would be much better used to help defend Vienna from the Turks, but instead both the Pope and the Emperor found themselves facing a full-scale religious revolt at the same time as renewed Ottoman offensives in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. This was all taking place against the backdrop of a military revolution in which pike and shot, and artillery, were replacing feudal levies of armoured knights.
Grant: What other Reformation games did you study for inspiration?
Clint: The complexity of this time period, and the sensitivity of religion as a topic, has meant that few game designers have been willing to tackle it. The exception is Here I Stand, the classic 6-player card-driven game by Ed Beach. This game is a well-renowned and even genre-defining title that managed to cram tons of inter-faction dynamics and historical chrome into the CDG system invented by Mark Herman (who made the first such CDG – We the People). It is absolutely brilliant in so many ways. Baroque, intricate, full of theme. It is almost like a historical equivalent of Twilight Imperium – one of my other favorite games.
The problem? It takes way too long to play for most gamers. Ever since playing Here I Stand many years ago, I had kept the idea of a simplified version at the back of my mind. Then, when I started teaching religious history at a Catholic school, I found myself teaching the Reformation. A classroom game on the topic would sure come in handy. So, in 2024 I made one. The images below give an idea of this, including my very basic graphics made in PowerPoint and Word. In 2025, I revisited the idea and thought it might be worth making into a serious game, still using the basic concepts and inter-faction dynamics borrowed from Here I Stand.
Early prototype version of the board.
Grant: What is your design goal with the game?
Clint: To make a game with 6 asymmetric factions that shows the inter-factional dynamics and key decisions of the period, all with mechanics that are simple enough to be used in a high school classroom AND simple enough for non-wargamers to pick up. Also, a game that players of Here I Stand would enjoy – especially when they are pressed for time. I believe I have succeeded in this goal but time will tell.
Grant: What main mechanics are used in the design?
Clint: The core gameplay loop is very simple. Each faction has a list of actions to choose from. Each turn, each faction will choose two actions. That’s it. But these vary greatly. They include everything from exploring the New World to translating the Bible to raising armies to piracy and everything in between.
All the factions have some actions in common – like Recruit (placing military units) and Campaign (moving and fighting). The two religious factions – the Protestants and the Papacy – are set apart from the others by having most of their actions focus on non-military functions.
Early prototype version of the Papacy Player Board.
The Protestants are trying to convert people to their new faith (or rather, in their terms, restore an older and more purified form of the Christian religion). As such, their overriding focus is placing Followers on the map. As a rough approximation, each Follower piece represents 5-10% of the population converting to Protestantism. What the Protestant faction is aiming for is gaining a majority, or a near-majority, in the countries of Europe. So, their main way of earning Victory Points is by having 5 or more Followers in as many spaces as possible. Now, the Reformation did not initially take hold everywhere. Geographically it was concentrated in Germany above all, then England, then in scattered pockets throughout France. In the game this is basically where the Protestants will be focusing all of their efforts. They start with only 1 Follower on the map in Germany – this represents Martin Luther and the nascent reform movement that started to gather around him in 1517. From this humble beginning, I wanted the Protestants to build up and expand, sometimes rapidly, across the map.
To speed up their placement of Followers, the Protestants can translate the Bible into local languages – German, English and French. This is an idea I took directly from Here I Stand and of course from the actual history of the Reformation. Having the Bible in the vernacular language, and spread by the printing press, was key to the spread of Luther’s ideas. Bible translation is a simple, two-step process in the game. First you need to accumulate “Knowledge” through the Study action and then use the Translate action to place Knowledge markers on the three Bible language spots on the Protestant faction sheet. Initially, this was the only purpose of Knowledge. But then I expanded it to other uses – especially the Debate action, which is a competitive bid against the Papacy that can score a valuable “Issue” token worth a precious VP. These Issue tokens represent the points of dispute in the Reformation, like the role of Scripture, Tradition and authority of the Magisterium. I liked the idea of carefully studying to build up knowledge in preparation for a debate – it’s a case of the game language matching the theme.
Near final look at the board and player boards.
The Papacy works in a similar way to the Protestants – but in reverse. The Pope is trying to remove Protestant Followers, through Preach and Debate actions. Every 3 Protestant Followers is minus 1 Victory Point for the Papacy, so they are incentivized to contain the spread of the Reformation. The Papacy also has ways of building up their own points, through Churches. This general term refers to all the infrastructure of the Catholic religion – not just beautiful cathedrals (like St. Peter’s, which was being built during the Reformation) but also schools, Jesuit universities, seminaries, monasteries, trained clergymen and church councils. I was originally going to have a track or chart on the Papacy faction sheet to measure this but later decided to have it as pieces on the map – the Churches you see in the game.
