(I wrote this before seeing Fred’s comment in the prior post, but was tired and wanted to look at it before posting).

I’ve been slowly unlocking ascensions (I think there are 10 so far). I’ve unlocked up to the Asc 3 for all characters. This means there are still some things I haven’t unlocked.

TL;DR — It’s $25. Ridiculously cheap if you like deckbuilding games. There is a co-operative mode! If you liked the StS board game, this is the real thing. (All players would have to buy a copy, I think, which is still cheaper than buying the board game)

Some actual notes:

• Graphics — I liked the rough quality of the first edition, but the new one looks great. Animations are amazingly fluid. (Looking at you, Seapunk).
• I do wish they hadn’t arbitrarily changed icons/names for some potions/cards but it’s a minor nit.
• Overall I like the improvements to gameplay:
  • The new characters are interesting at first glance, although I have some concerns that one my be somewhat railroaded. (That was the comment discussion mentioned above)
  • There are now many more “boss relics” (which happen at the opening of the next act now).
  • There seem to be more potions and artifacts, which will again make things more variable between games.
  • The combinatorics (not small for the first game) are through the roof, because of … spoiler-y new things.
• I have not tried multiplayer, but I’d be open for it. I suspect it isn’t balanced well.
• I have laughed out loud several times at jokes in the game, but I did that for the first few hundred hours of StS, too.
• For the most part I easily clear the ‘old’ characters (which I am used to) and one of the new characters, but another new character I lost 6 times before getting my third wins (at 0,1 and 2). (I did like having the Run History in the first edition; it was detailed, and maybe its just hidden in some menu I haven’t seen, or a TBD feature. Update — Found it.)
• I also like what is missing — cards (and artifacts) that were ‘easy wins.’
  • Also missing is Watcher, which I’m not actually great at; but was a rather tedious character to play. She is not missed. I often just rotated the other three characters and skipped her.
• The minions and bosses continue to find new “bombs” (in game design terms) — Several are hard counters to certain strategies. Despite having only a handful of “regular’ monsters/elites/bosses, the mix seems quite good.

SO …. I think the deckbuilding has gotten more complex (not to mention the pathing and other strategy concerns), which is a good thing. I hope to try co-op.

Update — I’ve decided to buy an “Air Mouse” so I can at least stand up while playing. I’ll see if it’s any good.

Surf was up. We had already checked out Mavericks, Praia do Norte and Mullaghmore Head. All that was left was to ride the big breakers at Pipeline. We couldn't wait to show off our best tricks and compete with each other to score the most admiration. It was time to swim out and get on the next Big Wave by Daniel Kenel from Little Dog Games with art by Justin Santora.

The post Big Wave (Saturday Review) appeared first on Tabletop Games Blog.

This is a card from my upcoming game Malaysian Holidays, which celebrates all our Malaysian national holidays and state holidays. This year Nuzul Al-Quran falls on a Saturday. Don't mind the THU on the card. In the game it is a Thursday card. And that 2 in the corner means there are two such cards in the game. Malaysian Holidays is coming soon this year from Specky Studio. Watch this space! 

Libertalia is a game from 2012. I have heard of it before several times, but never had the chance to give it a go until recently. I had high hopes for the game, because I had heard only good stuff. Unfortunately for me, I am meeting a good game at a bad time. I would have enjoyed the game more had I played it earlier. This is a simultaneous action selection game. You and your opponents have

Parcel fulfillment methods, options, and best practices have evolved quite a bit over the last few years, so today I’ve updated the information from my previous post on this topic in the hope this will be helpful for my fellow creators.

The Basics

In general, this is the 2-step process that many creators use (see also this infographic):

1. Freight: A freight company (I work with ARC Global: justin.bergeron@arcglobal.us) ships cartons/pallets/containers of products from a factory to several different fulfillment centers (Australia, Canada, US, and Europe). Depending on your scale, you can potentially freight ship directly to distributors (who sell games to retailers). Here’s my 2023 update on freight shipping.
2. Fulfillment: A fulfillment center sends orders to customers within their respective region.

