Hello everybody! This was a VERY VERY VERY special week!!!! VERY SPECIAL!!! If you read the title of this post, you already know why. If you don't read titles and just aimlessly click on things, I'll tell you now. It was a very special week because a) I met Zee Garcia, Tom Vasel, Jason Levine, and a host of board game industry people at Snakes and Lattes, b) I met Ignacy Trzewiczek and played a prototype of Tentacles of Time (with the wonderful Gil Hova watching over us), and c) I got to play many hours of board games with my dear BGG friend, Steph Hodge, at BoardGameBliss!!! Life doesn't get any better than that!
Inspired by all this excitement, I have decided to make a life goal. I know it probably won't happen this year, or next year, or even the year after that, but it's going to happen!
MINA'S PRIORITY #1 LIFE GOAL: ATTEND GATHERING OF FRIENDS!
That's enough dreaming! ON TO THE GAMING!
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Snakes and Lattes
Because this was an unusual week, I have decided to adopt an unusual format. I will start with the most recent event - the Snakes and Lattes gathering.
On Tuesday night, Snakes and Lattes sent a Tweet saying that Tom Vasel and 40 of his friends would be at Snakes and Lattes College on Wednesday afternoon! Of course, I HAD to try to meet them! I didn't know what to expect. Would I have to push through a sea of people to even catch a glimpse of all the board game legends that would be there? Or would the late notice prevent people from showing up? Maybe, just maybe, would I get to play some games with them??? :D I'm SO DELIGHTED to report that there was no sea of random people and that I was not only fortunate enough to play a game of Libertalia with Zee Garcia (WHO IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE HUMANS!!!!), but I also managed to put my encyclopedic knowledge of board game rules to use in helping to teach Tom Vasel, Jason Levine and friends how to play Dilluvia Project! Of course, Zee won that game of Libertalia (my friend, Jamie and I tied for second) and Tom found the icons in Dilluvia Project less than delightful, but I hope he gets a chance to try it again soon! I wish I could help them learn games every day! :P
This photo was taken by my long-armed friend, Jamie (bottom left)
I got the most fearsome pirate board, but I did not end up being the most fearsome pirate :(
But not only did I get to meet The Dice Tower and a number of wonderful publishers and designers, I had the honor of meeting one of my favorite designers and publishers, Ignacy Trzewiczek (i.e. ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE HUMANS!!!). He taught me and my friend, Jamie, his new game - Tentacles of Time. This game is essentially a re-implementation of Tides of Time and is quite similar but also quite different. Players have not only to contend with majorities, but also with nasty tentacle cards. Each tentacle gives the player holding it one madness at the end of each round. The player who collects the most madness in a given round may either discard one of his madness tokens or take 4 VP. Madness isn't much of a problem unless you collect 9, in which case you immediately lose the game. I really like Tides of Time, but I really love Tentacles of Time! The madness doesn't add much to the complexity of the game, but it does add much to its depth. There is another strategy to explore and a push-your-luck element that I'm always keen to experience. Oh! And if you care about such things, it's gorgeous! :P
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I am still shaking from the excitement of the above, but let's get back to reality before I pull you back to another exciting event!
What's New?
Nauticus
Nauticus was a game I passed by many times because it is difficult to obtain, not available in English, and just a bit "regular" looking, but it's a Kramer and Kiesling game, so I knew I would relent and find a copy at some point. That point came a few weeks ago and I finally took it out for a bunch of spins this week! Here's how it went...
The Overview
In Nauticus, players run competing ship companies, building fleets of ships, loading those ships with goods, and shipping those goods off to faraway lands to get points. The player who builds the best and biggest ships and delivers the most goods will be the winner!
The game is set up by randomly arranging 8 action tiles in a circle at the center of the board, placing a wheel that shows blue workers in the center of that circle, and arranging in piles all sail, mast, and body pieces for ships.
Each player receives a warehouse board, 3 pass tiles, which are placed with their -3, -2, and -1 up, 1 extra action tile, 4 workers, and 15 coins.
Extra action tile
Nauticus is a very blue game with a GOLDEN RULE: Every piece of anything you receive without paying money has to be stored in your warehouse. This is important because it makes the things you get for "free" not so "free."
The game is played over 4 rounds (5 rounds if playing with more than 2 players).
Each round begins with a preparation phase in which the round marker is advanced, the wheel is rotated so that the anchor on the wheel aligns with the first action taken in the preceding round, and the 8 action tiles are shuffled and dealt face up around the wheel.
Each round features 7 phases of actions and each phase involves one player selecting one of the action tiles, taking the bonus printed on the board, and executing or passing on the action. After this, each player may choose to follow this action or pass. When a player passes on an action, he flips one of his pass tiles face down, eliminating either a -3, -2, or -1 point penalty he would otherwise incur at the end of the round.
There are 2 types of actions:
1) Paid actions - Paid action tiles are blue in color and depict some sort of good that the player may buy. The cost of these actions is denoted by the outer numbers printed on the board. To buy goods, a player must pay the costs shown AND pay one worker for each good. Any good beyond the first of a given type costs 4 coins regardless of the cost shown. The central wheel may show blue workers aligned with the selected action. These workers allow a player to purchase goods without having to spend any of the workers in his supply. Any additional goods purchased beyond the number of workers shown on the wheel require that the player spend one worker from his supply for each good taken. If a player buys all 4 goods shown on the action tile, he receives one good of any of the types purchased for free.
Paid actions allow a player to buy:
*Hull parts -Paid hull parts can be placed directly on the table and used to build ships. Once a player has started building a ship, he must complete that ship with new hull parts. He may not combine ships in progress, nor may he insert hull parts into ships that already contain a front and a back.
*Masts - There are 5 types of masts, as determined by their different emblems. Only 4 may be bought. The masts that show a crown can only be gained by completing ships. Each ship must contain masts and sails that show the same illustration, with the exception being crowns, which are considered jokers.
*Sails - These are the same as masts. Sails must match the masts on a ship.
*Goods - Purchasing goods works the same as purchasing ship parts. Each paid good may be immediately loaded on a ship by being placed below a hull part.
2) Unpaid actions - Paid action tiles are tan in color and the numbers printed on the board are meaningless when these actions are selected. However, these actions still require one worker per action taken.
*Transport from your warehouse to your shipyard
Players collect ship parts and goods in their warehouses. This action allows them to transport ship parts and goods to their shipyards.
*Take money
Receive 2 coins for every worker spent.
*Deliver goods
Deliver goods from a fully loaded completed ship. A complete ship is has a front and end (and may have 1 or 2 middles) and has as many masts and sails as ship parts. Once a ship has been unloaded, it may be loaded again in the future.
*Crowns
Receive points equal to the number of workers spent multiplied by the number of crowns showing anywhere in your shipyard and/or warehouse up to a maximum of 15 points.
When completing a ship, a player may select 1 ship completion bonus per ship part included in the completed ship. The bonuses include taking 7 coins, taking 3 workers, taking 2 goods, taking 1 crown mast, taking 1 crown sail, and taking 3 points. Each rewarded may be taken a maximum of twice per ship.
In addition to the regular actions, each player has one extra action that he may perform at any point during the game. This extra action allows a player to first take 2 workers and then select one of the 8 regular actions to take. It's generally a good idea to keep these extra actions to help you out of a jam in the final round.
Once 7 actions have been taken, the round ends and players incur negative points for any pass tiles that remain on their negative sides.
The game ends after the 4th round at which point players score points for delivered goods (sets of identical goods provide increasing numbers of points), completed ships (larger ships score more points), and remaining ship pieces, undelivered goods, workers, and coins.
The Review
Played prior to review: 4x
:)
:) 1. Looks great
The pastel blue tones of the artwork are highly evocative of the nautical theme and fit perfectly with the pleasant gameplay. I did initially think that the game looked like every other game, but I retract those thoughts. I think it looks very pleasant and it plays just like as looks.
:) 2. Fast paced and fast playing
Turns in Nauticus are very quick and the action selection mechanism keeps all players engaged at all times. Because every player can choose to "follow" the action taken by the active player, everyone has some decisions to make and some actions to take during every other player's turn. And turns are very simple and quick, as players buy a few goods, take a few coins, buy a few ship parts, or score a few points. It's all very simple and streamlined, just as one would expect from a Kramer and Kiesling game.
:) 3. Familiar and yet innovative action selection mechanism
The action selection mechanism featured in Nauticus involves a familiar "following" aspect that allows all players to take the same action as the active player (without a special benefit reserved for the active player only). The interesting aspect of this following business is that passing on the following allows you to turn over a tile for which you would otherwise incur negative points at round's end. You can even pass on an action you select yourself, which you may do simply to turn over the -3VP tile staring you in the face. So even the passing action is imbued with some significance, forcing players to make tradeoffs between the value of the action vs. the negative points. But that's not all! Turning over one of the negative point tiles turns that tile into a potential VP goldmine because it turns it onto its crown side. One of the actions provides points for having crowns! So there is even more of an incentive to flip those pesky negatives face down!
The passing isn't the only interesting aspect of the following mechanism. Because other players are able to follow the action you take and once that action has been selected by one player, it cannot be selected by another for the rest of the round, you have to think carefully about the order in which you select your actions. You can take the shipping action when you see an opponent loading his nearly finished ships to prevent him from finishing the ships and then taking the shipping action, for example.
But this isn't all! The action selection mechanism is complicated by the interactions between the bonuses and workers available to help you take various actions. The value of each action is modified by the bonus awarded to the player who selects the action AND by the number of "free" workers available to complete the action. This can force some difficult choices between taking an action you really need/want and taking an action just to receive a bonus you really need/want. The tension between these two things often leaves me pulling my hair! The only consolation is the fact that you may be able to later take the action you want despite not having selected it yourself, but if it doesn't happen in the right order (for example, your opponent selects ship before you have an opportunity to buy goods), you could be kicking yourself for getting greedy with bonuses.
In conclusion, the action selection mechanism in Nauticus features a familiar yet interesting following aspect that helps keep all players engaged in the game at all times and a mind-twistingly wonderful interaction between actions and their associated bonuses.
:) 4. Tense
Nauticus is TENSE! And the tension builds as the game progresses, as the importance of the order of operations increases and the value of every worker and every coin grows.
Workers and money are very tight in this game. Workers help you get more done and money helps you get more stuff. You want to have lots of both! BUT YOU CAN'T!!! Because the game won't let you! There are two main ways to acquire money and workers; you can obtain them as bonuses for selecting certain actions and you can obtain them as bonuses for completing ships. The problem is that you only get a few workers or a bit of money for selecting actions and completing ships demands that you spend workers and money. The entire process is a bit of a catch 22. It creates a challenging loop that forces you to make the most of every resource you have. Resource management is tight and you're constantly asking yourself whether you will have enough workers to ship all the goods off your giant boat or whether you will have enough money to buy the pieces you need to complete a ship!
