27th November 2022

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

Have you ever gone to a cat café or wanted to go to one?
According to Cat Café the game, if you're at one of these establishments you're meant to try and attract as many cats as possible! How is this done? By getting mouse toys, balls of yarn and so on to lure them over.

Of course the actual best way to attract cats is to set up a board game with lots of components, then you'll attract every one for miles around!

Caveat: We've only played this game digitally.

What's in a game?

• Dice: Cat Cafe comes with 5 normal six-siders.
• Player sheet: These sheets depict a number of important items.
  • Cat towers: There are 5 cat towers and they take up most of the space on the sheet. Each tower has 4-6 spaces numbered from 1-4/5/6 depending on the tower. Each tower also has a pair of scoring numbers at the top. Some towers also have 'scratching spots' which are unusable spots.
    Finally, there's a hex grid overlaid on the towers which makes it easier to see how different spaces are connected to each other.
  • Paw prints: Along the right side of the sheet is a vertical line of cat footprints.
  • Columns: Below the cat towers are 6 columns and each is essentially numbered 1-6.
    As well as a cat illustration, each column contains one of the game's 6 actions and associated icon. There's also a box for tracking some of the scoring for each of the symbols.
  • Scoring row: Lastly, there's a row at the bottom of the sheet to track all the game's scoring​ during the game end..

What art does appear in the game can be found on the sheets and there's a definite charm to those hand-drawn styled cartoonish cat illustrations and icons.

​Speaking of icons, nearly all the game's iconography is briefly explained on the sheet itself, there isn't too much of it and I can't imagine it proving a problem to learn.

How's it play?
Setup

• Dice: Put a number of dice into the central playing area equal to the player count plus 1.
• Sheets: Give each player a sheet.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
During the game players will be drafting dice and then using the results to draw 1 of 6 symbols on the cat towers.
Cat Café is played in 2 phases and uses a typical turn structure for the first phase while the second can be played out by all players simultaneously.

• Drafting: The first player rolls all the dice in a central playing area. Then in turn order, each player takes 1 die.
  After all players have drafted a die, there will be still a die remaining in the central area - this is important for the next phase.
• Assigning values: This phase can be perform simultaneously by all players if they choose to do so.
  Even though each player has only drafted 1 die, they also have to make use of the die remaining in the central area. Thus they will have two dice to assign which will determine which symbol is used and the row it goes on to.
  Placing symbols: One die must assigned to one of the 6 symbol types; cat house, ball of yarn, butterfly toy, food bowl, cushion and mouse toy.
  ​The other die is assign to 'height'.
  So if a player has a '1' & '4' to use, they can put a cat house on the 4th row of a tower OR a food bowl in the 1st row of any tower.
  Once a player has decided on which combination to use, they draw the pertinent symbol (Or letter for that symbol.) on the relevant row.
  Scoring: The cat house and butterfly toy are immediately resolved when drawn, if a cat tower is completed it is scored upon completion.
  • Butterfly: When a player draws a butterfly on one of their cat towers, they can also circle 2 paws on the paw track, each butterfly toy symbol is also worth VPs at the game end. More on what paws do below.
    Cat house: When placing a cat house, the player chooses any one of the 6 symbols types and marks 2 Victory Points (VPs) for each time they've drawn on their player sheet in that symbol's box. Each symbol can only be scored once in this way.
    Cat tower: When a cat tower is completed, that is when all the spaces on a tile are filled, it is immediately scored according to the following criteria.
    • First to complete with tower: If a player is first to complete a tower and with a cat house in the tower, then they score the higher of the 2 scores at the top of the tower - all other players cross that number off, they can only score the lower number.
    • Completed any other way: If a player completes a tower first without a cat house, then they score the lower amount. If they are not first to complete a tower, they score the lower amount.
• Additional rules: There are some other rules that will come into play.
  • Passing: A player may choose or may have to pass their action. In either case, instead of adding a symbol to their sheet, they circle 3 paws on the track.
  • Paw prints: A player may cross-off any number of circled paws to alter a die's value. Each crossed off paw allows the player to increase a die's value by +1 or -1. This can be done in anyway the player sees fit, although a die cannot go from 6 to 1 or vice versa.
• Next round: Once all players have drawn a symbol or passed, the round is over. The player to the left of the current first player now becomes first and takes the dice to roll again.

Endgame
As soon as any player has completed their 3rd tower, the game ends on that round and goes to scoring.
Cat Café has several ways to score.

• Cat house: The cat houses will have actually be scored during the game, they simply need tallying up.
• Ball of yarn: All players count up the number of balls of yarn they have in each individual cat tower.
  For each cat tower, the player who has the most balls of yarn scores 8 VPs for that cat tower, any player who has 1 or more but a lesser number of balls of yarn, scores 3 VPs.
• Butterfly toy: Each butterfly toy scores 3 VPs.
• Food bowl: Each food bowl scores 1 VP per adjacent different symbol type.
• Cushion: Each cushion scores VPs equal to it's height in a cat tower. 
• Mouse toy: These score VPs for being connected in a contiguous group. It is possible for multiple groups to score.
• Cat tower: These scores will have been calculated when the cat tower was completed during play so just need tallying up.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
For me, Cat Café is a bit of a mixed bag.

