Every Night Is Game Night: Loony Quest

May 18, 2017Ruel

I’m playing a board game every day this month and blogging about it (I did a similar challenge last year). Feel free to join me during my Every Night Is Game Night: My Daily Play & Blog Challenge. And tweet me with what you’re playing these days!

I had work to finish tonight, so I just stopped by the Thursday night game group for an hour. I just chatted with my buddy Patrick while watching a game of Glory to Rome when a few of the other regulars showed up.

Since I didn’t have much time, we decided to play Loony Quest. It was the first time for most of us and we all had a blast. Loony Quest is a drawing game, but it’s different than any other drawing game I’ve ever played. Each player receives a transparent sheet and erasable pen. A full-color picture of a “world” is placed in the box (which doubles as a score track) and players must draw on their transparencies to complete quests within a short time limit.

What were we drawing? Simple lines connecting a starting position to an end, while also touching the icons for points and power-ups. It’s easier than it sounds, though, since you’re drawing on the transparency. After the time is up, everybody takes turns putting their transparency on the picture to see how they’ve done.

You lose points if your drawing touches a bomb or other obstacle and you gain points for completing quests on the world (such as circling or touching icons). Power-ups give you tokens with special abilities (such as being immune to one bomb) while penalties will hinder your next turn, like forcing you to draw with your off-hand, close one eye while drawing, etc. At one point I was drawing with multiple penalties on me and it was absolutely hilarious.

Looney Quest was like a cool analog version of a video game and it was an insta-like for me. I can’t wait to add this to my game library and it’ll be perfect for my family game nights.

Every Night Is Game Night: Ethnos

May 17, 2017Ruel

Happy to report that Ethnos lived up to the hype; thanks to my buddy Daryl our weekly group got to play it tonight. It’s dudes-on-a-map with set collection and area control, neatly wrapped up in a simple turn structure. Think Ticket to Ride meets Blood Rage, as players either take a card from the face-up supply or face-down deck or they play a set of cards that allows them to place one token on the designated area.

The simplicity of each turn is the big draw for this game and there’s a surprising bit of depth as you try to gain control of the different areas. What makes it so interesting is the rule that whenever you lay down a set, you must discard the rest of your cards (there’s a 10-card hand limit). This ensures that nobody hoards cards and plays the big set; you’re constantly on your toes trying to get the cards you need.

I loved the different powers of the bands; in our five-player game we had six types of characters, each with an ability that allowed you to manage your hand (there are 12 total characters, so every game can be different). For example, the wizards allowed you to draw cards immediately after you played them. The elves allowed you to keep a number of cards in your hand after you played them.

And so on. There were bonuses for certain characters and scoring during the game and after each of three ages.

Ethnos is going to be another big hit for Cool Mini Or Not. The only quibbles I have are the size and blandness of the board, along with the tokens/markers; they stack neatly on each other, but given CMON’s popularity with miniatures I’m surprised they didn’t go all out with a big set of figures.

But maybe this is the new CMON: an elegant game that gives up some of the stellar components in exchange for a much more reasonable price point. I’m sold and I’ve added Ethnos to my wish list.

Every Night Is Game Night: Patchwork

May 16, 2017Ruel

Today was Tabletop Tuesday, the day when I volunteer as the facilitator of a local high school’s board games club. As the students reminded me today, it’s almost the end of the year so the club is winding down soon. I was a little sad; the kids are great and it’s been an honor sharing my passion for the hobby with them.

We had three different games going on today: Qwixx Deluxe, Indigo, and Lotus. The students were familiar with the first two, so I focused on teaching Lotus. The kids caught on right away, as they always do, and when one of them had to leave early, I took over for her.

While the other students were finishing their games, I taught Patchwork to one of the regular attendees. He’s one of the sharper students and he had the game figured out after a few turns. He seemed to enjoy it so I’ll bring it to next week’s game day.

Patchwork is also one of my favorite games to play with my wife. We both enjoy the puzzle-like nature of building our quilts as well as the race to build up our stash of buttons. In Patchwork, players have a 9×9 grid they must fill up with pieces of their quilt. The pieces are “bought” with buttons before being placed on the players’ grids.

