1st April 2023 We're at Wogglecon 7 for a day of gaming fun. Second game of the day was Sagrada which means 'sacred' in Spanish. Gaming and Wogglecon are definitely sacred but is Sagrada all about creating stained glass windows through the medium of dice-placement, albeit with dice that look quite glassy! Note: I think for this particular game of Sagrada shown in the photos an expansion was also used which added the grey dice amongst other things. What's in a game?
The most noticeable component of Sagrada are the bright colourful dice. They are well made, rounded and translucent with a 'gem' type finish. Usually I have a preference for wooden dice but can see why the game uses this type as it's a great fit the stained glass window theme. The player board with it's recessed grid works well when used with the window pattern cards which slide smoothly into place and dice which happily set in their spots. The cards are the standard you'd expect off of a modern game and the inclusion of glass beads is a nice touch. The game's art direction continues the theme of stained glass windows. There's lots of brightly coloured glass panes shown on the player boards and round tracker. White much of it is just abstract shapes, it's very colourful without obscuring important detail. It also lends the game a eye catching quality all of which I like. For the most part, the game's iconography is easily understood. Some of the objective cards and tool cards might require explanation or looking up in the manual but this doesn't really affect the flow of play and isn't an issue. How's it play? Setup
On to play In Sagrada, players will be placing dice on to their player board in an attempt to match the criteria on the public/private scoring cards while also meeting the requirements dictated by the pattern cards. The game utilises something of a typical turn order but during each round every player will have the opportunity to draft 2 dice; although only 1 at a time.
Endgame Play continues for 10 rounds whereupon the game ends and goes to scoring. VPs can be accumulated from several sources.
Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Using translucent, glass-like dice to represent details of a stained glass window is a cool nice idea that fits thematically. It doesn't hurt that it all looks quite pretty when finished. Mechanically, Sagrada is straightforward - drafting and placing dice to try and match objectives. The challenge facing players however, comes from managing the obstacles that will impede them. Players will have to take into account both the requirements of their pattern board when placing dice and the placement rules and how they interact with each other. E.g., placing a red die on a blank space orthogonally adjacent to a red space on their pattern board will mean now that no die can be placed on the red space - because it will be adjacent to the already placed red die. Leaving spaces empty like this will cost players VPs. It means players will need to anticipate which dice they place to avoid pitfalls such as this. They will need to pay attention to not only which dice they draft but since they draft 2 dice per round, the order in which they are drafted. Additionally, players will need to manage having to draft dice they might not want at that time. This can be difficult because of the rule's placement restrictions. There's also definitely a higher lever of play here that comes from seeing what dice other players will need and trying to gauge which opponents will take which dice and react appropriately. There's not much more to say about Sagrada. I guess some people may not like the low amount of interaction between players which only occurs when drafting dice but I don't have an issue with it. I will add that Sagrada sort of feels a little like a puzzle to solve than a game in itself and some people may not like this aspect. Again, it doesn't bother me. Sagrada is easy to understand with its 'draft and place' mechanics but presents players with a not insignificant challenge: Since the game is played over 10 rounds and players can get 2 dice per round, it is possible to entirely fill a window but I don't think that is a simple proposition. It feels kind of unremarkable as a game because it is so straightforward without bells and whistles or any gimmicks but in practice provides a solid, enjoyable gameplay experience which taxes the braincells a little and pushes players to make tricky decisions.
0 Comments
7th March 2023 Tuesday evening is here again and we're with the Woking Gaming Club at The Sovereigns. 'It's so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas.' - Paul Cezanne. Canvas is a game about creating paintings - well sort of and you actually start with a blank canvas - well sort of! What's in a game?
