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.

My massive backlog of games to talk about didn't lessen in 2022, only got worse.

2022 was a big year for playing games, bigger than 2021, which I thought was big enough! Below is the breakdown of games I played in '22 versus '21.

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

2021
Number of different games played: 78.
Of which were new (To me.): 46.
Total number of gaming sessions: 333.

Why have the numbers gone up so much? Two factors, 2022 saw the end of lockdowns and a full year of playing on Board Game Arena where not only could 5 or 6 games be easily played in an evening, some games could be played multiple times per session.

Most played games:

1. Lucky Numbers: 60 sessions
2. Can't Stop: 31 sessions.
3. Railroad Ink: 27 sessions.
4. Love Letter: 20 sessions.
5. Parks & Loco Momo: 15 sessions each.

Lucky Numbers has eclipsed Love Letter's 2021 tally of 43, which had dropped to 'just' 20 sessions in '22, having suffered from some playing 'fatigue'.
Lucky Numbers, with it's simple, unpredictable, luck based and strategy mechanics replaced Lover Letter as our regular 'finisher' on Sunday nights.

Now on to the industry-defining, glittering, 3 Spellcasters & a Dwarf annual game awards.
These are for games I first played in 2022, not necessarily games that were published in 2022. 

Game of the year: Cascadia
Cascadia is a tile-placement game with fairly simple rules but a wealth of options, strategies and approaches to scoring points. Players have to manage and optimise multiple scoring vectors that use tiles and tokens but rarely do they get to draft both the tiles and tokens they need, forcing them into meaningful, compromising decisions.
What more could you want?

Disappointment of the year: Terminator: Dark Fate The Card Game
This co-operative deck-builder had some interesting ideas but also seemed broken, so much so that we struggled to make any headway into the game. It felt like the game needed more playtesting and balancing.

Surprise of the year: Akropolis
Another tile-laying game! This time one with actual figurative multiple levels of gameplay!
Simple rules, lots of decision and a quick playtime make this game a cracking package.

Honourable mention: Parks
For a long stretch of 2022 I thought that this worker-placement, resource-management game was going to be the game of the year until Cascadia came along.
With limited workers spaces along the hiking trail, players are faced with trying to anticipate their opponents actions while also prioritising their own and gather the resources to buy point scoring cards.
Parks also has some of the best components and artwork I've seen in a game for a while.

5th February 2023

It's another Sunday evening and we're logged into Board Game Arena again for some gaming fun.

Nova Luna; the new moon.

No, this is no a game based on those dodgy vampire films. It's a pretty standard draft and tile placement game.

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

What's in a game?

• Game board: Nova Luna features a 'moon wheel', a sort ring or wheel shaped board. Along the wheel is a 24-space track upon which are displayed different phases of the moon and is used to track player order. Around the wheel's outside are 12 spaces to place the game's square tiles.

• Moon meeple: This token continues the game's moon theme.
• Tokens : There are 21 of these disc shaped tokens in each of the game's 4 player colours.

​The game's only art is found on the moon wheel, there's some fairly detailed styling around the wheel as well all the faces of the moon.
Otherwise, Nova Luna is fairly light on artwork. It does make good use of bold bright colours however, which I like and think makes it look eye catching.

If you understand numbers and coloured dots, then you'll understand Nova Luna's iconography. It's very straightforward and easily understood.

How's it play?
Setup

• Game board: Put out the moon wheel board. Put the moon meeple at the topmost outer space.
• Tiles: Shuffle the tiles into a face-down stack. Then draw and place tiles face-up in all the spaces around the outside the moon wheel (Other than the space with the moon wheel.).
• Tokens: Give player all the tokens in their chosen player colour. Each player should place a token on the topmost space on the moon track.
• First Player: Determine a turn order for the first round.

On to play
In Nova Luna, players will be drafting tiles from the moon wheel and placing them adjacent to each other in their personal play area with the intent of connecting tiles of certain colours to each other in order to complete the objectives or tasks on those tiles.

Nova Luna does not use a traditional turn order, player order is based on the respective position of each player's token position on the moon track. Furthermore, whenever a player takes a tile, their token will move along the track.

