We're Not Wizards - Tabletop Board Game Reviews

This review is based on the final retail version of The Taverns of Tiefenthal. We were provided a copy of the game by Coiledspring Games for the purpose of this review. We have not been paid for the review. One of the extraordinary things about being involved in the lockdown, is discovering the amount of extra that goes into things that are the ordinary and mundane, in order to make them palatable. The absence of chopped tomatoes on shelves in the local supermarket suggests that there are people who have attempted that stalwart UK dish of spaghetti bolognese. They have decided to master the art of a decent tomato sauce, and probably had visions of taking that step into the territory of never needing to open a twist jar again. Fast forward to the horror and shock at the dinner table upon the realisation that the humble tomato is actually a rather sour experience without the careful disguise of garlic and onions and a dentist wincing amount of sugar. We've been conditioned, and I was

This is the pre-production version of the Swatch, so the art, rules and mechanics may be subject to change over the next couple of months. Therefore please treat this as a first thoughts piece, based on version of the game that we were provided with. We have not been paid for the preview. We also do not provide a full play by play explanation of the game, so not all mechanics may be mentioned in the preview. The competitive nature of a creative design agency, where designers aim to complete their brief while  staring sideways at others in the office. Where resources are sparse and so every time some gets up for coffee, there's a ripple of potential movement across the rest of the team, hoping they are not about to snag that all important last colour in order to create the ultimate colour scheme. Everyone is aware that there are no prizes for second place here, there's no runner up version of the bosses' handshake, there's no mug that says 'I almost made it'. Thi

Pandemic: State of Emergency 2-4 players Age 13+ Designed by Matt Leacock and Thomas Lehmann Published by Z-man Games My partner and I are huge fans of Pandemic, so much so that we took Pandemic Legacy Season 1 on honeymoon with us. We used to play it a couple of times a month and got pretty good. However, for whatever reason we haven’t played for a while. But with all this time on our hands we, maybe foolishly, decided to try State of Emergency. Pandemic is a co-op, action management game, where players use character cards with special abilities to try to cure 4 different diseases which are rapidly spreading across the world. The State of Emergency expansion increases the difficulty of the game by adding Emergency Event cards into the event deck, giving a nasty double whammy with the Epidemic cards. The Hinterlands extends the playing board and can be infected through the rolling of a dice and outbreak to connected cities, and the Superbug Challenge which we didn’t attempt. To mitigat

This is the pre-production version of Legacy, so the art, rules and mechanics may be subject to change over the next couple of months. We were provided one section of the game. Therefore please treat this as a first thoughts piece, based on version of the game that we were provided with. We have not been paid for the preview. We also do not provide a full play by play explanation of the game due to possible spoilers. You could argue that as games get more complicated, or even more involved, and as components multiply, and set ups seem to last almost as long as the games themselves, there is something wonderfully attractive about the Escape Room and Puzzle genre. There is something extremely attractive about opening a box and just starting to 'do', getting stuck in and trying to figure out the first piece of puzzle.  With Legacy from Argyx Games it starts off as a letter from Maitre Santini, the notary for your father's estate for the Hellas section of the Legacy Escape box.

This is the pre-production version of the Ravage: Swamps of Delgor, so the art, rules and mechanics may be subject to change over the next couple of months. We were provided a couple of scenarios of the game. Therefore please treat this as a first thoughts piece, based on version of the game that we were provided with. We have not been paid for the preview. We also do not provide a full play by play explanation of the game due to possible spoilers. Did you and your band of ne'er do wells survive the Dungeons of Plunder? Well, soon you'll be able to enter the Swamps of Delgor with your band of misfits and see how many faces you can bash in to liberate them of their teef (which acts as the in-game currency) and scoop up any treasure in the process. Now while I have played Dungeons of Plunder, it was several years ago and age does not come alone so I only recall the bare bones of the game. I treated this preview/prototype copy of the game as a new experience and did not look

