23rd May 2021 It's a Sunday and I'm logged into Skype and Board Game Arena, ready for an evening of gaming. The first game of the night was Happy City, a cheerful looking, light engine-building card game about building up a city, a happy city no less. Caveat: We've only played this game digitally on Board Game Arena. What's in a game?
Symbols are clear and easy to read. How's it play? At it's core, Happy City is a tableau-building game, adding cards increases income or score. Setup
In Happy City, the starting player's first turn is slightly different to subsequent turns, as explained below.
Expert game Happy City has 2 levels of play; family & expert. This blog describes the family version. The expert game differs in 2 ways. All the happy market cards are flipped to their differently coloured sides and laid out, then the players draft one to become the starting card in their tableau and giving them some choice in how they start the game. Special buildings also differ; the family Special cards give players a boost to their income, happiness or population. The expert special cards however, are different, they confer different benefits, sometimes variable and situational. Endgame The game continues until a player has 10 cards in their tableau, upon which the current round continues until all players have had an equal number of turns. Each player's score is calculated by multiplying the total value of happiness symbols in their tableau by all the population symbols. Highest score wins. Overall
Gameplay in Happy City gives players the choice between increasing income or accumulating happiness/population. Income will give the player more buying power but happiness/population contributes towards the end score. Having 3 decks of building cards at different cost ranges is an interesting mechanic when it comes to drawing cards. The player will always have the option to draw 1 or 2 cards, higher level cards will be better, but may prove more risky to draw. E.g., If a player has 4 coins, drawing a level 1 card will be safe as level 1 cards only cost 1-3 coins each, level 2 cards cost 4-5 coins, so there's a risk that a level 2 card will be unaffordable and will have been drawn pointlessly. It can give players a quandary when drawing building cards. The game's scoring mechanic also adds an extra layer to decisions, failing to pay attention to how the points are spread between happiness/population can lead to lost scoring opportunities. While Happy City is simple to learn, enjoyable and fast to play, making it a good filler game, it's perhaps also a little too basic for dedicated gamers. After a few games it was fairly easy to spot an optimal strategy to pursue and it became a race to develop that strategy. So I feel that the game doesn't offer a lot of longevity. Ultimately, because it's such a light game, it's probably a good game for families or more casual players which is probably who the game is aimed at. We also played the expert level a few times but felt like it added little to the game. The varied happy markets are nice and offered a little extra strategy but the expert level special cards weren't so good. The problem was that they seemed harder to acquire than the family special cards, which meant they were acquired later in the game and therefore their benefits were limited, we found it wasn't worth specifically trying to get one, getting one by happenstance was fine, but then that sort of makes having a choice of starting happy market card pointless. We enjoyed the family version more. The family version is a game I'd play, but not too often.
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24th March 2021 It's a Wednesday evening and I'm logged into Zoom and Board Game Arena on my PC. It was time for a game that spanned the ages and the creation of massive monuments and the civilisations they represented. Luckily, it doesn't take that long to play 7 Wonders! Caveat: We played the game online but have previously played the physical copy. Photos were taken for this blog post. What's in a game? The purpose of the game is for each player to create their own civilisation through the construction of various types of buildings and ultimately create one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. 7 Wonders is card game played over 3 sets of rounds (or ages). Each age has its own set of cards which are used. There are numerous types of cards, some of these types can be more or less common in different ages.
The text and icons are all mostly clear (I tended to confuse stone and ore icons, because the ore icon looks like a pile of stone to me.), the symbology used for special rules on cards is also generally clear, the rulebook does a good job on clarifying these in cases of confusion. I also like how the layout allows cards to be more or less stacked while still displaying pertinent information. In terms of art quality, the wonder boards are quite large and very nicely decorated in eye-catching illustrations of the 7 titular wonders. Art on the cards are of a similar quality but obviously on a smaller scale. How's it play? Setup 7 Wonders is a 3-7 player game but also contains some special rules to allow 2 player games. This blog post talks about the normal 3-7 player game.