• Active player: Whoever is 'furthest' back along the moon track becomes the active player. If tokens from 2 or more players share the same furthest back space, then the token on the top becomes activated.
• Draft: The active player must draft a tile according to the following rules.
  Refill: If there are no tiles left around the moon wheel, the active player must refill the empty spaces. If there are 1 or 2 tiles left, they may choose to refill the wheel.
  Take tile: Then the active player must take a tile. The tile taken must from the first 3 occupied spaces in front of the moon meeple (Empty spaces are skipped.).
  Move meeple: Once the active player has taken a tile, they must move the moon meeple to the space where they just took the tile from.
  Move token: The active player now moves their personal token along the moon track, they move the token a number of spaces as indicated by the time in the top left corner of the tile they just acquired, thus will move it 1-7 spaces along the track.
• Place tile: Now the active player must place the tile they took into their personal playing area.
  Placement: When placing a tile, it must go orthogonally adjacent to another tile, obviously this does not apply to the first tile placed.
• Check tasks: Once the active player has placed the tile, they should check to see if tasks on already placed tiles and also the tile they just placed have now been completed. How are tasks completed? Read on.
  • Task criteria: ​Inside each circle on a tile will be 1-4 dots of varying colour. When other tiles with colours that match those dots are connected to this tile, that task on this tile is completed.
    Note: A set of orthogonally connected tiles with the same colour can all be counted as connected. Thus if a task requires 3 connected red tiles, if  3 reds are connected to each other, then only one of them needs to be connected to the tile with the task.
  • Place token: Once a task has been completed, the active player should place one of their tokens on the pertinent circle to mark it as completed.
    It is possible to complete more than one task at a time and place as many discs as required.

• Next player: Once the active player has completed their turn, play progresses to whoever is now furthest back along the moon track. If the active player has taken a tile with a very low number, it's possible that they will still at the back and will become the active player again.

Endgame
There are 2 ways the game can end.

• Tokens: If a player has placed all their personal tokens on tasks in their play area, then the game immediately ends and they win.
• Tiles: If the supply of tiles is depleted, the game ends and the player who has the least tokens remaining, i.e., whoever has completed the most tasks wins the game.

Overall
Nova Luna's new moon/lunar theme is a bit left field and in fact, the rulebook actually describes Nova Luna as an abstract game. However, abstract nature aside, let's discuss the gameplay.

Nova Luna presents two elements that player will need to think about, which are the drafting and then placement of tiles.

The drafting element presents players with some potentially interesting choices.
Taking a tile will likely alter the active player's position in the turn order.
They will generally have the option of taking 1 of 3 the tiles ahead of the moon meeple. When the situation occurs that there are less than 3 they can elect to fill the spaces but may choose not to, instead selecting from the smaller selection if those tiles are what they want.
Players can sometimes manipulate the situation to get more tiles they need as there may be times when the active player could take a tile with a low time value and immediately act again, however, what's to stop a player always doing that?
Well, tiles with low time values tend to have tasks that are harder to complete and require more connections. So there's a bit of a balancing mechanic there.

Tile placement is also very important.
It's vital to try and think ahead when doing this
Optimal tile placement is key.
Players will want to position tiles so that they complete current tasks but also leaves tile edges open to complete tasks later in the game or open to be connected to other tiles later on.
Like a lot of games of this type. It will be tricky to always place the tile you want, when you want and they'll be moments of frustration when this occurs. Sometimes players will to adapt or change tactic.

While I feel that Nova Luna is a game that plays well and I'd have no problems joining a game if someone wanted to play. It is however, also the kind of game I've played a lot before.
The whole draft and place tile gameplay is something that's already been done quite a lot and while some of the mechanics utilised for this in Nova Luna are unique, I don't think it's enough to differentiate itself from other games of its type.

If you've played games similar in gameplay to Nova Luna, you probably won't find much in here that's new.
However, if you're new to this kind of game or looking for a game in this style, then Nova Luna is equally worth considering, it's not particularly difficult to learn and gives players meaningful decisions and choices to balance in a bright and colour package.

3rd February 2023

Friday is here! I'm at the office in Woking for some after work gaming.

As the name might suggest, Formula D is a game based on Formula 1 racing - but with dice! It's also the spiritual successor to the fantastic Formula Dé, a game I played 'back in the day'.
How does it hold up? Let's see.

All of Formula D's components are good quality. The game board and player tiles feel sturdy, as does the player board.
While the cars are quite tiny, they are all well sculpted, colourful and overall look great.
I was a bit sceptical of having player boards with pegs and a groove for the gearstick but in practice works well enough and does away the need for pencils and erasers which were needed for the original Formula Dé.
Perhaps the only criticism would be for the tokens, which are a bit small and fiddly. However, there's no other way to fit them on the track so it's a bit of a necessary evil.

The player tiles feature some nice colourful art with F1 drivers on one side and street racers on the other side. The street racers have definite anime look to them.
But the standout artwork appears on the game boards which feature fantastic illustrations of their locales. A lot detail has been put into the art, you can even see crowds of people.

All the iconography on the track are numbers and arrows and are easily understood. The colours/shapes of the gears are also easy to understand.
However, the icons used on player tiles could be a little clearer, I think more stylised icons would have been more helpful.
Finally the positioning of the resource tracks on the player board could have been done differently to improve usability. Specifically, the gearbox, brake and engine tracks could have been put together, since these are spent when skipping gears - more on skipping gears below.

