30th April 2023

Another Sunday is here and we're logged into Board Game Arena for an evening of gaming goodness.

Roll over! Fetch! Beg! Sit! Spots is game about collecting Dalmatians, only not 101 of them but only 6 in this push-your-luck, dice rolling game about dog tricks.

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

What's in a game?

• ​Dogs cards: Each dog card will depict 1 or more Dalmatians or other dogs with spots in the artwork. These spots are positioned so that they resemble the spots found on a die and have boxes surrounding them to emphasis this. Some dog cards also display a paw - which is used to acquire treat tokens.
  Finally each dog card is double-sided with a grey side used during player and coloured side used to track scoring. The coloured side also omits the die boxes.

• Treat tokens: These tokens are shaped like stylised dog bones.
• Dice: Spots uses a whole bunch of normal six-siders.

Spots uses very stylised cartoony artwork throughout. Much of it is humorous which suits the game's lightweight nature well and is also style that I like.

There's minimal iconography in Spots and what there is of it, is easily understood.

How's it play?
Setup

• Trick tiles: Players can elect to use a predetermined set of trick tiles or choose a random selection, although the 'Howl' & 'Roll Over' tiles are always mandatory.
• Players:
  Dog cards: Shuffle the dog cards into a deck and deal 2 to each player. These should be placed with the grey side up.
  Treat token: Give each player 1 treat token.
  ​Dog yard tile: Give each player a dog yard tile.
  Die: Give each player a single die, which they should then roll and 'bury' (Burying a die or dice means placing them on the dog yard tile.
• First player: Whoever buried the highest value die becomes the first player.

On to play
In Spots players are attempting to place dice on the relevant spaces on their dog cards without going bust.
Spots uses a traditional turn order with the active player performing their action before play progresses to the player on their left.
In their turn the active player may perform 1 of the following 2 actions.

• Perform trick: The active may choose to undertake a 'trick', this involves the following.
  • Trick tile: The active player picks any face-up 'active' trick tile and resolves the action(s) on that tile.
    Usually this involves rolling one or more dice in some manner, sometimes it may involve something else.
    Then: Frequently a trick will have a secondary THEN action which the player may perform after the first action.
    Additionally, some trick tiles allow the active player to gain a treat token, speaking of which....
    Treat tokens: The active player may spend a treat token to reroll all dice. This can be done as many times as the player has treat tokens.
  • Flip trick: Once a player has completed the actions on a trick tile, they must flip it to the other 'used' side.
    Reset: If once a player has flipped a trick tile to the used side and only 1 tile remains active, then all tiles should be returned to the active side. Thus a player will always have at least 2 trick tiles to choose from during their turn.
  • Place dice: Most tricks require the active player to roll a number of dice and place them on dog cards. Once the active player has finished rolling dice, they may be placed on dog cards with dice boxes that contain matching values. E.g., a '3' can go on a box displaying a '3'.
    Burying: Any dice not placed on dog cards must be placed on the dog yard tile, this is called 'burying'.
    Going bust: If at any time the total value of dice placed on the dog yard tile exceeds 7, then the active player goes bust and the following occurs.
    End turn: The active player's turn immediately ends!
    Wipe all dice: All dice on all cards and tiles are removed and returned to the central supply!
• Score dogs: Instead of performing a trick, the active player may score all their completed cards.
  The active player removes all dice on the completed cards and returns them to the supply.
  All completed dog cards are flipped to their 'completed' sides.
  Draw new cards: For each dog card that is scored, the active player draws a new dog card from the deck and places them grey-side up.
• End of turn: Once the active player has performed their action, player progresses to the player on their left.

Endgame
As soon as any player has scored their 6th dog, they immediately win the game.

Overall
Spots' light-hearted artwork and amusing theme fits its lightweight gameplay quite well.

Mechanically there's not too much to say about Spots. It's a push-your-luck game in which players choose when they want to take risk.
As with all games of this type, luck plays a significant part here and players must learn to recognise good luck and mitigate bad luck.
Often this takes the form of giving players extra opportunities to roll dice after the initial roll, usually in the form of THEN actions.
Players must decide how many extra rolls to make and if they can deal with bad results, i.e', bury dice without going bust. Going bust feels quite harsh in Spots as it not only wipes the progress of the current turn but all current progress which makes pushing luck a tricky decision.
Having said that, this is a game that plays quickly and lost progress can be recovered reasonably fast.

Another aspect of luck that will affect players are related to trick tiles. Players will frequently find that their choices of available trick tiles will be limited due to the rules for flipping them and occasionally they'll have a choice of all 6!
I guess there could be a higher level of player about players trying to plan moves ahead and when tiles become active again but generally, it's a case of 'you take what you're given'.

There is an area of concern for me though which is to do with the distribution of numbers on the dog cards potentially effecting game balance.
If a player has cards with 4s, 5s & 6s, it means they'll end up burying dice showing 1s, 2s & 3s.
But if they have cards with 1s, 2s & 3, it means they'll be burying 4s, 5s & 6s which are much harder to deal with than the lower numbers and will be more likely to make a player go bust.
Since dog cards tend to have multiple numbers, if the numbers are well distributed then perhaps this won't occur. I will add that some cards also can gift treat tokens to players when scored which may make them more useful.

However, despite what I've written above, I don't think this is much of an issue. Spots is a light, fun and luck driven game - just roll the dice, take the chance, have fun! If players are looking too deeply into the balance of number distribution on cards, then they're probably playing the wrong game.

I'm not so sure that dedicated gamers will find much to engage with Spots, there are definitely some meaningful decisions to make but also significant amount of chance at play.
With its fun theme and light gameplay, Spot is clearly aimed at a family audience and also younger players. With being fairly quick to play, it also serves as a reasonable filler game.

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?

• ​​Cards: All the cards in Durian are unusually rectangular and come in 2 types.
  Fruit cards: Fruit cards are divided into 2 halves, on each card one half always displays 1 fruit and the other 2-3 of the game's 4 types of fruit - bananas, grapes, strawberries and of course durians.
  

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

• Point tokens: Put the point tokens into a single stack or row, starting with the '1' at the top/front and increasing sequentially to the '7' at the bottom/end.
• Card holders: Give each player a card holder.
• Order board: Place the order board into the central playing area.
• Player cards: Shuffle all the cards into a face-down deck.
• First Player: Determine a starting player.

​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.

• Take inventory: Deal 1 card to each player, players should not look at their card. Instead they should place it into their card holder with the front of the card facing the other players. Thus, players should not know what is on their own card.
• Take order: The active player now takes a card from the deck and flips it face-up, then they have to add it to the order board.
  The card must be lined up beneath the order board so that 1 half is beneath the 'X' and the other beneath '✓'. The active player chooses which side of the card goes where.
  The side under the '✓' is the side for customer orders, while the other side is disregarded.
  ​Gorilla card: If a gorilla card is drawn, the active player may use it to turn a previously drawn card 180'.
• ​Check order: Next, the active player must decide if they want to call the angry manager or not.
  Put simply; the active player needs to look at the other players' cards and decide whether they think the order has gone bust or not. That is, whether the there's more fruit in in the order than the inventory (Or not.).
• To call or not to call: The active player is now faced with a decision.
  • Not call: If the active player thinks there's enough fruit in the inventory to meet the orders, then they should pass and play should progress to the next player who then has to take the next order card as explained above
  • Call: However, if the active player thinks there's not enough fruit in the inventory, then they should ring the bell and...
• Call the manager: When the bell is rung, the angry manager cometh...
  The angry manager has to get angry at someone, the question is... who?
  At this point, all inventory cards should be revealed to all players and compared to the order. If any player had a gorilla sibling card as a inventory card, it takes effect now and can change what is found in the inventory. The infinite banana gorilla card means that the inventory has infinite gorillas for example and so on.
  • Not bust: If there's enough fruit in the inventory to fulfil the order then there's no problem and angry manager will get angry at the player who rung the bell for no reason.
    "Why did you disturb me for nothing," the angry gorilla will no doubt yell.
  • Bust: If there's not enough fruit in the inventory to meet the order, then the angry manager will get angry at the previous player!
    "Why didn't you call me," the angry manager will undoubtedly shout.
• Take token: Whoever was the target of the manager's ire must take a point token and place it their personal area.
  When doing so, the player always takes the lowest value token, obviously starting with the '1'.
  This means that the angry manager gets more and more angry the more you call them out!
  • New round: Regardless of who the angry manager got angry with, a new round must begin. Take all the cards and shuffle them into a new face-down deck.
  • First Player: The first player will be whoever is to the left of the player that the angry manager got angry with!

