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.  

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

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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.

Review: Farlight

 

Game Name:	Farlight	Published Year:	2017
Game Publisher:	Gamesalute	Player Scale:	2 - 5
Game Designer:	Nick Sibicky	Run Time:	45 mins

In the not too distant future, you’ll be able to pop off on your jollies to visit the Sea of Tranquility instead of Lanzarote if what Mr Branson is selling comes about, in the meantime, you can conquer that pesky atmosphere and go boldly into that void with Farlight. Much like Branson, Musk and Bezos, you’ll be running your high tech aerospace company in a tight, and faced paced race, attempting to outmanoeuvre, outwit and outclass your competitors.

 

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Farlight is an auction and tile placement game in which each round players will bid on parts for their ship, to then connect those parts before attempting one of the all-important missions. This is as simple as it sounds, in turn, each player will place two of their 5 bidding tokens - ranked from zero to four - on any ship upgrade or facility at Farlight Station, with the option of adding one of their scarce and valuable crew to the bid to increase it by one. Once all bids are placed, the winner of each is revealed, losers who bid more than zero gain one additional crew for their trouble and then parts are added to the ship.

 

[caption id="attachment_2432" align="alignnone" width="3963"] My super-cool spaceship with big meaty engines![/caption]

 

 

This is a victory point game, with only one real way to gain points (there are also bonus points and as the name suggests, the bonuses are just that, they’ll make the difference between finishing second or third, they won’t win you the game). At the top of the board, there will be a selection of Mission Cards, arranged into three columns, and missions ranked from lowest value to highest and then the game ending Climatic Mission.

 

[caption id="attachment_2417" align="alignnone" width="3233"] Bonus Tiles - three of which are used each game[/caption]

 

These missions form the focus of each game, and there is a nice assortment of them, as missions can vary with their requirements as a mixture of, or a sole requisite of Science, BioTech and/or engines. And it is here that we encounter the most interesting, and most frustrating aspect of this game: getting the right parts at the right time. At the beginning of the game the board is filled with parts, and then at the end of each round, anything that was 'sold' is replaced.  However, since there is no seeding of the deck, nor a separate deck for each part "type", the draft is very random.  So, important, game-necessary cards, like, I don't know, engines, for example, don't appear quite as frequently as one would hope

 

[caption id="attachment_2421" align="alignnone" width="2539"] Engine dice - these dictate how powerful your engine is.[/caption]

Now kids, remember getting into space is really difficult because you have to break away from the Earth’s gravitational pull. Which is really, really hard. In order to do that you need really powerful engines. So when only one appears in Farlight Station, it becomes very highly sought after. Even Two engines mean that most players are going to be bidding on both of them, and probably bidding high, this essentially creates a bottleneck of bids, since only empty slots are replaced, you can end up with only two or three cards being drafted. So the “issue” is not only exacerbated but is self-serving.

 

 

[caption id="attachment_2427" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Not every Mision requires engines, these few are easy pickings for Science & Biotech ships[/caption]

 

 

Is it really a problem? For me, it’s not a deal breaker, it is frustrating, and I think there are some easy ways around it, or even a little House Ruling to make it flow a little better. But, for others, this could be too much. It does create an individual economy per game, in the same way that a scarcity of one resource in say, Splendor does alter how everyone plays, but unlike Splendor, there is no way to get around not having an engine on your spaceship (although you can get around Science and BioTech, which is odd). And if you ever hope to achieve one of the Climatic Missions then you need engines. At least two, but more likely three.

 



So let’s do the maths. In a five player game, each player is going to really want/need three engines, so that will be fifteen engines in all. Of a possible sixteen, and to me that seems pretty tight, and in the games I've played, it has been.

 

[caption id="attachment_2428" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Missions aplenty for your would be tech companies to attempt[/caption]

 

The Climatic Missions themselves also present their own quirk, and that is a linear narrative. These missions almost force the game to move in a specified direction - which really does feel like your choices are being stricken off as you advance through the game.  Normal missions are stacked in front of these, so the Climatic Missions can’t be attempted until the stack is clear, meaning that as soon as two of the normal missions are resolved, all players now focus on that column, making the others more or less redundant, since winning a climatic mission will pretty much bag that player the win.

