This month Asmodee have sent us Pandemic Board Game to review for the Blogger Boardgame Club. Although I didn't own a copy, I have played Pandemic in the past, so before we even opened the box we knew we'd have a good evening.


Matt Lacock's multi award-winning game Pandemic was first released by Z-Man Games in 2007 and is so popular that it's spawned a host of different editions. The aim of the game is simple, prevent plague from infecting all of humanity and ultimately save our species from extinction...

Our first Spring game review for Asmodee's Blogger Board Game Club is Maki Stack, and we were sent this to take a look at last week. A mildly physical team game for 4-6 (or more) players aged 7+, which requires dexterity and co-ordination, but you remain sitting in your chair.

All players have to do is recreate the stack of delicious sushi shown on the card. Think it sounds too easy? Did I mention the blindfold, and the 2 person chopsticks?


Inside the box are beautiful wooden playing pieces representing different sushi meal items, plus blindfolds and instruction leaflet. The Earth-friendliness is spoilt a little bit by a big plastic insert, but it isn't single use. It could easily be updated to cardboard instead though.


The rules are simple. Shuffle and stack the game cards on the table. Each has an image showing whether it is an individual challenge Blindfold Round or a two-player co-operative Chopsticks Round.

The Board Game Family: Reclaim Your Children From The Screen is a fantastic 'how-to' for parents wanting to bring their kids back into the living room, away from their phones and back into family life together. Anyone who reads my blog will know that board games are a huge thing here, we play most weekends year round and usually everyone in the house joins in...


As soon as I opened The Board Game Family I knew we were on the same wavelength. The writing style is chatty and full of sarcasm and witty quips. It's friendly, accessible and perfect for parents of today's teenagers.


Ellie Dix starts by explaining why you need board games as part of your family life. The benefits of board gaming are massive. Playing games develops confidence, memory, co-ordination, logic skills, problem-solving and decision-making. It teaches you patience, tolerance and an understanding that everyone thinks differently. Ellie also explains how a healthy culture of competition and good gamesmanship can strengthen relationships.

Gaming helps us reconnect with our children. It is quality relaxation time where you aren't all doing the same thing separately or silently, you are working together as a unit, chatting, laughing and socialising. I personally see it as very important time spent, and I know my 10 year old likes absolutely nothing better than playing a game together with his family.


The examples of games included in the book really caught my excitement. Ellie rates a good few of the games which we really like to play. Carcasonne is my 9 year old's favourite game and a lot of the really good independent games we've reviewed for Asmodee are mentioned in this book. 


There is a great toolkit for getting started, even if you haven't been a game player yourself. Ellie suggests ways to bring games into your family's life, and which games will be a good starting point.

The latest game we've been sent to review by Asmodee for the Blogger Board Game Club is Takenoko, a competitive game for 2 to 4 players aged around 8+. Our younger boys are 10 and 11 and very experienced gamers, and we played 4 player with them.

The aim of the game is to grow bamboo and feed the pandas. You have to care for the bamboo at different stages of growth, develop irrigation and maintain supply. You're a farmer and an ecologist!


Inside the box you have absolutely tons of parts: Rules, 28 Hex Tiles, 90 Plastic Bamboo Sections, 20 Wooden Irrigation Channels, 55 Cards, 4 Individual Player Boards, 8 Wooden Action Tokens, 1 Weather Die, 1 Panda Figurine, 1 Gardener Figurine


It's a good sturdy box and the contents are almost entirely wooden or card - with a big plastic insert. It is good for keeping everything safe during storage, but it'll be nice to see it replaced with card.

Our latest review for the Asmodee Blogger Board Game Club is Century: A New World, which has been sent to us for review. Suitable for 2 to 4 players aged 8+, this is a tabletop strategy game which is the 3rd in the very popular series by creator Emerson Matsuuchi, and can be played alone or with either or both of the other Century games (Spice Road and Eastern Wonders).

A New World sees players take the role of explorers travelling the land, trading and collecting goods... and it's all done beautifully, with gorgeous illustrations and wooden playing pieces, including tiny tiny people.


Inside the box are 6 Double-sided Location Boards, 4 Player Boards, 48 Wooden Workers, 56 Cards, 10 Exploration Tiles, 25 Bonus Tiles, 4 Bowls, 105 Wooden cubes and 4 rulebooks (depending on whether you play standalone, or with 1 or both of the other games).

