14th May 2022

It's a Saturday and I'm in Aldershot after a impromptu get together with some friends.

Flip City AKA Design Town is a light and uncomplicated push-your-luck deck building game about developing a city.

What's in a game?

• Cards: All the cards in Flip City are double-sided and one side shows a 'basic' building such as a convenience store while the flip side shows the 'upgraded' version, which in this instance is the shopping mall.
  It's easy to tell which side is which, the purchase cost only appears in the top right corner of the basic side. Other than that, cards list their special ability at the bottom and 'flip cost' in the bottom right corner (More on flip costs below.), while in the bottom left it lists whether the card confers coins, VPs or 'unhappiness' (Which is a bad thing, again more on unhappiness below.)
  Residential area: The residential area is the game's 'starter' card and is the only card that does not have a purchase cost. The key thing to note about the residential area is that not only does it generate unhappiness, it forces the player to play it!
  It's essentially a trash card and after flipping it to the other side, it can be flipped again to put it into another player's discard pile.
  Other cards: There are 5 other types of card that come with the game including the expansion. They represent businesses or amenities that can be found in a city. All are double sided and there are about 10 copies of each type.

The cards are all the standard quality you'd expect from a card game.

The game uses brightly coloured stylised art throughout and I always like this kind of artwork and I think it looks good here.
additionally, the cards can be placed next to each to make a city landscape. Yes, it's unnecessary but it's a nice touch and shows some extra thought has gone into the presentation.

Flip City uses some iconography, but all of it is clear and easily learned or understood.

How's it play?
Setup

• Starting cards: Each player gets a starting hand of 9 cards consisting 4 residential areas, an apartment (Which is a flipped, upgraded residential area) and one each of the 4 other types of card (Not including the office which is a 'mini-expansion.).
  These should be shuffled into a deck with those cards face-up. Players must be careful not to inadvertently flip their decks.
  The remaining residential area cards are not used in the game.
• Other cards: Sort all the other cards into their individual types with the 'basic' side face-up and create a deck of each type and place them in the central area. Thus there will be 4 or 5 decks (If the office expansion is included.) in the central area.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
Each's active player's turn will consist of up to 2 phases, a play cards phase in which they play as many cards as they want or go bust and a buying phase.

• Play cards: Unlike other deck-building games, players in Flip City do not have a hand of cards.
  Instead they draw cards one-at-a-time from their deck, immediately resolving it before deciding to draw another. This means that players will always know what the first card will be at the start of their turn and what card is next during their turn.
  The twist here though, is that sometimes, when certain cards are revealed after a  drawing card, the players will be forced to play that card.
  Stop: The active player may choose to stop drawing cards any time they choose unless a revealed card forces the player to draw and play it.
  Go bust: If at any time, the active player plays cards that display 3 or more unhappiness symbols, they go bust and their turn immediately ends.
• Buying phase: Provided the active player has not gone bust, they may potentially perform one of the following three buy actions. The amount they have to spend will be equal to the combined value of coins on the cards they played.
  Buy a card: The active player may buy a card from the supply and add it to their discard.
  Flip a card: the active player may pay the cost to flip a card in their discard pile to its other side.
  When a card is flipped, it may immediately trigger an ability or it will change the cards ability when it's next drawn.
  Develop a card: If the active play can afford both costs, then they can buy a card from the supply and flip it before putting it into their discard pile.
  
• End of turn: Once the active player has completed their turn, all the cards they played are put into their discard pile. 
• Next player: Once the active player has either gone bust or completed their buy action, play moves to the player on their left.

Endgame
Play continues until 1 of 2 winning criteria is met.

• Points: If the active player has played cards that score 8 or more VPs, then they win the game.
• Cards: If the active player has played a convienece store and at least 17(!) other cards, then they win the game.

Overall
Flip City describes itself as a microdeckbuilder and it's not really wrong. Most deck-builders come with a supply-market of 10 card types or so but Flip City makes do with 4 types (5 if you include the micro-expansion), although they are double-sided, so there are actually 10 types of card. Even so, it's a very compact feeling game.

For me however, where Flip City differentiates itself from other games of its kind is the implementation of a push-your-luck mechanic.
It works well here, especially in conjunction with meeting the winning conditions, essentially forcing players to continue drawing cards and pushing their luck until they either have 8 VPs or 18 cards in play.
As a result, Flip City is a little different to many deck-builders, which at their core are more-or-less about creating cash-generating engines to purchase cards that will earn them more cash during the early-game or VPs during late-game play.
In Flip City, generating cash is still important because it allows players to acquire more cards but some of those cards will have to work towards being able to draw 8 VPs or 18 cards.

Flip City is a quirky, charming, fairly light and quick to play pocket-sized deck-builder that presents players with some meaningful paths to winning and choices as well as some unusual game play and a nice little risk-and-reward mechanic.
Given it's light nature, I'm not sure how the game will hold up to repeated play but that's sort of missing the point. This is a fun filler game that is good to ply every once in a while.
It's worth a try and if deck-builders are you thing, then this will probably appeal to you. 

13th May 2022

Friday the 13th continues and we in Farnborough for some more after work gaming goodness.

Many games have small components that could be considered choking hazards, that however is not the case with... Joking Hazard, a game inspired by the Cyanide & Happiness comic strip.

What's in a game?

• Cards: Joking Hazard has a deck of 250 cards.
  Most cards feature a black border and some features a red one.
  All the artwork is inspired by Cyanide & Happiness artwork and each card is a single panel of that style of cartoony art and usually features 1 or more stickmen, often dong something offensive - which will be no surprise to anyone who's read the strip.

That's it for the components.

There's not much more to say about the cards, they're quality is pretty good, considering the game's origin, the artwork is exactly what is expected and the game uses no iconography.

How's it play?
Setup

• Cards: Shuffle the cards into a face-down deck and deal 7 cards to each player.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
Individual cards in Joking hazard essentially have no context and this is a game about putting them into  context by constructing jokes out of 3 comic panels, only the comic panels will be to some degree randomly created.

• Draw card: The active player draws a card from the deck. If it has a black border, then it will be a normal round. If it's a red-bordered card, then it becomes a bonus round.
• Normal round: The active player puts the card face-up into the central playing area.
  Add card: Then the active player takes a card from their hand and places it to the left or the right of the first card, creating the first 2 panels of the comic strip.
  Other players: Each other player then chooses a card from their hand which will become the 3rd panel of the strip and plays it face-down to the right of the first 2 cards. Basically creating the punchline.
  Judging: The active player reveals the face-down cards one-by-one. When they've read all the card, they choose the card which created the 'best' or 'funniest' joke and that player is awarded a point.
• Bonus round: When a bonus round occurs, the active player puts the red-bordered card into the playing area face-up.
  Unlike a normal round, the active player does not add a 2nd card.
  Other players: Now the other players add 2 cards in any order they wish in front of the card to create a comic strip.
  Unlike the normal round where the other players create the punchline, in a bonus round they create the set-up and the red-bordered card becomes the punchline.
  Judging: As with a normal round, the active player decides who has created the best or funniest gag and awards them a point.
  
