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Solarion: Foundation of Empires Game Review
by Andrew Lynch on May 24, 2026
Several years ago, my friend Nathan introduced our group to Tyrants of the Underdark, a deck-building game that used Dungeons & Dragons lore for its setting. My initial response was dubious, as often happens with licensed product. The art, which Nathan had warned us about in advance, didn’t help. Dozens of artists are credited on the game, and many of their illustrations are not…good. The hodgepodge of styles did not promise a robust play experience. Fortunately, first impressions can be wrong. Tyrants of the Underdark is an excellent, taut marriage of deck-building and area-control. It is wonderfully interactive, encouraging players to step on one another’s toes at every turn. The modular deck system, which changes the cards in play from game to game, ensures a good amount of variety. The game is both immediate in its pleasures and rewards deeper exploration. Tyrants of the Underdark is exactly the kind of game that I would expect to be a cornerstone of The Hobby™. And yet. Despite the quality of its reputation amongst those who’ve played, Tyrants remains somewhat obscure. I can’t even tell if it’s currently in print or not. It is often hard to find. It begs for expansions, but it only has one, which is both long out of print and heinously expensive. For a game that threatens… The post Solarion: Foundation of Empires Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
Counterpoint Game Review
by Andrew Lynch on May 23, 2026
I have never before given much thought to the ways in which music composition and game design are similar. Like all creative arts, both share the goal of trying to communicate and share an experience with their audience. As disciplines, music has notes and rhythms while game design has rules and mechanisms, but both are about taking those disparate ingredients and making them cohere into something whole, something that vibrates with inevitability. Ted Mann Schaller’s Counterpoint is a must-follow cooperative trick-taker with bidding and a trump-suit. A blessing, to live to see such times as those in which I can write that sentence and assume much of the audience will understand. Each player is a member of an animal chamber trio–to-quintet, be they an iguana violinist or an armadillo pianist. Such is the quality of Brandon Campbell's illustration work here that fights will break out over who gets to be what. The cooperative nature of the game follows the template laid out by blockbuster predecessors The Crew and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Trick-Taking Game: over a series of performances, scenarios named after pieces in the chamber music canon, players attempt to complete certain challenges while also ensuring that everyone makes or exceeds their bid. There are a few twists on the formula,… The post Counterpoint Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
Kevin and Joseph Go to Gaming Hoopla 2026
by Kevin Brantley on May 22, 2026
Hoopla: Hoopla is an informal noun referring to excited, noisy commotion, bustling activity, or extravagant, sensational publicity (often referred to as hype or ballyhoo). It often implies unnecessary fuss or exaggerated attention surrounding a person, event, or product. Kevin A Softer Side of Gaming Conventions Last year, I attended about six gaming conventions, mostly on the larger side of the spectrum: Gen Con, PAX Unplugged, and the like. These conventions are huge, multi-day, overly stimulating showcases of everything the gaming world has to offer. If the massive vendor hall isn’t competing for your attention, then it’s the organized events, publisher presentations, or state-of-the-industry talks. It’s exhausting and invigorating all at the same time. I often come home from these large-scale carnivals with no voice and an empty wallet. But what if I told you there’s a softer version of a gaming convention? One without long queues for the new hot game, a sugar-water refill, or even the restrooms? Now, what if I said the attached hotels were affordable, the schedule was packed, and you could still buy stuff? Well, friends, I have an event you may want to pencil into your calendar for next year. Gaming for a Good Cause Nestled in the Baird Center in Milwaukee,… The post Kevin and Joseph Go to Gaming Hoopla 2026 appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
Top Six Ways to Rebuild Your Gaming Tribe
by Jennifer Derrick on May 20, 2026
This is the second part of my three-part series on getting back into board gaming after a long absence. In Part One, I looked at ways to rebuild your gaming muscles. (If you want to skip ahead, you can go to Part Three (Coming Soon!) to read about the games that brought me back into gaming.) As with any hobby, a long time away can result in skill loss. Your ability to strategize and quickly learn rules can atrophy. The good news is, it's pretty easy to get those skills back with a little practice. What's not as easy to regain is a lost group of board gaming buddies. My five-year layoff from gaming began with Covid and continued through a cascading series of family issues. By the time everything was somewhat back to normal, I'd lost all of my gamer friends. Covid destroyed my gaming groups, and caregiving for my parents left no time for games. When I looked around several years later, all of my gaming friends had moved on, either to new places, new hobbies, or new responsibilities. Not being an extrovert, it's not easy for me to find new people to play with. However, I know that if I want to keep board gaming as a hobby, I have to gather my courage and get out… The post Top Six Ways to Rebuild Your Gaming Tribe appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
