Steve Player count shapes a game more than most rule tweaks ever will. I have seen the same design feel sharp, loose, slow, or lively without a single rule changing. The number of people at the table alters pacing, length of play attention, tension, and mood. Three players often feels balanced and focused. Five can feel … Read more
The Zoo Game That Earns Every Inch of Table Space The Quick Summary – TL;DR Ark Nova looks like a spreadsheet fell off a desk. It covers your entire table, takes the better part of an evening, and has a card pool so large that no two games feel the same. And yet the core … Read more
Every January, BoardGameGeek’s ‘upcoming releases’ list swells to something absurd. Right now there are around 2,500 games and expansions logged for 2026, and the vast majority of them are going to sail past without anyone noticing. A small handful, though, are genuinely worth your time, your shelf space, and quite possibly your money well before … Read more
2025 was a strange year for the hobby. Tariff disruptions, delayed releases, and a handful of games that never made it to retail shelves at all. And yet, despite all of that, I played some genuinely brilliant games this year. I’ve cross-referenced my own favourites with what other reviewers were saying across ten major board … Read more
Pandemic turns up on a lot of beginner lists, and I think that’s mostly right. But it comes with a couple of caveats that those lists don’t always mention, and they’re worth knowing about before you buy. The short answer is yes, Pandemic is a good game for beginners. The slightly longer answer is: it … Read more
Windmill Valley is the game I reach for when I want something thoughtful without wanting to feel like I am studying for an exam. It sits in that comfortable space where turns feel calm and tidy, but the decisions underneath are consistently interesting. You produce resources, upgrade buildings, and try to squeeze the most value … Read more
Every good holiday has a moment where the day’s activities are done, the evening is open, and someone says “so what do we do now?” The best travel games turn that into the best memory of the trip. The wrong ones turn it into a passive-aggressive debate about whose idea it was to bring Monopoly. … Read more
Worker placement is the mechanic that unlocked hobby gaming for me and i love playing them so Teaching worker placement games effectively means i have more people to play with. The first time someone explained that we would be placing a wooden person on an action space to claim it, and that the person sitting … Read more
Onitama is the game I describe as chess for people who find chess intimidating, and chess players usually agree it holds up. It is a two-player abstract played on a five-by-five grid, where both players move their pieces using a rotating set of movement cards. No memorising piece types. No decades-long theory to study. Just … Read more
Mind Up is a push-your-luck game about building a sequence of numbers without going over your limit. It is fast, easy to explain, and generates the same stop-or-keep-going tension that the best games in the genre manage without overstaying its welcome. Published by Helvetiq, Mind Up plays 2 to 6 players in around 20 minutes. … Read more
