Meeple Mountain – Board Game Reviews, Videos, Humor, and more Board Game Reviews, Videos, Humor, and more
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DroPolter Game Reviewby Bob Pazehoski, Jr. on January 16, 2026I admit I feel a bit guilty for trading away my copy of Draftosaurus, though not for the typical reason. To this day, everyone in our house refers to that lightweight Antoine Bauza set collector as ‘sweaty dinosaurs.’ We mostly enjoyed the breezy gameplay, but the game’s rhythm involved passing around a handful of dino-meeples that were oh-so warm by round’s end. The game earned its moniker. Trading that title away felt almost like trading away a pair of shared gym shorts. I hope the next owner knew the risks. Three rounds into our first play of DroPolter, my kids reminisced: “I feel like we’re playing ‘sweaty dinosaurs’ again!” They’re always after me lucky charms As a ghost emerges from beneath your bed, you reach for your collection of lucky charms—a cookie, a gem, a ring, a key, and a shell. With charms closed in one hand, players reveal a card showing the particular charms that will subdue the ghost. The first player to drop the necessary charms onto the table, without dropping any additional fare, grabs the chunky ghost waiting in the middle of the table to win the round. The charmed… The post DroPolter Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Fearless Game Reviewby Justin Bell on January 15, 2026Any chance to play a new Friedemann Friese game is a chance I’m willing to take. The designer, best known for titles such as Power Grid, Findorff, Faiyum, and last year’s Fishing, has released a new trick-taker called Fearless through his publishing arm, 2-F Spiele. I picked up a copy of Fearless at SPIEL Essen 2025, and recently got the game to the table for a couple plays. Fearless uses a standard trick-taker ruleset—players must follow the suit led to begin a new trick, and the highest number in the trick wins. There is no trump, and if players don’t have a card in the led suit, they can throw off with any card they would like. But then, the rules get funny—because the cards range in value from negative six to positive six, sometimes the highest card is a negative number. And, the current score of each trick is announced as new cards are played, including cards that are not in suit. That means in a four-player game, Gideon might lead a trick with a positive four… The post Fearless Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Pulp Romance Game Reviewby K. David Ladage on January 14, 2026Todd Sanders’ latest work in the Pulp series (Pulp Detective, Pulp Invasion) is Pulp Romance. This is a game that simulates the sort of old-style romance novels and movies that seem (from a literary standpoint) quaint or dated by modern standards. That is in no way an insult! Some of those stories are simply the best examples of storytelling that exists—one need look no further than such classics as Casablanca to understand what I am saying here. From a base game and core mechanics standpoint, this is the strongest game Mr. Sanders has produced in the series. As with the previous games, you can almost hear the narrator in your head as they describe the conflicts in the mind of the protagonist as they navigate the stormy waters of the heart. It is a beautiful game. This game uses the same source of original pulp-era artwork used in the previous Pulp games, giving a feeling of authenticity that can come from nowhere else. Yes, this remains the real deal! And they remain a beautiful element in the series! [caption id="attachment_326894" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] A look at the basic… The post Pulp Romance Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Six Questions with Todd Sandersby K. David Ladage on January 14, 2026Todd Sanders is a game designer that has been in my collection for some time. I have written reviews of his previous pulpy work: Pulp Detective, Pulp Invasion. I will soon have his latest title reviewed as well: Pulp Romance. Mr. Sanders is not just a designer of the Pulp series of games, he also has eclectic designs such as Mr. Cabbagehead’s Garden; he has done a lot of graphic design and other work for Alban Viard and his various games, not just limited to the Clinic Deluxe series. Mr. Sanders is a bit of a board game design specialist—his designs are almost entirely single player affairs. He does a lot of print-n-play designs, game aids, and other helpful items. He is also an editor and publisher of some of the most interesting and original takes on poetry, classic fairy tales, and science fiction I have ever encountered. He does woodworking and furniture design in his spare time. He is a multi-talented and personable man. With Pulp Romance out, I wanted to sit down and ask him a few questions… Q1: I remember when I first saw Pulp Invasion. I fell in love instantly! It is my understanding that you… The post