Author: Alex Beers
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Mandala Mind: The Card Game – Strategy Guide
One of my goals for Mandala Mind: The Card Game is for it to be welcoming and accessible. I thought creating a strategy guide would be one way to do this. If you prefer to discover strategies on your own, please do not read any further.
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Lands of Galzyr: Game of the Year 2022
We’ve almost reached the end of 2022, and that means many people are talking about their favorite game releases from this past year. Instead of making a top-ten list, I want to talk about a single game from 2022: Lands of Galzyr. Lands of Galzyr is quite different from the games I normally play. I…
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My Top 5 Cozy Board Games
With the start of autumn in the northern hemisphere and the weather cooling off for many of us, more time is going to be spent indoors. This time of year often brings about feelings of coziness as we sit around the fire and wrap ourselves in blankets. As a result, I thought this would be…
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Copperdale: Print-and-Play Series
I’ve been playing a lot of single-page print-and-play games recently, such as Sunshine City and Aquamarine. One thing all of these games have in common is that they use the roll-and-write mechanism to progress the game. So, when I heard about a new single-page print-and-play game called Copperdale that uses the flip-and-write mechanism with a…
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Making Laminated Print-and-Play Cards
I’ve been dabbling in print-and-play games for a little while, but I recently saw a YouTube video that inspired me to take my print-and-play skills to the next level. This video by print-and-play master Martin Gonzalvez demonstrates how to make laminated print-and-play cards. By following all of his steps, the cards have a similar look…
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Cascadia: Peaceful Game Series
Cascadia recently won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres (game of the year) award for the best family game of 2022. Before receiving this award, Cascadia had already caught my attention for being set in the region where I live, the Pacific Northwest. As a result of both the award and thematic setting, I was very…
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Aquamarine: First Impressions
Print-and-play roll-and-write games have become very popular recently on Kickstarter. Postmark Games led the way with this trend with their first game, Voyages, where you navigate a ship around a hexagon-filled map. Now Postmark Games have released their second print-and-play game titled Aquamarine. In Aquamarine, you dive below the ocean surface to make discoveries and,…
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Kittens + Beasts (The Isle of Cats): My Favorite Expansions
One of my favorite expansions is Kittens + Beasts for The Isle of Cats. In Kittens + Beasts, kitten and beast tiles are added to the game (surprise, surprise). Kittens are smaller than cats, so they take up less space on your boat, enabling you to fill difficult spaces. Beasts want to be friends with…
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ROVE: First Impressions
I recently played ROVE: Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer for the first time! ROVE is an 18-card wallet game from Button Shy Games where you control a robot on an unknown planet. You aim to complete seven different missions in a row by moving six module cards around in a specific pattern.
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Viticulture World: Peaceful Game Series
Viticulture World is a cooperative expansion to Viticulture, a game about making wine in Italy. Instead of competing against one another like in the base version of Viticulture, players are working together to have the most prestigious winery in a particular region of the world.