Search Results

Pizza Thief WBG Score:  6 Player Count:  3-6 You’ll like this if you like:  Cute art and snappy gameplay Published by:   Scrungo Games Designed by:   Laura Erwin This is a review copy @explosmofficial  @ giftpruk   See our review policy here Pizza Thief is one of those games that immediately sells itself on charm. Cute Fuzzballs, a pizza party theme, a small box that looks like it belongs on the table next to your takeaway. It promises quick, chaotic fun with a bit of bluffing and sabotage thrown in. And to be fair, it does deliver some of that. But once you get past the surface, the experience is a little more uneven than you might expect. How to set up and play Pizza Thief Setup is simple. Place the Fuzzballs Pizza Party Card into the centre of the play area and the Party Timer Card somewhere below this. Each player starts with a small hand of two cards which is constantly replenished throughout the game. At the beginning, everyone secretly contributes a card face down to a central “pizza pile,” choosing whether to play the positive or negative value on the card. Each card has two numbers you see, one at the top, one at the bottom. This creates a hidden total that nobody fully knows. You know what you placed, but not what anyone else is plotting! From there, players move to the second phase called PATRY TIME! Here, players take turns either adding to their own prediction by placing one card face up in front of them, again either with he positive number on the top, or the negative. Or playing action cards by adding card horizontally to the Pizza Timer Card. When adding to your prediction, you play cards in front of you, choosing whether to use the positive or negative value, trying to estimate what the final pizza total will be. What you display with add to your final end game guess, but will also gives clues to the other players what cards you may be laying in the Pizza Party line. Alternatively, you can use cards for their effects by placing them in a timer pile and following the card's instructions. These effects might include stealing a card from the Pizza Party line to add to your Pizza Prediction, revealing a card from the Pizza Party line and then rotating another player's top card in their Pizza Prediction, among other game-changing effects. Adding a card here also contributes to the end game. Most cards feature a timer icon ranging from one to three. When the total on the timer reaches 21, the game concludes. Those effect cards are where most of the interaction happens but it also rushes the game to its end. And as you can only play one card in this phase, you are either adding to your prediction, or the game clock. You need to think about what will benefit you the most. When the timer reaches the limit, the game concludes right away, the concealed cards are shown, and the person closest to the actual total with their prediction is the winner. What it feels like to play The core idea is genuinely interesting. You are trying to estimate a number that is partially hidden, while also having tools to influence that number and disrupt everyone else. In theory, that should create a tense mix of deduction and bluffing. In practice, it leans much more heavily into chaos than calculation. There are moments where it clicks. You get a small piece of information, adjust your prediction, and feel like you are reading the table. Then someone plays a card that flips a value, swaps piles, or quietly shifts the total in a way you could not realistically track. Suddenly your carefully built estimate is guesswork again. One game I played summed it up perfectly. I had spent a few turns nudging my prediction into what felt like a strong position after peeking at a key card. Then two quick actions from other players reshuffled the central pile and altered multiple predictions. By the time the round ended, it felt less like I had been outplayed and more like the game had simply moved on without me. That unpredictability will absolutely land for some groups. If you enjoy games where the table is constantly interfering with each other and the outcome swings late, there is fun to be had. It creates plenty of noise, reactions, and moments of surprise. But if you are looking for a cleaner deduction experience where your decisions feel reliably rewarded, it can feel a bit untethered. The presentation does a lot of heavy lifting. The Fuzzballs are genuinely charming, the artwork is bright and inviting, and the whole pizza party theme gives it an easy, approachable vibe. It is the kind of game that looks great on a table and draws people in. The short playtime helps as well, keeping things from dragging even if a round does not quite land. Pros Fun, interactive card play with plenty of player interaction Charming theme and artwork that make it easy to bring to the table Quick playtime that suits casual game nights Cons Heavy reliance on randomness can undermine strategic play Outcomes can feel more chaotic than earned Best at specific player counts, limiting flexibility for some groups Rule book is surprisingly confusing for a simple family game Pizza Thief is a lively, unpredictable party-style card game that leans more into chaos than control. There is enjoyment to be found in the back-and-forth and the constant meddling, especially with the right group. But if you are hoping for a tight deduction game where you can carefully outplay your opponents, this may not quite deliver. Sometimes you will feel like a pizza prophet. Other times, you are just guessing toppings and hoping for the best… and occasionally ending up with pineapple when you really did not ask for it.

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components will change in the final game. Ok, strap in. This is an exciting one. Harbour of Blight comes from the same author and designer of a delightful book we covered here, called In The Blink Of A Dragon's Eye. You can read about that here . And coming to Kickstarter soon, is a solo or two-player co-op, campaign-based board game/RPG hybrid, Harbour Of Blight: Obsidian. You can check that out here . That is set in a world that is being introduced here, in this adventure book, Harbour of Blight: Scenario Zero. A teaser to this upcoming RPG style game. Which you can check out here . The designer, wanted to merge the video game style RPG into the book game world. When talking to WBG, he said: "It's really a way I thought up to bring a video game RPG experience to tabletop (for 1-2 players) with an ongoing story, characters, campaign over many acts that all connect together and you use the same character that will be a "job system" so each act you'll have a new Profession to level up with your character." And with this book, we have an introduction in to this world, its characters, and the game style that is going to be brought to our tables soon with the upcoming Kickstarter. I was utterly intrigued from that moment and very exited to try this mystery book. The book functions similarly to many other choose-your-own-adventure style books. You start with some backstory, assume the role of a character aiming to solve a specific mystery, and make decisions to read certain pages or sections of the chapter based on what you believe is the best way to advance the story. You will face time limits depending on the world you're in, allowing you to explore, investigate, or interact with only a limited number of people or places. Therefore, you need to choose wisely based on what you think will lead to the best outcome. Your decisions will guide the story's progression into a captivating narrative of your creation. No digital tricks. No apps. Just good, old-fashioned writing and decision-making. The game is set in the Harbour of Blight universe, around an event called Founders Day. A time when the City of Obsidian celebrates its founding. You play the roll of a new member of the Hunters Guild, but you are thrust into the action from the off, when a mysterious and ominous theft takes place, and you are best placed to help solve the crime. I won't go into specifics here, for fear of spoilers, but you will run through two main chapters of exploration, visiting different locations of your choosing, talking to different people, and discussing specific things. All based on what you feel will give you the best chance of finding the right clues to solve this mystery. Will you tail certain people, or approach them directly and ask the questions on your mind? Will you push your luck and delve deep into the mystery, or play it safe? But how does this all work? Well, much like classic choose-your-own-adventure stories, it is largely based on simple decisions. A or B. But here, often with a C, D, E, and beyond too! But also, dice rolls! The book comes with these utterly delightful crafted custom dice that you use throughout the book. For example, you may be searching a specific area for clues, and you may want to risk continuing your search while being patrolled by unfriendly guards. Here, instead of simply making a choice to back off or carry on, you will also need to roll your dice if you choose to risk it, to see how successful you will be, D&D style. Roll the gorgeous d20 provided, and test your luck. The game then gives different outcomes based on your roll. Once you have searched all you can, and your time has run out, you will move to the decision phase of the game. Here, you must make your choice and volunteer a name as to whom you believe the guilt lies. This will lead to more spiralling avenues of dialogues, before ultimately you enter the final stage, combat! Here, you will use a D&D style mechanic to fight the "enemy" (no spoilers here!). There are various scenarios of how this will play out, so the game moves into a "your adventure has been chosen for you" over a "choose-your-own adventure," based on your success or lack thereof in the battle! Each round you will choose a skill, and roll a D6 to decide how your enemy will attack. Each skill will have a set speed that will determine who goes first in battle. You will continue until either you or your foe is reduced to zero health. Then you will read the following text accordingly, potentially gaining rewards that I guess may be used in the following games? Redacted to avoid spoilers! Harbour of Blight: Scenario Zero feels like someone took the best bits of a moody RPG prologue and poured them into a choose-your-own-adventure mystery book, then refused to “fix” it with an app. You’re a fresh Hunter’s Guild recruit dropped into Founders Day festivities when a sinister theft kicks off the plot, and from there it’s all pressure, pace, and choices. The time-limit structure is the secret sauce. You can’t do everything, so every visit, tail, question, and detour has weight. In my head, I kept doing that thing where you stare at two locations and think, “If I go to the docks now, I’m not speaking to the folk at the pub later.” It’s simple, but it genuinely creates tension. I enjoy how the book blends decisions with with your mind and dice in a way that feels earned rather than bolted on. Sometimes you’re doing classic branching narrative picks, but then you push your luck and the book asks you to roll that gorgeous d20 like you’re in a tabletop RPG. I can picture the exact moment: you’re snooping somewhere you shouldn’t be, guards are nearby, and you decide to risk “one more” search. Roll high and you feel like a genius. Roll low and suddenly your neat little plan turns into a messy scramble, and the story snaps into a new shape. Bad bad roles do not punish you too much. I cheated a bit and explored a few areas of eventuality, for the purposes of the preview of course! And it felt fair how the dice rolls results offered a fair outcome, either way. There is some luck, of course, but not huge swings that will change your game experience. Then, after the investigation window closes, you make your accusation and the book escalates into a combat finale with skills, speed, and a simple enemy AI driven by dice. It’s a neat arc: investigate, commit, face consequences. If you love narrative games, mystery, and solo decision-making with a bit of crunchy spice, this is going to land. If you’re the sort of player who enjoys squeezing value from limited actions, taking notes, and living with outcomes, you’ll have a great time. If, however, you want deep tactical combat, or you hate dice deciding whether your clever plan works, this may frustrate you. The book is aiming for “video game RPG energy in print,” which means it leans into risk and consequence more than pure player control. Also, because this is a teaser for a bigger campaign world, you may finish it wanting more connective tissue, more character progression, and clearer payoff for rewards beyond the immediate scenario. But don't worry, that is coming! Pros Tense time-limit investigation that makes choices matter Dice checks add drama without needing an app Strong escalation from mystery into a proper finale Utterly gorgeous custom dice Cons Some luck of course, there are dice! Combat sounds fun but stays fairly light and structured As a Scenario Zero, it does feel like a prologue more than a full meal Overall, Scenario Zero is a smart, atmospheric gateway into Harbour of Blight’s world, and it does a great job of making you feel like the author is quietly watching you make bad choices on purpose. If you want a solo mystery that reads like a campaign’s opening chapter and plays like a tabletop RPG highlight reel, this is why it’s worth your time. Just don’t get too comfortable. This harbour has a habit of leaving you out to dry. For more information - check this out .

