Category: Game Review

Foreword

The Duke is a 2-player chess-like game. It requires about 5 or so playthroughs  before you really start to understand what is going on.

How to Play

Goal

The goal of the game is to capture your opponent’s Duke tile.

Set Up

Each player receives 19 tiles and 1 bag. Every tile is a unit that can be used to capture your opponent’s Duke, which is also a tile/unit.

Both players start the game with their Duke tile and 2 of their Footman tiles. The rest of their pieces go into their respective bags. One player places their Duke tile onto the 6 x 6 gameboard on either of the 2 center squares at their edge of the board. Then, that player places their 2 Footman tiles orthogonally (not diagonally) adjacent to their Duke. Afterwards, the other player does the same on the opposite side of the board.

A Turn

On a player’s turn, they may do 1 of 2 things: activate a tile or draw/place a new tile.

• Activate a tile

Each tile depicts the potential activations it can make on its face. The three types of activations, in the base game, are movement, strike, and command. Movement is then broken into move, jump, slide, and jump slide. If a tile ends its movement on top of an opponent’s tile, the opponent’s tile is captured (like chess).

After a tile activates, flip that tile. It now has a different set of activations. All tiles start on its starting side depicted by the shaded in pawn. The flipped side depicts an empty pawn in a black box.

For move, the shaded circle, the piece goes from its current position to the position of the shaded circle. If any piece would be in the path to the shaded circle, this option may not be used.

Jump, the empty circle, is like move except you place your piece directly on the empty circle and bypass any tiles in the path.

For slide, the shaded triangle, you can move the tile any number of squares in that direction. You cannot move through pieces and if you end on an opponent’s tile, stop and capture it as usual.

Jump slide, the empty triangle, is the same as slide, except you jump to the selected starting spot and then may start sliding.

Strike, the 6-pointed star, means you capture the tile in the square with the strike symbol. The tile that used strike does not move, but it still flips.

Command, depicted by a square with shaded triangles in the top left and bottom right corners, lets you move one of your other tiles. You may move a tile from one command square to another command square. Flip the tile that used command after the activation. Do not flip the tile that was moved by command.

•  Draw/place a new tile

If you do not want to activate a tile you have on the board, you may draw a new hidden tile from your bag. Once drawn, place it starting side up orthogonally adjacent to your Duke.

Game End

If, at the end of your turn you are in a position to take your opponent’s Duke next turn, you must say “guard.” You may not put yourself into guard (leaving your own Duke vulnerable to be taken on your opponent’s next turn).

You immediately win the game by capturing your opponent’s Duke. If you can neither make a move nor draw/place a tile, you lose.

Conclusion

As I mentioned in the forward, the first few games of The Duke weren’t great. While I understood the rules, the strategy was not clicking at all. Most of the games were quick and seemed kind of stupid and unbalanced. But, the more I played, the more I started to see and understand certain aspects of the game. Now, I actually enjoy it quite a bit.

I would say I’m decent at chess, but I never memorized the openings. So, I know generally of concepts such as space control, material value/advantage, revealed check, etc. These same concepts do apply in The Duke as well. If you enjoy chess for the actual playing of chess and not the memorization (statement inspired by Bobby Fischer), there is a good chance you will enjoy this game.

One of the major differences between this and chess is the randomness. When you draw a tile, there is a wide range of tiles you might get. Due to this, there is a lot less ability to predict future turns. In addition, you need to be able to adapt your strategy based on what you get and what your opponent gets. There are also definitely times where I have drawn tiles that have not helped me at all; that is a thing in this game. Overall though, I have enjoyed the randomness (after I figured out different aspects of the game that is).

The most important tip I can give you is this: do not put your Duke in a position where it is trapped by your own pieces. For instance, don’t move it on the bottom row directly behind one of your tiles in the same column. In this situation, your Duke is pinned until your other tile moves or is captured. It isn’t very difficult to force the capture of a pinned Duke.

I would recommend trying The Duke, if you like chess or other similar 2 player games. My main caveat is that you power through at least 5 games to give this a chance to get its hooks in. I definitely do not see this taking the place of chess because chess is so entrenched. The randomness will potentially hold it back as well. Nonetheless, this is a game I would be happy to play with other people who have played it. I’ll teach it to someone, but only if they already show some interest in this type of game.

Foreword

Dixit is a simple, attractive, party game for 3 to 6 players.