• Draw cards: Once judging for the round is over, all players draw back up to 7 cards in hand.
• Next player: Play progress to the person on the left who now becomes the active player.

Endgame

The first player to win 3 points, wins!

Overall
Joking Hazard is an accessible party game that can be played by up to 10 participants and is equal parts mildly amusing and mildly offensive. Well... as offensive as the Cyanide & Happiness comic it's based on. So I guess if you're easily offended, you might want to give this a miss.

From a gameplay perspective, you would be forgiven for thinking Joking Hazard is just the same as other 'you be the judge' games. However, Joking Hazard differs because individual cards have no context. There is no statement A and answer B. The players create context themselves, which gives the game a slight edge.

Is it any good though? The answer is; sort of, which to be honest, is not a good answer really and a bit of a cop-out.
But the truth is; this games clearly sits in the domain of beer-and-pretzels. If you're going to be playing it with a bunch of slightly dour-faced gamers who usually play 6 hour empire building, resource managing, epoch spanning games, no one's going to enjoy this.
However, if you play it with some work colleagues or non-gamers who's only understanding of games is 'Is it like monopoly?' then they'll probably have a blast, especially if they've had a drink or two and that's who the game is targeted anyway.

13th May 2022

Friday the 13th! And I'm in Farnborough with work colleagues for some gaming fun.

​Viva la resistance! Will you overthrow the tyrannical oppressive government or welcome your new overlords? Let the cards decide.

Resistance is a hidden role card game that is also the predecessor of Arthurian themed The Resistance: Avalon and as such is mechanically almost identical to that game. In fact ​The Resistance or at least the basic version of it is actually a simpler game than The Resistance: Avalon.

Reading my blog about The Resistance: Avalon will tell you everything you need to know about The Resistance. A full write-up here would be pointless.

There's only 1 notable difference: The basic version of The Resistance only has 2 role cards, resistance fighter and spy. Otherwise the games play identically.

At the start, each player is given a secret role as a resistance fighter or spy. The key thing here is that the spies know who each other are and are trying to sabotage the missions while the resistance fighters are trying to uncover the spies.
The mission leader chooses a team and all players vote on whether to approve or reject that team. When a team is finally chosen, they all go on the mission. This involves the team voting on whether a mission succeeds or not. Resistance fighters must choose  to succeed at missions but spies can choose to either succeed or fail.
​
All of these decisions and voting are done in secret and resistance fighter will need to watch the voting, who votes in what and the outcomes of the voting. Spies will need to be patient, revealing their hand too early will flush them out.
If by then of the fifth mission, the spies have not sabotaged 3 missions, then the resistance wins. If 3 missions are sabotaged

Overall
There's not too much to add here, everything I said about The Resistance: Avalon also applies here, but that was sometime ago and I can't remember exactly what I said. So I'll summarise here.

Mechanically, The Resistance is pretty solid with a easily understood set of rules that give opportunities for lying, deception and deduction. There's nothing to fault there.

The quality of the game though, comes almost entirely from the participants.
Players who love to bluff and mess with other players will revel here and be in their element. Whilst those who aren't fans of this type of game are likely to find it slightly uncomfortable, won't enjoy it and thus probably won't play it as well.

So if you're fan of hidden role games and are playing with like-minded people, The Resistance is definitely worth trying. 

30th April 2022

It's a Saturday afternoon and Wogglecon 3 with the Woking Gaming Club is in full swing.

The next game of the day was Machi Koro 2 which is the follow up to the most excellent original Mach Koro and which you can read about here.

Like its predecessor, Machi Koro 2 is a tableau and engine building card game all about constructing a city,

What's in a game?

• Cards: Machi Koro 2 makes use of several types of colour coded cards which are broadly divided into 2 categories, establishments and landmarks
  • Establishments: Each establishment card has various icons.
    Type: In the top left corner of each establishment card it shows its type and whether it can 'combo' off of other cards.
    Activation number: In the middle at the top, each card has an activation number that ranges from 1-12 and the card's colour determines when activation is applicable.
    Action: The lower half of cards contain text explaining how they function when activated.
    Cost: The bottom left corner of each card is the cost to buying it.
    Finally, establishments are further divided into 2 sub-categories, depending on their activation number; these are 1-6 and 7-12, which is displayed on the card backs.
  • Landmarks: Each landmark in Machi Koro 2 is unique but they all share some similar features.
    Cost: Most landmarks have a set of 3 costs, generally rising in value from left-to-right.
    Type: Each landmark will also have symbol determining whether it has a single use or ongoing effect.
    Action: The bottom half of each landmark will also contain text explaining how that card works.
• Coins: The game comes with chunky plastic coins which are definitely and upgrade from the original's card coins.
• Dice: These are 2 typical six-siders.

Components in Machi Koro 2 are all good. The cards are pretty standard cards as you'd expect. The coins feel solid and the dice are slightly larger than usual dice, they're plastic but also rounded, chunky and have a bit of heft to them.

Machi Koro 2 uses an art style that's identical to the original. Brightly coloured stylised almost cartoony illustrations of establishments and landmarks. The colours are very distinct, which is good because colour plays an important part in the game.

There are a few icons in Machi Koro 2, for the different types of establishment and types of effects on landmarks. It's all pretty clear what they mean and it won't provide an problems for players.

How's it play?
Setup

• Drafting area: Sort the cards into their 3 types, then shuffle them into 3 individual face-down decks and place them into a vertical line.
  Draw cards from each deck and place them face-up in a row next to their respective deck. Do this until you have 5 different kinds of card in each row. Any duplicates drawn should be stacked on a single space.
• Coins: Give each player 5 coins.
• First player: Determine a start player.
• Buy-in: Beginning with the first player and proceeding in turn order, each player has the opportunity to purchase 1 of any available card in the drafting area. Any spaces that appear after a card is taken are immediately refilled.
  Repeat this 3 times.

On to play
Machi Koro 2 uses the traditional turn order with the active player playing their turn before the the player to their left becomes the active player.
During their turn, the active player has 3 phases to play through.

