2024 is over and my blogging backlog has not decreased.

2024 was a big in terms of playing board games - more games were played if my counting is correct.

2024
Number of different games played: 178.
Of which were new (To me.): 78.
Total number of gaming sessions: 704.

Compared to '23

2023
Number of different games played: 158.
Of which were new (To me.): 77.
Total number of gaming sessions: 577.

The number of games played were up by 20 which is nearly 2 a month.
New games to me were 78 which interestingly is almost identical to '23.
Sessions though, is up by nearly 130! This is quite a lot, it means nearly 5 extra game sessions occurred every week! How did that happen?

The top 5 games I played in 2024 were:

1. Tranquility: 50 sessions.
2. Just One, Railroad Ink & Splendor: 35 sessions
3. Can't Stop: 26 sessions.
4. Roll'n Bump: 25 sessions.
5. Sushi Go!: 22 sessions.

50 sessions of Tranquility, nearly once a week! It's easy to understand why; Tranquility is a pleasant, slightly undemanding cooperative experience that we frequently play as a palate cleanser after something more high-intensity. We tend to win Tranquility when we play it but occasionally, it throws a curve ball!
Just one remains popular with us, it's joined by Splendor and somewhat surprisingly (Considering it's disliked by 'someone' we play it with!) by Railroad Ink.
​The list is rounded off by Can't Stop, Roll'n Bump & Sushi Go!, all perennial favourites that are played as fillers or enders.

OK, now on to what's really important - The 'industry defining' 'prestigious' 3 Spellcasters and a Dwarf annual gaming awards.

Game of the year: Daybreak
Sometimes a game comes along that immediately announces its quality and in this instance it's Daybreak, a game about saving the environment. From the packaging and components, to mechanics and theme and even small details like putting QR codes on cards to provide extra info, Daybreak is something noteworthy.
More than that; it's presentation highlights some of the stark obstacles we will all face in the future.

Disappointment of the year: Horrified: Greek Monsters
The excellent formula that powers the original Horrified just doesn't quite work in this iteration. I've played 4 different versions of Horrified and this is easily thematically the weakest.
I never felt I was battling against the monsters of Greek mythology. It felt like what it seems to be; a reskin with slightly different monster mechanics.

Surprise of the year: Sky Team
I'm always a bit wary of 2-player only games, they often seem to resort to direct competition with your opponent.
I'm happy to say that with regards to Sky Team, I'm wrong. 
Sky Team is cooperative dice-placement game where the 2 players take the asymmetrical roles of pilot and co-pilot. 
It has fantastic presentation with mechanics that fit it's theme.

Honourable mention: Things in Rings
Things in Rings is a wacky kind of party game about deductive logic and trying to discover the hidden phrases on 3 cards.
It's a brilliant lightweight game, however, for me it's a semantic nightmare that drives me crazy and is unlike anything else I've played. it means I have to get a copy.

My backlog of games to blog about has not lessened over 2023 - which is not a good thing!

This was also a big year for playing games.
Breakdown follows as:

2023
Number of different games played: 158.
Of which were new (To me.): 77.
Total number of gaming sessions: 577.

2022
Number of different games played: 139.
Of which were new (To me.): 68.
Total number of gaming sessions: 541.

All the numbers are slightly up on '22, looks like I'm hitting peak playing!

​Most played games of 2023

1. Just One: 46 sessions.
2. Can't Stop: 29 sessions.
3. Lucky Numbers: 28 sessions.
4. Bandido: 26 sessions.
5. Roll'n Bump: 20 sessions.

​Lucky Numbers crashes down to 3rd place with a 'mere' 28 play sessions, a far cry from 2022's 60 sessions! Surprisingly, Just One jumps into the top spot and even more surprisingly, Bandido appears in 4th, more on Bandido below.

Anyway - enough of that, I know the real reason you're here; for the influential, industry defining 3 Spellcaster & A Dwarf annual game awards! 

Game of the year: Heat: Pedal to the Metal
It wasn't a hard choice, when thinking about game of the year, this always immediately came to mind.
This 50's/60's themed F1 game manages to provide players with some tricky decisions and risks to take using an elegant implementation of hand management mechanics.
I'm a big fan of a certain other F1 game that's been around in some form or other for years and it seems blasphemous to think it but Heat: Pedal to the Metal is as good as Formula De/Formula D! There, I've said it!

Disappointment of the year: Sushi Go!: Spin Some for Dim Sum
It's not that this game is bad per se, it's just that it does not deliver any particularly new gameplay or as good a experience as its previous 2 iterations. Hard to believe, but it's just a bit meh considering the pedigree it originates from.
It doesn't help that it's central premise (Or gimmick if you're less kind!) also makes the game a bit fiddly to setup, teardown and sometimes play.

Surprise of the year: Bandido
There's a heavy dose of luck that can apply to Bandido and I'm not sure if ultimately it's a good game or not. Even so, Bandido distils a cooperative gameplay experience into a single deck of strangely oblong cards in a package so small it easily fits in a pocket. With rules so simple and intuitive that anyone can immediately grasp play.
I play games with people who have varying levels experience in table top gaming and this has been a big hit with a couple of them, which is why we've played it so much in 2023.

Honourable mention: Joraku Deluxe
Set in Feudal Japan, Joraku is typically what you'd expect it to be; a game amount warring factions vying for influence and control. However, all of this is achieved with abstract, almost minimalist trick taking rules and delivered in a fantastic looking package.

25th April 2023

Tuesday is here again and we're with the Woking Gaming Club and The Sovereigns​ for a evening of gaming goodness.

Pirates; - they're known for spending their time burying treasure and going arrr! Skull King is a trick-taking game all about finding that treasure and going ahhh!

The quality of the cards is exactly the kind of quality you'd expect from a modern game - so pretty good, fairly sturdy cards that look laminated.

