Mille Fiori

2 Plays

Mille Fiori, a relatively abstract game of glass manufacturing and trade, is the next combotastic, point-salady Euro to come from the good Dr. Knizia.  It’s as if Witchstone was the start of a new design trend from Reiner where he’s taken a liking to the dopamine-inducing combos that are prevalent in modern gaming.  So where does Mille Fiori stand in this crowded genre, and how does it compare with Witchstone?  

There’s no point in beating around the bush here so I’m just gonna come right out with it: Mille Fiori is much, much better than Witchstone, and arguably the best medium-light point salad Euro to hit the market since Babylonia.  But mechanically, Mille Fiori has much more in common with Witchstone, so I think it’ll be enlightening to compare them here.

First, I think it’ll be helpful to revisit my thoughts on Witchstone.  After playing it twice, I said the following:

“[Witchstone is] fundamentally a point salad game where every action and every strategy results in roughly the same effect.  Where anything can result in more points and/or more actions, it’s as though everything you do in the game feels good.  But when everything feels good, there is a noticeable lack of tension and drama to the experience.  

“I’m used to Knizia games giving me painful decisions and unfolding dynamics, but Witchstone merely provides increasingly larger combos.  It trades potency for pleasantries.  So of course, with the right crowd, Witchstone will really hit the spot.  As for myself, I find that I quickly grow tired of ‘pleasant’ games.  Give me that raw, stinking potency, baby.”

While the point salady nature of the game brought the experience down for me, I still feel that the strongest aspect of Witchstone—the part that made it mildly enjoyable—was the action selection mechanism of arranging clusters of domino tiles in your cauldron to trigger increasingly bigger combos.  In a fascinating flip-flop of table turning, Mille Fiori manages to be a stronger design with an insanely generic action selection mechanism that supports a much more exciting and thoughtful game board of endless points and combos.

Mille Fiori comes with a large deck of 110 playing cards where each card represents a space on the board.  It’s not exactly that precise, as many card types can be played on multiple different spaces within its matching section, but you get the idea.  Each round players are dealt 5 cards where you’ll draft one from your hand, play the card to claim the space on the board, and pass your hand to the left to do it again.  The last card of every round does not end up getting played or discarded, but it actually ends up in the face-up market for players to potentially claim later on with bonus actions.

That’s all there is to Mille Fiori: pick a card, play it to claim the spot, and pass your hand clockwise.  This is what makes the game surprisingly approachable even for casual gamers.  Yet it’s the tough decision of which card to play and the result of what that claimed space triggers that propels Mille Fiori above nearly every other point salad game I’ve tried.  

The game board is divided into five general sections that match the various colors of the cards.  The workshop region is all about creating growing clusters of your diamond tiles to score increasingly more points on them.  The citizens area has players building pyramids with their diamonds where the higher up tiles score more points, but the lower tiles get scored again for everyone supporting the new addition.  The trade area contains another type of positive player interaction where adding your diamond to a column scores that column a larger number of points for everyone already there.  These friendly areas contrast nicely with the brutal housing row where one player can build up a nice chain of points that gets reset the moment somebody else throws their diamond in the row.  Meanwhile, adding to the harbor moves your ship along the water for bonuses, but it also represents an investment in later points based on what occurs in the trade rows.  Finally, every section presents a competition to complete a unique objective, and the first players to do so will claim the most end-game bonus points.

All this mechanical explanation, and yet nothing here sounds remotely more unique or interesting than what Witchstone or plenty of other similar point salad games have to offer.  So where’s the potency in Mille Fiori?  What is the secret sauce that makes this one a cut above the rest?  Honestly, I’d say it all has to do with the elevated importance of timing, variety, and interaction.  In games such as Witchstone and the like, it’s nearly always a good time to do anything, and everything you do amounts to roughly the same result.  It’s a good time to clear the gems off your cauldron, to spread your energy network and get more witches on the board, to race around the circular track, to get more bonus cards, and so on… and all these things net you a similar amount of points plus a similar style of bonuses.

Meanwhile in Mille Fiori, there are constant traps where you can set up your opponents for big plays if you’re not careful.  Likewise, there are opportunities for golden combos that are gone the moment someone claims them.  Your hand will tempt you with one option to execute a killer combo for yourself versus another option to hurt an opponent who is about to score big.  

Witchstone lets everyone set up neat chain reactions for themselves in a monotonous, self-congratulatory kind of way.  Mille Fiori tosses these enticing combos into the center of the table like it’s the start of the Hunger Games, and then it sits back and lets players lunge and claw for them across many quick rounds of card drafting and space claiming.

One important thing to note is that Witchstone is still the better option if you are only considering these games for 2-player sessions. Mille Fiori claims it can hold up at 2-players, but the general consensus among folks is that you should only play it with 3 or 4. Despite that, the reason Witchstone quickly left my collection while Mille Fiori is here to stay is because the latter brings meaningful timing and impactful interactions to the forefront of the experience.  The fact that it also comes in a pleasant production as a quick, approachable design is icing on the cake.  Now we just need to get a North American publisher to sign on with Schmidt Spiel and bring it over to this side of the world so folks don’t have to order it from Germany like I did.

Current Rating: 8/10

Pipeline: Emerging Markets (expansion)

1 Play

Emerging Markets is probably one of the most subtle expansions that I own.  I suppose I’m used expansions giving me an entirely new game board or fresh asymmetric characters and factions.  But when you layout the randomized action tiles and market tiles on top of Pipelines’s board, and when you mix in the new valuations and technologies, the changes don’t hit you until the gears start grinding.

Suddenly, you feel the impact of there being only one (expensive) option for grey crude market oil.  Next, you feel the effects of having all eight action spaces jumbled around and paired together in wonky ways.  Sprinkle in a new technology or more, a strange valuation or two, and before too long, you realize that these five modules really shake things up.

For fans of Pipeline who have come to know and love the game after several plays, Emerging Markets aims to shove them out of their comfort zone with a wildly randomized market setup.  It also dangles carrots over strategic paths that one may never have considered up to this point.  The new techs offer exciting possibilities for those willing to invest such as oil specialization, tech traversal, and crude oil crusading.

There’s not much else to say about Emerging Markets.  Its box is as slim as it is subtle, and the modules inside are both easily integrated and sneakily impactful.

Current Rating: 9/10

Furnace

2 Plays

I had an interesting experience with our home furnace recently.  Essentially, it decided to go on strike.  No matter how hard our thermostat told it to get going and warm up the house, it stubbornly refused to comply.  I think our home got down to 58 degrees Fahrenheit one night before the sun rose and started filling the freezing void that our rebellious appliance left behind.  That’s the kind of day where you wear a hoodie inside with the hood on, always.

What does this all have to do with Furnace, the board game?  Absolutely nothing… 

Furnace is a slim, focused combination of lucrative auctions, careful tableau building, and generic resource conversion.  Over the course of its 4 short rounds, players cycle back and forth between the auctioning phase and the furnacing phase.  The thing that elevates Furnace above its rehashed premise is the novel twist on auctions.

Players each receive their own set of discs valued one through four.  Each round, several furnacy cards are laid out in a row and put up for auction.  One at a time, players commit a disc to a card—the only restriction is that no card can have multiple of the same value or player color.  So you might bid your big bad four on a valuable card, but I can swoop in with my little two and place it on the same card.  How do you like them apples?  While it seems like a pointless underbid, it’s not so pointless when you consider the consolation prize.  Everybody loves a good consolation prize.

Furnace is all about using your discs to their fullest potential: acquiring the best cards to slot into your tableau, milking consolation prizes from cards that others really want, converting some coal into some iron or some iron into some coal or some coal and iron into oil and to ultimately convert your final product into points.  There’s also the chance to put your resources toward upgrades, get some of your cards flipped to their stronger side, and really heat up that furnace of yours.

Aside from the novel auctioning mechanism, perhaps the best thing about Furnace is that it knows exactly how long it should be: which is blazingly fast and blessedly short.  It hangs around just long enough for you to explore the interesting tension of where to place your auctioning discs and enjoy the satisfying arc of building an engine, and then it’s over as quickly as it began.  Any longer and it would be overstaying its welcome.

But not everyone will be able to overlook the comparatively cold and lonely production phase where cubes are pushed and friends are forgotten.  Not all folks will see the interesting auctioning phase as strong enough to carry the rest of experience on its back.  And not all gamers will find enough reasons to keep coming back for more.  I find myself trending toward this last of groups.

I’ve enjoyed both of my plays of Furnace, but it feels as though further plays will merely offer slight variations to my first two sessions.  Whenever I get to December and revisit the best and most popular games of the previous year—with a more seasoned perspective on the hotness of yesteryear—I like to categorize some games as “Flingers.”  Flingers are those games that were fun to try one or more times but that I ultimately don’t need to own.  These are the games that made for a fun ‘one night stand’, yet it won’t fill me with regret if I never play them again.  Furnace feels like it’s a strong contender for that category.  Although perhaps if the game box wasn’t so unnecessarily large I’d be able to talk myself into keeping it around longer.

Current Rating: 7/10

Merchants of the Dark Road

1 Play

Based on what little I knew about the design, I went into this play anticipating that Merchants of the Dark Road would not be my type of game.  The good news is that I ended up enjoying it more than I expected, but I suppose that’s faint praise considering the fact that I thought I was going to hate it.  Indeed, I was surprised to find myself carefully crafting elaborate strategies and executing thoughtful tactics throughout our first play of the game.  There was certainly a satisfying payoff to my competitive efforts, yet Merchants of the Dark Road remains the type of game that I’m not keen to play more of—especially if it includes teaching more newcomers.

The onboarding process for this game features a roughly 40-minute rules teach that equates to throwing a bunch of mechanisms in a blender, forgetting to put the lid on, and cranking the blender up to full blast.  Within the blink of an eye, there’s suddenly a mess of mechanisms flung out in every direction.  Resource gathering and contract fulfillment are dripping from the ceiling, polyominoes and dice are scattered across the floor, rondel actions and event cards are clinging to your hair and blinding your eyes, money tokens and tableau drafting are slopped on the walls, and worker placement considerations are embedded in every imaginable crevice.

