The Spiel

Welcome to Tempest. This fictional city-state is the setting for a series of games from publisher AEG. Conspire & connive; duel & deliver. Each game tells a story and gives players a new way to explore the world. We review the first four Tempest titles.

Honor, glory and geishas. Feudal Japan is our destination. We review Yedo, an auction based worker placement game where noble houses compete for the Shogun's favor by completing secret missions.

Give the gift of play. With over 40 game suggestions in 10 categories, you're sure to find a great game for someone this holiday season.

Fill your plates. We serve up a nice slice of our interview coverage from the largest game fair in the world, the Essen International Spieltag.

Games around the globe. We report back from our latest adventure in Europe, covering the International Spieltag in Essen, Germany and filming a travelogue in Belgium.

Going the distance. We review Milestones, a road building game that mixes abstract strategy with custom rondels, and dive into Smash Up, a genre bending card game chock full of pirates, ninjas, zombies and robots.

Cube-a-licious. We review Seasons, a dice-driven card drafting duel between wizards, and take a closer look at Dungeon Fighter, a dice-bouncing dexterity game that is equal parts crazy, stupid, silly, and fun!

Con-clusions. We finish our GenCon coverage with 15 interviews including chats with artists, board game cafe owners, publishers, and Ken St. Andre, designer of Tunnels & Trolls, the 2nd role playing game ever published.

More gab about games. Our GenCon coverage continues with a collection of interviews including chats with a renowned dice collector, a balloon artist and the cast of characters from board games come to life PLUS conversations with noted industry publishers

Unconventional conversations. We dive into GenCon with a dozen interviews with some industry giants (Richard Garfield, Bruno Cathala), some influential newcomers (TableTop, The Game Whisperer) and some great game publishers.

Magic words. We review Sidibaba, a game that pits a team of players against the Leader of the Thieves in a timed race to find treasure and escape. We also look at an innovative dice driven train game, Rolling Freight.

That first step is a doozy! We review Rio d'Oro, a dice game that pits adventurers in a race to collect gold across a rickety 3-D bridge.

Use your grey cells. The Kennerspiel des Jahres recognizes the best strategy game of the year. From a deadly mountain peak to the bandit filled desert to the workshops of a medieval town, we review the 3 nominated games and try to predict the winner.

The big red pawn. From high stakes dice to story telling donkeys, our award season coverage continues with in-depth reviews of Vegas and Eselsbrücke, the final two nominees for the Spiel des Jahres, the most prestigious trophy in the game playing world.

Kids at heart. From dragonknights and toad slime to cheese stealing ghosts, we review the 3 nominees for the Kinderspiel des Jahres, Germany's Children's Game of the Year, and try to predict the winner.

Win-win-win. The Spiel des Jahres is more than Germany's Game of the Year. It's an institution. And home to the 3 most prestigious awards in the industry. We begin our award coverage with a review of Kingdom Builder, 1 of 3 Spiel des Jahres nominees.

Fun from the frozen north. We review 3 titles from Russian publisher Right Games: Evolution, Potion Making Practice and The Enigma of Leonardo.

Find 'em hot and leave 'em wet. Firefighter Captain Brian Strange visits the padded cell to give us an expert's perspective on Flash Point - a board game of teamwork, burning buildings and daring rescues.

Think inside the box. That's exactly what Adlung Spiele does. Their card games redefine the notion of what card games can be. We review 8 titles: choosing roles, flipping carpets & slapping bugs. So many kinds of fun, all from a simple deck of cards.

Canoes and cannonballs. Join us for an in-depth review of A Few Acres of Snow, Martin Wallace's deck building board game. We row through the rivers and forests of the North to settle the fate of the French & Indian War.