The idea of this game sounds completely ludicrous. The mechanic itself of “shuffle-building” is a unique concept, one which I’ve not seen in other games to date (not to be confused with deck-building) and the whole premise of combining fantasy factions in this way sounds like a nerd-fest heaven.

Since its release, Smash Up has had two expansions produced which essentially expand the range of factions available. Normally I would review expansions on their own, but in this case, it seems easy enough to incorporate Smash Up as a whole in one review.

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Bruno Faidutti designed one of my favourite games in my collection, the one that kick-started me back into the board gaming world and that was Citadels. So when I discovered a new game featuring a similar role selection style mechanic, one which I look highly on, my interest peaked.

Unlike Citadels though this is intended as a light party game for the masses, allowing up to 13 players to play at the same time. My assumption is that this game is on the same bandwagon as other mass player games such as The Resistance, Avalon and Werewolf.

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Episode 4 of the Broken Meeple Podcast is here!



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I am generally one of those players who likes a little bit of tactics and strategy in his games. Doesn't have to be overloaded with such concepts otherwise we would be getting into the realms of 18xx games (see Episode 2 for my views on them!)

However every so often I need a game on the lighter side, but it's important for those games to be fun enough to play so that the lack of tactical or strategic depth is irrelevant. King of Tokyo is one of those games. Created by Richard Garfield who would likely be most well known for his iconic Magic The Gathering CCG (a game which I confess to having liked and suffered a reduction in bank funds to in the past), some would argue that this is the game he should be known best for.

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You’ve no idea how annoying it is to have someone use the “No Thanks” joke when you asking others to play this game. It’s getting old. . . . please. . . . . stop!

Ok, mini-rant over! After my last review of Cosmic Encounter, we’re moving on to some lighter games and we start off with this little gem from Z-Man Games, which if a chart existed must surely feature in the Top 10 for Easiest Games to Play. I can’t imagine anyone struggling to comprehend the rules to this game and if I do ever meet someone like that, I’m going to put this game away, whip out Arkham Horror and then just let Azathoth rise up and destroy the universe as my sanity will have blown.

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Episode 3 of the Broken Meeple podcast. This episode is devoted to first impressions and I've got 4 games to discuss! 2 are good, 2 are bad. Terra Mystica, Kingdom Builder, Chicago Express and Ugg-Tect - but which are which?


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Kudos to Zee Garcia of The Dice Tower fame for coming up with the title of this review. I love using it as a quick one line description of the game to get people tempted to play it!

When it comes to player interaction, negotiation games take the cake. Where the whole premise of the game involves debating or bluffing your opponent, you can't help but generate a great deal of laughter, banter and trash talk with the whole group. Player interaction is what makes Ameritrash games so much fun though - you're not just sat in your own world ignoring everyone else until the game ends. Now don't take as me being a hater of Euro games, because I like them too and have several classics in my collection as you can see on the blog - but everyone knows that player interaction is lacking in the genre.

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