Viticulture Game Review: A perfectly balanced game of rustic progression

Best Moment

I thought I had the easy vic. I had an early, steady flow of grape planting and harvesting, I had great visitors helping increase wine production with some nicely aging wines to fulfill orders. My wife was slowly progressing along without too much success. She then deftly tacked to a heavy tour-based approach with her valuable tasting room, and it worked! She pulled off a very close victory proving that there are many paths to success!

ChessKid.com: Top 10 Things I Love

If someone were to ask me, “Do you want your children to learn foresight, consequences of decisions, resilience, how to handle pressure, determination, and strategic planning?” I would emphatically respond in the affirmative and ask how. If they responded with, “Teach them how to play chess,” I’d be taken aback. However, chess does teach those skills, and there is no better medium I have found to learn the game than ChessKid.com.

Euphoria: Ignorance is Bliss Expansion Review

Intro

Ignorance is Bliss is a solid expansion which integrates seamlessly into the original. It is right in my sweet spot of not so overwhelming that it takes over the original, but not so light that it feels valueless. Having played a bunch of times, I would guess I choose to play Euphoria with the expansion about half the time which is my definition of a perfect expansion. Now, I would highly recommend having played the base Euphoria game or having read my original Euphoria review before continuing (it won’t make a ton of sense if you don’t!).

Wingspan Game Review: My first 10 out of 10…ever

Best Moment

Lady Luck was not on my side this game when I was forced to sacrifice birds with valuable actions (normally my favorite) for birds with one-time actions and lower point values. Everyone thought I would be blown out of the water based on what they could see on my board, but I had managed to collect and complete four secret bonus cards for a huge amount of points. The player adding up the scores laughed several times as she calculated scores before announcing me as the winner…by one point!

Istanbul Mocha and Baksheesh Board Game Review: Powerful new features revolving around…coffee!

Intro

You’ll want to read the original Istanbul review first!

Mocha and Baksheesh is one of those board game expansions which cannot, I repeat, CANNOT be ignored during the game. As I often do when first playing expansions, the first couple of games I skirted around the newness. I tested the waters with a toe here and a foot there while my wife dove in head first right off the bat…and she destroyed me. =-) Compared to the fantastic original Istanbul game, the Mocha and Baksheesh expansion ramps up the intensity, excitement, and ways to win. Here are the added components and my thoughts on each: