Board Games Reviews

When we looked at the components for Stalk Exchange we noted that it was one of the better produced games we’ve seen in a long time. With the recent launch of this title and Gnome Hollow (LINK components article), The OP has been knocking it out of the park on the production side of things. While a good production goes a long way to making me enjoy a game more, it is not the end-all-be-all, and a good game needs…

I previously wrote on the site that I wasn’t very excited for the game Umbrella, and that the components were the only reason I was giving this game a go. You can read my components review article right now but how does the game itself actually play. Was it more puzzly-then-game as I assumed it would be? Let’s take a look. Umbrella is an easy to teach, easy to play game that is really nice as a filler on board…

Cooperative games are on the rise right now, and with the continued success of Star Wars shows on Disney+, it makes sense that there would be a cooperative Star Wars experience for board game fans to sink their teeth into. Not surprisingly, the choice to headline that cooperation was The Mandalorian, one of the most popular original shows on Disney+, and many people’s favorite piece of Star Wars work. I was a bit skeptical of how good a mass market…

The designer of An Age Contrived recently sent over the deluxified version of his game, An Age Contrived. Generally, we turn around board game reviews pretty quickly, but there was a lot of setup involved in this game. For the record, this review is based on this super deluxe version which included metal player “boards” – that being said, the core functions of the game remain unchanged, and outside of the deluxified player “board”, the other items are available in…

There is something to be said about small box games that pack a powerful punch. What do I mean by that? I mean a small game with only a few components that is easy to table and tons of fun to play. After about a half dozen games of Alpina, that is exactly how I would classify this game. With only a handful of cards and some wooden player pieces, you can enjoy hours of puzzly entertainment that’s easy for…

Horrified: World of Monsters takes the traditional Horrified systems and turns them a bit on end by making you play as …. Monsters? That’s right, things are just a bit different this time around, although the real pull for many Horrified fans will be the new baddies brought into this edition of the game. This is actually my first Horrified game experience, so I had to go back and try others before putting this review together. And honestly, for better…

The Kingdom of Haversack has been covered in a terrible curse by a mighty sorceress and it is the job of the players and their Guardians to explore the land and work to lift the curse. In Guardians of Haversack, players will be traversing the world defeating monsters, discovering treasure, rebuilding villages, and capturing fairies, all of which will earn them victory points. This bag building game will have you adding more Guardians to your Expedition Bag to improve the…

By all accounts, Leder Games makes fantastic board game experiences. The other thing I’ve heard about Leder Games is that you get out of their games as much as you are willing to put in, and Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile is the perfect example of this! Oath requires a certain group of people to play to make it as exciting as possible, and I had the pleasure of playing with good and bad players. Regardless, though, the investment…

River of Gold, based in the Legend of the Five Rings universe, is one of the most beautiful games released in 2024. Beauty, however, can only get you so far, but thankfully River of Gold has a ton of great and easy to understand mechanics that makes this a really good game for veteran board game players, and casual players as well. We looked at the games components in a previous post, so we won’t go into depth on all…

Honey Buzz was one of our favorite games last year, and we raved about the games production value and game mechanics. Players would draft honeycomb tiles for their hive, attempting to make rings, use actions, produce and sell honey, and much more, all to earn points and hopefully be the best hive at the end of the game. The game was phenomenal, and we played it a ton. The more we played, the more we realized we wished there was…