We're Not Wizards - Tabletop Board Game Reviews

My writing is often scatter-brained without form or structure, a bundle of ideas stitched together, hopefully with a decipherable message. I hope they make sense and above all I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do writing. While writing is something I enjoy, I have never placed a huge amount of importance on anything I put out there. If it resonates with your own thoughts then wonderful. If it confirms that you made the right decision on a game you now own then I have done my job. At the same time, sometimes I need to warn you of pitfalls and issues that I see in a game. Sometimes this is a personal preference and sometimes it is because something I've played has left me frustrated and annoyed due to some poor choices. Hamlet is one of these games. It seems to want to be different for the sake of being different and it seems to blindly want to stick to its choices regardless of what expectations might be.  The central premise of the game is the construction of a church in o

I don't where to even start with this. The Name Trevor comes from a number of sources. In Welsh it derives from the words Homestead or Settlement (tre) and Big (fawr). So technically Bad Trevor means Bad Big House. It's ridiculous, silly and make no sense whatsoever. I've known a few Trevor's in my time. My dad had a work colleague called Trevor who was one of those people who I remember having pile and pile of pirated spectrum games. Whatever you wanted, he could get it for you. They didn't always work and often the tapes lasted all of ten goes before they refused to load at all, or were chewed up by the tape machine. When games cost you a huge amount of your pocket money, then Trevor was your man. He wasn't being bad, he was kind of sticking it to the man. Nine times out of ten, you ended up having to buy the games anyway, but it gave you the chance to try before you buy. Like Chuckie Egg 2.  Similarly, I used to work with a Trevor, and we even did a car shar

If Legends Untold was an aftershave, it would be a classic cologne from the late eighties, smelling slightly of cork and sandalwood. There's an unafraid aroma of nostalgia, because when you get down to brass tacks, this is a role playing game that is unapologetic in its approach and lives in its own vast world and its own little bubble, regardless of the changes and evolution that has occurred around it. On first appearances you would be mistaken to think that you're getting into some kind of dungeon crawler type game. You have character cards and equipment and modular maps that are explored. Once you start playing the game, it is actually more like a physical fleshed out RPG with all the various skill tests that come with the territory. You'll explore from card to card, but travel as an entire party, with guards and scouts who have differing jobs. Each area sits as individual little adventure. With a checklist of challenges that need to be overcome or dealt with depending

 So here it is. The Game of the Year special. Myself and Luke go through the list of games that have turned our heads and made us into chuckling muppets. No spoilers in the show notes. But if you want to dash ahead then here's the time stamps 08:50 Mythic Battles Ragnarok 23:50 Star Wars Rebellion 30:00 GOTY Disclaimer 33:45 Honourable Mentions including Disney Animated, Viticulture, Tapestry, Oath, Earth, Death Road All Stars, Ice, After Us, Seas of Havoc, 43:15 Special Award - 'Delivering on All Fronts' #10) 46:30 #9)   50:10 #8)   57:30 #7)   01:02:50 #6)   01:07:20 #5)   01:13:00 #4)   01:21:30 #3)   01:28:40 #2)   01:36:50 #1)   01:45:30   ======================================================== If you would like to support us then please visit and interact with the links below.  Please give us a rating or review on your podcast catcher of choice.  Also, please let someone else know about our show, as recommendations are wonderful things. OUR LINKS OF NOTES ( https://l

Delighted to be joined by Elizabeth Hargrave to talk about Trick or Treating, foraging, the perils of Mushroom club, and of course, UnderGrove which is their new game coming to Kickstarter. Details below.  Links of Note  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alderac/undergrove-designed-by-elizabeth-hargrave-and-mark-wootton   https://www.elizhargrave.com/ https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/111338/elizabeth-hargrave https://www.instagram.com/elizharg https://www.alderac.com/undergrove/   https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/376740/undergrove   ========================================================= If you would like to support us then please visit and interact with the links below.  Please give us a rating or review on your podcast catcher of choice.  Also, please let someone else know about our show, as recommendations are wonderful things. OUR LINKS OF NOTES ( https://linktr.ee/werenotwizards ) Apple Podcasts    |   Our Blog, Reviews, Previews and Thoughts  |  Our YouTube Cha

As we get towards the end of the year, we're starting to look at gift ideas that exist in the tabletop space but would work well in a group that is more used to playing lighter and more family orientated games.  is such a game and features in our Gift of Cardboard series of games.    Overview Decypher is a code breaking game where you are trying to guess the other player's five digit random number code.  Main Play  The easiest way to describe Decypher is like numerical Guess Who. Each of the numbers is represented in the old fashion digital number style. The kind you would see on a calculator or very old watch. At the beginning of the game you'll randomly create a code that the other player needs to guess and then you'll take turns guessing on each of the digits. So you might ask if the other player's number has a line in the middle, and if the player had a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 then it would. Guess correctly and you get another chance to guess another part of the num

As we get towards the end of the year, we're starting to look at gift ideas that exist in the tabletop space but would work well in a group that is more used to playing lighter and more family orientated games.  is such a game and features in our Gift of Cardboard series of games.    Overview Squishmallows is a quick reaction set collection game where players are trying to collect a full set of Squishmallows for their squad before their opponents do.            Main Play  Each player will be given a set of numbered cards from one to four. The same numbered cards will be placed on the table, with Benny the Squishmallow placed in the middle of the table. One Squishmallow card is dealt under each number and then on the count of three all players will play a number card, essentially deciding which if the Squishmallow cards they want to take. If two players play the same card, then the first person to grab Benny gets to take the card they want. The first person to collect four cards fro

   Delighted to be joined by Luke Laurie, designer of Dwellings of Eldervale and Andromedas Edge, I talk with him about his day job as an educator, getting into board game design and the success and size of Dwellings and his latest game he's designed with his son. Links of Notes Gamefound is still open for orders.. https://gamefound.com/en/projects/cardboard-alchemy/andromedas-edge https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/358661/andromedas-edge https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/63686/luke-laurie https://breakinggames.com/collections/dwellings-of-eldervale/ https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/330608/cryo If you would like to support more content on the blog then please consider backing us on Patreon.   www.patreon.com/werenotwizards