How's it play?
Setup
The setup and rules description here are for the standard version of the game using the F1 setup

• Players: Give each player a player board, holder and associated pegs and gearstick. Put the standard side of the board into the holder.
  Then give each player a player tile and the F1 car with colours that correspond to their player tile. Position the tile alongside the holder. Place the pegs in their corresponding positions as dictated by their player.
• Game board: Put out the game board with the F1 side-up.
• First player: Determine the order on the starting grid and place each player's car in the relevant spot.
  This can be done by players rolling the black 20-sided die.
  Alternatively, the game has rules for getting qualifying times which involve each player doing a lap in the fewest number of moves and shortest time.

On to play
Formula D does not use a traditional turn order, instead a player's position on the track determines when they take their turn in the round. Whoever is in the lead goes first and becomes the active player, whoever is 2nd goes second and so on, until the last player has had their turn.
Then a new round begins and any changes in position will be carried over to the player turn order.
During a player's turn, they must perform the following.

• Start: This actually only occurs for each player's first action of the game and determines if they get a good start or not.
  The player rolls the black die, a bad start means they only move 1 space, a flying start means they move 4 spaces, in either instance they end their turn in 1st gear. If they got an average start, they move into 1st gear and roll the 1st gear die.
• Change gear: Other than the race start, at the beginning of every turn, the active player must decide whether to stay in the same gear or go up or down a gear. The gear they are in will determine which die they roll for movement.
  Change up: The active player may go up 1 gear.
  Change down: The active player may go down 1 gear, or possibly more.
  • Skipping gears: When going down gear, a player may choose to skip gears, i.e., go down more than one gear. E.g., skipping a gear allows a player to drop from 5th gear to 3rd by skipping 4th. A player may skip up to a maximum of 3 gears, allowing them to go from 6th to 2nd gear for example.
    However for each gear skipped a resource must be spent, they come from gearbox, brake and engine.
• Roll and move: Once the active player has settled on their gear, they must roll the pertinent die and move their car as many spaces as the die rolls according to the following rules:
  Full move: The active player must use all the movement for their car.
  Traffic: The active player's car cannot move through other cars' spaces, they must go around them instead.
  Arrows: If the active player's car moves on to a space with an arrow, they must follow the direction(s) of that arrow when moving on.
  Straights: If the active player is moving their car along a straight, they cannot zigzag to use up movement. Furthermore, they can only do 2 lane changes and cannot go back into a lane they were already in during the current turn. Essentially players should move their car along the shortest route possible.
  Having said that, players can change lanes to avoid other cars or hazards.
  ​Corners: When a car enters a corner, it must end or 'stop' a number of turns in that corner as determined by the corner's details. Thus, a 2-stop corner requires the player's car to end 2 turns in that corner.
  • Overshooting a corner: If a car is in a 1-stop corner (Or only has 1 stop left in a 2 or 3 stop corner.), then they can go through the corner's exit and overshoot the it to some degree.
    For each space a car overshoots the corner, they must spend 1 tyre WP. Additionally, brake WPs can be spent to lessen movement and thus move less spaces.
    If a car needs to make 2 or more stops in a corner and it overshoots, then it is eliminated from play.
• Additional rules: The description above covers the gist of the game but Formula D has numerous situational rules. Many of these are resolved by using the black 20-sided die.
  Contact: If a car ends its movement adjacent to one or more other cars, there is a chance they will make contact. This costs body WPs
  Overrevving: There's a chance that cars in 5th & 6th gears will lose a engine WP when any car in 5th or 6th gear gets a maximum result on their gear die.
  Debris: Certain events can leave debris on the track, if a car has to go over the debris, there's a chance they can loose a handling WP.
  Pits: In a race with more than 1 lap, there are rules to pitting, which allows a car to recover all their tyre WPs.
• Advanced rules: There are a number of optional advanced rules that can be applied to the game. Mostly these are to do with 3 lap races and running a championship.
  ​Custom cars: Instead of having WPs assigned to a car as per a player tile. With these rules, players can assign WPs to the resources as they see fit.
  Tyres: With these rules, just F1, players can choose different types of tyres, such as hard, soft and wets. They can each have an effect on a car's performance, they are also effected by weather.
  Weather: There are rules for different weather conditions such as dry and rainy or changeable weather. Different weather conditions will effect cars differently. Furthermore different types of tyres will behave differently in differing weather conditions.
  I think that's pretty much it for the F1 rules.

Endgame
The first car to cross the start/finish line after completing the prescribed number of laps, wins! Second across the line finishes 2nd and so on.