• Roll the dice: The active may choose whether to roll 1 or 2 dice.
  This is different to the original where a landmark had to be constructed to unlock the 2nd die.
  The result of the roll is the activation number.
• Activations: When the activation number is declared, all players must look at their own cards to see which, if any are activated - cards with a matching activation number are potentially activated! Thus if the activation number is a '5', any card with a 5 activation may possibly be activated.
  When a card is activated, the action described on the bottom half of the card is resolved.
  Whether a card is activated or not, depends on its colour.
  Red cards: Red cards generally allow you get coins off of other players during the game and are only activated in another player's turn, the active player never actives their own red cards.
  E.g., if any non-active player has 1 or more red cards with a matching activation number it will allow that player to take money off the active player. Only the active player is affected by red cards.
  Blue cards: These cards are activated in any player's turn, thus both the active and non-active players may activate blue cards. Blue cards always earn coins from the bank and are obviously the most activated type of card.
  Green cards: Only the active player may activate green cards. Non-active players cannot activate their green cards. As with blue cards, green cards earn the controlling player coins from the bank. Some green cards are combo cards and earn coins dependant on other cards with the matching type.
  Purple cards: Like green cards, purple cards can only be activated by the active player. Purple cards have a variety of effects, including taking coins from other players, swapping establishments with them and more!
  Landmarks: While landmark cards have no specific activation numbers, if they have an ongoing effect, then they will have some other criteria, that when met will activate the landmark. Criteria include rolling doubles or having having a type of card activated by the roll and so on. Each landmark is unique and they have a wide variety of actions that can be resolved.
  Pity coin: Not an action per se, but the pity coin rule occurs at the end of the activation phase: If after resolving all activations, the active player has 0 coins in their personal supply (Perhaps due to other player's red cards!), then they can take 1 (Pity!) coin from the bank for their troubles to use for purchasing.
• Purchase card: The active player may purchase any 1 single card from the drafting area by paying it's cost. Players may over several turns purchase more than 1 copy of red/blue/green cards, the exception being purples; players may only have 1 copy of each purple.
  Landmark: Each landmark card has 3 costs. The 1st landmark a player purchases costs the 1st value, the 2nd landmark costs the 2nd value and the 3rd landmarks costs the 3rd value. If a landmark card is single-use, it's effect is triggered immediately upon purchase.
• Next turn: Once the active player has bought a card or passed, play progresses to the player on their left who becomes the new active player.

Endgame
When any player purchases their 3rd landmark, they immediately win the game.

Overall
Machi Koro 2 is a that's fairly easy to pick up and play light-to-mid weight game that has a quick playtime.
The game generally presents players mostly straightforward but meaningful decisions about buying cards.

Should a player spread their cards over a range of numbers to get better coverage, or concentrate on fewer numbers but getter pay outs when the numbers come up.
Players will also need to consider what those numbers are. e.g., 6-8 will come up most often - provided players are rolling 2 dice have a good chance of being activated.

Speaking of rolling dice, in Machi Koro 2 players are able to choose to roll 1 or 2 right from the start. This is another decision that players can make, sometimes they'll want to roll certain numbers or avoiding rolling them and using 1 or 2 dice can alter odds of doing this.
Much of this ties in with how the activation numbers are distributed across the cards. A lot of the 1-6 cards will immediately generate cash but the cards that combo off of them tend to be in the 7-12 range. Going to 2 dice was described by a player as 'going up a gear'.
It can be pretty hard to slowly build up cash over rounds to get landmarks because other players can essentially 'nickel and dime' it away, gearing up makes it easier to get big cash in a single roll to avoid this.

And talking of nickel and diming, another strategy to consider is the red card strategy.
Using red cards to fleece other players of their coins is a pretty effective strategy, it denies them coins and earns them at the same time - but you won't make any friends that way!
The downside of this approach is that canny players will try their best to spend all their coins, the game's timing explicitly states that red activations occur before any other, thus if opponents have no coins, you can't collect them with a red since their blues/greens/purples activate after red.
It means that in a quirky reflection of real cities, players will want to be as close to bankruptcy as possible!
Unlike blue/green cards, reds are not guaranteed to generate income.

Machi Koro 2 is a little on the light side (Not that I consider that an issue.) and perhaps a little too quick to end, which may not be to everyone's taste.
One other thing to mention is that there's definitely a dollop of luck to the game, I'm fine with it and actually think it's an important part of the Machi Koro experience but some players will find this off putting.

I do have a couple of relatively minor issues with Machi Koro 2.
In the original Machi Koro, the card variety in the base game was fairly low, when 'The Harbour' expansion was added to the base game, Machi Koro went from being a 'nice' game to a 'great' game.
I feel the same is true of Machi Koro 2 as well. There are only 20 different types of establishment and 10 will be visible right from the start. After playing a few games, players will have more or less seen everything the game has to offer at a basic level and and will habitually fall into familiar patterns or strategies depending how establishments emerge. An expansion would shake that up, I would love to see extra cards for Machi Koro 2.
Finally, the rules for landmarks having actions that all players can activate in their turn is a little inelegant, requiring players to remember what landmarks other players have acquired or be reminded of them by those other players.

​Otherwise, I think Machi Koro 2 an un-taxing (Sic.) fun and breezy game to play that's worth trying if lighter games are your thing.

How does it compare to Machi Koro?
I've heard Machi Koro 2 described as Machi Koro 1.5 and there's definitely a sliver of truth to that. Anyone who's played the original will be familiar with nearly everything in Machi Koro 2. If it's not broken...

So apparently there was also some criticism of the original where it was stated that there was a lot 'whiff' in the early game - where players would roll the dice and nothing would be activated. There was further criticism that the original had too long a play time.
It's clear that Machi Koro has tried to address these issues.

The 3 rounds of buying will allow players to have a better spread of numbers at the start. 
Having to only buy 3 landmarks will also make play quicker (Although the cheaper landmarks are way more expensive than the cheapest landmarks from the original.).

Landmarks with ongoing effects that activate in any player's turn also make the game quicker and can add an extra layer of interaction between players, although I've frequently seen players avoid these cards, instead optioning for once-only landmarks and I sort of feel that way myself.
This is the only thing I see as a possible misstep.

Changes to the game have made the red cards a bit more powerful, there's little opportunity to punish players who buy red cards in Machi Koro 2, other than one of the landmarks (Machi Koro had the publisher card to do this.). I don't think this is too much of change though and YMMV.

So anyway, all of this makes the game clearly quicker to play but I feel that perhaps it's a little too quick. Sometimes (Especially when someone gets a good roll or two.)  a game can be over before players can adopt an emergent strategy.
I never found that the original was overlong.

Don't let this put you off playing Machi Koro 2, it's of a similar quality as they original. Even though I own the first game, I was happy to buy and play the second  and would recommend it to players of the original as well as to people who have never played it.

20th April 2022

It's a Wednesday and we're round Simon's for an evening of gaming.

Unlock! The Escape Game are a series of games drawing inspiration from escape room games and as you'll have gathered from the name, Star Wars: Unlock is a Star Wars themed Unlock! game.

Time to escape Star Wars!

Note: Unlock! games come with 3 scenarios and in the case of Star Wars: Unlock!, we played the Secret Mission on Jedha scenario, one of the harder scenarios and which involved being nasty Imperial spies running round a desert.

What's in a game?

• App: Star Wars: Unlock! is a app-drive game, meaning that a player will need to download the app to a smartphone or tablet.
• Cards: The game is primarily a card game and comes with several different types of colour coded cards. Cards are numbered in the top left corner and also display numbers/letters on their backs. Some cards will also display icons instructing players to discard specific cards. Along the bottom will be further instructions or flavour text.
  Each of the 3 scenarios has it's own deck.
  Starting cards: Each of the scenarios has its own starting cards that will kick off the scenario.
  Object cards: These cards are red and blue, they feature a number in the top left corner and depending on the colour a sort of jigsaw puzzle icon in the top right corner. Red and blue cards can be combined which each other, more on this below.
  Machine cards: Green cards are used to represent machines or vehicles and work in conjunction with the app
  Code cards: Like machine cards, these are used in conjunction with the app. These yellow cards are used in relation to clues, secret numbers and the like.
  Other cards: Grey is used to represent other cards and are used to represent locations or other objects, points of interest and results as required.
• Map: The Secret Mission of Jedha comes with a folded paper map of a desert region and is gridded with coordinates.

