Much as none of us may want to admit it
our hobbies can sometimes get out of control. In the case of yours
truly such unchecked overabundance comes in the form of board games.
When starting the hobby close to six years ago I quickly sought to
obtain all manner of different titles through sales, thrift stores,
trades, you name it. The result I that I've often had a backlog of
twenty or more titles waiting, some of them years, for a shot at the
table. This phenomenon isn't unique as I've seen countless other
tabletop fanatics go wild in their efforts to establish a collection
only to shoot themselves in the foot when they discover themselves
lacking time and storage for everything they've acquired. Who can
blame them? Boards games hold a wonderful allure with their
combinations of lovely bits & pieces, brain-twisting systems, and
the promises of memorable times with friends and family. With this
year already being marked by a variety of changes and another
birthday on the horizon I decided to launch a campaign to blaze
through as many titles on my unplayed list as possible. If you'd all
be so kind I'd love to report on this experience and in the process
perhaps share a few hints, highlights, and cautions with you.
Hanabi
The first title on our adventure was
Hanabi, an award-winning cooperative card game with limited
communication. Imagine playing classic Klondike solitaire alongside
another person only you can't see your cards, just theirs, then add
in a system for sharing limited clues about each-others hands and try
to play from one to five in different suits with only a few mistakes
allowed.
Despite the great praise this one has
received over the years I'd avoided it until finding a thrift copy
because I usually disagree with the notion of limiting communication
between players. A big part of the reason I got into tabletop gaming
was to get back to one-on-one entertainment and all the wonderful
table talk. While I'd softened on this approach thanks to another
awesome card game called Okey Dokey there was still some
hesitation. Luckily Hanabi proved to be quick and compelling
enough that the limitations start to fade away leaving a solid and
fun puzzle for everyone involved. The experience was very surprising
as I truly thought the game wouldn't match my style or be outclassed
by another game and end up traded-off or sold. Instead it stands on
its own and has earned a comfy spot alongside Okey Dokey.
Kaijudo
Digging into the stash of dead
collectible card games I pulled out a stack of starter decks for
Kaijudo. There's a whole backstory to this one involving the
original Duel Masters and the
eventual relaunch but in short this is an anime inspired
hyper-streamlined take on the core principles of Magic: the
Gathering. It was clearly made with a younger audience in mind
and the result are simplifications like a much better mana system and
a quick play style that makes the game ramp up and finish quickly.
The single session of play was fairly
enjoyable, if not exactly groundbreaking. There were a few laughs and
surprises to the extent I'd call it a good title. From what I've read
the game changed dramatically later in its life introducing aspects
that totally unbalanced the system, unless I ever get my paws on some
later boosters that won't be a problem. What's here is a very
straightforward ccg which is exactly what I sought it out for. While
it wasn't an amazingly fun experience it did provide something unique
in that my nephew not only seemed to slightly enjoy it but actually
won our bout. Keeping this around for now and might track down some
more later on.
Mystery Rummy: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Last year I endured a few games of
Phase 10 which inspired me to design a rummy style card game
of my own. In an effort to learn as much about that wing of card
games I watched hundreds of videos and even hunted down some special
titles like this entry in the Mystery Rummy series. Each
installment in the series has it's own specialties with this one
being a strictly two-player affair where melds can only be played if
they match the current personality of the doctor whose card changes
due to various circumstances.
While I wouldn't call this a bad game
exactly it was stilled affected by much of what bothers me regarding
rummy titles. For one there are so many turns where there's
absolutely nothing to do, to the point that even my Phase 10
loving relative (who won by the way) found it obnoxious. Rounds take
forever to ramp up and even with the slight bit of fun we had it
wasn't enough to make me pick this over other, better, card games in
my stash. This one's going to find a new home with more love for
rummy antics.
Sonar
The original Captain Sonar is
supposed to be one of the greatest large group gaming experiences
around. For someone like me whose table might top at five with luck
that made playing the game a pipe-dream. Finding this trimmed-down
version meant for less players at the local Goodwill afforded the
opportunity to at least sample what all the fuss is about.
The game is essentially modernized
Battleship and makes no bones to hide it. Players sit behind a
huge divider and call out movements while their opponent tries to
deduce their location on a dry-erase sheet and hunt them down. The
key difference is how moving charges a power meter that allows for
special actions like silent movement or firing a torpedo.
I had a good time with this one and
would like to hold on to it though my opponent didn't seem all that
pleased with it. Granted this may have been due to me stomping them
out but the fact remains that if I can't get anyone to play this one
then it may have to go. Fingers crossed it gets to stay.
Codenames Duet
The first absolute knockout of this
marathon. I never bothered with the original Codenames as it,
along with so many other word games, reportedly functions best with a
large group which, need I remind you, is a luxury I lack. This
two-player cooperative variation seemed like a decent option to
finally get a good word game into the collection and boy did that
gamble ever pay off. Not only did I enjoy my time with the game but
so did my co-operative player and even some people who simply watched
us in action.
The game provides an excellent back
and forth with players trying to come up with one-word hints for
multiple words, often without accidentally hinting at the wrong
cards. It's a great brain workout and tons of fun.We went through the
game a good nine times in one day sometimes winning, occasionally on
the very last turn, one time losing on turn one due to a rather
careless hint on my part but always having an excellent time.
Smile
Smile came and went with little
fanfare when it released a couple years ago though the lovely artwork
and general concept were appealing enough for me to nab a clearance
copy of the shelves. In essence this is a more thoughtful take on No
Thanks! With players using beads in order to avoid taking certain
cards while waiting patiently for others. Some cards are positive
points others negative but there's always a chance of getting rid of
cards with a matching symbol which makes it a worthwhile strategy to
grab that negative card in order to lose another one and get some
beads in the process.