If you're a hero with a path, you can be pretty sure that a very large, angry dragon is waiting somewhere ahead, ready to turn your body to a blackened husk. Such is the life of a wannabe hero. Our hero (you) finds themselves in an unnamed land dominated by said dragon. Your job is to wander the land gaining arms, magic, abilities and various other items and boons that will hopefully make you strong enough to fight the dragon and ultimately slay it. The game allows you to choose from one of 4 familiar classes - Elf, Dwarf, Warrior or Sorcerer - and who you choose determines your stat line, and how much gold and food you start with. The stat line comprises the usual array of categories associated with a fantasy style game namely Experience, Vitality, Faith, Wisdom and Skill. Cards are then drawn from various decks and in the solo game you get to keep 6. These will comprise weapons, armour, abilities, magic etc that you may have at your disposal in the game. These items are also

This is the pre-production version of Samurai Brothers, so the art, rules and mechanics may change over the next couple of months. Therefore please treat this as a first thoughts piece, based on version of the game that we were provided with. We have not been paid for the preview. We also do not provide a full play by play explanation of the game. So you want to be a Shogun do you? Well one doesn't simply walk into the kingdom, pick up a couple of heirlooms, use some ninjas and defeat the opposing Samurai. It takes a lot longer, and you'll have to pay your dues, and that will be in the form of hearts and steel, and the limbs and bodies of your ninjas and your enemies. If you get lucky, the temple guards might also fall to your might, and then you can claim the title and stand unopposed serving the empire. Samurai Brothers is a mixture of Tableau building and Take That, smart and fast and clever and trying to grab your attention from the plethora of other card carrying games out

Deep Sea Adventure 2-6 players Age 8+ Designed by Jun Sasaki and Goro Saski Published by Oink Games Deep Sea Adventure is a fantastically smart push your luck pocket game. Now, to begin with, I have a real bugbear with “pocket” games, because it’s all too often used to denote a game which is simply smaller than 30cm square. However Deep Sea Adventure is a pocket game, just so long as you have a decent sized pocket. It also has Oink games’ distinctive and slick graphics and design (you can normally spot an Oink game from fifty paces), along with their pared back components and efficient game mechanics.  Players take the part of a submariner on a treasure hunt. Setting up, there is a submarine board which marks the amount of shared oxygen and Ruin chips which are shuffled then placed in numerical level order, lowest to highest. On the reverse side of the Ruin chip is its treasure value, and its these that players are attempting to gain. Players take a submariner shaped meeple and begin i

It's like opening a box of doughnuts, but the doughnuts are in a cardboard box and there isn't one of those clear plastic windows that you can see inside. In this case you open the box and you think you've been faced with six boring old jam doughnuts, but then on lifting one of them up and taking a bite, you realise that you've opened the box upside down, because you've seen boxes like this before, and you've assumed that's how these things work. You have to admit to yourself that you got it wrong, but at least you've got a delicious doughnut, even if you have now got sprinkles and icing on your fingers plus a little bit of embarrassment.  I wasn't expecting what The Dark Imp were offering with Doughnut Dash. As a company who's main aim was to provide family board games to the masses, I was expecting something short and sweet and simple? The attraction to me was a chance to play something else with the family in these unusual times in lockdown. I

Of Knights and Ninjas from Blue Fox Games is a streamlined simple card battle game based around the simple premise that you are defending your kingdom from the miscreants and fools that live in the kingdom over the other side of the table. Or potentially three other fools if you want a four player game. The idea is that you will use cards in you hand in order to either attack your opponents, or fortify your own kingdom or even break out some special cards in order steal jewels from the other teams.  The first to make it to ten will secure victory and be able to claim bragging rights until the next game takes places. The losers have to take a long swim in the moat and have a good think about what they've done, which considering the length of the game, shouldn't be much longer than about 30 to 45 minutes, so in fairness everyone should be happy. Of Knights and Ninjas is interesting that it manages to be extremely simple and yet relatively complicated all at once. It's like th