Overall
I'll start by mentioning that while not part of the base game, there are 6 map packs for Formula D, each providing 2 additional tracks to the game. generally each pack features a street racing track as well as a real-world inspired circuit.
​It should also be noted that Formula D is almost identical to earlier iterations of the game, this means the game is fully compatible with all the racetracks from those previous games. This is fantastic, because if like me, you have a bunch of tracks from Formula Dé, it greatly increases the longevity of the game.
I'm sure it was deliberate on the part of the producers of Formula D and was a wise move.

I've seen Formula D criticised for being too luck based but without that element of luck, there's no risk and risk is at the heart of what makes Formula D so good.

You see, as a racing game, Formula D is not really a 'simulation', I mean how could it be? However, one thing it does emulate very well is the feel of having to 'push the envelope', how racers try to take it to the edge, how they take risks and how players in Formula D will also need to take risks, or more precisely, when to take risks
Unlike many games, playing too sensibly or prudently is a sure way to finish second in Formula D!

This all ties in with what Formula D is all about - which is managing corners, specifically the gear and consequently the speed of a car when it goes through corners.
This is not quite as simple as it sounds though: ​Ideally, players will want to be in as higher gear as possible for optimal movement at all times. However, players will need to be mindful of their resources, overshooting corners by too much or too often (Especially early in a race.) can have ramifications later. Sometimes overshooting will have an advantage, sometimes it won't it'll just be a waste of WPs.
This is all contextual of course, depending on a car's position relative to a corner, players will need to adapt their tactics to racing through that corner, even the position of opponent's cars can effect the players behind.
Players will also need to be wary of 2 or 3 stop corners and resist the temptation entering the corner in too higher a gear and too fast: In real racing, sometimes going into a corner slower means coming out faster, this can hold true in Formula D too.

Another time a player may take a big is when an opponent is ahead in a corner.
E.g., if that opponent ahead exits the corner in 3rd gear to avoid overshooting, the player behind may want to risk taking going up a gear and exiting in 4th. It's a real advantage to exit corners in a gear higher than your rivals. If you look at the distribution of numbers on the dice, the maximum speed on a gear die is generally the lowest speed on the next highest die.

In terms of negatives, player elimination is a thing here (I'm not a fan of player elimination.) and players can crash out and be sat twiddling their thumbs. Although this sort of thing generally only might occur when approaching the end of a race and back markers push hard to try and get on the podium.
Playing time can also potentially be an issue. Races can last 1-3 laps and you can expect a race to on average last 1 hour per lap. If you decide to play a full race, don't be surprised to lose an entire afternoon or morning to the race. Which is not necessarily a bad if that's what you want.
Also, with it's small components and 6 resources, Formula D can be a little fiddly.

Quibbles aside, Formula D is a fun, game and it's satisfying when you manage pull if risky manoeuvres and manage to fly from corner to corner. There's also a genuine, palpable surge of pleasure when you go into 6th gear, roll that 30-sided die and blasting down that straight.
Formula D is mid-weight game that fits it theme well and presents players with conundrum of when and how much risk to take. Who would have thought roll-and-move mechanics could be so well implemented.
Formula D is a game I have played a lot in its various iterations and I've always enjoyed it. If you want a racing game with a strong thread of push-you-luck running through it, then this is one to try. 

After the seasonal lull of December, gaming was back with a vengeance in January.
Different games played was doubled as was total games played! But first plays quintupled! Yes it only went from 1 to 5 but's still an increase.

First plays: 5
Different games: 33
​Total games: 48

​Sunday 29th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 59
Can't Stop - 37
Roll'n Bump - 9
Railroad Ink - 44
Just One - 12
Forbidden Island - 17

Saturday 28th Wogglecon 6
Skulk Hollow - First Play!
Point Salad - 4
Ligretto - First Play!
Dominion  - First Play!
The Great Dalmuti - 2
No Thanks! - First Play!
Switch & Signal - 2

Friday 27th Woking
Cascadia - 6

Sunday 22nd on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 58
Can't Stop - 36
Via Magica - 13
Cloud City - 17
Carcassonne - 12
Sushi Go! - 16
Just One - 11
Forbidden Island - 16

Thursday 19th Aldershot
The Lost Expedition - 4
Furnace - 2

Tuesday 17th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
My Little Scythe - 2

Sunday 15th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 57
Loco Momo - 16
Parks - 16
Railroad Ink - 43
Forbidden Island - 15

Tuesday 10th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Akropolis - 3
It's a Wonderful World - 6

Sunday 8th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 56
Can't Stop - 35
Roll'n Bump - 8
Stella: Dixit Universe - 13
Forbidden Island - 14
Just One - 10

Thursday 5th Aldershot
Scout - 3
HeroQuest - 9

Tuesday 3rd at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Rolling Realms - 3
Heat: Pedal to the Metal - First Play!

