We're Not Wizards - Tabletop Board Game Reviews

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island places players on a deserted island, shipwrecked there and in dire need of food and shelter. Here I'll talk about Solo mode using the beginner scenario Castaway, which is a great introduction to the game. The game is played over 12 rounds, with the aim being to build a log pile and light a fire to signal a passing ship. The ship is scheduled to pass on rounds 10, 11 and 12 so time is of the essence. To further complicate matters, the woodpile must be added to only once per turn, prior to the Action phase, adding another level of complexity and difficulty. This isn't even taking into account the day to day task of actually surviving, which can be very challenging. Each round is comprised of 6 phases. The Event (skipped in round 1), Morale, Production, Action, Weather and Night phases. The Action phase is, unsurprisingly, where most of the key decisions are made. Do you explore your new home and seek ou

MYnd Kraft by Tharini Rajamohan is a more of a games system then an actual game, combining some basic programming knowledge in order to create a series of mini games that can be expanded upon and even altered to increase or decrease the difficulty. Look on it as something similar to what Bez did with Wibbell ++ or Karen Rubins achieved with Comic Turns, both of which are brilliant fun in their own right and continue to offer additional hours of entertainment as you experiment and explore with the foundations provided in their respective core sets. Let us start with the encouraging first observation that you can sit down and know the basics of how MYnd Kraft works in little under four minutes, regardless of how much or little programming knowledge that you have, and that if you can’t tell your switch from your loop, or your function from your data structure then worry not, as the instruction booklet is laid out in a clear series of tables that explain exactly how each of the card

"Oh and next up we have Physis Game’s auction type game, Unreserved. We’ll start the bidding on £3 to get us going... And that’s £4 with you madam? Now who’ll give me £5..?” You might imagine that in the voice of David Dickinson, but in truth, he’s never actually held a gavel anytime I saw him. He was never mechanically that important, just the cheeky glue that held the entire show together and made the contestants feel at home. The auction themselves only got exciting when you get one of those hidden gems that shoots off like an unexpected firework, causing everyone to run and hide and a bidding war to kick off. The truth of the matter is that most of the auctions are straightforward affairs and normally either end up slightly above the asking price, or at worse a touch below, leaving the contestant running away with winnings in the region of tens of pounds instead of a fortune. It’s the anticipation of the ‘hidden gem’ being found that compels us to continue watching as oppose

This Review is based of a first playthrough of the game at UK Games Expo. I do not own it, though have pre-ordered, and have not read the rulebook. Arr matey that be a fine deckbuilder that you have there. Be a real shame if some plucky young game set sails on the choppy seas of game releases and blew a hole in your bloated side, making off with all the best loot and leaving you with naught but an accordion playing parrot and a memory of how good you used to have it. Ruthless folk would do that to you and those scurvy dogs from Alley Cat Games might be the crew to carry it off. Now get up in that crow's nest and see if we can't tell which way the wind is blowing. Cards are final, components are not and it will not come with metal coins. But it’s already a damn fine looking game Batten Down the Hatches!! Deckbuilding has become a rather overused mechanic in the last few years, being forced into every genre under the sun. I’ll admit that it does lend a sense of replayabil

The first idea we had of a major catastrophe was when we had reports of simultaneous outbreaks of several virulent viral infections. The Indian sub-continent, Western Europe and Africa were hit especially hard in the early days. Medical services in Rome, Delhi and Johannesburg were reporting mass casualties and medical services in danger of collapsing under the pressure. As we at the CDC began mobilising to tackle this problem, reports started coming in of infections showing up in every continent across the globe including right here in the United States. We had to move quickly as our computer simulations did not pain a rosy future for humanity. We were looking at the end of civilisation as we know it, and possible extinction. From the CDC headquarters here in Atlanta, I was tasked with pulling together a team and getting them into the field as quickly as possible to tackle these outbreaks head on. I pulled in the leading experts across a number of fields – engineers, IT and logist

Gloom of Kilforth An innovative take on the fantasy adventure genre, the game boasts incredible artwork and a superb theme. You are an adventurer looking to tell their tale in the form of a three part saga. Each part of the saga is completed by collecting keywords from locations and encounters. As a first offering from designer Tristan Hall, this was a very ambitious project and 10 years on the making. His decision to use only one artist to produce the unique pieces of art for over 300 cards led to quite a big delay, but the result is a truly stunning looking game with a consistent feel. Every time you draw a card, you will spend a moment just taking in it's beauty. This coherence really helps in immersing the players into a fantasy world akin to a Tolkien story. You choose from a selection of heroes races and classes, the variety of which will give many combinations, keeping the game fresh. Then, choose a 'saga' - a personal quest spanning 4 chapters that you mus

  It's a train game, isn't it. Well, there are trains (many, many wonderful (and stupid) trains), and there are tracks, but Snowdonia is not your typical stuffy old train game. Snowdonia is a worker placement Euro game (one of the best in My opinion) which has players working to complete the railway up to the top of Mount Snowdon. While you are all working on the same track, this is a competitive game in which you score points for laying tracks, building stations and completing contracts. The Dai is Cast The game is set up by choosing which scenario you wish to play, and there are a good number, and laying out the track & station cards around the edge of the board.  This is one of the great things about Snowdonia - each expansion is just a deck of cards which replace the original station & track cards, add a few additional rules and make a completely different experience. The main board has a number of actions you can take like gathering resources, digging out rubbl

Darwin’s Choice - Treeceratops Games - Kickstarter Preview Let’s start this preview by putting things in perspective. There’s a reasonably large amount of pressure placed on a preview for a Kickstarter game that isn’t live yet, that isn’t in other people’s hands and isn’t already out there with a general consensus on whether it is generally enjoyable or wash out. It’s a lot to take in that maybe your thoughts are the thing that could maybe sway someone’s opinion to back or not bother. That you could effectively hold the lifeline or axe over someone who has potentially spent years developing their product. At the same time, I owe it to you to make you sure that you read this knowing that I completely adore you, and would hate the thought of you potentially wasting a few hours of your precious time, playing a game that at the end you put in that cupboard .  You know, the one where you store the games that aren’t easy to access, the ones that eventually end up at the charity s