Board Game Reviews from Speculative Online

Nature

Robert Reichle — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 19:46:43 +0000

Object of the game:

Create unique species with advantageous adaptations to feed the most populations by game end.

How it’s played
The game is played in four rounds, or, if you use at least one additional module it is played in five rounds. In each round the players will receive a new species. That new species will have tokens representing the population, and a dial that indicates the size of the species. The collective watering hole will receive a random number of plant food tokens, and players will receive five cards from the decks. Then players will take turns, discarding a card to increase the size or population of a species, or playing a card into their display, adding the trait to one of the species. Each species can only have a maximum of three traits. Players can also make a species a hunter by taking a faceup hunter card from the shared display. This species must now hunt the other species at the table for food. Once all players have played species, the players feed their species, each taking a turn feeding one of their species at a time or passing, so that a new round can begin. After four rounds, the game ends, and the player who has fed the most populations, wins.

What makes it work
The traits all add to each species, and many have interactions with other traits, so that players can end up creating animals that generate a lot of food. Other players need to respond to this as well, otherwise they will lose the game, so the competition that emerges doesn’t feel too mean, because it is necessary to win the game.

Why it might not work
This game does not have a very strong narrative arc, and can be a little abstract for some players. If a player is not captivated by nature, this also might be a hard sell.

Any personal, unfair gripes
The game structure is very straightforward, but that also makes it a little weird to explain. Why should a player develop traits? Well because they want to get food. When does that happen? At the end. How does that happen? They just get it in turn order. How do they know what to take? These just didn’t stick with the player, so I had to convince them to just play a round, and then another and they got the rhythm of the game. The cards and gameplay don’t quite make sense until you see the game as a whole. Also, the way they have created modules for the different aspects of the game feels a little like they have chopped up the game to sell separately. I get why they’ve done it, and I think each individual piece is a really great production, so I’m not mad, I just understand why they have caught some flack for the decision. I think it’s fine, I just would’ve preferred a little more because … obviously I want more for less money.

Any praise
I am very excited to get more modules and keep playing more of this game to find some neat interactions. It is quite satisfying and the short play time of the game makes it especially inviting to play over and again.

I purchased a German version of this in order to help me learn German. “Sammler” means “collector” which in the English version of the

Nature

Designers: Dominic Crapuchettes
Illustrator: Catherine Hamilton, Alyssa McCarthy, Nina Pommelin
Publisher: NorthStar Game Studio
Year Published: 2025
Number of Players: 1-4
My BGG Score: 7
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/330152/nature

Here Be Monsters

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 19:04:28 +0000

Object of the game:

Be the first pirate to amass treasures by assembling just the right crew and singing just the right shanties to overpower your opponent.

How it’s played
At the start of a player’s turn, if they do not have three ships out, they must first draw a ship. Then that player gets a free draw from either the faceup cards or from the facedown top of the deck. Then that player takes three cards, choosing from among: playing a pirate card, playing a shanty card, or drawing a card. Shanties are played facedown until a player chooses to play them, while pirates are played onto pirate ships, and their value is added to the ship’s overall strength. When a player has three ships deployed, has a greater value of pirates on all three ships than their opponent, and has at least three actions to spend, they may use their entire turn to search for treasure.

What makes it work
The pirates and shanties are all bombastic, and this zaniness is very compelling. The head-to-head genre of cards is often quite serious, but this game takes several steps to not be so serious, and that makes the game much more approachable and digestible than other games in the same genre.

Why it might not work
The art and tone are decidedly silly, and that might not be a person’s cup of tea.

Any personal, unfair gripes
I want to make art for this game, please hire me.

Any praise
The first time I taught this game, the other player wanted to immediately play it again. This very rarely happens with TCG style games, in fact, it didn’t happen with the following games: Hubworld Aidalon, Magic the Gathering, SolForge Fusion, KeyForge, Mind Bug, Disney Lorcana, Altered, Star Wars: Unlimited, or Gudnak.

The characters all look amazing for being drawn in Apple’s version of PowerPoint (Not a joke, that’s where they did the art).

Here Be Monsters

Designers: Phil Oxnard, Carson Einarsen
Illustrator: Carson Einarsen, Various
Publisher: Self-Published
Year Published: 2026
Number of Players: 2-8
My BGG Score: 7
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/454086/here-be-monsters

Horrified

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 18:44:31 +0000

Object of the game:

Save the town from the threat of various monsters by discovering and exploiting the weakness of the monsters and vanquishing them for good!