Star Wars: Unlock! is a card game with a map, quality wise it's exactly what you would expect of cards and a small paper map, which is to say; perfectly acceptable.

Art-wise, like all Star Wars licensed games I've seen, the quality is consistently high throughout. I don't know whether the art was created specifically for this game or was sourced from what must be a huge archive of art that has been produced and accumulated over the decades but regardless, it's all looks good and has a appropriately Star Wars feel to it

A few icons are used throughout the game, they're pretty clear and self-evident, I can't imagine they would prove an obstacle to players.

How's it play?
Setup

• The deck: Do not look at any cards in the deck and leave them all face-down. During play, players will search for the cards they need via the numbered backs.
• ​Starting cards: Select the starting cards as required and follow the instructions on them.
• App: Launch the app, the timer will begin counting down from 60 minutes.

On to play
Star Wars: Unlock! is all about discovery and deciphering clues which will eventually lead to the scenario's conclusion. Functionally, the game works a little like a gamebook where players would get to choose which numbered paragraph to read, except in this game it's done with numbered cards instead of paragraphs. There's also a bit more to Star Wars: Unlock! than most gamebooks though, especially in relation to how the app is utilised.
It's tricky to describe how the game plays, especially without some sort of spoiler but basically, the players collectively try to solve the puzzles presented to them.
What follows are descriptions for actions players can take.

• Choices: Location cards will frequently display an environment with numbers attached to points-of-interest. Players can simply take the cards with those numbers from the deck to gain further information about those points-of-interest.
• Combining: A red card can be combined with a blue card by adding their 2 numbers together to get a 3rd number, the card for this 3rd number can them be pulled from the deck. There will be times that multiple red and blue cards can be used create multiple 3rd numbers.
• Hidden Numbers: All the cards in Star Wars: Unlock! are illustrated and some of these illustrations may contain hidden numbers. If spotted by players can be pulled from the deck to provide them with something that was secret.
• Machines: When players acquire these cards, their number can be punched into the app which will in turn provide them with a puzzle or problem to solve.
• Codes: Sometimes a card will present the players with a dead-end such as a locked door. Players must find and enter the code into the app to proceed through the door - the app will tell them which card to draw next.
• Coordinates: The Secret of Jedha scenario comes with a map and this is more than just cosmetic. At some point the players will find themselves traipsing around a desert and where they go will be managed by entering the coordinates into the app.
• Penalties: When some cards are drawn, typically red herrings or the result of failing at something, they will require players to press the penalty button on the app, this will usually deduct 1 minute from the countdown timer.

​Endgame
There's no way to lose Star Wars: Unlock! per se, when the countdown reaches 0 it instead simply goes into 'negative time'.
After reaching a scenario's conclusion, the app will then rate the player's collective performance from 1-5.
Computer says you get only 1 Star!

Overall
Star Wars: Unlock! pulls some clever tricks with how it uses cards and how it combines them with the app to provide some engaging obstacles to overcome.
We're not geniuses by any stretch but nor are thick, so for the most part the scenario was well balanced, we were stumped for a while on a couple of occasions and referred to the app's hint system for a card once.  Otherwise the game was more or less straightforward.
The play time is fairly brisk in Star Wars: Unlock! with players facing with some unusual problems to solve while under the pressure of a ticking clock. 

The box states that 1-6 people can play but I'm sceptical about this. I just don't think that there's enough to do to occupy 4 people, let alone 6! By the the game's very nature, there tends to be a lot interconnectivity between cards and the clues they represent. This means that it's not particularly conducive for solving challenges to split cards between players and as a result, the cards will tend to be be hogged by some players while others are left twiddling their thumbs.
Playing with 3 people might be OK, 2 players and you're golden.

I'm also not a fan of app-driven games and licensed ones even less so: Eventually that game license will eventually and what happens to the apps distribution then?
Having said that, there's little replay value to the game, once all 3 scenarios are completed successfully, players will have no reason to return to the game.

​Putting those (Non game.) criticisms aside, if you like puzzles and problem-solving, then this may well appeal to you and if you also like Star Wars, then doubly so. Especially since it's also a fairly accessible crossover or gateway game the could attract fans who are non-gamers.

15th April 2022

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

​Take a road trip across America, visit the landmarks, go wildlife spotting, play some sports, end where you started? Send a postcard (Or write a letter from America.), walk 500 miles, maybe walk 500 more...
OK, enough of the tenuous references. 
​Boomerang: USA combines set collecting and roll and write mechanics into a point salad of a scoring game.

Caveat: We've only ever played Boomerang: USA digitally.

What's in a game?

• Score sheet: This shows a map of the continental United States and a network of connections between 28 different cities or tourist location from coast-to-coast and which are labelled A-Z (With @ and # making up the last 2.). The locations are divided into 7 regions of 4 cities each.
  The sheet also features various boxes for scoring, mostly on the right side.
• Cards: There are 28 cards in Boomerang: USA which as you would imagine is 1 for each location on the score sheet. Each card also features some artwork representing that city or landmark.
  Throw number: In the top left of each card is it's 'throw number' which ranges from 1-7. More on throw numbers below.
  Sets: Each card will have 2 icons pertinent to 2 of the game's sets.
  Landmark: This will be a letter/symbol that represents that city/landmark and matches it's location on the score sheet.

The only artwork in the game appears on the 28 cards and is obviously referencing the locations the cards represent. It's pretty artwork too, with blue skies and bright colours.

Using letters/symbols for cities is a smart move and easily understood. Boomerang: USA makes use of 4 types of sets to collect and each set will feature its own range of icons, it means that the game has a fairly large array of icons. Luckily, it's clear which icons belong to which set and players don't need to reference a rulebook to know what they mean since the game is about matching icons in their respective sets.

How's it play?
Boomerang: USA is played over 4 rounds and uses a drafting mechanic where players pick a card from their hand and then passes the remaining cards to their left, then all chosen cards are revealed (Or not for the first card.) simultaneously. This continues until all cards have been selected and players have acquired 7 cards.