This method works well if you know exactly how many products to send to each region. That’s great for crowdfunders but more of a guessing-game for companies like Stonemaier Games who don’t accept orders until the products have arrived at fulfillment centers. We make educated guesses based on past sales and interest gauged from our newsletters.

Top Fulfillment Centers

Whenever I’ve selecting a fulfillment company, I always ask about and test the quality of packaging, speed, communication, customer service, and autonomous problem solving.

I’ve come to believe that consistently high quality is much more important than price when it comes to fulfillment centers. However, you can see a variety of stats (including price estimates, which are updated by each corresponding company) as well as contact information on this master list of fulfillment companies.

Here are my current top picks by region:

• United States: We work with Miniature Market fulfillment here in St. Louis and have been really impressed by all services they’ve provided. Fulfillrite, Quartermaster Logistics, and Allplay Fulfillment have great reputations, and whenever I receive a package from them, I’m pleased with the quality of packaging.
• Europe: Spiral Galaxy is great to work with, and they’ve offer a full-service VAT option. They’re extremely responsive, they’re fast, they pack games well, and they even have an optional system where they can confirm addresses with customers before printing labels.
• Canada: We work with Asmodee Canada to handle fulfillment, and they’re doing a great job with communication, speed, and quality of packaging.
• Australia/NZ/Asia: Let’s Play Games does a solid job at fulfilling our shipments to customers in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia.
• Other Areas: Unfortunately, there aren’t any fulfillment centers in other regions I can currently recommend, but I’d love to hear from other creators if you’ve had good experiences in the last few years.

If you plan to sell products through your webstore to customers on an ongoing basis, I recommend setting up different storefronts for each region (or some way to separate inventory by region).

Instructions for Fulfillment Centers

We try to be abundantly clear every time we work with a fulfillment center, informing them well in advance when we have an upcoming launch. Feel free to copy and paste the instructions below (or add/subtract from them):

1. Ship all packages so they do not require a signature for delivery.
2. Send customers their tracking number by e-mail on the same day that their order leaves the facility (not when the label is made and no later than the day after the package departs). Also, it’s crucial that backers see their FULL address on tracking notifications, not a partial address that will cause them to wonder if we forgot half of their information.
3. Either sync tracking numbers with our ecommerce platform or send me a spreadsheet of tracking numbers and couriers within 2-3 days of fulfillment completion. We can answer 90% of customer service questions if we have that data.
4. If it’s absolutely necessary for an order to ship in multiple packages, please make sure the customer knows that they’re receiving more than one package. That will prevent a lot of customer confusion and frustration.
5. Please pack the products with plenty of cushioning around the edges, corners, and between differently sized components.
6. Please use eco-friendly, space-efficient packaging if possible. (It’s generally up to the creator to specify if there is a product that could be shipped in a padded mailer or envelope instead of a reinforced box.)
7. Let me know in advance what your estimated daily/weekly target is (the quantity of orders they can ship each week). We ask that fulfillment centers increase this quantity for launch periods compared to normal weeks.

