Eternal Palace (Saturday Review)

It was hard to get the favour of the Emperor. Many noble houses were vying for their attention by offering their resources and manual labour to help restore the Emperor's wonderful monuments. As a way to remember the work everyone did and to honour the grace and power of the Emperor, artists were commissioned to create beautiful paintings. It was your hope to catch the Emperor's eye and receive the ultimate recognition: being invited as a guest at the Eternal Palace by Steven Aramini from Alley Cat Games.

Sagrada (Saturday Review)

As an artist, I knew this was going to be a challenging project. Making stained glass window masterpieces required clever and careful planning and meticulous execution. The prospect of having one of your pieces be seen by people around the world was a daunting prospect, but working for such a prestigious family made up for it. I was honoured to be employed by the famous family of Sagrada by Adrian Adamescu and Daryl Andrews from Floodgate Games.

Undaunted: Normandy (Saturday Review)

We had just landed in Normandy. It was the summer of 1944, but it was relatively cold. We were thousands of miles from home and the landscape was unknown to us. Yet, we had to push deeper into a country we didn't know in our goal to push the German forces out of France. There was regular machine gun fire and mortar bombardment. It was really scary, but we remained Undaunted: Normandy by Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson from Osprey Games.

Aquamarine (Saturday Review)

It was a beautiful day. The sea was calm and the sun was shining. The water was crystal clear and even while you were sitting on the side of the boat, in your full diving gear, you could see the corals and wonderful sea creatures in the water. You knew it was going to be a long day and you would probably split it into two or three dives. You did one last check of your gear and then you leant back and dropped into the Aquamarine by Matthew Dunstan and Rory Muldoon from Postmark Games.

Roll and wrong (Topic Discussion)

The genre of roll-and-something or something-and-write or whatever else there is these days has really grown in the last few years. To start with, there was a deluge of Yahtzee-style games, but soon the genre added themes and settings to try and draw people in and make them feel like they were exploring a map or fighting monsters. In this article, I want to talk about my experiences with roll-and-write games, as I will call them from here on in for the purpose of simplicity.

Dwellings of Eldervale (Saturday Review)

We were still trying to understand the special powers of the 8 elemental realms and how our dragon, wizard and warriors could take advantage of each and how we could impose our dominance over the other factions in this growing world. Each realm also had a giant monster that would wreak death and cause havoc amongst us, if we couldn't work out how to defeat it first or control it and steer it in our favour. We didn't have much time to build our Dwellings of Eldervale by Luke Laurie from Breaking Games.

Board games for everyone (Topic Discussion)

Sometimes I get asked to recommend games for someone to play. As you can imagine, that's never easy and my first question tends to be what other games they have already played. If they're completely new to the hobby, I usually ask how many people they intend to play with, whether they're a competitive group, how long they're happy to play for. It's also sometimes good to find out what sort of films, TV shows or activities they like, because many board games have a setting that might fit. So, in this article, I want to give you a list of different types of games that I tend to suggest to people.

5 Heavy Christmas Board Games (Saturday Review)

Most of us will have a lot of spare time over the holidays and if we have board game enthusiasts among the family, this is the perfect time to set up and play some heavy games. We might also have more time to meet up with our games group and again, now is the time to get those heavy games to the table that we might not feel like playing of an evening after a busy day at work. So, here are 5 heavy board games I think you should play over the holidays.

5 Medium Weight Christmas Board Games (Saturday Review)

Yes, Christmas is just around the corner, so it's time for me to put together lists of games you might want to get out over the holidays and play. I thought I'd start with a list of five games that you can play with all the family. These games are easy to teach and learn and quite quick to play. Most of them can be played up to four players, so if you have a large family gathering, you might need to split into smaller groups. I hope you find this list useful.

5 Family Christmas Board Games (Saturday Review)

Yes, Christmas is just around the corner, so it's time for me to put together lists of games you might want to get out over the holidays and play. I thought I'd start with a list of five games that you can play with all the family. These games are easy to teach and learn and quite quick to play. Most of them can be played up to four players, so if you have a large family gathering, you might need to split into smaller groups. I hope you find this list useful.