Master Merchant, Palastgeflaster, Die Speicherstadt, Rialto, Super Farmer Rancho, Sheepland, Viticulture and what I backed in Kickstarter!

Hits of this blogpost ? Rialto of course! Along with Viticulture and to a lesser extent, Die Spiecherstadt and its expansion. I feel that Stefan Feld is really coming into stride here with 2 great hits this year and it seems as if his previous releases have been him exploring various mechanisms and designs to fine tune his prowess and come up with winning combinations for his releases this year. If Brugge and Amerigo are in the same vein, then I am pretty sure Stefan Feld will be winning designer of 2013 hands down! Lets get on with the review!


MASTER MERCHANT

Quick light filler. Love letter seems better though...

Game Session and Thoughts:
A light game from Seiji Kanai (of Love Letter) fame. Its like a dominion light with cooler art (in my opinion) and play time can stretch from very fast to slightly too long due to the end game condition. Its no frills (very much like his Love Letter) with minimal text and multiple combinations.
Players start off with 2 standard cards and a money card to keep track of the money they have. During their turn, they can play 2 cards. The first 2 cards each player receives is a card that allows you to buy 1 card from the city market (much like dominion) and steals $1 from each player that has 4 or more. Players can also play a card face down to receive $1. At the start of your turn if you have no more cards remaining in your hand, then you can take back all the discarded cards you have played previous turns. The game ends when 1 player has reached $8 OR has 8 cards in their hands.
Artwork is right up my alley and that is why I also obtained his version of Love Letter. Something about this... urban looking art which is mostly just black and white with bold brush strokes appeal to me.
So as you can see, very much like Dominion but much lighter. There are only 10 cards to buy from and they costs from 1 to 4 and have different abilities. Most cards allow you to target other players so as to improve your own status and sabotage others. Thus in this to and fro, players will try their best to prevent others from winning and set themselves up for the inevitable victory.
Game went by pretty fast and since I had quite a lot of cards I was targeted quite often. I think we did quite a good job of guarding each other but in the end, another player managed to obtain 2 cards (1 from discard and 1 from market) and won the game. 
Pet Peeves: 
The main pet peeve will be the variable end game condition. Because there is no set timing of how long a game will last, this game can take as fast as 20 mins or even 1 hour if everyone has been guarding everyone very well. For such a light game to last 1 hour, that will be a killer. Otherwise, there aren't any other bad things about this game as its rather light and easy to get into and play. 
Conclusion

A light game that is very much a streamlined dominion clone with interesting powers that allow you to really mess with each other's cards. Because of the win condition, this game provides cards which will have a LOT of interaction as you will need to be aware and keep blocking others to prevent them from winning. There is english text on the cards so its not difficult to understand and we had no difficulty learning and playing the game. Not sure how easy is it to get it state side but you can certainly try the online Japan stores and see if they will ship to you. Try before you buy!

PALASTGERFLASTER

Play session seems wonky for some who are used to euro games..

Game Session and Thoughts:

Brought this out for the group that decided to play something light and they did not like it at all. I guess it could be because this group mostly plays Euro games thus having a game that is quite dependant on the card draw and subsequently you may get sabotaged without you being able to defend yourself seems at odds with their terms of enjoyment. One of them brought out a good point in that you are trying to do your best to sabotage others rather than trying to reach the goal of having 6 different characters yourself which is quite true. He also pointed out you should be playing cards that are not of your color so that you can catch another player off guard and thus forcing them to play something they may not have wanted. I guess in future when I introduce the game I will emphasis on this point and it may make for a more fun and enjoyable game. Its a pity the player aid doesn't have the icons of each character on it to make it easier for the players to quickly understand what is happening and each character's special abilities.

DIE SPEICHERSTADT

More cards, more ways to buy cards and AWESOME COINS

Game Session and Thoughts:
I had played this previously and did not really take to it enough to buy a copy. Now that I am a Stefan Fan, I decided to give it another go and also bought the expansion along with it. The expansion provided more cards, some new goods and a new way to play but the item that really clinched the deal are the METAL COINS. In the base game, it came with a metal coin to signify the first player. In the expansion, it came with MANY MANY coins to replace the cardboard coins from the first game.
I will briefly explain the game together with the expansion.
This is pretty much a game with a rather unique auction and then a sort of set collection/goal fulfilment game. At the start of every round, a number of cards (depending on the number of players) will be drawn and turn face up on the board. For the expansion, the same number of cards is now draw and placed above the board. Players then, in turn order, place one of their meeples (3 in base game, 4 with expansion) onto the first empty slot on the column corresponding to the card they want. Now you are bidding either for the card that you want OR to screw with other players. Players can also choose a card from above the board and bring them to the side of the board with your meeple on it to form another column. Once all players have placed all their meeples, the cards are resolved from left to the right. Starting with the player who's meeple is nearest the card, they will decide if they want to spend the coins to buy the card. How much does the card cost? That is where the screwing will come in. For all meeples that are in that column is the cost of the card. If you pass (cannot afford or don't want to buy), then you remove your meeple and the next player's meeple will be able to purchase the card. This goes on until the card is purchased. Now for the column that is on the side of the board, it is pretty much the same except the price is determined by the number of meeples in that column and if you choose not to buy, that card you have reserved will be discarded.
Players then resolve the cards they have taken (i.e. if it is a cargo ship, then the cargo needs to be distributed either to fulfil contracts or to exchange for coins or money). After that, player order changes and each player obtains 2 coins as income. If you have not managed to purchase any cards during the last round, you will also obtain another coin as compensation. New round begins and play continues until all the card has been played and we will resolve the last card which is a Fire.
Now in the stack of cards, there will be FIRE cards and a certain value. Players will add up all firemen cards they have and whomever has the lowest value will receive the Fire value in negative points. The player with the highest total sum value of firemen will receive that Fire value in positive points. The expansion also add cards which are a 1 time use and to be discarded and also cards with fixed points as rewards.
I had purchased the german version so I had to refer to the rulebook to figure out what the cards do but most of the game is pretty easy to grasp. Artwork is ok and the icons are clear and easy to understand. Again, the coins are AWESOME to have and to hold. They have a nice weight to them.
Perhaps its because we did not shuffle the initial stacks properly but in our initial few rounds we did not have any ships shipping goods to us so when they did finally came out, the competition was furious. There is a LOT of opportunity to screw with others and if you are a gamer that doesn't like all this disturbances and annoyances to your plans, you may want to avoid this game. I am pretty sure I pissed off one of my opponents during this game :p
Pet Peeves: 
Nothing much actually because its straight forward to teach and play. You may need a lot of room to play this game though because your tableau of cards may grow and you may want to have some space to see all your cards and contracts. 
Conclusion

