Trick-taking games are one of the easier genres to get into when it comes to board games. Most of them are simply a deck of cards, a concept the entire world understands, and the rules are mostly straightforward. While some like Bridge and Cribbage can be more complex, most trick-taking games are easy to learn compared to modern board games.

Modern board game publishers are certainly prone to chasing trends, like deckbuilding, social deduction, roll and writes, and legacy games. Lately, trick-taking games seem to be having a moment. As a reviewer, I appreciate this since the key mechanism is so well-known that I don't need to explain the core gameplay in detail. Just saying a game is a "trick-taking" game conveys the basics of following suit, playing one card, and winning tricks with the highest card.

Which is why the reprinting of The Dwarf King makes perfect business sense. Originally released in 2011, this lightweight card game with simple "Quest tiles" flew under the radar in North America. It's quite accessible with its minimal components—playing cards, Quest tiles, and a thin rulebook. The only thing you’ll need to grab on your own is a scorepad, making this game feel like it was released over ten years ago.

Familiar…

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One of the many advantages of getting intellectual property for your board game is leveraging the audience to look at your project. For example, developing games based on well-known franchises like Marvel or Game of Thrones allows you to tap into those brands' existing fanbases. Fans of the IP are likely to take an interest in a related game, even if just to check it out briefly via marketing materials or initial coverage.

Which leads to my confusion about today’s game, The Last Kingdom. Based on an obscure Netflix show, it only made a blip on my radar due to some YouTube hype around it, calling it a “hidden gem” or “game of the year.” After checking them out and realizing that this is an area control drafting game where you can switch allegiances, I had to see this one to the end.

The Last Kingdom throws you a position of power of the political kind. You are a figure of importance during a time when the Saxons and Danes are having a series of cultural exchanges on the battlefield. Like any other board game, your power in this world is measured through victory points.

Based on that description, one can easily assume that this is a Risk-style or “dudes on a map” board game, and they would be…

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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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As I write these reviews, I typically try to discuss how the game's theme or history resonates with me personally. However, I have limited experience with the Attack on Titan franchise, having only watched the first season of the anime. While I was enthralled by the stunning animation and epic opening theme song, which I listened to frequently for months, the writing itself failed to draw me in. By the end of the first season, my response to any further discussions of the show was the world’s loudest shrug.

However, I can’t deny that a bunch of gals and guys slicing up a titan does sound like good board game material, and that’s what brings me here today. Attack on Titan: The Last Stand is a lightweight 30-minute one-vs.-all, with one being the titan and the other players wearing the clothes of the heroes of the show. Like most cooperative games, these Heroes have a special ability that breaks the rules of the game. Meanwhile, the Titan player picks one out of four personalities, which serves as the game’s difficulty setting.

The Titan has three potential victory conditions: consume all citizens, demolish all cannons, or defeat a Hero. The hero players win by depleting the Titan's health to a "kill zone" between 1-3 points and then playing a tactic…

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I’m going to make a new law.

It’s a simple one. The more complex and longer the game is, the higher the chance there will be a dice version of it in the future.

We've already seen popular, complex board games simplified into quicker, more random dice games, perhaps to appeal to a wider audience. The epic scifi 4X game Twilight Imperium was condensed into a simpler dice-based version more reminiscent of an April Fools' joke without a punchline. Nations, an already lengthy civilization game, underwent a similar transformation. Now here we are with Terraforming Mars, an intricate 3+ hour strategic card game and engine builder that has now been distilled down into a stripped down dice game.

And like the previous versions of Terraforming Mars, the story is still the same. Players take on the role of CEOs tasked with terraforming Mars by raising its oxygen levels, temperature, and ocean coverage along three tracks. Where this dice version differs is that only two of these parameters need to be maxed out to trigger the end of the game, streamlining playtime to the advertised 45 minutes - a rarity among board games. So while veteran fans will recognize the essential experience of racing to make Mars habitable, it has been pared down to its most basic bones, shedding complexity…

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Clearly 2023 is proving to be the year of the remake. This marks my 19th review so far this year, and incredibly 9 of those have been reimaginings of older games. That's very nearly half of what I've covered in 2023. I don't know quite what to make of this trend, but it is heartening to see some deserving titles gaining renewed attention. And at minimum, we're not drowning in yet another Kickstarter dungeon crawler packed with gray plastic.

