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

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

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

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

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

​Most played games of 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Most played games:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

28th January 2023

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

​The second game of the day was No Thanks!

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

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

What's in a game?

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

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

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

How's it play?
Setup

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

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

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

Endgame
Play proceeds until the deck becomes empty.

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

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

Points are tallied, lowest score wins!

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

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

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

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

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

This kind of dynamic between players keeps the game interesting.

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

3rd January 2023

It's the first Tuesday of the year and we're with the Woking Gaming Club at The Sovereigns for an evening of gaming goodness

“You might not think that’s cricket, and it’s not, it’s motor racing.” - Murray Walker.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a card hand management, push-your-luck game about F1 racing. Intriguingly it's themed after 1960's F1.

Advanced components: Heat Pedal to the Metal has introductory and advanced rules. The advanced game adds more components.
These are broken down into 'modules' which players can pick and choose to add to their game as they see fit.

• Championship module: This allows for a season of races during the 60's in which players score points in each race, culminating in a final score to see who wins.
  Event cards: Each race in a season has its own event card that can affect the race in some manner.
  Press corner standee: There are 2 standees which can be placed at certain corners.
  Sponsorship cards: These work somewhat like upgrade cards and are added to a player's deck but when they are used, they are discarded out of the player's deck instead of going to the discard pile.

First; a bit of a criticism. The game has no tokens to track the usage of adrenaline (More on adrenaline below.). It's only a minor oversight and in no way a gamebreaker but it's still something that would have been nice to include.

The player and module mats feel a little flimsy compared to the other components but to be honest, unless the mats are mistreated, it shouldn't matter. Otherwise the components are all good.
The tiles and tokens all feel satisfyingly thick and sturdy while the cards and standees are of the usual acceptable quality.
The gearstick pawn is plastic as are the little cars, which are the standout components, they have enough detail to look cool on the track.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal features excellent art through out, in the particular the speed cards with their illustrations of F1 cars hurtling along are evocative and because it harks back to the F1 cars of yesteryear it lends the art a timeless quality.
There's also a lot of variation in the art for the upgrade cards and while the illustrations are good, pictures of brake discs or suspension coils are not as exciting as speeding sportscars.
The race tracks are also well depicted on the gameboards with some excellent illustrations.

Iconography found in the introductory game is not particularly complicated or overwhelming and players won't have any problems quickly understanding them.

The same cannot be said for the advanced game.
There are a large number of icons in the advanced game, icons for weather, icons for track conditions and so on but the main culprit is the upgrade cards since there's a lot of them, they contain a lot of varied icons that will require looking-up in the rule book.
Normally, I'd be a bit critical of this but as they're part of the advanced rules, it's fairly likely players will start with the introductory game and work up to the advanced modules. So I don't see it as a serious obstacle.

How's it play?
The following describes the basic, introductory game.
Setup

• Race track: Choose a track, this will determine how many laps will be raced and what heat and stress cards each player will receive.
• Players: Give each player the player board, gearstick, car and cards in their player colour.
  Deck setup: For the basic game, players should use the base cards and starter upgrade cards. Player should also be given heat and stress cards as dictated by the chosen racetrack.
  The heat cards should be placed on the player board space for heat cards while all the remaining cards should be shuffled into a face-down deck and placed on the deck space.
  Finally, players should put their gear stick on the 1st gear space on their player board.
  Players should then draw a starting hand of 7 cards.
• First player: Starting positions should be randomly determined and players should place their cars in the pertinent position on the starting grid.

On to play
Before explaining the rules, it would be a good idea to explain some of facets of the rules beforehand.