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components will change in the final game. Find out more here Super has had an interesting journey. It first appeared a few months ago as a digital version that showed a lot of promise, even if early feedback suggested it had not quite found its footing yet. The core idea was clearly strong, it just needed refining. Fast forward to now, and the physical version feels like that potential fully realised. The gameplay is tighter, the decisions land better, and it now delivers a genuinely satisfying experience from start to finish. At its best, Super is about building a slick, efficient team of heroes and then unleashing them in perfectly timed bursts of mission-completing brilliance. Setup is quick and clean. Each player takes an agency board with six slots, a score tracker, and a player aid. In the centre, you lay out the main board with two rows: one for Supers available to recruit and one for Missions available to complete. Shuffle both decks and deal four Supers face up and four Missions face up to form your recruitment line and mission river. Add a pool of stun tokens nearby, hand the first player token to whoever last read a comic, and you are ready to go. On your turn, you must recruit one Super from the row and add them to your agency. Each Super adds a certain strength to your team, and each mission has a certain requirement to complete it. When you have enough Supers in your team, you can begin to complete missions to earn followers (points) if your team has enough combined power and the right colour leader to meet the requirements. The Supers you use to complete missions are discarded though, so you can only use each one once this way. But certain powers do allow you to keep them for a second mission, or use them passively to support from base. This is where the game opens up. Supers have abilities that trigger immediately or stay active while they sit in your team, and missions can chain into further bonuses, extra recruits, or scoring bursts. After your turn, the rows refill and play continues. The goal is simple: be the first to reach 50 million followers, or have the most when the mission deck runs out. At the table, this really comes alive through its combo-driven engine building. You are recruiting Supers into a six-slot agency, slowly shaping a team that works together rather than just sitting there looking impressive. Where you place them matters. What group you use together is important. It all links and there are combos everywhere. One game, I found myself quietly collecting a few of purple Supers, after recruiting one that rewarded repeated Purple Supers in my base. It looked unremarkable for a few turns. Then suddenly, one turn flipped into a chain reaction. A recruit triggered another recruit, which nudged my power just enough to complete a mission with just one Super, which then gave me a bonus that set up the next turn. That sense of delayed payoff is where the game sings. You are not just playing cards, you are building a plan that clicks into place later. The theme and presentation do a lot of heavy lifting too. The artwork is bold, vibrant, and genuinely fun, with a comic-book energy that matches the gameplay. It feels like assembling a superhero squad that evolves over time, rather than a dry optimisation puzzle. There is also a nice tension between racing for followers and deciding when to cash in your team for missions versus holding them for something bigger. It keeps everyone engaged and watching each other’s boards, especially when someone looks like they are about to pop off. Pros Satisfying combo building that rewards planning across multiple turns Strong table presence with vibrant, energetic artwork and theme Constant sense of progression as your agency becomes more efficient Cons Early turns can feel a little flat before your engine gets going Some iconography and interactions may take a game or two to fully grasp Can occasionally feel swingy if one player chains multiple bonuses at the right moment Super is a great example of a design that has clearly evolved in the right direction. What started as a slightly underwhelming digital concept has been refined into a punchy, engaging card-driven engine builder with real table appeal. If you enjoy games where you build towards clever, explosive turns and watch your plan come together, this is well worth your time. Just be prepared for your carefully assembled team to occasionally steal the spotlight like true superheroes do… dramatic, slightly chaotic, and loving every second of it. Find out more here

Are you gearing up for an epic board game night with friends or family? To ensure a memorable and fun-filled gaming experience, I think a well curated menu of games is essential for the perfect evening. When planning your game night, curate a diverse collection of board games to cater to everyone's preferences. I can sometimes get hung up wanting to play one specific game. But what if your guests have played that game before and hated it? It's always good to have options. I suggest you aim to have a simple party game to start the night, a more substantial strategy game to play for the bulk of the evening, and then a light fun, filler card game to end. But, with options for each part of the course! Having a variety ensures there's something for everyone to enjoy. This way, you can switch things up, give people a choice, and keep the excitement alive throughout the night. So, without further ado, here are a few recommendations. The Perfect Dishes - A Three Course Gaming Menu of Perfection. Starter Course: Something to get everyone into the mood. light in rules, high in fun, and quick to play. Just search "Party Games" on WBG and you will find a plethora of choices to look through, but here is my top three recommendations. Block Party - Read more about that game here. Its pictionary, but you don't need to draw! Use blocks to create objects for your friends to guess. No artistic skills needed here, and can be taught in seconds. Just One - Read more about that game here. Party game heaven! So easy to teach and play, generally lands well with everyone I have ever played with, and can be played just chilling around sofas with no need for a table. Monikers - Read more about that game here. The perfect party game? Its basically articulate with random words and phrases, but then with layers. Round one, describe the card. Round two, now with one word. The in round three, with charades! But the things you describe stay the same, so players will remember what was previously said, so it just works. Hilarious fun! Main Course: The main event! High in strategy, a few rules to learn, but people are ready for something of substance. This time, search "Strategy Games" on WBG and you will find a whole heap of games to read about, but here is my TLDR top three recommendations. Circadians: First Light - Read more about that game here. My highest rated non-solo game from 2023 (when including the expansion!) Combo fun! This game will be sure to have your guest's scream with joy as they start to build their powers and enact outrageously powerful turns. Fun guaranteed, win or loose. Tiletum - Read more about that game here. My number one game from 2022 . You may argue with your friends how to pronounce it, but you sure will have fun playing with it! The CRUNCH in this game is delicious! But, it is a little beige. Beware! Blood Rage - Read more about that game here. It's one of my favourite games that isn't two-player only, or a legacy game, so it has to appear here. And thankfully, Steve is written a wonderful review for it! looks a bit "laddy" I admit. This is classic dudes on a map smashing around, right? Wrong. This is intricate card play with some awesome drafting. Dessert: A fun, quick, light, filler game to end the night if people have more tie, more appetite for more fun, but do not want to get into anything serious at this time of night. Now it's time to search "Card Games" on WBG. Years of work from me, condensed into a few seconds of your life, just to find the perfect game. A great trade off! Hanabi - Read more about that game here. If you want some cooperative fun, I cannot recommend anything higher. My favourite card game of all time, this is pure joy for me. Still offers some meaningful decisions to give you a proper game, but rules lights and the perfect way to end the night. And this time, hopefully everyone wins! The Crew - Read more about that game here. My third favourite card game of all time. The Mind is number 2 if you are interested. But this makes the cut due to the familiarity it will have to anyone who has played a simple trick-taker before. But now, they will do so in a co-op experience which could well ease the pain of for anyone who spent the previous two hours loosing your strategy game of choice! Ten - Read more about that game here. Every time I teach someone this game, they go out and buy it for themselves. It is so simple, quick, and easy to learn, but wildly addictive and fun to play. The perfect way to end any game night. Now, put out the snacks and refreshments, make sure you have comfy seats and good lighting, and away you go! Have fun.

