Your band of mercenaries drags through the doors of The Sleeping Lion and collapses into rickety chairs around a vacant table. The only thing that stings worse than the cuts, scrapes, and bruises you endured on your last mission is the empty stomach gnawing at you the rest of this night. “Everyone’s got to eat,” you said before this journey began. But gold does not accompany failure. You make an oath under your breath; next time, things will be different.

I gave Gloomhaven well-deserved praise upon its release in 2017. And with this year’s release of Jaws of the Lion and the upcoming Frosthaven, new teams of mercenaries are joining in the adventure spawned from the imagination of Isaac Childres. Gloomhaven pulls no punches as it sets loose the deadly minions and monsters upon your team of mercenaries, forcing players to learn the overt and subtle nuances of the game design in order to succeed.

I’ve played through the entire campaigns of both Gloomhaven and Jaws of the Lion and am over halfway through a second campaign in both. Logging in well over 100 plays, I still find challenges lurking in the swamps, sewers, forests, and mountains of the Gloomhaven-verse. But I’ve learned a thing or two along the way.…

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I’m a fan of Lacerda’s games; they fill a prized space in my collection, but his trademarks are mentally demanding games with complex rules and many moving parts. When I learned that Mercado de Lisboa is a spinoff of his phenomenal game Lisboa (now with 100% less Wigs!), I became even more intrigued. (I wrote a very favorable review of Lisboa a few years ago.) Does Mercado de Lisboa deliver the quality of gameplay associated with the designers, publisher, and game lineage? Read on to learn how to play or skip ahead for my thoughts.

Know Before You Go

In Mercado de Lisboa 2-4 players are seeking to become the wealthiest entrepreneur in a modern-day market by bringing in customers to shop for goods from Stands while strategically installing Restaurants to further increase the value of those Stands.

The Lisbon Market board is a 5 x 5 grid where Stands and Restaurants will be placed. Surrounding this grid are 20 spaces for customers to…

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“With how many things are we on the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries.” 

― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Monster Mashup

In the summer of 1997 I was assigned ten books to read as part of my Advanced English class my sophomore year of High School. One was Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. My prior experience of “gothic” was defined by the black-trenchcoat wearing students who roamed the school hallways drawing The Crow symbols on their notebooks. But Frankenstein showed me a different side of Gothic artistry. That it wasn’t about mood or fashion; rather, it was about intellectual exploration into the human psyche. And this literary masterpiece showed me the macabre could be refined.

It is in this space that Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein prowls. Plaid Hat Games’ newest strategy title designed by Dan Blanchett for 2-4 players is an amalgamation of immersive theme and worker placement mechanisms. On the surface it’s a brooding game filled with skinless limbs, severed heads, and the dark Parisian underworld. But buried underneath you'll discover a refined game that meticulously crafts a tight Euro experience.

Creating a Monster

At the end of the classic tale, the monster that Victor Frankenstein creates vanishes. Captain Robert Walton sees the monster floating…

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So begins a journey into the psyche of a brilliant scientist burdened with emotional wounds. Comanauts is the latest Adventure Book Game designed by Jerry Hawthorne of Stuffed Fables and Mice and Mystics fame. A cooperative game for 2 to 4 players, Comanauts builds upon the foundation  Stuffed Fables laid by offering a challenging episodic adventure that blurs the lines between story and game with dice-driven action selection mechanisms.

The core of Comanauts’s gameplay revolves around the Adventure Book. Nearly 100 pages long, this spiral-bound component contains narrative passages and game instructions on the right side of most pages, and a corresponding “board” on the left side of the page. As players move through the eleven Comazone sections of the Adventure Book, they will increasingly reveal more of the history, challenges, and traumas experienced by Dr Strobal.

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The shores of Ridback Bay are teeming with savory seafood just waiting to be caught; but they’re also prone to violent storms that threaten the boats docked in harbor. As an experienced captain of a fishing fleet, you know the most abundant hauls are when competition is thin on the water. So you roll the dice and send your vessels slicing through the waves, propelled by visions of wealth and glory waiting for you back on land.