This was because I wanted the Papacy to have some of physical presence on the map like the other factions. This was loosely inspired by the building tokens in games like Root or the resources placed on the map in Scythe. It has the advantage of opening up the Papacy’s primary victory metric to attacks from the other factions. Just like Protestant Follower pieces, papal Church pieces can be attacked and removed. This represents iconoclasm and persecution of Catholic clergy, as well as periodic waves of destruction like the Sack of Rome in 1527. Unlike Protestant Followers, I had the Papacy’s Churches cost Wealth. This Wealth is gained entirely through the Tithe action – which takes money from any nations that are still Catholic. Early in the game this includes three out of the six factions: Habsburgs, England and France. But England and France might convert to Protestantism, and a greedy Pope constantly demanding their money might hasten this on!
Grant: What are the playable factions? How did you differentiate them?
Clint: There are 6 factions in the game: Protestants, Papacy, Habsburgs, England, France and Ottoman Empire. Each one has a faction sheet, like the one below, which summarizes their victory conditions and available actions.
The Protestants and Papacy are religious-focused factions. They do have military forces, but they are relatively few in number and are not the main priority. The Protestants are trying to build up their knowledge of the Bible and translate it into vernacular languages, preach to the masses and debate the Catholics to spread their ideas. Their main goal is getting their Followers on the map. The Papacy is trying to contain the spread of Protestant Followers and remove them from the map as much as possible, plus place their own Churches. Both Churches and Followers are immobile and do not count as military units. But they can be attacked and persecuted off the map.
The other factions – the Habsburgs, England, France and the Ottomans – function more like the nations in a wargame. Amassing armies and fleets, fighting battles, aiming for control of spaces on the map. There are plenty of differences though. The English, French and Habsburgs have the option of Explore action – sending their Atlantic Fleets to explore the New World, gaining varying amounts of Wealth or a valuable New World colony (at the risk of losing the Fleet). This provides a great way for factions to gamble early on in the game in a high-stakes race for colonies. Two tweaks were made to the Explore action during the design process. First, my co-designer Ed Farren suggested that New World colonies should provide extra income during the Trade action if the owner has a Fleet in the Atlantic.
I loved this idea and implemented it immediately. I later thought that the Habsburgs should have a distinct advantage in exploring the New World, what with Hernan Cortez and Francisco Pizarro active during this time. I gave the Habsburgs a way to boost their Explore action with “Conquistadors” – effectively tripling their chance of finding a colony at the cost of an additional action. This means the Habsburgs will be raking in more money. But there are a lot of ways for the other factions to steal it! The English, French and Ottomans can all use the Piracy action to get that Spanish silver, and the Ottomans can also Raid on land if their Armies make it through to Austria.
The relationship between the military/political factions and the religious factions is also fascinating. I kept the Habsburgs as a staunchly Catholic faction – they can’t change their allegiance and will act as the strong right arm of the Holy See throughout the game. But England and France are a different story. England needed a historically-rooted incentive to convert to Protestantism, and this was solved in two ways. First, if England officially converts, they will earn 1 VP if England itself contains at least 5 Protestant Followers. This also gives 1 VP to the Protestant player, so there would be strong reasons for both players to work together in the conversion for England. I also wanted some of the high drama of Henry VIII and his wives without an entire sub-system and chart like Here I Stand. This became the “Dynasty” action – a simple die roll to gain a VP by producing a viable heir to the throne.
If England is Catholic, they need a 6 for this. But converting to Protestantism offers success on a 5 or a 6, as Henry can start divorcing his infertile wives. England can therefore grab 2 VP quite easily by ushering in the Anglican faith, which is handy because their opportunities for expansion on the continent are quite limited. France can also earn VP by converting to Protestantism and having at least 5 Protestant Followers in France. For both England and France, converting to the new faith costs an action – which Ed quite appropriately labelled “Reform”. This could be a wasted action if Protestantism doesn’t end up spreading in that nation or if the Dynasty action still fails. But it’s a live issue. Among experienced players, I expect that the Papacy player and the Protestant player will spend a lot of their table talk trying to convince England and France to side with them in religious terms.
Grant: What is the layout of the board?
