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The Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game was the first hobby game I ever played, and the first adventure module for that game that I ever saw and lusted after was the vampire romp Ravenloft. So in spite of not having touched a D&D line product in over a decade, when I saw that Wizards of the Coast were re-entering the boardgame market with a co-operative Ravenloft adventure game I was instantly intrigued. The kind folks at Wizards of the Coast were good enough to whet my appetite further by indulging my request for a review copy which came a...

I reviewed Thunderstone a few months ago, and decided that it was 45 minutes of fun, which would be great if it didn't last an hour and a half. When I got Wrath of the Elements, the expansion for Thunderstone, I was optimistic. I wanted to like Thunderstone, and really hoped the expansion would fix all the problems. It didn't.

What do you get when you cross the deck-drafting of Dominion with the gem-smashing theme of the video game Super Puzzle Fighter II? It turns out you get Puzzle Strike, one of the most fun, addictive games I have had the pleasure of playing in recent memory.

In many ways I’m ideal Grognard material, being interested in games and military history. However I’ve tended to shy away from wargames because I can’t usually be bothered with the byzantine, unappealing rules and because too much counter density does my head in. I’d really enjoyed the few lightweight style games I’d tried such as Hammer of the Scots and Commands & Colors: Ancients so when I got the chance to try a similarly lightweight game in the hex-and-counter format, I jumped at it.

  A while back I bemoaned the lack of good Indiana Jones boardgames. While we're still waiting, however, Alderac Entertainment Group has released the best Indy game so far...it just so happens to not to have Indy in it at all.  

Pictured is James Mason as Captain Nemo. He's PISSED. That is a stern look of disapproval if ever I saw one. Why is "Jehmz Mehhhzohn" pissed? Because you're not playing NEMO'S WAR enough. It's one of the best games of 2010, and it along with PHANTOM LEADER rank as two of the very best solitaire games I've ever played. So quit laying out four character, one player games of ARKHAM HORROR that take all day to set up, play, and put away and give the ol' Nautilus a whirl. I think you'll be surprised at...

I'm not normally a fan of cheese in my games. I kind of like my games to be like the cheese shop in that Monty Python sketch - you know, completely uncontaminated by cheese. Tight design, efficient rules, and a damned good reason for every part in the box - these are marks of a good game. Using those criteria, Defenders of the Realm should be a failure. Somehow, though - and I don't know that I could say how - it's not. In fact, it's an extremely fun game, complete with Stilton, Camembert and Limburger,...

Going into Those Pesky Humans, I had high hopes, dungeon crawling is easily one of my favorite pastimes at the game table and the idea of being focused more on the perspective of the dungeon denizens, while not wholly original, promised a unique take on things. That it supposedly played quick and had good looking art was just icing on the jewel encrusted cake. However, what I ended up with was a lot of missed opportunity and middling game design wrapped in an attractive yet generic package. The bottom line is that there are a...

So the seventh Arkham Horror expansion was released recently; the fourth of the "small box" expansions. Having played with it a few times now, I believe it is the best of the small boxes, but I have to admit that's not necessarily saying much... Much as I love Arkham Horror and the system as a whole, I've never been a huge fan of the small box expansions. Sure, if you're a completist or AH addict you're gonna get 'em, anyway, and it's always nice to have some new items and Mythos cards and location cards to add to...

This week, Dan Verssen's PHANTOM LEADER gets the Cracked LCD treatment and- what's that? The Gameshark Editor's Choice award! Folks, this game is awesome. It's hugely thematic, narrative, and in some ways it's more like a sports team management sim or an adventure game than a wargame. I've been kind of blown away by it, and I think a lot of folks here will be too. There are only two serious contenders for best of the year honors at this point, and this game is one of them. I'm predicting...