Expansion Review - Guild of Alchemists

Time now for another review of Russian gaming awesomeness (I would like to point out that my word processor believes that 'awesomeness' is actually a word, and so I intend to use it a lot more from now on). Tonight's review will address the final expansion for Potion-Making Practice, called Guild of Alchemists, which provides yet another way to play one of my favorite Russian games.Guild of Alchemists asks players to create the ultimate alchemical...

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Fantastic Board Game Review - Rex: Final Days of an Empire

I sometimes question my gamer credibility. I read stuff written by all these really impressive nerds who have tons of references and who have all played all these old-school games that I ignored when they were out, because I was playing HeroQuest and lots of NES. For instance, I've never played Magic Quest, and that's supposed to be a really big deal. I haven't even seen a copy of Titan in my whole life, and those big-shot nerds are always talking...

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Expansion Review - Ordonnance

I am growing increasingly fond of Russian games, which is kind of odd, if you ask me. I grew up in the 80's, when we were all pretty sure that the Pinko Commies were going to start a world war that would kill us all in a nuclear Armageddon. The only people we hated more than the Soviets were the guys who dug through a freshly opened box of Lucky Charms to get the toy before the cereal was gone. But all that changed after Reagan took down the Berlin...

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Rant - We Are Not Important

I know I just recently did an article about gamer types, and then turned around Monday and asked people to help me find my wife's wedding dress. I really should review a game here. But something just occurred to me, and I want to talk about it, so lucky you.Game reviewers are not important. We think we are, but we're wrong.We provide a service, and it's really not that much of a service, all things considered. We're the functional equivalent of your buddy who already owns everything. We tell you 'hey, that was fun,' or 'that game was stupid' or...

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Help Me Find My Dress

Right out of the gate, for clarification, I do not wear dresses. That title was kind of an attempt to be all eye-grabby. But I am looking for a dress. It's my wife's wedding dress. She was wearing it when we got married (which makes sense, because if she was wearing it before then, it would have been dreadfully optimistic).When my house caught fire last year, FRSTeam by Bibbentucker was hired to store our clothes until we moved back in. We did move...

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Card Game Expansion - Potion Making University Course

Last year, the Russian game company with the horribly misrepresentative URL 'russianboardgames' sent me all their games (and they are all card games). My favorite of the bunch was called Potion-Making Practice, and it was a big hit in my house.Then my house caught fire and all those cool Russian games went up in smoke.Then the publishers, who are awesome, sent them all to me again, this time with all the expansions that they had just translated into...

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Sorta Sports Game Review - Blood Bowl Team Manager

So far, 2012 has been the year I had to keep making exceptions about not liking sports games. I still don't want to play a game about soccer or baseball or cricket or professional curling, but I'm considering changing my opinion about sports games in general. There are just too many oddball sports games out there that I wind up liking. Hell, a while back, I even liked one about hockey (though in my defense, that was just barely about hockey).The...

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Reboot Review - Thunderstone Advance

It's time for another Thunderstone review, and that means it's time for another review from my dad. If I had it to do over again, I’d . . . In those poignant moments of life we occasionally hear folks say they wish they could have a chance to do it again, but differently. Like after a divorce, or when knowing life is coming to an end due to cancer. (Serious opening, but bear with me). Most all of us wish we could go back and, knowing what we know...

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Statement of the Obvious - Gamer Types

I had a game all ready to review tonight, but thought I would bring up something I've been thinking about recently (recently, in this case, meaning the last five minutes. I'm easily distracted). And the something that has been bouncing around my head for going on six minutes now is how you play games.I've played games with a lot of different people, and one interesting thing that I've seen is that play styles vary wildly from person to person. You would think that people would be committed to winning, and thus attempting to make the best possible...

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Scrabbly Game Review - Word Wars I.II.III

I get asked, on a fairly regular basis, to review prototypes of games that are on Kickstarter. I pass on most, because I am not going to review a game that's basically a bunch of Post-It notes stuck onto a sheet of cardstock, but now and then I go against my better judgment and try a game that I had no business agreeing to play. That's how I got suckered into reviewing Word Wars I.II.III, and that is why I will very soon be getting some extremely...

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Card Game Review - Epic Spell Wars

I played a perfectly horrible game this weekend, and I absolutely loved it.It's called Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre. Yep, that's the whole name. I'm not even going to pretend I can type that more than once, so from now on, it's Epic Spell Wars. The name is a great indicator of how tongue-in-cheek the game is, but it does not help to explain how completely awful it is.Epic Spell Wars is a pretty easy game to play....

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Tips for Surviving Disasters

The continuing nightmare saga that started with my son lighting my house on fire is coming to a close, and has allowed me to come up with a few tips for potential disaster victims that I would like to share. Hopefully most of you will never have any need of these little tips, because hopefully none of you will have something terrible happen to your house that forces you to live in a crappy rent house owned by an Armenian immigrant who thinks 'slumlord' is a term of endearment.Tip Number One: Hire good people. Your homeowners policy is almost certain...

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