Sunday, New Year's Day! on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 55
Can't Stop - 34
Potion Explosion - 15
Azul - 10
Cosmos: Empires - 2
Just One - 9

28th January 2023

It's Early in the year and a Saturday morning. Wogglecon 6 is here a day of is taking place at the Bisley scout hall with the Woking Gaming Club.

During the day, I played the following games.

​Skulk Hollow - First Play!
​Point Salad
Ligretto - First Play!
​Dominion - First Play!
The Great Dalmuti
No Thanks! - First Play!
Switch & Signal

28th January 2023

Wogglecon 6, a day of gaming at the Bisley Scout Hall continues and the next game of the day is Skulk Hollow.

I didn't know that it turns out that little anthropomorphic fox dudes and giant stone creatures seem to really hate each: Which is what Skulk Hollow is all about in this asymmetrical strategy game!

What's in a game?
Skulk Hollow is a 2-player game where one player takes on the role of a 'Foxen' hero who leads a band of Foxen warriors against a lone guardian who is a literal colossal stony force of nature.
​Each player has their own unique decks, components and gameplay.

• Board: Skulk Hollow uses a modestly sized square board which is divided into a 3x3 grid. Unusually, during play the board is rotated 45' diamond configuration, this all the spaces are actually diamond shaped.
  Each of the 9 grid spaces sort of have their own visual theme. Additionally, 2 opposing corners are the 'start spaces'.

• Green wound tokens: These wooden tokens are used to track damage on the guard board.​
  ​

The component quality in Skulk is excellent.
The tokens and meeples all feel solid and look great. Obviously the massive guardian meeple is the notable standout component, yes, perhaps you could call it a gimmick but it fits thematically.
The use of card boxes is a nice touch of presentation.

The art is equally high quality. Skulk Hollow uses a coloured line illustration somewhat cartoonish style that's colourful, bright, detailed and suits the games slight whimsical (At least as whimsical as 2 factions battling each other can get!) nature.
I've found that anthropomorphic art can be divisive as a style but I think the anthropomorphic character art on card looks pretty good regardless of what your stance is.
The game board also looks great and I like how compact it is.

With regards to iconography, Skulk Hollow uses fair amount but it all seems pretty self-explanatory. Icons for movement are easily understood, as are the icons for actions such melee, leap, etc.
I don't imagine players having any problem understanding the game.

How's it play?
Setup

• Roles: First determine who will play the Foxten hero and guardian.
• Board: Put out the game board, as stated earlier, it should positioned in a 'diamond' orientation.
• Guardian player: The guardian chooses a guardian card box of their choice, then they take the relevant guardian player mat and guardian board.
  The player mat will tell the player how to set up for the game.
  Finally the guardian player takes their action deck and shuffles it into a face-down deck and draws cards to their hand limit - which is determined by the guardian player mat.
• Foxen player: This player now chooses one of the Foxen Leaders takes the Foxen player mat.
  ​The Foxen leader and Sentinel cards are immediately put into play and their respective meeples should be placed on their starting spaces.
  Then all the hero unit cards and order cards should be shuffled into a face-down deck, the Foxen player should then draws up to their hand limit - as determined by their Foxen hero mat.

On to play
Being a 2-player game, Skulk Hollow uses a very traditional turn order with one player completing their turn before play moves over to their opponent and continues alternating between them for the entirety of the game.
Additionally, the Foxen hero player always starts.

During their turn, the player will have a number of actions points (AP) available to them which is determined by which Foxen hero/guardian they chose, although typically this is 2-3 APs.

