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.

Tuesday 30th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Bandido - First Play!
Cascadia
Fluxx 

Sunday 28th Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers
Roll'n Bump
Railroad Ink 
Wingspan 
Forbidden Island 

Thursday 25th Aldershot
Dice Hospital
Race for the Galaxy 

Tuesday 23rd at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Machi Koro 2
Llamaland 

Sunday 21st Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers 
Can't Stop
Gizmos
Just One  
Azul 
Hanabi 

Thursday 18th Aldershot
Heckmeck 
Port Royal
Chariot Race

Tuesday 16th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Horrified: American Monsters

Sunday 14th Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers 
Roll'n Bump
Just One 
Wingspan
Tranquillity: The Ascent 

Tuesday 9th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Tumble Town - First Play!

Sunday 7th evening Board Game Arena
Railroad Ink 
Gizmos
Spots 

Sunday 7th The Sovereigns
Jump Drive
Llama Land 

Thursday 4th Aldershot
Deep Sea Adventure 
Akropolis 
Point Salad 
Village Green 
Sushi Roll

Tuesday 2nd at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Scout
Jump Drive
Long Shot The Dice Game - First Play!

30th May 2023

It's a Tuesday evening again and that means it's time for some gaming goodness with the Woking Gaming Club at The Sovereigns.

Bandido is a wily one!. The sly criminal has finally been caught and sent to jail. But Bandido is never one to rest and soon has found a way to dig tunnels out of his cell.
Can the players manage to coordinate in this cooperative card-laying game to stop Bandido escaping?

There's not much to say about Bandido's minimal components.
The starting tile is notably thick and chunky in contrast to the cards which feel a touch flimsy - possibly due to their unusual proportion. This is not an issue though and unless the cards are mistreated they will be fine.

Bandido's artwork is equally minimal, there's a touch of stylised art for Bandido himself and well.... that's pretty much it other than the illustration representing dead-ends and the tunnels themselves.

You could argue that the hand holding the flashlight is an icon, otherwise there's no iconography in the game. Everything is instantly understandable.

How's it play?
Setup

• Starting tile: Put the starting tile in the central playing area, select the side with 5 exits or for a supposedly harder game select the side with 6 exits. There didn't seem a discernible difference in difficulty as far as I could tell.
• Cards: shuffle the cards into a face-down deck and deal 3 face-down to each player. Players should keep their hand secret from other players.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

​On to play
In Bandido, players are cooperatively trying to stop Bandido from escaping by playing cards to block off all tunnels.
The game uses a traditional turn order with the active player resolving their turn before play progresses to the player on their left.
A turn plays out as detailed below.

• Play card: The active player must play a card from their hand with the following criteria.
  • Orientation: When playing a card, it can be rotated to any orientation and must be adjacent to the tunnel from at least 1 other card or starting tile.
  • Honour connections: When playing a card, it must honour all connections that it is placed adjacent to, that is, it must connect to all tunnels.
    The placed card cannot cut off a tunnel. If this would occur, then that card cannot be play in that way.
  • Cannot play: If for any reason the active player does not have a card they can legally play, then they must place their entire hand at the bottom of the deck and draw new hand of 3 cards, their turn is now over.
• Draw card: After playing a card, the active player draws back up to a hand of 3 cards.
• Next player:  Play now progresses to the player on the active players left.

Endgame
Play continues until 1 of the 2 following conditions are met.

If the deck becomes depleted and none of the players have any cards left to play and there is at least 1 un-blocked off tunnel, then Bandido manages to escape! The player collectively lose.

If on the other hand, the players manage to block off all tunnels at any point during the game, then Bandido is trapped. The players immediately and collectively win!

Overall
Bandido's theme is sort of stuck-on​ and perhaps a little offbeat (I mean stopping the titular character escaping!) but it fits the game well enough and will be understood by all players.

Whilst the game's rules light, don't be fooled by this simplicity. Bandido is quite a hard game to win. This is especially true when playing at a higher player count. In a solo game, the player will know exactly which cards are available but with 3 companions, it becomes much harder to predict.
(One criticism I have of Bandido is that as the tunnel network invariably grows, it may expand in unexpected ways - more than once we've had to shift the entire map because it was going off a table edge - which is a fairly fiddly affair.)

There is without a doubt also a degree of luck involved (As is the case with most cooperative games.) which may not appeal to all players but there's also a good chunk of having to think ahead and trying optimise how cards are played.
 
