Normale Ansicht

Published — 20. Juni 2026 Meeple Mountain | The summit of board gaming

Thrift Store Finds: Overturn

As someone who frequently goes to thrift stores, I’ve seen some games so many times they barely register in my mind. I’m referring to games like, The Game of Life, Battleship, and multiple editions of Trivial Pursuit. Occasionally, this board game treasure hunting uncovers a game I’ve never heard of that is both complete and sounds interesting. This series is about those rare finds, the ones that interested me enough to risk a few dollars on and have made their way to the gaming table. Have I found an overlooked gem? Or was one person’s junk now my junk? Read on to join in the hunt!

________________
A few years ago, while scanning the game shelves of one of my favorite local thrift stores, I found a side panel to a box that reminded me of Othello. Same black base color, same font. Turns out both games are by the same publisher, Pressman, and the similarity was intentional.

Playing the Game

You play Overturn on a raised black frame featuring 18 white square tiles, each with 9 letters printed in green on raised…

The post Thrift Store Finds: Overturn appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Published — 19. Juni 2026 Meeple Mountain | The summit of board gaming

Tom and Jennifer attend QuestCon 2026 

Tom Franklin

Over the June 5-6 weekend, QuestCon 2026 took place just outside of Raleigh, NC, about four miles from my house. Honestly, I didn’t realize there were that many board gamers in my area. I knew statistically there must be some, but enough to put on a game-playing convention? Nah.

[caption id="attachment_331942" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]Roomful of Garner-area gamers. Apparently, I was wrong.[/caption]

I’ve been playing board games with the same group of friends for over 15 years. As a result, I haven’t looked elsewhere to find if there were other gamers in the area for a long time. Years ago, I checked out MeetUp, but going to a stranger’s house to play a game that might interest me (or at least didn’t involve dice) didn’t feel worth the time.

Turns out, over the years, that MeetUp group has been building. Meeting two Friday evenings a month, they claim to be the largest board game MeetUp group in North Carolina. They’ve been running a weekend gaming convention for the past few years that I had never heard of. Meeple Mountain’s founder, editor-in-chief, and all-around nice guy, Andy Matthews, sent me a message ‌from Nashville, telling me about a convention right in my metaphorical backyard.

When I arrived, I met my new…

The post Tom and Jennifer attend QuestCon 2026  appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Published — 13. Juni 2026 Meeple Mountain | The summit of board gaming

La Habana Game Review

Vibrant, Historic, Rhythmic, Soulful, Crumbling.

With its colonial mansions and mid-century modern buildings suffering from decades of neglect, Havana needs someone with the skill and cunning to collect the right materials and rebuild the structures that make the town the cultural, vibrant city it once was.

To win, you’ll need to collect the right materials to claim building cards that add up to a sliding total based on player count. With limited access to your cards/actions, this is not going to be an easy job.

Let’s get La Habana to the table to see what I mean.

Getting Ready to Rebuild

Start by separating the three types of cards, placing each in its own pile. Put the bag of bricks within easy reach of all players.

Shuffle the Building cards and lay out, side-by-side, two rows of six cards.

Give each player 1 peso coin, 1 grey brick, and a deck of 13 cards with the color backing of their choice. Place the Central Display card on the table and seed it with 3 pesos and three random bricks drawn from the bag.

[caption id="attachment_331165" align="aligncenter" width="600"]The four different bricks and the dark gray rubble, Pesos, and yellow workers. The four different bricks and the dark gray rubble, Pesos, and yellow…

The post La Habana Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Published — 04. Juni 2026 Meeple Mountain | The summit of board gaming

Ticket to Ride: Rails & Sails Game Review

When Ticket to Ride was released in 2004, it became popular the world over. That year, it was nominated for numerous international awards, even winning the prestigious Spiel de Jahres award. Capitalizing on the exposure, the following year designer Alan R. Moon released Ticket to Ride: Europe. By changing the map from the US to that of Europe—and introducing small but meaningful changes—Moon showed how he could expand the game in challenging and entertaining ways while still being familiar to anyone who had played the original. He’s been going strong with new versions of his game ever since.

Ticket to Ride: Rails & Sails (shortened to TTR:R&S from here) comes with a two-sided game board that lets you choose to either play across The World, or in a section of the USA and Canada surrounding The Great Lakes. To do so, you’ll use familiar train cars to move across the land to port cities where your new ships will continue your path across waterways and oceans.

As with my reviews of other Ticket to Ride editions, I’m going to skip the How to Play section of this review. If you haven’t played Ticket to Ride before, check out my colleague Kevin Brantley’s great review of Ticket to…

The post Ticket to Ride: Rails & Sails Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Published — 26. April 2026 Meeple Mountain | The summit of board gaming

Ticket to Ride: Europe Game Review

When Ticket to Ride was released in 2004, it became popular the world over. That year, it was nominated for numerous international awards, even winning the prestigious Spiel de Jahres award. Capitalizing on the exposure, the following year designer Alan R. Moon released Ticket to Ride: Europe. By changing the map from the US to that of Europe—and introducing small but meaningful changes—Moon showed how the game’s concept could be expanded in challenging ways while still being familiar to anyone who had played the original.

As with my review of Ticket to Ride: Northern Lights,  I’m going to skip the How to Play section of my usual reviews. If you haven’t played Ticket to Ride before, check out my colleague Kevin Brantley’s great review of Ticket to Ride: Refresh to learn how.

What’s New?

The first thing my TTR-playing friends ask when they see a new version of the game hit the table is, “What’s new?!”

Ticket to Ride: Europe introduces several new elements, both physical (new pieces given to each player) and on the board (new route requirements).

Train Stations

Ticket to Ride: Europe introduces Train Stations. Ever wish you could use another player’s route to get to a city that is blocked off? With Train Stations, you can.

[caption id="attachment_330109" align="aligncenter"…

The post Ticket to Ride: Europe Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

❌