I love card games, and I have always had a particular soft spot for trick-taking ones. If you search this site for “trick taking” or “trick taker”, you will find reviews of quite a few games in the genre. It is one I return to again and again. Over the past few years, the genre has absolutely exploded. New trick-taking games seem to land on the table every few months, each one trying to bring something fresh to a very old idea. That is the challenge, really. With so many trick-takers out there, a game needs a clever twist or a standout feature to truly make an impression. After playing more than 50 trick-taking games at this point, I decided to go back through them and pick out a handful that really stood out. Originally I thought about doing a traditional “Top Five”, but the truth is there are simply too many good ones for that to feel fair. Instead, I have picked five trick-taking games that each shine for a different reason. Think of this less as a ranking and more as a celebration of what makes this genre so endlessly enjoyable. So rather than simply choosing the “best”, I have highlighted: • The classic trick-taker – no wild gimmicks, just brilliant core gameplay. • The best cooperative trick-taking game. • The one with the most wonderfully chaotic twist on the genre. • The one that stands out the most for theme. • And finally, the one I think works best for solo play. Not necessarily the best solo mode, but the trick-taking game that shines when played alone. If you enjoy trick-taking games even half as much as I do, there is a very good chance one of these will earn a permanent place in your card game rotation. The Classic Trick-Tacker: Skull King And the best to play if you want to shout as you play. Current BGG rank: 296 Published by: Grandpa Beck's Games Designed by: Brent Beck , Jeffrey Beck WBG Rating: 8 Skull King is the trick-taker I reach for when I want the table to get loud. The structure is brilliantly simple: rounds one through ten, everyone bids simultaneously on how many tricks they’ll take, then you try to hit your number exactly for points. But watch out, misses sting big. That single decision, made before a card is played, creates instant tension. You’re not just playing the hand, you’re defending a promise you made out loud five seconds ago. The pirate theme does real work here, because the special-card hierarchy is where the drama lives. The Skull King, mermaids, pirates, and escape cards turn “standard” tricks into proper moments, the sort where a confident bid starts wobbling and suddenly everyone is shouting advice they’re not allowed to give. It’s high interaction in the best way: bluffing, table talk, and those swingy momentum shifts that make even a bad hand feel like it might be salvageable with one perfectly timed escape. It can be chaotic, and the scoring and special-card order can take a game or two for complete newcomers to internalise, but that volatility is part of the charm. It scales ridiculously well from two to eight, packs down tiny, and stays fresh because no one ever plays it politely. That mix of easy teach, huge table energy, and constant “did you really just do that?” moments is exactly why Skull King sits among the best trick-takers. Classic simple fun! The Top-Ranked Campaign Co-op: The Crew: Mission Deep Sea And the best for playing over several sessions. Current BGG rank: 43 Published by: KOSMOS Designed by: Thomas Sing WBG Rating: 9 The Crew: Mission Deep Sea is proof that trick-taking can be cooperative without losing its bite. Instead of trying to outplay each other, you’re trying to complete mission objectives as a team, under tight communication restrictions. You’re playing cards silently, hoping other players understand your strategies, earnt game after game through your own groups dynamics. The game makes this feel tense rather than gimmicky. When it works, it’s one of the most satisfying “we did it” moments you can get from a deck of cards. What makes Mission Deep Sea stand out over the original (this is a sequel) is how flexible and varied the objectives feel. It’s still recognisably The Crew, but it’s more elegant in the way it asks you to coordinate, and it can be more challenging too. The best sessions are the ones where your group slowly starts reading each other through play patterns and timing, building a shared language of leads and sacrifices without ever having to break the silence. And the progression over various missions becomes alarmingly addictive! Yes, the luck of the deal can spike difficulty, and the “no talking” pressure can frustrate some groups. But the design is so clean, the replayability so high, and the portability so good that it earns its place on this list effortlessly. If you want a trick-taker that feels like a campaign of little shared victories, this is one of the best because it turns teamwork into the main mechanic, not an afterthought. The Mind-Bending One: Cat In The Box And the best for trying something new. Current BGG rank: 370 Published by: Bézier Games Designed by: Muneyuki Yokouchi (横内宗幸) WBG Rating: 8 Cat in the Box is the trick-taker I recommend to people who think they’ve seen every twist the genre can offer. The “quantum” idea is the hook: suits aren’t fixed until you play a card and declare what it is, with a central board tracking which numbers and colours have already been claimed. Each card can be any colour, but once a colour has been claimed for a specific number, that's it. You cannot play that card again. That would create a paradox. It’s instantly intriguing, and after a couple of hands you realise it’s also quietly brutal because every play changes what will be legal later. The tension comes from the paradox risk. If you paint yourself into a corner and can’t make a legal play, you trigger a paradox and take a chunky penalty. That means you’re not only trying to win tricks and hit your prediction, you’re managing space and availability like it’s a puzzle. Watching the board tighten over a round is delicious, especially at four or five players where the state shifts constantly and every confident plan has a chance of collapsing. It’s not a gentle onboarding for beginners, and it demands more brainpower than your average trick-taker, but that’s exactly the point. The strategy is deep, the decisions feel fresh, and it rewards sharp planning and observation in a way few games in the genre manage. Cat in the Box is one of the best trick-takers because it doesn’t just add a twist, it changes how you think  about suits, risk, and control. The One With Theme: Origin Story And the best to play if you want a longer single game experience. Current BGG rank: 2,299 Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by:   J amey Stegmaier , Pete Wissinger WBG Rating: 8.5 Origin Story feels like someone asked, “What if a trick-taker actually had a story arc?” and then committed to the bit. Underneath, it’s classic 52-card trick-taking with the Love suit as trump, played across five rounds of eight tricks. All very familiar. The twist is the tableau: each round you draft a Story card and use stamina to charge abilities, building an engine over the game. You’re not just surviving hands, you’re developing a character, and it’s rare for a card game to make theme feel that intertwined with the mechanics. The hero/villain dial is the secret sauce. Every round you choose your alignment in secret and reveal simultaneously: heroes want to win tricks for points, villains are trying to lose everything for a big pay-out. Suddenly your “best” play isn’t always the highest card, it’s the card that fits the role you’ve chosen and the powers you’ve charged. Throw in the one-off event in round three and the superhero reveal in round five with a huge points opportunity based on the engine you have built up tot his point, and the whole thing has a tidy rhythm and a genuinely satisfying payoff. It’s longer than many trick-takers and could overwhelm casual card players who just want something like Hearts, and the solo mode (while solid) loses the warmth that comes from reacting to other people’s evolving engines. But when it clicks, it absolutely sings: clever, tense, and bursting with personality. Origin Story is one of the best trick-takers because it turns progression and character-building into the reason you care about every trick, not just the points at the end. The Solo: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game And the best to play if you to feel part of a story. Current BGG rank: 173 Published by: Office Dog Designed by: Bryan Bornmueller WBG Rating: 9 If you care about solo mode, Fellowship immediately jumps a tier, because it actually has one. You run four characters at once, each with a simple win condition. It sounds like a lot to manage, but in practice it’s surprisingly clean because the characters are straightforward and the goals do the heavy lifting. And in essence, it is no different to the multi-player version of the game. Simply that you can see four hands at once and need to figure out how to achieve each players round goal. The campaign structure is also a natural fit for solo play. Each chapter is short, the listed 20-minute playtime is pretty true for a single game, although some will be quicker, and the “keep going until you win” campaign loop makes failure feel like a quick reset rather than a brick wall. The big win is how easy it is to start and stop. This is the kind of solo game you can play when you’re tired or distracted, because the decisions are engaging without being exhausting. You’ll still have plenty to chew on, but you won’t need to hold a million conditional rules in your head to make progress. As a solo trick-taker, this offers a rare thing: thematic, approachable, and genuinely replayable solo fun. If you want a campaign trick-taker you can actually enjoy alone, that’s why Fellowship earns its place among the best. Top 5 Trick-Taking Games If you’ve read this far and just want the “tell me which one to buy” answer: pick Skull King  if you want loud, competitive, easy-to-teach chaos for three to eight and don’t mind a bit of swing; pick The Crew: Mission Deep Sea  if you want the smartest co-op, mission-by-mission, where the table learns a shared language in silence; pick Cat in the Box  if you want your trick-taking to feel like a tense brain puzzle with a delicious risk of blowing up in your hands (best at four or five); pick Origin Story  if you want a longer, meatier one-and-done experience with real powers; and pick Fellowship  if solo play is king and you want a Middle-earth campaign in a small box. Different flavours, same goal: a trick-taker that actually feels memorable the moment the first card hits the table. Which one is right for you?