Nauticus is tense for one more reason - order of operations. In many games, you have to do one thing before you can do something else. In Nauticus, order of operations is made all the more important by the fact that you may only get to take any of the actions a maximum of 4 times (possibly 5 if you happen to use your bonus action) in any given game and you don't always have control over when that action is taken. If you don't have the money to buy ship parts you desperately need when the ship part action is selected by another player, you're out of luck! If you haven't yet loaded the goods in your warehouse onto your ships when the shipping action gets selected by another player, too bad! You have to constantly be on your toes, keeping an eye on your opponent(s) to ensure you have what you need for anything they may throw your way and to try to take actions in an order that would detain or thwart their plans. In the final round of the game, when you are struggling to complete that last ship or ship those last goods, the order of operations becomes even more important, as there will be no second chances, so the game culminates in a cloud of tension. It's quite the experience!
:) 5. Several strategies to explore
Your main avenues to point making in Nauticus are ships, goods, and crowns. Large ships score many, many points, huge collections of the same goods score many, many points, and lots of crowns score many points. These strategies are not mutually exclusive, especially since ships are a pre-requisite for shipping and acquiring more than 3 crowns in a round, but they can be pursued to various degrees. Which strategy you pursue will depend on the setup, including the specific alignment of actions and bonuses/workers, as well as your own preferences.
:) 6. Satisfying results
At the end of a game of Nauticus, I can gaze upon my beautiful fleet of ships and delivered goods and marvel at the beauty of it all. :P That's probably an exaggeration, but I do feel a strong sense of accomplishment at the end of each game of Nauticus. As I mentioned above, resources (workers and money) are tight in this game and there's a constant sense of impending
:) 7. Good replay value
Although I would hesitate to say that Nauticus is an extremely deep game, I do think that it offers players several strategies to explore (as described in 5 above) and thus has some intrinsic replay value.
Beyond this, the variable arrangement of action tiles in each round modifies the value of certain actions and may affect your strategy, generating some variability between sessions.
:soblue:
:soblue: 1. BAZILLIONS of pieces
There are SO MANY pieces in this game!!! The sheer number of little ship parts and goods makes it a nightmare to set up if you don't find a box to house everything! We immediately boxed everything and simply open the nicely organized box and take ship directly out of it when playing, so setup takes no time at all. However, if you were to bag everything and take all the pieces out every time, you might be done by the time you've set the game up. I highly recommend boxing this one!
:soblue: 2. Not available with an official English-language rulebook
To my knowledge, the only English rules available for Nauticus at this point in time come in the form of a fan-made translation. The translation is great, but it would be nice to have a set of official English-language rules and an English-language edition of the game that isn't quite so difficult to procure as it is right now.
Final Word
Whether alone or in combination, Kramer and Kiesling have created some of the most engaging and interesting board games I've encountered. And Nauticus fits comfortably alongside their other amazing titles. Low on rules, high on interesting decision points, and delivering satisfying results, Nauticus is a game I know I will crave for years to come.
MINA'S LOVE METER :heart: :heart: :heart: SOME LOVE
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Firenze
The Overview
In Firenze, players compete to complete commissions for the tallest and prettiest towers in Florence. The player who has built the most of the highest valued commissions by building towers and planned the best celebrations will win the game.
The game is set up by placing the end-game bonus tile on the board and level bonus tiles in ascending order on their reserved space on the game board. Then, 4 "balcony tiles" (1 each with a I, II, III or IV on the back) are placed on indicated spaces on the towers of corresponding colors and 5 neutral seals are randomly placed on various levels and towers on the board. A deck of cards is created by shuffling the regular cards separately from the start cards and placing the regular cards face down with the start cards on top. Six cards from the top of that pile (i.e. start cards) are then drawn and placed on their reserved spaces on the game board. Four blocks are randomly drawn from the bag and placed on each card.
Each player receives a construction site, 9 seals of his color (in a 2-player game) and either 2 white bricks or 3 white bricks or 4 white bricks, etc. depending on turn order.
The game board shows towers of various colors with flags that show majority bonus points that will be awarded to the player who has built the most towers of this color at the end of the game. Below the flag are various "commissions." Each of these commissions requires exactly as many bricks of its color to complete as are shown in the smaller number and completing each level awards the player as many points as are shown in the larger number. For example, a level-5 green commission awards 4 points when completed. Balcony tiles cover 4 commissions and provide bonus points, but the balconies must be completed in order (i.e. a player cannot complete balcony III until somebody has completed balconies I and II).
A player's turn proceeds as follows:
1) Choose a card (mandatory)
You must select one of the cards from the card row and take the card along with the bricks on the card into your hand. The leftmost card is free, but any card to the right of that one requires that you place 1 brick from your supply on each of the cards to the left of the one you take.
Cards come in a variety of flavors and have different effects depending on their type. Events are played immediately, personnel and celebration cards go into your hand and building cards go face-up in front of you (you have a 5-card limit for cards in your possession), and church cards go into public church spaces and affect all players.
Once a card has been taken, all cards slide to the left to fill in the gap and a new one is placed on the rightmost space along with 4 new bricks from the bag.
2) Exchange bricks (optional)
You may exchange 3 bricks from your supply for 1 brick from the card row.
3) Build towers (optional)
You may build towers on your construction site out of the bricks in your personal supply. You may build 2 bricks each turn for free, but any bricks you build beyond that require that you throw some bricks from your supply back into the bag.
4) Tear down abandoned construction (mandatory)
You must tear down any towers that you have not added to during the current turn's construction phase, placing half the bricks bag into the bag and the other half back into your supply.
5) Fulfill commissions (optional)
You may choose whether to use your towers to complete commissions or whether to continue building them. To complete a commission, the number of bricks in your tower must exactly match the number in the commission. You place your seal in the completed commission, score the points shown, and place all the bricks comprising the tower used to fulfill the commission back into the bag.
6) Check limits (mandatory)
If you have more than 10 bricks in your supply, you have to return excess ones to the bag. If you have more than 5 cards in your possession, you have to toss excess ones in the discard pile.
The game ends when one player has placed his last seal. At this point, all other players get one final turn and the game ends. Majorities are assessed for each tower, with the bonus shown on the flag of each tower given to the player who has fulfilled the most commissions in that tower. Some celebration cards award points at the end of the game and these are scored accordingly.
The Review
Played prior to review: 4x
:)
:) 1. Beautiful with thematically-appropriate tactile element
The art in Firenze is highly evocative of the ornate Italian Renaissance architecture and artwork that dominates the scenery in Florence.
The little wooden tower pieces that players collect and assemble on their boards add a wonderful tactile element that is unusual and highly evocative of the building theme.
:) 2. Relatively fast paced
Despite the seemingly long process that takes place on each player's turn, Firenze is actually quite a fast-paced game. Each step is very quick and on most turns, several of the optional steps are forfeited. The decision-making process is also not so complex that it slows us down, so the game moves along at a nice pace. It typically takes us about 45 minutes to complete, which I consider to be perfect for a game of this depth and complexity.
:) 3. Tense card selection mechanism
The cards are the heart of Firenze. They have a variety effects that include things like swapping bricks 1:1 for bricks in other players' supplies or the bag, taking bricks off another player's tower, forcing all players to return bricks from their supplies for each of their towers in progress, etc. The cards have a significant effect on the progress of the game and the fact that many of them affect all players means having to keep a close eye on all the cards you will be leaving behind whenever you select a card. Bricks are precious (especially the rare purple and blue ones) and plopping them down on cards to reach higher ones can be painful, but if it means avoiding a -3 point card or keeping one of those nasty thieving cards away from an opponent, it may be worth it.
:) 4. Restrictions that generate tension
Some games generate tension through scarcity of resources, but Firenze generates tension through restrictions that prevent players from accumulating cards and resources. While there are two cards that allow you to keep an infinite number of cards and increase your storage limit to 15 bricks from round to round, these don't always appear and until they do, the 10-brick limit ensures that players have gradually build and feed their towers and therefore carefully manage their supply of bricks of the right colors and ensure they are able to meet any adversities the card display and other players may throw their way.
:) 5. Strategic and tactical
Firenze is primarily a game of responding to the available cards, responding to the available bricks, and responding to your opponent. It's a highly interactive game in which players must always keep a close eye on each other and the situation on the board as it fluctuates from turn to turn. But there is also some long-term planning involved. You can start out with the intent to complete many small commissions (and possibly try to acquire the cards that give you 1 point for each 3/4 commission) or a few of the bigger commissions. You can go for the commission colors that provide higher majority bonuses but require less common bricks to complete or go fro more of the commissions with lower majority bonuses that require more common brick colors. And all the while, you have to try to make the best use of the cards that become available to further your goals while trying to prevent your opponent(s) from doing so.
:) 6. High replay value
Firenze features replay value in its depth and its variability. First, while its simple rules may suggest otherwise, Firenze is actually a relatively complex game. There are so many things to keep in mind and consider on each turn, including the options you will be leaving for your opponent. There is depth here.
There is also variability. The card deck is quite large and though there is some repetition, there is no guarantee that all cards will become available in any given game. This, combined with the variable timing of card availability ensures that the same strategy may not work every time.
And on top of all this, the designer provides a couple of variants in the rulebook that can change the feel of the game. One involves randomly placing all 7 neutral seals provided (instead of the 5 listed in the rules) on the game board and another involves completely blocking all 6 commissions of one color with neutral seals. Both of these variants dramatically change the game, with the first generating even more competition for commissions and the second making one color of brick essentially worthless. All of this ensures that each game plays out somewhat differently from the previous one and somewhat allows players to customize the experience to their preferences.
:) 7. "Best with 2" according to BGG and I believe it
I think that Firenze is probably best with only 2 players because more players would just create more chaos on the board, lead to more negative events hitting you between turns, and ultimately lead to less control. I like the amount of control over the brick and card situation that the 2-player version provides and I think that simply increasing the number of seals in the 2-player game sufficiently elevates the majority competition with only 2 players.
:soblue:
:soblue: 1. Mean!
Soul crushing!!! This game will wipe that jolly smile off your face and eliminate any modicum of confidence you may have! Not only does this game encourage players to be mean to each other, it is simply mean to the players all by itself! Now that I've thoroughly terrified you, allow me to qualify and explain my statements. :P
Ok, first, the game is mean to players! Some cards, no matter who takes them, force all players to pay bricks for their towers in construction and tear down any towers that cannot be paid for. Some cards give you -3 points. Just because. Others give you -2 points. Just because they want to be a little less mean than the -3 cards. The cards are mean! Plus, the game demands that you keep towers under construction going each and every round or you have to crush them. So you have to constantly make sure you have enough bricks in reserve to a) keep your towers going and b) make payments for your towers under construction should payment cards be selected and c) make payments for cards higher in the card row to avoid negative points.
Second, the game encourages players to be destructive to each other. There are cards that outright allow you to take bricks off a player's tower under construction and return them to the bag, there are cards that allow you to swap a brick from your supply for a brick in another player's supply, preferably making it impossible for that player to continue building one of his towers in the next turn, and then there is simply the fact that your entire goal in the game is to keep your opponent from being able to keep his towers going, forcing them to be demolished.
Firenze might look like a game of construction, but it's actually a game of destruction. Don't let the happy faces on the box fool you!