I'm always a fan of games that have streamlined, elegant mechanics and there's definitely some of that to Cat Café but here it seems like sometime it comes at the price of choice.
Sometimes the choices feel meaningful, sometimes they don't.

Players will get to choose a die (And sometimes not even that!) then draft it, after that they'll get a 2 options on how to use those dice, or pass.

For example: A player may get a '1' and a '5', this means they could put a cushion on level 1 but that's a waste of a cushion (Ideally, you'd want it higher.). Alternatively they could put a cat house on level 5 which introduces a new conundrum; is this a good time to play a cat house? In the early game they won't score many VPS and are much more valuable to play in the late game - provided the number comes up again.

All of this gives players several things to think about and sounds good - which it is to an extent but it's also hard to try and plan moves ahead when luck can play such a haphazard role, sure, the appropriate use of paws can mitigate bad luck to a degree but even so, it can be frustrating not getting the numbers needed.
It means players will need to adapt and react to their results as they get them to gain optimal scoring and not rely on getting results they want later unless they have of course acquired a sizable amount of paws.

Next is scoring: Cat Café employs a fairly broad criteria for scoring with different avenues to approach in acquiring VPs.
E.g., the mouse toy scores points for gathering the same type of symbol together while the food bowl scores by gathering different symbols.
This mechanic has been utilised in other games and is understandable here, where players at times will find themselves at the mercy of the dice and have to change what they were going to do.
However, with some scoring occurring mid game and the rest after the end, it does make scoring a little bit too intricate and involved, especially for a game this light.

Having said all of that, I'm probably overthinking everything.
Cat Café is a lightweight, family friendly game with a cute cat theme.
It's not too hard to pick up and while decisions can be fairly limited they do tend to be meaningful. There's also a dollop of luck to add some unpredictability.
It would be a good choice for younger players but perhaps would need someone older to manage the scoring.

For me, I found it a little too simplistic and unengaging as well as slightly frustrating.

22nd November 2022

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

Space... is it the final frontier? I mean it's pretty large with enough room for separate civilisations to expand without impinging on each other's territory. Except in Cosmic Encounter, it's not! Players take on the roles of one of numerous alien civilisations with the purpose of invading other player's planets in this game of bidding and bluffing.

• Cards: Cosmic Encounter uses a variety of cards.
  Destiny cards: This deck is used to determine who the active player will attack.
  ​Encounter cards: By far the most numerous type of card and form the cosmic deck. As the name suggests, these are used during encounters between players. They contain cards numbered 1-to-40 as well as 'negotiate' and 'morph' cards.
  Artefact and tech cards: These are cards that can also be used during encounters and add extra effects or actions to an encounter.
  Flare cards: Flare cards are specific to each race and pertinent flare cards for the aliens in play are added to the cosmic deck. Unlike most cards, once a player has a flare card for their alien race, it is not discarded when played.
  Reinforcement cards: These can be played after the encounter cards have been revealed to alter the outcome.

The component quality is all good, the tiles and tokens are made of suitably sturdy board while cards are average.
The spaceships are plastic with a nice bit of detail and being able to stack them keeps the game area relatively clutter free.

In terms of art direction, the tiles are colourful and mostly ​space-themed with the planet tiles looking like well, planets. The hyperspace and warp tiles are appropriately cosmic looking.
Artwork is used sparingly on cards with space (SIC) given over to text instead.
For the most part, illustrations are reserved for the alien sheets and used to represent the various different alien races. This artwork is fairly good with a lot of diverse and interesting sci-fi artwork.

Cosmic Encounter has little in the way of iconography, numbers are used on encounter cards but otherwise text is used to convey information.
​Nothing here is tricky to understand

How's it play?
Setup

• ​Players:
  Alien sheet: Shuffle the flare cards into a face-down deck and deal 2 to each player.
  Each player should then take the alien sheets corresponding to the flare cards and choose one sheet for this game, players should take any tokens relevant to the sheet they have chosen.
  Home system: Give each player the planet tiles and space ships in their player colour.
  Each player should put out their planet tiles in a row, they should then stack 4 spaceships on each tile.
• Central playing area:
  ​Warp tile: Place the warp tile in the middle of the central playing area.
  Players should place their colony tokens at the '0' starting spot.
  Destiny deck: Remove cards that would refer to any unused player colours for the game and shuffle the remaining into a face-down deck.
  Cosmic deck: Add the flare cards for the chosen alien sheets to the encounter cards then shuffle them into a face-down cosmic deck.
  Starting hand: Deal 8 cards face-down to each player.
• First player: Determine the starting player.

