Review: Ominoes

Ominoes.  A game for Pharaohs, for Rulers and Sovereigns all.  A game for dice chuckers, a game for those that love and hate Chance in equal measure.  For those that want a generous sprinkling of strategy over their polyhedrons in the morning. And for those that just want a quick tabletop hit, but don’t have time for the chits that comes with those bigger box games.  

A Confession:

Now, while writing this I’ve spent a truly inordinate amount of time trying to concoct a silly story about how this game was played by ancient Egyptians 4,000 years ago.  I also spent far too long looking for hieroglyphs of people playing a board game, of ancient looking dice and so on.  All this for the simple aim of duping you, dear reader, into believing, even for a moment that Ominoes is really a modern re-skin of an ancient game such as Chess, Go, or the Royal Game of Ur.  But, to do this would have been to cheapen the accomplishment of the designer, Andrew Harman.  It also wouldn’t have been particularly funny.  Why would I want to do this?  Simple: Ominoes is startlingly simply to play that it feels like it belongs alongside those ancient games I mentioned before.  It’s hard to believe that this game didn’t exist before Andrew and YAY Games brought it into the world.  It has an almost ageless quality to it.

A dry description of this game may include words such as abstract, area-control, and pattern-recognition and dice.  My description would only involve three words. Simple. Elegant. Fun.

I was reminded of the famous Antoine de Saint-Exupery quote:

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

And there is nothing in this game, nothing, that doesn’t need to be there.  It is incredibly lean, and from this stripped back stance the game gains, no, it earns its elegance.  And it does so in spades.

How to roll dice:

So, the simple rules:  Players need to orthogonally connect four or more Ominoes (dice) that show their respective coloured symbols – this can also include the two different types of wilds – once this is done the Ominoes are scored (1 point each) and removed from the board.  First player to reach the agreed-upon target (depending on players, and/or how long you want to play).

1. In your turn, you’ll roll an Omino.


2. Then you’ll move another Omino with a matching face exactly three spaces.


3. Finally, you’ll add the Omino you just rolled.

Other than the fine print, that is how to play (the YAY-Ra wild allows the roller to move any Omino, and the Omniotep allows the roller to re-roll and replace any other Omino).

SPOILER ALERT (it’s not really a spoiler alert, I was just being melodramatic)

The first time you play this game, it will take you a couple of turns to truly realise how deep the strategy is.  You'll also quickly come to relise that with pretty much every turn you'll be interfering, frustrating and in any other way peeing off your opponents.  

On your subsequent games, the gloves will be off and you’ll come out swinging.  There is this moment I look for now when I play this with others for their first time.  Newbies and veterans alike have this “Oooh” moment when they do a surprise double-take.  The best analogy I can think of is eating a very nice cake, and then suddenly finding it has a gooey sweet centre that you had no idea was there.  If you’re not a “cake person” I hope you can still appreciate the metaphor here.



What I’m getting at, is the surprise that this game packs, is, well surprising.  The game is just a bunch of dice - brilliant, wooden chunky dice with colourful filled engraved icons - and a gridded board.  That’s it.  No cards, tokens, chits.  Certainly no miniatures and not even a whiff of custom meeples.  The game doesn’t need them.  Yet, there is so much game here.  That is why this game feels “classic” like it should have been designed 3,00 years ago, not in 2016.

Two and Three-Player Games

In a two -player game, the rules change every so slightly, each player not only collects sets of their deity/colour, but they will competitively complete sets of the other two that are not in “direct play”, so both players will be trying to finish sets of Ra (Yellow Suns) and Khepri(Blue Scarab Beetle).  In a three-player game, all players can score from the one missing deity/colour.  These changes really help keep the balance, and in fact, make the two-player game far more competitive.  As the board fills up finding just the right spot to not give away point to you opponent becomes harder and harder.

Advanced Games

For those players that want a little more of a challenge, Ominoes answers with Indy’s much despised Snake Pit.  At the centre of the board, there is a two-by-two square “Snake-Pit” that cannot be entered at all, which adds a further level of difficulty very simply.  I’ve found that many newcomers to the game assume that the Snake Pit can’t be entered from the get-go, which makes it an important distinction to make when you play for the first time, as it is much more challenging with the advanced ruless in play.  

With each play of this game, you will face a different problem, regardless of the player count, as Ominoes is, at its core a luck based game, therefore what you roll will determine how each game plays.  Regardless of experience as a gamer, or with this specific game.  Ominoes keeps you on your toes.  There will be games where you roll nothing but little Green Hawks (Horus), and the following game you won’t see one.  Making this game very accessible and, quite simply, very good fun.

Accessing your inner Om

Ominoes does a great job getting around the issue of colour blindness and eyesight issues (for the greater part), all the icons are distinct and clear, even if you can’t make out the colours.  The fundamental depth of this game comes from pattern recognition, you can never truly plan ahead too far, or anticipate your opponent since so much of the game is based upon the roll of a die.



 

All of the above combine to make Ominoes a game that can be played by young or old, experienced or new gamers alike.  And I mean really alike.  This game creates a very level playing field to enjoy some fantastic dice chucking over and over again, with such a very short play time, even with the max player count you can play multiple games within an hour.  This is a perfect breakout game, travel game - especially with the far more transportable Travel edition, which includes a neoprene “board” - or even if you just want to play, have fun and don’t have much time - you won’t get much better than Onimoes.

