22nd August 2023

It's a Tuesday evening and we're round Simon's for an evening of games and diversions.

War of the Ring: The Card Game is a bit of a mouthful it's also as the name may suggest a card game version of the War of the Ring board game.
Will this game show its quality or will it be a stinker?

What's in a game?
Cards: Unsurprisingly, there's quite a few cards in the game and broadly speaking, they are broken down into 2 types, Faction cards and Location cards.
Faction cards: These represent a mixture of personalities (such as Sam), items (such as Sting), armies and even events from the story. Most cards have some elements from the list below.

• Scores: Character or army cards might include attack and defence scores for 1 or both of the 2 game's 2 types of conflict. Some cards may also include 'leadership' scores. These are shown along the left edge of a card.
• Paths: Some cards will show when that card can be used in the case of certain characters/cards: E.g., Faramir may not appear early on in the game because he does not appear early on in the story
• Items: In the case of an item, text will show who can use it; only Gandalf can use his staff for example.

The bottom half of each card will also contain text detailing what that individual card does.
Finally, each card will have a relevant, recognisable illustration of its subject matter that takes up the top half of the card.

There are quite a lot of faction cards (120 to be exact.) which in total constitute 4 decks of 30 cards each. 2 decks for each of the game's 2 opposing forces (The Free Peoples & The Shadow.).
​Each of the 4 decks is further subdivided into factions.

• The Free Peoples: The heroes! The Free Peoples consist of the following decks.
  • Aragorn deck: This deck contains the Dunedain and Elven factions.
  • Frodo deck: Dwarves, Rohan, Hobbits and Wizard (Just Gandalf really!) factions are represented here.

Location cards: These oversized cards are also broken down into 2 types; Battlegrounds and Paths.

• Battlegrounds: There are 14 of these cards and they are split evenly into Free Peoples and Shadow battlegrounds.
  As then name suggests, battleground cards represent the sites of various battles that occurred and each is well depicted with a large illustration.
  On the right of each battleground card will show it's defence value and which faction(s) is defending it, as well which faction(s) are attacking it and any special rules. The card's victory point (VP) value is shown in the top left.

Average best sums up the component quality for War of the Ring: The Card Game, which means the cards and tokens are all of a acceptable quality, nothing bad here but nothing to write home (or blog) about really. Unless the components are abused, they should be fine.

However; very good best sums up the quality and style of the artwork used. Fairly colourful, yet moody and evocative of middle-earth, it presents recognisable subjects to anyone familiar with Lord of the Rings.
If I were to be a harsh though, I would say that the art style looks a little 'samey' and similar to art found on a lot of other Lord of the Rings games and merchandising related to the film trilogy (Although characters look nothing like their cinematic counterparts.) but I'm not sure that it's a bad thing,  - it just gives it a consistent presentation will probably appeal to fans of the films and ultimately, I can't fault the presentation.

There's quite a lot of iconography used throughout the game for factions, different flavours of combat and also types of cards, etc.
On top of this, a lot of information is provided via text on the card and the rulebook has a glossary on how the wording works. Players will probably find themselves referring to the glossary a few times early on but it's not a deal-breaker and I'm probably making it sound a lot worse than it is.

Note: The description here is for the 4-player version of the game (Called the trilogy scenario.). 2 & 3 player count games have slightly different rules.

How's it play?
Setup
Location cards:

• Battleground decks: Sort the battleground cards into their 2 types and shuffle each into a face-down deck.
• Path deck: Sort all path cards into their 9 types then create a deck by placing the 3 '9' cards at the bottom then the 3 '8' card on top and so on until eventually the 3 '1's are on the top.

Player setup: War of the Ring: The Card Game is a team based game meaning that it is a 2v2 game. This adds an extra consideration for setup.

• Teams: Players will need to sort themselves into 2 opposing teams.
  On the Free Peoples' team, one player should be the 'Aragorn' player and the other the 'Frodo' player.
  The Shadow players should choose between the 'Witch-king' and 'Saruman'.
• Seating: Ideally players should arrange themselves around the central playing area in alternating order between teams and each player should face their teammate on the opposite side, think like how bridge is played.
• Cards: Sort all the faction cards by type and give each deck to their respective player. All players should shuffle their cards into a face down deck.
  • Draw cards: Each player should draw 7 cards and discard 2 cards (Called cycling here, more on cycling below.).
• First player: For round 1, the Frodo player will be the first player. After this, the first player will change for every round.

Some rules
Before going on to explain how the game plays, it might be an idea to explain some a few of the rules regarding faction cards, specifically, cycling, elimination & forsaking.

• Cycling: Players will frequently be cycling cards. This means they discard a card face-down from their hand to the cycling pile.
  As the name suggests, cards from the cycling deck can eventually be shuffled back into the draw when the draw deck is depleted.
• Elimination: Whenever a player has to eliminate a card, they must discard a card to the elimination pile. Typically, elimination will refer to specific cards. These cards are now out of the game, they cannot come back into play.
  When certain cards are eliminated, they may have actions triggered.
• Forsaking: Sometimes a forsaken action occurs, when this happens a card is placed into the elimination pile.
  However, unlike elimination, when a card must be forsaken, it can be discarded from the players hand OR from any faction card in play OR blindly from the top of the players draw deck.
  As with eliminations, some cards will trigger actions when forsaken, even when forsaken blindly from the deck!

• Multiple location cards: Dependant on circumstance, it is possible that multiple battleground cards will be active at the same time. It's also possible to activate and  complete' more than one path card in a round.
  Additionally, it is also possible to 're-activate' battleground cards that have already been completed.

Action step: This is where the majority of gameplay takes place. In turn order, each player takes an action until all players have consecutively passed. The action step ends when this occurs.
Actions include:

• Cycle card: The active player may spend an action to cycle a card.
• Move card: The active player may move a card from their reserve to a location card with the following restrictions.
  • A card cannot be moved in the round it is played.
  • A card cannot be moved to a location it could not be played to.
• Play card: The active play may play a card from their hand. When doing so, they must cycle another card.
  Taking restrictions into account, a card may be played to one of potentially several spots. This could be a battleground, path or reserve.
  Item cards: These are played on characters and will stay with them.
  Event cards: These are resolved immediately and then eliminated.
  A card may have multiple actions depending on where it's placed. These actions may be resolved now or later in the round accordingly.
  • Battleground location: A card may be played to a battleground, provided its faction matches one of the factions involved in the battle.
  • Path location: Provided the card has a path number that matches the current path card, it can be played to that path.
    Note; army cards cannot be played to paths.
  • Reserve: A card can be played to the player's reserve area.
• Use action: The active player may resolve an action to resolve the text on a card in play.
  The actions on a card may differ depending on where it has been played to.
• Use ring token: The active player may flip their ring token to its used side to draw 2 cards.
• Winnow: The active player may eliminate 2 cards in order to draw 1 more.
• Pass: The active player may choose to pass, provided 1 of the 2 following conditions are met.
  Unlike many other games, when a player passes, they are not out of play and may have the opportunity to ! See below for more on this.
  • Carryover limit: each player has a carryover limit which starts at 2. When a player's hand is equal to or less than their carryover limit, they may pass as their action.
  • Less cards: If the active player has less cards than all other players, they may choose to pass.
• End of action step: When all players have consecutively passed, then this step is over.
  Thus if one player passes and others do not, then that passing player will have the opportunity to take an action when it comes back to their turn again or they may pass again.