The tokens are all constructed from suitably thick card stock and feel satisfyingly sturdy. The tuck box is made from the same material used for tuck boxes that contain decks of cards and like those boxes, it's fairly flimsy but unless it's mistreated, it should be fine. The scoring cards are made of standard card. For a game about art, as you might expect, there's a lot of art in Canvas. However, it's all 'patchwork' art that comes in small elements which during the course of the game, players will combine to make their sort of own artwork. Canvas provides lots of these small pieces of art in a variety of styles and sizes. It's hard to say whether it's good or bad because it's not meant to constitute finished art. Regardless of that, it all looks OK to me. Certainly, there's a lot of bright colour going on, which is something I like. While Canvas uses an average-ish amount of iconography, I found some of it to be rather abstract and counter-intuitive. The bonus silver ribbons and colous are easily understood, but triangle representing shape and a striped box representing texture? It's also complicated a little further by whatever the scoring criteria are on the scoring cards which seemed not quite as simple as they could be. Players especially need to be aware of the scoring criteria It's a bit of a steep curve but ultimately not a gamebreaker though and requires some learning. How's it play? Setup
On to play In Canvas, each player is creating 3 paintings - which will be created by layering 3 art cards over a background card. Once a painting is created, it will earn ribbon as per the scoring criteria. Then, once the game is over, ribbons will earn VPs. Canvas uses a traditional turn order with the active player acting, then play progressing to the player on their left. During their turn, the active player in basic terms has 2 choices.
Endgame Once a player has created 3 paintings, their turns are skipped, once all player have created 3 paintings, the game ends and goes to scoring. Players should now sort their ribbons by colour. Each scoring card will determine how many victory points (VPs) its set of coloured ribbons will score. Silver ribbons earn 2 VPs each. Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Canvas merges its theme with its central mechanic quite well and I have to say it's a a fairly unique mechanic I quite like that also feels fresh. I also like how the game produces some pretty unusual names for the paintings. Canvas is in implementation, a fairly straightforward game, it utilises familiar drafting and conveyor belt mechanics commonly seen elsewhere. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a good crossover game as I feel the scoring rules are a little obtuse but gamers should have no problems understanding Canvas. Where the game's depth comes from is in the creation of paintings. Players can freely choose to layer the art cards they choose to use how they wish but any scoring icons that are not visible are not scored. This puts players into a quandary, they will need to not just select the art cards for a painting that provide them the best scoring opportunities but also how to layer those art cards to do so! Furthermore, over multiple plays, the wide choice of scoring cards will force players to approach game slightly differently. Between this and the variety of art cards, there's a lot of replicability to the game. Thus players must carefully draft whatever cards they might need as well as think about how to use them. Synergy between cards is key to optimal scoring but I found it was quite hard to get the mix of icons that I wanted and I'm sure that Canvas is one of those games where players will rarely get the 'perfect scoring' they want. That's a good thing because it means players will have to choose between choices and are pushed to make meaningful decisions, although I must admit that I found it sometimes veered to being close to frustrating instead of challenging. There's not much more to say really; Canvas is a game that's quick to pick up and relatively quick to play with a easily understandable theme that meshes well with gameplay that feels a little different to anything else. It's a game definitely worth trying especially if you're looking for a game that has some unique elements. 5th February 2023 It's another Sunday evening and we're logged into Board Game Arena again for some gaming fun. Nova Luna; the new moon. No, this is no a game based on those dodgy vampire films. It's a pretty standard draft and tile placement game. Caveat: We've only ever played this game digitally. What's in a game?
The game's only art is found on the moon wheel, there's some fairly detailed styling around the wheel as well all the faces of the moon. Otherwise, Nova Luna is fairly light on artwork. It does make good use of bold bright colours however, which I like and think makes it look eye catching. If you understand numbers and coloured dots, then you'll understand Nova Luna's iconography. It's very straightforward and easily understood. How's it play? Setup
On to play In Nova Luna, players will be drafting tiles from the moon wheel and placing them adjacent to each other in their personal play area with the intent of connecting tiles of certain colours to each other in order to complete the objectives or tasks on those tiles. Nova Luna does not use a traditional turn order, player order is based on the respective position of each player's token position on the moon track. Furthermore, whenever a player takes a tile, their token will move along the track.
Endgame There are 2 ways the game can end.
