The saloon doors suddenly burst open behind you as your boots skid across the dusty wooden boards of the sidewalk. A split-second later, gunfire cracks through the afternoon air, the bullet ricocheting off a pail of water, sending startled townsfolk diving for cover. Diving behind an old barrel offers you a moment of shelter, although the sound of heavy footsteps suggests your pursuer is closing in on you. Then, glass shatters somewhere near the jail, followed by the sharp whistle of a bullet passing far too close for comfort. A grin spreads across your face as you raise your revolver and prepare to return fire. Well, that's what you get when you arrive in Rattlesnake by Michael Hardacre from Osprey Games with art by Roland MacDonald.

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Every year, the announcement of the Spiel des Jahres nominations leads to a lot of discussion across our hobby. Some people agree with the choices, others question why certain games were not included, and many try to predict the eventual winners. What most people don't realise when they discuss the nominations is that the jury does not gather for a single weekend to decide the best game of the year. No, jurors spend many months playing hundreds of new releases several times with different groups of people. It is a lot of work that often goes unnoticed, but that explains why the award continues to carry such influence nearly fifty years after it began. In the second article of the series, I look at this in more detail.

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Electric-blue leg warmers stretched over striped socks, sequins sparkling beneath a giant mirror ball, while clouds of hairspray drifted through the air. Synth-pop booms from oversized speakers as skaters practise one last spin, one last shuffle, one last gravity-defying move before the judges arrive. It's November 1983, and the biggest competition of the year is about to begin. Jam skaters from around the world have gathered beneath the glittering lights, hoping their best moves will earn them the championship crown. They want to become the next champion of the Roller Disco by Mike Petchey from Huff No More with art by Joss Petchey.

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For many board gamers, Spiel des Jahres is simply the little red pawn on a game box. Spotting it on a shelf often suggests that a game is worth paying attention to. That's not only true in the German-speaking board game world, but also in many other countries, including the UK. Over the years, winners such as The Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride have helped establish the award as one of the most influential honours in tabletop gaming. Yet, there is a lot more to this story. According to its own history and mission statements, the annual prize was never intended to be the end goal. Instead, it was created as a tool to encourage people to play games, to promote games as a cultural asset, and to help the wider public discover the value of gathering around a table. In the first in a series of articles, I want to look at this further.

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A little after 9am on Thursday, I boarded my first train of a journey that has become increasingly familiar over the years. It was my sixth visit to the convention, having first attended in 2019 before COVID forced a break, but I returned in 2022. It was also my fourth time making the journey by train. The first leg carried me from the South Coast to London Victoria, followed by a tube trip to London Euston and a welcome lunch break before the faster train north. By around 4pm, I was walking through the NEC halls once again, ready for another weekend at UK Games Expo 2026.

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Snow drifted from the pine branches as the last chairlift carried us slowly, but steadily, towards the summit. As we looked back, the mountain below was being draped in silver moonlight and covered in fresh powder snow. We couldn't see it, but we knew that, back in the village, steam curled from bowls of ramen waiting for our return. Yet, nobody was ready to leave the silence of the peaks just yet. We all wanted to hit the slopes one more time before calling it a night. At the same time, we already knew what we would do tomorrow. Tomorrow, we would return to the peak and lay the First Tracks by Blake Erickson and Megan Ryan from Sayonara Ski Co.

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Designers don't like it when players criticise their board game, and the response often is that the game was intentionally designed that way. Players complain that a strategy feels unfair, a mechanism is frustrating, or a game simply isn't very clear. Designers reply that that just misses the point. Similar disagreements exist in films, novels, and art, yet board games seem to have them more often, and they are often more personal. Part of the reason may be that board games are not passive experiences. Players are not simply watching events unfold, but instead are interpreting rules and shaping the experience themselves every time the game hits the table.

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The pub was quiet after the lunchtime rush. It was a chilly autumn afternoon, so the hearty lunch just hit the spot. Now we were sitting there, playing a card game, with a pint each by our sides. While the meal had filled us up, we still fancied something savoury. We just needed a small snack that the two of us could share. Nothing fancy. Something simple would do. Of course, it had to be Crisps! by Shreesh Bhat from Little Dog Games with art by Sai Beppu.

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Many of us play board games because they offer us some certainty. There are rules, objectives, specific actions, and so on that define how a game is played. These things provide a clear, well-defined framework. We know what is possible, what is not allowed and what we are trying to achieve. At the same time, board games also contain uncertainty. It is uncertainty that creates tension, excitement and a range of other emotions. In many cases, this uncertainty is exactly why we look forward to playing them. Inspired by Bez from Stuff by Bez, in this article, I want to explore why uncertainty in board games matters.