Monkey Mayhem Review WBG Score:  6 Player Count:  2–8 You’ll like this if you like:  Rat-a-Tat Cat, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, Snap Published by:   Scrungo Games Designed by:   Jeff Grisenthwaite This is a review copy @explosmofficial @ giftpruk See our review policy here Monkey Mayhem is exactly what the name promises: a noisy, chaotic little card game where players are constantly watching each other’s hands and waiting for the perfect moment to snatch a foam banana. It’s fast, silly, and designed to create those loud moments where someone shouts “BANANA!” while everyone else groans and flips their cards over. This is very much a party-style filler game. It’s quick to learn, quick to play, and thrives on energy at the table rather than deep strategy. The twist is that just when everyone thinks they know what’s happening, the monkey wrench can suddenly flip the entire scoring condition and reward the highest hand instead of the lowest. If that sounds a bit ridiculous, well… that’s kind of the point. How to set up Monkey Mayhem Setup is extremely quick. Shuffle the deck of banana cards and deal each player their own personal draw pile. In most games players receive fifteen cards, although with eight players that number drops slightly so everyone has enough. From their draw pile, each player draws four cards to form their starting hand. These four cards are the only cards they will be comparing during the round, so managing that small hand is the key to the game. Place the banana and the monkey wrench within easy reach of all players, and create the first Jackpot by placing three cards from the deck face-up in the centre of the table. Once everyone is ready, the chaos begins. How to play Monkey Mayhem Monkey Mayhem is played in real time rather than with traditional turns. Everyone is drawing and discarding at the same time, trying to improve their four-card hand as quickly as possible. Players repeatedly draw a card from their personal pile and discard one from their hand, attempting to lower the total value of their four cards. The goal is to have the lowest total when someone grabs the banana. The cards are numbered zero to five. If you think your hand is the lowest at the table, you shout “BANANA!” and grab the foam banana. Everyone immediately reveals their hands. If you were correct, you win the Jackpot cards in the centre of the table and add them to your collection. If you were wrong, you must add more cards to the Jackpot, making it even more tempting for the next round. However, there is another option. If you believe you have the highest hand instead of the lowest, you can grab the monkey wrench instead of the banana. This flips the scoring condition for that moment. If your hand is indeed the highest, you gain cards while the lowest hand is penalized. This constant risk-reward tension keeps players watching each other closely. Grab too early and you might be wrong. Wait too long and someone else may beat you to it. Rounds continue until players start running out of cards. Once someone is eliminated, the game continues until the final Jackpot is claimed. The winner is the player who ends the game with the most cards. Is it fun? Monkey Mayhem Review Monkey Mayhem is a classic “chaos filler.” It isn’t trying to be a clever strategic card game. Instead, it aims to create quick bursts of excitement, laughter, and the occasional desperate grab for a foam banana. The simultaneous play works well for keeping everyone engaged. Nobody is waiting for their turn, and because rounds are so short, the game moves quickly from one chaotic moment to the next. The banana and wrench props also do more work than you might expect. They add a physical element that makes players react instinctively rather than calmly calculating every move. For families and younger players, this works nicely. The game is easy to explain, the numbers are simple, and the quick pace means people stay involved. Kids especially seem to enjoy the moment of grabbing the banana and declaring victory. For more experienced gamers, however, the appeal may wear thin after a few rounds. The cards only range from zero to five, and because each player is working through their own personal deck, you often see the same values appearing repeatedly. The randomness of each deck also means some players simply start with better odds than others. That said, Monkey Mayhem works best when treated as a quick party filler rather than a centrepiece game. Pull it out between heavier games, bring it to a family gathering, or toss it in a travel bag for a holiday trip. In those settings, the simple rules and short playtime help it shine. In the end, Monkey Mayhem delivers exactly what it promises: ten minutes of loud, frantic card swapping with a banana flying across the table. Pros Fast, energetic gameplay that keeps everyone involved Simple rules make it easy for families and casual players Banana and wrench props add fun physical interaction Cons Limited strategy and replay value for experienced gamers Individual decks can create uneven starting odds Can become repetitive after several rounds Monkey Mayhem is a light, noisy little filler that thrives on chaos more than cleverness. It’s quick to teach, easy to travel with, and works best with a lively group that doesn’t mind a bit of randomness. If your table enjoys fast party games where people are shouting and grabbing things off the table, this one will probably earn a few laughs. Just be prepared… once the banana appears, things can get a little bananas. 🍌

Heads Will Roll WBG Score:  7.5 Player Count:  2–10 You’ll like this if you like:  KLASK, Pitch Car, Flick Em Up Published by:   Lay Waste Games Designed by:   Matt Fantastic This is a free review copy from @ laywastegames @ giftpruk See our review policy here . Heads Will Roll is one of those tiny games that makes a big first impression. You open the box and out spill a handful of chunky metal pieces: skulls, a shield, and a treasure chest. They clink together with a satisfying weight that immediately feels more like something you’d find scattered across a dragon’s hoard than a traditional board game. And in a way, that’s exactly the point. The premise is that dragons, after reducing adventurers to a pile of skulls and treasure, invented their own little game with the leftovers. This is a pocket-sized dexterity game that can fit almost anywhere. A pub table, a coffee shop, the corner of a board game café table that’s already crowded with bigger games. It’s quick to explain, quick to play, and wonderfully chaotic when things start going wrong. The goal is simple: flick your shield across the table through a scatter of skulls, line up a perfect shot, and smash into the treasure chest to bank your points. First player to reach 21 points wins. How to set up Heads Will Roll Setup takes about ten seconds, which is one of the game’s great strengths. Each player simply takes the six metal pieces: four skulls, one shield, and the treasure chest. The skulls come in two colours: two silver and two copper. These act as your scoring gates during play. The shield is the piece you will flick, and the treasure chest is your scoring target. To begin a round, the active player gathers all six pieces in their hand and rolls them out across the table. That roll determines the layout of the play area. Sometimes everything lands neatly spaced apart, giving you plenty of room to plan a clever shot. Other times the pieces bunch together in a messy pile, forcing you to improvise or attempt something risky. Once the pieces are rolled, the turn begins. How to play Heads Will Roll On your turn, you flick the shield across the table in an attempt to score points. The aim is to flick the shield into the treasure chest. If you hit the chest, you bank the points you earned during that turn. If you miss, you score nothing. Before hitting the chest, however, you can try to pass the shield between pairs of skulls to earn extra points. Passing between the copper skulls gives you a small bonus, while passing between the silver skulls grants a larger one. If the skulls happen to land in matching orientations, the points can increase even further. The trick is that the shield must reach the treasure chest cleanly. If it collides with something it shouldn’t, or misses the chest entirely, those bonus points disappear instantly. Because of this, every turn becomes a tiny puzzle. Do you take the safe shot and bank a small number of points, or attempt a flashy multi-skull flick that could earn a huge score? Players continue taking turns rolling the pieces and flicking the shield until someone reaches 21 points and wins the game. Is it fun? Heads Will Roll Review Heads Will Roll sits squarely in the category of “small game that creates big table moments.” The rules are simple enough to teach in about thirty seconds, but the physical skill element makes every turn unpredictable. One moment someone is lining up a careful shot for a couple of safe points, and the next someone else blasts through two skull gates and slams into the treasure chest for a massive swing. The metal components are a big part of the charm. They have a satisfying heft, and the clatter they make when rolled onto the table gives the game a distinctive presence. Even people across the room tend to glance over when a handful of metal skulls lands with a thud. It feels tactile and slightly ridiculous in the best possible way. Because the layout of the pieces changes every turn, the game also has a nice little layer of improvisation. You quickly start scanning the table for clever angles, trying to figure out if you can squeeze the shield through a narrow gap before banking the points. Some turns feel like a calculated trick shot, while others end in spectacular failure when the shield veers off in completely the wrong direction. The biggest factor here is randomness. The initial roll can create wildly different opportunities from turn to turn. Sometimes the skulls land perfectly spaced and offer up a beautiful scoring line. Other times everything piles together and the best you can hope for is a cautious flick toward the chest. Where Heads Will Roll really shines is as a travel or pub game. It plays quickly, supports a surprisingly large player count, and produces the kind of laughter that comes from risky shots and glorious mistakes. This is not a deep game, nor does it try to be. Instead, it’s a pocket-sized dexterity toy that encourages a bit of showmanship. If your group enjoys flicking games, light competition, and the occasional heroic failure, it delivers exactly what it promises. Pros Great tactile components with satisfyingly heavy metal pieces Extremely quick to teach and play Portable and works almost anywhere Cons Highly dependent on the randomness of the initial roll Limited strategic depth for repeated long sessions Heads Will Roll is a tiny game with a very clear goal: throw some metal skulls on the table, line up a shot, and hope your flicking skills are better than your opponents’. It’s fast, chaotic, and perfect for filling those moments between bigger games or while waiting for food at a pub table. If you enjoy dexterity games and don’t mind the occasional wildly unfair turn, this little dragon-designed pastime is easy to recommend. Just remember: in this cave, fortune favours the bold… and occasionally the lucky flick.