Clint: I made the map as simple as possible. There are 7 land spaces: Spain, France, Germany, England, Austria, Italy and the Ottoman Empire. There are 2 sea spaces: the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. And that’s it! But you will find that this still provides plenty of interesting strategic choices, as there are 6 factions crammed into these 9 spaces. So, like the proverbial “knife fight in a telephone booth,” players are stuck in fierce competition from the very beginning. For example, the Papacy, France and Habsburgs all have some presence in Italy in the game’s set up. Plus, there are pieces from neutral nations there – like Venice and Florence. So inevitably there be some conflict there!
Grant: Why did you feel area movement was the best approach? What strategic decisions are forced upon the players by the layout?
Clint: Honestly, I didn’t want this to be game about operational level maneuver, more about strategic level decisions and inter-faction dynamics. The map is very heavily abstracted. But you can see it this way. Every faction has a “homeland” space. The Habsburgs, being the hegemon of Europe, have two (Spain and Austria). Each faction will usually be aiming to keep its homeland secure while pushing into 1 or 2 other spaces. Taking control of a space is a big deal and will involve good timing, negotiation and applying just enough force. Some spaces – like Germany and Italy – will usually become battleground spaces with multiple factions vying for control.
Grant:What is the counter anatomy? What different units are included?
Clint: Like the map, the counter anatomy is as simple as possible. There is really no information on the counters other than their type. There are Armies and Fleets – which are the only military units in the game. There are also two religious “units” – Churches for the Papacy and Followers for the Protestants. These don’t fight and can’t move, but they are essential for the two religious factions to build up their influence and victory points. There are also counters for many other things – New World Territories, the Royal Heir for England, the Issues that can be won in a Debate, Knowledge, Wealth and a few other things.
Grant: What is the scale of the game?
Clint: There’s no specific ground or time scale as many things have been heavily abstracted. But very roughly you could say that each turn represents about 2-3 years and each army piece represents 5,000-10,000 men.
Grant: What actions do players have each turn?
Clint: Players can choose two actions per turn. As explained above, they are different for each faction. But there are some similarities. I will give a list of the actions for each faction.
Many of these are self-explanatory but I will explain some of my favourite ones. Diplomacy means getting a Minor Nation on your side, or pulling one away from an enemy. These Minor Nations include Venice, Florence, Genoa, Hungary and Scotland and they have their own Armies or Fleets or both.
Piracy means using your Fleets to steal money from the enemy. Explore means trying to find a valuable New World Territory – worth VP and more income during Trade actions if you have a Fleet in the Atlantic.
The Persecute action means placing or removing Protestant Followers. The Reform action – available only to England and France – means officially converting your nation to Protestantism.
Dynasty is unique to England and represents Henry VIII trying to get an Heir (worth a VP). It’s a dice roll, but it’s easier when you’re Protestant to represent Henry being able to divorce and try with a different woman.
Janissaries is unique to the Ottomans and gives them a valuable +2 bonus in battle that turn. Conquistadors is unique to the Habsburgs and gives them a bonus on their Explore rolls – making it more likely that they will grab a New World Territory.
Grant: How does combat work in the design?
Clint: Very simple – add up your Armies/Fleets, add a D3 roll, the highest score wins. If there were a total of 7 or more units in the battle, the winner suffers 1 loss and the loser suffers 2 losses. Otherwise, the loser suffers 1 loss.
Clint: How do players obtain victory?
Clint: Every faction can score Victory Points (VP) in multiple ways. The margins here are very tight – typically the winning faction will score 5 or 6 VP while second and third place will have 4-5. So, a single point really matters. Every faction can score VP for control of spaces – this is hard to pull off as you need more Armies or Fleets in the space than all other factions combined. So, you might retain control of your own homeland, but taking control of another space is hard. Aside from control, each faction has other ways of getting VP:
The Protestants earn 1 VP for translating the Bible into all 3 languages (French, English and German), 1 VP for each space on the map with 5 or more Followers, 1 VP for each Issue you win in a Debate and 1 VP for having more Knowledge than the Papacy. So the Protestants need to focus on their religious actions – studying, translating and preaching.
The Papacy earns 1 VP for each Church they have on the map MINUS 1 for every 3 Protestant Followers on the map. They also earn 1 VP for having more Knowledge than the Protestants, 1 VP for each Issue they win in a Debate and 1 VP for having more Wealth than any other faction. So, the Pope also needs to focus more on his religious goals – but can also use the Tithe action to build up Wealth (for building Churches) and maybe get a point for rolling in cash.