Combat step: Broadly speaking combat for battlegrounds and paths work in a similar manner.

• Defender: Determine who is the defender and who is the attacker.
  Path: The Free Peoples side is always the defender in path locations and thus the Shadow side is always the attacker.
  Battleground: If the battleground location is a Free Peoples location, then The Free Peoples side is the defender and the converse is true if its' a Shadow location.
• Compare scores: Compare the total value of the attacker's attack icons to the total value of the defender's defence icons.
  If the attacker has the higher value they win, otherwise the defender wins (defender always wins ties).
  Essentially, the attacking icons are cancelled out by the defending icons until they are all cancelled out or cannot be cancelled out. This can be tracked using the combat tokens.
• Aftermath: Once combat has been resolved, all attacking cards are eliminated. Defending cards are only eliminated if they had to be used to to defend, thus, if defence icons on defending faction cards were not needed to cancel out attacking icons, then those cards are cycled, not eliminated.
• Spoils of war: To the victor go the spoils, in this case that means location cards which is slightly different depending on whether it's a battleground or path.
  Battleground: The battleground location card goes to whichever side wins its combat, it will be worth the VPs shown in the top left corner.
  Path: If The Free Peoples win a path card, they gain the VPs displayed in the top left corner of the card. If the Shadow players win the card, their side gets VPs equal to the number of corruption tokens placed on it, these are in essence uncancelled attack icons.

​Victory check step: Once all combat has been resolved, both sides should total and compare their current VPs. If one side is beating the other side's score by 10 or more VPs, then that side immediately wins!
Draw step: The Free Peoples players draw 3 cards while the Shadow players draw 4! Those cheating bad guys!

• New round: The first for the next round should be selected as per the turn order tracker.

​Endgame
Provided the game does not end during the victory check step (It's generally unlikely the game will end this way.), then it will end when combat on the 9th and final path card has been resolved.
Each side scores as per follows:

• Battleground: Each side scores the displayed VPs from the battlegrounds they won.
• Paths: These score differently for each side.
  Free peoples: The Free Peoples gain the listed VPs for each path card they won.
  Shadow: Shadow players score 1VP for each corruption token they placed on a path card that they won. VPs listed on path cards are worth 0 to the Shadow players.
• Corruption tokens: The Shadow players gain 1VP for each other corruption token they earned (other than those on path cards).
• Ring tokens: Each unused ring token at the game end now earns 1VP for its respective side.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.
In the case of a tie, the Shadow side wins! Definitely cheating bad guys!

Overall
War of the Ring: The Card Game feels very appropriate thematically. As with the books, the gameplay is split between the large events and battles while the fellowship makes it's way to Mount Doom through its paths.

It's also quite challenging and at it's heart, this is a auctioning/bidding game.
The cards with their attack and defence values represent bids, winning the auction means winning the battle and the card is the prize.
Where it gets interesting through, is in the mechanics going on around it.

Players are constantly forced into making difficult, meaningful decisions - every time a cards is played, another must be cycled. Players will need to continually assess which cards they can discard and since every card is good, it's not easy.

Battles compound this, every card a player contributes to an attack will be gone from the game afterwards; more hard decisions to make! Even defending cards will invariably be eliminated.
This also has the consequence of making the 'pass' action actually a powerful move.
It might seem counterintuitive but the earlier a player can choose pass, the better it is for them. In many games passing means a player is out the running. Here it means a player can potentially sit back and watch what their opponents are committing to a combat before they have to do so themselves.

Another element to consider is teamwork. Each deck will have its own strengths and weaknesses. Team mates will need to try and coordinate their actions to exploit their strengths and mitigate their vulnerabilities.
There is no secret communication at the table here and chat is open so everyone can hear it. Anything said to a teammate is heard by all.
I guess it means communication between allies will be limited to meaningful eyebrow waggles.

Players must also balance the need to win current conflicts but also retain cards for future battles as over time their options are whittled away. Knowing what to keep for what comes later can be a real game changer. E.g., no matter how powerful a personality is, if can't be played on the current or upcoming path cards, its usefulness becomes somewhat limited.

This ties in with a criticism I have: There were several times during the game where I felt I just could not counter or match the cards played by an opposing player.
I'm not sure if this was down to my opponent(s) knowing the game better and knowing what to keep in hand or sometimes luck playing a bit too much of a role.
Either way it made for a bit of a frustrating experience.
This definitely seems like a game that needs several playthroughs in order to grasp the nuances.

Additionally; we played the game 4-player and the general consensus seems to be that this is the best player count for it.

There's a lot of direct interaction and conflict between players in this game and some people will find that stressful or off putting which means they probably won't get on with this game but if you do like that sort of thing, then here's a lot to like in War of the Ring: The Card Game and it's definitely work a look. Especially if you've got 3 reliable friends who will play it with you several times.

21st August 2023

It's a Monday night and we're logged into Board Game Arena for some gaming goodness.

​Flip those cards! Steal 'em or give 'em away in Color Flush, a lightweight set-collecting card game.

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

What's in a game?
Cards: Color Flush consists of a deck of 50 cards. They are somewhat elongated and narrow compared to typical playing card proportions. All cards are double-sided and display one of several colours each side, generally they will be 2 different colours but the are cards that the same colour on both sides.

Well, that's it for components!

While there's no artwork to speak of on any of the cards, the colours used are generally bright and vibrant, they also display patterns for each colour which have no doubt been included to improve accessibility.

There are also no icons either. All the game's information is related through colours and the game is flush with those (SIC) (Sorry.).

How's it play?
Setup
Cards: Shuffle all the cards into a deck, there is no back or front, so no face-down or face-up cards.
Deal 7 cards to each player; each player should make sure NOT TO LOOK at the other side of their cards, they should only know the colours of the sides of the cards facing them.
The remaining cards become the draw pile.
First Player: Determine a starting player.

Onto to play
In Color Flush, the objective is to be the first player to have all the cards in their hand (facing them) with the same colour.
Color Flush follows a traditional turn order with the active player completing their turn before play progresses to the player on their left.

On their turn, the active player must perform the 3 actions below, however they can complete those actions in any order they see fit.
Flip: The active player flips one of the cards in their hand to the other side.
Give: Without flipping it, the active player must either give a card to another player or puts it on the draw pile.
Take: The active player must take a card, either from an opponent or from the draw pile and adds it to their hand without flipping it.
Other rules: There are some other rules that also apply.

• Black cards: If a player gains a black card into their hand by any means, then they must immediately flip their entire hand!
• White cards: If a player has any white cards in their hand, those cards are considered wild and can be of any colour,
• Hand size: All players have hand sizes limited to between 4 and 10 cards. This cannot be altered. E.g., if a player has 4 cards in their hand, then a card cannot be taken from them because it would take their hand size down to 3.

End of turn: Once the active player has completed their 3 actions, play progresses to the player on their left.

Endgame
The moment any player has cards of only 1 colour in their hand, they immediately win the game.​

Overall
Color Flush is obviously a very abstract game with no attempt to attach a theme to the set-collecting mechanics.
I'm fine with this but I know some people will bounce off this.

From the brevity of the write-up, it's easy to see that Color Flush is a very lightweight game which offers some straightforward if unpredictable mechanics. Players have 3 actions they must perform, the only variation is in the order in which they do so.