I feel that with the expansion it adds abit more options such that you won't be as screwed as in the base game if you did not win anything at all. Here I think at the very least you should be able to win some items unless you were making quite bad decisions. Its better for me this time around with the expansions but I will need a few more plays to see if I like it enough. For now at least the metal coins are making me feel warm and fuzzing inside :p. Try before you buy!

RIALTO

1st game was Meh for me, 2nd game was WAY BETTER

Game Session and Thoughts:
The second release from Stefan Feld this year after Bora Bora! Brugge is out that I know but its not available in english for us right now so I haven't gotten myself a copy yet.
Rialto is a medium weight game that involves card drafting and area control with the theme lightly dabbed on. Compared to Bora Bora, it is definitely lighter but runs as smooth and lasts much shorter and still provides the same amount of fun for the amount of thinking involved and time spent. In short, it still shows no degrading from the current quality we are expecting from Stefan Feld.
At the start of the round, there will be rows of 6 cards (1 more than number of players) for players, in turn order based on a Doge track on top, to choose from. This is where most of the analysis paralysis will happen in the game. The cards you are drafting for will dictate the 2nd phase (with many micro phases) of the game. After a player has selected a row of 6 cards, they will also draw 2 more cards from the face down. Now players can activate the green buildings by placing a coin on the building (thus each building can only be activated once per round and only if you have enough coins). Players then need to discard down to 7 cards unless they had green buildings activated which can increase their hand size.
Phase 2 is ready! This is where the meat of the game is and you can see if you have made the right decision choosing that row of cards. Phase 2 is a series of mini phases which will grant you rewards based on the number of cards of that mini phase you have played and if you play the most cards, you will get a bonus and is the new starting player of the next mini phase. This is quite important because it definitely makes the game harder to predict and quite interesting. Phase 2a is the doge track so players, based on existing doge track order, will play a number of cards with the doge track. In this phase, you can also use yellow buildings (also paying 1 coin) which allows more flexibility (i.e. play 1 card to become 2 of the same but other type of cards). There are also Jester cards which you can play in addition to a base card OR when played in 2s, can represent a base card. Phase 2a will determine how far you have advanced in the Doge track which is usually a tie breaker.
Phase 2b is to grab gold (for buildings), Phase 2c is building points (to be able to build buildings), Phase 2d is Bridge which awards points and penalize players who never played any card and allows you to place bridge tiles. Phase 2e is the gondola which allows you to have more councilmen tokens in your reserve and also to place a gondola tile on the board AND extra councilman into the board. Finally, Phase 2f which is to place a number of councilmen in your reserve onto the board's active region.
Phase 3 starts and players can activate blue buildings which usually award points or upgrade buildings. That is the end of a round! The game lasts 6 rounds and then, together with the final game scoring, players with the most points will win the game. The main way to earn points is to have a majority in a district so that you will get the sum of all the points indicated on bridges and gondolas touching that district. Only the top 3 players will be awarded points for each district. Note that there is a bonus scoring in that if you are the first player to place a councilman in each of the 3 orange OR blue (meaning 3 orange or 3 blue), then you will score bonus 5 points.
First play through, I wasn't really feeling it like how I felt for Bora Bora after my first play. Now its not a bad game its just not as deep as I had thought.
The 2nd play was way better as I kinda knew what plan to have and went with grabbing a few of the green buildings to increase my hand limit per round. I thought i had the 5 point bonuses in one round but it got sniped away from me when I wasn't paying close attention. ARGH that was a KHANNNNN moment for me and did indeed make me lose the game (I was 2nd by 1 point!).  We also played correctly the 2nd time such that the winner of the bonus each mini phase will be the starting player in the next mini phase. The first play did not have this and boy did it change a lot of things in the game for me.
Pet Peeves: 
Small pet peeve but the board with all the extra roads and alleyways makes the board looks a bit busy. Someone mentioned it looked like colored macaroni LOL. The bonus for each round could have been indicated on the board so we don't need to refer to the rule book every so often but once you played it a few times it should come as second nature.
Oh and shuffling. You will need to shuffle the cards.... A LOT. We played with 4 and almost every round after we setup the cards, we will need to shuffle the discard pile. This is especially true when you have more players and they are all aiming for the green building cards which allow them to draw 3 more cards from the deck. Sleeve your cards to prevent them from wearing out fast!
The biggest pet peeve so far is the score track. It looks nice but not very practical. Why? It represents a street with a row of street lights. You are moving your score tokens IN BETWEEN the lights though and NOT ON the lights. This makes it slightly counter intuitive and hard to score. Wish they done away with this and had something more practical.
Conclusion

So I had more fun in my 2nd play than my first most probably because I knew what is more powerful now than before. Still I think I haven't reach my full power with this (I should start to notice what others are taking and then be aware if I can win the phase and be the majority) and sometimes its a bit tricky to determine the player order sequence. I feel I am only beginning to discover the subtle nuances (i.e. blue buildings are mostly for points, yellow buildings are for flexibility during play, green buildings are just to provide more cards for you at the start. All in all, it is fun to play, easy to teach but probably not too easy to master it completely. Recommended!
NOTE: I just played a game of 2 players and the Doge track is not really hotly contest as vs 4 player game. Much less shuffling and buildings won't run out. The 5 points bonus play a much bigger role in a 2 player game. I can't wait to try a 5 player and see how it plays out....

SUPER FARMER RANCHO

Dogs smell funny. No really the plastic smells funny...

