Into the Blue

1 Play

Similar to roll & writes, I’ve recently mentioned how I’ve burnt out a bit on the Yahtzee mechanism used in many modern games.  At least that’s what I had assumed, and it’s why I eventually culled our copy of King of Tokyo, King of New York, Dice Throne, and Ra: The Dice Game.  Despite my burn-out, this mechanism has sentimental ties to my history in the industry.

The first game I ever designed was inspired by King of Tokyo’s dice rolling.  Players would choose an asymmetric mythical creature such as The Kraken, Sasquatch, a Basilisk, or more and utilize Yahtzee dice rolling to determine their actions such as board movement, claiming territory, and performing heroic or villainous actions in an effort to become the most legendary.  The design will always hold a special place in my heart, even if I never take it all the way to publishing.  It was the first creative step in a long journey to what eventually became Bitewing Games.

One problem with the Yahtzee mechanism, both in my design and in the games I’ve more recently culled, is that it gives players nothing to do or think about between their turns.  You’re a victim to whatever your first, and second, and third rolls are, and no amount of pre-planning will do you any good once the dice hit the table.  Of course, some of the above mentioned games provide supplemental mechanisms such as a hand or market of cards to consider, but those never helped much with the downtime in my experience.

For games like these that can last 30-60 minutes, I increasingly find myself impatient with the lack of decisions or a larger strategy to consider during opponent turns.  These games provide a burst of small decisions during your turn—which dice to keep and which to reroll—and the result is either a burst of dopamine in rolling what you wanted or a splash of disappointment in falling short.  There is certainly fun to be had here, but the satisfaction-to-time ratio never quite hit the spot like other games.

So I’m not sure what overcame me when I recently imported a copy of Into the Blue from Europe.  Perhaps it my insatiable hunger for any Knizian content—even culling Knizia’s own Ra: The Dice Game from my collection apparently didn’t deter me.  But I also found the mechanical mixture here to be quite intriguing… The Yahtzee mechanism is back in full force, but rather than being used to target and attack specific players or move up tracks, here it allows you to compete for area majorities.

With Into the Blue, players are diving deep into the ocean board in a quest to claim the most valuable treasures.  The deeper you dive, the greater the rewards.  This is done by rolling six classic D6’s and aiming for a run of numbers.  That said, these aren’t just any old D6’s.  The 6-value face is functionally unchanged—although the “6” has been replace with a treasure chest—and the dice are a luxuriously chunky, translucent blue.  If there’s anything I’ve learned from playing dice games, it’s that the most satisfying rolls come from massive handfuls of dice—either from size or quantity.

Aside from the primitive satisfaction of hurling plastic across the table, Into the Blue offers plenty of juicy considerations and drama within the re-roll decisions—as most Knizia dice games do.  If you don’t want to bust on your turn, then you have to roll and keep a “1.”  Sounds pretty easy, right?  Well what if you happen to roll everything but a 1 on your first roll.  The temptation to lock your lucrative run in is great, but that means you only have two more chances to roll a 1 with a single die, so the risk is high as well.  Mmmm, juicy indeed.  Of course, you can always pivot your strategy and reroll previously locked dice if the second roll doesn’t go as planned.

On top of the need to get a run that starts at 1, it also helps to get a set of numbers at the end of that run.  Suppose I roll 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5.  That means I can place my sea shells on any level along that contiguous run (from 1 to 5), but if I choose level 3 then I’ll place two sea shells (a shell for each die that rolled a 3).  Remember, each level is an area majority contest, so do I establish a strong lead in level 3 with multiple shells or do I gun for the bigger payout on level five with a weaker presence of one shell?  The player interaction emerges as you see who is dominating the depths of the ocean and aim for where your shells can do the most damage.  

Another wrinkle comes from the tie-breaker rules.  If you and I have equal shells on level 3, who wins the tie and earns the most points?  To resolve ties, you must look at which player has more shells on the previous level.  Suddenly, dropping a few shells on level 1 or 2 isn’t as bad as it sounds.

Finally, if you can roll a perfect run (1-Treasure chest), then you earn a lucrative chest token (secretly worth 5-8 points) and immediately take another turn.  This reward is alluring enough to tempt players into stretching their dice a little too far—resulting in either a hilarious failure or a triumphant success.

But of course, games like King of Tokya and Ra: The Dice Game also provide some tasty dice drama and interesting re-roll decisions, so what makes Into the Blue a keeper in my collection where the others have gotten the boot?  The answer is simple: Into the Blue condenses its gameplay into a lightning quick 15-20 minutes.  It trims away all of my issues with long, drawn-out Yahtzee games and gets straight to the collective fun without overstaying its welcome.  That’s what I call a great filler.

Current Rating: 8/10

Russian Railroads / Ultimate Railroads

1 Play

Any tabletop game with “Railroads” in the name is going to immediately set expectations for most hobbyists.  Those expectations would include things like an interactive map for route-building, shared incentive gameplay via mutual stock investment, and an objective of turning a profit across multiple companies.  Perhaps it doesn’t always have to be that specific, but the player interaction and route-building are seemingly the core ingredients that make up all train games.

So you can imagine my dismay upon discovering that Russian/Ultimate Railroads is a “train” game purely on the basis of pushing a bunch of wood tokens up “tracks” on your player board rather than featuring any kind of interactive route building.  I call that a bait and switch 😆.  And while I’ll typically bemoan games that feature pushing stuff up endless tracks, the good news is that Russian/Ultimate Railroads is one of the best in this genre that I’ve tried.  I believe it works for me because of how clean and focused the design that surrounds this concept is as well as how explosive the engine building feels.

Additionally, you still get some good player interaction here on the central worker placement board.  The spaces are first-come, first-serve and your options for extending up tracks are nicely limited, so there’s a good tension in the decision making.  The game also proceeds at a brisk cadence between the individual turns and round scoring.