Tips and Thoughts

• Transparency: Most crowdfunders have moved to the method of charging for parcel shipping costs after the project. Parcel shipping is fulfillment center labor, packaging, and postage, which is separate from the landed cost of a product (manufacturing plus freight; this is built into the reward price). Basically, a customer’s assumption when they place a pledge is they’ve now paid for the entire landed cost and only need to pay for the parcel shipping cost later.
• Responsibility: It is inevitable that some customers will report that a package wasn’t delivered (despite the courier’s “proof” of delivery). We first ask the customer to check with their neighbors–you’d be surprised by how many times the package is next door. If the customer can’t find the package, we confirm that the address is secure (or ask for a more secure address), add a required signature to the delivery (if possible), and ship the package again.
• Product Size: A certain number of cartons fit on a pallet (18-21 cartons), and your manufacturer will often use the same carton size for everything they send. Smaller box sizes offer a significant competitive advantage given the freight shipping costs, though retailers and distributors typically don’t want to buy cartons with dozens of games inside (6-12 games per carton is ideal).
• Playmats: Big playmats in cardboard tubes require multiple packages for the same shipment, so we instead have our manufacturer flat-pack them. Fulfillment centers fold them into packages for shipment, saving customers a significant expense (and using a lot less cardboard in the process).
• Pre-packing: To speed up the fulfillment process, slightly decrease the cost per unit, and ensure a consistent quality of packaging, your manufacturer can pre-package products at the factory. This works best if customers are preordering 1 unit of the product and nothing else. You can even design expansion and accessory boxes so a shipping label can be placed directly on them without the need for a box inside a box.
• Damaged boxes: Publishers don’t typically have replacement boxes, so if a customer receives a dented or broken box and requests a replacement, there’s no other way than to send them another full game. When we do that, we give the customer a prepaid shipping label to send the ding-and-dent game to a reviewer of our choice (we check with the reviewer in advance to see if they’re fine with this arrangement).
• Replacement parts: Sometimes components are missing from inside the product, and we have replacement parts helpers around the world stocked with spare parts to send to you if you fill out the form on this page.

Other Tips I’ve Learned Over the Years

• Bar Codes/SKUs: Fulfillment centers and retailers require bar codes (gs1, then generate codes here); most also need SKUs (stock codes; if you’re in the board game industry, get these from heather.stoltzfus@hmahobby.org). Make sure you have both, and make sure you have a system for ensuring that you don’t use the same bar code on different products (I use a Google Doc with conditional formatting that highlights duplicate cells).
• Important labels: If you manufacture in China, put “Made in China” on the box (or wherever you made the product). Customs will have a problem if you don’t do this. Also include a choking hazard icon and label (“Warning. Choking hazard. Contains small parts. Not for children under 36 months.”).
• Add-Ons: The more add-ons and various configurations you offer, the more trouble you’re going to have when you fulfill rewards. Not only does it increase the potential for human error, but it also increases the cost: Some fulfillment centers charge a fee for each item in the package.
• Fee Precision: When calculating shipping rates on your crowdfunding project, use accurate fees for each country, not one-size-fits-all rates.
• Europe/VAT/Brexit: If you’re shipping from within Europe, put an address on the back of the box (i.e., your local address plus your fulfillment center address in Europe, though ask for their permission). If your game is CE marked and tested (which it needs to be if you are advertising it as a game for under 14) you need to have an address of an EU-based company that can act as your “authorised representative” and hold your Declaration of Conformity for you. You’ll need to pay VAT, and I recommend shipping DDP (delivery duty prepaid) if you ship to the EU from the UK so customers know that the price they see on your webstore (which includes VAT) is the full price they’ll pay for the product (no surprises upon delivery–and if there is a surprise, it’s a mistake by the courier that can be resolved). I also recommend putting UK and UKCA markings next to the CE markings.
• Central/South America and Africa: We’ve tried to ship to customers in these regions in the past, but very few packages would actually arrive at their destinations. I know it’s not ideal, but my recommendation to these customers is that they ship to forwarding addresses in regions where we do ship (i.e., to a friend or to a service like Shipito and MyUS).
• Communication: I’ve found that keeping backers and customers informed with frequent updates throughout the fulfillment process is really helpful for easing their anxiety, even if we have no news to share.
• Local Pickup: It took quite a bit of coordination, but a few months ago we added a local pickup option here in St. Louis through Miniature Market (for sales made on our webstore). It isn’t something I would want to handle through my home office, but Miniature Market is set up well for option.

***

Hopefully this gives you some ideas for shipping and fulfillment! If you fulfilled a project recently or are shipping products on an ongoing basis, what’s something you learned that can help your fellow creators? Do you have a fulfillment center to recommend?

***

Also read:

• All other articles about fulfillment
• Board Game Supply Chain Basics
• Then and Now: How Expensive Is Freight and Parcel Shipping?
• Tariffs: Impact on Tabletop Publishers, Consumers, and US Manufacturing

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.

Magic, L5R, Shadowfist, Bridge — Small potatoes. (Bridge is pretty close though, but although I’ve played it for nearly 40 years, for fifteen of those years I likely only played only a few sessions a year).