The current Board Game Geek stats for Merchants of the Dark Road are a bit comical, if you ask me.  This one currently sits at a 2.98 complexity rating (Medium weight) with a 60-120 minute estimated playtime.  Our 40 minute teach plus 3 more hours of play (at 4 players) would suggest otherwise.  This is really where Merchants suffers the most, in my opinion.  It’s an unequivocal pain to teach and learn, it lasts too long, and it suffers from too much downtime.  To be fair, I’m sure that experienced players could shave off a bit of time, but even 2 hours for a 4-player session still feels like far too generous of an estimate here.

Being an Elf Creek Games production, Merchants at least knows how to be lavish (particularly for the fully deluxe Kickstarter version that our group tried).  The tokens are intricately designed, and the art is elaborate and evocative (as one would expect from the reliable Andrew Bosley).  The only part of the production that stumbles is in the graphic design that struggles to differentiate certain spaces on the board or similar looking resources.

Overall, fans of crunchy Euros and premium productions will have plenty to sink their teeth into here.  The best parts of the experience come from planning your actions with your worker dice, tailoring your resource economy to the tactical scoring opportunities, and chasing the two types of points (money and prestige) where your lower of the two will end up being your final score.  Yet one can’t help but feel that perhaps a slimmer, trimmer version of this game could have existed and still provided a similar level of satisfaction.  There were several board actions, entire animal tableaus, excessive bonus options, and tertiary resource tokens that were virtually ignored and untouched by our entire group.  I’m certainly the type who typically prefers a much cleaner design—one that doesn’t start with a messy explosion of rules requiring hours of playtime to scrub through.

Current Rating: 5.5/10

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

8 plays

I’ve already written loads about The Crew from my review of The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine.  Everything I said there applies to Mission Deep Sea, the standalone sequel, so there really isn’t much more to add here.  The only difference is the objective cards—which are mind-bogglingly better than the original game in every conceivable way (and I already considered the original a masterpiece of a card game).

Rather than simply say that this player must win this exact card, and this player must win these cards in this order, Mission Deep Sea throws out the entire concept and replaces it with a massive deck of very specific requirements.  These objectives include things like “I must never lead a trick with blue, yellow, or pink” or “I must win the exact same amount of tricks as this player” or “I must not win any 9s” or “I must win the same amount of pink and yellow cards.”  The possibilities are limitless here, and the way these objectives randomly combine together from one round to the next is what keeps the game fresh and exciting.

Much more than The Quest for Planet Nine, Mission Deep Sea feels like a game I can endlessly revisit (even after beating all the missions) because I’ll never see the same combination of objective cards.  Essentially, you can astutely consider Mission Deep Sea the Toy Story 2, the Spider-man 2, or the Shrek 2 of card games.  It takes a bona-fide classic and does it even better.

Current Rating: 10/10

L.A.M.A. Dice

2 Plays

Unlike 2019’s L.A.M.A, the newer ‘Dice’ version of this light game from Reiner Knizia is one that I got off on the right foot with.  I introduced L.A.M.A. Dice to a couple different groups of 3 and 4 friends who don’t turn their noses up at a simple game of llamas, rainbows, and push-you-luck.  I still intend to introduce them to L.A.M.A. the card game (where I can really give the design a fair chance outside of my non-ideal 2-player experience), but I couldn’t resist showing them the dice game first because it was a recent arrival at our household.

Sadly, L.A.M.A. Dice is one that publisher Amigo has not officially brought to North America (although the rumor is that it’s coming this year, or you can acquire it right now from some online retailers, if you know where to look).  With the acquisition of a German copy and a simple download of the English rules, we were off to the races.

While L.A.M.A. Dice plays out similarly to L.A.M.A. the card game, it also has some key differences that make it the more lively, loud, and laugh-inducing game of the two.  Where the card game is more about quiet, subtle, and private hand management, the dice game is about clackety rolls, foolish decisions, public humiliations, and occasionally glorious triumphs.

Each player is dealt six small cards that they’ll display face-up in front of themselves.  These are worth their value in negative points (with llamas being worth a whopping negative 10 points), and your objective is to discard them from your tableau.  On your turn, you’ll either quit the round and eat the remaining negative points left in front of you, or you’ll roll three 6-sided dice in hopes of matching some of your leftover cards so you can get rid of them.  If nothing matches, you’ll have to take a matching card from the center market, but as the round goes on, these central cards dwindle and your risk of ‘blowing it’ ever increase.  Basically, if your roll matches nothing in your tableau and nothing in the central market, then you’ve ended the round for everyone and you get nailed with your cards plus the leftover cards in the market.

While there is of course a big old dollop of luck to the game of L.A.M.A., the dice game transforms that luck into a collective experience of laughs, groans, and cheers.  And because it comes in at a breezy 20 minutes, that means that you can get in, have a colorful little riot, get out, and be on to the next game in the blink of an eye.  And who knows, maybe if you let the game stick around long enough, you’ll discover some sneaky strategies lurking beneath all the crazy chaos.  It is a Knizia design, after all.

Current Rating: 7.5/10

Llamas Unleashed (Unstable Unicorns)

1 Play

Oh boy…  Speaking of llamas, L.A.M.A Dice is not the only llama game I’ve tried recently.  Llamas Unleashed (which is basically a reskin of Unstable Unicorns) is a game most akin to Cover Your Assets, Exploding Kittens, Munchkin, or the like.  Simple rules, cheap gags, copious take-that, the works.  It’s one of those games that somebody suddenly whips out and blindsides you with as you feel your heart drop to the pit of your stomach, crash through the bottom of your pelvis, and continue burrowing deep into the earth in an endless flee.  There’s nothing wrong with other folks enjoying these experiences, but I loathe these moments when I find myself sitting down to game that aggressively tries to commit every imaginable sin in the game design book.  A gathering for social entertainment suddenly transforms into a fight for survival as the game repeatedly bludgeons you over the head with a club as you desperately beg for a swift ending.

Of course, everyone has their own personal unwritten booklet of design sins.  In the world of hobbyist gaming, one gamer’s trash is another gamer’s treasure.  But to give you an idea of why Llamas Unleashed was a big miss for me, allow me to share the sins committed in my book:

1. Use roughly 6 pt font on all cards and cram them with as much gameplay text and flavor text as possible
2. Start players’ turns by drawing a card so they must then spend a minute or more reading the new card, internalizing the information, reanalyzing and rereading their entire hand, and then deciding to play one card or draw another card to end their turn.
3. Cram the deck with broken take-that cards such as this: For the rest of the game, half of the animals in the deck are now useless to you—you can’t use them anymore (playing seven animals into your tableau is how you win the game).  Have fun drawing garbage!
4. Widen the player count as much as humanly possible so that the “30-45 minute” game can actually last hours at higher counts
5. Devote the bulk of one’s design efforts into coming up with silly puns
6. Confuse players by putting pictures of animals on non-animal cards and make them figure out an animal card type by reading the smallest text rather than using a simple icon.
7. Use different shades of blue rather than unique icons to designate the differences between cards
8. Needlessly put a bland game logo on the back of the cards rather than utilize any of the semi-decent art
9. Make the experience feel like climbing up a merciless slip-and-slide where your progress is constantly wiped out by another person’s random gotcha card
10. Make strategizing feel so worthless that ending the game becomes more appealing than winning the game

As one who tries to be a champion of the hobby, I just can’t condone designs like this that tend repel and deter folks from board gaming for a cornucopia of reasons.  Of course, I say that with big rotten egg on my face, because Unstable Unicorns and its spinoff boxes have made millions of dollars on Kickstarter and beyond.  Meanwhile, L.A.M.A. Dice can’t even manage to earn itself a timely North American version.  Sometimes, the world is just a sick joke, but at least it has llamas in it.

Current Rating: 1/10

Brian Boru: High King of Ireland

2 Plays

I have an interesting history with games that graft trick taking onto a larger board game.  My first experience with such a combination was Tricky Tides by Steven Aramini (one of the designers of Sprawlopolis).  I enjoyed how Tricky Tides mixed trick taking with a pick-up-and-deliver objective of transporting goods on your merchant ship.  The main hang-up I had with the experience is that it was longer and slower-paced than I would prefer.

Despite that reservation, I still used Tricky Tides as the initial inspiration for a design that I began working on several years ago called Balloon Jockeys.  I settled on trick taking as the best way to recreate the feeling of piloting a hot air balloon where the restrictions of the cards in your hand and the lead suit of the trick would simulate the restrictions of being a floating balloon that is victim to the wind.  The concept was exciting but, wouldn’t you know it, the main issue with that first design was that it was slow-paced.  

Trick taking games are meant to be quick, snappy, and breezy, and bogging them down with supplemental mechanisms can suck the juices out of the fruit.  I eventually found a way to speed up the proceedings of Balloon Jockeys, and the result was a big improvement.  Perhaps eventually I’ll get around to actually finishing the design instead of taking thrilling detours publishing outside designs from folks like Reiner Knizia and Ryan Courtney, but that’s a matter for another time.

The reason I start with this long prologue is that I was well aware that Brian Boru was a trick taking game blended with card drafting and good old area majorities.  Part of me worried that Brian Boru would have the same sluggish pace as Tricky Tides and Balloon Jockeys 1.0 because of the ambitious way it was attaching a quick card-playing mechanism onto a full-blown board game.  After spending some quality time with the game, I’m both relieved and delighted to find that Brian Boru handles this mechanical mixture extremely well.  

Each round proceeds through a phase of drafting cards into your hand followed by a phase of playing tricks to claim towns, forge alliances through marriages, garner favor with the Church, and tussle with invading vikings.  If you lead a trick, you must decide which open town is in contention.  As most trick takers go, the player with the highest number of the lead color wins the trick and in this case claims the town.  Thereafter, they start the next trick in a new town of their choice.

