Review: Dice City

Did you find the excellent Imperial Settlers a little cold and unforgiving? Do you trust them bones? Would you risk your city’s fate on a the roll of the dice!? Paul seems pretty happy to, over and over, as he looks at cute newcomer Dice City. It’s got cemeteries and catapults, mines and militia, which is just about everything an ambitious mayor could need, right?

Take a seat and break out the popcorn for a video that’s both a review and… a little something extra, courtesy of a very special guest. Have a terrific weekend!

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Review: Machi Koro’s Harbor Expansion

Review: Machi Koro's Harbor Expansion

Quinns: Today I’m joined by Matt, who’s finally played Machi Koro!

Matt: What does “Machi Koro” mean in English, Quinns?

Quinns: “Give Me a 4 You Useless Sodding Dice or I’m Melting You In the Microwave.” But I don’t just want to talk about Machi Koro today! I want to talk about the new Harbor expansion.

Matt: What does “Harbour” mean in English, Quinns?

Quinns: It doesn’t have a direct translation, but you could say “Den of Lost Souls.” But let’s start with a quick reminder of why the base game is so delightful, and why people should think about buying it if they haven’t already.

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Games News! 02/06/14

Cosmic Dominion

Quinns: Morning, everyone! How’s your day going? Stuck at work? At least you don’t have a contract killer walking around with your personal details. Today is the first day of my Street Wars game, a four week, one-hit kill watergun fight. You can track our game here. Oh god, somebody’s already died. This is just like the Hunger Games. Except I’m only hungry because I’m too scared to go to the shops.

Gloom, seen above, is another popular game of pitiful situations, and this week we learned a 2nd edition is on the way. Unusually for a game about being trapped down wells and murdered by squids, the new edition will be a fairly undramatic thing. The best part is that Gloom’s three out-of-print expansions – Unwelcome Guests, Unhappy Homes and Unfortunate Expeditions – are all being reprinted! And we’ll get a host of “minor improvements to gameplay and card design”, but all still be compatible with your existing Gloom cards.

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Review(s): Machi Koro Vs. Splendor

Review(s): Machi Koro Vs. Splendor

So many games feature dice, but so few capture the thrill of gambling. Why is that?

The answer is, of course, to just buy Machi Koro and shout “WHO CARES!” right in your friend’s face while buying a fourth bakery. Though if you’re looking for a dazzling little economic card game for 2-4 players, we’ve also taken a look at Splendor… and a look back over our shoulder at Mundus Novus.

Wow! On reflection, we really do make your lives difficult, don’t we?

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Machi Koro

Machi Koro

Welcome to the city of Machi Koro, the Japanese card game that is sweeping the world!

Armed only with your trusty die and a dream, you must grow the sleepy town of Machi Koro into the largest city in the region. You will need to collect income from developments, build public works, and steal from your neighbors coffers (just make sure they aren’t doing the same to you)!

They say you can’t build Rome in a day, but Machi Koro will be built in under 30 minutes!

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Games News! 09/12/13

Coin Age

Quinns: Hello! Is it time for Games News? I feel so jetlagged that this is quite likely to be a terrible dream. Any second I’ll wake up still on the plane, one of my eyes gummed shut, the overweight man on my right having spilled an entire vodka miniature in my crotch.

Best to just enjoy this reality while it lasts, with its crunchy toast, hot coffee and board game news.

First up is the mighty Eurogamer, which has published a couple of articles about Chess 2 and Pandante, games that attempt to “fix” chess and poker, respectively.

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