:soblue: 2. The Campampanile card is dead to me
The Capanile card requires that each player build a tower of 3 white bricks before he can fulfill any further commissions. This card is optional, so there is no need to include it in the game if you don't want to and I don't want to. It would just slow the game down for no reason at all. Dislike.
Final Word
If you thought Firenze looked like a pleasant game of hiring pleasant-looking Florentine folk and building cute little candy-colored wooden towers, you thought WRONG! Firenze is actually a cutthroat game of destruction and demise in Renaissance Italy! :P It's actually an excellent game, filled with tense moments and compelling decision points, but it is worth emphasizing its meanness. It is a game that is mean to players in and of itself and it is a game that forces players to be mean to each other. As such, it is not a game I would recommend to everyone. I would also not recommend it to everyone because it is currently out of print and difficult to obtain, but if and when it does return to print, I would encourage those who can stomach a little backstabbery and destruction to take a look at it. I can stomach a little backstabbery and destruction in a quick-playing game that really forces me to think very carefully about managing my resources and optimizing the timing of my actions. I love it!
MINA'S LOVE METER :heart: :heart: :heart: SOME LOVE
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Artifacts, Inc.
The Overview
Artifacts Inc. is a game about spelunking for artifacts and displaying them in museums. Players take on the roles of archeology companies, competing to acquire the best assets for their companies, find the most valuable artifacts, and display those artifacts in museums.
There are two versions of the game; one is described in the rulebook and the other is the designer's variant created to address issues of down time. I will describe the variant rules here because we have played by those rules more often than not and then discuss the differences in the review section below.
To set up the game, cards are separated into Asset cards and Public cards. The Public cards are Guide Work, Private Collectors, and 4 Museums. The Asset cards are labeled either A, B, C, D, or E. The D and E Asset cards are simply arranged in two piles, while the A, B, and C Asset cards are shuffled, arranged in 3 rows, and 3 cards from each pile are revealed. Level 1 versions of each of the Asset cards should be face up.
There is also a set of Diving cards that are arranged in numerical order, with the "2" card on top, and placed in the center of the board.
Each player receives one Desert Expedition, one Canyon Expedition, one Adventurer, and one Headquarters card, as well as a set of cubes in a given color, and 2 or 3 coins depending on turn order. In the variant, each player also receives a set of 7 dice, placing 3 of these in his available supply.
On his turn, each player will roll his Adventurer dice. The number of dice rolled is determined by the number of dice shown on his Adventurer cards. At the beginning of the game, this is 3, but this number should increase as the game progresses.
After rolling their dice, players take turns placing a die (or dice depending on the action) on a single Asset card or Public card. A player may place a die on a card occupied by another player's dice, but he may not place any dice on a card on which he has already placed dice in the current round. If a player places a die on a card occupied by another player's die with a lower pip value, he receives 1 coin. Otherwise, there is no benefit.
The available actions are:
Expedition: Gain one artifact, placing one of your cubes to indicate you have that artifact.
Buy: Purchase one new Asset card or upgrade one Asset card you already own, flipping it to its Level 2 side. Gain any points depicted on the card.
Museums: Sell the number of the artifacts indicated in one of the spaces on the museum, gaining a monetary sale bonus for each if applicable. The type of artifact sold must match the type of artifact shown on the museum card.
Guide Work: Take 1 coin.
Private Collectors: Sell any number of artifacts, gaining 1 coin for each plus 1 additional coin for each TYPE of artifact sold beyond the first.
Dive: Gain an Underwater card by placing one or more dice whose sum is equal to or higher than the number at the bottom of the topmost Underwater card. Each Underwater card gained will immediately give you 1 point. Underwater cards also show "finds" that can score additional points if you gain certain Asset cards.
The game ends at the end of the round in which one player reaches 20 points. At this point, players gain points for having the most cubes in the various museums. The player with the most points wins!
The Review
Played prior to review: 4x
:)
:) 1. Gorgeous artwork
Ryan Laukat. That's all you need to know. I love Ryan's style and Artifacts Inc. is a beautiful example of it.
:) 2. Interesting spatial element
While there is nothing outstandingly unique about Artifacts Inc., the spatial relationships between the cards players build into their tableaus and the restrictions on the tableau size are probably the most interesting and innovative aspects of the game. A player's tableau is built in two rows, which strictly limits your ability to exploit cards that score for adjacent cards of particular types and creates an interesting tension between wanting to build a card now to reap its benefits or prevent another player from acquiring it and wanting to save it for later in order to position it better to potentially take better advantage of its adjacency bonuses.
:) 3. Interesting upgrading mechanism
I quite enjoy the fact that all the Asset cards in Artifacts Inc. are double sided. Generally upgraded version of a card simply provides a point and more powerful action than the one on the non-upgraded version. But in some cases, the upgraded version provides the same action as that provided by the non-upgraded version and a scoring condition! This creates a significant amount of tension between upgrading an existing card and buying a card outright.
:) 4. Open to strategic and tactical play
There are both some long-term strategic and short-term tactical considerations to be made when playing Artifacts Inc.
The combination of A, B and C Asset cards available can help you carve out a general strategy, while the actions of your opponents can necessitate some modifications to that general strategy. The C cards are particularly useful in helping to guide your actions, as they can provide large windfalls of points for fulfilling certain conditions. For example, one C Asset card provides 1 point for each Doubloon shown on your Underwater cards, so you can build a strategy around collecting Diving.
In addition to creating a long-term plan, you will have to respond to the actions of your opponents. Not only will you sometimes be forced to adjust your plans when cards you were hoping to buy get taken before you are able to do so, but (when playing by the variant), you will have to consider the timing of your actions and the value of the dice you are placing. Money is very tight in this game and the opportunity to make 1 bonus coin simply for placing a higher valued die on the same card as an opponent is one that must be taken! And timing your actions to prevent an opponent from being able to take a coin for placing a higher valued die on the same card as one of your dice is just as important. So you not only have to respond to your opponent's moves, but try to maximize your ability to gain cash and minimize your opponent's ability to gain cash by playing your dice in the best order possible. This may involve saving low-valued dice for your private cards and spending higher valued dice on public cards.
:) 4. Light on rules
Artifacts Inc. is quick and easy to learn and teach and I think it would make a great introductory game for anyone.
:?block:
:?block: The designer's official "cutthroat" variant rules are FAR SUPERIOR to the rules as written
We really did not enjoy the relatively solitary experience of Artifacts Inc. with the rules as written in the rulebook. In the rulebook, players are instructed to place all their dice and take all their actions alone prior to the next player's turn. In the designer's variant rules, players take turns placing dice on cards, which encourages players to pay attention to what others are doing, minimizes down time, and increases the importance of the die rolls. With the variant rules, players have to really think about when and where to place their dice of various values; if you place higher valued die on a card that already has a die, you get 1 coin and money is tight! Without the variant rules, the die values have much less of an impact on the game.
This is neither a negative nor a positive, but I think that the variant rules provide a more interesting experience than the dice placement rules in the rulebook and, as I mentioned above, the variant rules are the ones I am reviewing.
:soblue:
:soblue: 1. Takes too long to set up and play for its weight/depth
Although it is a small game, consisting of a mere deck of cards and a few chits and tokens, Artifacts Inc. involves a surprisingly lengthy setup. Diving cards must be set in a specific order, 5 decks of cards must be separated by letter, 3 of those shuffled and cards taken off of those decks to form a display, a "common action" display must be formed, and players have to arrange their starting cards before themselves in their desired order. All of this takes way more time than I like to commit to setting up a light game.
Then there is the gameplay. Again, despite the fact that Artifacts Inc. is a relatively light game, it can instigate some seriously paralyzing analysis. The huge display of public and private cards demands reading all their effects and/or constantly reminding yourself of the options available to you, which takes time.
:soblue: 2. End-game is anti-climactic
Like many race games, Artifacts Inc. features a bit of an anti-climactic finish. Despite the addition of end-game scoring in the form of majorities in the various museums, it is often quite easy to see who will come out on top as the end of the game approaches. I appreciate the effort that went into making the ending slightly more interesting, but I think I would enjoy the game more had it involved a set number of rounds and a final scoring.
Final Word
I enjoyed my plays of Artifacts Inc., but I am much more fond of heavier games than lighter games that take a substantial amount of time to play. For me, 45 minutes was a bit too long for the depth and breadth of decision making that Artifacts Inc. offered. I do think that many people will enjoy its relative simplicity, interesting spatial aspect, and breathtaking artwork and I would highly recommend it to anyone who frequently teaches games to new players (particularly at lower player counts) or is looking for a compact travel game, but it's just a bit too light for the time investment for me. I'm glad I had the opportunity to try it and I may play it very occasionally while I still own it, but I don't think I will play it very often in the future.
MINA'S LOVE METER :heart: SOME LIKE
***
What Did I Play at the BoardGameBliss Gathering of Friends?
On Sunday, Steph Hodge and her partner, Ron, joined us for an afternoon of gaming at BoardGameBliss! They were kind enough to drive all the way from Niagara to help me avoid car sickness and I thank them with all my heart for doing that! There was an awful snowstorm afterwards and I felt quite badly about their having to drive back in those conditions, but they made it back safely. So what did we play in the 6.5 hours we had?
FRIENDS!!!
Rialto
The first game we played was Rialto! I recently reviewed this game and LOVED it with 2, but really wanted to try it with more than 2 players to determine whether that would improve the game. The verdict? I think that some people will prefer it with more than 2, but I actually prefer it with 2. With more than 2 players, it becomes a lighter, less strategic game. I found myself much more able to make and execute longer-term plans when playing with the 2-player variant than when playing with a full complement of 4 players. That may be a factor of a) the fact that I've only played with 4 once and b) the fact that I was distracted while playing, but I still think I actually prefer Rialto with 2. I guess I need to play it more with more players to really determine how I feel about it, but that's where I stand for now. :)
Dragon Racer
Dragon Racer is a cute little racing game in which players take on the roles of "DRAGON RACERS," controlling teams of dragons and trying travel the furthest over a set number of rounds by drafting cards and claiming majorities. My character was "Amrita," who had a cool ability that allowed her to move 3 extra spaces every turn I was able to activate her entire dragon crew. I ended up doing this relatively frequently even though I was the object of a few attacks during the game and pulled into the lead in the final turn! I may have contributed to incapacitating one of Ron's dragons in order to do that, but he was ok with second place. :P I think...:P
I really enjoyed this game. It's quick and easy and adorable. I'm not sure I would want to play it frequently with only 2 players, but I think my sister and her boyfriend would enjoy it, so I may try to get a copy.
Cha dango
Peter and I are not speed gamers. We take our time. But when Steph asked whether we'd be interested in learning Cha Dango, I was all over it! The game is SO CUTE and is basically the Stroop Effect in board game form.
