There’s something about Mark Herman that consistently draws me to his designs. He’s a master at linking a fascinating historical narrative to a compelling framework of mechanisms. While an outsider could describe wargames as dry and uniform, Mark’s work tends to push outside the genre’s boundaries and establish unique story-driven personalities. Games like Churchill, Pericles,…
It’s become tradition to lead off a review of a Jim Felli design by mentioning how weird it is. The man’s become a P.T. Barnum of sorts, feeding his collection of misshapen performers their next cardboard meal and we can’t eat it up quick enough. It may then come as a surprise that this is…
Starship Samurai is one of those games that take your breath away. Giant samurai space mechs engaging in a ballet of carnage? Sign me up yesterday. And it’s absolutely beautiful. The miniatures are top-notch in the board game realm, the illustrations are gorgeous, and the entire thing has this aura of precision about it that only…
X-Wing. Even a mention of that weird ship and my heart twists in knots. X-Wing. It’s more than a ship. It’s one of the best releases of Fantasy Flight Games’ 23 years of existence. But, like the embers of Alderaan floating through the void, its fire has been dwindling. A game that lit up our…
Gather round children, for today we talk about something special. Today we talk about Wiz-War. This is literature emblazoned upon cardboard, the classic tale of hermits caught in a labyrinth and forced to battle to the death because that’s what the magicks are for. Wandering a maze like rats wielding switchblades and fireballs – there’s nothing…
I’m sitting at a table in our living room. My mother, my brother, and I are huddled around a curiously small coffee table, its diminutive stature emphasized by the sprawling map of our world. It sits awkwardly positioned with one edge just barely hanging off in suspended gravity, horsemen and artillery ready to plummet into…
Imagine me sitting here, looking you dead in the eyes, and then doing that weird Italian chef kiss thing. That could stand-in for this review. Finito. But reviews, at least the good ones, have words (take that popular video reviewers). This one will have very many words. Tiefe Taschen deserves them all. A game is an artistically…
Grimslingers is outlandish. It’s Clint Eastwood wandering the wasteland of Fallout directed by Guillermo del Toro. This concoction of grit and cybernetics doesn’t just live within your mind’s eye, it’s plastered over every beautiful card courtesy of artist/designer Stephen Gibson. A triple threat, he designed, illustrated, and published this work all on his own before Greenbrier picked it…
I don’t understand fighting games. Yes, like every other child in the 90s I played my fair share of Street Fighter and Double Dragon, but I’ve never explored these at a high level. When one of my buds literally built a controller – a huge brick of a thing – I was stupefied. Fighting games to me have…
The first time I played High Society I didn’t get it. I wasn’t in the right place and it left my mind as soon as it left the table. Whether my worldview has simply expanded or the tumor of cynicism has grown, this time it was different. This time the not-so-subtle message hit me square…