It's hard to resist the urge to play dead-end cards that close tunnels down in the early game but it can be vital that you don't always do this.
Management of 'moving' tunnels around the playing area is key to success.
E.g., directing tunnels towards each other and connecting them can create 'loops' which essentially closes both. Additionally looping 2 tunnels into 1 then closing it off is equally useful.
There are only a limited amount of dead-end cards and using them up too early means they won't be available to use in the late game.
It's something players must plan for.
Players must also make sure they don't create any situations with card positioning which will render a tunnel impossible to close.

Because Bandido is so straightforward, with a easily recognisable goal and accessibility, it's a great game for all the family, more causal players and younger players and can prove a lot of fun.
That this is a cooperative game is even better, many cooperative games have intricate systems that must be managed in order to make them work, which not the case here.
It's definitely worth trying.

9th May 2023

It's a Tuesday and we're at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club​ again.

This means we're in for a rootin'-tootin' time with western themed frontier town building board game Tumble Town.

Tumble Town has quite a few noteworthy components and the single biggest and most important one is the dice: They're well made with nicely rounded corners with deep pips and feel good to handle
The dice tower is a large component and unsurprisingly, it's constructed of fairly sturdy card. I guess it's a bit superfluous but since there will be a lot of dice rolling, it does prove useful and looks reasonably nice as much as a card dice-tower can look.
Also superfluous is the cactus shaped first player token but again, it adds to the presentation
The card tokens are pretty average quality while the cards feel fairly sturdy and have a 'linen' finish.

​The artwork used particularly on the building plan cards looks a western style is thematically good but straightforward which I think it needs to be as it represents the dice/buildings. This makes the artwork look a little repetitive against the fairly nondescript desert background but again, since objects that appear on the background are relevant to gameplay, it's beneficial to have clear, easily interpreted artwork.

Tumble Town uses icons to represent special abilities and scoring opportunities, it also uses colour/shape to represent the different type of building that can be built AND uses letters/symbols to indicate further requirements to constructing buildings.
That's not the end of though! The town boards have icons to do with dice manipulation and placement.
It seems like quite a lot and initially it will probably have players referring to the rulebook or reference cards. Luckily, it's pretty easily learnt especially since the icons don't all apply to the gameplay at the same time with a split between card abilities and building requirements.
Seasoned gamers won't have any problems here.

How's it play?
​Setup

• ​Drafting area: All the building plans will go into a central drafting area in the centre of the playing area.
  • Plan end cards: Put out the plan end cards in a column with 1 at the top and 3 at the bottom in the central drafting area.
  • Building plan cards: Player count will determine the number of planning cards of each type used.
    Sort planning cards into their respective types, shuffle them into face-down decks and remove cards as required.
    Then place each deck face-down on top of its respective plan end card.
    From each deck deal 4 cards face-up in a line.
  • Dice: Player count also determines how many dice are used. Sort them by colour and remove dice as required.
    Remaining dice should be placed in the central area.
• Players: Give each player the following which should be setup as described.
  • Town board: Select which set of town boards to use and give one to each player.
  • Horse card: Shuffle the horse cards into a face-down deck (That being with the scoring side face-down.). Randomly deal 1 to each player. Players are free to look at their horse card but they should keep the scoring criteria hidden from their opponents.
  • First player: Determine a starting player.
  • Starting dice: Players now draft their starting dice, this depends both on player count and position in the turn order.
    Note: Whenever a player acquires any dice for any reason, they should be immediately rolled.
  • Setup: Players should put their town board in their personal playing area. Then they should place their horse card below the town board at the midpoint between the left and right edges. Finally place the dice that were drafted (And rolled.) on the available warehouse spaces on their town board.

On to play
In Tumble Town, players will be drafting cards and dice in order to construct buildings and create the main street of their western town.
The game follows a usual turn structure of the active player resolving their actions before play progresses to the player on their left.
Each player's turn is broken down into 4 phases.