In this game, players compete to grab the most cards from a central display before the deck runs out. The cards are double sided and the back of the top card of the deck determines whether you are trying to grab from a central display a card that has the same color as the background of a drawn card, the same figure as that on a drawn card, or the same color as the figure of a drawn card. If the display does not contain a card that matches the requirement, players have to put a teacup up to their mouths and the last one to do so loses a card from his pile. It's a speed game, so the point is to be the fastest to grab these cards, but the process of trying to determine which colors and figures I'm looking for took me so long to compute that I ended up just laughing like a maniac. I ended up getting MAYBE 2 cards during the entire game, but lost them in the process. Still, it was SO HILARIOUSLY FUN! This game was definitely not one that Peter and I would take out and play on our own but it was a great time with Steph and Ron! I'd happily play it with them (or anyone else) again!
Samara
Steph and Ron taught us Samara, which is a very cute little game that I sorely regret failing to photograph. I'm sure there are plenty of pretty photos of this one of BGG and on Steph's blog :P.
This game has interesting "time mechanism" that involves players placing workers on various points on a calendar that slides down. Players use their workers to acquire tools, which are needed to acquire tiles that provide points and/or special powers. I had zero idea what I was doing this whole game and ended up coming in last place. :( Oh well. It was interesting and I now understand what I should have done to make more points. The game involves assessing the positioning of the various tiles and their requirements and then selecting the best objective to complement the availability and positioning of those tiles and moving your workers around to maximize your ability to acquire those tiles. I would play it again. :)
Far Space Foundry
I really wanted to bring Bomarzo because I'm certain it's a better 4-player game than it is a 2-player game, but Peter wasn't sure about the rules and we hadn't played it very much, so we went with Far Space Foundry instead, which was possibly a mistake because I think Far Space Foundry s a better 2-player game than it is a 4-player game.
When I started teaching this game, I realized how difficult the rules can be to a) teach and b) wrap your head around. While I took to it almost immediately, Peter had a much more difficult time grasping how everything came together. I don't know if it was just bad luck in positioning, the vagaries of the 4-player game, or my poor teaching, but I think Steph had a bit of trouble with it and didn't enjoy it all that much. Sorry Steph! :( Ron ended up beating me by 1 point!
Cities
This game of Cities went poorly for everyone. Ron was the caller and he seems to have a gift for drawing the most frustratingly incongruous tiles! I ended up making the most points with fields and terraces and ended up coming in second (behind Steph, of course :P), but I felt like I made a very baaaaaad City. Must try again soon!
Steam Time
I brought Steam Time because we all enjoy it. In this game, I did a little bit of everything and ended up next to last. Ron won by collecting a bunch of end-game scoring cards. I managed to satisfy several of those as well, but I think all he did the entire game was collect those green cards, gems, and steam and that killed it.
Rolling Japan
Steph had a great little filler game to fill out the few minutes we had at the end of the night - "Rolling Japan." It's a cute little puzzle game by Hisashi Hayashi in which players roll dice and have to fill in an abstract map of Japan (or Tokyo) with the values of those dice. The trick is that adjacent values can be no more than 1 pip apart. Any space you are unable to fill gets an X and the player with the fewest Xs at the end wins the game.
Peter fell in love with this game immediately! It's puzzly and light but challenging, which are his favorite characteristics. Also, it's tough to find, which seems to be another one of his favorite characteristics in a game. :P I will have to find a copy for him!
***
What's Not So New But Still Exciting?
Terra Mystica
TM! It's my favorite game EVER and we hadn't played it in weeks! WHY!? I don't know, but we made things right this week! I drew the Engineers and Mermaids and immediately bid lots of VP for first dibs. I LOVE THE MERMAIDS! If Mermaids are available, I will do whatever it takes to get them! I ended up not having to bid that much because Peter loves the Engineers. It worked out. :P But I did win! The additional end-game bonus provided points for having the most connected structures next to the map edge and Peter killed that, but I managed to make many more in-game points than he did with my favor tiles! It was a close game!
Le Havre
YAYAYAYAYAAY! I am the Queen of Le Havre!!! At least, this week! :P I took on some debt and built a bunch of buildings early in the game. Peter was baffled by my building prowess. I had 3 or 4 buildings before he managed to get even 1! He ended up going for his usual strategy of converting goods into money using the shipping line, but I had the shipping line :P. I went for my usual strategy of acquiring a slew of buildings. I managed to collect the right combination of buildings to make maximum use of bank and I managed to get a luxury liner! I also managed to make enough money to pay all my debts in the final round! I won with 300+ points! This was my best Le Havre performance to date. It will never be my favorite, but at least now that I've won in recent history I don't feel completely ineffectual in its presence. :)
Le Havre: The Inland Port
I dominated adult Le Havre, so I wanted to dominate in baby Le Havre as well! And I did! :P My intent was to acquire as much grain and as many anchors as possible and make lots of points from those. In the end, I managed to get not only grain, but also fish, and wood scoring tiles! I didn't make quite as many points from those as I initially hoped I would, but I did win! But I think I only won because Peter was dead tired. :(
Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
This was a very rough game of TTA for me. I failed to plan my resource generation very well and ended up with only Level A food and Level 1 resource producers, which meant that I kept having to send workers off to those spaces to increase production and which also meant that all that production was constantly cannibalizing my resource cubes during consumption, which basically meant I was SOL. But the clouds parted and the Gods had mercy on my civilization and they sent me a vast territory full of cheap people and a single resource cube. :P This thing saved my butt! Oh! And the Fast Food Chains won me the game! :P
Caverna: The Cave Farmers
We were having trouble deciding on a meaty game for Monday night, but ended up settling on Caverna when Peter suggested it. Peter NEVER suggests Caverna. If I'm lucky, he agrees to play it when I demand it get played, but he suggested it and I jumped on my chance!
It had been FOREVER since our last game of Caverna and it showed! I actually thought I was doing quite well. I acquired the Seam (1 ore for each new stone) almost immediately and set out to acquire as much ore as I could to weaponize all my dwarves. My intent was to later acquire the Supplies Storage (8 gold if all your dwarves are weaponized) and the Ore Storage (1 gold for every 2 ore) and I did succeed in doing that, but I somehow failed to do a bunch of other stuff I was planning to do (i.e. cover my cave and field in tiles and acquire more than a few animals). I ran into some feeding problems and had to turn my cave into a Slaughtering Cave despite my best efforts, so I ended up losing a bunch of animals. :( Oh well. I won, but our scores were so miserably bad (as in worse than EVER) that I can't even bring myself to report them here. :cry: We really have to play this game more often!
La Granja
Our La Granja love affair is still going strong. Last week, I discussed the fact that I wanted to see a different strategy succeed and I am happy to report that I was able to make a different strategy succeed this week! Instead of going for my usual progression of craft buildings in the beginning and market barrows at the end, I went for all market barrows all the time! I did have to go for the coin craft building when it opened about halfway through the game, but that was my only concession to the crafts. I spent the rest of the time populating the stalls of Majorca with my wonderful market barrows and won! I scored 73, which is lower than my previous score in which I pursued all craft buildings all the time, but I won!
Bora Bora
I had been slightly avoiding Bora Bora because I did so well in a recent game that I felt I could only go down from there. But I was WRONG! SO WRONG! I KILLED IT this time!!! I created a very nice little engine of woman-attracting men and settling women that I barely needed to do anything all game to all my huts out on the board and fill my board with men/women. So that secured 2 6-point bonuses straight away. On top of that, I also managed to complete every objective (completing objectives becomes very easy when you have a million huts on the board) and fill my little building board with materials, and buy jewelry tiles from every round. I ended up just shy of 200 points, which is pretty good in our experience. :) SO HAPPY I am a very proud Bora Bora board mama!!! But I'm pretty sure it's all downhill from here.
Subdivision
After our crushing experience with the Highway scenario in our previous game, we had to try it again to redeem ourselves. I won that game with around 70 points, while Peter had around 60. And guess what happened this time!? AN EVEN MORE CRUSHING EXPERIENCE!!! This highway scenario is brutally hard! It makes you think it's going to be soooo easy because you have all this highway access everywhere and then BOOM! You're destroyed. I assumed that lakes would give me enough money to make a decent number of points, but that didn't work. And neither did the parks! :shake: I think both Peter and I ended up with scores in the low 60s or high 50s. It was absolutely unacceptable! We need to play with this mad scenario a little more!
Sanssouci
Back to Sanssouci we go! I'm still trying to get past that 100 mark and I ALMOST managed to get there this week! I ended up with 94 points! I was 6 points away!!!!! :cry:
Alhambra: Big Box
Peter was very tired this week and one day, the only thing he wanted to play was Alhambra. We did play some other games that day, but they were all light and the first thing he requested was Alhambra! He just loves this game so much! We played with the markets, camps, diamonds, and falcons, as we did last week. Unfortunately, Peter's tiredness got the best of him because his Alhmabra ended up demonsrably inferior to mine. He had far fewer tiles and zero markets, which are usually huge point scorers for me! He did manage to collect more falcons than I did, but he didn't do this early enough to take full advantage of them. Better luck next time, Peter! :P
Dominion: Prosperity
I have been playing the Dominion app a lot, which has been making me crave the physical version. We played with my favorite set - Prosperity. So many of the cards were treasures that we were both basically just accumulating money the entire game. Peter got on the Monuments early in order to acquire some of those easy points, but neither of us had any cards that did much other than simply give us money. It was BIG BIG BIG BIG money! :P I managed to win by acquiring a couple of colonies and out-provincing Peter! :P Love Dominion!
***
Fresh Cardboard
1. Lancaster: Big Box - It's a big box. I need all the big boxes! :P
2. Cavum - Heavy Cardboard kept playing this, so I had to look into it and ended up getting a copy through the BGG Marketplace.
3. Above and Below - I was not planning to get Above and Below because I don't like story telling games, but Ryan Laukat + Alf Seegert (I know he didn't design the game, but he contributed to the writing of the Encounter Book) = dream team. I had to try it! I can't wait to try their upcoming co-design!
4. Aeon's End - Though we prefer competitive games, we love co-ops and Rahdo completely sold me on this one! Can't wait to receive my copy!
5. A Study in Emerald (second edition) - BoardGameBliss had a sale on this game and the price made it too tempting to pass up. It looks...weird...but sometimes, weird can be good. I'm happy to give it a shot.
6. Planet Steam - I acquired this one in a trade. Steph has written about it and photographed it and though it may not be the best 2-player game, I am interested in trying it.
7. Asara - Kramer and Kiesling kick! I got a used copy for cheap! YAY for cheap used copies!!! They will help me keep this blog going!
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Next Week...
Look forward to Star Wars: Rebellion! IT'S HAPPENING!!!! TONIGHT!!!!! SO EXCITED! AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT STAR WARS! :P Star Wars virgin review next week!
Also, I have a feeling that Peter will be itching to try our new Viticulture: Moor Visitors Expansion expansion for Viticulture, so we may try that as well.
And I'm sure I'll add another surprise or two along the way!
Thanks for reading, friends!
:) :heart: :)
***
MINA'S LOVE METER
:( Dislike - I don't like this game, but I can see why others like it.