Wingspan : Americas WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count:1-6 You'll like this if you like: Everdell , Lost Ruins of Arnak , Furnace . Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Elizabeth Hargrave   This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Wingspan doesn't need an introduction at this point. It's a modern staple, and its expansions have steadily added more birds, more bonuses, and more ways to score. You can read our full review here . Americas is the first one that genuinely changes the feel of every turn. If you've ever finished a turn thinking, “If only I had one more egg, one more card, one more anything,” this is the expansion that keeps handing you that little nudge. Let's get it on the table and see how it plays. How to set up Wingspan: Americas Set the game up as usual, but add in the two new boards. One is the hummingbird garden board to hold the new hummingbird cards. Shuffle the new deck, place it next to the board, and deal five face-up cards into the slots. Give one hummingbird card to each player. The other new board is for the hummingbird tracker track. Give one to each player along with the five trackers. Place each one on the starting spot. Finally, give each player a mat overlay, and have them place this over the left side of their player mat. They will place the hummingbird card they took during set-up into the middle grasslands space. And of course we have new bird cards! Add them to your existing cards, or use just these if you prefer. There are new goals which you can also add in, or exclusively use. They only work with this expansion. There are also new green eggs and some more nectar tokens, and eight new bonus cards you can use with this expansion. How to play Wingspan: Americas The game works as usual, but when you activate a row, after triggering any bird cards present, you will activate the final hummingbird space. This will either be empty or full. If it is empty, you will bring over one of the five hummingbird cards present on the hummingbird garden board. This is placed into this free space on the mat overlay, and then the action on the bottom left of the hummingbird card is taken. This lets you gain a resource of your choice, a new card or an egg, trigger another action on any bird card in this row, or move up a track on the hummingbird tracker mat. More on that later. Or if the space is full, you will move this hummingbird card back to the hummingbird garden board, placing it on top of one of the other cards there. You will then move up the track on the hummingbird tracker board for either the symbol shown on the card you just placed, or on the card you just placed this card on. Moving up the tracks allows you to gain extra points at the end of the game. Each tracker starts on a minus three position, but you can move it up to a maximum of ten points for each one. Along the way, there are hummingbird symbols which allow you to carry out another hummingbird action. Either to attract a new hummingbird card, or fly one back to the hummingbird garden board. Again, taking the benefit associated with either action. Is it fun? Wingspan: Americas Expansion Review The hummingbirds bolt a bonus step onto each habitat activation, so even a “meh” row suddenly has teeth. It's brilliant at two or three players. But take note. At five or six, it can noticeably stretch the runtime. The hummingbirds don't feel bolted on. They slip into the flow so naturally that after a round you'll wonder why the base game never had a “final little flourish” at the end of an activation. The loop is simple: invite a hummingbird in for an immediate perk, then send it back later to climb a tracker and score. The hummingbirds fly back and forth, just as they do in the world. It's thematic, snappy, and quietly addictive. In our first game, I finished a grasslands activation, grabbed a hummingbird that let me draw the extra card I was missing, and that single draw set up a wonderful chain the following turn. It's that kind of expansion: small decisions that keep paying dividends. The addition of the hummingbirds is a great bit of design because it makes the row activation feel alive, even if you don't have many birds there, or birds with "when activated" powers. Just think, how often have you played this game when you needed just one more card, or one more egg or resource? Now, you may well just end your turn by getting just what you wanted, setting up your next turn to be that much more efficient. It's a great new addition and one that I personally adore. But it does not come without a very real and important cost to consider when deciding if this expansion fits your group. Time! The hummingbird action is quick. Choose from one of five cards, add it to your board, and take the associated benefit. Or fly a card back and move up one of five tracks. But you can sometimes gain an extra hummingbird action this way. And the choice of which track to go up can be crucial for end-of-round or end-game scoring. As well as the choice of which bird to choose to get the right benefit, this needs to be right. This all takes time. As such, at higher player counts, the rulebook suggests removing one action cube from the game for all players to reduce the bloated game length. I hate this. I think Wingspan has a tight and correct action number with the current diminishing numbers each round. It's genius and perfect. I don't want less. But I understand the need to cull the game length at higher player counts. Therefore, I can only really recommend this expansion for one to three players, or for those who are happy to play a longer game. This will add on 10-25 minutes per game, maybe more with five or six players. Playing at higher counts with this, you need to accept that. I am not sure that would be for me. But at two or three, it's fine. At two or three players, Americas is an instant yes from me. The hummingbirds turn “fine” activations into satisfying turns, and the tracker gives you a new little race to care about without changing what Wingspan fundamentally is. At four plus, it becomes more about your group's tolerance for extra thinking time. Everyone now has a meaningful decision at the end of every activation, and those decisions add up. If your table already has a bit of “hang on, did I trigger that bird?” energy, this will magnify it. One of our games had an end-of-round power that effectively handed me two hummingbird actions, and it was brutal in a way that surprised us. Two rounds in a row the end-of-round goal was “highest on a specific hummingbird track” and I pinched it late, after someone had led all round. I had a great time. The table… less so. That’s not necessarily a flaw, but it's worth knowing: Americas can create last-minute steals that feel spicy to some groups and maddening to others. This expansion is a nice fit for players who like their expansions to feel integrated rather than bolted on, since the hummingbird step becomes part of every activation. I prefer it to Asia in this way. But if you're someone who already thinks Wingspan can run a little long, or you prefer your turns to be clean and fast with minimal extra triggers, Americas may add just enough extra fiddle to irritate. The hummingbird tracker starts at minus three, which is a fun little nudge to engage with it as soon as possible, but it also means you'll feel obliged to babysit yet another scoring lane. And if your table already struggles with “trigger everything in the right order,” you may end up with a few more wait-a-sec moments per round. I can understand why this may deter some, so my score has to reflect this. Pros Hummingbirds add a smart, satisfying loop to every row activation. Tracker paths create meaningful, visible progress and payoff. Feels integrated into the core flow rather than disruptive. New bird cards are gorgeous as always, with some wonderfully thought out and well-integrated new powers. Theme of hummingbirds flitting back and forth is just delightful. Cons Adds extra steps that can slow down already-long turns Another set of components to manage and remember Can feel like “one more system” if you prefer leaner Wingspan Americas is a proper “one more turn” upgrade for Wingspan. At two or three players, I'd happily keep it in the box permanently (not that it fits!) because it makes every activation feel like it matters. At five or six, I'd only bring it out if everyone at the table is up for a longer game. Either way, it's clever, thematic, and just a little bit sneaky. Hummingbirds, eh? Always stealing your nectar and your patience.

In 2025, I played 172 different games. Within those 172 games, I amassed a total of 648 plays. I appreciate that is higher than the average. But 1. I do run a review website and 2. I adore playing games! It is worth noting, a lot were smaller games where you can log a lot of plays in one. Obviously, not every game was new, launched that year. But roughly 35% were. With the amount of games, it is hard to narrow down a top ten. As such, this year, I thought I would do ten of my favourites, not necessarily the top ten. Each game would most certainly be up there in my top ten, were I to rank them. But they are here as I felt they were the best for a specific reason. OK, here we go! Best Game of the Year 2025 - Kinfire Council Check our review here I adore this game. It looks gorgeous, plays so smoothly, and is full of non-stop, interesting, meaningful, and deeply strategic choices. It has held up over multiple plays and at multiple player counts. It is quite different in a two-player game. It changes a fair bit, but not in a bad way, just different. And I think that helps keep it fresh. It can be slightly longer to teach than the average euro, with a lot of things to look at and understand, as is the case with games like this with multiple worker placement spots. You need to understand the options available to understand the game, and a new player will struggle against a more experienced player because of this. But aside from that, this is pure gaming joy for me and deserves its spot as my WBG game of the year for 2025. Best Co-operative Game 2025 - Corps of Discovery Check our review here The sense of adventure in this game is off the scale, matched by a constant undercurrent of tension and genuinely enjoyable table talk. As a two-player cooperative experience, I absolutely love it. Every decision feels important, and from the very first turn there is a real urgency to get exactly what you need, even though you start with almost no information. You only know where the peak is, and that is it. Very quickly, though, you begin to build a shared picture of the map in your head, and the discussions around how to reach your goal are what truly make this game special. Because of that, the solo experience does not quite land for me, even though Boardgame Geek suggests this is how the game is best played. I still enjoy it, and I can see the appeal, especially for players who like quiet, thoughtful puzzles. However, so much of the fun comes from talking through possibilities and jointly working out where things might be. I miss that collaborative decision-making too much when playing alone. For me, this is a game that really shines when shared and as such, is my co-operative game of 2025. Most Innovative Game 2025 - Vantage Check our review here As with many ambitious projects of this nature, Vantage has encountered its share of critics as well as admirers. Personally, I can appreciate both the criticism and the support. However, I find myself siding with the view that this game is a stroke of gaming genius. The scale, ambition, and sheer determination of the designer to craft such an expansive, surprising, delightful, and seamless experience deserve significant recognition. Each game feels unique, and it takes just moments to bring this large, heavy box to the table and start playing. Some games end in just a few turns, for better or worse, while others can last for hours. Some of this is beyond your control, but as you become more familiar with the game, you can begin to shape and influence the type of game you want. The sense of adventure, discovery, and excitement is what keeps me coming back time and again. I want to learn everything this game has to offer and uncover every hidden secret. This could very well make it one of my most played games in the coming years. Best Table Presence 2025 - Cretaceous Rails Check our review here Just look at it! Little plastic Dinosaurs and trains! What more do you want? It's bright, colourful, and begins like this! Instead of building it up, you actually dismantle it and add it to your own player board. Therefore, every game of Cretaceous Rails kicks off with this vibrant plastic display, inviting everyone nearby to join in and