The first wrinkle here is that nobody is forced to follow suit, but there are plenty of trick taking games with this wrinkle.  The wrinkliest wrinkle of them all is that each card has a winning effect and one or two losing effects.  So there is much more here than simply managing your hand to save the high value cards for the right moments.  The main horse you’ll be strapping your brain to is the one that gallops through all the card effects as you decide which one you need right then and there.

In Brian Boru, it’s common to find yourself aiming to lose tricks because winning costs money you don’t have or want to spent and losing grants bonuses you desperately need.  This is especially true when the chosen town of conflict lies in a region where points are pitiful or an opponent already has a commanding majority lead.  Yet the fact that the winner of each trick gets to choose the next focal point of the map means that this person can have a major influence on region competition and hand management decisions.

The game starts out open and opaque… which cards should I draft?  Which bonus do I need next?  What regions should I gun for?  In rounds one and two, the answers to these questions are more slippery and wispy.  Yet as more discs go out on to the board and players start marching up the point track, things really start to come to a point.  This is especially true when one remembers that coming in second or third place in a region amounts to absolutely nothing.

All the card effects are wonderfully alluring, yet you’ll have to prioritize them against each other because they all have their own form of majority competition.  Only the most earnest suitor will gain the benefits of a glorious marriage, only the most aggressive viking combatant will earn renown and determine where the next dastardly viking token goes, only the most faithful Church followers can double their influence in a town with a coveted monastery.  There are still plenty of incentives to pursue these tracks even if you can’t snag first place, but decisively exploiting the weaknesses of your opponents in the right tricks, rounds, tracks, and regions is what will ultimately determine who gets crowned the High King of Ireland.

From both Brian Boru and The King is Dead, the thing that I’ve come to appreciate about designer Peer Sylvester is that he can create a dynamic, shared experience between players where the strategies aren’t immediately obvious and the best decisions depend heavily on your opponents’ moves.  Much like the legendary Dr. Reiner Knizia, Mr. Sylvester comes from the classically German game design school of thought that complexity should emerge from the collision of simple mechanisms and unique minds.  For gamers like myself, this philosophy of ludology results in consistent satisfaction at the table.  No amount of smoke and mirrors resource crunching will ever supplant the purity and potency of a player-driven design like Brian Boru.

Current Rating: 9/10 

Our next publishing project, Trailblazers, is coming to Kickstarter soon, and we’re continuing to roll out new art and details. Subscribe to the Bitewing Games newsletter to follow the game all the way to its Q2 Kickstarter launch.

Article written by Nick Murray. Outside of practicing dentistry part-time, Nick has devoted his remaining work-time to collaborating with the world’s best designers, illustrators, and creators in producing classy board games that bite, including the upcoming Trailblazers by Ryan Courtney. He hopes you’ll join Bitewing Games in their quest to create and share experiences that, much like a bitewing x-ray, provide a unique perspective and refreshing interaction.

The post 1st Impressions of Mille Fiori, Merchants of the Dark Road, Brian Boru, Furnace, The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, & More! appeared first on Bitewing Games.

Note: This written post features only my top 10 Spatial Puzzle games, but the podcast episode includes my picks plus 10 more picks from podcast guest, Ryan Flaherty. If you want twice the Spatial Puzzle gaming goodness via an audio discussion between friends, then check out our meaty episode!

Before one becomes a dentist, or even enters dental school, a prospective dental student in the US must take what is called the Dental Admissions Test.  This exam is an absolute beast of a hoop that one must successfully jump through if they wish keep their dental career dream alive.  Many folks (including myself) take off several weeks to spend 6-8 hours a day cramming biology, chemistry, mathematics, and more into our brains in preparation for the great spewing.  For a couple months or so, this pursuit essentially consumes your life as you cram, take practice exams, and cram some more as though you are trying to pour more knowledge fluid into an already overflowing brain bucket while patching up the leaky holes all over.

Oddly enough, there is one part of this exam that starts to feel like a game.  It is a section known as the Perceptual Ability Test, or PAT for short.  As the title describes, this section examines your ability to mentally visualize things such as 3D shapes, acute angles, and more.  The reason this feels like a game is that rather than solve problems or recall memorized information, you are challenged to rank angles, match keyholes, visualize folds, count cube surfaces, and more.  The reason for the PAT is because dentists are constantly using mirrors, x-rays, and models to visualize, shape, and diagnose teeth.  Thus, the PAT material is not so much something you can learn or memorize to be prepared.  Rather, it requires a spatially minded brain and a whole lot of practice to master the challenging types of questions you’ll encounter.  In a sort of sick and twisted way, this PAT practice becomes the “fun” part of your studying routine, and a great way to break up the monotony of the science subjects.  Over time, It’s quite satisfying to nail these questions with increasing competence.

Much like the PAT (but in a far more entertaining form), it is also very satisfying to take on spatial puzzles in tabletop games.  These puzzles usually take the form of cards and tiles which can be aligned, arranged, and overlapped in an open space of endless possibilities.  Typically, these games will punish you for poor spatial arrangements and reward you for clever planning.  While some games are pure spacial puzzling, others implement this mental challenge into a larger game packed with many more mechanisms.

We’ve had loads of fun exploring many games that include spatial puzzling in their repertoire.  Many titles in t  his genre have proven to be deliciously addicting and widely popular.  We’ve enjoyed them so much, that it is with great excitement that Bitewing Games here and now reveals our next published game to be… a meaty spatial puzzler.  That’s right!  We’ve been working hard these past several months to plan and prepare our next game for you.  You can find our grand reveal at the end of this post.  And in celebration of that reveal, today we’d like to share our Top 10 Spatial Puzzle games.  If you, like us, are a fan of many of these games and their puzzly goodness, then our next offering might just be up your alley.

But we’ll save the details for the end.  As for now, let’s talk about our favorite, highly recommended spatial puzzle games in no particular order…

Patchwork / New York Zoo

Might as well come clean right up front… there is definitely going to be some cheating involved on this Top 10 list.  It will actually consist of 13 games plus more honorable mentions at the end!  The reason for this dirty trick is simple: there are far more than 10 excellent spatial puzzle games out there.  Plus, some titles share so much in common that it’s too hard to mention one without mentioning the other.  Thus, with this first pick, we split the spotlight between Uwe Rosenberg’s Patchwork and New York Zoo.

Those of you who’ve seen my Battle of the Polyominoes article likely predicted that these games would end up here.  Polyominoes are to spatial puzzle games as dogs are to house pets.  They’re like a gamer’s best friend.  There is something about fitting various shapes together on a square grid that we gamers can’t get enough of.  This won’t be the only polyomino pick on this list—far from it—so let’s talk about what makes Patchwork and New York Zoo special.

Coming from the same designer, Patchwork and New York Zoo both feature an engaging rondel for tile drafting.  The former is all about an economy of spending and earning buttons while managing time to maximize positive points and cover up negative points to beat your single opponent.  The latter is instead an economy of breeding… that’s right… breeding animals in their exhibits at the zoo in a race to be the first to cover your board entirely before 1-4 opponents.  In both cases, you can enjoy pleasant themes mixed with compelling decisions from the polyomino connoisseur himself.  Which one is better is up for debate, but I say you can’t go wrong with either (or both).

Galaxy Trucker

While Patchwork and New York Zoo both contain elements of time economics or racing to the finish, neither of them are actual ‘real-time’ games where you are rushing your arrangements and burning your brain into overdrive.  But if that’s what you are looking for, Galaxy Trucker has you covered.  This wild, wacky game has been around for many years, but it recently received a new coat of paint with some minor tweaks to the formula.  Either version is dirt cheap and loads of fun, but you’ll need to have a group who can handle a bit of a rules dump up front.

While this one isn’t as family-friendly as it wants to be thanks to a few too many fiddly rules, it still has a major payoff for those who are fully invested.  The game consist of two acts: first, rush to reveal and arrange square tiles into a jumbled mess of a space ship that contains guns, thrusters, energy, shields, storage, and more.  The longer you take to arrange and nitpick your ship, the faster the best tiles will be claimed by other players because during this act you are scrambling to build your ships all at the same time and the tiles are first-come-first-serve.  The second act sees you laughing, cheering, and moaning as you send your ships on a risky voyage ripe with perilous dangers and delicious rewards.  Ship parts and sections get blasted and blown off, and all you can do is just hang on and hope you survive the journey.

Factory Funner

Speaking of rushing to grab tiles while cooking your brain, Factory Funner is also split into two phases: the first phase consists of brief real-time drafting, the second consists of crunchy spatial efficiency.  The cool thing here is that you are free to use connectors and other helpful tiles to your heart’s content, but each extra piece you use costs a dollar from your score.  As you have to add a new machine each round, you can also remove old pipes and tiles to establish new connections between the machine inputs and outputs.

The new version of this game (releasing within the next few months) comes to us from publisher BoardGameTables.com and features zesty new art, a non-real-time drafting variant for those who don’t like to be rushed, and the addition of a sixth player.

Pipeline / Curious Cargo

Since we’re on the subject of pipes, we might as well chat about the ultimate pipey games from designer Ryan Courtney: Pipeline and Curious Cargo.  Ryan burst into the board game industry with the critically acclaimed Pipeline, a slick economic brain burner about buying, refining, and selling oil.  While worker placement, loans, economics, engine building, and contract fulfillment are all major parts of this design, one of the standout features of this game is the pipe tiles where players must make long, winding connections of pipe of the same color to help refine their oil.  Purchasing and arranging these pipes is a compelling part of the challenge, and these different combinations of routes across dozens of domino tiles was something fresh and new in the spatial puzzle genre.

People loved it so much that the creators followed Pipeline up with another domino spatial puzzle game in Curious Cargo.  While many expected Curious Cargo to be a pure, simple distillation of the pipe element from Pipeline, in reality Ryan took this follow-up design as a challenge to cram as much complexity into a small box game as possible.  What resulted was a title that has perhaps been a little more polarizing in the industry.  This head-to-head shipping and receiving game contorts your brain with its even more difficult spatial challenges.  It demands much flexibility and adaptation from players as they draw tiles out the bag and must figure out how to best use those frequently less-than-ideal draws.  But I stand by my final statement in my review of this title: “Despite the emotional cuts, bruises, and occasional broken bones that this design doles out, I’ve found Curious Cargo to be one heck of a satisfying game.”

