Z-Man Games Archives

5 Worker Placement Games to Play This Labor Day Weekend

September 2, 2016Dave Banks

What better way to celebrate Labor Day than with some really good, family-friendly worker placement games. We’ve got some recommendations!

‘Beyond Baker Street’: Can You Outpace Sherlock?

July 26, 2016May 6, 2020Jonathan H. Liu

It’s your chance to play detective, solving a mystery by assembling clues to pin down the suspect, the motive, and the opportunity. But be quick: Sherlock himself is also on the case. Can you work together to solve the mystery before he does?

Surviving 'Pandemic Legacy' or How to Avoid the Apocalypse in 12 (Not So Easy) Steps

January 4, 2016Anthony Karcz

In ‘Pandemic Legacy’ by Z-Man Games, your gaming group is a team of specialists tasked with eliminating four global viral outbreaks. Each round, you’re scrambling to find pieces of the cure and get those pieces to your far-flung compatriots, all while eliminating disease to prevent outbreaks. The game is working against you, adding more infection to the board each round and occasionally causing epidemics where those infected cities can get even worse. If you’ve played traditional ‘Pandemic’, this is nothing new.

Carcassonne 2.0: The Classic Tile-Laying Game Gets a New Look

December 11, 2014Jonathan H. Liu19

Carcassonne is one of the titles that pulled me into tabletop gaming about a decade ago. Sure, I’d always liked games as a kid and I played various board and card games, but it was Carcassonne that really hooked me. It’s the game that led me to BoardGameGeek, a huge rabbit-hole that I’m still exploring now.

Pandemic: Contagion—Mutate, Incubate, Infect

November 6, 2014Jonathan H. Liu1

Just last month, Z-Man Games released the latest title in the Pandemic line, Pandemic: Contagion. This time, however, you’re not trying to eradicate infectious diseases. You are the diseases, working to wipe out as much of the world’s population as possible. With Ebola and Enterovirus constantly in the news, you’d think we’re on the verge of being wiped out by infectious diseases. As it turns out, that’s not as easy as the media makes it out to be—at least in this game.

Tragedy Looper: A Puzzle of a Game

October 28, 2014Jonathan H. Liu1

Tragedy Looper is a game about a group of Protagonists traveling back in time to prevent a Mastermind from instigating various tragedies. Or it’s a game about a Mastermind plotting various tragedies while meddling time-travelers keep getting in the way.

Table for Two: Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small

January 28, 2014March 9, 2021Jonathan H. Liu

Agricola is a fantastic worker-placement game (one of my favorites, in fact) about farming, but it’s big and complex and can take hours to play. Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small is a compact version for two players that captures …

La Boca: E-Spatial-ly Fun

December 3, 2013Jonathan H. Liu

La Boca is a recent release from Z-Man Games that presents an interesting cooperative challenge: two players stack blocks to match the picture shown on a card—but each side of the cards shows a different view of the construction.

Zooloretto—Now With Dice!

October 13, 2013Jonathan H. Liu1

I’ve been a fan of Michael Schacht’s Coloretto and Zooloretto games for some time. They’re based on a simple but effective mechanic, akin to the “you cut the cake, I pick a piece” strategy—this makes the games easy to teach and a lot of fun. How do you set things up so that your opponents will still let you have the choice you really want? There’s a new version out now, Zooloretto: The Dice Game.

Our Favorite Things About Gen Con

August 21, 2013December 13, 2017Dave Banks2

GeekDads Jonathan Liu, John Booth, and Dave Banks spent last weekend in Indianapolis rolling dice, moving meeples, and generally having a great time. While we’ve all somewhat reluctantly returned to our day jobs, we thought we’d take a look back at what we enjoyed the most about Gen Con.

The Game Night Invitation I Wish I Could Write

February 28, 2012November 11, 2020Erik Wecks

You’re invited to game night! When: Friday March ______, 7 PM to 11 PM If I meant for this to say 7PM to Just Before Dawn, it would say so. It says 11PM. Thus 10:30 is not an appropriate time …

Review: Quit Playing Bridge and Get to Trollhalla

March 25, 2011Jonathan H. Liu

Overview: Who wants to sit under a damp bridge waiting for travelers to cross? Not these trolls! They’ve decided it’s a much better deal to sail away in search of plunder: livestock, yummy people, gold and grog. Those darn Billy …

Tag: Z-Man Games