I suppose the biggest issue for some folks may lie within the “on-the-rails” strategies (see what I did there?).  Once you commit to a certain strategy early on, there seems to be very little incentive or ability to pivot later in the game.  There is still satisfaction to be had in watching your engine blast off like a rocket through the later rounds, and the order of triggering worker placement spaces can be critical to your success.  But if one player gains some early momentum within a less crowded strategic path, then it seems likely you’ll be watching them lap your score marker in the later rounds of the game.

The tracks here are all about increasing your scoring multipliers while unlocking lucrative bonuses as quickly as possible, and they generally succeed at keeping players engaged throughout.  I hear that the game can start to feel stagnant over the course of multiple plays, which is why it’s critical to mix things up with the other boards that are bundled together in the newer version—Ultimate Railroads.  Fans of engine builders and crunchy Euros will find plenty to love within this trackety track game.

Current Rating: 7.5/10

Kingdom Builder

1 Play

You know, it’s funny.  I always got the impression from the box cover and title of Kingdom Builder that this was a simple gateway game akin to Catan.  It’s certainly simple and family friendly, but I was surprised to find that this game was closer to being a Knizia-style tile-placement strategy game like Tigris & Euphrates, Through the Desert, Babylonia, etc., rather than a Catan-style Euro.

But alas, Kingdom Builder is not designed by Reiner, it is designed by Donald X. Vaccarino, and it possesses some key differences in its tile-placement mechanisms.  You see, where Knizia typically likes to restrict what you place, Kingdom Builder opts to restrict where you can place your stuff.  Where Knizia most often aims to provide replayability from the emergent strategies and dynamic interactions, Kingdom Builder focuses on variety in the board setup and tile abilities.  The similarities in general mechanisms are enough that I can’t resist comparing these games to each other, yet the key differences are what make Kingdom Builder feel much more restrictive and tactical than what I’m used to in a tile-placement game.

In a game of Kingdom Builder, you’ll only ever have one card at a time in your hand.  This card is tied to a specific terrain type—forest, desert, canyon, etc.  On your turn, you’ll discard that card in order to play 3 of your settlements onto 3 spaces of that terrain type, and you must place adjacent to your other settlements on the board, if possible.  These combined limitations force an unusual strategy upon players where they often avoid placing their tokens adjacent to certain terrain types so that they have more freedom to place anywhere on the board later on.  It’s certainly a dynamic that rewards experienced play, but I’m not sure how satisfying this forced strategy is.

At the very least, the restrictive hand of terrain types reminds me much of another light strategy game that I’m fond of—Iwari.  Yet in Iwari, you have a hand of three cards plus the flexibility of spending two similar cards to equal a wild card, and you are not restricted to placing your pieces next to each other.  As a result, Iwari feels more open to competing strategies and clever decision making.

Aside from forcing border-phobia upon its participants, Kingdom Builder also strongly incentivizes players to reach location tiles that are sprinkled throughout the map.  If you place your settlement adjacent to a location tile, then you usually get to claim that location tile and utilize its ability for the rest of the game.  Most of these abilities allow you to place an extra settlement on the board or relocate one that you placed out previously.  I’m used to tile-placement games having a steady pace, smooth flow, and high frequency of player engagement, so it was also jarring to feel Kingdom Builder slow down over time as players acquired more location abilities that they had to fire off every turn.  

In this particular session of Kingdom Builder, I was the obvious newb who didn’t set myself up well to acquire many location abilities.  So my turns remained fairly straightforward throughout.  Most often, I had decided what to do on my next turn merely 10 seconds after drawing another card to conclude my previous turn.  So the increasing downtime certainly becomes noticeable if you’re not one of the players who has a wide array of tile abilities.  The restrictive core mechanisms sort of funneled me into an on-the-rails strategy, which made for a bit of an auto-pilot experience.

Where I already own and enjoy far too many excellent tile-placement games, I can’t say that Kingdom Builder is at the top of my list.  But it’s certainly a fine game, and I can see why it remains a popular evergreen.

Current Rating: 6.5/10

Santiago

1 Play

Santiago is another one of those “hidden gem” German designs that fans of old-school Euros typically speak of with reverence and praise.  If you haven’t noticed yet, those types of games tend to be right up my alley because I crave the elegant rules, bitey interaction, and emergent strategies they provide.  

But even more than that, I will come right out with the truth and admit that when I first learned about Santiago I saw it as a potential business opportunity for Bitewing Games to publish a new version.  This is partially because we are already working with Reiner Knizia on improving some of his classics designs as well as publishing some of his entirely new games.  Santiago sounds exactly like the type of game that could fit right in with the branding we are aiming to establish and the audience we are seeking to attract.

Regarding my current thoughts, now that I’ve played the game, the good news is that I intend to keep Santiago around in my collection, but the bad news is that I’m no longer keen to publish it.  The reason is simple:  Santiago can only reach its full potential in a five player game where all five players are cold-blooded savages.  We ended up playing it with four players who were too sympathetic to each other, which means that our experience was noticeably more dull than what this game is capable of.

While I love any opportunity to rake my friends over the coals in any tabletop game, I’m not saying that every game needs to be mean and crowded to be fun.  But I do feel that this rule applies to Santiago.  And worst of all, I just don’t see an easy solution for how to make this game less niche in its player count and group compatibility.

The first problem comes from the fact that the game is played on a fixed square grid.  You see, players are bidding on the drafting order and placement order of plantation tiles.  Each player will get to place a tile on the board and claim ownership of it every round.  The problem is that your plantation tile will dry up and vanish before the end of the game, leaving you high and dry on points, unless you can extend the canal to it as soon as possible.  So after bidding, drafting, and placement, players proceed to propose a canal route and bribe the canal overseer in an effort to get them to save their new plantations.

