It’s been a long time since I played UNO.

In fact, it wasn’t until I walked into my mom’s house a few weekends ago to find her sitting there playing UNO with my 5-year-old son that I realized just how long it had actually been. That struck me as weird because I can clearly recall UNO being such a central part of my life during my youth. I have vivid memories of sitting around the table with my family, yucking it up, as day turned into night and, occasionally, the other way around. I played it with friends at church. I played it on camping trips with the Boy Scouts. I played it any chance I could get.

To say that I was once UNO obsessed would be underselling it. My love of UNO went much deeper than obsession.

And then, it just kind of faded away. I’m not sure when I stopped playing and I’m not even sure why. In fact, until I saw my son sitting there playing it with my mom, beckoning me to join them, I hadn’t even given any thought to actually playing the game since sometime in the 1980s.

As I sat there playing, it got me thinking that, if any game was ripe for the…

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sequitur (noun): the conclusion of an inference: consequence

Do you consider yourself a wordsmith, a connoisseur of lexicographical delights, a veritable exemplar of sesquipedalian predilection? If reading that sentence really gets your blood flowing, chances are you’ve played a few word games in your time and have relished those experiences. And, if reading that sentence fills you with dread, there’s a good chance that you’ve played a few word games in your time and have left those experiences feeling the exact opposite. Word games tend to reward those of us who are verbose while alienating those of us who just aren’t.

Games should be enjoyable. You should walk away from having played a game with friends feeling uplifted, filled with emotions of friendship and camaraderie, or, at the very least, enlightened. You should not walk away feeling belittled and stupid. All too frequently, at least one person walking away from having just played a word game walks away feeling the latter.

What if I told you that there was a word game that isn’t about the words? What if I told you there was a word game that doesn’t require you to be a walking dictionary? What if I told you that there was a word game where even the smallest words could lead you to victory? Well,…

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Vienna - David McMillan

This past weekend, I finally got my copy of Vienna to the table. Vienna, for those not in the know, is the 5th game in the much-lauded (and also highly criticized) Stefan Feld City Collection from Queen Games. Reimplementing La Isla, which I reviewed as part of my Focused on Feld series, Vienna plops the players down right smack dab in the middle of Austria during the early 1950s. World War II has ended, but the Cold War is just getting started. Espionage is the name of the game.

Vienna comes with two modes of play: the basic mode—which plays almost exactly like La Isla— and an advanced mode that introduces a whole lot of new elements. I got to play the basic mode. A few mistakes were made, but I enjoyed the experience overall, and I feel like that was the consensus among the other players at the table as well. I’m really excited to get it to the table again so that I can dig into the new material.

Keep an eye out for my upcoming review!

Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ - The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ - Will definitely play it again

Read more articles…

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Imagine being several hundred feet underwater, trapped in a hollow metal tube, with nothing but your wits and training at your disposal if you hope to survive. One wrong move and the only evidence of your failure will be some bubbles on the surface of the water, there for a few moments before fading into obscurity. Few things sound more terrifying.

The thrill and excitement of the experience of stalking prey through the unknown using only science, technology, and good old-fashioned intuition is not an easy thing to capture in board game form. Many games have tried it, some succeed better than others. Let’s take a look at three such games in today’s Step Ladder: “Blind in the Water”.

Battleship > Steam Torpedo > Captain Sonar

Battleship

Originally designed as a pen and paper game at the end of World War I, Battleship wouldn’t become the board game it is today until 1967. While the game has undergone some aesthetic and component changes over the ensuing decades, it’s still largely the same game now as it was back in the era when humans were first walking on the moon. The approachable theme combined with the simple mechanics have turned Battleship into a mainstay of many household gaming closets worldwide.

Briefly,…

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For the longest time, Barcelona was a city behind walls. Initially, this served the city well, keeping out the unwanted while protecting those within. But, the population explosion in the mid-1850s changed all of this. As the population swelled, the space within the walls began to become cramped leading to much higher mortality rates and the easy spread of disease.