Fleet: The Dice Game is a strategic and competitive “roll-n-write” game for 1-4 players, designed by Matt Riddle and Ben Pinchback and produced by Eagle Gryphon Games. Players will take on the role of a Captain who manages a fleet of fishing vessels seeking the most glory in Ridback Bay. Does Fleet: The Dice Game swim with quality gameplay and design, or does it sink amidst the sea of other roll & write competitors? Read on to learn how to play, or skip ahead to my impressions in the following section.

Setting Sail

Fleet: The Dice Game is played over 10 rounds (8 rounds if playing solo) with each round having a Boat phase and a Town phase, and a corresponding set of dice for each phase. Players…

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PAX Unplugged closed out the year of board gaming as one of the last major tabletop expos of 2018. We slide into 2019 with imminent releases of games that were last year’s dreams. One such release for me is Comanauts, the second game in the Adventure Book series designed by Jerry Hawthorne and published by Plaid Hat Games. (read our full review of Comanauts).

As I strolled around the Exhibit Hall at PAX Unplugged, I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon a playable copy of Comanauts at the Plaid Hat Games booth (I may have squealed inwardly...then outwardly). As a huge fan of Stuffed Fables, the first Adventure Book game, I made sure to save time in my itinerary to play Comanauts. I was fortunate enough to play with designer Jerry Hawthorne who shared details about the game as well as the future of the Adventure Book series.

Comanauts Demo at PAX Unplugged

In Comanauts, players will assume the role of avatars conjured from the subconsciousness of a scientist whose mind is trapped in a… you guessed it, coma. Players work together to advance through various “coma zones” in order to confront the Inner Demons of the unconscious man…

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The board games were stacked by the shelfies with care, in hopes that no shelves would ever be bare. The wallets were hung on the line out to dry, as credit card bills grew high as the sky. GenCon had passed with a roar of applause and Origins was a memory filled with great awe. The gamers were nestled all snug in their beds, dreams of just one more Con in their heads. When what to their wandering keyboards appear? PAX Unplugged! Oh so late in the year! One more chance for the gamers to play, if they had any more pennies post-Black Friday. Out to their cars, they flew on the roads, to Philadelphia with daydreams of board game payloads. Arriving with badges, they cheered and some hugged; “Happy Gaming to All, at PAX Unplugged!”

What is PAX Unplugged?

PAX (short for Penny Arcade Expo) conventions have had a rapidly growing presence in the gaming industry ever since the first PAX launched in 2004. Most PAX events cover a wide range of gaming culture, but have a heavy emphasis on video gaming. Two years ago PAX Unplugged was launched in downtown Philadelphia and it became the first PAX to focus on Tabletop Gaming. In just its second year, PAX Unplugged…

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Some say Ludwig II of Bavaria was a dreamer, devoted to extravagant expressions of art. Others say he was one meeple short of a completed component list, earning him the title of “Mad King.” History tells us he spent much of his personal fortune building extravagant castles such as Schloss Neuschwanstein.

Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig (also considered by many to be the most extravagantly-named game in Board Game history) was designed by Ben Rosset and Matthew O’Malley, the same team behind the Stonemaier Games publication Between Two Cities. Between Two Castles is a unique mashup of two previously-existing titles; Between Two Cities and Castles of Mad King Ludwig. Stonemaier partnered with Bezier Games to combine the gameplay mechanics of Between Two Cities with the room scoring triggers of Castles of Mad King Ludwig to build this new game. But does the combination of these two games create something greater than their foundation?

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

In Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig (every time I type that name, I eat up my word count) you play as a master builder commissioned to work on one of King Ludwig’s castles. You must work…

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Voltron. The Spider-Man movies. Robert Downey Jr’s film career.  Everyone loves a good makeover. Entertainment brims with treasures of our past that are given new life through modern revision. Musicians are “getting the band back together” to do reunion tours featuring the latest sound and light displays. Blockbuster films and popular TV shows are remade with updated film techniques and special effects. When it comes to these art forms, it seems there is a question that pulls at our collective consciousness; “how can we make this better so even more people will enjoy it?” It was only a matter of time before this trend would hit the board game hobby. And it seems like makeovers are largely succeeding.

