The Dwarves: Big Box - Andy Matthews

Up until 2022, I’d never heard of The Dwarves, a hugely popular German five book fantasy series, which spawned a video game and a board game. And I certainly never expected to play it. But my game group wanted to inject some cooperative action into our game nights and The Dwarves was picked.

The goal of The Dwarves is to work your way through a scenario deck of cards, while protecting your lands from invading orcs, trolls, and elves. Players may also complete side quests which can provide valuable bonuses or cause trouble in Girdlegard (the dwarven homeland). At the beginning of every player’s turn the hero marker advances can trigger new enemies to emerge, cause drama in the dwarven high council, or cause negative effects to the side quest deck. In typical coop game fashion there are multiple ways to lose, but only one way to win.

My group had a good time playing The Dwarves, and even spent some time afterwards talking about different approaches we might take in our next play. While I don’t think The Dwarves is going to win any awards, it’s a solid game and one we’ll be playing again. 

Ease of entry?:
★★★☆☆ - There were…

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A few years back I was wandering through various campaigns on Kickstarter (as I am wont to do) and I saw a pair of images that were right up my alley. The images were sci-fi but of the old 1930s to 1950s variety. The sort of images that invoke Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.

[caption id="attachment_307619" align="aligncenter" width="600"] That is some gorgeous artwork![/caption]

Pulp Invasion! I read the description of the game and saw that it was a solo affair. I decided to get two copies: one for me, and one for my friend, Steve (Steve loves solo gaming). I looked around on BoardGameGeek and I saw that the designer, Todd Sanders, has done a few other small print run games, and another series using the pulp-style artwork he had acquired the rights to. This one dealt with the old Gumshoe genre.

[caption id="attachment_307620" align="aligncenter" width="600"] I can hear Sam Spade when I see these images![/caption]

I loved it! I searched around and I located the base game for Pulp Detective, all three expansions, the slip-cover to hold all of the boxes together (like a set of books), and the puzzle-piece playing board for the combined experience.

These games came about after…

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I started playing Magic: The Gathering in the alpha days. I was not one for card sleeves back then, so when beta was released, and the corners were far less curvy than they had been, it was an issue. You knew when a card from a given release was coming up, but at least you could still shuffle the cards into the same deck.

[caption id="attachment_307628" align="aligncenter" width="600"] These beasts were common. I am not sure how the elves survived.[/caption]

Over the years, I have become one of those guys that tries to sleeve every game I own. It started early in my collecting years as I had small children and I do not like the idea of having to replace a game (or game parts) after someone damaged them. Worse yet, I do not like the idea of being unable to replace a game (or game parts) after someone damaged them because that game is out of print and the only way to get it these days is from some individual on ebay who is selling my beloved game for some ridiculously inflated price.

[caption id="attachment_307629" align="alignright" width="150"] Fantasy Flight card sleeves were the best. I miss them.[/caption]

My friend,…

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A few years back I was wandering through various campaigns on Kickstarter (as I am wont to do) and I saw a pair of images that were right up my alley. The images were sci-fi but of the old 1930s to 1950s variety. The sort of images that invoke some of my childhood heroes!

[caption id="attachment_307619" align="aligncenter" width="600"] A return to the golden age of sci-fi![/caption]

Pulp Invasion! I read the description of the game and saw that it was a solo affair. I decided to get two copies: one for me, and one for my friend, Steve (Steve loves solo gaming). I started getting the expansions, too. I stopped, but that is another story (see below).

This game (and Pulp Detective) came about after Mr. Sanders acquired the rights to a whole bunch of pulp magazine covers and interior illustrations. In other words, this is the real deal! These are not modern artists mimicking the pulp era styles, these are authentic pulp era pieces. And they are beautiful!

Engage the hyperdrive!

In Pulp Invasion, you are a Free Captain, a sort of trader and mercenary who roams interstellar space. However, you are no ordinary Captain! In secret, you are an agent of the Intergalactic Council, an arm of the…

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Flip 7 - Andy Matthews

I love it when a game "hides" the premise in plain sight, like Flip 7 from The Op. It's a lightweight (and I do mean light) press your luck game that has you flipping over cards from a shared deck and deciding "do I stay or do I go?". Number cards earn you points, action cards do special things, and if you ever "Flip 7" cards you earn a sweet 15 point bonus and end the round. But if you flip over a number card that you already have in front of you, then it's a bust for you.