How to Play

Each player starts with 6 cards with pictures on them. The current player selects 1 card from their hand. They place it face down and say either a word or phrase, or they make a sound to describe it. Every other player then picks a card from their hand, that they think fits that description, and places it face-down. Once this has happened, the current player shuffles the cards, lays them out on the table face-up, and each other player guesses which card the current player played. The guessing is done by playing a tile face-down with the number of the picture you think it is. All of the tiles are revealed at once.

Scoring is based on the premise that you want your definition to be obscure, but not too obscure.

• If every other player guesses the current player’s card, everyone but the current player gets 2 points.
• If no player guess the current player’s card, everyone but the current player gets 2 points.
• If at least one player guesses the current player’s card and at least one player guesses incorrectly, the current player gets 3 points and each player who guessed correctly gets 3 points too.
• Finally, if you are not the current player, you get 1 additional point for every person who guessed your card that round.

After this is resolved, everyone draws a card and the next player becomes the current player.

Example

Anne places a card face down and says “alone.” Each other player places a card face down as well. After shuffling the cards and placing them face up, Bob, Carol, David, Edna, and Frank make their guesses.

Anne had played the number 3 card.
Bob played the number 1 card and guessed 3.
Carol played the number 2 card and guessed 4.
David played the number 4 card and guessed 5.
Edna played the number 5 card and guessed 3.
Frank played the number 6 card and guessed 4.

Anne gets 3 points because Bob and Edna guessed correctly and Carol, David, and Frank guessed incorrectly.

Bob gets 3 points because he guessed correctly, but no one guessed his card.

Edna gets 4 points because she guessed correctly (3), and David guessed her card (1).

David gets 2 points because Carol and Frank both guessed his card (1 each).

Carol and Frank get 0 points because neither player guessed correctly, and no one voted for their cards.

Conclusion

I enjoy this game, but about 1/4 of the people I have played it with do not, and they really do not. I, personally, love thinking up interesting and obscure ways to describe the cards. Trying to connect the interesting cards to something only 1 or 2 people would get is fun for me. I don’t think I have ever won though because I go too obscure, but still, I like it.

The people that I play with that do not like Dixit dislike coming up with those words/phrases/etc. Generally, they do not mind thinking which card they want to use to match someone else’s word/phrase, but they are, to an extent, self-conscious about coming up with a “good” one on their turn.

One problem I do have with the base game is that it can get repetitive. The cards are pretty cool looking, there are a good number of them, and you can describe them in a myriad of ways, but seeing the same ones over and over again can get stale. Luckily, there are expansions which add a lot of new cards. I do not have any of these expansions though, so I can’t actually recommend them, yet.

Overall, this is another one of my games I like to break out with “non-gamers,” but I haven’t had as much success with it as I would like. I do recommend it, but it very much isn’t for everyone.

Foreword

This is a rules-light two-player abstract strategy game. I like rules-light 2 player abstract strategy games.

How to Play

Goal

The goal of the game is to eliminate all of a single type of your opponent’s pieces. (There are 3 types.) You do this by capturing their pieces and building stacks with your own. Stacks can only capture stacks of equal or lesser height.

You can also win by making it impossible for your opponent to capture a piece on their turn.

Set Up

You can either randomly set up the discs, use a predefined setup, or alternate placing discs on the board.

Turn

1. Capture
2. Capture, Stack, or Pass (Skip this step for the first player’s first turn.)

Capture

Pick a stack of 1 or more disc(s) of your color. Move that stack along a straight line onto an opponent’s stack of equal or lesser height. Remove your opponent’s stack from the board.

Stack

Pick a stack of 1 or more disc(s) of your color. Move that stack along a straight line onto another one of your stacks; this combines the two stacks into one. For determining if you have a disc of a type, only the top disc of a stack counts.

Pass

Do nothing.

Conclusion

This game is simple, elegant, and excellent.

When I previewed this game, I characterized it as a hunting game, and I think that nails it. The ringed piece (Tzaar) is quickly hunted down to just 1 remaining for each side, since each player only starts with 6. To protect their last Tzaar piece, each player will put it on top of a stack. The first player to do that will always have the higher stack, if they stack it every turn. Due to this, that player can chase down their opponent’s stack(s) with impunity.

While this happens, the second player will generally need to shift into hunting their opponent’s second or third rarest pieces (the Tzarra and Tott respectively). So now, the first player is still trying to capture the last Tzaar piece, but they also need to protect their other pieces. The second player, on the other hand, needs to focus on evading the first player’s mega stack while chipping away at the more plentiful discs. This is frequently accomplished by having a few smaller stacks of 2 to 4 discs, as opposed to a big 4+ stack.