play! The game is incredibly enjoyable as well. It combines various mechanics to create a combo-tastic point salad experience that feels arcade-like in its fun, yet incorporates tight strategy and structure at its core. It's truly a delightful experience, and every time I teach it to new players, they initially think it seems a bit gimmicky and "just a bunch of toys!". However, once they start playing, they experience the excitement and challenge in every turn. And by the end, they are left frustrated by how expensive the game is to purchase because they want it! There is a cheaper version without the cool dino models, but they are such a joy that if you want this game, maybe consider selling a few other games you no longer play much and get the full version. It's not always worth to get the full blinged out game, but here I feel it is! Enjoy, my friends! This is very deserving of being WBG best table presence for 2025. Best Expansion 2025 - Kavango Lodges Check our review here I love Kavango. It's a light weight but thoroughly enjoyable game that hits every time. There are a few issues with it though that I felt held it back from being great. Lodges fixes them all! As such, this expansion is an absolute must-have for me and deserving of WBG Expansion of the Year for 2025. If you own the base game, you should definitely get this. If the card placement in the base game felt insignificant to you, give this a try; it resolves that issue with such simplicity and a delightful extra wrinkle you will adore. It's a fantastic production from an amazing team, who consistently deliver excellent work. The experience is incredibly enjoyable as well. It's easy to teach, a lot of fun to play, and holds up to multiple sessions, as two and a half years of gaming with this box have shown me. I first played this in September 2023, and I still love it now. The expansion adds just that little extra enjoyment, fixes the main issues in the base game, and makes me want to come back to this game time and time again. When I have 40 minutes and want something light but crunchy, this is often my choice, and the expansion made that happen. As such, this is very deserving of my WBG expansion of the year for 2025. Best Art / Graphic design 2025 - Tokaido Crossroads & Matsuri Check our review here This award is highly subjective and personal, but I absolutely love the beautiful simplicity combined with the intricate detail found in the art of Tokaido Crossroads & Matsuri. The same stunning art was present in the base game and the original versions of this, so it's a bit of a cheat to choose this re-released combined version of the new expansion as my Best Art award for 2025. However, since it was released in 2025 in a new print and version, and it's truly breath-taking, it gets my vote! Best Thematic Game 2025 - Molly House Check our interview with designer here I don't own this game, and I've only played it once. Consequently, it hasn't been reviewed on this site yet. However, after my single playthrough, I was so captivated by the game's theme that I very quickly arranged an interview with the designer, just to satisfy my own desire to understand this game more! I don't usually do that; I don't usually come away from a game with so many questions. And because of this experience, I believe it deserves to be the winner of WBG Best Thematic Game of 2025. It truly captured me during that one play. Best Two Player 2025 - Tag Team This game does not have a review on the site yet; I've been too busy playing it! It sets up and can be learned or taught in mere moments, and games are fast, frantic, and so fun! There are a number of characters to choose from, with lots of combinations of fighters you can work with, making each game feel different. The first 15 or so games are like a learning experience where you just want to understand the game more, get better at it, and play it over and over. It has captivated me and is a regular one for me to play when I have just a few moments and one buddy to sit down with. And I think it will be this game for me for many years to come. New characters with future expansions will only keep this game fresh; it feels limitlessly expansive in this way, and I just cannot wait to play the new characters when they come out and get better at this game. I lose a lot! Best Puzzle Game 2025 - Take Time Take Time is a campaign game that plays over a number of rounds. I have not finished it yet, and as such, this game has not had a full review on the site yet either. But when it does, I can see this game getting a very high score. It is such a clever mix of mechanics. It will captivate you from turn one. It feels like The Mind mixed with a few other games, but presented in such a new and interesting way. The envelopes you open as you progress through the campaign are worryingly addictive for me. I am so easily pleased when it comes to unlockable content through a grind! But the actual gameplay of working out which card to play, where, and when is delightful and works every time. An ingenious design and one for any puzzle fans, much deserving of WBG's best puzzle game of 2025. Best Solo Game 2025 - The Hobbit There And Back Again Another campaign game I haven't finished, yet I'm utterly delighted by it! It's beautifully thematic, with each chapter feeling different. For fans of LOTR like me, it contains many clever nods to the books and links the story to the gameplay in a truly ingenious way. I don't play solo often, but when I do, this game is the one that brings me back the most. Apart from Vantage, which I also enjoy solo. However, with Vantage, I've enjoyed exploring it with two players more than on my own, and with The Hobbit, I felt that playing with two just slowed it down. Solo, although challenging, is where this game truly shines for me, and as such, The Hobbit There And Back Again is WBG's Best Solo Game for 2025. Honourable mentions: March of the Ants - I love this game. It is a wonderful new edition of a modern classic, making 4x so quick, accessible, and doing so with such a unique theme. This game deserves a mention for that alone. The fact that it plays so well and is utterly absorbing from turn one only goes to show how hard it was to pick just ten games again this year. Check our review here Finspan - This is not the most innovative game in the world being the third "span" style game to come out. But for making the Wingspan universe so accessible, it deserves praise. This game is so simple, so quick to learn and teach, but still scratches that Wingspan itch. It looks gorgeous, and I imagine it will see multiple expansions through the years, keeping it fresh and alive. I'm a big fan. Check our review here Cytress - I would love to include this game for the ambition alone. For such a big, bold, and brave project from a first-time designer with some wonderful table presence to get the backing it did on Kickstarter, and then the clear love and time to develop, not rush the production, but put out a thought-out, well-crafted, and wonderfully enjoyable game that has layers to it both in terms of its physical components, but also in the strategy you can start to develop as you play. A worthy mention in this list. Check our review here So there you have it. What a year 2025 was. Let's hope 2026 brings even more joy to our tables. I know it already has for me. I hope it does for you.

Viticulture: Bordeaux WBG Score: 9.5 Player Count: 1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Lords of Waterdeep , Anachrony , Stone Age Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by:   Jamey Stegmaier , Alan Stone This is a review copy. See our review policy here We have previously reviewed Viticulture, the base game. You can check that out here . There have been a number of expansion for this wonderful game already, including the close to essential Tuscany , the co-op variant that we covered here, Viticulture World . As well as a few other small additions such as the Moor Visitors expansion. And now we have this new expansion, Bordeaux. It's essentially just a new board, but with a few cool new features! Viticulture is a worker placement game that somehow makes running a vineyard feel both relaxing and quietly ruthless, like a chilled weekend in Tuscany that turns into a competitive spreadsheet when nobody’s looking. You pick your “wake-up” spot to set turn order and snag a bonus, then spend summer building your little wine empire by planting vines, upgrading your operation, and setting up your engine. Winter is when the engine purrs: harvest grapes, turn them into wine, let it age into something worth bragging about, then fulfil orders for points. The clever bit is the seasonal squeeze, blow all your workers in summer and winter becomes a sad little nothingburger, but pace yourself and you feel like a genius. It scales nicely, the Grande worker saves you from the worst blocking, and it’s wonderfully thematic, even if the cards can occasionally let someone win by running the “wine-themed theme park” strategy instead of actually making much wine at all. So, what's new with this expansion? Bordeaux keeps Viticulture’s heart beating exactly the same way: place a worker (or pass), chase victory points, and turn grapes into glorious bottles while your plans wobble under pressure. But now, we have four seasons instead of two. Wow! But hang on, didn't we have that with the Tuscany expansion? Well, yes. We did. But this is a whole new four season board with a few twists! The new Bordeaux board plays nicely with almost all other Viticulture expansions, so it feels less like a replacement and more like a new stage to perform on, with the notable exception of Viticulture World, which stays in its own lane with its own board. As a campaign style co-op, World is a hard world to upgrade or expand. Where Tuscany expanded without much thought to the game length, it was more about the overall experience, Bordeaux feels like Viticulture after it has had a strong coffee (like Tuscany) but also a good chat with a game designer who actually listens, because it tackles the niggles that slow the base game down and turns them into shiny new decisions. You get a faster start and shorter play time, even with a higher point target! Which is a blessing at higher player counts. There are now new bonuses that stop the board feeling empty and polite. Card draw becomes something you steer rather than something that happens to you, coins matter more as real engine fuel as they count to end game points now. The wake up track is now fully awake, with extra bonuses. And there is a new interesting Trade system. New experts are introduced, offering a cool way to upgrade up to four worker placement spots, creating your own personal asymmetrical tech-tree. And the whole system nudges you back toward making wine instead of looping the same non-winemaking tricks so many seasoned players have learned over the years. It also sprinkles in chances for genuinely positive interaction, and gives you a satisfying end-game pat on the back for smart surplus management, so even those extra coins, grapes, and bottles feel like they are doing something useful right up to the final toast. This is the Bordeaux board, with the original board placed on top for a size comparison. What's the Additional Set up for the Viticulture: Bordeaux Expansion Bordeaux adds a few extra pre-game steps to the base Viticulture pour, mostly to get the new board humming from turn one. First and foremost, use this board instead of the regular one! You pop the first-player token onto the wake-up chart, then after shuffling you reveal two vine cards and two wine order cards as a little “public preview” for the green grape and purple order cards. You cannot snag these face up cards during setup, but they are there to chose from at every other points of the game, rather than simply drawing at random. Another significant change is that everyone begins with only the six-value field available, while the other fields are already "sold." This prevents players from selling owned fields on the first turn to gain additional money. This tactic is now less critical because players now start with three money and the residual track begins at one instead of zero. Therefore, you will generate at least one money from the start each round. On top of your normal starting bonuses, and the three Lira, players also have a two-value grape and a one-value wine token, in either white or red. And four cubes of you colour, more on that later! What are the main rule changes with the Viticulture: Bordeaux Expansion To use Bordeaux, you basically play normal Viticulture but swap in the Bordeaux board and enjoy the new toys. Also keep two vine cards and two wine order cards face up on the board at all times, and when you draw one, replace