Azul

Let’s step away from the brain burning puzzles for a moment to talk about a few lighter options.  Azul mixes tile drafting with just a hint of spacial puzzling.  The sequence and location tiles added to your board is the core element of scoring, and it’s a challenge that comes into conflict with the dwindling drafting options of each round.  It’s just as important to be able to predict what tiles others will claim as it is to smartly plan your own moves.

Azul is one that ranks highly among our favorite 2-player games and 10 games everyone should try.  While there are now four versions of Azul out in the wild, I’m sticking with my guns and declaring that the original is the best.  At least that’s how things will remain until Azul: Queen’s Garden makes its way to the US for me to properly scrutinize it.

Carcassonne / Isle of Skye

If you’re looking to go even more classic and simple than Azul, then perhaps Carcassonne is the best candidate.  The procedure is dead simple: play the one tile in your hand anywhere into the growing arrangement of tiles and add a meeple on top of it if you’d like.  With the tiles, you’ll be accomplishing tasks as simple as growing, connecting, or enclosing fields, roads, or cities.  But the most important aspect is deciding when and where to add your meeples.  You see, these meeples are like investments in unfinished landscape features; the person with the most meeples in a feature when it becomes fully enclosed gets the big payout in points.  Things get extra spicy when opponents attempt to outcompete each other in the same region or when they try to sabotage the completion of a road or city.

Yet I can’t help but mention here another square tile game with an interesting twist.  In Isle of Skye, there is no shared, central region of growing tiles for players to add to like in Carcassonne.  Rather, you’ll be building up your own personal area as you’re pulled this way and that by the changing scoring criteria.  Each round, you’ll also be pulling 3 tiles out of the bag and deciding how to price them to either entice or deter your opponents.  Money is important here because you’ll desperately need it to be able to buy the best tile from a single opponent of your choice.  Plus, you’ll be using your own money to price your tiles, and if nobody bites, then you just bought them yourself for the price you set.

If you’re looking for a straightforward game that lets players dip their toes in the spatial puzzle waters by aligning and arranging matching features on square tiles, then you can’t go wrong with Carcassonne or Isle of Skye.

A Feast for Odin

For those of you who prefer your games sprawling and meaty, let’s now dive back into the deep end of spatial puzzle designs.  A Feast for Odin is a game that features a worker placement game board with over 60 possible spaces, hundreds of tiny polyomino tiles organized across several trays, and large player boards with supplemental island boards for you to arrange these many tiles over the course of a 2-3 hour playtime.  This is one big box game that will make you wish your table was at least… three times its size.

Yet, A Feast for Odin is one of the most satisfying Euros in existence thanks to Uwe Rosenberg’s steady design hand.  You’ll be hunting, raiding, farming, whaling, trading, and more to acquire viking goods that come in many shapes and sizes.  You’ll have to arrange these polyomino goods wisely in order to increase your income, surround and gain bonuses, and cover up negative points.  All the while, you’ll be feeding your vikings as they grow increasingly hungry throughout their many pursuits.  It’s a feast of game that is indeed worthy of Odin’s name.

Isle of Cats 

If you want to wrap your braintacles around one of the hottest polyomino games of the recent years, then Isle of Cats might just be what the doctor ordered.  You’ll be rescuing cats from the evil Lord Vesh by cramming them onto your boat board.  If that doesn’t already sound zesty enough for you, then consider that the other core mechanism of this game is card drafting similar to 7 Wonders or Sushi Go.

This game also has an easier, more family friendly mode for those who need it.  But either way, you’ll be playing a game that is currently ranked in the top 100 games on BGG and the BGG top 10 family games.  Need I say more?

Sprawlopolis

Those of you who are primarily solo or cooperative gamers, worry not, we haven’t forgotten about you!  Sprawlopolis is arguably the best wallet game that money can buy, and it is meant to be played solo or together.  It still blows my mind what the creators were able to pull off with only 18 cards:  The backs of these cards each have a unique scoring objective.  Your game will feature a random combination of 3 scoring objectives, and you’ll be using the remaining 15 card faces to arrange and layer a city of cards to try and achieve the scoring requirements.

You’ll lose points for each unique road, so it’s wise to try and connect them together to minimize damage.  Meanwhile, you’ll be trying to overlap and connect matching districts in all directions according to the tricky objectives of each individual play.  If the 3 objective cards are easy, then you’ll need a higher score to win.  This crunchy minimalist game comes highly acclaimed by many critics, and at such a low price you have no reason not to try it.

My City

Although this list was arranged in no particular order, we are going to end things off with my personal favorite spatial puzzle game.  While most of these games see players drafting or selecting tiles or cards to arrange in optimal orientations, My City makes its players fall victim to a bingo style draft.  A central deck with one card for each tile is shuffled at the start of the game.  Each round, the top card is revealed and players must decide where to place this building tile onto their city board.

One would surmise, as I once did, that such a system devoid of tile choice or player interaction would be aggressively dull.  Not so, dear reader.  Instead, this system creates an experience of suspense, risk, and anticipation as you plan and hope that the right tile will come out of the deck before you fill a suitable area in with something less ideal.  

A critical aspect of these rules is that you may spend a point to trash a tile rather than be forced to add it to your board.  And we haven’t even gotten to the real juicy part of the design:  My City is a legacy game where over the course of 24 sessions players will add stickers to their board, gain more tiles, encounter new challenges and objectives, and compete to be the ultimate city builder by tracking points earned during each play.  We’ve sung the praises of My City so much that our followers are undoubtedly now bleeding from all orifices and begging us to branch out to other games.  But alas, when one makes a Top 10 Spacial Puzzles list, one must listen to their heart and include the masterful My City among the champions.

Honorable Mentions

While there can only be thirteen games among the top 10 (our math is sound, don’t question it), the following are honorable mentions that we wish to list and celebrate so that we can minimize our chances of being flogged by spatial puzzle connoisseurs:

1. Blokus – classic, strategic goodness
2. Calico / Cascadia – hot new tile drafting and arranging games featuring animals
3. Arboretum – a tense cutthroat hand management game with a sprinkling of spatial arrangement
4. Railroad Ink – a solid roll & write of connecting highways and railroads
5. Barenpark – a favorite polyomino game for many… plus BEARS
6. On Tour – a roll & write about scheduling a tour by sequencing your route across the country
7. Sagrada – a popular game similar to Azul featuring gorgeous colorful token drafting (dice in this case) and arranging

A Bitewing Games Publication Reveal…

And here we have finally arrived… at the end of all things.  Or more accurately, at the end of all things yet published.  We are thrilled to finally unveil the next title that Bitewing Games will be publishing via a Kickstarter campaign in Q2 2022.  It is indeed a spatial puzzle game, but it is also a love letter to outdoor adventuring.  Introducing Trailblazers by designer Ryan Courtney:

Trailblazers are the gutsy folks who pave and brave the trails of the great outdoors.  Whether by hiking boots, cycling wheels, or river paddle, these tenacious travelers seek to feed their insatiable appetite for adventure.  With a scenic wilderness ever ahead and a freshly charted path upon the heels, one mustn’t forget to eventually find their way back to camp.  For there are always new environments to explore, further expeditions to undertake, and more trails to blaze.

In Trailblazers, players compete to earn the most points by building biking, hiking, and kayaking loops from their campsites of the matching trail type.  Each round, players are dealt eight trail cards where they’ll draft two cards, arrange those cards in their personal area, and pass their hand to the next player three times.  Cards must either be placed adjacent to or overlapping other cards.  While players can push their luck by aiming to construct long and elaborate trails, only closed loops that start and end at a matching campsite will score points.  Players also compete to fulfill “First To” and “End Game” goal cards.  After four rounds, the game ends and the player with the most points from closed loops and goal cards wins.

Compared to the travel edition for 1-4 players, the standard edition of Trailblazers features a second deck of trail & player cards so you can play with up to 8 players.  The box also contains two expansions (the Animals expansion and Adventurers expansion) that add another challenging layer of strategy and objectives to the experience.  

Trailblazers is the third spacial puzzle domino game by designer Ryan Courtney (the first two being Pipeline and Curious Cargo).  While they share a similar puzzly DNA that fans have come to know and love, Trailblazers differs by:

• Featuring simple, highly accessible rules in a 30 minute game for 1-8 players
• Boiling the gameplay down to pure spatial puzzling and card drafting with a dash of push-your-luck route building
• Using durable PVC cards that can easily be shuffled, dealt, drafted, and overlapped (found in the travel edition and deluxe edition)
• Including three challenging solo modes with a high skill-ceiling

Well there you have it!  We’re ecstatic to finally get that big news off our chest.  But we’re even more excited to launch this Kickstarter project next year!  For those of you who want to follow along or even try out the game early on Tabletop Simulator (once it is ready), simply subscribe to the Bitewing Games newsletter and join us for the ride!  In the meantime, keep on enjoying those spatial puzzlers!

Article written by Nick Murray. Outside of practicing dentistry part-time, Nick has devoted his remaining work-time to collaborating with the world’s best designers, illustrators, and creators in producing classy board games that bite. He hopes you’ll join Bitewing Games in their quest to create and share experiences that, much like a bitewing x-ray, provide a unique perspective and refreshing interaction.

The post Top 10 Spatial Puzzle Games + A Bitewing Games Publication Reveal! appeared first on Bitewing Games.

As we Northern Hemispherers enter the heart of summertime, with outdoor adventures ever beckoning, this time of year is also a period of peak buzz for gamers.  Video game companies finally reveal their hands for what blockbuster titles they have in store for the fall and holiday season.  Board game publishers announce their headline releases for the biggest conventions of the year.  After what frequently feels like a long winter and spring drought, the hype train finally pulls into station, welcoming all aboard once more.

Those who know me know that I’ll happily board such trains.  And when opportunity presents itself, I won’t hesitate to put on my conductor hat and fuel the engines that carry us onward to thrilling horizons.