Throughout this process, each player can also set traps to ensnare their opponent. For example, player 1 leaves a 3 stack vulnerable. If player 2 captures that 3 stack they might be allowing their opponent to capture one of their stacks. Or, the capturing stack might be put into a position where it can no longer move, neutralizing it. Overall board awareness is critical to winning this game.

Another major decision point in this game is determining when to make a second capture and when to stack. In almost all games, you win the game by capturing your opponent’s pieces. So, capturing moves you directly toward victory. Stacking, on the other hand, is necessary to prevent you from losing; but, it does also give you an offensive edge for capturing. In general, big stacks are better for defense. Multiple small stacks are better for offense.

Everything I have discussed in my conclusion is emergent from the incredibly simple rules. The strategy is surprisingly deep and the better player will usually win. But, there is a lot to pay attention to, and if you neglect something, you can quickly lose. It is easy to focus on attacking and let yourself be eliminated. I really enjoy the back and forth of this game. If you enjoy abstract strategy games like Chess, The Duke, or Push Fight, I highly recommend this game.

Foreword

This is a deck-building word game. While everything may not be perfectly balanced, it is still an excellent game that works with a lot of different people.

Deck-Building

In a deck-building game, everyone starts with an identical deck of cards. These cards are used to acquire new and better cards during the game. All cards you acquire are eventually shuffled into your deck. This means that you will then be able to use the new cards you acquired, in that same game. In addition, all of the decks will diverge as each player makes their own card acquisitions.

Different deck-builder games handle scoring and end game in different ways. Some other deck-builders include but are not limited to: Dominion, Baseball Highlights: 2045, Star Realms, Thunderstone, and Valley of the Kings.

How to Play

Starting Deck

Each player starts with a 10 card deck containing 5 wilds and the letters L, N, R, S, and T.

Turn Overview

At the end of each turn, you draw 5 cards from your deck to use on your next turn.

On your next turn, you use up to all of the letters in your hand and the common vowel to spell a word. That word is worth a number of cents equal to the combined total of the value in the top left of each card used. For instance, if you spelled ‘s*lent’ using 4 of your starting letters, the common card, and 1 wild, it would be worth 5 cents. The wild is worth 0 cents.

With the cents earned from your word, you may buy new card(s). If you had 6 cents, you could buy 3 2-cost cards, 1 6-cost card, or any other combination that adds up to at most 6. Cards you buy go directly to your discard pile.

After you buy your card(s), discard all cards from that turn, whether you played them or not. Repeat this process until the game ends.

Card Type and Abilities

Cards are either Letter cards or Fame cards.

Letter cards have higher cent values (for purchasing more cards) than the starter cards. They can also have abilities that trigger when used in a word. For instance, there is a P that costs 5 cents to buy, is worth 2 cents when played, and, when used as the first letter in a word, it is worth 2 more cents.

Some of these abilities include drawing additional cards at the end of your turn, gaining cards, trashing cards (removing cards your your deck), and even giving a one-time double word score.

Fame cards are either wilds or common cards. Wilds provide 0 cents when used in a word, common cards provide 1 cent. Fame cards are important because they are what give you points at the end of the game.

Your deck starts with 5 1-point wild cards, and there are 4 other wild cards that can be purchased during the game. The higher the cost, the more points it is worth at the end of the game.

Common cards are worth 5 points at the end of the game. You get common cards by making words with at least 7 letters. To get the first common card, you need a 7+ letter word. The second common requires an 8+ letter word. 3rd requires 9+. Final requires 10+.

Game End

The game ends when 1 of 2 conditions is met.

• Any 2 piles of fame cards are depleted

or

• All of the common cards are depleted

Conclusions

I enjoy Paperback. I bought this for a family member that plays a lot of Words with Friends, and she loves this game. Paperback works well as a word game, and it works fairly well as a game in its own right.

As a word game, you get the same feeling of accomplishment when you create an excellent word. In addition, it’s generally not difficult to know the most potential points you can score in a hand, and it feels great when you find a word that does it. I generally see the word game enthusiasts chase after cards that let you draw more cards. This lets them create these impressive 7+ letter words which award the common cards. These long words are generally also worth significant cents, for buying.

For those of you who do not enjoy chasing massive words, you can go after individual high cents cards and fame cards. I frequently go this route. Doing this lets me buy the fame cards, and I am frequently the player that ends the game. As a gamer, I do feel like the balance of the cards might not be perfect; the 4 or 5 cent letters and the single-use double word scores are just so powerful.