The canal overseer is always the player who passed first during the bidding phase of that round.  And this is perhaps the most brilliant twist of the game.  If you pass first, you miss out on lucrative plantation opportunities from the drafting and placement order, but it allows you to hold the fate of everyone else’s plantations that they just blew their money on.  This should be one of the most delicious trade-offs in all of boardgamedom.  The problem is that in anything but a 5 player game of cutthroat opponents, this glorious mechanism loses its luster.

In our 4 player game, there were frequently times where a previously placed canal line still had open spaces next to it.  This meant that the two highest bidders could easily plop their plantation in an already safe spot and had no need to bribe the canal overseer that round.  Basically, the less players you have, and the less creatively cold-blooded they are, the less interesting Santiago becomes.  We even tried to start the game by placing the spring token (the starting point of the canals) on the edge of the board to reduce the supply of convenient watering locations, yet that ultimately didn’t solve the problem.

Another problem with our first play, and this is admittedly more a me problem than a Santiago problem, is that I had heard many folks refer to Santiago as their favorite negotiation game when in reality it is more a pseudo-negotiation game.  I came in expecting another political sandbox romp in the same vein as Quo Vadis or Chinatown when Santiago is actually an on-the-rails bidding and bribing game.  I’m actually planning to put out a list of my Top 10 Negotiation Games of All Time pretty soon here, and I honestly don’t know if Santiago will even crack it. The rulebook itself admits that it is not a negotiation game, although non-binding agreements and table-talk are allowed.  But again, you’ll really only see a bit of that politicking come through if you’re playing with the right group.

In any case, I do hope to eventually have the perfect game night where the stars align and our line-up of players are perfect for Santiago at its best.  But even then, if I’m craving a true negotiation feast, I have several other options I’d reach for first.

Current Rating: 6.5/10

Sound Box

3 Plays

While party games in general have a had a rough few years (thanks, Covid), cooperative party games seem to be the reigning champions of the genre lately.  Games like Just One and So Clover have managed to hit that sweet-spot for many where they are casual enough to get anyone into yet engaging enough to entertain the masses.

So Sound Box, being another cooperative party game, couldn’t have timed it better as far as current trends go. I was excited to dive into this particular game because it comes from the team behind The King’s Dilemma, Railroad Ink, and more.  Sound Box comes with a massive deck of topic cards (featuring 220 topics), a long board to track your progress, some number tokens to correspond with the current display of cards, a draw bag for the tokens, some blinder glasses, and a few other knickknacks such as a sand timer and progress tokens.

Each round one player acts as the Guesser who must wear the blinder glasses, while the rest of the players will be Soundmakers.  Each Soundmaker draws a secret numbered token from the bag which is linked to a topic card in the display.  Then, the 13-second sand timer is flipped and the Soundmakers proceed to simultaneously make noises that relate to their secret topic until the time runs out.  If you’re playing with 6-7 players, then another player will act as the Recorder who also wears glasses and has the hilarious job of blindly parroting everything they heard while the Guesser tries to connect the sounds to the correct topic cards.

If you want even more options for the length and feel of each round, the rulebook provides a QR code to a web app which replaces the sand timer, and it sounds cool in theory from what I’ve read about it.  Unfortunately, the QR link just takes you to an annoying pop-up page that looks more like cheap malware than a service provided by the publisher.  Seriously, check this thing out:

Go ahead, just link it to your phone’s calendar and then click the sketchy flashing subscribe button on the questionable white screen.  Thanks, but no thanks, Horrible Guild.  I’ll just stick with my sand timer.

This bait-and-switch was honestly kind of a pattern that extended beyond the app itself into the rest of our first experience with the game.  Our plays followed a weird roller coaster of excited anticipation followed by sudden disappointment, over and over again.  There were some funny moments mixed in there, for sure, but I honestly don’t know what to make of this game at this point.

Revealing a topic card such as “Avalanche” or “Beach” or “Swimming Pool” sounds like a nice challenge if a player happens to secretly draw those topics, but when all of those cards are in the display at the same time and all the Guesser hears is 13 seconds of “WSHHHH WSHHHHH WSHHHH WSHHHH WSHHHHH.”  …then things can get really tricky 😆.

Likewise, we had another lineup later that included “Castle”, “The Crusades”, “Fighting in The Colosseum”, “Joust”, and “The Knights of the Round”… (the round table right?  Who knows.  This card just said “The Knights of the Round”).  So when one or two people are hollering “CLANG CLANG CLANG” then your odds of guessing the correct card in that kind of lineup are incredibly low.

At another point we also had about 4 different Disney animated movies out on the board along with another card that said “Walt Disney World.”  The problem is that you’re not allowed to sing or hum a recognizable tune, so when you’re trying to make noises that sound like generic Disney then your Guesser is toast.

Many party games such as Codenames and Decrypto take advantage of this type of thing where the lines between topics often blur and the combination of them force players into being more creative with their hints and clues.  The problem we’ve encountered in our initial plays is that Sound Box takes what should be a casual, funny game and frustratingly cranks the difficulty up to 11.  

You think it’s easy to give a clue that differentiates “Niagara Falls” from “Avalanche?”  Or “The Avengers” from “Superhero Fight?” Or “Babysitter” from “Nursery?”  Or “Fighting in a Colosseum” from “The Crusades?”  Or “Snow White” from “The Little Mermaid?”  Or “Cyberhacker” from “The Age of the Internet?”  Or “Captain Morgan and the Pirates” from “Pirate Boarding?”  Good for you.  The only problem is that your hint is limited to making noise, and that noise can’t include recognizable tunes or discernible words, and you only have 13 seconds to make the noise, and your Guesser has to discern it out of the chaos of noisemakers surrounding them, and then your Guesser has to recall each of the individual noises that rapidly fade from their brain as they scramble to find the right topic cards that best match those noises, and the moment your Guesser points to an incorrect topic then the round is immediately over.

