The mascot betting game that turns everyone in the room into a screaming sports fan for twenty minutes, whether they like it or not. First Impressions I was not expecting to like Hot Streak as much as I do. The pitch sounds thin: bet on a race between four rubbish mascots, watch chaos unfold, collect … Read more
Welcome to Three Game Thursday, a regular feature on Let’s Play Games where I pick three games around a shared theme and make a case for each of them. This month the theme chose itself: these are the three games that got played the most at my table in April. Not the newest, not the … Read more
The roll-and-move game that should not work, the one designed by the creator of Magic: The Gathering, and the one you will genuinely want to play again immediately. First Impressions Let me be upfront: I am not naturally a roll-and-move person. The genre peaked about the same time as the Betamax, and most people moved … Read more
Is the Automa Worth Playing? Most board games tack on a solo mode as an afterthought. A set of rules buried in the back of the manual, a borrowed app, or a vague instruction to just play two hands and see who wins. Wingspan is not most board games. The Automa system in Wingspan is … Read more
The worst thing you can do when someone asks to try board games is hand them Monopoly. I say this as someone who has been handed Monopoly. Two hours later, one player has all the money, everyone else is just waiting to lose, and the newcomer decides this hobby is not for them and the … Read more
A Forest at War with Itself The Short Version – Tl;Dr Root is the most ambitious board game on my shelf, and also the one most likely to cause someone to quietly fold their arms and say ‘actually, I don’t think this is for me.’ It puts 2–4 players in control of rival factions fighting … Read more
At our table, we own a cat. Her name is not relevant to this post but she has sat on Wingspan cards, knocked over a Catan water hex, and once ate a Codenames word card so thoroughly we had to write the replacement in biro. So when someone brings a cat-themed game to the table, … Read more
The industrial revolution, reconstructed in card and wooden disc form. The Short Version – TL;DR Brass: Birmingham is the kind of game that takes about ninety minutes to teach someone properly and then about three years to fully understand. It is a two-phase economic network builder set in 18th and 19th century Birmingham, where you … Read more
If you live in a flat (or Apartment), you already know how the square footage maths works. The average one-bedroom flat in Britain is around 46 square metres. Every bookcase, every ottoman, every sideboard is already doing two jobs. And yet the hobby board game market in this country has never been bigger or more … Read more
Not every game night calls for intensity. Some evenings, the game is the frame rather than the point. There is food on the table, someone is mid-story, drinks are being refreshed, and the room has a particular relaxed energy that you want to keep rather than interrupt. Bringing out a game that punishes distraction or … Read more