This is a game that mixes memory gameplay with a degree of luck: When collecting their set, players will need to remember both what cards they've given or had taken away as well as what on the other side of cards. Then use this information to try and complete a set as quickly as possible. It means paying attention to what other players are doing.
Of course players also have to deal with drawing cards they don't need and particularly, the occasional black card which will quite figuratively change everything!

I can't really fault Color Flush; it's an accessible game with a quick playtime but for my tastes it's a bit too light. Coupled with the randomness of frequently losing cards (Which may or may not be part of the set you're trying collect.) or having your entire hand switched made for a experience frustrating more than fun or satisfying.

Not one for me but perhaps a game that could be considered for younger players or as an entry level game or maybe a party game.

13th August 2023

It's Sunday lunchtime and that means we're at The Sovereigns in Woking for some gaming diversions.

Being a brave adventurer comes with its risks and drawbacks, like for example; being trapped out at sea in a sea monster's mysterious cave lair.
Luckily, being the industrious adventurers that you are, the dangerous situation you all find yourselves in won't stop any of you from trying to screw over your companions for cold hard cash in this bluffing card game.

What's in a game?
Captain's bottle: This is an actual message in a bottle, it's not a glass bottle and fortunately has very little chance of breaking. Since we never pulled the message out, we've go no idea what it says?

Adventurer sheets: This is a bit of a misnomer to call them 'sheets' as they are fairly chunky and sturdy double sided tiles.
Each 'sheet' represents a individual character on these double-sided tiles. One side has the character in a 'explorer' role, while the other shows them in the 'captain' role.

• Explorer: The explorer side of a adventurer sheet shows a character portrait and their unique special move below it. Most of the tile's space is given over to showing a breakdown of most of cards that appear in the deck - although I'm sure it doesn't show the purses (which have no action).

Cards: There are 7 types of cards in Oh Captain.
4 types have actions in game associated with them. These are the Grappling Hooks, Lanterns, Lizards and Pistols.
Purses are worth gold while Nukha Eggs are essentially booby traps.
Finally. there's a Nomads' Arrival card which triggers the game end.

Tokens: Two types of card tokens are used in the game.

• Gold coins: These round tokens obviously depict some kind of gold coin.

Card dispenser: This neat looking component is a card holder constructed out of thick card and used to hold the game's deck. Thematically, it depicts the game's mysterious but also item laden cave lair.

Component quality is good throughout Oh Captain. The tiles, tokens and card dispenser are all made of suitably thick card and feel nicely robust. Arguably the gold coin tokens are typical for what you'd expect for gold coins, which means they're not bad but average and completely acceptable.
The cards have a laminated feel to them while their back have gold foil finish.
The bottle looks great and is transparent acrylic, it doesn't feel like it would break unless someone purposely tried to do so.

Oh Captain has great presentation. Artwork displayed on the adventurer sheets and cards in particular is clear, colourful and does a good job of portraying the exotic location the game takes place in.
The card dispenser, while unnecessary adds a nice touch to the game and the same is true of the captain's bottle.
It all adds up to make Oh Captain a pretty looking game.

There are only a handful of actions in the game, consequently there aren't too many icons to remember and the items/cards they're associated with are self explanatory, well, except for the lizard, since when do lizards steal money?
anyway, other than the lizard, everything straightforward and easy to understand.

How's it play?
Setup
Players: Players carry out the following set up.

• Captain: Randomly determine who will be the captain at the start of the game. All other players will be explorers.
  Give the captain the captain's bottle and 5 gold.
  Give all explorers 3 gold each.
  Then give 1 Purse card each explorer, this should begin the game face-down. The remaining purse cards are not used in the game.
• Roles: Starting with the captain each player chooses an adventurer sheet.
  Each player then should place their sheet in front of them, with the pertinent side up.
• Cards: First remove the Nomads' Arrival card and set it aside.
  • Next, shuffle the deck of cards and draw 3 cards into a face-down stack, then add the Nomads' Arrival card also face-down, creating a 4 card stack.
  • Shuffle this stack and place it at the bottom of the dispenser, thus the Nomad's Arrival will be one of the last 4 cards.
  • Shuffle the remaining cards and place them on top of the stack of 4 cards in the dispenser.
• Discard pile: Finally, draw 3 cards from the stack and place them underneath the captain's bottle to form the beginnings of the discard pile.
  The captain is free to look at the cards in the discard pile.
• First player: The player to the left of the captain becomes the first player. Give that player the card dispenser.

On to play
Oh Captain uses a more-or-less typical turn order with the active player resolving their action before play moves to the player on their left, except if it's the captain, the captain does not get turns! They can potentially act in other player's turns but are skipped as active player instead!
The active player performs the following phases.
Mutiny.... or not: If at the start their turn, the active player has more coins than the captain, they can choose to mutiny.... or not!

• Mutiny: If the active player does mutiny, they take the bottle along with the 3 cards into their personal area. They also take 1 gold from the general supply.
  The player's turn then immediately ends.
• Loyal.... for now: If the active player chooses not to mutiny (or cannot because they do not have coins), then they pledge their loyalty to the captain.
  This is not just words though and they must pay 1 coin to the captain!
  The active player must now explore.

Exploring: The active player now draws 1 card from the dispenser and keeping it hidden, looks at it. they should keep it face-down.
They must now offer to sell it to the captain for 1 coin.

• Sell card: When selling the card they just drew to the captain, the active player must tell the captain what type of card it is - which will be 1 of the 4 action cards; grappling hook, lantern, lizard or pistol.
  However, the active player can choose to lie about what kind of card it is and in fact, if they drew a Nukha Egg, they must lie about what the card is, they can never offer to sell an egg.
• Captain's choice: The captain has the choice to buy the card or not.
  • No sell: If the captain chooses not to buy the card, then the game proceeds to the active player's action phase.
  • I'd buy that for a coin: If the captain chooses to buy the card, the following occurs:
    • Payout: The captain gives the active player 1 coin and takes the card.
    • Reveal card: The captain now reveals the card and places it face-up in their personal area.
      • Lie: If the active player was lying, then nothing further occurs. The turn is over and play progresses to the player to the left of the current active player.
      • Truth: If the card is what the active player said it was, then the captain immediately resolves the card's action and then the turn is over. Play progresses to the player to the left of the current active player.
        More on card actions below.
• Action phase: If the captain chose not to buy the card, then the active player must use the declared card's action. The card should not be revealed and the active player cannot use the action that would come from a different card.
  I.e., regardless of whatever the card might be, if the active player told the captain it was a Pistol, they must perform the pistol action.
  Actions: When performing an action, remember the card is not revealed and the active player can must target another explorer, they cannot target the captain (It's good to be the captain!).
• Challenge: Before resolving the action, the player who was targeted by it can challenge the action. When this occurs, the active player must reveal the card (Cards are only revealed in this phase when challenged.) and the following occurs.
  • Lie: If the active player was lying about what the card was, then they must pay a coin to the targeted player and their turn is over.
  • Truth: If the active player was telling the truth, the targeted player must pay a coin to them and the card's action is still resolved.
• Resolving actions: The 4 actions are:
  Grappling hook: Take a card from the targeted player.
  Lantern: Reveal a face-down card in the targeted player's personal area.
  Lizards: Take a coin from the targeted player.
  ​Pistol: Destroy a card in the targeted player's personal area.
  Nukha egg: No effect - although since a Nukha Egg cannot be declared as an action, it can never have the possibility of having an effect?
• Next turn: Once the action for the round has been resolved, the active player's turn is over and play progresses to the player on their left.