• Boost: There are several ways a player may gain a boost and several may occur at the same time (Due to stress cards.) but they are resolved the same way.
  For each boost being resolved, the player flips a card from their racing deck: If it's a base speed card (Speed 1-4.) it is added to the player's total speed and that boost symbol is resolved. If it's any other type of card, that card is placed in the discard pile and other cards are drawn until the boost symbol is resolved.
  This is repeated for as many boost symbols need to be resolved.
• Heat: For a game called Heat: Pedal to the Metal, you'd think that heat cards would be important and you'd be right!
  Pay heat: The game has several ways to make players pay heat (Or gain heat cards really.) and they are all resolved in the same way.
  For every point of heat a player has to pay for, they must take a heat card from the engine deck and add it to their discard pile (Not their hand as I've done accidentally.). If player does not have enough heat cards available, then, depending on the situation, they cannot perform the action that requires they pay heat for it or they spin out!
  Cooldown: When cooldown occurs, it allows the player to return 1 or more heat cards from their hand (Not their racing deck or discard pile.) to the engine deck and every point of cooldown allows the player to return a heat card.
• Speed: It's important to remember that a car's speed is the total numerical value of all the cards played face-up by that car's player at the end of their movement.
  This includes from using adrenaline - which is why a token for it would have been useful.
  This does not include slipstreaming.

Right with that out of the way let's get on with it.
It's fairly obvious but the first player to complete the required number of laps and cross the finish line is the winner!
Each turn in Heat: Pedal to the Metal consists of 9 phases which may sound like a lot but not all of them are required or mandatory and in practice is generally easily managed.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal does not use a traditional turn order. Instead the order of play is determined by position on the track. I.e., the player in 1st position on the track goes first, the player in 2nd goes second and so forth. This means the turn order is very likely to change from round to round.
The first 2 phases are resolved simultaneously whilst others full resolved by the player during their turn.   

• Change gear (Mandatory): This action is performed simultaneously by players and in this phase players may choose to stay in the same gear or change gear.
  A player may increase or decrease their gear 1 step without issue, or they may increase or decrease their gear by 2 steps by immediately paying 1 heat.
• Play cards (Mandatory): This is done simultaneously by all players.
  In this phase players play cards face-down and the number of cards played must be equal the gear their car is in. E.g., if a car is in 3rd gear, 3 cards must be played.
  A player may play any of the cards in their hand except heat cards.
• Reveal & move (Mandatory): This phase is resolved one-by-one during the active player's turn.
  The active player reveal the cards they played and must move their car a number of spaces equal to the total value of the cards played. Thus if a player was in 2nd gear and played a 2 & 3, they must move their car 5 spaces.
  Some cards such as stress cards use the boost action and must be resolved.
  When a car moves, it is not blocked by other cars, however a car cannot end it's movement on the same space as another car.
  If a car moves to a empty space, it should be placed alongside the racing line, if there's already a car there, then it should be placed on the other lane in the same space.
• Adrenaline (Optional): As well as being an optional action, this action only applies to the 1 or 2 back markers in the race (Depending on player count.). A back marker has 2 actions available to them.
  Speed increase: The active player may increase their speed by 1.
  1 cooldown: The active may gain 1 point of cooldown.
• React (Optional): If the player has activated any icons due to what gear they're in gear or cards they've played, they may choose to resolve them at this time, in the order of their choosing.
  For the base game, this only applies to the gear. Upgrade cards may contain other icons.
  The player can use a boost action in any gear.
  In 1st gear they gain 3 cooldown and in 2nd, 1 cooldown.
• Slipstream (Optional): If the active player has moved their car directly behind or alongside another car, they may choose to make use of slipstreaming.
  Slipstreaming allows the active player to move their car an additional 2 spaces, this is also without increasing their speed - which can prove very useful sometimes.
• Corner check (Mandatory): If a player's cars has crossed any corner lines in this turn then they must do a corner check.
  The player compares the speed of their car with the speed listed for the corner, if the car's speed is equal or lower than the corner's speed, the it's all good. If the speed is higher, then the active player gets a point of heat for each point over the corner's speed limit.
  Spinning out: If for any reason the active player cannot pay the cost for heat because their engine deck is empty, then they spin out.
  If this occurs, the player moves their car to before the corner that caused the spin out, pays all the heat they can and adds 1 or 2 stress cards to their hand from the supply (Depending on what gear their card was in when it spun out.) and puts their car into first gear.
• Discard (Optional): The active player may discard any cards in their hand into their discard pile except for heat and stress cards.
  Only cooldown allows a player to discard heat cards and stress cards must be played to get rid of them.
• Draw (Mandatory): The active player refills their hand until they are back up to a hand of 7 cards. Whenever a player's racing deck is emptied, they simply shuffle their discard pile into a new racing deck.
• Next player: Play proceeds to the next player in the turn order.
• End round: Once the last player has taken their turn, the current round is over.
  A new turn order is set according to the current positions of all cars with whoever is now in 1st place going first and so on

