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Showing posts from January, 2019

The Shipwreck Arcana: Stars Below

Christopher: Guest reviewer here! I’m Jenni’s husband, Chris. It fell to me to review The Shipwreck Arcana: Stars Below mini-expansion for two reasons. First, I was the impetus for getting the game originally . Second, Jenni thought the base game was just ok, while I thought it was a really good and beautiful cooperative logic puzzle. Her original review is here ; if you have not played the base game you’ll want to pause here, read the original review, and return to this page as I will be using game terms and concepts with the assumption they are familiar to you. So, what does the mini-expansion contain? At first glance, it might seem relatively small with just five Arcana cards, but since the base game has 20 Arcana cards, that’s a 25% increase, which isn’t small at all. Each Arcana card in the base game has beautiful artwork, very much like an alternative universe deck of Tarot cards. The five new cards in this expansion maintain that style of artwork, so if you were a fan, you’ll b

Board Game Review: Battle Ravens

I don’t play too many battlefield war games. We have a handful in our collection, but most of them are unopened and gathering dust. They are daunting multi-hour campaigns focused on traditional historic battles that my husband purchased on a whim but hasn’t found the time to play yet and I feel a bit intimidated by them so in shrink-wrap they sit and wait. Also, my tastes tend to gravitate toward fantasy themes so when I’m choosing games with combat to bring to the table, anything with historic characters is likely to be passed over in favor of elves or wizards. I suspect this description fits not only myself but a lot of my review readers, especially the female cohort. But it’s a new year and time to break out of my comfort zone. I’ve decided to give at least 5 battlefield war games a try this year and I’m starting with Battle Ravens . It’s a lightweight war game designed by Dan Mersey and published by Plastic Soldier Company. PSC funded the game on Kickstarter in November 2018 but yo

Board Game Review: Brass Lancashire

A few months ago, I fell in love with Brass Birmingham (you can read that review HERE ). I fell hard. It was an all time top 10 best games ever kind of love and so when Roxley Game Laboratory offered to send me Brass Lancashire to play and share my thoughts, I was a bit hesitant.  Is there even a chance I could enjoy it as much as Birmingham ? Lancashire was the original game designed by Martin Wallace, and while it’s been updated for the most recent release, I was concerned it might prove to be an older, tired version that couldn’t compete with Birmingham . My concerns were unfounded. Brass Lancashire is fantastic. Playing Lancashire after playing Birmingham is a bit like dating someone and then dating their sibling. Sure, there’s a resemblance, but the kissing feels different. The artwork for Brass Lancashire is beautiful, radiating a classic style evocative of the theme (industrial era production). The artists have shown great attention to detail such as the raised gold letter