Endgame
Play continues until an explorer draws the Nomads' Arrival card, in which case the explorer reveals it and the game immediately ends, players now reveal all the cards in their personal area and the game goes to scoring.

Majority
Before final scoring, majority needs to be determined for Grappling Hooks, Lizards and Pistols.
Basically; whoever has the most cards of each type (ties do not count) gains the majority token that corresponds to it.

Players then total all their gold coins, this comes from:

• Gold coins.
• Lantern cards (worth 2 or 3 gold each).
• Majority tokens (worth 4 gold each).

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
​Thematically, Oh Captain is a bit left field; a bluffing game about shipwrecked adventurers trapped in a sea cave who decide - while exploring - to try and steal valuables from and out do each other as they wait for their possible rescue?
It's definitely a bit of a stretch for a bluffing game!

Minor quibble aside, how does Oh Captain fare mechanically? fairly strongly I feel albeit with a flaw.
Like pretty much all games based on bluffing, this is as much about playing the players as it is about playing the game and depending on whether a player is the captain, active explorer or other explorer there's 3 sets of conundrums to consider.

If an explorer doesn't mutiny, they have to draw a card and then consider their options. The mechanic that allows the explorer to potentially sell it to the captain adds an extra winkle here.
When declaring what the item is (or what the explorers says it is) the active player has to try and consider whether the captain will want it or not. If the captain might want a pistol, declaring it a pistol might get the captain to buy. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on whether the active player wants to use a pistol or not and if they would prefer a gold coin for it. Generally, getting cash it good!
Additionally, the active player also has to think about how they would use the card if the captain doesn't want it. Saying it's a lizard in the hope the captain doesn't want it is no god if the active has no need for it themselves.
So sometimes the player will need to lie to try just to try and get the card they want or need and sometimes it'll just be dropped into their hand and of course, there's the Nukha Egg that forces players to lie.

Challenging is another element to think about, when an explorer is targeted by the active player, they'll need to consider whether it's a bluff and challenge it, the outcome for getting it wrong can be costly. As there's only 5 of the Grappling Hook, Lizard and Pistol and 7 Lanterns, there's definitely a slight element of card counting that can be used but since not all cards will be revealed (And 3 have been removed from the game.), there's also some imperfect knowledge at work too, meaning there's generally always a slight gamble when challenging.

The dilemma faced by the captain is a little different, since they don't get a turn, they can only act in other players' turns by buying and using their cards! This can be useful since potentially, the captain could get a lot of actions but there's a cost to this though and if another player lies, then the captain loses money for nothing.
Thus the captain will need to calculate whether the card's action is worth 1 gold to use - provided it is what the active player says it is.

This is where we come to what I feel is a bit of a flaw in the game: As captain, I never felt motivated to needing to buy a card offered to me and generally ended up refusing them..
Take the Lizard card for example, the captain could pay 1 gold to use it, but all it does is allow the captain to steal 1 gold from another player. So ultimately, the captain gains zero benefit from it, sure if the captain feels another player is close to mutiny, it can be employed as a denial strategy but it also gift a coin to another player. All the captain is doing is shifting coins around the other players. This is all provided, it really was a Lizard, otherwise it's just a loss of a coin.
Or the Pistol; the captain could pay a coin to use it to destroy card or just let the active player use it to destroy a card instead.
Why waste a coin to destroy a card?
It might not be the card the captain would want destroyed but a card will be destroyed regardless unless of course it is challenged and proves to be a lie - in which case the captain was wise to not buy it.

I found it quite likely I was being lied to when I bought cards which is mostly why I just stopped buying them altogether - it just wasn't worth the risk.
In a 4-player game, the captain will gain 3 coins per round and if other players aren't gaining at least that many coins per round, they'll never catch up. So why should the captain spend coins for anything?
This is compounded by the rule that prevents explorers targeting captains with cards, I understand why as everyone would pick on the captain but it's even more reason not to buy a card as leaving it with the explorers means they'll just end up attacking and stealing from each other!

It's not entirely 100% the case that it'll go down that way as it's likely that other players will get the majority tokens which would be a 4-coin swing but I feel, unless 1 player gains 2 of them, it won't be enough.

It means that it's generally a no-brainer to just not buy cards and no-brainers are bad because they are the opposite of meaningful decisions - which is bad.

It's a bit of a shame as otherwise Oh Captain is a very nicely presented, fun game to play if bluffing games are your thing.

25th July 2023

Tuesday is here again and we're at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club and it's time for some card-based entertainment.

According to Wikipedia: ​

What's in a game?
​
Cards: There is a set of 10 oversized unique cards in each player colour and each set features the same set of identical cards.
The cards fall into 1 of 2 categories; characters and intrigues, each depicts either a personality or situation, along with a scroll (in player colour) containing text which describes that card's action.
Actions might include acquiring influence tokens or eliminating other cards and so on.
Finally, the back of each set depicts its own in icon in its player colour.

Influence tokens: There are 70 of these circular card tokens. Each point of influence  a represent victory point (VP).

Resolution direction tile: This tile depicts a bloody spear! It is used to indicate the direction of play.

Component quality is at the standard you'd expect from a modern game nowadays. The  tokens are suitably sturdy and the cards look fine. Nothing bad to write about here.

Painted artwork features throughout the cards, it's good looking art and each of the 10 individual card types has its own illustration. The art direction is relatively dark and moody, it fits the game's theme of betrayal and assassination quite well.

Iconography is kept to a minimum in Oriflamme with only a coupe of symbols to content with and most game information is relayed via text. This shouldn't pose any problems for players

How's it play?
Setup

• Players: Give each player a 10 card deck in their player colour.
  Now players should shuffle their cards and discard 3 face-down, other players should not see which cards their opponents have discarded. The remaining 7 cards constitutes each players' (now asymmetrical) hand.
  Each player should take 1 influence token.
• First player: Determine a starting player.
• Direction tile: This tile should be placed in the central playing area and will indicate the direction of play when placing cards and during the resolution phase.

On to play
The objective in Oriflamme is to acquire the most influence tokens over 6 rounds.
Each round is played over 2 phases and importantly, some extra rules will come into player after the 1st round
In the 1st phase players will be collectively creating a row of cards called the 'influence queue' along the direction tile and this is done in a traditional turn order.
During the 2nd phase, the cards will potentially be revealed in 'resolution' order which will likely be different to the turn order from the previous phase. When a card is revealed, its action is immediately resolved.

• ​Placement phase: In turn order and starting the first player, each player will choose and play 1 card face-down into the influence queue.
  First card: The first card played into the queue can be played 'anywhere'.
  Subsequent cards: All cards that follow must be placed to the left or the right of cards currently in the queue; that is at either the start or the end.
  Once all players have placed a card, the next phase occurs.
• Resolution phase: This phase is resolved in resolution order, that is the order the cards have been placed in the queue and thus starts with the 1st card in the queue whose player becomes the active player.
  Active player: When it comes to resolving their card, each player must choose from 1 of 2 options.
  • Add influence: Add 1 influence token from the supply to the card and move on to the next card.
  • Reveal card: The player must flip their card and resolve it, this will trigger one of several effects. Effects must be carried out in full if possible, even if it is detrimental to the active player and might include the following:
    Earn influence tokens: An action may allow the active player to gain influence.
    Steal influence: This allows the active player to take an influence token from a player's personal supply not from on a face-down card.
    Eliminate a card: When any card is eliminated, it is discarded from the queue and the active player earns 1 influence.
    Discard: A card that is either discarded for any reason or action, or eliminated follows the same rules.
    A discarded card is removed from the queue and returned to its owner, the queue is then 'closed up' to fill the gap. If the discarded card was face-down, it is revealed and any influence tokens that were on it are also discarded.
    ​Discarded/eliminated cards always remain face-up for all players to view.
• Next round: When a round ends, it is possible that all, none or some cards to be revealed and for some or none of the cards to be discarded/eliminated: Regardless of this, once all cards have been addressed, it is time for the next round.