There's lots of nice pirate themed artwork in Skull King. Most of it is bright and colourful with good quality illustrations. Importantly, the 4 suits all look distinct from one another as do the special/character cards.

The 4 suits are easily recognised by theme and colours. The special cards are also easily recognisable.

How's it play?
Setup

• Deck setup: Add/remove the advanced game cards to or from the deck depending whether the normal or advanced game will be played.
• Dealer: Determine the dealer for the game start. The player to the left of the deal becomes the first lead player for that round.

On to play
Skull King is played over 10 rounds with players having increasingly larger hands of cards as rounds progress.
Furthermore, as the game progresses, players will play more and more tricks. Whoever wins each trick will earn the cards used in that trick - which will equate to points at the end of the round.
Skull King is a pretty traditional trick-taking game which uses a traditional turn order with the active player acting before play progresses to the player on their left.

• Round start: The dealer should shuffle the cards into a face-down deck.
• Deal cards: Now the dealer should deal cards face-down to all players.
  The number of cards dealt out should equal to the current round count. I.e., in the 1st round deal 1 card to each player, in the 4th round, deal 4, all the way to the 10th round where 10 cards are dealt to each player.
• Bidding: Each player should carefully look at their cards and try to gauge how 'strong' their hand is and secretly guess how many tricks they think they might win during the coming round. This becomes their 'bid' for the round
  Then all players simultaneously reveal their bids, which then can be recorded using the relevant tracking cards.
• Tricks: With the bidding out of the way, play can commence.
  • Lead player: The lead player will begin the trick by playing any card from their hand which will determine the suit for the trick.
    They are also free to play a special card instead which has no suit (The first suit card played will now determine the suit.)
    Follow: Now all other players must follow suit if they can, which means playing a card of the same suit. If they do not have a card of the same suit, then they can play a card of any other suit.
    Alternatively, regardless of whether a player has a card of the correct suit or not, they may choose to play a special card instead.
    Essentially, special cards have no suit and therefore do not need to follow suit.
  • Winner: Once all players have played a card, the trick is complete and a winner must be determined. There are several ways this can go.
    Suit cards: If only suit cards were played, whoever played the highest value card in the correct suit wins the trick.
    Cards of other suits can never win tricks unless it is from the black/jolly roger suit, in this case a black card will always beat the other suits regardless of value, only a black card of higher value can beat another black card.
    Special cards: As a rule, special cards will always beat suit cards, the exception being the escape card which always loses the trick!
    If multiple special cards are played, there are various rules for how they interact with each other.
    Once a winner has been determined, they collect all cards played in the trick and place them into their personal area.
    It's a good idea for a player to track how many tricks they've won for the end of round scoring.
• End of trick: If players have no more cards in their hand, the round is over and the game goes to the next round or game end as explained below.
  If players still have cards in hand, they continue playing tricks. Whoever won the previous trick will be the lead player for the next trick.
• End of round: When players have emptied their hands, the round is over!
  Players now calculate how many victory points (VPs) they have scored for the round and this is recorded.
  Bids: If a player won the exact number of tricks that they bid for at the round start, then they earn VPs. If the total tricks won is higher or lower, they lose points!
  highest value suit card: A player will earn VPs if they gained the highest value card of any suits.
  Special cards: These cards may situationally earn VPs.
• Next round: For the next round, the dealer and first player both move to the players on their left.
  The new dealer should collect all cards, shuffle them into a face-down deck and now deal cards to each player; the number of cards dealt should be 1 higher than the previous round.

Endgame
Once the 10th round has concluded and the VPs for that round calculated, the game is finally at an end and goes to end scoring.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Despite being a bit of a stretch to fit, Skull King's pirate theme is fairly amusing with evocative artwork to match. It's a good looking game.

Mechanically, the game is for the most part a straightforward, familiar trick-taking card game, albeit with a handful of special cards that change things up a little.
What makes Skull King standout are the scoring mechanics and in particular the bidding mechanic.

Players are forced to make a decision based on contextual information such as what is the current round and what cards they currently have in their hand. Then they'll need to try and gauge how many wins and losses they can get from their hand and plan accordingly.
Sometimes this will be simple, in the 1st round with only 1 trick being played, it's fairly safe to bid on winning 0 tricks, especially if a player only has a escape card in their hand!
As the game progresses though, these decisions will get harder and harder as more and more cards, special and otherwise come into play, making longer rounds a bit more unpredictable.
Additionally, the scoring system for bids rewards players who bid high (And manage to achieve it!) while it increases the price for failing big. A genuine risk and reward mechanic.
Finally, the bidding mechanic also introduces asymmetrical objective for players, some will be looking win tricks when others are trying lose them.
There's also a higher level of play here that involves paying attention to other players' bids.
E.g., if an opponent has won all the tricks they bid for and the round isn't over, making them win a trick will scupper the points they get from their bid.

However, I'm not so sure how I feel about the bidding mechanic, it definitely adds an extra layer to the gameplay but it's also kind of swingy, hitting a bid can earn a lot of VPs while missing it can lose a not insignificant number of VPs and sometimes this will be very much out a players control.
Additionally. the scoring rules feel a bit overly complex and fiddly, this compounded by how the game is played over 10 rounds and needs to be scored 10 times.

This brings to my other criticism which is the game feels too long:
By my calculations, a total of 55 tricks will be played over the 10 rounds which doesn't seem too bad but actually means shuffling and dealing 10 times as well as scoring 10 times and that all adds up to make the game feel a bit overlong and also finicky.

Skull Kings is a (Completely acceptable.) average trick-taking experience that is enjoyable enough but is mired down by excess bookkeeping for a card game. It's not a bad choice for a game I feel its unique elements don't do enough to make the game differentiate itself from the crowd.
The pirate theme will appeal to some but wouldn't be my first choice for a trick-taking game.