• Draft card: The active player may take any building plan from any of the rows. They then place the card to the left of their horse card - all unconstructed buildings are placed left of their horse.
  Once a card has been drafted it is replaced by a card from it's corresponding deck unless depleted.
• Draft & roll dice: The active player now takes dice as indicated by the back of the card from the deck of cards on the row where they drafted the card. If that deck is empty, then the plan end card will indicate what dice they can take. If there are not enough dice, then they draft what they can.
  Remember, when dice are drafted, they are immediately rolled.
• Construct buildings: The active player may now construct ​any number of buildings they choose to, provided they can meet the requirements.
  • Requirements: All buildings have 2 types of condition that must be met in order to construct them.
    Shape & colour: Each building plan will display the shape of a building using a number of dice with specific colours. The player must have that number of dice in that colour to construct that building. E.g., a building may need 2 grey and 2 black dice or 3 gold dice.
    Values: The top of the building depicted on the building plan will also display the values that these dice must have. E.g., this might mean all dice must be even or total value of dice must be less than 20 and so on.
  • Poor construction: The active player may create a poorly constructed building if they so choose but it comes with a cost of having to take one or more penalty tokens.
    Ignore colour: The active player cannot ignore the number of dice required to construct a building but may ignore the colour condition. However, EACH die that does not met the required colour means the player must take a penalty token.
    Ignore value: For EACH die that does not match the required value, the active player must take a penalty token.
    Remember, every penalty token acquired loses a player 2VP each.
  • Move building plan: The building plan card of any constructed building should now be moved to the right of the horse to indicate so. Any power it posses becomes immediately available to use. Speaking of powers....
  • ​Powers: All building plan cards have 3 types of 'power'.
    Some powers only activate at the game end. Typically, these provide avenues to scoring VPs.
    Others are triggered only once when the building is constructed.
    Finally, some powers can be used once round. Powers are used during this phase.
    Gold pan: Additionally, players may also use the gold pan abilities. This means a player may discard to 2 dice of the same colour or same number to get 1 or any other colour. They may also discard a single gold die to get a die of any other colour.
• Place construction: During this phase the active play now places the dice used for the constructed building on to spaces on either side of main street on their town board in the shape depicted on that building's plan card.
  Positioning dice on the town board can be important as many spaces will have conditions that if met, will provide bonus VPs.
  Mirroring: It should be noted that buildings can be mirrored - that is the relative positioning of the dice that make up the building can be flipped from left to right - which can prove advantageous to gaining VPs.
  Store/discard dice: Once the active player has finished construction they must store any remaining dice on their warehouse. If they have more dice than warehouse space then they must choose dice to discard until they are at their limit.
• End of turn: Place now progresses to the player to the left of the active player who now becomes the new active player.

Endgame
The end game is triggered when the supply of at least 2 types of dice drops to 2 or less. Play progresses until players have had equal turns, then goes to scoring.

There are a variety of ways to score VPs in Tumble Town.

• Constructed buildings: VPs will be earned from constructed buildings.
• Powers: End of game powers on cards can also score VPs according to their requirements.
• Horse card: Players should reveal their horse can and score it's requirements.
• Penalty tokens: Each penalty token acquired by a player will lose them 2VPs.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.... and they can declare themselves.... The Best in the West!

Overall
Tumble Town is strong thematically. I like how players construct their town from the dice they draft and it visually builds up over the rounds. It also looks quite eye-catching and has a good 'presence'. Just don't play on a wobbly table or with clumsy players!

Mechanically the game is fairly good. It mixes drafting, getting the dice results needed and an element of engine building.

I found use of the warehouse crucial, not only will players need to store dice between turns to construct the larger buildings, players will find themselves looking for buildings that match the dice they have stored. Because being able to draft a building and knowing that it can already be built by dice on the warehouse spaces is both reassuring and efficient.
While having to use whatever the result is of dice that are rolled is not a disaster by any means, there is a degree of luck involved which can stymie a player - although that is mitigated somewhat by being able to alter or manipulate the dice. Additionally, players don't have to construct a building the turn they acquire it, it's entirely possible to construct multiple buildings in a turn.
When it comes to buildings, players will find themselves having to choose between the ones that give them a power or additional resources to improve their engine and point-scorers. It's that classic balancing act between increasing abilities or increasing VP opportunities.
There's also the balance of taking building plans and gaining dice. Tier 1 buildings are fairly easy to construct as they generally only require 3 dice - which is how many dice a player gets to also draft in their turn.
The tier 2 & 3 plans generally require 4+ dice, additionally the tier 3 plans make a lot of use of the gold dice.
Finally, there's also a degree of having to adapt to what dice are available - and consequently the results of what are rolled plus what cards become available.

The game is a bit of a race to draft dice and use them well, it makes efficient play important. In the first game played I managed to construct 6 buildings by the game end which nearly completely filled my town board.
It means that a game can theoretically be completed in as few as 6 turns if the right dice rolls come up! This makes the game play quickly.

I'm not sure how I feel about this relatively short play time. It can feel like the game is over just as it starts to get going and is perhaps a little unsatisfying. But this forces players to think hard about their choices and the aforementioned need for efficiency which is a good thing.
​
While Tumble Town is a sort of light-to-midweight game that has a nice western feel and theme it's probably a bit too obtuse with it's engine building and dice manipulation rules for casual players.
Dedicated games who like those mechanics will find enough depth to engage the grey matter.

It could be argued that Tumble Town is a little gimmicky with its conceit of using dice to actually construct the buildings but it's a fairly unique mechanic as far as I know and I thought it added to the experience and despite the game leaving me wanting it to go on a a bit more, I found it enjoyable.

2nd May 2023

It's a Tuesday and we're at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club​ for a game of Long Shot: The Dice Game.

Component quality throughout Long Shot: The Dice Game is good.
While not actually horse-shaped, the horse tokens are chunky, made of wood and feel satisfyingly weighty to handle.
The dice are plastic and not wooden (Which is always my preference.), they still feel solid and well made, additionally their icons are not printed and are shaped in relief.
Since this is a roll-and-write game, many of the components such as the player boards and horse cards can be written on. They are sturdy as you would expect. As is the race track board.

The game also makes good use of bright solid colour, everything is brash, colourful and eye catching. There's also a definite humorous element to the cartoony artwork and illustrations that matches the game's luck-driven light gameplay.

The game's iconography is a bit of a mixed bag.
The player board is a busy looking affair with lots of stuff presented to the player and definitely can feel a little intimidating. However, in practice, it's not that bad. Much of the information is conveyed through numbers/colours. There are a handful of icons but for the most part they are easily understood after a round or two.

How's it play?
Setup

• ​Game board: Put out the game board into the central playing area.
  Horse tokens: Put out the horse tokens in their starting positions on the track.
  Horse cards: Select 1 of the 2 sets of horse cards or alternatively, cards can be chosen from both sets - provided only 1 of each number gets selected.
  Then put out the cards face-up into the central playing area.
• Players: Give each player a player board.
  Starting cards: Shuffle the starting cards into a face-down deck and randomly deal 1 to each player.
  Each player should then mark off their starting setup on their player board as dictated by the starting card. This will include marking off some spots on the concession bids and adding a couple of starting bets on their board.
  Finally, each player should note $12 in the allotted spot.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
Money counts in large amounts. Long Shot: The Dice Game is all about winning the most cash, this is done not just by players only betting on the winning horses but also 'manipulating' the outcome of the race.
Long Shot: The Dice Game sort of has a traditional turn order but since players get to act in all other players' turns, it's only relevant for rolling the dice which is done by the active player.
Each turn basically has 2 phases.

• Roll the dice: The active player rolls both dice at the same time. This will determine which horse moves and how many spaces it moves.
  ​Move horse: Take the horse token that matches the colour/number that was rolled on the horse, then move it a number of spaces forward that is indicated on the movement die (Which will be 1-3 spaces.).
  Secondary movement: Now check for secondary movement.
  Look at the horse card that matches the horse that was just moved and check which other horses have been marked off on the secondary movement bar: All marked off horses should be moved forward 1 space.
  Finishing: After a horse has crossed the finish line, it should be moved to it's finishing position on the side of the board.
  Finish line: If any horse that has to be moved is already past the finish line, do not move it.
• Actions: This is where the bulk of the game occurs and each player can perform exactly 1 action from a choice of 5. This is done in turn order with the active playing acting first.
  • Bet: A player may place a bet on the horse indicated on the horse die, this can be for $1-3.
    Finish line: A horse past the finish line cannot be bet on.
    No bet line: As the name suggests, once a horse passes the no bet line it cannot be bet on unless the betting player has acquired that horse's helmet.
    Free bets: during the game, players may acquire free bets, these follow the same rules as usual bets.
  • Buy: A player may buy a the horse that matches the result on the horse die provided it has not already been bought by another player.
    Finish line: Once a horse has crossed the finish line, it cannot be bought.
  • Concession: A player may mark off a spot on their concession grid which matches the result on the horse die.
    When a row or column is completed, the player crosses off one of the bonus boxes below the concession grid and gains its benefit. This may include extra money, a free bet, marking off a helmet or jersey and moving a horse forward or backward. It should be noted that a horse cannot be moved across the finish line this way or in fact moved backwards across it either.
  • Helmet: The player may mark off the helmet for the horse that matches the result on the horse die.
    As mentioned above, this allows the player to still place bets on a horse past the no be line.
  • Jersey: A player may mark off the jersey on a horse that matches the result on the horse die.
    When a horse's jersey is marked off, the player may also mark off another horse on that horse's secondary movement bar. This means there will be more secondary movement when that horse is moved again.
    Additionally; when both the helmet and jersey for a horse has been marked off, the player gains extra cash at the game end.
• Additional rules: There are some additional rules that can apply during the game.
  • Horse ability: Each horse has a special ability which can be applied during the game. However, only the owner of a horse has access to this ability and choose when and whether to trigger it - although some abilities will have specific timing.
  • Horseshoes: If at any time a player cannot take an action because of the result on the horse die (Because they've taken all the available options for that horse I guess.), then they can cross off a horseshoe to use it as a wild result. This allows them to mark off something for any other horse.
    If all 3 horseshoes are marked off when the player cannot take an action, then they spend their action to clear a mark off of one of their horseshoes.
• End of round: Once all players have taken their action in turn order, the round is over.
  The die are passed to the player on the left of the current first player who now becomes the new first play. They begin a new round by rolling the die.