 

[caption id="attachment_2433" align="alignnone" width="3026"] Winning the game comes with a little winner card - which is nice[/caption]

 

Since these missions are so high scoring that in some cases it can be the only mission a player accomplishes and they still end up winning.  Obviously, this does sour the milk a little for everyone else playing.  That being said, you can stop a player running away with the lead,  you can outbid them as rarely will an opponent just need one part.  It is within every player's power to stop and hinder that winning bid, but again, by doing so, this limits your choices.

 

[caption id="attachment_2424" align="alignnone" width="4032"] He really wants that piece...or are all of those low bids, it could be 4, or 11[/caption]

 

You could argue that the game is broken, or that it isn’t balanced, etc. and I could argue with you, but I wouldn’t argue particularly hard or for very long. However, and it’s a big HOWEVER, the game is really good fun. I’ve really enjoyed playing it, each and every time. Unlike Steampunk Rally (which has a similar feel, and tile placement mechanic), where all the players are building at the same time, in Farlight you have time to take stock and see what everyone else is doing. You can bluff and inflate the cost of a valuable piece for your opponents that you know they really, really want while you pick up that other thing. And there is a great sense of satisfaction when you win a tile on a low bid because you’ve misdirected everyone. Or when you bid here, and then there, to do that, so that next turn you can do the other thing. It’s a game that wants you to plan and more importantly to it wants you to scheme. It creates a wonderful market conflict and for a game with only indirect player interaction, there is usually a lot of trash talk too.

 

[caption id="attachment_2423" align="alignnone" width="3320"] Enter a caption[/caption]

 

Farlight makes for a very enjoyable experience, perhaps a little too random and linear for some gamers, but I've found it to be just the right amount of fun to counterbalance those failings.

The Good

A thought-provoking economics game

Really good fun to play

With the right crowd, it will have some great player interaction

The Bad:

Doesn’t feel very balanced,

Can suffer from a runaway leader

Has a linear and predictable conclusion

This game was purchased/ backed on Kickstarter so some of the contents may vary from retail editions of the game

Review: Overseers

Overseers is the English reprint of the Japanese game Chenghuang: Guardian of the City first published in 2015 by Big Fun Games.  This game marks the first game from ThunderGryph Games and was successfully funded on Kickstarter in July 2016 raising €62,710, 712% of its €8,800 target. The copy seen in the photos below is the Kickstarter edition so some components may vary from a retail purchase of the game.

In Overseers players take up the mantles of celestial beings whose purpose is to continually strike a balance in the world of men, to do this they will apply Traits to human-kind such as Courage, Hope, Greed and Anger, however; they will also be in constant conflict with one another, thus ensuring that no one Overseer can impose their will exclusively upon mankind.
Truth be told; the theme in this game is a very simple, yet very beautiful, veneer; so if theme is of paramount importance to you in your games, then this one will certainly not be plucking that string. Do not stop reading though, because mechanically this is a wonderful game of drafting, set collection, and bluffing with variable player powers and heaps and heaps of player interaction. And to top it all off, these things are pulled off quickly, deftly and with panache.


Overseers is played over three rounds, with the player collecting the most victory tokens being deemed the winner, a three-player game will take about thirty minutes but do not mistake its brevity for any lack of depth. Each player will be dealt a new Overseer at the beginning of every round, each with their own special ability, before being dealt a hand of six Trait cards. As a Set Collection/Drafting game, each player is looking to put together the best five cards they can, selecting one card from their hand before passing the remainder to their neighbour. The really main area of Overseers comes from the following Phase: Placement.
Here, players will place their five cards on the play space in front of them, three of the cards will be face-up, the other two face down. All players then discuss who they believe to have the best and highest scoring set of cards, before entering the Vote Phase and simultaneously placing their Token in front of that player.
The Judgement Phase only affects that one chosen player, where they will either Admit (and discard two cards of their choosing) or Deny that they have the best hand. In the Showdown Phase all players reveal their cards, and if the voted player Denied, and didn’t score the highest scoring cards, they get to take one of the discarded cards to bolster their final score! Which is ace. Alternatively, they lose two of their best cards if they did have the high score.

The Greed Phase allows the player with the most Greed cards (very low scoring) to steal a card from another player! Which introduces a brilliant and simple Take That system into the game.

The round ends and each player dives into the Overseers stamped cloth bag to dig out their victory tokens with the winner being declared after three rounds to the player with the most victory points. These coins are a bit of a struggle, with denominations of 1, 5, 10, and 20 it varying shades of grey through to a greyish-gold on one side and then a uniform grey/brown on the reverse makes this part of the game a little sluggish and saps some of the pace in this game, I have a mind to pimp mine out with some simple wooden tokens at some point and if you have any form of colour blindness you may struggle even more here.
Overseers may well be my favourite drafting game (insert gasp here), and this is for one very simple reason; because it is very easy to keep track of what you are giving to your neighbours. With only six types of cards to keep track of, you almost feel like a card counter in a Las Vegas casino; you know you passed your neighbour a (blue) Courage card each and every time, but come the Placement phase he isn’t showing any? Not a chance, he is sitting on a hidden 21 points there and so we enter the Vote phase and everyone around that table thinks they know what each other has hidden. This is integral to the enjoyment of Overseers, you make the best of the draft but go charging into the next phase with a slither of knowledge, with accusations ready, and so the player interaction ramps up.
I always enjoy this part of the game, the bluffing, the miss direction, and even the trying to attract all those counters (that I like to call the Denial Trap). In my games, this phase can get pretty heated, increasingly so with each successive round. However, the boisterous extremes I’ve seen this game taken to aren’t fundamental or necessary, shyer, quieter players will certainly be able to fully engage with this phase, just with a lot more decorum. Choosing your play group is important with this game, much like many games that use a bluffing/bidding mechanic, arguably these mechanics in Overseers are more accessible than Sheriff of Nottingham for example, as all players are simultaneously hiding something, and no one person is the “bad guy”.

The art and graphic design (from Studio Amatiz) are…noteworthy. It is brilliant, the Overseer cards and box art have the very popular and attractive spot UV varnish, the artwork itself is beautiful, intricate, and detailed, reminiscent, I think, of Soul Calibur. But; it is a little racy for my very English sensibilities. All the Overseers are women, all of them are Caucasian, all of them are scantily or revealing clad, some of them are verging on pornographic. None of this is relevant to the theme of the game, it has been a very conscious decision to have these cards look this way, simply to have them look that way.

The trait cards, conversely, are purely graphical, simple large, bold iconography with Chinese writing which is all you need for a set collection card game.
Some people will be absolutely fine with the artwork, they will appreciate the talent and skill required for it, and then just get on and play the game. I’m not one of those people though unfortunately, sometimes I play games with my nieces and nephews who are all roughly around thirteen, and I simply wouldn’t feel comfortable putting Meixiu
(a girl’s name meaning grace and beauty) down in front of a thirteen-year-old boy or girl, and even some grown men or women could be made to feel uncomfortable with the art too. For me, this limits who I can play this great game with, it limits when I can play it and these limitations result in people missing out on a great, fun little game.

This game was one of the first games I ever backed on Kickstarter, and I’m proud to be one of the 2,617 to help bring it to life because it is fabulous. Overseers has a lot of my favourite game mechanics and some of the best player interaction I’ve experienced in a competitive game. It is quick and light, and although may sound fragmented and clunky with all the phases, it is actually very slick and easy to pick up. I only wish that I could get Overseers to the table as often as it deserves.

You can pre-order your copy of the second print run here and there are still some of the first print around here.

If you like Sherriff of Nottingham you may also like Overseers.