Subsequent rounds: After the 1st round has been played out, all following rounds have a couple of extra rules/options.

• Placement phase: As well as putting a card at the start or end of the queue during this phase, players also have the option to put the card face-down on top of one of their own cards, creating a 'stack'.
  Only the top card in a stack is considered in play, everything beneath it is not. If the top card on stack is discarded, then whatever was beneath it is now considered back in play.
• Resolution phase: The following rules now apply during this phase.
  • Add influence: If a card is face-down, the active player may add a further influence token from the supply to the card. Thus, if a card from a previous round was not revealed, another token may added to it and they can continue to accumulate so long as the card remains face-down.
    Influence cannot be added to a face-up card.
  • Reveal card: The active player can reveal their card as normal, if there were any influence tokens on the revealed card are acquired by the active player and the card's action is resolved as normal.
    It should be noted that any actions that target other cards, only ever targets the top card in a stack.
  • Face-up card: If a card was face-up from a previous round, when it's turn comes up in queue, it's action must be resolved as usual, even if it is detrimental to the active player.

Endgame
Play progresses until the 6th round has been completed.
All players calculate the totalled value of their influence tokens.

Point are tallied, highest score wins,

Overall
Oriflamme is a game of power grabbing, hidden motives, ambush and assassination which feels like it's set in a brutal world, a world where the wealthy and influential battle it out and vie to rise to power. In other words, a reasonable facsimile of medieval Europe.
While the game is somewhat abstract, it does feel quite appropriate and fit its theme.

​Mechanically, Oriflamme is pretty straightforward, it might get a touch fiddly when managing stacks but otherwise is easy to learn.

The rules aren't really that important here, this is not about playing the game. It's all about playing the players.
The complexity comes in how the cards interact with each other and their relative position to each other in the queue.
Players will need to watch their opponents, try and gauge their tactics and respond appropriately. They'll also need to watch which cards get revealed and discarded.
Oriflamme does a neat trick here though; by getting players to discard cards randomly it creates asymmetrical hands. Card counters won't be able to know exactly what cards other players can use. This imperfect knowledge means that there always a degree of risk to actions.
Depending on the type of people playing, there may well be some bluffing going on which is entire on par for the game.

With only 6 rounds, Oriflamme has a fairly quick play time, although that is with the caveat of not having players who suffer from analysis paralysis.
It's also a game of 'take that', direct interaction, conflict between players and will likely lead to some boisterous gameplay.
For me, it's something I don't mind in limited quantity but for some people this is can be off-putting and Oriflamme probably isn't for them.

I found Oriflamme to be an enjoyable and engaging game (Albeit with some stress!) that blends a bit of logic and strategy with a dash of luck to create meaningful and interesting decisions that might possibly lead to unpredictable outcomes. This makes it a good game in my opinion.

11th June 2023

​Sunday evening is here again and that means some gaming goodness on Board Game Arena.
Line up those numerical cards in this abstract, lightweight and compact set-collecting card game!

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

​What's in a game?

• Cards: Line-it uses 2 types of cards.
  • Number cards: There are card numbered 1-100 in Line-it. Additionally they are further subdivided into to 4 colours/suits.
  • Bet cards: These grey, essentially monotone cards are labelled from +3 to +5. They are used as part of the game's push-you-luck betting mechanic.

How's it play?
Setup

• Jackpot tokens: Place the jackpot tokens in a row adjacent to the central playing area.
• ​Deck: Shuffle all the cards into face-down deck.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
In Line-it, players will be drafting cards then using them to create a row of cards (The titular line if you will) and this row must either ascend of descend numerically from left-to-right.
Once a line reaches a 'suitable' size, players can then choose score that line by 'completing' and adding it to their personal 'scoring stack' which represents their victory points (VPs).

A round in Line-it is played using a traditional turn order with the first player acting before play progresses to the player on their left and so on.

• Round start: Draw cards from the deck to form The market. The size of the market is equal to the number of players + 2.
• First Player: A round starts with the first player as the active player.
• Draft card: The active player must draft a card from the market, they can then perform 1 of 2 actions with it.
  • Add to line: This card can be added to the active player's line with the following requirements.
    1st card: Any card can be played as the 1st card in a line.
    Left-to-right: Every card that is played after the first must be placed to the right of the rightmost card, thus the line always goes from left-to-right.
    2nd card: The 2nd card added the line will determine whether the line ascends or descends numerically in value. If the 2nd card has a higher value than the 1st, the line with ascend, conversely, if is lower, the line will descend.
    3rd card onwards: All cards played to the line after the 2nd must continue the 'trend' of the line. Thus must be higher in value in a ascending line or lower in a descending line.
    Jackpot: If a player adds a 3rd card of a certain colour to their line, they immediately draft all cards of that colour that have been stacked adjacent to its corresponding jackpot token. More on how jackpots are created below.
    Bet cards: These do not count as number cards and are not affected by the placement rules above. Bet cards represent a push-your-luck element as players are essentially betting on how many cards they think they can play into their line after the bet card. Thus, the higher the bet card value, the more cards must be played to win the bet but also, the more VPs it's worth. Bet cards come into play when completing and scoring a line.
    Only 1 bet card can ever be placed in a line.
  • Add to hand: Alternatively, the drafted card can be added to the active player's hand.
    Players have a maximum hand size of 2.
  • Cannot play: If for any reason the active player cannot perform either of the 2 actions above, they must immediately 'complete' their line and score it. More on scoring below.
• Additional actions: As well as the actions, above, the active player has 2 further actions available to them which can be resolved at any time during their turn.
  • Play from hand: The active player may add a single card from their hand to their line, this must follow the usual placement rules.
  • Complete line: The active player may (Or may be forced to!) score a line by 'completing' it. This has 2 steps.
    • Bet card: If the active player has a bet card in their line, they must first check if they've won their 'bet'.
      Winning a bet: Every bet card has a value from +3 to +5. If the active player has played at least as many cards after the bet as it's value, they have won the bet! They take the bet token with corresponding value and add it to their scoring stack.
      Losing a bet: If the active has not played the required number of cards, they have lost the bet! They take the bet token with the corresponding value, flips it to the negative side and adds it to their scoring stack.
    • Score the line: The active player discards 3 cards from their line and adds the remaining cards to their scoring stack.
      This means if a line has 3 or less cards, it will score 0 when completed!
• End of turn: Once the active player has completed their action(s), play progresses to the player on their left.
• End of round: Once all players have taken their turns - the round is obviously over and the 2 following steps occur.
  Jackpots: The 2 remaining cards which were not drafted are placed adjacent to their pertinent jackpot tokens and will become available in later rounds for players to gain.
  New first player: The player to the left of the current first player becomes the first player for the next.
  Play will now progress with new cards being drawn to create a new market.