Brass by Martin Wallace recently had a very successful Kickstarter campaign and is already arriving in the hands of eager backers. Although it had earned great praise in its original release, Roxley games wisely decided to give it all-new artwork and tweak some minor design choices. The resulting campaign gained over $1.3 million USD and almost 13,700 backers. That represents a large number of new fans to the game that might otherwise have passed. Personally, I had friends that said they were now interested in playing because it looked so much better.

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Other recent examples include Stephenson’s Rocket…

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Join Meeple Mountain as we welcome Vital Lacerda, designer of award winnings games like Vinhos, Kanban: Driver's Edition, C02, and Lisboa, to the interview table! Welcome!

You started working in the advertising industry and even had your own agency, but then switched to designing board games.  What made you want to become a board game designer?

I played and changed rules from games since I was a kid and I was totally bored and tired about seeing my ad being changed because the client’s wife liked more the yellow than the blue.

Do you feel that your background as an art director helps or hinders you when working with artists?

I think and hope so. I’m used to work with artists. I did it for many years almost daily.

You have quite a range of themes in your games, from Car manufacturing in Kanban, to weather and atmospheric conditions in CO2, to wine making and distribution in Vinhos. How do you select a theme for your games?

I just look what is the most interesting to me at the time I’m looking for the game theme. Basically all my game themes are about my life interests.

How do you research a theme in order to accurately portray…

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Today could be your greatest glory. It also could be the day you breathe your last in the Roman Empire. The other gladiators stand at opposite corners of the ring brandishing their weaponry. Your pulse quickens. The pounding in your ears is overcome by the frenzied roar of the crowd. Gaining their favor will be almost as advantageous as a swift gladius. The sand beneath your sandals thirsts for blood. You pray to the gods it’s not your own.

Welcome to Carthage.

Carthage is a board game designed by Luke Seinen and published by SAS Creative that combines deck-building mechanics with arena combat miniatures gameplay. The modular ruleset allows for 1-5 players in competitive and cooperative modes.

For Those About to Deck-Build, We Salute You!

While Carthage has a variety of modes to play, the meat n’ bones is found in the competitive free-for-all mode. The lion’s share of this review will cover this mode of play. Speaking of lions, it’s possible to add lions into the game (more on that later)!

In Carthage, all players  start with matching decks of 10 basic cards, shuffled and placed facedown on their player board . Everyone begins the fight…

The post Carthage Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before.
A Halfling Rogue-Mage, an Avian Elf, and a Dwarven Wizard walk into Thunderstone Keep…

No? Well, now’s your chance to live the story!

Thunderstone Quest is a deck-building game of fantasy adventure published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). This is the latest in the line of Thunderstone deck-building games originally created by Mike Elliott in 2009. Whereas older Thunderstone games served as standalone sets with a loose story, Thunderstone Quest adds a campaign mode. Stalwart adventurers progressively unlock new cards, dungeon setups, items, spells, and heroes as they unravel the story of the Stormlands.

In this review, I’ll be delving into the the “Champion” edition of the game, which comes with a premium box, and two more quests than the regular edition.

An Avian’s-Eye View

The entirety of the campaign of Thunderstone Quest is a series of five quests, each of which have 3 adventures (which are a thematic way of saying “game setups”). To begin, players select which quest they are doing, and unwrap the corresponding packs of cards labeled for that quest. A Quest Book is included in the box which directs players which cards they should use for…

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CMON showcases their newest offerings each year at the CMON Expo. Held in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, this Expo is the place where you can demo ‘til you drop, and make a new friend along the way. In this recap, we (Justin Gibbons and Philip Chen) hope to give you a taste of what CMON Expo was like, as well as share about the games we played.

Justin: I find it wildly ironic that not only did I go to my first CMON Expo this year, but that I’m writing this recap. I was the guy who used to be an internet troll about CMON products online. I hadn’t played too many of their games, but I had a bias because I grew up playing crunchy cube-pushing Euros. Then I started actually playing some of their games at other conventions, and I saw that my perceptions were off. I quickly realized they…

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