Dale Yu: Review of Flip Circus

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Dale Yu

Flip Circus

  • Designer: Julien Gerard
  • Publisher: IELLO
  • Players: 2
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by distributor, Flat River Games

In Flip Circus, the artists amaze the crowd as they move about the stage, but you have a larger goal in mind: using their special powers — and your recollection of which artists are where on each side of the tokens — to line up three artists of the same type. Do that, and you collect their portrait from the poster.

Collect three of the five portraits and you win — or maybe you’ll find the five clowns to let you honk your way to the victory circle…

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Dale Yu: Review of Adventure Party: The Role-Playing Party Game

Posted on July 10, 2024 by Dale Yu

Adventure Party: The Role-Playing Party Game

  • Designer: David Smith and Travis Winstead
  • Publisher: Smirk & Dagger Games
  • Players: 3-8
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 20-60 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Adventure Party delivers a robust role-playing experience that can be enjoyed within 2 minutes of explanation. In this cooperative guessing game, 3-6 players take the roles of adventurers in a classic fantasy role-playing world, facing monsters and attempting heroic deeds. Over the course of 3 Adventure scenarios, the party will work together and collectively attempt to score the most Experience Points possible. Players will take turns, rolling their 20-sided die in secret. Based on how well or poorly they rolled, they will describe what their character does; first outlining their plans and then describing the outcome of their actions. The goal of which is to provide enough detail so that the GM for that turn can GUESS the number they rolled as closely as possible, earning the entire party Experience Points.

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Dale Yu: Review of Harmonies

Posted on July 9, 2024 by Dale Yu

Harmonies

  • Designer: Johan Benvenuto
  • Publisher: Libellud
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 30-45 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Harmonies, build landscapes by placing colored tokens and create habitats for your animals. To earn the most points and win the game, incorporate the habitats in your landscapes wisely and have as many animals as you can settle there.

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Dale Yu: Review of Karvi

Posted on July 8, 2024 by Dale Yu

Karvi

  • Designer: Torgeir Tjong
  • Publisher: Hans im Glueck
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 120-180 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by Asmodee NA

As a Jarl, you travel the northern seas to achieve immortal glory. Under the sails of your own ship, which is built like a karve (Karvi), you‘ll lead a crew, trade with foreign cultures and plunder other lands. Strengthen the skills of your crew by upgrading your ship and hiring stronger warriors. Whether you wish to establish new trade routes to secure rare goods or battle distant settlements to plunder their riches, your path to glory is yours to choose. But make sure to remember to stock up on beer and bread, so you have enough supplies to outmaneuver the competing clans. Successful planning will make you renowned throughout the lands, and secure your place in Norse legend as a fearless Jarl.

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Posted in Essen 2023, Reviews | 1 Comment

LX Con: “And Fun Was Had By All”

Posted on July 5, 2024 by Mark Jackson

As I wrote last week, “With yet another trip around the sun, my personal odometer has turned over and I am… sixty years old. When I was younger, 60 sounded really, really old… and sometimes the aches & pains of my aging body remind me that younger me wasn’t completely off base. But most of the time, I feel like my attitude about life is younger than my physical age.”

We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

In that spirit, I welcomed Dale Yu (our illustrious leader here at the Opinionated Gamers site) into my home along with my two gamer sons (Braeden – age 23 and Collin – age 19) for a long weekend of gaming, laughter, and friendship. 

We played thirty-three different games (two of them twice) from Wednesday afternoon (after I got off work) until Sunday evening. Interestingly, after crunching the numbers, all four of us had a winning percentage between 31% (me) and 35% (Braeden). (Note: my non-gamer wife, Shari – who made sure we were fed & taken care of throughout the weekend – did actually play one game with us. More on that later.)

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Dale Yu: Review of A Gentle Rain

Posted on July 4, 2024 by Dale Yu

A Gentle Rain

  • Designer: Kevin Wilson
  • Publisher: Incredible Dream
  • Players: 1
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

TAKE A DEEP BREATH, AND RELAX…

You have come to the lake hoping to see a rare and beautiful sight. The lilies of the lake only open their blossoms in the rain, and only rarely do all eight kinds of lily bloom at once. The goal of A Gentle Rain is to place the lake tiles in such a way to cause all eight types of lilies to bloom before you run out of tiles and the rain ends.

Place each new tile you draw next to a tile already in play, making sure to match the colors of all the tile edges touching the tile you are placing. Each time you manage to complete a square of four touching tiles, a blossom opens between them.

Keep Score, or don’t.

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