Overall
Nova Luna's new moon/lunar theme is a bit left field and in fact, the rulebook actually describes Nova Luna as an abstract game. However, abstract nature aside, let's discuss the gameplay. Nova Luna presents two elements that player will need to think about, which are the drafting and then placement of tiles. The drafting element presents players with some potentially interesting choices. Taking a tile will likely alter the active player's position in the turn order. They will generally have the option of taking 1 of 3 the tiles ahead of the moon meeple. When the situation occurs that there are less than 3 they can elect to fill the spaces but may choose not to, instead selecting from the smaller selection if those tiles are what they want. Players can sometimes manipulate the situation to get more tiles they need as there may be times when the active player could take a tile with a low time value and immediately act again, however, what's to stop a player always doing that? Well, tiles with low time values tend to have tasks that are harder to complete and require more connections. So there's a bit of a balancing mechanic there. Tile placement is also very important. It's vital to try and think ahead when doing this Optimal tile placement is key. Players will want to position tiles so that they complete current tasks but also leaves tile edges open to complete tasks later in the game or open to be connected to other tiles later on. Like a lot of games of this type. It will be tricky to always place the tile you want, when you want and they'll be moments of frustration when this occurs. Sometimes players will to adapt or change tactic. While I feel that Nova Luna is a game that plays well and I'd have no problems joining a game if someone wanted to play. It is however, also the kind of game I've played a lot before. The whole draft and place tile gameplay is something that's already been done quite a lot and while some of the mechanics utilised for this in Nova Luna are unique, I don't think it's enough to differentiate itself from other games of its type. If you've played games similar in gameplay to Nova Luna, you probably won't find much in here that's new. However, if you're new to this kind of game or looking for a game in this style, then Nova Luna is equally worth considering, it's not particularly difficult to learn and gives players meaningful decisions and choices to balance in a bright and colour package. 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. 27th November 2022 It's a Sunday and we're logged into Board Game Arena for some gaming fun. Have you ever gone to a cat café or wanted to go to one? According to Cat Café the game, if you're at one of these establishments you're meant to try and attract as many cats as possible! How is this done? By getting mouse toys, balls of yarn and so on to lure them over. Of course the actual best way to attract cats is to set up a board game with lots of components, then you'll attract every one for miles around! Caveat: We've only played this game digitally. What's in a game?
What art does appear in the game can be found on the sheets and there's a definite charm to those hand-drawn styled cartoonish cat illustrations and icons. Speaking of icons, nearly all the game's iconography is briefly explained on the sheet itself, there isn't too much of it and I can't imagine it proving a problem to learn. How's it play? Setup
On to play During the game players will be drafting dice and then using the results to draw 1 of 6 symbols on the cat towers. Cat Café is played in 2 phases and uses a typical turn structure for the first phase while the second can be played out by all players simultaneously.
Endgame As soon as any player has completed their 3rd tower, the game ends on that round and goes to scoring. Cat Café has several ways to score.
Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
For me, Cat Café is a bit of a mixed bag. I'm always a fan of games that have streamlined, elegant mechanics and there's definitely some of that to Cat Café but here it seems like sometime it comes at the price of choice. Sometimes the choices feel meaningful, sometimes they don't. Players will get to choose a die (And sometimes not even that!) then draft it, after that they'll get a 2 options on how to use those dice, or pass. For example: A player may get a '1' and a '5', this means they could put a cushion on level 1 but that's a waste of a cushion (Ideally, you'd want it higher.). Alternatively they could put a cat house on level 5 which introduces a new conundrum; is this a good time to play a cat house? In the early game they won't score many VPS and are much more valuable to play in the late game - provided the number comes up again. All of this gives players several things to think about and sounds good - which it is to an extent but it's also hard to try and plan moves ahead when luck can play such a haphazard role, sure, the appropriate use of paws can mitigate bad luck to a degree but even so, it can be frustrating not getting the numbers needed. It means players will need to adapt and react to their results as they get them to gain optimal scoring and not rely on getting results they want later unless they have of course acquired a sizable amount of paws. Next is scoring: Cat Café employs a fairly broad criteria for scoring with different avenues to approach in acquiring VPs. E.g., the mouse toy scores points for gathering the same type of symbol together while the food bowl scores by gathering different symbols. This mechanic has been utilised in other games and is understandable here, where players at times will find themselves at the mercy of the dice and have to change what they were going to do. However, with some scoring occurring mid game and the rest after the end, it does make scoring a little bit too intricate and involved, especially for a game this light. Having said all of that, I'm probably overthinking everything. Cat Café is a lightweight, family friendly game with a cute cat theme. It's not too hard to pick up and while decisions can be fairly limited they do tend to be meaningful. There's also a dollop of luck to add some unpredictability. It would be a good choice for younger players but perhaps would need someone older to manage the scoring. For me, I found it a little too simplistic and unengaging as well as slightly frustrating. 19th November 2022 It's a Saturday morning and we're at Bisley for Wogglecon 5 'It's a alive!' - a day of gaming goodness and a bit of charity. Have you ever fancied travelling South American highlands with nothing but a cart of goods to keep you company, going from place to place, hunting for fish, chopping down trees, trading and so forth. If the answer is yes, then maybe Altiplano is the game for you. What's in a game? Altiplano has a whole shedload of components, so here we go!
