After a recent game of Through the Ages, a friend to whom I had just introduced the game remarked that, “you have to do everything,

I had two EXIT games sitting in my basement and I didn’t even know it. Once you have a large enough board game collection I

Nidavellir assembles together a number of tried and true mechanisms with such a sure hand that I didn’t realize until my second play how completely

Top Pop will be on Kickstarter July 13th. Photos are from a pre-production prototype. Art isn’t final, etc. etc. There’s a boundary surrounding every game,

Empyreal is a small game in all of its parts except for the ones you see. Not content with the cards-on-cards extravagance of Millennium Blades,

If the problem is board game overproduction here’s Exhibit A. I can’t deny that I fell for its charms. I’d never heard of Archmage before

I love the part in war movies where the battle is about to happen. Everyone is ready. Plans are set. Death is coming and everyone

I’m glad I do written reviews because I have absolutely no clue how to pronounce Arraial. I looked up how to pronounce Arraial and I

A quick description might suffice as a review of Stay Cool. You’re going to know pretty easily if it’s the kind of game you’ll enjoy.

Scrumpy is on Kickstarter for the next couple of weeks. If you only looked at an image of Scumpy on the table you’d be forgiven

I don’t know why Pocket Paragons exists. The two player dueling card game is an exceptionally crowded space, even if you exclude the CCG behemoths.

Setting A game of For Sale, an auction game in which players bid for properties (valued 1-30) using coins and then sell those properties back

This is the first time I’ve seen it. One of the joys of our little hobby is that it’s still small and scrappy; individuals with

The closest thing we’ve got to the endless sequels and spinoffs in the cinematic world here in board gaming are 2-player/dice/card versions of games we

We board gamers live in a time of abundance. Everywhere you look there’s a new interesting game to try out and chances are it’s going

What’s the value of a game that gives you space to chat with your friends while you play? I pondered this while talking with my

There’s something about the color scheme in Agropolis that looks a bit dour. I understand that the folks at Button Shy probably had some trouble

I’ve never been in this position before, reviewing a game for the second time, but I keep getting these EXIT games from Kosmos so I

After playing hundreds of board games I rarely find anything that feels new. There are many good games out there, but they often blend together

Most of what we do here at The Thoughtful Gamer is aimed at people who are already part of the modern board gaming hobby, but

Why is Terraforming Mars so popular? This was the question I posed to twitter the other day. I was admittedly in a bit of a

I’m calling it here: there’s going to be a boom of trick taking games over the next couple of years. The roll and write fad

(Art and components shown are not final.) Stop me if you’ve played this game before. There are some actions, but through an arbitrary process, you

One day, while wading through obstinate, naive political opinions on twitter (are there any other kind?) my eye caught the Good Stuff–a new review from

I distinctly remember the first time I saw a Jackson Pollock drip painting. It nearly put me on the floor. I could not believe the

The first time I played Stephenson’s Rocket I blundered with my very first turn. This 1999 Knizia classic, given a 21st century facelift from Grail

At time of publication you can still pre-order Magnate here. I’ve got to hand it to James Naylor, first time designer and publisher of Magnate:

Where are the dinosaurs?! Ecos is a game about the creation/shifting of earth on a geological scale, and while I’m no expert, that seems like

Human memory is terrifying. Once, at random, I completely lost the previous few minutes. I knew where I was, I knew where I was walking,

When I finally finished the sequel to my 9th favorite game of 2018 I had four entire pages of notes sprawled across the table, full

Last week my high school debate students got to experience me trying to explain the fundamentals of microeconomics in 15 minutes. How much they enjoyed

One of the best moments in gaming is when, after a heated game, you look around at your friends and catch the thought on their

Regins: The Council is on Kickstarter for 10 more days! What kind of bizarre, hilarious thought process resulted in the creation of Reigns? This quirky

The best movie fight scenes are rarely about the fighting itself. When I think about the fight scenes most notably implanted in my mind, I

Ever go to a board game con and look in the train room? Ever wonder why they dedicate entire rooms to train games? “What kind

Writing’s been tough the past couple of weeks. I’m hesitant to use the word “writer’s block” because that seems like a copout but the words

Call me the board game Nostradamus. Back in December I got to demo Tiny Towns at PAX Unplugged and I predicted that it would be

Tussie Mussie is avialable on Kickstarter until 6/8/19 Full disclosure: Tussie Mussie won a design contest in which I participated. My game was far, far

Writing about the new Street Fighter Exceed set has forced me to confront something I dread: my past writing. Nervously I searched for my original

I don’t know what Carl Chudyk looks like, but I picture him in mad scientist garb, cackling over card templates as he conjures up his

Just look at the box cover of Big Dig and you’ll see why I jumped on a chance to review it. That woman is so

Escape rooms are a humorous signal of prosperity. Who knew that a fad would emerge where people pay $30 each to voluntarily trap themselves in

Antinomy is on Kickstarter for just a couple more days! It’s fitting that Antinomy grants first player privileges to the person who has most recently

Look, people. I know I come across as this paragon of Aristotelian temperance, but when three people I trust tell me that a particular game

Fry Thief is on Kickstarter until 2/24. Check it out! I have never seen a game with a more relatable theme. You’re at dinner and your partner has ordered a burger and fries. In

A version of this review first appeared at Love Thy Nerd. Check it out! The cover of Pioneer Days depicts a colorful cast of eclectic characters smiling in the sun and looking like they’re having a splendid time

As abstract game month here at The Thoughtful Gamer spills into February for a bit, I have to admit that I’ve fallen more and more

Drop It, the silly abstract dropping-things dexterity game from Kosmos, is part of that eclectic board game sub-genre where the title of the game is

After opening my review of SPQF talking about the slightly strange occurrences when two movies with very similar premises are released at the same time,

Anthelion is on Kickstarter until 1/18/19 Some games feel open and comfortable. Whatever system the designer created feels like it could contain endless iteration and

In film there’s a bizarrely frequent occurrence where two movies with remarkably similar premises or inspirations will release at roughly the same time. Like, remember

I was at the wonderful PAX Unplugged earlier this month, and I was able to share the experience with some friends I hadn’t seen in

Remember when Love Letter was the hot new game taking the western world by storm? A fun game, with fun art, and only 18 cards!

The “we want an objective review” cry that frequently pops up on the internet is one of the most annoying arguments on the face of

So much of the pleasure of board gaming comes from moments of frisson, those exciting moments of suspense and anticipation before pulling a key card,

I suspect I have somewhat of an unusual perspective in the board game world, being a reviewer but still feeling somewhat outside of the board

I can distinctly remember the first time I played Mastermind. We were in Canada on vacation. My grandparents had rented a house for the summer,

Once, when getting out of my car at the grocery store, I was approached by a guy holding out a CD. He earnestly inquired, “hey,

More than any game I’ve played in recent memory, Eminent Domain truly feels like a game made for dedicated gamers. It’s not particularly complicated, it