The other downside of Paperback is the potential length. When a player takes an incredibly long time to think of a word, the game can drag on. This is especially true if there are multiple people in a row taking a long time. In gaming, this phenomenon is known as Analysis Paralysis (AP). The game does address this by allowing players to ask for help. The helping player then gets a reward. In addition, there is a cooperative mode, but I have not played it yet. There are also a bunch of other “expansions” included in the base game. The expansions that I have tried haven’t been great.

Overall, Paperback works excellently as a game I can play with casual players. It works particularly well for fans of word games.

Foreword

Kahuna is a short 2-player game that makes me feel clever. I really, really like feeling clever.

How to Play

Overview

Kahuna is all about timing, efficiency, and momentum. This is a game where each card is a potential bridge (or half of a negative bridge) used to control islands which by controlling you remove other bridges letting you control more islands. I let myself get carried away there purposefully, but the rules are actually fairly simple.

Goal

In this game you fight for control over 12 islands. Whoever controls the most islands, at 3 points in the game, scores points. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

The Turn

1. Play any number of cards in hand
2. Draw 0 or 1 card

Playing Cards

You gain control of islands by playing cards.

Each card has the name of an island on it. When you play that card, you place a bridge on any of the connections stemming from that island. For example, if I play an Aloa card, I can place a bridge on the Aloa-Bari connection, the Aloa-Duda connection, or the Aloa-Huna connection.

If placing this bridge grants you a majority of potential bridges controlled for an island, you remove all your opponent’s bridges touching that island and place one of your discs on the island. The disk shows that you control that island. For example, say I have the Aloa-Bari connection and my opponent has the Aloa-Duda connection. I then place a bridge on the Aloa-Huna connection (I could use either an Aloa or a Huna card to do this). I now have a majority on Aloa and would remove my opponent’s Aloa-Duda connection. This could cause your opponent to lose a majority on a different island. This in turn means they no longer control that island.

The second use for cards is to remove bridges. It takes 2 cards to remove 1 bridge. You can either use 1 card from each island or 2 cards from 1 island. For example, if I wanted to remove my opponent’s Aloa-Duda connection, I could use either 2 Aloa cards, 2 Duda cards, or 1 Aloa card and 1 Duda card.

Drawing Cards

At the end of your turn, you may draw 1 of 3 face up cards, 1 face down card, or choose not to draw. If your opponent chose not to draw on their turn, you must draw on your turn. Your hand size is 5 cards, if you have 5 cards in your hand at the end of your turn, you may discard a card face down to draw a card. If you draw a face up card, turn a card from the top of the deck face up to replace it.

Scoring

When you draw the last face up card of the deck, the round ends and scoring occurs. A game has 3 rounds. Bridges are not removed at the end of each round. Shuffle the discard pile to reform the deck for the next round.

• After the 1st round ends, the player who controls the most islands gains 1 point.
• After the 2nd round ends, the player who controls the most islands gains 2 points.
• After the 3rd round ends, the player who controls the most islands gains 1 point for each island they control more than their opponent. So, if player A controls 6 islands and player B controls 3, player A would gain 3 points.
• The player with the most points wins.

Conclusions

I enjoy this game. Like all of my favorite games, this game has a decent amount of depth to it. The rules are simple, but the more I play it, the more I realize. How much do you hoard cards? When is the best time to gain majority on an island/kick your opponent’s bridges off of islands? Which island connections are safe and which are risky? Do you want to expand your bridges on islands where you already have a majority? When do you want to not draw a card? How often should you remove bridges? These are a few of the interesting questions that arise when playing the game.

This game also has the potential for really huge, impressive moves. “I remove your bridge here, so I can play mine there and take control of this island. That then makes you lose control of this island so I will take control of that one too, kicking you off it entirely as well.” I also find it interesting that sometimes the most dangerous thing you can do is to gain control of an island.

Planning is highly rewarded in this game, but you can get lucky face up draws as well. You can mitigate this luck slightly by not drawing a face up card. This in turn doesn’t give your opponent a guaranteed new, situationaly perfect card. I very much still want to play this game more.

Foreword

Medieval Academy is my go-to game for introducing people to drafting, which is one of my favorite game mechanisms. The game is short, fun, and easy to grasp.

Drafting

There are 2 major forms of drafting: simultaneous hidden drafting and sequential open drafting. Medieval Academy uses simultaneous hidden drafting.

Simultaneous Hidden Drafting

In this form of drafting, every player starts with an equal number of hidden resources, usually cards. Each player simultaneously picks a resource (keeping it hidden) and then passes the remaining resources to the player on their left (sometimes right). This then continues until there are no resources remaining to pass.