(5 on BGG scale)
:heart: Some like - I find this game somewhat appealing, but it doesn't really grab me. I am glad to have had the opportunity to try this game, but it is unlikely to stay in my collection for very long.
(5.5 to 6.5) on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: Like - I like this game and appreciate the design. I am happy to play this game occasionally when the mood strikes and enjoy doing so.
(7 to 7.5 on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: :heart: Some love - I love this game. It's not perfect, but it really appeals to me and I will play it frequently.
(7.5 to 8 on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: Lots of love - I really love this game. The design really speaks to me. I want to play it most of the time.
(8 to 9 on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: All love all the time - I ADORE this game and can see myself playing it many times and for many years. I would go to sleep clutching it in my arms and want to play it all day every day...only not literally because that would be insane.
(9 to 10 on BGG scale)
Inspired by all this excitement, I have decided to make a life goal. I know it probably won't happen this year, or next year, or even the year after that, but it's going to happen!
That's enough dreaming! ON TO THE GAMING!
Because this was an unusual week, I have decided to adopt an unusual format. I will start with the most recent event - the Snakes and Lattes gathering.
On Tuesday night, Snakes and Lattes sent a Tweet saying that Tom Vasel and 40 of his friends would be at Snakes and Lattes College on Wednesday afternoon! Of course, I HAD to try to meet them! I didn't know what to expect. Would I have to push through a sea of people to even catch a glimpse of all the board game legends that would be there? Or would the late notice prevent people from showing up? Maybe, just maybe, would I get to play some games with them??? :D I'm SO DELIGHTED to report that there was no sea of random people and that I was not only fortunate enough to play a game of Libertalia with Zee Garcia (WHO IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE HUMANS!!!!), but I also managed to put my encyclopedic knowledge of board game rules to use in helping to teach Tom Vasel, Jason Levine and friends how to play Dilluvia Project! Of course, Zee won that game of Libertalia (my friend, Jamie and I tied for second) and Tom found the icons in Dilluvia Project less than delightful, but I hope he gets a chance to try it again soon! I wish I could help them learn games every day! :P
This photo was taken by my long-armed friend, Jamie (bottom left)
I got the most fearsome pirate board, but I did not end up being the most fearsome pirate :(
But not only did I get to meet The Dice Tower and a number of wonderful publishers and designers, I had the honor of meeting one of my favorite designers and publishers, Ignacy Trzewiczek (i.e. ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE HUMANS!!!). He taught me and my friend, Jamie, his new game - Tentacles of Time. This game is essentially a re-implementation of Tides of Time and is quite similar but also quite different. Players have not only to contend with majorities, but also with nasty tentacle cards. Each tentacle gives the player holding it one madness at the end of each round. The player who collects the most madness in a given round may either discard one of his madness tokens or take 4 VP. Madness isn't much of a problem unless you collect 9, in which case you immediately lose the game. I really like Tides of Time, but I really love Tentacles of Time! The madness doesn't add much to the complexity of the game, but it does add much to its depth. There is another strategy to explore and a push-your-luck element that I'm always keen to experience. Oh! And if you care about such things, it's gorgeous! :P
Nauticus was a game I passed by many times because it is difficult to obtain, not available in English, and just a bit "regular" looking, but it's a Kramer and Kiesling game, so I knew I would relent and find a copy at some point. That point came a few weeks ago and I finally took it out for a bunch of spins this week! Here's how it went...
In Nauticus, players run competing ship companies, building fleets of ships, loading those ships with goods, and shipping those goods off to faraway lands to get points. The player who builds the best and biggest ships and delivers the most goods will be the winner!
The game is set up by randomly arranging 8 action tiles in a circle at the center of the board, placing a wheel that shows blue workers in the center of that circle, and arranging in piles all sail, mast, and body pieces for ships.
Each player receives a warehouse board, 3 pass tiles, which are placed with their -3, -2, and -1 up, 1 extra action tile, 4 workers, and 15 coins.
Extra action tile
Nauticus is a very blue game with a GOLDEN RULE: Every piece of anything you receive without paying money has to be stored in your warehouse. This is important because it makes the things you get for "free" not so "free."
The game is played over 4 rounds (5 rounds if playing with more than 2 players).
Each round begins with a preparation phase in which the round marker is advanced, the wheel is rotated so that the anchor on the wheel aligns with the first action taken in the preceding round, and the 8 action tiles are shuffled and dealt face up around the wheel.
Each round features 7 phases of actions and each phase involves one player selecting one of the action tiles, taking the bonus printed on the board, and executing or passing on the action. After this, each player may choose to follow this action or pass. When a player passes on an action, he flips one of his pass tiles face down, eliminating either a -3, -2, or -1 point penalty he would otherwise incur at the end of the round.
There are 2 types of actions:
1) Paid actions - Paid action tiles are blue in color and depict some sort of good that the player may buy. The cost of these actions is denoted by the outer numbers printed on the board. To buy goods, a player must pay the costs shown AND pay one worker for each good. Any good beyond the first of a given type costs 4 coins regardless of the cost shown. The central wheel may show blue workers aligned with the selected action. These workers allow a player to purchase goods without having to spend any of the workers in his supply. Any additional goods purchased beyond the number of workers shown on the wheel require that the player spend one worker from his supply for each good taken. If a player buys all 4 goods shown on the action tile, he receives one good of any of the types purchased for free.
Paid actions allow a player to buy:
*Hull parts -Paid hull parts can be placed directly on the table and used to build ships. Once a player has started building a ship, he must complete that ship with new hull parts. He may not combine ships in progress, nor may he insert hull parts into ships that already contain a front and a back.
*Masts - There are 5 types of masts, as determined by their different emblems. Only 4 may be bought. The masts that show a crown can only be gained by completing ships. Each ship must contain masts and sails that show the same illustration, with the exception being crowns, which are considered jokers.
*Sails - These are the same as masts. Sails must match the masts on a ship.
*Goods - Purchasing goods works the same as purchasing ship parts. Each paid good may be immediately loaded on a ship by being placed below a hull part.
2) Unpaid actions - Paid action tiles are tan in color and the numbers printed on the board are meaningless when these actions are selected. However, these actions still require one worker per action taken.
*Transport from your warehouse to your shipyard
Players collect ship parts and goods in their warehouses. This action allows them to transport ship parts and goods to their shipyards.
*Take money
Receive 2 coins for every worker spent.
*Deliver goods
Deliver goods from a fully loaded completed ship. A complete ship is has a front and end (and may have 1 or 2 middles) and has as many masts and sails as ship parts. Once a ship has been unloaded, it may be loaded again in the future.
*Crowns
Receive points equal to the number of workers spent multiplied by the number of crowns showing anywhere in your shipyard and/or warehouse up to a maximum of 15 points.
When completing a ship, a player may select 1 ship completion bonus per ship part included in the completed ship. The bonuses include taking 7 coins, taking 3 workers, taking 2 goods, taking 1 crown mast, taking 1 crown sail, and taking 3 points. Each rewarded may be taken a maximum of twice per ship.
In addition to the regular actions, each player has one extra action that he may perform at any point during the game. This extra action allows a player to first take 2 workers and then select one of the 8 regular actions to take. It's generally a good idea to keep these extra actions to help you out of a jam in the final round.
Once 7 actions have been taken, the round ends and players incur negative points for any pass tiles that remain on their negative sides.
The game ends after the 4th round at which point players score points for delivered goods (sets of identical goods provide increasing numbers of points), completed ships (larger ships score more points), and remaining ship pieces, undelivered goods, workers, and coins.
:) 1. Looks great
The pastel blue tones of the artwork are highly evocative of the nautical theme and fit perfectly with the pleasant gameplay. I did initially think that the game looked like every other game, but I retract those thoughts. I think it looks very pleasant and it plays just like as looks.
:) 2. Fast paced and fast playing
Turns in Nauticus are very quick and the action selection mechanism keeps all players engaged at all times. Because every player can choose to "follow" the action taken by the active player, everyone has some decisions to make and some actions to take during every other player's turn. And turns are very simple and quick, as players buy a few goods, take a few coins, buy a few ship parts, or score a few points. It's all very simple and streamlined, just as one would expect from a Kramer and Kiesling game.
:) 3. Familiar and yet innovative action selection mechanism
The action selection mechanism featured in Nauticus involves a familiar "following" aspect that allows all players to take the same action as the active player (without a special benefit reserved for the active player only). The interesting aspect of this following business is that passing on the following allows you to turn over a tile for which you would otherwise incur negative points at round's end. You can even pass on an action you select yourself, which you may do simply to turn over the -3VP tile staring you in the face. So even the passing action is imbued with some significance, forcing players to make tradeoffs between the value of the action vs. the negative points. But that's not all! Turning over one of the negative point tiles turns that tile into a potential VP goldmine because it turns it onto its crown side. One of the actions provides points for having crowns! So there is even more of an incentive to flip those pesky negatives face down!
The passing isn't the only interesting aspect of the following mechanism. Because other players are able to follow the action you take and once that action has been selected by one player, it cannot be selected by another for the rest of the round, you have to think carefully about the order in which you select your actions. You can take the shipping action when you see an opponent loading his nearly finished ships to prevent him from finishing the ships and then taking the shipping action, for example.
But this isn't all! The action selection mechanism is complicated by the interactions between the bonuses and workers available to help you take various actions. The value of each action is modified by the bonus awarded to the player who selects the action AND by the number of "free" workers available to complete the action. This can force some difficult choices between taking an action you really need/want and taking an action just to receive a bonus you really need/want. The tension between these two things often leaves me pulling my hair! The only consolation is the fact that you may be able to later take the action you want despite not having selected it yourself, but if it doesn't happen in the right order (for example, your opponent selects ship before you have an opportunity to buy goods), you could be kicking yourself for getting greedy with bonuses.
In conclusion, the action selection mechanism in Nauticus features a familiar yet interesting following aspect that helps keep all players engaged in the game at all times and a mind-twistingly wonderful interaction between actions and their associated bonuses.
:) 4. Tense
Nauticus is TENSE! And the tension builds as the game progresses, as the importance of the order of operations increases and the value of every worker and every coin grows.
Workers and money are very tight in this game. Workers help you get more done and money helps you get more stuff. You want to have lots of both! BUT YOU CAN'T!!! Because the game won't let you! There are two main ways to acquire money and workers; you can obtain them as bonuses for selecting certain actions and you can obtain them as bonuses for completing ships. The problem is that you only get a few workers or a bit of money for selecting actions and completing ships demands that you spend workers and money. The entire process is a bit of a catch 22. It creates a challenging loop that forces you to make the most of every resource you have. Resource management is tight and you're constantly asking yourself whether you will have enough workers to ship all the goods off your giant boat or whether you will have enough money to buy the pieces you need to complete a ship!
