That's What Jenni Said

Whenever Martin Wallace designs a new game, I am all over it. This is because I absolutely love Brass Birmingham (another MW designed game); in fact Brass Birmingham is my #1 board game of all time. Over the years, his other games I've tried have been pretty good, but not necessarily amazing must-buys. Still, I keep trying each new release of his, searching for that next star performer. That's why I'm excited to report that Anno 1800 is, in fact, a star performer, and an amazing must-buy board game. Anno 1800 was adapted by the publisher (Kosmos) from a Ubisoft video game of the same name. In the board game, players take on the role of industrialists, charged with developing their island economies and exploring other islands. Each player begins the game with a personal industry board with trade & exploration ships, a shipyard, and industrial goods tiles printed on the board. A starting collection of workers (wooden cubes) of various types to produce the goods is a...

Before the pandemic trapped us all in our homes, I spent many an hour at our local United Action for Youth center in Iowa City volunteering as a board game coordinator. Every month, I’d bring a few games with me and introduce them to the teens who hung out at the center after school. One of the games that got rave reviews from the group is Artsee .  Designed by J. Alex Kevern, and published by Renegade Game Studios , it’s an easy to learn, quick playing card game with a small table footprint for up to five players. Each player takes on the role of an art gallery curator, attempting to build the most prestigious gallery in order to win the game. Galleries are built from individual exhibits (cards) that depict two or three paintings from different categories (abstract, landscape, portrait, or still life). In addition to the paintings, each exhibit also indicates a featured category. Each time an exhibit is played to one of the four columns in a gallerist’s tableau, all opponents of ...

Black Skull Island is a quick playing 2-9 player card game from Strawberry Studio (now under the publisher Board and Dice). I was sent a review copy of the game and it only seems to make it onto the table when we need a filler game to serve as an appetizer before a meaty Euro. The gameplay is extremely simply: each player gets 2 pirate themed character cards and selects one of them to play during a round, keeping the other one in hand. Every card is numbered from 0 to 15. All players reveal their character cards simultaneously and then the actions on the cards are executed by the players who hold them in sequential order of the the card numbers. Most actions focus either on (1) drawing booty (treasure cards or coin cards), (2) stealing or deactivating other players’ character cards, (3) stealing or swapping booty cards  from/with another player or (4) an order for all players to pass a character card to their left or right. Over successive rounds, booty cards worth 0-4 coins buil...

I picked up  Dȗhr: The Lesser Houses   from the Devious Weasel Games   team  at GenCon earlier this year. This is the first game from their catalog that I've had the opportunity to play and it has been a wonderful introduction. On a recent late summer evening, my husband and I invited another couple over to play  Dȗhr,  and we included our 13 year old daughter and their 12 year old son  around the game table as well.  The artwork, including the font, compliments the game's nobility theme.  The components (cards) are well made with a thickness that promotes durability.  The rule book is clear and concise and a handful of player reference cards are provided. We would have liked to see more copies of the player reference cards included so that the six of us crowded around the table didn't have to keep reaching for the communal reference cards.  Win Condition: Most Points Inputs:    Status of my house (f...