Cardboard - Yamatai board game review

If you take a look at my game shelf there's a notable trend towards picking up every game I see with a Japanese theme. From Tokaido to Takenoko, Mottainai or Hanabi, I think I have a small obsession - but it hasn't let me down yet! Let's start by going down the list of reasons for me to be excited about this game:

• Colourful shiny box: check
• Days of Wonder: check
• Japan: check
• Lost, ancient, mysterious kingdom setting: check
• Smile-based reward system: wait, what?

Yamatai is the latest offering from Days of Wonder, designed by Bruno Cathala (Five Tribes, Dice Town, Shadows Over Camelot) and Marc Paquien (...Yamatai). With the prospect of a rewarding smile from Queen Himiko at stake, 2-4 players strive to become the most prestigious builder as the capital of Yamatai takes shape on an archipelago in ancient Japan.

Cardboard - Codenames Pictures giveaway

I love, love, love the original version of Codenames, the word-linking party game from the awesome Vlaada Chvátil (Galaxy Trucker, Mage Knight, Dungeon Lords) and having tried out a prototype of Codenames: Pictures at last year's UK Games Expo I decided that I liked this version even more!

Now the proud owner of my own copy of the game, I thought with the anniversary of my first game approaching it would be fun to share the love and give away a copy to someone in the UK - see below.

UK Games Expo 2017

I can't believe it's been a year since the last UK Games Expo. In just under a week it'll be time to make the trip up to the NEC Birmingham again for another weekend of games, friends, fun and food, and I can't wait!