21st February 2023 Tuesday evening again! We're with the Woking Gaming Club at The Sovereigns again for some more gaming goodness. Durian: The durian is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus Durio*. Durian is also game about a very, very angry gorilla who runs a jungle fruit shop, worse than that - he's your boss in this push your luck card game about managing inventory and stock. *According to Wikipedia What's in a game?
Being exceptionally long, the cards feel a little flimsy but unless they are treated badly, it shouldn't be an issue. The order board tile and point tokens are made of suitability sturdy card, while the card holders are wooden and I always approve of wooden components. The bell works well enough but feels a little delicate but again, unless you treat it badly, it shouldn't be a problem and while it's a unnecessary component it's a welcome addition. I've never been one to resist gimmicks! There's a small amount artwork utilised for the siblings and the different fruits which is quite stylised and cartoonish. It all looks good enough, the gorillas look a little abstract but the fruits look suitably distinct from each other both in colour and shape Nearly all of the small amount of iconography used in Durian is straightforward. The 4 fruits are easily understood and differentiated from each other. The 3 sibling cards all have their own unique icons, which despite being fairy obvious will likely have players reaching for the rule book since they appear so infrequently during the game, which - as explained below is not necessarily a good thing. How's it play? Setup
On to play Durian is a bit of a curious beast where players are looking to see if the game has 'gone bust' using 'imperfect knowledge'. The game uses a traditional turn order with the active player taking their turn before play progresses to the player on their left. Before discussing the rules, it's worth stating that the deck of cards serve both as shop inventory and customer orders. Additionally, the gorilla sibling cards have different functions depending on whether they appear in the inventory or order.
Endgame The game ends when a player has acquired 7 or more points worth of point tokens. This could from the final 7 point token or a combination of lower valaue point tokens. Points are tallied, lowest score wins. Overall
Thematically, Durian could have been almost anything and gorillas running a fruit shop is as good as any, so why not, it suits the game's light nature. Mechanically. there are a couple of interesting things going on. Firstly, the way the game employs 'imperfect knowledge' is pretty good. Players will spend their time watching the behaviour of other players, seeing how they play the cards they draw and trying to deduct what is on their own card. For example: if another players decides to play a card which adds bananas to the order and you can see no bananas on anyone else's inventory cards, then it's generally safe to assume that you're the one with bananas on their inventory card! Of course, the gorilla cards can occasionally appear in the inventory and throw a spanner into the works. In the above example, the infinite bananas card could change everything. There's a weird drawback to the rules here though; since the gorilla cards appear fairly infrequently in the inventory. Players won't remember their rules and will ask to look at the rules - it's a clear tell that a gorilla card has been thrown into the mix. Gorilla cards can also have a big impact on orders. Allowing an order card to be changed round can cause the order to 'go bust' or vice versa. I will add that the rules feel a little counterintuitive here. In most games, going bust is a bad thing but in Durian it can be a good thing. Ringing the bell at the right time both prevents you getting points and also inflicts them on other players. This brings me to the mechanics for scoring. Escalating points works very well here and mostly keeps the stakes high until the game end. Mathematically, a game will last at least 3 rounds. If a single player gets 1+2+4 (or some other combination.) that will end the game. Since, as the game progresses the points given out will increase, it's entirely possible that if a game gets to 7 rounds, a player who was on '0' points may get '7' points, end the game and come last! This is especially so in games with a higher player count (Durian plays up to 7.). Because the scoring is about giving other players what are essentially negative points, usually at this point I'd criticise Durian for being well... negative but since the game is quick playing and light-hearted I don't feel an issue here. Durian is a mechanically lightweight game with for the most part only a single decision to make - ring the bell or not. Where it's depth comes from is in how to get to that decision. Players cannot afford to not pay attention during their opponents' turns, gleaning information from what moves they are making is vital to the decisions a player needs to make when it's their turn. This is one of those games that's as much about playing the players as playing the game. I found Durian an enjoyable game with a sometimes agonising central decision to make and this is good thing as it makes that decision meaningful, which is what I look for in a game. Durian is a bit of party game that also works as a filler. It's style and humorous theme fits it's quick unpredictable gameplay well. It's not a game to take too seriously. If this is what you're looking for, give Durian a try.