16th April 2023

It's a Sunday and we're logged into Board Game Arena for more gaming fun.

Take on the role of Perseus, Jason or Hercules. Battle The Hydra, vanquish The Gorgon and defeat Cerberus in Legends of Hellas, a cooperative card game of Greek heroes and Greek mythology.

Caveat: We've only ever played this game digitally.

What's in a game?

• Cards: Legends of Hellas features 2 types of cards.
• Action cards: In the top left of each action card is an icon. Each one relates to 1 of 5 different virtues or qualities that a hero might posses. They are 'arms' (As in weapons.), 'courage', 'guile', 'speed' and 'strength.
  Furthermore, cards are also colour coded to each quality.
  Action cards illustrate the kind of events that Greek heroes get involved with using those virtues.
  Divine intervention cards: A final type of card depicts that good old mythological staple; divine intervention. These cards have special uses as explained below and are considered different to 'normal' actions cards.

With a chunky, cartoony style, Legends of Hellas is a bright and colourful looking game. It's crisp, clear artwork and the monsters on the monster cards are all instantly recognisable. I think it looks great.

There's half a dozen icons in the game and they're only used in reference between action and monster cards. Players should have no problems here.

How's it play?
Setup
Legends of Hellas presents players with 12 different missions to undertake which may have some varying setup and game rules. However, broadly speaking, they share a common theme - which defeating monsters until the boss monster 'the chimera' appears then defeating it.​

• Monster cards: Shuffle the monster cards into a face-down deck. Then according to the mission deal a number of them face-up into a central playing area.
• Action cards: First ensure all the divine intervention are separated from the other action cards.
  Then as per the player count (And also difficulty.) add a number of divine intervention cards to the action cards and shuffle them all into a face-down deck.
  Now deal 4 cards to each player.
• Hero discs: Give each player a hero disc in their chosen player colour. Each player should put their disc into their personal playing area with the 'normal' side face-up.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
Players in Legends of Hellas are cooperatively attempting to defeat a number of monsters inspired by Greek mythology.
This is done by playing cards but players will also need to perform other actions to facilitate this.
Legends of Hellas uses a traditional turn order with active player completing their action before play progresses to the next player.

• Game start: All players should place their hero disc on any monster card, more than one hero disc may be on a monster card.
• Action: During their turn, the active player may perform 1 of the following actions.
  • Draw card: The active player may draw 1 or more cards from the action deck and may temporarily have a hand of up to 5 cards. However, after drawing cards, the active player must discard a card.
  • Fight monster: This is probably the most common action players will perform and and is required to defeat monsters. The following rules apply to fighting monsters.
    • Location: The active player may only fight the monster at their hero disc's current location.
    • Action: To fight a monster, the active player must play an action card that matches the icons on that monster card. I.e., if a monster card displays the speed and courage icons, then the active player must play a card with either the speed or courage icon.
    • Victory: A monster is only defeated when both of the following 2 conditions have been met:
      Both action types: At least 1 card of each type has been played.
      5 cards: If a total of 5 cards have been across both types has been played.
      When both conditions have been met, the monster is defeated.
    • Divine intervention: These are incredibly useful for defeating monsters and can be used in 1 of 2 ways.
      Wildcard: A divine intervention card be played as a action card of any of the 5 types.
      Instant defeat: Provided the 'both action types' condition has been met, a divine intervention card can be played to instantly defeat a monster regardless of how many cards have already been played against it.
  • Give card: The active player may give any number of their cards to any other player. That player must then discard at least 1 card and must also discard down to 4 cards if they have more.
  • Move: The active player may move their hero disc from one monster card to another by discarding a card. This is regardless of whether the monster the hero disc is currently on has been defeated or not.
  • View cards: The active player may draw 6 cards from the action deck and view them.
    Then they must discard 1 cards and return the other 5 back on top of the action deck in any order they see fit.
• Next player: Once the active player has taken their action, play progresses to the player on their left.
• Other rules:
  • Special action: Each player has a special action available to them that can be activated once per game and is dependant on the colour of their hero disc.
    It means a player can flip their hero disc to the 'broken' side to play any card against a monster, consequently that card is considered to have the same colour (And thus quality.) as the flipped hero disc.
    E.g., if a player has Hercules' red hero disc, they may flip it to play any card against a monster and that card is considered to be a red 'strength' action card.
  • Chimera: Once the allotted number of monsters as per the chosen mission have been defeated, the final boss monster appears - this is the Chimera!
    To form the Chimera draw 2 monster cards and places them so that one is above the other - and the one at the bottom is upside down.
    This means the Chimera will potentially need cards from 4 qualities to defeat! If the Chimera has duplicates of the one quality, then at least 1 action card for each instance of that type must be played.

Endgame
If the players manage to defeat the Chimera once it has appeared, then they collectively win the game!
If however, at any time a player needs to draw cards and there are none left in the action deck, then the players collectively lose the game.

Overall
Between it's bold colourful presentation of Greek mythology and card mechanics which will have heroes travelling about to battle monsters using their guile, strength and so on; Legends of Hellas is pretty strong thematically.
I personally like how The Chimera will be a random amalgam of 2 other monsters.

Mechanically, on the surface it's a pretty straightforward game - play cards with symbols matching symbols on monster cards to defeat them but in practice, Legends of Hellas is quite unforgiving.

