Thursday, October 15, 2026
The Wire
Posts from 19 of the hobby's best blogs, reviewers and publishers — updated every few hours. Every story links to its original source.
163 stories · Tick up to 12 stories and we'll write you a quick roundup.
Move cards from columns into foundations, taking care to untangle the puzzle in Freecell. The post Tabletop Freecell Fun: Hats on Cats and Dogs in Blogs appeared first on Gameward Bound .
In the early ‘90s, I was fascinated by a magazine called Nintendo Power. It was mostly a strategy guide for Nintendo video games, complete with vibrant visuals showing levels and hidden areas in games like Mario Bros.…
Edwin Starr wrote an anti-war song in the 1970s with the famous chorus: “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!” This was likely in response to the Vietnam War, and it’s hard to argue that the chorus is wrong. …
There’s some version or another of Peter Pan that has Captain Hook deliver a quick monologue to Pan just before the good captain is vanquished. “You’ve defeated my men, taken my ship,” that sort of thing. While I cann…
Friendly Fishing , a feather-light set collection game, was one of my most anticipated GenCon releases. This tiny box, from publisher GameHead and designers Bruno Faidutti and Alex Randolph, caught my interest with ar…
The surface battle is over; the true nightmare lies beneath. GMT Games presents the third installment of our playthrough series with designer James M. Day (Panzer, MBT), dragging you down into the subterranean horrors…
During the summer of 2019, we were introduced to Maurice Suckling and his very interesting design Freeman’s Farm 1777 from Worthington Publishing and really enjoyed the mechanics and how they all came together to crea…
Syzygy Designer: Asuka, IKE Publisher: EmperorS4 Players: 3-6 Age: 6+ Time: 15 minutes Played with review copy provided by publisher The solar system we live in exists thanks to a miraculous arrangement of planets. Ev…
The Princesses are armed and ready for a fight with the undead in Zombie Princess, a trick-taking card game based off the classic game of Spades. The post Zombie Princess Review appeared first on One Board Family .
Join Jamey for Stonemaier Games news, questions, answers, and random discussion topics! https://youtube.com/live/7Y5U936JxnE
Zenith is a tableau-building game with multi-use cards, tracks to climb, and five fronts to compete on, a la Lost Cities. If that sentence doesn't get your heart racing, you must be dead inside.
by Steph Hodge [imageid=9200434 medium rep]▪️ Devir is releasing Gaudí this month both at Spiel and at retail. New game design from Dani Garcia ( Barcelona , Windmill Valley ...), this new title will surely look stunn…
Stonemaier Games are hosting their annual charity auction on October 14th to 16th and I've picked one of the charities to raise money for! The post Stonemaier Games Charity Auction appeared first on Board Game Review .
Scales of Fate is a strange beast, an uneasy marriage of strategy, bluffing, and deduction. It gets points for originality, ambition, and aesthetic, but I’m not sold on the whole. It’s like eating a cake in which you …
I’ll be honest with you. Panorama had built up a bit of a negative reputation around the metaphorical halls of Meeple Mountain prior to its release. When Justin Bell and I played the prototype with publisher Scorpion …
The village of Buttonville is undoubtedly the most glorious village of all time, aside from one small problem: There’s no one there! In The Glorious Guilds of Buttonville, you slip into the role of a guild master and …
In 1539, a small Spanish garrison of troops numbering 3,500 men held the Albanian village of Castelnuovo for 22 days against the massive Ottoman army consisting of over 54,000 Turk soldiers. This siege took place as a…
Enter the Viking Age and survive through the seasons in the solo RPG within Winds of the North. The post An Early Summer Introduction to Winds of the North appeared first on Gameward Bound .
Upside Town Designer: Quentin Quek Publisher: PlayByDesign Players: 1-4 Age: 12+ Time: 25-40 minutes Played with review copy provided by publisher In Upside Town, buildings rise rapidly from modular pre-fabricated uni…
Preamble This article was originally meant to just be a session report, no more. However, recently there have been a few threads on Boardgamegeek (hereafter BGG) from new owners who are looking for a playbook or equiv…
Imagine playing hide-and-seek, with a killer in the mix. Werewolf in the Dark is a social deduction game that is played in the dark. The post Werewolf in the Dark Review appeared first on One Board Family .
by Dominic Crapuchettes The Nature system currently has a BoardGameGeek rating of 8.6 - well beyond my wildest expectations! This designer diary tells the story of its most recent module, Nature: Climate . The first f…
Stonemaier Games recently acquired the rights to the classic white box game Tokaido and its follow-up Namiji. Tokaido is well known and loved around my house, as we have the collector’s edition that was on Kickstarter…
Kano was a title that had a lot of buzz around the halls of Gen Con this year. Though the theme of the convention seemed to be small-box card games and RPGs, this tile-laying puzzle managed to squeak onto my radar. I …
With this My Favorite Wargame Cards Series, I hope to take a look at a specific card from the various wargames that I have played and share how it is used in the game. I am not a strategist and frankly I am not that g…
Explore Brighthelm on an adventure as a cursed Bodach with a bird in Paupers’ Ladder. The post Flying Into the Moon Towers in Paupers’ Ladder… Literally appeared first on Gameward Bound .
