About BoardGameCourt

Who is The Judge?

I am the founder and admin of FreeTheDice.com. Launched in 2006, it’s an online community where people can play simple dice games such as Yahtzee, Painted, Triple, Farkle, and my own 2024 creation, Sixzee.

I made my first game at the age of 12 — a football management simulation that I ran at school. Friends paid to play, and each evening I worked out the results by hand. It took so long that I eventually wrote a computer program to do it for me.

I grew up obsessed with Subbuteo and HeroQuest. As an adult, that shifted more towards computer games and modern board games, both online and offline.

What is BoardGameCourt?

BGC is an arena to pass judgement on board games and board gaming in general.

Reviews - I review games I’ve played and break them down based on the factors that shape how they actually play — things like luck, skill, planning, and replayability.

Each game receives two ratings:

• A score out of 100, based on how closely it matches my view of what makes a The Perfect Game - the mix and strength of the elements it includes
• A verdict out of 5, which is simply my personal view - whether I enjoyed it and would choose to play it again

The two don’t always match, and that’s intentional.

The aim is to give you a clearer picture of both how the game is put together and how it actually feels to play, so you can decide whether it suits your taste.

Case Studies - I explore different aspects of board gaming by presenting two sides of an argument and letting the case play out.

Debates - This is where you come in — sharing your views on those topics and voting on the outcome of each case.