This is because players aren't really battling the monsters, they're battling the action deck - or more precisely, fighting to stop the deck running out and luck can play a very big part here.
Every choice and action a player takes ​- not just attacking monsters - will cost a card.
Draw cards - one of them must be discarded.
Give cards to an alley - one must be discarded.
Move or view the deck - you get the idea.
Even deciding which cards to discard is also an important decision. I.e., if none of the current monsters require a certain type of card, is that type safe to discard? A monster requiring it might turn up later

Consequently it can be very easy to run out of cards, players will need to try and play as efficiently as possible with minimal squandering and no frivolous moves. Judicious use of divine interventions can be critical here, playing one at the right time can defeat a monster with only 3 cards instead of 5. It might not seem like a saving of many cards but it can be.
While players can not explicitly discuss the cards in their hand, they will need to coordinate actions, especially actions such as passing cards to each other and viewing the deck.
Being a cooperative game, there's also a degree of luck in Legends of Hellas, perhaps a little too much like for my liking. Sometimes players will draw a hand of cards they just can't use and will have to find a way to adapt.
Conversely, sometimes luck will deliver the exact cards you will need which will make it easier and maybe a little unsatisfying.
It also means that sometimes it felt like my decisions had been taken out my hands by chance and sometimes it felt like any strategy I had was was reduced to simply 'play what you have' and adapt to 'what you get'.

Despite this I found Legends of Hellas to be a fairly enjoyable experience mixed with dollop of frustration from the luck which strangely, could go 2 ways; too much bad luck or too much good luck! 

With it's cartoonish art style and somewhat lightweight rules, Legends of Hellas would appear to be aimed at a family audience but we found it actually quite a tricky game, I'm not sure younger players will have a easy time. however a bit of adult/parent contribution would make a difference, I guess that's what makes it a family game.

If you want a ancient Greece themed cooperative game or in fact any kind of low maintenance cooperative game, Legends of Hellas might fill the bill.

9th April 2023

Sunday night on Board Game Arena means gaming goodness.

Ruffle your feathers, flap you wings and squawk for this err... bird and fruit themed set collecting card game.

Caveat: We've only played this game digitally.

What's in a game?
Cards: Toucan consists of a deck of 70 cards, broken down into 3 types.

• Fruit cards: These form the bulk of the game's cards.
  They each depict 1 of a selection of different fruits with a colourful illustration.
  Furthermore each type of fruit displays its own set-collecting rules as shown on each card.

Tucano features colourful and bright cartoony illustrations throughout.
It's a nice art style that works well with cheerfully anthropomorphic fruit and stylised birds that suits the game's lightweight nature.

The game's only iconography are the 3 symbols found on the toucan cards and icons used for set collecting scoring on fruit cards.
All of these are easily and quickly explained and understood.

How's it play?
Setup

• Cards: Separate all the toucan cards from the deck and put them aside.
  • Shuffle all the remaining cards and deal them into 2 face-down decks.
  • Now take the toucan cards and shuffle them into one of the 2 decks, ensuring it all remains face-down.
  • Finally, take the other deck and place it on top of the deck with the toucan cards.
    ​Thus all the toucan cards will be in the lower half of the deck.
• Columns: Deal 3 cards face-up into the central area to form the beginnings of 3 columns. Then deal another card face-up into the middle column.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play.
In Tucano, players will drafting cards from a column in the central area and add to their personal area with the aim of collecting sets which will in turn score them maximum victory points (VPs).

Tucano uses a traditional turn order with the active player resolving their turn before play moves on to the player on their left.
The active player will perform the following.

• Draft: The active player picks any 1 of the 3 available columns and adds all the cards in that column to their personal area.
  It's a good idea to sort cards by type at this point.
  Toucan cards: If one of the cards that were drafted is a toucan card, its action must be immediately resolved.
  Joker: If one of the drafted cards is a joker, it does not need to be assigned to a set until the game end.
• Refresh: Once the active player has finished their turn, a card each is added face-up to the 3 columns - including the empty one.
  Next player: Play then progresses to the player to the left of the current active player who then becomes the new active player.

Endgame
Play continues until the deck has been depleted and there's only 1 column of cards left in the central area.

At this point, any players with a joker card may choose which set to add it to.
Sets are then scored.

​Most sets will score according to how many cards a player has collected of that set.
However, some sets score based on how many cards a player has collected in relation to other players. In this case whoever has the most cards will score the larger amount and all other players with cards in that set will score the lesser amount.
It is possible in some circumstances for sets to lose players VPs!

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
I guess toucans collecting fruit is a good a theme for a set collecting game as any! 

When playing, players are broadly speaking, faced with 3 choices during their turn which on the surface is not a lot.
However, Tucano does a clever thing is by having some sets earning increasing VPs, some sets intermittently scoring VPs and some losing them - and then having columns that get longer.
Invariably, when a column contains a card that loses VPs; players will initially ignore that column, this means that over the rounds more cards will be added to that column, making it more appealing to draft.
As a result; sometimes players will have no-brainers on what to draft but sometimes they will have to choose between columns which will add negative cards to their collections. They'll be looking to minimise the negatives and hoping to get rid of them at some later point.
Which brings me to the toucan cards, these wisely appear in the latter part of the game - where they'll have the most impact. The right use of toucan cards when they appear can be a real game changer (And also frustrating!), particularly when giving cards to other players: In the right circumstances a player can remove a negative from one of their collections and add it to an opponent's!

There's not more to add. Tucano is a pared down, fairly simple set collecting game and I'm pretty certain I'm not the target audience here.
Even as a filler or short game, I'm unsure it offers enough depth for seasoned players. Personally I found it a fairly shallow experience and the mechanics of the toucan cards a little frustrating.

Conversely though, just from the appealing, colourful art, it apparent Tucano is squarely aimed at younger players.
Its simplicity makes for a accessible game and a great way to introduce set collecting mechanics to budding future gamers and for family gaming.

9th April 2023

​Sunday is here again and we're logged into Board Game Arena for some gaming fun.

'Triiiiooo, triiiio
I want a trio,
And I want now.'

I'm showing my age here, but this is not a game about a chocolatey biscuit, instead it's a set collecting card game.
Furthermore, Trio is apparently a reskin of a game called Nana, which disappointingly, is not about collecting grannies.

Caveat: We have only ever played this game digitally.

What's in a game?

• Cards: Trio uses​ a deck of 36 cards, numbered 1-12 three times.
  Along the bottom of each card will be 1 or more numbers that relate to the numbers on other cards which when added/subtracted mathematically reach 7.
  E.g.; the 1 and 6 cards are related because 1+6=7.
  ​Additionally; 4 and 11 are also related because 11-4=7 and so on.
  A 2 will be related to a 5 and a 9. 5+2=7 and also 9-2=7
  These sets of 2 related numbers are known as 'spicy' sets!
  
  

That's it for components.

Trio features cards decorated with quirky little monochrome illustrations with what appears to be a Mexican day of the dead theme? These illustrations are set against colourful backgrounds which are associated with each of the 12 differently valued cards.
I'm not sure how the them ties with the game but the cards definitely look colourful, dynamic and eye catching.

Cards are numbered 1-12, there's no other iconography. This is all very easily understood.

How's it play?
Setup

• Cards: Shuffle the cards into a face-down deck.
• Players: Dependant on player count deal 5-9 cards face-down to each player.
  All players should sort their cards into numerical order.
• Central playing area: All the remaining cards (Which will be 6-9 cards.) should be dealt face-down into a central playing area.
  This means all cards will have been dealt either to players or the central area.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
There are three ways (A trio!) (SIC) to win Trio. Each involves revealing cards to collect sets of identical values.

Trio follows the typical turn order with the active player taking their turn before play progress to the player on their left.
During their turn, the active player may reveal up to 3 cards by performing the following actions.

• 1st action: The Active player may choose 1 of the following 2 actions to perform which will result in revealing a card..
  • Reveal highest or lowest: The active play may ask any single player to reveal their single highest or lowest value card, the active player may also choose themselves to reveal a card.
    Any revealed card should be played face-up into the playing area.
  • Reveal from central area: The active player may flip a single card face-up from the cards in the central area.
• 2nd action: The active player now again chooses 1 of the same 2 actions above to perform, which will result in revealing a 2nd card
  • No match: The the 2nd card to be revealed does not have the same value as the 1st revealed card, then the active player's turn is over.
    Any card revealed by a player is returned to their hand.
    Any card that was revealed from the central area is flipped face-down again.
  • A match: If the 2nd card revealed matches the 1st card revealed, then the active player gets to take a 3rd action!
• 3rd action: The active player now gets a 3rd action and once again, must choose from the 2 actions described above.
  • No match: If the 3rd card revealed does not match the 1st and 2nd cards, then the active player's turn is over.
    Any cards revealed by a player is returned to their hand.
    Any cards that was revealed from the central area is flipped face-down again.
  • A match: If the 3rd card revealed matches the 1st and 2nd cards, then the active player has revealed all 3 cards of the same number! They collect all 3 cards and place them into their personal playing area.
• ​Next player: Regardless of whether the active player failed to match 3 revealed cards or managed to collect a set, play then progresses to the player on their left who now becomes the active player.

Endgame
​There are 3 ways a player may Trio.

• 3 sets of 3: If a player collects 3 sets of 3 cards they immediately win.
• Spicy set: If any player collects a spicy set, then they immediately win.
• Collect the 7s: If a player collects the 3 7 cards, they immediately win!
  Interestingly, the 7 value cards are the only cards not in a spicy set.

Overall
​Trio's has a fairly abstract theme but to be fair I don't it detracts from what is a fairly accessible game.

In fact, Trio is such a straightforward game that almost has nothing to write about. It mixes simple deduction and memory mechanics.

Players will want to remember what cards are revealed and where they are revealed from, allowing them to create sets of 3.
Players can also glean information from what their opponents reveal, either from their own questions of those of others. E.g., if someone is asked to reveal their highest card and it's an 8, then it's obvious they wont have cards of higher values. This is useful when deciding which sets to try and work towards.

There's also something mechanically interesting going on with the game's probabilities.
Generally, players should look to collect sets of either the highest or lowest value sets - simply by virtue of being able to only reveal the highest and lowest value cards of opponents.
This is why collecting the 7's insta-wins the game, because the 7's will likely be in the middle of players' hands and will be harder to collect
This becomes even more likely in games with lower player counts as each player will have bigger hand sizes. Conversely the distribution of cards will be less even in games with a higher player count, making it a little more unpredictable.

Talking of player count, we played with 3 players and I felt it was a little underwhelming. Trio can play with up to 6, I think the game improves with more players and the greater unpredictability adds to the experience.
We also played online which I feel detracts from a game like this which benefits from interaction between players.

Trio is obviously a lightweight game and will have crossover appeal to families and more casual gamers, it's set collecting, memory-based gameplay is something most people will be familiar with to some degree or other. I that's something that might appeal, them Trio is worth a look.

I would say it might be a bit too simple for seasoned games but truthfully, I think can serve as a filler game or an ender for the night.
It's something I would like to try with the physical version at a higher player count.

​2nd April 2023

Sunday is here again and we're logged into Board Game Arena for some gaming fun.

'Goa is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region' according to Wikipedia.
If you've ever fancied a holiday to that region of India, now's your chance to game it, visit beaches, historical sites, forts and more in... Go Goa.

Caveat: We have only ever played this game digitally.
What's in a game?

• Player sheet: This sheet displays the titular region using a hex map while around the outside of the map are a number of holiday themed illustrations.
  The majority of the hexes are blank but the remaining are coloured and contain icons which represent tourist destinations.
  The top of the sheet contains a day tracker which actually serves as a turn tracker, the bottom contains a score tracker for the game end.
  There's also a direction guide or 'compass' hex at the top - more on compass later.
  The physical version of the game has 2 slots on the left side of the sheet to align 2 'tour plan cards'. Again, more on these below.

