In 2009 I had my Nokia with an awesome battery and Snake game. I paid no attention to Iphones, had never heard about Ipad, and was far behind the hot new trend. My friend Marek approached me and told me he is starting a video games company, and they want to do Neuroshima Hex for iPhones and all other upcoming mobile devices. We met, he showed me the prototype, which blew my mind, and I signed the contract the same day.

In 2010 Apple launched Ipad. Sold bizzillion of copies. And thanks to my friend Marek, who took some correct guesses, Neuroshima Hex became the second board game (after Small World) available on Ipads ever.

You guess right. We sold a shitload of Neuroshima Hex app that year.

It’s an excellent game. It has everything the WWII board game should have. It has small miniatures of tanks, small trucks, mortars, and all the other little toy soldiers we love. It has dice and uses a good chunk of them; when your Sherman fires, you take 10 dice in your hands and you throw them on the table.

The rules are simple and yet give so many tactical choices. In your round, you can activate any of your 3 units. With 20+ units on the table, it is pure joy. Use your mortar to slow down tanks. Move out with the Saper unit from the dangerous position. Risk and charge with your Flamethrower team. You need to do everything, but you have only 3 activations, and then your opponent plays.

My most expected book of the year arrived. It’s not a new novel from Brandon Sanderson. It’s not a new Stephen King novel. It’s not even the new novel about my beloved Troll Slayer. It’s Dice Men by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. It’s about the beginnings of the Games Workshop. 

You know, I am a sucker for everything that covers behind-the-scenes information. I loved these extras that back then were added to DVD discs. I loved documentaries about creating and developing games (like Indie Game: The Movie). I cannot express how I enjoyed  Designers & Dragons series by Shannon Appelcline. And now this – the origin story of the Games Workshop! OMG!

Heat is one of the best racing board games I have played. And let me pair this statement with another one: I am a sucker for racing games, and I played a lot of them. When I say the game is great, I really mean it.

It has a simple and brilliant heat mechanism that forces us to think desperately about what to do before each turn and curve. It’s a small deck – our valuable resource. How much do you want to burn it this time, how many cards from this deck may you risk discarding this time? With this one rule, designers Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pedersen created the best board gaming equation: maximum player excitement achieved with minimum rules complexity.