4th April 2026
I have a friend who is recovering from surgery, so since its been a long time since I last saw her, we made plans to visit and play some of her neglected boardgames! She told us that years ago she backed Flamecraft’s kickstarter project because she collected things by the artist, Sandara Tang, who is Singaporean.
When I checked out their account, they are an artist for another board game, Tea Witches, which received a nomination for Best Heavy Strategy Game. I want to try it now!
Setting up Flamecraft for 4 players was straightforward and the gameplay was not as complex as I expected it to be. Because our friend was a Kickstarter backer, she had the exclusive Pink tokens and 3-D printed minis! So cute!
I was delightfully surprised by Flamecraft’s simplicity, it reminded me of games where a little thinking ahead would be needed but not too much, since the board will change by the time it gets to your turn. The gathering step was nice in its scaling up as the game progresses, and the 2nd tier shops made for more varied strategic plays toward end. With the addition of Fancy dragons and character powers, each player approached the town differently. Some of us butt heads in our missions while others slyly got away with fulfilling them.
Overall, I enjoyed it immensely. The art and adorable names of each dragon also added to the fun for me! I ended up in 2nd place. We scored 76, 62, 53 and 49 reputation respectively. For a table full of first-timers, it was not too difficult to pick up!
The next game we tried was Tokyo Highway. It is a fun dexterity game where you are building roads and hoping to score the most points. I loved how tactile it was to build each road. Our first round was a little trial and error since we weren’t familiar with the game. But our 2nd round was played with more intention and everyone fighting for different points! It was fun enough just building our highways, but even more fun when we had goals in mind.
It was a very close game! (I was pink again) hehe
I’ve enjoyed boardgames ever since my teens, but I never thought to document them until recently. I hope to have more games to introduce to you! Thank you for reading my blog ^_^ I started a Board Game Category in this toy blog, so please look out for more in the future. I also have a Board Games Played list! If you would like to check it out.