“So…what did you think?”

Along with three members of my review crew, we had just wrapped up our first four-player game of Asian Tigers: A Story of Prosperity (2024, published by PYTHAGORAS and distributed in the US by Mayfair Games). There was a very long pause before anyone answered my question. I always ask other players for their opinion first before launching into my thoughts.

The opinions ranged wildly. One player loved it, another was still processing the rules load even at the end of our game, for reasons that we’ll come to during a discussion about the game’s scoring elements. The guy who won this first play was most conflicted of all. Winner’s bias is real, we all agreed, so he was in the best position to say whether he loved it or not.

“I really like this one,” he started. “There’s a lot to process with the rules, but ultimately I focused on the area control elements, and that worked out. I just don’t know how often I could see myself getting this to the table.”

This review of Asian Tigers: A Story of Prosperity has proven to be the toughest review I have written this year, in terms of determining a final score. For almost every element of the game that I liked, there are…

The post Asian Tigers: A Story of Prosperity Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

I stopped by the Arcane Wonders booth at SPIEL 2024 to check out the new game Kraftwagen: Age of Engineering. I was excited about it from the get-go: the cover art looked great, and the box offered one additional stand-out detail—the name of the designer, Matthias Cramer.

That’s because Cramer designed Glen More II: Chronicles, one of my all-time favorite games. While other games use a rondel mechanism to dictate turn order, I think Glen More II does rondels better than any other game I have tried. The combination of Cramer’s name here mixed with the fact that Kraftwagen: Age of Engineering is also a rondel game had me pre-sold on the idea that this would be worth a look.

The new version is based on Cramer’s original game, Kraftwagen, published back in 2015. While I have not played the previous game, two other people in my network had, and both indicated that while that first game was pretty good, there were some elements that rubbed them, as hardcore strategy players, the wrong way.

One of those two people, my buddy John (he of the Dusty Euros series), joined me for a demo of the new Kraftwagen at SPIEL to see how it played. And after our three-player demo game, John and I both agreed…

The post Kraftwagen: Age of Engineering Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Man, I love a good mobster theme.

That starts with my love for the mainstream Mafia movie canon. Sure, everyone loves the Godfather films…the classics are classic for a reason. Ditto for Goodfellas, Casino, and nearly everything done by Martin Scorsese. I have a preference for flicks like The Untouchables or newer takes like Gangster Town, The Departed (based on a Hong Kong film called Infernal Affairs—which I think is the better film), Public Enemies, and any of the older flicks reminding us of Prohibition-era crime.

I love gang, mobster, and crime themes, to the point where my wife knows that if there’s a new TV show coming out that gives her “those ‘Narcos’ vibes” (her words), I’m going to watch it. Anything featuring illegal drugs, booze, drive-by shootings, and infamous real-world crime figures is a 100% go for my personal viewing tastes.

My appreciation for mobster themes carries over into board games. Whether it is Scarface 1920, La Famiglia: The Great Mafia War, Speakeasy Blues, or The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire, I am all the way in if a game gives me the chance to celebrate the music of the 1920s and 30s, force opposing gang associates to “swim with the fishes”, or drive a car bomb into a neighborhood.

Given this history, it should come…

The post Speakeasy Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

I sat down with The Morrison Game Factory having nary a clue as to what it was about. An old toy factory, I’d surmised from the name and art, but that was about it. There wasn’t much to go on in the box. An old catalog, a short letter, a page that felt like one of those activity sheets children get at chain restaurants, and a repair log were the only clues. I started doing the only thing you can do at the start of one of these games, patiently sifting  through everything until something clicked.

Story

The first few minutes of The Morrison Game Factory are a heady rush. The game starts slow, as you sift through all the random bits available, but the feeling of progress accelerates rapidly, and culminates in a moment that exists in my memory as though it were a scene in a Brian DePalma movie. I am John Travolta, spinning around in that chair.

Piecing together what to do with the scant bits of information I had was exciting. Why exactly it was exciting, I won’t say. Discovery is…

The post The Morrison Game Factory Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

[caption id="attachment_301571" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Artefacts: The box artwork[/caption]

Three years ago, French game designer Franck Bovet contacted us about reviewing an advance copy of his game Artefacts. The flexibility of the modules and the way they allowed you to customize the game to your liking intrigued me, so I agreed to review it. The game arrived and I had a screen sharing session with Franck to go over the basics of the game. It was clear he had put a lot of thought into the game and was proud of how all the elements worked together.

