Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from July, 2020

Board Game Review: Hues and Cues

Last week we received Hues and Cues from The Op Games. We recently finished playing through Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion (a fantastic game in The Op Games catalogue designed by Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim, and Kami Mandell that you should absolutely pick up to play with your family) and wanted to give another game from the same publisher a go. I picked Hues and Cues because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by other “test whether our minds think the same way” games such as The Mind   and Wavelength. In Hues and Cues , players gather around a large central board comprised of 480 graduating colors of the rainbow surrounded by an x-y axis and scoring table. White and black (which are technically not colors) are conspicuously absent as are shades (mixtures of color + black; e.g., grey) and tints (mixtures of color + white; e.g., cream).  On each player’s turn, they draw a card with four colors and the x-y axis codes of those colors depicted and they select one. They are in the

Board Game Review: Wingspan European Expansion

I was really looking forward to playing Wingspan:European Expansion   since I enjoy the base game so very much (see my review for Wingspan ). According to the publisher, the expansion encompasses all of this: In this first expansion to Wingspan, we increase the scope of the world to include the regal, beautiful, and varied birds of Europe. These birds feature a variety of new abilities, including a number of birds with round end abilities, abilities that increase interaction between players, and birds that benefit from excess cards/food. Along with the new bonus cards, they’re designed to be shuffled into the original decks of cards (and cards from future expansions). The European Expansion also includes an additional tray for storing the growing collection of birds (past, present, and future), as well as 15 purple eggs, extra food tokens, and a colorful new scorepad designed for both multi-player and single-player scoring. It's designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and features birds ill

Board Game Review: Tapestry

It’s usually several months after a Stonemaier Games release before we pick the game up for our collection. By then, the flurry of strategy articles on the BGG forums have been written, the F.A.Q.s on the rules have been clarified, and the debate on where the game falls in the ranking of the entire Stonemaier catalogue is well underway. Tapestry , designed by Jamey Stegmaier (artwork by Andrew Bosley and Rom Brown), is no exception. The game was released in 2019 and arrived just a few months ago to our household. In Tapestry, each player takes control of a civilization and its capital city, and works to advance their civilization more adeptly than other players. It’s played over rounds (called eras in Tapestry )  but in a departure from many other games, players advance rounds independently of one another. I might be well into in my third era while you are still in your second. This is a bit different than Jamey’s other games where play might come to an abrupt end for everyone when one

Board Game Review: Betrayal Legacy

Let me start by saying I’ve never played Betrayal at House on the Hill .  Despite that, when Betrayal Legacy was released, I jumped on it. Horror themed legacy game designed by Rob Daviau? YES PLEASE. As soon as we got the game, we rounded up a team of friends to play through the 13 game campaign with us. Two of them had played Betrayal at House on the Hill   before and the other three of us had not. Having at least one player familiar with the standard game is helpful, as they can help explain the nuances of the gameplay, but don’t take that as some sort of requirement to play or enjoy Betrayal Legacy .  This is a narrative driven game. Each time you sit down to play with your team, the story picks up with a return to the same setting (the haunted house) and you might be reprising the same character you played in the last game, or one of their descendants. The story is tracked in the back pages of the Traitor’s Tome booklet – you’ll need a volunteer to journal the events. Excer

Board Game Review: The Island of Doctor Lucky

One evening a few months ago, we pulled out The Island of Doctor Lucky   from Cheapass Games to play with our friends as a warm up to a heavier Euro game. We set the main board up, gave each player their own character, passed out starting hands of cards to all players, and got things moving. In The Island of Doctor Lucky, players spend their time chasing Doctor Lucky around the board, trying to corner him alone to kill him. At the same time, they're also trying to thwart other players' attempts to off the doctor. Each player’s turn begins with a move of their pawn, or a move of the cat (Doctor Lucky’s panther Ragu; she prevents player pawns from seeing into neighboring spaces), or by playing a hazard (on the doctor or another player). Then the turn is finished with a draw from the deck or an attempt to kill the doctor (the player’s pawn must be alone in the space with the doctor’s to have a chance of success). If  a player decides to attempt murder, their opponents can play l