Gladiatores Review

The sword is heavy in your hand. Sweat and blood run in rivulets down your tired and aching body. And the sun, that wicked golden eye, it stares down at you, relentless, glaring and baking your flesh beneath the scant armour. Of your opponents there is only one left standing and you know he feels the same. You can only hope that his weapon is heavier, his body more drained and that his wounds are deeper.

Game: Gladiatores: Blood For Roses

Designer: Jason Maclean Jones

Publisher: Badcat Games

Artists: Ania Kryczkowska, Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo

Runtime: 20 - 90 minutes

Player Count: 2 - 5

Gladiatores is a fast paced, hard hitting take-that game of arena combat, there’s a touch of deck building, a hint of memory, a smattering of betting and amidst all the Gladiator quotes there will be lots and lots of swearing at one another.  A game about fighting should always be accompanied by plenty of smack talk I say. After choosing which of the six different gladiators you’d like to play as and adding to the small deck of gladiator specific cards from the central supply you are more or less ready to say in a gruff Scottish accent “Gladiators, ready!” and start fighting.

[caption id="attachment_2791" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Hoplomach is doing OK overall, maybe this fight he'll distinguish himself for a greater reward[/caption]

The combat in this game is very light and can be very fast, it’s based on a card trumping system, where one player will launch an attack by playing one of their attack cards, the defender has to play a card that repels the previous, which in turn can also be countered. And so this goes, back and forth until one player cannot play another card.  However, this isn’t just a case of playing one card after another; you’ll have to repel the previous card with specifically named cards. So, a Cleave, for example, can only be repelled by either a Parry or a Block, which in turn can only be repelled by a Disarms/Grab, or a Shove/Leap respectively.

This all means that players have to carefully manage and negotiate their hand of cards because this game isn’t really a deck builder, as you’ll be shedding cards far faster than you’ll be picking them up. You see, the cards don’t only represent what moves and actions you can take, but also your energy, use it up and your gladiator collapses to the sand. It’s important to note here that losing a bout of combat though isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be a good idea to let your opponent use up their defence cards where they don’t directly affect you.

[caption id="attachment_2789" align="alignnone" width="1920"] It started with a Thrust and the same player ended up having to Dodge[/caption]

In Gladiatores players are trying to do two things, as you are essentially playing the game at two levels. One in the arena as the gladiator, where all you care about is dispatching the others. The second is as the owner and operator of a Gladiator Ludi (a school or troupe) where all you care about is the overall fame and glory. This ‘glory’ is collected in a variety of ways and is represented by these little rose petal tokens. You’ll win it for pulling off certain or special moves in the arena, dishing out damage and naturally, winning the fight.

[caption id="attachment_2794" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rose Petal Glory![/caption]

Another way to win glory is through the in-game gambling system. This mechanic overall is very much like a backup plan, a hedging-your-bets type of thing and in that function, it works well, but I find myself wanting a little more from it. I will state here that I personally dislike gambling generally, but here I dislike it because when I lose the bet (which Gladiator will win) all I’ve lost is the opportunity to win, there’s no weight or consequence to it. However, winning the bet is both a great catch up mechanic and always leaves me with a smug sense of satisfaction.

[caption id="attachment_2793" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Glory Wheel, what it's all about![/caption]

It is with these considerations that Gladiatores is far more than a simple combat, card trumping game. Players will often have to plan and strategize about the whole fight, not just the combat they’re in because even when not in a fight the other players are watching what cards are going down on the table. If you see someone play more than two Blocks you can be fairly confident the attack on your turn will find its mark. This game has “active downtime” whereby a careful player will be watching and waiting for their perfect moment to strike. Add to this that in each fight at least one player will probably be trying to defend another to win the bet too and all of a sudden you have a dynamic and clever fighting game.

Now, Gladiatores can be played one of two ways, a single event and season mode. The former functions better as a tutorial/demo than a true reflection of the full game simply because it doesn’t show off what this game is capable of, it doesn’t really allow players to build relationships and vendettas, it makes the gambling, tactic and sponsorship cards almost redundant. Having played Season mode I would now, never play a one-off fight outside teaching someone else.

[caption id="attachment_2790" align="alignnone" width="1920"] There's an array of Events to take part in, and these all add to the variability of the game[/caption]

In the “proper” game you’ll come to see and appreciate the nuances between each of the gladiators, knowing how valuable or dangerous particular cards are for certain fighters is part of the overarching strategies and joys of this game. With the highs of exciting and quick-fire card playing along with the often twisting combats, there is the ever-present risk of being knocked out of the game. With Gladiatores this pseudo player elimination; where your gladiator is killed and out for the remainder of the combat, it can be a little frustrating.  Yes, there is still the bet, but you have no way of influencing it, so you’re stuck in this kind of in-the-game-out-the-game limbo. Luckily, as more gladiators are knocked out of the fight, the rest of the match speeds up, but if you’re the type of gamer put off by things like this, it could still be a little too much like actual “player elimination” for you.

[caption id="attachment_2792" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Special Attack has been used, the player will have to wait another turn before it can be used again.[/caption]

The card trumping mechanic works really well, it's very quick and easy to explain and although it can feel a little random at times it also creates a more interesting and exciting twist to each fight, there is never a guaranteed winner. When a volley of cards are slapped down between two players this game triumphs at creating those “and take that” moments, while simultaneously having the other players grin like starving wolves watching their prey exhaust itself. This game manages to strike a good balance between being fun, fast and fighty, and also creating enough tactical and strategic moments to elevate it far above a simple card trumping game. As with any arena style combat game, the more the merrier and bloodier and with around five rounds of combat you’ll get bad luck, drama and a lot of variety each time you play.

Now would you look at that, a whole review of a game about gladiators without a Gladiator or Spartacus quote in sight...I must be getting professional or something.

Disclaimer:

This review was based on a prototype version of the game provided by the publisher, as such the final version may differ from what is seen here.

5 Minute Chase

Michael: “English, Fitz or Percy? If we're gonna pull this off, we need to take one of them out.”
Abruzzi: “And you want us to tell you which one?”
Michael: “I just want you to help me get to them. I'll take it from there.”
Sucre: “You're crazy, you know that?”
Michael: “All I need is 5 minutes.”