Nauticus is tense for one more reason - order of operations. In many games, you have to do one thing before you can do something else. In Nauticus, order of operations is made all the more important by the fact that you may only get to take any of the actions a maximum of 4 times (possibly 5 if you happen to use your bonus action) in any given game and you don't always have control over when that action is taken. If you don't have the money to buy ship parts you desperately need when the ship part action is selected by another player, you're out of luck! If you haven't yet loaded the goods in your warehouse onto your ships when the shipping action gets selected by another player, too bad! You have to constantly be on your toes, keeping an eye on your opponent(s) to ensure you have what you need for anything they may throw your way and to try to take actions in an order that would detain or thwart their plans. In the final round of the game, when you are struggling to complete that last ship or ship those last goods, the order of operations becomes even more important, as there will be no second chances, so the game culminates in a cloud of tension. It's quite the experience!
:) 5. Several strategies to explore
Your main avenues to point making in Nauticus are ships, goods, and crowns. Large ships score many, many points, huge collections of the same goods score many, many points, and lots of crowns score many points. These strategies are not mutually exclusive, especially since ships are a pre-requisite for shipping and acquiring more than 3 crowns in a round, but they can be pursued to various degrees. Which strategy you pursue will depend on the setup, including the specific alignment of actions and bonuses/workers, as well as your own preferences.
:) 6. Satisfying results
At the end of a game of Nauticus, I can gaze upon my beautiful fleet of ships and delivered goods and marvel at the beauty of it all. :P That's probably an exaggeration, but I do feel a strong sense of accomplishment at the end of each game of Nauticus. As I mentioned above, resources (workers and money) are tight in this game and there's a constant sense of impending
:) 7. Good replay value
Although I would hesitate to say that Nauticus is an extremely deep game, I do think that it offers players several strategies to explore (as described in 5 above) and thus has some intrinsic replay value.
Beyond this, the variable arrangement of action tiles in each round modifies the value of certain actions and may affect your strategy, generating some variability between sessions.
:soblue: 1. BAZILLIONS of pieces
There are SO MANY pieces in this game!!! The sheer number of little ship parts and goods makes it a nightmare to set up if you don't find a box to house everything! We immediately boxed everything and simply open the nicely organized box and take ship directly out of it when playing, so setup takes no time at all. However, if you were to bag everything and take all the pieces out every time, you might be done by the time you've set the game up. I highly recommend boxing this one!
:soblue: 2. Not available with an official English-language rulebook
To my knowledge, the only English rules available for Nauticus at this point in time come in the form of a fan-made translation. The translation is great, but it would be nice to have a set of official English-language rules and an English-language edition of the game that isn't quite so difficult to procure as it is right now.
Whether alone or in combination, Kramer and Kiesling have created some of the most engaging and interesting board games I've encountered. And Nauticus fits comfortably alongside their other amazing titles. Low on rules, high on interesting decision points, and delivering satisfying results, Nauticus is a game I know I will crave for years to come.
In Firenze, players compete to complete commissions for the tallest and prettiest towers in Florence. The player who has built the most of the highest valued commissions by building towers and planned the best celebrations will win the game.
The game is set up by placing the end-game bonus tile on the board and level bonus tiles in ascending order on their reserved space on the game board. Then, 4 "balcony tiles" (1 each with a I, II, III or IV on the back) are placed on indicated spaces on the towers of corresponding colors and 5 neutral seals are randomly placed on various levels and towers on the board. A deck of cards is created by shuffling the regular cards separately from the start cards and placing the regular cards face down with the start cards on top. Six cards from the top of that pile (i.e. start cards) are then drawn and placed on their reserved spaces on the game board. Four blocks are randomly drawn from the bag and placed on each card.
Each player receives a construction site, 9 seals of his color (in a 2-player game) and either 2 white bricks or 3 white bricks or 4 white bricks, etc. depending on turn order.
The game board shows towers of various colors with flags that show majority bonus points that will be awarded to the player who has built the most towers of this color at the end of the game. Below the flag are various "commissions." Each of these commissions requires exactly as many bricks of its color to complete as are shown in the smaller number and completing each level awards the player as many points as are shown in the larger number. For example, a level-5 green commission awards 4 points when completed. Balcony tiles cover 4 commissions and provide bonus points, but the balconies must be completed in order (i.e. a player cannot complete balcony III until somebody has completed balconies I and II).
A player's turn proceeds as follows:
1) Choose a card (mandatory)
You must select one of the cards from the card row and take the card along with the bricks on the card into your hand. The leftmost card is free, but any card to the right of that one requires that you place 1 brick from your supply on each of the cards to the left of the one you take.
Cards come in a variety of flavors and have different effects depending on their type. Events are played immediately, personnel and celebration cards go into your hand and building cards go face-up in front of you (you have a 5-card limit for cards in your possession), and church cards go into public church spaces and affect all players.
Once a card has been taken, all cards slide to the left to fill in the gap and a new one is placed on the rightmost space along with 4 new bricks from the bag.
2) Exchange bricks (optional)
You may exchange 3 bricks from your supply for 1 brick from the card row.
3) Build towers (optional)
You may build towers on your construction site out of the bricks in your personal supply. You may build 2 bricks each turn for free, but any bricks you build beyond that require that you throw some bricks from your supply back into the bag.
4) Tear down abandoned construction (mandatory)
You must tear down any towers that you have not added to during the current turn's construction phase, placing half the bricks bag into the bag and the other half back into your supply.
5) Fulfill commissions (optional)
You may choose whether to use your towers to complete commissions or whether to continue building them. To complete a commission, the number of bricks in your tower must exactly match the number in the commission. You place your seal in the completed commission, score the points shown, and place all the bricks comprising the tower used to fulfill the commission back into the bag.
6) Check limits (mandatory)
If you have more than 10 bricks in your supply, you have to return excess ones to the bag. If you have more than 5 cards in your possession, you have to toss excess ones in the discard pile.
The game ends when one player has placed his last seal. At this point, all other players get one final turn and the game ends. Majorities are assessed for each tower, with the bonus shown on the flag of each tower given to the player who has fulfilled the most commissions in that tower. Some celebration cards award points at the end of the game and these are scored accordingly.
:) 1. Beautiful with thematically-appropriate tactile element
The art in Firenze is highly evocative of the ornate Italian Renaissance architecture and artwork that dominates the scenery in Florence.
The little wooden tower pieces that players collect and assemble on their boards add a wonderful tactile element that is unusual and highly evocative of the building theme.
:) 2. Relatively fast paced
Despite the seemingly long process that takes place on each player's turn, Firenze is actually quite a fast-paced game. Each step is very quick and on most turns, several of the optional steps are forfeited. The decision-making process is also not so complex that it slows us down, so the game moves along at a nice pace. It typically takes us about 45 minutes to complete, which I consider to be perfect for a game of this depth and complexity.
:) 3. Tense card selection mechanism
The cards are the heart of Firenze. They have a variety effects that include things like swapping bricks 1:1 for bricks in other players' supplies or the bag, taking bricks off another player's tower, forcing all players to return bricks from their supplies for each of their towers in progress, etc. The cards have a significant effect on the progress of the game and the fact that many of them affect all players means having to keep a close eye on all the cards you will be leaving behind whenever you select a card. Bricks are precious (especially the rare purple and blue ones) and plopping them down on cards to reach higher ones can be painful, but if it means avoiding a -3 point card or keeping one of those nasty thieving cards away from an opponent, it may be worth it.
:) 4. Restrictions that generate tension
Some games generate tension through scarcity of resources, but Firenze generates tension through restrictions that prevent players from accumulating cards and resources. While there are two cards that allow you to keep an infinite number of cards and increase your storage limit to 15 bricks from round to round, these don't always appear and until they do, the 10-brick limit ensures that players have gradually build and feed their towers and therefore carefully manage their supply of bricks of the right colors and ensure they are able to meet any adversities the card display and other players may throw their way.
:) 5. Strategic and tactical
Firenze is primarily a game of responding to the available cards, responding to the available bricks, and responding to your opponent. It's a highly interactive game in which players must always keep a close eye on each other and the situation on the board as it fluctuates from turn to turn. But there is also some long-term planning involved. You can start out with the intent to complete many small commissions (and possibly try to acquire the cards that give you 1 point for each 3/4 commission) or a few of the bigger commissions. You can go for the commission colors that provide higher majority bonuses but require less common bricks to complete or go fro more of the commissions with lower majority bonuses that require more common brick colors. And all the while, you have to try to make the best use of the cards that become available to further your goals while trying to prevent your opponent(s) from doing so.
:) 6. High replay value
Firenze features replay value in its depth and its variability. First, while its simple rules may suggest otherwise, Firenze is actually a relatively complex game. There are so many things to keep in mind and consider on each turn, including the options you will be leaving for your opponent. There is depth here.
There is also variability. The card deck is quite large and though there is some repetition, there is no guarantee that all cards will become available in any given game. This, combined with the variable timing of card availability ensures that the same strategy may not work every time.
And on top of all this, the designer provides a couple of variants in the rulebook that can change the feel of the game. One involves randomly placing all 7 neutral seals provided (instead of the 5 listed in the rules) on the game board and another involves completely blocking all 6 commissions of one color with neutral seals. Both of these variants dramatically change the game, with the first generating even more competition for commissions and the second making one color of brick essentially worthless. All of this ensures that each game plays out somewhat differently from the previous one and somewhat allows players to customize the experience to their preferences.
:) 7. "Best with 2" according to BGG and I believe it
I think that Firenze is probably best with only 2 players because more players would just create more chaos on the board, lead to more negative events hitting you between turns, and ultimately lead to less control. I like the amount of control over the brick and card situation that the 2-player version provides and I think that simply increasing the number of seals in the 2-player game sufficiently elevates the majority competition with only 2 players.
:soblue: 1. Mean!
Soul crushing!!! This game will wipe that jolly smile off your face and eliminate any modicum of confidence you may have! Not only does this game encourage players to be mean to each other, it is simply mean to the players all by itself! Now that I've thoroughly terrified you, allow me to qualify and explain my statements. :P
Ok, first, the game is mean to players! Some cards, no matter who takes them, force all players to pay bricks for their towers in construction and tear down any towers that cannot be paid for. Some cards give you -3 points. Just because. Others give you -2 points. Just because they want to be a little less mean than the -3 cards. The cards are mean! Plus, the game demands that you keep towers under construction going each and every round or you have to crush them. So you have to constantly make sure you have enough bricks in reserve to a) keep your towers going and b) make payments for your towers under construction should payment cards be selected and c) make payments for cards higher in the card row to avoid negative points.
Second, the game encourages players to be destructive to each other. There are cards that outright allow you to take bricks off a player's tower under construction and return them to the bag, there are cards that allow you to swap a brick from your supply for a brick in another player's supply, preferably making it impossible for that player to continue building one of his towers in the next turn, and then there is simply the fact that your entire goal in the game is to keep your opponent from being able to keep his towers going, forcing them to be demolished.
Firenze might look like a game of construction, but it's actually a game of destruction. Don't let the happy faces on the box fool you!
:soblue: 2. The Campampanile card is dead to me
The Capanile card requires that each player build a tower of 3 white bricks before he can fulfill any further commissions. This card is optional, so there is no need to include it in the game if you don't want to and I don't want to. It would just slow the game down for no reason at all. Dislike.