Endgame
The endgame is triggered when there are not enough cards to create a full market at the start of a round. Then the following occurs.
Firstly, any remaining cards from the deck are placed on to their corresponding jackpot tokens.
Then in turn order, each player gets the opportunity to play 1 card from their hand to their line (Increasing their score and potentially gaining a jackpot.).
Finally, all players must complete their current line.

Now players calculate their finishing scores. Each card in a scoring stack is worth 1 VP while bet tokens are worth their displayed values.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Line-it is an abstract drafting game that doesn't attempt to awkwardly shoehorn a tenuous theme on to itself and while I know plenty of players for whom theme is important, I myself have never found the lack of it an obstacle to enjoying a game.
In this regard, some people may be put off by Line-it's lack of theme but YMMV.

Rules-wise, Line-it is a straightforward, easily understood rules-light but luck-heavy game. Players have to draft a card and then choose whether to play it to their line or 'bank' it to play later.
Players will initially look to draft a very low or high card to start a line, giving them the most leeway to create longer lines and players will want to create long lines.
The game's action economy dictates that (Ignoring jackpots.) completing a line after 6 drafts will score 3VPs - which is 0.5VPs per action but completing a line with just 4 cards would score 1VPs and that works out to be only 0.25 per action.
Worse of all, having to complete a line of 3 or less cards would give 0VPs for per action. Something players will definitely want to avoid.

Because of the inherent luck present in Line-it, at times players will have to deal with much less than optimal choices while drafting cards - doubly so when a player is going later in the round and their choices lessen even more.

Of course jackpots throw something different into the mix, sometimes justifying completing a line 'early' to gain those bonus cards. E.G., discarding a line of 3 yellows to gain a yellow jackpot card would earn 1VP which works to be .33VP per action. Having said that, getting 3 cards of the same colour will not be particularly quick, especially if other players can get there quicker.

Bet cards also provide a extra element to think about. Although their usefulness will vary: They can be a good source of VPs in the early game or early in a player's line but conversely be very negative in the late game or of if added later in a players line.
Players will need to think carefully when considering the risk of adding a bet card to their line.

The other element for players to consider is placing a card into their hand. Being able to bank a card can be vital to success. There's a bit of higher level of play in Line-it that can come from storing and playing a card of a certain colour or value can prove advantageous at the right time and sometimes.
Additionally, a player being able to put a card into their hand simply to just to avoid playing it can also be useful.
Wisely, the game limits player hands to 2, otherwise it would be too useful an action.

So while Line-it does give players meaningful decisions to make, the can also be very luck dependant and sometimes players will be faced with nothing but less than optimal choices, particularly when they go later in the turn order and their options dwindle.
The scoring also felt somewhat frustrating, having to discard 3 cards before scoring feels wrong. I know why that mechanic exists - it prevents players scoring short lines of 2 cards or so which is not something you want in a game about creating numerically linear lines of card. Even so, it felt counterintuitive and even unfair!

Another element I found counterintuitive was when I would habitually think, 'I'm going first next round, so I'll draft one of those cards not taken this round' only to see them discarded into their jackpot stacks.
I know this is my fault but again, it felt frustrating and only served to highlight the game's randomness.

I'm probably overthinking it though. Line-it is an accessible game that will probably play quite well with non-gamers. It's also a quick filler game that could be used to begin or end a long gaming session and not something to pour huge amounts of though into.
​If you like a lot of luck in your filler games, Line-it could be for you.
For me though, it didn't have quite enough to engage me. I applaud a game for it's simplicity and accessibility but having said that, I did find Line-it just a bit too simple and random for my liking. 

30th May 2023

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

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

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

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

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

How's it play?
Setup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

30th April 2023

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

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

What's in a game?

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

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

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

How's it play?
Setup

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

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

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

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

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

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

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

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

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

25th April 2023

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

Pirates; - they're known for spending their time burying treasure and going arrr! Skull King is a trick-taking game all about finding that treasure and going ahhh!

The quality of the cards is exactly the kind of quality you'd expect from a modern game - so pretty good, fairly sturdy cards that look laminated.

There's lots of nice pirate themed artwork in Skull King. Most of it is bright and colourful with good quality illustrations. Importantly, the 4 suits all look distinct from one another as do the special/character cards.

The 4 suits are easily recognised by theme and colours. The special cards are also easily recognisable.

How's it play?
Setup

• Deck setup: Add/remove the advanced game cards to or from the deck depending whether the normal or advanced game will be played.
• Dealer: Determine the dealer for the game start. The player to the left of the deal becomes the first lead player for that round.

On to play
Skull King is played over 10 rounds with players having increasingly larger hands of cards as rounds progress.
Furthermore, as the game progresses, players will play more and more tricks. Whoever wins each trick will earn the cards used in that trick - which will equate to points at the end of the round.
Skull King is a pretty traditional trick-taking game which uses a traditional turn order with the active player acting before play progresses to the player on their left.

• Round start: The dealer should shuffle the cards into a face-down deck.
• Deal cards: Now the dealer should deal cards face-down to all players.
  The number of cards dealt out should equal to the current round count. I.e., in the 1st round deal 1 card to each player, in the 4th round, deal 4, all the way to the 10th round where 10 cards are dealt to each player.
• Bidding: Each player should carefully look at their cards and try to gauge how 'strong' their hand is and secretly guess how many tricks they think they might win during the coming round. This becomes their 'bid' for the round
  Then all players simultaneously reveal their bids, which then can be recorded using the relevant tracking cards.
• Tricks: With the bidding out of the way, play can commence.
  • Lead player: The lead player will begin the trick by playing any card from their hand which will determine the suit for the trick.
    They are also free to play a special card instead which has no suit (The first suit card played will now determine the suit.)
    Follow: Now all other players must follow suit if they can, which means playing a card of the same suit. If they do not have a card of the same suit, then they can play a card of any other suit.
    Alternatively, regardless of whether a player has a card of the correct suit or not, they may choose to play a special card instead.
    Essentially, special cards have no suit and therefore do not need to follow suit.
  • Winner: Once all players have played a card, the trick is complete and a winner must be determined. There are several ways this can go.
    Suit cards: If only suit cards were played, whoever played the highest value card in the correct suit wins the trick.
    Cards of other suits can never win tricks unless it is from the black/jolly roger suit, in this case a black card will always beat the other suits regardless of value, only a black card of higher value can beat another black card.
    Special cards: As a rule, special cards will always beat suit cards, the exception being the escape card which always loses the trick!
    If multiple special cards are played, there are various rules for how they interact with each other.
    Once a winner has been determined, they collect all cards played in the trick and place them into their personal area.
    It's a good idea for a player to track how many tricks they've won for the end of round scoring.
• End of trick: If players have no more cards in their hand, the round is over and the game goes to the next round or game end as explained below.
  If players still have cards in hand, they continue playing tricks. Whoever won the previous trick will be the lead player for the next trick.
• End of round: When players have emptied their hands, the round is over!
  Players now calculate how many victory points (VPs) they have scored for the round and this is recorded.
  Bids: If a player won the exact number of tricks that they bid for at the round start, then they earn VPs. If the total tricks won is higher or lower, they lose points!
  highest value suit card: A player will earn VPs if they gained the highest value card of any suits.
  Special cards: These cards may situationally earn VPs.
• Next round: For the next round, the dealer and first player both move to the players on their left.
  The new dealer should collect all cards, shuffle them into a face-down deck and now deal cards to each player; the number of cards dealt should be 1 higher than the previous round.