• Setup: Shuffle the cards into a face-down deck and deal 7 to each player. Each player should also have a scoring sheet.
• Drafting: Player's should pick 1 card from their available hand and put it face-down in their playing area, then pass the remaining cards to the player on their left.
  Throw card: The very first card a player selects will be their throw card and is kept face-down until scoring at the end of the round.
  Throw cards are scored as normal but also feature own scoring (Using the throw number no less.).
  Reveal card: The remainder of cards picked during the round are placed face-up. Cards are not actioned until all cards have been picked by players.
  Catch card: The last card a player gets (The one they have no choice about.) is their catch card. As the name implies, this relates to their throw card.
  Once all cards have been played, the game goes to scoring.
• Scoring: Boomerang: USA is a set collecting game with a variety of scoring methods which differ from set to set.
  • Boomerang!: Each player reveals their throw card.
    Then the throw value on their throw card is compared with the throw value on their catch card.
    If the catch card has a equal or higher value than the throw card, they score VPs equal to their throw card.
    Throw, catch, boomerang, geddit!
  • Cities/locations: Players score 1 VP for each location they visit and should mark it off on their score sheet. Players only ever get 1 VP per location.
    There is also additional scoring for locations as follows:
    • Coast-to-coast: When a player visits adjacent locations as per the connections depicted on the score sheet, they should draw a line between the adjacent locations.
      The first player to connect the east coast to the west coast scores 7 VPs, other players can also score coast-to-coast but with diminishing VPs.
    • Regions: On the score sheet, each of the 7 regions contains 4 locations. The first player to visit all 4 in a region scores a bonus 3 VP. Only 1 player can score per region.
  • Americana: Players score for sets of Americana symbols here with slices of American life such as baseball, American football and mom's apple pie, OK, there's no apple pie but you get the idea.
    Scoring Americana is initially easy, each Americana icon is worth a certain number of points, they are all combined to get a score for that round.
    Next Round: The catch with scoring Americana points is that in the following round, the Americana score must be higher than the previous round, otherwise the score is set to 0!
  • Wildlife: There are various types of wildlife worth differing amounts of VPs and players score for each pair of matching animal icons they collect.
  • Activities: There are 4 different types of activity, such as hiking or dining. Players choose any one type only to score in a round, the more cards they've collected of the chosen type, the more they score. So 3 hiking symbols would score 4 VPs but 4 dining symbols would score 7 VPs.
    Once per game: The catch with scoring activities is that each activity can only be scored once per game, so it's one and done and since there's 4 rounds, there will be opportunity to score all 4 activities.
• Next round: Once all cards have been scored, play progresses to the next round: All cards are put back into a deck, shuffled and dealt out again in preparation for drafting again.

Endgame
Once the 4th round is completed and scored, players then total their final score from across all 4 rounds.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
​On a basic level, Boomerang: USA is a straightforward drafting game. It's point salad of scoring mechanics makes the game complex, most of the blog above talks about the 7 ways to score VPs.
Some of the scoring methods have pretty standard elements, collecting matching pairs or 1 kind of set are common, however, restrictions on how these are scored, particularly for Americana activities add an unusual twist.
The throw and catch mechanic is the standout here, presenting players with a clear risk and reward choice right at the start of a round especially when this is when they'll have all 7 cards to choose from.
Play a 1 as the throw card and it's guaranteed to score but is only worth 1 VP.  Playing a 7 as the throw card earns 7 VPS but requires a 7 as the catch card; since player have no control over what their last card will be it's a risky proposition. 

Typical for a game of this type, it's more or less impossible to score well in all categories at the same and the dilemma of what a player should prioritise is what drives the gameplay.
Should a player concentrate on getting locations and regions (Which are another type of set really.) over other sets?
Is it a good idea to have a steadily increasing Americana score over round, or go high then score 0 to score high again?
When is a good time to try and get a good score in a particular activity?
A lot of this will be contextual or unpredictable, it's the nature of this kind of drafting game. Players will probably start a round with no clear direction and will need to adapt to a strategy and recognise what to prioritise as it emerges from whatever cards they pick.

There's also a higher level of play where players can watch their opponents to try and gauge what they're concentrating on and deny it to them: If it looks like an opponent is trying to complete coast-to-coast, a player might chose and play a card with the location needed themselves in order to deny that other player.
Although I'm not sure that denial tactics are that effective though, it's entirely possible blocking a opponent will involve blocking yourself as well.

I felt like the travelling, roll and write element was a bit out of place here, adding extra layers of what seem like unnecessary complexity the game. So while the game has depth thanks to all these scoring opportunities, it actually felt like it was perhaps a little detrimental to the experience, increasing thinking time and inducing some analysis-paralysis as a consequence.

Otherwise I can't really find fault with Boomerang: USA, it's not a bad game by any stretch, it just somehow didn't appeal and seemed a little unengaging. Maybe the theme of being a tourist did quite gel with me?
I feel that there are other mechanically similar games that are a little more accessible and quicker to play.
Obviously, YMMV, a fan of card drafting games who plays them often might find the roll and write part of Boomerang: USA a fresh take in the category.

10th April 2022

Sunday evening is here and we're logged into Board Game Arena for a night of gaming.

'Viva Las Vegan!'
Or
'Millions of cabbages, cabbages for me.'
'Millions of cabbages, cabbages for free.'

Err... wait...? No... that's enough of that!
Las Vegan is a umm.. vegetable-themed trick taking card game?

Caveat: We've only ever played Las Vegan digitally and not sure if a English language version is even available in hard copy?

What's in a game?

• Cards: Las Vegan comes with 40 cards numbered 0-9 in 4 different vegetables/colours/suits.
• Cabbage machine cards: There are 12 of these double-sized cards which are used for scoring. Each one displays either a numeric value or a set of vegetables. Cabbage cards essentially represent scoring criteria. Thus if a cabbage machine displays the number 3, it means that cards with 3 on them will score. What they score is determined by casino chips, see below for more on casino chips.
  Golden cabbage machine card: Another scoring card displaying scoring options for Min and Max.
• Casino chips: The game features 4 double-sided casino chip tokens that sport a number on each side ranging from -3 to +1, obviously these numbers are skewed towards the negative.
  Golden chip: This chip is golden and is also double-sided, displaying -3/-4 respectively.
  Casino chips are used to determine the scoring on the cabbage cards, i.e., casino chips determine what meeting the scoring criteria will actually end up scoring.
• Cabbages: What is it with cabbages? Not satisfied with cabbage machines, Las Vegan also has cabbage tokens, which are the game's victory point tokens.

There's fairly minimal art throughout Las Vegan. The cards feature illustrations of vegetables on a slot machine reel and the cabbage machine cards show either vegetables or numbers across 3 reels.
Nothing bad but also nothing to write home about.

There's no iconography to speak off, just plain and simple numbers as well as the icons for the 4 types of card.

How's it play?
Setup

• Cabbage tokens: Give 15 cabbage tokens to each player.
• Cabbage machine cards: Shuffle the cabbage machine cards into a face-down deck and deal 3 face-up into the central playing area, then put out the golden cabbage machine card.
  These are the cards that will be scored in this round.
• Casino chips: Take all 5 casino chip tokens and flip them. The sides that come face-up will be used for scoring in that round.
• Cards: shuffle the cards into a face-down deck and deal all of them face-down to the players.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
Las Vegan is played over 1-4 rounds, each round follows the typical turn structure for a trick taking game, with the first or active player playing a card and the player to the left the 'following' that play.