it immediately so the market always feels alive. And now run with four season instead of two. Watch the residual track, because crossing certain thresholds now gives you instant one-off victory points, and you can even earn them again later if you dip and climb back up. The wake-up chart is juicier too, with bonuses that can affect everyone on the top row, and plenty more bonuses than ever before to age grapes or wine, refresh the face-up cards, let you draw any card type, or even pull one of your workers back from fall to use them again in the Winter! Plus a last-row choice between a card and a victory point. It feels a lot more generous and all helps move the game on faster. The main new feature is the introduction of Experts. This is a new Spring action where, if chosen, you can place one of your cubes under any other worker placement space to gain a permanent small advantage whenever you perform that action later in the game. You have four cubes, allowing you to hire four experts throughout the game. I noticed that this spot was highly coveted in the early game. They are new, attractive, and it seems most efficient to deploy your Experts on the board as soon as possible. I do wish there was a minor benefit when others use those spaces and prevent you from using them, but perhaps that will be included in another expansion! The Trade space has become much more intriguing. You can choose a cost and a benefit, but each specific trade can only be executed once during the game. When you complete a trade, you place a glass token to block that trade for the remainder of the game. A couple of other action tweaks keep things moving: there are now two places to Harvest, in Summer and Fall, and winter now lets you sell a wine token for victory points based on wine type. With a handy points grid for this right there on the board. The game now ends when someone hits 25 victory points instead of 20, but with all these other tweaks, benefits, and kick starts, I found games to be 15 minutes quicker, even though we had a higher target. And now, at the end, players convert leftover grapes and wine into lira and trade every 10 Lira for one extra victory point, which makes end-game leftovers feel like a proper final toast rather than a sad waste of good grapes. Is It Fun? Viticulture: Bordeaux Expansion Review Viticulture: Bordeaux is the kind of expansion that does not try to reinvent your vineyard, it just tidies the paths, upgrades the cellar, and quietly makes everything feel smoother. The base game is still there in full, the seasonal rhythm, the worker placement squeeze, the joy of turning grapes into bottles into points, but Bordeaux adds smart little nudges that get you moving faster and keep the whole table more engaged. Tuscany added the grunt and complexity. And now Bordeaux lets you drink it all in faster. Face-up vine and order cards make card draw feel less like fate and more like choice, coins become proper engine fuel instead of loose change, and the design gently pushes you back toward actually making wine rather than running the “wine-themed theme park” strategy on repeat. These subtle changes, based on themes of the base game's evolved gripes, seem reactionary to thousands of plays. A development a game can only have if two things are in place. First, the game is popular enough so that it is played by thousands of people, and multiple times. Gaining knowledge only learnt from repeat plays. People need to get to know the game intimately, so they can forge strategies and gaming patterns. And then the game can adjust to make the ways people start to "game" the game less formulaic and more dynamic. And second, the designer needs to be able to first acknowledge this is happening and a potential problem, and then second, accept it creates a less than enjoyable game experience, and take the time to find ways to correct it. In many ways, Bordeaux is an expansion to correct the issues the base game's popularity and multiple plays have allowed the designer to find. That seems quite unique in modern board gaming. We have had a few game offers expansion that speed up the start, but not correct dull strategies people often employ within the game. People who already love Viticulture, especially those who play at higher counts, will probably adore Bordeaux because it speeds up the early game, adds better bonus options, and keeps more actions relevant as the years roll on. For two player or solo, the game is enhanced, but the main appeal to me is the pace of the game with more players. The Expert system is a lovely bit of seasoning too, benefiting all player counts, giving you a satisfying sense of building your own specialist winery without adding loads of rules overhead. The game now offers some asymmetry in the way you develop your own skills. Of course, each game, players can build different structures, focusing on different strategies. But all are available to all players. With the experts, it is one per player. So what you choose is for you only. You won't always get what you want, and this makes the first player benefit even stronger in the first few rounds. Hence the re-jig of the wake-up track and the benefits that help all players being present for the top spot. This is genius and really makes your choice here crucial. If you are the sort of player who likes having a plan, adapting it, and feeling clever when it comes together, Bordeaux gives you more levers to pull and more reasons to pull them. If you want Viticulture to stay slightly chaotic and card-driven, Bordeaux might not be your favourite vintage. I do like the simplicity of the two-season base board and do think it will still appeal to some. But I struggle to see many players feeling this way. Bordeaux adds structure, more incentives, and a clearer steer toward winemaking, which can feel like a nudge in the ribs if you love wild visitor-card swings and messy, lucky moments. But for most, it will just make sense. It adds minimal extra setup and only a few more rule wrinkles, so it can be added in seamlessly and taught to new players without much extra fuss. If you have Tuscany already, then this may not be as exciting to you. But if you don't have Tuscany, I would recommend looking at this. Although I still feel Tuscany is the better expansion, I like having both for the variation. Pros Faster, cleaner starts and better pacing, especially at 5–6 players More agency through face-up cards, improved bonuses, and Expert perks Stronger incentives to make wine, with a satisfying end-game conversion for leftovers Cons Not compatible with Viticulture World, which keeps its own board, which is a small shame, but I only really mention because I cannot think of anything else to say here in the cons! Overall, Bordeaux feels like Viticulture with the rough edges polished and the flavours dialled in, familiar, richer, and a bit more grown-up without losing the fun. It's quicker, but richer. The strategy is more complex, but the game flows faster and smoother. The experience is enhanced, but the game time is reduced. It feels like a trick, but it isn't. It's just good design. If your table already loves the vineyard life, this one is an easy pour, and yes, it is very easy to get carried away. I am blown away that after all these years this wonderful game continues to get better and better. Like a good wine...

Singapore Showdown WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Drafting with set collection Published by: Genie Games Co Designed by:   Eugene Lim This is a review copy. See our review policy here We recently reviewed Peranakan on WBG. It's a delightful tile laying game with some great scoring options. The designer of that game also made this drafting set collection game. Both will be officially released at the UKGE in 2026. Much like Peranakan, the game celebrates Singaporean culture. But where Peranakan focuses on the food, Singapore Showdown highlights and places and the animals. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Singapore Showdown First, place the main board in the centre of the playing area. Next, choose one of the four sets of scoring tiles: A, B, C, or D. Collect a tile in each colour from your chosen set and place them face up in the corresponding area on the main board. Then, give each player a 50-point token and a character piece in their selected colour, and have each player place their character on the starting zero space on the points track. After that, deal each player their cards: 10 cards for a two or three-player game, eight cards for a four-player game, and seven cards for a five-player game. You are now ready to begin. How To Play Singapore Showdown Players will now draft one card from their hand. Simply take one card and place it face down in front of you. Once everyone has chosen, flip over your selected card. Then, pass the remaining cards to the right and take the card handed to you from the player on your left. Repeat this process by choosing one card from your new hand of nine cards, and then pass the remaining cards (now eight) to your right again. Continue this until you choose one card from two, at which point everyone will discard the final unselected card. Players will now score the seven scoring tiles set on the main board during setup. This scoring could depend on having the most icons on the cards compared to others, or the player who gathered the most cards related to a specific area on the board, among other classic set collection scoring methods. Some scoring options are "first to" scenarios, meaning they will score during the round if a player meets the specific requirements of those scoring tiles. Players will then secretly pick one of their nine cards to keep for the next round, new cards will be dealt out, and the drafting and scoring phase will happen for a second time, now with one extra card. After the second round, the player with the most points wins. Is It Fun? Singapore Showdown Board Game Review Singapore Showdown feels like the kind of game you can teach in about five minutes, then spend the next half hour quietly enjoying how much it gives you for something so straightforward. It’s a drafting and set collection game that leans into that lovely “pick one, pass the rest” rhythm, with just enough tension to keep every decision interesting. You are not buried in rules, you are simply making small, punchy decisions over and over: what do I want, what do I deny, what might come back around, and what am I trying to build toward? It’s accessible in the best way. Lighter family gamers will be able to jump in fast, because the core loop is familiar and satisfying, and the game does a nice job of making scoring the “meat” without making the play feel complex. You draft, reveal, pass, repeat, and then you cash it all out against the scoring tiles. Two rounds, a clear finish line, and enough interaction to keep everyone watching what the others are up to without turning it into a mean game. What gives Singapore Showdown real legs is the flexibility baked into the setup. Four different sets of scoring tiles means the game can tilt in different directions depending on which set you choose, and that’s exactly the kind of simple modularity that keeps a light drafting game from going stale. Add the 72 cards in the deck, and you have a lot of variety in what shows up, what scoring tiles become possible, and which strategies feel viable from game to game. Some scoring being “first to” is also a smart touch, because it injects moments of urgency into an otherwise calm drafting flow. Suddenly you are not just collecting, you are racing, and that changes what you pick, when you pick it, and how much you care about denying someone else a key card. Pros Drafting plus set collection is quick, punchy, and consistently fun. Very easy to learn, teach, and play, with a friendly family-weight feel. Four scoring tile sets and 72 cards give it strong replayability for its size. Cons If you want deep engine building or long-term strategy, it may feel too light. The scoring tile effects chosen will matter a lot, so a group that dislikes “compare and score” might not engage as much. Two rounds can end right as some players feel they are getting into a groove. Overall, Singapore Showdown sounds like a cheerful, approachable drafting game with enough variability and tactical choice to make it more than a one-and-done filler. The cultural celebration angle gives it character, the scoring tiles give it flexibility, and the drafting does what good drafting should: it makes you care about one card at a time. If you’ve got family gamers, newer players, or anyone who likes clean decisions and tidy scoring, this one looks like a winner. It’s simple, snappy, and full of little moments where your perfect pick turns into someone else’s problem.