I’ve played more Slay the Spire than any other game. Whereas other people would come home and watch TV, I’d Slay the Spire. I am currently in the steam store trying to download Slay the Spire II. Talk amongst yourselves.

(Actually, my transaction got bonked and I can’t buy it! Trying again in a few minutes).

Update — And … we’re off.

It’s 1998. Goldberg is dominating the only wrestling league that matters. The Wolfpac is running wild, and that damn cattle prod is about to make an appearance at Starrcade. But that hasn’t happened yet. Right now, a Totino’s pizza is crackling to life in the oven. My buddy Chris is spending the night, and we…

Read more →

BGI 409 The One About Game Designer Income

Board Games Insider – Join our Guild on Board Game Geek Guild | Like us on FB

Social media:

Ignacy Trzewiczek / Portal Games: website | FB | Twitter | Youtube

Corey Thompson / Above Board TV:  website | Youtube

Stephen Buonocore / “The Podfather Of Gaming”: website | FB | Twitter | Youtube

Intro Music: Happy Rock – Bensound.com

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Who else has watched the Disney cartoon 101 Dalmatians as a kid? Spots is a light dice game about dalmatians! Well, maybe not specifically dalmatians. Just dogs with spots. Many of the dogs in this game don't actually look like dalmatians. This is a game with a bit of push-your-luck, in which you race to fill six dog cards with dice of the right number of pips.  You start

The post Fireside Games Launches the 2nd Edition of Hotshots appeared first on Graphic Policy.

From the creators at Fireside Games comes a deluxe edition release of Hotshots, a cooperative, press-your-luck board game.

I’ve now played High Frontier, 3rd Edition, High Frontier 4 All and I owned Rocket Flight (aka Lords of the High Frontier). I’ve never played 2nd Edition, but as far as I know, there was no second edition, but I’m sure a comment will correct me. I’ve gone from “indifferent” to “suggest” back to “indifferent” and I’m back to “suggest.”

Not a blanket suggest …. I see a yearly game that involves all of the expansions¹ and that 10 hour behemoth is not for me. High Frontier has a snowball growth. The first exo-factories give you better patents (hopefully) which means your second rocket has first opportunity to explore and exploit key sites.

This may not be true of the most experienced players (several of which are in that yearly game). but it’s certainly true at my level and in one of my three games so far this year I busted site after site in my first hour, squandering my early launch advantage. If I had rolled well, though, I would have snowballed in a positive way. Like many of Phil Eklund games, HF is more simulation than game, with scoring tacked on. That sounds too harsh — the scoring scheme is actually reasonable. Quite often the ‘winner’ is the person that objective observers would say “Yeah, that space agency did the best.” But me personally, when I’m getting snowballed, it’s can be a bit of a drag. Three hours is often enough to determine that.

There is also the brain-burn factor. High Frontier isn’t as complex as Magic Realm, although the fact that its in the same conversation is telling. No, High Frontier’s brain burn is the paradox of choice. In the Realm, you start of with a world where you are going to wander around for a bit … the great treasures could be anywhere. Sure if you are hunting dragons you will have some preferred destinations, but the early game is exploration. In space, we’ve got decades of exploration done before the first mission launches. The map is known, and cosmically complex.

Even ignoring anything past the asteroid belt², your first mission has plenty of options limited by hydration, distance in burns and/or time, landing thrust …. and also preferences relating to spectral type and risk management. Then you have to calculate fuel, and High Frontier’s ingenious implementation of Tsiolkovsky’s rocket equation take some time to think about. Even initiates with a few games under their belt (such as myself) have to ponder mission planning.

After about three hours, I’m tired.

That being said, I’d like to learn the Bernal and TW thruster rules (some modules in HF4), so I watched the heavy cardboard rules video (and am watching the playthrough) and I’ve set up a solo game (of HF3) which I might play off and on. A solo game has the “I can get up and come back to it tomorrow” advantage.

So, High Frontier is back into the suggest rating. I’ve re-caught that particular bug.