The Dusty Euro Series: Thebes
by Justin Bell on May 19, 2026
The guys in my Wednesday gaming group started a push to play more of the old, dust-covered games at the bottom and backs of our respective game closet shelves. The premise was simple: let’s try to remember why we keep all these old games when all we ever play now are the newest, shiniest things in shrink. Right on the spot, the Dusty Euro Series was born, and I’ve enlisted multiple game groups to help me lead the charge on covering older games. In order to share some of these experiences, I’ll be writing a piece from time to time about a game that is at least 10 years old that we haven’t already reviewed here at Meeple Mountain. In that way, these articles are not reviews. These pieces will not include a detailed rules explanation or a broad introduction to each game. All you get is what you need: my brief thoughts on what I think about each game right now, based on one or two fresh plays. Thebes: What Is It? Thebes is a press-your-luck set collection game featuring rondel-style movement mechanics for 2-4 players. In the vein of Raiders of the Lost Ark, or any board game that features “competitive archaeology”, players… The post The Dusty Euro Series: Thebes appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
Tricky Treats Game Review
by Justin Bell on May 18, 2026
Here’s something spooky: I don’t own any Halloween-themed board games…not a single one. Now, I’m excited to say that I own one I’ll keep handy for at least the next few pumpkin seasons. Tricky Treats, a family-weight title published by Cranio Creations last year, hit my table for a couple plays recently. Although I picked this up in Germany right before Halloween, other, buzzier titles hit my table first, so I didn’t play Tricky Treats this past Halloween and let the game sit for a while. After breaking the game out with my family, then with my review crew, I’m a bit surprised that Tricky Treats is not getting more buzz. The game is a solid family title, with a fun gimmick that reminded both myself and other players of another recent title featuring transparent cards. Do You Have 20 Minutes? Tricky Treats is a set collection, card drafting game for 2-4 players that plays in about 30 minutes, longer if you are playing with my nine-year-old, who loves to take his sweet time as he makes his way through each turn of any game, not just this one. Players manage a small posse of five kids getting ready for Halloween. There’s a grid of nine “treat” houses where… The post Tricky Treats Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
Origin Story Game Review
by Justin Bell on May 17, 2026
One pass of the rules and I could tell that the new Stonemaier trick-taking, engine-building game Origin Story was right up my alley. That’s because after the handsome production and cool art from illustrator Clémentine Campardou fades to the background, there’s a fun game under the hood of designer Jamey Stegmaier and Pete Wissinger’s new creation. Over the course of five rounds, players engage in standard trick-taking mechanics—eight-card hand, must-follow rule-set, four suits with one always representing a trump suit—with a very nice twist: in each round, the rules change just a little for every player, thanks to the ability to use “stamina” tokens to trigger player board and card effects for each of the 2-5 players in the game. (Origin Story does accommodate solo play, but that was my least favorite of the three plays I did for this review, at solo, three-, and four-player counts.) Each player is a character, with a somewhat basic ability that can be activated as many as two times per trick-taking round with those stamina tokens. Nothing about the base characters is anything to write home about. But a huge deck of Story cards offer players a chance to craft their own trick-taking monstrosity. For each of the first four rounds, players are dealt a set of three Story cards, each with… The post Origin Story Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
High Society Game Review
by Andrew Lynch on May 16, 2026
In the broadest possible strokes, games are created out of three or four things: what you can do, what you can’t do, what you want, and, occasionally, what you don’t want. Not every game includes something you don’t want as a category unto itself. You don’t want to end up with few resources in Catan, sure, but that’s just the inversion of what you want: resources with which to build things. I’m talking about things like running out of food in Agricola, where there is a specific punishment meted out by the rules. In High Society, a fabulous auction game for three-to-five players by designer Reiner Knizia and recently out in a new edition from publisher Allplay, those four categories are crystal clear. That’s never a bad thing. Many of the best games provide clear, succinct definitions for each of them. High Society is a masterpiece not only because it provides ready definitions, but they work, delightfully, at cross-purposes. The goal of High Society is, of course, to have the most points at the end of the game. There we have our first definition: What do you want? To have the most points. Points are accrued through the purchase of various cards, revealed from the… The post High Society Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