Each piece has a cost (in buttons) and a movement cost. Movement is tracked on a separate board; as players fill up their quilts, their movement takes them closer to the game’s end. Some pieces have buttons printed on them so when a player crosses certain spaces on the board, they earn the number of buttons embedded on their quilt.

After both players have finished moving around the board they tally up their buttons then subtract the number of empty spaces on their quilt. Each empty space is -2 points so it helps to have a large supply of buttons. Games are typically low-scoring.

I love Patchwork and it’s one title I always seem to have on hand for those times when only one other player is ready to get their game on. It’s always a welcome challenge with whomever I’m playing with.

Every Night Is Game Night: Harbour

May 15, 2017Ruel

Two months ago I got Harbour off my Shelf of Shame and it’s a cool little worker placement game. Here’s what I wrote after I started playing it:

Players race to buy four buildings from a common pool first. Each building has a cost payable by one or more goods from the current player. On their turn, a player will send their worker meeple to a building and perform the action(s) listed on it; often, it’s to trade for more goods, which can then be used to buy a building. Players have a home base that they can return to for more actions, as well as travel to an opponent’s buildings to perform their actions (although this costs one good).

What makes Harbour so much fun is the economic mechanism in the game. Whenever a player buys a building, they must “ship” enough goods to pay for it. So, if the player has 5 fish and 3 lumber and the current market has fish at $5 and lumber at $3, then the player can ship those goods for $8 and buy any building up to $8. Then, after the purchase has been completed, the market shifts, with the fish and lumber being worth less, while livestock and stone go up in value.

It’s a neat part of the game, trying to time your purchase just right so that you get the most money for your goods. More often than not, an opponent will buy something and change the value of your goods. Thankfully, there are buildings with powers that allow you to adjust the market to something more to your liking.

After a dozen plays (mostly solo), I still enjoy Harbour. Tonight I played the 20-move solo variant and scored 32 points, which is on the low end of what I usually get. There’s an official solo variant included with the game, but I haven’t played it yet since it seems fiddly: you have to keep track of a dummy player.

It only takes 15-20 minutes to play this variant and just like the regular game, you’re trying to optimize the amount of goods you receive that turn. With the 20-move limit, you need to get those goods ASAP in order to buy buildings. I typically end up with four buildings at or near my 20th move and score somewhere in the 30-point range.

Harbour would be a good introduction to the worker placement mechanism for new gamers and I’d recommend it to more serious gamers as a worker placement filler.

Every Night Is Game Night: Octo Dice

May 13, 2017Ruel

I had a great day today: my wife’s hula performance was excellent, as always, and our daughter was back from college and was able to catch the show. Then I spent a few hours at the inaugural Comic Con Revolution in Ontario, California, and had a blast amongst all of the cosplayers and comic book fans. I even managed to find an independent game publisher hawking his wares.

Finally, after catching the main event of UFC 211, I played a solo game of Octo Dice, which I wrote about for Geek & Sundry. It’s an underrated roll-and-write game from AEG, set in the Aquasphere world of Stefan Feld’s game. While it plays nothing like the original, it offers some fun changes on the Yahtzee formula. Here’s how I summed up the game on G&S:

Like the classic Yahtzee, players roll and write on their score sheets as they collect sets of particular items. However, after each roll, a player must “lock” two dice, meaning they can no longer re-roll them and must mark them on their score sheet.

Each die has a few icons and number and color combinations. These match up with the sets that players attempt to score such as crystals, research, labs, bots, and submarines. Players must also roll at least two octopods per turn or else lose two points.

It can be played solo, even though you lose the fun follow action from the multiplayer game. Still, it’s a quick roll-and-write and offers plenty of interesting decisions, due to the push-your-luck factor. Which dice do you keep after every roll and re-roll? It seems like every time I try to focus on a particular action, the dice rolls force me to re-think my strategy. I like that.

