Steve The difference between a great session and people checking their phones by turn three Why Teaching Is the Game Before the Game The moment a rules explanation goes wrong, the session is usually over before it started. People check out during a poor teach and spend the first thirty minutes of play confused and frustrated … Read more
Some games arrive quietly, sit on a shelf for a while, then suddenly reappear with confidence. Tacta is one of those. Originally designed by Jason Tremblay and first published by The Op Games, it drifted past a lot of players the first time around. Then a fresh edition landed via Osprey Games, backed by a … Read more
Campaigns rarely collapse in flames. They fade. A missed week becomes two. Energy dips. Someone forgets what happened last session. Then the group quietly pivots to a board game night, or just drifts away and never returns. It feels dramatic when it ends. The reasons are not. Most campaigns fail for mundane causes. Scheduling drift … Read more
Choosing the right game for your table matters more than buying the best game. I have seen brilliant games fall flat and more modest ones shine, simply because the table fit was wrong. Games never exists in isolation. It sits inside a group, a room, an evening, and a shared mood. Player count shapes pace. … Read more
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