This time we find ourselves revisiting familiar territory as Archeos Society puts a new spin on Ethnos, originally published in 2017. This set collection game begins with each player holding a single card, various scoring tracks representing progress towards ancient archaeological sites, and a central display of face-up cards along with a draw deck. 

On your turn, you have two options. First, you can draw a card either from the central display or from the deck. Alternatively, you can initiate an "expedition" by playing cards from your hand - these must either match in color or depict the same character. As with real expeditions, you'll need a leader, which determines both your expedition's power and which archaeological track you'll advance on. Any cards not played are returned to the central display for others to claim, like leftovers after a…

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The board game industry loves to fixate on popular trends. Whenever a TV show, movie, or book becomes a breakout hit, publishers quickly push out board games trying to cash in on the craze. For example, The Walking Dead sparked a glut of zombie-themed games for a time. Similarly, Game of Thrones led to many backstabbing political games about scheming nobles. Even entire mechanics and genres will get a spotlight, like social deduction games proliferating after The Resistance grew popular. Which is why I’m so surprised that, despite the highly popular Among Us video game, only one board game attempted to translate that experience into tabletop: the topic of today’s review.

Among Cultists—because subtlety is for the weak—sounds like your typical social deduction game at first glance. The bad team, the cultists in this one, know each other and want to kill the other team or hit the round limit. The good team, the investigators, either want to vote out the cultists or score enough points to win.

Investigators earn points by playing cards to location decks, then flipping those cards over hoping to reveal success symbols. It shares similarities to Among Us - players move their character tokens around a map to colored room spaces as indicated on their route cards to take actions. However, the cultists aren't…

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Okay, this is becoming a bit much for me. Not too long ago, I reviewed Robo Rally and Acquire, two games that have been around for decades, and a new edition was printed this year. Now here I am reviewing Waterfall Park, a remake of the 1999 negotiation game Chinatown. What is old is new again, and board games have become Hollywood.

Waterfall Park may appear on the surface to be a simple reprint of Chinatown with minor changes, but that perception underestimates the thoughtful improvements made to increase accessibility for new players. While Chinatown veterans may lament certain streamlined mechanics, the revisions help lower the learning curve without dulling the classic negotiating gameplay. 

But before I go into those details, let’s actually talk about this game. It’s a negotiation game using amusement park real estate as the backdrop. Like every other game involving money, you want to make the most of it at the end of four rounds.

Location, Location, Negotiation

Each round starts out with everyone getting a hand of numbered cards and tiles. These numbered cards represent the land plots on the board, which are split into two different areas. The tiles are attractions, and you will place these attractions on your land to generate…

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As a red-blooded Canadian masculine man, one would easily assume that the only games I would be interested in reviewing are games about violence like war, hockey, and Tim Hortons takeout. But I'm a simpler man than that. Sometimes good artwork and a few key phrases like "deckbuilder" and "area control" will hook my curiosity like a fish on a line. Admittedly, while this particular game involves tile placement, a genre I don't typically favor, I've come to recognize that in any healthy relationship, there's room for compromise.

Faeries & Magical Creatures presents a straightforward game with a clear storyline. You and your companions are hanging out in a family summer home when you catch a glimpse of a faerie. After this brief magical encounter, you decide to commit the rest of your summer to getting to know these whimsical creatures. Your goal is to build trust with the faeries, call them out when you spot them, and create a garden oasis to attract them.

That sounds like a lot of tasks, but fortunately, this game has an easy ruleset. On your turn, you pick one of five actions. You perform that action, as does everyone else, with the exception that you have the added benefit of playing a card from your hand either before or after your action…

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Sushi. Drafting. Set Collection. I’m a simple man, and it doesn't take much to get my attention.

