It’s no secret that I’m an avid Pandemic fan. And not just of the base game and its expansions, I love its spin offs Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert, too. So, of course I immediately preordered Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu when I heard the first whisper of its coming. Now it’s here and I can’t wait to tell you about […]
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“Pokémon GO is about blending gameplay and imagination with getting exercise and exploring the real world around you,” says The Niantic Team. I can certainly attest that it’s gotten me out of the house and exploring my neighborhood and beyond. While still newbies to the world of Pokémon Go – not that the game is that old – and having […]
Read moreAugust saw lots of new arrivals in the store. That was just the beginning of the flood, however. We’re expecting even more new games in September. If you see a game you want in the descriptions to come, you can ask Tina to preorder one for you and we’ll call you when it comes in. King of New York: Power […]
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There’s a new craze going around which you’d expect only to affect the young. The young at heart, however, seem no more immune, to the new engaging treasure hunt that is taking the world by storm. It’s called Pokémon Go. While my husband and I initially resisted the urge to hunt Pokémon, despite constant exposure to the phenomena (our book and […]
Read moreCheck out some of exciting new games and expansions just released or coming in August and September: Legendary DBG: Marvel Civil War Expansion (just released) Its release got delayed a few weeks, but it’s here now! Following up on the recent movie, Captain America: Civil War, comes Legendary: Civil War, A Marvel Deckbuilding Game Expansion. The Civil War story arc […]
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I first played Istanbul at Atlanta Game Fest last year. It’s Euro-style play, colorful tiles and bits, and puzzley immersive play quickly enraptured my mind. After many plays since, I’ve decided that Istanbul boils down to a lesson in efficiency. Let’s see why. In Istanbul, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be the first to acquire […]
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P. I., designed by Martin Wallace, is a competitive deduction game in which 2 to 5 hardboiled private dicks race to solve their own cases in three mini-games. You each must somehow work out what the crime was, whodunit, and where. The shamus who solves her case first earns the most dough. Wrong guesses will cost you some berries (2 points each), so it’s usually better to […]
Read moreThere are so many exciting new games and expansions on the horizon that I thought I’d share about a few of them. In some cases the details are quite sketchy, but I’ll do what I can. It was hard to choose which to cover. Just so you know, I limited myself to games expected to release in July or August […]
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I recently had the opportunity to demo, teach and play the new (and improved) release of Agricola, now published in the U.S. by Mayfair Games. We held an Agricola Release event at our store. To help prepare for the event and brush up on the rules, we pulled out our old copy of Agricola and played the weekend before. It was with […]
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Las Vegas, a 2012 Spiel des Jahres Nominee, has been a hit with gamers of all types since its release. Casual gamers love it for its simple and easy play. Family gamers love that its flexible enough to play with kids. Hard-core gamers love its great mix of luck, strategy, friendly competitiveness, and how easy it is to entice non-gamers into […]
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Have you ever played a game that was so simple, components-wise, so elegant, rules-wise, yet so engaging, play-wise, that you thought to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?!!!” For me, Las Vegas is that game. Genius game designer Rüdiger Dorn, took essentially 5 sets of 8 dice, 6 pieces of cardboard illustrated with casinos numbered 1 thru 6, and […]
Read moreOops! Turns out I’ve been teaching Qwixx wrong! During our TableTop Day celebration, I was playing and teaching Qwixx with Michael Litzinger and a few other folks, when Michael said that the active player could use the white dice, too. What? I thought the rules said your opponents could use the white dice if desired, but the active player must […]
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I’ve been teaching and playing Qwixx a lot lately. It’s such a simple game – 6 dice and a scoresheet – yet so much fun. I wish I’d thought of it! Kudos to Steffen Benndorf, Qwixx’s designer. Qwixx is a quick-playing dice game with absolutely no boring downtime between turns. Your goal is to X off as many numbers in each of […]
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Stone Age is one of the first worker placement games I ever played – Agricola was the first. Designed by Bernd Brunnhofer, under the pseudonym Michael Tummelhofer, Stone Age was first published in the U.S. in 2008 by Rio Grande Games. Even though Stone Age is less than ten years old, I consider it a classic. It’s my go-to game when introducing new gamers to […]
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Hear comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail. Hippity hop, hippity hop. Easter’s on its way! Yep, Easter’s just around the corner. So I thought I’d put together an Easter basket of games to help the spry Easter bunny prepare for his rounds. 1. Karottenklau (Carrot Pinching) It’s got a cute bunny and carrot tokens and it’s cooperative so […]
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