We kicked off this year with an article featuring My Most Anticipated Board Games of 2021… twenty games highlighted and hyped, many of which we’ve now had the pleasure of playing.  Few have disappointed, and many more will find their way to the table very soon.  Meanwhile, a whole extra batch of games have been surfacing from the deep unknown sea, landing a spot on my ever growing wishlist.

Due to their striking presentations, intriguing mechanisms, thrilling promises, and/or reliable creators, the following fifteen games have earned a place onto my most anticipated games of 2021 part II:

Bear Raid

Expected Release: November 2021

Hot new designer, Ryan Courtney, returns with another promising game in Bear Raid.  Here we see players buying, selling, shorting, and manipulating stocks in competition for the biggest payoff.  Under the steady hand of publisher Board Game Tables, we’re sure to see a solid production with what appears to be the perfect choice of an artist in Nick Nazzaro.  The psychedelic colors and animals seem to hint at the bitey gameplay lurking beneath.  For some reason, Bear Raid reminds me of cutthroat auctioning game, The Estates, and I’m all for it.

Savannah Park

Expected Release: September 2021

In what feels to be a hybrid between Tiny Towns and Calico, the makers of 2020’s Renature are back for another clever family game featuring plants and animals.  In Savannah Park, each player gets their own set of animal tiles with a savannah board, but the starting layout of each player’s board will be random and unique.

On your turn, you select a specific tile to move to an empty space on your board, flipping it facedown to never be moved again.  The catch is that whichever tile you select on your board must also be permanently moved on your opponents’ boards.  So even if I don’t want to move my triple giraffe yet, if that’s the tile you call out on your turn, that’s the tile I have to permanently reposition now.

By grouping species together, protecting them from wildfires, and giving herds more watering holes, you’ll maximize your score at the end of the game.  Under the steady hand of designers Wolfgang Kramer (Renature, El Grande) and Michael Kiesling (Renature, Azul), Savannah Park is likely to be a hit for gamers of all ages.

Factory Funner

Expected Release: November 2021

Perhaps in a similar vein to industry darling, Galaxy Trucker, Factory Funner features real-time tile drafting combined with spatial puzzling across personal player boards.  Players are seeking to efficiently install machines and estabilish connections from machine to machine and machine to reservoir.  Machines generate revenue, but connections and reservoirs cost money, and money is your points, so efficient spacial arrangements are critical to success.  The player who analyzes the machine options fastest, snatches the best ones for themself first, and arranges them on their board most efficiently will become the champion.  It looks like a crunchy hoot!  Plus, this is just a nice looking makeover that Board Game Tables has given the production.  

The Great Zimbabwe

Expected Release: July/August 2021

Alright, this isn’t exactly a 2021 release, but it is a fresh 2021 printing of an extremely difficult to find classic from legendary publisher, Splotter.  Rather than microwaving your brain with the speedy spatiality of Factory Funner, why not slow roast it in the heavy, strategic Great Zimbabwe?  

This one is described as a “logistic-economic game in which players are tribal leaders in Africa trying to please the gods by building monuments.”  It features a central, highly interactive board of building and developing monuments, bidding with cow tokens to manipulate turn order, and logistical optimization to deliver goods from craftsmen.  Players can also receive aid from gods to evolve their abilities, but doing so increases your personal victory threshold!  So do you summon the great powers that be in hopes of a snowballing economy, or lunge for the easier victory before opponents can get their engine going?

Ghosts of Christmas

Expected Release: November 2021

I’ve encountered many interesting trick taking games over the past few years, but that didn’t stop Ghosts of Christmas from catching my attention with its fascinating premise.  

Themed after the classic Charles Dickens story, A Christmas Carol, tricks can be played into the past, present, or future.  What does this mean?  Tricks can be played out of order and won’t be resolved until the past, present, and future tricks (3 total) are all played.  I can choose to play a card into the future, but the winning suit of that trick will be determined by the winner of the present trick, which may not even have any cards in it yet.

Ghosts of Christmas sounds all kinds of trippy, and I’m eager to give it a go.

The Siege of Runedar

Expected Release: September? 2021

You might as well call this one Reiner Knizia’s Ghost Stories: A Deck Building Game.  You also might as well call The Siege of Runedar my most anticipated game on this entire list.

With The Quest for El Dorado, Dr. Knizia has proven his mastery of the deck-building genre.  With The Lord of the Rings, Reiner brought cooperative games into the limelight.  And with My City, the good doctor has made me a believer that low-interaction games can earn a spot among my all-time favorites.  

So despite my preference toward competitive games…  Despite me selling away my copy of Ghost Stories after getting my fill from only five plays…  Despite the endless onslaught of deck-building games offering me diminishing returns on enjoyment (aside from Undaunted, Fort, and El Dorado)….  The mere concept of this game being helmed by one of my favorite designers has me salivating for the possibilities.  This being playable at four players all the way down to one almost feels like uncharted territory for Knizia Games.

Here, players are brave dwarves who must stave off orcs, goblins, and trolls by upgrading and utilizing their weapons and tools long enough to escape with their newfound treasure through a tunnel-in-progress.  Featuring lively illustrations by popular artist Andrew Bosley (Everdell, Tapestry) and an ambitious production from Ludonova, I think we’re in for a real treat with this one.

Juicy Fruits

Expected Release: July 2021

You could accurately describe most new games coming from Capstone as “juicy,” but this one is especially so.  This is the other (and earlier) colorful title quickly coming at us from Capstone’s family brand and their publishing partner Deep Print Games.  All you need to know is that it features a big pile of wooden fruit tokens and ice cream tiles on a tropical island.  Enjoy!

But if you insist on a little more explanation for why it deserves a spot among my hotly anticipated games, Juicy Fruits possess an interesting challenge of picking a tile on your board and sliding it in one direction, collecting the matching fruit for each space moved.  Once a particular boat on your island board is satisfied with the fruit you’ve collected, you can fulfill their order and send them on their merry way, clearing up even more room for you to slide tiles and collect fruit.  That’s only one half of the balancing act, as you and your opponents will be claiming precious business tiles as well, but clogging up your island to do so.

Radlands

Expected Release: September 2021

The only Roxley game I’ve tried and truly loved is Brass Birmingham, but it’s hard to resist the production quality of Radlands, especially when Dan Thurot (Space Biff) has given the gameplay very high marks.  This 1v1 dueling game takes some inspiration from popular systems such as Magic: The Gathering.  Only Radlands features all of its psychedelic, colorful, post-apocalyptic gameplay within a single, contained packaged.  There’s no eternal black hole of endless packs to toss your money into here… it’s a one-and-done purchase that provides a highly replayable, streamlined experience.

Multi-use cards, tight resources, and tense dueling within this 20-40 minute game ensure that a one-play session will rarely be enough.

Super Skill Pinball: Ramp it Up!

Expected Release: Summer-Fall 2021

While roll & writes have been leaving my collection in droves, Super-Skill Pinball lives on in my collection as my favorite of the bunch.  Ramp it Up is a standalone sequel perfect for both newcomers and veterans.  That’s because this one will also feature four new pinball tables to enjoy with varying challenges and complexities.  

Gofer Gold introduces an extra flipper and features a log flume.  Pin Pals requires coordination between wrestlers across two tables.  High Roller Heist features a faster session of executing a casino caper.  And Top Speed makes your pinball a racer where you can adjust your speed (the die rolls) for big bonuses, but at the risk of flying past the flippers.

Riftforce

Expected Release: September 2021

The final family game coming at us from Capstone this year, Riftforce looks an awful lot like Battle Line / Schotten Totten.  Only instead of battling at sites using poker sets, two players start by drafting asymmetric guilds to form their personal deck, then they strive to synergize their cards together to win the battles along the rift.

With ten different guilds to draft from, forming combinations of four each, Riftforce promises a lot of depth to explore within a relatively smooth experience.  So smooth, in fact, that Riftforce has already earned a nod as a 2021 Kennerspiel des Jahres Recommended game.  It’ll have big shoes to fill if it really does play anything like Battle Line / Schotten Totten, but Riftforce already seems to be off to a great start.

Oltréé

Expected Release: Fall 2021

I’m still not sure whether Oltréé is my kind of game, but at the very least, I’m anticipating the opportunity to learn more about it.  Aside from the gorgeous artwork from industry veteran Vincent Dutrait, what piques my interest is that designer Antoine Bauza (7 Wonders, Takenoko, Ghost Stories) is venturing wayyyyyy outside of his comfort zone on this project that he has spent over SIX YEARS working on.

Based on a French role-playing game, Oltréé is a modular, scenario-based cooperative game where it’s purpose is to immerse you in an engaging story as you seek to complete the scenario goals using unique mechanics within a particular scenario.  Mr. Bauza has typically been a mechanism-focused designer, and this sounds like a narrative-focused game, so it’ll be intriguing to see how this ambitious game turns out.

Pipeline: Emerging Markets

Expected Release: Fall 2021

The expansion to Ryan Courtney’s oily-slick economic game, Pipeline, is nearly upon us.  While the details are sparse, we can safely assume that it will feature more tempting technologies, more crunchy economics, more soul-crushing challenges, and more refreshing variety.  Currently, you can expect this to hit stores sometime during the fall convention season.

Witchstone

Expected Release: Summer 2021

With Witchstone, Reiner Knizia has done something we rarely see… specifically collaborate with another designer on a game.  Apparently Martino Chiacchiera took inspiration from Knizia’s classic abstract design, Ingenious, and approached him with an idea for a more complex Euro featuring Ingenious’s hexagonal domino mechanism.  They’ve teamed up to give us this game which will release very soon.

Players place these tiles on their personal board and trigger actions for matching the placed tile with adjacent groups.  I’ve heard several critics now refer to this game as feeling more like a Stefan Feld design than a Reiner Knizia design.  Basically every action you take or strategic path you follow will score you points, making this a very point salady affair.  