Game Session and Thoughts:
I saw the cover on the game and was very intrigued by this. The art and components (awesome dice and cute doggies!) appealed to me so I decided to give this game a go.
This is a light family game that plays in about 45 mins or so and plays up to 6 players. The objective of the game is to collect 1 of each animal: rabbit, sheep, cow and horse. First player to do so will win the game. In essence its a game about collecting enough resources, protecting your assets and making the right decision at the right time to get the animals and win the game (with a little dose of luck).
During your turn, players can choose to exchange animals using rabbits. Yes, rabbits are the currency in the game! Each player starts off with 1 rabbit and 1 sheep (which are worth 6 rabbits). Players can also expand their farm by paying in rabbits. Outer regions costs 4 rabbits. The middle region, 2 and the innermost region only 1 rabbit. Once you have decided to change and/or expand, players will roll 2 dice. Total up the animals that appear on your dice with what you have and for every pair of animals, you get 1 more of that type of animal. You have to be able to place these animals on the area that you control and only the rabbits can stack (6) in 1 hex. If you roll a fox or a wolf, then you must roll the D6 and animals in all hexes that belong to the number rolled will be removed. Fox will eat only rabbits and Wolf will eat all except rabbits. Players can discard dogs to prevent this from happening. Small dogs for Fox and Big dogs for Wolf. Then its the next player's turn and play continues this way until someone wins the game.
Its a pretty light game and great for the family. Artwork is very nice and cute and dice and dogs are well produced. Luck of the roll will often determine if you are still in the game or not. But you can get dogs to mitigate bad luck. My first game I did not have any dogs and lost quite a lot of sheep to the Wolf which knocked me out from contention for good. My 2nd game though I won as I made a lucky dice roll of 2 rabbits which provided me the last rabbit I need to win the game.
Pet Peeves: 
Luck of the roll is very high because whether you can get income in terms of more animals or if you are screwed when Fox or Wolf is rolled really boils down to the dice roll. The picture on the die for Wolf and Horse are very similar. They could have made it more distinct. The holes in the board makes it clear for marking which region belongs to you but if you made a mistake, then taking out the disc is quite difficult. Finally, after you have placed your animals on your farm area, you cannot tell if that animal belongs to you or not because your animal tile has covered your token. This is quite an odd design since if you have forgotten what belongs to you, you have to remove the animal tiles and look. Starting moves seems to be very similar, change the sheep to expand outwards 1 space and then roll dice to get more animals. There are some turns where all you do is just to roll dice and get animals because you don't really have much else to do and it doesn't make sense to use up too much rabbits and jeopardize your "income". 
Conclusion
So all in all, I did have some fun playing the game but in terms of replayability and longevity in my shelf, I doubt it will last. If I had kids probably this might last longer because it teaches them about choosing the right time to invest, risk prevention and mitigation and proper planning to win the game. The history of this game is pretty interesting but ultimately, its a Try before you buy.



SHEEPLAND

Black sheep ran almost 3/4 of the board.

Game Session and Thoughts:
As mentioned previously this is as a relatively light game. But I kinda suck at it lol. Do remember the 2 rules that people will usually forget. That is to roll the die for the black sheep to move and also when purchasing tiles, you MUST be adjacent to it before you can guy. I always seem to be purchasing tiles where I don't score a lot of sheep. I am wondering if I should be subtle and just ignore my own secret tile right at the beginning and go elsewhere so that I can purchase other tiles and HOPE my own secret tile is ignored until near the end. I haven't seen a game where the start player

VITICULTURE

OMG OH SO TIGHT, close race to the end! ARGH...

Game Session and Thoughts:
A great 2nd game where we played the rules correctly. Having the vines still being there after you harvest definitely changed the way we played. We used more time to build up our engines before starting to score points left and right and going first certainly is felt more keenly in the game. I was definitely screwed a few times with nothing else much to do when I did not get to go first. Even though I had by the 3rd round managed to get all my workers out, I did not capitalize on that and with all the bad timings I lost but only lost because of a tie breaker. It was a very tense match and surprisingly, it ended up with the tie breaker (most money) in the end again to determine the winner. At the very last round I managed to pull ahead and was at about 23 points. Another player did the same and because she had more money she will certainly win. The 3rd player decided to play a Winter card which blocked me from further scoring else I will have won the game. ARGH!!!! The pain of it all! I am upgrading my recommendation from Try before you buy to RECOMMENDED. It has all the tense moments yet relatively simple to teach and play of a good game. Thumbs up!


KICKSTARTER
So there have been quite a few new releases for Kickstarter recently which got me all excited :) Let me talk about some of the games I have backed or are interested in.....

ROBOTECH RPG

When I was quite young, I managed to have copies of the original series from a friend and I spent many a afternoons reading through the books and fantasising the awesome characters that I will be and all the battles that I have. The images in the books were very cool too and I was SUPER DUPER EXCITED to see this coming out from Kickstarter! Although I am pretty sure I won't be running any RPG games (or this could be the one that do me in who knows?) I just want to have the books again to read through and well well it comes with MINIATURES! I had 1 Rick Hunter toy from so long ago and it will be very cool to have these miniatures again to look at. Painting though will probably be a problem for me but lets see what happens.
Go back this now here! 


KROSMASTER ARENA

Saw this pop up when I am doing my daily (yes now DAILY!) search on projects in Kickstarter for tabletop games. The very nice miniatures really drew me in and best of all, they come PREPAINTED! After trying to (and not yet finishing!) paint the miniatures from Super Dungeon Explore, I think in future I will only get miniature games where they come prepainted. Although Robotech above and Zombicide Season 2 which I had also backed flies against this statement I am making, I still will lean more towards pre painted miniatures than anything in the future. Though recently after playing online and listening to Tom's review, I am wondering if I should cancel my pledge because the game will definitely be way too light for me but the figures are really cute! Anyway, I have a few days to think about it so lets see....
Go back this now here!


COLONIALISM

I am not too sure what prompted me to back this game without reading up on the rules but once I saw that this was clubbed together with Virgin Queen, I automatically assumed that this will be a euro-ey type of game that will be brain melty. So far I STILL haven't read the rules yet but still I am thinking its worth the backing. It does seem to have a lot of cards though... Anyway, its already fully funded so I still have some time to see if I will continue with my pledge.
Go back this now here!