On to play
In Cosmic Encounter players will be trying to create colonies on other players' home systems in the form of land their spaceships on those planets while also preventing their own system from being colonised.
The game employs a traditional turn order with the active player resolving their turn before the game progresses to the player on their left.
Each turn consists of 6 phases.

• Regroup: The active player may retrieve one of their spaceships from the warp (If possible.) and add it to a planet in their home system.
• Destiny: A card is drawn from the destiny deck and immediately resolved.
  Colour: If a colour card is drawn from the destiny deck, the player with that player colour will be the active player's target for their 'encounter' (Or attack really!).
  In some circumstances, the active player may target one of their own planets if it has been totally overrun by other players.
  Wild: If a wild card is drawn, then the active player must choose which player to target.
  Special: These are unique cards that have specific outcomes. If a special card is drawn, it will contain text to explain how it is resolved.
• Attack!: The active player takes the hyperspace tile and points the er... pointy end at one of the planets in the targeted system. Then they add 1-4 spaceships sourced in any combination from any of their planets to the other end, signifying how many ships they commit to the encounter.
• Alliances: Now the active player who is considered the attacker may invite any number of other players to join with them in the attack.
  ​The targeted player who is now considered the defender may also invite any number of other players to join with their defence.
  Once invites have gone out, the invited players may choose to accept or decline the invitation. If a player is invited to both sides, they must choose one side only or decline.
  Any player that accepts the invitation to form an alliance must commit 1-4 of their ships to their alliance's side by placing them on the hyperspace tile or alongside targeted planet respectively.
• Planning: During this phase both the attacker and defender choose a card and play it face-down.
• Reveal: Now both player simultaneously flip their cards face-up and calculate their values which is the card's value plus the number of spaceships committed to the encounter.
  Usually, whoever has the highest total value wins the encounter, ties go in the favour of the defender. However, there are several ways this can change. 
  Reinforcements: After cards are revealed, reinforcement cards may be played to alter scores, this can be done the attacker, defender or any of their respective allies.
  Negotiate: If either the attacker or defender has played a 'negotiate' card, they immediately lose the encounter but as compensation, they get to take cards from their opponent.
  Double negotiate: If both attacker and defender played negotiate cards, then they get 1 minute of real-time to actually negotiate an actual settlement between them!
  If they fail to reach a deal, then both players lose 3 spaceships to the warp tile.
  Morph cards: When a morph card is played, it 'adapts' to have the same value as the card played by the opposing player, essentially negating it.
  Resolution: Once all cards and special abilities have been taken into account and a winner has been determined, the results must be resolved.
  • Attacker wins: If this is the case, all the defender's ships (And those of their allies.) are placed on to the warp tile.
    All of the spaceships committed to the attack by the attacker as well as allied attacker's spaceships are placed on to the targeted planet. Each respective attacking player gets to advance their colony token 1 space on the score tracker.
    Finally, if the successful offensive was the player's first action, they get a second.
  • Defender wins: If this occurs, all of the spaceships committed to the attack by the attacker and their allies are sent to the warp tile.
    The defender's spaceships are unaffected and those committed by allies are safely returned to their planets.
    The score tracker remains unchanged but allies of the successful defender also get to recover ships from the warp tile and/or draw cards as a reward.
• Next player: Once the active player taken their available action(s), play moves on to the player on their left.

There are some other situational rules and variants but this pretty much sums up the essence of what goes on in Cosmic Encounters.

Endgame
The first player to reach 5 on the score tracker wins!
Because of alliances and such, it is possible for more than one player to reach the 5 score at once. if this is the case, all those players share the victory.

Overall
​Mechanically, Cosmic Encounter is straightforward, at its core it's essentially a single blind bid auctioning game albeit one where players bid within the constraints of their limited hand of encounter cards in order to win encounters
On a basic level, a player only has to win 5 bids to win the game.

There is of course more to it than that.

It's vital that players will have to exploit the stronger cards in their hand and mitigate the risk from weaker cards. High value cards are obviously useful because they can win encounters but weak cards can also have a use.
A low value card can be used as a bluff or ruse to flush out an opponent's higher value card, potentially altering what a later outcome might be. Or, if a player think's they're going to lose, why not throw the lowest value card into the mix? 
Negotiate cards can also prove useful when a player knows they are going to lose and can be used to not only fill their hand but deplete the cards of an opponent.
Managing the luck of the draw is vital for victory.

The alien sheets can throw some real curveballs into the game and how players behave. Some of the sheets provide some really radical changes to strategies.