 

• Advanced rules: What is written above pretty much explains the entirety of the game and I'm only going to briefly touch on the advanced rules, some of which actually just change the parameters of the game.
  • Championship: This adds a sort of career mode to the game and adds events that alter the basic rules.
    Press corners: Each track will have press corners and by performing specific actions at them, the active can acquire sponsorship cards. talking of which...
    Sponsorship cards: These work a bit like upgrade cards except they once they are played, they are discarded out of the game and not into the player's discard pile.
  • Garage: This module provides a wide variety of upgrades that player's can use. Generally they can be very useful.
    E.g., a upgrade card might be 1/3 upgraded brakes and when play means the player can choose the card to have a speed of 1 or 3 which can be very useful.
  • Legends: Not really additional rules but a way of providing bot players to increase the number of cars on the track.
  • Weather: There are 2 ways this module can affect the game.
    Weather tiles: The weather tiles generally alter the starting number of heat and stress cards.
    Track conditions: These tokens change some element of the game for a stretch of the track or on a particular corner. It might be possible to use the boost action a straight for free, or a corner's speed might be lowered and so on.

Endgame
Who ever crosses the finishing first after completing the required number of laps is the winner. Remaining players may of course continue playing to determine the final finishing order.

Championship
If playing a championship, all cars should finish and their championship points for that race should be recorded.
Additionally, if the garage module is also being used. Players should keep their upgrade cards from race-to-race.
Once the championship is over, whichever player has acquired the most points wins the championship!

Overall
Heat: Pedal to the Metal gives players several obstacles to wrestle with and sometimes several ways to approach that obstacle.
Players need to navigate corners, manage their hand and by extension also manage their heat cards. The game also has a push-you-luck element to contend with but not necessarily in the way you'd think.

The game also requires players to think a turn ahead, especially in regard to corners. Managing the current round is not so hard, players will know how far away the next corner is and how far their cards will get them (With the exception of stress cards.) but will need to think about where they end their move. A player be may end its turn right in front of a 4-speed corner in 4th gear, will they have the heat to go down 2 gears, do they have low enough speed cards to get through the corner unscathed or will have to hope to draw the cards they need, which is one way they can push their luck.

Discarding cards is also something to think about, players will sometimes have to resist the urge to discard low speed cards on occasion as they can prove useful in  upcoming corner and of course, some cards cannot be discarded.
When players have heat cards in their hands, they need to dip into the lower gears to discard them.
Stress cards though, have to played.

Stress cards is the other way of pushing your luck in Heat: Pedal to the Metal. If a player is on a straight, it's not too much of a risk but if they're going into a corner and need a specific number, there's always the chance that they card they least want!

Having said that, sometimes players will want to be a bit too fast! Going through corners effectively is a bit of an art in itself. Sometimes it pays to deliberately go through a corner just a little bit too fast and take the heat, especially if the corner goes into a long straight as it leaves the player free to blast down the track.

Slipstreaming is also a interesting mechanic as it creates a 'jostle' between players and I'm sure that's how it's intent.
It also creates a higher level to player where players will try to anticipate where their rivals ahead of them will move to and exploit it with slipstreaming.
Conversely, if a player is ahead of their rival, they may want to position themselves in such a way that their rival cannot slipstream them. However, there will be times that it's unavoidable that an opponent will slipstream you and it can feel a little punishing. Conversely, if a player is ahead of their rival, they may want to position themselves in such a way that their rival cannot slipstream them. However, there will be times that it's unavoidable that an opponent will slipstream you and it can feel a little punishing.

​Finally, lets talk about heat cards. They are a very important resource and can provide significant bonuses when utilised correctly.
Heat cards can be used to push a car harder than usual, go up gears faster or go through corners quicker. There's a risk though, unless a player can discard (Usually by dropping gears in corners) them they'll just clutter the player's hand up.
Players should try and the best of this; crossing the finish line first with a empty engine deck and a handful of heat is still first.
Finishing second with a full set of heat cards in the engine deck still equates to finishing second.