The Habsburgs earn VP for each New World Territory they discover – and they are better at it than other factions because of their Conquistadors. They also earn VP for having 2 or more Churches in their homelands (Spain and Austria) and can earn VP for having the most Wealth.
The English earn VP for New World Territories and for having the most Wealth. They can also earn 1 VP for producing an Heir with their Dynasty action. The Dynasty action represents Henry VIII’s efforts to produce a legitimate male heir for his throne, and is easier if England becomes Protestant. England earns 1 VP if it converts to Protestantism and has 5 or more Protestant Followers in England. If it stays Catholic, it earns 1 VP for having 2 Churches in England.
France is basically like England but doesn’t have the Dynasty action. They will focus on military action, exploration and building up Wealth. If they stay Catholic they will want the Pope to build up Churches in France, if they go Protestant they earn VP for having 5+ Protestant Followers in France.
The Ottomans are the most straightforward – they can earn 1 VP for having the most Wealth but mostly they just get VP for control of spaces – they earn 2 per space instead of 1. They are an expansionist juggernaut and don’t care about the religious squabbles in Europe.
Grant: What type of an experience does the game create?
Clint: I think it gives you an understanding of the key inter-factional dynamics of the Reformation era using mechanics that are simple to understand and easy to enact.
Grant: What are you most pleased about with the design?
Clint: The asymmetry, the simplicity and the interaction between the players. I’m also really happy with the “bot” rules which allow you to play at anything from 1 to 6 players, with non-player-controlled factions run by a simple dice-based action sheet.
Grant:What has been the response of playtesters?
Clint: Very positive. Every play-tester has said the game is really fun and easy to learn, their only suggestions have been refinements to improve the balance between the 6 factions. For example, one play-tester noticed that the Debate action was under-powered and that the Protestants and Papacy were scoring fewer VP than the other factions on average. Changing the Debate action to winning “Issue” markers (worth 1 VP each) solved both problems. This is why play-testers are so valuable!
Grant: What other designs are you working on?
Clint: A lot! I will share a few of them with you.
First, there is One Hour Napoleon and One Hour WW1, sequels to my game One Hour WW2. Napoleon should be out this year, WW1 next year.
Then there is Messiah – my “Jesus COIN game” which is set in 1st century Roman-occupied Israel and lets you play as the Christians, Zealots, Pharisees or Romans. Similarly, there is “Testament” – my card drafting game on the entire Old Testament, inspired by 7 Wonders. These are still in development but they have a publisher and will certainly be made.
Anyone interested in my designs should follow me on X at @Clint_Davey1 to keep up to date with all the new releases. Thanks for having me on again!
If you have followed us for a while now, you know how we feel about Here I Stand: Wars of the Reformation from GMT Games. And, you know that we enjoy multi-player wargames. So, this one really seems to b simple and take in the concepts of negotiation and the asymmetry of each of the factions. I think that this game will be a good quick playing substitute for the longer and more involved Here I Stand experience. I cannot wait to get this one hopefully this year.
The past weekend was the Dice N Dine event at Lalaport, Kuala Lumpur, organised by The Magic Rain. It was not entirely a boardgame event. There were art booths and some cosplaying too. Surprisingly not many local game designers set up booths this time. Normally we have more. The venue is the Level 4 food court. The Dice N Dine concept is to run smallish events at food courts, because there
My latest obsession on Board Game Arena is Nucleum, the Board&Dice production currently in alpha. I thought Nucleum was pretty good as a board game, but playing it twenty more times on BGA—in addition to plays and reviews I’ve now done of two expansions, Nucleum: Australia and Nucleum: Energy Research Institute—has made it become one of my favorite games. After chatting with Nucleum co-designer Dávid Turczi at SPIEL Essen last fall, I have it on good authority that we are going to get more Nucleum games for years to come, so I’m just as invested as the designers are.
I wish I had more time for two-hour live plays of Nucleum, but such is the way with work travel, family life, and “IRL” game nights. So, I do my Nucleum plays async on BGA, meaning I take a turn, then the next player has a window of time—a day, maybe two—to take their turn.
On paper, I always think that means I’ll take at least one turn of my current game of Nucleum every day. The reality is quite different. That’s because right now, while reading this article, there’s someone in Reykjavik, Dhaka, Tuscaloosa or Le Mans waiting for you to log onto BGA and take care of your business.
Yeah, it’s your turn.
***
I am not normally obsessed with my phone; often, I leave my Pixel phone flipped over (Google calls this “Flip to Shhh”) because I don’t want to be bothered. This changes when I’m doing async plays on BGA, stressing my next move. That makes me a phone obsessive, as I stare at my phone between meetings waiting to see if it’s my turn on table #811104232.
