Meeple Mountain News Updates

My childhood and young adult life were painful. I was not what was expected of a male, neither to my parents nor my extended family. As a result, I was abused both physically and psychologically. Throughout much of my life, I needed to find ways to escape from the torment.… Read more »

There are games which serve as ur-texts, creating or growing from disconnected roots into a trunk that forms a foundation for dozens of games to come. Chess. Age of Steam. Terra Mystica. Terra Mystica has spawned numerous pretenders, games that attempt to model its particular blend of deterministic resource management… Read more »

[caption id="attachment_315699" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Torres: The Box[/caption] Torres was designed by Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer (Tikal, Java, El Grande,  Wandering Towers, Pueblo, etc.) and was originally released in 1999. A year later, it won the Games Magazine Game of the Year, as well as a little thing called the… Read more »

Analog Adventures in the Alps Despite a long workday, I’m always down to play some games. However, it can sometimes be a chore to set something up and/or learn something new. Backstories: Alone Under the Ice offers a narrative experience with practically no setup or rules overhead. What would you… Read more »

This is the second volume of Perfected Game Mechanics. This series looks at games where, be they wonderful, amazing, inspiring, or even flawed in some ways, managed to utilize one particular mechanic with sheer perfection. That one mechanic is not going to be improved upon; there is nowhere “up” to… Read more »

“Whoa…this is the OPPOSITE of a big, dusty Euro.” Two friends from my Wednesday gaming group were staring at the board for the new Daniele Tascini strategy game Transgalactica, published by my favorite publisher of the moment, Devir Games. One of those friends saw the game box resting nearby. “And… Read more »

The titular characters of The Smurfs, a franchise with a long and interesting history, first appeared in print in 1958 in a comic book created by the Belgian artist Peyo. Originally appearing as side characters in one of his other projects, they proved to be so popular that Peyo continued… Read more »

Unique Deck Building and Dueling The tabletop world is currently entrenched in a golden age of dueling battle systems. Among titles like Unmatched, Dice Throne, Summoner Wars, Star Wars: Epic Duels, Wildlands, and Guilty Gear Strive, we now enter Ivion. I previously covered one set from the inaugural season of… Read more »

The year 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of Dr Reiner Knizia’s career as a board game designer – his first published game, Complica, was released in a magazine in 1985 (although he’d self-published games before then as well). Since then, Knizia has designed and published over 800 games, many of… Read more »

I don’t know what’s in the water at CMYK, but we should do a study. In the last two or so years, the publisher of Wavelength, The Fuzzies, Spots, Lacuna, Wilmot’s Warehouse, and the new edition of Quacks has evolved into an absolute powerhouse, firing out great, idiosyncratic games at… Read more »