BURNING SUN

Now again like above, I did not read too much into the game but the awesome figures and that its a space 4x (yes yes we have had many of those I know) really intrigued me. I haven't backed this yet mostly because I want to see if it will actually reach its stretch goal but you should check out the very cool ships that can hold die in them to denote the health of the ship I believe. 

I think that's enough for now and if you have read all the way down here, THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE! :)

Coup, Kings of Air and Steam, Divinare, New World, Midnight Party, Palastgefluster, Tower of Babel, Quietville, Cite, Sheepland

And another week has past and 1 more week to our next episode! I hope I will be able to start a few feature on our podcast. This week, there aren't any new games (to me) that I would like to specially point out as being excellent and those that are above average are Quietville and Palastgefluster. Lets get on with the reviews! 

COUP

Sigh i never seem to win at this...

Game Session and Thoughts:  Brought this out for a quick 6 player game. Nothing new here to add about the game that you don't already know except we had 3 new players to the group and one of them cannot lie lol. I also have difficulty playing this game because the 2 cards that I have really compels me to use their powers only and nothing else. I wonder if its how I have been playing boardgames (because most games you are only allowed to use what you have and follow the rules) or how I am. So while I am not super psyched and love this game like how some others do, I think I will still be keeping the game and take it out from time to time. Its a nice filler and plays up to 6. Not many games I have can do that nowadays.

KINGS OF AIR AND STEAM

5 player game! Smaller map.

6 player game. All map tiles used!

Game Session and Thoughts: Ah this is a Kickstarter-ed game and after watching the reviews from Joel Eddy, I was eager to grab myself a copy and see how it works with my groups. Gameplay wise its pretty straight forward. Players will have an airship and are flying around to the various factories on the board to pick up goods. Then they fly the airships to their own depots to drop off the goods and subsequently have their goods delivered to respective cities to earn money. After 5 rounds, whoever has the most VPs (in terms of money, built depots, upgraded airship and trains) will win the game. Simple right?
At the start, there will be a market phase where 3 tiles are revealed and the prices of the goods corresponding to the revealed tiles are increased. Next, players simultaneously decide from a deck of movement cards which 4 cards they will perform this round and place these cards faced down in 4 slots. This is very similar to Roborally. Once all players have committed their moves, all players will reveal the first card and depending on the letters on each card, move in alphabetical order. Move cards will usually have the number of spaces your airship can move and you must move all the steps. After you have moved, you can load and unload goods and then you can perform an action. Actions include building a depot, shipping goods (from Depot to City), upgrading your airship, upgrading your train (there's this invisible train that runs from your depots to other depots or cities), getting $3 from the bank or flight adjustment (move your airship 1 space). So play will continue this way until all 4 move+actions are done and then players will need to pay upkeep ($1 for every good in their cargo hold and depot) and then factories will produce (At least 1 per round). That will be the end of the round.
Now if you have seen the pictures, the components look very good. Goods are cubes which are ok, depots are little wooden houses which are also ok and the airships are nice big plastic airships and nicely detailed. The artwork is also very nice and every ship has a unique design and signature. Each player also has a unique character that they can choose from. The board itself when assembled really looked surreal as one player put it. The clouds floating across the cities and our airships flying around the board does make it feel all very thematic. Gameplay wise, its simple as I have already described above and easy to play. Teaching it though there are some bits that will require playing it one round to understand the concepts better. The paper money has a nice design on it though its paper which I did not prefer. So all in all, it played quite ok and is very straight forward. Fly around, pick up goods, drop off goods, deliver them, sell get money and upgrade your airship, trains and build depots. 

Pet Peeves: The airships, while very nice and big, are just too big for the board. Their stands need to share space with the depots and goods on the ground and even worse, another airship if they are both in the same space. Its all very nice to look at and handle and adds a lot thematically but practically its horrible. Its also not easy to locate all the factories when you are repopulating the cubes at the end of a round. Paper money is something that I frown upon but having those small poker chips that I have does make it easier to play and handle. This game also needs a rather large space to play on.

Conclusion: So all in all, this is a pretty ok game. Straight forward pick up and deliver game and I would consider this light-medium weight. Not much interaction between players except for rushing to grab the goods before another player does. Unless another player grabs the nasty character that steals $3 whenever his ship flies through another. Though in my 2nd game, the player playing that character never stole ANY money and she won handily. Problem for me though was there was nothing new to me about this game that grabbed my attention and made me want to hold on to this and play a lot more times. There is certainly replayability with the different characters and the components are attractive and nice and all that but the mechanisms are the same as many other games and thus did not excite me much. Still, its a Try before you buy.

DIVINARE

Awesome deduction game

Game Session and Thoughts: Played with the full 4 this time and it is just as fun. You certainly have to try and keep track of everything so as to force your opponents to have to reposition themselves or suffer the penalties. I realised in this game that with the extra bonuses that you may score if you are in the 2 extremes of each section can sometimes net you more points but those are few and hard to come by. Overall, this game is really dependant on the players and how they play given the cards that they have. Sure the cards you draw can be attributed to randomness but that doesn't stop you from being able to control what you can do as you can chose to give away a lousy hand partially and hope to receive something better. All in all, still a very good game and much liked by everyone so far! 

NEW WORLD A CARCASSONNE GAME

I think we should all stick to base carcassonne

Game Session and Thoughts: One of the last game for that night of gaming, we decided to try something that is easy to pick up and did not take a long time. New Word is essentially built on the Carcassonne engine and with just a few small changes. One, there is a column of land where we all start laying tiles from. Two, there are 2 neutral pawns on the board and whenever someone scores, the pawn furthest to behind or nearest to the starting column will move ahead to the next available tile in the adjacent column. If there are any meeples belonging to any player that are yet to be scored but are found to be "offsides", then that meeple will be returned to the player. In essence the neutral pawns are like referees and players, when placing tiles, have to decide if its worth the risk to place a tile back in zones that have been passed over because they offer lucrative scoring but at the risk of someone else scoring before you can and thus making you waste the previous turn. Third, scoring for farms is dependent on the number of animals that exist in the various land areas that are covered by your farmer meeple. Similar to Carcassonne, the player with the most points at the end of the game will win. While there are a few new features, its nothing earth shattering or ground breaking and it plays pretty much like Carcassonne.