Many of our rounds consisted of the Guesser getting blasted with brief, audible chaos before taking off their glasses, pointing to an incorrect topic card, and the round immediately ending with a whimper.  Our first full play consisted of a few absolutely pitiful rounds that plummeted our heart token straight to defeat.  Yet all of us felt the eagerness to try again… we had a taste of what could be.  Our following two attempts were certainly an improvement over the first, yet Sound Box seemed more content with beating our hopes and dreams to a pulp rather than rewarding our successes.

This has to be one of the most frustrating games I’ve played in a long time.  It feels like the concept here is so close to being truly fantastic, yet the execution is a bit of a flop that will require most groups to fix it with their own house rules.  “But Nick,” you say, “nobody follows the actual rules of party games anyway!”  Perhaps that is true, but you know what else nobody does?  Nobody gets a game back to the table when it makes a disappointing first impression.  Only the strongest among us have the willpower to table a game that has flopped once and seems likely to flop again without the help of house rules.  And nobody wants to burn multiple game night opportunities to try and polish a game that should have been polished by the creators.  Why would we do that when we can simply play another game that is smooth as a whistle and consistently satisfying?

Maybe if Sound Box had let its players use discernible tunes, or gave Soundmakers more time to make their noises, or pared down its humongous deck by trimming out the redundant and obscure topics, or provided a legit QR code that didn’t attempt a hostile takeover of your phone, or let the round continue beyond the Guesser’s first failure… maybe if just one of those things had been improved, then Sound Box would have been a hit at our table rather than a sucker-punch to our enthusiasm.

As a publisher and developer, I can see the potential here; I want it to work so badly.  So many decisions feel like obvious missteps that are likely solved with easy fixes.  But I’ve already got a dozen other designs that I’m worried about perfecting with Bitewing Games.  When I sit down to play a published game like Sound Box, I’m there to have fun, and I’m agitated when poor design decisions get in the way of that fun.

Current Rating: 6/10… but maybe there’s an 8 or 9 lurking in here somewhere.  We may never know…

Faiyum

1 Play

Designer Friedemann Friese is well known for his strange themes, green box aura, and titles that begin with the letter F.  Despite being a quirky character and long-time creator in the industry, I’ve never tried a game of his until my recent play of Faiyum.

I’m not quite sure what it was that caught my eye about Faiyum… perhaps it was the combination of grape spaces and crocodile tokens that softened my heart… possibly the general positivity surrounding the game put it on my radar… or maybe I just scrolled past it online and added it to my cart in a moment of weakness.

Regardless, Faiyum has proven to be a pleasant surprise of a gaming experience that comes with one major caveat.  In a lot of ways, this modern Euro reminds me of Concordia, where you’ll be playing, building, and replenishing your hand with a growing stash of cards fed by a sliding market.  The cards drive your ability to take actions, collect resources, and score points.  So most turns will see you playing a single card, but you can instead purchase a card from the market or take an Administrative action to refresh your hand, your finances, and the card market.

On the shared board, you’ll be sending out workers, clearing crocodiles, and developing spaces with roads and buildings.  But the catch is that nobody owns anything on the board (aside from their score marker).  So if I choose to clear crocodiles out of an area to earn money, then that might set you up to develop the space and score points.

So it’s this pairing of dynamic mechanisms that makes Faiyum shine:

1. There’s a huge (60+) card market that comes out in a random order and allows players to diversify their abilities.
2. The game board is constantly changing and evolving as all players help to bulid ancient Egypt and seek to earn the coveted favor of the pharaoh.

The other thing that makes Faiyum stand out is the order in which you choose to play your cards.  Unlike Concordia, Faiyum does not give you back your entire discard pile when you take an Administration action.  Only the top 3 cards are free to take back into your hand—the rest of the cards cost a dollar each to retrieve.  This means that you’ll constantly be torn between blowing your cash on a new card versus saving it to be able to reuse the cards you’ve already spent.

While the board presents a constant stream of evolving opportunities, it’s nothing like the game board of Brass where players must lunge and claw for every scrap of food.  Faiyum is much more loose and welcoming with its abundance of options.  As a result, targeting your opponents and their strategies on the shared board is a much more difficult task.  You’re better off snatching up cards from the market that could help them run away with the victory.

Perhaps the hardest thing to swallow about Faiyum is its long playtime of 2-3 hours.  While the rules are approachable and the strategic complexity is merely moderate, the playtime is noticeably above average for a game of this weight.  That means Faiyum will likely see less plays than faster games, but I do intend to get it to the table some more.

Current Rating: 7.5/10

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation

2 Plays

I can’t resist a good 2 player game… especially one that is based on The Lord of the Rings, can be enjoyed in 30 minutes, is still highly regarded 20 years from its release, and is designed by Dr. Knizia himself.  It was inevitable that I would get my hands on a copy of this game eventually.  And now it’s mine, I tell you.  My own.  My precious…  And though I knew it would corrupt me (my wallet, more specifically), I lunged for it anyway.

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation is Knizia’s legendary Middle-Earth themed take on the secret unit bluffing genre made popular by Stratego.  Ironically, my memories of playing Stratego as a child stem from a family copy of the game—a version titled Stratego: Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition.  So I suppose I’ve now come full circle… like the one ring of power… it always calls to me. 

I remember enjoying my plays of Stratego all those years ago; perhaps it was that mysterious element of bluffing as you march your secret units around the board and spring them on your opponent.  Yet looking now at old pictures of the game (coming fresh off another play of The Confrontation), I’m shocked to see that players start a game of Stratego with FORTY units each.  Meanwhile, The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation features a measly 9 units for each player.  So clearly Stratego is the more epic game, right?  Well, that probably depends on if you prefer a drawn-out game of memory and attrition, or a firecracker game of bluffing and strategy.

It’s no secret at this point that Reiner took Stratego and absolutely murdered it with his own design.  There’s nothing sad about this homicide.  The real tragedy lies in the fact that roughly 26,000 Board Game Geek users own Stratego and it remains readily available to purchase while only 15,000 users own LotR: The Confrontation and it has been out of print for nearly a decade.