This month for the Asmodee Blogger Board Game Club we've been sent a great family dice game for 2-6 players. Portable, easy to learn and fun to play, Dice Academy is all about thinking and acting fast, knowledge isn't always an advantage.


Dice Academy is housed in a very small and sturdy box with a magnetic closure. It arrives shrink-wrapped and inside has a plastic insert to keep your 10 special dice safe between play, but everything is kept neat and small. The only game components are the dice, which are all different.

Exploding Kittens is the latest game to be sent to us to review for the Blogger Board Game Club. This is a family card game suitable for 3-5 players aged 7+, and as it says on the box, it takes 2 minutes to learn, and a game lasts about 15 minutes...


Inside the box are all of the 56 cards you'll need to play, plus the instructions. It's a nice sturdy box and it's really small, with no pieces to lose, so perfect for taking with you as a travel game.

My latest review for the Blogger Board Game Club is not a board game, but a brand new puzzle called Arokah. This is a wooden shape-fitting game, based on a set of 23 unique shapes which together form a hexagon. Arokah is one of the most beautiful products I've ever reviewed.


The Arokah box looks really nice, but is actually very flimsy and not ideal for future storage, however this possibly isn't the sort of puzzle you'd re-box any way. More experienced puzzlers, mathematically minded and logical people will have an advantage.

Our latest review for Asmodee and the Blogger Board Game Club is Abalone. Devised in 1987 by Michel Lalet and Laurent Lévi, Abalone is a 2-player strategy board game which is incredibly simple and quick to learn, but very difficult to master.


Inside the hexagonal box are the board, instructions and 2 sets of 14 coloured marbles - white and black.


The board is specially shaped with indented holes where the marbles sit, channels for them to move along and a moat around the edge which is the marble equivalent of the pit of doom...

Crazy Eggz is an active family game for 2-4 players which involves holding colourful rubber eggs without using your hands. Fast-paced and at times a little contentious, you have to hold up to 5 eggs without dropping them in order to be able to win the game...


The packaging is excellently designed - a cardboard egg box! Inside are 9 bright orange rubber eggs and 1 heavier blue egg, as well as a red Action Dice, white Body Dice, egg stand and instructions.

This month's review for Asmodee's Blogger Boardgame Club is the gorgeous Blue Lagoon. We were sent this family strategy game a few weeks ago, so we were able to play with one of the big kids who was home for Easter. Suitable for 2 to 4 players aged 8+, the aim of the game is to spread out and colonise as much of the board as possible and then collect the resources necessary to keep your population happy.


Inside the box are lot of different elements, including 1 board, 4x5 wooden 'villages', 32 wooden resources, 4 x 30 settlers tokens, score pad, instructions and a little drawstring cloth bag for storage of resources.


This is a gorgeous game and it feels lovely to play with. The resources are wooden shapes that are not entirely obvious at first, but that's half the fun. Left to right: Coconuts (food), Precious Stones (money), Water (H2O), Statuettes (religious icons) and Bamboo (shelter).

This month's independent game review sent to us Asmodee is a word-guessing game for 4-8 players aged 8+. Trapwords is a fast-paced game where two teams battle it out to guess the most words, and like a lot of independent games, it's beautifully presented and really quite special.


Inside the box are lots of components: a game board made up of 7 different 'room' tiles, 5 monsters, 2 team figures, 4 books, 50 word cards, 10 curse cards, 10 monster cards, 2 torches, sand timer, pencils and a pad of trapword list sheets.


You'll need 5 minutes set up and 5 minutes more before first play to press out the cardboard elements. Unlike other word guessing games, Trapwords is played with a board (made using 5 tiles from a set of 8) and as you progress it gets harder.

Our latest review is a very familiar name in the game world - The Settlers Of Catan is rightly a classic, and Catan is simply a name change. A beautiful game which gets trickier as you become more experienced, yet a complete novice can start to play it in 15 minutes.


The aim of Catan is to build settlements and roads, then farm, mine and trade resources and expand your settlements into a network of cities. Each settlement has a value of 1, each city 2 and development cards can also have value. The winner is the first person to have a total score of 10.

The box is gorgeous, with a textured matt illustration, and that does reflect the muted classic colours of the game itself. It is beautifully presented. The hexagonal cards which form the board are thick and excellent quality and the playing pieces are painted wood.