All of this is good stuff because it provides players with meaningful decisions to make, sometimes what might seemingly be a simple decision can have significant outcomes and a lot of these may be contextual.

E.g., while going through a 4-speed corner a player may want to be in 2nd gear and play a 3 & 1 speed cards, keeping a 4 for later.
Or, they may want to drop to 1st and play the single 4, which will allow them to discard 3 heat cards instead of 1. However this would mean they start the next round in 1st gear, which may be a bad thing depending on what is up ahead.

This kind of contextual gameplay keeps Heat: Pedal to the Metal fresh, it also helps that it has 4 tracks and various modules.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a fun game that plays well at a higher player count without having a too long a playtime and worth trying.

Saturday New Year's Eve! on Board Game Arena
Jump Drive - 15

Sunday Christmas Day! on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 54
Can't Stop - 33
Love Letter - 67
Roll'n Bump - 7
Railroad Ink - 42
Just One - 8

Tuesday 13th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Codex Naturalis - 25
Tiny Epic Galaxies - 8
Jump Drive - 14

Sunday 11th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 53
Can't Stop - 32
Love Letter - 66
Dragonwood - 13
Just One - 7
Cosmos: Empires -  First Play!

Thursday 8th Aldershot
Scout - 2
HeroQuest - 8

Sunday 4th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 52
Railroad Ink - 41
Love Letter - 65
Loco Momo - 15
Just One - 6

Friday 2nd Woking
Deep Sea Adventure - 10

11th December 2022

It's a Sunday evening and where logged into video chat and Board Game Arena for some gaming fun.

More space, more empires and more final frontiers. 
Cosmos: Empires is a galactically-themed tableau building where plays rush to build their cosmic empire - or least increase their empire's production - all very capitalist!

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

What's in a game?

• Cards: Cosmos: Empires uses a single deck of card.
  Each card is illustrated with some sort of space-themed vehicle or construct.
  In the top left corner of each card is the 'purchasing' cost
  Along the bottom it lists the card's 'type', 'activation number' and 'production value'.
  Some cards will also have one of various types of ability, this may well also include some text to better explain how the card works.
• Dice: The game uses 2 4-sided (d4), pyramid looking dice numbered from 1-4.
  There are also a few 8-sided (d8) dice which have no direct gameplay use but are instead used to track certain cards.
• Currency: The game uses 'credits' as its currency.

I have to say I found the illustrations to be pretty good sci-fi themed artwork and could easily see them on classic 70's sci-fi book covers. Having said that, I did also find some of the artwork was a little too busy for a card game, there were bright spots that drew the eye from important information for example and perhaps the text could have been a bit clearer.

While there are a few icons, it's not overwhelming, some information on card abilities are displayed on the cards themselves, sometimes player's will want to refer to the rules for clarification. I would not consider it a problem as Cosmos: Empires is pretty straightforward.

How's it play?
Setup

• Cards: Shuffle the cards into a face-down deck, then deal 10 face-up into a central drafting area.
• Players: Give 8 credits to each player.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
In Cosmos: Empires, players will be generating credits which will be used to buy cards from the drafting area.
These cards will have various actions that can be used to the player's benefit with the ultimate aim of increasing currency production.
When a player reaches a certain threshold of currency production, it will trigger the game end.
Cosmos: Empires mostly follows the typical turn structure with the active player performing their actions before play progresses to the player on their left. However, it is likely that 'inactive' players will have their cards activated outside of their turn.
The following occurs during the active player's turn.

• Roll dice: First the active player rolls the 2 4-sided dice and add their values together generating a number from 2-8.
  Note: It should be noted that it's possible for the active player to change the result of the dice roll during their turn. More on this below.
  • Activations: Now all players who have cards with matching activation numbers can activate those cards and produce the listed amount of credits for each activated card's production value.
• Actions: During their turn, the active play can perform any 2 actions from the following. A player may also pick an action to perform twice.
  • Shift result: The active player may use an action increase or decrease the result of the dice roll by 1. This will have the result of changing which cards are activated.
  • Build card: This is another way of saying the active player may buy a card  from the drafting area and add it to their tableau.
  • Cycle a card: The active player may spend an action to discard a card from the drafting area to the bottom of the deck and gain 2 credits.
• Card abilities: If a card has an ability, it can be activated by the active player during their turn without using an action, it's essentially 'free' to use a card ability.
  Furthermore, if the active player 'builds' a card, its ability can be immediately used.
• Next player: Once the active player has completed their 2 actions, play progress to the player on their left.

