Tabletop
Lanterns: The Harvest Festival Review
The harvest is in and it’s time to celebrate! In Lanterns: The Harvest Festival, players act as artisans, decorating the lake around the castle with colourful lanterns. The player who earns the most honour by the end of the process is declared the winner. This isn’t a process that I’m familiar with in real life, but it does make for a neat and fairly light strategy game that sort of evokes the feelings that come with Ticket to Ride and Carcasonne.
Bottom of the 9th Review
The tension in the stadium is palpable. It’s the end of the game and the score is tied between the scrappy underdogs at bat and the powerhouse squad on defense. If the underdogs can’t score now, their opposition will surely beat them in extra innings. This is the scenario you and one other player will face in Bottom of the 9th. Do you have what it takes to score the winning run or record the final out?
Exploding Kittens Review
Exploding Kittens blew up last year on Kickstarter (pun intended), raising over $8 million dollars during its campaign. While that mark makes it easily the biggest board gaming Kickstarter campaign of all-time, it’s heavily presumed that the game itself wasn’t the biggest driver of dollars. Instead, the key selling point appears to be the creators of the Oatmeal web comic, who co-created the game and provide its humour. Because of this, it’s unfair to expect Exploding Kittens to be the best board game of all-time based on its Kickstarter money. Instead, let’s judge it on its own merits.
Roll For It Review
More Cash ‘N More Guns Review
More Cash ‘N More Guns is the aptly named expansion for Cash ‘N Guns. No one will claim false advertising on this one, as it certainly contains more cash and more guns. Is this expansion just more of the same? Or does it add to the base game in meaningful ways?
Penny Press Review
Penny Press puts players at the head of rival New York newspapers as they battle for the highest circulation for their daily publication. This is done sending reporters out in the field to cover hot stories and publishing the best newspaper you can in a timely manner. While the theme isn’t wholly unique, it is one that’s rarely used and full of potential. Does this game deliver the quality newspaper experience that we didn’t know we wanted?
HUE Review
Ever since Love Letter became a smash hit, game designers and publishers have been cranking out micro games at a brisk pace. HUE, as part of the Pack O Game series of titles, is one of the smallest yet. Featuring only 30 cards in a box the size of a Juicy Fruit pack of gum, this little game can easily fit in your pocket for gaming on the go. Form factor is great, but who cares about its size if the game isn’t good. Does HUE deliver beyond the gimmick of its size?
Early Impressions of Pandemic Legacy
Classic Pandemic is a co-operative board game where players team up in an effort to cure four deadly diseases before they wipe out the human race. No pressure, right? In the moment, it’s one of the most intense board games on the market. However, as soon as the game is over, the slate is wiped clean and you can start again as if nothing ever happened.
This is where Pandemic Legacy differs from its predecessor. Taking heavy influence from Risk Legacy, events that take place in each game leave a lasting impact on subsequent plays until you hit the final stage of the campaign. If you thought that the original game was stressful, wait until you play this version where the rules constantly change, characters can die and entire cities can be wiped off of the map forever.
Pandemic Legacy Added to the List of Awesome Board Games You Should Play
For the past month or so, my board gaming group have been playing Pandemic Legacy. Unlike classic Pandemic, where the world resets after each game, Pandemic Legacy takes players on a disease-fighting adventure that spans a year of time in the game world. Every decision in the game is permanent, as stickers are used make adjustments to character cards and boards, cards are required to be ripped up, and characters can even die if they get unlucky.
We’re not done yet, but the experience so far has been stellar. I didn’t play enough of the 2015 crop of board games to name a definitive game of the year, though this one squeaks by Codenames as my personal pick. Steer clear if you haven’t played classic Pandemic yet. However, if you have, what are you waiting for?!
Check out the list of Awesome Board Games You Should Play!
In Third Person 