How it’s played
On a player’s turn they may take a number of actions. After a player’s turn the monsters will take a turn by doing the actions on whatever card is revealed from the monster’s deck. The monsters will want to attack players and townspeople, so players will need to protect townspeople by being in locations where they are and electing to be hit instead. Players will protect themselves by discarding an item they are carrying when attacked by a monster so as not to need to go to the hospital. On a player’s turn, they may pick up items, they may escort townspeople by moving from location to location in the town while in the presence of the townspeople, and they may exploit a monster’s weakness or attack the monster (after the weakness has been defeated) by discarding items. Once the town is rid of the monsters, the players win!

What makes it work
Managing the different overlapping crises of protecting the townspeople and exploiting the monster’s weakness is the heart of the tension in the game, and this can be a satisfying puzzle.

Why it might not work
If a player does not like cooperative games, this game would not be for them. If they have never played a cooperative game, this game might work for them, although it is relatively simple.

Any personal, unfair gripes
This game takes away some of the tension of the Pandemic system of games, but becomes a much lesser game for it. There isn’t as much of an arc to this game, because most of the weaknesses are just repetitive minigames, so the game feels like treading water. It is exactly the sum of its parts.

Any praise
The art for this game is stellar, and I love that the game board hearkens back to the original cooperative game of Arkham Horror First Edition.

This little kid dances on the corpse of the dead swamp man. May he never live to save horny Sally Hawkins.

Horrified

Designers: Prospero Hall, Peter Lee
Illustrator: Prospero Hall
Publisher: Ravensburger
Year Published: 2019
Number of Players: 1-5
My BGG Score: 5
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/282524/horrified

The A.R.T. Project

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 18:39:04 +0000

Object of the game:

Work with other players to steal back the priceless pieces of art heisted around the world by the criminal group known as The White Hand.

How it’s played
The game is played over a series of rounds, and at the beginning of each round, players will draw two mission cards each. The mission cards give players clues that they can use to steal back the art, but they also might cost the players resources and spread The White Hand to locations on the board, making art recovery more dangerous and difficult. Players may talk vaguely about the two mission cards, and then each player decides on one to play and one to discard. The mission card the players play have effects that trigger when played, and then the players may take actions. The actions take resources, which are gotten from the mission cards, and the actions typically involve moving to different locations, fighting The White Hand, and retrieving the stolen art. Once the players have a number of art pieces retrieved, they win.

What makes it work
The round structure feels fairly unique for a cooperative game, and that is quite compelling. Also, the different locations provided in the game have little wrinkles on the base ruleset, so each game feels fresh and very interesting.

Why it might not work
The game is difficult, which might be interesting to some people and might discourage others from playing the game.

Any personal, unfair gripes
How dare this game have the perfect-sized box for what it is (I don’t have any gripes really, so I had to turn praise into a gripe).

Any praise
The art is amazing, and Vincent Dutrait is doing here what he did in Heat where he places little artifacts around the map and it is just so charming. Also, I liked losing this game! It always felt tough, but earned. I appreciate how difficult this game is.

With the music symbols and all of those white gloves it seems that Bob Fosse might have stolen this artwork.

The A.R.T. Project

Designers: Florian Sirieix, Benoit Turpin
Illustrator: Vincent Dutrait
Publisher: The Op
Year Published: 2023
Number of Players: 3-6
My BGG Score: 8
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/378356/the-art-project

CO2: Second Chance

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 18:27:56 +0000

Object of the game:

Achieve the UN climate goals and last four decades in this environmentally-conscious race against time.

How it’s played
The game is played in rounds, represented by decades. At the end of each decade, there is a reckoning with the game goals and the progress the players are making thus far, and players only win if they make it four decades. On a player’s turn each round they may take any number of executive actions, but they must take one main action. The main actions all involve the production and development of a kind of green-energy infrastructure, and the executive actions all involve manipulation of additional markets to gain resources or to better a player’s position for the main action of developing green-energy infrastructure.

What makes it work
The time pressure and problem-solving in this game are very tense and very difficult. Players must take every available action at their disposal to ensure success.

Why it might not work
This is a very difficult cooperative game with a theme that might turn some people away for any number of reasons.

Any personal, unfair gripes
This is one of the earliest Ian O’Toole and Vital Lacerda games and also maybe one of the best? Is it fair that they peaked so early?

Any praise
My favorite thing in this game by far is that they have done an incredible job pairing the environmental solutions with their impact on the environment and economic market. Developing a forest does tremendous work for the environment but gives you very little money, recycling is negligible (shoutout to this game for knowing that truth), and wind power and solar are okay for the environment but great for the economy. I love it.

I really do think this is the best Ian O’Toole collaboration with Vital Lacerda because his style fits this theme so well. Kanban EV is another great collaboration for that reason.