• Opening card: Whoever is the first player can play any card from their hand. As you'd expect for a trick taking game, this set the suit for the trick.
• Follow: The next player must 'follow suit' and play a card from the same suit as the starting player if they can, otherwise they can play any card from any other suit.
  This continues until all players have played a card.
• Take trick: Whoever played the highest value card in that turn's suit takes the trick!
  Trump: However, if someone plays a '0' card of a different suit during a trick that will trump the highest value card and win instead.
  Take cards: Whoever won the trick should take all the cards and place them into their own face-down pile as a reminder of how many tricks they've taken. Players cannot look at any of these cards during the remainder of the round.
• Number 7: When a player collects 1 or more '7' value cards after winning a trick, they must place one of the casino chips (For each '7' they took.) on to a cabbage machine card, there are some restrictions here though.
  A casino chip cannot be flipped over to it's reverse side.
  Only 1 casino chip can go on a cabbage machine card and cannot be moved for the remainder of the round.
  The golden casino chip can only go on the golden cabbage machine card and it must be placed on the Min or Max space. None of the other casino chips can go on the golden cabbage machine card.
• Next Trick: The player who won the trick becomes the first player for the next trick.
• End of round: When all players have played their cards, the round is over and several events occur.
  ​Scoring: Each of the 4 cabbage machine cards is scored for all players, depending on the value of the casino chip that was placed on it.
  E.g., If the cabbage machine card with a '5' has a -2 chip on it, that means players lose 2 VPs for each '5' card they've taken during the round. If the card with 3 green vegetables has a +1 on it, it means that every 3 greens scores a VP.
  The golden cabbage card: This works a little differently, the scoring only affects the player who took the least/most tricks - depending on where the golden casino chip was placed and since that coin has a score modifier of -3 or -4, they'll always lose that amount of VPs.
  Got to say; there's nothing golden about that!
  New setup: The three cabbage machine cards are removed from play and 3 new ones are dealt from the cabbage machine card deck, the golden cabbage machine card is used in all rounds.
  All the casino chips are collected and flipped again in preparation for the next round.
  The cards are all collected and shuffled into a face-down deck and dealt out to the players again.
  Whoever took the last trick becomes the start player for the new round.

Endgame
Las Vegan can end in 1 of 2 ways.
If during scoring at the end of any round, any player's cabbage tokens (VPs.) reaches 0 or lower, it ends the game.
The game will also end at the end of the 4th round regardless.
Once the game has ended, players tot up their remaining cabbage tokens.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
The first thing to talk about is the scoring and particularly the casino chips. The values on the chips go from -3 to +1 and obviously skew heavily towards the negative, it's even worse than that though. There are 4 double-sided chips and +1s only appear on 2 of the 8 sides (Although in some regard this is quite logical as most numbers only appear twice across the chips.), thus it's skewed both in value and probability.
The golden casino chip is negative on both sides.

All of this means thhat this is a game about how little you lose, minimising your losses and not really how much you accumulate.
Las Vegan appears to be themed ont slot machines and one-arm bandits and maybe this is part of that theme; 'The house always wins?'
Even so, it all seems negative and doesn't feel like fun.

Despite my reservations about the scoring, the casino chip mechanic itself is pretty interesting.
When a player gets the opportunity to deploy a chip, they'll want to try and remember what cards they and the other players have taken. E.g., if the '3' cabbage machine card is in play and a player knows an opponent has taken several 3's, they may want to put a big negative on that card to hit them. Conversely, a player may try and use a +1 if they've collected 3s this round.
This is also affected by when 7s appear. The earlier that 7s appear, the more of a gamble it is using the casino chips, if they appear later, it's a lot easier to predict scoring. It's also that chips might appear right at the start or end of a round, or several may appear in single trick.
Players will need to calculate and adapt when using the casino chip, remembering plays opponents make made will be helpful too.

There's not too much to say about the mechanics for the actual game, which are very straightforward and about as basic as a trick taking game can get - and that's not a bad thing, it makes the game accessible and easy to learn, as well as playing fairly quickly . Las Vegan could be a good filler or finisher for the day.
Having said that, the scoring mechanics feel a little clunky, counterintuitive and unnecessarily fiddly.
The game's depth comes from strategies that will emerge once casino chips are starting to get played on cabbage machine cards and then players will look to how they can manipulate or win or lose tricks to optimise their scores.

For me; I found the game's simplicity a little unengaging, a little too run-of-the-mill while the depth the scoring brought to the table (sic) did not add enough to make me want to play more. The negative scoring also left me feeling frustrating.
Not a game for me.

5th April 2022

It's a Tuesday and we're at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club for some gaming goodness.

'I enjoyed Muffin the Mule.'
'You can get locked up for that.'

No wait, this isn't about Muffin the Mule, its about Muffin Time.
'I enjoyed Muffin Time.'
Not sure that sounds better? (Apologies for the old Goodies joke.)

Muffin Time is a light, off-beat party game that's easy to pick up and player with supposedly 20 minute play time.

What's in a game?

• Cards: Muffin Time features a lot of cards in 3 types and that's it, there are no other components.
  The types are:
  Action cards: These blue bordered cards are played during the active player's turn, generally they benefit the active player or punish other players, frequently in the form of acquiring extra cards or forcing opponents to discard them.
  Counter cards: Green bordered counter cards can be played at any time and can affect other players' card plays.
  Trap cards: What do these red bordered cards do? They're played face-down and trap other players!

The cards are finished in a sturdy-feeling plastic coating and will probably stand up well to a lot of use.

The game utilises comedic and cartoony black-line illustrations with a dash of bright colour for the borders and card titles that suitability fits the game's style.

There's no iconography in Muffin Time to speak of and the game's filled with unusual or unique cards and rules exceptions. Consequently, all cards contain specific text on how they function.

How's it play?
Setup

• Cards: Shuffle the cards into a face-down deck and deal 3 to each player face-down.
• First Player: Determine a starting player.

That's it for setup, barely worth the bullet points!

On to play
The objective in Muffin Time is for a player to acquire exactly 10 cards at the start of their turn.
The game uses a typical turn order, at least it does at the start with the active player acting and play progressing to the left.
There are 2 phases to each turn.

• ​Trap: The active player may play a trap card in this phase. Trap cards are always played face-down and contain a specific condition and a penalty, when this condition is met by another player, the trap card is revealed and that player suffers the penalty, typically the penalty involves discarding cards.
  A trap might be triggered by putting cards down on the table or laughing at a joke on a card and so on.
  A player may have up to 3 trap cards in play at any time.
• Action: In this phase the active player can perform 1 of the following 2 cards.
  Play card: The active player may play a card from their hand and then resolve its action.
  Draw card: The active player may draw a card from the deck.
• Next player: Once the active player has had their turn, play progresses to the left.

Other rule

• Counter card: A counter card can be played at any time, even another player's turn and multiple cards can be played, including by multiple players.

Endgame
Play continues until any player has acquired exactly 10 cards in hand, upon which they must immediately shout 'It's Muffin Time!'
If, when that player becomes the active player they still have exactly 10 cards, then they win the game!

Overall
Despite being a rules-light game, there's a couple of interesting elements at play in Muffin Time.
Firstly and most obviously, are the trap cards: They require players to pay attention to the behaviour of their opponents in order to trigger traps. However, there's also a higher level of play at work, where participants can try to induce other players into falling into their traps, such as my aforementioned attempts to get the other players to yawn. It add an unusual and interesting facet of playing the player and not the game to the mix.