Six Questions with Todd Sanders appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Justin’s Highs and Lows for 2025!by Justin Bell on January 13, 2026Another year in the books! Our writing team will soon publish an article with our single-favorite games of 2025. However, I played a lot of other games last year—more than 200 different games, in fact! In the spirit of my roundup of the highs and lows from the games I played in 2022, 2023, and 2024, please enjoy a few other awards and my personal top 10 from 2025. (A note about this article: these winners are based on articles I wrote in 2025, not necessarily games that were released in 2025. Game release dates are pretty fuzzy, between prototypes, crowdfunding pre-production copies, retail releases, second print runs, games that first debuted in another country before I got my hands on them, and/or “deluxified” anniversary versions. Just pretend that everything rated here came out in 2025, because it did. At least, to me.) With that, let’s jump in, using some of our Diamond Climber award categories and some of my own categories too. Favorite Gaming Moment of 2025: Standing in the Same Card Location as Another Player: Vantage I talked about this at length in my review, but I’ll simplify it with an analogy: imagine that you and a friend are randomly plopped onto… The post Justin’s Highs and Lows for 2025! appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Mountain Goats Game Reviewby Andy Matthews on January 13, 2026Allplay’s small box line has gotten lots of love from the Meeple Mountain team. Dandelions, Big Top, Mori, Things in Rings, Waddle, and most recently Ruins, and Oddland. They’re a high-value, low-cost way to game in style. And I do mean style. While they might use simple components, the quality is top-notch; and Mountain Goats is no exception. Join me on the mountaintop with Mountain Goats. Being at the top is marvelous! Mountain Goats is a dice and set collection game with a simple premise. Roll 4 dice, then group them into any configuration you like. The total value of all the pips in each group allows you to move one of your goats up the slopes of one of six different mountain ranges. A group with a value of 5 allows you to move forward on the “5” range, while a group with a value of 10 allows you to move forward on the “10” range. When you make it to the top of one of the stacks, you’ll take a chip with that stack's value on it. The 5 stack gets you 5 points; the 10 stack earns you 10 points. Simple so far, right? The post Mountain Goats Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Blue Marvel & Spectrum Unboxedby Will Hare on January 12, 2026Excelsior, heroes, and welcome to a Meeple Mountain preview for Marvel: Crisis Protocol! The box we have today is one of the last ones in Atomic Mass Game’s old release format with two models per box. Moving forward, they’ve stated all boxes will be designed to have at least three models, meaning less space on the shelves and more value for the customers. That being said, they certainly picked a fine duo to go out with in the form of Spectrum and Blue Marvel! Let’s dive right in. Anti-Matter of Fact: Blue Marvel Swoops Into MCP! Blue Marvel is a 5-threat powerhouse that’s comfortable brawling up close and personal or taking shots from far away. Anti-Matter Blast is a heck of a builder, letting him blast people at range 4 with six dice. Oh, and did I forget to mention that he always gets to count skulls/failures in his rolls? That means he punches harder than Black Bolt, who was the go-to 5-threat meta menace for most of 2025. And, to top it off, every time he rolls skulls, he gets to power up. He can handle business just fine from far away, but if he manages to get up in the middle of everything, he has a pretty costly… The post Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Blue Marvel & Spectrum Unboxed appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Shadow Network Game Reviewby Will Hare on January 12, 2026Opening the Dossier The year is 1960. Well, no, it’s 2025, but play with me in this space. Spies and secret agents are gathering intelligence on heads of state, technology, military operations, and anything else of value. However, as is the case with most spy stories, the risk of intel leaks runs high, and all one agency needs to get a leg up is the right piece of information. This sets the stage for Shadow Network, a 1-5 player worker placement game from the team at Talon Strikes Studios. Each player will take turns deploying their workers around the world to various sites to collect intel pieces, which can be combined to create cases against high-profile targets and earn influence. It’s all dripping in sexy spy novel pastiche, which makes for an alluring theme. On your turn, you will send one of your four agents to a location where you do not already have an agent. You’ll have your choice between your two on-call agents, who must be deployed each round, and two optional agents who can be deployed, but can also be saved for end-of-round bonuses. Then, your agents will collect any data at the location where they’ve been deployed. Every time an agent moves to a location… The post Shadow Network Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Little Soldiers Game Reviewby Justin Bell on January 11, 2026
Crossbows & Catapults (both the original, and the 2023 update) is one of my favorite games ever. I have dozens of memories created by the wars my brother and I developed on our kitchen floor as kids. Flinging caroms at his light beige plastic walls while screaming in ecstasy. It was hard to beat. Now that I have the new version, going against one or both of my kids with the updated weapon set is still a blast. Little Soldiers (2025, IELLO) is a new title that gave me Crossbows & Catapults vibes when I picked up a review copy at SPIEL Essen last year. Human and goblin warriors have been replaced by green and yellow plastic soldiers, and instead of a massive box of plastic used to construct castle walls, Little Soldiers makes setup so easy that it becomes a laugher—all you need are common household items taller than the soldiers, which in recent plays have included metal canteens, other board games, gingerbread houses, and plastic cups. That means that Little Soldiers is harder to classify as a board game since, of course, there is no board. That part is fine.… The post Little Soldiers Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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The Dusty Euro Series: Schweinebandeby Justin Bell on January 10, 2026The 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. Schweinebande: What Is It? Schweinebande (German for “gang of pigs”) is a set collection game featuring livestock for 2-5 players. Let’s put it out there right here: Schweinebande is a weird game, with a hilarious cover and a pig featured… The post The Dusty Euro Series: Schweinebande appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Yogi, Skara Brae, 3 Chapters, 3 of a Kind, Ra and Writeby Andy Matthews on January 9, 2026Yogi - Justin Bell I picked up a pile of party games from our friends at Gigamic at SPIEL Essen 2025. One of those was Yogi, a new release with 60 cards, a simple set of rules, and an interesting note: the rules indicate that the cards are waterproof. Why should that matter? Yogi is a ridiculous time at the table that asks players to simply draw a card and follow all the rules on that card. That might mean ongoing rules for the rest of the game, like “each time you draw a card, sing the words printed on that card” or “compliment another player at the table before you take your next turn.” Many more are physical, like holding your elbow above your shoulders while tucking a card underneath your chin before drawing a card, but only with a certain hand. If a player can’t keep up, they immediately lose the game, and remaining players keep going until only one remains. Is Yogi a game? I think so, but it’s a game that is a little hard to monitor, judge, rule, etc. because the conditions stack in crazy ways. When my son won our first family game, even he wasn’t sure if he should have been named the winner. “I… The post Yogi, Skara Brae, 3 Chapters, 3 of a Kind, Ra and Write appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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The Pillars of the Earth Game Reviewby Abram Towle on January 8, 2026Just because a game is old doesn't mean that we should overlook it. Thanks to a new gaming group, I'm getting some exposure to lots of older games that I normally wouldn't even think twice about. Our most recent foray was a five-player jaunt through The Pillars of the Earth, a worker placement euro that wasn't as stuffy as my initial cover-based assessment gave it. Together we built the fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral from Ken Follett's novel of the same name, although the process wasn't free from cutthroat resource battles. With twenty years of board game innovation between its release and the present, does The Pillars of the Earth still stand firm? The Pillars of the Earth Overview Over the course of the game, players assemble big, blocky, wooden pieces to form a central cathedral, which serves as a glorified round marker. During that time, they balance the need for employing Craftsmen and utilizing their talents to convert resources into victory points. Whoever has the most victory points at the end of the sixth round wins the game. After setting up The Pillars of the Earth—which involves a great deal of shuffling and deck-stacking—the game begins in earnest. In the first phase, players use their pool of workers and gold to send laborers out to gather resources or to hire… The post The Pillars of the Earth Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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