I always start async plays with the best of intentions, setting up games with other people who have 100% positive reputations on Board Game Arena. I try to remember asking opponents upfront to join only if they are willing to take at least one, ideally two turns a day…let’s try to keep this thing moving.
How hard can that be?, I ask myself. We’re talking about relatively simple decisions in a game of, say, The White Castle. Pick a die, pick a spot, take the action. Bing, bang, boom!
And usually, everything starts off well enough. Depending on the game, players select their faction, pick a personal milestone card, select their starting hex, and make other pre-game choices to set up whatever game we’ve chosen. They take their first couple of turns within a few hours of getting the e-mail notification, that simple reminder that it is, in fact, your turn.
But sometimes, players don’t take their turn. Sometimes, they agree to start a new game, and only after joining a game do they chase down a rules video or a full read-through of the game’s manual, helpfully linked right on the game’s main page. That takes a day. They open an e-mail notification, then delete it instead of using the link to take them directly into the game. They fiddle over whether or not to take a certain action, then head off to dinner and drinks before coming back to the game the next morning…late the next morning, at that.
Given my obsession, I go back to the virtual game table from time to time, to monitor the game’s progress. I tell myself I’m doing that to see what other players have done on their turn, to help narrow my own choices when it gets back to being my turn again. I use the notes function (gosh, I love the notes function!) to gauge my thoughts, so that I can quickly take my turn when it comes around again.
But mostly, I sit. I think to myself, Next time, just carve out 90 minutes and play the freakin’ game live. Then you don’t have to obsess over all this, and you can sleep better, because you won’t hit the sack dreaming about “what ifs” tied to your most recent turn.
I think about doing these live plays…then, I don’t. I wallow in my own misery, as I wait for other players to stop enjoying their real life and focus on taking their Board Game Arena turns. Because, that’s all that really matters: my obsession, not your social life. Right? RIGHT??
***
It’s finally my turn again on table #811104232.
I wonder if, this time, I should make everyone else suffer for making me wait so long to take my turn. I click here, I hover the mouse pointer there, I double check that I’ve done everything I wanted to do on my turn before I click the “Confirm” button. (Thankfully, most of the new titles on BGA have both the Confirm action and the Undo Turn action, so that I don’t have to curse the sky because I clicked too many buttons too quickly.)
But then, the cycle repeats itself. My favorite is when I see that the next player in turn order has their “green light” on, indicating that they are online at this very moment. Even though they might be playing any of the platform’s other 1400+ games (nah, they MUST be sitting in this game, just itching to take their turn, right?), I sit there after finishing my async turn, hoping I get to watch them execute their own magic right in front of me.
Until they don’t. Or they do, and after their turn wraps up, the next player is offline. Or the next player lurks in the room for a few minutes, then logs off as if they just wanted to start planning their next turn before going to bed.
Luckily, there are dozens of solo games on BGA, so I can keep myself warm at night by jumping into a quick play of anything from Railroad Ink to Ark Nova. But the thrill of human vs. human competition is the beauty of the platform, challenging players from around the world.
Tulikko Designer: Jerome Soleil and Nicolas Melet Publisher: Studio H Players: 2-4 Age: 8+ Time: 20 mins Played with review copy provided by Pandasaurus Legend has it that Tulikko, the fire fox, lives hidden among the animal spirits in the … Continue reading →
In Lev Grossman’s novel The Magicians, young Quentin Coldwater and his classmates are transformed into geese as part of a graduation trial. The description of their journey from New England, all the way to the South Pole makes for good reading. But it also helps remind us of the effort that geese make in their instinctive need to fly thousands of miles, through perilous landscapes, only to turn around and do the trip in reverse just months later.
But we’re talking about board games right?
In the tableau building card game Flockers, from Mark Swanson, players take the part of a flock of geese making a similar journey, albeit one which takes just 30-45 minutes instead of months.
Geese is the Word
Gorgeous graphics and amazing components aside, Flockers is a racing game; the goal is to be the first to travel across 10 landscape cards arranged in a central tableau, called the flight path. These cards consist of one or more terrain types (mountain, forest, field, and lake). Some cards have only one terrain, while others can have all four terrain types.
In order to do this, players play flock cards from their hand into a traditional V formation. The first card is the lead goose, while subsequent…
I began designing Aetherium: The Forgotten Duel about a year and a half ago, and it all started with something unexpectedly simple: a photo I saw on social media. It was just stones resting on a cloth, but the moment I saw it, one thought hit me immediately: “This would be such a cool ancient-looking game.”
