The Short Version – TL;DR Fate of the Fellowship is a cooperative game for one to five players where you’re guiding the Fellowship across Middle-earth, keeping Frodo safe from the Nazgul, pushing back Sauron’s shadow armies, and working towards destroying the One Ring. It’s built on the Pandemic System but feels considerably more complex and … 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
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
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
Pandemic is the game that introduced many people, including me, to cooperative board games. The premise is simple: you and your team are disease control specialists trying to stop four contagions from spreading across the world before you can find cures. Everything is working against you. Most games end in defeat. It is absolutely wonderful. … Read more