Right, I think that's it for components. Altiplano's components are for the most part solidly made, the tokens, boards and tiles are constructed of thick card and feel sturdy. The containers made of equally sturdy material but are supplied as flat components that need to need folded into their shape. They sort of clip together but some of them had a tendency to break open. It's not a problem really and nothing that a dab of PVA glue wouldn't solve but even so, it feels a little like a cheap oversight. Cards are pretty average but also smaller than typical cards which allows them to fit on the tiles. Finally, the meeples and cubes all feel like nice wooden components. Altiplano is a game with a South American theme and consequently has a South American folk art themed art style to it. There's a lot of bright solid colours with stylised line art that mixes with slightly cartoony illustrations to be found on the tokens, cards, board and tiles. It's all solid artwork, brash and colourful which is how I like it. The only criticism I have is for the colour schemes for the cloth and wool tokens, which in less than good light can look similar. Between all the location actions, tokens, extension tile actions and so on, there's quite a lot of iconography to Altiplano. Luckily, much of it is intuitive and easily comprehended but some of it will - particularly the extension tiles - will require referring to the rulebook, fortunately it contains fairly extensive explanations. It's not a gamebreaker but there's definitely a bit of a learning curve here. How's it play? Setup
On to play In Altiplano players will be making plans to travel around the location tiles and use their goods to carry out the actions specific to those locations. This is done over 4 phases:
Endgame Play continues until one of the following 2 criteria are met. Any one location becomes fully emptied of all tokens, cards, etc. Or, a space along the extension strip cannot be filled, i.e., the extension tiles supply has emptied. In either instance, the current round is completed and 1 further round is played, then the game goes to scoring. VPs will come from a variety of sources.
Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
As you can see from the write up so far, there's quite a lot going on in Altiplano and a lot for players to think about. There's a recognisable quandary going on with the bag building mechanic. Players will naturally be looking to acquire tokens to carry out actions but invariably there will be times they end up getting pulled from the bag when they're not needed and unneeded tokens can 'water down' a player's strategies. Unwanted tokens can of course be left on planning spaces but most players will find that irritatingly suboptimal. Alternatively, they can placed on spaces for action that a player does not immediately want to perform but they will eventually end up coming back to again though. Another option albeit fairly situational, is to put them on to order cards, although removes the goods from the remainder of the game. Finally, they can be put into the warehouse, this means those tokens have greater scoring opportunities but again, permanently removes them from a player's container/bag which may or may not be a good thing. layers will have judge the merits of storing tokens contextually - except when dealing with glass tokens. The thing with glass tokens is that they don't produce any other type of token, all they do is produce the most VPs per token, storing them in the warehouse where they contribute to more VPs and declutter a player's bag is a no-brainer and usually I consider no-brainers a bad thing for a board game but I feel this is a deliberate decision on the part of the game - more on that below. If you've been paying attention (And I'm sure you have!) you will also have noticed that several goods such as a cacao, alpacas and even something that seems that it should be common such as fish cannot be produced from the action board. So how are these acquired? There's a couple of opportunities to get them, namely boat cards, extension tiles and possibly role tiles. However, this brings me to a bit of a bugbear I have with this scarcity mechanic. It means there can be a race by experienced players to get those hard-to-produce goods, particularly cacao which produces glass which can be worth so many VPs. In fact I feel the whole of the forest location is especially strong location since cacao alone is used there for 3 separate actions in the same location. A player who can produce cacao and concentrates on doing so can soon be producing lots of goods at the forest. Having said that, the game is a bit of a point salad with various avenues to scoring VPs, it's just that I feel going for glass is the strongest way and experienced players will end competing in that tactic. While the bulk of the game's activity takes place during the action phase, the planning phase is where players will do most of their well... planning. They'll look to optimise there actions to get the most out of their available tokens. Because players will generally need to move around to perform multiple actions, efficient use of the movement track is important, especially so in the early game when food tokens will be scarcer. A player can move their meeple before or after an action may make it seem unimportant but sometimes players will need to think ahead about where they need to be at the start of the next round. As well as having to think about movement and balancing their goods with their bags, players will also have to think about gaining extensions, house and order cards, as well as boat cards if they are needed. Add to this increasing their planning spaces and acquiring corn to fill out their warehouse and players have lot of ways to approach the game In this regard Altiplano does that thing which presents players with lots of options but frequently not enough opportunity to do everything they want, forcing them to make tricky decisions, which I consider a good thing in games. Altiplano is a mid-to-heavy game with a longish playtime, it's probably not