Attention doesn’t immediately mean praise or endorsement, but it does mean I am going to give it a shot, and it’s hard to say no to a game with a presentation this sleek. While sushi-themed games are hardly new these days, especially since I just reviewed Wasabi not too long ago, not many of them use a wooden board or a conveyor belt system. Also, this is probably the first sushi game that uses plates as game pieces, and stackable ones at that. This might sound like complete fluff, but surprisingly, it actually has a gameplay purpose.

Before I dive into the gameplay, there's a story behind this cardboard sushi competition. You and your friends are at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant, and you want the best evening ever. This friendly battle is measured in victory points earned by eating a variety of sushi, collecting color-coded plate sets, ordering side dishes, and tipping staff.

Fortunately, the mundane backstory ends there because the game’s entire presentation is truly on its own level. The wooden game board serves not only as a place for players' pawns to eat sushi, but also as a dynamic conveyor belt for the sushi plates themselves. At the start…

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Board game remakes are having a moment right now. It seems like every publisher is raiding the tombs of titles that have been gathering dust for over a decade and giving them a fresh new look. The 1990s in particular saw a boom in board game releases, with publishers like Avalon Hill putting out many popular games. One such title was Robo Rally, a robot-themed racing game. After lying dormant for years, Renegade Games has resurrected Robo Rally using the services of lawyers and necromancers. They plan to revive several other classic Avalon Hill games in similar fashion, refreshing these titles for a new generation of players.

Robo Rally is a board game that has flown under the radar for many years, but its premise is easily grasped. You and your friends are all robots in a factory. When the workday ends and the humans go home, these robots come alive and decide to have some fun by racing each other around the factory floor after hours by going to checkpoints in a specific order. With lasers, conveyor belts, rotating gears, and bottomless pits littering the makeshift race courses, you can see where the chaos can ensue, assuming OSHA doesn’t get involved.

All of this sounds pretty good until you realize you are all robots. Robots lack human judgment…

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Usually it’s on-brand to chat about my personal relationship with a game. I don’t review them because of their mere existence. There has to be some hook to get my interest, and this hook could be something simple like the genre or an intellectual property that entraps me in nostalgia. I also enjoy formatting my reviews with a top-down approach to get you, the reader, comfortable before diving into details.

But what can I truly say about this game that hasn’t been stated before? Hailing from the 1960s, an era preceding the digital reign of Atari, the imaginative realms of Dungeons and Dragons, and even my own inception by several decades, Acquire stands as a testament to the timeless essence of board gaming. It has served as a wellspring of inspiration for iconic designers like Reiner Knizia and Wolfgang Kramer, sparking the development of renowned games like Big Boss and Tigris & Euphrates.

Even in the nascent days of the internet, the corridors of Usenet echoed with passionate debates on Acquire's intricate strategies and the perpetual question of its game balance. With a game equipped with a rich heritage, am I even allowed to criticize it? Is Acquire the Giovanni’s Room of Board Games?

Decisions, Deals, Dominance

I’ll let that question marinate your mind for a bit, but…

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“Good games get reprinted.”

Those four words represent the trend the game industry has been following for the past few years. We’ve witnessed a remake of Reiner Knizia board games within the voting age bracket, such as Ra, Modern Art, Amun-Re, amongst others. In Essen Spiel 2023, a reprint of El Grande was spotted, a 1995 board game that probably doesn’t know what an iPhone is. Even as I am typing out this sentence, my review copies of Robo Rally and Acquire from Renegade Games are sitting in my game bag. Both games are almost old enough to collect a pension check.

These games have become pillars of the industry, inspiring generations of game designers. So it was surprising when it was announced that Wasabi would be reprinted. While not a bad game, Wasabi didn't exactly set the world on fire when it was first released in 2008. Many players felt it was too random, with little ability to develop long-term strategies. Wasabi’s contribution to the industry did show a market for food-centered themes, which was unheard at the time. Sushi Go later solidified that yes, board games focused on food can work and work extremely well.

Of course, this reprint inevitably leads to some questions. Questions like, will there be changes? Are these changes an…

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