Pet Peeves: Art wise while its abit more realistic as compared to the base game, its a bit hard to see the animals in the forested areas.

Conclusion: Having the 2 neutral pawns does cause some of us to play it differently from the base game. I found myself trying to score faster so that I can move the pawns and catch the other players' meeples and thus denying them from scoring. But at its core, its still very carcassonne. I never really liked the multitude of carcassonne expansions because they feel very gimmicky to me. Its abit like all those expansions for Dominion. One or two expansions is fine but after 5 or 8, you get the feeling that they are really trying to squeeze as much mileage as they can from the base game and they are already scrapping the barrel. I mean why don't they just let it be and move on to other games. So for me at least, its a MEH and I don't recommend it.

MIDNIGHT PARTY

Run run from the ghooooost! 

Game Session and Thoughts: A light hearted game where players try to move their pieces around a track to enter empty rooms to hide from a ghost that will be roaming along the halls. At the beginning of your turn, you will roll a die and then move any one of your remaining figures that many spaces. If you roll a ghost on the die, then you move the ghost 3 spaces. Players can only move their figures into a room if the ghost is already on the main track so its like a musical chairs kind of mechanism where players are jostling for positions until the ghost appears. Once all figures are either captured by the ghost or in the rooms, then players will determine the score and keep track. After 4 rounds, the player with the least negative points will win the game.

Pet Peeves: The ghost did not look very scary. In fact it looked downright friendly haha. Players who have been kicked out (because the ghost had captured them) will not have anything else to do other than rolling the die and hoping to move the ghost along. All these are just small little issues and because this is largely a family/kid/party game there is no need to be too harsh on it.

Conclusion: We had a lot of fun moving the ghost along, making 'whooo hooo hooo" noises and catching each other's figures. Playing with 5 players we certainly had a lot of figures (each player had 3) and given that the ghost appears on 2 faces of the die, it came out pretty fast and made short work of those near him. I manage to win with only -14 points so that was cool. Take note that this is definitely a kid friendly family game so Try before you buy if you are looking for a family game. Best with kids.

PALASTGEFLUSTER

Its like a predecessor of Citadels and many others...

Game Session and Thoughts:  I have heard of this game from Garrett's game and geekiness and I decided to grab it as a box filler for my latest order online. This game lasts several rounds until 1 player has reached a certain number of points as determined by the number of players. There are 2 decks to this game. One is the main play deck which consists of a bunch of brown cards and all the cards that belongs to the colors of the players in the game. These cards will have one of 6 characters available in the game. The other is a king deck which, when revealed, determines which character card can be played but will not have any special effect (unless its the Jester card which will indicate that the jester card cannot be played). During your turn, you have to play a card from your hand to the area in front of you. If you have to play a card of a character that already exists in your area, you have caused the end of the round and every OTHER player will score a point. Another way the round can end is if you manage to play 6 different characters into your area. Then you will score the point only. All cards are now collected and reshuffled and each player is dealt 6 cards for a new round. Each character has a certain power which can help you or sabotage others. For example, the Wizard allows you to exchange a number of cards from your hand with another player thus you can pass them cards that will cause them to end the round and everyone else to score a point. The unique part of this game is that how the next player is determined, depending on the card that the previous player has played. If the card is a brown card, then the player who has the least number of cards played in front of them will go next. If this is tied, then the active player chooses who to go. If the card is a colored card, then that player with the same color goes next. The active player can play his/her own color to go next but that depends if he/she is lucky enough to have his own colors, can play them or if it is wise to do so. The symbols aren't that easy to understand but the player aid card (which incidentally is used as an arrow to indicate the number of points you have) has all the description for the powers of the various characters. It is easy to teach though probably needs several plays to better appreciate the nature of the game and how it works. It reminds me a lot of Citadels and I believe several card games nowadays that have characters and powers probably owe some homage to this game. Art work is functional though somewhat dated and its a card game that fits nicely into a small box. Good for traveling.

Pet Peeves: Unfortunately, this game can get draggy. For 5 players, we had to reach 4 points and while that may seem easy to do, it did take some time. At the very least you will need 4 rounds to do so. I am also not too sure about blocking the leader and how well that will function because you are given only 6 cards to play around with and depending on the luck of the draw, you may not have the right cards to block the leader.

Conclusion: We did not manage to finish our game as we had new players joining so we stopped or game short of someone actually winning. I do kinda like it right now given what I have seen but will definitely want to try more to see how it actually works and if it can get too lengthy for the weight of the game it is. Deciding what card to keep and play and which player to go next is quite unique and very intriguing for me. So for now it is ok but with the caveat that I will need more plays to have a final decision. Try before you buy.

TOWER OF BABEL

Dated when played today...

Game Session and Thoughts: A rather old game that someone in our group won and so we decided to give it a go and see whats it like. Basically this is a light-medium area control and set collection type of game. Initial setup, there will be discs placed on spots that represent 7 wonders of the world. Players will be provided with a number of cards initially and a Trade card. During each player's turn, they will choose a spot where there's a disc remaining. This is to indicate their interest to complete the requirements of that disc. Each disc will show a particular object and a number, indicating how many of that type of cards is required to be discarded to complete that disc. Now all other players will pull out a number of cards that they want to offer to the active player. When all have chosen, all will reveal the cards selected. The active player can now choose cards from a number of players to assist him on his task. Owners of the cards that were used to contribute to this disc (including active player) will get to place one of their building tokens onto the wonder. If the active player chose a participating player that has a trade card along with his other cards, then active player will pass that disc to that participating player but get to place his building tokens in place of the participating player's tokens.  If a player offered cards but you did not choose that player, then that player will score as many points as cards offered that correspond to the disc's object.