Endgame
Once the 10th round has concluded and the VPs for that round calculated, the game is finally at an end and goes to end scoring.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Despite being a bit of a stretch to fit, Skull King's pirate theme is fairly amusing with evocative artwork to match. It's a good looking game.

Mechanically, the game is for the most part a straightforward, familiar trick-taking card game, albeit with a handful of special cards that change things up a little.
What makes Skull King standout are the scoring mechanics and in particular the bidding mechanic.

Players are forced to make a decision based on contextual information such as what is the current round and what cards they currently have in their hand. Then they'll need to try and gauge how many wins and losses they can get from their hand and plan accordingly.
Sometimes this will be simple, in the 1st round with only 1 trick being played, it's fairly safe to bid on winning 0 tricks, especially if a player only has a escape card in their hand!
As the game progresses though, these decisions will get harder and harder as more and more cards, special and otherwise come into play, making longer rounds a bit more unpredictable.
Additionally, the scoring system for bids rewards players who bid high (And manage to achieve it!) while it increases the price for failing big. A genuine risk and reward mechanic.
Finally, the bidding mechanic also introduces asymmetrical objective for players, some will be looking win tricks when others are trying lose them.
There's also a higher level of play here that involves paying attention to other players' bids.
E.g., if an opponent has won all the tricks they bid for and the round isn't over, making them win a trick will scupper the points they get from their bid.

However, I'm not so sure how I feel about the bidding mechanic, it definitely adds an extra layer to the gameplay but it's also kind of swingy, hitting a bid can earn a lot of VPs while missing it can lose a not insignificant number of VPs and sometimes this will be very much out a players control.
Additionally. the scoring rules feel a bit overly complex and fiddly, this compounded by how the game is played over 10 rounds and needs to be scored 10 times.

This brings to my other criticism which is the game feels too long:
By my calculations, a total of 55 tricks will be played over the 10 rounds which doesn't seem too bad but actually means shuffling and dealing 10 times as well as scoring 10 times and that all adds up to make the game feel a bit overlong and also finicky.

Skull Kings is a (Completely acceptable.) average trick-taking experience that is enjoyable enough but is mired down by excess bookkeeping for a card game. It's not a bad choice for a game I feel its unique elements don't do enough to make the game differentiate itself from the crowd.
The pirate theme will appeal to some but wouldn't be my first choice for a trick-taking game.

16th April 2023

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

Take on the role of Perseus, Jason or Hercules. Battle The Hydra, vanquish The Gorgon and defeat Cerberus in Legends of Hellas, a cooperative card game of Greek heroes and Greek mythology.

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

What's in a game?

• Cards: Legends of Hellas features 2 types of cards.
• Action cards: In the top left of each action card is an icon. Each one relates to 1 of 5 different virtues or qualities that a hero might posses. They are 'arms' (As in weapons.), 'courage', 'guile', 'speed' and 'strength.
  Furthermore, cards are also colour coded to each quality.
  Action cards illustrate the kind of events that Greek heroes get involved with using those virtues.
  Divine intervention cards: A final type of card depicts that good old mythological staple; divine intervention. These cards have special uses as explained below and are considered different to 'normal' actions cards.

With a chunky, cartoony style, Legends of Hellas is a bright and colourful looking game. It's crisp, clear artwork and the monsters on the monster cards are all instantly recognisable. I think it looks great.

There's half a dozen icons in the game and they're only used in reference between action and monster cards. Players should have no problems here.

How's it play?
Setup
Legends of Hellas presents players with 12 different missions to undertake which may have some varying setup and game rules. However, broadly speaking, they share a common theme - which defeating monsters until the boss monster 'the chimera' appears then defeating it.​

• Monster cards: Shuffle the monster cards into a face-down deck. Then according to the mission deal a number of them face-up into a central playing area.
• Action cards: First ensure all the divine intervention are separated from the other action cards.
  Then as per the player count (And also difficulty.) add a number of divine intervention cards to the action cards and shuffle them all into a face-down deck.
  Now deal 4 cards to each player.
• Hero discs: Give each player a hero disc in their chosen player colour. Each player should put their disc into their personal playing area with the 'normal' side face-up.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
Players in Legends of Hellas are cooperatively attempting to defeat a number of monsters inspired by Greek mythology.
This is done by playing cards but players will also need to perform other actions to facilitate this.
Legends of Hellas uses a traditional turn order with active player completing their action before play progresses to the next player.

• Game start: All players should place their hero disc on any monster card, more than one hero disc may be on a monster card.
• Action: During their turn, the active player may perform 1 of the following actions.
  • Draw card: The active player may draw 1 or more cards from the action deck and may temporarily have a hand of up to 5 cards. However, after drawing cards, the active player must discard a card.
  • Fight monster: This is probably the most common action players will perform and and is required to defeat monsters. The following rules apply to fighting monsters.
    • Location: The active player may only fight the monster at their hero disc's current location.
    • Action: To fight a monster, the active player must play an action card that matches the icons on that monster card. I.e., if a monster card displays the speed and courage icons, then the active player must play a card with either the speed or courage icon.
    • Victory: A monster is only defeated when both of the following 2 conditions have been met:
      Both action types: At least 1 card of each type has been played.
      5 cards: If a total of 5 cards have been across both types has been played.
      When both conditions have been met, the monster is defeated.
    • Divine intervention: These are incredibly useful for defeating monsters and can be used in 1 of 2 ways.
      Wildcard: A divine intervention card be played as a action card of any of the 5 types.
      Instant defeat: Provided the 'both action types' condition has been met, a divine intervention card can be played to instantly defeat a monster regardless of how many cards have already been played against it.
  • Give card: The active player may give any number of their cards to any other player. That player must then discard at least 1 card and must also discard down to 4 cards if they have more.
  • Move: The active player may move their hero disc from one monster card to another by discarding a card. This is regardless of whether the monster the hero disc is currently on has been defeated or not.
  • View cards: The active player may draw 6 cards from the action deck and view them.
    Then they must discard 1 cards and return the other 5 back on top of the action deck in any order they see fit.
• Next player: Once the active player has taken their action, play progresses to the player on their left.
• Other rules:
  • Special action: Each player has a special action available to them that can be activated once per game and is dependant on the colour of their hero disc.
    It means a player can flip their hero disc to the 'broken' side to play any card against a monster, consequently that card is considered to have the same colour (And thus quality.) as the flipped hero disc.
    E.g., if a player has Hercules' red hero disc, they may flip it to play any card against a monster and that card is considered to be a red 'strength' action card.
  • Chimera: Once the allotted number of monsters as per the chosen mission have been defeated, the final boss monster appears - this is the Chimera!
    To form the Chimera draw 2 monster cards and places them so that one is above the other - and the one at the bottom is upside down.
    This means the Chimera will potentially need cards from 4 qualities to defeat! If the Chimera has duplicates of the one quality, then at least 1 action card for each instance of that type must be played.

Endgame
If the players manage to defeat the Chimera once it has appeared, then they collectively win the game!
If however, at any time a player needs to draw cards and there are none left in the action deck, then the players collectively lose the game.

Overall
Between it's bold colourful presentation of Greek mythology and card mechanics which will have heroes travelling about to battle monsters using their guile, strength and so on; Legends of Hellas is pretty strong thematically.
I personally like how The Chimera will be a random amalgam of 2 other monsters.