On to play Each player in 7 Wonders is neighboured by a player to their left and right; why this is important will be explained below. Each player takes a card from their hand and plays face down in front of them, then they pass the remaining cards clockwise to the next player, the direction of play alternates between rounds. Once every player has chosen a card, all player then simultaneously reveal their card, plays it and executes one of the 3 actions below.
Once all players have completed their action, everyone picks up their new hand of cards and play continues as described until all players have used 6 cards each, the 7th card is never used and is discarded out of the game. The game has reached the end of the round, now conflicts are resolved.
Endgame Once conflict has been resolved for age 3, the game is over only scoring is left. Victory points can be scored from a variety of sources, once these are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
I'm going to nit-pick a couple of things about 7 Wonders. Set up feels a little long for a game that's quite short, having to sift through all 3 decks at the game start feels irritating, probably because there's 3 decks to construct instead of 1 and if the player count changes between games, then all 3 decks will need to be rebalanced. The game is quite involved and perhaps a little too complicated for its expected playtime. I found myself frequently forgetting the rule about chaining buildings Scoring is convoluted, specifically scoring the scientific cards where each symbol will scored twice. I wouldn't be surprised that more time was spent making sure this was correct than the rest of the scoring. Like other drafting games of this style, early in the game players will struggle to decide what's going to be important to them or not, but by looking at their wonder board, players will see what they need to build their wonder and what benefits it gives them as some guidance. One interesting feature about 7 Wonders is how players can pay to utilise their neighbours resources and goods and of course, players will want to keep and eye on their neighbours' military forces. It's a nice little spin that adds to the game. Since there are 7 ways to score points, players will have a lot of options on which strategy to pursue. For example, civic buildings give a lot of victory points, but nothing else. Military strength can score a lot of points (and cost your neighbours a few), but only if you dominate, getting caught in a war of escalation can be distracting and costly. Quibbles aside, 7 Wonders is a straightforward game to learn that has a quick turnaround and is a fun game to play, players will want to strategize, but the luck of the draw means they will need to adapt to circumstances. The game always provides players with meaningful choices, which is what you want. 22nd March 2021 Monday night gaming on Board Game Arena continues with the final game of the evening; Sushi Go! Like sushi? Like conveyor belts? Then you'll like this.... probably! Caveat: This was played online, but has also been played with the physical game, photos are from my copy. What's in a game? Sushi Go! comprises of a single deck of 108 cards with 8 different types of cards.
The art is clear, distinct and colourful with appropriately themed cheerful faces on all the foods. My copy came in a little steel tin. The only component that the game is lacking are scoring counters, as it stands, scores at the end of each round need to be recorded somehow on scrap paper or a phone or something. On the other hand, adding scoring tokens would increase the game's size, making it less of a neat compact little package, so your mileage may vary. How's it play? Set up Shuffle and deal a hand of cards face-down to each player, the hand size depends on the number of players, the remaining cards form a draw deck for later rounds, then the game is ready to begin. On to play
Once the 3rd round is over and scored, the puddings are scored. Scores are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
As you can see from the short length of this blog post, Sushi Go!'s rules are simple, accessible and easy to learn. The game's depth comes not from rules complexity but from decisions available to each player, which is great game design in my opinion. The game also fits the theme of having food going round on a conveyor belt remarkably well. Sushi Go! constantly forces players to make decisions and some of these decisions will be gambles, based on the hope that another right card will come around further along the game. Players will also get the right card at the right time on random occasion, but this isn't perceived as a no-brainer, they're seen as spots of good luck to be exploited. Canny players will try to memorise hands that get passed along, they might also spend time looking at what cards others have put down, trying to predict their decisions. If 2 players look like they're trying to collect the same set of cards, then they're going to be a premium and those players aren't going to pass those cards on. Then there's puddings, the wrinkle in the rules that produces the pudding war of escalation that forces players to think about what cards might be played in the future rounds and play cards just to avoid losing points! It makes Sushi Go! a blend of calculation and unpredictability. There is no winning strategy, players must adapt to not only the cards dealt to all players but other player's strategies Sushi Go! comes in compact package, is easy to learn, quick to set up and play and enjoyable experience. A great filler game. 27th October 2020 Gaming night at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking continues in what would the last game of the last meetup before Lockdown 2 came into effect. The third and final game of the evening was 'Skulls of Sedlec', in what seems to be a game about digging up skulls and then errr... proudly displaying them in a pile for all to see? Skulls of Sedlec is a microgame that comes from microgame publisher Button Shy who appear to specialise in creating games with 18 cards. Their games are hand crafted and they aim to release 1 a month. What's in a game? As is befitting the name microgame, Skulls of Sedlec is small enough to fit in your pocket.