You'll earn points based on the numbers on the cards; their values ranging from 0-15. With the exception of the 0, each card is worth its face value and there are that many cards in the deck: three 3 cards, ten 10 cards, etc. But there's also a handful of action cards which can be both angel and demon (depending on who's receiving them). The Second Chance card lets you skip a "bust", the "Freeze" card helps you stop a runaway leader, and the "Flip Three" card forces a player to flip over three cards even if they might bust!

I played with 3 players and it hummed along…

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A few years back after discovering Todd Sanders’ latest work (Pulp Invasion), I was looking into this game designer and discovered that he had designed a game around the old Gumshoe genre.

[caption id="attachment_307620" align="aligncenter" width="600"] I need a card in this game that lets me play as Rigby Reardon.[/caption]

I loved it! I searched around and I located the base game for Pulp Detective, all three expansions, the slip-cover to hold all of the boxes together (like a set of books), and the puzzle-piece playing board for the combined experience.

This game (and Pulp Invasion) came about after Mr. Sanders acquired the rights to a whole bunch of pulp magazine covers and interior illustrations. In other words, this is the real deal! These are not modern artists mimicking the pulp era styles, these are authentic pulp era pieces. And they are beautiful!

Just the facts, ma’am!

In Pulp Detective, you are a gritty private eye (or detective, or socialite avenger, etc.) who is hot on the case of some nefarious crime that has been committed. You have a day (or sometimes less!) to find the clues, solve the crime, and confront the culprit what did it!

The game is about playing your odds and hedging your bets. But…

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Wyrmspan is a game that looks and feels a lot like Wingspan. This is purposeful, since the designer took the Wingspan mechanics and used them as the baseline for this new game. There is a lot here that will be familiar to a Wingspan player, and just enough to throw them a curve once in a while. This was anticipated.

Wingspan is a game with almost universal acclaim and recognition. If you are not one of those people familiar with the game, please check out our previous reviews of Wingspan (Mark Iradian’s review of Wingspan, or Logan Giannini's review of Wingspan), or perhaps Tom Franklin’s wonderful review of Wingspan digital, or our Wingspan strategy guide.

Stonemaier Games has a Rules and FAQ page that discusses where Wyrmspan differs from Wingspan. Below is a summary of these differences:

• Your personal game board starts with three places where you can place dragons. Additional locations in each cave must be excavated first by placing a cave card there. Doing so activates a one-time power. You explore and excavate the caves from left to right. Completing the exploration of a cave has some additional benefits.
• Actions are paid for with coins (and sometimes eggs) rather than action tokens. It is possible to acquire additional coins and take…

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A Brief History

I have a rather large game collection. Too large, by some estimates, but that is another topic. The point is this: I do not have a large collection of train-based games. I have played several, from the old crayon-rail games to more modern offerings. I like a few of them, find others to be tedious. I guess what I am trying to say is that this is not a theme I seek out.

Before I started writing for Meeple Mountain, I was (and remain) a fan. One of the first things I ever experienced on the site was an unboxing of Empyreal: Spells and Steam. This video (and the others that followed) introduced me to the core game, the expansion, and the deluxe edition upgrade. I went from that unboxing video to ordering the whole kit-and-kaboodle!

So let's take a look at this fantasy world train game, set in the early industrial-age and see what we have here, shall we?

[caption id="attachment_306878" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The box is almost a foot to a side, and nearly 9-inches deep. This is not a small package.[/caption]

Spells and Steam

In Empyreal: Spells and Steam, you have a magic-filled fantasy world that is just entering that glorious period…

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I am not really sure, most of the time, what it is that draws me in and makes me want to get and play a new game. Sure, in my youth, the idea of someone suggesting a game and introducing it to me certainly was a factor. But now that I am seeking out games (both board and role-playing), it is the oddest things that grab my attention. Back in 2022, I was immediately hooked on the game Hidden Leaders when I saw this image online:

[caption id="attachment_306969" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Be honest: what is not to love about this guy?[/caption]

I mean, look at this guy! He is a confident and self assured individual. There are a few meanings for the word ‘queer’ but none of the definitions that fall outside of ‘gay’ seem to apply. As an ally, and someone with many friends and family in the LGBTQIA+ community, this is the sort of character I can get behind! I got a copy for me, and one for one of my old Navy buddies (who happens to be gay). I have never regretted this purchase, because beyond the wonderful artistic style of the game comes great game play as well.