If you thought Firenze looked like a pleasant game of hiring pleasant-looking Florentine folk and building cute little candy-colored wooden towers, you thought WRONG! Firenze is actually a cutthroat game of destruction and demise in Renaissance Italy! :P It's actually an excellent game, filled with tense moments and compelling decision points, but it is worth emphasizing its meanness. It is a game that is mean to players in and of itself and it is a game that forces players to be mean to each other. As such, it is not a game I would recommend to everyone. I would also not recommend it to everyone because it is currently out of print and difficult to obtain, but if and when it does return to print, I would encourage those who can stomach a little backstabbery and destruction to take a look at it. I can stomach a little backstabbery and destruction in a quick-playing game that really forces me to think very carefully about managing my resources and optimizing the timing of my actions. I love it!
Artifacts Inc. is a game about spelunking for artifacts and displaying them in museums. Players take on the roles of archeology companies, competing to acquire the best assets for their companies, find the most valuable artifacts, and display those artifacts in museums.
There are two versions of the game; one is described in the rulebook and the other is the designer's variant created to address issues of down time. I will describe the variant rules here because we have played by those rules more often than not and then discuss the differences in the review section below.
To set up the game, cards are separated into Asset cards and Public cards. The Public cards are Guide Work, Private Collectors, and 4 Museums. The Asset cards are labeled either A, B, C, D, or E. The D and E Asset cards are simply arranged in two piles, while the A, B, and C Asset cards are shuffled, arranged in 3 rows, and 3 cards from each pile are revealed. Level 1 versions of each of the Asset cards should be face up.
There is also a set of Diving cards that are arranged in numerical order, with the "2" card on top, and placed in the center of the board.
Each player receives one Desert Expedition, one Canyon Expedition, one Adventurer, and one Headquarters card, as well as a set of cubes in a given color, and 2 or 3 coins depending on turn order. In the variant, each player also receives a set of 7 dice, placing 3 of these in his available supply.
On his turn, each player will roll his Adventurer dice. The number of dice rolled is determined by the number of dice shown on his Adventurer cards. At the beginning of the game, this is 3, but this number should increase as the game progresses.
After rolling their dice, players take turns placing a die (or dice depending on the action) on a single Asset card or Public card. A player may place a die on a card occupied by another player's dice, but he may not place any dice on a card on which he has already placed dice in the current round. If a player places a die on a card occupied by another player's die with a lower pip value, he receives 1 coin. Otherwise, there is no benefit.
The available actions are:
Expedition: Gain one artifact, placing one of your cubes to indicate you have that artifact.
Buy: Purchase one new Asset card or upgrade one Asset card you already own, flipping it to its Level 2 side. Gain any points depicted on the card.
Museums: Sell the number of the artifacts indicated in one of the spaces on the museum, gaining a monetary sale bonus for each if applicable. The type of artifact sold must match the type of artifact shown on the museum card.
Guide Work: Take 1 coin.
Private Collectors: Sell any number of artifacts, gaining 1 coin for each plus 1 additional coin for each TYPE of artifact sold beyond the first.
Dive: Gain an Underwater card by placing one or more dice whose sum is equal to or higher than the number at the bottom of the topmost Underwater card. Each Underwater card gained will immediately give you 1 point. Underwater cards also show "finds" that can score additional points if you gain certain Asset cards.
The game ends at the end of the round in which one player reaches 20 points. At this point, players gain points for having the most cubes in the various museums. The player with the most points wins!
:) 1. Gorgeous artwork
Ryan Laukat. That's all you need to know. I love Ryan's style and Artifacts Inc. is a beautiful example of it.
:) 2. Interesting spatial element
While there is nothing outstandingly unique about Artifacts Inc., the spatial relationships between the cards players build into their tableaus and the restrictions on the tableau size are probably the most interesting and innovative aspects of the game. A player's tableau is built in two rows, which strictly limits your ability to exploit cards that score for adjacent cards of particular types and creates an interesting tension between wanting to build a card now to reap its benefits or prevent another player from acquiring it and wanting to save it for later in order to position it better to potentially take better advantage of its adjacency bonuses.
:) 3. Interesting upgrading mechanism
I quite enjoy the fact that all the Asset cards in Artifacts Inc. are double sided. Generally upgraded version of a card simply provides a point and more powerful action than the one on the non-upgraded version. But in some cases, the upgraded version provides the same action as that provided by the non-upgraded version and a scoring condition! This creates a significant amount of tension between upgrading an existing card and buying a card outright.
:) 4. Open to strategic and tactical play
There are both some long-term strategic and short-term tactical considerations to be made when playing Artifacts Inc.
The combination of A, B and C Asset cards available can help you carve out a general strategy, while the actions of your opponents can necessitate some modifications to that general strategy. The C cards are particularly useful in helping to guide your actions, as they can provide large windfalls of points for fulfilling certain conditions. For example, one C Asset card provides 1 point for each Doubloon shown on your Underwater cards, so you can build a strategy around collecting Diving.
In addition to creating a long-term plan, you will have to respond to the actions of your opponents. Not only will you sometimes be forced to adjust your plans when cards you were hoping to buy get taken before you are able to do so, but (when playing by the variant), you will have to consider the timing of your actions and the value of the dice you are placing. Money is very tight in this game and the opportunity to make 1 bonus coin simply for placing a higher valued die on the same card as an opponent is one that must be taken! And timing your actions to prevent an opponent from being able to take a coin for placing a higher valued die on the same card as one of your dice is just as important. So you not only have to respond to your opponent's moves, but try to maximize your ability to gain cash and minimize your opponent's ability to gain cash by playing your dice in the best order possible. This may involve saving low-valued dice for your private cards and spending higher valued dice on public cards.
:) 4. Light on rules
Artifacts Inc. is quick and easy to learn and teach and I think it would make a great introductory game for anyone.
:?block: The designer's official "cutthroat" variant rules are FAR SUPERIOR to the rules as written
We really did not enjoy the relatively solitary experience of Artifacts Inc. with the rules as written in the rulebook. In the rulebook, players are instructed to place all their dice and take all their actions alone prior to the next player's turn. In the designer's variant rules, players take turns placing dice on cards, which encourages players to pay attention to what others are doing, minimizes down time, and increases the importance of the die rolls. With the variant rules, players have to really think about when and where to place their dice of various values; if you place higher valued die on a card that already has a die, you get 1 coin and money is tight! Without the variant rules, the die values have much less of an impact on the game.
This is neither a negative nor a positive, but I think that the variant rules provide a more interesting experience than the dice placement rules in the rulebook and, as I mentioned above, the variant rules are the ones I am reviewing.
:soblue: 1. Takes too long to set up and play for its weight/depth
Although it is a small game, consisting of a mere deck of cards and a few chits and tokens, Artifacts Inc. involves a surprisingly lengthy setup. Diving cards must be set in a specific order, 5 decks of cards must be separated by letter, 3 of those shuffled and cards taken off of those decks to form a display, a "common action" display must be formed, and players have to arrange their starting cards before themselves in their desired order. All of this takes way more time than I like to commit to setting up a light game.
Then there is the gameplay. Again, despite the fact that Artifacts Inc. is a relatively light game, it can instigate some seriously paralyzing analysis. The huge display of public and private cards demands reading all their effects and/or constantly reminding yourself of the options available to you, which takes time.
:soblue: 2. End-game is anti-climactic
Like many race games, Artifacts Inc. features a bit of an anti-climactic finish. Despite the addition of end-game scoring in the form of majorities in the various museums, it is often quite easy to see who will come out on top as the end of the game approaches. I appreciate the effort that went into making the ending slightly more interesting, but I think I would enjoy the game more had it involved a set number of rounds and a final scoring.
I enjoyed my plays of Artifacts Inc., but I am much more fond of heavier games than lighter games that take a substantial amount of time to play. For me, 45 minutes was a bit too long for the depth and breadth of decision making that Artifacts Inc. offered. I do think that many people will enjoy its relative simplicity, interesting spatial aspect, and breathtaking artwork and I would highly recommend it to anyone who frequently teaches games to new players (particularly at lower player counts) or is looking for a compact travel game, but it's just a bit too light for the time investment for me. I'm glad I had the opportunity to try it and I may play it very occasionally while I still own it, but I don't think I will play it very often in the future.
On Sunday, Steph Hodge and her partner, Ron, joined us for an afternoon of gaming at BoardGameBliss! They were kind enough to drive all the way from Niagara to help me avoid car sickness and I thank them with all my heart for doing that! There was an awful snowstorm afterwards and I felt quite badly about their having to drive back in those conditions, but they made it back safely. So what did we play in the 6.5 hours we had?
FRIENDS!!!
Rialto
The first game we played was Rialto! I recently reviewed this game and LOVED it with 2, but really wanted to try it with more than 2 players to determine whether that would improve the game. The verdict? I think that some people will prefer it with more than 2, but I actually prefer it with 2. With more than 2 players, it becomes a lighter, less strategic game. I found myself much more able to make and execute longer-term plans when playing with the 2-player variant than when playing with a full complement of 4 players. That may be a factor of a) the fact that I've only played with 4 once and b) the fact that I was distracted while playing, but I still think I actually prefer Rialto with 2. I guess I need to play it more with more players to really determine how I feel about it, but that's where I stand for now. :)
Dragon Racer
Dragon Racer is a cute little racing game in which players take on the roles of "DRAGON RACERS," controlling teams of dragons and trying travel the furthest over a set number of rounds by drafting cards and claiming majorities. My character was "Amrita," who had a cool ability that allowed her to move 3 extra spaces every turn I was able to activate her entire dragon crew. I ended up doing this relatively frequently even though I was the object of a few attacks during the game and pulled into the lead in the final turn! I may have contributed to incapacitating one of Ron's dragons in order to do that, but he was ok with second place. :P I think...:P
I really enjoyed this game. It's quick and easy and adorable. I'm not sure I would want to play it frequently with only 2 players, but I think my sister and her boyfriend would enjoy it, so I may try to get a copy.
Cha dango
Peter and I are not speed gamers. We take our time. But when Steph asked whether we'd be interested in learning Cha Dango, I was all over it! The game is SO CUTE and is basically the Stroop Effect in board game form.
In this game, players compete to grab the most cards from a central display before the deck runs out. The cards are double sided and the back of the top card of the deck determines whether you are trying to grab from a central display a card that has the same color as the background of a drawn card, the same figure as that on a drawn card, or the same color as the figure of a drawn card. If the display does not contain a card that matches the requirement, players have to put a teacup up to their mouths and the last one to do so loses a card from his pile. It's a speed game, so the point is to be the fastest to grab these cards, but the process of trying to determine which colors and figures I'm looking for took me so long to compute that I ended up just laughing like a maniac. I ended up getting MAYBE 2 cards during the entire game, but lost them in the process. Still, it was SO HILARIOUSLY FUN! This game was definitely not one that Peter and I would take out and play on our own but it was a great time with Steph and Ron! I'd happily play it with them (or anyone else) again!
Samara
Steph and Ron taught us Samara, which is a very cute little game that I sorely regret failing to photograph. I'm sure there are plenty of pretty photos of this one of BGG and on Steph's blog :P.