For those who want a more thematic game, The Confrontation wins by a landslide.  One player controls the Fellowship of the Ring, and their objective is to get Frodo into Mordor for an automatic victory.  Meanwhile, Team Sauron is controlled by the opponent who either wants to find and defeat Frodo or get 3 characters into the Shire.  These opposing sides feature a wide array of asymmetric strengths and abilities that largely stay true to the theme of the trilogy.  Our most recent play even saw Boromir and the Orcs taking down each other while Gandalf defeated the Balrog and Frodo narrowly escaped the Black Rider.  Who ever said Knizia doesn’t design thematic games? 

Reiner never fails to squeeze every last drop of emergent strategy out of a simple concept.  All you’re doing here is taking turns moving one figure forward (that’s all you can do!).  But which character to start where,  when and where to move them, and when and how to clash with an enemy unit are what make The Confrontation shine.  Furthermore, most spaces can hold two of your characters; so when one (or both) of them have been found out from an earlier encounter, you then have the gleeful opportunity to take both your characters from that space and rearrange them under the table to help sow the seeds of doubt in your opponent’s plans.

Mordor and its allies have much higher base strengths and some serious movement capabilities, so this player can swiftly track down and cut down the Fellowship if they are not careful.  Yet the forces of good have more powerful character abilities to help even the playing field (assuming the player utilizes them well).

Every decision carries the heavy weight of the one ring itself because your figures start at 9 and quickly dwindle from there.  Plus, your characters can never backtrack (aside from the occasional 1-space retreat action).  If an enemy unit happens to slip past your front line, then this means you have one less chance to stop them.

If the game was solely made up of “gotcha” moments from each time two enemies collide and reveal their identity, then The Confrontation would be no better than Stratego.  It turns out that what the concept really needs is another layer of bluffing: the “double gotcha!”  Players reveal their clashing characters and first resolve the character abilities.  All 18 characters feature unique and exciting opportunities for rule-breaking movement, tactical retreats, or strategic advantages.  Sometimes one character can sneak its way out of a conflict, but most the time these collisions are a battle to the death.

In these battles, players select a card from their starting hand to play face down and reveal simultaneously.  These cards either add to your figure’s base strength or apply powerful effects that take place before the battle resolution.  The key here is that you know exactly what cards are left in your opponent’s hand (you have a handy aid as well as their face-up discard pile to study), and you’re constantly aiming to outwit the enemy within a mental house of mirrors and bluffs.

Usually, the craftier person who plays their cards best will come out on top.  But that doesn’t mean your opponent can’t have a thrilling comeback.  In my last play of the game, I managed to harness Gandalf and his ability to wipe out most of Sauron’s forces.  The frustration from my wife rose as her character count plummeted from 9 all the way down to 3 while I maintained a comparatively massive force of 7.  Frodo was safely tucked into my fleet, but Camille still had a couple more tricks up her sleeve.  Fortunately for her, I had not managed to eliminate the Nazgul or Black Rider—both of which can leap across the board in a single movement.

With her Nazgul, Camille selected a random mystery figure in my fellowship to attack and that figure just so happened to be Frodo.  Target acquired.  Fortunately, Frodo is a slippery one (thanks to the help of his invisibility-inducing ring), and he was able to flee the battle to a nearby region.  On my next turn, I tried to hide Frodo by advancing him into Legolas’s region and shuffling them around.  The plan seemed perfect… once I separate Legolas and Frodo, Camille will send her flying Nazgul after them again and she has a 50/50 chance of springing my trap (Legolas’s identity was still unrevealed, and his ability is to instantly kill the Nazgul).

The only problem is that Cami never waited for such a trap.  Instead, she marched her Black Rider across the board straight to Frodo’s region and just so happened to choose Frodo himself to attack first.  Now I was trapped.  Frodo can only retreat sideways, and from this particular region there was no empty space for him to move into.  Despite all of my masterful efforts to cut off Mordor’s legs with the white wizard himself, I suddenly found myself on the brink of defeat against a more powerful enemy.

I had two options: Play my only retreat card (which would let move move backward into a vacant space), or play a high strength card.  Retreat seemed like the obvious move, especially considering the fact that Sauron’s strength cards are even higher than the Fellowship’s.  The only thing is, Sauron also has his fiery eye that sees all of Middle Earth.  This eye takes the form of a card that cancels any non-strength card played by the Fellowship, including Retreat.  So if I played Retreat and Camille played the Eye of Sauron, then she would nullify my escape and snatch victory from my grasp based on pure character strength.  But if she played the Eye of Sauron and I instead played a high strength card, then the underdog Frodo could defeat the Black Rider himself.  But if she guessed my bluff and simply played a strength card against my strength card, then the ring-bearer would make a fool of himself as the Black Rider strikes him down with ease.

In this case, I guessed right! I played a strength card against the Eye of Sauron, and from there the path to Mordor was a victory lap for the triumphant hobbit.  A riveting 2-player game, indeed!  As for my wife… well, she may never want to play Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation again 😆.

Current Rating: 8/10

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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 Sound Box, Ultimate Railroads, Into the Blue, Faiyum, and more! appeared first on Bitewing Games.

With all the “Most Anticipated Games of 2022” lists I’ve seen over the past few weeks, it feels like Bitewing Games is a little late to the party. On the other hand, I’ve been surprised to see very little overlap between my list and the many others out there. So today it is my honor to shine a spotlight on many promising—and possibly overlooked—titles.

From quick, simple card games to sprawling legacy campaigns… from loud, hilarious party romps to tantalizing expansions, my most anticipated board games of 2022 list covers the entire spectrum of exciting upcoming releases. And these are just the ones we know about so far…

Caesar!: Seize Rome in 20 Minutes

Expected Release Date: Now

Well it appears that Caesar being on our 2021 Holiday Board Game Gift Guide was wishful thinking.  But now that this promising war game is finally starting to show up on shelves and doorsteps, it feels like second Christmas!  Don’t be surprised it this one ends up claiming the title of best 2-player game of the year.  Father Paolo Mori and the older sibling to Caesar (Blitzkrieg) are that good.

