Brett G. Murrell’s Worldspanner Factions is effectively Duel of Ages III. The genealogy of this system stretches back 21 years to the original set. From the beginning, this game featured wacky competitive adventure full of oddball moments like Robin Hood riding around on a motorcycle wielding an assault rifle. It’s as nutty as it sounds.…
Senjutsu: Battle for Japan is a game mired in hardship. Its genesis as a Kickstarter project from Stone Sword Games has been given wider reach at retail by publisher Lucky Duck. This is how I have connected with the game, absent the crowdfunding trauma. Many of the game’s Kickstarter supporters have not received product. They…
Andrew Lowen’s Deliverance is a poetic game. It begins with an equivocal foreword reflecting on the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, Christ’s crucifixion, and the utter despair at Gethsemane. It weaves that background into a parallel sense of dread focused on the modern town of Fallbrook. You arise, an angel of heaven wielding sword and faith,…
Space Marine: The Board Game is nothing like Space Marine the video game. Contrary to that rich over-the-top digital release, this product is a stripped-down ruleset that is vaguely reminiscent of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop experience. It’s 40K LaCroix. If you cock your head toward the North and take a deep breath, you get a…
Trials of Tempus is such a magnetic design. It’s also a game hindered by the circumstances of its release. I saw the announcement and it took some effort to overcome the malaise associated with the Dungeons & Dragons license. It required even more work to move past my confusion on why Wizkids would release another…
Uncertainty dominates our lives. Events continue to be postponed or canceled. Kickstarter delivery dates have shifted from optimistic white lies to blatant punch lines. My preferred grocer hasn’t restocked frozen broccoli in three months. But there has been one constant; that is the quality of Restoration Games’ Unmatched. This system, comprised of many standalone sets,…
I’m a Mantic fan. Hellboy: The Board Game is a top shelf dungeon crawler. The Walking Dead: All Out War is one of the most clever skirmish miniatures games of the past decade. Among their sports titles, OverDrive recently impressed. Now I’m here to claim that Deadzone may be the pinnacle of their work. Deadzone…
I was impressed with Unmatched. I thought the character choices were interesting and varied, the ruleset was tight and fluid, and the product design was simply outstanding. What’s perhaps shocking is that I was never much of an Epic Duels fan, yet this release felt warm and comforting in ways I didn’t expect. It even…
My relationship with Martin Wallace is shaky. His designs tend to be sophisticated works of deft subtlety, consistently marred by a single flaw or maladroit quality which undermines the whole. Take A Few Acres of Snow; this was a wonderful meld of deck-building and war-game set in one of the most interesting conflicts of North…
Player Elimination 