• Actions: The active player can choose from the following actions.
  • Play card: This is the most common action in Skulk Hollow and there  are a wide variety of actions that can be performed, some common to both players and some unique to each. 
    Gain power: This action is available to the Foxen hero player but only certain guardians. Functionally, it works the same for both players. The player will gain power cubes as listed on the played card. These cubes do not go directly on to either any heroes cards or guardian board, instead they go into a central 'reserve'. More on power later.
    Move: This action allows the Foxen player to move one of their units or the guardian player to move the guardian 1 space. Arrows on the card will indicate how the movement can occur.
    Play hero card: This action is only available to the Foxen hero player. If they have a hero unit card in their hand, they can spend a AP to put it into play. When the card is played, it's pertinent meeple should be placed on the board.
    Use power: This is only available to the guardian player and it allows the guardian to use the power listed on the card and as per it's description on the guardian player mat.
    Guardians have a range of powers but generally they involve dealing wounds to the Foxen heroes.
    Hero actions: Only the Foxen player can use these 3 actions for their units.
    When playing a card, the player choose from the action at the top of the card or the bottom, not both. furthermore, only heroes with a symbol matching the action can use it. Thus, a hero unit must have a boot symbol on their card to use the leap action.
    • Leap: If the hero unit is on the same space as the guardian, they can use the leap action to jump on it! This means their meeple is moved on to the guardian board. Additionally, if a hero unit is already on the guardian board, they can use the leap action to move to a different location, following one of the dotted lines.
    • Melee: A hero unit that is on the guardian board may use the melee action to inflict 1 wound on their current location
    • Missile: This action allows a hero with the missile icon to make a ranged attack on the guardian and they do not need to be on the guardian board to inflict wounds. There are some restrictions including:
      Fire: If a hero has the 'fire' tag, they can only launch a missile attack from a space on the board adjacent to the guardian's space.
      Hurl: This tag allows a hero to launch a missile attack while on the same space as the guardian on the game board.
  • Prepare: This action requires an AP and either player may perform it. It allows the player to discard a card and draw 2 new ones.
  • Spend power: This action does not actually require any APs. Instead it uses a power cube that has been allocated to either a hero or guardian.
    Each cube spent this ways grants the respective player an additional action to the unit/guardian that spend the cube. This allows them to perform an action as displayed on their respective card/board, or to move.
• End of turn: Once the active player has used all their APs, they must do the following.
  Draw cards: The player should draw cards to reach their hand limit. If their current hand is equal to or above the limit, ignore this step.
  Allocate power: If the active player had gained power cubes during this turn, they now allocate them to their units/guardian as they see fit.
  Opponent's turn: Play now progresses to the active player's opponent.

​Additional rules

• Wounds: There are some rules regarding how wounds are manged, which is slightly different for each player:
  • Hero unit: If all the heart spaces on a hero unit's card are filled, that hero is eliminated, it's meeple is removed from play and it's card is placed into the discard pile. Potentially that hero can come back into play if the discard pile is shuffled into a new deck.
  • Foxen leader: If the Foxen leader has all its heart spaces filled, it's pretty bad news for the Foxen player. However, there is something the Foxen leader can do to avoid damage, which is called...
    Banding: Basically, if there are other Foxen hero units in the same game board space as the leader, then the unit(s) take the damage instead, presumably as they throw themselves into harm's way. Thus the leader cannot be targeted when not alone.
  • Guardian: Wounds affect the guardian in 2 ways.
    Powers: On the guardian board, each power's location will have several heart spaces, if all  wound spaces on a power's location are filled, then the guardian player can no longer use that power until they somehow heal at least 1 wound.
    Full wounds: If the guardian board has all it's heart spaces filled, then it's bad news for the guardian player...
• Depleting action deck: If any time a player empties their action deck, they then simply shuffle their discard pile into a new deck.

​Endgame
There are 3 ways the game end can be triggered.

• If the Foxen leader has all the heart spaces on their card filled, they are defeated and the guardian player immediately wins.
• If the guardian board has all it's heart spaces filled, the guardian is defeated and the Foxen heroes player immediately wins.
• Each guardian has their own unique victory condition. If that condition is met, then the guardian player immediately wins.

Overall
Skulk Hollow has asymmetrical and card driven gameplay which presents players with some challenging, meaningful choices and options.

Players will instinctively want to play cards with maximum efficiency to inflict maximum damage but sometimes because of their hand of cards, players won't be guaranteed having the card to make the move they they need and they'll be forced to adapt.
This can be a little frustrating but also makes hand management quite important, sure a player can use a strong card now but sometimes it's worth keeping hold of it for perhaps a more effective use in a later round. It should be mentioned that some of the guardians have smaller hand sizes, meaning they are trickier to play.

Of course, players will also want to watch their opponents, paying attention to which cards they play and when. - There's a bit of higher level play here about tracking opponent's actions, essentially a bit of card counting.

Otherwise it's quite tricky to describe gameplay; with 4 Foxen leaders and 4 guardians, the various combinations will at least to some extent dictate player tactics - as will the actions of opponents. Skulk Hollow feels like it's about playing the player as much as playing the game.

Finally; Skulk Hollow is a 2-player game and I'm always a bit wary of 2-player games as they can revert to a traditional 1-on-1 directly confrontational game, this is definitely the case with Skulk Hollow. While the game is not particularly chess-like, with moving pieces about a board to eliminate your opponent, it does provide something of a chess-like experience and to be honest, it's a playstyle that I'm not personally overly enamoured with. Your mileage will of course vary.

Having said all of that; I like to think that I can recognise a well crafted game when I play one and that's what I think this is.