CO2: Second Chance

Designers: Vital Lacerda
Illustrator: Ian O’Toole
Publisher: Stronghold Games
Year Published: 2018
Number of Players: 1-4
My BGG Score: 8
Years on Top 100: 2023

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/214887/co2-second-chance

Dune: War for Arrakis

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 18:22:13 +0000

Object of the game:

Either dominate Arrakis as the Harkonnen or fulfill the prophecy as the Atreides and Fremen in this head-to-head war game version of Dune.

How it’s played
The game is played in a series of rounds, and in each round both players will roll their pool of dice. These dice have distributions of different action icons on them, and they create a pool of action icons for a player to use on their turns during the round. Each player also has a set of different leaders, and these leaders may augment the actions when dice are used on them for their particular action. The Harkonnen player will want to harvest spice, save their harvesters from sandstorms, discover and destroy valuable Fremen sietches and protect the cities they control at the start of the game. The Fremen player will want to summon worms to destroy Harkonnen spice harvesters, defend sietches, use the worm network to move quickly around the board to strike the Harkonnen defenses in surprising ways, and fulfill goals to effect different aspects of their rule in order to fulfill a hidden prophecy.

What makes it work
Trying to balance efforts to maintain a consistently strong pool of dice and taking big risks that will win you the game is the main thrill on offer here, as the dice pool both sides have available to them is dependent on the successes they can secure round to round.

Why it might not work
This is a war game. The dice pool mechanic makes it a little more approachable because of the randomness, but that randomness is easier to mitigate if a player has more familiarity with the trappings of a war game. If a player is not interested in a war game, this game might not appeal to them. Also, the Dune theme might not appeal to some players.

Any personal, unfair gripes
Dune Imperium does a much better job at implementing the theme of the game in my opinion. In that game the central mechanism is about people as resources in order to manipulate the outcomes of larger scale things like combat and in this game that relationship is inverted, which feels less true to my experience of the books. Additionally, the end of the game is a bit of a letdown as the Atreides can more-or-less assure themselves victory in the beginning of a round and the Harkonnen player cannot do enough to prevent it, and once that is known there isn’t really anything to do but play a few rounds of the game and then let it end.

Any praise
I think this was a really good first draft for a Dune war game, and the companion board game to this War of the Ring is also mostly known for its second edition, so I think they could do well making a cleaned up second version of the game.

The miniatures are very compelling and the whole production sells its own unique aesthetic of Dune quite well.

Dune: War for Arrakis

Designers: Marco Maggi, Francesco Nepitello
Illustrator: Henning Ludvigsen, Stefano Moroni, Paolo Parente, Steve Prescott
Publisher: CMON
Year Published: 2024
Number of Players: 1-4
My BGG Score: 6
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/367150/dune-war-for-arrakis

Disney Lorcana

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 18:14:08 +0000

Object of the game:

Be the first player to quest for enough Lore throughout the Disney universe.

How it’s played
On a player’s turn, they will first ready all of their cards, perform any start of turn effects, and draw a card. Then the main phase of their turn will begin, where a player may play a card by paying its cost, exert a character already in play to quest, challenge another player’s exerted character, or use an ability that requires them to exert, or play one card facedown into their inkwell to help them pay for cards. Play alternates back and forth until one player quests for more than their twentieth lore.

What makes it work
Choices like whether or not to exert a character to challenge versus quest and putting a card into your inkwell versus playing it are compelling. There is a fun sense of managing what you are capable of while you are managing the risk your opponent presents to you.

Why it might not work
This game is a trading card game, so there are aspects of scarcity in card availability that might prevent you from getting cards you might like to have, but you can always proxy. Some players just might not want to engage in TCG formats, and that is also understandable.

Any personal, unfair gripes
If the lore being scattered is the problem, then why is it such a bad thing that two people are questing for lore? What is the theme of this game? They now have cooperative sets, but this initially was perplexing. Also, the first set had a terrible card draw problem that I think was a barrier to entry. If the game is supposed to be casual and appeal to everyone, then they were too restrictive with the power curve initially, because there wasn’t enough card draw which forces people into actual collection mode, and squeezes out the more casual elements. The launch seemed more specifically geared towards making money and creating a collecting environment than supporting casual play, but it could just be a series of oversights from some of the biggest companies in board games and entertainment.

Any praise
The songs are the real hit for this game, and whenever you play a song, you will almost always be singing it with your opponent if you both know it.

Is this an underrated film if every person who knows it likes it and I have met very few people who don’t know it.