• Dice: Go Goa comes with 3 normal six-siders.

​Go Goa has a nice art style to it. Much of it has a sort of simplistic cartoony nature which is colourful, cheerful and bright that I think fits the game's holiday theme quite nicely.
The illustrations on the tour plan cards look more 'realistic' but equally bright and have a postcard quality to them. They seem to depict various locations and I'm sure that they're referenced or based on locations in Goa.

A few icon/colour combinations are used to represent destinations and scoring opportunities throughout the game. Fortunately, everything they reference can be found on the sheets, for the most part it's all readily apparent and shouldn't represent a problem.

How's it play?
Setup

• Player sheet: Give each player a player sheet.
• Tour plan cards: Sort the tour plan cards into their 2 types, shuffle each type into a face-down deck and deal 2 cards from each deck to all players.
  Each player should choose 2 to keep and discard the remaining 2 out of the game.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
In Go Goa, players are attempting travel to as many destinations on the hex map over 12 rounds which will earn them VPs. This is done by using the result of dice rolls which will determine their direction, distance and err uhh deviation!

There's no typical turn order in Go Goa, instead all players play out their turn simultaneously.

• Game start: All players begin the game on the hex marked 'start here'.
• Round start: At the start of each round, all players mark a day off of their day tracker.
  Dice: The first player now rolls all 3 dice.
• Assign dice: Players must now assign 1 die each to direction, distance and deviation as per the rules below.
  First player: The first play can assign any 1 die to direction, then they can assign any of the remaining dice to distance and deviation.
  Other players: The other players cannot assign the same die to direction that the first player did, they must assign a different die to direction. After that, they can assign any of the remaining dice to distance and deviation.
• Resolve dice: Now that all player have assigned dice to the 3 criteria, hey must be resolved and when done so will determine where each player ends the round
  • Direction: As per the the compass hex, the value of the die assigned to direction will determine the direction the player leaves their starting or current hex.
  • Distance: The value of the die assigned to distance determines exactly how many hexes the player moves in a straight line. Although that can be potentially altered by...
  • Deviation: The die assigned here allows a player to change direction once or twice when moving their distance. This is dependant on the die's value
    1-3: If the assigned die has a value of 1-3, the player can change direction once.
    4-6: If the assigned value is 4-6, then the player can change direction twice.
• Mark destination: Now that players have ended their movement, they can potentially mark off the destination they have reached.
  Blank space: If the player ended their day on a blank space, then obviously, nothing is marked off.
  Destination: When a player ends their day at 1 of the 5 different types of tourist destination, they should mark off a spot on the corresponding line on their destination tracker.
  Tour plan: additionally, if they have reached one of the destinations named on either of their tour plan cards, they should also mark it off.
  Tour guides: If a player stops at one of the three listed spots on the tour guide, then they should record which destination they have reached. Tour guides can provide help to players.
• Additional rules:
  Tour guides: If a player has recorded a tour guide destination, then they can mark that destination off in order to alter any one assigned die roll by +1/-1, this can make a die roll 'wraparound'.
  This can only be done once per tour guide destination - thus 3 times only.
• Next round: Once all players have resolved their movement and recorded the result, the round is over and play progresses to the next round.
  The player to the left of the first player becomes the first player for the subsequent round and begins it by rolling the 3 dice.

Endgame
Once the 12th round is completed, the game is over and goes to scoring.
Players can acquire VPs from several sources in Go Goa.

• Destinations: Each destination visited earns a flat 10 VPs.
• Sets: The tourist destination sheet provides 2 ways for scoring VPs.
  Set of 5: Each completed set of the 5 different types of destination will score VPs. Players are essentially scoring for completing a vertical line.
  3/6 of a kind: If a player reached 3 of the same type of destination, they score some VPs. If they managed to reach 6 of the same kind, they score more VPs. Players are scoring horizontally here.
• Tour plans: Each fully marked off tour plan will earn the player 20-40 VPs dependant on the individual card.
• Bonus: There's 20 bonus VPs or reaching the hex with the camera icon.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Go Goa's theme is kind of crazy and has players essentially randomly travelling throughout the titular state looking to find various holiday destinations in what would be a fairly chaotic holiday. I imagine this to be the opposite to what most people want actually on their vacation.
Having said that... choosing your holiday itinerary based off off some dice rolls might have some appeal but I digress. 

Mechanically, Go Goa is straightforward.
Firstly, players need to pay attention to the tour plan cards they receive and if possible select cards which work well together, that is potentially have their destinations close to each other. I like how the cards provide players will asymmetrical objectives.

After that; the game's central mechanic will have players assigning to dice in order to try and move to their selected locations. 
'Try' is the operative word here, at times randomness will scupper a player's plan, it means they must spend a fair amount of time adapting to the options presented to them by the dice. This might involve going to alternate destinations or trying to reach objectives in a different order and so on.
This provides players with somewhat meaningful decisions when selecting their dice but makes future planning a little futile. YMMV on whether you find this frustrating or not.
It's also interesting that the game forces some asymmetrical decision making on players in the form of the rule whereupon the first player will have different destination die to their opponents.
There is some flexibility in assigning dice though and also how to score destinations on the tourist destinations sheet (Which is welcome.) but even so, Go Goa is fairly harsh in this respect. Players only have 12 turns and thus only 12 opportunities to reach destinations, each time a player stops in a blank space, they'll drop at least 10 VPs .

I should add that this is also a game with no interaction between players, who will be acting simultaneous but whose decisions will have no impact their opponents.
This makes Go Goa all about players optimising their moves to reach as many destinations as possible.

More casual gamers might find the unusual rules a little obtuse but I think they would learn them quick enough. Additionally, the theme gels with the mechanics well. Everyone should understand the concept of visiting tourist spots while on holiday.