From there, my imagination took over. I became obsessed with creating something that felt like it could have existed centuries ago—an artifact from a lost civilization. That inspiration shaped my first design rule: no cardboard, no cards, no modern-looking components. I wanted everything to feel timeless, like it was carved from history rather than printed in a factory. Around the same time, I remembered games that used a drawstring mat—where the play surface doubled as storage, with all the pieces kept inside. That concept fit perfectly with the ancient aesthetic I was chasing.
And just like that, the journey began.
In Aetherium, there are two paths to victory. A player can either: • Connect four matching elemental colors across the tops of the columns, or • Guide the powerful Aether token to their end of the Aether track.
Building the game around the four classical elements, with Aether representing something beyond the physical world, helped deepen the mythology. It became more than strategy—it felt like a symbolic duel between nature and the unknown.
From the beginning, I knew it needed to be universal: no words, only symbols. I wanted turns to stay simple, but decisions to feel deep. That’s where the power tokens came in, adding replayability and new layers of strategy.
With the concept in place, things moved fast. Within two days, I had a rough but playable prototype. A few days later, I brought it to my first real playtest with my close friend Yvonne. That moment felt huge—Aetherium was leaving my head and becoming real on the table.
The first draft looked like this:
And the most important thing happened: we had fun. But even then, some mechanics felt weak, and certain moments lacked the weight I wanted. That playtest opened the door to months of cutting, adjusting, and rebuilding. Version after version began to emerge.
Around this time, my good friend Ruel Gaviola introduced me to the indie board game market. He explained how conventions often host indie sections where designers can showcase their games, connect with players, and gather feedback. When I found out Dice Tower West would have an indie market this March, it felt like the perfect opportunity. Aetherium had the atmosphere and uniqueness to stand out.
As the gameplay evolved, the physical design did too. The mat went through countless iterations, and one action space became a recurring problem—it simply wouldn’t work no matter how many times I reworked it. Eventually, I solved it.
And then I made my next big decision: I decided the game should be handcrafted entirely out of clay. Honestly? That was a bad choice.
Clay was messy, inconsistent, and nearly impossible to reproduce at scale. Pieces cracked, warped, and varied too much. What I thought would make the game feel more authentic was actually making it less sustainable.
That’s when my friend Katie helped me see the truth: the goal wasn’t just to make something that looked ancient… It was to make something people could actually play and return to again and again. That realization changed everything. Once I let go of clay, the project opened up. I shifted toward resin, which solved one problem—but introduced new challenges, especially with the mat.
It needed to be affordable, durable, and still match the weathered aesthetic. I tested countless fabrics before finally finding one that worked. At first, I tried stamping the fabric for a rustic look, but it still didn’t feel professional enough. Later, I found heat-press transfer sheets, which sped up the process while keeping the style I wanted. Even then, making everything by hand was no small task.
Then I discovered how time-consuming resin production really was: mixing, pouring, curing, sanding—creating even one full prototype took hours. Producing 30 full sets of resin pieces, preparing the mats, adding the rope—it all took far longer than I expected. It was exhausting at times, but it was also incredibly rewarding. Watching the game slowly transform from a simple idea into a real physical object made every long night worth it. After all the iterations—mechanics, materials, prototypes, playtests—I finally arrived at something complete: Aetherium: The Forgotten Duel.
Now, as Dice Tower West approaches, Aetherium is no longer just an idea sitting on my table. It’s real.
Bringing it to the indie market feels like the next step in its story—not because the game is finished, but because it’s finally ready to be discovered. I’m excited to watch new players sit down, touch the pieces, learn the symbols, and experience the same sense of mystery and strategy that inspired it from the start. Aetherium has already come farther than I ever expected from that first spark of inspiration.
1975: White Christmas Designer: Albert Reyes Publisher: Looping Games Players: 1-4 Age: 12+ Time: about 25 mins per player Review by Derek J 1975: White Christmas specifically simulates Operation Frequent Wind. The “White Christmas” song isn’t just flavor text; it … Continue reading →
Last day. We have had a great time and got 14 different games played! I’m exhausted but it’s a good exhaustion, if there is such a thing. Our final day was filled with 3 more great games as well as a lot of quality time with friends and fellow wargamers.
