For the past five years I have reviewed quite a few games and for me, usually this is a fire and forget kind of a thing. Today however I will look back on a few select reviews and reconsider my scoring and update them based on further plays of the games since those reviews. Now generally when I do reviews I feel strongly about them, which is what prompts me to write the reviews in the first place. I normally only do reviews when I feel really confident that as part of that review I’m offering a fair assessment of the game and can help players make a decision about them. After a while though you start to realize that there are a few games in your review history that perhaps you were a bit tough on, or in some cases a bit too kind. Today is going to be all about resolving some of that regret.

Great Western Trail

I scored this one a 3.10, which is a pretty great score for a game, I consider any game of a 3 stars or higher to be worthy of my personal library but I have come to appreciate this game a great deal more than this score reflects today.

For one, I think I underscored the theme of this game which after many more plays I think is a lot stronger than the 2 stars I gave it. I really find the theme of this game is key to making sense out of the gameplay and its perhaps to the surprise of no one, that Cowboys are pretty popular so I find getting this one to the table because of the theme is quite easy. The concept of moving cattle, in the deck building mechanic and how it comes together when you arrive in Kansas City really works well in presenting the game and I really feel strongly that at the very least it deserves 3 if not 4 stars for the effort there. I really love the feel of this game, building up stronger and better hand of cards and the strategy of trying to consolidate your efforts over several turns of coordinated strategy that pays off is something that really brings this theme together.

Gameplay wise I think this game definitely deserves at least 4 stars if not 5. Its greatest strength is the games very deep, strategic gameplay that I can’t say enough about. It takes time to really get the nuts and bolts of this game which may be why I initially reviewed it at 3 stars but its definitely a lot better than that in my book. Great Western Trail has grown to be one of my favorite crunchy Euro games, the more I play it the more I want to play it as I see room for improved strategy and alternative ways to win. The replayability of this game is definitely a lot stronger than the 3 stars I gave it originally as well, over a year later I’m still playing it and excited to get it to the table.

A wonderful game that deserves a much better review then it got the first time around from me, I think if I were to re-calculate the score today it would break 4 stars which would put this among a small group of games to break 3 stars in my library and deservingly so.

Russian Railroads

I gave this one a 1.6, which is a shit score and while everything I said in this review I believe to be true, I do believe that it deserved a bit better score none the less.

I think I was particularly harsh on this game as it came during a time when there were many Euro games claiming certain types of themes like Trains, City Building and Fantasy, but delivering what are essentially themeless Euro game victory point smorgasbords. Now to be fair to the original review, this is true about Russian Railroads, this game has claimed a theme it does not represent in gameplay in anyway shape or form. It could be a game about making turkey sandwiches and the mechanics would make no more or less sense than they do applied to trains and in particular Russian Railroads. That said, its mechanically quite strong and its here I think I would alter my review.

For one, assuming you have never played a typically heavier Euro point smorgasbord game, this one I believe to be a considerably better one than many of the games being waved around these days. It certainly blows Terra Mystica and Terraforming Mars out of the water and while I would like to see more interaction in the game then it offers, it certainly has more strategic depth than either of those two games. For me personally despite the lack of connection to the theme here, it is a far better game mechanically and this should be far more important.

I suppose if I were to say anything about the game in terms of improving the score I would say that it deserves a 4 star score in the gameplay zone. I regret scoring it so low, it earns its stripes here and I think it’s disingenuous to score it any differently.

Stone Age

Stone Age is a game that landed in my library simply because I found that despite reviewing it based on many online plays at boardgamearena.com, I continued to play it over the last couple of years and when I spotted it on sale I picked it up.

Since then I have racked up an astonishing amount of plays in particular with my daughter who considers this “a very complicated game” at 10 years old, yet loves playing it and does quite well at it.

I think in terms of replayability this game definitely deserves better than 2 stars that I gave it, in fact, I would rate it 4 stars and perhaps closer to 5 as I find it despite relative simplicity of the strategies it just seems to make the table very often and I still often play this one online.

This is a great family game that works wonders in getting everyone to the table, yet is crunchy enough for an old vet like me to enjoy. Today I would probably recommend this one above most games as an introductory to board gaming game.

Le Havre

This is one of the games I feel I was a bit too generous with, in fact at a 3.25 stars, that’s seriously overselling it.

I think the main issue with the game is that after repeated plays it got very boring very fast. I can’t quite put my finger on it but this one hasn’t seen even a single play at the table since I did my review playthroughs and it’s become one of the biggest dust collectors of my collection. Its a bit of a dud, I think today I would score it somewhere around a 2.5 stars on its best day, even though everything in the review I say is true, its issues with replayability really hurt this one.

Seven Wonders Duel

This is one I definitely would re-score much higher today after rediscovering it with my daughter it has become easily one of the most played games in my collection. I would easily add a star to replayability and gameplay to this one if I were to review it today.

This is a really fantastic two player game that I think should be a staple of every gamers collection, both casual and vet alike. Great strategic depth, lots of great decisions and fairly tough to win consistently thanks to its quick learning curve.