Tag: Worker Placement Games

It depends (Topic Discussion)

Post read time 5 min readLeave a Comment on It depends (Topic Discussion)

As a board game reviewer, you need to have access to board games. That's obvious. Some reviewers rely solely on games they bought themselves, maybe got as presents or borrowed from friends, while others will only review games sent to them by the publisher or even the designer. Many reviewers will rely on a mix of both. What I want to look at in this article is how review copies, which are (usually) free, may influence a review and what the relationship between publishers, or designers, and reviewers may look like and how it can also play a part in how a review is written.

Reviews reviewed (Topic Discussion)

Post read time 7 min read2 Comments on Reviews reviewed (Topic Discussion)

The longer we enjoy our hobby and the more games we play, the more our taste in games is likely to change. As a reviewer, I can only write about a game as I feel about it at the time, but even if my taste in games changes, the review will remain on the blog. So the question is whether a review should stay frozen in time or if it should be revisited with a fresh perspective. Let me try and answer those questions in this article.

Viticulture: Essential Edition (Saturday Review)

Post read time 9 min readLeave a Comment on Viticulture: Essential Edition (Saturday Review)

The irrigation system was ready, but there was still work to be done on the trellises. The windmill, cottage and tasting room were still just ruins and only the first third of the wine cellar was accessible. The crush pads were all clean and ready to receive the first harvest of grapes, yet the fields were still bare. Orders for some red and white wine had already come in and two types of grapes were ready to be planted. It was the beginning of a vineyard that was going to be splendid. Mama and Papa were looking forward to putting the work in and creating a heritage that would make the family name proud. At the same time, it was daunting, because they knew nothing about Viticulture by Stonemaier Games.

Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia (Digital Eyes)

Post read time 5 min readLeave a Comment on Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia (Digital Eyes)

You were constantly tired from working endless hours day in and day out. You had very little time to think about the world and when you did, you didn't have the words to describe what you saw and felt. However, you had used every spare moment to puzzle together scraps of clues into a bigger picture and had created new words with meanings that your heart dictated, but that were otherwise unknown. You felt that you were now so close to wrestling away the power from your oppressors and turn this world into a better place - but you knew you had to make sacrifices to build your Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia by Stonemaier Games.

5 Small Box Games (Saturday Review)

Post read time 8 min readLeave a Comment on 5 Small Box Games (Saturday Review)

If you don't have much room for games in your house, like me, then small box games are ideal. Of course, what one person considers a small box might be a medium-sized box for someone else, but I will go with what I consider small boxes, which is really small, and list five great small box games that will cover a wide range of tastes and experiences. They're listed in alphabetical order, so there is no favouritism here. 

Mint Works (Saturday Review)

Post read time 3 min read1 Comment on Mint Works (Saturday Review)

As many of you will know, I absolutely love small box games, and mint tin games in particular (see episode 6 of the Tabletop Inquisition podcast). They're so easy to stash away and take with you anywhere, and Mint Works by Five24 Labs is a great example. The small mint tin is robust and can easily deal with knocks, it's quick to set up, as it consists basically of a deck of cards, and the tin itself functions as the pool for the mint worker tokens. The gameplay is also relatively quick, so overall it's ideal for when you're out and about - on a train, plane or a bus, or while you're waiting for food in a pub or restaurant.

Microbrew (Saturday Review)

Post read time 4 min read1 Comment on Microbrew (Saturday Review)

Inside the brewery, the mash and lauter tuns hum away happily on one side, as the brew kettle bubbles silently on the other. Outside, the fermentation vessels slowly turn the malt's wonderful sugars into delicious alcohol. On the other side of the yard is the bottling line, where the beer is filled into bottles, and then it's finally ready to be sold. It is your job to create the right balance of malts to create the best beer for your micro brewery's customers, eagerly waiting in your bar. The whole process takes time and patience, but is worth it, when the number of loyal customers grows in appreciation of your effort.

He ain't heavy

Post read time 3 min readLeave a Comment on He ain't heavy

Inspired by a recent #ThrowbackThursday tweet from Board Game Inquistion I thought it would be nice to write about one of my own game related memories from my childhood. Like probably most kids of my generation, I grew up with all the usual classic tabletop games, or boardgames as they were known then: Monopoly (of course), Game of Life (a friend had that one), Chess (I always lost, until one day), Checkers (when there was really nothing else), Ludo (the dice chucker), Stratego (chess on steroids) and probably a few more.

Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small (Saturday Review)

Post read time 3 min readLeave a Comment on Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small (Saturday Review)

In my third review I look at another digital conversion by Digidiced that Asmodee Digital was kind enough to let me try out. It is another Lookout Spiele game by designer Uwe Rosenberg. In Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small (I shorten this to just Agricola for the rest of this article) you are a 17th century farmer in central Europe. It is a very clever 2 player only worker placement game where you have to manage your resources, life stock and farmland. Of course, this game also has some clever little twists, which make the gameplay so interesting.

Dice mechanics

Post read time 2 min readLeave a Comment on Dice mechanics

We all know classic dice rolling games, like Yahtzee, or games using dice to decide the outcome of battles or events. You may also have heard of, and probably even played, roll and write games, such as Roll to the Top, Avenue, The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game and many more. However, more recent games use dice in quite different ways, creating interesting game mechanics that I want to talk about.