One thing I forgot to mention in my original article was the poor production of the dice. They’re light wooden dice and the painted icons rub off easily. It’s such a bummer because the score sheets were full-colored and double-sided; outstanding in every way that the dice were not. Perhaps that’s why Octo Dice has been overlooked. Replace the dice with big, chunky, King of Tokyo-style dice and I’m sure the game would receive the attention it deserves.

Every Night Is Game Night: Friday

May 12, 2017Ruel

Today, of course, is the perfect day to play Friday, a superb solo deck building game. Friedemann Friese, best known for Power Grid, published Friday in 2011 and it’s frequently found on best solo games lists. I got my copy last October and I’ve played it 20 times, including tonight, and I still find it challenging.

In Friday, you’re helping Robinson Crusoe survive on the island, gathering knowledge and resources to fight incoming pirates. The game is played in three main rounds with two final rounds of pirates if Crusoe survives (a big if). There are two main decks of cards: hazard cards and fighting cards. You first draw two hazard cards and decide which one to fight, then draw the amount of fighting cards indicated on the hazard card. If your total fighting points are equal to or greater than the hazard card’s fighting card, then you win the fight and turn the hazard card around and add it to your fighting cards (each hazard card has fighting abilities that are “unlocked” if you win a fight). Many fighting cards include special abilities to help you in your battles.

Losing fights, though, is the key to optimizing your deck. For every point that you lose in a fight you may spend a life point (Crusoe starts with 20 life points) and destroy (“trash” for you Dominion fans) a card. This is where Friday is tough; you need to preserve your life points while also destroying the weaker cards in your deck.

Every time you go through your fighting card deck, you’ll shuffle in an “aging” card which is always negative fighting points. For such a small game, Friday definitely packs in a lot of obstacles to your success. Even if you survive the first three main rounds (which get progressively harder, of course), your deck must be lean and mean to defeat both rounds of pirates.

Friday isn’t easy, but it is immensely satisfying when you finally break through for that first win, and every win after that; just don’t get use to doing it.

Every Night Is Game Night: Paris Connection

May 11, 2017Ruel

Paris Connection is an underrated train game of route building and stock ownership that is a perfect blend of gateway game simplicity with the substance of a designer game. I’d call it a filler-plus game; one that is easy to learn and quick to play yet offers interesting decisions throughout a session.

Players are trying to collect the most valuable stocks in Paris Connection, with points scored on the number of stocks you own in each color of train. Each player receives a number of trains randomly behind their screen to start the game. On their turn, a player can perform one of two actions:

Trade one train from behind their shield for one or two trains of another color (these are immediately placed behind their shield).
Take one to five trains from the supply and lay them down on the board (a map of France).

That’s it. Simple enough for non-gamers, but it’s this dual use of trains that makes the game stand out. The trains are used to manipulate the stock price as they are moved into cities to score various points or onto empty spaces to keep the stock price at bay. Of course, as trains are laid out on the board, they can no longer be placed behind your shield for ownership.

Tonight I played a three-player game and won a close match. All three of us were driving the yellow and purple stocks up, then when I moved black, the next player also jumped onto black and sent it around onto a bunch of empty spaces. On my next turn I traded my last black for two purple trains, which I had guessed would be the next to jump in value. It did, then another player and I soon got to using the blue trains to race to Marseilles to end the game (the game ends when a train reaches this city or if five of the six colored train supplies are depleted).

Queen Games has frequent sales on Amazon and I scored this last year for $15 and it’s gone even lower since then. The components are top-notch, as they usually are with Queen Games, and it’s an excellent value for a solid game.

Every Night Is Game Night: Dead Man’s Draw

May 10, 2017Ruel

Tonight was another fine night of gaming with my Wednesday group, as I played Unlock!, Stone Age, Indigo, and my most recent purchase, Dead Man’s Draw.

A push-your-luck and set-collection game, Dead Man’s Draw is a fun filler for 2-4 players. The standard game consists of a deck of cards divided into 10 “suits” such as a sword, cannon, treasure chest, and other pirate-y items. Each card is numbered from 4-7 and contain a special ability that is triggered when it is revealed.