When a wonder has all discs removed, then that wonder is scored. Majority and 2nd runner up will score points and the rest that have contributed will score 3 points. The scoring is incremental which means the next wonder that scores will have more points.
During your turn, you can either choose a disc or pass. If you pass, you will draw a card. At the end of every player's turn, everyone will draw a card. The game ends when all of 1 type of discs has been claimed. Those monuments that were not finished will score a certain number of points and then players reveal the discs they have collected and score points. If you have collected 4 of a kind, then you get to score 30 points which is a lot in the game. The player with the most points will win the game.
Initially we were kinda confused as to why players will bluff  (select cards that do not correspond to the disc's object) and we guessed the only reason was to goad the other players into contributing more. Having the trade card in offering is interesting because if the active player does not have enough, he may need to take the trade card OR forgo his turn just to prevent the disc from falling into the wrong hands. It is also very important not to set someone up to complete the monument and score points. Oh you also get a special card if you triggered the scoring of a monument. Most of the time these special cards will provide you with more cards or even give you some points at the end of the game but its hard to come by and in a game at most there will be 7 such cards given out. Art wise its a pretty ok and components wise its a nice and big board but you could probably remake the game using only cards.

Pet Peeves: Near the middle and the end of the game, most active players will already have all the cards they need and thus not really require any help from the others and it becomes a matter of offering as much cards as we can to score points. In essence, being prevented from helping can actually score you more points than commencing the scoring for a monument. The player order portion on the board confused us because we failed to see the point of it. I mean there is no need to rotate it but the rules mentioned that when a player has taken his turn, place his token at the back of the line and move the others forward. It because a bit pointless. We may have read some rule wrong on this but doesn't seem like it. Other than that, I couldn't really put my finger on it but most of us felt MEH after playing the game though now that I am writing this, I can't remember why. I guess its the way the game is played and the general mode as we are playing that brought our enjoyment factor of the game down a few notches. It could also be that the mechanisms seems dated given the variety of games that we have nowadays and possibly not as engaging as we thought.

Conclusion: So while it doesn't seem as if we enjoyed the game, now that I am reading my own post, it is quite an ok game. The design has not many flaws and mechanisms, while feels dated, are sound. It probably isn't for our group but may require a few more plays to have a more concrete feeling on why it did not work for our group. Try before you buy.

QUIETVILLE

It is very quiet.. even with monsters...

Game Session and Thoughts: A light card game where players are trying to manage the number of buildings in front of them so that they are in the best position to score when any one of the 4 scoring phases card appear in the building deck. There is a set of building cards and disaster cards on the board. During your turn, you can either use 1 money card to purchase a building card, select a disaster cad and apply its effect and obtain a money card or play a Divine Intervention card (if you have any). You can only have a maximum of 2 money cards at 1 time so if you have 2, then you MUST buy a building card or play a Divine Intervention card. Building cards come in 3 colors and a variety of points from 3 to 8. Disaster cards cause you to lose buildings depending on what is indicated on the Disaster card. If you lose 2 buildings, then you will be able to obtain a Divine Intervention card. Otherwise, regardless if you have lost a building or not, you will obtain a money card. Divine intervention cards will usually provide you with special powers like refresh the row of disaster cards etc.
The unique part of the game is when one of 4 scoring cards appear in the building card deck. Whenever a building is taken, that spot is replaced with a new building card. In this way, the scoring cards will appear later on in the game and at the end. Players now choose 1 of 4 scoring types to scoring when a card appear. Players can only choose 1 scoring type per scoring phase for the entire game so players have to plan correctly otherwise they will waste these chances. The 4 types of scoring are: a) score for ALL buildings you currently have, b) score for each of the highest building for each of the colors, c) score for each of the lowest building for each of the colors and d) score all buildings of 1 chosen color. The game ends after the 4th scoring card has been revealed and the player with the most points wins the game.
For this light game, the scoring methods add a surprising depth to it. You have to see if you can hold out and get those buildings that will enable you to perform the scoring that you want. At the same time, you don't want to be caught where you have no choice to purchase but to take a disaster card that will devastate the buildings you already have. Art is quite comic like and nice and everything is clear, easy to teach and easy to play.

Pet Peeves: I think the most irritating thing will have to be the luck of the draw. If you are very unlucky, during your turn you may end up with the worse types of disasters (where you will lose a lot of buildings) or with the low scoring buildings or if you have a divine intervention card that doesn't help you at all. Otherwise, there is very little else that is wrong with the game.

Conclusion: So a light game that is easy to play and surprisingly fun with a bit of strategic planning but more tactical than anything. Whenever we saw a chance to take a disaster card that did not sabotage ourselves too much, we went for it. We did not really focus too much on the Divine Intervention cards as their powers while helpful aren't all that game changing. I did not win though but I still had fun. Try before you buy.

CITE

Game Session and Thoughts: A light-medium, negotiation heavy, tile laying game similar to Princes of Florence. Each player has a set of similar buildings which occupy 1-9 spaces. Your objective is to place/build as many of these buildings as you can within the 7 rounds. The player who has built the most spaces of buildings will win the game. At the start, players are allowed to place up to 7 spaces of buildings. Each player will have a unique resource which only they have (i.e. Yellow has the rock, Red has the cloth) and thus the negotiation is required so that resources from other players can be traded to create secondary elements. The interesting part of the game is how you can build the buildings. The more variety of materials you have, the less of them you need and the more spaces you can build. For example, if you only have 1 type of material, you will need 10 of them to be able to build 1 space. If you have 5 for example, you just need 1 of each to be able to do the same. To be able to create more materials you will need to build your secondary buildings, get the other base material from another player and then be able to build it OR trade another player who has built it. Game play essentially is income (production), negotiation (exchange of goods) and then build. Game ends after 7 rounds or whomever has built all their pieces and the player with the most built squares will win the game. As you can already tell, this game relies a LOT of negotiation although another player managed to build with minimal negotiation and exchange of goods. He also forced his basic material to be rare and hard to come by. In addition, you have to negotiation because of the close proximity of your buildings. Right in the beginning there is a game board where you can place your starting buildings which is the only area where each player's buildings can be adjacent to each other and provide additional benefits to each other. Gameplay can be pretty fast though unless negotiations bog down and cause a stalemate in the game. Components wise are rather good. In fact, they can be considered over produced! The stone are really small stone pebbles and the cloth is nice rich red cloth squares. But they could have done with red cubes and it would have been easier to handle and manage.

Pet Peeves: Its kinda odd but the playing area will extend beyond the main board. Since you are pretty much given free reign (except that the new building must touch an existing building), you can expand if you want all over your corner of the table. As mentioned above, the materials seems to be over produced. The red player had problem trying to count the number of cloth because, since this was a new set, the clothes were not separated before. Though if they used the cloth same as Marrakech that might have been easier to manage. You need like a bowl or something to keep the amount of material which you may have been able to produced given that the components are not all the same sizes. You may also need to supplement with your own bits as it did not seem to be enough. The game owner used lego bits to supplement what was provided. There is a building that functions like a Bank. You can place up to 3 materials on it and then get some returns. However since the bank building piece is so small, its a bit impractical to place them onto the building. Lastly, the building's functionalities are written on the reverse side of the building but when you build them onto your area, they look better the picture side up so kind of prevents us from referring to their functions once placed on the play area.

Conclusion: I am beginning to shun from pure negotiation games because well, I seem to suck at negotiations :P Some negotiation is fine but if its pure negotiation then I will approach with some apprehension. That being said, there is a lot of chance for "mistakes" in this game because everything is concurrent (the negotiation, exchange of goods and building), people can make mistakes accidentally and kinda takes away from the "pureness" of a win. Not saying that I won of course lol it was all I could do to not be last (Can't remember if I was last ....). So this game is not for me. Might be for you though so verdict is Try before you buy.

SHEEPLAND

Game Session and Thoughts: Avery simple stocks and shares game that is masked with cute sheepples. Yes I said stocks and shares. You have a board with different regions (mountain, plans, swamp, forrest and grassland) and at the start there will be a sheep in every region. Each player starts with a secret land tile randomly assigned at the start of the game. During your turn, you will first roll a die to see where the black sheep may escape to (Black sheep counts as 2 white sheep). Then you can do 3 actions, out of which, 1 of them must be to move your Shepard. If you perform 2 of the same actions, then you have to move the Shepard inbetween those 2 actions (i.e. Action, Move, Action). Actions are moving a sheep (from one region to another through your Shepard), purchasing a land tile (either of the 2 land tiles that are adjacent to your Shepard) or moving your Shepard. That is it. The game ends when a certain number of fences have been placed on the board and everyone plays till the end of that current round. Players then count up the points they have (number of sheeps in that land area multiply with the number of that land's tiles you have) and the winner is the one with the most points. 

So essentially its a stocks and shares game because you are trying to amass a number of tiles (you can see these as shares) while trying to manipulate the sheeps into those land areas (price of shares). It is easy to teach and easy to play however it is quite a light game. Components are rather good looking and of course, the sheepples are very cute. It is interesting to note that most people are focusing a lot on the black sheep as it gets moved around but after a while when the black sheep gets cornered and stuck, then players will start to focusing on other areas. Diversity of the stocks (land tiles) is key here as you don't want to get trapped into only being able to buy those expensive tiles as money is VP at the end of the game and the initial tiles are free or very cheap. 

Pet Peeves: The board had some serious warping issues which is unfortunate. But other than that, there is not much to complain for this rather simple game. 

Conclusion: It is a very light game. That being said, there could be chances for screwage because you can often tell what an opponent is going for and move his sheeps out of the land areas that he wants. However to do that your Shepard has to already be in position or stalking his Shepard very closely. As this is probably a family friendly game, I don't think there's a lot of in built opportunities for screwing around with other players. There are opportunities for interaction but only if the Shepards are close together. So all in all, this is a light game and doesn't provide a lot of depth for me and I was glad to be able to try it but will not be making a purchase. Try before you buy.

SPIEL 2012: What strikes my fancy?

Spiel or Essen 2012 is just around the corner (about 2 weeks away?) and Boardgamegeek, the site I frequent, has a preview list of games that will be released at Essen. You can find the list here
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/142246/spiel-2012-preview
There are SO MANY games that will be released that its really quite crazy how many new games are released in a year. I believe this year has a bumper crop of games and my wallet is already protesting! Not to mention my cupboard space! Nevertheless, lets take a look at what games that are coming out that excite me:

AZTLAN
I had a demo of this game at GENCON 2012 and its a light-medium worker placement game with a lot of interaction. The components do look nice except for the scoring pieces which are quite small and maybe a bit impractical. But otherwise, seems like a well designed game.

AMONG THE STARS
Hmmm city building... well spaceport building that has mechanisms similar to City Tycoon. I am probably going to pass on such games until I try it first. I do still want to have a good city building type game in my collection but I want to be more discerning now.

SUBURBIA
Another of those city building games which seems to have a same concept as City Tycoon. Place a tile, see what adjacent tiles it activates and score points. Difference is each player has their own area to manage and grow. I will have to give this a try first before I buy.

1969
Space race game with nice cardboard rockets! I have been wanting to try High Frontier (after playing Bios Megafauna and owning it) but I was not too sure if I had the group of people to play it with me several times. I am hoping this is like High Frontier light and will be a new theme for me to try out.

SHEEPLAND
Another game I tried at GENCON 2012 and it is a light game with nice sheep-ples. Should appeal to casual gamers and new gamers alike and its easy to teach and play.

TZOLK'IN: THE MAYAN CALENDAR
This game has been getting a lot of buzz in the podcast scene due to the presence of connected gears on the board representing calendars. Apparently it is advertised as having a dynamic worker placement mechanism. Should be interesting to see how it all works. I am particularly interested in how it is all kept or if the wheels are installed permanently onto the board the first time.

SHADOWS OVER CAMELOT: THE CARD GAME
I have always wanted to play more of Shadows over camelot but I don't have a copy and well, it did not appeal to be enough to warrant me to get a copy. Well Days of Wonder will be releasing the card game version which plays 1-7! I have started to play boardgames solo recently and this will be right up my alley. Hearing the initial reviews and comments, it seems like a must buy for me.