Why it’s Exciting: Tense, bitey tug-of-war games frequently hit the spot for me.  While this one isn’t as blatant of a tug of war as Blitzkrieg, it still appears to capture a similar essence.  It also gives me faint vibes of another classic tile laying game—Samurai.  Those two bangers are very good company to be in.

Ghosts of Christmas

Expected Release Date: February 2022

Thanks to clogged ports and delayed shipments, some of the games here are spillover from last year’s most anticipated board games list.  Ghosts of Christmas is the first in a trio of games that Board Game Tables launched on Kickstarter last year.  Sadly, this game may have just missed Christmas 2021, but I suppose it’s not a big deal because here you’ll be able to time travel as you play tricks in the past, present, and future.

Why it’s exciting: BGT has developed a new hobby of unearthing bizarre Japanese designs and bringing them to a wider, western audience.  Folks like me who love wonky card games should have this on their radar.

Bear Raid

Expected Release Date: February 2022

Game two from the BGT trio is none other than Ryan Courtney’s Bear Raid.  Fun fact: Ryan told me that he’s not a big fan of games where politics (wheeling and dealing, messing with others’ plans, persuading opponents in directions that help yourself and hurt others, etc.) can influence the outcome, and Bear Raid is in many respects this type of game, so he basically designed a game that he personally isn’t into.  How about that.  The important thing here is that Ryan’s playtesters love this stock investment romp… and it’s whimsically illustrated by Nick Nizzaro.  I was born ready for this one.  Yet for those who are hoping for a more warm and welcoming game from Ryan, we’ve got you covered (more on that later).

Why It’s exciting:  I love a good interactive game where you can bet on or invest in various options.  Whether it’s a horse, a camel, a battalion, or a company, the moment you feel personally invested in a thing’s success is the moment where the excitement begins.

Factory Funner

Expected Release Date: February 2022

I’ve never associated factories with the adjective “fun,” but this final game in the BGT trio is poised to change all that.  I recently shared my top 10 spatial puzzle games, and Factory Funner made that list thanks to questionable combination of gut-feeling and critical acclaim.

Why It’s exciting:  The crunchy spatial game play, the stylish art, the flexibility of tile arrangements, and the quick playtime all speak to me in this updated version from BGT.

Sound Box

Expected Release Date: March 2022

I’m not sure which is more surprising: the implication that Horrible Guild needed to take Sound Box to Kickstarter or the fact that it only raised 12k Euros.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they spent roughly that much just to market the game—what a depressing thought.  Of course, launching a party game during COVID may have had something to do with that… Regardless, I’ve got my money on this game being a hoot (literally—I’m a backer) and gaining a second wind once it hits tables.  The design team behind The King’s Dilemma and Railroad Ink have created a game where players must cooperate to listen to each other’s weird sounds in a quest to pick out the right topic cards.  Imagine Codenames where the clues are a chaotic jumble of simultaneous noises and you’re basically there.

Why it’s exciting: Also imagine your partner, sibling, parent, or friend trying their best but epicly failing to recreate the sound of a printer… or a golf tournament.  Need I say more?

Root: The Marauder Expansion

Expected Release Date: Q2 2022

Few things bring me as much joy as a new box of Root goodies.  Between the exciting faction variety, charismatic art by Kyle Ferrin, and colorful Leder Games production, Root and its several expansions never fail to capture my heart.  The Marauder Expansion is particularly notable in that it apparently offers an enhanced experience a lower player counts thanks to the new hirelings.

Why it’s exciting: “Some critters just want to watch the world burn.” Such a sentiment can be said about about the new faction Lord of the Hundreds—an unhinged rat who incites ‘torch-wielding mobs.’  Meanwhile, the Keepers of Iron are disciplined Badgers on the hunt for ancient relics.  What’s not to love here?

John Company: Second Edition

Expected Release Date: June 2022

Speaking of exciting new games from Root designer Cole Wehrle, John Company: Second Edition is hot on the heels of The Marauder Expansion’s scheduled release.  While this is only the second game to come from the brothers Wehrle and their company Wehrlegig, the first one (Pax Pamir: Second Edition) is one of my favorite games ever.  Thus, a meaty game of negotiation and politics from Cole is exactly the kind of thing that could easily become my favorite game of 2022 (and of all time).  It’s gonna be a good summer of gaming, my friends.

Why it’s exciting: If gorgeous, historical board game productions from a boundary-pushing game designer sound like your kind of thing, then Wehrlegig Games is a publisher you should follow.  They’ve already proven that their games are a labor of love, and John Company: Second Edition is set to please folks who enjoy deep, immersive, and dynamic political experiences.

Soda Smugglers

Expected Release Date: June 2022

I can’t believe we’ve had to stretch all the way to June to find a new Knizia game to be hyped about!  But worry not, because the second half of the year should more than satisfy Knizia fans.  These next three games are ones that I’ve already played a ton of, but that’s because we here at Bitewing Games are their publisher.  Personally, I’m excited to see our vision for Soda Smugglers achieve its final form—bottle cap tokens, hilarious bribing, and all.  For people who want a quick, clever bluffing game that is dead simple to teach, Soda Smugglers should be right up your alley.  You can even still preorder the standard or limited deluxe edition here and be one of the first to own it.

Why it’s exciting:  Harmless, simple, and fast bluffing games are perhaps some of the best gateway and/or filler games out there.  Nothing breaks the ice better than witnessing a seemingly gentle person attempt to cross the border with a couple suitcases jam-packed with illicit soda bottles.  And few things are as funny as watching the border guard fall for a bluff or a wily traveler shoot themself in the foot with a mistimed double-bluff.