Disney Lorcana

Designers: David Iezzi, Ryan Miller, Tim Schilder, Steve Warner
Illustrator: Various (I don’t like saying this either, but it’s so many)
Publisher: Ravensburger
Year Published: 2023
Number of Players: 2-6
My BGG Score: 7
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/369646/disney-lorcana

A Few Acres of Snow

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 17:57:41 +0000

Object of the game:

Either take certain objective cities, claim enough opposing territory, or capture enough valuable territory in order to win the French and Indian War.

How it’s played
Both players begin the game with a deck of cards with units and cities as their cards. These cards may be used to do different things, depending on what kind of card it is. City cards will help players move to connected cities, which is helpful because it fortifies a player’s position and expands their realm of conquest. Unit cards will help strengthen a player’s attempt to extract value from the land or remove their opponent from it. On a player’s turn, they may take two actions, and then draw their hand of cards back up to five cards. The actions involve expanding into, settling, developing, and fortifying locations, and attacking an opponent or an opponent’s position.

What makes it work
The fun of this game is in a player trying to minimize an opponent’s expansion into territory while maximizing their own exposure to more territory. These tasks compete somewhat, so players have to be clever about timing and understanding the risks of any particular moment. And the use of deckbuilding to accomplish this is quite engaging.

Why it might not work
This is a two player head-to-head game with aesthetics of a war game, so that might narrow how many people might be interested in playing the game.

Any personal, unfair gripes
Many people say the game is broken because of an overpowered strategy, and I knew that, but I figured I wouldn’t be able to understand the strategy because I am not really that clever of a board game player but I found the strategy the second time I played the game. Both players still had fun in that game, but it was clear that that strategy was just the one to pursue if possible.

Any praise
The use of deckbuilding here is really great for gameplay and for thematics, because of how it simulates a kind of entropy in how armies and governments function.

I quite like the art. It has a very strong sense of time and place that lends itself well to the theme.

A Few Acres of Snow

Designers: Martin Wallace
Illustrator: Peter Dennis
Publisher: Treefrog Games
Year Published: 2011
Number of Players: 2
My BGG Score: 7
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/79828/a-few-acres-of-snow

Arcs

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 17:51:03 +0000

Object of the game:

Be the first to reach the points threshold and exceed it the furthest by excelling at the goals determined by the player’s each round.

How it’s played
The game is played over a series of hands of cards. The leader begins each hand by playing a card from their hand which sets the trump suit. The rest of the hand proceeds similarly to a hand in a trick-taking game, where other players must follow suit if they can. The suits of the game correspond to different actions, and players will take the actions corresponding to their suit or take a penalty on their number of actions in order to do a different action. The actions involve expanding territory, moving ships and attacking, building buildings that will assist with control and getting cards that can improve each of these different aspects. Additionally, players will be determining which of the scoring conditions will be active for the round. After the round is over, player’s earn victory points based on the active scoring conditions and another round begins.

What makes it work
Balancing optimal card play to maximize actions by playing low cards, and taking control of the round to dictate the sequencing by playing high cards with few actions is a great puzzle.

Why it might not work
The trick-taking in the game is not exactly trick-taking, and that weird categorization can anger some players. Additionally, the game is an area control 4x game, and that category can be an automatic disqualifier for some.

Any personal, unfair gripes
The base game is maybe my favorite of Cole Wehrle’s games, and I was intrigued enough after playing it (after swearing off his games,) to attempt the campaign. My thoughts on the base game is that Joraku is a better trick-taking area control game, and simpler, and smaller, but Arcs has more places where some small rules complications and wrinkles could really create a compelling small campaign arc. The actual experience of playing the campaign was that it was indulging in all of Cole Wehrle’s worst impulses with just rule after rule that added just more treading water until the end of the game and I swore off his designs again.

Any praise
I am happy to see Kyle Ferrin partnering with Cole Wehrle for the new company and I hope it means that Kyle Ferrin is earning 50% on Cole Wehrle’s designs because he deserves at least 50% if not 75% of profits from Root and Arcs because he is the driving force behind their success.

I do really like the wooden pieces of this game.

Arcs

Designers: Cole Wehrle
Illustrator: Kyle Ferrin
Publisher: Leder Games
Year Published: 2024
Number of Players: 2-4
My BGG Score: 4
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/359871/arcs

Photosynthesis

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 17:44:59 +0000

Object of the game:

Sprout seeds and grow trees to soak up sunshine and gain the most points by game end.

How it’s played
The game is played over multiple rounds, where at the beginning of the round the players will each have an amount of sunlight to spend on actions. Actions cost different amounts of sunlight depending on how much effort the action requires, so players need to chain actions effectively in order to conserve their energy. The actions are sending out a seed from an already existing tree either one, two, or three spaces, and spending either one, two, or three sunlight, or growing an already existing tree, but a player may not activate the same space twice, so a tree cannot grow twice or spit out a seed and also grow. Trees can grow to a level three tree, where they will harvest three sunshine and block other players from receiving sun, or they can be harvested for a number of points based on how centrally located the tree is in the forest.

What makes it work
The way to get points is to harvest the tree, so a lot of the game is trying to time things correctly to be able to get the most points while blocking your opponents from getting any points.

Why it might not work
This is a very abstract game, although the theme does really help players remember the rules and it does feel very thematic, and some players might not appreciate that. This is also a very mean game, lovingly referred to in my game group as “Tree Fight,” and that might turn some people away from the game.

Any personal, unfair gripes
The game is basically a race to the center but that is also basically determined by whoever starts the game, so the strategy is more or less fixed in that manner, although there are many other things to do during the game, but the opening plays are pretty determined. There was an expansion to kind of add a little more variability to the game, and it especially helped expand the player agency and variety in two player games, but it also felt like it made the game a different-enough experience where you were no longer playing Photosynthesis.

Any praise
One time I set this game up in a park and the trees cast the exactly correct shadow based on their height and it felt like a magic trick, like I was accidentally summoning the spirit of the game.

The shadows are the exactly correct length.

Photosynthesis

Designers: Hjalmer Hach
Illustrator: Sabrina Miramon
Publisher: Blue Orange Games
Year Published: 2017
Number of Players: 2-4
My BGG Score: 6
Years on Top 100: 2021 (73)

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/218603/photosynthesis

Codenames

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 17:11:01 +0000

Object of the game:

Be the first team to find all of your agents in the field by deducing their identities from cryptic one-word clues given to you by your teammate.

How it’s played
At the start of the game, a grid of cards will be laid out, with each card having one word on it. Then the teams will designate a clue giver who will see, along with the other clue giver, a card that shows which cards in the grid correspond to each team. Then, one team will take a turn at a time, with each turn starting by the clue giver telling the others a one-word clue and a number. The one-word clue may not be a word that is in the grid. The number following the one-word clue is the number of words in the grid that the clue giver believes is associated with that single word. The rest of the team then confers and tries to correctly guess which words correspond to their team by tapping a card in the grid, after which the clue giver will either place a placard indicating their team, the opposing team, a neutral team, or the automatic loss.

What makes it work
Because the grid is a random distribution of words, and the card that shows which cards belong to which team is also random, the words that the clue giver needs their team to guess are sometimes frustratingly unrelated. This is part of the fun.

Why it might not work
This game can sometimes be dominated by large personalities so that all conversation about clues can be sidetracked and subordinated to a single person’s whims.

Any personal, unfair gripes
I hate this game because of the issue stated above. People often want to play it very cooperatively, so they are more apt to just let a big personality dictate the whims of the entire group than they are to push back against the big personality and tell them to sit down and listen to others.

Any praise
This game was a force of nature when it came out and it continues to be popular. It has broken through the hobby and became a legitimate success outside the hobby. The game resonates with people and brought forth basically an entirely new genre of games that have, I think, improved on the genre, with the best of those games being Just One (once again, my opinion).

The characters seem to be vaguely based on things from stuff. Maybe she’s Sarah from Chuck? Maybe the double agent is James Spader from The Black List?

Codenames

Designers: Vlaada Chvátil
Illustrator: Vlaada Chvátil, Stéphane Gantiez, Dávid Jablonsk, Tomás Kucerovsky
Publisher: CGE
Year Published: 2015
Number of Players: 2-8
My BGG Score: 5
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/178900/codenames

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Robert Reichle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 16:54:07 +0000

Object of the game:

Complete the mission objectives of each scenario either alone or cooperatively with other investigators in order to have a chance at defeating ancient, eldritch evil at the end of the campaign.

How it’s played
The game is played over a series of rounds in which players will act as their investigators and then the other forces at play will act, usually by undoing progress, hurting the investigators, adding more challenges, making the challenges more difficult, moving locations or otherwise making them more difficult to access, etc. Player turns mostly revolve around taking actions to get supplies, draw cards, test an attribute against the environment or opposing forces, move from location to location, or solve particular problems at locations. Once the objectives for the particular scenario are completed or are found to be impossible to complete, the players resolve the outcome of the scenario. Resolution may earn them rewards or penalties. Several scenarios are usually strung together as a campaign, with the successes and failures along the campaign culminating in a win or loss condition on the campaign as a whole.

What makes it work
The game is about understanding what cards are worth playing by how they align to the synergy of the group, and whether or not you can spare the supplies at that particular moment. Managing the abilities and economy is quite a difficult task that can be made only slightly easier by perfect cooperation.