Endgame
Once the third horse has crossed the finishing line and been placed on it's finishing spot, the end game is triggered, the current round is completed and the game then goes to scoring or winnings. There are numerous ways to accumulate cash.

• Finishing place: The owner of a horse earns cash according to its finishing position. This of course only applies to horses that finished 1st-3rd and will earn $15-$35 accordingly.
• Bets: Players now calculate their winnings from bets from each horse they bet on, this will depend on where the horse finished and how much was bet on it.
  1st - 3rd place: Multiply the bet placed on a horse by its finishing odds.
  E.g., if a horse came in 2nd place and had 2nd place odds of 4/1 and the player had placed a bet of $6, then that horse pays out 4x6; $24.
  No bet line: If a horse has crossed the no bet line but not the finish line, it pays out at 1/1, i.e., the player gets back what they bet.
  Other horses: If a horse has not crossed the no bet line, then the player has lost their bet.
• Sets: Each matching set of helmet and jersey for a horse that a player has will earn them $5.
• Cash: Any unspent cash is counted.
• Abilities: Some horse abilities may also money.

Cash is tallied, highest value wins.

Overall
With it's colourful presentation, Long Shot: The Dice Game fits its theme well. Players will be putting bets on horses, then watching and hoping those horses win.

While there are various ways to accumulate cash (Buying horse that win! Getting sets and completing concession lines.). Probably the single biggest method for gaining money is betting. 
There's more to it of course, since players will also have the opportunity to influence the outcome at least to some degree. This means they need to balance their actions between betting and other options.

The game provides various avenues to achieving this. Chief amongst these I think, is the secondary movement bar. A player can pick a horse bet on early and heavily, then spend actions marking its number off other horses' secondary bars. This means that the picked horse will move more often when other horses do so.
Players can also cross off lines on their concession grid to move horses (Or gain other benefits.).
Using helmets in conjunction with the no bet line can provide an alternative way to score big wins on bets. Players can spread their bets and hope to get bets several top 3 finishing horses. and getting helmets for horses is useful here. It allows players to bid on horses right up until their on the finish line and the finishing order is more apparent.
One last thing to mention is the odds, the lower numbered horses on the inside of the track have to move less to pass the finish line, this is reflected in the odds, which are shorter for these horses.
The number 8 horse (The titular ling shot.) pays out more or less twice as much as the number 1 horse for finishing in the top 3.
The provides some asymmetrical opportunities for players and real risk-and-reward mechanics to choose from.

While actions other than betting will probably pay out less, it's unwise to ignore them. They are still a source of money, useful benefits and influence over the game.

There's also a higher level of play going on; all information is open and it's possible to try and anticipate what other players are trying to achieve. If it seems like another player is betting heavily on a horse for example, other players may also bet on that horse to 'piggy-back' off its success.

Long Shot: The Dice Game is a fairly light game that is easily understood and accessible with a theme most people will find relatable. Although, it has to be said that luck and dice rolls can play a big part here; which to be fair, feel appropriate for a game about betting on horse racing.
I'm sure that the gambling theme and luck driven gameplay wont appeal to everyone but treat the game as just some fun and not to be taken too seriously (Much like actual gambling I would suppose.), then you'll probably have a good time.

I found it to be a lightweight but enjoyable experience.

The first plays For April '23 were doubled from the previous month while different games played for the month were up by 10. Mostly, this can be attributed to Wogglecon 7.

