I’m all about high falutin experiences that treat games as Art, but sometimes I just want to punch a cretin in the mouth and send chiclets flying. This is the hard knock life that Aldarra comes from. You might not know it by the Elvish sounding name or the pastoral cover, but this honkin’ beast…
Deckbuilding is such a natural pairing with a civilization game. Over time, each player’s deck evolves, incorporating new concepts such as metal casting, fortress building, and irrigation. Old technology and resources are culled, and the progress of each civilization is continually recorded in a collection of cards. This deck constitutes the power and potential of…
If I’m lucky, each year offers a game which grasps my skull in a vice to wring ample fragments of consciousness from its hollows. These are the ones I sit in my car meditating over, lingering not to hear the end of a song but to consider artistry and dynamics. 2021 has presented two such…
This book, this book again. I am nervous to report that it’s beginning to make sense! My unease persists as the understanding is thin and wispy, threatening to float away. I’ve begun to revisit earlier passages. These words jitter through my eyes and into my brain like whispers upwind. Crook thy head. “We’ve come to…
It’s easy to dismiss Ruination. Its another one of those games with dudes walking across a map so they can battle other dudes, petroleum leaking from broken plastic bodies as slaughter begets slaughter. But this one takes place in the post-apocalypse. Or rather the post-post-apocalypse as the primary mode of transportation is foot and hoof.…
Player Elimination 