for beginners and perhaps could be criticised for being a bit over-elaborate although personally I didn't find it that much of a problem In conclusion; the mechanics blend together to give players choices and essentially problems to solve in optimising their actions. If bag-building style games and resource management are your thing, Altiplano is worth a try. 11th November 2022 It's a Friday and I'm at the office in Woking for some end-of-week gaming fun. You know you can't go wrong when you're playing a board game set in Renaissance Italy. In this case it's Florence and about princes which is about as Renaissance as it gets! All you need are some Medici and Borgia to round it all off! In The Princes of Florence players take on the role of wealthy nobles trying to out do each other by enticing artist and scholars to their estates to create 'works' which in turn gives players bragging rights - which is what is important obviously. What's in a game?
All the components in The Princes of Florence are well made. The tokens and cards are what you'd expect. The tetramino tiles feel nice and sturdy, as do the game and player boards. Amusingly, the pawns are all wearing wide-brimmed hats, got to have some protection from that scorching Mediterranean sun! Broadly speaking there there are 2 art styles utilised in The Princes of Florence. Tiles, tokens and some of the player boards are decorated with full colour illustrations. They are quite stylised and almost simplistic illustrations but they are effective and feel appropriate for the setting. All the game's cards (Particularly the profession cards.) are illustrated with a sepia coloured line art style. It contrasts with the art style but also compliments it and again, is appropriate for the setting. The standout art-wise is the game board where nearly each space on the scoring track has its own unique illustration. It shows that little extra effort put into the presentation that shows care for the game which I appreciate. There's little in the way of iconography, mostly its appears on the player boards in the form of silhouetted tetramino shapes for buildings but even so, they are also labelled. Most information is relayed through text. Speaking of which... The game uses a distinct and flowery font for text. It looks suitable for a renaissance themed game but can be a little harder to read than it could be and also tends to make the player board and cards a little more complex then they actually are. It's a minor quibble and in no way a gamebreaker though. How's it play? Setup
On to play The Princes of Florence is played over 7 rounds. Each round is divided into an auctioning phase and an action phase. Auctions allow players to bid for items which will aid them during action phases. The action phase uses the usual turn structure with the active player taking their turn before play progresses to the player on their left.
Endgame Once the 7th round has been completed, the game goes to scoring. Players now reveal any prestige cards they've acquired and score them, adding whatever they're worth to their score on the game board. Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
In terms of gameplay, there's some nice mechanics going on. There's some interesting balancing that occurs with buildings. By virtue of their sizes, the larger buildings will be harder to fit in the grid and take up more room but they are wanted by more professions. Auctioning in particular is also well balanced. Because a player can only win 1 auction per round, it means someone who has a lot of cash cannot dominate all the proceedings. It means that every player can only ever get 1 object per round and it means that if a player has lost every auction and is the last player left in it, they can get any remaining object, unopposed and for just the cost of the opening bid. During the action phase, synchronicity is important. Getting landscapes, buildings, freedoms and professions that 'riff' off each is very useful. E.g., both the goldsmith and bell maker want a 'workshop, or both the theologian and painter want freedom of travel. Players will be looking to optimise their decisions especially when it comes to creating works which is a major source of income and potentially PPs. Why is this so important? The Princes of Florence only has 7 rounds, which is only 7 auctions and 14 actions! Even the most efficient of players will probably find themselves unable to do everything they want they want to do in the rounds given. This forces them to make difficult decisions which is generally a good thing. The Princes of Florence also has distinct early and late game states. Early on players will be looking to build up their estate, buildings, freedoms etc. In the late game they will likely be looking to create as many works as possible and convert them to PPs. If a player creates 2 works in a round, only the highest value one counts for end of round best work bonus but both will pay out Florins and consequently PPs. I suppose that The Princes of Florence is a sort of 'mid-weight' game and by that I mean a game that isn't too complex but probably has a bit too much going on to be a good introductory or crossover game. With having to win auctions to gain certain objects and cards, buildings to place, works to create and more, as well as having to consider how everything relates to everything else, there's a lot to think about. But for more seasoned players, The Princes of Florence is a solid experience with well structured gameplay elements that all have a clear purpose which in turn presents players with meaningful decisions to make. It also blends the individual aspect of a player building up their own palazzo and estate with the interaction of auctioning and drafting. The Princes of Florence is definitely one to try. 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. 9th October 2022 Another Sunday, another session of gaming goodness on Board Game Arena. Travel around North America, fulfil tickets, draft cards, create routes in Ticket to Ride. Caveat: We've only played Ticket to Ride digitally. What's in a game?
