I recently had the pleasure of attending a 7-day board game convention at which I had the opportunity to play 67 games! It was an absolute blast, and I’m here to report on the good, the bad, and the absurd.
Day 1 – Brief But Spectacular
The first day was abbreviated due to an evening arrival, but I still managed to learn and play my personal Game-of-the-Con! I started off with William Attia teaching his new light roll-and-write House of Cats, which was fun and clever. I’m a fan of roll-and-write games (especially when they don’t end up in a dizzying sheet of numbers like MetroX or Dizzle). There were a good deal of numbers in this game, but the mice and cats and cheese made it just thematic enough to grab my interest and hold it throughout. The dice selection mechanism and the variable abilities for completing groups were clever and intriguing. I’ve added it to my wishlist. The second game was less good – Broken and Beautiful: A Game About Kintsugi, which was gorgeous and had a wonderful theme, but the gameplay felt like a less good Sushi Go with not as interesting decisions.
My favorite new game of the week was definitely Friedemann Friese’s Fishing, which is a deck-building trick-taking card game coming from Rio Grande in the hopefully not too distant future. I don’t often like deck-building games, and I’m very hit-or-miss on trick-taking games (especially if they make you predict the number of tricks you’re going to win, which feels stale and tired), but Fishing was brilliant. The game just worked so very well. You earn points and add cards to your deck by winning tricks, but a poor hand (or clever dodging of tricks) will reward you with more powerful cards added to your deck from outside the game. There is such a delicious balance here of earning points versus leveling up your deck, along with the classic decision of when the switch from engine-building to earning points, but here there seems to be more of an oscillating feature to that switch rather than a one-and-done switch.
It is possible that this particular box in the Unmatched: Battle of Legends game series was designed solely for me:
I competed in Shakespeare performance competitions throughout high school.
One of my favorite live theater experiences was seeing Anthony Hopkins in The Tempest at the Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles).
My bachelors degree was in English literature.
My senior year at Baylor, I took an advanced acting tutorial focusing on the character of Prospero from The Tempest.
I’ve played some form of board games since I was a small child.
I’ve been an unabashed fan of the Unmatched system since its release in 2019.
My sons & I have been playtesters for Restoration Games (yes, including this box).
So it will be no surprise to any of my faithful readers that I am about to rave about the newest release for Unmatched – Slings & Arrows.
I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it.
The Play
I’m well aware that some of you have not had the opportunity to play the wonderful goodness that is Unmatched – so, a short primer on how the game works is in order. (Yes, I know, some of you have played before. A lot. You can skip to the next heading.)
Unmatched is a skirmish battle game, driven by card play and fought on a variety of boards. On your turn, you get two actions (and you can do the same action twice):
Maneuver – draw a card from your personal deck & optionally move your fighter(s)
Attack – play a card face-down to initiate a melee or ranged attack
Scheme – play a Scheme card from your hand for its effect
You win by reducing your opponent’s hero to zero hit points.
If this sounds a lot like Star Wars: Epic Duels, you’re not wrong. That 2002 mass-market game is the forefather of this amazing combat system. (If you want more detail, I did a deep-dive into the differences in my original Unmatched review.)
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it without a prompter.
The Cast
As you can probably guess from the plethora of Shakespeare quotes, this entire box has characters related to the life & plays of William Shakespeare. That includes the various hero decks & figures:
Shakespeare
The Bard himself heads the list… using his three Actor sidekicks along with a power reminiscent of Little Red. Each of his cards has a syllable count – 2, 4, or 6 – and when played, is set in front of the player. When the player plays a card that “finishes” a 10 syllable line, a special power on the card is activated.
We’ve found him to be relatively easy to play and somewhat trickier to play well – again, not dissimilar to Little Red.
Hamlet
With a single sidekick token representing Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, Hamlet’s key power is a status choice each turn – To Be (which helps him draw more cards) or Not To Be (which increases his attacks but also drains his health).
Hamlet is the easiest of the four heroes to play in this box… but the choice between speeding through your deck or draining your health is tricky.
Titania
Alongside her husband/sidekick Oberon, the Fairy Queen has six Glamours (cards) that provide ongoing effects. Titania is also the only ranged character in the box.
The arrangement of the Glamour cards (which is random) can change your tactics with this pair. Oberon is a relatively powerful sidekick and using him simply as a shield for Titania is not recommended.
The Wayward Sisters
The sisters have three figures (with 6 health each) and the ability to use the ingredient icons on their cards cast spells after one of them makes an attack.
There are no wasted cards in this set (as often happens when you lose a sidekick) – each card can be used by any of the sisters. I think the sisters benefit from setting up spells and forcing their opponents to chase them.