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.

3rd February 2023

Friday is here! I'm at the office in Woking for some after work gaming.

As the name might suggest, Formula D is a game based on Formula 1 racing - but with dice! It's also the spiritual successor to the fantastic Formula Dé, a game I played 'back in the day'.
How does it hold up? Let's see.

All of Formula D's components are good quality. The game board and player tiles feel sturdy, as does the player board.
While the cars are quite tiny, they are all well sculpted, colourful and overall look great.
I was a bit sceptical of having player boards with pegs and a groove for the gearstick but in practice works well enough and does away the need for pencils and erasers which were needed for the original Formula Dé.
Perhaps the only criticism would be for the tokens, which are a bit small and fiddly. However, there's no other way to fit them on the track so it's a bit of a necessary evil.

The player tiles feature some nice colourful art with F1 drivers on one side and street racers on the other side. The street racers have definite anime look to them.
But the standout artwork appears on the game boards which feature fantastic illustrations of their locales. A lot detail has been put into the art, you can even see crowds of people.

All the iconography on the track are numbers and arrows and are easily understood. The colours/shapes of the gears are also easy to understand.
However, the icons used on player tiles could be a little clearer, I think more stylised icons would have been more helpful.
Finally the positioning of the resource tracks on the player board could have been done differently to improve usability. Specifically, the gearbox, brake and engine tracks could have been put together, since these are spent when skipping gears - more on skipping gears below.

How's it play?
Setup
The setup and rules description here are for the standard version of the game using the F1 setup

• Players: Give each player a player board, holder and associated pegs and gearstick. Put the standard side of the board into the holder.
  Then give each player a player tile and the F1 car with colours that correspond to their player tile. Position the tile alongside the holder. Place the pegs in their corresponding positions as dictated by their player.
• Game board: Put out the game board with the F1 side-up.
• First player: Determine the order on the starting grid and place each player's car in the relevant spot.
  This can be done by players rolling the black 20-sided die.
  Alternatively, the game has rules for getting qualifying times which involve each player doing a lap in the fewest number of moves and shortest time.

On to play
Formula D does not use a traditional turn order, instead a player's position on the track determines when they take their turn in the round. Whoever is in the lead goes first and becomes the active player, whoever is 2nd goes second and so on, until the last player has had their turn.
Then a new round begins and any changes in position will be carried over to the player turn order.
During a player's turn, they must perform the following.

• Start: This actually only occurs for each player's first action of the game and determines if they get a good start or not.
  The player rolls the black die, a bad start means they only move 1 space, a flying start means they move 4 spaces, in either instance they end their turn in 1st gear. If they got an average start, they move into 1st gear and roll the 1st gear die.
• Change gear: Other than the race start, at the beginning of every turn, the active player must decide whether to stay in the same gear or go up or down a gear. The gear they are in will determine which die they roll for movement.
  Change up: The active player may go up 1 gear.
  Change down: The active player may go down 1 gear, or possibly more.
  • Skipping gears: When going down gear, a player may choose to skip gears, i.e., go down more than one gear. E.g., skipping a gear allows a player to drop from 5th gear to 3rd by skipping 4th. A player may skip up to a maximum of 3 gears, allowing them to go from 6th to 2nd gear for example.
    However for each gear skipped a resource must be spent, they come from gearbox, brake and engine.
• Roll and move: Once the active player has settled on their gear, they must roll the pertinent die and move their car as many spaces as the die rolls according to the following rules:
  Full move: The active player must use all the movement for their car.
  Traffic: The active player's car cannot move through other cars' spaces, they must go around them instead.
  Arrows: If the active player's car moves on to a space with an arrow, they must follow the direction(s) of that arrow when moving on.
  Straights: If the active player is moving their car along a straight, they cannot zigzag to use up movement. Furthermore, they can only do 2 lane changes and cannot go back into a lane they were already in during the current turn. Essentially players should move their car along the shortest route possible.
  Having said that, players can change lanes to avoid other cars or hazards.
  ​Corners: When a car enters a corner, it must end or 'stop' a number of turns in that corner as determined by the corner's details. Thus, a 2-stop corner requires the player's car to end 2 turns in that corner.
  • Overshooting a corner: If a car is in a 1-stop corner (Or only has 1 stop left in a 2 or 3 stop corner.), then they can go through the corner's exit and overshoot the it to some degree.
    For each space a car overshoots the corner, they must spend 1 tyre WP. Additionally, brake WPs can be spent to lessen movement and thus move less spaces.
    If a car needs to make 2 or more stops in a corner and it overshoots, then it is eliminated from play.
• Additional rules: The description above covers the gist of the game but Formula D has numerous situational rules. Many of these are resolved by using the black 20-sided die.
  Contact: If a car ends its movement adjacent to one or more other cars, there is a chance they will make contact. This costs body WPs
  Overrevving: There's a chance that cars in 5th & 6th gears will lose a engine WP when any car in 5th or 6th gear gets a maximum result on their gear die.
  Debris: Certain events can leave debris on the track, if a car has to go over the debris, there's a chance they can loose a handling WP.
  Pits: In a race with more than 1 lap, there are rules to pitting, which allows a car to recover all their tyre WPs.
• Advanced rules: There are a number of optional advanced rules that can be applied to the game. Mostly these are to do with 3 lap races and running a championship.
  ​Custom cars: Instead of having WPs assigned to a car as per a player tile. With these rules, players can assign WPs to the resources as they see fit.
  Tyres: With these rules, just F1, players can choose different types of tyres, such as hard, soft and wets. They can each have an effect on a car's performance, they are also effected by weather.
  Weather: There are rules for different weather conditions such as dry and rainy or changeable weather. Different weather conditions will effect cars differently. Furthermore different types of tyres will behave differently in differing weather conditions.
  I think that's pretty much it for the F1 rules.

Endgame
The first car to cross the start/finish line after completing the prescribed number of laps, wins! Second across the line finishes 2nd and so on.

Overall
I'll start by mentioning that while not part of the base game, there are 6 map packs for Formula D, each providing 2 additional tracks to the game. generally each pack features a street racing track as well as a real-world inspired circuit.
​It should also be noted that Formula D is almost identical to earlier iterations of the game, this means the game is fully compatible with all the racetracks from those previous games. This is fantastic, because if like me, you have a bunch of tracks from Formula Dé, it greatly increases the longevity of the game.
I'm sure it was deliberate on the part of the producers of Formula D and was a wise move.

I've seen Formula D criticised for being too luck based but without that element of luck, there's no risk and risk is at the heart of what makes Formula D so good.

You see, as a racing game, Formula D is not really a 'simulation', I mean how could it be? However, one thing it does emulate very well is the feel of having to 'push the envelope', how racers try to take it to the edge, how they take risks and how players in Formula D will also need to take risks, or more precisely, when to take risks
Unlike many games, playing too sensibly or prudently is a sure way to finish second in Formula D!

This all ties in with what Formula D is all about - which is managing corners, specifically the gear and consequently the speed of a car when it goes through corners.
This is not quite as simple as it sounds though: ​Ideally, players will want to be in as higher gear as possible for optimal movement at all times. However, players will need to be mindful of their resources, overshooting corners by too much or too often (Especially early in a race.) can have ramifications later. Sometimes overshooting will have an advantage, sometimes it won't it'll just be a waste of WPs.
This is all contextual of course, depending on a car's position relative to a corner, players will need to adapt their tactics to racing through that corner, even the position of opponent's cars can effect the players behind.
Players will also need to be wary of 2 or 3 stop corners and resist the temptation entering the corner in too higher a gear and too fast: In real racing, sometimes going into a corner slower means coming out faster, this can hold true in Formula D too.

Another time a player may take a big is when an opponent is ahead in a corner.
E.g., if that opponent ahead exits the corner in 3rd gear to avoid overshooting, the player behind may want to risk taking going up a gear and exiting in 4th. It's a real advantage to exit corners in a gear higher than your rivals. If you look at the distribution of numbers on the dice, the maximum speed on a gear die is generally the lowest speed on the next highest die.

In terms of negatives, player elimination is a thing here (I'm not a fan of player elimination.) and players can crash out and be sat twiddling their thumbs. Although this sort of thing generally only might occur when approaching the end of a race and back markers push hard to try and get on the podium.
Playing time can also potentially be an issue. Races can last 1-3 laps and you can expect a race to on average last 1 hour per lap. If you decide to play a full race, don't be surprised to lose an entire afternoon or morning to the race. Which is not necessarily a bad if that's what you want.
Also, with it's small components and 6 resources, Formula D can be a little fiddly.

Quibbles aside, Formula D is a fun, game and it's satisfying when you manage pull if risky manoeuvres and manage to fly from corner to corner. There's also a genuine, palpable surge of pleasure when you go into 6th gear, roll that 30-sided die and blasting down that straight.
Formula D is mid-weight game that fits it theme well and presents players with conundrum of when and how much risk to take. Who would have thought roll-and-move mechanics could be so well implemented.
Formula D is a game I have played a lot in its various iterations and I've always enjoyed it. If you want a racing game with a strong thread of push-you-luck running through it, then this is one to try. 

3rd January 2023

It's the first Tuesday of the year and we're with the Woking Gaming Club at The Sovereigns for an evening of gaming goodness

“You might not think that’s cricket, and it’s not, it’s motor racing.” - Murray Walker.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a card hand management, push-your-luck game about F1 racing. Intriguingly it's themed after 1960's F1.

Advanced components: Heat Pedal to the Metal has introductory and advanced rules. The advanced game adds more components.
These are broken down into 'modules' which players can pick and choose to add to their game as they see fit.

• Championship module: This allows for a season of races during the 60's in which players score points in each race, culminating in a final score to see who wins.
  Event cards: Each race in a season has its own event card that can affect the race in some manner.
  Press corner standee: There are 2 standees which can be placed at certain corners.
  Sponsorship cards: These work somewhat like upgrade cards and are added to a player's deck but when they are used, they are discarded out of the player's deck instead of going to the discard pile.

First; a bit of a criticism. The game has no tokens to track the usage of adrenaline (More on adrenaline below.). It's only a minor oversight and in no way a gamebreaker but it's still something that would have been nice to include.

The player and module mats feel a little flimsy compared to the other components but to be honest, unless the mats are mistreated, it shouldn't matter. Otherwise the components are all good.
The tiles and tokens all feel satisfyingly thick and sturdy while the cards and standees are of the usual acceptable quality.
The gearstick pawn is plastic as are the little cars, which are the standout components, they have enough detail to look cool on the track.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal features excellent art through out, in the particular the speed cards with their illustrations of F1 cars hurtling along are evocative and because it harks back to the F1 cars of yesteryear it lends the art a timeless quality.
There's also a lot of variation in the art for the upgrade cards and while the illustrations are good, pictures of brake discs or suspension coils are not as exciting as speeding sportscars.
The race tracks are also well depicted on the gameboards with some excellent illustrations.

Iconography found in the introductory game is not particularly complicated or overwhelming and players won't have any problems quickly understanding them.

The same cannot be said for the advanced game.
There are a large number of icons in the advanced game, icons for weather, icons for track conditions and so on but the main culprit is the upgrade cards since there's a lot of them, they contain a lot of varied icons that will require looking-up in the rule book.
Normally, I'd be a bit critical of this but as they're part of the advanced rules, it's fairly likely players will start with the introductory game and work up to the advanced modules. So I don't see it as a serious obstacle.

How's it play?
The following describes the basic, introductory game.
Setup

• Race track: Choose a track, this will determine how many laps will be raced and what heat and stress cards each player will receive.
• Players: Give each player the player board, gearstick, car and cards in their player colour.
  Deck setup: For the basic game, players should use the base cards and starter upgrade cards. Player should also be given heat and stress cards as dictated by the chosen racetrack.
  The heat cards should be placed on the player board space for heat cards while all the remaining cards should be shuffled into a face-down deck and placed on the deck space.
  Finally, players should put their gear stick on the 1st gear space on their player board.
  Players should then draw a starting hand of 7 cards.
• First player: Starting positions should be randomly determined and players should place their cars in the pertinent position on the starting grid.

On to play
Before explaining the rules, it would be a good idea to explain some of facets of the rules beforehand.

• Boost: There are several ways a player may gain a boost and several may occur at the same time (Due to stress cards.) but they are resolved the same way.
  For each boost being resolved, the player flips a card from their racing deck: If it's a base speed card (Speed 1-4.) it is added to the player's total speed and that boost symbol is resolved. If it's any other type of card, that card is placed in the discard pile and other cards are drawn until the boost symbol is resolved.
  This is repeated for as many boost symbols need to be resolved.
• Heat: For a game called Heat: Pedal to the Metal, you'd think that heat cards would be important and you'd be right!
  Pay heat: The game has several ways to make players pay heat (Or gain heat cards really.) and they are all resolved in the same way.
  For every point of heat a player has to pay for, they must take a heat card from the engine deck and add it to their discard pile (Not their hand as I've done accidentally.). If player does not have enough heat cards available, then, depending on the situation, they cannot perform the action that requires they pay heat for it or they spin out!
  Cooldown: When cooldown occurs, it allows the player to return 1 or more heat cards from their hand (Not their racing deck or discard pile.) to the engine deck and every point of cooldown allows the player to return a heat card.
• Speed: It's important to remember that a car's speed is the total numerical value of all the cards played face-up by that car's player at the end of their movement.
  This includes from using adrenaline - which is why a token for it would have been useful.
  This does not include slipstreaming.

Right with that out of the way let's get on with it.
It's fairly obvious but the first player to complete the required number of laps and cross the finish line is the winner!
Each turn in Heat: Pedal to the Metal consists of 9 phases which may sound like a lot but not all of them are required or mandatory and in practice is generally easily managed.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal does not use a traditional turn order. Instead the order of play is determined by position on the track. I.e., the player in 1st position on the track goes first, the player in 2nd goes second and so forth. This means the turn order is very likely to change from round to round.
The first 2 phases are resolved simultaneously whilst others full resolved by the player during their turn.   

• Change gear (Mandatory): This action is performed simultaneously by players and in this phase players may choose to stay in the same gear or change gear.
  A player may increase or decrease their gear 1 step without issue, or they may increase or decrease their gear by 2 steps by immediately paying 1 heat.
• Play cards (Mandatory): This is done simultaneously by all players.
  In this phase players play cards face-down and the number of cards played must be equal the gear their car is in. E.g., if a car is in 3rd gear, 3 cards must be played.
  A player may play any of the cards in their hand except heat cards.
• Reveal & move (Mandatory): This phase is resolved one-by-one during the active player's turn.
  The active player reveal the cards they played and must move their car a number of spaces equal to the total value of the cards played. Thus if a player was in 2nd gear and played a 2 & 3, they must move their car 5 spaces.
  Some cards such as stress cards use the boost action and must be resolved.
  When a car moves, it is not blocked by other cars, however a car cannot end it's movement on the same space as another car.
  If a car moves to a empty space, it should be placed alongside the racing line, if there's already a car there, then it should be placed on the other lane in the same space.
• Adrenaline (Optional): As well as being an optional action, this action only applies to the 1 or 2 back markers in the race (Depending on player count.). A back marker has 2 actions available to them.
  Speed increase: The active player may increase their speed by 1.
  1 cooldown: The active may gain 1 point of cooldown.
• React (Optional): If the player has activated any icons due to what gear they're in gear or cards they've played, they may choose to resolve them at this time, in the order of their choosing.
  For the base game, this only applies to the gear. Upgrade cards may contain other icons.
  The player can use a boost action in any gear.
  In 1st gear they gain 3 cooldown and in 2nd, 1 cooldown.
• Slipstream (Optional): If the active player has moved their car directly behind or alongside another car, they may choose to make use of slipstreaming.
  Slipstreaming allows the active player to move their car an additional 2 spaces, this is also without increasing their speed - which can prove very useful sometimes.
• Corner check (Mandatory): If a player's cars has crossed any corner lines in this turn then they must do a corner check.
  The player compares the speed of their car with the speed listed for the corner, if the car's speed is equal or lower than the corner's speed, the it's all good. If the speed is higher, then the active player gets a point of heat for each point over the corner's speed limit.
  Spinning out: If for any reason the active player cannot pay the cost for heat because their engine deck is empty, then they spin out.
  If this occurs, the player moves their car to before the corner that caused the spin out, pays all the heat they can and adds 1 or 2 stress cards to their hand from the supply (Depending on what gear their card was in when it spun out.) and puts their car into first gear.
• Discard (Optional): The active player may discard any cards in their hand into their discard pile except for heat and stress cards.
  Only cooldown allows a player to discard heat cards and stress cards must be played to get rid of them.
• Draw (Mandatory): The active player refills their hand until they are back up to a hand of 7 cards. Whenever a player's racing deck is emptied, they simply shuffle their discard pile into a new racing deck.
• Next player: Play proceeds to the next player in the turn order.
• End round: Once the last player has taken their turn, the current round is over.
  A new turn order is set according to the current positions of all cars with whoever is now in 1st place going first and so on

 

• Advanced rules: What is written above pretty much explains the entirety of the game and I'm only going to briefly touch on the advanced rules, some of which actually just change the parameters of the game.
  • Championship: This adds a sort of career mode to the game and adds events that alter the basic rules.
    Press corners: Each track will have press corners and by performing specific actions at them, the active can acquire sponsorship cards. talking of which...
    Sponsorship cards: These work a bit like upgrade cards except they once they are played, they are discarded out of the game and not into the player's discard pile.
  • Garage: This module provides a wide variety of upgrades that player's can use. Generally they can be very useful.
    E.g., a upgrade card might be 1/3 upgraded brakes and when play means the player can choose the card to have a speed of 1 or 3 which can be very useful.
  • Legends: Not really additional rules but a way of providing bot players to increase the number of cars on the track.
  • Weather: There are 2 ways this module can affect the game.
    Weather tiles: The weather tiles generally alter the starting number of heat and stress cards.
    Track conditions: These tokens change some element of the game for a stretch of the track or on a particular corner. It might be possible to use the boost action a straight for free, or a corner's speed might be lowered and so on.

Endgame
Who ever crosses the finishing first after completing the required number of laps is the winner. Remaining players may of course continue playing to determine the final finishing order.

Championship
If playing a championship, all cars should finish and their championship points for that race should be recorded.
Additionally, if the garage module is also being used. Players should keep their upgrade cards from race-to-race.
Once the championship is over, whichever player has acquired the most points wins the championship!

Overall
Heat: Pedal to the Metal gives players several obstacles to wrestle with and sometimes several ways to approach that obstacle.
Players need to navigate corners, manage their hand and by extension also manage their heat cards. The game also has a push-you-luck element to contend with but not necessarily in the way you'd think.

The game also requires players to think a turn ahead, especially in regard to corners. Managing the current round is not so hard, players will know how far away the next corner is and how far their cards will get them (With the exception of stress cards.) but will need to think about where they end their move. A player be may end its turn right in front of a 4-speed corner in 4th gear, will they have the heat to go down 2 gears, do they have low enough speed cards to get through the corner unscathed or will have to hope to draw the cards they need, which is one way they can push their luck.

Discarding cards is also something to think about, players will sometimes have to resist the urge to discard low speed cards on occasion as they can prove useful in  upcoming corner and of course, some cards cannot be discarded.
When players have heat cards in their hands, they need to dip into the lower gears to discard them.
Stress cards though, have to played.

Stress cards is the other way of pushing your luck in Heat: Pedal to the Metal. If a player is on a straight, it's not too much of a risk but if they're going into a corner and need a specific number, there's always the chance that they card they least want!

Having said that, sometimes players will want to be a bit too fast! Going through corners effectively is a bit of an art in itself. Sometimes it pays to deliberately go through a corner just a little bit too fast and take the heat, especially if the corner goes into a long straight as it leaves the player free to blast down the track.

Slipstreaming is also a interesting mechanic as it creates a 'jostle' between players and I'm sure that's how it's intent.
It also creates a higher level to player where players will try to anticipate where their rivals ahead of them will move to and exploit it with slipstreaming.
Conversely, if a player is ahead of their rival, they may want to position themselves in such a way that their rival cannot slipstream them. However, there will be times that it's unavoidable that an opponent will slipstream you and it can feel a little punishing. Conversely, if a player is ahead of their rival, they may want to position themselves in such a way that their rival cannot slipstream them. However, there will be times that it's unavoidable that an opponent will slipstream you and it can feel a little punishing.

​Finally, lets talk about heat cards. They are a very important resource and can provide significant bonuses when utilised correctly.
Heat cards can be used to push a car harder than usual, go up gears faster or go through corners quicker. There's a risk though, unless a player can discard (Usually by dropping gears in corners) them they'll just clutter the player's hand up.
Players should try and the best of this; crossing the finish line first with a empty engine deck and a handful of heat is still first.
Finishing second with a full set of heat cards in the engine deck still equates to finishing second.

All of this is good stuff because it provides players with meaningful decisions to make, sometimes what might seemingly be a simple decision can have significant outcomes and a lot of these may be contextual.

E.g., while going through a 4-speed corner a player may want to be in 2nd gear and play a 3 & 1 speed cards, keeping a 4 for later.
Or, they may want to drop to 1st and play the single 4, which will allow them to discard 3 heat cards instead of 1. However this would mean they start the next round in 1st gear, which may be a bad thing depending on what is up ahead.

This kind of contextual gameplay keeps Heat: Pedal to the Metal fresh, it also helps that it has 4 tracks and various modules.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a fun game that plays well at a higher player count without having a too long a playtime and worth trying.

9th October 2022

Another Sunday and another gaming session on Board Game Arena.

Do the roll and bump and put the trick taking back.
Do the roll and bump and put the trick taking back.
When the dice are good, so are you.
Next time you roll, you know what to do.
Do the roll and bump and put the trick taking back.

OK, dodgy references to 80's adverts aside, Roll'n Bump blends trick taking, set collecting with a dash of push your luck into a interesting little dice game.

• ​Dice: Roll'n Bump uses normal six-sided dice.
  Player dice: There are 5 dice in each of the game's 5 player colours.
  ​Bonus die: There is only 1 white bonus die in the game. Depending on circumstances, players may get to roll it with their dice during their turn.

Each of the 4 colours used on cards also have a unique pattern associated with them. This is a good accessibility feature. The joker card is of course the exception, having all 4 colours and all 4 pattern types on it.
Otherwise, the game has no artwork.

There's almost no iconography to the game either. There's only the 3 types of card to learn and that's trivially easy to learn.

How's it play?
Setup

• Cards: Take the joker card a place it in the middle of the central playing area. Then shuffle the remaining cards into a face-down deck.
  Deal the cards face-down into 6-12 stacks of 6-3 card each depending on player count. Arrange these stacks around the joker in the central playing area, then flip the top card on each stack face-up.
• Dice: Give each player the dice in their personal player colour.
  Bonus die: Put the white die adjacent to the cards in the central playing area.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
​Players roll dice to create tricks to place on cards and then claim those cards in which in turn scores them VPs.
​Depending on the available cards, there are 3 ways this can be done. Additionally, the active player has the possibility of 'bumping' other players' dice. I.e., the other player's dice are removed from the card and replacing by those of the active player!
Roll'n Bump uses the typical turn order of the active player taking their turn before play progresses to the player on their left.
On their turn, the active player takes the following actions.

• Claim card: Firstly, if the active player has dice on any cards in the central area at the start of their turn, they take those cards and their dice back.
  All cards taken should be sorted by colour and kept in the active player's personal area.
  When a card is claimed, the face-down card beneath is flipped face-up.
  Obviously a player can't claim cards on their first turn.
• Claim bonus die: How a bonus die can be claimed is explained below but regardless of this, if they can claim it, they do so now.
• Roll dice: The active player now rolls all of their dice and may choose to keep the result or reroll them up to twice as described below.
  Reroll: Once this is done, they may chose to set aside any number of dice - including 0 and reroll the remainder.
  2nd reroll: The active player may set aside more dice and/or take back dice they had previously set aside and roll the remainder again.
  Once the 2nd reroll is completed, there are no more rerolls
  Bonus die: The bonus die is used identically to a player's usual 5 dice, it can be rolled, set aside or rerolled as the player wishes.
  The bonus dice comes into it's own once the active player has finished rolling. The player can now change the side of any one of their normal dice to match the side shown on the bonus die. The bonus die itself is never placed on cards, players always have their 5 normal dice to place.
  
• Place dice: Now that active player has the result of their dice rolling, those dice may be placed on cards in the central playing area.
  • Singles: If a card is displaying a single number, the active player may place 1 or more dice with the matching number on to that card. E.g., if a card shows a '3', the active player may put a die showing a '3' on it.
    Bump: If a singles card already has another players die or dice on it, they can be 'bumped' off by putting more dice with the matching number on that card.
    E.g., if a card has a '4' on it, 2 4s will bump it off. Consequently, 2 4s can be bumped by 3 4s and so forth.
  • Straights: These cards display 3-5 overlapping blank boxes. This indicates the size of straight that must be placed on it to claim it. Thus 4 overlapping boxes means a straight of 4 dice must be placed on the card.
    A straight is considered a number of dice in numerical sequence without a break. 
    Bump: A straight can be bumped by another higher value straight. So a '2, 3, 4' can be bumped by a '3, 4, 5'.
    Note: If a straight ends in a '6', it cannot be bumped.
  • Sets: Blank squares are used to indicate sets cards and they come in 2, 3 or 4 spaces, except for the joker which has 5.
    These cards can be claimed with sets of any matching number. A set of 2 can be claimed with 2 5s, or a set of 3 can be claimed with a 3 1s.
    Bump: A set may be bumped by another set with a higher value. E.g., 3 1s can be bumped with 3 2s.
    Note: As with straights, high value sets cannot be bumped, i.e., any set that uses 6s cannot be bumped.
  • Unused dice: If the active player has dice that they cannot or choose not to place on cards, they can potentially be put aside next the bonus die to be claimed in the next turn.
    Bump: If another player has already placed dice adjacent to the bonus die, those dice can be bumped too! This can be done if a player has unused with a higher total value than dice already placed next to the bonus die.
    
  • Bonus die: If the active played used the bonus die on this action, once they've finished placing their dice, the bonus is returned to the side of the playing area.
• Next turn: Once the active player has finished their turn, play progresses to the player on their left.

Endgame
Play continues until one of the decks has been emptied (The joker does not count.), when this occurs, all players immediately claim cards they have dice on and the game goes to scoring.

Scoring
All cards score in 2 ways, firstly they score their base VPs but then they also score as sets as per their colours: The more cards in a colour set, the more bonus VPs it earns. The joker can be added to any single colour set as chosen by the owning player.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Roll'n Bump is such a pared down game focused on the core of its push-your-luck driven gameplay without almost no 'schticks' that it's hard to find much to write about!
It does exactly what it says on the tin.

It has fairly straightforward, light rules which can be picked up very quickly, especially since it utilises mechanics which will be familiar in some way or other to many people.
Creating straights or sets, rerolling dice twice, it's all common stuff. Roll'n Bump would make a good crossover game.

Decision making is also pretty straightforward. Players must recognise and decide when and how to push their luck.
Roll'n Bump provides a classic risk-and-reward conundrum; settle for a low-scoring card or risk reducing that score to 0 to potentially score a different, higher value card.
Despite the overall simplicity of Roll'n Bump, there is a innovative mechanic to be found in the game; the bonus die.
I like how it can give an edge to a player without giving them extra dice to place. Being able to bump other players' used dice from the bonus dice can provide players with meaningful decisions. There will be times when a player might not put a die on a card because it could be used to acquire the bonus die for their next turn.

If I had one criticism of Roll'n Bump and considering it's a push-your-luck game, it might be a facetious criticism, it's that there's a lot of luck to the game!
Taking some big risks to put some dice on a card only to have another player flippantly bump them with a single lucky roll can be pretty frustrating.
Sometimes, someone will win simply because they lucked into a very good roll but that's the nature of the beast and something anyone playing this type of game should come to expect.

Roll'n Bump is unremarkable and doesn't really stand out from the crowd however it manages to tick all the right boxes for a push-your-luck trick taking game and offers a solid, simple and fun game without any associated fiddliness.
It also has a fairly quick playtime and would serve as a good filler or finisher game which is why we actually play it on a fairly regular basis.

If you're on the look out for a push-your-luck, trick taking game, Roll'n Bump is worth considering.

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?

• Cards: Sea Salt & Paper has a deck of 50-odd cards. Each card will have several icons in the top left indicating what they are, what bonus they might provide and what victory points (VPs.) they confer.
  Cards come in quite a few different types and also importantly, in one of about 10 colours.
  • Duo cards: Many of the cards in the game are duo cards, which means they are played as pairs. They have a icon in the corner along with the outline of the icon it pairs with. Most duo sets require 2 matching icons, e.g., a pair of crabs or a pair of boats. One duo pairing however, rather grimly requires a shark and a swimmer!
  • Collector cards: These cards have an icon in the top left corner with a column of numbers below. VPs will be scored accordingly, dependant on the number of that collector card that have been acquired.
  • Multiplier cards: Each multiplier card has a number and a icon. Each card with a matching icon scores that many VPs at the end of a round.
  • Mermaid card: Mermaid cards earn VPs based on the amount of cards of 1 colour a player has the end of a round.
    Additionally: If a player manages to acquire all 4 mermaid cards, they win the game, regardless of VPs, they just win!

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

• Deck: ​Take all the cards and shuffle them into a face-down deck.
• Discard piles: Next, the game's 2 discard piles must be created by drawing 2 cards and placing each one into the central playing area face-up in 2 stacks.

That's it for 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.

• Draw card: The active player must draw a card into their hand, there are 2 ways this can be done.
  • Draw from discard pile: The active player may draw a card from either of the 2 discard piles.
  • Blind draw: Alternatively, the active player may draw 2 cards blindly from the deck.
    Then they keep 1 card and place the other on either of the discard piles.
• Play duo: In addition to drawing a card, the active player may also play cards. Cards are always played in pairs (Or duos.). Each type of duo gives the active player a benefit of some sort.
  • Pair of boats: Active player immediately gets another turn.
  • Pair of crabs: Active player takes a card from a discard pile into their hand.
  • Pair of fish: Active player adds a card from the deck into their hand.
  • Shark & Swimmer: The active player takes a card from another player's hand.
• End round: Finally, provided the active player has scored at least 7 points from duos they have played and cards in their hand, they may choose to end the round. There are 2 ways this can be done
  • Stop: The active player declares 'Stop', the round immediately ends and goes to scoring.
    Scoring: there are various sources for scoring points. Unusually, both played cards and un-played cards in hand are scored.
    • Duos: Each pair of duo cards scores 1 VP, regardless of whether it has been played or not! However, cards in hand do not activate their special abilities in any way.
    • Collector cards: These cards will score points VPs depending on the size of their respective collections.
    • Multiplier cards: These will score VPs as per the number of that icon the player has in their possession multiplied by the scoring multiplier.
    • Mermaids: Mermaids score using something called a colour set. A colour set is all of a player's cards of the same colour.
      The active player scores 1 VP per card in their largest colour set. I.e., the player gains 1 VP per card for each card with the colour which they have the most of on their cards.
      Additional mermaids: If a player has a 2nd mermaid, it scores the second largest colour set and so on.
    • Finals scores: Once scores are calculated and tallied as described above, they should be recorded before play progresses to the next round.
  • Last chance: This is the other way the active player may trigger the end of a round. This method adds an extra element to the scoring criteria which is essentially a push-your-luck mechanic where the active player is betting that their score for the round will be higher than all the other players.
    Final round: When the active player declares 'last chance', all other players get one more turn to draw and play cards.
    Scoring: The game then goes to scoring. This is essentially identical to how scoring is calculated above but with a significant change once points are tallied.
    • Active player has highest score: If the active player (Who declared last chance) has the highest or tied highest score, they have won their bet! They then also add the value of their largest colour set to their score for the round.
      Other players: All the other players ignore their current scores, instead only scoring their largest colour set.
    • Active player does not have highest score: This means the active player has lost their bet! The active player ignores their score and only scores their colour set.
      Other players: All other players score their cards as usual.
    • Final scores: Once scores are calculated and tallied as described above, they should be recorded before play progresses to the next round.
• ​​End turn: If the active does not or cannot end the round, then play progresses to the player on their left.
• End of round: Regardless of how a round ends, players should record their scores and all cards are shuffled back into the deck in preparation for the next round.

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.

26th July 2022

It's Tuesday! That means it's time to meet up with the Woking Board Gaming Club at the The Sovereigns.

Time to steal the idol... and escape, Indiana Jones has nothing on this real-time, cooperative dice game, well at least until those crappy rolls inevitably turn up!

What's in a game?

• ​Tiles: The game comes with about 20 tiles, they depict various different kinds of underground sandstone chamber from a top down view. There are several different types of tile but all of them display a number of exits and also show icons of some sort.
  Main tiles: This includes the beginning tile and the escape tile, it also includes gem tiles, more on gem tiles later.
  The backs of each of these tiles feature 2 adventurer icons, also more on icons later.
  Gem depot: This is not a game tile per se and is used to store gems and track the amount which get used.
  Basic tiles: These are the most common type of tile; as well as a pair of icons they also feature an entrance (Stairs.) and exits. They are for the most part empty but some contain 'gem spaces'.
  The backs of these tiles also feature 2 adventurer icons
• Gems: Basic acrylic tokens in translucent green.
• Meeples: There are 5 of these suitably fedora-wearing meeples, one each in every player colour.
• Tokens: Circular card tokens, again in each player colour. These are used to quickly identify which meeple belongs to which player.
• Dice: Lots of dice! 25 to be exact and enough to give each player 5.
  These are not normal six-siders and all the numbers have been replaced with symbols which match the symbols found on tiles. The symbols are:
  Adventurer X2: A green man running away (Presumably from a giant boulder?) while carrying a whip!
  2 sides on each die has the adventurer icon.
  Key: A blue key icon.
  Torch: A red torch icon.
  Gold Mask: A grinning gold icon.
  Black Mask: A leering black mask, the black mask result on dice is bad news.
• Soundtrack: Yep! The game comes with a soundtrack, it serves as the game's countdown timers for the game's 3 rounds and it also plays atmospheric, moody ambient audio!

Escape: The Curse of the Temple has good quality components. The tiles all feel suitably thick and sturdy. The acrylic gem tokens are kind you see in a lot of games which use them to depict gems, they are a sparkly, pleasing shade of green though.
The bespoke dice and meeples are wooden which is always a nice touch.

There's not much art to speak of, the tiles show flagstones and that's about it. It's clear artwork that does not get in the way.

About half a dozen icons are used throughout the game, luckily they most relate to the dice and there's never a need to refer to the rules - which is a good thing since this is a real time game with a countdown.

How's it play?
Setup

• Tiles: Put aside the Start and Exit tiles, then shuffle all the remaining tiles into a face-down stack. Finally shuffle the Exit tile into the bottom 4 tiles in the stack.
• Start tile: Put the Start tile into the central playing area, since it has two doorways, reveal and place 2 tiles from the stack and place them adjacent to the starting tile with the stairs connected to the exit from the start tile.
• Gem depot: Depending on player count, place 7-16 gems on the gem depot tile. 
  Also place 2 gems adjacent to the gem depot tile, these 2 gems can be very important later on.
• Players: Give each player the token and meeples in their colour, then give each player 5 dice for their personal use.
  ​Each player should then place their meeple on to the starting tile.
• Soundtrack: Prepare the soundtrack.

On to play
In Escape: The Curse of the Temple players are collectively attempting to explore a lost temple to find the exit and escape before becoming trapped.
It's not so simple though; not only must they find the exit, they'll also need to activate the gem tiles and spaces to make their escape possible.
The game is played over 3 rounds and does not use a typical turn structure. Instead, turns are actually synchronous, in other words, players perform all their actions at the same time and in real time!
This involves all players rolling their dice and resolving their actions simultaneously. How is this all done? Read on.

• Soundtrack: Begin the soundtrack, the clock is now ticking.
• Roll the dice: When a player wants to undertake an action it is resolved by rolling dice, getting a required result will then complete that action. This usually means get at least 2 specific symbols on the dice.
  Rerolls: Players are free to reroll their dice as much as possible (And will have to do so nearly all the time!) to resolve an action. However, that brings me to...
  Black masks: Any time a die gets a black mask result, it becomes locked. A locked die cannot be rerolled or used for anything. When this happens (And it will happen.) the affected player should leave the die showing the black mask. Luckily, we come to gold masks...
  Gold mask: When a die comes up with the gold mask result, the player can use it to unlock up to 2 black mask locked dice. Very useful!
  Set aside: After making a roll, the player may set aside a dice on any face for later use. A player may also change their mind and reroll dice set aside in a later roll.
  A good example of setting aside would keeping a gold mask result in anticipation of getting a black mask later.
  Aid: If 2 or more meeples are on the same tile, they may help each other by contributing die results to the other player's action.
  A player can even use a gold mask of their own to unlock another player's locked dice.
• Actions: There are several actions each player can perform, which they can do in any order as required.
  Move: The player may attempt to move their meeple into an adjacent tile. The tile they are moving on to will show 2 icons that will need to be rolled. Typically this involves a green adventurer and 1 other icon - sometimes another green adventurer.
  After matching the icons, the player can move their meeple into the relevant tile.
  Explore: If the player wants to move their meeple through a doorway that does not yet have a tile, they must get a result with 2 green adventurers on their dice.
  Once this is completed, they flip a tile from the stack and place it adjacent to the doorway they want to go through.
  When adding new tiles to the playing area, the doorway with the stairs is always used to make the connection.
  ​Gems: Some of the basic tiles have space for a gem and number of the main tiles will have 3 gem spaces (For 1, 2 or 3 gems.).
  What's important about gems? Well, they need to be removed from the gem depot tile and put on the gems spaces on the tiles in order to allow the players to escape.
  How is this done? next to a single gem space will be a torch symbol and a 4. As an action, if a player gets 4 torches on the dice, they can move a gem from the depot tile to the space on their current tile.
  For the tiles with 3 gem spaces, 1, 2 or 3 gems can be shifted, however, only 1 of those spaces can be used on a tile. Furthermore, it gets harder to achieve  to move more gems. E.g., it takes 10 torch symbols to shift 3 gems, which is impossible for a single player and requires a group effort - probably with 3 players!
• Turn of fate: This action does not require rolling dice, it does however, require unanimous agreement from all players.
  When this action is triggered, it allows all players to reroll all locked dice. It's a powerful move that can free up a lot of dice but it comes at a cost. One of the 2 gems that were put adjacent to the gem depot tile must be added to the tile, thus making escape harder.
  Since 2 gems were put to the side, this can be done twice in a game.
• End of round: When a gong plays on the sound track, it marks the beginning of the end of the 1st round. All players must return to the starting tile before countdown expires and a door shutting sound plays.
  If a player gets back in time, nothing bad happens.
  If a player fails to get back in time, then they permanently lose 1 die for the rest of the game!
  2nd round: The second round now begins and is basically a repeat of the 1st round, players must again move, explore and shift gems until this time 2 gongs play and must return to the starting tile or suffer the same penalty.
  Even if the exit tile is discovered in the first 2 rounds, at no point can the players use it to escape in those rounds. Which brings me to the 3rd round and the endgame.

Endgame
When the 3rd and final round begins, all players must get to the exit tile and successfully perform the escape action.

• Escape: Obviously this action can only occur in the 3rd round and when the player is on the exit tile. They must then roll their dice to escape.
  The player must get a number of key results equal to the remaining number of gems on the gem depot tile, plus one! I.e., if the gem tile is empty, they still need at least 1 key. If there were 3 gems on the tile, they would need 4 keys.
  What makes this worse is that players cannot help each other in the final escape. Players can only use their own dice, which is why losing dice in the first 2 round can be really bad as can having too many gems remaining on the depot tile.
• Boon: When a player escapes they may give exactly 1 of their dice permanently to another player as assistance.

The soundtrack has a total countdown across all 3 rounds of 10 minutes.

If one or more players are still in the temple when the countdown has finished, then they collectively lose the game.
If all the players have escaped before the time runs out, then the players collectively win!

Overall
I'm going to start by saying that I'm a bit ambivalent towards real time games.
I've played some good ones and can see how they have their place in gaming but for me but broadly speaking, it's not why I like and play board games. I like to think out my decisions and choices at least a little bit.
Add to the mix a push-your-luck dice mechanic and you've a game of a lot of quick frantic rolling. You really don't want to roll those dice off the table!

Having said all of this, I think Escape: The Curse of the Temple is a solid game and there's a lot to like about it.

Firstly, rules and theme mesh together well. Chucking dice as quickly as you can to escape feels good.

The synchronous dice rolling is a clever little system.
Generally real time games are always trying to impress upon players that they're up against the clock, this can be a little jarring in a game where players are having to wait for another player's time to run our and get their turn. By having synchronous actions, it heightens the sense of urgency as everyone is in it together.

Being able to provide assistance another player on the same tile is equally clever. It's an elegant mechanic that also feels organic and makes sense.

This means it would seem like a good idea to have players explore the temple as a group, it would make shifting gems and unlocking dice easier...
But there's a couple of rules that throws a spanner into that strategy.

Firstly; exploring as group can slow down that exploration. Players can't escape if they don't shift enough gems or find draw exit tunnel from the stack.
Secondly; players will want to avoid creating single long corridors, they will need to return to the starting tile twice and the further away they are from it, the further it is to get back.

This will force players to split up or go in pairs or stick close by if they have the option, at least for the first 2 rounds.
This can change contextually when certain tile are revealed or have to be put in play in a certain way or a player get too many locked dice and so on.
Players will have to think quickly and decisively as well as adapt to emergent events.

Escape: The Curse of the Temple obviously has a quick playtime - 10 minutes! That feels a little strange because the setup and explanation time almost feels longer than a single game.
It's reasonably easy to learn, I can't imagine novice gamers struggling to learn the concepts here.
It also not a game to be taken too seriously and leans heavily on luck which is not unusual for cooperative games. Although, even accepting this, a bad run of rolls can sour the experience.
​But treat Escape: The Curse of the Temple as a cooperative, silly, fun, filler of a game and it will be a enjoyable time. So long as your luck is better than mine... much better!

9th June 2022

​Gaming night Aldershot continues with Chariot Race.

As you might have guessed from the title, this game about managing railway companies in the 19th Century on a hex-based map of North America. NO WAIT, THAT'S NOT RIGHT!

Chariot Race is about chariot racing in ancient Rome. That name is sure is confusing!

What's in a game?

• Game board: This oblong board depicts a oval race track with 3 lanes in a sort of coliseum setting. Each of the corners also shows a 'safe speed' which differs for each lane, the outer one having highest safe speeds. The board also displays 6 starting spaces.
  The board is double-sided and on the 'B' side contains some obstacles to be avoided, providing some more challenge to the game
• Player board: There are player boards in every player colour and each one has 3 columns.
  The left and right columns track damage and speed respectively, while the centre column is 'segmented' and each segment displays a differing number of dice, starting with 1 die at the top and going down to 5 dice at the bottom.
  Finally, at the top is a horizontal 'fate' track that goes from 0-6.
  Additionally, each board also comes with 3 'pointer clips' to track all of this.
• Dice: The game uses non standard wooden six-siders with rounded corners and instead of numbers they depict symbols which represent the following.
  • Speed change: This result makes the player alter their speed by +1/-1/
  • Extreme speed change: This result makes the player alter their speed by +2/-2, however it also inflicts a point of damage on their chariot.
  • Change lane: Allows the player to move their chariot to a different lane. This symbol appears twice on each die.
  • Attack: Allows the player to drop caltrops or throw a spear at another player! Well this is Roman chariot racing.
  • Fortuna: Gives the player a point of fate.
• Standees: The game's chariots are standees constructed from 2 thick card tokens which slot together.
• Caltrops: These are little grey wooden cubes, they don't look much like caltrops but since they're little wooden cubes, I approve!
• Lap tokens: These little double-sided tokens are used to indicated which lap a player is on.

The components for Chariot Race are pretty good, the tokens and boards all feel suitably sturdy while the wooden dice are a nice touch.
Having chariots made of 2 pieces or card seems a little bit of a weird choice perhaps but it's not like it's a dealbreaker or anything and was probably done to keep the cost down.

There's very little artwork to write home about in Chariot Race which may be why I'm blogging about instead?
There are illustrations on the chariot standees but they'll hardly be noticed since they're quite small, especially when placed on the arena/game board.
There's some artwork on the game board as well and it's a fair depiction of a crowd watching the races. Otherwise Chariot Race looks fairly clean and minimalist in a unfussy kind of way, perfectly acceptable in my opinion.

The only iconography that can be found during the game is on the dice, those symbols are self-explanatory and I can't imagine they'd be an obstacle to any players.
Although, I will say that it feels a little odd and counterintuitive that the damage track is labelled 'damage' instead of something like 'health' since 12 on the damage track is completely undamaged and 0 is wrecked.

How's it play?
Setup

• Player boards: Give each player the standee and player board in their colour, along with 3 pointers.
  All players should start with 12 damage, 4 speed and 3 fate.
• Game board: Put out the game board on either the 'A' or 'B' side and determine starting order. Each player should then put their standee in the relevant starting spot.

On to play
In Chariot Race, players are attempting to complete 2 laps of the track, avoid being wrecked and of course, finish first.
This is done by each player in their turn rolling dice and resolving the results.
Chariot Race does not use the usual turn order. Instead it's determined by position on the track round-by-round, whoever is 1st on the track goes 1st, 2nd on the track goes 2nd and so forth.
When the player in last place has gone, the round is over and play returns to the player in the lead at the start of a new round. Of course it's likely the turn order will now have changed.

In their turn, the active player will have several phases they can act in.

• Repair: The active player may spend 3 fate points to repair 3 damage.
  Get wrecked: If, at anytime a player's chariot reaches 0 damage, they are immediately wrecked and eliminated from the game.
• Adjust speed: A chariot's speed score can never exceed its damage score.
  If a chariot took damage during other players' turns (Which is likely.) or overcooked a corner in the previous turn (Also likely!) and the damage drops below the chariot's speed, the speed is lowered to match the damage during this phase.
• Roll dice: The active player now rolls dice, the number they roll is determined by what their speed is on the tracker on their player board in relation to the segments in the centre column. Thus at speed 5, they would roll 5 dice, at speed 8 they would roll 3 dice, all the way to speed 12 where they roll only 1 die!
  ​Re-roll: The player may set aside and/or re-roll any number of their dice once only.
  Spend fate: The active player may spend fate points to re-roll any number of dice - including ones already set aside or change a die to a side of their choice except for the fortuna side.
• Fortuna: In this phase, any dice showing the fortuna icon increase the player's fate score respectively. This occurs after using re-rolls, which means fate points acquired this turn cannot be used to affect this turn's dice results.
• Movement: In this phase, all dice showing the 3 movement icons are resolved and several events may occur.
  +/- speed: Dice showing the speed change icons must be resolved and the player must alter their speed either up or down (Their choice.) as dictated by the dice. As an aside, there's nothing to stop a player using a + result from 1 die and the - result from another to negate each other.
  Regardless of this, once the speed score has been adjusted accordingly, the active player must move their chariot that many spaces.
  Change lane: During movement, the active player may change their chariot's lane a number of times equal to the change lane results they got on the dice.
  Cornering: If the active player's chariot enters a cornering space, that is; a corner with a number, there's a chance the chariot can take damage.
  If the chariot's speed is equal to or less than they number, the chariot is unaffected.
  If the chariot's speed exceeds the corner's speed, then the chariot takes an amount of damage equal to how much they exceeded the corner by.
  Caltrops: If the active player's chariot passes through a space with a caltrop, then the chariot takes damage.
  Ramming: If during movement, the active player's chariot passes through a space with another chariot, then both chariots takes damage.
  The active player cannot end their movement in the same space as another chariot.
• Attack: The active player may use a die with this result for 1 of 2 actions.
  Throw Javelin: Once the active player has finished their movement, they can throw a javelin at another chariot. Javelins have a range of 2 spaces and inflict 1 damage.
  Drop caltrop: The active player may drop a caltrop on to any empty space which their chariot has moved through in this turn.
  Caltrops inflict damage to any chariot that passes over them and are removed from the board when they do so.

This pretty much covers all the rules.

Endgame
Chariot Race is played over 2 laps and there are several criteria which can determine the winner.

If a player's chariot completes their 2nd lap and no other chariot crosses the finish lap, they win the race.
If 2 or more chariots finish the race in the same round, then the chariot that went the furthest past the finish line wins.
Finally, a wrecked chariot cannot win, even if it crossed the finish line first or got furthest past it.

Overall
Chariot Race is a fast playing and mechanically speaking, actually a fairly straightforward game; roll the dice and carry out the resulting actions displayed.
The decisions that players get to make are also fairly straightforward, although their consequences can be significant - which is good. Meaningful decisions are always good.

