The components gets sorted out from the box. You feel ambitious. You want the rainbow button. We all do. It’s the golden ticket. Three points! A bonus just for mastering color and pattern! Except chasing that last bit of color usually nets you fewer points then you lose. Almost every player fall into this trap; … Read more

Finally, after three hours laying out tiles on your Cascadia board, you’ve woven river lanes through mountains, around that pesky bear in the corner, and now the game’s ended: time to score. Scoring is typicaly the least enjoyable portion of any game because it demand careful addition. What if there’s a single prairie tile splitting … Read more

Natural selection becomes a balancing act in the board game Evolution. Every trait comes with a cost, you hope it’s worth it in the long run. You want your species to score points and survive until end of game. But the math doesn’t add up neatly most of the time. Plug in your stats to … Read more

A hopeful species board sits before you as you take your seat at table. Four different critters is developing side by side, each with its own characteristics that sound good on paper. It’s tempting to grow out one or more, to bulk up what you already have or add another species. But before you put … Read more

Trees need space and time to photosynthesize. On a round board, you’ll plant little plastic tree and hope they do not fall into your neighbor’s shadow. It is frustrating when the other player covers your canopy just before score time. Knowing where to point the sun helps: it lets you translate fuzzy gut instinct into … Read more

In Everdell, there’s a particular variety of panic that settles over your soul once you’re all twigged up for construction, but you’re a resin away from a complete row in your city of critter. The game could close out or someone else will swipe it up as you sit staring at the board thinking “if … Read more

When drawing a card for Kingdom Builder and you’re unsure where to place it, use this page’s calculator to help make your decision. For example, perhaps you have some water hexes that appear attractive on the board but if placed they will isolate all your settlements from scoring objectives. The calculator provide a numeric value … Read more