There comes a time when you look at the rules for a new board game, when it suddenly stops feeling exciting and starts feeling intimidating. The rules are too long and convoluted, the main game board is cluttered, and…
The Amazing Journey Designers: Lorenzo Silva, Hjalmar Hach Publisher: Horrible Guild Players: 2-4 Age: 8+ Time: 60 minutes Played with review copy provided by publisher The Amazing Journey is a globe-trotting game for…
I’ll never forget a brief conversation I had with a friend in the game industry around 10 years ago. We were talking about a publisher with 20 employees, and they were looking to hire more people. I asked my friend, “…
Fossilium WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Euros to be brown and about fossils Published by: Giant Roc, Sinister Fish Games Designed by: Julia Thiemann, Christoph Waage This is a free revie…
Explore a magical world as a village witch tasked with healing a community with Apothecaria. The post Hamsters and Apothecaria: Another Witchy Week appeared first on Gameward Bound .
Mini Rogue: The Council (2026, Nuts! Publishing) is a dream come true for rogue-like video game fans like me. Sometimes, I just want a quick-playing challenge to table by myself, and I now see why the Mini Rogue serie…
Welcome to this week’s batch of crowdfunding campaigns. We have a variety of offerings here, so we hope you will find something that catches your eye. Also, if you want to chat with the BGQ team, join our Discord Serv…
I do love a good Napoleonics wargame and The Conquerors Series from Shakos is really very good as we have played a few games over the years. They have a new volume in that series on Kickstarter that is designed by a t…
Gattara: The Cat Magnet is a fast-paced card game for feline loving families. This is a easy to teach game that has some claws from Disometric Games. The post Gattara: The Cat Magnet Preview appeared first on One Boar…
Cross The Line WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 2-8 You’ll like this if you like: Card games with interesting layers and scoring. Published by: Gray Matters Games Designed by: Joe Barron, Brady Peterson, David Yakos This…
Bunny Kingdom Town Designer: Richard Garfield Publisher: iello Players: 2 Age: 10 Time: 30 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://link.amazon/B0eqsbmxY Played with review copy provided by publisher Become the leader o…
by Justin Bell Usually, I play games four days a week. Mondays, with my review crew; Wednesdays, with a group in Chicago I’ve known for years; Fridays with my wife; the occasional Saturdays with a group that gets toge…
by Emiliano Sciarra The BANG! System's Long Voyage to the Caribbean It may seem strange to say it now, with Black Flag! about to be published by DV Games nearly a quarter of a century after the release of the first ed…
Welcome to GM Screen Time, the series where we dive deep into my bag of Gamemastering tricks to find different strategies and tips I've used at my tables to promote a fun environment. In this installment, we discuss t…
Today I'm sharing some great games with key similarities to Namiji, which is designed by Antoine Bauza and now published by Stonemaier Games. https://youtu.be/5ZDZt33NLWc
Chicago ’68 is a game about the riots during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, set against the social upheavals of America in the sixties. After the Summer of Love, the Summer of Tear Gas. On one side: th…
Kano Designer: Angel Pintero Publisher: Matagot Players: 1-4 Age: 12+ Time: 35 minutes Played with review copy provided by publisher In Kano, 2 to 4 players compete to create their own Emakimono—traditional Japanese p…
by Mark William Howdy everyone. I am Mark William, former video editor, current data insights officer and the designer of Tanglung . This post is adapted from the blog series that I wrote on the game’s page. The Malay…
Czech Games Edition rolled the dice back in 2022 with the release of Deal with the Devil . It was the most shocking thing I played from a major publisher that year by a country mile. A strictly four-player-only, hidde…
Nightfighter Command is a WWII soloitaire narrative game where you defend Southern England against the Nazi bombers. Based at Middle Wallop or West Malling RAF base you will be directed to fly against German bombing r…
The early morning air is filled with birdsong. Colourful feathers catch the first rays of sunlight, while movement in the undergrowth reveals birds searching for food, possibly for the early worm. As a patient observe…
Lord of the Rings: Circle of Conflict Designers: Geoff Engelstein, Stephen Buonocore Publisher: OfficeDog Players: 2-4 Age: 14+ Time: 60-90 minutes Played with review copy provided by publisher It is the Third Age of …
/pic9564738.jpg)
/pic9164508.jpg)
/pic9857713.jpg)
/pic9665861.png)
/pic9628174.jpg)
