Blue Lagoon Board Game Review: A colorful island adventure for the whole family

Intro

You’re out on the open ocean in the hot sun with crystal clear water lapping the sides of your wooden canoe. The bottom of your canoe crunches against the sand as you discover a new island rich with coconuts, fresh water, bamboo, precious stones, and mysterious tiki statues. The vibrant color and sun-soaked artwork of this game will immediately suck you into its island-exploring adventure setting! This one is perfect for children and families to play together or as a light-weight, warm-up game for heavy game nights.

Euphoria Board Game Review: Uprising. Influence. Courage.

Intro

Euphoria is one of those games that consumes your mind for hours and even days after playing it the first few times. Every gap in conversation my wife and I had those first several days was filled with, “Man! Next time I need to hit up Icarus more…” or “Ugh, if only I had finished the Subterran Tunnel earlier…” This constant analysis roils in the back of your head, and it’s awesome!

Cinque Terre Board Game Review: The art is vibrant. The approach is simple. The strategy is deep.

Intro

Cinque Terre is a colorful, engaging game of harvesting and selling produce in the BEAUTIFUL Italian countryside of Cinque Terre (just look at this place!).

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Phew! Back to reality. =-)

This game is a blast and is one of my wife’s all-time favorites. It’s one of the most mentally-engaging games we play on a regular basis, but you can still have fun and do well without the “deep-dive” mental investment.

Istanbul Board Game Review: Dynamic worker placement strategy game with many paths to victory

Intro

The first word that comes to mind when I think of Istanbul is solid. It’s a solid, expertly-crafted worker placement strategy game. It is a balanced game with rare blow-you-out-of-the-water wins. The gameplay mechanics are superb, unique, and make actual, real-world sense (as opposed to many games which leave you wondering, “Now why…?”). Replay value is extremely high, not only for the basic, starter mode but especially for mixing up the placement of tiles…and especially after adding in the two incredible expansions (reviews coming soon!). There is a great balance of interaction and impacting other players’ strategies.

Murano Board Game Review: Fast-paced strategy game with beautiful artwork and clever mechanics

Taking place in the beautiful city of Venice, you are a glassblower by trade and are trying to make it big in the local industry. Attract customers to your shops, construct glassblowing factories, ride gondolas around the islands, build beautiful palaces, pave cobblestone streets; you do it all in this game! Choose one or a combination of several strategies to gain the most power, prestige, and wealth as a Venetian glassblower.