Player decisions take the form of choosing which dice to keep and which to re-roll, players must choose what to try and prioritise, this will of course be contextual and change from round to round.
The other area where player's will probably be making the most is going to be about speeding up and slowing down. It's obvious that players will want to be fast in the straights but manage their speed through the race's 4 corners.
Managing speed is the game's best mechanic, I like that the faster a chariot goes, the less dice the player gets to roll and consequently, the less options they have.
It feels suitably thematic, not only does it represent having less thinking time at speed but also that this a horse race and players are never entirely in control of them.
Players can find themselves hurtling through corners and taking damage, the question is how fast for how much damage? There's only 4 corners,  so this means it's ok to take damage... right?

This brings me neatly to damage. There's definitely a combative edge to Chariot Race which makes it an usual racing game. Damaging opponents has its benefits.
Firstly; it lowers their maximum top speed, hindering them and secondly, it can lead to their elimination for the game.
It's vital to keep an eye on damage, in the early game players will probably be congenial, but in the late game, that will all change. Having low damage points can make a player a big target, especially if that player is ahead and which others will look to exploit this to put them out of the race.

It does mean that Chariot Race can have a lot of direct conflict and there may well be some 'pick-on-the-leader' tactics going on as well. If this isn't your cup of tea, it's one to probably avoid.
The game also has player elimination as a mechanic, which is something I have little fondness for but fortunately, this is a quick playing game so there isn't too much downtime.

In conclusion though; while it won't set the world alight, it is quick to learn and quick to play, Chariot Race is a fun light game If you like your racing theme with some extra competitive zing and a generous dollop of luck, then this might interest you.

14th May 2022

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

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

What's in a game?

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

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

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

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

How's it play?
Setup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

24th January 2022

It's time for some impromptu Monday gaming in lieu of Sunday and we're logged into Board Game Arena.

Can't Stop Express is the roll & write cousin to the excellent push-your-luck dice game; Cant' Stop.

Caveat: We have only ever played this game digitally.

What's in a game?

• Dice: Can't Stop Express comes with 5 six-siders, which is 1 more than Can't Stop, so something is definitely different.
• Scorecard: Each player gets their own scorecard which is a sheet full of checkboxes and looks suspiciously like a spreadsheet.
  In essence there are 11 rows numbered 2-12 (For each potential result from rolling 2 six-siders.) and each row has 10 checkboxes, 4 in 'negative', 1 in 'neutral' and 5 in 'positive.
  Each row also has a 'scoring value', this varies according to how likely that number is to come up on a roll of 2 six-siders; the rarer the number, the higher the value. The extremes 2 and 12 are worth 100 VP per positive checkmark, while the most common result 7, is only worth 30 VP per positive checkmark.
  Finally, there's another 3 rows of 8 checkboxes for tracking the 5th die.

And that's it!, Can't Stop Express is a very minimal game and that applies to all of it. I can't comment on the quality of the components, there's no art to speak of in the game and no iconography either.

How's it play?
Give each player a scorecard and you're ready to go.

​Can't Stop Express has in one regard a similar mechanic to Can't Stop, which is that after every dice roll, players are putting together 2 sets of 2 dice, the 5th die has a different role (Sic). Where Can't Stop Express differs is that once the dice are rolled, the results are used by all players simultaneously.

• Roll the dice: Once the dice have been rolled, everybody performs the following 2 actions:
• Assign pairs: All players create 2 sets of dice that will create 2 numbers from 2-12. Then, on their scorecard, all players mark off checkboxes for those numbers (Going from left-to-right.). If a player has a 4 and a 9, they would mark off the leftmost empty checkboxes on the rows for 4 and 9.
• 5th die: So what does the 5th die do? After assigning the 2 pairs, the player must​ assign the value of 5th die to one of the 3 rows in the 5th die area of the scorecard and mark off a checkbox. So if the 5th die was a 6, the player would write '6' in one of the rows and mark off the first checkbox.
• Next roll: When all players have finished assigning all their dice, the game then proceeds to the next roll and players again assign 2 sets of dice to their scorecard.
  Once again the player will need to assign the 5th die, except now it must be to one of the 2 remaining 5th die rows. This number must have a different value to the number they previously assigned, using the example above, the player must assign a value different to 6 (And mark off a checkbox.).
  After the third roll, a final unique number will be assigned to the last row. Now that 3 numbers have been to the 5th die rows, a new rule comes into play when the dice are rolled.
• 5th die restriction: From now on, whenever a player chooses which dice to assign to the 2 sets, the value of the remaining 5th die must match 1 of the 3 numbers in the 5th die rows. This means it's likely that players will not always get to choose all the dice they want for their sets because a die may be needed for it's 5th die row instead. Furthermore, every time a value is assigned to the 5th row, one of its checkboxes is marked off.
  If none of the dice match any of the 3 numbers in the rows, then they is no need to assign a 5th die.
• Scoring: There are 3 types of checkboxes in each scoring row, negative, neutral and positive, they are always marked off from left-to-right. This means starting with the 4 negative boxes which must be marked off before the neutral, which must be marked off before the positive boxes.
  Negative: Even a single marked off checkbox here reduces that row's score to -200, that's right -200! This doesn't change until after all 4 negative boxes are marked off.
  Neutral: Once all 4 negative boxes are filled, then the 5th box, i.e. the neutral checkbox can be marked off. This takes the row's score up to 0! Bargain!
  Positive: Finally, when a player gets to the positive checkboxes, each one marked off scores that row's scoring value. Each marked off positive checkbox in the 2 row would score 100 and each one in the 7 row would score 30! Bonus - literally!
  Each row has 5 positive checkboxes, so the maximum the 7 row can score is 150, any dice assigned to a maxed row add nothing to the score.

Play progresses with the dice being rolled and assigned until the endgame is reached.

Endgame
When a player fills the 8th and final checkbox in any one of their 5th die rows, then they stop scoring and the game is over for them.
Once all players can no longer score dice, the game is over and players calculate their scores for all scoring rows, rows that have no boxes checked off score 0.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
One thing I found interesting about Can't Stop Express is how it twists the paradigm of Can't Stop.

In Can't Stop, the objective is to reach the top of any 3 tracks using the results of the dice rolls, which tracks are used is unimportant; they all score a point each. Since it's much easier to get a 7 than a 2, this is balanced out by needing to get many more 7s to reach the top than you would for 2s.
The points have equal value but getting them requires varying numbers of dice results depending on the number.

In Can't Stop Express players are also trying to move along tracks but it is changed around. To reach a scoring position for both 2 and 7 requires getting the same number of pertinent results, either six 2s or 7s, but in Can't Stop Express, they score differently.
Six 7s will score 30 but six 2s will score 100 and in fact seven 2's would more than all ten 7 results.
The dice results required for each track to score are equal but they score varying amounts depending on the number.

Anyway, talk about mechanics aside, I found Can't Stop Express to be a bit of a middling game.
I like how it shares a concept with Can't Stop of setting aside 2 sets of 2 dice and it probably plays a little quicker. There's no going bust, so no 'wasted' rolls - at least in theory. Luck can mess with players in Can't Stop Express, just in a different way!
The push-your-luck element works very differently here, there are no extra dice rolls to make here. Instead players will need to judge which rows to try and fill out and it's in the planning where players push their luck, when a player decides to start marking off the checkboxes in a specific row, they're essentially gambling on that number reappearing again and again.
The 7 row is the safest bet but is not much of a scorer. The further away from 7 you move, the greater the rewards but also riskier it is to fill out 6 or more checkboxes.

​In terms of what I don't like Can't Stop Express is a game completely lacking in theme and feels a little dry (Although to be honest Can't Stop's mountain climbing theme is paper thin.).
My biggest bugbear though is the scoring; those first 4 checkboxes that penalise players 200 VPs, occasionally being forced to mark off checkboxes in rows you don't want to and watching your score drop by hundred of points can be very frustrating.
I know why it's there, it replaces drawback of going bust from Can't Stop, even so, it makes the game feel negative and I'm not fond of it.

I don't think Can't Stop Express is a bad game, mechanically speaking it's pretty solid but it lacks the extra bit of thrill that comes with deciding to re-roll the dice from Can't Stop and doesn't really bring anything new or different to the table.
I'd have no issue with playing Can't Stop Express more times but if given the choice between this and Can't Stop, I'd pick the latter every time.