This is a story of a time long ago—a time of myth and legend. When the ancient gods were petty and cruel, and plagued mankind with suffering—oh sorry, wrong script. Walking around GenCon last year, I saw advertising from Rush of Ikorr everywhere. Seemed like most people had a Rush of Ikorr lanyard, even. Given […]
Stone Age is a classic gateway Eurogame. Everdell sits in the top 50 games on BoardGameGeek.com. So surely a game called Everstone has to have some merit, right? Ugh, intros are hard. What really drew me to try Everstone: Discovering Ignis, was first-time designer Sam McDavitt’s description of multi-use cards, use of a Scythe-like action-selection […]
We picked up Churchill back in 2014 when it first was printed. From what I could tell at the time was that it wasn’t getting a lot of buzz amongst board gamers on BGG and there were only 2 YouTube videos about the game where we could learn a little more (one from Mark Herman and his wife, the other from Stuka Joe). I realize now that I was wrong to a large extent about the presumptive popularity of the game. First, we had bought it while it was brand new so the buzz was just getting started in a major way. Secondly, Churchill is viewed by many as a wargame and as such many euro gamers are hesitant to give it the try it so rightly deserves. But the game system and what it is trying to do is just fantastic with its debating over issues, seeing those issues translate to action on the board in the further prosecution of the war and then the way that people work to coordinate their actions. Just a really solid system.
A few years ago, after playing all of the games in the Great Statesmen Series, we heard of a new game in the series from a designer not named Mark Herman and I was immediately interested and intrigued as we have had so much fun with Churchill, Pericles and Versailles 1919. Congress of Vienna from GMT Games is a diplomatic card driven wargame based on Churchill and is the 4th game in the Great Statesmen Series. The game is set during the years of 1813-1814 and sees players take on the role of the main characters of the struggle between the Napoleonic Empire and the coalition of Russia, Austria, and Great Britain with their Prussian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swedish allies. We played the game recently while attending Buckeye Game Fest and then played a full campaign again while attending the World Boardgaming Championships and absolutely were amazed at the changes and innovations to the system introduced by the designer Frank Esparrago.
I posted a fairly in-depth overview of the game in my First Impression post and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2025/08/06/first-impressions-congress-of-vienna-from-gmt-games/
-Grant
Welcome to the Dungeon — A cute little push-your-luck filler, kind of like “Name that tune.” “Well, I can beat that dungeon that has five monsters!” “Six monsters” “Six monsters but I’ll leave my vorpal sword behind!” etc. Does not overstay its welcome, at least with three players. Not earth shattering, but I got it for $5, so sure. Indifferent.
Magical Athlete — I was sure I had played this before when it was announced, but it turns out that I was thinking of Monster Derby. This one reminds me of Mrs. Tao’s name for Strat-o-matic Baseball: “Bunco for Boys.” It’s an amusing way to spend rolling dice for 30 minutes. This one comes closer to overstaying its welcome. (But we played with six players). Great production values with “Kids Educational Cartoon” style coloring, drawing and meeples. I’m sure if you brought this out with chits it would lose ~3 BGG rating points, deservedly so. Indifferent.
Welcome to the Dungeon — A cute little push-your-luck filler, kind of like “Name that tune.” “Well, I can beat that dungeon that has five monsters!” “Six monsters” “Six monsters but I’ll leave my vorpal sword behind!” etc. Does not overstay its welcome, at least with three players. Not earth shattering, but I got it for $5, so sure. Indifferent.
Magical Athlete — I was sure I had played this before when it was announced, but it turns out that I was thinking of Monster Derby. This one reminds me of Mrs. Tao’s name for Strat-o-matic Baseball: “Bunco for Boys.” It’s an amusing way to spend rolling dice for 30 minutes. This one comes closer to overstaying its welcome. (But we played with six players). Great production values with “Kids Educational Cartoon” style coloring, drawing and meeples. I’m sure if you brought this out with chits it would lose ~3 BGG rating points, deservedly so. Indifferent.
In a gaming world where there are a few prominent themes, it’s nice when something new comes along. I remember seeing bottles of colored sand at beach towns when I was younger, so the theme of Sand Art brought back some positive memories. Sand Art is a game by Kory Jordan and published by 25th […]
What the Queen wants, the Queen gets. We say this in my house a lot, mostly referring to our cat. In true feline fashion, she believes this is her house, the other day, actually, but I digress. That’s not the queen we are here to talk about. In Peninsula, the queen wants a botanical garden […]
Yokohama’s debut in 2016 marked it as a rare Japanese-themed board game by a Japanese Designer (Hisashi Hayashi) to qualify as a top 200 game on Board Game Geek. Its primary mechanism of contract fulfillment wasn’t entirely novel, but it brilliantly merged it with mancala-style worker-placement, variable board setup, multiple ways to score, and just […]
When I first saw the new edition of Parks at Gen Con in summer 2025, I was dismissive. I am a longtime fan of the original Parks, as well as the Nightfall expansion and I often play. With the new version, the iconic National Parks poster art was gone. The game trays (meant to look […]
As you know, we very much enjoy multi-player wargames and anytime there is a new multi-player game coming out we very much sit up and take notice. In early 2024, Columbia Games launched a Kickstarter for a game on the Napoleonic Wars called Alliance: Multiplayer Napoleonic Wargame. Alliance is billed as a 1-7 player strategic level game of diplomacy and warfare in the Napoleonic Era with a Columbia Block System twist. The game is huge and plays best with more players. The players take on the roles of different nations during the time and you can play as Austria, England, France, Prussia, Russia, Spain, or the Ottomans. We recently played a full 7-player game and had a grand old time. While the game is not perfect, and there are some quirks that you must get past, the game is really pretty fun and interesting and could be one of those main staples at gaming conventions where you need a lot of players.
I also wrote a fairly in-depth First Impressions post and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2025/03/06/first-impressions-alliance-multiplayer-napoleonic-wargame-from-columbia-games/
-Grant
Anmelden
