My buddy Chris turned me on to Fire of Eidolon, a simple dungeon crawler game that’s easy to explain and great fun to play. It supports 1-6 players and is budget priced, even with a ton of expansion options and alternative challenges, tokens, squares, and more. At its most basic you’re wandering through a dungeon, exploring as you go, trying to collect Tokens of Power so you can destroy the three Relics of Power. Once…Read More

There’s a continuum of game designs ranging from total strategy with zero randomness to completely random where strategy and tactics are pointless. For the former, chess and go are good examples, and for the latter a game like craps or Killer Bunnies demonstrate that fun can be had even when things aren’t predictable. Landing somewhere in the middle is a lovely new game from Osprey Games called Sakura. Sakura means “cherry blossom” and that defines…Read More

My gamer friends and I have been discussing the release of the massive new board game Rising Sun. Developed by a group of successful game designers, it’s described by the publisher thusly: “Rising Sun is a game about honor, negotiation, and warfare in a feudal Japan where the ancient gods (kami) have returned to rebuild the empire… Rising Sun claims Diplomacy as its distant ancestor. Tackle negotiations, alliances, and war. Capture hostages and commit seppuku….Read More

James Mathe really hit on an interesting worker placement theme when he created the original Manhattan Project. Players are competing to build atomic bombs, which means you have to manage workers to mine and produce yellow cake, then refine the yellow cake into uranium. Scientists + Engineers + uranium lets you build bombs and earn points. Someone else getting too far ahead? You can bomb their facility or even steal resources from them. My friends…Read More