Board Games Reviews

Our good friends at Ravensburger North America sent over the Lord of the Rings: Adventure Book Game while I was away at GenCon, and of course my son Lochlan hopped into it as soon as he could. Let’s take a quick look at how the game plays, and provide some thoughts on the experience as a whole! The Adventure Begins – How to Play In Lord of the Rings: Adventure Book Game, players will work together to complete chapters of…

Last time we wrote about Vampire: The Masquerade Chapters we mentioned that while there were a few issues we encountered, the overall experience was really solid. I loved the story telling, love how you interacted with the world, and appreciated how much love and dedication went into bringing this franchise to life in Montreal. All of those feelings still exist after passing the games first Interlude, but I have a few more thoughts on the production of the game. It…

I’ve really been enjoying Star Wars: Shatterpoint. I’ve said multiple times that tabletop war games are not generally my thing, but win or lose, I always have fun playing Star Wars: Shatterpoint. Late last month, Asmodee Canada and Atomic Mass Games sent over the Plans and Preparations Squad Pack for us to review. After my father-in-law got the figures all painted up, we finally got it to the table. Let’s take a look at this squad! The Plans and Preparations…

Vampire: The Masquerade Chapters – Montreal was probably something I wasn’t that interested in, but during a lunchtime chat with folks from Asmodee Canada and Lion Rampant Imports, I got pretty excited about how the narrative adventure would work. Further, my father-in-law is heavily invested in the Vampire: The Masquerade world, and he was equally as excited to give this a try. Over the past few nights we have played all 8 prologues (one for each main character) and a…

I’m always leery of board games based on video game intellectual property. Now, I understand – The Witcher is more than just a video game: it’s books, it’s TV, it’s toys. Still, when I unboxed The Witcher: Old World on my table and set it up for a few review games, I continued to be sceptical of what the experience was going to be like. Would it actually be good? What is the objective of The Witcher: Old World? In…

In the first part of our Kingmaker The Second review, we took a look at some of the changes you’ll find from classic Kingmaker. In this second article, we are going to look at the components included in the box! Let’s take a look. The changes to Kingmaker for The Second version of the game are very positive in my opinion, and make the game of Kingmaker move much quicker. This is huge for players who don’t want to spend…

It is the War of the Roses in England, and everything is in turmoil. You will work to be crowned King of England, but be wary, as others are after the same pursuits! This 2023 version of Kingmaker improves on the original (and subsequent reprints) in many ways, so let’s run down a few of those changes. This is Part 1 of my Kingmaker The Second review, looking at some of the changes to the board and the game. We…

After much work we finally had the opportunity to see how Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi worked in combat situations, and after a lot of humming and hawing, I have a few thoughts. Obi-Wan is particularly interesting here, and while he has some insanely powerful abilities, it comes with a major drawback. Vader has his own abilities, but I think in this pack Obi-Wan is an intriguing addition to your squad. Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter As you would expect, Darth…

The Grand Inquisitor has landed for Star Wars: Shatterpoint, an brand new unique abilities are being added to the game with this fantastic set. We finally got to see how these characters performed in-game situations, so let’s see what we thought of them! The Jedi Hunters pack is unique in that you will only be controlling 3 figures on the field for this squad. All squads to date have had 4 characters – one primary, one secondary, two support. However,…

There are a ton of different genres of board games available, including deck building, worker placement, area control, and more. Very often, games choose one of these features and build an entire experience around that. Seas of Havoc went a different route. Combining worker placement, deck building, and a quasi area-control mechanism, they have created one of my favourite experiences of the past couple years. How to Play In Seas of Havoc, players will play the game across two phases,…