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players…
The Set
The Globe Theatre is the setting for these epic battles. The map is uses the accepted layout of the original Globe with the arena for the “groundlings” and the stadium-style seating around it. The “stage” spaces have visibility to large parts of the theater… a particularly important point for ranged characters. There are no special features (doors, hidden passages, etc.) on this map.
This leads us to my only gripe with this box (and many of the recent Unmatched boxes): I wish Restoration would go back to creating two different maps for each box. The pictures you see above are photos of the same section of the board from opposite sides – one with the original Unmatched design for spaces and the other with the more art-friendly graphic design based on the Tannhauser system. I find the art-friendly design much more difficult to interpret during play – especially spaces like the stage which sits in multiple zones.
That said, The Globe is a very good map and highly thematic.
This wide and universal theatre presents more woeful pageants than the scene wherein we play…
The Wisdom of The Groundlings
The difficulty rankings above for the universe of Unmatched heroes are presented to you, dear readers, courtesy of Mark Jackson (me!) and my sons (Braeden & Collin) – and Owen, Collin’s friend who has developed a major obsession with Unmatched: Battle of Legends. In total, the four of us have easily played Unmatched 600-700 times.
This does not include Brains & Brawn (which I’ve only playtested but never played with a final copy) or Deadpool (which I have never played). The new characters (from Slings & Arrows, Sun’s Origin, and Tales to Amaze!) are in red.
Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.
Final Thoughts
First & foremost – this is an excellent box in the Unmatched game system… there are no weak characters, the artwork is spot on, and the map is great.
Second, while there have been changes from the playtest of the box (which Collin & I participated in), it has been one of our most anticipated releases from the Restoration team. It was in great shape when we playtested the characters… and it’s even more polished in final form.
Third, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this as an introductory box (I’d go with Robin Hood vs Bigfoot, Tales to Amaze!, or Battle of Legends Volume I), this is not as difficult a box as Cobble & Fog (one of my other favorites). As always, if you’ve got a Shakespeare fan/former English that’s willing to try the game, don’t let me stop you!
Note: I asked my sons which boxes they would suggest to introduce Unmatched to new players. Their answers:
Braeden: Tales to Amaze! (because you essentially get two games – cooperative & PVP)
Collin noted that the large maps in Tales to Amaze! may make it tougher as an introduction to competitive Unmatched
Collin: Robin Hood vs. Bigfoot, Battle of Legends Volume I
Collin also likes Slings & Arrows or Cobble & Fog as potential second choices
All’s well that ends well…
I have received review copies of Unmatched: Buffy, For King & Country, Teen Spirit, and this box – Slings & Arrows… the rest of my Unmatched collection was purchased with my hard-earned cash. For those wondering, I did finally manage to sell my copy of Epic Duels.
Quotes above are all from Shakespeare’s plays (in order):
The valiant never taste of death but once. (Julius Caesar)
I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it. (As You Like It)
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it without a prompter. (Othello)
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players… (As You Like It)
This wide and universal theatre presents more woeful pageants than the scene wherein we play… (As You Like It)
Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it. (Henry IV, Part I)
All’s well that ends well… (All’s Well That Ends Well)
Here’s the second half of Larry and Ben’s amazing adventures at the Gathering of Friends, which they both attended last month. We pick up the action with a joint review. Was it a tasty little trick-taker or a bit of marshmallow fluff?
Marshmallow Test (2020)
Larry: I’ve been wanting to try this game for a while. It’s a trick-taker from Knizia from Gamewright and is a redesign of an earlier Reiner title called Voodoo Prince. The rules for playing the hands in MT are pretty vanilla; the game’s main interest comes from the scoring rules. Once you win a certain number of tricks (3 in a game with at least 4 players), you drop out of the hand and your score is equal to the number of tricks all the other players have taken. So to maximize your score, you want to be the next to last player to go out (since the last remaining player scores zero). This is a quintessential Knizia twist and is strong enough to make for an interesting and challenging game. In fact, Voodoo Prince contains a few tricky rules for some of the cards and while I usually prefer added complexity, I don’t think I’d like that version as much, as it would take away from the principal goal of going out late, but not too late. Good stuff from the Good Doctor and a game that proved to be worth the wait. Rating: I like it.
Ben: This game didn’t really stand out to me. There was some added considerations, but it was very difficult to do. Card game and trick taker enthusiasts probably love it, but it seems slightly more position and luck driven. Rating: Not for me.
Mountain Goats (2020)
Ben: I love Mountain Goats and taught and played it three times to mostly publishers during the convention. I think its accessibility makes it great as a filler and great as a convention game. There’s some luck, but there’s strategy involved too. I hadn’t seen the mini expansion until someone had it in their box. It adds a twist but is wholly unnecessary. Rating: I love it.
Larry: Mountain Goats (first released in 2010 as Level X) is a dice game with simple rules, but reasonably interesting gameplay. On your turn, you roll four dice and divide them into one or more groups. The board shows tracks labelled from 5 to 10 and the sum of the dice in each group lets you move your goat in that track up by one space. If your goat reaches the top space of a track (they’re only 2-4 spaces long), you score points equal to the value of the track. You score those points for every time one of your groups sums to that number, until an opponent reaches that space and knocks you down to the bottom of the track. So you not only want to get to the top of a track, you’d like to stay there as long as possible. It’s a game where I’m fairly sure I’d rather be lucky than good, but there is definitely skill involved and it’s a pretty good filler that should appeal to lots of types of gamers. Rating: I like it.
Well, they’re at it again—last month, Larry and Ben made yet another visit to Niagara Falls to participate in the world’s greatest board game convention, the Gathering of Friends. And once again, it didn’t disappoint, as there were great games and great times to be had with friends old and new. They wouldn’t dream of keeping this all to themselves, so they’ve worked together to provide this account of their experiences during that week. The games are all listed in alphabetical order, with the year of publication included to help give you a point of reference, along with their ratings for each design. That’s enough exposition–let’s make with the memories!
Ben’s Intro: My Gathering experience started a little early this year as I met Scott Kippen who is a friend of one of my weekly gamer buddies. He resumed his participation in the Gathering and flew in on Thursday, so we did games while sampling Scotch and Whiskey, the day before Larry arrived. Then tradition resumed with Larry coming north to my house and I introduced him to a few games he hadn’t yet seen after some dinner. All in all, my gathering experience was about 50 plays, many with Larry and a significant number with Joe Huber and a new friend I made, Aaron Lawn. I seemed to play a lot of prototypes each day and then mixed in some polished favorites near the end of the week. It deserves a special side note, I always try to link up with James Nathan. He is a lot of fun to play games with and be around. He also usually has some unique games which I will try and highlight below. Thanks to everyone I gamed with and got to see again this year!
Larry’s Intro: What can I say? It’s the Gathering, the greatest week of the year! So many good games, so many good friends, so many good times. Even in a year where none of the new games really stood out, it was a blast. I hope each of you has something in your life that you enjoy as much as Ben and I enjoy the Gathering of Friends.
The Roll and Write genre, where gamers roll dice and use the results to fill in a scorepad, continues to gain momentum. I suspect this is due in part to the low cost of entry. This is particularly true for print and play games. If standard dice are used, all that players need is a printed copy of the scorepad. Variations have appeared over the years, including using a deck of cards to make a Flip and Write game. Around the World in 10-15 Minutes eschews both dice and cards to allow the active player to choose the result for the turn, effectively creating a Choose and Write game. The game sheet consists of a map of the world connected by lines with two icons located on each continent and two on each city. The active player chooses whether everyone moves, marks off a continent icon, or marks off a city icon, with the active player gaining the selected benefit twice. All three choices lead to scoring opportunities and the game runs until one player has visited each continent and returned to their starting city. Points are added and a winner is determined. Since there are no dice or cards involved, the game only requires one maker and one scorecard per player – making it even more travel-friendly. Around the World in 10-15 Minutes is a print-and-play title currently up on Kickstarter until May 30th.
Around the World in 10-15 Minutes Publisher: No Box Games Players: 2-6 Ages: 14+ Time: 10-15 min (surprise!) (preview copy provided by publisher)
Can you unlock the ancient chest, find the Balthazar Stone and break the ancient curse?
The Balthazar Stone by The Mystery Agency is an award-winning escape-room puzzle to play at home. Join Elsa Winslow on her journey to Sharktooth Island. To solve the mystery, you must solve the many clues hidden in an ancient treasure chest to find Balthazar’s Stone and break its ancient curse. It is Winner of the Best at-home Puzzle Game by Armchair Escapist 2021.
And it hasn’t been made easy for you – the wooden chest itself has been padlocked and you will have to work out the combination just to get started! You will need to use all your powers of deduction and logic to solve a baffling, mind mangling sequence of clues to crack combination locks, piece together the information to discover the truth about the stone. Â
To solve The Balthazar Stone you’ll need to launch an investigation across the pieces of evidence supplied in the box as well as discover secret websites that are hiding important clues. Over 25 authentic items have been beautifully designed with extraordinary attention to detailÂ