Prison Break, Season One, Episode 5: English, Fitz or Percy written by Paul Scheuring and Zack Estrin, FOX

Game: 5 Minute Chase

Designer: David Neale & Antony Proietti

Publisher: Board & Dice

Artist: Paweł Niziołek

Runtime: 10 seconds - 5 minutes

Player Count: 2 - 4

[caption id="attachment_2783" align="alignnone" width="2048"] A pretty arty display of the game, good entit?[/caption]

5 Minute Chase is a tile-placement party game for two or more players. I’m just going to let that sink in for a second, but you read that right, Board & Dice have taken what is possibly the second most boring boardgame mechanic (behind roll and move obviously); tile placement and not only have they made it exciting, they’ve created a great party game for two.

This is a super simple game of chase, of cat and mouse, of cops and robbers. One player is on the run, the other has to chase them down all with simple, yet challenging, asymmetry. As a runner, you’ll shuffle all your tiles, create two stacks and you are ready to play. The chaser collects all their tokens and starts staring menacingly at the would–be runner and maybe does a little smack talking.

 

The aim for each player is simple, the runner must get from the prison to the hideaway without getting caught and along their route to freedom must collect a map, a key and of course the loot they hid before they went to sing-sing. Once you’ve collected, and by this, I mean used at least one of each of these tiles in your escape, you can place your hideaway tile and finally take a sigh of relief and sit down.

[caption id="attachment_2779" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Those police roadblocks will cause you so much trouble[/caption]

There are but a couple of rules governing the placement of tiles that can be summed up here easily (in the rulebook, not so much),:

1. Roads and tiles must align.


2. When placing a tile, it can only touch one other tile.


3. When escaping along a road with a police roadblock, the roadblock must join up to a wood.

See, simple.

 

The chaser has a very different task. Each tile has a number of witnesses facing in different directions. What the chaser must do is very quickly count and work out which group of witnesses saw the runners go in the direction of the next tile, and place on that tile the corresponding token.

Should the chaser ever be able to place a token on the “current” tile, they have caught the runner. However, neither this nor the placement of the getaway ensures victory. In 5 Minute Chase, there is the necessity for a “check” before final scoring takes place, where all players review the route and tokens to make sure that all is correct. Although this isn’t strictly ‘in game’ it still has an air of anticipation, since so many choices and selections are made rapidly during the chase this evaluative step comes with a results-envelope-opening sense of trepidation…just a much more fun sense of this.

[caption id="attachment_2777" align="alignnone" width="1920"] This is where you are trying to get to. Good luck, and Gods Speed[/caption]

First the runner’s route is assessed to make sure they connected all the roads correctly and included a key, map and loot tile. For the Chaser the process is a little different, the tiles themselves are flipped - where the edge connecting to the next tile remains touching and on the reverse of the tile the correct token symbols are shown - it really is quite an efficient way of doing it.

Now, it could very easily, and in my opinion, be correctly argued that the chaser has the much easier task, the rudimentary pattern recognition is a much quicker mental process, whereas the runner has to first recognise, assess and then orientate tiles to match what is down but also plan what is coming. However, where the runner's task does get easier with multiple plays the chaser’s doesn’t. In many instances the runner ‘always’ has a choice, often they may not be ideal choices but the runner can move the chase along, the chaser doesn’t get this option; they are always behind and the mercy of what the runner is putting down for them. In this regard there is actually very little one player can do to influence their opponent, each player is acting in response to time itself rather than one another.

Much like a child’s playground game of tig, the sole objective of the chaser is much simpler, whereas the runners must invent their escape on the fly. This pattern shifts somewhat in a 3 or 4 player game. I’ll admit, I was dubious as to how this game would work at the higher player count but I was pleasantly surprised. The runner gets a huge bonus here, communication, a moment, albeit a brief one, for consideration. Although the chaser also gains help in a 4 player game, the help gained isn’t quite enough to offset the runners, when this happens everyone knuckles down that little bit more.

It's all those do-gooder witnesses that cause the bother if they would only all just look away

Also, much like a game of tig, there can be a rising degree of frustration with this game, simply because some people will be naturally better at it, or one role within it, than others. 5 Minute Chase create a very level playing field for the game state, where neither player can bring inherited experience to bear. Again, like a game of tig, some people are just faster, more nimble and in this game that converts to some people being faster at recognising patterns, of being more mentally agile and can more deftly rotate and align the tiles to their need. My software engineer friend Mario is an expert runner whom I rarely manage to catch and I’m pretty flipping good at chasing people (obviously I mean in the game, I’m not like a bounty hunter or anything). For some, this frustration twinned with how lightning fast the game is could lead some players to...I don’t want to say sulk, but; well, sulk.

 

The game comes with a bunch of silver and gold star tokens, which you’re meant to use to work out who won and add up at the end of a game. To be honest, I’m not too sure how you win them or count them because for me 5 Minute Chase isn’t about collecting points, it’s about the sheer, unbridled joy of playing, of having that nervous-fun energy. It’s called 5 Minute Chase, but actually, I’ve found I don’t want to play this game for 5 minutes straight just because I fear I’d be a nervous wreck afterwards. A round can last literally seconds - seriously, I’ve caught someone within 3 tiles before, but even a full route with loot, key, map and all still comes in around the minute and a half mark at best.

 

Finally starting to get somewhere...I think

If you hold with the definition of a game being the abstract simulation of an event, then one could argue that 5 Minute Chase is “The Perfect Game”. It splendidly captures the excitement, anxiety and rush of a chase. Playing this game you’ll find yourself trembling with anticipation, you’ll feel your pulse rushing as you frantically search for the right tile. You’ll get that feeling of being hunted, of the chaser being hot on your heels, the exultation when you spot all the right witnesses almost instantaneously and have the right token ready in your hand and for these moments 5 Minute Chase is not only a stand-up, it’s a standout game too.

This game does what a party game should, it gives you a shot of cardboard fun. You’re not going to be overladen with difficult weighty decisions, you won’t agonise over how you engineer your escape, it is a straightforward, fun, family-friendly game of cops and robbers. It’s a small box, with a small price tag (£13.55 currently on a pre-order special) and although you won’t get hours and hours of play out of it you will get a lot of laughs.

Villagers Review

“If we build it, they will come.”

“But we need them to come so we can build it.”

“Good point. If we make some delicious food, they will come, and then we’ll build it.”

“Do you know anyone who can make ‘delicious’ food?”

“I do a pretty decent Spaghetti bolognese?”

“...”

Game: Villagers

Designer: Haakon Gaarder

Publisher: Sinister Fish Games

Artist: Haakon Gaarder

Player Count: 1 - 5

Run Time: 30 - 60 mins

This review first appeared on the Polyhedron Collider website, but if you didn’t catch it there you can enjoy it here now.



The plague has run rampant across the land, devastating and ruining lives in its wake, but we humans are nothing but resilient, and so we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and begin again. This is where you start, at the very beginning, you’ve found a suitable patch of land to build upon, and so construction can get underway. As people flee their old lives, or search out a better way to scratch out their livings they come across your blossoming village. If they have the right stuff you’ll offer them food and lodgings in return for their contribution to the greater good (the greater good).

Villagers is a smooth, uncomplicated engine builder. Your goal is simple; become the most prosperous village, achieved by attracting the most skilled and industrious villagers who in turn will generate the most gold. You need to not only feed and house them but you’ve got to be able to supply them with the materials and tools they need to do their job also. Not forgetting that you need to draft them into your own personal pool of villagers before any of your neighbours do so; which is the first phase of the game:



Players draft villagers in turn from a central ‘market row’ or is this game the Road, where there will be 6 face-up cards and 6 face-down stacks; I like to think of this as the face-up cards being those who are close enough to be able to identify, and those that are a little further away so you know roughly their trade. These six stacks also represent the general populace of the land, and the game ends once they have all been emptied. At the bottom of the second and the final stack is the Market Round, which is where you inhabitants will sell their wares and make the all-important, game-winning gold.



There are 10 different types or suits of villagers, ranging from Ore to Lumber to Grapes. You’ll draft as many villages up to the amount of food your fledgeling settlement produces, food being one of the two basic resources you’ll need to manage.

The build phase is where you’ll take those drafted villagers up into your hand and start adding them to the village proper. Naturally, this is also limited, this time by the number of builders you have. In short, to get people into your village you need food, then before they can start contributing to the village they need a house. Simple.

Now, to the nuts and bolts of you engine building village: it’s all based upon simple supply chains, to do G you F, which needs E, but if you had D then E is free, D obviously needs C, and if you have B then you’ll make more from G, but that also requires A. Which is very typical of this type of game, what Villagers does though is it takes this pseudo-algebraic nonsense and distills it in to a very accessible, very intuitive setting of 14th Century Europe…ish.

In the above gibberish what I really want is a Wine Trader – because on Market day the Wine Trader rakes in a pretty decent amount of gold, but before he can sell his wares a Vintner must first make it, and a Graper has to gather the choice grapes before that. But the Wine Trader also needs bottles from the Glass Blower, and the Vintner also needs barrels from the Cooper….and so on.



Villagers tricks you into believing you only have two resources to worry about; Food and Buildings, and that with its cute minimalist artwork style it’s a simple game. Whereas what you actually have is essentially two little engine builders that overlap one another creating rich, if not occasionally crippling decisions each turn. Each villager is a resource in themselves, providing a service or goods for anywhere between 1 and 10 other villagers (indicated by the keychain symbol). This includes neighbouring villages, meaning if you don’t have the required villager, but your opponent does, you have to pay them.



It isn’t always the largest village that prospers, it’s the most economical, and there are multiple ways to achieve this. A few of the direct supply chains end in very high-value cards, such as the Jeweller and Tailor, but an Ore Muler, Log Rafter, or Freemason can dish out plenty gold based upon who else is in your village during the final Market Round. Also, by just having those root villagers that everyone else will need you can gain a huge income from the other players like the Blacksmith and Carpenter.

Villagers does exactly what is said on the box, it’s a game about people building villages. You’re not juggling the raw materials that make a village; laying down roads and building up houses, your only concern is the people who will do this. You’ll be crafting a complex web of individuals, probably across other villages and players, to achieve your goals. Each card played branches out creating a new route and a new possibility. Above all Villagers presents a great engine builder but with a very accessible, and easily understandable theme, the links and chains between any two cards just makes sense.



I’ve walked away from this game each time thinking that I could have done it better, I could have built it more efficiently and I convince myself that next time I will. If you want to know more, or if this has been enough to convince you to get involved you can back this project on Kickstarter right now!

Disclaimer:

This review was based on a prototype version of the game provided by the publisher, as such the final version may differ from what is seen here.

Pocket Mars Review

This review originally appeared on the Polyhedron Collider website, but if you didn't read it there, you can now enjoy it here too!

Game: Pocket Mars

Designer: Michał Jagodziński

Artist: Jarosław Wajs

Publisher: Board & Dice

Player Count: 1 - 4

Runtime: 15 - 30 minutes

“Mars is there, waiting to be reached.” - Buzz Aldrin



Mars. The Red Planet. The Roman God of War has hung in the night sky capturing the imagination of man, and drawing the creative mind to it like gravity since it was first gazed upon. In the last few years, the fiction was left behind as science began to catch up, and we now know more about this baron and hostile planet than ever before. Yet, the more we know, it seems the more our imagination runs rampant and so the notion of the colonisation of Mars seeps into our consciousness, filling our screens, bookshelves and of course, our boardgames. It is in this vein that we explore Pocket Mars.

 

[caption id="attachment_2653" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Getting an even spread of your colonists is one of the methods of winning[/caption]

 

This is a fairly simple, quick, micro hand management game from those multi-use-card-aficionados at Board & Dice who have brought us SUPERHOT, Multiversum, and InBetween. Pocket Mars sits very comfortably in the mix with those games, which although all have very different themes and even mechanics, they all, to echo Mr Tudor (Mr Tudor Mr Tudor Mr Tudor), share a tonality that’s hard not to notice. So, if you like those previous games, just stop reading and go buy Pocket Mars, you’ll probably like it too. If, on the other hand, you want to know more about a game whose marketing campaign was based on growing potatoes in shit* then read on.

Pocket Mars pits up to four rival companies vying to be the first to establish a safe, successful, and secure colony on Mars. To do this you’ll need to transport your scientists from earth, via your shuttle to the Red Planet, and to one of the four pre-established buildings. Through the use of a series of project cards, you’ll upgrade the buildings to become more efficient and thus setting up the necessary infrastructure to support a mass colonisation. You’ll do this with a bunch of cards, some cubes and all within about 30 minutes. Which is pretty flippin’ impressive.

[caption id="attachment_2659" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Enter / Prize classic....[/caption]

Each player begins the game with a joke-poking named shuttle with one colonist aboard and six further colonists back on Earth. The five main buildings needed to conquer the barren red landscape are in situ, so all you need to do is get them working properly. Queue the Project Cards that will do just that. These cards can be used in one of two ways, from the two cards in your hand, or from the two face-down cards in front of you known as the Prep Module.

In short, this is a game of hand management and set collecting, you’ll want to shift cards from your hand - where they have a weaker, but more immediate action - I like to think of this as maintenance your colonists are making - to your Prep Module. From here you’ll play them against one of the buildings on Mars. This is the chunkier, multi-faceted action that you’ll need to do to shift colonists from your shuttle and into a building - I like to think of this as “Installing” you are putting new equipment into the building that it needs, thus one of your colonists needs to be there.

Now, this action makes up the bulk of the game, as the game ends when one player gets all of their colonists on to Mars, but it is also the most interesting process in the game. The Project cards are numbered (or ranked if you want to follow my analogy) from one to seven. You’ll install your card against the existing one (or the building itself), and, if your Project card has a higher score - thus a better upgrade you put your colonist in that building.

[caption id="attachment_2658" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Stark, austere graphic art with vibrant colours[/caption]

You’ll then get to trigger the card’s actual ability - the thing that your Project actually does, then; because, you used the building, the building’s ability also triggers. This happens even if the Project you installed is not as good as the previous version, like Windows 10, but these buildings don't use a Microsoft operating system, so it’s all good. The other, interesting, little used, action you can do that is very similar to this, is play a card from another player’s Prep Module. This doesn’t allow you to shift any colonists, and they get the card ability, but you get the building ability AND you get to stop them placing a colonist. It is very sneaky, and feels a little off theme, but is a very worthwhile action and adds a devious hint of player interaction.

So, what makes Pocket Mars interesting, different and worthy of your time, and/or money. Well, it’s because of what this game is really about, and that is area control. It just doesn’t really look like it, or rather, the bit that looks like area control - the cubes - isn’t the interesting area control bit of this game. Still with me?

[caption id="attachment_2652" align="alignnone" width="4032"] The Water Building allows you to easily recycle the project cards you don't want[/caption]

Pocket Mars is more about controlling the cost associated with the buildings, about planning and playing ahead. By inflating, or artificially lowering the cost against a building in one turn, and with the knowledge of what type of cards the other players have in their Prep Modules you can take advantage of this supply of information. What the card can do is only one small part of the information you need to be able to counter or block other players. What type of card and more importantly where that card is, is actually more important. And you can see all of this at a glance.

It is the almost perfect information that makes this game so quick, but not at the expense of strategy. To score well, you need to have an even spread of colonists across Mars, you’ll want to get some of them into the “office” of each building too. So, control the costs and you’ll control a piece of Mars, but really you need to control lots of different pieces at different times.

[caption id="attachment_2655" align="alignnone" width="4032"] I'd love to see little astronaut meeples, I understand why they are cubes, but I'd still like to see them...[/caption]

That’s not to say that this game isn’t without its flaws, and despite being a self-confessed Board & Dice fan, this game does fall particularly foul of a recurring ‘issue’ I have with their games, namely; abstraction. Theme and the implementation of the mechanics are abstracted from what they’re “meant to be”, this does make this game a little less accessible I find, and when introducing this game to people, as I have done so in this review, I feel I have to add the character and descriptions/context to actions. This is amplified by the condensed rulebook which is almost completely bereft of flavour, reducing this game of celestial colonisation down to little more than its bare bones. The austere un-named cards with their stark graphic ‘art’, the buildings are only named on the last page of the rulebook and Matt Damon is indistinguishable from his fellow scientists. All of this leads to a fairly abstract game of layering cards and shifting cubes. But...

[caption id="attachment_2656" align="alignnone" width="4032"] A mini space adventure[/caption]

But, all of that is okay when you step away from the telescope and look at what you have with a little bit of distance. You’ve got a very small, cheap, four-player game which has some interesting mechanics, choices and interactions. It even has a solo mode. It is a perfect little thinker of a game for lunch breaks, to travel with and for the damage, it’ll do to your wallet and game shelf this game provides a mini exploration to mars in half an hour. Pocket Mars may not be the slice of Mars game you’ve been waiting to try, but it is still a short, worthwhile game.

Disclaimer:  This review was based on a full priced retail edition paid for out of my own money from my own pocket.

*Just go watch the brilliant Martian and it will all make sense.

 

Waggle Dance Review

In the realm of board game mechanics and their marriage to theme few games do so well as Waggle Dance, taking worker placement and applying it to a theme synonymous with hard work, with busy work, with lots of work. With this game, the worker placement mechanic has never been more at home. That is not to say that Waggle Dance is not the most thematically rich game you’ll ever play no, but one can not help but admire the simplicity and elegance of this pairing.

[caption id="attachment_2683" align="alignnone" width="1600"] This is how it all begins! Look how pretty, and neat and tidy it all is[/caption]

Game: Waggle Dance

Designer: Mike Nudd

Artist: Mateusz Szulik

Publisher: Grubblin Games

Player Count: 2 - 4

Runtime: 30 - 90 minutes

Waggle Dance is a term used in beekeeping to describe the moves a bee performs when returning from a bountiful trip out in search of nectar. Upon returning to the hive, said bee communicates through the method of dance the location of these wonderful flowers, allowing the other bees to further aid the hive in success. This game is not about interpretive dance, it’s about working really hard and really smart to make loads of honey.

Once the very beautiful array of low polygon art cards are laid out, running A - G, and colourful cubes of nectar are positioned and the exquisite dice are handed to up to four players you can set to work increasing your beehive, your workforce and ultimately making honey. Your worker bees are dice, and at the beginning of each day/turn you’ll roll them all, and then start to allocate them in turn. With the exception of the central six flowers, each action card has six available slots for workers to be assign, numbered one through six, meaning you can only assign your number two worker to the number two spot, but on any action.

[caption id="attachment_2682" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Whatever you roll, there is an opportunity to do some actions, you just have to get there early[/caption]

Alternatively, you can always place a worker on one of the six types of flower, again numbered one through six, however this time, it comes down to more of an area control thing, as the more bees you have on any one flower the more nectar you take, and the more you deprive your opponent bees.

Of course, you’ll want more bees, as more bees means more actions, more dice rolling, and as every gamer knows rolling more dice is better than rolling fewer. But, to get a new worker you first need to get your queen to lay an egg and then you to incubate and nurture that egg in order for it to hatch, not only that, but an egg takes up a lot of space in your hive, very valuable space needed for honey. Managing your hive is an extremely important part of this game, making your hive bigger is easy - providing there is space on that action card for one of your dice, getting an egg is easy, again assuming you can get one worker to that action.

[caption id="attachment_2684" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Already this hive is getting full, extra bees will help...I hope[/caption]

Hatching an egg, making honey or moving nectar around your hive are all slightly trickier actions as it requires not only you to roll a double; any double will do (they’re just like dreams that way), but then you have to allocate that double to that task instead of monopolising on some precious nectar. Yet converting nectar to honey is the whole aim of this game, and as should always be the case with great games, that should be easier said than done. Honey can only be produced when you have four types of the same nectar in the same honeycomb, making the whole process of collecting and organising the nectar, followed by turning it into honey not only a time consuming and laborious task but also very fitting.

Bear in mind though that each honeycomb of the hive can only support up to four pieces of nectar or one egg, and if you are only able to snag bits and pieces of nectar and not consolidate the types your hive will end up in a hodgepodge mess of colours and cubes. Further to this, once nectar has been converted into honey, the honeycomb can’t store anything so playing this game means you have to be diverse, you have to play the long game, having a lots of workers or a big hive are great, but only if they can be supported, and there's no point doing that if you’re not bringing in any of the much-needed nectar.

[caption id="attachment_2685" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Time to make some more honey![/caption]

Waggle Dance supplies choices hand over fist; with but a few cards and a few dice from the first turn to the last each turn you’ll be questioning not only what you will do, but how and when you’ll go about doing it. Since this game has perfect information you can see and try and gauge what your opponents will be doing, and that is part of the brilliant and beautiful puzzle Waggle Dance presents. One of the things I love most about this game is the move away from the “issue” normally presented by dice chucking games, luck, although there is still a degree of getting the dice you want when you want them, this is significantly mitigated by the fact that rolling a one in Waggle Dance is just as good a rolling a six. It is more of a question of the array of dice rather than any individual die roll. If you’ve seen this game and thought to yourself “I don’t really like dice games” then stop, look closer. This is a worker placement game with a great twist.

All of this choice does come with a sting in the tail however in the form of Analysis Paralysis, more so in the early turns, players can become overwhelmed by choices and figuring out what to do, when and how can be a little too much. As the game progresses though this does flatten out somewhat, yet the possibility for it is ever present in this type of game.

[caption id="attachment_2681" align="alignnone" width="1600"] I love the vibrant colour of this game, bring on the Summer![/caption]

Another thing you might be surprised to hear of though is the player interaction, not something terribly common in worker placement games, yet Waggle Dance does provide this too in the form of the Queen cards. These cards present special abilities ranging from getting a temporary worker bee, to being able to mix your nectar or to giving one of your opponent’s bees a bug so the call in sick (I know, hilarious right?). These Queen Cards can cause a little confusion, in a bid to make the game language neutral there is no text beyond the rule-sheet, which will need to be heavily referenced by all players until they are very familiar with what all these cards mean.

Now, let us not forget about how flipping beautiful this game looks. Just putting this game out on the table is an open invitation for summer to arrive, the vibrant colours, the minimalist low polygon art and the dice – true story, I played this at my FLGS one Saturday afternoon with my other half, as soon as she saw the dice she told me I had to buy the game, so I did. The pips are honeycombs, the one is a bee, they’re so bright they could easily be confused with sweets.

I do wish the Queen cards had text on them so they could be more easily understood, and I’d love to see a board or better yet a cloth/neoprene play mat for this game, mainly so I could play it in a beer garden at the height of summer and not have to worry about the wind blowing the cards away. Once you get past the AP, once you dive in and start making decisions and doing the work this game shines. The rules are slick and simple, roll dice, follow the order of cards, make honey. Everything else, all the magic and charm of this game is in the playing of it - as all great games should be.

Waggle Dance is my favourite worker placement game, beautiful, fun, and it scales perfectly with player count and game length, I know I’ll never have trouble getting it to the table!

Disclaimer:

This review was based on a full-priced retail copy of the game and was paid for out of my own money from my own pocket.

Tortuga 1667 Review

Publisher: Façade Games

Designer: Travis Hancock

Artist: Sarah Keele

Players: 2 – 7

Run Time: 20 – 40 mins

“A dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.” - Jack Sparrow, on the issue of hidden role board games.

You're right, sorry; Captain Jack Sparrow.

There is little doubt or argument that Walt Disney and Johnny Depp made Pirates cool[er] again...a least for a little while, until the whole Mermaid thing - anyway.

Pirates = awesome.

Boardgames = awesome.

Boardgames that look like books = erm...

So, what else could a triple-decker awesome sandwich be, other than timber shiveringly awesome? Ladies and gentlemen, polish your brass monkeys, as I present to you a review of Tortuga 1667 from Facade Games.



You’ll play as a dubiously real pirate, in and around the island of Tortuga in, well 1667. You’ll hop back and forth between the Flying Dutchman, the isle itself and the Jolly Roger all in an attempt to horde as much of the treasure in the hold belonging to you and your countrymen. However, you don’t know who your countrymen are. Also, the whole hoarding thing is a little bit tricky, as it depends where you are, who you are and, who is with you.