The wallet is of course a bit of a gimmick, but it's a nice addition and I like it. How's it play? Set up
The objective of Skulls of Sedlec is to create a pyramid shaped layout of cards. Points are scored depending on how cards are placed in relation to other cards. The size of the pyramid depends on the number of players but always has 3 layers of cards and thus 6 layers of skulls. Layers of cards are 'offset' (Like bricks in a wall.), this is important when calculating which cards are 'adjacent' to other cards. On to playing When 'building' a pyramid, players must start at the bottom and work up, thus there must be at least 2 cards in a layer before a card can be placed on the layer above. In their turn, a player can perform 1 of 3 actions.
Endgame Play continues until all cards have been taken and played into pyramids. Then pyramids are scored, there are 5 class of skull and thus 5 ways to score points.
Highest score wins. Overall
Simple to learn, but lots to think about. Skulls of Sedlec packs a some solid gameplay into a tiny package. I really like that the face-down stacks of cards visually represent a graveyard and 'digging' turns them over. It's a clever touch and good example of maximising what's available in a game. Less can be more. The 2 card hand limit is a great mechanic too: It gives players enough choice to give them tricky decisions, but it stops players from hording cards - making their decisions easier. Every card can potentially score points, so every decision when playing a card is meaningful and you really can't ask for more from a game in my opinion. Skulls of Sedlec is a 2 or 3 player game. It's worth noting that that there's an expansion that takes the player count to 4, adds a new class and increases the deck size up to a heady 24 cards! A good little microgame that is a perfect filler with some depth. One I'd like to own and that's not just because it comes in a neat wallet (Although it does add to the appeal.). I'm just glad that the publisher hasn't started numbering their wallet games, that would be too hard on my real wallet! 13th October 2020 Tuesday is here and we're at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking. Time for the Woking Gaming Club to play a game and tonight we will be playing 'The Networks'. This is a game for the budding media mogul inside everybody; create TV shows, hire film stars, fire chat show hosts, stick advert breaks everywhere, well at least during primetime! Fun for everyone. When we played The Networks, a couple of expansions were also used. What's in a game? The Networks is a card game that has some nice additional components.
All the other components are standard, except the money tokens which are cool. How's it play? Setup
The Networks is played over 5 'seasons'. At the start of each season, TV show, star and advert cards a dealt in 3 rows. Network cards are only dealt out from the 2nd season onwards. After this, in turn order, players take 1 action each. This continues until there are no more actions that can be performed or all players have chosen to finish for the season, this is called 'drop & budget'. The actions are:
Endgame The game continues for 5 seasons, at the end of the 5th season the shows are still aged. Then a 6th season is scored (No new cards or other actions occur). Accumulated audience figures are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
The Networks has some cool design choices that give players interesting decisions to make. A player can keep going and acquire more stars and adverts for as long as they've got money, which can give them an advantage later on because having these cards in their Green Room means that it's easier and quicker to develop shows. But ending your season early gives you more money/audience, more importantly though, it allows the player to be earlier in the turn order for the following season. So when the new cards appear, that player will get first dibs. Because the game is very much about card drafting, players really have to think about how they prioritize their actions, as all players will be vying for the same cards. Players have to try and use their actions as efficiently as possible, there's a fine balance between doing all the actions you want to do and ending your turn quickly. All in all, The Networks gives players important decisions to make throughout the game and that's a good thing. 28th January 2020 Tuesday is here and we're at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking to play board games. Popular opinion states that most restaurant fail in the first year, so running one is hard work (And believe me I know!). What could be harder? Running a whole chain of restaurants! That's where 'Food Chain Magnate' comes in. Now you too can know what it's like to run restaurants without all the 'fun' of inconsistent staff, irritating customers, infuriating regulations and interfering local authorities. What's in a game? There's quite a lot to Food Chain Magnate and quite a lot of components too.