But for seasoned gamers I'm not convinced they'll find Go Goa engaging. While Go Goa is easy to pick up but it comes at the cost of being perhaps a bit too simplistic for my liking, I also feel that luck plays too big a part in the game and a lot of my decisions felt out of my control. All of this contributed to make the game a little frustrating.

If you're looking a lightweight, roll-and-write game with a strong theme and a fair amount of randomness, then maybe Go Goa is worth a look.
​I'm not sure it's one for me though.

• ​​Completion tokens: These round tokens display the International Rescue logo and are used to track progress during a mission.
  

The component quality throughout Thunderbirds Danger Zone is average, that is to say it is the quality we've come to accept from modern games which means pretty good. The cards feel OK and the tokens seem sturdy enough. Nothing bad here.

For its art, the game sources what seem to be stock photos and stills from the TV episodes that inspired the mission cards.
It's usually at this point I would accuse the game of looking cheap for using photos instead of producing actual art.
However, this style works for Thunderbirds Danger Zone and I think it looks completely acceptable. Partially because marionettes and models look different enough from bland photos to look good and partially because those marionettes and models were part of the TV show's unique aesthetic and what people would expect from a licensed game.

The only icons used in the game are for the 4 resources, they will be easily learnt and each one looks distinct in shape and fits its theme, a cannister for fuel, a computer terminal for knowledge and so on.
Except for tech; no matter what anyone says, the icon for tech just looks like a drain to me!

How's it play?
Note: The setup and rules description below are for games with 3+ players.
​Additionally, the setup and rules are for the beginner mission - End of The Road. Later missions introduce more cards and more rules.
​Setup

• Mission: First choose 1 of the 7 available missions.
  Danger zone cards: Take the 3 danger zone cards associated with the chosen mission and place them in a row, thus forming the top row of 3 columns of cards.
  Journey cards: The mission's difficulty will determine how many rows of journey cards should be used, typically 1 or 2. Players can theoretically choose to vary this to alter the mission's difficulty.
  The journey cards should be shuffled into a face-down deck, cards should be dawn from here and placed beneath the danger zone cards to form 3 columns.
  Character tokens: The mission card will determine which characters are used. Place each character token below the bottom of their specific column.
  Journey tokens: shuffle all the journey and Hood tokens and randomly deal one on to each of the journey cards. Finally deal a journey token to each character token.
  Tracey Island card: These cards count as a countdown timer, the lower count on the card used, the harder it is to successfully complete the mission. Players can decide on which of these countdown cards to use, they are numbered from 4-10.
• Players: Players have the following setup.
  Resource cards: Shuffle the resource cards into a face-down deck and deal 3 to each player.
  First player: Determine a starting player, give them the 'Jeff' character token.
  This player becomes the.... 'Jeff player'!

Overall
I know why resource values have to be matched exactly mechanically - otherwise it would be too easy a game. Thematically though, it feels a bit strange that players might have too much team spirit or knowledge.
Other than that, Thunderbirds Danger Zone feels quite strong thematically. I like how the game sends specific characters to deal with specific danger zone cards which I imagine mirrors what occurs in that episode. I like the that idea characters can also provide some assistance.
The art direction also makes it feel quite like playing a Thunderbirds episode which is exactly what you'd want from the game.

Mechanically, I feel Thunderbirds Danger Zone is a bit of a mixed bag. This is particularly true of the slight asymmetrical gameplay.
The Jeff player is faced with a somewhat meaningful decision when choosing which objective to target. They'll want to pick one which they have the most options and flexibility in modifying if required.
Luck will also play a part in the Jeff player's role when they pick 2 cards to flip, frequently they will need to adapt to what is revealed.
For the non Jeff players it will feel less meaningful. Basically; if the objective has a low value, players will want to play cards with a low value in the required resource and vice versa if the objective resource has a high value. Since players will not know what other participants will be playing, luck will play a not insignificant part in this.
To be fair, there is a bit of higher level play in remembering the resource value on a journey card that the Jeff player picks up in a swap and such knowledge can prove advantageous in later rounds.

I will add that this kind of luck particularly bad luck is fairly typical in cooperative games to keep them challenging.
Luckily (SIC), the game provides the Jeff player will some tools to mitigate bad luck when it occurs.

Thunderbirds Danger Zone is straightforward for a cooperative game which is a advantage. Many games of this type of game tend to have fairly elaborate rules to manage the boards turn, there's none of that here.

Although that does bring me to complexity/difficulty. Thunderbirds Danger Zone sits in a bit of nebulous middle space here.
The game clearly has some scope as a family game but can be a bit overly complex and challenging for beginners or casual players. Conversely, I found the sometimes lack of meaningful decisions and swingy luck a bit frustrating and engaging, I also feel that most seasoned gamers would find this to also be the case.

If you're a fan of Thunderbirds and are in the market for a licensed cooperative game, this may float your boat, or if you're looking a more approachable cooperative game to play with more causal players or the family, it's also worth a look.
​Not one for me though.

​1st April 2023

We're no April's fools, we're at Wogglecon 7! For a day of gaming fun. I played the following games at Wogglecon7.

Akropolis
Sushi Roll
Just One
Sagrada - First Play!
Pan Am

1st April 2023

We're at Wogglecon 7 for a day of gaming fun. Second game of the day was Sagrada which means 'sacred' in Spanish.
Gaming and Wogglecon are definitely sacred but is Sagrada all about creating stained glass windows through the medium of dice-placement, albeit with dice that look quite glassy!

The most noticeable component of Sagrada are the bright colourful dice. They are well made, rounded and translucent with a 'gem' type finish.
Usually I have a preference for wooden dice but can see why the game uses this type as it's a great fit the stained glass window theme.
The player board with it's recessed grid works well when used with the window pattern cards which slide smoothly into place and dice which happily set in their spots.
The cards are the standard you'd expect off of a modern game and the inclusion of glass beads is a nice touch.

The game's art direction continues the theme of stained glass windows. There's lots of brightly coloured glass panes shown on the player boards and round tracker. White much of it is just abstract shapes, it's very colourful without obscuring important detail.
It also lends the game a eye catching quality all of which I like.

For the most part, the game's iconography is easily understood.
Some of the objective cards and tool cards might require explanation or looking up in the manual but this doesn't really affect the flow of play and isn't an issue.

How's it play?
​Setup

• Player board: Give each player a player board.
  Window pattern cards: Give each player 2 pattern cards. Each player should then choose 1 to keep and discard the other out of play. The chosen pattern card should then be slid into the player's board, this will display the pattern cards colours and numbers through the board.
  Favour tokens: Give each player a number of favour tokens as indicated by the pattern card they took.
  Private objective card: Shuffle the private objective cards into a face-down deck and deal 1 each to every player, players should keep this card hidden from their opponents.
• Public objective cards: Shuffle these into a face-down deck and deal 3 into a central playing area.
• Tool cards: Shuffle the tool cards into a face-down deck and also deal 3 face-up into the central area.
• Dice: Place all dice into the bag and give it a good shake.
• Round tracker: Place the round track into the central playing area.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
In Sagrada, players will be placing dice on to their player board in an attempt to match the criteria on the public/private scoring cards while also meeting the requirements dictated by the pattern cards.

The game utilises something of a typical turn order but during each round every player will have the opportunity to draft 2 dice; although only 1 at a time.

• Round start: At the start of a round, whoever is the first play should take the bad and draw out a number of dice dependant on player order. This amounts to 2 dice per player plus 1 more. Then the first player should roll those dice and place them into the central playing area.
• Drafting: Each player will have the opportunity to draft 2 dice, first in turn order and then in reverse turn order.
  ​First player: Drafting always commences with the first player beginning as the active player. They perform their action(s) then play progresses to the player on their left and so on.
  Once the last player in the turn order has completed their turn, the order of play reverses, mean the last player now goes first with play progressing to their right and the first player going last!
  This means the first player has their 2nd action last while the last player has 2 actions in a row.
• Active player: Whenever someone becomes the active player they have the option of performing the following 2 actions in any order they see fit.
  • Draft die: The active may draft 1 of the available dice and add it to their window with the following placement rules.
    • Pattern requirements: Any die placed on a player's window must match the requirement shown on the pattern card. Thus a green die (Of any value.) must go on a green space and a die showing 4 (Of any colour.) must go on a space showing a '4'.
    • First die: The first die a player places in their window must be along the edge or in the corner.
    • Subsequent dice: All other dice placed in the window must now be adjacent a die already in the window, the can be diagonally or orthogonally.
    • No matches: When placing a die orthogonally adjacent to another die, it must be a different colour and number. A blue die cannot be placed orthogonally adjacent to another blue die. A '2' cannot be placed adjacent to another '2'.
  • Use tool card: The active player may choose to spend a favour token to utilise the ability on any of the tool cards. This can be be performed before or after drafting a die.
• End of round: Once the round has been completed; that is each player has had the opportunity to draft 2 dice, then the round has ended and the following occurs.
  Round tracker: Take the remaining die or dice and place them on the spot for the current round on the round tracker. All of these dice are now out of play.
  New first player: The player who drew the dice should pass the bag to the player on their left who now becomes the first player for the following round.

Endgame
Play continues for 10 rounds whereupon the game ends and goes to scoring.
VPs can be accumulated from several sources.

• Public objective cards: Players will score VPs by meeting the criteria of the public cards, it is possible to score a card multiple times.
• Private objective card: As with public cards, players can score VPs from their private cards, this too can be done multiple times.
• Favour tokens: Every unspent favour token is worth 1 VP.
• Empty spaces: Players actually lose VPs for spaces on their window no containing dice. Each empty space will cost the player 1VP.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Using translucent, glass-like dice to represent details of a stained glass window is a cool nice idea that fits thematically. It doesn't hurt that it all looks quite pretty when finished.

Mechanically, Sagrada is straightforward - drafting and placing dice to try and match objectives. The challenge facing players however, comes from managing the obstacles that will impede them.
Players will have to take into account both the requirements of their pattern board when placing dice and the placement rules and how they interact with each other.

E.g., placing a red die on a blank space orthogonally adjacent to a red space on their pattern board will mean now that no die can be placed on the red space - because it will be adjacent to the already placed red die.

Leaving spaces empty like this will cost players VPs.
It means players will need to anticipate which dice they place to avoid pitfalls such as this. They will need to pay attention to not only which dice they draft but since they draft 2 dice per round, the order in which they are drafted.
Additionally, players will need to manage having to draft dice they might not want at that time. This can be difficult because of the rule's placement restrictions.
There's also definitely a higher lever of play here that comes from seeing what dice other players will need and trying to gauge which opponents will take which dice and react appropriately.

There's not much more to say about Sagrada.
I guess some people may not like the low amount of interaction between players which only occurs when drafting dice but I don't have an issue with it. I will add that Sagrada sort of feels a little like a puzzle to solve than a game in itself and some people may not like this aspect. Again, it doesn't bother me.

Sagrada is easy to understand with its 'draft and place' mechanics but presents players with a not insignificant challenge: Since the game is played over 10 rounds and players can get 2 dice per round, it is possible to entirely fill a window but I don't think that is a simple proposition.
It feels kind of unremarkable as a game because it is so straightforward without bells and whistles or any gimmicks but in practice provides a solid, enjoyable gameplay experience which taxes the braincells a little and pushes players to make tricky decisions.