I suppose that you could call the art on the board muted but I would say it's functional and unobtrusive. The board is quite busy as it is with all the routes crossing back and forth, overly elaborate art would just obfuscate important information, so it feels like a good decision to me. Each colour of train card has it's own unique illustration which helps with accessibility issues. The illustrations are perfectly good if a little plain. The destination cards essentially replicate the art on the board. There's no notable iconography in Ticket to Ride and the game is straightforward to comprehend. There's just the 9 types of train car to remember and that's easy and intuitive. I imagine the biggest hurdle to overcome in the game's presentation is finding destinations on the map and the iconography does a lot to make that as easy as it can. How's it play? Setup
On to play In Ticket to Ride, players broadly speaking have 3 objectives, these are; build as many routes as possible, create a connection between the locations on their destination cards and finally, create the longest contiguous set of connections. All of these will contribute VPs towards their final score. This is done by drafting cards which in turn allows players to create routes. Ticket to Ride uses the typical turn structure of the active player taking their action before play progresses to the player on their left. In their turn, the active player can perform exactly 1 of the 3 following actions.
Endgame When the active player has 2 or less train meeples remaining, the end game is triggered. Every player including the active player has 1 more turn then the game goes to scoring. Players will add points from destination cards to their running total from the game and the player with the longest set of connections gains bonus VPs. Destination cards are now revealed:
Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Ticket to Ride is a very popular, well regarded game and it's easy to see why. Lightweight rules that are genuinely elegant, almost minimalist that're easy to learn, a game that's intuitive to play with a theme anybody can understand. Ticket to Ride is definitely a game with crossover appeal, is a good game for casual play and introduction to board games. It also has a fairly random distribution of destination cards throughout a game which provides a good level of variety to games. This pared down set of rules means that Ticket to Ride also provides players with clear meaningful decisions to make. Basic tactics are pretty straightforward: Players are in a race to connect their personal destinations before they risk getting blocked by other players. They'll need to balance getting cards they need to draft and claiming routes. Since a player's routes do not need to connect, any player essentially can claim any route, anytime if they have the appropriate cards. Completing destination cards can be quite satisfying and they add an extra wrinkle to the gameplay. Being able to acquire more of them during play can be a game changer, earning more VPs but conversely, is also risky, getting a card that is not completed obviously costs VPs. What makes this even more interesting is during the late game this risk/reward mechanic becomes even more pronounced. Acquiring a destination card late in the game can be very risky because the player may not have the required time to complete the connection. However, late in the game is when a player's train network is at it's biggest, consequently it's possible to gain destination cards which have already been connected. There's also a higher level of play in Ticket to Ride. Watching what opponents are doing and successfully anticipating what connections they're trying to make can allow a player to block or slow their progress down by claim routes they might want. If you look at the map, you will see that that there are numerous routes which are only 1 or 2 space grey routes that are very easy for a player to claim, e.g., a 1 space grey route can be claimed with any train rail card. It's obvious this is by design. This brings me to my main contention with Ticket to Ride: It's a game that promotes negative gameplay. What do I mean by that? Claiming a route another player needs will force them to spend additional turns acquiring train car cards and then taking longer to claim routes around the block. In terms of action economy, a player wasting 1 action to make an opponent waste 5 or 6 can be pretty advantageous. Preventing an opponent completing a destination card may earn that player no VPs but for their opponents, it will cost them points. Many Eurogames have mechanics which have sort of a balance to them where if a player screws over an opponent, they will also frequently screw themselves over and only occasionally can they screw an opponent over while advance themselves. Ticket to Ride is not like that! Although, in part