Mechanically, on the surface it's a pretty straightforward game - play cards with symbols matching symbols on monster cards to defeat them but in practice, Legends of Hellas is quite unforgiving.

This is because players aren't really battling the monsters, they're battling the action deck - or more precisely, fighting to stop the deck running out and luck can play a very big part here.
Every choice and action a player takes ​- not just attacking monsters - will cost a card.
Draw cards - one of them must be discarded.
Give cards to an alley - one must be discarded.
Move or view the deck - you get the idea.
Even deciding which cards to discard is also an important decision. I.e., if none of the current monsters require a certain type of card, is that type safe to discard? A monster requiring it might turn up later

Consequently it can be very easy to run out of cards, players will need to try and play as efficiently as possible with minimal squandering and no frivolous moves. Judicious use of divine interventions can be critical here, playing one at the right time can defeat a monster with only 3 cards instead of 5. It might not seem like a saving of many cards but it can be.
While players can not explicitly discuss the cards in their hand, they will need to coordinate actions, especially actions such as passing cards to each other and viewing the deck.
Being a cooperative game, there's also a degree of luck in Legends of Hellas, perhaps a little too much like for my liking. Sometimes players will draw a hand of cards they just can't use and will have to find a way to adapt.
Conversely, sometimes luck will deliver the exact cards you will need which will make it easier and maybe a little unsatisfying.
It also means that sometimes it felt like my decisions had been taken out my hands by chance and sometimes it felt like any strategy I had was was reduced to simply 'play what you have' and adapt to 'what you get'.

Despite this I found Legends of Hellas to be a fairly enjoyable experience mixed with dollop of frustration from the luck which strangely, could go 2 ways; too much bad luck or too much good luck! 

With it's cartoonish art style and somewhat lightweight rules, Legends of Hellas would appear to be aimed at a family audience but we found it actually quite a tricky game, I'm not sure younger players will have a easy time. however a bit of adult/parent contribution would make a difference, I guess that's what makes it a family game.

If you want a ancient Greece themed cooperative game or in fact any kind of low maintenance cooperative game, Legends of Hellas might fill the bill.

9th April 2023

​Sunday is here again and we're logged into Board Game Arena for some gaming fun.

'Triiiiooo, triiiio
I want a trio,
And I want now.'

I'm showing my age here, but this is not a game about a chocolatey biscuit, instead it's a set collecting card game.
Furthermore, Trio is apparently a reskin of a game called Nana, which disappointingly, is not about collecting grannies.

Caveat: We have only ever played this game digitally.

What's in a game?

• Cards: Trio uses​ a deck of 36 cards, numbered 1-12 three times.
  Along the bottom of each card will be 1 or more numbers that relate to the numbers on other cards which when added/subtracted mathematically reach 7.
  E.g.; the 1 and 6 cards are related because 1+6=7.
  ​Additionally; 4 and 11 are also related because 11-4=7 and so on.
  A 2 will be related to a 5 and a 9. 5+2=7 and also 9-2=7
  These sets of 2 related numbers are known as 'spicy' sets!
  
  

That's it for components.

Trio features cards decorated with quirky little monochrome illustrations with what appears to be a Mexican day of the dead theme? These illustrations are set against colourful backgrounds which are associated with each of the 12 differently valued cards.
I'm not sure how the them ties with the game but the cards definitely look colourful, dynamic and eye catching.

Cards are numbered 1-12, there's no other iconography. This is all very easily understood.

How's it play?
Setup

• Cards: Shuffle the cards into a face-down deck.
• Players: Dependant on player count deal 5-9 cards face-down to each player.
  All players should sort their cards into numerical order.
• Central playing area: All the remaining cards (Which will be 6-9 cards.) should be dealt face-down into a central playing area.
  This means all cards will have been dealt either to players or the central area.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
There are three ways (A trio!) (SIC) to win Trio. Each involves revealing cards to collect sets of identical values.

Trio follows the typical turn order with the active player taking their turn before play progress to the player on their left.
During their turn, the active player may reveal up to 3 cards by performing the following actions.

• 1st action: The Active player may choose 1 of the following 2 actions to perform which will result in revealing a card..
  • Reveal highest or lowest: The active play may ask any single player to reveal their single highest or lowest value card, the active player may also choose themselves to reveal a card.
    Any revealed card should be played face-up into the playing area.
  • Reveal from central area: The active player may flip a single card face-up from the cards in the central area.
• 2nd action: The active player now again chooses 1 of the same 2 actions above to perform, which will result in revealing a 2nd card
  • No match: The the 2nd card to be revealed does not have the same value as the 1st revealed card, then the active player's turn is over.
    Any card revealed by a player is returned to their hand.
    Any card that was revealed from the central area is flipped face-down again.
  • A match: If the 2nd card revealed matches the 1st card revealed, then the active player gets to take a 3rd action!
• 3rd action: The active player now gets a 3rd action and once again, must choose from the 2 actions described above.
  • No match: If the 3rd card revealed does not match the 1st and 2nd cards, then the active player's turn is over.
    Any cards revealed by a player is returned to their hand.
    Any cards that was revealed from the central area is flipped face-down again.
  • A match: If the 3rd card revealed matches the 1st and 2nd cards, then the active player has revealed all 3 cards of the same number! They collect all 3 cards and place them into their personal playing area.
• ​Next player: Regardless of whether the active player failed to match 3 revealed cards or managed to collect a set, play then progresses to the player on their left who now becomes the active player.

Endgame
​There are 3 ways a player may Trio.

• 3 sets of 3: If a player collects 3 sets of 3 cards they immediately win.
• Spicy set: If any player collects a spicy set, then they immediately win.
• Collect the 7s: If a player collects the 3 7 cards, they immediately win!
  Interestingly, the 7 value cards are the only cards not in a spicy set.

Overall
​Trio's has a fairly abstract theme but to be fair I don't it detracts from what is a fairly accessible game.

In fact, Trio is such a straightforward game that almost has nothing to write about. It mixes simple deduction and memory mechanics.

Players will want to remember what cards are revealed and where they are revealed from, allowing them to create sets of 3.
Players can also glean information from what their opponents reveal, either from their own questions of those of others. E.g., if someone is asked to reveal their highest card and it's an 8, then it's obvious they wont have cards of higher values. This is useful when deciding which sets to try and work towards.

There's also something mechanically interesting going on with the game's probabilities.
Generally, players should look to collect sets of either the highest or lowest value sets - simply by virtue of being able to only reveal the highest and lowest value cards of opponents.
This is why collecting the 7's insta-wins the game, because the 7's will likely be in the middle of players' hands and will be harder to collect
This becomes even more likely in games with lower player counts as each player will have bigger hand sizes. Conversely the distribution of cards will be less even in games with a higher player count, making it a little more unpredictable.

Talking of player count, we played with 3 players and I felt it was a little underwhelming. Trio can play with up to 6, I think the game improves with more players and the greater unpredictability adds to the experience.
We also played online which I feel detracts from a game like this which benefits from interaction between players.

Trio is obviously a lightweight game and will have crossover appeal to families and more casual gamers, it's set collecting, memory-based gameplay is something most people will be familiar with to some degree or other. I that's something that might appeal, them Trio is worth a look.

I would say it might be a bit too simple for seasoned games but truthfully, I think can serve as a filler game or an ender for the night.
It's something I would like to try with the physical version at a higher player count.