For example; in one game I played as the 'Spiff' who have the ability can crash land a spaceship on a planet if they are a part of an attack that loses badly.
It suddenly introduced a whole new dynamic into attacks which involved the Spiff (And I involved the Spiff with as many attacks as I could!) because defending players were now faced with the conundrum of having to worry about winning too big which might mean playing a lower value card instead and the risk of doing that meant that they might just flat out lose if I played a high value card! Choices, choices!

With 50 different alien sheets available in the base game (With more in expansions.) it means there will be a lot of variation in games and a lot of unique interactions from game-to-game. 

The rules for the destiny deck can also throw a curveball into the game.
I feel one of the primary purposes of the destiny deck is prevent a 'pick on a player' tactic and in this regard it does it well.
It also means that game has constant shifting alliances, 2 players have been allies in a previous turn but the destiny deck could quickly have one targeting the other in the next run.

This brings me to the next thing that's really strong in Cosmic Encounter; which is player interactivity.
Players will be bidding and bluffing against each other, forming temporary alliances, looking to exploit their abilities and take advantage of their unique ability and circumstances as they might arise.
I also think that the quality of the experience the game provides will in part rely on the people playing it. If players buy into the somewhat boisterous, confrontational and luck-based gameplay, then it'll be a positive, enjoyable experience. 

I will add that this game has a lot direct confrontation between players and a hefty dose of 'take that' that goes on as well.
If you find this sort of thing unappealing, it's probably a safe bet to say that you won't like this game and to be fair, sometimes I'm not in the mood for this kind of game.

Otherwise, it's hard to find fault with Cosmic Encounter, the rules are quick to learn and presents players which meaningful decisions to make whenever they attack or have to defend - which is reasonably often, they'll also be faced with whether to join alliances or not and deal with the outcome of those decisions.

Cosmic Encounters is a lot of fun to play and worth trying.

19th November 2022

Saturday 19th of November was the day of Wogglecon 5, a micro-con in Bisley with members of the Woking Gaming Club where we can get together for a whole day of gaming - and also raise a little money for the Bisley scouts.

During Wogglecon 5, we played the following games.
Cascadia
Altiplano

19th November 2022

It's a Saturday morning and we're at Bisley for Wogglecon 5 'It's a alive!' - a day of gaming goodness and a bit of charity.

Have you ever fancied travelling South American highlands with nothing but a cart of goods to keep you company, going from place to place, hunting for fish, chopping down trees, trading and so forth. If the answer is yes, then maybe Altiplano is the game for you.

How's it play?
Setup

• Game area: Set the central playing area up.
  • Location boards: Randomly arrange the 7 location tiles in a ring shape.
    • Tokens: Sort all the tokens as per player count and add them to their pertinent location tiles. Only food and money do not go on to a location tile.
    • Cards: Add the boat, house and order cards face-up to their pertinent location tiles.
  • Extension strip: Put the extension strip in the centre of the ring.
    • Extension tiles: First sort the extension tiles as per player count, then sort them by type (A, B, C and D.) and shuffle each type into face-down stacks. Finally arrange them into a single face-down stack, with the A stack at the top, going down to the D stack at the bottom.
    • Place extension tiles: Draw and place 5 tiles from the stack along the 5 spaces on the edge of the extension strip.
• Players: Give each player an action board, warehouse board and bag.
  • Meeples: Give each player the meeple, cube and container in their colour. Each player's cube should go on the '0' space on the road location.
  • Role tile: Randomly assign a role tile to each player. The tile should be placed adjacent its location on the player's action board.
    Each player should then take their starting resources as indicated on the tile, goods and food should be placed them into their bag. Money should be put to the side in a personal supply.
    Finally each player should take a brown cart cube from the village location and place it in the topmost space in the movement track on their action board.
• First player: Determine a starting player then each player places their meeple on any one of the 7 location tiles. Now we're ready to play.

On to play
In Altiplano players will be making plans to travel around the location tiles and use their goods to carry out the actions specific to those locations.
This is done over 4 phases:

• Drawing phase: This phase is carried simultaneously with all players drawing tokens from their bag and placing them on their planning spaces.
  At the start of the game, players can only use 4 planning spaces, thus only draw 4 tokens from their bag. However, by moving their cube up the road location, players will unlock more planning spaces which mean they can draw and use more goods tokens.
  Empty bag: If at any time a player needs to draw 1 or more tokens from their bag and it's empty, then they tip the contents of their container into the bag, give it a good shake and continue drawing.
  Taking tokens back: Obviously, this does not apply during the first round but before drawing tokens, a player can choose to take tokens they have previously placed on action spaces but not resolved off of those action spaces. However, these tokens must be placed on planning spaces which consequently lessen the number of tokens they can draw. Money retrieved in this manner is returned to the player's personal play.
• Planning phase: This phase is also performed simultaneously. In this phase players take goods from their planning spaces (Or money from their personal supply.) and place them on action spaces on the board. This includes the movement track and also extension tiles a player may have acquired.
  All actions require specific goods to activate them.
  Most locations have 1 or 2 spaces, except the village which has 3. Some actions require 1 good (And thus may be performed more than once.) while many actions require 2 goods.
  A player may choose not to place all the goods on their action spaces but this would mean they draw less tokens in the following round.
  When placing goods and money, players do not need to complete the action to place them. If an action requires 2 tokens, they can place just one of them even if it won't complete the action. It's a useful way to keep planning spaces free.
• Action phase: This phase represents the bulk of the game's activities and thus has many elements.
  • Turns: Unlike the previous 2 phases, starting with the current first player, actions are carried out in turn order one action at a time. The active player resolves one action, then play progresses to the next player.
    Passing: If a player cannot complete an action, they must pass. Additionally, a player may choose to pass even if they could complete an action. In either case, when a player passes, they are no longer involved in the action phase for the current round.
  • Movement: Movement does not count as an action but can be performed as part of an action.
    Timing: Movement may be performed before or after an action.
    Moving: Each player starts the game with 1 cart cube. A player can slide it to the 'used' side on their movement track to move their meeple up to 3 location either way around the circle of locations.
    Additional movement If a player has put food on to other movement track spaces, they may 'spend' it to move during another action. However they can only move 1 location unless they have acquired additional carts, in which case they can move 3 locations.
  • Actions: There are lot of actions a player can perform and several rules associated with them.
    Location: A player's meeple must be at the action's location in order to perform that action, this includes extension and role tiles.
    Paying tokens: Actions require players to pay the required tokens to resolve them. Other than money, anytime a token is 'spent' the token(s) are not actually spent instead they are put into the player's container and will ultimately end up going back into the player's bag. Only money is actually spent and returned to the central supply.
    Acquiring goods: When acquired, most goods tokens immediately go into a player's container. The exceptions are money which goes into the player's personal supply and corn, which is explained below.
  • Resolving actions: Each location has one or more actions which can be resolved by players.
    • Farm: cloth, food and wool can be acquired here.
    • Forest: cloth, food, glass and wood can be acquired here
    • Harbor: Fish and food can be acquired.
      Boat cards can also be acquired here which allow players to add tokens to their container. A player may choose any available boat card.
    • Market: The market has several actions.
      Sell goods: Some goods can be sold for 1-3 coins each, as with all actions, goods that are sold are actually put into the player's container.
      Buy extension: A player can purchase 1 extension tile per round. The total cost is the cost on the tile plus the cost from it's position on the extension strip. If a extension is bought, it is not replaced until the last phase.
      Order cards: These can be bought here too, which allows the player to choose any available order card.. A player may only have 1 unfulfilled order card at a time.
      Deliver goods: This action allows the player to move goods placed here on to an order card. When a order is completed, it will earn the controlling player VPs during the endgame, generally it will also give the player a corn token, more on these later. 
    • Mine: Silver and stone can be acquired here.
    • Road: Completing the road action may have 1 of 2 effects. Either it unlocks a planning space for a player or it provides them with a corn token, again, more on corn below.
    • Village: The village also has several types of action.
      Buy cart: Players can buy a cart and place it on an available space on their movement track.
      Buy house card: A player can buy any available house card. House cards increase the VP value of the displayed good during the endgame.
      Store goods: This action allows the player to move goods off of the action spaces and into their warehouse. There are however, several restrictions here.
      • No food: Food tokens cannot be placed into the warehouse.
        Same goods: A row can only have 1 type of good in it. Thus if the 1st good in a row is a fish token, all the subsequent tokens in that row must be fish tokens. Additionally, there can only be 1 incomplete per type of good. A row of fish must be completed before a second row can be started.
        Bottom-to-top: When a good is placed in the warehouse, it must be in the lowest available space, either in a new row or an existing one.
        Left-to-right: A good must also be placed into the leftmost open space in the row it is placed into. A row is considered complete when the rightmost space has been filled.
      • Corn: There are several rules regarding corn.
        Store immediately: Regardless of how a player gains a corn token, when they gain it, it must immediately be stored in the warehouse.
        Wildcard: Corn can be used as any type of good for a row that has already been started. E.g., if a player has started a row of fish, it can be added to that row and even complete it.
        If there is no incomplete row to add the corn token to, then it starts it's own row!
        Corn rows takes priority: When storing corn, if there is a row that was started with corn, then corn tokens must go into that row before any other until it's completed!
• End of round phase: Once all players have passed, the game goes to end of round and several events occur.
  New first player: The first player marker is passed on to the player on the left who will be the new first player.
  Reset carts: All carts are put back to their initial positions.
  Manage extension strip: If any extension tiles we bought during the action phase, remaining tiles are slid downwards to fill the gaps and new tiles are added to the gaps now at the top.
  If no extension tiles were brought during the action phase, the bottommost extension tile is discarded, the other tiles are slid down and a new tile is added to the top.
  Now a new round begins with the first phase.