Last Lantern Game Review
by Kevin Brantley on May 15, 2026
Polyomino Play I’m a fan of polyomino tile-laying, and it always amazes me to see new ways the mechanic is used in board games. Some of my personal favorites include A Feast for Odin, Caverna: The Cave Farmers, and Planet Unknown. Here, we have a cooperative spin on polyomino tile-laying with a push-your-luck element to boot. Count me in! I had a chance to meet the folks from WWBG at a couple of different conventions last year. They’re a small but mighty publisher out of Taiwan whose passion for their games is unlike anything I’ve seen in the industry. Their goal is to bring more Asian designs to the Western market, and some of their releases so far, such as Lone Wolves and Castle Raisers, are already a solid testament to that mission. Learning the Lantern Last Lantern plays out over seven to nine rounds, with players working together to place tiles in their canopy in an effort to cross the goal line. Each round, players silently and independently select a location on their lantern wheel, which determines the familiar token and tile they’ll take. However, if multiple players choose the same location, they’ll have to discuss and decide who gets what. Familiars are collected into sets and can… The post Last Lantern Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
Gaming Memories: Volume 02
by Andy Matthews on May 14, 2026
The Best Gaming Experience With My Kids - Andy Matthews When my 4 children were younger I played games with them all the time, easily several times a week, and sometimes every day. In addition to time together, it was a chance for me to instill important values like fair play, good sportsmanship, and how to win (and lose) gracefully. Early on I came across a game called Zombie Kidz, a small box cooperative game about preventing zombies from escaping a cemetery. It featured cartoony artwork and a simple game loop: roll a die, put a zombie out on one of the corresponding 9 spaces on the board. Then, you could move your character to a nearby space and potentially eliminate a zombie there. The goal was to put locks on all 4 corners of the board and win the game. My kids loved it, and it gave me a chance to teach them about teamwork and the consequences of choice. Eventually, they grew out of the game, and we stopped playing it. That is until I heard that the publisher was releasing a sequel called Zombie Kidz Evolution, targeted at a slightly older audience, exactly where my kids were at the… The post Gaming Memories: Volume 02 appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
Torchlit Game Review
by Andrew Lynch on May 13, 2026
Whoever walked away from a hand of trick-taking and thought, “Hey, you know what would make this better, is if we had to guess how many tricks we would win beforehand,” has my eternal gratitude. I like to think bidding came about as a party trick. “Françoise is really good at tarot, I bet he can guess exactly how many tricks he’ll win. Guess, Françoise, guess.” However bidding started, it has long been a cornerstone of trick-taking, and is reliably my favorite way to engage with the mechanic. Card games are inherently subject to tremendous amounts of luck, of course, but bidding shifts the balance a bit closer to skill. More skill means more agency. More agency means more investment. More investment means more fun for everyone. Torchlit is, above all, a bidding game, though it’s a strange one. The deck is dealt out, and every player chooses a card from their hand to put face-down on the table in front of them. The numbers on those cards, which run from 0-7, correspond to a series of dungeon door tiles placed out in the center of the table in numerical order. Whichever card you put down, the matching door is where you want to end up by the end of the hand. Torchlit Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
Pax Illuminaten Game Review
by Justin Bell on May 12, 2026
Oh, there is something deliciously slimy—smarmy, even—about the game Pax Illuminaten, designed by Oliver Kiley. (BGG says that Pax Illuminaten is based on Kiley’s earlier title Emissary, a game I have not played.) One pass of the rulebook for Pax Illuminaten had me very excited. I’m not a dedicated scholar of Pax games, having only played Pax Pamir Second Edition (although Pax Hispanica, Pax Emancipation and Pax Porfiriana are currently on deck here at Casa de Bell). I HAVE played Pax Viking Junior, although I am sure a purist would not count that one. But the core Pax system of historical, card-driven play with multiple end-game conditions and a closed economy is on full display with Pax Illuminaten, and I was further excited by the relatively straightforward rules and a playtime listed as 20-30 minutes per player. A Pax game, in about 90 minutes? Sold, I said out loud to no one after that rules readthrough. Then I got the game to the table…and I was mostly impressed. Pax Illuminaten is for a certain kind of player, especially one who likes to understand what is mostly possible in a strategy game, with ample space for a few surprises and a boatload of secondary actions. Sorry, When… The post Pax Illuminaten Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.