First plays: 8
Different games: 32

​Sunday 30th Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers
Just One
Legends of Hellas
Gizmos - First Play!
Spots - First Play!

Tuesday 25th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Jump Drive
Skull King - First Play!
​
Sunday 23rd Board Game Arena
Can't Stop
Lucky Numbers
Just One
Codex Naturalis
Akropolis
Legends of Hellas

Friday 21st Aldershot
Point Salad
Village Green
Llamaland

Tuesday 18th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Love Letter
Akropolis
Jump Drive

Sunday 16th Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers
Can't Stop
Just One
Railroad Ink
Legends of Hellas - First Play!

Thursday 13th Aldershot
Heckmeck
Akropolis
Dominion

Tuesday 11th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Parks

Sunday 9th  Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers
Roll'n Bump
Can't Stop
Wingspan
Just One
Tucano - First Play!
Trio - First Play!

Friday 7th Aldershot 
Scout
Railroad Ink
Machi Koro

Tuesday 4th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Roll Player

Tuesday 4th Simon's
Scout
Akropolis

Sunday 2nd Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers
Can't Stop
Wingspan
Go Goa - First Play!

Sunday 2nd Ares'
Akropolis
Scout
Codenames
Thunderbirds Danger Zone - First Play!
Fluxx
​
Saturday 1st Wogglecon 7
Akropolis
Sushi Roll
Just One
Sagrada - First Play!
Pan Am

30th April 2023

Sunday is here again and we're logged into Board Game Arena for some gaming goodness.
Gizmos not about some cute puppet that spawns a legion of malignant sprites, instead it's drafting and engine building game about building gizmos.... through the power of science!

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

What's in a game?

• Player board: The player boards in Gizmos are very long rectangular boards.
  There's enough room to place a row of 6 cards (Or 6 columns of cards.) which represent the game's 6 facets. Each of these 6 'slots' also has its own associated icon.
  The first slot lists the player's 3 stats - maximum storage, maximum file size and research limit.
  The second slot is for placing 'conversion' cards - more on this later.
  The remaining 4 slots are for placing cards that relate to the game's 4 core actions, - File, Pick, Build & Research.

Gizmos' only art appears on the gizmo cards and although it seems quite small, it is varied and detailed, appropriately depicting various scientific activities in bright colours.
In fact Gizmos makes good use of bright colour throughout on iconography and components.

With regards to iconography, there is a fair amount of it but for the most, it's intuitive and easily understood, some of it however, will have players looking up the rules, especially regarding the picking and drawing of resources. 

How's it play?
Setup

• Players: Randomly give each player a player board and starting card which should be placed in it's appropriate slot under the board (As dictated by the icon in the cards top left corner.).
  Also give each player a storage ring.
• Dispenser: In the physical version of the game, marbles will be placed into the dispenser, they then randomly trick out to form a row of 6 marbles.
• Gizmo cards: Sort the gizmo cards by level and shuffle them into their respective face-down decks. Then remove 20 cards from the level 3 cards.
  Next deal cards from each deck with 4 level 1 cards at the bottom, 3 level 2 cards in the middle and 2 level 3 cards at the top. Thus creating a sort of pyramid shape with 9 cards in total in the central playing area.
• First player: One of the player boards is marked 'first player board'. Whichever player received this board will be the first player.

On to play
Players are attempting to accumulate VPs in Gizmos and they come from 2 sources, the cards and by acquiring VP tokens.
This is done by drafting resources and cards, then building cards to gain cards and resources at faster rate to build more cards and so on!
Gizmos uses a typical turn order with the active player taking their action before play progresses to the player on their left.

