When I saw Xenology, I was immediately piqued because it reminded me of a friend’s prototype, a game about studying humanity from the perspective of an alien race. I wanted to see the track a different design mind might do with a similar idea—one of my favorite pastimes.

Unfortunately, Xenology doesn’t capture the weirdness of my friend’s game, nor does it capture the magic of the foundational eurogame elements it deploys across its own design. It’s a “do A so you can acquire C so you can do B and score some points” sort of game, nothing more, nothing less. It has the trappings of a much more interesting game, that resolves into something whose end result feels arbitrary and mushy, and ultimately just fades in with a broad swathe of other games in spite of the unique setting.

Alien bureaucrats demand RFPs

In the game, you’re an alien trying to advance in the alien hierarchy by studying human beings. The process by which you do this is reasonably straightforward.

In the center of the board there’s an action cross of sorts, at the intersection a center action (Mission Control) with four actions that are arranged around it in an offset cross. You start with three alien meeples (cute)…

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4X games have come a long way since 2011, when Space Empires 4X was released, and while many of these games contain deeper backstories, more complicated systems, and elaborate plastic miniatures, for me the pencil, pad and cardboard counters of Space Empires remain the gold standard of 4X. With GMT Games sending me the final expansion, fittingly titled All Good Things, I was excited to get the game back to my table to see if it still holds up after all these years.

Don’t Fix what isn’t Broken

There’s been a recent trend to update older titles with more modern elements, beyond just artwork and theme–games like Skymines and Brass: Lancashire come to mind–and that can sometimes be a mixed bag. Caylus is a masterpiece but was in desperate need of a visual refreshment. Caylus 1303, while it looks great, also fundamentally changed how the original game plays, for the worse in my opinion, in its attempt to cater to a broader audience.

GMT and designer Jim Krohn understand what makes Space Empires 4X special and are able to revamp while avoiding these kinds of pitfalls with each new expansion. Much like the previous expansions, Close Encounters (which added variable player powers) and Replicators (introducing co-op…

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War, Trade, and Extremely Long Evenings

For some board gamers, Twilight Imperium (TI4) is a bucket list game. Not because it’s rare or expensive, but because reliably gathering six busy, willing, and able adults for 9 to 12 uninterrupted hours already feels like an achievement. Add in a sprawling space opera full of political intrigue, shifting alliances, and the occasional spectacular betrayal, and you start to understand the mystique.

I had been in the board game hobby for years before a friend invited me to play TI4 for his birthday. I was giddy at the chance to sit down with the behemoth finally, and I’ve been lucky enough to get it back on the table many times since. I enjoy Twilight Imperium a lot, but I don’t live and breathe it. There’s another kind of TI4 player: the kind who plays in rated leagues, travels for tournaments, and can recite every faction’s abilities and tech paths from memory. That’s not me, and that’s not the perspective this review is written from.

[caption id="attachment_327184" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Please ignore the precariously placed Coke Zero.[/caption]

With the Prophecy of Kings expansion, Twilight Imperium already feels remarkably complete. It’s one of the best examples I can think of of a lavish expansion retroactively improving a…

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Training Montage

I struggle to get excited when someone says “train game.” The moment “18XX” hits the table, my brain checks out. I’ve enjoyed a few—Chicago Express, Age of Rail: South Africa, Iberian Gauge, and currently Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West (okay, not really 18XX but still a train game!)—but my bias remains: they all feel the same. Learn one, learn them all, right?

And while that may be true, it takes more than a new map to get me on board. I’m not great at market speculation or company valuation, which already puts me behind. But dress the system up with a new flavor, and I can be coaxed to the table. Dinosaurs in Cretaceous Rails? Bag-building in Lightning Train? A fresh spin goes a long way for non-train gamers like me.

Space Rails

Enter Stellar Ventures, a spacefaring economic game from newcomer designer Pontus Nilsson. At a glance, you might think you’ve sat down at Gaia Project, but look closer: this is an investment-and-network puzzle that tests your galactic bookkeeping.

[caption id="attachment_327002" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Stellar Ventures at PAX Unplugged.[/caption]

Crack open the Corporate Handbook and you’re greeted with midcentury-style product ads hyping expansion, investment, and tech development. Then comes the twist—aliens.…

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