So, I’m writing this as I am flying back from Europe, and I’m doing it offline – so everything here is pretty much from memory. Unlike years past, I didn’t keep good record of the games that I picked up (OK, I pretty much forgot to start) – so I can’t even compile a true list of which games I have. Also, a few games have come in the mail this week and I know both UPS and FedEx have boxes en route; so the situation will still be changing for the next week or so.
Here is a quick rundown of things that I’ve already played:
Vale of Eternity (Mandoo) – a really neat drafting game with card powers to be triggered. The game also uses a unique currency system where you’re only allowed 4 physical chits at any time. It appears that this has already been picked up for US distribution, so if you missed it at Spiel, you’ll be able to get it soon back home
Imperial Miners (Portal) – wow this one was quick and tight. My entire meeting with Portal was getting a rules teach and a play through, and my meeting was done in a 30 minute slot! Here, you add cards to your mine, activating the action on the card played as well as some in each level above it. Plenty of clever card combinations to be found here, and all in a 20-30 minute time slot. Play is simultaneous so the player count should not affect the play time.
Faraway (Catch Up) – this game was sold out by early Friday, you draft cards similar to Honshu and add them to your 8 card travel route, placing them left to right. The big catch here is that you only score at the end of the game, and you score from Right to Left. So lots of interesting planning dilemmas here. Also, you get small rewards for each time that you play a higher ranked card than the previous round; this however also means that you will likely draft later as the lowest ranked card drafts first in the next round.
How Dare You (Alion) – so I left my copy at home, but I actually asked the great folks at Matagot for another copy, and we played in at multiple restaurants and shop lines during the week. It’s a trivia game with really well thought out questions; and you go around the table Liar’s Dice style, either increasing the current bid or challenging a bid you think is too high.
Freaky Frogs from Outaspace (2F) – so I’ve been involved with this one for awhile (helping edit the rules and do some playtesting), so I’ve had a lot of experience with it. It’s a great solo game that really makes you feel like you are playing pinball. Earlier in my flight, I did confirm that it’s playable on a tray table.
Disney Lorcana (Ravensburger) – while I was away, my second starter deck arrived, and now I have enough cards to at least give the game a real try. Sure, I won’t have a very focused deck as I doubt I’ll have a high number of multiples of even commons; but I’ve finally acquired enough cards to play.
Five Towers (Deep Print) – OK, so my first game was honestly not great. Everything worked, but nothing really captured my attention. That being said, early on, it was ranked as high as #3 on the Fairplay list and fellow OG writer Simon W said he enjoyed it. Thus, I’d like to read the rules in a better lit room and try it again to see if we missed something.
Quicksand (Horrible) – A new real-time sandtimer game from Horrible Games; this one is pretty hard once you play the introductory levels. You must move sand timers from one end of the track to the other; doing so by playing cards from your hand that match either the color or symbol of the space the timer is on. Additionally, each time you move the timer, you flip it over. If a timer runs out, it’s moved off the track and placed into purgatory; if such a timer runs out of sand again, you lose.
Games I haven’t played yet
At the Office (Trefl) – So, I’ve not had much of a relationship with Trefl before, but their line up this year was packed with games from designers such as Knizia and Schacht. At the Office is from Knizia and it is a roll and write where you try to organize your office as best as possible.
High Season Roll and Write (Lookout) – as I was making my final laps around the hall on Saturday, I was pretty thrilled to get an advance copy of this one. It was going to be a close call whether the game made the show or not, and while there were copies to play, apparently the stock to be sold didn’t make it. I’m pretty interested to see how complex this turns out to be; not many R+W games are listed up to 90min in duration!
Five Peaks (Trefl) – This is an efficiency, set collection game where you try to climb the five mountain peaks faster than the rest. Many of my German/Austrian friends told me it was great, so I just picked one up to try. I honestly know nothing more about it!
Path of Civilization (Captain Games) – last year, Captain Games did 13 Words which was a fun light party game. This year, it looks to be the opposite with this game which is loosely described as 7W x Civ. From my demo, I am looking forward to the simultaneous resource collection gameplay – there looks to be A LOT of game packed into a 90-120 min time slot.
Redwood (Sit Down!) – Players try to take pictures of varying animals on the board. You can move around the board, and you also use an assortment of plastic “view templates” to allow you to capture the right shot for your collection. I’ve been waiting for this one since I first saw it as Spiel 2022.
Archaeologic (Ludonaute) – another deduction game from Yoann Levet, the designer of Turing Machine. And similarly, there is a cool widget used to help make sure that the answers are always correctly given. Your goal is to correctly place all of the buildings in your city.
Art Society (Mighty Boards) – an auction / set collection game where you bid to choose artwork tiles; placing them on your walls and trying to get the most pleasing arrangement. There is a bit of puzzling doing on as well as the pieces of art are not all the same size, so you’ll also have to figure out the geometry of all the different frame sizes on your wall.
Age of Rome (Teetotum) – this game has a rotating board which puts a quadrant of the board in front of each player for a round. You can build structures in your region, raise armies, go on quests, etc. Then based on event cards, the board could rotate and then you have a different quadrant of the board that you can influence. There are some cool transparent building tiles that nicely represent the improvements to the buildings.
Nanatoridori (Arclight) – The goal is to play all of the cards in your hand quickly and not be the last remaining player to have unplayed cards. You cannot rearrange the cards in your hand. You may pass to pick up a card from the deck to place anywhere in your hand, or choose to pick up the most recently played card(s) when you play your own. You can play any number of cards with the same numerical value as long as they are adjacent to each other in your hand. Not only is the hierarchy of cards based on the card’s rank, but hierarchy is also stronger with more cards in the set.
Ticket to Ride Legacy Legends of the West – This legacy game will probably be the first game of game night each of the next few weeks. That’s how we usually play Legacy games… I’ve specifically not learned too much about it to prevent spoilers; but I do know that it should take 12-16 hours to finish.
Flamme Rouge BMX (Lautapelit) – To be honest, I was really hoping for Flamme Rouge Grand Tour, but the designer and publisher both promise me it’ll be ready by next fall. In this BMX version, kids race around a track in the backyard. Only one round, which means a quick 15-30 minute game. I’d not be sad to have a version of the game to put in the filler slot for gamenight.
Evenfall (dlp/Nanox) – this complex engine building game makes you try to find synergistic combos to increase your income and your VP total. I’ll admit to being quite tired when I got my demo, so some of the details (well many) are fuzzy, but I was ready to take a copy home when I heard engine building and combos from dlp.
I’m sure there are many other games to touch upon; but I’ll have to do it in the next piece. Time to land soon, and honestly, my memory is getting pretty foggy from lack of sleep!
Until your next appointment
The Gaming Doctor