Why it might not work
This game can be exceptionally difficult and punishing, which makes winning feel amazing, but some scenarios and campaigns can be brutally difficult, which some might just find to be no fun.

Any personal, unfair gripes
I do not find this game to be particularly fun at one player. It feels like mostly administrative work or taxes at one player, but at two players or three players I have had some of the most fun I have ever had with games, and I don’t think we won either campaign we played. I certainly didn’t win my solo campaign, but I also had very little fun.

Any praise
Very few games evoke the feeling of moving around a location as well as this card game does. The way the cards are linked together by symbols, and the way monsters and threats move with you or track you down is genuinely impressive.

At the Mountains of Madness? In this economy?

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Designers: Nate French, MJ Newman
Illustrator: Christopher Hosch, Marcin Jakubowski, Ignacio Bazán Lazcano, Henning Ludvigsen
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Year Published: 2016
Number of Players: 1-2
My BGG Score: 8
Years on Top 100: 2023, 2025, 2026

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/205637/arkham-horror-the-card-game

Rescuing Robin Hood

Robert Reichle — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 21:21:05 +0000

Object of the game:

Gather the townsfolk to your side to create a worthy band to attack the castle and rescue Robin Hood.

How it’s played
Over the course of a few days (the rounds of the game) players will cooperatively encounter a group of villains. Groups of villains may be encountered using different sets of skills. When a player encounters a group, they announce what skill they are using and then reveal villains one after another, deciding based on the skill they’re using, whether or not they are succeeding. Prior to doing this, players may use items to get a better understanding of the odds that they are up against.

What makes it work
This is a very unusual cooperative game that doesn’t feel like many cooperative games apart from maybe Reiner Knizia’s Lord of the Rings or Shadows Over Camelot, both games that are quite good and definitely significant to the hobby. That novelty does a lot of good here, and the basic idea of the game is also quite simple, making it an excellent game for families.

Why it might not work
Sometimes an unlucky draw from your deck will give you a set of villagers that make the day’s challenge unwinnable. That is not a fun experience.

Any personal, unfair gripes
The art is not my particular taste but it is at least consistent and it seems intentional, and that means a lot because even if I don’t like it, I can understand it and I can appreciate it.

Any praise
This is a really unique product and the art is unique and everything feels lively and fresh and lighthearted.

The characters of the game have excellent and funny names.

Rescuing Robin Hood

Designers: Bryce Brown
Illustrator: Paul Vermeesch
Publisher: Castillo Games
Year Published: 2021
Number of Players: 1-5
My BGG Score: 6
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/313269/rescuing-robin-hood

Gudnak

Robert Reichle — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 21:20:00 +0000

Object of the game:

Besiege opposing strongholds to outlast your enemies, forcing them to be the first to be unable to draw.

How it’s played
Each game turn has three phases: a start phase, an action phase, and an end phase. During the start phase, a player draws a card or discards the top card if they are sieged. During the action phase a player has two actions, and they may deploy, draw, move, or attack. Attacks are resolved based on the strength of the fighter and their abilities.

What makes it work
This game is very straightforward and you use your whole deck, so it is easy to begin memorizing the different decks and to understand how the decks interact, which makes learning the game easy, and then the on-ramp to higher levels of play is at a very friendly incline.

Why it might not work
It is a head to head game, and that just will not appeal to some people. This game is very fast and it is very simple, and those things help mitigate any bad feelings about it being head-to-head, but still, some people just don’t like that genre.

Any personal, unfair gripes
The rules of the game are not as clear as they could be, but they are very casual and joke-y. This was a major hurdle for me taking this game seriously, and made me not want to finish the (very short) rulebook. And I have read almost one thousand rulebooks.

Any praise
I love the art style and the production design. Except the rulebook. And the online rulebook is also bad. But the art and look and feel of the whole product is excellent.

The artwork of the game is a big draw, and I really love it.

Gudnak

Designers: Timothy S. O’Brien, Ian Oliver
Illustrator: Vittoria Pompolani
Publisher: Chaotic Great
Year Published: 2024
Number of Players: 2-4
My BGG Score: 7
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/354923/gudnak

Critter Kitchen

Robert Reichle — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 21:18:57 +0000

Object of the game:

Create a series of critically acclaimed meals as you hone your restaurant skills to prepare to serve the world-famous chef who will make or break your restaurant.

How it’s played
The game is played over a series of rounds where players will simultaneously choose where to send their three chefs. After players reveal where the chefs are going, they are placed out and the locations resolve in order, with each player taking ingredients from locations according to where they have placed their chefs. Then players use those ingredients to concoct the highest quality meals for the round.

