Category: Podcasts

GoodCritters (Saturday Review)

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GoodCritters by Arcane Wonders is an i-cut-you-choose sort of game with a twist. Players are members of a very successful gang of burglars and take turns to be the boss who divvies up the loot amongst everyone in whichever way they see fit. There is plenty of opportunity to be selfish or favour some players over others. Yet, it is up to the whole gang to vote on whether to accept the split or not. It's a bit like being a pirate really - but that's a different story.

Scythe (Saturday Review)

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I know, Scythe by Stonemaier Games has been out since 2016 and has had a couple of expansions released as well, including promo packs with additional encounter cards. So chances are you have already heard plenty of reviews about this game and maybe own  it yourself, but I still felt it's worth reviewing, because I am sometimes surprised by how many people still don't know Scythe.

KeyForge: Call of the Archons (Saturday Review)

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KeyForge: Call of the Archons by Fantasy Flight Games is the first Unique game - and the word "unique" has a very special meaning, but I will talk about this later. KeyForge, for short, is a competitive two-player-only card game where players aim to forge three keys, each costing six Æmber. As players draw and play cards, they can attack their opponent and collect Æmber. The player to first forge their third key is the winner. So far it's very much like any other card game of their kind, but it is the uniqueness of the decks that is new and is what interests me about this game.

The Mind (Saturday Review)

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If you are looking for an easy-to-teach, easy-to-carry, quick, fun, co-operative card game, then The Mind by Coiledspring Games is the right game for you. However, let's start at the beginning. The game is really simply: there is a deck of cards numbered 1 to 100, every players is dealt a certain number randomly from the deck, there is no turn order and everyone plays when they feel the time is right, without co-ordinating with each other, and as long as all cards are played in ascending order everyone wins. That's pretty much all there is to it. Sounds easy enough - but it's actually really hard - and that's what makes this game so interesting in my view, as it creates a new gameplay mechanism that I have not come across before.

Haspelknecht: The Story of Early Coal Mining (Saturday Review)

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Haspelknecht: The Story of Early Coal Mining, to give it its full title, is a kind of action selection game by Quined Games set in the Ruhr region of Germany. The game is set at a time when the area was still covered by forests and coal was first discovered close to the surface. During the game your task is to dig up that coal until its depleted and you have to start digging deep pits to get to this precious resource. The great mechanism in this game is the action selection element, where you draw all tokens of one colour from one of a number of common pools at the start of each round. These tokens are then used to activate your workforce and develop new technologies. It sounds simple, but it creates a really complex, interesting game with lots of options and very few player interaction.