Board Game Quest News, Tips, Tricks, Ideas

Splotter Spellen Games have stayed with me since I started gaming and before I started logging plays in 2017. My tastes have dramatically changed over the years, but owning and playing Splotters hasn’t stopped. In fact, I rarely pre-order games (Kickstarters included) and I pre-ordered 2023’s release. I think all their games have unique ideas, themes, and a lot of strategies through fairly condensed rules. They aren’t games that have wide appeal, as their designs are built under a philosophy: “If you can’t lose the game on turn one, what is the point of having a turn one?” Of their 15 released games, only seven of them received multiple print runs or wider releases. It would have been six, but they happened to release a game last year. Those seven are all good, but allow me to rank them based on my taste and preferences.

What do you think of when you think of fireworks? For me, it’s the rush of excitement that comes from loud noises and bright, beautiful colors on display. In Skyrockets: Festivals of Fire, you get much of the same experience in a cooperative game that puts you in the role of working with your fellow players to put on a fireworks show for your wizard school.

April rolls on and we have another batch of our Crowdfunding Campaigns of the Week. We have a bit of a light week this time, but there are still some quality campaigns worth checking out. hopefully, you can find something that fits your tastes.

We review Apiary, a worker placement board game published by Stonemaier Games. In Apiary, players are using familiar mechanisms to try and score the most points.

Since its release almost five years ago, Marvel Champions has put out a near-constant stream of new content. As of this list, there are a whopping forty-one different scenarios among the core set, campaign expansions, and one-off scenario packs, with another five to be released in the upcoming Age of Apocalypse box. Impressively, almost all these scenarios are good—some are better than others, but I would happily play almost all of them. With so much available content, I thought it would be fun to rank my favorite scenarios in the game, from the core set to the latest campaign release (NeXt Evolution at the time of writing this article).

Note: This preview uses pre-release components and rules. What you see here may be different from the final, published game. This post was a paid preview, you can find out more information  here .

In 2015, Tony wrote a Top 10 list about the ten required expansions. Well, it’s been nearly a decade and board gaming has only grown exponentially since then. I wanted to take the time to go through all of the expansions that have been released in the last (nearly) ten years to discuss what expansions feel required for their base game these days.

Some intellectual properties really suffer for a lack of good board games. Fans of Transformers, G.I. Joe, and others have often been starved of good board games for their favorite franchises (at least until recently). One that has not had that problem, however, is Star Trek. It has a long and varied history with board games of varying qualities going back decades, almost to the Original Series’s initial run. I’m always game to try a Star Trek game, so when it is offered I rarely refuse. These are some of my favorites. Honorable mention goes to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive VCR Board Game and the unmatched Robert O’Reilly (especially his Gowron eyes). No offense, Chancellor, but there just wasn’t room for you on the list!

If the European Expansion wasn’t enough for you and you’re looking to enhance your Wingspan digital experience further, Oceania adds 95 bird cards, 5 bonus cards, 4 goal tiles, new player mats, and a new nectar food type.

A two-person trick taker disguised as a tug of war about a game of chess.