Reviews 18 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Review: Chronicles of Crime & the Noir Expansion

Oh boy, have we got an exciting announcement! Today marks the start of Chronicles Month on Shut Up & Sit Down, where we’ll be celebrating all things chronicled (as well as the general art of chronicling).

To kick off proceedings, we’re reviewing Chronicles of Crime together with the brand-new Noir expansion. Is it a better crime-busting game than Consulting Detective? Or a better disposable game than Unlock? Did Matt write this whole review just to play with noir grading? Click play, and follow the money.

Have a lovely weekend, everybody.

Oof! When was the last time a game let you get jade, AND sail boat, AND great wall?

Gùgōng is the new game from venerable designer Andreas Steding, and we think it may well be worth your time. This game is a teasing web of tricky economies and corrupt cardplay, and we absolutely can’t wait for the expansion to be revealed later this year.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Brace yourselves, because Quinns (maybe) has a new favourite board game of all time.

Blood on the Clocktower is live on Kickstarter right now, and for the first time in Shut Up & Sit Down history we’ve published our review to coincide with that Kickstarter to help to get this game into the hands of as many people as possible.

What makes it so special? Is it the haunted gerrymandering? The frightening complexity? The fact that, under all of the lying and murder, it’s a feelgood experience?

It’s all of that, and much, much more. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Since a quick’n’shifty discussion on podcast #68, there hasn’t been much discussion on this site of Andean carpet-crafter & bag-builder Altiplano… until TODAY!

This game has recently been gifted with The Traveller expansion, which Matt is convinced turns a good game into a great one by… adding a strange man who wanders around in circles? Can that be right?

Read our review of Altiplano’s predecessor Orléans here.

With the release of The Quest for El Dorado, it seems that board gaming owes yet another debt to venerable designer Reiner Knizia. This game is a nail-biting race through a troublesome jungle, and we think it’s superb. A solid, simple, clean design.

…But what if you want a wobbly, complex, dirty design? Well, then you could pick up the Heroes & Hexes expansion, which Quinns also investigates in this video.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Oho, with the unexpected release of the Mother of Dragons expansion for the Game of Thrones board game, did Fantasy Flight think they were the only ones who could return to an old game?

They’ve got another thing coming. We reviewed this board game back in 2011, and now we’re reviewing it AGAIN. So stick that in your moon door and smoke it.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Do you feel a faint stirring in your heart? That’ll probably be because of Quacks of Quedlinburg, a game about stirring, excitement, dread, capitalism, and even more stirring. It’s also the second game about managing your own personal gambling den we’ve reviewed recently, following on from the very good Space Base. But this is better.

Special thanks to Wizarding Harry of Wizarding Harry’s Child Wizarding School for Top Wizarding Harrys for being such a superb special guest.

“Start as you mean to go on,” as they say. That’s why for our first review of 2019 we picked a fantastic game, put on the loudest shirts that Matt owned, broke out the eyeliner, and squeezed in an homage to The Muppets.

Don’t get distracted by all of those lovely colours, though. Featuring a bit of bluffing, a bit of logic, a bit of deduction and a lot of laughter, Treasure Island is a game that deserves some serious consideration.

For our last review of the year, Matt pulled out all the stops… and then Quinns appeared and started plugging them back in again.

It seems this pair can’t quite agree on Keyforge. Is it fun, or not-fun? Is the business model good or bad? Is the universe a joke or a failure?

Let us know your experience with Keyforge in the comments! Whatever our thoughts on it, Keyforge’s staggering initial sales hint that this game is going to be with us for quite some time.

Remember Roland Wright from our review of Welcome To? Well, he’s only done it again.

Railroad Ink should be arriving in shops any week now, and that’s cause for celebration. This game of rails, roads and mounting desperation makes its competitors look like amateur hour. The only questions remaining are (a) should you buy the Red or Blue edition, and (b) when can we expect an expansion?

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Review: Chronicles of Crime & the Noir Expansion

Review: Gùgōng

Review: Blood on the Clocktower

Review: Altiplano & The Traveller Expansion

Review: The Quest for El Dorado and the Heroes & Hexes expansion

Review: Game of Thrones – Mother of Dragons

Review: Quacks of Quedlinburg

Review: Treasure Island

Review: Keyforge

Review: Railroad Ink

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