His initial Kickstarter campaign ended early, so I had to postpone my review…by three years. But now Artefacts is back, with more components added since my review copy was shipped out. Franck recently told me I have the only copy of Artefacts in the US, which is quite an honor.

Please remember that the photos used in our exclusive US review are both from a prototype and are three years old. See the Kickstarter campaign—starting in June 2024— for the updated components.

Game Zero: Overview

At first glance, Artefacts might appear to be just another tank battle game. However, taking a second look shows it is much more than that.

This is…

The post Artefacts Board Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

I am a big fan of the publisher Devir (and more technically, the in-house Devir Games line), and I am increasingly falling hard for what I refer to as “medium box” experiences.

My definition of “medium box” gaming: a lot of game in a small box, something that you can play in about 90 minutes, possibly solo but certainly with almost any hobby gamer, in a physical package that is literally bursting with components paired with rich gaming experiences for a price that lands in the $30-$40 range.

Salton Sea (2024, Devir Games) is another of these medium box experiences. But by no means is it perfect. In fact, a full third of its mechanics feel extraneous to the point that I’m not sure I would attack that part of its gameplay if I was interested in consistently winning.

But Salton Sea nails the “medium box” mentality I seek with Devir products. Salton Sea has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $40. It plays solo, and the box is the same size as Devir’s other medium box games such as The Red Cathedral. And it has one mechanism that might already be my favorite gaming mechanic of the year.

Not the Val Kilmer Movie

The Salton…

The post Salton Sea Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

In Factory 42 you’ll play as a Dwarven Overseer, working in some kind of Steampunk-ish Soviet-era mines. Don’t think too hard about it because, to be honest, it really doesn’t matter. This is a straight-forward worker placement game, albeit one with an extra mechanic that is worth looking at.

Since important areas of the game run into pseudo-Soviet-era Bureaucracy, let’s take a point-by-point look at the game.

[caption id="attachment_300406" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Factory 42: The Box[/caption]

The Bureaucratic Run Down

• You win by having the most points at the end of the game.
• You gain points by acquiring rosettes and taking actions to convert them into points.
• You get rosettes by completing Government Contracts and through certain actions.
• You complete Government Contracts by having mining carts containing resources shipped to you.

[caption id="attachment_300413" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Resource cubes[/caption]

• You get those resources by Requisitioning them, then adding them to the common pool of resources.
• However, the Common Pool of resources must first go through the Tower of Bureaucracy. Some resources will pass through, while others will get stuck in bureaucratic red tape and not be available.

[caption id="attachment_300408" align="aligncenter" width="389"]

The post Factory 42 Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Any time a new game by Vital Lacerda is about to hit, my assorted tabletop gaming networks come alive.

There’s always a big negotiation on the front end. Who’s going to sink $150-$200 for the newest crowdfunding campaign? Are the hardcore collectors going to jump in or wait for someone else to pull the trigger before buying their own copy? As Eagle-Gryphon Games—the publisher of Lacerda’s games in the US—begins to send out shipping notifications, the hype machine ramps up.

Inventions: Evolution of Ideas is the newest Lacerda release, arriving at homes around the world right now. When I got a shipping notification for my review copy, I alerted a couple groups that I’d have my copy in time for game nights the following week.

“I’m innnnnnnnnn,” announced one friend, as creepily as that sequence of extra N’s would indicate.

“I can be at your house within the hour,” said another.

One friend toyed with an existing relationship. “I really want to play this one, but I have Valentine’s Day plans.” It sounded like he was open to bailing on the marriage to get a play in.

New Lacerda games bring out all the fans, and rightfully so. I’ve written six articles on the Portuguese designer’s heavy Euros, covering games such as Kanban EV (as well…

The post Inventions: Evolution of Ideas Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Kanban EV (2020, Eagle-Gryphon Games) gets to the table from time to time, thanks to a mix of the “Cafe Lacerda” game nights I do with friends every few months. Named for Vital Lacerda, the designer of games such as On Mars, The Gallerist, and Vinhos: Deluxe Edition, friends bring all their Lacerda games to someone’s house, then we fight to see which two or three of these games get to the table.

I recently decided to dig into the mini expansion for Kanban EV, SpeedCharger. I got it when I bought the “Upgrade Pack” with the base game a few years ago, but I had never played it. Like other Lacerda games, the base game is usually designed with such care that expansions are not necessary. After playing Kanban EV a few times, I was sure that I would never open SpeedCharger; designs this strong don’t need any extras.