What makes it work
Players have to be aware of what ingredients are important for the current meals, and what ingredients their opponents have already gotten.

Why it might not work
The simultaneous play doesn’t leave a lot of room for error, so players need to have a good read on what the other players want.

Any personal, unfair gripes
If you haven’t noticed, this game is about shopping and not about cooking. It shouldn’t really be called “Critter Kitchen” as much as it should be called “Secret Chopper” if we’re just doing pun-adjacent work loosely based on the theme.

Any praise
The art is very lovely and the different chefs are different sizes which tell you how many ingredients you can take from a place and also tell you your priority order in choosing what to take. That is really quite nice.

This game is about chefs trying to create the best meal possible, so of course it’s about … shopping!

Critter Kitchen

Designers: Alex Cutler, Peter C. Hayward
Illustrator: Sandara Tang
Publisher: Cardboard Alchemy
Year Published: 2025
Number of Players: 1-5
My BGG Score: 6
Years on Top 100: 2025

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/393429/critter-kitchen/credits

Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth

Robert Reichle — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 21:17:47 +0000

Object of the game:

Succeed as the Free Folk by casting the One Ring into Mount Doom, or win as the forces of evil in a number of different ways.

How it’s played
During three rounds of play, cards will be placed into pyramid-like structures, with some being face-up and some being face-down. On a player’s turn, they will take a card, and if they have exposed a face-down card, they will turn that card face-up. The cards players take may sometimes grant immediate benefits, and sometimes have longer term benefits. These different benefits help progress the different ways the players may win or lose.

What makes it work
The drafting of cards between players is especially tense, with the three different ways the players may win being balanced on those cards, so that the player has to decide which particular path to victory they will pursue or which way to defeat they must guard against.

Why it might not work
The theme of Lord of the Rings feels like it comes through this game very nicely, and that could make someone like or dislike the game at the start. Additionally, it is a bit of a confrontational game, where a player is only doing well at more or less the expense of the other player. Some people might not like that.

Any personal, unfair gripes
Setting up the game feels like it takes longer than it should, which is usually the barrier to playing the game. This was a complaint I had about the original Seven Wonders Duel as well. But really it doesn’t take any time at all (it just always seems like it does).

Any praise
I was blown away by how much this improved on Seven Wonders Duel and I was impressed by how well the theme felt integrated and alive in it. Additionally, the technology cards from the previous game make much more sense as they are now narrative moments, so that if you have collected a narrative moment that leads to another narrative moment, you can just collect that successive one for free. It just makes sense.

The little plastic tray that sits over the ring track is a pretty slick little bit of production.

Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth

Designers: Antoine Bauza, Bruno Cathala
Illustrator: Vincent Dutrait
Publisher: Repos Production
Year Published: 2024
Number of Players: 2
My BGG Score: 8
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/421006/the-lord-of-the-rings-duel-for-middle-earth

Altered

Robert Reichle — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 21:16:32 +0000

Object of the game:

Start with your two tokens on opposite sides of the map in the center and be the first player to have those tokens cross paths.

How it’s played
Players take turns playing cards, and triggering the effects of those cards. There are cards that are played out as lands, that have a semi-permanent nature, and then cards that are played into the tableau nearest the journey in the middle between players. Cards played into that tableau will be played on either side of the center in order to assist their tokens journeying through the land, and they will contribute icons. At the end of the round players compare icons that match the cards that their tokens are on, and, if they have more of those icons than their opponent, then they progress along on their journey.

What makes it work
There are ways for both players to progress, as the tokens might be in different locations so the icon mix is different. This makes progressing feel more attainable and not quite so all-or-nothing. Also, at the end of each round, cards that are played get moved into a secondary area that they may be played from, but maybe not. This means that stronger cards that could dominate the game usually have a shelf life.

Why it might not work
This game is a trading card game, and for many people that is automatically disqualifying. Additionally, this game has QR codes on every card so that players can store their collections to use online. Both of these are meta elements, but they are enough to turn some people away. The actual gameplay is also a head-to-head match, and even though it is more open than other TCGs, it is still directly confrontational.

Any personal, unfair gripes
I hate this game so much and it has taken every ounce of my strength not to turn this entire post into a long gripe section. I don’t even know where to begin with this, so I won’t. Just know that I hate this game and its transparent transactional, speculative nature and I hope it fails miserably and the company behind it collapses. It is a soulless, beady-eyed little pox upon the board gaming hobby.

Any praise
Congratulations on becoming only the second game about which I haven’t had a single nice thing to say!

Here is a card and it has a QR code on it! Wow! That isn’t awful to behold at all!