For example, in Medieval Academy each player starts with 5 cards. Everyone picks a card and passes the remaining 4 to the player on their left. Then everyone picks a card from the 4 passed to them, followed by the remaining 3 cards being passed, etc.

Simultaneous hidden drafting is also used in Epic’s cube draft and dark draft formats, Magic: The Gathering’s 8 player draft, Sushi Go!, Seasons, and 7 Wonders.

Sequential Open Drafting

This form of drafting is not used in Medieval Academy. Sequential open drafting involves a set of resources available to all players. Players then take turns selecting resources. This is usually done by “snaking” between the players. For example, in a 4 player game with Adam, Becky, Carl, and Diana the order could go like this:

Adam picks 1st
Becky picks 2nd
Carl picks 3rd
Diana picks 4th

Diana picks 5th
Carl picks 6th
Becky picks 7th
Adam picks 8th

Adam picks 9th
etc.

Some other games that use Sequential open drafting include Epic open draft format, Catan (opening settlement placement), Smash Up (official faction selection), and Heroscape (unit selection).

How to Play

Goal

The goal of Medieval Academy is to compete in 7 categories to become the best knight.

Set Up

Lay out the boards as shown in the picture below.

Place the respective coat of arms markers near their respective boards.

Each player chooses a color and places one of their discs on the first space on each board; order does not matter on the first space of a board.

Place the hourglass marker on the first spot on the draft direction board.

According to the rulebook, the player who strikes the most chivalrous pose takes Excalibur to determine the first player.

The Round

This game consists of 6 rounds with 3 parts.

Drafting Cards

This game uses simultaneous hidden drafting described above. At the start of each round, each player is dealt 5 cards. Players simultaneously draft 1 card at a time and then pass the remaining cards. (The direction the cards are passed changes after each round. The hourglass marker keeps track of the current direction.) This continues until each player has drafted 5 cards.

There are 6 types of cards available for drafting. Each type of card corresponds to one (or two in the case of Jousts and Tournaments) boards in play. Each type of card ranges from a value of 2 to a value of 5 (except Jousts and Tournaments which have no 2s). 5 is the best value. 4 of these 5 cards will be played in the next phase to advance a player on that respective board.

Playing Cards

Once everyone has finished drafting, players take turns playing a card. Each card advances a player’s disk a number of spaces on a single board. You can never split movement. For Jousts and Tournaments, they share the same card, but you can use it for either board. If your movement would put you on top of another player’s disk, you are ahead of that player. You continue this process until everyone has played 4 of their 5 cards.

Scoring Boards

After the final card is played in a round, certain boards score. Each board (except Jousts and Tournaments) scores differently. You either want to be ahead of other players or at a certain point on the board. The 7 boards are as follows:

• Gallantry: This board scores every round, and it is the first board to score. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place (in a 4+ player game) finishers are able to advance any one of their disks. First, the 3rd place finisher advances 1 piece 1 space. Then, the 2nd place finisher advances 1 piece 2 spaces. Finally, the 1st place finisher advances 1 piece 3 spaces.

• Jousts/Tournaments: These boards score every round. The player in 1st gets 3 points, 2nd gets 2 points, and 3rd gets 1 point.

• Education: This board scores every round. The player in last gets -3 points. The player in 2nd to last gets -1 point.

• King’s Service: This board scores on the 3rd and 6th rounds only. Relative position does not matter on this board. If you make it to at least space 6, you get 6 points. If you make it to space 12, you get 12 points.

• Quests: This board only scores on the 6th round. The player in 1st gets 17 points, 2nd gets 10, and 3rd gets 4.

• Charity: This board only scores on the 6th round. The player in last gets -10 points, and the player 2nd to last gets -5 points.

After round 3, the Gallantry, Jousts, Tournaments, Education, and King’s Service boards reset. All disks on those boards are returned to the first spot of that board. Play then resumes as normal.

Points you get (positive and negative) are kept face down so no one can check a player’s current score. All players on the start space are tied for last. This means that if you are on the starting spot you can not gain points, and you always lose the maximum amount of points. As a reminder, being on top of another piece means you are ahead of that piece, just not for the starting space.

Game End

The game ends after the final scoring of the 6th round. After that, everyone adds up all of their points. The player with the most points wins.

Conclusion

I stumbled across a demo of this at Gen Con, and I had to buy it. Drafting is one of my favorite game mechanisms, and I think this is a very good introduction to it. This isn’t one of my favorite games since it is fairly light, but I do enjoy playing it. More importantly, I am able to get more people to play a drafting game with me.