​Endgame
Play continues until one of the following 2 criteria are met.
Any one location becomes fully emptied of all tokens, cards, etc.
Or, a space along the extension strip cannot be filled, i.e., the extension tiles supply has emptied.
In either instance, the current round is completed and 1 further round is played, then the game goes to scoring.

VPs will come from a variety of sources.

• Goods tokens: Tokens can score 0-4 VPs each depending on the type. Tokens on a player's action board, warehouse, in their bag and container all count.
  Tokens on order cards are not counted.
• Warehouse: Each completed row in a player's warehouse will score it's associated VPs.
• Cards: Boat and house cards earn their respective VPs. Completed order cards also earn their VPs.
• Bonus VPs: If a player has house cards, they will earn bonus VPs for the corresponding goods.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
As you can see from the write up so far, there's quite a lot going on in Altiplano and a lot for players to think about.

There's a recognisable quandary going on with the bag building mechanic.
Players will naturally be looking to acquire tokens to carry out actions but invariably there will be times they end up getting pulled from the bag when they're not needed and unneeded tokens can 'water down' a player's strategies.
Unwanted tokens can of course be left on planning spaces but most players will find that irritatingly suboptimal. Alternatively, they can placed on spaces for action that a player does not immediately want to perform but they will eventually end up coming back  to again though. Another option albeit fairly situational, is to put them on to order cards, although removes the goods from the remainder of the game.
Finally, they can be put into the warehouse, this means those tokens have greater scoring opportunities but again, permanently removes them from a player's container/bag which may or may not be a good thing. layers will have judge the merits of storing tokens contextually - except when dealing with glass tokens. The thing with glass tokens is that they don't produce any other type of token, all they do is produce the most VPs per token, storing them in the warehouse where they contribute to more VPs and declutter a player's bag is a no-brainer and usually I consider no-brainers a bad thing for a board game but I feel this is a deliberate decision on the part of the game - more on that below.

If you've been paying attention (And I'm sure you have!) you will also have noticed that several goods such as a cacao, alpacas and even something that seems that it should be common such as fish cannot be produced from the action board.
So how are these acquired?
There's a couple of opportunities to get them, namely boat cards, extension tiles and possibly role tiles.
However, this brings me to a bit of a bugbear I have with this scarcity mechanic. It means there can be a race by experienced players to get those hard-to-produce goods, particularly cacao which produces glass which can be worth so many VPs. In fact I feel the whole of the forest location is especially strong location since cacao alone is used there for 3 separate actions in the same location. A player who can produce cacao and concentrates on doing so can soon be producing lots of goods at the forest.
Having said that, the game is a bit of a point salad with various avenues to scoring VPs, it's just that I feel going for glass is the strongest way and experienced players will end competing in that tactic.

While the bulk of the game's activity takes place during the action phase, the planning phase is where players will do most of their well... planning. They'll look to optimise there actions to get the most out of their available tokens.
Because players will generally need to move around to perform multiple actions, efficient use of the movement track is important, especially so in the early game when food tokens will be scarcer. A player can move their meeple before or after an action may make it seem unimportant but sometimes players will need to think ahead about where they need to be at the start of the next round.
As well as having to think about movement and balancing their goods with their bags, players will also have to think about gaining extensions, house and order cards, as well as boat cards if they are needed. 
Add to this increasing their planning spaces and acquiring corn to fill out their warehouse and players have lot of ways to approach the game
​
In this regard Altiplano does that thing which presents players with lots of options but frequently not enough opportunity to do everything they want, forcing them to make tricky decisions, which I consider a good thing in games.

Altiplano is a mid-to-heavy game with a longish playtime, it's probably not for beginners and perhaps could be criticised for being a bit over-elaborate although personally I didn't find it that much of a problem
In conclusion; the mechanics blend together to give players choices and essentially problems to solve in optimising their actions. If bag-building style games and resource management are your thing, Altiplano is worth a try.

11th November 2022

It's a Friday and I'm at the office in Woking for some end-of-week gaming fun.

You know you can't go wrong when you're playing a board game set in Renaissance Italy.
In this case it's Florence and about princes which is about as Renaissance as it gets! All you need are some Medici and Borgia to round it all off!

In The Princes of Florence players take on the role of wealthy nobles trying to out do each other by enticing artist and scholars to their estates to create 'works' which in turn gives players bragging rights - which is what is important obviously.

