Table Talk

Another week has passed, and I’ve played some more games. NERD! Here are the new games I played. Of course, they were shaken, not stirred. Legendary: A James Bond Deck Building Game I’ve been anxious to play Legendary: A James Bond Deck Building Game from Upper Deck since the moment it was announced. Sure, I got to play a demo prototype at the GAMA Trade Show, but I needed to...

Today I’ll be taking a look at deck-building games. In deck-building games, players continually add cards to improve an individual deck while they cycle through it. For this list we’re sticking entirely with card based deck-building, and we’re keeping the treated lumber jokes to a minimum. Without further ado. 5. Dominion Dominion, by Donald X Vaccarino and Rio Grande Games, receives a spot on this list as the grandfather of all...

Most game stores spine games. Some game stores spine all of their games. Should they? First, let’s define “spining,” and then let’s talk about whether it has a place in your store. “Spining” is defined as displaying board games vertically with only the outer edge of the game box visible for browsing. Think about books on a shelf in the library where only the spines of the books are visible....

Everybody loves a good haggle. Unless, of course, you’re on the losing end of the negotiation. Perhaps you have nothing of value to wheel and deal. Like in the game of Catan, no one wants your sheep. Not even for sweaters. I’d make a shirt out of bricks to keep warm before I take your wool. I digress. So, is there a difference between trading and negotiation in gaming? Aren’t...

I was able to squeeze some gaming in this week, even though my schedule was a hot mess. We started later in the evening, but we still got some solid games to the table. Enough with the dull intro, let’s get to the games! Curios Curios, by AEG, feels like a classic game that’s been around for a long time. The rules are simple, the gameplay is clean, and it...

I got the chance to re-play some games from the collection this weekend. We play a lot of new games, so it was nice to play something familiar. Playing these games was like wearing sweatpants to a wedding. It felt strange, but very comfortable. Impact: Battle of Elements Impact: Battle of Elements from Ravensburger is a re-implementation of the cult-classic, Strike. I love this game, even though there’s no quantifiable...

Another night of gaming this week, and I was able to play some five-player games. Unfortunately, some of the games cut the muster. Find out which ones. The Primary The first game of the evening was The Primary from Mountaintop Games. The Primary was an excellent little area control game about politics that doesn’t have any politics in it. There are no issues to debate, so your game night and...

Another week is in the books, and I’ve got some more games to share with you. The usual game group was back together this week, and I was able to squeeze in a game with the small humans in my house. Let’s get to it! Drop It The first game I played this week was Drop It, published by Kosmos. The game is simple. You take a set of pieces...

It’s time to take a look at some upcoming games that have caught my eye recently. Some of these may have had a limited release at Gen-Con, others may arrive in the future. Pinning down a release date in the board game world is like trying to bottle the tears of Unicorn, no one is for certain if you did it! I think I’m done with the intro now. On...

  I had a chance to play some games with only two players this week. Of course, that doesn't mean all of these games are exclusively for two players. Though one of them is, which made the other games feel less special and maybe even unpretty. Agricola: Family Edition This version certainly streamlines Agricola into a manageable system that my simple brain can comprehend. My official opinion... meh. Full disclosure,...