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12th February It's a Sunday afternoon and we're at The Dice Tower in Basingstoke For Ares' birthday party. So finally... Cards Against Humanity: the blog post. Cards Against Humanity has garnered a reputation for being wry, almost satirical humour and capacity to be outrageous. So is this game offensive and by offensive, I mean does it offend my sensibilities regarding well balanced and sharply honed gameplay... well read on. What's in a game?
The cards are average thickness but seem plastic or vinyl coated and feel reasonably sturdy - they need to be for a party game. There's no art in Cards Against Humanity. Unless you count white text on a black background and vice versa. Again, there's no iconography in Cards Against Humanity as the game is entirely drive by text. Wow, so far this blog has written itself! How's it play?
On to play The objective in Cards Against Humanity is to earn 'Awesome Points' which are just victory points (VPs). This is done by answering the questions on the black cards in the most entertaining way, which can be funny, outrageous, offensive and probably even worse! Each player's turn consists of 4 phases.
Endgame I always thought that Cards Against Humanity concluded after the 10th black card was won but after skimming the rules, this doesn't seem to be the case and there are several different ways the game could end. Regardless of this, whenever the game reaches whatever its game ending criteria is, the game ends and Awesome Points are calculated Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
First of all I'll say; it's sort of pointless to blog about Cards Against Humanity and discuss mechanics or strategies or theme in the way I would normally and that's because it's the epitome of a party game, albeit a very much adult themed one. That means it's loud and raucously humorous, easy to learn and easy to play. No one really cares about VPs or who wins and yes, it's also potentially offensive. Suffice to say that if you're thin-skinned or easily offended, Cards Against Humanity is probably not for you. The real question is: Is it fun? I'm going to say, yes and sometimes very much so. Obviously, much of the game's pleasure derives from the kind of people playing it. I imagine it's a game that gets a lot of play by drunk participants - there's a good reason why the cards are fairly sturdy. If you're concerned about anything other than basically cracking jokes, probably best to look elsewhere. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of trying to craft the most outrageous answers and listening to other players' answers. I also think most people playing it understand it's just humour doing what humour does very well, which is bringing up stuff that would never be broached in conversation otherwise. There is a caveat here though: Which is Cards Against Humanity can definitely outstay its welcome. Initially, we played several times with the 10 black card limit and when that was reached, someone would invariably say: 'Why don't we play through all the black cards.' The first time was: 'Yeah, cool'. The second time: 'Oh Okay.' The third time: I had to stifle an inward groan. So if you want a shockingly funny and outrageous party game, Cards Against Humanity would be a good choice. Just play it short intense bursts. 28th January 2023 Wogglecon 6, a day of gaming at the Bisley Scout Hall continues and the next game of the day is Skulk Hollow. I didn't know that it turns out that little anthropomorphic fox dudes and giant stone creatures seem to really hate each: Which is what Skulk Hollow is all about in this asymmetrical strategy game! What's in a game? Skulk Hollow is a 2-player game where one player takes on the role of a 'Foxen' hero who leads a band of Foxen warriors against a lone guardian who is a literal colossal stony force of nature. Each player has their own unique decks, components and gameplay.
