When it comes to a game based on cards one of the first things you notice…
Calvin Daniels
Calvin’s Commentaries: CHAK
A fresh take on the birth of chess Often hobbies evolve to incorporate related activities. For…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Tactigon
When you receive a game to play and review before it has even started to be…
Calvin’s Commentaries: CHAINS, Disc Golf Board Game
HEAD Rattling chains at the gamer table It so happens most of those who game in…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Chess Federation of Canada part 2 of 2
Yesterday started a look at the game of chess with Vlad Drkulec, President of the Chess…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Chess Federation of Canada part 1 of 2
It is always interesting to learn about another’s interest in board games, and especially so when…
Calvin’s Commentaries: World Backgammon Association
Gamers might not be aware, but March 21 is World Backgammon Day. For several years the…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Thru-Hiker
It is always interesting to come upon games that are decidedly different from those filling the…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Wandering Steel
“Doval Robotics claimed that abandoning its headquarters on the island of Korvorak was a strategic cost-cutting…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Hive
The list of games being produced each year is simply massive, and that has been the…
Calvin’s Commentaries: XENOSCAPE
Role-playing games are always a fun diversion if you have a like-minded group of friends –…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Tumbleweed
Regular readers will know when it comes to a preferred style of game I lean heavily…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Infinity
Miniature games come and go with near startling regularity. While some games you quickly get the…
Calvin’s Commentaries: The Transcontinental
There is always some new game that attracts a player to venture into areas of gaming…
Calvin’s Commentaries: What Game of HAM
When you take a game off the shelf with a name like ‘Game of Ham’ you…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Wildsea
In a real-world where we face a worldwide pandemic, worsening world weather events, a widening divide…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Legions of Steel: Operation Anvil
When it comes to gaming I am an admitted sucker for miniature skirmish games. In general…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Moons and Stars
When a new game comes out with everything about it screaming that it is a very…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Infinity: Betrayal
It’s always interesting when two hobbies come together. For example, when it comes to the hobby…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Roots of Mali
While dice and I get along slightly less well than a wild dog and a feral…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Nomadic Caravan Project
When it comes to miniature gaming, you can never have too many miniatures – truly it’s…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Xodul
There really is a cornucopia, (a good word to work in in the fall), of chess…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Paiko
The current year has been a strange one in almost every facet of our lives, reviewing…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Peruke
You just have to love games that come in small, pocket-sized tins. The simple fact that…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Aristeia
Regular readers will know that the gaming group behind this weekly column collectively has an addiction…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Sword Noir
As a reader, I have long been a fan of ‘pulp noir’. The world of role-play…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Longboat
Throw a Viking theme onto a game and you have at least teased this gamer enough…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Crazy Tower
In terms of popular family/party games, Jenga has to be among the most recognizable. It is…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Masker
Recently we have delved into a lot of games from designer Philippe Proux and publisher Ludarden.…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Green Skull
When you are part of a small gaming group, who still has access to a couple…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Backgammon
Some games wear the label ‘classic’ easily. Backgammon in most certainly one of those, with its…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Tak
If it was a case of choosing a 10-best games of the current millennium, while it…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Table Hockey
When it comes to games fondly remembered from my childhood, now some half-century in the rearview…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Othello
There are not many games with simpler rules that can still hold one’s attention through repeated…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Scrabble
When it comes to board games, a scant few among the thousands have developed national and/or…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Star Scrappers: Battledrill
It’s always good when you discover a new game and become excited by it before ever…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Super Chess
There is one area of board gaming I find myself drawn to time and time again;…
Calvin’s Commentaries: King’s Cribbage
So last week’s review mentioned my favored cribbage variant was King’s Cribbage so I thought it…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Cribbage: The Board Game
One of my easy top-10 games to play is cribbage. I love its quirky counting rules,…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Hive
One of the best abstract strategy games created this millennium is Hive from John Yianni. The…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Ludarden
All good things must come to an end, and that is the case with this review…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Doce
There is an entire gaming trunk full of games that come down to getting the desired…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Flock
Rolling dice and relying on the fickleness of the fates is not a core game mechanic…
Calvin’s Commentaries: First Snow
When you enter the world of Print ‘n Play games you quickly find yourself drawn to…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Seasons of Rice
When you are stuck in the house finding a new game to play is not as…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Shadows of Mogg
There are always new role-playing games popping up, and some have the most-interesting themes. Take Shadows…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Expedition
Back in August of 2018, I reviewed Expedition: The Roleplaying Card Game from designers Scott Martin…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Maiak
When a game comes in a strange little wooden box, one that opens with a sort…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Quar
Miniature games are generally a passion for those who play. And, that holds true for those…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Dungeon Alliance
Dungeon crawling adventures in board game form are not new. Nor are deck-builders with a few…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Crokinole with Cues
Regular readers are most likely aware that in terms of board games I rate crokinole at…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Alice Chess
In terms of board games, few offer the long term interest that chess has. There is…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Triad
There are games that you sit down to play and quickly wonder how it is the…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Totem
Some games just look so good that you want to buy them, play them, and share…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Greener
Greener is one of those great little abstract strategy games in a bag from XV games.…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Tonooo
It was interesting to get Tonooo to the table. This is one of those interesting games…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Squarriors: The Card Game
Among the members of the tiny Meeple Guild, we own literally dozens and dozens and dozens…
Calvin’s Commentaries: X-Mas Games
So the calendar has flipped to December, so it’s time to think of holiday gifts for…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Dungeon WC
When it comes to theme board games have covered just about everything, or at least I…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Tasso
Typically dexterity games are either love them, or leave them in my world. Crokinole is the…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Libraria
When it comes to abstract strategy games there is a lot to be said for simplicity.…
Calvin’s Commentaries: 1066
While not a massive fan of historical battle recreation games – not something I generally seek…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Trench
In the world of my beloved abstract strategy games there is a rather diverse range of…