Summoner Wars (Second Edition)

Expected Release: July 2021

Summoner Wars (2e) is one of those upcoming games that is far too praised for me to ignore.  Space Biff, Shut Up & Sit Down, and Tom Vasel (Dice Tower) all have great things to say about it.  Not even the generic theme and dice combat can scare me off from this one, now!

For a 2-player grid-based movement dueling game featuring fantasy creatures, the fact that they’ve sidestepped the genre trope of chunky miniatures to focus in on the sliding cards catches my interest, as it hints at the priority of the design being smarts rather than spectacle.  This second edition features polished gameplay and new art, and it includes six unique factions to choose from.

The object of the game is simple: eliminate your opponent’s summoner.  Of course that’s easier said than done, as your summoner lives up to its name in summoning powerful and useful allies to the board that act as shield and/or spear.

Imperial Steam

Expected Release: Fall 2021

Did somebody say Capstone train game?  While Iberian Gauge was already covered in part one of my most anticipated games of 2021, it turns out Capstone had another train game up their sleeve.

Alexander Huemer, the designer of Capstone’s complex Lignum, is the creative mind behind this economic rail game known as Imperial Steam.  While deeply strategic, it seems as though Imperial Steam is much more accessible than Huemer’s previous design, according to the publisher description.

Imperial Steam promises fierce competition throughout and two unique game-ending rules with their own scoring steps.  Hopefully we have another winner on our hands from team Capstone.

One More Thing to Hotly Anticipate…

Speaking of exciting new games, we at Bitewing Games are anxiously awaiting the chance to share with you Reiner Knizia’s Criminal Capers Collection! This Kickstarter bundle, launching August 2021, will feature Soda Smugglers, Pumafiosi, and Hot Lead.

We need your help in crowdfunding this killer filler bundle! Subscribe to the Bitewing Games newsletter so you don’t miss out on these excellent card games.

Article written by Nick Murray. Outside of practicing dentistry part-time, Nick has devoted his remaining work-time to collaborating with the world’s best designers, illustrators, and creators in producing classy board games that bite. He hopes you’ll join Bitewing Games in their quest to create and share experiences that, much like a bitewing x-ray, provide a unique perspective and refreshing interaction.

The post Most Anticipated Board Games of 2021 — Part II appeared first on Bitewing Games.

It’s been nearly a year since we received the last of 2019’s thousands of board game releases.

I waited until nearly May to make my top games of 2019 list, and I’ve since discovered loads of great games, some of which would have even made my top 10 of the year. The sad truth is that there is simply not enough time to keep up with all the best new board games that are constantly pouring down on the industry. Especially not if your FONYO (Fear of Neglecting Your Own) keeps you coming back to your under-played collection.

I recently heard some content creators squirming over their top 10 games of 2020 lists due to the overwhelming amount of great designs. I’m always surprised when content creators are declaring their best games of the year when that year hasn’t even ended yet. Unless you are Tom Vasel, you likely haven’t played every noteworthy release of the year, even months into the following year. A quick glance at my want to play list on BGG reveals that I’ve only scratched the surface of 2020’s bangers, and it’s going to take me many months yet to even come close to trying everything that has caught my eye.

So rather than make a premature 2020 list, I feel inclined to revisit the many board games of 2019 that I’ve tried. I considered updating my top 10 games list, extending it to top 15 or 20, or even ranking all of the games I’ve tried against each other, but none of those options had a strong appeal to me. Instead, we’re gonna separate all these games into 5 different categories: Lovers, Keepers, Dumpers, Flingers, and Seekers. Let the fun begin!

Lovers

Games that I’m still CRAZY about.

I’m a bit of an explorer when it comes to my hobbyist gaming habits. This is mostly due to the curious designer within. Sometimes it results in me playing hot potato with certain games (see Dumpers below), but it’s all worth it when I find an absolute gem that I love. The following are my cream of the 2019 crop (in no particular order):

• Pipeline– I recently talked about how Pipeline made a poor first impression at our table, but eventually we came around to its brutal economics. What can I say? I guess I’m a glutton for punishment. But with a little practice and a lot of thinking, you’ll go from scraping oil out of the bottom of the barrel to drowning in gallons of that greasy goodness.

• Blitzkrieg!– Paolo Mori is quickly becoming one of my top designers. His quick and accessible Ethnos has long been my favorite gateway game, and his difficult to obtain Dogs of War is what I asked Santa for this Christmas. Blitzkrieg deserves a spot among his greatest hits thanks to its elegant back and forth battles between 2 players at war.

• The King’s Dilemma– I finally tracked down a copy and can happily report that it was worth the wait. If you enjoy bluffing, bidding, and negotiation all wrapped into a light role-playing package, and if you can track down a group of 5 people to join you, then this is a must-play legacy game.

• QE– I now own a crap-load of auctioning games. It’s a testament to QE’s uniqueness that it firmly remains a title that I get excited to play. I love myself a golden opportunity to mess with other people’s heads and sneak away with the victory.

• Watergate– A zesty but simple tug-of-war 2-player game, certainly in the same ballpark as Blitzkrieg. I love ’em both. If you’re a big fan of this game, then the Geek Up bits coming in Q2 2021 might catch your interest.

• Babylonia– If you’ve got a soft spot for Knizia tile layers, like me, then you really should be getting yourself a copy of Babylonia. This one feels like a hybrid between Samurai’s tense tile majorities and Through the Desert’s dangling carrots and snaking connections. The big differences here are that points are constantly/instantly awarded, unique abilities/bonuses are up for grabs, and decisions have a much wider ripple effect.

• Maracaibo– This is the sole lover of 2019 that I don’t own. I had a blast trying it out for the first time. Yet Maracaibo fills the same niche as Great Western Trail, and I don’t even give GWT enough table time. I would recommend this one to anybody who appreciates an epic heavy Euro.

• The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine– This game probably deserves a spot in my top 10 games of all time. That’s how addicting and delightful it was to play through its 50 cooperative missions. I still stand by my review and declaration that this is one of greatest card games of all time. Thank goodness Kosmos has announced a sequel for next year!

• A Feast for Odin: Mini Expansion 2– Before this expansion, I looked at the shorter (6-round) version of A Feast for Odin as a joke. Why would somebody shorten this sprawling game by a single round and miss out on the big 7th round climax? This expansion changed that entirely. It essentially trades the uneventful first round of a 7-round game for an interesting, highly variable setup with an exciting head start for everyone.

• Inis: Seasons of Inis (expansion)– Inis is one of my all time favorite games, and this expansion was well worth the investment. Particularly the extra Epic Tale cards and area tiles, the harbors and islands, and the 5th player addition.

• Mandala– Mandala is as good as simple 2-player cards games get. I rank it right up there with the likes of Jaipur, Lost Cities, and Battle Line.

• Pax Pamir (2nd Edition)– Between you and me, Pax Pamir might just be my #1 game of all time. After plenty of plays at a wide range of player counts, it is still that good. This is a deluxe strategy gaming experience in a deservedly deluxe package.

• Age of Steam: Deluxe Edition– Speaking of all time greats, Age of Steam is a newer title on my radar (with only two plays so far) and it’s already knocking on the door of my top 10. That’s right, if you’ve been counting, we have three releases from 2019 that are worthy to be among my 10 best! That’s a good year, my friends. Of course, I may be cheating considering that Age of Steam and Pax Pamir originally released in years prior. At any rate, this is the perfect blend of punishing economics and crafty interaction for those with a blood-thirsty appetite and thick skin.

• Undaunted: Normandy– My wife and I finally closed out our campaign of Undaunted: Normandy, and it was the bomb. This is the kind of deck builder that made me realize I didn’t need Dominion anymore. We’re looking forward to diving into the next one, Undaunted: North Africa.

Keepers

Other games that have survived the purge of 2020.

Now, obviously the Lovers mentioned above are Keepers. But there are plenty of other 2019 releases that I enjoy breaking out when the setting is right. The following games are great options that have thus far survived my purging ploys.

• Aerion- I’m not much of solo gamer, but Aerion eliminates all of my personal barriers to entry. This puzzly little game has a quick setup, minimal bookkeeping, and addictive gameplay loop that I intend to see through to the end of its several included expansions.

• Cairn– Cairn is one of those abstract games that is good enough to keep around yet forgettable enough to not get to the table. In other words, we’ve only played it once so far, but it was solid.

• Caylus 1303– This updated classic absolutely pummels your average worker placement game with its refined balance, deep interaction, and juicy tension. Just don’t set your expectations for something exceptionally unique.

• The Quest for El Dorado: The Golden Temples– I would not recommend this standalone expansion to somebody who has never tried the excellent Quest for El Dorado, but it does make for an interesting change of pace on its own and an epic journey when combined with the base game. More thoughts here.

• Azul: Summer Pavilion– I’ve weighed and measured Summer Pavilion against its siblings and found it to be a more gentle, gamer friendly version. At the end of the day, vanilla Azul is my go-to thanks to its more dynamic player interaction.

• Dice Forge: Rebellion (expansion)- I haven’t played Dice Forge in over year, which tells you a lot about how it fares against the rest of my collection. Rebellion does add a whole lot of interesting variety for fans of the game, and I’m hoping to explore the rest of it soon.

• Horrified– There are far too many Pandemic copy-cats out there, but Horrified remains one of the best. It’s a fun one to break out with non-gamers that presents an undeniably charming theme.

• Men at Work– I always get a kick out of Men at Work whenever we break it out. Nothing beats Crokinole as far as dexterity games go, but Men at Work is an excellent option that puts Jenga to shame.

• On Tour– While it isn’t my favorite roll & write, On Tour is one of the easiest to break out and teach others. It’s a nice, easy way to start out a game night as players discover how far they can stretch their strategies.

• PARKS– I suspect that if I was forced to play PARKS enough, it would get the boot from my collection. There’s just not a ton of meat here that I frequently crave. But as a gorgeous, pleasant game, I’m ok with breaking it open every now and then.

• Trophies– A quick, simple, and pretty party game of quick thinking. This is the kind of solid stocking stuffer that I would recommend to anyone. That’s why it landed a spot on our Holiday Board Game Gift Guide.