It is also pretty satisfying when you put your disk directly on top of another player’s. Generally, it doesn’t feel that awful when someone puts their piece on top of yours though. Most games are also fairly close, and it is not a long game either.

I haven’t experimented much with the variants the game includes. In my next game, I plan on trying out at least a couple. The one that seems the most interesting is the dueling knights as opposed to the Jousts and Tournaments boards. In the dueling knights variant, you can support either or both of the knights. The knight that gets the most support awards more points. While the game works perfectly well without the variants, adding them in could give the game enough depth for it to get more play.

Currently, I frequently introduce this as a new game, especially if the players have never drafted before. Without adding in the variants, it isn’t a game I want to play all of the time, and I do not know if the variants will change that. However, I believe I have more than got my money’s worth out of this game, and I am happy with the purchase. This game will definitely be seeing more play.

Foreword

Dominion is the deck-building game. This game is incredibly influential because it launched the deck-building genre.

Deck-Building

In a deck-building game, everyone starts with an identical deck of cards. These cards are used to acquire new and better cards during the game. All cards you acquire are eventually shuffled into your deck. This means that you will then be able to use the new cards you acquired, in that same game. In addition, all of the decks will diverge as each player makes their own card acquisitions.

Different deck-builder games handle scoring and end game in different ways. Some other deck-builders include but are not limited to: Baseball Highlights: 2045, Paperback, Star Realms, Thunderstone, and Valley of the Kings.

Types of Cards

There are 4 types of cards in Dominion: Treasures, Actions, Victory Cards, and Curses.

Treasure

Treasure is used to purchase new cards. The value of a treasure card is depicted in the center of the card. All cards have a cost to buy in the bottom left.

Actions

Actions have a variety of uses. Each turn you are allowed to play one action. Some actions let you play more actions. Other actions draw you cards. You can also attack your opponents, get rid of cards in your deck (trash them), or do a combination of these and other effects.

Victory Cards

Victory cards are how you win the game. Whoever has the most victory points is the winner. Victory cards, however, have no inherent value in game. So you have to decide when you want to start buying them.

Curses

Curses are worth -1 victory point, and they also have no value in game. In other words, they are just bad to have.

Set Up

Each player is dealt 7 coppers and 3 estates. This creates their starting deck. 10 piles of “kingdom cards” are then placed in the center of the table within reach of all players. The copper, silver, and gold treasure cards are placed on the table, as are 12 estates, 12 duchies, 12 provinces, and curses (10 per player). Only 8 of each victory card is used in a 2-player game.

The Turn

Overview

On your turn, you play cards from your hand, buy card(s), discard your cards, and draw 5 new cards from your deck. This is broken down to A, B, C (Action Phase, Buy Phase, Clean Up Phase).

Action Phase

The first part of your turn is playing actions. You start your turn able to play 1 action. Some cards, like village, give you extra actions, so you can “chain” action cards. For instance, you can play Village, then Smithy, and finally Woodcutter. If you run out of available actions, you may not play any more actions that turn. Unplayed actions have no effect that turn.

Buy Phase

Once you have played all of the actions you want to/are able to play, you play your treasures. Add the value of all of your treasures including any treasure-value from your played action cards. The combined total is how much you can use to buy card(s).

On your turn you start with one “buy”. You can gain more “buys” on your turn from action cards. For each “buy” you have, you may buy 1 card. But, your total treasure-value must cover all purchases. For example, if I have 2 “buys” and 6 treasure-value, I could buy 1 gold. Or I could buy a smithy and a moat.

Cards you buy immediately go to your discard pile.

Clean Up Phase

Once you have finished buying card(s), discard all your cards from this turn. This includes cards you played and cards you did not play (Victory cards for instance).

Then, draw 5 cards from your deck. If at any time you need to draw cards and you do not have enough cards in your deck, shuffle your discard pile to form a new deck.

Conclusion

I love deck-building games. This was the first deck-builder I ever played. It is my favorite deck-builder, still. In general, I love deck-builders because they have high variability (a lot of different cards to choose from), and I enjoy strategizing around that high variability.

One of the things that separates Dominion from other deck-builders is the set up. In Dominion, you know every potential card you can buy on turn 1. Other deck-builders have the cards available change throughout the game. I am the type of player who wants to sit down, think of a strategy, and attempt to execute it. I want to see a bunch of new cards thrown together and then try to figure out an optimal or interesting/crazy strategy. Generally, people who know me would say I am a very reserved person, but playing an excellent game of Dominion legitimately makes me giddy. (I included a picture below for reference.) For me, it is just so satisfying figuring out something that no one else sees, and then winning with it.