Thematically, Skulk Hollow is quite strong.
The 'numerous weaker units vs a single giant enemy' gameplay draws inspiration from some classic older games.
While, with its climbing on to, running around and stabbing bits of a colossal monster, it's undeniable that Skulk Hollow also takes some thematic inspiration from a certain videogame and it makes for a entertaining concept to add to a board game.
It adds up to an interesting game, both visually and mechanically.

it is a mid-weight, asymmetrical game that features a lot of player interaction and conflict with moderate tactics and touch of luck. The various combinations of the 2 battling factions also provides a fair bit of replayability.
If you want a 2-player game with those elements, Skulk Hollow is worth a look.

28th January 2023

Our day of gaming with The Woking Gaming Club at Wogglecon 6 continued with Ligretto.

I don't know what Ligretto is meant to mean but it gets shouted a lot when playing this real-time, abstract card game.

It's time to begin the blog so without any further ado... LIGRETTO!

What's in a game?
There are 3 versions of Ligretto; red, green and blue. They are functionally identical except for the backs, which indicate which decks they are and which set they come from.
A single set of Ligretto is enough for 4 players, having all 3 sets means there's enough for 12 players!
​

• Cards: A set of Ligretto comes with 160 cards, which is 4 decks of 40 cards each.
  Furthermore. each 40 card deck has cards numbered 1-10 4 times, once in each of the game's 4 colours.
  Backs: Each 40 card deck has a slightly different back to differentiate it from the other decks

Well that's it for components.

The cards are the standard quality you'd expect for a modern game.

Ligretto makes great use of colour, the 4 colours are all bright, vibrant and distinctive. Otherwise, there's no illustrations and minimal art for Ligretto, just some detailing. This is by no means a bad thing. Ligretto is an abstract game, trying to fit a theme to it would just feel like shoehorning.
I do have one small criticism that is directed at the backs of the cards which could have have been more distinct from each other.

Ligretto also has no iconography other than numbers, players will have no trouble understanding the game.

How's it play?
Setup

• Decks: Give each player a deck of 40 cards, this should consist of cards numbered 1-10 in each of 4 colours. Thus each player should have all the cards with an identical back.
  Each player should shuffle their cards into a face-down deck.
  Ligretto stack: First, each player should now deal 10 cards face-up into a stack. This is their Ligretto stack.
  Row: Next, each player should deal 3 face-up cards into a row alongside their Ligretto stack.
  Hand: Players should now keep all their remaining cards (There should be 27.) in their hand.

On to play
Ligretto is played simultaneously by all players in real time which means there are no turns or any turn structure.
The purpose is to play as many cards as possible (An as quickly as possible.) before the round end is triggered, which occurs when any player's Ligretto stack is emptied. How is this done - read on.

• Start: To start a round, someone must shout "Ligretto,".
• Objective: Players are looking to play cards to create stacks of the same colour numbered sequentially from 1-10. There are of course some rules and restrictions for this.
  • The first card in a stack must always be a '1'.
  • The next card played on a stack must be the same colour and also the next number in the sequence. I.e., only a green 5 can be played on a green 4.
  • Any player may play a legal card on any stack.
  • Once a stack reaches 10, it is completed, no further cards can be played on it.
• Playing cards: There are several ways a player may play a card providing the criteria mentioned above are met.
  Row: A card may be played from a player's row. When this is done, it is immediately replaced by the top card of their Ligretto stack.
  Ligretto stack: Alternatively, a player may play the top card from their Ligretto stack.
  Hand: If a player cannot play a card from either their row or stack, they must discard 3 cards from their hand face-up into a discard pile. The 3rd card (And only the 3rd card.) they put into the discard becomes available to play.
  If that card cannot be played, then the player must continue discarding cards, 3 at a time until they get a card that can be played.
  If a player's hand of card empties, they must shuffle the discard pile into a new hand.
• Round end: As soon as the last card from any player's Ligretto stack is played, that player must shout "Ligretto stop!" and the round immediately ends.
  Points: Now points are calculated.
  Only cards played into stacks and cards remaining in all players' Ligretto stacks are used for scoring, all other cards are put aside for now.
  • Stacks: Take all the stacks, sort and separate the cards according to their backs. This will indicate how many cards each player has played. Players gain 1 victory point (VP) per card they played.
  • Ligretto stack: Now each player counts how many cards they have remaining in their personal stack. Players lose 2 VP per card they have remaining!
• Next round: All cards are returned to their respective owners.
  All players shuffle their cards then deal a Ligretto stack and row in preparation for the next round.