How's it play? First; setup.
A round of Food Chain Magnate is played over 7 rounds.
Endgame Play continues until all the allotted money from the 'bank' supply is depleted, in which case any remaining money is paid out from the reserve supply. The player who has accumulated the most money, wins. Overall
Food Chain Magnate markets itself as a 'heavy' game and it's not kidding. The aim of the game is to build housing and create marketing campaigns, this generates a demand for whatever particular food & drink the player decides advertise. Then the player produces the relevant food & drink to fill that demand, this equals profit. Except it's not so simple. There is a lot to think here and all of it is important. How a player structures their company is crucial. All of the other actions options will become avaialable based on the staff cards that you recruit and play. A lot to think about. You need food? Pizza chefs will produce pizza and burger chefs will produce burgers. You want drinks? You need an errand boy to go and collect them. Want to be more competitively priced? Get a pricing manager. Need an advertising campaign. You'll have to get marketing staff. Want to place more housing? A business developer is what you need. Your staff need training to be more effective? Trainers are what you need. You got too many staff? Get more managers! Need to recruit people even quicker? Recruiters are what's needed. And so on. Marketing needs to be targeted. There are different types of marketing that target a player's audience at different 'ranges' and they tend to be of varying length. Players will need to optimise creating their demand. Advertising can have a real sting in the tail. Because other players can benefit from it too. If one player creates a demand for burgers and another player then opens a burger joint closer to the housing that's been targeted, then the customers will go there instead (Customers have absolutely no loyalty!). Or if another player slashes the price of their burgers, then other restaurants will be ignored. Sly players will definitely try and exploit other player's marketing. This brings me to 'pricing'. This is a great game mechanic. Instinctively, players will want to increase prices to generate more revenue. But a player really needs to undercut their opponents, because less profit is better than no profit. Pricing is a real race to the bottom and forces players to make horrible choices - always a good thing! Players will also need to think about food & drink production, as more and more demand appears, players will need to get better and better at production to meet that demand. Also, as demands get more complex, fulfilling those demands gets equally as complex (A house's demands cannot be only partially fulfilled and must be fully met.). And don't forget milestones, the benefits they can confer can be very important. When we played this game, the owner explained to us that he thinks at the start there's a couple of different routes to follow for 'opening moves' that there are 'no brainer' moves (These are to do with milestones.). It seems some of the milestones can be completed in the first couple of turns and only the first player(s) that complete them get the benefit, not following the 'no brainer' moves means a player can lose out on those benefits. This implies that early moves (Or mistakes really!) can affect the entire game. I'm not sure how I feel about this? I don't like 'no brainers', because what they do is remove choice from a game. On the other hand, maybe it was overstated. I guess the game would need to be played multiple times to see if this is the case All of this contributes to make Food Chain Magnate a deep game that requires a lot of forethought and strategy. There is no luck or chance in this game. If you like genuinely heavy games, this may interest you. For me though, I found it to be a little bit difficult to play the game on all the levels it required and mostly ignored the marketing side. It felt a strangely unengaging game, perhaps it was the theme? 7th January 2020 It's the first Tuesday of the year and we're NOT at 'The Sovereigns' (Which is closed for refitting.), instead we're at 'The Wheatsheaf' in Woking for board gaming. Tonight, we're playing Taverns of Tief....err? Taverns of Tiefe... err? It's a game where you run a pub! So this game tries it's best squeeze in as many game mechanics as it can. Deck building - yep. Card drafting - yep. Dice drafting - yep. Dice placement - yep. Resource management - yep. Hidden Role - y... wait no, that's about the only thing missing! What's in a game? So Taverns of Tiefenthal comes with some optional extras or expansions, apparently we used all of them in the game we played. So there's a lot of components.
Many of the game's components are made of nice and thick card stock, including the beer mats. The artwork is quite nice and colour and there's some nice detail on the tavern board and tiles. How's it play? We begin with setup.