• Cards: There are several types of cards in The Princes of Florence.
  Bonus cards: These cards can increase the value of works when they are created. 
  Prestige cards:  Endgame bonus PPs can possibly be earned by prestige cards.
  Profession cards: There are 21 professions in the game that players will be looking to recruit.
  Recruiting cards: Used to err.. recruit professions! Specifically, profession cards played by other players.
• Tiles: There are landscape and building tiles and they're sort of tetramino shaped. Building tiles: There are 10 types and they come in small, medium and large. Each one depicts a building of some sort, ranging from a chapel to a university.
  Landscape tiles: There are parks, lakes and forests.
• Tokens: There are a number of card tokens.
  Freedoms: There are rectangular tokens for each of the 3 'freedoms', freedom of travel, opinion and religion.
  Builders: Square tokens represent builders, which aid when acquiring building tiles.
  Jesters: These are circular tokens. Jesters provide bonuses when scoring the value of a work.
  Money: Finally, there's circular tokens of various sizes to represent differing denominations of florins; the game's currency.
• Pawns: There's a pawn in each player colour used to track PPs as well as a black 'first player' pawn.
• Discs: There are also chunky scoring discs in each player colour to track work values, there is also a black disc is used to track the round count.

All the components in The Princes of Florence are well made. The tokens and cards are what you'd expect. The tetramino tiles feel nice and sturdy, as do the game and player boards.
Amusingly, the pawns are all wearing wide-brimmed hats, got to have some protection from that scorching Mediterranean sun!

Broadly speaking there there are 2 art styles utilised in The Princes of Florence.
Tiles, tokens and some of the player boards are decorated with full colour illustrations. They are quite stylised and almost simplistic illustrations but they are effective and feel appropriate for the setting.
All the game's cards (Particularly the profession cards.) are illustrated with a sepia coloured line art style. It contrasts with the art style but also compliments it and again, is appropriate for the setting.
The standout art-wise is the game board where nearly each space on the scoring track has its own unique illustration. It shows that little extra effort put into the presentation that shows care for the game which I appreciate.

There's little in the way of iconography, mostly its appears on the player boards in the form of silhouetted tetramino shapes for buildings but even so, they are also labelled.
Most information is relayed through text. Speaking of which...
The game uses a distinct and flowery font for text. It looks suitable for a renaissance themed game but can be a little harder to read than it could be and also tends to make the player board and cards a little more complex then they actually are.
It's a minor quibble and in no way a gamebreaker though.

On to play
The Princes of Florence is played over 7 rounds.
Each round is divided into an auctioning phase and an action phase.
Auctions allow players to bid for items which will aid them during action phases.
The action phase uses the usual turn structure with the active player taking their turn before play progresses to the player on their left.

• Auction phase: During this phase, players may bid on 1 of 7 different objects, there are some rules for auctions.
  • Auctions: In a round, there will be a number of auctions equal to the number players, additionally, there are some rules when resolving auctions.
  • Opening bid: Whoever starts a bid chooses 1 of the 7 objects to bid on. The objects are: Forest/Lake/Park landscape tile, builder token, jester token, prestige card or recruitment card.
    Once they've placed their opening bid, other players in clockwise order may place a higher bid or pass.
  • Passing: If a player passes on a bid for any reason, then they are out for the rest of that particular auction.
    Winning: When all players bar one pass, that player wins the auction, the winner take the object they won pays for it and cannot participate in any further auctions in that round. Thus, a player can only 1 object per round through auctions.
  • 1 auction per object type: Once a object has been won in an auction, no further objects of that type can be bid on.
  • Objects: When a player wins a bid, they take 1 of the 7 following objects as explained below:
    Landscape tiles: Forest lakes and parks. When one of these is taken, it must immediately be placed on their board's grid.
    Builders: These tokens are added to their allotted spaces on the player board going from left-to-right. They will provide bonuses when building.
    Jesters: These tokens should placed on the palazzo space, they increase the value of works... with the strength of their humour I guess!
    Prestige cards: Draw 5 and keep 1, placed the remainder at the bottom of the deck.
    Recruitment cards: Take a recruitment card, it can be used immediately or saved and used during the controlling player's turn later.
    Playing recruitment card allows a player to take a profession card that has been played by another player.
  • End of auction: Once all players have won an auction, play progresses to the action phase.
• Action phase: During their turn, the active player may perform 2 actions from the following list of 5.
  • Build: This action can be performed twice in a round.
    The active player may buy and place a building tile on their grid. The tile can be placed in any orientation on the grid but cannot be directly adjacent to another building unless the player has acquired at least 2 builder tokens. Builder tokens can also give discounts to the cost of buying buildings.
    Finally, when a building has been placed on the grid, the player immediately earns 3PPs.
  • Acquire a bonus card: This action can be performed twice in a round.
    The active player pays for a bonus card and draws 5 cards from the deck and keeps 1, returning the 4 other cards to the bottom of the deck.
  • Buy a 'Freedom': This action can only be performed once per round.
    The active player may buy one of the freedoms and immediately places it on the appropriate space on their player board.
  • Buy a profession card: This action can only be performed once per round.
    The active pays for a profession card then draws 5 and keeps 1, returning the other 4 to the bottom of the deck.
  • Complete a work: This action can be performed twice in a round.
    With this action, the active player may complete a 'work', this has several steps and involves calculating the work's 'value'.
    Play profession card: The active must play a profession card from their hand. Each profession has 3 things they 'want'; a building, landscape and freedom. Each one of these that that the active player owns will add to the work's value.
    Jesters and profession cards in hand or played also add to the value.
    Finally, if the active player has a bonus card, it can be played now to add to the value of the work.
    From this, the value of the work will be calculated.
    Minimum work value: If a work's value does not meet the minimum value of works for the round, it cannot be completed. Minimum values start at 7 in round 1 and go up to 17 in round 7.
    Rewards: Once a work has been completed and it's value has been calculated, the active play will gain rewards.
    ​Firstly; the active player moves their disc to along the scoring track to the number that matches the work's value.
    Then the active player gains 100 Florins per point. The player can choose to keep the money or immediately trade it in for PPs at a cost of 200 Florins per PP. This must be done immediately, it cannot be done later.
• Earn money: This is not one of the actions a player can take per se but any point in the game, any player may spend PPs to gain Florins at a rate of 100 Florins per PP.
• ​Next Player: Once the active player has completed their 2 actions, play progresses to the player on their left.
• Next round: Once all player have completed their turns, the round is over and the following 2 steps occur.
  Best Work: Whoever has created the single highest value work for the round gains 3PPs. All players should remove their discs in preparation of scoring works in the following round.
  First player: The first player marker should be moved to the player on the left who will start the bidding in the next round.