1. Possibly including expansions still under development ︎
2. Possibly a mistake, and I also typically ignore Mercury and Venus (a definite mistake) ︎

Ryan Dancey was, until last Wednesday, the Chief Operating Officer at Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). On LinkedIn, the self-help site for managers who want to tell each other how great they are and how little their subordinates/customers appreciate them, Dancey published a post (link to a photo of the post, because I do not link to LinkedIn) in which he explained that he is firmly convinced that AI (or rather the LLMs that are usually labelled as AIs) will, in just a few years, be as useful as any employee.

The post ChatGPT as a board game designer? (Topic Discussion) appeared first on Tabletop Games Blog.

With our 2025 tax calculations now complete, it’s time for me to share the annual Stonemaier Games stakeholder report.

A “stakeholder” in Stonemaier Games is anyone who has an impact on our company and a stake in our story, whether it’s my coworkers, contractors, customers, Champions, Ambassadors, retailers, distributors, localization partners, artists, designers, readers, etc. So if you’re reading this, the transparency in this post is out of respect and appreciation for you.

Joy is always our goal–we don’t measure success by money, units sold, rankings, followers, or awards. Those are just metrics. So all of the data aside, I truly hope we were able to create some joy for you in the last year, and I’m grateful for your connection to Stonemaier Games.

2025 Revenue and Personnel

We use the accrual method for accounting (expenses and revenue count in the year when we ship the products to the customer). Our total revenue for 2025 was $25.1 million. The sources were distribution (34%), Stonemaier webstore (21%), localization (19%), direct hobby retailers (9%), Amazon FBA (13%), and digital game royalties (4%).

For comparison, revenue was $23.7 million in 2024 (actual profit is a much lower number on any given year; we consistently reprint almost all of our games, so the majority of our profits are reinvested into manufacturing, freight shipping, and personnel). Please note that comparing annual revenue isn’t particularly relevant, as changing the timing of a large first printing or restock by even just a month can shift millions from one year to the next. 2025 was also a particularly release-heavy year, and Vantage is among our more expensive games. Even with the increased expense of tariff taxes, we did not increase our prices.

We have no debt, nor did we take any loans in 2025. As usual, cash flow was tight at certain times of the year due to the gap between when we need to pay Panda (our manufacturer) and when distributors pay us, but we make it work. (I mention this to dispel the notion that profitable companies are always flush with cash.)

• Full-time employees: 7 (Jamey, Joe, Alex, Dave D, Susannah, Erica, Christine)
• Part-time employees: 1 (Alan)
• Every day contractors/partners: 4 (Morten, David, Dave H, Shannon, and Karel)
• Number of cats: 6
• Number of dogs: 3
• Independent contractors: 100+
• New games (including re-releases): 7
• New expansions: 2
• New accessories: 5
• Crowdfunding campaigns: 0
• Shareholders: 30 (including all 8 Stonemaier employees)

Here’s a longer list of everyone who has an impact on Stonemaier Games, including demographics (photos of many of them are here).

We warehouse and ship our games from Miniature Market for our products in the US, from Asmodee Canada for our products in Canada, from Spiral Galaxy in the UK to serve Europe, and from Let’s Play Games in Australia for Oceania/Asia. My coworkers and I work from home.

Games in Print

The quantities below are the lifetime units in circulation for each game (just the game, not expansions, accessories, or promos) in all languages released in 2025 or before, and the BGG rankings are as of today. If you haven’t rated our games, you can do so here!