The tokens and meeples all feel solid and look great. Obviously the massive guardian meeple is the notable standout component, yes, perhaps you could call it a gimmick but it fits thematically. The use of card boxes is a nice touch of presentation. The art is equally high quality. Skulk Hollow uses a coloured line illustration somewhat cartoonish style that's colourful, bright, detailed and suits the games slight whimsical (At least as whimsical as 2 factions battling each other can get!) nature. I've found that anthropomorphic art can be divisive as a style but I think the anthropomorphic character art on card looks pretty good regardless of what your stance is. The game board also looks great and I like how compact it is. With regards to iconography, Skulk Hollow uses fair amount but it all seems pretty self-explanatory. Icons for movement are easily understood, as are the icons for actions such melee, leap, etc. I don't imagine players having any problem understanding the game. How's it play? Setup
On to play Being a 2-player game, Skulk Hollow uses a very traditional turn order with one player completing their turn before play moves over to their opponent and continues alternating between them for the entirety of the game. Additionally, the Foxen hero player always starts. During their turn, the player will have a number of actions points (AP) available to them which is determined by which Foxen hero/guardian they chose, although typically this is 2-3 APs.
Endgame There are 3 ways the game end can be triggered.
Overall
Skulk Hollow has asymmetrical and card driven gameplay which presents players with some challenging, meaningful choices and options. Players will instinctively want to play cards with maximum efficiency to inflict maximum damage but sometimes because of their hand of cards, players won't be guaranteed having the card to make the move they they need and they'll be forced to adapt. This can be a little frustrating but also makes hand management quite important, sure a player can use a strong card now but sometimes it's worth keeping hold of it for perhaps a more effective use in a later round. It should be mentioned that some of the guardians have smaller hand sizes, meaning they are trickier to play. Of course, players will also want to watch their opponents, paying attention to which cards they play and when. - There's a bit of higher level play here about tracking opponent's actions, essentially a bit of card counting. Otherwise it's quite tricky to describe gameplay; with 4 Foxen leaders and 4 guardians, the various combinations will at least to some extent dictate player tactics - as will the actions of opponents. Skulk Hollow feels like it's about playing the player as much as playing the game. Finally; Skulk Hollow is a 2-player game and I'm always a bit wary of 2-player games as they can revert to a traditional 1-on-1 directly confrontational game, this is definitely the case with Skulk Hollow. While the game is not particularly chess-like, with moving pieces about a board to eliminate your opponent, it does provide something of a chess-like experience and to be honest, it's a playstyle that I'm not personally overly enamoured with. Your mileage will of course vary. Having said all of that; I like to think that I can recognise a well crafted game when I play one and that's what I think this is. Thematically, Skulk Hollow is quite strong. The 'numerous weaker units vs a single giant enemy' gameplay draws inspiration from some classic older games. While, with its climbing on to, running around and stabbing bits of a colossal monster, it's undeniable that Skulk Hollow also takes some thematic inspiration from a certain videogame and it makes for a entertaining concept to add to a board game. It adds up to an interesting game, both visually and mechanically. it is a mid-weight, asymmetrical game that features a lot of player interaction and conflict with moderate tactics and touch of luck. The various combinations of the 2 battling factions also provides a fair bit of replayability. If you want a 2-player game with those elements, Skulk Hollow is worth a look. 28th January 2023 Our day of gaming with The Woking Gaming Club at Wogglecon 6 continued with Ligretto. I don't know what Ligretto is meant to mean but it gets shouted a lot when playing this real-time, abstract card game. It's time to begin the blog so without any further ado... LIGRETTO! What's in a game? There are 3 versions of Ligretto; red, green and blue. They are functionally identical except for the backs, which indicate which decks they are and which set they come from. A single set of Ligretto is enough for 4 players, having all 3 sets means there's enough for 12 players!
The cards are the standard quality you'd expect for a modern game. Ligretto makes great use of colour, the 4 colours are all bright, vibrant and distinctive. Otherwise, there's no illustrations and minimal art for Ligretto, just some detailing. This is by no means a bad thing. Ligretto is an abstract game, trying to fit a theme to it would just feel like shoehorning. I do have one small criticism that is directed at the backs of the cards which could have have been more distinct from each other. Ligretto also has no iconography other than numbers, players will have no trouble understanding the game. How's it play? Setup
On to play Ligretto is played simultaneously by all players in real time which means there are no turns or any turn structure. The purpose is to play as many cards as possible (An as quickly as possible.) before the round end is triggered, which occurs when any player's Ligretto stack is emptied. How is this done - read on.
Endgame As soon as any player has scored 99 or more points at the end of a round, the game ends. Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Speed and reflexes drive gameplay in Ligretto. The objective is pretty simple - play as many cards as possible while emptying the Ligretto stack. Not only will players have to pay attention for opportunities to play cards, they'll also want to think ahead. Canny players will keep a sharp eye out for stacks which are 2 numbers lower than cards they want to play so that as soon as an opponent adds a card to that stack, they can immediately add to it themselves. As a rule, I'm wary of dexterity, reflex or reaction based games and to be honest, it's not why I like or play board games. In fact, I like board games because they generally do away with those elements. Which brings me to Ligretto; a real-time, twitch game. This should irk me but because this is essentially a party game and not to be taken seriously, the relative simplicity of the gameplay and brisk playtime prevent it being frustrating. Ligretto is a fun filler game and its light touch can provide some low intensity entertainment after a more demanding game. It also works as a good crossover game, it can easily be played with families and more casual players. We never played it with it's max player count of 12 but I imagine it would be a quite boisterous affair. If you don't mind the reflex based gameplay, Ligretto provides a fun experience and something a little different. Worth a try in my opinion. 28th January 2023 Wogglecon continued with Dominion the deck building game. A game I've played a few times in the past but not since starting this blog. Rule your kingdom in Dominion by recruiting bureaucrats, moneylenders and spies and others or creating festivals, gardens and more. What's in a game?
Dominion uses standard quality cards which is exactly what you'd expect. The different kingdom cards all feature illustrations in the top half. There's a nice variety of artwork here and the quality is good if a little unexciting. I mean... how thrilling can a cellar or moneylender be! Joking aside though, the art is all-in-all pretty good. Minimal iconography is used throughout Dominion. Most information is conveyed via text on cards so I can't imagine it being an obstacle. How's it play? Setup
On to play Dominion uses a traditional turn order with the active player completing their turn before play moves on the player on their left. A turn in Dominion is easy as A, B, C - quite literally too. The phases are Action, Buy and Clean up!
Endgame Play continues until one of the following 2 criteria are met. When the pile of Province (6VP) victory cards has been emptied. OR Any 3 of the 10 stacks of cards in the central supply have been emptied. In either case, when the turn of the player who triggered the endgame is over, the game immediately ends and goes to scoring. Players then calculate their scores from all victory cards they have acquires. Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Dominion has been around for a few years and one I've played in the past but only finally have gotten to blogging about it. It is the deck builder game, the one that started it all and to honest, it pretty much got everything right the first time. The only quibble I could argue is that the rules regarding only 1 action and 1 buy per turn unless other cards increase them, forcing players to track their card plays throughout their turn are little fiddly but this is minor and doesn't effect the game's quality. Otherwise Dominion provides players pretty much everything they could want from a deck builder. It provides players with the classic early/late game challenge of creating their engine in the early stage and then exploiting that engine to acquire VPs in the late stage. Players will look to optimise their card actions, maximise the efficiency of their decks and find effective combos and exploits. This is especially true in Dominion since, victory cards actively hinder player and acquiring them too early can slow a player's deck down. Dominion provides a number of predetermined setups that can be used but also has provision for randomising setup, which can give player some unusual, interesting and challenging setups. It's also worth adding that there's loads of expansions for Dominion which increase its replayability and longevity. If you like deck builders and for some reason you've not played Dominion, then you should definitely play this. Dominion is one of the best examples of it's genre. In fact, unless you actively hate deck builders, then this is one to try regardless. It's a classic for a reason. 11th December 2022 It's a Sunday evening and where logged into video chat and Board Game Arena for some gaming fun. More space, more empires and more final frontiers. Cosmos: Empires is a galactically-themed tableau building where plays rush to build their cosmic empire - or least increase their empire's production - all very capitalist! Caveat: We've only ever played this game digitally. What's in a game?