This game has a smattering of worker placement, area control, variable player powers, bidding, and hidden roles to label just a few of the core mechanics. If that sounds like jumble ingredients doomed to failure then you are in for a pleasant and sweet surprise because it is the blending of these that makes this game worthy of your gaming table and shelf.



Picture this, you're on a ship in the bay of Tortuga, across the halcyon blue waters are two other ships. One with loads of gold, the other bustling with another group or unruly pirates. Now, if you’re the captain (taking the number one spot on the ship) you can order an attack against it to try and get some of that treasure. If you’re the first Mate (number two spot), you can try and mutiny against your captain and dispatch him to the Island. If you are the very last in the line on the ship, you’re the Cabin Boy (Roger!), and you can shift one of the treasure chests from the French hold to the British hold or vice versa. With the exception of the cabin boy, everything comes down to a vote (I know, I know, these must be the most democratic bunch of pirates in the history of Piracy) where everyone (except the captain during a mutiny) on the ship gets to cast their vote, plus the top card of the Vote Deck. Failures don’t do any harm, except potentially reveal whose side you’re on. Successes result in capturing a treasure chest- and then placing it in a hold (careful now), or you get promoted. But may also reveal whose side you’re on.



 

About this voting business, it’s not quite as clear-cut as saying “yay” or “nay”, your hand of just three Vote cards dictate how you're going to vote on any one of the three viable actions: Attacking, Brawling (vying for control of the island) and Mutinying. An attack needs at least one cannon and one torch - where each bucket of water nullifies a torch. The brawl action is either British or French flags, suggesting who piles into the fight to half-inch the treasure, and Mutinying boils down to a steering wheel or skull and crossbones (obviously). What makes this interesting is that depending on the action, your allegiance and perhaps, more importantly, the allegiance you are trying to present, you can only vote with the cards you have in hand. And you have to vote (hand management, there’s another mechanic for you). This creates an interesting mix, as there are cards you really want to keep for your actions, your plan, but you have to vote when called upon, and that can mean giving up a card you want for a result that might favour you, use a card you don’t want to hang on to, but in doing so you’re either sending the “right” message about your allegiance, or the “wrong” one.



If that wasn’t interesting enough, you’ve also got the Event Cards, a whole deck of them, and these set the pace for the game. The game-ending card - the Spanish Armada - hidden at the bottom. Until that card turns up though, there is a whole deck of shenanigans to get through, and most of these are varying degrees of bad, from the innocently named albatross to the ominous Black Spot. How you get these cards is one of my favourite parts of this game, in your turn, regardless of where on the board you are, you can interact with these cards in a couple of interesting ways. You can look at any two of these cards, you can demand that another player chooses between any two cards, or you can reveal one yourself. Knowing, and keeping track of these cards is almost like a metagame that goes on throughout, this part of Tortuga is about memory, manipulation and backstabbing.

On top of all of this, you’re trying to figure out who everyone is.



Being a hidden roles game, there is the potential downfall of it being very easy to suss out who is on which side, but, I’ve found that to be hugely player dependant. How good you are at lying, bluffing, and how much of a risk you are prepared to take as that deck whittles down. The deck acts not only as a countdown to the end of the game but to a player’s plans. Remaining hidden is of the utmost importance in this game, but you want to strike that delicate balance of also finding out who is on your side. When its crunch time, you need to ensure that you can shift that treasure quickly, you need to know who you can rely on, and who you throw overboard. Be wary of the honest ones!

There is, however, an elephant on the boat, and I think a much-needed caveat when it comes to playing this game: the player count. Technically, it plays two to seven people. Technically. But at two players it is kind of a drag, your actions are pretty prescribed. Three players is much the same. At four you get a big ol’ chunk of flavour. At five it is like you’re playing a different game, but at seven (I know I missed six, get over it), at seven this game is rollicking good fun!



Tortuga 1667 relies on, and flat out requires player and social interaction, so with more players, there is more of that, thus more fun. Further to this, the game becomes more volatile, swaying a vote becomes harder, and more involved. The odd player is Dutch, winning if the English and French draw, it is a brilliant twist on a hidden roles game that I’ve not seen before and Tortuga pulls it off with style. The variability and independence of the Dutch player can have massive consequences, and if played right can hold the tide of the battle in their hands.

And talking of style, I hope that my photos of this game do it justice. The game, the box, the board, art, components everything is flat-out gorgeous. And yet, manages to never feel over produced. It is tight, succinct and comes in at around £25. The neoprene playing ‘board’ juxtaposed by the simple, almost old-fashioned pawns is quite simply delightful.



Tortuga 1667 is one of my favourite games of 2017; it does everything a really good game needs to do. It gets you thinking, gets you interacting and playing. You never feel like you don’t have a choice of actions, and whatever you do you’ll be moving towards your ever approaching the goal. Ultimately the game comes down to being able to carefully balance subterfuge with careful, planned strikes against those players you think/hope are your enemy. Played at the higher player count this game will not fail to entertain and enthral, and oh my, doesn’t it look very pretty on your shelf.



This review was based on a full priced Kickstarter campaign at the Early Bird pledge level.  

Dead & Breakfast Review

Publishers:          Braincrack Games

Designer:            Rodrigo Rego

Artist:                   Louis Durrant

"Relax," said the night man. "We are programmed to receive, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." The Eagles, Hotel California

 

[caption id="attachment_2506" align="alignnone" width="4032"] It's behind you!!![/caption]

 

Your eyelids are heavy, you've been driving all night, and because you went left when you really shouldn't have, and then because the battery died on your phone you lost your way.  Behind schedule, in the middle of nowhere, you stop to rest for the night at a delightful, ivy-covered bed and breakfast.  The warm yellow glow of lights in the window, the cheerful and friendly blue door invite you in.  And yet, your skin crawls, something screams inside you to run, hide, tear away from this place and never look back. But...but you’re just so tired.

Welcome, to Dead & Breakfast.  If that introduction sounds all too heavy and morbid just take one quick glance at this delightful artwork from Louis Durrant and you'll realise I'm simply been melodramatic.  In this game of tile placement you'll be building up the most horrible and frightening of hotels, by ensuring you have the most elaborate and cohesive array of ghouls, ghosts, witches, and cursed dolls to scare even the hardiest of lone travellers, but at the same time trying to ensure the outside of your hotel looks as inviting as possible, with long, continuous vines of flowering ivy.

 

[caption id="attachment_2504" align="alignnone" width="4032"] BCareful placement to get these flowers and creatures into just the right spot.  I hope[/caption]

 

Dead & Breakfast is wonderfully simple to teach, and equally quick to get started, turning devilishly taxing.  You’ll build a hotel in a grid of five by five, selecting double window tiles from a central pool, placing them next to an existing tile to create your hotel tableau.  Once a row is completed you’ll select one of the four available guests waiting for a room, and you’ll cover one of your windows with this guest, each of which is terrified by one of your creatures in either the row or column in which they’re placed.

You'll score points in two (three, if using the bonus cards) ways, the ‘biggest’ and most obvious method is your ill-fated guests.  By aligning your guests in a row and/or column that has those beasties you'll score points, potentially lots of points.  However, equally, as important though is your second source of points: flowers (obviously these are scary flowers as is fitting of a haunted hotel).  Each hotel lobby (the brightly coloured front door) needs to be offset in the most delightfully twee way with flowers of the right colour, so by placing tiles with that colour flower that connect back to your lobby/door, you'll score points. Bonus points, ah well, they’re bonuses for doing stuff aren’t they, like aligning your guest orthogonally, or having your vines spread off the edges of your hotel.  These bonuses add an extra layer of strategy and complexity to the game that some may want to help elevate to a more serious game, but there is enough going on without to enjoy the game for most.   

 

[caption id="attachment_2510" align="alignnone" width="4032"] A gallery of creatures[/caption]

 

The scoring of both the guests and flowers come to a rather lovely juxtaposition.  You can't win by solely focusing on one method over the other, although ivy is lower scoring, it is a steady "revenue" of points you can't simply ignore.  This scoring balance hangs perpetually in front of you like some malicious spirit, taunting you with good choices, but rarely the perfect collaboration of orientation, creature, vines and flowers, and when it does appear another player, of course, wants it.  It is within this delicate balance that this game really shines.

 

[caption id="attachment_2503" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Your awaiting guests[/caption]

 

Don’t be lulled into thinking just because it’s cute, and uses a simple tile placement mechanic, and because it’s easy to teach that these things combined make a simple game.  With each turn you must make the best decision from those options available, it’s a game or careful, calculated loss, of forward planning, of keeping your options open, but succinct enough that you can close those literal and metaphorical holes in your plan later and maximise your scoring.  After a quick rules explanation, I’ve seen players jump straight in, with a clear-cut defined plan of action, only to come stumbling to a halt as by the time it's their turn again the landscape has changed, their plan has to adapt, and much like the ivy that creeps along the walls, it has to grow and change.

 

[caption id="attachment_2509" align="alignnone" width="4032"] The ghost, making its way around the available windows[/caption]

 

The ghost that mournfully meanders around the central pool of visible window tiles will dash your hopes of picking up that which you need.  The bonuses demand you sacrifice your optimal placement of guests or creatures with the sweet promises of extra points at the end.  The bright, pretty flowers will twist and turn, fighting every attempt to tame them and simply get them where you want.  This game wants you to be tricked (or treated) Dead & Breakfast is far more than it seems, it is possessed of a game greater than the mere sum of its components, yet remains ectoplasmically-slick in terms of its rules.  You will be beguiled by its charm and its appearance,  not noticing its hidden depths until you are a couple of turns in, and by which point it will be too late to escape.

Dead & Breakfast is live on Kickstarter from the 23rd Feb, and you'll even be able to try the game out yourself via Tabletopia.



This review and pictures are based on a review copy of the game, as such the game and components may look different from the final product.

 

Review: Happy Pigs

 

Game:	Happy Pigs	Release Date:	2013
Designer & Artist:	Kuraki Mura	Player Count:	2 - 6
Publisher	IELLO	Play Time:	30 - 40 mins

In this smart, pleasantly frustrating and cute spin on one of the oldest board game genres you’ll be a cuboid-pig farmer, attempting to rear, grow, and sell on your biggest and best pigs for good old fashion dollars!  Each turn you’ll desperately have to gauge the market to make the best use of the scant options available to you, hoping (or if you’re smart, planning) the best strategy so that you’ll get the best returns for all that pig mess you’ve had to stand in to get there!



The game is played over one year, made up of the four seasons, which in turn is made of four rounds. (You may start to notice some symmetry here)  In which you choose from the same four possible actions: Buy, Mate, Feed, or Sell.  

When buying you’ll be able to buy more pigs (you have a choice of four sizes), or items such as inoculations love potions or special food.  Mate, surprisingly allows you to add a new little piglet to your pig farm if you have a breeding pair.  Feed makes your pigs bigger, which helps you make more money when you eventually sell your pigs, with large pigs being worth five times more than a piglet.



On top of this, each round has a Seasonal Effect card which affects the game in some way for that round only, these range from market fluctuations, special offers, to Bacon Festivals.   Yes, Bacon Festivals, with a capital “B”.

Finally, at the end of each season, any pigs that you haven’t inoculated unfortunately die off (not the real sad part of this game).  At the very end of the game, all players sell off their livestock and whoever has the most money wins. A very mechanically simple, slick game then by the sounds of it, right?

This Little Piggy Went to Market

The core of the game comes from how a player gets what they’re after.  It isn’t a simple case of first come first serve, or the highest bidder, no.  Happy Pigs has a very simple, yet very effective supply and demand system powering its engine.  In each round, the four actions are only available X amount of times (where X is different for each action and in each round) and you’ll have to share X with every other player who wants that action at the same time as you.  So, when you want to feed your pigs, you have to consider and be prepared for the fact that you may not be able to use all eight Feed actions.  You may have to split those eight actions anywhere between two, and six ways - and that doesn’t leave a lot of food.

This does two really interesting things to the game.  One, it will really tick you off.  A lot.  I’m quite a vocal and...shall we say animated gamer.  I actually managed to make an opponent cry when playing this game - with laughter at how colourful my language became when describing my frustration - but still, he cried.

And the second interesting thing it does is it keeps you above the game, this game has zero player versus player mechanics and in many ways you’re tableau building, but unlike other tableau building games, where it is often too easy to become solely focused on your own creation with little concern for the other players.  That isn’t possible in Happy Pigs, every player has to be aware of what the competition is doing each and every round.

All seasons are created equal, but some seasons are more equal than others.

I’m just going to come out and say it, this game is swingy, it can also suffer from a runaway leader, and arguably has a dominant strategy.  All of these issues arise from the Seasonal Effects.  For me, these hamper (HAMper, get it?...I’ll get my coat) an otherwise very interesting and enjoyable game.  In total there are 24 of these cards, only 16 of which will be used each game, however many of them are repeated (or virtually repeated anyway).  A quick count tells me there a 6 cards that raise the prices to varying degrees, 5 of them give $25 payout, there are 4 copies of the Season of Love card, and then a further 5 cards that give you one or other of the goods.  In short, of the 24 cards but only really 7 types of card.  Even the action numbers are pretty static, and once you’ve had a close look the strategy becomes fairly obvious.



This quite frankly pees me off, because it creates a very uneven playing field.  Prior game experience is pretty much always going to put you in a better winning position in most games (more so those that don’t have a big luck aspect), but in Happy Pigs, a novice player will stand very little chance against someone that knows the scant card probabilities.  Which, in my mind defies the whole point of the seasonal effects in the first place, they should either be consistent, or widely varied.



 

Here an Oink! There an Oink.!  Everywhere an Oink! Oink!

Happy Pigs has a lot of components. There is lots of cardboard in this box, every single possible item is represented as a cardboard chit.  There are literally hundreds of pigs.  



Not anywhere near enough money tokens, and plenty of cardboard chits for each of the three items available at market (if you are so inclined to get the expansion Happy Pigs: Farm Friends, or even some of the promo Ducks and/or Penguins you’ll have a box  (thankfully bereft of any insert) bursting with cuboid cardboard animals, but enough that each player can play with their own animal) and every time you play this game you’ll have to get them all out, use a fraction of them and put them all away again.  

 

 

 

[gallery ids="2457,2456" type="rectangular"]

Why there isn’t a tracker per player for their items and/or money I don’t know.  I like my box organisers, and I like to do whatever I can to speed up the set-up, but I do find it frustrating that I have far too many of one component and not enough of another.  In short, a game about money should have plenty of money.

The art from Christophe Fossard is gorgeous (as it always is and I recommend giving him a follow on Twitter or Instagram too if you like the stuff he churns out for, well pretty much every major games publisher), and hats off to him for making a cuboid piglet look so darn cute - but, one can’t help but feel a little disturbed by the giant pigs complete with sweat and bags under their eyes.

 

 

 

[gallery ids="2452,2453" type="columns"]

Squeal Piggy...a pig loving critique

Fair warning: the below “rant” about Happy Pigs is arguably superficial, and highly subjective (as all reviews should be).  If the theme of a game is of no consequence to you, skip to “Rant Mode Complete” and avoid reading about why I will never play this game again.

>>Rant mode engaged<<Fundamentally I have two (and a bit) issues with the game itself.  The repetitive Seasonal Effects and swingy nature aside - as those aspects do actually add to some of the frustrations and fun I have when playing.  Yet, I have an issue with the theme, and as a novel irk, the name of the game itself!  

That’s right Happy Pigs, what a delightful sounding game?  However, the game is not concerned at all, in any way with the emotional or even physical well being of the pigs.  Even the box art sees a very cartoony pig RUNNING FOR ITS LIFE from an equally cartoony pig farmer bent on its capture.  This isn’t Okja, the Happy [Super] Pig playing in the mountains of Korea, no. This is Fat Pig, Fat Wallet: Happy Farmer.  

The theme too is a little on the unpleasant side for me.  I’m an animal lover, and if I had space at home there is a fair chance I’d own (or at least have seriously considered) a pig as a family pet.  I don’t eat pork either, so a game about rearing pigs, feeding them to the extreme only to sell...well, I just don’t like it.  Neither can I fully get over the idea that obesity is not only celebrated in this game but is highly rewarded.  

With minimal work the game could be re-skinned as Happy Pandas or Happy >Insert Endangered Animal Here< and not only would you still have the interesting economic game at the core, but it could also have educational and conservation lessons in there too. >>Rant Mode Complete<<

By the hairs on my chinny-chin-chin

On the whole, this game is not what it appears or alludes to be.  It looks very cute and very friendly, you may even mistake it for a family or children's game with its bubbly art style, and cheerful name.  I can pretty much guarantee that playing this game at “family” time will cause a ruckus.  It is cutthroat, it is a tightly wound economic engine which will have you screaming blue- effing-murder at your opponents before the end of the first season.  What appears to be a simple choice of four simple actions has massive and long-lasting implications, and before you make that choice you have to decide if you are going to hamper an opponent or try and help yourself.  Once you get the swing of this game it does tick by at pace, where you feel busy most of the time, even when you’re not physically moving pigs or items around your farm or market, the cogs will still be turning trying to work out not only what your next move is, but everyone else's is too.  This is more so the case once you have a firm grasp of the game and play each round simultaneously - this does mean that up to 6 players can get a game played in around 60 minutes.  If you aren’t paying attention, or if you are on the wrong side of the swing you can and will see the entire game slip away from you as one or two players steam ahead leaving you up to your ears in something that you hope is just mud.  



In many ways I feel like this game is almost there, Rant Mode notwithstanding, it is like a Kickstarter that really should have hit more of its stretch goals.  A greater variety of Season Cards could have put a lot of my qualms about this game to pasture.  I have frustrations with this game, and yes some of those are fun, but not fun enough to keep me going back for more.

 

The Good

Tense player interaction

Great engine building

Mechanically simple and easy to teach

Some great artwork

 

The Bad

Too many chits and tokens

Not enough variety in Seasonal Effects

Swingy

Easy potential for Runaway leader

This game was purchased at a reduced rate from Zatu for the purpose of a review.