KAKERLAKENPOKER ROYAL
Ever since I played this game at my friend's place I have been hooked. I went to get a copy and have been bringing it out regularly as a starter or an ender to a long day of gaming. It is fun, light, easy to play and I am pretty excited there is an expansion for this that add some interesting new rules! Definitely a must buy for me.

SPELLBOUND
Latest game from the Fragor brothers. The components, as usual, look really good. Gameplay wise probably will not really appeal to me. But I am lucky to have a friend that managed to get onto the order list and I will look forward to playing her copy :)

TOKAIDO
Saw this at GENCON 2012 and I was itching to have a play. After observing it though I am not too sure if I will enjoy the gameplay. It seems to be a light game and the artwork is so awesome. Light, clean but aesthetically pleasing. I would definitely get it if just for the art alone but when i saw the copy at GENCON, it did not look like they were high quality components. I do hope what I saw was just the pre-production copy. *Cross Fingers*!

SUPER FARMER
Something about farming, rearing animals and cute cute components (hmmm I am sensing a trend here....) I will keep an eye out for this but not sure if I will get it.

OHNE FURCHT UND ADEL
This seems like Citadels version 2. I have always been looking for an improved version of Citadels and reading the description makes me want to grab this and see how much better it is. Citadels was one of the few boardgames that I started with and owned and it sure would be nice to see a newer version with new rules to spice things up!

AGRICOLA: MEHR STALLE FUR DAS LIEBE VIEH
I have been enjoying Agricola:All Creatures Big and Small and this seems to be an expansion for it! Additional special buildings and more things? Must buy for me!

LE HAVRE: DER BINNENHAFEN
Le Havre, a game that I was initially apprehensive about playing because it seems a very thinky and super euro game. Well I am glad I took a step and learnt how to play and to my surprise I love the game! I even have the iOS version and play the solo game regularly. This is the 2 player version and if its like Agricola:ACBAS, I am sure it will be a good game. Must buy!

IRON SKY: THE BOARD GAME
What? There is a board game based on the movie? SERIOUSLY ? Well if you have not watched the movie, go watch it. It is surprisingly funny and not too cheesy with nice special effects. I wonder how the boardgame will be like though. Intriguing....

THE GREAT ZIMBABWE
On a whim I decided to trade for Antiquity and gave it a go. OMG it is so stressful playing the game as I feel so bad destroying every piece of land I harvest resources from. This is the latest release from Splotter and is supposed to be faster version of Antiquity. Indeed I hope so as my first 2 player game of Antiquity took me almost 3 hours to play!

MAGE KNIGHT BOARD GAME: THE LOST LEGION
I still haven't played enough of my copy of Mage Knight and there's an expansion coming out? Still this will be a must buy for me seeing how I am enjoying solo play of Mage Knight. I will have to try to bring it out 1 day for a 4 player game at least to see how things go. The expansion increases the player count to 5 now and I am not sure how long that will take! Box says 6 hours though (OMG)

STAR TREK: FLEET CAPTAINS - ROMULAN EMPIRE
Sigh... I still have not played my copy of Fleet captains. Expansion is only available for demo at ESSEN but this will probably be a must buy for me. I'll probably just play with the miniatures and fly around my room :)

OTHERS:
Did anyone else noticed that there seems to be a lot of city building type games being released? Its as if the designers were all given a common theme to create from some secret boardgame consortium else they will no longer be allowed to design or something!

Also there seems to be a few games based on the Aztec/Mayan theme. I wonder if boardgame designers / publishers deliberately implement these themes to capitalize on current trends. Hmmm.. interesting food for thought.

Heading to GENCON 2012 soon!

hi all! In a couple of hours I will be heading to Gencon 2012! I am so excited :P

What are some of the games I am interested in?

Seasons
I have been playing this on Boardgamearena.com so I have gotten quite a good grasp of the game. It looks fantastic and plays really well! It has a nice drafting element for the advanced level games, good looking components and dice to add a good dose of randomness to the mix. I highly recommend this and will definitely get my copy at the convention.

Speaking of which, you can enter a contest on BGG now for your own copy of Seasons!

Morels
I recently purchased this and while I haven't logged in a play with Wifey yet but I will before I leave USA. I will be at the booth to collect the remainder of my extra pieces (the walking sticks). The designer/self-publisher is a very nice person that responds quite swiftly if you have any questions. Oh he is also very eloquent (go look for his video interview by BGG) too! Go support this product and his company!

Tsuro of the Seas
I have Tsuro and it is a fun light game that can cater for a lot of people. I will be interested to see if Tsuro of the Seas can cater for the same amount of people but perhaps with a little bit more complexity.

Zombicide
This is a kickstarter that recently shipped out to the supporters. Already there are initial plays and pictures on BGG and all are positive so far. I am looking out for a good zombie game but so far haven't found it yet. This is a co-op though and I am not particularly fond of co-ops. Still I hope I will get a play in and then decide for myself how it goes.

Rolling Freight
A train game that has dice? Interesting. I would like to take a look at this first to see if it can scratch my train game itch before I decide to dive into 18xx. It is highly recommended by Tom Vasel but I am not always in agreement with his recommendations so lets see how this goes.

Leviathans
Ah.... the miniatures game about flying airships. Reminds me of a supped up version of Wings of Glory but with dice involved. Or a better Battleship Galaxies. I certainly hope to grab a play of this and see how it is. But the box is so big so unless I am buying nothing else on this trip, unlikely I will be bringing this with me home.

Sheepland
Game about herding your sheep lol.... Pity there will only be demo at Gencon and not available for purchase. But its good to have a try at this first and see how it goes. I am drawn to the cute....sheep.... Don't judge me!

Relic
A game that combines Talisman and Warhammer40k? Ooooo very intriguing for me. I am not sure why I have this fascination with Warhammer universe (I LOVED Chaos in the old world btw) but this will be very attractive to me! Hope to get a demo in on this.

Merchants of Venus
I think this is one of the most highly anticipated titles of 2012. I have heard rumours that FFG will be releasing this at GENCON! I sure hope so then I can snag a copy (hopefully!) :p :P

so that's about it! Time to have some breakfast before the service to airport arrives!

WooT WooT!