#castle combo

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 3rd February 2026.  As usual, we will start playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.  The pub is likely only doing “basket meals”, due to ongoing problems with their cooking facilities. This week, the “Feature Game” will be the Out of the Oubliette! expansion for Castle Combo (base game rules,…

The Deutscher Spiele Preis is awarded anually based on an open vote from German games clubs, gamers in German-speaking countries and people in the gaming industry.  It recognises the “Best Children’s Game” and a top ten list of the “Best Family and Adult Games”.  Although the order of the top three in each category won’t be announced until the Internationale Spieltage in Essen at the end of…

Last weekend, this year’s Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year) winner was announced as Bomb Busters, by Hisashi Hayashi, the designer of Trains, MetroX (aka Voll Verplant), String Railway and Yokohama.  Based on the earlier Bomb Squad by the same designer, this is a cooperative, card driven game, where players work together to try to defuse a bomb before it explodes.  Players begin with a…

The nominations for the 2025 Spiel des Jahres Awards have just been announced.  Although there are now other lots of other awards (including the recently announced Golden Geek Awards), this is still the most prestigious award in board gaming and certainly the one that carries the most weight when it comes to casual gamers.  There are three categories, the Kinderspiel (children’s game) , the…

The winners of BoardGameGeek‘s Golden Geek Awards have been announced this month.  There are many Game awards, with the foremost being the Spiel des Jahres Awards and Deutscher Spiele Preis, Both of these are German in origin, with the Spiel des Jahres awards chosen by a panel of experts and the Deutscher Spiele Preis resulting from an open vote by games clubs, gamers and people in the industry. …

There were quite a few people eating this week, but the earliest arrivals were finished when Green turned up for the first time in months toting his copy of Lost Ruins of Arnak.  Jade was already preparing to lead the “Feature Game” which was to be Castle Combo, and he was joined by Sapphire, Pine and Lime.  This is a game that was released to coincide with Essen, but like many of the most…