Then came Ildefons Cerdà, a civil engineer, with an interesting idea (the Eixample, as he called it). He proposed a new city district beyond the walls, but not just any city district. His idea was to approach urban design scientifically with a layout featuring wide streets so that every building within the district would be able to enjoy the light of the sun. His plan also included plenty of green spaces to make the air more breathable and to provide areas for socialization. And, he also envisioned the district’s iconic octagonal buildings, which would provide more visibility at street crossings.

The game of Barcelona drops the players into the mid-19th century during this expansion. As the game begins, the district is little more than a blueprint composed of building plots, the roads running alongside them, and the intersections where these roads meet. Each of these roads has an action associated with it. On their turns, players draw citizen tiles…

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Amygdala - Andrew Lynch

It’s been a less-than-stellar month for me and the Kiesling/Kramer design team, but what can you do? Sometimes that happens. Pueblo was an interesting idea that didn’t result in an interesting game, and now we have Amygdala, a resource management and tile-laying game that’s about emotion. Really, it’s an abstract game.

I thought Amygdala was perfectly alright. It didn’t do much for me, but one member of my playgroup enjoyed it tremendously, enough so that he requested it at subsequent game nights. It looks great on the table, especially if you play on the black-and-neon side of the board. I thought the ten-space limit for inventory was a fun restriction, but I’ve seen that before. The tile-laying isn’t dynamic enough for my tastes, and left me wanting a round of Babylonia. I personally wouldn’t recommend Amygdala, it struck me as forgettable, but it seems to have its audience.

Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ - The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★☆☆☆ - Would play again but would rather play something else

Read more articles from Andrew Lynch.

Fractal: Beyond the Void – David Wood

Fractal touts itself as an “an ever-changing, story-driven” 4X legacy…

The post Quick Peaks – Amygdala, Fractal: Beyond the Void, Orion Duel, Sequitur, Pax Pamir appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Hello and welcome to ‘Focused on Feld’. In my Focused on Feld series of reviews, I am working my way through Stefan Feld’s entire catalogue. Over the years, I have hunted down and collected every title he has ever put out. Needless to say, I’m a fan of his work. I’m such a fan, in fact, that when I noticed there were no active Stefan Feld fan groups on Facebook, I created one of my own.

Today we’re going to talk about 2023’s Cuzco, his 38th game.

The sixth game in Queen Games’s Stefan Feld City Collection, Cuzco is a reimplementation of 2013’s Bora Bora. Bora Bora took place in a Polynesian setting replete with beaches, tribesmen, and women wearing hula skirts. Cuzco hearkens back to an earlier age: the age of the Incas. In Cuzco, the players are messengers, running all over the empire, delivering important information on behalf of the Sapa Inca (the emperor). Like Bora Bora, almost everything you do in Cuzco is going to earn you points, and the person with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Aside from the dramatic shift in theme, there isn’t much to distinguish…

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Old News?

It’s taken a long time to get here, but the inner chamber has finally been located. In just a few moments, the walls will be breached and the mysteries hidden within will be revealed. The explorers hold their breath as the final barricade is removed. The beams of their flashlights play weakly across the floor, their powerful light reduced to a faint glow as the darkness swallows it up like a grubby child in a chocolate factory.

And then their hopes are dashed. Useless garbage litters the floor, evidence of treasure hunters from long ago having stood in this very spot, taking anything worthwhile and leaving the rest behind. This chamber has been picked clean.

Or maybe not.

There, in the corner, a small box laying on its side, covered in a thick layer of dust. Carefully, the intrepid explorers blow off the dust and set the box back upright. Then, lifting the lid, they excitedly peer inside.

What they find is a jumble of documents, the paper crumbling from age in some parts. It’s a mess. Nothing’s in order and it’s going to take a long time to sort out. But both of these explorers know that the accolades and celebrity that…

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In today’s Board Game Step Ladder, we’re going to explore games that take the concept of matching to its extreme.

Qwirkle > IOTA > The Glade

Qwirkle

Designed by Susan McKinley Ross in 2006, the 2011 Spiel des Jahres winner Qwirkle has become a staple of many families’ board game collections, and for good reason. It’s easy to teach, easy to learn, highly approachable, and its large, brightly colored tiles have a magnificent table presence. It’s the type of game that catches the eye and draws you in.

