I've always had a soft spot for games that surprise me. You know, those boxes you open thinking "well, here's another colorful family game," and that end up keeping you awake reflecting on your strategic mistakes while doing the evening dishes. That's exactly what happened to me with Propolis. The first time I opened the box, I smiled seeing these little wooden bees with their antennae. "A cute game about bees," I thought. Three games later, I was scribbling strategies in my notebook,...

It's past eleven at night, the table is littered with wooden tokens scattered like fallen leaves, and Christophe just snatched the last phoenix feather from under my nose with a smirking grin I won't forgive for at least two more games. Nocturne has been camping out in my game collection for two months now, and this scene repeats itself unfailingly: carefully laid plans that crumble, victories snatched through sheer audacity, and that strange feeling of wanting to immediately go again even...

I spotted Red North at the Mighty Boards booth at Essen, and I have to confess, the synopsis had me dreaming of a big epic game where we'd conquer the North with armies of Vikings. In my head, I was already imagining managing complex strategies, twisted alliances, basically something really meaty. Then I opened the box and discovered a clever little 30-minute card game designed by James Dickinson for Mighty Boards. Not exactly what I was expecting, but ultimately... First Skirmishes at Tipsy...