• Viticulture: 273,584 units (BGG rank: 44)
• Euphoria: 44,000 units (BGG rank: 678)
• Between Two Cities: 56,900 units (BGG rank: 889)
• Scythe: 601,102 units (BGG rank: 26)
• Charterstone: 97,500 units (BGG rank: 625)
• My Little Scythe: 68,500 units (BGG rank: 837)
• Between Two Castles: 58,000 units (BGG rank: 771)
• Wingspan & Wingspan Asia: 2,639,429 units (BGG ranks: 38 and 89)
• Tapestry: 91,650 units (BGG rank: 293)
• Pendulum: 49,200 units (BGG rank: 3786)
• Red Rising: 154,800 units (BGG rank: 1055)
• Rolling Realms & Rolling Realms Redux: 62,000 units (BGG rank: 1124)
• Libertalia: 62,584 units (BGG rank: 516)
• Smitten & Smitten 2: 38,000 units (BGG rank: 6155)
• Expeditions: 77,500 units (BGG rank: 386)
• Apiary: 55,004 units (BGG rank: 314)
• Wyrmspan: 451,994 units (BGG rank: 125)
• Stamp Swap: 34,000 units (BGG rank: 3175)
• Finspan: 233,584 units (BGG rank: 489)
• Tokaido: 29,500 units (BGG rank: 835)
• Vantage: 64,000 units (BGG rank: 225)
• Origin Story: 33,500 units (BGG rank: 2314)
• Tokaido Duo: 27,834 units (BGG rank: 1800)

The products we introduced in 2025 were Finspan, Between Two Castles Essential Edition, Tokaido, Vantage, Tokaido Duo, Smitten 2, Origin Story, Wyrmspan: Dragon Academy, Tokaido: Crossroads & Matsuri, a variety of promos for Rolling Realms, and the Wingspan bird promo packs. As usual, we’ve tried to keep our release schedule streamlined and focused so we can shine a big spotlight on everything we make; with the addition of the Tokaido brand, we didn’t accomplish that goal particularly well in 2025.

Social Media, Contacts, and Other Metrics

This data is as of March 1, 2026.

• e-newsletter subscribers: 54,247 (40% open rate)
• Facebook fans: 43,305 (though most interactions are in our Facebook groups, which have over 100,000 members)
• YouTube subscribers: 57,033
• Instagram followers: 56,698
• Discord members: 3,155
• Bluesky followers: 2,695
• Stonemaier Champions: 15,738
• ambassadors (active volunteers): 780
• reviewers (active): 310
• international localization partners: 42
• Stonemaier Games Design Day attendees: 100
• funds donated to charities (annual auction): $22,364

With Joe as our Director of Communications, Alex as our COO, Susannah as our Sales Relationship Manager, Dave as our Customer Outreach Manager, Christine as our Director of Visual Design, Erica as our Ecommerce Brand Manager, Alan as our Director of Special Projects, and Jamey (me) handling lead design, development, marketing, content creation, project management, and direct-to-consumer sales, we have people specializing in different interactions on various platforms in service of you. This is reflected by our org chart:

New in 2025

Our other new endeavors and experiments in 2025 are as follows:

• While this isn’t our first foray into publishing content that originated in fan creations, it was new for us to publish a few packs of promo birds for Wingspan that were designed by fans of the game.
• We created an official place on our website for third-party accessory creators to feature their creations related to our games.
• I started the Positively Board Gaming Podcast with my friend Mitchell, with whom I’ve enjoyed chatting every week for the last year. It’s also found on our YouTube channel.
• We sponsored a professional disc golfer, Jeremy Koling, who has shared Wingspan with hundreds of people around the world while touring.
• We stood up for other publishers and small businesses who were subject to an illegal tariff tax forced upon us by the US government.

Looking Ahead to 2026

At the beginning of 2026, I previewed our releases for the year as follows:

• Q1: Wingspan expansion (based on the birds of Central and South America and the Caribbean; vision friendly cards are available as an add-on) and a Viticulture expansion (a new 4-season board with the original board on the back)
• Q2: Euphoria Essential (combines the expansion with the core game and offers a new board layout with some rules tweaks; the board and rules will be available separately for those who already have Euphoria) and the first Finspan expansion (I previewed a shark card and a colorful fish)
• Q3: Scythe vs Expeditions 2-player dueling game (this content expands Scythe and Expeditions, and all Scythe factions/player mats and Expeditions mechs/characters are compatible with the dueling game; there will be add-on packs containing metal versions of the mechs and a plastic airship [which isn’t used in the dueling game]), a small-box, lighter Wingspan bird experience playable in around 3o minutes, and a mini-expansion to Origin Story (many more superheroes)
• Q4: The first Smoking Bones game from artist and worldbuilder Andrew Bosley and a debut designer (see some info about the world here) and our version of Namiji (combines the core game and the expansion in a normal box size with accessibility updates)
• reprints for the Rolling Realm promos (other reprints for out-of-stock products are dependent on demand as indicated by back-in-stock requests on our webstore)

You can sign up for our monthly e-newsletter to receive notifications about these announcements.

