08th Dec2022

‘Break the Cube’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

In our house, there is one core gamer (me), a casual gamer (my wife) and two aspiring gamers (the eldest two kids) – and that’s before we consider visits from friends and family. With this in mind, we have to maintain an eclectic collection of board games, and space is at a constant premium. Whilst […]

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29th Nov2022

‘Royal Visit’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

I recently read that legendary game designer Reiner Knizia is now credited with over 700 titles – which is an unbelievable achievement. Among these, I’ve played probably thirty or maybe forty of them, and to be honest I often find Knizia titles a little too straightforward. They are always easy to pick up and play, […]

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20th Jul2022

‘Living Forest’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

When a game wins the Kennerspiel Des Jahres award, it has to be taken seriously. This prestigious prize has been awarded annually for eleven years now, but it was spawned from the original Spiel Des Jahre award which has now ran for more than forty years. The purpose of the Kennerspiel award is to identify […]

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24th May2022

‘Unmatched: Redemption Row’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

Almost anyone who watches popular movies, reads comics or engages with fiction of any kind has surely made comparisons between their favourite characters – and in some cases crossover stories have become more popular than the fiction that started them. Without focussing on any particular theme, and by picking up a mixture of royalty-free and […]

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04th Mar2022

‘Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Alchemists Expansion’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

It’s no surprise to hear that we are huge fans of Quacks of Quedlinburg here at Nerdly. We’ve already reviewed both the base game and the prior expansion; The Herb Witches. In the latest expansion, Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists, the game is lifted from being the relatively straightforward experience that is accessible to […]

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16th Sep2021

‘Khora: Rise of an Empire’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

Everyone likes surprises, and they are even better when something you thought might be actively bad, turns out to be pretty fantastic. Having opened Khora: Rise of an Empire a few weeks ago, its beige boards and pastel-coloured tokens really didn’t do anything for me, but ten or twelve games later, and I am hooked. […]

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24th Jun2021

‘Sushi Go Party!’ Card Game Review

by Matthew Smail

During 2020, I found myself playing more and more games with family. This meant a need to find games that could appeal to both my wife, children and other close relatives or friends who, at various points, were able to visit us. My main gaming groups were largely unable to meet and so the games […]

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13th Nov2020

‘Oceans’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

If you look back at my review for Evolution Climate back at the start of 2019, you’ll note that I absolutely loved it. With thematic, educational links between visuals, components and mechanics, Evolution Climate struck the perfect balance between learning and enjoyment. However, where Evolution Climate focused on the development of birds and mammals and […]

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17th Jul2020

‘Abandon All Artichokes’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

If you’re going to make a card game these days, you’re going to have a heck of a job on your hands in making it stand out from the crowd. Casual players these days are inundated with choice, having often hundreds of small box, simple games to choose from. When it comes to Abandon All […]

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22nd May2020

‘Sushi Roll’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

With two young kids and a wife who is at best only interested in light to midweight games, dice chuckers are becoming increasingly important to us as a family. For me, however, they rarely satisfy my need for meaningful choices and interlocking, complex mechanics. Sushi Roll doesn’t quite reach the heights of the medium to […]

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13th May2020

‘QueenDomino’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

In my household, there are two young children, one casual gamer and one very serious gamer (me.) This means that we’ve grown very fond of KingDomino, as you’ll see from my review last year. As the serious gamer in the group, I love KingDomino’s accessibility when it comes to enabling my wife and children to […]

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15th Apr2020

‘MegaCity: Oceania’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

As a rule, I really struggle to enjoy dexterity based games – and this tends to be something I find splits my friends right down the middle. Some are capable of the kind of deft movements that you’d associate with Legolas and his elven brethren, whilst me and the other half are more like Gimli […]

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25th Nov2019

‘Taverns of Tiefenthal’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

The thematic elements of a board game are very important to me, and I often choose to play games that have a focus on something that I enjoy in other areas of my life. The issue with that, however is that it’s quite easy for a game to look the part, but I like it […]

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18th Nov2019

‘Decrypto’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

As far as party games are concerned, I often take a fairly dim view. I’m not saying that I don’t appreciate the odd game here and there, but in general I prefer meatier games that require a bit of thought and a lot more strategy. Decrypto, from Le Scorpion Masque, is a team based deduction […]

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07th Oct2019

‘Kingdomino’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

Kingdomino is a game that needs no introduction. As the winner of numerous awards, including the 2017 Spiel Des Jahres (Game of the Year) this light, family orientated tile laying game is beloved by gamers of all ages and experience levels, but until recently, I’d never even seen it laid out on the table. Now […]

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31st Jul2019

‘Twice as Clever’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

Regular readers of Nerdly’s board game coverage may well remember that we recently reviewed the incredibly popular Ganz Schon Clever (That’s Pretty Clever) from the prolific and increasingly popular Wolfgang Warsch. In addition to creating a few bigger games like Quacks of Quedlinburg and its expansion, The Herb Witches, it looks like Wolfgang has been […]

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12th Jun2019

‘Downforce’ & ‘Danger Circuit’ Expansion Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

Downforce is a super simple and very fast paced board game that offers traditional racing action alongside a high stakes bidding mechanic to ensure the players remain fully engaged at all times throughout. This essentially splits the game into two phases that include an initial auction phase (where everyone chooses their car or cars) and […]

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17th Apr2019

‘Ganz Schon Clever (That’s Pretty Clever)’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

Although it has been a quiet revolution, the “Roll and Write” genre has been carving out a large proportion of the traditional board game market share over the past couple of years. There are now numerous well-loved examples of this style of game, but few have experienced such ferocious popularity as Wolfgang Warsch’s Ganz Schon […]

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27th Feb2019

‘Evolution Climate’ Board Game Review

by Matthew Smail

Games that focus on natural history and the environment are relatively few and far between, with most of those that do exist occupying the extreme ends of the complexity spectrum – catering as either educational tools for children, or taking the form of very heavy euro style games. North Star Games’ Evolution Climate is one […]

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