Secondly, is the action economy: Play a card or draw a card, it's a simple rule but it has an interesting effect. Essentially, playing a card gains the player whatever benefit that card gives them but it also loses them that card from their hand, thus making their goal 1 step further away. Does the benefit of playing it outweigh the cost? The answer will always be contextual, especially since some cards do stuff that's just funny and players will end up playing them just for the sake of playing them. The same quandary is actually also true of counter cards.

The core gameplay is highly situational, it requires players to adapt to unpredictable turns of play and exploit events as they occur with the cards they have in hand. This is not a game of planning ahead too much.
It's also bit of a silly game with some silly card actions such as 'Last player to stand up discards 2 cards.' There are also cards that may change the win condition, turn order etc.
If this sort of thing is an anathema to you, Muffin Time is probably one to skip.

Otherwise there's not too much to add about Muffin Time really. it's an easy to learn, pick and play party card game that can be a lot of fun if you don't take it too seriously and allegedly has a 20 minute play time and can be a good filler or finishing game.
I say allegedly 20 minutes because circumstances and certain card plays can dictate otherwise - games can go on considerable longer, is that good or bad? Muffin Time can be very enjoyable but it can also outstay its welcome. So, YMMV.

Don't let that put you off though. I feel that Muffin Time is good party game when played with the right mindset and is worth trying.

20th March 2022

It's a Sunday and we're logged into Board Game Arena for an evening of fun.

Hanabi is a cooperative game about lighting a series of larger and larger firework displays. The catch is that everyone must rely on other players to give them clues to do so. Get it wrong though and the show could end early. 
Who thought fireworks could be so stressful, well... other than pets!

What's in a game?

• Cards: Hanabi comes with a set of 50 cards, 10 in each of five colours; blue, green, red, yellow & white.
  ​The cards in each colour are numbered 1-5. However, the numbers are not evenly distributed. There are three 1s, two each of 2, 3 and 4, while finally, there's only one 5 in each colour.
• Clue tokens: There are 8 of these round card tokens which are also double-sided, with the white side representing unused clues and the other used.
• Storm tokens: These round card tokens show lightning one 1 side and there are 3 of them.

Quality wise, Hanabi's components are standard, which are all perfectly acceptable.

All the artwork on the cards are understandably themed after fireworks in their respective colours. For the most part it looks clear but I've found that in dimmer light, the colours can look a little weak. 

Hanabi makes minimal use of iconography, the cards are cleared numbered while icons are also used to designate different colours. 2 symbols are used on tokens.

How's it play?
Setup

• ​Clue tokens: Put out the clue tokens with the unused side up.
• Lighting tokens: Also put out the lightning tokens but with the lighting side face-down.
• Cards: Shuffle the cards into a face-down deck.
  Deal cards to players up to their hand size as determined by player count. Players should not look at their cards, they can never look at their own hands.
• First player: Determine a first player.

On to play
The objective in Hanabi is to create a stack of face-up cards for each colour by playing them in numeric order, starting with the 1 and finishing with the 5.
All of this must be done without any player looking at their own cards. Players should hold their cards up with the backs facing them so that all others can see what cards they have.
Players then provide clues to each other and use these clues to deduct which cards to play.

Hanabi uses a standard turn structure with the active player taking a turn before play progresses to the left.
The active player must perform one of the following actions.

• Give clue: The active player may give another player a clue. This clue will provide exactly one piece of information about that player's cards while also allowing the active to point at the pertinent card(s) in the other player's hand.
  It could be, "You have two yellow cards," or it might be, "You have one five," and so on.
  When the active player gives a clue, they must flip one clue token to its used side. If all clue tokens are flipped, then no clues can be given.
• Play card: The active player chooses a card from their hand (Which they still can't look at.) and plays it, upon which it is revealed to them. This will result in 1 of 2 effects.
  Correct play: If the card played is the next number in its sequence, then it is a correct play and is put on top of its respective stack. E.g., if the active player puts down a red 3 and a red 2 has already been played, the red 3 goes on top of the red stack. If a colour has no cards in play, then a 1 in that colour will begin that stack.
  Completion bonus: if a stack has it's 5th and final card play, it is completed. As a bonus, if a used clue token is available, it can be flipped back to its unused side.
  Incorrect play: If the card played does not continue the sequence, it is a incorrect play. Thus if the value of a card played is equal or lower than its current stack, it is incorrect. Or if it skips a number, it's also a incorrect play.
  When a card is incorrectly played, 1 of the 3 storm tokens its flipped face-up.
  Regardless of whether the play was correct or not, the active draws card from the deck, taking their hand size back up to 5.
• Discard card: The active player may choose to discard a card, when this is done a used clue token must be flipped back to it's unused side, a card cannot be discarded if there are no used clues. With is no big deal really, as the active can just give a clue instead.
  The active player then draws a card from the deck, taking their hand size back up to 5.

Endgame
Play continues until 1 of the following 3 criteria are met.
Win: If the 5th card of all 5 stacks are correctly played, the players immediately win the game. They have achieved a perfect score of 25.
Lose: If the 3rd and final storm token is flipped over, the players immediately lose, scoring a big fat 0!
Deck depletion: If play progresses until the last card is drawn from the deck, all players get one more turn.
After this, the game is scored and the players collectively gain a score equal to the value of the top card on each stack, thus the maximum score of a incomplete game is 24.

Overall
One of the things I like about Hanabi is that it's a small, fairly easy to learn cooperative game that provides a solid challenge, it has a reasonably quick playing time and would work well as a filler game.

What's interesting in my opinion are the mechanics for clues and also clue tokens as they are inextricably linked. The game does a good job of balancing the usefulness of clues with their scarcity.
When giving clues, players will want and need to give clues as efficiently as possible, it takes 2 clues to clearly define what a card (Both colour & number.) is and this uses a quarter of the available clues which is a lot! Frequently that means a clue might need to have a implicit meaning attached. E.g.; the clue, "You have one green," might implicitly mean 'Play that green card!'
Players receiving clues will need to interpret and deduct meaning from the information they have now ​been given, combining it with the information they see in other players' hands before deciding what to do. Sometimes they won't have all the information they want, sometimes they'll need to gamble on a decision.

Flipping clue tokens back to their unused side can be vital to doing well, usually this will involve discarding cards and it also allows players to draw cards and put new options into play. Blindly discarding cards can be tricky though, if a 5 is discarded, there goes the chance to get a perfect score. - Not that getting a perfect score is easy, it's not!
Consequently, it's sometimes a good idea to give players clues about what to get rid off. not keep.

It should also be noted that like many cooperative games, luck can play a big role in Hanabi. If those lower value cards don't until later in the game, players will end up discarding higher value cards to get to them.

Hanabi does have some minor drawbacks though. Having to constantly hold up cards so others can see them feels a like a little bit of a pain. The same is true of drawing new cards and remembering not to look at them.
When a player is given clues about their cards, it can be a chore to remember not only what the clues are but also the location of those cards in their hand. Otherwise that can lead to some pretty devastating plays!
Interestingly, the digital version of Hanabi remembers the clues for players.

