Good Board Game Reviews

[SamVS]

I'm always complaining about rubbish board game criticism, but, hey, that's not very positive or proactive of me. So here's a thread for good reviews, analysis, comparisons, editorials, reminiscences and other such articles or videos.

I know there is a ton of great stuff out there, but so much of it is buried in the BGG forums or on YouTube accounts with <1000 subscribers. That's just the nature of the community: small, niche, and mostly centered around one sprawling website. When we do find stuff we like, I think it's important to share it around, to give it a fair chance of finding a deserved audience.

It's down to you to decide what counts as good. If you've liked something enough to bookmark it, dig out that link and post it here.

[JohnH]

Videowise, I usually stick to the standard Rahdo, SUSD, and Dicey Exploits. Next level down after that for me is No Pun Included and DiceTower (particularly Zee, but Sam is getting better. Not a massive fan of Tom's reviews). Antlab and man vs meeple are ok after that.

And when there's a gaming rules I usually watch that. I love that guy's eyebrows.

[SamVS]

Changing Gears - Formula D Review

I like this review for having a stylistic gimmick (the gears), and for eloquently getting across the reviewers long-term experience with the game, but mostly because it actually made me want to play Formula D again, and after my first play of the game I wouldn't have thought that was possible.


SU&SD: The Wet Retirement Special - Black Fleet and Survive! reviews

I'm with you, John, I also think SU&SD are great. I think this is the first of their videos that I watched, and it has stuck in my mind. I love a good comparison, and this one even opens with a joke about game critics. I wonder if, three years afterwards, Quinns thinks that he has "run out of things to say" yet.

I hadn't heard of Dicey Exploits. I'll give them a look.

[PaulC]

Videowise, I usually stick to the standard Rahdo, SUSD, and Dicey Exploits. Next level down after that for me is No Pun Included and DiceTower (particularly Zee, but Sam is getting better. Not a massive fan of Tom's reviews). Antlab and man vs meeple are ok after that.

And when there's a gaming rules I usually watch that. I love that guy's eyebrows.

Any Euro-gamers (or any gamers for that matter) who have bought Salvation Road on Zee Garcia's recommendation will undoubtedly want horrible things to happen to him. I have lost all respect for him.

[Scott_Fryer]

I quite like actualol, fairly new(ish) I think, so there isnt a lot of content, but its less dry and quite entertaining.. it lacks detail, but has given me ideas of games I'd like to look into further... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO-hn9MJOu7pOUdGSabKGvA

[BeardyTom]

Well this review made me go out and spend £70 so it must be doing something right. He's really trying to get across the feel of playing, which is something that SUSD try and do as well.

https://boardgamegeek.com/video/72955/war-ring-second-edition/dice-tower-fraser-reviews-war-ring

[Rich_Swan]

Well this review made me go out and spend £70 so it must be doing something right. He's really trying to get across the feel of playing, which is something that SUSD try and do as well.

https://boardgamegeek.com/video/72955/war-ring-second-edition/dice-tower-fraser-reviews-war-ring

I watched that too and it made me want to play it A LOT. So if you need someone to play it with sometime I'm in!

[SamVS]

6 Board Games That Ruined It for Everyone

I think this is one of the first articles I read about modern board games. I love a good comparison, and this one has six of them, and it's pretty funny.

Games are important. Even tiger cubs play games, because they help develop abilities for real life. Snakes and Ladders trains you for a really shitty life: You're sitting there doing the same thing again and again, and things go wrong through no fault of your own. You're not rewarded for effort or punished for laziness; your only job is to turn up and keep rolling the dice until it's all over. Or spin the spinner, if you paid extra for something else you didn't need, elevating the satire of modern life to terrifying levels.

If you're playing with total psychopaths, they'll insist on the rule where you have to roll the exact number to land on the final square. Moving faster than you need to isn't just unnecessary, it's now actively punished with teeth-grinding frustration as you're held back, waiting for all the slower children to catch up so that your achievement doesn't hurt their precious feelings. Which is the one lesson children are guaranteed to learn in school anyway.

King of Tokyo is how you make a game when you have dice but don't hate children. The dice's sides are one, two, three (so that the kids learn numbers) and heart, claw, LIGHTNING BOLT (so that they'll want to). Instead of trudging a boring path to the end, you're giant monsters out to destroy Tokyo, and you want to be the best monster. Show me a kid who doesn't like that, and I'll show you a perverted adult who's been using disguise to get you to change them.

Any Euro-gamers (or any gamers for that matter) who have bought Salvation Road on Zee Garcia's recommendation will undoubtedly want horrible things to happen to him. I have lost all respect for him.

What happened?

I quite like actualol, fairly new(ish) I think, so there isnt a lot of content, but its less dry and quite entertaining.. it lacks detail, but has given me ideas of games I'd like to look into further... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO-hn9MJOu7pOUdGSabKGvA

Ha, that Pandemic Legacy song is amazing, and so is his explanation the difference between dice and card luck:

Dice are unpredictable. They're like Lindsey Lohan. Try and try, but she might never roll a six again. Cards are like Adam Sandler. You know there's something good in there somewhere. You remember seeing it. It just might be a while before it comes out again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL9wCYTWTDw

[Kes]

I read that cracked article ages ago too. Really didn't like ricochet robots though and the one playthrough of alien frontiers I tried I wasn't a fan of.

[PaulC]

Any Euro-gamers (or any gamers for that matter) who have bought Salvation Road on Zee Garcia's recommendation will undoubtedly want horrible things to happen to him. I have lost all respect for him.

What happened?

It sucked ass.

[DaveB]

Any Euro-gamers (or any gamers for that matter) who have bought Salvation Road on Zee Garcia's recommendation will undoubtedly want horrible things to happen to him. I have lost all respect for him.

What happened?

It sucked ass.

Picture "Dead of Winter" but with all the interesting ideas, mechanics and fun sucked out of it. Then make it worse.

In fairness it did have a couple of good ideas (the route finding mechanic was pretty good idea I thought) but the game itself was just *bad*

[SamVS]

Not usually what I'm looking for in a board game review, but as the first commenter said: "Some truly unique insights".

Strangely Bloodless: A glazier reviews Sagrada

[RikTheChief]

Not really reviews but play throughs, Playing Board Games is a twitch channel and they post to YouTube afterwards. They are naturally funny and act like a group of friends playing games rather than Tabletop which started out ok but just seems to be trying too hard now.

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCxBEgigw3QtaPubwPBd4wXw

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