Pumafiosi

Expected Release Date: June 2022

Along the same lines, Pumafiosi is another offering from Reiner Knizia and Bitewing Games.  This one features a unique style of trick-taking where the second-highest card wins the trick and slots their winning card into a push-your-luck style hierarchy.  To top it all off, it features zany Puma Mafia characters galore.

Why it’s exciting:  Similar to Ghosts of Christmas, here we have another wonky card game that slowly reveals layered strategies as you peel through the onion.  This is a small game with a big payoff in how it rewards multiple plays.  Plus the Pumafia art and lore spread across the entire collection is simply a joy to explore.

Hot Lead

Expected Release Date: June 2022

Finally, Hot Lead rounds out the Criminal Capers Collection with a new twist on auctioning from the master designer of auction games himself.  With the help of 19 illustrated investigators, you’ll be undercover collecting evidence on criminal organizations.  Just like the other two games, this one is quick, simple, and addicting.  Again, if you’re interested, you can preorder here.  This is currently the best and only way to support Bitewing Games as a publisher and content creator.  We love sharing and making games that bite (it’s in the name), and we appreciate the support!

Why it’s exciting: Those who appreciate auctioning games are likely fans of Knizia’s stone-cold classics including Ra, High Society, and Modern Art.  With Hot Lead, we were thrilled to discover that Reiner had funneled his mystical auction design powers into an even faster experience while giving the game its own distinct flavor.  Furthermore, you get the best of a push-your-luck experience where the glorious triumphs feel amazing and the stinging failures are as quick as ripping off a band-aid.  Either way, you’re always hungry for another go.

Beyond the Sun Expansion

Expected Release Date: Q2-Q3 2022

We don’t know much yet, but word on the street is that the upcoming expansion for Beyond the Sun provides more incentives to focus on the planet board (colonization and area control).  But to be honest, anything that gives me more reasons to revisit this excellent tech-tree bonanza of a Euro has my interest.

Why it’s exciting: Beyond the Sun is one of those types of games that feels like it has endless possibilities thanks to the uniquely unraveling tech tree.  Adding more possibilities to those ‘endless’ possibilities is a thrilling prospect that has me wondering what lies beyond Beyond the Sun.

Ahoy

Expected Release Date: Q3 2022

Ahoy is the next direct-to-retail game coming from Leder Games.  This one is described as an asymmetric pirate strategy game for 2-4 players that plays in roughly 1 hour.  Two players will play as oppositional governments (one insurgent, the other established) while the other two players act as smugglers who influence the topology and value of the map that is being contested over.  According to Leder Games, this one is already finished and heading to manufacturing.

Why it’s exciting: Folks who love the idea of Root but dread the baggage that game comes with it (meaty teach, steep cost of admission, etc.) can look forward to Ahoy being the more approachable design that scratches a similar itch.

Trailblazers

Expected Release Date: Q4 2022

Assuming we don’t hit any significant delays, it’s very possible that our next release after the Criminal Capers Collection reaches tables before the end of the year.  We recently unveiled the first details of Trailblazers by Ryan Courtney, and more juicy info will be trickling in over the coming weeks.  Those who enjoy spatial puzzles will find much to love here between the three solo modes, wide player count of 1-8, charming outdoor adventure theme, simple ruleset with a high skill ceiling, and handy travel case.  Be sure to subscribe to the Bitewing Games newsletter to follow the game all the way to the Q2 Kickstarter launch!

Why it’s exciting: Ever since my first play of the excellent Pipeline, I always thought it would be cool to see a game that really focuses in on and explores the possibilities of a pure spatial puzzle game based solely on Ryan Courtney’s windy pipe domino tiles.  Trailblazers is that game.  Trailblazers is to Pipeline as Patchwork is to A Feast for Odin.  Here you can simply concentrate on constructing ambitious, exciting routes within a charming theme and colorful presentation that will appeal to anyone.  

Horseless Carriage

Expected Release Date: Q4 2022

Publisher Splotter Spellen is known for many strategic classics including Food Chain Magnate, Bus, Indonesia, and The Great Zimbabwe. Fans of their designs have come to love the trademark Splotter traits of pure strategy, punishing decisions, brutal interactions, and deep gameplay. While details on Horseless Carriage are sparse, we do know that this is another economic game about creating and selling automobiles in the dawn of the industry.

Why it’s exciting: Horseless Carriage is the first entirely new game put out by Splotter since 2015’s Food Chain Magnate. With FCM being their highest ranked game and most recent game, that means Horseless Carriage has big shoes to fill. Whether it lives up to those high expectations or not, Splotter fans can finally celebrate the end of a 7-year new game publishing drought.

Sidereal Confluence: Bifurcation

Expected Release Date: 2022

I was recently delighted to discover that one of my favorite high-interaction games is getting an expansion this year.  Thanks to a cross-country move and COVID, it’s been trickier to get Sidereal Confluence to the table lately, especially where the game shines best with 5+ players who enjoy wheeling and dealing.  I’m hoping to dive deeper into this epic game of negotiation before this exciting expansion releases.

Why it’s exciting: Bifurcation is set to effectively double the variety of asymmetric species players can use during the game. It introduces a new variant to each of the 9 alien species in the game—meaning new mechanisms, new strategies, and new trading opportunities.

My City: Roll & Write

Expected Release Date: 2022

Last year, I interviewed Dr. Knizia about his plans for a follow-up to the phenomenal legacy game, My City.  He hinted that there would be a sequel, but it would explore new gameplay rather than retread the same ground.  It turns out, that sequel has been reveal as My City: Roll & Write.  From the box cover, we can gather that many of the core concepts have been carried over: the city sheet shows a very similar layout to the original game’s board including mountains, a river, rocks, and trees.  The art also shows similar polyomino shapes and three different building types.  