Overview

Hidden Leaders is a card-driven board game where two…

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Civolution - Justin Bell

I love coming back from SPIEL each year because many of my local Chicago friends bring home a ton of the hot new treasures they bought in Germany. At a recent gaming event, I plopped myself at the table where Stefan Feld’s new release Civolution was about to be taught because I was excited to give this one a spin. Then the teach started…and SIXTY-FIVE MINUTES later, we jumped into our play.

That teach was comically massive because Feld’s newest game is easily his heaviest, in terms of strategic decision making. I’m ready to say that “heavy” is not Feld’s lane. A civ-adjacent design, with tableau building technology cards, tracks, public goals, private goals, action selection, and map exploration, leads to a game with an unheard-of 32 different actions spread across each player’s personal board. Civolution is a dice game, meaning that this strategy game is really a dice-driven action selection design, which will rub many readers (and at least one of our writers!) the wrong way.

To Civolution’s credit, our playtime was just over two hours despite the hour-long teach, so at least the game didn’t take forever…but it never featured the kinds of interesting decisions I was hoping for. The best way I can…

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There are games that come very close to being perfect. The mechanics weave in and out of the theme, which is reinforced by the artwork to create an experience that is far greater than the sum of the parts. But then there comes one element that hits like nails on a chalkboard, or a needle scratch that feels off, or causes issues.

There are some that are almost insignificantly minor (e.g., in Splendor, I do not believe that the gemstone a card produces should ever be a part of its cost). Others get louder with each play. This article is about the others, the rule or mechanic or aspect of a game that, once I saw it, bugs me every time I play the game.

Coup

Its missing one simple action!

Coup is a beautiful deduction game. It is a card-driven game with a small Court Deck containing three each of Ambassador, Assassin, Captain, Contessa, and Duke. Each player starts with two of these individuals and a couple of coins. Nobody knows who has who in their hands. Thus, players can bluff and claim to have an individual in hand they do not have.

Some actions a player takes can be blocked by those having (or claiming to have) some…

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Starmada is a set of rules that allows you to design starships, then (with some miniatures or chits on a hex grid) send them out to reduce other starships to so much space debris. The idea of the game is to be a quick playing, tactical, and universal set of rules for such things. The system for ship design has basic components and myriad add-ons allowing it to simulate just about anything you can think of in a way that ensures that even if you and your friends are simulating different universes, the relative strengths of the ships can be calculated to ensure a fair fight. Want to put a fleet of Star Wars Super Star Destroyers up against a group of Star Trek Borg Cubes or perhaps a few Babylon 5 Vorlon Planet Killers? This game can do that.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Admiralty—the group of volunteers that Daniel Kast (Majestic XII Games) brought together to take Starmada X rules and use them to create a new edition of Starmada a bit over a decade ago. Daniel and the members of the Admiralty were all people that loved many of the previous editions of the game. We each had our thoughts on where the strongest and weakest areas of…

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Small World (Collector’s Edition) - K. David Ladage

I love Small World. It is a wonderful game that my friend, Steve, and I played a lot back when new stuff was coming out for it on a regular basis. Steve is the kind of a guy that would give serious consideration to buying the over-the-top, extremely over-engineered, exceedingly expensive, will-not-fit-into-any-game-shelf-you-are-going-to-find Collector’s Edition. And so he did. He bought this thing.

The issue with this is that every single element of this game is some 50% larger than it was in the original and made of either wood or plastic. The giant wooden box needs a sticker warning you that this is a two-man lift! Thus, despite having owned this edition since it first came out years and years ago, he has not had many opportunities to pull it out with someone who would appreciate this product. Well, I was there and he wanted to play Small World. So out it came. We played a two-player game–and despite the small player count, this behemoth still managed to fill his 4-by-8 game table. We still had to keep a few elements (like the race tokens) in their giant trays on chairs just off the playing surface. The game was fun! The game was epic! The…

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