I have to say I found the illustrations to be pretty good sci-fi themed artwork and could easily see them on classic 70's sci-fi book covers. Having said that, I did also find some of the artwork was a little too busy for a card game, there were bright spots that drew the eye from important information for example and perhaps the text could have been a bit clearer. While there are a few icons, it's not overwhelming, some information on card abilities are displayed on the cards themselves, sometimes player's will want to refer to the rules for clarification. I would not consider it a problem as Cosmos: Empires is pretty straightforward. How's it play? Setup
On to play In Cosmos: Empires, players will be generating credits which will be used to buy cards from the drafting area. These cards will have various actions that can be used to the player's benefit with the ultimate aim of increasing currency production. When a player reaches a certain threshold of currency production, it will trigger the game end. Cosmos: Empires mostly follows the typical turn structure with the active player performing their actions before play progresses to the player on their left. However, it is likely that 'inactive' players will have their cards activated outside of their turn. The following occurs during the active player's turn.
Endgame Play continues until any one player has combined production value (Not credits.) on all the cards in their tableau of 30 or more. At this point the endgame is triggered, the round continues until all players have had even turns. All player then calculate their finishing combined production value. Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Cosmos: Empires is a tableau building game that seems to me to have been designed to be a more streamlined, quicker playing, simpler, more accessible game that's a little different to other games of this type. The strategy in Cosmos: Empires is relatively straightforward; acquire as many cards as quickly as you can, while some cards do combo off each other and getting those cards is good. It's also a goof idea to just get many cards as you can and hope dice rolls go your way. You see; typically in tableau building games there's an early game element about building up the tableau then a late game element about using that tableau to work towards whatever the winning criteria. Cosmos: Empires eschews this paradigm because it's winning criteria is about accumulating production value and all cards provide production value. It means that acquiring any cards works towards winning. The impact of this is that can create a sort of situation where a player will get some cards that quickly earn them a lot of production/credits which can be used to get even more cards (Especially the case when a player can build 2 cards per turn.) to get more even more production/credits in a self perpetuating cycle. Now this might sound like a good thing and the kind of you'd want in a tableau builder? The issue is that it can put one player into a unassailable lead where they not only constantly outproduce other players' production but consequently, they also constantly outpace the production increases of other players. A uncatchable double whammy! This can be exacerbated by the fact that all cards activate in all players' turns. Quite often activations will end up benefitting whoever is in the lead simply by virtue of them having more cards. Sure, players can shift the activation numbers but I found in order to not to give the leader benefits, I also had to deny them to myself. It felt very negative. I genuinely admire any game's attempt to pare back rules, provide more elegant gameplay and quicker playtime and this is the case for Cosmos: Empires but it results in a game that feels somewhat unbalanced. Additionally, I found Cosmos: Empires a little bland, it didn't feel like there's much variety in the mix of cards and it didn't feel particularly engaging. I'm not sure it would stand up to repeated playing Although, having said all of that, I might not be the best target audience. Cosmos: Empires might serve as a good entry the tableau building game type and if you want a straightforward, uncluttered, quick playing iteration of it, Cosmos: Empires might tick those boxes. 22nd November 2022 Tuesday is here again and that means we're with the Woking Gaming Club at The Sovereigns for a evening of gaming. Space... is it the final frontier? I mean it's pretty large with enough room for separate civilisations to expand without impinging on each other's territory. Except in Cosmic Encounter, it's not! Players take on the roles of one of numerous alien civilisations with the purpose of invading other player's planets in this game of bidding and bluffing. What's in a game?