Qwirkle is made up of a collection of tiles featuring six distinct shapes in six distinct colors. During setup, each player draws six tiles from the bag and keeps them hidden from the other players. On their turn,…

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Hello and welcome to ‘Focused on Feld’. In my Focused on Feld series of reviews, I am working my way through Stefan Feld’s entire catalogue. Over the years, I have hunted down and collected every title he has ever put out. Needless to say, I’m a fan of his work. I’m such a fan, in fact, that when I noticed there were no active Stefan Feld fan groups on Facebook, I created one of my own.

Today we’re going to talk about 2011’s Trajan, his 15th game.

2011 was a busy, and career defining, year for Stefan Feld. Earlier that year, he’d released Strasbourg. Even earlier than that, the unassuming The Castles of Burgundy had appeared on the boardgaming scene, completely unaware of the mark in history it was going to make. If Feld had been flying under the radar, he certainly wasn’t anymore. The Castles of Burgundy took the world by storm, placing Stefan Feld squarely in the spotlight. It was a game that marked him as a designer to watch out for. And Trajan only served to solidify that status, proving that it is possible to catch lightning in a bottle a second time.

Overview

Using Ancient Rome as a backdrop, Trajan is a game that challenges players to maximize what little time they…

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The Fox Experiment – David McMillan

Have you ever backed a game on Kickstarter without knowing anything about it solely based on the game’s designer pedigree? This was the mistake I made with The Fox Experiment. I’d meant to read the rulebook. I had every intention of watching some videos. I swear that at least going to the game’s entry on BGG was on my to-do list. Before I knew it, the campaign was over and my pledge had been collected.

Fortunately, some accidents are happy ones.

This past weekend, I finally had a chance to get my copy of The Fox Experiment to the table and it was delightful. That first game was…rough. I quickly learned that there was a vast difference between reading the rules and applying them. After a few rounds, though, things began to fall into place and I was gleefully rolling dice, breeding pups, and fulfilling research projects without a care in the world.

I quite like this game and I look forward to the opportunity to explore its inner workings even further in the future. 

Ease of entry?:
★★☆☆☆ - Not an easy onboard
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ - Will definitely play it again 

Read more articles from David McMillan.

[mm-productlinking…

The post Quick Peaks – The Fox Experiment, Forest Shuffle, Kartel, Ancient Realm, Age of Comics: The Golden Years appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Overview

From the rules:

“What’s going on in the jungle? For several days now, the peace and quiet of the tropics has been broken repeatedly by loud honking, squeaky tires and screeching brakes! The reason - a jungle taxi competition! The player who can pick up the most passengers by the end of the season will become the Tasmanian Taxi King!

You won’t want to pass up the opportunity to win this title. As a jungle taxi driver, you have to try to collect several animals and use route cards to create the longest possible route for your taxi. But you have to engage in exciting duels with your fellow players in order to collect route cards. The player who collects the most route cards and animals at the end wins the game.”

How To Play

A game of Taxi Wildlife is setup thusly:

The three decks of Route cards are shuffled and placed into facedown stacks according to their card back. One card is drawn from each stack and placed face up next to the stack from which it was drawn. Remove any Duel cards belonging to colors that are not being played. Then, the deck of Duel cards is shuffled and placed face down close by.…

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We play a lot of games here at Meeple Mountain. Some of them are brand new, not even on shelves yet, and some of them are classics. But no matter who's playing, or what, we all have our favorites. Here's a list of the best games we played this year, including a few games that might surprise you…and no, they're not all from 2023!

Root

Andy Matthews

Last year I joined a gaming group which skewed towards heavier games. This allowed me to indulge myself with games I might not normally play with my other groups…games like Root. This is a “battle royale”, set in a forest, where the players are cute and fuzzy creatures like birds, cats, mice, rabbits, and raccoons. And Leder Games has added many more factions like otters, badgers, moles, rats, and even lizards.

You might say 2023 was the year I went all in on Root. Thanks to a great group and amazing and varied games, I decided to pick up all the expansions. Root is such a satisfying challenge because no two gaming sessions are ever quite the same. While everyone plays within the same basic framework, each faction has their own unique play style and win conditions. This rewards people who play Root more often.…

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