Latest Game Reviews
Bonsai – Board Game Review
Designed by Rosaria Battiato, Massimo Borzì, and Martino Chiacchiera, Bonsai is a tile placement game for 1 to 4 players. Bonsai starts each player with a pot with a single wood hex buried in the dirt. A small deck of cards sits on the left side of a small board, then 3 cards are turned face up. Each turn consists of a player either taking a card from the board, potentially also taking plant tiles, depending on what slot that card was in, or to take the tiles from their supply and place them on their tree. Game play continues until the deck runs out, scores are calculated, and the player with the most points is the winner!
Mean 13 – Board Game Review
Mean 13 is quite the departure from the games that I usually cover on this blog, as I tend to focus on mid to heavyweight euro hobby board games. Mean 13 is not that, in fact, Mean 13 doesn’t even have a BGG page. What Mean 13 is, instead, is a twist on bingo, and the purpose of the game isn’t to flex your critical thinking, or tactical prowess, but to facilitate laughs between family and friends.
Kinfire Delve: Vainglory’s Grotto – Board Game Review
Last time I talked about Kinfire Delve, I focused on the Scorn’s Stockade box, as I arbitrarily chose that box to be my introduction to the series. This time, I’m going back to the box that was released first, Vainglory’s Grotto, and taking this dive with the self-sacrificing Khor, and the Opportunist Asha.
Burgle Bros. 2 – Board Game Review
Last week I wrote about one of my favourite cooperative games, Burgle Bros by Tim Fowers. This week, I want to talk about the follow-up, Burgle Bros. 2: Casino Capers.
Kinfire Delve: Scorn’s Stockade – Board Game Review
Kinfire Delve: Scorn’s Stockade is a 1 – 2 player cooperative tactical card game where you take on the role of either Naz of the Windstrikes, the female orc tactician, or Feyn Longstride the Bard of Destiny. The goal of the game is to delve through a well of challenges to meet and contour the boss at the bottom, Scorn.
Burgle Bros – Board Game Review
I adore Burgle Bros. it was one of the first games my wife and I really fell in love with together, and it remains as one of my most played games of all time (34 physical plays, numerous more on the app and a handful on BGA). It scales well from 1 to 4 players, and it’s easy to convince others to play. It’s strategic, but also has some exciting moments of luck. All the characters have different abilities, and mixing and matching them keeps the game fresh. Burgle Bros. is one my favourite games (Number 13 on my 2024 top 100 games of all time list) and one that I can’t recommend highly enough.
A Gentle Rain – Board Game Review
“Always changing, yet always itself” is the message from the game to the player on the front of the rule leaflet. Themed as a tranquil retreat to a quiet lake that will centre your mind, everything about A Gentle Rain is trying to be a calm, meditative experience.
One Deck Dungeon – Board Game Review
A few games have tried to capture the feeling of a roguelike video game, and in my opinion, no game does it better than One Deck Dungeon by Chris Cieslik, published by Asmadi Games.