Working in the biomedical field, I’ve developed a pretty strong stomach for blood, guts, and gore. But going fishing? Eughhh! That’s where I draw the line for grossness. Shoving a hook through your helplessly wriggling bait, smelling the putrid sourness of dying flesh as fish get gutted, and having hours on end of nothingness to […]
There have been plenty of times in my life when I wished I was as smart as Sherlock Holmes. Or at the very least, had his memory for details and facts. It would certainly make parts of my day job a lot easier. Alas, I don’t have his brain. But Unlock!: Short Adventures, Inside the […]
You are a Ratzia boss, head of a family in the secretive rat mafia. To stop in-fighting and prevent any family from getting cheesed off, Ratzia bosses use a system of auctions to decide who gets which job or territory. Welcome to life in Ratzia, a retheme of the classic Knizia auction game RA. But […]
Neko Syndicate had me at cat clans. The premise is that a feline-led organized crime clan is vying to take over the sushi trade in Japan. Anyone who has spent any time around cats knows they are diabolical. Cute. But diabolical. Cats are furry little overlords who demand our attention, food, and devotion; on their […]
As most regular readers here probably know, city-building games are my jam. Foundations of Rome is one of my top 5 board games of all time, and I love Frostpunk both in digital format and the board game adaptation. So when I found out about Dawnmaker, a city-building and deck-building game set in a smog-filled […]
As the Queen of Knizia here at Board Game Quest, it’s my duty to play as many Knizia titles as I can. Botswana is not only one of those titles, but a game I was quite looking forward to. So let’s see if this is a Knizia Classic, or a Knizia Cluster. Botswana is a […]
Calico is a game that looks deceptively cute and cuddly, possessing an adorably floofy kitten on the cover atop a pastel quilted backdrop. Inside the gameplay, however, is a brutal brain-burner of a puzzle where players are challenged to optimize among 36 unique tile types within a slew of overlapping scoring opportunities that all seem […]
When I play a board game, I like to pair it with a playlist. Forest Shuffle? There’s a playlist for that (bless you, whoever made it). But, Grand Central Skyport? I’m stumped. Do I go full retro-futuristic? Throw on some Around the World in 80 Days vibes? Still figuring it out. And, honestly, that ambivalence […]
I am not a huge fan of puzzles. If I have time to myself, I prefer to play video games or a solo board game. Sarah (my wife) LOVES puzzles and would rather work on a puzzle during her downtime. When not watching movies or Netflix, we play about one board game a week together, […]
When your spouse is an Egyptologist, it’s hard to pass up an opportunity to play and review the newest Ra iteration—Ra and Write. Even harder when you’re planning a visit to see an art show about Ancient Egypt’s gods. Designed by Reiner Knizia with art by Ian O’Toole, the game pulls forward themes which will […]
According to the Dalai Lama, “the purpose of our lives is to be happy,” and so by the transitive property, it can be argued that the purpose of life is to play board games. Thus, we should play them every chance we get, even when traveling and constrained by limited luggage and/or table space. Button […]
GMT Game is a war-game publisher known for its crunchy, strategic games… usually about war. However, they have also branched off into other areas, such as racing with Grand Prix and Thunder Alley. But my favorite offering of theirs is The Plum Island Horror. This cooperative game was a surprise hit for me in 2024, […]
I’ve been a big fan of TCGs and CCGs (and adjacent) since the early days in the 90s. I’m always willing to give any game in the genre a look, no matter what the theme or IP (I had an extensive Mortal Kombat Kard Game collection and some decks for Sim City: The Card Game, […]
Exploring uncharted lands is not a new concept in the realm of board games. It’s an excellent way to create initial buy-in as players discover a world evolving over time. A Wayfarer’s Tale is designed by James Emmerson and illustrated by collaborator Tristam Rossin. They have visited this thematic space before. Earlier releases from the […]
I have been loving the Knizia Renaissance we’re currently living through. With publishers like Bitewing Games, 25th Century Games, and Allplay revitalizing and reprinting Knizia classics, has me giddy. Knowing hidden gems are coming back into print and being given much-needed facelifts is exactly what we need in this hobby of continued excess and over-production. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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