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The component quality is all good, the tiles and tokens are made of suitably sturdy board while cards are average. The spaceships are plastic with a nice bit of detail and being able to stack them keeps the game area relatively clutter free. In terms of art direction, the tiles are colourful and mostly space-themed with the planet tiles looking like well, planets. The hyperspace and warp tiles are appropriately cosmic looking. Artwork is used sparingly on cards with space (SIC) given over to text instead. For the most part, illustrations are reserved for the alien sheets and used to represent the various different alien races. This artwork is fairly good with a lot of diverse and interesting sci-fi artwork. Cosmic Encounter has little in the way of iconography, numbers are used on encounter cards but otherwise text is used to convey information. Nothing here is tricky to understand How's it play? Setup
On to play In Cosmic Encounter players will be trying to create colonies on other players' home systems in the form of land their spaceships on those planets while also preventing their own system from being colonised. The game employs a traditional turn order with the active player resolving their turn before the game progresses to the player on their left. Each turn consists of 6 phases.
Endgame The first player to reach 5 on the score tracker wins! Because of alliances and such, it is possible for more than one player to reach the 5 score at once. if this is the case, all those players share the victory. Overall
Mechanically, Cosmic Encounter is straightforward, at its core it's essentially a single blind bid auctioning game albeit one where players bid within the constraints of their limited hand of encounter cards in order to win encounters On a basic level, a player only has to win 5 bids to win the game. There is of course more to it than that. It's vital that players will have to exploit the stronger cards in their hand and mitigate the risk from weaker cards. High value cards are obviously useful because they can win encounters but weak cards can also have a use. A low value card can be used as a bluff or ruse to flush out an opponent's higher value card, potentially altering what a later outcome might be. Or, if a player think's they're going to lose, why not throw the lowest value card into the mix? Negotiate cards can also prove useful when a player knows they are going to lose and can be used to not only fill their hand but deplete the cards of an opponent. Managing the luck of the draw is vital for victory. The alien sheets can throw some real curveballs into the game and how players behave. Some of the sheets provide some really radical changes to strategies. For example; in one game I played as the 'Spiff' who have the ability can crash land a spaceship on a planet if they are a part of an attack that loses badly. It suddenly introduced a whole new dynamic into attacks which involved the Spiff (And I involved the Spiff with as many attacks as I could!) because defending players were now faced with the conundrum of having to worry about winning too big which might mean playing a lower value card instead and the risk of doing that meant that they might just flat out lose if I played a high value card! Choices, choices! With 50 different alien sheets available in the base game (With more in expansions.) it means there will be a lot of variation in games and a lot of unique interactions from game-to-game. The rules for the destiny deck can also throw a curveball into the game. I feel one of the primary purposes of the destiny deck is prevent a 'pick on a player' tactic and in this regard it does it well. It also means that game has constant shifting alliances, 2 players have been allies in a previous turn but the destiny deck could quickly have one targeting the other in the next run. This brings me to the next thing that's really strong in Cosmic Encounter; which is player interactivity. Players will be bidding and bluffing against each other, forming temporary alliances, looking to exploit their abilities and take advantage of their unique ability and circumstances as they might arise. I also think that the quality of the experience the game provides will in part rely on the people playing it. If players buy into the somewhat boisterous, confrontational and luck-based gameplay, then it'll be a positive, enjoyable experience. I will add that this game has a lot direct confrontation between players and a hefty dose of 'take that' that goes on as well. If you find this sort of thing unappealing, it's probably a safe bet to say that you won't like this game and to be fair, sometimes I'm not in the mood for this kind of game. Otherwise, it's hard to find fault with Cosmic Encounter, the rules are quick to learn and presents players which meaningful decisions to make whenever they attack or have to defend - which is reasonably often, they'll also be faced with whether to join alliances or not and deal with the outcome of those decisions. Cosmic Encounters is a lot of fun to play and worth trying. 13th October 2022 It's a Thursday and we're in Aldershot for a evening of gaming entertainment. Do you like salads? Do you like points? If so, then maybe you'll like Point Salad, a game about well... about making salads and scoring points with a literal point salad mechanic! What's in a game?