Another reason why I love Dominion is my family loves Dominion. This was one of our first modern games, and it is one of our favorites. We like this game so much, that between all of us we own all 9 expansions. (Apparently there is another expansion coming out, Empires. This is either the 2nd or 3rd expansion after they said they were going to stop releasing new ones.) For the most part, the rest of my family generally creates their strategy as they play. If they have 4 treasure-value, they buy a 4-cost card, etc. And, this strategy also works. I will often win if I chase the optimal strategy, but this frees me up to go after the craziest combinations I can think of for a game instead. Sometimes they turn out spectacularly, while sometimes I get crushed. I’m generally less giddy when crushed, but if I really liked my strategy, I still count it as a personal win.

My major problem with this game is the attacks in a 4-player family game. While I am fine with the idea of the attack cards, they can be incredibly annoying in practice. If all 3 of your opponents get attacks, you will generally be attacked at least once each turn. This can be unbearably frustrating. Attacks are interesting in a competitive setting, but in family games I recommend limiting the number available. They can and have ended gaming and goodwill on multiple occasions.

Overall, I love this game, and I love the expansions. If you decide on an expansion, most people would say Prosperity is the best first expansion. As a measure of how much I enjoy this game, I will probably talk about it more in future posts on this blog.

Foreword

This is a low-strategy game, and it’s fun. Frequently, my favorite part of gaming is testing new strategies. So, I generally prefer games with a lot of strategic choice or games with unique strategies. This game offers neither, but I enjoy playing it anyway. I can play this game with most groups and have a great time.

Object

Each player is trying to make the most money by betting on a camel race.

How to Play

Setup

Roll all 5 dice, each die color matches the color of a camel. Put each camel onto the starting space dictated by its corresponding die. All camels with the same starting space must be placed on top of each other to form a “camel stack” (even a single camel is considered a camel stack). In setup, it does not matter which camel is on top. During the game, the camel on top of a stack is farther ahead then the camel(s) below it.

Each player selects a character and takes the matching set of 5 cards, matching obstacle tile, and 3 Egyptian Pounds (Victory Points).

Race Legs

The overall camel race is divided into multiple legs. A leg ends when every camel’s die has been rolled.

Player Actions

On a player’s turn, they must take 1 of 4 actions:

• Advance the camels

To advance the camels, the current player takes a pyramid tile worth 1 Egyptian pound. Then, they pick up the pyramid, shake it, place it face down on the board, push the insert so one die comes out, and then set that die aside. Finally, move the camel that matches the color of the die that many spaces forward. (Every die can roll a 1, 2, or 3 with a 1/3 chance of each.)

Any camels on top of that camel stay on top as it moves; this is a camel stack. If the camel stack ends its move in a space with another camel stack, put the stack that just moved on top. They are now a single camel stack.

Once all 5 dice have been rolled, the leg ends. Leg bets (explained below) are resolved, and then all 5 dice are put back in the pyramid for the next leg.

As soon as a camel stack crosses the finish line, the game immediately wraps up.

• Place your Obstacle

Each player has an obstacle tile that shows an oasis on one side and a mirage on the other. A player may place, move, and/or flip this tile as an action. An obstacle tile may not be immediately adjacent to another obstacle tile. Whenever a camel stack ends its movement on a tile, the tile’s owner gains 1 Egyptian Pound, and the camel stack moves.

If a camel stack ends its movement on an oasis side-up tile, that camel stack moves one more space forward. The camel stack would go on top of any camel stack in that space.

If a camel stack ends its movement on a mirage side-up tile, that camel stack moves one space backward. The camel stack would go underneath any camel stack already in that space.

• Take a Leg Bet

Bet which camel will be in first at the end of the leg by taking a tile of the matching color. The first bet for each color rewards 5 Egyptian Pounds, if that camel is in first at the end of the leg. The second bet rewards 3, and the third bet rewards 2. If that camel comes in second for the leg, that tile is worth only 1 Egyptian Pound. If it comes in third or worse, that tile loses you 1 Egyptian Pound. Once the leg is over, take your won Egyptian Pounds and then return the tiles for the next leg.

With regard to camel stacks, the camel on top is farther ahead than the camels below it.

• Place an Overall Race Bet

Place one of your cards representing a camel into one of two piles. If you think that camel will win the overall race, put it in the left pile. If you think that camel will lose the overall race, put it in the right pile. Each wrong bet will cost you 1 Egyptian Pound. However, the earliest correct bet rewards the most.

End of Game

As soon as a camel stack crosses the finish line, the game immediately wraps up. The current leg betting tiles are resolved. Then the race bets are resolved. Finally, the player with the most Egyptian Pounds is declared the winner.