• Stats: Before describing actions it's a good idea to explain what the stats do. Furthermore, all of the stats described below can be upgraded by playing the relevant gizmo cards. E.g.,  The maximum storage for energy can be increased from it's starting value of 5.
  Maximum storage: This is how many energy marbles a player may have in their storage ring at any time. The starting value is 5.
  Maximum file: This determines how many gizmo cards a player can have 'archived' at any time. More on archiving below.
  Research limit: Players can choose to draw cards from the face-down decks and potentially build or archive them. This stat determines how many cards they can draw.
• Actions: During their turn, the active player can perform 1 of the following 4 actions. 
  • File: The active player may draft a card from the central playing area and 'archive' it alongside their player board.
    The player's maximum file stat determines how many cards they can have archived at any one time.
  • Pick: This action allows the active player to draft 1 of the 6 resources from the resource line and place it in their storage ring, provided it does not exceed the maximum.
  • Build: This action allows the active player to build a gizmo card by paying its cost. This can be taken from the central playing are or the player's personal archive.
    When a gizmo is built, it should be placed under the slot that matches its type. Convertor cards go beneath the convertor slot and so on. This will upgrade the slot it is placed under. Thus placing a gizmo card under the pick action may allow the player in later turns to pick more resources when they chose the pick action.
  • Research: The active may draw 1 or more cards blindly from 1 of the 3 face-down deck and then immediately build it, archive it or discard it.
• Additional rules: there are some other rules that should be noted.
  • Upgrades: When upgrade gizmo cards are built, they will increase a player's limits.
  • Combos: When one of the 4 actions are activated by the active player, all the cards built beneath it can be activated in any order to provide extra actions, thus creating combos.
    Combos will allow the player to gain extra energy resources or cards or even VPs etc.
  • Convertors: These can be activated when certain actions are activated by the active player. Essentially they work a little like combos however, while combos usually acquire extra resources or cards, convertors, as the name suggests will turn one thing into another, such as turning blue energy resources into red.
• Next round: Once the active player has completed their action and activated the cards they can or want to, play progresses to the player on their left.

​Endgame
Play continues until one player has built a total of 16 gizmo cards OR built 3 level 3 cards.
In either case, play continues until all players have had equal turns. Then players total their VPs from the cards they've built and any VP tokens they've acquired.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Gizmos' theme about building gizmos for a science fair is fairly light and perhaps a little unexciting but appropriate. It's also a game that's all about building an engine to trigger combos.

Players will look to find the most effective and efficient way to pick energy and build gizmos through upgrades, arguably the 2 most important actions in the game: Although it's probably not a good idea to neglect upgrading other stats or actions. Increasing energy storage and conversion is especially useful as it allows the player to manage their energy resources with greater flexibility and in fact, some gizmo cards require 6 energy to build! - Forcing players to upgrade their maximum storage.
A lot of the decision making this will involve will be contextual, depending on how energy resources appear and are drafted by other players. As always in these situations, players will need to adapt to circumstances (Which is why energy conversion and storage is so useful.). The same is also true of gizmo cards. This can lead to some unusual combos appearing.

Gizmos other 2 actions, file and research feel a little surplus to need and maybe just pad the game out unnecessarily a bit.
There's a higher level of play regarding the file action that involves watching opponents, seeing which energy resources they are going for, anticipating what gizmo card they might be aiming for and hate drafting that gizmo with a denial strategy but conversely. However, those other players will probably archive cards they want to build before beginning to accumulate the energy requires which sort of makes attempting to hate draft moot.
Research also feels less useful, essentially when researching, the player is making a bit of Hail Mary play, hoping to find a gizmo card that matches the energy tokens they possess but for whatever reason cannot use to build a currently available gizmo card.

These are minor drawbacks though and players are generally not required to use them. Otherwise, Gizmos is a fairly solid engine-building game with a slice of drafting. It hits a pleasant sweet spot of blending fairly straightforward rules that are fairly quick to learn  with hefty and frequently meaningful decisions to make.
Worth trying if you like this kind of game.

30th April 2023

Another Sunday is here and we're logged into Board Game Arena for an evening of gaming goodness.

Roll over! Fetch! Beg! Sit! Spots is game about collecting Dalmatians, only not 101 of them but only 6 in this push-your-luck, dice rolling game about dog tricks.

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

What's in a game?

• ​Dogs cards: Each dog card will depict 1 or more Dalmatians or other dogs with spots in the artwork. These spots are positioned so that they resemble the spots found on a die and have boxes surrounding them to emphasis this. Some dog cards also display a paw - which is used to acquire treat tokens.
  Finally each dog card is double-sided with a grey side used during player and coloured side used to track scoring. The coloured side also omits the die boxes.

• Treat tokens: These tokens are shaped like stylised dog bones.
• Dice: Spots uses a whole bunch of normal six-siders.

Spots uses very stylised cartoony artwork throughout. Much of it is humorous which suits the game's lightweight nature well and is also style that I like.

There's minimal iconography in Spots and what there is of it, is easily understood.

How's it play?
Setup

• Trick tiles: Players can elect to use a predetermined set of trick tiles or choose a random selection, although the 'Howl' & 'Roll Over' tiles are always mandatory.
• Players:
  Dog cards: Shuffle the dog cards into a deck and deal 2 to each player. These should be placed with the grey side up.
  Treat token: Give each player 1 treat token.
  ​Dog yard tile: Give each player a dog yard tile.
  Die: Give each player a single die, which they should then roll and 'bury' (Burying a die or dice means placing them on the dog yard tile.
• First player: Whoever buried the highest value die becomes the first player.