Point Salad's cards are pretty basic, they don't seem laminated and feel a little flimsy. Although unless you treat them badly, it shouldn't be a problem. There isn't much art to Point Salad, only the illustrations for the 6 types of veggie. These are colourful, chunky illustrations with thick line art. I like it and think it suits the game's light, breezy theme. The game's only iconography is the 6 vegetable types. For the most part, they are clear and distinct. EXCEPT for the onion and tomato images which not only look a little similar but both use shades of red for their associated colour. It's not a gamebreaker by any means but it definitely can be a little confusing and could have been clearer The scoring criteria are pretty easy to understand, it uses a mixture of the icons and text to explain their individual rules. How's it play? Setup
In Point Salad players will be drafting cards from the central selection. They will be drafting veggies to create sets and drafting scoring cards to score those sets. Point Salad uses the typical turn structure with the active player acting before play progresses to the player on their left. During their turn, the active player must perform 1 of the following 2 draft actions, additionally, they may then also perform a free action.
Endgame Play continues until all cards have been drafted and then goes to scoring. All cards are scored all ways! That means that if for example, a set of carrots can gain VPs from 2 scoring cards, then they are scored twice and so on. Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Point Salad is a easy to learn game, there are only 2 actions (And 1 free action.) to choose from and 1 core tenement to remember; scoring cards score off of veggie cards. The depth comes from what is done with those 2 decisions. Getting scoring cards early on will give a player an objective to aim for but also can limit their drafting options. Conversely, concentrating on veggie cards early will give a player some flexibility when it comes to acquiring scoring cards, the risk here though is that optional scoring cards may never become available because other players may get them first or they may get flipped to the veggie side or in game with a lower player count, may not even be in the game. All of this means that planning ahead can be a two-edged sword. It's definitely worth trying to plan ahead, synergy between scoring cards, i.e., multiple scoring cards that score off 1 type of veggie can led to big scores. However, the drafting area's landscape is likely significantly change from turn-to-turn and players will also need to adapt to circumstances as they arise. Players will also need to mange having to take cards they don't need or want and look to create or exploit new scoring opportunities as they appear. The optional free card flip rule offers players a little flexibility. They'll be times that a points card with a negative may prove a liability might be worth flipping which negates the negative and also provides a veggie for another points cards. Again, this is all contextual. There's also a higher level of play at work here. Players can try and anticipate their opponents are hoping to do and possibly stymy them. Taking specific veggie cards or scoring cards they might want or even taking veggie will cause points cards from the related column to be flipped to replace them It means that Point Salad generally provides players will meaningful decisions and choices to make. I find Point Salad an enjoyable game, it makes a great filler, plays up to 6 and also a good crossover or family game. It's a game that you shouldn't take too seriously, it's a light, fun quick game. In fact it's so quick to play that it seems like the set up time longer than the play time! Which is my only, minor criticism of an otherwise good game. It this sounds like your kind of thing, you should definitely give Point Salad a try. 25th September 2022 Sunday is here again and we're logged into Board Game Arena for some gaming goodness. Sea Salt & Paper is a pun that plays on sea salt & pepper in this quirkily ocean and err... origami themed set collecting card game. Caveat: We've only ever played Sea Salt & Paper digitally. What's in a game?