 October's review for Asmodee Blogger Boardgame Club is a little late (sorry!), but earlier in the Autumn they sent us Picture Show: Shadow Charade Game for review. This is a great family game which doesn't involve writing clues, miming, drawing, or even acting - instead players use pre-cut magnetic shapes, a screen and lighting, and recreate their scenario, word or phrase using the medium of shadow puppetry. 

Suitable for anyone aged over around 7, and 2 teams of 2-4 people each, or even more if you can fit them around the table, it's loads of fun! 

Inside the box is everything you'll need except the batteries - 3 x AAA, and a crosshead screwdriver to fit them. 

Before first play you'll need to allow 10 minutes to 'press out' all of the magnetic shapes. Be careful because they are thick and well made, but some are a little bit easy to bend, and you don't want to lose a foot. 

Gen 7 is a mainly co-operative 'crossroads' game, where players decisions affect the outcomes and change how gameplay and the storyline progresses. Made by Plaid Hat Games, we've been sent a copy to review for the Asmodee Blogger Boardgame Club, and it's brilliant.


Suitable for 3 to 4 players aged 14+, you are the 7th generation to exist aboard a huge colony ship fleeing Earth for a fertile new home planet. The journey is around half way through and everything has gone well so far, until now. The entire mission and lives of everyone on board are threatened and it's up to the crew to find the clues, solve the puzzles and save humanity.


There are more elements included in the Gen7 box than just about any game I've played. It makes it seem very exciting, but it also seems much more complicated than it actually is. The secret nature with lots of hidden information adds to the anticipation.

This month Asmodee have sent us One Key from Libellud to review for the Blogger Boardgame Club. A co-operative game for 2-6 players aged 8+, players work together to find the Key Card by eliminating wrong answers. Once only the Key is left, you win the game.


There are lots of exciting box contents and you'll need 5 minutes to press out tokens before first play. No batteries to find or excess plastic, Christmas morning-friendly.


Libellud games are notable for their artwork, One Key is no exception. It's gorgeous and very different. There are 84 specially shaped illustrated clue cards with random scenes full of detail.

Stuffed Fables is a co-operative adventure book game for 2-4 players. It takes you on a journey through a child's dream, in the nightmare-laden world that is The Fall. The book is all-important. It is where you find the story, your guide and your playing board for the amazingly detailed character pieces to play out the scenes from the story. This is also one of the most beautiful games I've ever had the opportunity to play.


There are many components. Everything is packaged in a sturdy box and fits back inside for storage. You know you have something special even before you begin to read the rules. You'll be delighted to know that gameplay doesn't disappoint either - Stuffed Fables is an all-round winner here.

Splendor is recommended for 2-4 players aged 10+. Players take the roles of merchants and over a 30 minute game the aim is to trade and upgrade your developments, attracting noble patrons and prestige. The first player with 15 Prestige Points is the winner.


Inside the box we see this is a token and card game with no board. The tokens are lovely, a nice tactile size and representing gems and gold. This is your basic monetary system.

The Werewolves Of Millers Hollow is what is commonly referred to as a party game because it suits a large group. In this case a massive 8-18 players, aged 14+ (and add-ons are available to take that up to 48). Each game will normally take less than an hour, and it's very easy to play. The format is a little like the classic party game 'Murder In The Dark' and it's very intuitive. You just need a little organisation to get the crowd together.

The town is overrun by Werewolves who are eating the Townsfolk and must be stopped. Players are either on the side of the Townsfolk or the Werewolves, and the aim is to rid the village of your opponents so that you can live in peace...


The Werewolves Of Millers Hollow is stored in a tiny box 10cm x 10cm, and inside are just the instructions and 24 different cards. No waste, very little single use or unnecessary plastic, and easily transported and stored.

Carcassonne is a modern classic. A beautifully illustrated tile game that feels as if it's always existed, based on the real walled French city of Carcassonne and with a storyline as old as history. Carcassonne is very easy to learn and suitable for 2-5 players aged around 7+. Using hexagonal tiles players build cities, cloisters, roads and farms, claiming points for completed builds and continuing until all the game tiles are exhausted.


We're reviewing the updated edition and as well as the inclusion of Abbots, it is different because the illustrations are brighter and more detailed. The box itself is gorgeous and a great smaller size for shelf storage. Open the box and the redesigned tiles don't disappoint.