I’ve Been Drinking on the Railroad – A TransEuropa Review

All aboard – and a plethora of other train puns too unbearable to publish – this week, a look at TransEuropa! Yes, yes, I can hear the collective groans now; a million (ok, a couple hundred) voices crying out, “Another train game?” Yes, dear readers, another train game. Bear with me during this brief review, though – a) it’s fun, b) you can play it blitzed, and c) it has about as much to do with trains as colored cubes do with making burgers. In TransEuropa, each player randomly selects five differently colored cards, each with a Eurasian city on the face. The goal for each round is to place little bits of “track”... Read More

It’s a Looney Week!

Attention, game geeks and card crazies, this week at Dice Hate Me, I’m going Looney! Starting Wednesday, I’ll be doing back-to-back-to-back reviews of three of Looney Labs‘ greatest hits: Aquarius, Chrononauts and Monty Python Fluxx. These card games use several of the same insane mechanics, but manage to create three very different and unique game experiences. I found two to be absolute gems and one to mildly resemble fools’ gold. Which is which? Check back each day this week to find out! The reviews aren’t all that’s going on this week – I’m also giving away a brand spanking new copy of Chrononauts.... Read More

Playing in Public: Winning Friends with a Fireball to the Face

PiP campaign Facebook page. Click to view and "like" “When you want to watch your favorite sport, or go out to a bar/restaurant, do you have trouble finding friends that want to go with you?  Probably not.  So why is it so hard to find people to play our favorite board games with us?  Wouldn’t it be better if we could find someone to game with whenever we wanted instead of having to game on the limited schedule of our game group or local board game store?  What is keeping us from pursuing our hobby as frequently as most other hobbies are pursued? Where are all the other gamers?” The above excerpt is from the Play... Read More

Pub Play: Cathedral

In 1962, Royal New Zealand Air force pilot Bob Moore flew several training maneuvers around Christchurch Cathedral and became fascinated by the architecture and the interlocking structure of the streets and buildings below. Several years later, Bob spun this early fascination into the prototype for Cathedral, a game in which the pieces evoke a medieval city surrounded by a wall. Cathedral is played on a grid with interlocking, building-like pieces. The object is simple: capture as much territory in the city grid as possible by taking turns placing your differently-shaped building pieces. With careful placement, whole sections of the city can be... Read More