We're Not Wizards - Tabletop Board Game Reviews

"A Solid Title" is a phrase that I am guilty of using alongside some of my peers. To me, it is where something is very dependable in what it is offering. There are no welcome or unwelcome surprises. You get exactly what you expect and therefore don't walk away disappointed. You are maybe less likely to feel wowed. As I play more games and look at those that introduce mechanics to be 'different' or 'an escape' from the normal 'expected', it is sometimes marvellous just to have something that lands on your table as a solid title. Solid doesn't necessarily mean dull, but it means to me that don't feel cheated or oversold. When it comes to game funded through crowdfunding where the hyperbole is an effing sickness that seems to have no cure, it's a relief to play something that is akin to a decent bowl of chicken soup.  I have a confession to make about Castle Up from new creator Wolley Games, in that due to a communication oversight, I

"Rest easy. Take your time. It is not going matter whether you walk out of that door now or in a few days. It wont change anything and to be honest, you'll need you strength for the path ahead. The king is dead, or gone, or missing. He's not here, heh. The sound you hear quietly on the breeze, the slight taste of iron in the air, that my friend is the sound of the inevitable struggles making their way here. So rest easy and take your time, for heavy lies the head that wears The Old King's Crown." Overview The Old King's Crown is an asymmetrical part area control, part deck building strategy game where the aim of the game is to garner the most influence to win. Main Play You can break the Old King's Crown down into some very basic steps. Each of the main turns in a round is named after one of the seasons, starting with Spring where you'll place your main Herald piece on one of the Region board sections, followed by Summer where you'll place cards an

Odd Bird Games were responsible for Feudum, a game that had systems within systems, a huge table presence with one of my favourite board game art styles of all time. It was also slightly divisive in terms of its reception with it either being a game people loved to bits, or didn't enjoy their time with it. My concern with Feudum was always my ability to devote the time and teach required to get it to the table, and therefore I've toyed with adding it to my collection so many times, its almost an in joke that I have with myself. what that means is that I've never experience the design mind of Mark Swanson, and so with Fled I've now got that opportunity to experience if he lives up to his Odd Bird name and persona. Overview In Fled, you play an Irish prisoner in the mid 19th Century, jailed for petty theft and looking to use a mixture of contraband and tools to navigate the prison, gain the necessary equipment to plan and implement your escape and take you back to your be

Please note I've used rendered art supplied by the publisher to avoid any use of spoilers. I think it takes a specific type of mind to come up with entertaining puzzles. I often wonder what kind of order you create them in. If you start with a set idea of the types of puzzles that you want to create, or if you fixate on making sure the route to the answer is as fun as it can be while still providing enough of a challenge. For me, I would struggle to make them uncomplicated beasts and not have the end player overworking their brain. Your job as a puzzle creator is make others feel empowered and successful without having to massage your own scheming enigma based ego.  Overview Save Snowball is a escape room like numerical solution based puzzle game, where you will draw numbered cards that will present puzzles to you that you must solve that in turn will lead you to other numbered cards in the deck, all with the goal of finding your beloved rabbit Snowball.  Main Play Save Snowball wo

  The best things come in small packages, and normally, so does poison. As someone who has a spectacular intolerance to most things which started with gluten, you can understand from my point of view that when a designer sends me a game why revolves specifically the customisation and creation of sandwiches instantly starts at a negative point and has to crawl itself out of a hole to even start at zero.  Overview Crumbs! The Sandwich Filler Game is all about hand and resource management where you are taking actions to play cards in stacks in order to create sandwiches and fulfil orders, keep customers happy and score points.  Mainplay You'll start with a couple of order cards that detail a couple of customers and the type of sandwiches they want, including different bread and fillings and whether customer customer wants some of the bread toasted. On your turn you can play one ingredient type in the preparation area, so any kind of bread, or salad, salmon or even some ham. You can fl

  Its safe to say that some crowns have been worn for so long that they leave an indent not only on the head, but on the surrounding kingdom as well. On occasion a challenger will step up and ask to be a contender. Sometimes they end up setting up their own kingdom and have a slice of the land and its people for its very own. Other times the fanfare is brief and the challenger ends up in the moat and is all so quickly forgotten.  Overview Aethermon Collect is a card game based around either working as a team cooperatively or trying to collect the most Aethermon for yourself as you journey across a grid of cards taking turns to move the group.  Mainplay  You take turns moving the group token across a previously agreed grid of cards, and when you stop on a card you collect it and add it to your hand. Ideally you want to aim to collect sets of the same Aethermon from similar elements as they gain you sets and therefore more points. If you are playing competitively then you can also use ar