That covers most of the setup. Now to explain what does what. Let's start with the tavern board. Many of the abilities on the board are activated by placing dice of a specific value on them.
Guest cards are acquired by spending beer.
So at last, finally, we get to how the game plays. Each round is player over several phases.
Endgame Play continues for 8 rounds. Victory points are scored from the cards that players bought Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Taverns of Tiefenthal requires a lot of explanation (As you can see above), but in play is actually quite straightforward. It's more of a game about optimizing strategies than complex rules. The game gives you a lot of choices and options. Occasionally these will be meaningless decisions because of how the dice fall, but most of the time you'll have to choose between different actions. A player will nearly always have more options available than actions to perform them. This is makes a good game in my opinion. There's nothing particularly unique about the game, other than how it blends certain game mechanics together to emulate it's subject quite well. The game's presentation is also very good with well made components and colourful and well produced art. The game's only drawback is its setup time, there's quite a lot to do. But I think the payoff is worth it as I enjoyed it. 22nd December 2019 Sunday is here at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking. 50 Fathoms is still on hiatus so for the final get together before Christmas we're playing board games. The first game was 'Agatha Christie's Death On The Cards'. Will the other players learn your darkest secrets? Will you catch the murderer? Or will you manage to get away with murder! Only the cards can decide in... Death On The Cards! What's in a game? Death On The Cards uses 3 different types of cards. Secret cards, game cards and the 'Murderer Escapes!' card , game cards are further divided into other cards:
How's it play? First there's setup, which is a little different depending on the number of players.
Social disgrace What's social disgrace? When a player has all of their secret cards turned face-up, all of their secrets have been revealed and they're disgraced. What does this mean? It means that when they become the active player, all they can do is discard exactly 1 card and draw 1 card. It is possible to come back from social disgrace as there some cards that allow secret cards to be turned back face-down. Endgame How the game ends will depend on the player's role in the game.
Overall
'Death On The Cards' plays with 2-6 people and what's interesting is how the game changes depending on the number of players. With 2 players, there's no secret to who's the murderer. The game is a war of attrition. Now, for some maths (Hopefully my maths is correct.). Let's look at it with 3 players.
Now lets look at a 6 player game.
This means it becomes easier for the murderer to get away with it in bigger game. Now I don't see this as a flaw, but it is definitely something that changes the dynamics of the game. With 3 players for example, 'Death On The Cards' can be played as a straightforward card game. With 6 players, it's much harder to capture the murderer. Players will need to form alliances and target suspicious players as quickly as possible. But then, this gives the murderer and accomplice opportunities to bluff, lie, double cross and sabotage their 'allies'. It becomes a lot more like a hidden role game. Anyway, regardless of the mathematics, the game mechanics fit the theme very well. 'Death On The Cards' can learned quickly and plays quickly too . It's a great filler game and even though I'm not a fan of hidden role games, it's a lot of fun. It's definitely worth giving it a try. 3rd December 2019 It's Tuesday at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking with the board game club. This means board games! And tonight we played 'Wayfinders'. 'Those magnificent men, in their flying machines.' 'They go up tiddly up up.' 'They go down tiddly down down.' That's enough of that! Wayfinders is a colourful little game about flying and exploration. It's also a fairly light worker placement and resource management game. What's in a game? Wayfinders is played over a 5x5 grid of tiles:
Apart from the aforementioned worker meeple issue, all the components are solidly made and bright and colourful. On the island tiles. All the resources are delineated by both colour and symbol except for the resource in the bottom right corner, which is represented only by colour. However the resource tokens appear to have their symbols printed on them and they may wear off over time and use. How's it play? Setup.
