Icing on the Cake by FoxMind Games 👥 2 to 4 players | ⏳ ~10 minutes per player ⚙️ Abstract, tile placement, “I cut, you choose” drafting If you have ever dreamed of building the ultimate cake without getting flour all over the kitchen counter, Icing on the cake brings that sweet vision right to the table. You are dividing up displays of cake cards, drafting layers, and covering them in icing and toppings to build the highest scoring slice. ⚠️ Warning: this game will want you

High Society by Reiner Knizia 👥 3 to 5 players | ⏳ ~15–30 mins ⚙️ Auction and bidding Reiner Knizia has done it again. High Society is a thirty-one-year-old classic that feels fresh off the press. The game got a reprint by Allplay in English and is available in Japanese and Korean via Playte Games, and it is small enough to take anywhere. I think this is old enough to be called a classic, although with the new print, you could have fooled me The game is fast. It is brutal. I

I honestly thought Habitats was a brand new release. The artwork is gorgeous, the table presence is beautiful, and everything about the production feels modern. My only complaint? I desperately want the little wooden jeeps to have wheels that actually turn 😅 As we were learning the rules, I kept thinking, This feels a lot like Nova Luna. I was convinced Habitats had taken inspiration from Nova Luna or Sagani. Then someone pointed out that it was actually the other way around

We have a bird. His name is Maverick. And let me tell you, there is a certain type of person who visits our house and immediately assumes that because we have a feathered friend, they have the right to handle him. They do not! People see a bird and think, “Oh, I want to hold it!” But birds are not props for amusement. If you don't know what you're doing, you are probably going to get bitten Which brings me to this new party dexterity game that arrived on our doorstep as a rev

I saw Floristry and immediately wanted to play it. Then I learned it needed an app, and I was skeptical. I prefer my board games to be, well, board games. I have a strict no phubbing rule at the table, but thankfully, this isn't a case of everyone staring at their phones. The phone stays between the players, the app does one very specific job, and then you get back to playing. I hate to admit it, but the app works. More importantly, it doesn't distract from the game. It creat

When my wife and I were brand new to board gaming, we tried the original 7 Wonders and, honestly, it was a lot. The drafting, the iconography, the neighbor scoring. We were still figuring out what half the cardboard in front of us meant. On top of that, we mostly played at two players, so it didn't exactly become a regular. Then came 7 Wonders: Architects The idea of taking that iconic universe, simplifying the gameplay, and making it work beautifully at two players immediate

I got Paris: La Cité de la Lumière for Christmas a few years ago. We played it once, put it on the shelf, and apparently decided that was enough. Then I stumbled across a video featuring the game. Suddenly, I remembered that little box sitting on the shelf and thought, Wait. We own that So I dusted it off and brought it to our date night. Social media is constantly pushing the next shiny new release, but sometimes it does something even better. It reminds you about the games

Zooloretto is a game with a clever twist on spatial planning and drafting. On the surface, you’re placing cute animal tiles into enclosures to build the most charming zoo on the table. But beneath that peaceful theme lies a surprisingly cutthroat game of tile drafting and push-your-luck decisions. Even though it's nearly twenty years old, it doesn't feel dated at all and still delivers an awesome experience every time it hits the table 🎲 Zooloretto published by Rio Grande Ga

I'm a sucker for games that do something fun with their components, and Beer Mug Dice is one of my favorite examples. The dice are chunky little wooden beer mugs that either land standing upright or flop onto their side. It's such a simple gimmick, but it gives every roll a little extra excitement. Add in a tiny box that's easy to toss in a bag, and I was all in 🎲 Beer Mug Dice published by 25th Century Games and Playte Games 🏛️ Designed by: Andreas Schmidt | 🎨 Art by: Wan

When people think of word games, Scrabble is usually the first one that comes to mind. It definitely is for us. As much as I love word games, it's also why a lot of our friends don't. Eventually someone gets stuck staring at the board, trying to squeeze a tiny word into an impossible spot while everyone else waits. You end up spending more time looking for a place to play than actually coming up with clever words Vocabularian takes a completely different approach. There's no

Mindbug: First Contact is a fast-paced two-player card game that captures the excitement of Magic: The Gathering without deck building. Learn why its clever Mindbug mechanic, unique creatures, and strategic gameplay make it one of the best 20-minute dueling card games for beginners and experienced players alike

We had the opportunity to playtest Pairloopa. As my niece gets older, I'm always looking for games that help me keep my title as the cool aunt. Pairloopa is a family friendly card game where players combine two words to create compound words. Think: SUN + GLASSES = SUNGLASSES The gameplay itself is simple, but what stood out to me was the trading mechanic. Because anyone can offer a trade when a card is discarded, every discard matters. Instead of waiting for your next turn,

👩🏻‍🎨 Designer: Uwe Rosenberg | 📦 Publisher: Lookout Games ⚙️ Abstract strategy, rondel puzzle, open drafting, polyomino ♟️ 2 players | ⏳ ~10-15 minutes Patchwork is an absolute classic in our house. Six years ago, it was our very first Uwe Rosenberg game, and our introduction to polyominos. I was obsessed with Tetris growing up, so finding that same feeling inside a cardboard box was kind of magical. It manages to feel cozy and calming while still being rewarding every