On their turn a player will reveal the first card, perform its ability, then decide whether or not to push their luck by drawing another card. If the card is the same suit (for example, a cannon has already been played and another cannon is drawn), then they bust and all cards are moved to the discard pile and their turn is over. Otherwise, the player may continue drawing cards until they decide to bank them, which will be how they score points.

The game ends when all of the cards have been drawn. Players tally up only the highest number of each suit then have in front of them; thus, if I had two cannons worth 7 and 5, I would only score the 7 (along any other suits I’d collected). Highest total wins.

I first played Dead Man’s Draw two weekends ago at Kingdom-Con with my buddy Rick. It’s my type of filler: easy to learn with some interesting decisions throughout the game. The push-your-luck mechanism is fun and should appeal to non-gamers and there are additional rules for some added depth, such as variable player powers and variant scoring.

Every Night Is Game Night: Star Realms

May 8, 2017Ruel

Star Realms is one of my favorite deck builders for so many reasons: it’s fast, it’s compact, it’s cheap, and, best of all, it has the kind of player interaction that other deck builders lack.

Players start with the same basic deck of spaceships: 8 Scouts (worth 1 money each) and 2 Vipers (worth 1 combat strength each). A row of five cards for purchase are laid out and any time one is bought, another card from the deck replaces it. Each player starts with 50 Authority (hit points) and any combat dealt out by a player will be assessed to their opponent.

What I love about Star Realms is how fast the action ramps up. The four factions in the game offer various abilities and bonuses when played in combinations. Better spaceships can be bought and outposts and bases can be used for additional protections from an opponent’s attack. It’s fun figuring out how each faction behaves: Blobs bring the most fire power while the Trade Federation can heal those precious Authority points.

Tonight I played one of the solo scenarios from the Colony Wars expansion: Pirates of the Dark Star. Solo play is like a normal two-player game, but for the dummy player, you’ll trash one card and draw one card. There are set actions for each of the four factions and whichever faction is drawn will determine the action. For example, draw a Blob faction and you’re hit with damage equal to three times that card’s cost.

The solo scenario seems easy, but that damage piles up quickly. Even with the standard starting Authority of 75 vs the dummy player’s 25, it’s easy to lose and any wins are usually close. Tonight I got the better of those pirates, winning by 18, but it could’ve easily gone the other way.

Every Night Is Game Night: Tiny Epic Galaxies

May 7, 2017Ruel

(My wife and I had a full day of travel and family fun yesterday so I didn’t play a game and blog about it. I’ll post one extra time this month to make up for it.)

It’s nearly 4pm on Sunday and I’m just getting productive. I’ve got some work to finish today, but I just played a quick solo game of Tiny Epic Galaxies. It’s no secret that I’m a Scott Almes fan: I own and have enjoyed Tiny Epic Kingdoms, Harbour, and I backed Tiny Epic Galaxies: Beyond the Black and Tiny Epic Quest on Kickstarter.

Tiny Epic Galaxies is a dice rolling and area control game that is an absolute blast. Each player is trying to improve their empire while also colonizing planets. During their turn, players roll the dice and land their ships on other planets (to perform a special action), orbiting planets (in hopes of colonizing them via an economic or diplomacy track), gaining resources, or upgrading their empires. Players perform these actions via their dice rolls.

If they roll what they need, then they perform their actions, but if not, there are several ways to mitigate unlucky dice rolls. They get one free re-roll of any of their dice. They may also use two dice to convert one into any action they choose. Finally, players may spend one energy to re-roll any remaining dice.

Victory points are scored as players upgrade their empire and each colonized planet is worth points. First player to 21 triggers the game end. Players also have secret mission cards that gain extra points if the conditions are met.

What really makes the game fun is the follow action. During the active player’s turn, all other players may follow the active player’s action buy paying one culture. This is one of my favorite mechanisms because it limits the amount of downtime for everybody. If I had a few bad rolls on my turn, then I can get the actions I needed on someone else’s turn, as long as I saved up some culture.

I love the solo game: it manages to capture the feel of the real game and has various difficulty levels that range from beginner to epic. I’ve beaten the epic level only a few times and each win felt well-earned.

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