N.B. The travel version of Ominoes is shortly to be released and at present will only be available direct from YAY Games along with the kick-ass pop-up dice tray



This review is based on a full retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

 

5 Great Lunch Break Games

Do you remember when you used to run around playing football or some such on your lunch break as a kid?  At some point lunch breaks just became a break in the day to eat, maybe have a chat and catch up on social media, sure they were still ‘fun’ in the loosest possible use of that word – but they weren’t being used to their fullest potential.  Until now.  Now, I play games.

5 Great Lunch Break Games

When looking for lunch break games there are some very specific considerations to take into account, and these are:

1. Run time: each one of these games easily plays in less than 45 minutes, including set-up and tear down – you still have to eat after all.


2. Player count, obviously with higher numbers, the runtime goes up, so we kept these to mainly two player games.


3. Space, unless you’re planning on taking up the big table in the canteen, all of these games fit on a 2 x 2 foot table.


4. Accessibility, by this I mean the games have to be easy to pick up and understand, we want limited Analysis Paralysis (AP), and rules that are very easy to explain when teaching the game.


5. Sticky Fingers, whether you’re eating a sandwich, burger, salad or soup you’re going to need to manipulate tokens, cards etc. so games that either has few of these or games that are easily protected.

So in alphabetical order:

7 Wonders Duel - Repos Production

Antoine Bauza & Bruno Cathala

This is the proper two player variant of 7 Wonders, so if you are a fan of that game, you will no doubt adore this.  With cards laid out in a pyramid fashion, and only some cards initially visible it imitates the draft system from 7 Wonders, but for two and it masterfully brings the level of choice into this game that the two player variant missed.  Each turn players are presented with a simple choice, which card/ability to they want to add to their civilisation, this choice must be carefully measured against what your opponent will want, and what your opponent will be able to do that you can’t.

A fantastically tight and tense game with three very different win conditions that tie together to instil a strategic balance. Of this list, 7 Wonders Duel probably has the most strategic depth, so you’ll probably only fit one game on a lunch break, but like the l’oreal adverts: it’ll be worth it.

Read the full review of 7 Wonders Duel here

Boss Monster – Brotherwise Games

Johnny O’Neal & Chris O’Neal

Face it; it’s more interesting being the bad guy.  In this NES inspired dungeon themed tableau builder you get to be just that, in spades.  Each player is a Boss Monster at the end of a dungeon that hapless heroes will traverse to try and kill you unless you can squash, skewer, maim and otherwise stop them.  The artwork, gameplay, style is all in the vein of a classic 8-bit side-scrolling computer game.  Even the damn box looks the part – which makes busting this game out to any gamer over thirty, a piece of cake.

Dungeons are built over five cards and are either Trap rooms, or Monster rooms, each of which will have a certain type of treasure.  Treasures attract the different types of hero from the town (a central pool of hero cards).  Bosses need to collect ten souls but have only five Hit Points, which heroes dish out automatically if they ever make it through your not-quite-death-trap dungeon.

Read the full review of Boss Monster here

Downsize – Braincrack Games

Lewis Shaw

This is a game about cut-throat corporations trying to maximise profits, and minimise costs, it short they are trying to downsize.  In this very slick and simple hand management game players will be firing (discarding) their employees (cards in their hands) in specifically matched pairs, the varying combination of pairs will grant bonuses such as the Corporate and Investments pairing, which grants access to the two cards from the Returns decks, or a Legal and HR which will force a player to hire another employee.  The aim of this game is not only to have no cards but to have no cards AND have collected the highest value of Returns.  The Market Movements expansion (it comes in the Boardroom Edition) adds, even more, conflict and strategy.

This is a really quick, light game with plenty of out-and-out player interaction.  You’ll need minimum space to play and seats between 2 and 6 players comfortably – the more players, the faster and more vicious the game!

Read the full review of Downsize here

Jaipur – Game Works

Sébastien Pauchon

In the hustle and bustle of Jaipur, two of the wealthiest and most influential traders compete to earn their place in the court of the Maharaja.  To do this they must manage their stock holding, maximise their trading and ultimately reap the largest reward.  This is a swift and deft game with a wonderfully simple economics engine at its heart which makes use of hand management and set collection.  Your seemingly limited choice of two actions opens a wealth of dilemma, trade cards from the market, or sell from your hand.  Naturally, the sooner you sell, the better the market for those goods, so more profit, and the more you sell, again the better, but also what goods you sell is important too.  Not forgetting the camels; you need camels, but having camels isn't getting you money or goods.

A wonderfully simple, quick and deep game, with a very small footprint, brilliantly bright components and compelling game play.

Star Realms – White Wizard Games

Darwin Kastle

In deepest, darkest space there can be only war…and a bit of trade.  This very quick-fire deck building game is a cracking lunch break filler, making use of very simple mechanics and rules.  Cards will add to your Trade ability (allowing you buy new ships and space stations), increase your Authority (Hit Points), or deal damage (…does some damage), some cards do one of these things, some do two, or all three.  Sometimes additional effects are triggered depending on what other cards you already have in play.

The four factions: The Trade Federation, The Blobs, The Star Empire or The Machine Cult, all behave slightly differently, and combinations of these four can be brutally effective at dealing damage, which is the aim of the game.  Yes, the theme is a little slapped on, but the game itself is fun and quick enough to be enjoyed without needing you to believe that you are leading an attack run in an Imperial Fighter.

And that is my list of great lunch break games, what are yours?  Why don’t you share your lunch break games on Twitter using the #LunchBeakGames

Other games that came very highly recommended for this category included:

Deep Sea Adventure

Onitama

Love Letter

Mint Works