Ever sit down with a new game knowing that one player at the table was going…
Calvin’s Commentaries
Calvin’s Commentaries: Megiddo
On occasion one has the opportunity to turn back the calendar a chunk to review a…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Splito
In a board game world seemingly dominated by big box productions with elaborate rule sets and…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Elios
Small box games are always intriguing. Expectations are rarely overly high because of the limited contents…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Vale of Eternity
Ever gone on a camping trip where you just open a few cans of whatever in…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Pantarei
When it comes to quick. But enjoyable abstract strategy games Cosmoludo has the concept down to…
Calvin’s Commentaries: The Mystery of the Cursed Statuette
Fantasy RPG adds a dash of Sherlock Holmes Amid the varied games The Meeple Guild plays,…
Calvin’s Commentaries: The Meeple Guild
When it comes to board games The Meeple Guild has not played many ‘worker placement’ games.…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Hiroba
If you are a fan of Sudoku, stop reading this week’s review and just go order…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Pijersi more game than expected
When you are a hobbyist – it doesn’t much matter which hobby – you likely haunt…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Lots of charm with this dice roller
There are games that when you see the box – even when you get it to…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Mana is aesthetically well-worth exploring
Earlier I reviewed Yoxii. You may recall we loved it aesthetically and found enough in its…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Knarr is a fine game, at least for some of us
Some games hit the table that once played for review illicit far more debate than might…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Fly your falcon well to win new game
When I first saw Falconry from Circle J Games I was interested. The idea of hunting…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Manoeuvre through the fenced maze to win at Quoridor
One of the things that set many abstract strategy games apart is that they are heirlooms…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Flügelrad is a game just based on the name alone you are likely to remember.
But there is more to this one than a funky name. Flügelrad is a new abstract…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Monarch migration turned into great game theme
The very idea of animal migration seems all but impossible. When the first robin bobs over…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Pathogen excites as fresh take on abstract games
Sometimes a game you might term obscure crosses the table and absolutely wows The Meeple Guild.…
Calvin’s Commentaries: The Fuzzies way more fun than expected
So when you open a new game and find that it is simply a pile of…
Calvin’s Commentaries: More game here than anticipated
The art on a game box adds nothing to how well the game plays, but it…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Take your band to the big time
For many of us the dream of heading out on the road with a rock band…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Who would have expected collecting ‘shrooms to be so much fun
Once in a while in the role of reviewers, we are afforded what is essentially a…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Lacuna: A ‘Zen-like’ game experience
When I initially opened the tube containing the game Lucuna and gave the rules a very…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Scottish lore carries a new card game
When it comes to a game based on cards one of the first things you notice…
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: Trench
In the world of my beloved abstract strategy games there is a rather diverse range of…
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: Wizard’s Garden
As a bonafide fan of abstract strategy games I am quite surprised it has taken so…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Parks
If you are a sucker for great looking games then you will be blown away by…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Aristeia
The best games, or perhaps these days, like movies, almost all games, end up with expansions.…
Calvin’s Commentaries: WatchGuard
This is a somewhat different review in the sense it’s not about a particular game. Instead,…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Forest Fighters
Personally, I like deck builder quite a lot. Ditto the group as a whole. But, as…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Dice Settlers
So let’s start here with a statement of preference, I do not like dice. I’m pretty…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Up and Across
As a lover of abstract strategy games, it’s always interesting to get my hands on essentially…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Coldwater Crown
If you like fishing, and I count myself among those who do, then Coldwater Crown is…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Sovereign Chess
In the world of board games, one thing which is not in short supply is chess…
Calvin’s Commentaries: 11:59
You really have to be intrigued by a game that comes in a neat little tin…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Grey Cells
Often we think of role-playing games as those set in the world of swords and sorcery…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Oxono
When it comes to board games certain companies are very good at carving out little niche…