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Tonight is a great night. I've been looking forward to writing this review for nearly a year and a half, and finally, after all the waiting, I get to reveal one of my absolute favorite games. It's called Summoner Wars, and it was the best game I played at GenCon 2008. The reason you haven't heard of it before now, however, is because you can't buy it yet.

Given my usual abhorrence of co-operative games I’m not entirely sure why it was that Witch of Salem from Mayfair games originally crept on to my radar. Perhaps it was the theme, and the recurring description of “Arkham Horror lite”. Perhaps it was the art. Perhaps it was some personal comment or other that I’d read somewhere about the original German edition “Der Hexer Von Salem” (perhaps the only instance I’ve come across where the German name of a game is actually better than the English translation). Whatever the reason, Mayfair kindly agreed to provide me with a review copy...

I’m not much of a philosopher. I tend to take things as they appear, unless they’re ugly or slimy or gross, in which case I leave them where they were. But the new game from Privateer Press, Scrappers, has me asking a lot of questions for which there can be no answer, and then I start asking stuff like, ‘what is the sound of one hand clapping?’ and ‘how do I know when it’s love?’ and ‘why did anyone ever think Sammy Hagar could possibly replace David Lee Roth?’

I attended Spiel for the first time this year, so I have decided to share my impressions with other F:AT members. There were three of us and once we entered the hall, we thought we were in an ATer's hell - everyone was running with boxes of Dungeon Lords, Stronghold, Rise of Empires, Dominion or Factory Manager. Sweaty geeks, fat LARP girls, it was all there. I bought an ASLSK #1 and went to play some games.

Just for grins (well, I'm grinning), I thought I would share a review of what is easily the worst game I ever played. There is nothing redeemable about any part of this game, which I find makes it hilariously awesome to mock in public. I wrote this review a couple years ago, but it's still one of my favorites because the game is so god-awful bad that I was able to work in some seriously demeaning insults. This is one of several reviews I show publishers, so that they know I'm not kidding when I say I don't like every...

While not Ameritrash, it seems like there has been a fair amount of interest in train games here on F:AT.  Designed by Clay Murry and Drew Dane and self published by Anderw/Clay Games, 18EZ is designed to be an entry game into the wide world of 18XX.  18xx can be fairly intimidating to venture into.  Many of the "beginner" games, such as 18AL, 18GA, and 18FL are either print and play affairs, or published by small design houses such as Deep Though Games.   I think 18EZ is a great way to dip your toe into the ocean of 18xx games....

Being a Viking had to be the worst job ever. Sure, there were perks, like running off with all the women and pillaging at random, but the commute was hell. You think you have it bad getting stuck in traffic? Try doing it in a boat with no roof on it, rowing to your next raid, while freezing rain soaks through your clothes and your beard crusts over with salt from all the waves crashing on your face. And then when you get to work, instead of boring memos and bad coffee, you've got angry villagers throwing all manner...

Normal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4 "From the fires of Betrayal unto the blood of revenge we bringthe name of Lorgar, the Bearer of the Word, the favored Son of Chaos,all praise be given to him. From those that would not heed we offerpraise to those who do, that they might turn their gaze our way andgift us with the Boon of Pain, to turn the Galaxy red with the blood,and feed the hunger of the Gods." -Excerpt From the 341st Book of Epistles of Lorgar ...