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In 2025, CMYK released two chaotic racing games within a few months of each other. One involves betting on off-brand mascots and screaming. The other involves drafting broken fantasy characters and watching a Banana cause a pile-up. Both are brilliant. Both cost roughly the same. And if you are standing in a game shop wondering … Read more
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
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
Only got one day at UK Games Expo? Here is how to plan it, which day to pick, and how to make sure you see and do what matters most. Not everyone can make the full weekend. Work, family, travel costs, or just how the calendar falls. If you are heading to UK Games Expo … Read more
Things Experienced UK Games Expo Attendees Always Bring Nobody tells you the first time. You turn up to UK Games Expo full of enthusiasm, wearing slightly-too-new shoes, no snacks, and a phone on 40% battery. By 2pm you are sitting on the floor near a plug socket, regretting every decision you have made. The second … 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
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, there is at … Read more
The industrial revolution, reconstructed in card and wooden disc form. 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 are building industries, connecting cities, … Read more