In Wayfinders, there are only 2 main actions, although the 2nd action has a number of sub actions that can be performed. 1st action, place a worker:
Acquire resources. Travel. Build hangars. Endgame The endgame is triggered when a player has 2 or less hangars remaining in their supply. The current round is completed and scoring commences. Resource and Permanent effect tiles have a static score. But scoring tiles tend to have scores dependent on what the player as achieved in the game. For example: A scoring tile might score 3 points for each tile in the same vertical line as itself that the player has put a hangar on to. Unused resources and workers on the hangar board in the endgame also score. Final scores are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Wayfinders is a pretty simple game, but there's a couple of interesting things going on in this game. Acquiring resources is an unusual blend of worker placement and drafting with a dash of push your luck. Players will probably find themselves competing over certain resources, particularly if that resource is scarce in the hangars. This can lead to some tricky decisions. A player can keep putting down workers so that when they are returned, the player will get the maximum resources. But if that player needs a certain resource, this delay can lead to them losing that resource to another player. Or perhaps a player needs a resource that is 3rd in line at the hanger. Do they try and play 3 workers to get at it? Or do they place a single worker and hope that someone takes a resource ahead if it. Watching where other players put their workers can be insightful. Whilst there is little direct interaction in Wayfinders, particularly on the tiles. Another reason to watch what other players do, is that when they place a hangar in a tile, that tile becomes accessible to other players for free. This can make it easier to reach tile beyond it and will open up the playing area and also open up more choices and strategies. Conversely, getting to a tile that may prove popular with other players and putting a hangar on there first is a great way to earn resources as other players must pay to you instead of the bank. This is a lot more useful than it sounds. After moving a plane and placing hangars, a player can only retain 3 resources. So even if that player maximizes the placement of their workers, they can only start a move and build action with a maximum of 8 resources. However if during a round other players have to pay out to you to put their hangars down, it's possible to start with a lot more resources. This can be a great advantage, as being able to put down 2 or 3 hangars in a turn really lays pressure on other players as they'll be forced to play catch up. Remember, players start with 10 hangars, but 1 goes on the home tile, so in reality everyone starts with 9 hangars. And the endgame is triggered when any player reaches 2 or less hangars left. So a player only needs to place 7 hangars to trigger the endgame. As well as being a fairly easy game to learn, Wayfinder is a quite short game and playing speeds up over the course of a game as the board inevitably opens up. Optimizing your actions and taking advantage of circumstances are key to winning. A canny player can end the game abruptly, leaving their competitors in the lurch. The only criticism I have is that it's a little too long for a filler game, but a little short for a main game. But that criticism aside, Wayfinders is a easy to learn and fairly fun game to play. 26th November 2019 Tuesday evening at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking continues. The second and final game of the night was 'Architects of the West Kingdom'. As an architect it's your job to rebuild the errr.... West Kingdom! So it appears that in this game, you'll be rubbing shoulders with virtuous members of the clergy and getting 'down and dirty' with shady criminals. The life of an architect, eh? Architects of the West Kingdom is a pretty standard worker placement game, but a worker placement game with a couple of extra little twists. What's in a game? There's quite a lot to Architect of the West Kingdom and this is reflected in the components.
Hows it play? Setup
There are 3 ways to place workers in the game, this is dependant on the symbol used on the game board:
And there's still a bit more to go in explaining the game.
Endgame Play continues until the Guildhall has been filled by workers (Different according to the number of players.). When this happens, all players get one more turn and then scoring begins. There are several factors that affect scoring:
Overall
There are a couple of interesting mechanics in Architects of the West Kingdom, particularly how they interact with each other. Being able to put multiple workers into a space to gain increasing results seems overpowered. But when a player puts a lot of workers into a single space, they can just become a target for another player to capture. Obviously when capturing workers, players will want to do it as efficiently as possible, because there's money to be made when putting them in prison. If a player can predict their opponent's moves, stealing their workers can really screw with them. Another thing to consider is that players have no way to get their workers back other than having them captured by other players or capturing them themselves. Being able to manage your workers in this way can avoid those pesky debt cards, which themselves are a clever little addition to the game. The virtue track, black market and cathedral also add an extra element that helps differentiate the game. I enjoyed this game, I think it's fairly good.Generally I felt like I always had options and meaningful decisions to make. Which all I really want from a game. If you really like worker placement games, you'll probably like Architects of the West Kingdom. It's just different enough to justify its existence. Or, if you don't own any worker placement games and you want one. You may want to consider this game, |
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