In true ‘in case you missed it’ fashion, here’s a recap of the various things I’ve written over the last month, in case there’s something you want to revisit, or maybe missed the first time around.
Back at the start of June I reviewed Village Rails, which is a cracking little card game about making railways. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw the pun on the box - “A game of locomotives and local motives”. Matt Dunstan and Brett Gilbert turn out some great games, and this is another. Read the full review here https://punchboard.co.uk/village-rails-review/
Of course, June was also the month of the UK Games Expo. Jeez, it feels like a lifetime ago already. I had a great few days away, which I’ve already bored most people to tears about. If you want to find out more about the show and what I did there, you can read my convention report right here - https://punchboard.co.uk/uk-games-expo-2023-convention-report/
Vaalbara was next on the hitlist. I played a load of it over the UKGE weekend and was in a good place to review it, so I did. It’s maybe best described as the lovechild of Citadels and Libertalia, and it’s a really good, cheap game - https://punchboard.co.uk/vaalbara-review/
I’ve been a long-time lover of mysteries, and I love Hitchcock films, so when Rear Window landed in my lap, I was excited but apprehensive. As someone who grew up with very poor franchise cash-in video games in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I have an innate wariness. I needn’t have worried though, Rear Window carries things off really nicely and adds a nice little twist on the Mysterium formula it borrows heavily from - https://punchboard.co.uk/rear-window-board-game-review/
From there I had two pretty heavy-going wargames wrapped either side of a light filler, a bit like a reverse sandwich. Atlantic Chase from GMT is an incredibly clever game about tracking down naval patrols during WWII which uses a mechanism I’ve never encountered before. You can find out all about it here - https://punchboard.co.uk/atlantic-chase-review/. A week later and I was writing about the 2nd edition of a game I covered a long time ago on Punchboard - Hideous Abomination. Family-friendly monster-making which is a hoot - https://punchboard.co.uk/review-hideous-abomination/. Then to close the odd sandwich, I took a look at a reprint of a wargame from the ‘80s - Task Force: Carrier Battles in the Pacific. VUCA Simulations spend a lot of time and love on this one, and it really shows - https://punchboard.co.uk/task-force-carrier-battles-in-the-pacific-review/.
Finally, I saw the month out with Rauha. You won’t hear much about Rauha in all likelihood. It’s not a big-name release, and it’s from a small French studio. It’s a shame really, because it’s a quick-and-easy game with a very addictive loop of matching three icons to yoink powerful characters from the other players. The side-to-side drafting is really nice too. You can find out more by reading this here review that I’m linking to - https://punchboard.co.uk/rauha-review/
As always, thank you for your continued support. If there’s anything you’d particularly like me to cover, let me know. If you enjoy what you’re reading you can support me on Ko-fi by clicking here - https://ko-fi.com/punchboard/tiers, and by way of a soft launch, I’ve also started a Patreon if that’s your preferred way to support creators. Head to https://www.patreon.com/Punchboard.
Cheers for now,
Adam