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A giant alien mothership descends toward your city. Five columns of enemy fighters rain down between you and oblivion. Your only weapons? Five dice and whatever you can build in an underground bunker before the sky literally falls. Under Falling Skies is the rare solo-only game that feels like it was born this way rather than bolted on as an afterthought. Designed by Tomáš Uhlíř and published by Czech Games Edition in 2020, it evolved from a 9-card print-and-play contest winner into a full retail release packed with one of the most impressive campaign modes in solo gaming. And it does it all in a box that fits in your coat pocket. ...

There’s a particular kind of euro game that doesn’t want you to feel clever. It doesn’t hand you a satisfying engine that hums along, spitting out resources while you lean back and admire your tableau. Instead, it grabs you by the collar every single turn and says: “Choose. And know that whatever you pick, you’re giving something up.” Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road is that game. Designed by Fabio Lopiano and illustrated by the ever-brilliant Ian O’Toole, this 2020 release from Osprey Games has quietly become one of the most respected mid-weight euros among people who’ve actually played it - while remaining almost completely invisible to the broader hobby. ...

Your first game of Agricola probably went something like this: you stared at a hand of seven occupation cards you didn’t understand, spent six rounds desperately collecting wood while your opponents built fences, forgot to plan for the first harvest, took two begging cards worth negative six points, and finished with a score that made you wonder why anyone would voluntarily subject themselves to this. You’re not alone. Agricola has earned its nickname - Misery Farm - for a reason. But there’s an equally strong consensus among the hobby’s most experienced players: this is one of the greatest board games ever made, and it only reveals itself after you stop drowning. ...

There’s something universally compelling about pirate games. The promise of treasure, the open sea, a bit of treachery between friends - it’s a theme that works at every weight class. Whether you want a quick filler to close out game night or an entire evening of plundering the Caribbean, there’s a pirate game out there for your crew. Here’s a tour through the best the genre has to offer, ordered from lightest to heaviest. ...

There it is. The biggest, heaviest box on your shelf. You bought it because it was the #1 game on BoardGameGeek for years. You unboxed it, maybe punched a few tokens, marvelled at the sheer volume of cardboard - and then put the lid back on. You’re not alone. Gloomhaven is perhaps the single most commonly owned-but-unplayed game in the hobby. It’s the poster child for shelf-of-shame lists, YouTube confessionals, and Reddit threads titled “convince me to finally play Gloomhaven.” ...

Trains are the backbone of modern board gaming. The 18xx genre literally predates most of what we’d recognise as “hobby gaming,” and the simple act of connecting two points on a map with a coloured line has launched a thousand designs. There’s something primal about railways - the expansion, the competition for limited routes, the satisfying click of infrastructure falling into place. But “train games” aren’t one thing. They span the entire complexity spectrum, from games you can teach your parents in five minutes to economic simulations that make spreadsheets look casual. The theme bends to fit everything from gentle tourism to robber baron capitalism, from fantasy steam-magic to pure abstract stock manipulation. ...

It’s the most frequently asked question in modern board gaming: “I want a game that combines deck-building with worker placement - should I get Dune: Imperium or Lost Ruins of Arnak?” Both released in 2020. Both shot into BGG’s top 50. Both blend the same two mechanisms. Yet they feel remarkably different at the table. Here’s the deep breakdown. The Elevator Pitch Dune: Imperium is a political knife-fight disguised as a deck-builder. You’re manoeuvring agents across Arrakis, courting factions, and committing troops to conflicts - but the cards in your deck determine where your agents can go, creating a delicious tension between long-term deck strategy and short-term tactical needs. ...

There’s something deeply ironic about Uwe Rosenberg’s career. He’s one of the most prolific and celebrated designers in the history of board gaming - with multiple titles in BGG’s top 100 and a catalogue spanning nearly 30 years - yet if you described his games to someone unfamiliar with the hobby, they’d think you were joking. “So you… plant beans? And argue about bean futures? And that’s fun?” Yes. Yes it is. And the fact that Rosenberg made it fun is precisely the point. ...

There’s a specific moment in every Vital Lacerda game. You’re twenty minutes into the teach, staring at a board covered in interlocking tracks, influence markets, and action spaces that seem to connect to everything else. Your brain is screaming that this is too much. And then, somewhere around turn three, something clicks. The systems aren’t arbitrary - they’re architectural. Every connection exists because the theme demands it. Every mechanism serves the story the game is telling. ...

The crowdfunding platforms haven’t been this busy in months. Between a massive franchise changing hands, a video game adaptation making waves, and a litRPG series smashing records on BackerKit, there’s a lot to unpack. Here’s what caught our eye this week. 🏴‍☠️ Zombicide: Dead Men Tales - The Pirate Zombicide We’ve Been Waiting For Platform: Gamefound | Launched: April 22 | Ends: ~May 12 | Pledge: $110+ (Davy Jones’ Plunder) ...