Endgame
Play continues until any one player has combined production value (Not credits.) on all the cards in their tableau of 30 or more.
At this point the endgame is triggered, the round continues until all players have had even turns.
All player then calculate their finishing combined production value.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Cosmos: Empires is a tableau building game that seems to me to have been designed to be a more streamlined, quicker playing, simpler, more accessible game that's a little different to other games of this type.

The strategy in Cosmos: Empires is relatively straightforward; acquire as many cards as quickly as you can, while some cards do combo off each other and getting those cards is good. It's also a goof idea to just get many cards as you can and hope dice rolls go your way.

You see; typically in tableau building games there's ​an early game element about building up the tableau then a late game element about using that tableau to work towards whatever the winning criteria.
Cosmos: Empires eschews this paradigm because it's winning criteria is about accumulating production value and all cards provide production value. It means that acquiring any cards works towards winning.
​The impact of this is that can create a sort of situation where a player will get some cards that quickly earn them a lot of production/credits which can be used to get even more cards (Especially the case when a player can build 2 cards per turn.) to get more even more production/credits in a self perpetuating cycle.
Now this might sound like a good thing and the kind of you'd want in a tableau builder?

The issue is that it can put one player into a unassailable lead where they not only constantly outproduce other players' production but consequently, they also constantly outpace the production increases of other players. A uncatchable double whammy!
This can be exacerbated by the fact that all cards activate in all players' turns. Quite often activations will end up benefitting whoever is in the lead simply by virtue of them having more cards.
Sure, players can shift the activation numbers but I found in order to not to give the leader benefits, I also had to deny them to myself. It felt very negative.

I genuinely admire any game's attempt to pare back rules, provide more elegant gameplay and quicker playtime and this is the case for Cosmos: Empires but it results in a game that feels somewhat unbalanced.
Additionally, I found Cosmos: Empires a little bland, it didn't feel like there's much variety in the mix of cards and it didn't feel particularly engaging. I'm not sure it would stand up to repeated playing

Although, having said all of that, I might not be the best target audience.
Cosmos: Empires might serve as a good entry the tableau building game type and if you want a straightforward, uncluttered, quick playing iteration of it, Cosmos: Empires might tick those boxes.

November '22 had slightly less plays than October but with a slightly higher total games played and different games played.

First plays: 4
Different games: 25
​Total games: 39

Sunday 27th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 51​
Can't Stop - 31
Roll'n Bump - 6
Cat Cafe - First Play!
Via Magica - 12
Just One - 5

Sunday 27th at The Sovereigns​
Cascadia - 5

Tuesday 22nd at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Cosmic Encounter - First Play!

Sunday 20th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 50
Martian Dice - 22
Roll'n Bump - 5
Parks - 15
Railroad Ink - 40
Just One -  4

Saturday 19th Wogglecon
Wogglecon 5: It's Alive 
Cascadia - 4
Altiplano - First Play!

​Thursday 17th Aldershot
Wayfinders - 3
Valeria: card Kingdoms - 2

Tuesday 15th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Point Salad - 3
Ginkopolis - 2

Sunday 13th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 49
Can't Stop - 30
Codex Naturalis - 24
Just One - 3

Friday 11th Woking
The Princes of Florence - First Play!

Thursday 10th Simon's 
Akropolis - 2
Cascadia - 3
It's a Wonderful World - 5

Tuesday 8th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Love Letter - 64
Cascadia - 2

Sunday 6th on Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers - 48
Can't Stop - 29
Roll'n Bump - 4
Railroad Ink - 39
Space Base - 15
Loco Momo - 14

Friday 4th Aldershot
It's a Wonderful World - 4
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea - 34
HeroQuest - 7

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