Yet this version can play a wider range of 1-6 players and features a smaller (and presumably cheaper) box of 12 episodes rather than 24. The major question is: How will the roll & write aspect of the game change things up?  Will we see new dice introduced across the four chapters?  I’m normally not one to get excited about a roll & write, but I’ll make an exception for the follow-up to My City.

Why it’s exciting:  Those who play Knizia dice games would largely agree that Knizia understands how to make the most of dice.  The man even wrote an entire book on dice games, for crying out loud!  So the introduction of dice to the My City system means that these 12 episodes will likely have all kinds of new tricks up their sleeves.

Crescent Moon

Expected Release Date: 2022

If a meaty expansion to Sidereal Confluence isn’t enough for you, then perhaps you’ll be able to satisfy your negotiation cravings with Osprey Games’ ambitious Crescent Moon.  This mammoth design apparently takes 2.5-3 hours to play and can only be played with 4-5 players.  You’ll take on the role of a wildly asymmetric character who has unique objectives, actions, and powers in an area control competition of alliances, rivalries, and negotiations.  Based on that description, fans of Cole Wehrle designs should take note.

Why it’s exciting: From a publisher standpoint, putting out a game with such a narrow target audience (groups of 4-5 players who enjoy meaty, asymmetric games) is a tricky proposition.  What this tells me is that publisher Osprey Games really believes in this project enough to take such a risk.  Combine that with the fact that they’ve been putting out some excellent games recently (Undaunted, Brian Boru, etc.) and suddenly this one has the potential to be something truly special.

Ra

Expected Released Date: 2022

Reiner Knizia fans won’t have to wait too much longer for one of his most popular classics to make a triumphant return.  We’ve finally seen a magnificent box cover from artist Ian O’Toole, and that’s only the tip of what’s bound to be an iceberg of stunning visuals and clean graphic design.  We also know that 25th Century Games is aiming to make this the best production of Ra ever.  So whether you own and love this fantastic push-your-luck auctioning design or not, the latest version of Ra should be on your radar.

Why it’s exciting:  A new version of Ra illustrated by Ian O’Toole is like the Spider-man: No Way Home of board game team-ups.  They’re bringing back a classic, critically acclaimed, beloved experience (Doc Oc, Green Goblin—Reiner Knizia’s Ra) and pairing it with something popular and exciting (Tom Holland’s Spider-man aka Ian O’Toole).

The Queen’s Dilemma

Expected Release Date: 2022?

If you’ve played the 2020 Kennerspiel des Jahres nominee, The King’s Dilemma, then you understand how much work went into this legacy game of tug-of-war politics.  Thus, it’s understandable why The Queen’s Dilemma has been announced but not given a release date.  The big change here is that the tug-of-war resource tracks from the King’s Dilemma are being replaced with a kingdom map where players control regions, gather resources, and develop their areas.  I can’t wait to see how this game of tense voting and impactful decisions is taken to the next level. 

Why its exciting: For folks who were underwhelmed by the mechanical side of The King’s Dilemma—dragging resource tokens up and down a track—The Queen’s Dilemma seems to be aiming for a more ambitious area control + Euro experience.  Beyond arguing and debating how the kingdom should be run, players will now get to see their decisions take effect on a map and feel even more invested in their slice of domain.

Fit to Print

Expected Release Date: 2023

While Fit to Print is not scheduled to release until 2023, it’s worth noting here because the game is coming to Kickstarter this year.  Beyond coming from the increasingly popular creators of Calico, Cascadia, and Tiny Towns, Fit to Print caught my eye with the whimsical artwork by Ian O’Toole.  One of my favorite movies of all time is Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox., and this game box gives me very fantastic vibes of the fox variety.  Mr. Fox himself even works for a newspaper, so the game’s theme is obviously a warm (and welcome) nod to that delightful stop-motion animation movie.  Players will be racing to arrange the best front page of their newspaper in this real-time spatial puzzle game.

Why its exciting:  For many gamers, Flatout Games have been on a hot streak of attractively approachable yet engaging publications, and Fit to Print is set to continue that streak.  Bringing in a design from the creator of Tiny Towns seems like a perfect match here, as Tiny Towns shares much in common with Calico and Cascadia.  If you love any of these games, then Fit to Print should certainly be on your watchlist.

Amun-Re: 20th Anniversary Edition

Expected Release Date: 2023

Amun-Re: 20th Anniversary Edition is another new reprint of a Knizia auctioning classic, and it’s likewise an upcoming 2022 Kickstarter that won’t hit tables until 2023.  But even 20 years on from its initial publication, it remains strongly ranked in the top 500 games of all time on BGG.  This new version will see the classic team up of Vincent Dutrait art with Reiner Knizia gameplay plus 3 entirely new expansions.

Why its exciting: I recently acquired an older copy of Amun-Re and it has proven to be a solid design that has been worth keeping around.  It’s a mark of a good Euro when I’d often rather play it over other Euros that are up to 20 years newer.  That said, Amun-Re has widely been regarded as a game that is good for primarily 4-5 players.  It sounds like publisher Alley Cat Games is aiming to improve the experience at lower counts with the help of an expansion, and that is certainly something to be excited about.

Arcs

Expected Release Date: 2023

While Cole Wehrle was designing his latest ambitious strategy game, Oath, he had many wildly intriguing design ideas that ultimately didn’t end up in Oath.  Arcs is the space-themed exploration of those leftover ideas set to come to Kickstarter in 2022.  It’s described as a short campaign game played over a few punchy episodes (or one long session of 3-5 hours) with branching narratives that can be enjoyed across many campaign sessions.  It’s also easier to teach than both Oath and Root.

Why it’s exciting: Arcs approaches the same question that was posed by 2021’s excellent Brian Boru: How do you combine trick taking with a strategy board game?  According to Cole, Arcs answers this question in a very different (and meaner) way from Brian Boru.  Any game that sounds like the love child of Oath and Brian Boru immediately has my attention.

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 22 Most Anticipated Board Games of 2022 appeared first on Bitewing Games.