But lately, I have been staring at my supposed “Shelf of Shame” and noticed that I don’t have many unopened base games. I do, however, have a few unopened expansions. I used SpeedCharger as an excuse to break out Kanban EV with players both new to the base game and those with some experience, and I have to…

The post Kanban Kontinued: The SpeedCharger Expansion Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

On the heels of reviewing my now-favorite Vladimír Suchý game, Evacuation (2023, Delicious Games), I decided to rip the shrink off the other Suchý game I picked up at SPIEL last year, Shipyard (2nd Edition). (I’ve been excited about this one for a while now.)

Shipyard is a dinosaur to a modern gamer, as it was first released in 2009. To some of my friends, the original game is a classic, but those friends have never been kind enough to introduce me. When I had the chance to grab the updated version, I jumped because I needed to know—does the original still work, fifteen years later?

The answer? It depends on how long you can stomach the wait to score points.

Ahh, the 1870s

Shipyard is a 1-4 player rondel and tile drafting game that situates players as shipbuilders in the 1870s. Over a series of rounds, players will take turns until a countdown timer expires, giving each player one final turn to finish building ships and send them on a test voyage—known as a  “shakedown cruise”—to impress local officials.

Each turn after the first turn of the game looks the same. Each player has a cube (or cubes, in a two-player game) on one…

The post Shipyard (2nd Edition) Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

In many years, the exceptional game Carnegie (2022, Pegasus Spiele) would have been my #1 gaming experience of the year. Beautiful board, a very interesting milestone system, lots of variability in the setup, and maybe my favorite action selection format of that year.

As it turned out, Carnegie was my second favorite game from 2022, eclipsed only by the stellar gameplay of Tiletum. (If I’m being honest, dice gave Tiletum the edge, because the tactical gameplay was just a better fit for me and that game.) That still means that any time I can get a chance to play either game, I’ll always bite.

The best thing about expansions: another reason to whip the original game out and get it back to the table. When I heard that an expansion was inbound for Carnegie—known as Carnegie: Departments and Donations—I made sure to grab a copy.

Here is the “worst” part about Departments and Donations: it doesn’t cleanly fit in the original box. Because it comes in a 9”x12” plastic sleeve with all of the new tiles, instructions and bidding sheets, it looks kind of sloppy now as it sits on my shelf as it sits on top of the Carnegie box.

For a game with easily the best-looking board from 2022, this is unfortunate. Luckily, everything…

The post Carnegie: Departments and Donations Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

There’s something Trojan about The Battle of Versailles. Let’s pretend that you are no more familiar with the Battle of Versailles than I was before learning about this game, and you have to guess, sight unseen, what the game is about. From the title, you’re thinking military conflict, right? Probably something from the French Revolution, or a lesser battle of WWII? But you want more information before you guess.

I tell you that The Battle of Versailles is a Card Driven Game, a CDG, the type of game associated with beefy GMT titles like Twilight Struggle and Empire of the Sun. I describe it as an incredibly tense, mean two-player game in which both participants pursue unique paths to victory. One side, the French, represents an entrenched old guard, an immovable object. The other side, the Americans, represent an unstoppable force, storming the barracks and calling for revolution.

“Wait,” you say. “The French and the Americans? They only fought during the French Indian War… Is there a Versailles in the Northeast United States?” There is not. Still, nothing else makes sense. You slam that button. “It’s a war game,” you shout, scaring small children nearby. I pull the box out from behind my back, where it has evidently been this entire time. The cover is baby blue…

The post The Battle of Versailles Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

When I picked up a copy of Evacuation (2023, Delicious Games) at SPIEL 2023, I had to admit—the thing didn’t look that special.

However, I am a sucker for anything with a big spaceship on the cover, so it had that going for it…and, designer Vladimír Suchý has made a couple games that I’m fond of, including Underwater Cities and the very good Pulsar 2849. Since Suchý crushed it with Pulsar 2849, I figured, hey, the guy seems to like complex space games, right?

On the strength of the review from our friends at ThinkerThemer, I got my copy of Evacuation to the table in recent weeks. Much like the tagline for the old game Mastermind—”Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master”—Evacuation is a straightforward teach, a game that could be taught in about 20 minutes.

But the consequences of the actions across the game’s tight playtime? This is the heaviest Suchý design I’ve played. (BGG seems to agree.)

The World is On Fire (Again)

Evacuation’s approach is straightforward. Our planet is in ruins thanks to rising temperatures, so we’ve got to get everyone off this rock and onto a more habitable planet, stat. (The rulebook’s version of events is much better than that,…

The post Evacuation Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.