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Yes, it's that time of year again when everyone starts to panic, because the biggest UK board game event is just around the corner. There is a scramble for train tickets, hotel rooms (mind you, you're probably too late, if you haven't booked one yet), on-site parking, visitor passes, water bottles, comfortable shoes and lots of other bits and pieces that you need to attend UK Games Expo 2026.

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Throughout human history, stories have been a way for people to share the concerns and ideas of their time. I think we can all agree that books and films are often shaped by the social, political, and cultural contexts in which they were created, whether deliberately or not. Readers and viewers will usually be able to see reflections of real-world anxieties, hopes, and tensions within them. Board games, while also being a form of entertainment, alongside books and films, work differently. In this article, I want to look at whether they still reflect the times in which they were designed.

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The low sun drapes itself across uneven fields, gilding half‑finished fences and soil still warm from the plough as hands move with quiet urgency, gathering wood, shaping clay, urging reluctant earth to yield before the season slips away. Your family waits with hunger and hope intertwined, their future resting on each small choice made in the dirt. Buried in this hard labour, there is a deep, steady satisfaction, a sense of watching something humble grow into something living, something that belongs to you alone, something shaped by care and intention, something you created as the Agricola by Uwe Rosenberg from Lookout Spiele with art by Klemens Franz.

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A recent episode of the Game Design Deep Dive, featuring the podcast host, Dan Bullock, in conversation with prolific board game designer of many historical and storytelling games, Cole Wehrle, got me thinking about something I had never really questioned before: who we actually are when we play board games. Player roles are often afterthoughts, taken for granted as part of the theme or setting. However, the more I thought about it, the more it became clear that they shape how we understand a game, how we make decisions, and even how they influence our emotions as we engage with what is happening on the table.

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The humidity clings to your skin as neon reflections shimmer across rain-slick streets. The city is strangely alive with quiet ambition and louder dreams. Towering skylines loom above bustling districts, each corner a promise of profit, each landmark a prize waiting to be claimed. Deals are struck with uneasy confidence, plans unfold behind knowing smiles, and every move carries the weight of opportunity. In this restless urban theatre, only the sharpest minds will rise above the crowd. Welcome to Singapore Showdown by Eugene Lim from Genie Games with art by Marcus Quek.

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Legacy games have probably had their golden days. They were something new that hadn't been done before in our hobby. They promised a unique experience of a game that would change as you played it. Not only that, the change would be permanent, requiring you not to only remove components, but actually destroy them, or put stickers into the rulebook, onto the main game board or otherwise apply them to make an irreversible change to the game. However, as exciting as the idea was, it never sat comfortably with me. In this article, I want to talk about this in more detail.

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You've been woken from hypersleep. You're still a bit groggy, but it is clear something has happened. Something important. As the captain, you can't waste too much time. You have to get up to speed quickly. As your crewmate gives you a sitrep, it becomes clear that you have to act quickly. It's time to Escape Comics: The Alien Ship by Douglas Beech and Evan Duxbury from Jumping High Five Games with art by Maria Becvar.

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Gatekeeping has long been a concern within the board game hobby. For decades, our hobby was shaped by small communities, often dominated by white men of a certain age. They decided who was allowed to call themselves a board gamer and who couldn't. However, as the hobby grew, it also became more diverse. Nowadays, welcoming newcomers and making the hobby accessible to a wider audience has become a highly important goal, a goal which I strongly support and feel very passionate about. Unfortunately, some people have started to use the term gatekeeping in such a way as to become gatekeepers themselves. In this article, I want to look at this paradox more closely.

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A pair of mirrored birds lean towards one another, their colours bright, but soft. If you look closely, you can see that their bodies are forming a heart. Nearby, Kueh, delicate sweets, sit arranged with care. Judging by their colours and shapes, they promise wonderful flavours. Each one tells a story of ancient traditions and of the practised hands that shaped them. It is a quiet celebration of heritage and harmony, of the culture of Peranakan: Tiles and Tactics by Eugene Lim from Genie Games with art by Eugene Lim.

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Bargello designs are built from vertical stitches, laid in sequence so that colours rise and fall, creating flowing waves, shifting flames, or soft gradients that almost seem to move across the fabric. Used in ornate upholstery in 17th-century Italy and applied to chairs and other furniture, these patterns require precision and concentration. Even a single misplaced stitch will completely break the rhythm. As a highly-skilled embroiderer, it is up to you to make sure your needle is correctly Threaded: A Game of Needles and Points by Ellie Dix from Osprey Games with art by Maria Surducan.

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