Endgame
As soon as any player has scored 99 or more points at the end of a round, the game ends.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Speed and reflexes drive gameplay in Ligretto. The objective is pretty simple - play as many cards as possible while emptying the Ligretto stack.
Not only will players have to pay attention for opportunities to play cards, they'll also want to think ahead.
Canny players will keep a sharp eye out for stacks which are 2 numbers lower than cards they want to play so that as soon as an opponent adds a card to that stack, they can immediately add to it themselves.

As a rule, I'm wary of dexterity, reflex or reaction based games and to be honest, it's not why I like or play board games. In fact, I like board games because they generally do away with those elements.

Which brings me to Ligretto; a real-time, twitch game. This should irk me but because this is essentially a party game and not to be taken seriously, the relative simplicity of the gameplay and brisk playtime prevent it being frustrating.
Ligretto is a fun filler game and its light touch can provide some low intensity entertainment after a more demanding game. It also works as a good crossover game, it can easily be played with families and more casual players. We never played it with it's max player count of 12 but I imagine it would be a quite boisterous affair.

If you don't mind the reflex based gameplay, Ligretto provides a fun experience and something a little different. Worth a try in my opinion.

28th January 2023

It's a Saturday afternoon and we're at Wogglecon 6 for a whole day of gaming fun!

​The second game of the day was No Thanks!

Do you want to play a bad game? No Thanks!
Do you want to play a game with a long play time? No Thanks!
Do you want to play a game with complex rules? No Thanks!

​That's right, No Thanks! is none of those, instead it's an accessible family or party game.

What's in a game?

• Cards: No Thanks! comes with 33 oversized cards numbered 3-35.
• Counters: The game also comes with 55 counters.

Due to their size, the cards feel a little flimsy but I'd say they're of an average quality.

There also no iconography on the cards, only numbers. ​

How's it play?
Setup

• Cards: Shuffle the cards into a face-down deck and discard 9 cards.
• Counters: Give each player 7-11 counters depending on player count.
  During the game, it is prudent for all players to keep their counters secret the easiest manner to keep them in a closed hand.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
The objective in No Thanks! is to score the lowest score, that is; acquire the least number of cards during the game. Each card will score its face value at the game end.
No Thanks! uses a traditional turn order with the active player taking their action before play progresses to the player on their left.
The game starts with the first player who begins the game as the active player.

• Reveal: The active player starts a round by flipping a card and placing it in front of themselves.
• Choose: The active player must now chose from 1 of the 2 following options.
  • No Thanks!: The active player may choose to pass by stating. "No Thanks!", in this case they must place one of their counters on the card.
    Next player: The card is then passed to the player on the left who now becomes the active player (Who now must choose whether to pass or take.).
    No counters: If the active player has no counters, then they must choose the other option...
  • Take: The other option is to take the card. The active player takes the card (And any counters placed on it.), adds it to their playing area and ends the round.
    New round: After the active player has taken a card, they start a new round by flipping another card, then decide whether to take it or not.

Endgame
Play proceeds until the deck becomes empty.

Scoring: This is where the game's wrinkle comes in, remember the objective is to get as low a score as possible.

• Counter: Each counter a player has in their possession will deduct 1 from their score.
• Cards: ​Every card a player has acquired will score its face value.
• Sequential: However, if a player has any cards in numerical sequence, then only the lowest card in that sequence scores.
  I.e., if a player has acquires 12, 13 & 14, then only the 12 scores! The 13 & 14 are tucked under it.

Points are tallied, lowest score wins!

Overall
There's not too much that can be said about No Thanks!

The game's rules and options are rudimentary; take a card or pay to pass.
This is a game about playing the other players and not the game because everything everyone will do depends on everyone else is doing!

Basically; taking a card is bad but acquiring counters is good. Players will need to balance these outcomes with their choices.
E.g., getting counters early not only can deduct from a player's final score, they can be used to good effect to avoid cards later in the game but this at the cost of also getting a card.

Where No Thanks! is really clever is the mechanic for sequential cards because this creates an asymmetrical value to certain cards.
For the most part all players will obviously want to avoid taking cards but when a player has taken a '5' and then later in the game a '6' appears during a round, taking it would essentially have no affect on their score but for all other players, it would increase their scores.
This means players will suddenly have different motives during that round and one player can happily take the card that everyone else wants to avoid, the rules even recommend not taking the card immediately and letting players pass to pile up more counters on it before taking it!

But there's another factor in play, because cards are discarded at the game start, everyone is playing with imperfect knowledge. A player may have a '14' and '16' but there's no guarantee that the 15 will appear. Creating sequences of cards is generally prudent but by no means a guaranteed thing.

This kind of dynamic between players keeps the game interesting.

No Thanks! is quick to learn, quick to play and makes a good filler game or ender to night of gaming. It's accessibility also makes it a good party or family/crossover game. It's a fun little game with lots of player interaction and definitely one to try.