Endgame
Once the 7th round has been completed, the game goes to scoring.
Players now reveal any prestige cards they've acquired and score them, adding whatever they're worth to their score on the game board.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
In terms of gameplay, there's some nice mechanics going on. There's some interesting balancing that occurs with buildings. By virtue of their sizes, the larger buildings will be harder to fit in the grid and take up more room but they are wanted by more professions.

Auctioning in particular is also well balanced.
Because a player can only win 1 auction per round, it means someone who has a lot of cash cannot dominate all the proceedings. It means that every player can only ever get 1 object per round and it means that if a player has lost every auction and is the last player left in it, they can get any remaining object, unopposed and for just the cost of the opening bid.

During the action phase, synchronicity is important. Getting landscapes, buildings, freedoms and professions that 'riff' off each is very useful. E.g., both the goldsmith and bell maker want a 'workshop, or both the theologian and painter want freedom of travel.

Players will be looking to optimise their decisions especially when it comes to creating works which is a major source of income and potentially PPs.
Why is this so important? The Princes of Florence only has 7 rounds, which is only 7 auctions and 14 actions! Even the most efficient of players will probably find themselves unable to do everything they want they want to do in the rounds given. This forces them to make difficult decisions which is generally a good thing.

The Princes of Florence also has distinct early and late game states. Early on players will be looking to build up their estate, buildings, freedoms etc. In the late game they will likely be looking to create as many works as possible and convert them to PPs. If a player creates 2 works in a round, only the highest value one counts for end of round best work bonus but both will pay out Florins and consequently PPs.

I suppose that The Princes of Florence is a sort of 'mid-weight' game and by that I mean a game that isn't too complex but probably has a bit too much going on to be a good introductory or crossover game.
With having to win auctions to gain certain objects and cards, buildings to place, works to create and more, as well as having to consider how everything relates to everything else, there's a lot to think about.

But for more seasoned players, The Princes of Florence is a solid experience with well structured gameplay elements that all have a clear purpose which in turn presents players with meaningful decisions to make.
It also blends the individual aspect of a player building up their own palazzo and estate with the interaction of auctioning and drafting.
The Princes of Florence is definitely one to try.

Sunday 30th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 47
Can't Stop - 28
Carcassonne - 11
Azul - 9
Stella: Dixit Universe - 12
Splendor - 16
Roll'n Bump - 3

Tuesday 25th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Dice Hospital - 8

Sunday 23rd on Board Game Arena
Ticket to Ride - 3
Railroad Ink - 38

Sunday 23rd at The Sovereigns 
Point Salad - 2
Parks - 14

Tuesday 18th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Port Royal - 24
Furnace - First Play!

Sunday 16th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 46
Can't Stop - 27
Ticket to Ride - 2
Parks - 13
Roll'n Bump - 2

Saturday 15 on Board Game Arena
Jump Drive - 13

Thursday 13th Aldershot
Point Salad - First Play!
HeroQuest - 6

Sunday 9th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 45
Can't Stop - 26
Roll'n Bump - First Play!
Railroad Ink - 37
Ticket to Ride - First Play!

Sunday 9th at The Sovereigns 
Machi Koro 2 - 5
Kingdomino - 5

Wednesday 5th Simon's
It's a Wonderful World - 3
Roll for the Galaxy - 6
Love Letter Premium - 63
Cloud 9 - 4

Tuesday 4th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Paper Tales - 5
Akropolis - First Play!