The day started with our first play of a brand new game called Imperial Elegy: The Road to the Great War 1850-1920 from VUCA Simulations. Imperial Elegy is a card driven game that blends diplomacy, warfare, and statecraft and feels a bit akin to games like Here I Stand and Virgin Queen from GMT Games. Grand scale sweeping epics that play multiplayers and take a day to play. Players play as 1 of 6 unique major powers in the game including Germany/Prussia, the United Kingdom, France, Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
The game takes place over 7 turns, with each turn representing approximately a decade. If the Great War breaks out, the game can be extended by an additional 6 shorter turns.A turn in the game consists of numerous player impulses that is driven by the play of action cards for their Command Points or the printed events. Players will use CP and events to take actions like colonize, conduct diplomacy with minor nations, fight wars, as well as hinder their opponents by playing events that take away their actions or resources. A turn will end once all players have consecutively passed or when all players run out of cards.
Here is a look at the German player board which tracks a lot of information including current Stability, which decides whether various actions like war can be taken or if there are various positive or negative modifiers, the available Manpower that will determine how many armies can be built, Industry that tells how many action pointed you will have to spend during war to maneuver units, attack and replace losses. The focus of the game is about the control of territories both on the Minsk and of Europe as well colonies abroad and there is an automatic victory if a certain target number is met, in the case of Germany 15.
Here is a quick look at the Russia player board for comparison’s sake as each faction is unique and has various starting levels and abilities.
We only played the first full turn and it took us about 90 minutes including an hour of setup and rules overview and discussion as only one of us at the table had player previously (John Lapham). But we very much enjoyed the experience and found lots to like. We are going to try to put together another full game in the next several months and will have more to report on after that. But suffice it to stay everyone at the table was impressed with the design and everyone had a good time with it.
The 2nd game of the day was Bretwalda from PHALANX. This is such a beautiful game but is also a very good design in the area control/dudes on a map realm.
Bretwalda attempts to do what Civ Builders do but do it in a novel and different way…and also finds a way to incentivize combat, which was really a breath of fresh air for me. Bretwalda from PHALANX is a game for 1-4 players that plays in around 2 1/2 hours. Each player takes charge of one of the kingdoms of medieval England, including Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex and East Anglea, and each of these kingdoms has unique leaders and abilities. The goal is to be crowned the Bretwalda of England and victory will be achieved through a combination of controlling key areas with victory points, completing Chronicle cards in the form of hidden objectives and also focusing on building various buildings such as Abbeys.
The game has very little assymetry and I initially thought that this would be a bad thing for the design but really enjoyed how they did make each kingdom feel different, also how they provided unique choices in the area of Kingdom Tiles and the development of your kingdom. The Kingdoms differ in three main aspects. First, they are located in different areas on the map. Now this might not seem very important but there are advantages to each of these locations. East Anglea has access to several Areas that produce Food. This is very good as you have to feed your soldiers at the start of each Winter Phase and you will always be on the lookout for how to get more Food. This is a very good advantage but the tradeoff is that they are very open and spread-out on the map in the east and have more areas susceptible to attack which requires more troops for defense. Northumbria is located in the north of England up against Hadrian’s Wall which provides some form of protection as it provides extra defense if attacked. They can also conquer the area to the north of their kingdom and have very little worry about any threat from that side so they can focus on defending other areas.
Second, each kingdom has its own permanent, unique special rule that provides them with an advantage. East Anglea starts with 3 Food in their capital while other kingdoms start with just 1 and they also obtain 2 Food at the start of each Spring Season. Wessex will draw one extra Lordship Card after winning a battle. This is very important as these cards are very versatile special benefit cards that can be used in battle to do several things like reroll dice, add reinforcements, bring back a destroyed unit, etc. They also though have other uses through other phases of the game including scouting your opponents stash of cards before attacking, cancelling played card effects, gaining additional Gold, amongst other benefits. Mercia is able to Recruit 1 additional land unit when they take the Fyrd (Recruit) action. This gives them access to larger armies more quickly than other kingdoms so you have to watch out for them to be aggressive early. Finally, Northumbria may build Abbeys for 1 less Gold. This is probably the most simple benefit but Gold is at a premium and this really helps them to get more Gold as Abbeys give victory points (called Dalcs) as well as provide 1 additional Gold during the Collect Action. These benefits are not massive or game breaking but really add some flavor to each kingdom. Third and finally, as already discussed in the point above, each of the kingdoms has a set of its own unique historical Rulers, each with a different ability. I wont say anymore about this here but I really liked this part of the assymetry and thought it worked really well without breaking the game or making it more difficult than it had to be.
