Articles > Boardgame Reviews

Inconveniently Wizards of the Coast decided to release five sets for their modular miniatures game Dungeon Command, and I covered the first four in batches of two. So now we’re left with an odd one. However, the good people at WotC informed me this is the last release currently planned, so it seemed a good idea to cap the whole thing off with a series overview. But first, the new set. It’s called Blood of Gruumsh which, for anyone passingly familiar with the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse in which the games belong, will signal orcs. For...

Civ Lite, defined.

I know deckbuilding games are a fad. I know people are getting tired of them. I know how many people love to say, , great, another deckbuilder, yawn.' They actually say that. Or type it, anyway. They type 'yawn' as its own sentence. So condescending. I hope those people break their pelvises in skiing accidents.

I don’t often talk about how much I like Power Grid. On F:AT, it’s usually regarded as one of “those” games, the kinds liked by boring accountant-types and fun-murderers. Besides being unfair both to Power Grid and to accountant types who aren’t so boring, it’s simply untrue. Indeed, another reason that I don’t usually let on much about my love of Power Grid is that EVERYONE I KNOW LOVES IT. I forget the last time I went to a large organized game night with at least one table of this Friedemann Friese favorite, no fooling. Perhaps in a feeble...

If an evil genius were to invent a machine to suck money directly from the bank accounts of gamers, it’d look a lot like the X-Wing miniatures game. If he were to go back and tinker with it, seeking to make to terrifyingly irresistible, and add the power to suck in non-gaming Star Wars fans too, it’d look a lot like the wave 2 miniature releases. There are four new ships to add to your collections. The Empire gets Boba Fett’s Slave-1 and the four-cannon TIE interceptor while the Rebels resist them with the A-Wing fighter...

Spaceships!

Behind the façade of the great Gotham City lies an active underworld of criminal activity. In Batman: Gotham City Strategy Game, you'll play as one of Gotham City's greatest villains – The Joker, The Penguin, Killer Croc, or Two-Face — and lead your gang of henchmen to try to become the King of Crime in Gotham City! But beware, as your hold on the city increases, so does the chance of your plans being foiled by Gotham's protector – Batman!

Coup is an unassuming game. The first time through felt obvious, if pleasant. The second time through it felt a little richer. Every time it ended, I wanted to play again. I’ve now played between 10-12 games, and each time it goes just a little deeper. If it was any longer, I’d call it a grower. But I’ll have to settle for simply calling it the best “micro” game I’ve played since For Sale. Coup is subtle, devious, and layered. It has a depth that far outstrips its mere 15-minute playtime. Each player has two cards, representing...

Still not the perfect superhero game.

I apologize to my readers for a vacation-fueled absence, but as the saying on Fortress: AT goes, "Hey, Ken's back!"  This week I'm doing the first part of my 2012 Year in Review, with some of my thoughts on the trends of 2012 and my biggest gaming disappointment of the year.  Don't make me use this mustache...join us, won't you?