Altered

Designers: Régis Bonnessée, Nathanaël Dufour, Jacques Ernoult, Merlin Ismet
Illustrator: Max Fiévé, Ting-Yun Yu
Publisher: Equinox
Year Published: 2024
Number of Players: 2, 4
My BGG Score: 4
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/397393/altered

Viral

Robert Reichle — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 21:15:02 +0000

Object of the game:

Be the dominant infection in the most valuable parts of the body over the course of several rounds through clever card play.

How it’s played
Each round players will play two cards, which have different icons and locations on them, allowing a player to do the actions at those locations. Players will be able to play any card from their hand, except the two action cards they played last round. Then, scoring takes place, with players wanting to have the most presence in the various regions of the body, and the round resets.

What makes it work
Deciding which cards to play is a matter of knowing what your board position means and what opposing board positions mean. The decision is tense and meaningful each time.

Why it might not work
Because the game is perfect information, it can grind to a halt as players just think through every step of the process.

Any personal, unfair gripes
The box is roughly three times larger than it needs to be. If this game could be compressed down to a much smaller size, I think I’d be more keen to keep a copy. Also, the decision on what card to play has enormous importance, sure, but typically players just take way longer than necessary to make the decision. But that’s what the game encourages.

Any praise
The theme works really well. Movement around the board is restricted by the way the body parts interact and that’s very fun.

Ain’t life-threatening viruses just little rascals?

Viral

Designers: Gil d’Orey, Antonio Sousa Lara
Illustrator: Mihajlo Dimitrievski
Publisher: Arcane Wonders
Year Published: 2017
Number of Players: 1-5
My BGG Score: 6
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/194690/viral

Gruntz

Robert Reichle — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 21:13:34 +0000

Object of the game:

Achieve victory by maintaining control of three centrally located positions on the board between you and your opponent.

How it’s played
Each turn a player must take three move and deploy actions. When a player deploys a vehicle, they determine what kind of vehicle it will be. This choice will determine how it moves and how it eliminates opposing units. The player will complete either one or two move actions first, before deploying units for the remainder of their actions. A player who controls two points in the center at the end of their turn will earn one point, and if they control all three points, they will earn two points. The first player to three points, wins.

What makes it work
All of the units represent a kind of rock, paper, scissors, so that players are always aware of what units can defeat what, and that gives the small battlefield a legibility that supports engagement.

Why it might not work
This is a head-to-head game with art and a theme that do not soften the edges of that tense style of game. If a player doesn’t want to play a head-to-head game, then this will most likely not do much to make them want to play it.

Any personal, unfair gripes
A great deal has been said about Allplay’s use of cloth boards, but they really should stop making them. The creases in the board make the pieces fall over.

Any praise
This is a slight, but very good game that feels like it can be replayed many, many times.

The little wooden bits are the stars of the show here. I can imagine them as cardboard or something else, and that would be fine, too, but the wooden pieces bring people in with novelty.

Gruntz

Designers: Carter Scott
Illustrator: Lorenzo Colangeli, Filip Gavril
Publisher: Allplay
Year Published: 2026
Number of Players: 2
My BGG Score: 7
Years on Top 100: 2024

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/439561/gruntz

Hanami

Robert Reichle — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 21:12:32 +0000

Object of the game:

End the game with the most points by sending out picknickers to the destinations they are most interested in seeing around Japan.

How it’s played
On a player’s turn they will place out a tile onto one of the islands of Japan in order to contribute an amount of points towards particular landmarks. When a landmark is completely surrounded, the player who contributed the most points wins the landmark feature.

What makes it work
Players don’t have access to all of their tiles at once, so whichever few tiles a player has, they have to play strategically, with an eye towards protecting later interests and being advantageous about current ones. This is an excellent tension that the game balances on.

Why it might not work
It is a little cutthroat, and the game is a little dry and calculating.

Any personal, unfair gripes
This box is quite large for the game and its insert. While the Caper Europe box felt like they packed every ounce of game into a perfect package, this felt unnecessarily large for the sake of justifying a higher price tag. I would have paid the same amount for a smaller box.

Any praise
The production design and the art of this game are utterly delightful. While the game is cutthroat and calculating and a little dry, the art really does a lot to invite all kinds of players into the world of the game to play.

The wooden tokens were a big draw for me, and the re-theme I found delightful. The game used to be called “Samurai.”

Hanami

Designers: Reiner Knizia
Illustrator: Lisk Feng, Ichiraku Shinhanga Seisakusho
Publisher: Keymaster Games
Year Published: 2026
Number of Players: 2-4
My BGG Score: 8
Years on Top 100: -

BGG Entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/450860/hanami