Smile isn't a showstopper or
something to base your whole night around but it is solid fun and
more importantly blows No Thanks! Out of the water thanks to
better presentation, smart design, and more interesting scoring. This
gets to stay in my library by virtue of pushing No Thinks!
Out.
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| These games can get a wee bit suggestive. |
Code of Nine
Sometimes you buy a game for the sheer
audacity of what it promises to do. Of course it helps when it's
also on sale for twelve bucks. That's how I ended up with Code of
Nine; a worker-placement, bluffing, deduction game where each
player only knows a quarter of what endgame scoring will entail.
Played this one at the game store with
friends and a new acquaintance who won by losing the pair of books I
knew would lose him ten points. Overall the game felt like something
that would improve drastically the more a group plays it. However I
don't see it getting that level of attention here which means every
play-through would be an awkward dance around the weak rulebook and
slightly sloppy production. I really believe some people will love
this game, hopefully I can find someone like that to give this copy a
home.
Sleuth
Generally I'm not the biggest fan of
deduction games. Sure there's the occasionally exception but usually
it's better if deduction is a small part of a greater whole rather
than the main attraction. That being said I was very eager to try
Sleuth due to it hailing from one of my favorite designers,
Sid Sackson.
Unfortunately Sid just couldn't work
his magic on me this time around. Like so many of his designs Sleuth
feels very much like it respects your brain but unlike his other
games it fails to respect your time or patience. Players have to
manage two separate batches of cards along with a notepad that is
poorly equiped to handle the level of detailed notes required. Add to
that how the mystery is very abstract, figure out if the face down
card is a blue opal cluster for instance, and it just feels
cumbersome. For die-hard mystery gamer I'm sure this is awesome but
for this group it simply didn't work. Off it goes.
Burger Joint
Almost completely forgot about this
one, which should be a hint at how well it went over as my opponent
and I didn't even care to finish it. Burger Joint is
functional but boy is it ever dull. Players pick cubes, make
buildings, get some points, and try not to fall asleep. The whole
thing almost feels like a joke about dull euro-games come to life.
That's a shame too as some of the designers other titles look pretty
fun. This oddity however has to return to the wild.
Focus/Domination
Sid Sackson gets another shot during
this marathon with an award-winning abstract strategy game and boy
howdy does Focus ever make up for our lackluster experience
with Sleuth. I've played stacking style abstracts in the past
with titles like Cappuccino yet I was unprepared for how
unique this old gem still is. The movement and capturing methods
produce so many options that it threatens to make your brain hurt
unless you willingly submit to a sort of zen state where all of
reality amounts to towers of colored plastic. Absolutely holding on
to this though I may have to ditch the old and comically large box.
Mystic Vale: Mana Storm
Among all the unplayed games there are
also a few expansions to already established titles such as this
little return to the crad-crafting world of Mystic Vale. The
additions from this expansion, and those before it help to make the
game a bit more lively though I'm not very impressed by the talismans
so far. That being said the core gameplay of constructing cards piece
by piece is both engauging and speaks to my inner shopaholic.
I still enjoy the game a great deal
though my opponent once again noted that it seems to end too quickly
for us to enjoy our fancy fully-built cards. I'm somewhat inclined to
agree with means keeping this in the collection comes with a note of
increasing the point limit a bit.
 |
| You want to find which piece exactly? |
Star Wars: Imperial Assault
Fantasy Flight Games and I have a
troubled relationship. Unlike companies such as Space Cowboys which
has yet to let me down Fantasy Flight is akin to flipping a coin.
Some of their productions have become all-time favorites while a few
others have left me questioning why I bother with this hobby. This
only gets worse when you consider their pricing structure as they
tend to make expensive games with lots of expansions. As you might
imagine the amount of time Imperial Assault has been sitting
on the shelf has left me licking my chops with worry. Yes it was
purchased on sale with store credit which is the only thing that made
me willing to try it, but still, what if it sucked?
Since this one is bigger and meatier
than most I decided to tackle it myself by using the companion app
for a solo game. In the sense of disclosure I should note that I've
tackled a fair share of complex games, I've enjoyed app-assisted
games, and have worked through a myriad of messy Fantasy Flight
instruction manuals. Going in I thought I had a solid grasp how the
game flowed but the app left me feeling absolutely befuddled which
was made worse by the constant need to go spelunking in the cavernous
box for more components every few turns. Nothing like learning you
should have split the cards into twenty different baggies instead of
ten. The set-up and take-down times were absurd. Worst of all was
that not only was I not having fun, I found myself downright angry at
the experience with plenty of questions that required repeat trips
into the different rule manuals. Part of the problem is the
complexity of the game feels off. For me it's not simple enough to
be easy-going dice throwing fun nor is it really deep enough to be
fully engrossing.
As it stands I still want to like this
game, and given how it has multiple modes of play there's still a
chance of finding something to enjoy. Still; that first impression
was easily one of the worst in my gaming life with even some
trouble-free turns failing to offer excitement. There has to be more
than move, check the app, read some cards, roll dice, possibly fail,
dig out some more components, and roll more dice... right? I'm
planing on giving it another chance but right now it doesn't seem
like something that will work with my group at all. If that is indeed
the case than it's better to send it off to someone who'll enjoy it.
Let's call part one finished at that.
There's still a number of games to go ranging from painfully basic
kids card games to massive complex titles. Fingers crossed I can have
this pile largely emptied out before my birthday. For those of you
waiting for Sentai recaps I swear they are coming soon, likely in
time for the site's birthday in just a couple of nights. My allergies
are cranked up right now so I opted for this piece as it was already
mostly complete. Come back soon and we'll have plenty of silly
superhero antics to discuss.
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