I’ve had a weird long standing relationship with sugar skulls and I honestly cannot explain it. About 20 years ago my childhood best friend and I were traveling through Colombia when we walked past a tattoo shop with a sugar skull in the window. We looked at each other, made a very questionable life decision, and walked out with matching tattoos. I was barely 18. My family was thrilled, obviously 😒 Fast forward to now and nothing has changed. If I see sugar skull art, I’m in

The Mindbug obsession continues. I grew up playing Magic, so when I learned there was another game that streamlined the process, made it pretty, was accessible, and still played well at two players, I was bought in. King of Tokyo was our first board game with dice rolling, so combining the two felt like pure nostalgia crashing together on the tabletop 🎰 THE DATA ROW Game Title: Mindbug: King of Tokyo Publisher: Nerd Lab Games and IELLO Designer: Richard Garfield, Christian K

I am the person who always has a board game with me. Going to a brewery? Game in the bag. Waiting for food? Game in the bag. Family gathering where someone inevitably says "we should play something"? (Even if that person is me) Game in the bag For a game to earn permanent residency in my purse, backpack, or meeple bag, it needs to be easy to teach, quick to play, and small enough that I don't think twice about bringing it along PUSH checks every box The box itself is a little

Lucky Jack is one of those cool random finds. The colorful retro visuals instantly gravitate me to wards it. The game is designed by Richard Brault and Pascal Thoniel and published by FoxMind. The game promises high stakes intensity of Vegas, but without the risk of actually losing your money or having to go to a casino Objective The goal is simple: discard your hand as fast as possible to be the first to lay down a 3 or 4-card jackpot of matching symbols Components Rulebook

The first thing that hooked me was the box. It’s a clever peek a boo window. It looks like nothing, and then, voila! You see the chameleon hidden in plain sight. Chameleon was designed by Rikki Tahta and published by Big Potato Games. The game plays 3-8 players. It was one of those games you keep seeing when browsing. Eventually, it ends up in your cart We logged 16 plays in the few years we owned it. It had a good run. But we are currently on a mission to clear up the shelve

When I first saw this, I read Road to Edinburgh. I was so excited. All I could think about was Makars, but nope. I read that wrong. The game art is super cute, and if you want to play something like Irish Gauge or Ticket to Ride without the time commitment, this is it! I’m a sucker for a game that distills a massive genre into a sleek experience, and this one manages to do it in about 30 minutes! Plus, my wife didn’t hate it, so I can play train games again 🚊 Mini Rails Road

I have a type. While some people collect massive campaign games, I gravitate toward roll-and-writes. There is something about the tactile click of dice and the efficiency of a dry-erase marker that just speaks to my soul (and when they are not dry-erase ready, I laminate the games 😎). In my collection, I like a balance. Sometimes, I want a real brain-burner. The kind of cutthroat tension you find in the Clever series (looking at you, Ganz Schön Clever--someone please teach m

👩🏻‍🎨 Designer: Roberta Taylor | 🎨 Artist: Shawna J.C. Tenney | 📦 Publisher: KTBG ⚙️ Worker Placement. Dice Placement. Resource Management ♟️ 1-5 players | ⏳ ~45-60 minutes The second I saw the cover art, I was sold. This was my first-ever Kickstarter pledge. I waited over a year to finally dive into Maple Valley and start prepping my burrow for winter. The game’s art looks like a warm hug. It is nice that it also has a clever puzzle of planning and probability hiding und

👩🏻‍🎨 Designer: Mark Gerrits | 🎨 Artist: Nick Liefhebber | 📦 Publisher: CMYK ⚙️ Abstract strategy. Spatial reasoning. Quiet chaos ♟️ 2 players | ⏳ ~10-15 minutes My local store rotates their displayed games, and the second I saw the cloth mat and the colorful flower-like components, I was sold. I had no idea what this game was, but I just wanted it. Plus, it comes in a cylindrical box. Does the box feel bigger than it should be? YES, but it fits in a backpack, so why n

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game is a 1 to four player game that takes about 10 to 20 minutes per round. It is published by Office Dog and designed by Bryan Bornmueller. The beautiful art was made by Elaine Ryan and Samuel Shimota and if you told me that I’d be writing about a Lord of the Rings game, I would have laughed. I used to be the person who said "eh, hard no" to anything LotR. But after falling for Duel for Middle-earth (read that

Yesterday we tried something new. Two very different indie games. One table. Maximum chaos. I honestly thought it was going to flop; it did not 🥳 🎯 The Main Event: Space Gits What It Is Space Gits is a wild, almost RPG style war game where each player controls three minis. It feels part skirmish, part party game, part what just happened. It is miniature agnostic, so you bring your own everything. Minis. Dice. Tokens. Creativity. Vibes. It is also a beautiful book. The kind