this will be down to the type of people playing. Dedicated players will learn and exploit blocking at every opportunity and why not? Games are for winning and getting a score of 1 while opponents get 0 is still winning. More casual players may not care about higher level tactics. Early games will be light and fun but even so, after a while they'll end up realising (Probably by accident!) how powerful blocking can be. Remember, earlier I said how connecting destinations can feel satisfying, well getting blocked can feel equally unsatisfying. There's a lot that's good about Ticket to Ride and I wanted to like it but the negative aspect can just be too frustrating. I understand why the game has a lot of fans, I'm not one of them. 20th September 2022 Tuesday is here again and we're with the Woking Gaming Club at The Sovereigns in Woking. Recruit and assemble your citizens (Or heroes really.), build domains and vanquish foul enemies in this fantasy adventure themed dice rolling and tableau building game. What's in a game?
Component quality is the usual good quality you'd expect from a modern game like Valeria: Card Kingdoms. Card quality is fine as are the card tokens and the player boards. Wooden tokens for resources are always a welcome addition. The dice are plastic and feel a little 'square' but they have indented numbers which is good. Valeria: Card kingdoms features good art throughout. Cards are well illustrated with colourful chunky pictures of heroic citizens and intriguing domains, my favourite though, is the artwork for monsters that brashly depict menacing enemies. There's quite a lot of iconography throughout the game, from types of heroes and monsters, to terrain types and ability icons. For the most part, they are fairly intuitive - matching the roles on citizen cards to the requirements on domain cards is obvious but some of the abilities, particularly on domain cards are a bit esoteric and will require some looking up in the rulebook. I don't think it's especially beginner or casual friend but by no means is it a gamebreaker either. How's it play? Setup
On to play In Valeria: Card Kingdoms, players will be rolling dice to activate cards to accumulate resources which in turn can be spent to acquire more citizen cards, domains and monsters. The game follows the usual turn structure of the active player taking their actions before player progresses to the player on their left. During a turn, the following phases occur.
Endgame Play in Valeria: Card Kingdoms continues until any 1 of 3 game ending criteria is met, which are:
A player can earn VPs from a variety of sources.
Points are tallied, highest score wins! Overall
I'll start by saying I quite like the implementation of the fantasy theme both in presentation and execution. It is slightly abstract but gathering a band of heroes to go off and fight monsters and build domains feels good. Like many engine and tableau building games, there's a distinct early game in Valeria: Card Kingdoms about players building up their tableau, in this case with citizen cards and a late game about gaining increased resources to acquire monster and domain cards as well as VPs. However, because players get 2 actions during their turn, there's some opportunity for optimised actions, card synchronicity and thus meaningful decisions. Getting the right citizen card can lead to getting a domain card for example. Getting a good domain card early can be a big boon dependant on its ability. This means there will be a fairly constant flow of cards being drafted from the central area. Players will find themselves competing to get the cards they want as quickly as possible and is the game's primary form of interaction between players. In fact: Thanks to every card having an ability that can be activated in other players' turns and also being able to read the dice both individually and as a pair making card activations more common, means the game generally flows quite rapidly. Players will often have something happening outside of their turn. Like many drafting games, there's a higher level of play here that comes from watching what other players are doing and potentially trying to stymie them. The addition of duke cards messes with this though, providing players with unique and unpredictable objectives. Valeria: Card Kingdoms is a solid iteration of the dice rolling, card activating, tableau building game style and players of those games will be on familiar ground here. To compliment this, there's also a couple of innovative touches to do with reading the dice and card activating that make the game fresh. Despite its brisk playtime, the game does has a fairly involved setup process and also an abundance of iconography which makes for a slightly steep learning curve. Don't that put you off though. Valeria: Card Kingdoms is well worth a try. |
AuthorI play, I paint. Archives
March 2025
Categories
All
|