I also found Hanabi to be slightly frustrating, although this may be due to the behaviour of other players. It's definitely stressful watching another player not get the hint when they've given a clue.

These are minor quibbles and Hanabi is a unusual and challenging cooperative game that forces players to think hard and logically, provides meaningful decisions and some solid fun: Some big gameplay delivered in a small package.
Hanabi is definitely worth trying.

15th March 2022

It's another Tuesday evening with the Woking Gaming Club at The Sovereigns and we're playing Regicide

Is Regicide a cooperative game about recruiting heroes from a local tavern to go fight epic battles and raid a castle against a series of bosses (Who happen to be regents!), or is it just a deck of cards?

Turns out it's both.

What's in a game?

• Cards: Regicide consists of a regular 54 card deck of playing cards with the 4 regular suits, and 2 jokers.
  That's it really.

Well... there's not much that can be said here. It's a game that can be played a deck of ordinary cards and that's what it look like.
The official Regicide deck is nicely illustrated with some stylised and quirky fantasy themed artwork but it's still recognisability a standard deck of card.

And the game's iconography, well they're clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. You get the idea.

How's it play?
Setup

• ​Castle Deck: Separate all the jack, queen and king cards from the deck.
  Take the kings and shuffle them into a face-down deck, then take the queens, shuffle them and put them on top of the kings. Finally shuffle the jacks and place them on the queens. You'll now have the castle deck, a 12 card deck starting with jacks and going down to kings.
• Tavern deck: Take the remaining cards and add in jokers according to the player count, then shuffle the cards into a face-down deck, this is the tavern deck.
• Players: Deal cards to each player from the tavern deck up to the maximum hand size as determined by player count.
• First player: Determine a first player.

On to play
In Regicide, players must coordinate actions in order to prevail, however, they cannot communicate with each other.
During their turn, the active player uses one or more cards in their hand to attack the current enemy before then using more cards to resist the enemy's counterattack.
Play then continues to the next turn and the player on the left.

• Enemy: Reveal the top card from the deck, this will be the current enemy. Obviously the players will face 4 jacks before facing 4 queens and then ultimately 4 kings.
  All enemy's have 2 stats, Attack and Health, the higher the suit, the higher the values of these stats.
  Attack values go from 10-20.
  Health varies from 20-40.
• Attack: The active player may attack the current enemy by playing a single card from their hand next to the enemy. The attack's strength is determined by the card's value and thus goes from 1-10, this is how much damage is done to the enemy's health. Additionally, each card will also have a special power depending on its suit that is triggered during the attack.
  Clubs: A club deals double damage to enemy's health.
  Diamonds: This allows players to re-fill their hands from the tavern deck according to the value of the diamond card that was played.
  Hearts: Playing a heart repopulates the tavern deck with cards from the discard pile.
  Spades: If a spade is played, it lowers the current enemy's attack score by its value.
  Other rules: Below are the other rules that apply during the attack.
  Immunity: The current enemy will be immune to the power that matches its suit. Thus the queen of clubs will not take double damage from any clubs that are played. Immunities can be removed by jokers; see below for more information.
  Animal companions: The aces are animal companions and have a value of 1. This might not seem good but animal companions may be played with another card.
  This has 2 effects. Firstly it increases the value of the other card by 1, secondly it also triggers the animal companion's suit power. Thus a 5 of clubs accompanied by a ace of spades would do 12 damage and lower the enemy's attack by 6.
  Combos: If a player has cards with matching values, then they can be played as a set and their values added together, provided that combined value does not exceed 10. The max value of a combo would be 5+5.
  A combo also triggers all the suit powers of the cards involved. So theoretically, the 2 of every suit could be played for a combined value of 8 that would do 16 damage, put 8 cards into the tavern deck, deal 8 cards to players and lower the enemy's attack by 8!
  Joker: A joker can only be played on its own and has a value of 0. When played, it removes the current enemy's immunity. It also immediately ends the current turn, skipping the enemy's counterattack. The active player may then choose who gets to be the next active player which can be very useful.
  Yield: Players may choose not to attack, not play a card and instead endure the enemy's counterattack. Why would a player do this? If a player does not have enough cards to both attack and defend, they're going to want to yield and defend instead.
  Vanquished enemies: When the current enemy has their health reduced to 0 or less, they are defeated.
  The defeated enemy card and all cards played against them should be put into the discard pile (This is the only time cards are placed into the discard pile.), the current turn ends a new enemy is drawn from the castle deck. Thus the active player immediately begins a new turn against this newly revealed enemy by playing a new attack card.
  This means once an enemy card is defeated, it can be used by the players. This is very useful since the enemy cards are considered to have a value of 10-20.
  However; if an enemy was defeated by their exact health (Reduced to exactly 0 and not lower.), then that enemy card is placed on top of the tavern deck, not in the discard pile.
  Getting an exact defeat on a enemy card is a really powerful move because it immediately puts a strong card in possession of the players.
• Defend: Now the enemy can counter attack! When this happens, the active player must discard one or more cards which must have a combined value that is at least equal to the value of the current enemy's attack. Thus a queen has an attack of 15, therefore the defending player must discard cards which have a combined value of at least 15.
  Don't forget that any spades that have been played will reduce the enemy's attack and if the attack value has been reduced, then the defending player doesn't have to discard any cards.
  If a player can't prevent all of an enemy's attack, it's not good news!
• Next player: Once the active player has dealt with the enemy's attack, play progresses to the player on the left.

Endgame
Play progress until 1 of 2 conditions are met.
If the players defeat the 12th and final enemy, then they collectively win.
If at any time a player cannot discard enough cards to cover an enemy's attack, then the players collectively and immediately lose.

Overall
On a basic level players are faced with 4 choices when attacking and how to use the 4 suits and their respective abilities when playing Regicide is vital. The advantages of each ability are contextual and players will need to learn recognise when to use which suit. Suffice to say, players will need to make use of all the suits appropriately.
Of course it's not as simple as I'm making it sound. As with all cooperative games, luck plays an important part here and players will frequently find themselves lacking the cards they want, the immunity rule can also well and truly throw a spanner in the works too.
This forces them to make tricky decisions or find other approaches to how they attack and or indeed manage defence.

It should also be said that Regicide is a very hard game, very hard! I heard someone state that players can expect to win about 1 in 6 times but I feel this is an underestimation of the game's difficulty. We've played it numerous times and never won, we barely ever made it to the kings! Not only is the game hard off the bat, it just gets harder and harder!
I would argue that the Regicide is too hard, which would be my one gripe with it. Although it's entirely possible that there's some strategy that we overlooked.

​​Regicide has a fairly quick playtime which is in part due to it's brutal difficulty curve and could be a good filler game, although bear in mind that it definitely tests the grey matter.

It's a fascinating game that condenses a fair chunk of cooperative gameplay into a deck of 54 cards and gets a lot out of it. The rules are as impressive as the game is ruthlessly hard.
Regicide is a game worth trying if only to experience how such a game plays, just so long as you don't mind losing.