This game has interesting "time mechanism" that involves players placing workers on various points on a calendar that slides down. Players use their workers to acquire tools, which are needed to acquire tiles that provide points and/or special powers. I had zero idea what I was doing this whole game and ended up coming in last place. :( Oh well. It was interesting and I now understand what I should have done to make more points. The game involves assessing the positioning of the various tiles and their requirements and then selecting the best objective to complement the availability and positioning of those tiles and moving your workers around to maximize your ability to acquire those tiles. I would play it again. :)
Far Space Foundry
I really wanted to bring Bomarzo because I'm certain it's a better 4-player game than it is a 2-player game, but Peter wasn't sure about the rules and we hadn't played it very much, so we went with Far Space Foundry instead, which was possibly a mistake because I think Far Space Foundry s a better 2-player game than it is a 4-player game.
When I started teaching this game, I realized how difficult the rules can be to a) teach and b) wrap your head around. While I took to it almost immediately, Peter had a much more difficult time grasping how everything came together. I don't know if it was just bad luck in positioning, the vagaries of the 4-player game, or my poor teaching, but I think Steph had a bit of trouble with it and didn't enjoy it all that much. Sorry Steph! :( Ron ended up beating me by 1 point!
Cities
This game of Cities went poorly for everyone. Ron was the caller and he seems to have a gift for drawing the most frustratingly incongruous tiles! I ended up making the most points with fields and terraces and ended up coming in second (behind Steph, of course :P), but I felt like I made a very baaaaaad City. Must try again soon!
Steam Time
I brought Steam Time because we all enjoy it. In this game, I did a little bit of everything and ended up next to last. Ron won by collecting a bunch of end-game scoring cards. I managed to satisfy several of those as well, but I think all he did the entire game was collect those green cards, gems, and steam and that killed it.
Rolling Japan
Steph had a great little filler game to fill out the few minutes we had at the end of the night - "Rolling Japan." It's a cute little puzzle game by Hisashi Hayashi in which players roll dice and have to fill in an abstract map of Japan (or Tokyo) with the values of those dice. The trick is that adjacent values can be no more than 1 pip apart. Any space you are unable to fill gets an X and the player with the fewest Xs at the end wins the game.
Peter fell in love with this game immediately! It's puzzly and light but challenging, which are his favorite characteristics. Also, it's tough to find, which seems to be another one of his favorite characteristics in a game. :P I will have to find a copy for him!
Terra Mystica
TM! It's my favorite game EVER and we hadn't played it in weeks! WHY!? I don't know, but we made things right this week! I drew the Engineers and Mermaids and immediately bid lots of VP for first dibs. I LOVE THE MERMAIDS! If Mermaids are available, I will do whatever it takes to get them! I ended up not having to bid that much because Peter loves the Engineers. It worked out. :P But I did win! The additional end-game bonus provided points for having the most connected structures next to the map edge and Peter killed that, but I managed to make many more in-game points than he did with my favor tiles! It was a close game!
Le Havre
YAYAYAYAYAAY! I am the Queen of Le Havre!!! At least, this week! :P I took on some debt and built a bunch of buildings early in the game. Peter was baffled by my building prowess. I had 3 or 4 buildings before he managed to get even 1! He ended up going for his usual strategy of converting goods into money using the shipping line, but I had the shipping line :P. I went for my usual strategy of acquiring a slew of buildings. I managed to collect the right combination of buildings to make maximum use of bank and I managed to get a luxury liner! I also managed to make enough money to pay all my debts in the final round! I won with 300+ points! This was my best Le Havre performance to date. It will never be my favorite, but at least now that I've won in recent history I don't feel completely ineffectual in its presence. :)
Le Havre: The Inland Port
I dominated adult Le Havre, so I wanted to dominate in baby Le Havre as well! And I did! :P My intent was to acquire as much grain and as many anchors as possible and make lots of points from those. In the end, I managed to get not only grain, but also fish, and wood scoring tiles! I didn't make quite as many points from those as I initially hoped I would, but I did win! But I think I only won because Peter was dead tired. :(
Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
This was a very rough game of TTA for me. I failed to plan my resource generation very well and ended up with only Level A food and Level 1 resource producers, which meant that I kept having to send workers off to those spaces to increase production and which also meant that all that production was constantly cannibalizing my resource cubes during consumption, which basically meant I was SOL. But the clouds parted and the Gods had mercy on my civilization and they sent me a vast territory full of cheap people and a single resource cube. :P This thing saved my butt! Oh! And the Fast Food Chains won me the game! :P
Caverna: The Cave Farmers
We were having trouble deciding on a meaty game for Monday night, but ended up settling on Caverna when Peter suggested it. Peter NEVER suggests Caverna. If I'm lucky, he agrees to play it when I demand it get played, but he suggested it and I jumped on my chance!
It had been FOREVER since our last game of Caverna and it showed! I actually thought I was doing quite well. I acquired the Seam (1 ore for each new stone) almost immediately and set out to acquire as much ore as I could to weaponize all my dwarves. My intent was to later acquire the Supplies Storage (8 gold if all your dwarves are weaponized) and the Ore Storage (1 gold for every 2 ore) and I did succeed in doing that, but I somehow failed to do a bunch of other stuff I was planning to do (i.e. cover my cave and field in tiles and acquire more than a few animals). I ran into some feeding problems and had to turn my cave into a Slaughtering Cave despite my best efforts, so I ended up losing a bunch of animals. :( Oh well. I won, but our scores were so miserably bad (as in worse than EVER) that I can't even bring myself to report them here. :cry: We really have to play this game more often!
La Granja
Our La Granja love affair is still going strong. Last week, I discussed the fact that I wanted to see a different strategy succeed and I am happy to report that I was able to make a different strategy succeed this week! Instead of going for my usual progression of craft buildings in the beginning and market barrows at the end, I went for all market barrows all the time! I did have to go for the coin craft building when it opened about halfway through the game, but that was my only concession to the crafts. I spent the rest of the time populating the stalls of Majorca with my wonderful market barrows and won! I scored 73, which is lower than my previous score in which I pursued all craft buildings all the time, but I won!
Bora Bora
I had been slightly avoiding Bora Bora because I did so well in a recent game that I felt I could only go down from there. But I was WRONG! SO WRONG! I KILLED IT this time!!! I created a very nice little engine of woman-attracting men and settling women that I barely needed to do anything all game to all my huts out on the board and fill my board with men/women. So that secured 2 6-point bonuses straight away. On top of that, I also managed to complete every objective (completing objectives becomes very easy when you have a million huts on the board) and fill my little building board with materials, and buy jewelry tiles from every round. I ended up just shy of 200 points, which is pretty good in our experience. :) SO HAPPY I am a very proud Bora Bora board mama!!! But I'm pretty sure it's all downhill from here.
Subdivision
After our crushing experience with the Highway scenario in our previous game, we had to try it again to redeem ourselves. I won that game with around 70 points, while Peter had around 60. And guess what happened this time!? AN EVEN MORE CRUSHING EXPERIENCE!!! This highway scenario is brutally hard! It makes you think it's going to be soooo easy because you have all this highway access everywhere and then BOOM! You're destroyed. I assumed that lakes would give me enough money to make a decent number of points, but that didn't work. And neither did the parks! :shake: I think both Peter and I ended up with scores in the low 60s or high 50s. It was absolutely unacceptable! We need to play with this mad scenario a little more!
Sanssouci
Back to Sanssouci we go! I'm still trying to get past that 100 mark and I ALMOST managed to get there this week! I ended up with 94 points! I was 6 points away!!!!! :cry:
Alhambra: Big Box
Peter was very tired this week and one day, the only thing he wanted to play was Alhambra. We did play some other games that day, but they were all light and the first thing he requested was Alhambra! He just loves this game so much! We played with the markets, camps, diamonds, and falcons, as we did last week. Unfortunately, Peter's tiredness got the best of him because his Alhmabra ended up demonsrably inferior to mine. He had far fewer tiles and zero markets, which are usually huge point scorers for me! He did manage to collect more falcons than I did, but he didn't do this early enough to take full advantage of them. Better luck next time, Peter! :P
Dominion: Prosperity
I have been playing the Dominion app a lot, which has been making me crave the physical version. We played with my favorite set - Prosperity. So many of the cards were treasures that we were both basically just accumulating money the entire game. Peter got on the Monuments early in order to acquire some of those easy points, but neither of us had any cards that did much other than simply give us money. It was BIG BIG BIG BIG money! :P I managed to win by acquiring a couple of colonies and out-provincing Peter! :P Love Dominion!
1. Lancaster: Big Box - It's a big box. I need all the big boxes! :P
2. Cavum - Heavy Cardboard kept playing this, so I had to look into it and ended up getting a copy through the BGG Marketplace.
3. Above and Below - I was not planning to get Above and Below because I don't like story telling games, but Ryan Laukat + Alf Seegert (I know he didn't design the game, but he contributed to the writing of the Encounter Book) = dream team. I had to try it! I can't wait to try their upcoming co-design!
4. Aeon's End - Though we prefer competitive games, we love co-ops and Rahdo completely sold me on this one! Can't wait to receive my copy!
5. A Study in Emerald (second edition) - BoardGameBliss had a sale on this game and the price made it too tempting to pass up. It looks...weird...but sometimes, weird can be good. I'm happy to give it a shot.
6. Planet Steam - I acquired this one in a trade. Steph has written about it and photographed it and though it may not be the best 2-player game, I am interested in trying it.
7. Asara - Kramer and Kiesling kick! I got a used copy for cheap! YAY for cheap used copies!!! They will help me keep this blog going!
Look forward to Star Wars: Rebellion! IT'S HAPPENING!!!! TONIGHT!!!!! SO EXCITED! AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT STAR WARS! :P Star Wars virgin review next week!
Also, I have a feeling that Peter will be itching to try our new Viticulture: Moor Visitors Expansion expansion for Viticulture, so we may try that as well.
And I'm sure I'll add another surprise or two along the way!
:) :heart: :)
MINA'S LOVE METER
Image may be NSFW.
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Burn it! - I dislike this game so much that it makes me angry. (I rate these 4 or less on the BGG scale)Clik here to view.
:( Dislike - I don't like this game, but I can see why others like it.
(5 on BGG scale)
:heart: Some like - I find this game somewhat appealing, but it doesn't really grab me. I am glad to have had the opportunity to try this game, but it is unlikely to stay in my collection for very long.
(5.5 to 6.5) on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: Like - I like this game and appreciate the design. I am happy to play this game occasionally when the mood strikes and enjoy doing so.
(7 to 7.5 on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: :heart: Some love - I love this game. It's not perfect, but it really appeals to me and I will play it frequently.
(7.5 to 8 on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: Lots of love - I really love this game. The design really speaks to me. I want to play it most of the time.
(8 to 9 on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: All love all the time - I ADORE this game and can see myself playing it many times and for many years. I would go to sleep clutching it in my arms and want to play it all day every day...only not literally because that would be insane.
(9 to 10 on BGG scale)