Sea Salt & Paper makes use of a genuinely unique art style which looks like the creators constructed origami models themed after the game such as mermaids, crabs or penguins etc and then photographed them. Or perhaps high quality renders have been produced in a computer art program. Either way, the game has what I think a fantastic, eye catching theme, colourful and of course, they get to use the Sea Salt & Paper gag. The game uses 10 colours for cards - and that's a lot. Fortunately each colour has a unique icon associated with it which a handy and welcome accessibility aid. The downside is that Sea Salt & Paper has quite a lot of icons, there's about 4 icons for each type of card. Luckily most of them are intuitive or fairly obvious. I don't think it's too difficult to learn may be off putting during early plays. How's it play? Setup
On to play Sea Salt & Paper is played over a varying number of rounds until a scoring target has been met. Furthermore, rounds will have a varying length and after a certain point, each round can be ended by any player. The game follows the usual turn structure with the active player taking their turn before play progress to the person on their left. There are 3 actions a player can perform in their turn.
Endgame There are 2 ways Sea Salt & Paper can end. Firstly and least likely, if a player manages to acquire 4 mermaid cards... they win! Otherwise, the game has a endgame scoring target, which is 30-40 VPs depending on player count. When this target is reached during scoring it triggers the game end and players calculate their final total VPs. Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Broadly speaking, Sea Salt & Paper is fairly straightforward; collect sets and play duos. There are several ways to collect sets, including based on colours. Players will often be faced with various on which card to take and optimisation is key here. Although players will also need to adapt to circumstances as they may need to deal with cards they might not initially want. Sea Salt & Paper however, puts some quite unusual and unique mechanics into play that have unusual impact on the game and the way some of these mechanics synch up is interesting. I'm struggling to recall another card game in which cards that are played and cards in hand score equally. It's very important here though since it ties in with the mechanic that allows players to bet on 'winning' the round. When a player chooses to announce 'last chance', they'll know what cards other players have played but they won't know what they've kept in their hand. This means there's always an element of push-your-luck because the announcer will never know what others have kept back. Canny players may decide to not play duo cards in an attempt to lure others into a false sense of security but the trade off is that they won't get utilise those cards' benefits. There's also a higher level of play about noting what cards other players take and responding. Drawing cards blindly gives the player a useful ability of using one of them to cover a card in one of the discard piles, potentially denying it to another player if you think they want it. While Sea Salt & Paper players has a moderately quick playtime and is mostly easy to learn, it's a bit fiddly when it comes to scoring. Not only do players have to score both played cards and ones in hand but sometimes they need to discard their scoring and score again... but differently thanks to someone triggering 'Last Chance'. I'm not sure the the gameplay this push-your-luck mechanic adds to the game is worth the extra hassle it causes with scoring. Sea Salt & Paper is also seems like something of a slow burn when it comes to gameplay which boils down to choosing which card to take and whether to play duos or not. It can feel a little unexciting or unengaging. Mechanically, there's some fun things going on with Sea Salt & Paper but the game didn't quite grab me in the times that we played it but as I said, it could just be a slow burn that requires a few more plays to grasp. I wouldn't object to trying it again. 30th August 2022 Tuesday night gaming with the Woking Gaming Club continued with The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine. The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine is actually an earlier iteration of The Crew: Mission Deep Sea which I've already blogged about and the two games are more or less identical. Read about The Crew: Mission Deep Sea here and it'll give a good idea how The Quest of Planet Nine plays. As such I'm not going to do a full write for The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, instead I'll just note one area of difference between the two. Task cards: These are much more straightforward in The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine. All the objectives are exclusively about acquiring certain numbers in certain colours, e.g., blue 7, yellow 2 and so on. Consequently, The Quest for Planet Nine is a bit more straightforward, this makes it perhaps a little easier to play as it does not present players with having to deal with more left-field tasks like 'I can only win the first and last hands'. The upside is that it has greater accessibility and will be easier to play with people who aren't so heavily into games. If I had to choose between this and The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, I'd choose the latter 100% of the time.
It's not that this is a bad game (It's not.), it's just the gamer in me craves the greater variety and challenge Mission Deep Sea provides. If (Like a friend did.) you want something to play with the family over a holiday with some non-confrontational , still challenging but more accessible gameplay, The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine is a good choice. |
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