• Unmatched– This series becomes more and more fun as you explore the variety of characters and pit them against each other. Who wouldn’t want to see Bruce Lee take on 3 raptors?! I’ve talked about some of the newer sets here.

Dumpers

Games that I dropped like a hot potato.

Many of these games made a strong enough impression for me to purchase and enjoy them for several plays. Others were a train wreck right from the get-go. Either way, I eventually found myself ok with never playing them again, and those that I owned were traded or sold away thereafter.

• Point Salad- Like a well-made salad, this game is tasty, addicting, and not completely filling. After a few plays, it doesn’t provide much incentive to keep returning for more. But for $15, it was fun while it lasted.

• Res Arcana– This is a solid design that any engine builder super fan should put on their radar. Unfortunately, we didn’t love it because the game feels like a ho-hum resource converter. Res Arcana was ultimately unable to escape the shadow of its own genericy.

• Wingspan + European Expansion– The presentation initially knocked our socks off, but our many plays over time demonstrated the law of diminishing returns. Wingspan contains a pretty narrow track for decisions and strategy; most turn actions will feel on-the-rails, for better or for worse. As a gateway engine builder, I can’t deny that I enjoy playing it. But as a game night go-to, it now struggles to do more than mildly amuse.

• Tapestry– I wish Tapestry had spent more time in the development oven. The fun factor of a session of Tapestry can vary just as much as the strategies and Civilizations themselves. Cutting certain elements, balancing others, and increasing players’ abilities to truly interact with each other on the map could have gone a long way to make Tapestry a consistent hit. Ultimately, I’d rather not roll the dice on how fun a 3-hour game will be.

• Tiny Towns– A solid bingo-style spatial puzzle that lost its luster after five plays. My City is also a quick, accessible Bingo-style game about building a town for points within the confines of a spatial puzzle… and frankly, it blows Tiny Towns out of the water. But to its credit, Tiny Towns can be played with up to 6 players!

• Jaws– An amusing, highly thematic experience that gets bogged down by an excessive setup, rules-to-depth ratio, downtime, and duration. Act 2 especially dragged on and thereby felt weaker than Act 1. Played it once and had no desire to play it again. But I still respect that shark meeple.

• Bruxelles 1897– I enjoyed how compact and dense Bruxelles 1897 is for a strategic, Euro-style card game. It makes me wish more games would follow suit by trimming the fat and getting to the juicy center. My only complaint is that the game lacks legs to get it beyond more than a few interesting plays.

• Cartographers– This award nominated flip & write lacked the tension that I love to experience in my favorites of the genre. More thoughts here.

• Dead Man’s Cabal– Some interesting decisions, a fairly solid production, but the turns with many steps (simple as they may individually be) are prone to regular AP leading to longer down time and slower turns. The game also seems to lack any true sense of progression or change over the course of its long playtime… what you are doing on the first turn is practically the exact same as what you are doing on the last turn. This makes Dead Man’s Cabal feel as though it overstays its welcome. It quickly got the boot from our collection.

• Era: Medieval Age– A hefty price tag for fancy parts and pieces amount to a glorified spreadsheet roll & write polyomino Yahtzee game. I admire its production ambition but can’t get past its clumsy execution. Too much time is spent reading spreadsheets, moving pegs, or arranging dice and not enough time is spent playing a game.

• Funkoverse– Shameless cash grab of an unimaginative game with an IP pasted on top. There was absolutely nothing in the game design that made it feel like the IP we tried (Batman). The gameplay of Funkoverse itself consists of mind-numbingly basic dudes-on-a-map mechanisms and offers no reason to exist. The bland design is just veiled behind colorful funkos and meaningless variety. Unmatched is a much better version of this.

• Rune Stones– A generic resource converter. While the deck building aspect of the game certainly works, it doesn’t fully embrace any of the mechanism’s strengths. Rarely do you feel rewarded for slimming your deck or punished for bloating it. Most of the differentiating traits between the cards just blur together into a dull, samey mush. Not for me, but I can see why others may enjoy it. Kyle has a very different opinion from me on this one, so it’s worth giving his video review a look!

• Tricky Tides– I was quite impressed with Tricky Tides. The artwork and presentation is what drew me in, but the interesting combination between pick up/deliver and trick taking is what really sold me on the game. My main downside would be that the game takes way longer than advertised. We would simply rather play a meatier game if we are doing a 4 player game for 90 minutes.

• Tussie Mussie– A simple, beautiful game of I Cut, You Choose that doesn’t provide a compelling reason to keep coming back for more plays. That’s obviously a tough ask for an 18 card game, but Sprawlopolis (from the same publisher) manages to pull it off.

• Welcome To: Outbreak Thematic Neighborhood– This one is a hot mess. Deep Water Games was clearly going with quantity over quality on these expansions. It seems they were in such a big hurry to crank these out that they didn’t bother to properly test, polish, and streamline this expansion. The rulebook is unclear, the added gameplay poisons the base game’s fun, and the graphic design muddies the visibility of your writing.

Flingers

Games that were amusing to try at least once.

I’m blessed to have some good friends who possess solid collections and a knack for teaching their games. Most of these are games they’ve introduced me to that made for a fun night.

• Paladins of the West Kingdom– A nearly solitaire game from a publisher I’m lukewarm on… all the more impressive that enjoyed this play. While the novelty of Architects and Raiders felt overshadowed by their blandness, Paladin’s blandness is overshadowed by its juicy arc. Not one I would buy, but I wouldn’t mind playing it again.

• Taverns of Tiefenthal- I can see why this is thought of as a spiritual sibling to Quacks of Quedlinburg. Taverns largely benefits/suffers from the same strengths/weaknesses as Quacks. On the other hand, Taverns quite possibly beats out Quacks for me because bad luck is much less punishing, strategic options feel more numerous, and the theme is even more charming.

• Animal Kingdoms– Solid, simple gameplay. Very easy to teach, but enough meat on the bone for interesting decisions. The kind of game you can play with anyone. Not sure if it would hold interest beyond a few plays, but it was fun to try at a convention.

• Last Bastion– Improves on the rulebook, production, and gameplay of Ghost Stories, yet still feels largely the same. Last Bastion/Ghost Stories is an engaging cooperative game that plays best at a rapid pace with experience players, but doesn’t reach the heights of my favorite co-ops because so much of the game comes down to luck of the dice.

• Tuki– From the publisher of Azul. Tuki is an amusing real-time dexterity game we tried at a convention, but not exceptional enough for us to throw down money on.

Seekers

Interesting games that still elude me.

Whether they haven’t hooked me enough to convince me to open the wallet, or they require a ideal setting that my current situation can’t provide, these are the games that hover over the fringe of my radar and elude my reach.

• Isle of Cats– This is the big game that was missing from my Battle of the Polyominoes comparison. Drafting + polyominoes + psychedelic cats certainly sounds interesting!

• Detective: City of Angels– We weren’t huge fans of Chronicles of Crime. While amusing, it was ultimately not as satisfying as a board game without a screen; and it honestly feels kind of pointless to play with other people. Detective: City of Angels appears to be the game we wanted out of Chronicles.

• Dune- A heavy, Shut Up & Sit Down approved war game that works best at 6? Sign me up! ….Anyone?….No? *Sigh*

• Nova Luna– I’m sure I would enjoy this one, but it seems so similar to Rosenburg’s Patchwork (aside from the polyomino tiles) that I struggle to justify the purchase. Can anyone convince me to bite?

• Rail Pass– A real time cooperative dexterity game where you pass trains that are carrying physical goods to each other causing a jumble of brains and arms. Best of all, when you want to pass a train along, you have to communicate by saying “Toot toot!”

• Barrage– A heavy, nasty economic game of controlling water flow with dams for power. The overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim surrounding this one tells me it is certainly worth a go!

• Shobu– An elegant, abstract game of pushing stones off wooden boards. I’ve heard good things about this one, and the presentation is just classy.

• L.L.A.M.A.– A simple Knizia card game is always going to catch my attention. If I were in a supremely casual setting perfect for a light card game with kids and/or grandparents, I imagine this would hit the spot.

• Medium– While I usually opt for something with at least a hint of strategy, this appears to be a light, funny party game I would enjoy. Two players hold a unique topic card and must simultaneously blurt out the same word that connects the two topics, that is if they are on the same wavelength.

This concludes my walk down memory lane of the best board games of 2019! Can you think of a Lover, Keeper, Dumper, Flinger, and Seeker from 2019? Share them with us in the comments below!

Article written by Nick Murray. To learn more about his tabletop gaming tastes and preferences, check out his blog series: Tabletop Tastes: My Favorite Flavors in Board Games. To follow his designs as they come to fruition, subscribe to our newsletter and follow Bitewing Games on social media!

The post Revisiting the Best Board Games of 2019 appeared first on Bitewing Games.

It has been a good month of 1st impressions, my friends. Ridiculously good. Here are my new release 1st impressions for games that have released in the past year or so!

Scape Goat

3 Plays

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

With Scape Goat, we have a social deduction game that turns the genre on its head. Instead of everybody knowing their own role and trying to deduce which opponent is the odd-man-out, Scape Goat’s premise is that everybody knows who the odd-man-out is BUT you are trying to deduce if that knowledge is a lie and YOU are actually the odd man out.

Not only does the game provide a fresh, exciting, and paranoia-induced experience, but it does so within an attainable range of 3-6 players in addictively quick 20-minute sessions. I can’t wait to break this out again and again with different people and unique personalities.

The presentation/production of the Scape Goat aren’t anything to write home about, but it’s hard to complain about a game this cheap. This game was extremely well-timed for social bubble game nights where you can only safely scrounge together one or two households worth of people and are hoping to scratch that social deduction itch.

Current Rating: 9/10

The King is Dead: Second Edition

1 Play

This area influence game is as tight and tense as they come.  The King is Dead is an extremely simple game with a whole lot of depth.  You’ll spend way more time thinking about what to do on your turn than actually taking it.  Each player gets the same hand of 8 cards and must decide whether to play one for early board momentum or pass for late hand advantage. Plays like a hearty salad bowl version of a Pax Pamir burrito grande, and who doesn’t like a good salad bowl?!