In 2026, my goals are to welcome both new and experienced gamers into the gaming community and bring joy to their tabletops, to support my amazing coworkers, and to lead with kindness, compassion, and empathy.

***

Thanks for joining Stonemaier Games on this journey, and if there’s anything we can do to add joy to your tabletop experiences, please let us know.

Do you have any thoughts, observations, or questions about this report? I want to continue to learn from mistakes and successes, experiment, and listen to our stakeholders in 2026.

Also read:

• 2024 Stakeholder Report
• 2023 Stakeholder Report
• 2022 Stakeholder Report
• 2021 Stakeholder Report
• 2020 Stakeholder Report
• 2019 Stakeholder Report
• 2018 Stakeholder Report
• 2017 Stakeholder Report
• 2016 Stakeholder Report

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.

(I forgot to publish this earlier).

Games Played

Quarters — Bridge (60+ sessions)

Dimes —1846 (2x), Chu Han (2x), The Gang, Pagan: Fate of Roanoke

Nickels — Air Baron, Jump Drive, 1862, Fishing, Glory to Rome, LotR: FotR Trick Taking Game, Race for the Galaxy, Shards of Infinity

A fair chunk of gaming was with the TaoLing¹. All of Pagan, Air Baron, Jump Drive & Shards were with him (and most of my ’62 and Chu Han). Now that he is no longer a student, I expect a much lower count next year …

I think I played ~90 unique titles, which is honestly fairly high. Full List on BGG

New to Me Games

As is always the case, most new games are firmly in indifferent category, but maybe with a novelty bonus. I think my Game of the Year is likely Chu Han, but even that is somewhat disappointing, because for games by Tom Lehmann, I’m hoping for 100+ plays, Chu Han petered out just north of 20. It’s a disappointment that most designers would kill for, but still.

And that was kinda it. Nothing set my world on fire. A mediocre year, in my book. Other new games of note were Dragon’s Down (my thoughts on DD vs Magic Realm), the new Caylus 1303

I’m also saddened that I only got in 3 games of Stationfall and Pastiche. Those need more plays.

Trends and Notes

My Weds night group has pivoted into 18xx for a large percentage of the sessions which accounts for most of my ’46 plays (20+) as well as Shikoku 1889, 18 India, 1822PNW, 1822MX, 1848 Australia. I got in a game of 1833NE, and am looking forward to its GMT release. (I also play some 18xx online on 18xx.games)

I’ve also been writing most weeks at the 20th Century Project.

1. When he was home for a few months before relocating for a job, or back for the holidays. ︎

Cards were wildly flying through the air. People were taking turns aiming their cards at the target in the middle of the table. It all looked frightfully confusing, but everyone was happy. Choosing the best card was hard enough as it was, but flicking it correctly seemed impossible. For the cards, it was certainly a Tricky Landing by Mike Petchey from Huff No More with illustrations by Edie Petchey.

The post Tricky Landing (Saturday Review) appeared first on Tabletop Games Blog.

Dionysia is a microgame from Buttonshy Games. So you know what to expect. A game with exactly 18 cards which comes in a wallet that fits comfortably in your shirt pocket.  Dionysia is a two player game in which you draft cards to make a play. Cards represent scenes. Your play has three acts, and each act must have three scenes. You take turns drafting a card from a market of

The post Dreadquarters, a New Supervillain Tabletop Game from Headlock Games launches in April appeared first on Graphic Policy.

Dreadquarters, a 1-4 player strategy game of villainous cooperation and tactical defense, launching on Kickstarter April 7, 2026.