The area that I really wanted to cover in this part though was the Kingdom Tiles. During the Development Action, each player can pay 3 Gold and place 1 Kingdom Tile on their board. These Kingdom Tiles are divided into 4 different categories (you can see the four categories on the Kingdom Board shown above) tied to the four available Actions for players, including Development, Collection, Fyrd (Recruit) and Movement. The surprising thing about these tiles was that they are all the same for each kingdom. At first I thought maybe this was a missed opportunity but then after playing I saw that each having the same access to the same tiles was smarter as it gave the game balance. Also, each of the categories offers 3 possible Kingdom Tiles to develop and each player only has 2 spots on their board so you cannot develop all 3 in each category and each player will have to choose what makes the most sense for them at the time. I have seen this done in several of the Lite Civ Dudes on a Map Area Control games but they tend to overcomplicate it and make it clunky whereas in Bretwalda it is streamlined and simple yet there are options and paths to develop.
Bretwalda is a unique game amongst the many Lite Civ Building Dudes on a Map Area Control games out there. I had a great time playing the game and enjoyed the very interesting and fun combat system with custom dice for each unit type and Lordship Cards that add special abilities. This game is special and beautiful and thematic and earns a spot on my shelf as a game that I want to play again and again.
The wrap up event was annual roleplaying game and this year Cullen prepared a session of a new RPG called War Stories, which is set during the World War II. With it, players take the roles of heroic soldiers parachuting into Normandy during Operation Overlord in June of 1944.
As an RPG players will have characters with various special focuses across 4 abilities including Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Empathy. Each time a skill is to the checked you find the matching ability and roll that number of six sided dice looking fur 6’s which mean success. If multiple successes are rolled you can earn special tokens called Lucky Strikes that can be saved and used as successes on future rolls. The players will have to decide if they roll their dice again and will remove any 1’s from the pool and roll the remaining dice again. If they fail this time though the GM will gain a FUBAR token that can be used to cause a failure on a rolled success in the future. This really created some cinematic moments and was a very interesting way to handle a check.
Our friend Cullen was the GM and did a fantastic job guiding us through our first experience with the system. His good explanation and clear understanding and familiarity with the system really made our first experience an enjoyable one.
We were tasked with taking a hardpoint on D-Day behind enemy lines to assault and take out several gun emplacements shelling the upcoming landing beaches. We went through a series of rolls and checks on the flight in on the Dakota C-47 and then had to bail out over flak filled skies taking hits and losing gear or our musette bags.
When we landed we had to gather up, create a plan and then execute that plan to maneuver through German held positions under fire and take out the emplacements. There were lots of heroic actions, good sniper shots, daring orders and of course explosions and we had a great time with the game.
In the end we were successful and only lost a few of the men under our command. I look forward to playing more in the future. Thanks to Cullen for his preparation and time devoted to teaching us the system
We finished up at about 9:00pm and we then gathered up all of our games, equipment and items and said goodbye to friends who we hope to see next year. This week was a major success as we played 14 different games and had a very good time. Thank you so much for following along in my daily posts and look ahead to the videos we did appearing on the YouTube Channel over the next month.
Hello and welcome to ‘Focused on Feld’. In this series of reviews, I am working my way through Stefan Feld’s entire catalogue. Over the years, I have hunted down and collected every title he has ever put out. Needless to say, I’m a fan of his work. I’m such a fan, in fact, that when I noticed there were no active Stefan Feld fan groups on Facebook, I created one of my own.
Today we’re going to talk about 2025’s The Druids of Edora, his 45th game. This marks his first team up with Alea Ravensburger since 2020’s The Castles of Tuscany. Remarkably, in that short time frame, Feld has added an additional 13 titles to his resume.
In The Druids of Edora, players take on the roles of druid clans competing for dominance and prestige against a mystical forest background ripped right out of a high fantasy novel. The forest is dotted with clearings, which contain shrines, and are connected to one another via a network of well-traveled pathways. Using their provisions, players will travel from shrine to shrine where they will perform various actions using their dice. It’s a Stefan Feld game so, it goes almost without saying, virtually everything you do is going to earn you prestige throughout the course of the game.…
Etherstone Designer: Virginio Gigli, Simone Luciani Publisher: Thundergryph Players: 2-4 Age: 14+ Time: 20 min per player Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4aXGXBM Played with review copy provided by publisher Nobura is a forgotten planet shrouded in mystery. The story … Continue reading →
Anmelden
/pic9368718.jpg)
