Recently we have delved into a lot of games from designer Philippe Proux and publisher Ludarden.…
calvin
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: Shobu
When Shobu arrived and I opened the box I was immediately taken by the aesthetics of…
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: V Commandos
There are times when your first impression of a board game can simply be wrong. Such…
Calvin’s Commentaries: El Alamein
A few weeks back I reviewed Barbarossa, a deck builder based on the Second World War…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Flint and Feather
A handful of miniatures and a table covered with terrain and you have the basis for…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Rone
As a gamer who is fairly confident in saying he had the first Magic the Gathering…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Martial Art Battlefields
It was just a year ago April that Martial Art from designers Adrian Marrs, and Jonathan…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Hardback
This week’s game is one I personally had been very much looking forward to playing. Deck-builders…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Girl Genius: The Works
When it comes to game designers James Ernest is one of my favourite. Ernest’s best game…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Direwild
The idea of using deck building as a core mechanic in a dungeon-crawl game is not…
Calvin’s Commentaries: New Professional Sports Leagues
In my first column of 2018, I reflected on some of the more interesting events which…
Calvin’s Commentaries: Trench
In the world of my beloved abstract strategy games there is a rather diverse range of…