So, while at the most recent Gathering of Friends, Deck Hand Games offered each invitee one of their small format games as a welcome gift. I managed to get a full set of the four games on offer, and I’ll go through each of them. The game format is tiny – a small cardboard folder containing 18 cards and a small rulebook. Be warned that a super helpful setup diagram is found on the inside of the unfolded cardboard cover!
In addition to the small packet of cards, you’ll also need a standard 54-card deck (most of the games also require the Jokers). Each of the games plays 2-4 players in 20-30 minutes.
The Dig
After making your way through a treacherous jungle (ugh…that rope bridge!), you have reached the hidden archeological site. Hopefully the map you’ve cobbled together from various sources and scraps is accurate. Hopefully you’ve collected the right tools to help manage any obstacles. Hopefully you’ve arrived at the site before the other intrepid treasure hunters. The competition is fierce and to the victor, go the spoils! Dig it?
In The Dig: Treasure Island, players compete to claim the most points worth of treasure over 2 rounds. To collect treasure, they must first draft cards and assemble a “Map” (a tableau of 12 cards) in front of them. On a turn, players can instead draft a special equipment card – but they can only do this one time in the round. Then, at the end of each round, “Treasure” cards will be awarded to the players whose Maps best match the patterns shown on the Treasure cards. (Players may also use “Equipment” cards to adjust their Maps to their benefit.) At the end of two rounds, the player with the most valuable Treasure wins.
My thoughts: This was a neat game where you had a satisfying puzzle of drafting playing cards to form a grid that would hopefully meet the criteria of the scoring cards chosen for the round. Cleverly, some of the cards award the tiebreaker for highest sum of the cards in the pattern while others reward the lowest. In that way, cards of both high and low rank have value in placement. I also like the way that the double sided treasure map cards lead to a different set of objectives in each game. This was the first of the set that I played and it definitely set a high standard.
Boil and Bubble
The brinded cat has mewed, the hedge pig has whined, and all the neighbourhood witches have gathered to brew their most potent and powerful potion. Add ingredients to your cauldron, leave them to simmer, and at the end of the game use your concoction to cast as many spells as you have secreted away. Make a final offering to the blood moon and coax the black cat to your side, and the player with the greatest grimoire will reign supreme!
In Boil and Bubble, you are witches placing ingredient cards into your personal scoring cauldron throughout the game. Every round you will also be bidding on and winning other spell cards that you will use to score with your stored ingredients. You can also make offerings to the full moon or attract your black cat familiar for extra points at the end of the game. The player with the highest score wins.
My thoughts: This was a game that has a great idea; making your personal scoring hand that you then applied your collected scoring cards to. In the end, most players focused on their initial random scoring card – because that one was guaranteed to score for the player. If you were able to get an additional scoring card early in the game, you would then have time to possibly pivot into a new strategy. Cards gained in later rounds just ended up being afterthoughts to final scoring because there wasn’t much time to change the pattern of cards you had already been collecting. Either way, with all players having the same set of cards to both reserve for scoring as well as bid – there are still some interesting decisions to be had here.
Spymaster One
London. Berlin. Washington. Moscow. Become a director of agent operations in Spymaster One by dispatching spies and scoring points for infiltrated cities.
In this competitive lane-battler, 2-4 players are using standard playing cards as spies to activate city effects, make powerful combos, and collect intel for a city’s scoring condition.
On a turn, players will:
- Dispatch a spy (playing card) from their hand to a city, matching the mission parameters.
- Activate the city’s effect, transferring spies and intel to create powerful combos.
- Complete a mission if possible by placing the last spy into a city, taking some spies and the city card for its end-game scoring condition.
- Deploy a recruit from the academy to a city.
- Replenish their hand with spies from the standard deck.
The game ends when the city or spy (standard) deck is depleted. Players choose two city cards to score with the spies they’ve acquired. The player with the most points wins.
My thoughts: Of the four, this is the one we liked the least – much due to the fact that the rules here were quite vague. This one could have used a few more examples to make the gameplay smoother. If you’re able to close out a scoring card on your active turn, it’s a huge play as you get to choose three cards to add to your scoring pile. Thus, much of the game revolves around simply NOT setting up the next person to be able to do that. I think if the rules were clearer, this one has the chance to being better – but for now, we’re still not even sure we’re playing the right game.
Pogo Possum Posse Poker
Yeehaw! Get ready to play possum, round-up poker hands, and throw some outlaws in the hoosegow. In Pogo Possum Posse Poker, (2-4 players) take on the role of bounty hunters working alongside the famous Sheriff Wyatt O. Possum and his trusty pogo stick, Betsy. For greenhorns and veterans alike, players will use a unique card skipping mechanic to lasso up some playing cards to make specific poker hands, while they scout out and capture gangs of lawbreaking varmints in the Wild West. Combined with a standard deck of cards, your family is fixin’ to have a hootin’, hollerin’, and growlin’ good time, and see why Pogo Possum Posse Poker puts the ‘wild’ in the Wild Wild West.
The goal of Pogo Possum Posse Poker is to be the bounty hunter at the end of the game with the most money. On your turn, you choose one of three actions:
- Posse up!: Gather cards to add to your hand. You will automatically hop one space forward around the Okey Dokey Corral (because you’re on pogo sticks!). From there, you’ll have the option of collecting all the cards at that location or discarding a card from your hand to advance another space. You can continue to discard cards and advance until you choose to stop and pick up cards.
- Scout an outlaw: Track and get the bead on outlaws. By playing the specific poker hand in cards from your hand, you can scout outlaws from the Badlands, and take them to your play area. Each outlaw will give you a special power that will let you use some cards as wild cards, collect extra cards, or move extra spaces! You can have up to three outlaws in front of you at any given time.
- Jail an outlaw: Play larger poker hands on the outlaws you’ve tracked to flip them and put them in jail! You will lose that outlaw’s special power, but gain the cash bounty for big points at the end of the game. Every jailed outlaw also increases your hand limit by +1, so you can get back on your horse and posse up again!
When the outlaw deck is empty, all players get one more turn to play poker hands and jail characters they have tracked. Then you’ll count up your score. Players score the cash bounty on all jailed outlaws, a cash bonus for outlaws from the same gang, and one point for each outlaw you still have scouted. The player who collected the most reward money is the rootin’est, tootin’est possum in the wild, wild West!
My thoughts: A pretty neat drafting/hand management game here. Interestingly, you have to capture the bad guys twice, though when you take him the first time, you’ll get some ongoing special abilities which go away when you capture him for good. This leads to an interesting decision as you have to time your captures well. You can’t wait too long because halfway caught cards are only worth one point; so you’ll surely want the higher point value for a fully captured bandit. It takes a few turns to collect enough cards to do a second capture – so while you want those special actions, you can’t keep using them forever or else you simply won’t score enough points.
Overall, the four games in this collection are a really nice compact collection of games – each with a different style of play. You do need to have a deck of cards to play each of these games, but that’s something that just about every household should have available.
Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor
