Starting Feb. 26, this feed will cover in-depth boardgame news, reviews, essays, interviews & more. I'll also be writing/editing rulebooks and taking consulting projects for publishers & designers. New site coming soon. Join me on Mastodon or Lemmy (see bio). Contact: wericmartin at proton dot me

🤯 Epochs: Course of Cultures IS EPIC!! Had my first play through of this epic 4X civ game yesterday and was left speechless.

🔥NEW VIDEO The first in a three part series! Here are my 10 favorite small box games from Asia last year! youtu.be/b6t5iL4Awx0

🚂 Hiyashi. O’Toole. Luciani. This is RAILWAY BOOM 2nd Edition. Hiyashi’s train games don’t feel like 18XX or cube rails & Railway Boom’s clever auction mechanic is brilliant. With Luciano’s dev work & O’Toole’s graphic design, it’s no wonder this 💎little gem has people talking.

💌 MAIL DAY! An epic 4X civ game just arrived all the way from Hong Kong. My weekend goal is clear.

🇻🇳 Stem & Branch successfully combines clever card play, set collection, the zodiac & Pokémon evolution into one of the best card games of 2025. And it looks as good as it plays!

🛵JAKARTA TRAFFIC Did you know in Jakarta food orders & taxis are predominantly done on scooters? Now there’s a game about it! 📦 Alter the map to create delivery routes. Track your orders on your phone but make sure it doesn’t run out of power. But most of all, don’t get stuck in traffic!

🏯Silla: A Thousand-Year-Old Smile Build ancient Korean gardens and construct real-world historic monuments in this cozy, colorful tile laying game from 🇰🇷Magic Bean Games. Smooth gameplay, flawless presentation, and historical context make this one a joy to get to the table.

⛵️Odyssey isn’t just an upcoming Hollywood film. It’s also a trick taking game! 🧐Play cards from you hand or from Olympus. But be warned, any card from Olympus becomes the favored suit of the gods. Win too many or too few tricks and you won’t sail. Win by being the first to return home to Ithaca!

🤩The Best Games from 2025! Two new videos coming this week: Best Small Box Games & Best Big Box Games. What were the best Asian board games you played this year?

🪐 ORBITA is the next 1v1 card game from my favorite 🇰🇷 designer Geonil (Jekyll v Hyde). This shedding area control game is strategic, tense, and only 15 minutes. Planning which planets to move and when is the key to this little gem 💎 It’s also very easy on the eyes 🤓

👻 Ghost Lift In this macabre, dark humored card game from Japan, players desperately try to shed all their cards or become haunted by their previous hands. Sai Beppu nailed the Edward Gorey-inspired art and helps elevate the gameplay.

🪓The Argonath Collection. 20 small box games live between The Argonath. They are… precious to me. Here are the first five.

🔪Your 2-player 80s SLASHER movie themed trick taking game is here! And it is AWESOME!! 💀Work together to run around the campsite looking for escape items. Can you find them all before the killer wounds one of you? ❤️This game is everything I wanted it to be and MORE!

🇯🇵Always curious to see the new VicVillage game! Catte, Vivo and Petir are all shelf worthy trick takers. ☕️Vivo is still my favorite but I’m really intrigued by Catte’s clever use of playing milk and coffee cards together as a latte suit! Clever.

🧐 Which Taylor game is your fav?

🤜💥🤛 DUALIS This 2v2 trick taking game comes from the designer of TRICKARUS—one of my favorites. DUALIS consists of 2 suits within 2 suits. Players must follow black/white but red/blue determine trump/scoring. Some clever combos to explore here & an absolutely stellar production.

✨Presenting… Fellowships of Fate and the Fate of the Fellowship! 🤓 I feel hilariously geeky when I see these two next to each other.

😈RogueWrite is a quick roll & write where you design a dungeon to maximize pain. Foolish be the hero who enters your dominion… if you adhered to the strict Dungeon Building Guidelines; otherwise, heroes could be skipping through your dungeon with glee 🥶

✨Happy New Year from the new Cardboard East Studio!

🏴‍☠️ Pirates! Pirates! Pirates everywhere! This recent play of The Treasure Ship of Zheng He was quite difficult this time around, but it’s still my GOTY so far. (Still burning my way through my 2025 Winter Tokyo Game Market releases)

1000+ games and nowhere to fit them all #newstudio

🎄Sweet Christmas! I get 2VP for the longest road, right?

It’s moving time! And I’m done with packing… the games* *not all games pictured here 🤯

Fascinating read! Learn more about gaming in Vietnam! boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogp...

Recovered from jet lag enough to write about my experience at Tokyo Game Market 2025! www.patreon.com/posts/tokyo-...

Life is maintenance. And I have failed to maintain a healthy relationship with my back. Now I’m lying on my back, reflecting on my life’s choices.

This is an excellent piece about the perils of AI art broadly, and within our hobby more specifically. If we reach the point where AI art is found in every board game, I will stop playing and writing about board games. Simple as that.

Tomorrow night at 9:30pm ET join @panda8ngel.bsky.social @gameenthus.com and myself as we Recap PAX Unplugged www.youtube.com/live/VlH7iNP...

🇮🇩Jakarta Traffic (from Indonesian publisher Spiel The Game) comes with its own soundtrack of recorded sounds from real world Jakarta streets. Except for this one track, which is hella groovy. youtu.be/m5AhCu69eRU

🌊 The Treasure Ship of Zheng He is an EPIC game of route building, diplomacy, and pirate hunting. The latest big box game from award-winning designer Hisashi Hayashi has surpassed all my expectations. 👍👍 Highly recommended!

Game. Of. The. Year.

🔥NEW VIDEO!! Taiwanese board game publisher, WWBG, is crowdfunding their latest game Dragonarium! They released lightning in a bottle with last year's two-player card game Lone Wolves. Does lightning strike twice? youtu.be/thW_Ta6KPKY

Orapa Mine is a lot of fun! Thank you @cardboardeast.bsky.social for the recommendation! #spiel25 #boardgames

🔥NEW VIDEO What new games are coming out at Tokyo Game Market this fall? Join me as I scroll through the preview list! youtu.be/iMCiIp_eJAY #ゲームマーケット2025秋

Thanks to Amanda for the great chat about games. Always a pleasure hanging out with you!

@cardboardeast.bsky.social @beziergames.bsky.social joins me to talk Asian games! Bonus Note: I did talk about Mozaic Games from India with him but had to cut it out due to time but I do enjoy their games too! So check when out!

Livestream Q&A in 30 minutes! Hope to see you there! Be sure to subscribe, so you'll be able to join the chat. youtube.com/live/I_vv6xA...

I’m back from Essen, Germany and I’ve brought back GAMES! Ask me anything in my Livestream Q&A Sunday 11/2 at 11AM EST youtube.com/live/I_vv6xA...

SPIEL - Sunday! 🌟 Ahh, the last day of Essen. We met @tearsinrain.bsky.social and @cardboardeast.bsky.social, and we saw the last few games we wanted to see. We're back home again with way too many games and more importantly, filled hearts. Thanks everybody. ❤️ youtube.com/shorts/RKBfz...

✈️ On my way to Essen!!

🔥NEW VIDEO! Going to Essen #Spiel 2025? Discover 100+ #boardgames from Asia and that 💎 hidden gem you never knew you needed! youtu.be/uvtdiN8HBgo

🔥 NEW VIDEO! Which of these Korean board games do I recommend? I’ve got a lot on my Playte! How do you choose? 🇰🇷 Best of Playte Games youtu.be/fF_EegbJjz8

To celebrate the 8k subs milestone I'll do a very serious "Ask Me Anything" stream on Thursday night at 8pm GMT with @pierrevj.bsky.social and @beyondsolitaire.bsky.social - please feel free to join us and ask your most serious questions 🥸 www.youtube.com/live/7y2n9Ew...

🔥NEW VIDEO Heard about newest game from Japan to hit Kickstarter today? Here are my thoughts! youtu.be/3Q4ftRcoxnA

I played a fascinating 2p soccer game called Magic Number Eleven, and I'd love to share my thoughts about it with you :) youtu.be/Q2SvyOYmhSA

From the makers of Jisogi comes ELDERTIDE. I’m all in!!!!

Probably one of my favorite comments I’ve ever gotten for one of my YouTube videos.

🔥 NEW VIDEO! Solotember is almost over! Here are my 5 favorite #boardgames to play solo! youtu.be/QK6RURaDuiM

CATS! I was expecting a Reiner Knizia game about set collection, Texas Hold’em, and cats to be a thing… BUT IT IS! Manekine Collection 🇯🇵Studium Mundi