On to play
In Spots players are attempting to place dice on the relevant spaces on their dog cards without going bust.
Spots uses a traditional turn order with the active player performing their action before play progresses to the player on their left.
In their turn the active player may perform 1 of the following 2 actions.

• Perform trick: The active may choose to undertake a 'trick', this involves the following.
  • Trick tile: The active player picks any face-up 'active' trick tile and resolves the action(s) on that tile.
    Usually this involves rolling one or more dice in some manner, sometimes it may involve something else.
    Then: Frequently a trick will have a secondary THEN action which the player may perform after the first action.
    Additionally, some trick tiles allow the active player to gain a treat token, speaking of which....
    Treat tokens: The active player may spend a treat token to reroll all dice. This can be done as many times as the player has treat tokens.
  • Flip trick: Once a player has completed the actions on a trick tile, they must flip it to the other 'used' side.
    Reset: If once a player has flipped a trick tile to the used side and only 1 tile remains active, then all tiles should be returned to the active side. Thus a player will always have at least 2 trick tiles to choose from during their turn.
  • Place dice: Most tricks require the active player to roll a number of dice and place them on dog cards. Once the active player has finished rolling dice, they may be placed on dog cards with dice boxes that contain matching values. E.g., a '3' can go on a box displaying a '3'.
    Burying: Any dice not placed on dog cards must be placed on the dog yard tile, this is called 'burying'.
    Going bust: If at any time the total value of dice placed on the dog yard tile exceeds 7, then the active player goes bust and the following occurs.
    End turn: The active player's turn immediately ends!
    Wipe all dice: All dice on all cards and tiles are removed and returned to the central supply!
• Score dogs: Instead of performing a trick, the active player may score all their completed cards.
  The active player removes all dice on the completed cards and returns them to the supply.
  All completed dog cards are flipped to their 'completed' sides.
  Draw new cards: For each dog card that is scored, the active player draws a new dog card from the deck and places them grey-side up.
• End of turn: Once the active player has performed their action, player progresses to the player on their left.

Endgame
As soon as any player has scored their 6th dog, they immediately win the game.

Overall
Spots' light-hearted artwork and amusing theme fits its lightweight gameplay quite well.

Mechanically there's not too much to say about Spots. It's a push-your-luck game in which players choose when they want to take risk.
As with all games of this type, luck plays a significant part here and players must learn to recognise good luck and mitigate bad luck.
Often this takes the form of giving players extra opportunities to roll dice after the initial roll, usually in the form of THEN actions.
Players must decide how many extra rolls to make and if they can deal with bad results, i.e', bury dice without going bust. Going bust feels quite harsh in Spots as it not only wipes the progress of the current turn but all current progress which makes pushing luck a tricky decision.
Having said that, this is a game that plays quickly and lost progress can be recovered reasonably fast.

Another aspect of luck that will affect players are related to trick tiles. Players will frequently find that their choices of available trick tiles will be limited due to the rules for flipping them and occasionally they'll have a choice of all 6!
I guess there could be a higher level of player about players trying to plan moves ahead and when tiles become active again but generally, it's a case of 'you take what you're given'.

There is an area of concern for me though which is to do with the distribution of numbers on the dog cards potentially effecting game balance.
If a player has cards with 4s, 5s & 6s, it means they'll end up burying dice showing 1s, 2s & 3s.
But if they have cards with 1s, 2s & 3, it means they'll be burying 4s, 5s & 6s which are much harder to deal with than the lower numbers and will be more likely to make a player go bust.
Since dog cards tend to have multiple numbers, if the numbers are well distributed then perhaps this won't occur. I will add that some cards also can gift treat tokens to players when scored which may make them more useful.

However, despite what I've written above, I don't think this is much of an issue. Spots is a light, fun and luck driven game - just roll the dice, take the chance, have fun! If players are looking too deeply into the balance of number distribution on cards, then they're probably playing the wrong game.

I'm not so sure that dedicated gamers will find much to engage with Spots, there are definitely some meaningful decisions to make but also significant amount of chance at play.
With its fun theme and light gameplay, Spot is clearly aimed at a family audience and also younger players. With being fairly quick to play, it also serves as a reasonable filler game.

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.