Current Rating: 8/10

Pipeline

3 Plays

Pipeline didn’t make a great first impression on us at the beginning of this year, but we eventually gave it another go, and I’ll admit that my first impression of Pipeline was off.  Part of that is because we didn’t fully grasp the rules after being taught them the first time.  The other part of that is because Pipeline has a steep strategic learning curve with a high skill ceiling, which means it gets better with more plays.

If you enjoy crunchy economic Euros with a dollop of spatial puzzling and don’t mind costly mistakes, punishing interactions, potential runaway leaders, and a constant feeling of making suboptimal decisions, then Pipeline is right up your alley!  If your group contains AP-prone players who sometimes drive you bonkers, then the thinky Pipeline is probably not for you.

I doubt that oil would be anyone’s favorite theme, but Ian O’Toole makes it sleek, sexy, and streamlined.  Capstone Games did a killer job with the production, and just thinking about the game has me hungry to play it again.

Current Rating: 8/10

Curious Cargo

4 Plays

Thus far, Capstone Games is 3/3 with 2020 releases!  

Curious Cargo has way more game crammed into it than most boxes of this size.  I was expecting a simple, streamlined, 2-player spinoff of Pipeline.  Yet what Curious Cargo sheds in tight economics, it makes up for in brain-melting spatial analysis.  I could spend many games mastering the beginner setup, and yet the production provides loads more maps AND a THIRD pipe color on top of that!

I’ve heard multiple reviewers say “Don’t even touch the three-color option,” implying that it is beyond the analytical faculties of a normal human. But after four plays, I’m feeling curious enough (no pun intended) to give it a shot. I’m finding that with the two-color setup, the game ends before players can really put certain tokens and strategies to good use. My hunch is that the three color version lengthens the game enough to allow for more strategic paths.

I’ve also heard some complaints from a small handful of players or critics that give me the impression they haven’t made it past the initial learning curve. Don’t be mistaken, this small box game absolutely has a strategic learning curve. It’s one that you can elect to climb on your own, or you can jump straight to Capstone’s quick tip guide for an escalator version of the curve. Either way, it’s going to take some getting used to the spatial tactics of Curious Cargo. If you’re looking for another cuddly one-night stand kind of game, then keep on moving along. This one is meant to be explored over many play sessions.

Even with the two-color setup, the strategies, tactics, objectives, and player interaction are incredibly dynamic.  I love that you can take advantage of your opponent’s setup while throwing wrenches in their plans.  It’s a game that demands extreme flexibility, as you’ll fall behind if you wait for the perfect tile or truck card to come along.

I’ve been looking forward to Curious Cargo since its announcement, and I’m pleased to report that it lives up to my high expectations.  It’s a gorgeous game, a top-notch production, and a frighteningly deep puzzle.

Current Rating: 9/10

Tammany Hall (2020 Edition)

1 Play

I’ve been brutally critical of some of Pandasaurus’s more recent releases, so let me start with this: Kudos to Pandasaurus for refreshing Tammany Hall and bringing it back into the spotlight! I never would have discovered this gem otherwise. And a double-kudos for the slick production and clean rulebook! The clear rules combined with the helpful game board guide make for a smooth experience. Everyone involved in this design and production deserve a huge pat on the back!

Tammany Hall quickly won me over with its Knizia-like emergent strategy and Splotter-like tactical nastiness. There’s a lot of layers to this onion, and I’m excited to dig deeper into it. If you don’t mind cutthroat interaction and do enjoy games like El Grande, then you owe it to yourself to try this one!

Current Rating: 8.5/10

The Quest for El Dorado: The Golden Temples

2 Plays

As big fans of the original Quest for El Dorado, we’ve now tried Golden Temples as a standalone game and as a combined expansion to the base game.  I’ll give my impressions for both ends of the spectrum: 

Standalone:

It’s hard to pass judgment on the standalone game after only one play (especially when it’s a Knizia), but we did have some unexpected experiences with The Golden Temples:

1) In our 3-player game, we all went in different directions.  The direction I chose was the only one that contained any trash a card spaces (this was the suggested setup).  I absolutely crushed my capable opponents in this game; when I reached the end, one opponent had only obtained a single gem out of three, the other had just barely acquired two.  I believe this is mainly because I was able to thin my deck early on by starting in the unique card-trashing direction.  I could certainly be wrong, but it seems like this is the only optimal strategy.

2) At one point, the other two players completely blocked each other from passing through.  In an interesting game of chicken, they had to decide whether they would be the first to retreat and change routes.  This was obviously a poor move by the second person who committed to this one-lane path, as I was clearly in the lead and they were only helping me further.  Yet this too presented another weird scenario that we never encountered in the one-directional vanilla El Dorado.

3) The English rules are severely lacking, both in clear description and in failing to explain certain rules entirely (mainly for the 2 player variant).  You can find these missing rules within the BGG forums.

4) The 3 smaller map tiles all feel pretty samey.  They all contain essentially the same mix of ingredients with slightly different proportions (kind of like Taco Bell).  I didn’t feel the need to adjust my deck between the tiles at all, especially when there are so many wild card options that let you plow through anything.

On one hand, I appreciate the interesting differences that The Golden Temples brings to El Dorado.  The new cards are a nice change of pace, the guardian tokens are clever, the pick-up-and-deliver mechanism is a nice twist, and the coins are a solid addition.

On the other hand, our game was MUCH less competitive than any game of regular El Dorado that we’ve ever had.  This is due to the above mentioned experiences, and I’m worried that this trend may continue.  The new cards and tiles also feel less diverse than the original, as so many of these new cards are basically movement wilds to get you through samey tiles.

Combined:

We combined the base game with Golden Temples for an epic race!  The game becomes quite the beast to setup, play, and tear down in this state.  It doubled our total playing time, but it was quite fun traveling over a long journey and managing a deck through different regions.  

Does this make The Golden Temples even better?  Probably.  Is it worth the extra investment of time?  Depends on how much you like the Quest for El Dorado.  It certainly adds a ton more variability/replayability to the game.  It also mitigates the family-friendly luck of the draw (for better or worse) by rewarding long-term planning, meaning that the best player will always win (and sometimes crush others into oblivion).

Current Rating: 7/10

New York Zoo

3 Plays

Note: I just released a comprehensive comparison and review of NYZ vs. other similar polyomino games last week in The Battle of the Polyominoes. For a quick summary of my thoughts on NYZ, continue reading below.

Uwe once again reminds us all why he is King of the Polyominoes.

I’ll be honest, I’m surprised at how inelegant this game is for a family-style Rosenberg.  There are several little rules that players kept forgetting or needed reexplained.  Even as I was reading through the rule book, I encountered several sections where I felt like I would soon forget these rules if I didn’t play the game quickly and regularly.

On top of that, the tiles are so similar in shade that you are doomed to fail if you’re just winging the initial setup (the tiles must be placed in many stacks of lightest on bottom to darkest on top).  Yet with trained eyes and good lighting, this quickly became a non-issue for us.

New York Zoo is surprisingly a bit of a mess to teach and setup, especially as a first time teacher.  But honestly, NONE of that matters for me.  This is an insanely fun polyomino game with a charming production and a surprising amount of depth.

With a rondel ripe for planning and risk-taking, the decisions one faces are both agonizing and thrilling… Do I snatch up a meerkat now so I’m ready for the next breeding, or do I risk putting it off just one more turn and claim that beautiful tile right there?  If my opponents all move the elephant a lot of spaces, then I’ll miss my chance entirely!

The adorable traveling elephant token is simply a disguise for the subtly cutthroat player interaction.  I can go here and get this decent tile, or I can go HERE and cost you the perfect action space for your plans, MUAHAHAHAHAAAA.

In a Board Game Vegetarian world dominated by bland Point Salads, it is SO refreshing to bite into a meaty race game where the first player to fill their entire board wins.  The tension of New York Zoo ramps up like no other polyomino game on the market.

Don’t let my minor gripes of rules inelegance and setup fiddliness scare you off.  In terms of production, charm, tension, and replayability, this game blows Barenpark out of the water.  It’s absolutely one that I can and will teach anyone and everyone.  The uninitiated may need a few reminders at first, but this is one trip to the zoo worth taking over and over again.

Current Rating; 9/10

My City

7 Plays

Note: I just released a comprehensive comparison and review of My City vs. other similar polyomino games last week in The Battle of the Polyominoes. For a quick summary of my thoughts on My City, continue reading below.

Those who follow my blog or play games with me know that Reiner Knizia has become one of my favorite designers. Despite this positive bias, I had even more reasons to avoid My City. My City is a multiplayer solitaire, bingo-style legacy game where one card that displays a specific tile is drawn at time and players must place the matching tile onto their own board.  This description of the game was an instant turnoff for me, as it sounded like a shameless cash-grab smoothie of every current trend in tabletop gaming (fluffy low-interaction gameplay + legacy game + bingo-style flip & fill + polyominoes).  Yet if one designer deserves the benefit of the doubt, that is most certainly the prolific Reiner Knizia.

When I somewhat apprehensively picked up My City at a reasonable price, I was expecting a mildly amusing game at best. Despite my reservations, I was quickly blown away by how fun and addicting My City is. THIS is how you do multiplayer solitaire.  Simultaneous play.  Evolving, legacy-style sessions.  Interesting new challenges layered on to each successive play.  Providing catch-up mechanisms for those who fall behind in the overall objective while ramping up the difficulty for those who pull ahead.  Let us, once again, take notes from the legendary Dr. Knizia’s work!

Current Rating; 9/10

This concludes another episode of my new release 1st impressions! Have you tried any of these games yet? What are your thoughts on them?

Article written by Nick Murray. To learn more about his tabletop gaming tastes and preferences, check out his blog series: Tabletop Tastes: My Favorite Flavors in Board Games. To follow his designs as they come to fruition, subscribe to our newsletter and follow Bitewing Games on social media!

The post Candid Cardboard: New Release 1st Impressions (November 2020) appeared first on Bitewing Games.