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components will change in the final game. Find out more here There’s a special kind of confidence that comes from sticking the landing on something so big, then immediately deciding to go bigger. Damian did exactly that with Heroes of the Shire  and now he’s back with Light & Shadow , the final instalment in the series, heading to Gamefound on March 3rd. I sat down with him for a chat about what he’s been up to, what’s changed in the game, who it’s built for, and what might be lurking beyond the Shire once this chapter closes. Hello Damian, Heroes Of The Shire was an ambitious project, but it went down a storm, and now you’re back for more. Before we get into the new game, what have the last few years looked like for you? Since the release of Heroes of the Shire, we’ve been full steam ahead developing the final instalment of the series, Light & Shadow, which launches on Gamefound on March 3rd. My partner and I also welcomed a baby last year, which, as you can imagine, has taken up much of our time. That said, it has also been incredibly motivating, he’s my biggest inspiration and a constant reminder of why we’re so passionate about creating something lasting and meaningful. Thats amazing! Congratulations. So sleepless nights and another huge game project! Let’s talk Light & Shadow . When you say this is the final instalment, what’s actually new here? How has the game evolved since the earlier HOTS titles? Combat Maps! In previous Heroes of the Shire games, heroes explored scenario hexes. When a battle started, enemies were summoned and combat happened without a map, taking turns to cast spells. In Light & Shadow, every scenario hex now has its own combat map, stored inside the spiral binders. The hexes still act as a world map, but when a battle begins, you now zoom into that hex. Heroes and enemies are placed directly onto the combat map. Each combat map is unique and matches the theme and artwork of the scenario. The Movement Phase has also changed. Because battles now take place on tactical combat maps, heroes need a way to move. A new Movement Phase has been added. During this phase, players draw three movement cards and choose one. That card determines how much the hero can move during their turn. Another new feature in Light & Shadow is the Roaming Mini-Boss. This enemy moves around the scenario hexes during the game. Its direction is decided by rolling the Boss Die when instructed. As it moves, the mini-boss leaves Encounter Tokens on each hex it travels through. Encounter Tokens. Encounter Tokens are placed on hexes by the roaming mini-boss. When heroes collect one, it triggers an Encounter Card. There are six possible encounters, chosen randomly by rolling a D6. Also, previous games only used cardboard standees, as there was no tactical combat map. With the addition of combat maps, heroes and bosses now move around the battlefield. For this reason, we have introduced premium acrylic standees for heroes and bosses, giving them both a visual and functional upgrade. Heroes are also now rewarded more for levelling up. At Level four, a hero unlocks an additional spell mastery (skill tree). At Level eight, they unlock a powerful master ability. These unlocks give players long-term goals and make progression feel meaningful over many hours of play. Awesome! That’s a lot of new stuff, and it sounds like you’ve leaned harder into tactics and progression. So who is Light & Shadow  really for? What kind of gamer do you see falling in love with it? The game is designed with two distinct modes, each intended to appeal to different types of gaming groups. The Arena Mode is ideal for players who enjoy interactive player-versus-player experiences. It will particularly appeal to fans of games such as Dice Throne, King of Tokyo, Unmatched, and trading card games, with a strong focus on direct interaction and fast-paced play. The Scenario Mode offers a campaign-driven experience designed to be played across multiple sessions. This mode is aimed at players who enjoy deeper, long form games and meaningful progression. Players are rewarded with a robust levelling system that unlocks new spells and abilities, as well as additional level four and level eight hero content introduced in Light & Shadow. With its added depth and complexity, Scenario Mode is very much a game for dedicated gamers. Having both game modes in a single box allows the game to appeal to a wider range of players without compromise. I would agree! I love the Scenario mode myself. If people are reading this and thinking “Right, I’m in” what’s the timeline? When can they back it, and when can they realistically expect to get it to the table? Our crowdfunding campaign will go live on Gamefound on March 3rd, with an estimated fulfilment date of May 2027 and a global retail release planned for summer 2027. Good luck! Last one from me. Once Light & Shadow  launches, what happens next? Is this the end of HOTS for a while, or have you already got the next adventure lined up? There is one more instalment planned for the Heroes of the Shire universe. Details are under wraps for now, but a very 'small' hint might already say enough. In addition, we are developing a new 4X game, which will be our first title outside the Heroes of the Shire universe. While it explores a new setting, it will retain some familiar elements, including shared mechanics such as our cooldown dice system. We look forward to sharing more details in the future. And there you have it: Light & Shadow  is shaping up to be a proper “final chapter” kind of project, with tactical combat maps, roaming troublemakers, and progression that sounds like it’s finally been given room to breathe. The campaign hits Gamefound on March 3rd, so if you’ve been following the series, now’s the moment to circle the date, sharpen your spells, and clear some table space. Just remember: if Damian’s “small hint” is already saying enough, the next instalment might not be the only thing creeping up on us. But what do we think of the game? Light & Shadow sounds like the sort of game that doesn’t just give you a setting, it gives you a world. Not in a vague “there’s some flavour text” way either, but in that deep, rich, lived-in sense where the lore feels baked into the systems and the moments at the table. It’s the final instalment in the Heroes of the Shire series, and it reads like a designer going: right, if we’re closing this chapter, let’s make it sing. The big headline is the shift to tactical combat maps, one for every scenario hex, so battles no longer happen in the abstract. You explore on the world map, then when a fight kicks off you zoom in and play it out on a proper battlefield. That alone screams “more cinematic moments,” the kind you remember afterwards because something went wrong, then very right, then gloriously sideways. Where it really gets juicy, though, is the fighting and spellcraft, because this sounds like a game that understands the joy of throwing magic around but refuses to let it become mindless spam. Spells are gated in a clever way: the more powerful the spell, the less frequently you can use it, and the game tracks that with cooldown dice. You are literally watching your best magic tick back toward availability, which is such a satisfying physical reminder of “not yet… not yet… YES.” Even better, it’s not just waiting around. There are ways to manipulate those cooldown dice, to squeeze them, nudge them, and occasionally pull off that delicious trick of getting a big spell back earlier than you should. Add in a stack of buffs and character boosts, and it starts to feel like a proper buildy playground. Levelling up, Gaining new spells. Stronger, faster, nastier, more efficient, more dangerous, more everything, with choices that actually show up in the next fight rather than disappearing into a spreadsheet. If you like games where combat is about timing and momentum rather than just damage numbers, this sounds like it’ll be your thing. Turn order being driven by agility, and then being something you can mess with mid-game, is a massive deal. Speed yourself up, slow enemies down, engineer a two-turn swing, and suddenly you’re not just reacting, you’re controlling the shape of the fight. That kind of tempo control always creates great table stories, because everyone feels it when you pull it off. And then there are the combos, which sound like the real heart of it. One spell setting up another, which triggers a third effect, which lets you do another thing entirely. That interconnected design is the good stuff, the “I can’t believe that worked” moments that only happen when systems are built to talk to each other. The fact it’s interconnected both in levelling and in the moment-to-moment fighting is exactly what makes a campaign game feel rich rather than repetitive. Pros Spell cooldown dice are a brilliant way to balance power while keeping big moments exciting. Deep combo potential and buff stacking makes builds and battles feel connected and personal. Agility-driven turn order you can manipulate adds real tactical drama and huge swings. Cons With lots of buffs, cooldown manipulation, and combo chains, it could get thinky for some groups. Players who prefer simple “I hit it” turns may bounce off the layered spell interactions. Tactical maps and movement choices may slow pacing too much for some. Light & Shadow is shaping up like a proper capstone: bigger, more tactical, and packed with those wonderful moments where a plan comes together because you built your hero to do exactly this one disgusting thing at exactly the right time. If the lore and campaign structure land the way the combat systems suggest they might, this could be the kind of game where your group talks about specific battles like they were episodes of a show. It looks ready to deliver drama, power spikes, and those glorious chain-reaction turns that make everyone lean in to watch. Just be careful once you start manipulating turn order, because after you’ve had two turns in a row, you’ll want seconds. It’s a dangerous game, but hey, that’s the magic of it.