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Ichor – A Knizia Duel on Mount Olympus
When you see Reiner Knizia’s name on a small two-player abstract, you probably already have a picture in your head. Clean rules, tight decisions, and a game that looks simple……
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Bug Run – Teamwork With Fine Print
Bug Run is one of those games that tricks you at first glance. You see the table, you smile, you think “oh this is adorable.” Five minutes later you’re calculating…
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Severton – Sneaking Through the City Together
I didn’t really know what to expect going into Severton. The theme is very specific, the setting is unusual, and it doesn’t look like the typical co-op hero game. You’re…
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Agent Avenue – A Two-Player Game of Risky Neighbors
Agent Avenue is a two-player game about spies pretending to be normal suburban neighbors. You live next door to each other, you smile, you wave… and you’re both trying to…
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Combo Fighter – Arcade Duels in a Deck of Cards
Combo Fighter is one of those games where the idea clicks almost instantly. It’s a competitive card game inspired by old one-on-one arcade fighters, the kind where you stare at…
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Yokohama Duel – The Tightest Trip to Yokohama
Yokohama Duel is a two player game set in early Meiji era Japan, when trade suddenly opened up and Yokohama went from quiet fishing town to busy port city. You…
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Land vs Sea: Uncharted – Expanding the Puzzle
Land vs Sea: Uncharted is an expansion for Land vs Sea that adds new tiles and a few optional scoring systems. It doesn’t change what the game is trying to…
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Evergreen: Cherry Blossoms & Bamboo – Same Planet, New Habits
Cherry Blossoms & Bamboo is a modular expansion for Evergreen that adds two new plant types. On paper that sounds small. In practice it nudges a lot of the decisions…
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Lodge – A Hotel Shaped By Its Guests
If you’ve ever imagined owning a cozy mountain hotel where everything runs perfectly, Lodge is here to gently ruin that dream. In the nicest way. It looks bright and welcoming,…
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Codenames: Back to Hogwarts – When a Party Game Goes to Wizard School
Codenames is one of those games that just keeps showing up at tables. I mean, even people who don’t really follow board games know it. Someone always brings it out…
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Thesauros – Treasure Diving, But First The Budget
In Thesauros, you run a deep sea recovery company and compete with others to bring lost shipwreck treasures back to the surface. Not the movie version with one diver and…
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LUDOS Europe – Small Games With a Long History
After Asia, Africa, and America, the LUDOS collection now moves to Europe. And yeah, that already sounds bigger than it actually is. These are still small games. Pocket games. The…
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SETI: Space Agencies – Why Start Slow If You Don’t Have To?
(or why we kind of stopped setting up SETI without it) If you’ve been paying attention to board games over the last few years, you probably know SETI. And if…
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Ancient Empires – Decisions That Come Back Around
Big empires don’t just appear out of nowhere. They usually start small, make a few solid decisions, survive a couple of bad ones, and somehow keep going. Ancient Empires tries…
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Stamp Showdown – Building Poker Hands Without Much Privacy
Stamp Showdown is a game where the theme sounds very polite, but the table experience ends up being a bit sharper than you expect. You’re competing in a stamp exhibition,…
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INK – Bottles Are the Problem
Anyone who’s ever written with a fountain pen knows that feeling. One slip, one moment where your hand moves faster than your brain, and that’s it. You’re dealing with it…
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Veggie Match – Looks Peaceful, Plays a Bit Mean
Veggie Match looks friendly. Almost suspiciously friendly. You’re planting tomatoes, corn, and broccoli in little garden plots, sharing space with your neighbors, and everything is bright and colorful. It feels…
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Land vs Sea – An Ongoing Matter of Territory
When I first saw Land vs Sea, I thought I knew what I was getting. Hex tiles, soft colours, a shared map, that whole relaxed tile-laying vibe. Something calm. Something…
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Everdell: Silverfrost – When Everdell Gets a Bit Colder
If you’ve played Everdell before, you probably know why people like it. It’s calm, it’s friendly, and it slowly lets you build something nice without punching you in the face…
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Fifty Fifty – It Looks Simple At First
At first glance, Fifty Fifty looks almost too simple. A deck of numbered cards from 1 to 100, quick turns, rules you can explain in a minute. It feels like…
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Evergreen: Giant Trees and Mushrooms – Playing With Shadows
Evergreen: Giant Trees and Mushrooms is a small expansion with two separate modules, and that already tells you a lot about what it’s trying to do. It doesn’t want to…
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Cytress – Building Engines Beneath The Tower
Cytress is a cyberpunk engine-building and area-control game where you lead a rebel crew scraping by in the undercity of a dystopian city. Floating above it all is Stratos, a…
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Formidable Farm – A Lot of Work for a Small Farm
Market day has arrived, and everyone suddenly wants something from you. Tomatoes, wheat, animals, more tomatoes. In Formidable Farm, designed by Friedemann Friese, farming is not about building a nice…
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Kingdom Crossing – Thinking Your Way Through Seven Bridges
Some games start with a theme. Others start with a clever idea. Kingdom Crossing does both, and it all begins with a puzzle that predates board games as we know…
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