Conclusions

This is a high-luck game; it is a betting game after all. Early, high-risk bets have the most potential gain. Later low-risk bets are less valuable but more guaranteed. The ideal bets in the game are when you can take a 5 on a color with a greater then 2/3 probability of success. For example, only the blue and orange camels have yet to move in this leg. Blue will win unless orange is rolled first, and it is a 3. So, you should generally pick blue to win (even if only the blue 3 and 2 bets are left.) I, on the other hand, would much rather pick orange, especially if the orange 5 bet is available.

I am a very competitive person. Also, I haven’t always been the best winner/loser. (I have gotten much better recently though.) Because of these things, Camel Up is perfect for me. I place those high-risk high-reward bets, and I really ham it up. I put a lot of effort into building the excitement and anticipation. (Admittedly I did have to force it a bit at first, but it comes naturally now.) So, if the fates align and I win the bet, it feels great for me. If I lose the bet, it feels really great for everyone else, and it doesn’t bother me much since it was a long shot anyways. In addition, not doing great in one leg doesn’t knock you out of the game. I am able to play to win, enhance the fun for myself and everyone else, and don’t really care if I lose.

The pyramid for rolling the dice works really well for this game, and the pyramid is pretty cool too. The art is great, and I really enjoy playing as essentially Nigel Thornberry from the old Thornberry cartoon. In addition, the camels stacking on top of each other is excellent. Gameplay wise, the camel stacks make for a lot of really interesting situations. One camel could be 6 spaces ahead of the last camel. Then, that last camel hops onto a stack. That stack then moves that camel twice, and now that last place camel is on top of the first place camel. Crazy stuff like that happens frequently.

If you are looking for a high-strategy game, this is not that game. It is, however, a really fun, high-luck experience that works with most groups and ages. This is actually the favorite game of my friend’s 8-year-old brother, and it is one of my dad’s favorite games as well. For me, it is one of the games I frequently break out with people new to gaming. I do recommend trying this game, but don’t expect rich strategy. (Obstacle placing can be pretty interesting though.)

Foreword

Jaipur is an ingeniously streamlined two-player trading game. The rules are simple, each turn is quick, rounds are short, and strategic concepts flow from it naturally while playing. I’ll explain that last one in more detail later, but I love this game because it is much deeper than I expected.

How to Play

Goal

Strategically collect and sell 6 different goods (and camels) in order to make the most money.

Turn Order

On each turn you can either take cards or sell cards.

• Take Cards

Take 1 face-up good from the central 5 and put it in your hand. (You cannot have more than 7 cards in your hand at once, camels do not count.) Replace it with the top card from the deck.

|OR|

Take all face-up camels from the central 5 and place them in front of you face up. Replace them with the top card(s) from the deck.

|OR|

Exchange any number of cards from the central 5 with camels in front of you and/or cards from your hand. Be careful that your hand size does not exceed 7 after exchanging.

• Sell Cards

Instead of taking cards, you can sell up to 5 cards of the same good at once. For each card you sell, you would take 1 goods-token of the respective type. (The first goods-tokens for each good are worth more then the later goods-tokens, except for silver.)

While cloth, leather, and spices can be sold in quantities of 1 or more, diamonds, silver, and gold must be sold in quantities of 2 or more.

In addition, if you sell 3 goods at once, you would get the top 3-goods bonus-token (worth between 1-3 points). If you sell 4 at once, you would get the top 4-goods bonus-token (worth between 4-6 points). Sell 5 or more and you get top 5-goods bonus-token (worth between 8-10 points).

Round End/Game End

The round ends when either:

• The draw pile runs out of cards while refilling the central 5.
• 3 separate piles of goods-tokens are depleted.

At the end of the round, the player with the most camels left over gets a 5-point bonus-token. Both players add their points, and the player with the most points wins the round.

Best 2 out of 3 rounds determines the winner of the game. If neither player has 2 wins, reset the game and play again.

Conclusion

I love this game because it is so simple and deceptively clever. The general premise is literally just get cards and sell cards, and it is very easy to teach. Even in a player’s first game, they will be able to make solid plays and high-quantity sales. The more you play the game though, the more you realize how you can manipulate your acquisitions, sales, and camels to best utilize the board.

I am not going to go into too much detail here because I plan on writing a strategy article about Jaipur at some point, and I do not want to scare people off. It really is easy to learn and fun to play immediately, but there is interesting strategy to learn as well. For those of you interested, a couple questions to keep in mind while playing are included below.