برچسب: Fives

  • Festive Top Fives: Gifts for Board Game Geeks

    Festive Top Fives: Gifts for Board Game Geeks


    Got a geek in your life who’s hard to shop for? Welcome to our latest Festive Top Five: Gifts for Board Game Geeks. The following are all fairly recent releases or slightly obscure so it’s unlikely they’ll already own them, and they are also all very good indeed!

    The Red Cathedral is a bonified ‘small box stonker’ that manages to pack all the complexity, interest and replayability of a full-sized Euro game into a very moderately sized (and priced) package. The components and artwork are excellent too.

    Welcome to the Moon is a full-blown sequel to the excellent Welcome To. This time, the box comes complete with ALL SORTS of goodies, including eight sets of different player sheets (all dry-wipe compatible) and a ‘choose your own adventure’-style campaign mode. Deciding where to write a number has never been so much fun!

    Watergate is a super-thematic, two-player game in which one player takes on the role of the Nixon administration trying to bury signs of wrongdoing, and the other the free press trying to uncover what they’ve been up to. With great components, bags of tension, and stacks of historical detail, this game tells a memorable story every time.

    Fort is a curious and characterful deck builder about making a cool fort, eating pizza and making friends – all the most important aspects of being a kid. Don’t be fooled by the theme though: there’s a grown-up level of depth and interest here, not to mention exceptional artwork on every card.

    Quest is a remake of Avalon, one of our favourite hidden role party games in which loyal servants of King Arthur pit their wits against wily Minions of Mordred who are trying to secretly sabotage their effects without revealing themselves. Quest brings stunning artwork into the mix as well as a STACK of new roles to keep things spicy over multiple play-throughs.

    Find all of the above and a whole lot more in our shop. We’ll be back with more ‘top fives’ in the next few days as the countdown to Christmas continues…



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  • Festive Top Fives: Two-player games

    Festive Top Fives: Two-player games


    Maybe you’re planning a low-key Christmas for two this year… or maybe you’re after a back-up in case the big get-together doesn’t quite go to plan. Great games for two players are always useful to have around in our experience, and they make excellent gifts too! In our final ‘top five’ of the year, here are some of our current favourites…

    Bridget is both a neat and addictive strategy game and a lovely object in its own right. With simple rules (just build a path of your colour from one side of the board the other while blocking your opponent), addictive gameplay, and tactile, appealing pieces, this is a game that will be enjoyed by new and experienced gamers alike.

    Hive is a near-perfect two-player strategy game in our humble opinion! There’s no luck involved here: purely decisions made by players, who take turns to either add a piece to the hive or move a piece they’ve already added, with the aim of blocking in their opponent’s queen bee so that she is eventually surrounded by pieces. Durable, compact (even more so if you go for the pocket-sized version) and extremely replayable, this game will really stand the test of time.

    Azul: Summer Pavilion is technically a game for up to four players, but it works so well for just two that we thought it was worthy of a mention here. All three of the Azul series are excellent games for two people, but this one just might be our favourite given focus on individual strategy rather than blocking your opponents (try the Stained Glass of Sintra version if that’s more your bag!). A gorgeous, medium-weight abstract strategy game that’s as interesting to play as it is beautiful.

    Thrive is a fairly recent addition to our collection, but after testing it out we’re very keen to play it some more! The concept here is very simple: aim to capture your opponent’s pieces until they have only one left, then you’ve won the game. All the pieces are identical to begin with, able to move only one space forward. However, on each turn as well as moving a piece, you modify two pieces of your choice by adding pegs, giving them more movement options on future turns. Elegant in every way as well as novel in concept, we’re very impressed with this one.

    And now for something completely different… Pucket is a frenetic, hyper-competitive dexterity game about flicking wooden pucks across a board using elastic. Players both start with eight pucks on their side of the board. All you have to do to win is get all the pucks to you opponents side at the same time… despite them constantly trying to fire them back at you! It’s exactly as chaotic and maddening as it sounds, but tremendous fun nonetheless, and it makes a great spectator sport too if there are more than two people in attendance.

    Thanks for reading our top 5 series. We hope you’ve found it useful. Wishing you a very happy and fun-filled Christmas, however many players it involves!



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