Oros

• Designer: Brandt Brinkerhoff
• Publisher: Lucky Duck Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 60-120 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Lucky Duck Games

The publisher description: “The Wise One, immortal keeper of wisdom and knowledge, has sent Demigods endowed with earth-moving power to the far reaches of humanity. In Oros each player acts as one of these Demigods. They must instruct their Followers in the wisdom of the mountains through study, worship, and experience. And only in the heights of the mountains can the greatest mysteries be known.

Oros is a tile-colliding, volcano erupting, mountain-making, wisdom-gathering, action-economy strategy game. On individual player mats, players move their Followers between action spaces, allowing them to manipulate a shared environment like a giant puzzle of plate tectonics. Action spaces allow players to shift rows of land, move and collide land tiles, form and erupt volcanoes, worship to gain wisdom, journey their Followers around the ever-shifting landscape, and build sacred places of study and worship on mountains. Building sacred places and worshipping in sacred places brings wisdom which is used to improve the abilities available for each action space. Wisdom is also used to improve the end game value of each sacred place built as well as reach other goals worth end game points. When building sacred places, the Demigods of the Wise One ascend a ziggurat which acts as a timer toward the end of the game. When one reaches the top, players finish the round and then tally a final score.

At the core of Oros is the unique ability to shift, move, build up, erupt, and reposition the land within an infinitely connected play environment. This mechanic turns every action into a puzzle of creative problem solving, abstract thinking, and a constantly evolving strategy. Another chief aspect of the game is the player mat which uses a minimal worker placement mechanic to govern action opportunity. The mat also maintains an action economy that evolves differently for each player as they invest their gained wisdom into a variety of action improvements. Because of these core aspects, there are dozens of strategies for players to explore, and every game plays out in a different, yet competitive way.”

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My Shelfie

• Designer: Phil Walker-Harding and Matthew Dunstan
• Publisher: Lucky Duck Games / Cranio
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 25 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Lucky Duck Games

My Shelfie was a game that I first saw at GenCon 2022, but I didn’t manage to get a copy of it until this spring; from its new US distributor, Lucky Duck Games. I have always been a big fan of PWH and Matt Dunstan as designers as I find that many of their games are what I’m looking for on a game night, a game which is quick to play, easy to learn yet something that requires a bit of brainpower to make the right decisions while playing…

Says the publisher: “You’ve just taken home your new bookshelf and now it’s time to put your favorite items in the display: books, boardgames, portraits… Who will show the best organized shelfie?  A game of strategy and glance, different every time thanks to the variety of common and personal goals. The beautiful images of the item tiles will really give you the feeling of tidying up your precious shelf.”

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Hooky

• Designer: James Miller, Friends of Aseema
• Publisher: Rio Grande Games
• Players: 3-5
• Age: 14+
• Time: 30-60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Friends of Aseema

Welcome to the wonderful world of Hooky. Of the 26 children in classes today, 3 are off playing hooky. It is morning before school starts, and in the chaos, your job as a homeroom teacher is to figure out which 3 are missing. There are some children off in the Playground who are late getting to their homerooms, and you will learn their identities as they straggle in.

The 3 missing students are represented by 3 Hooky cards. You earn points by correctly deducing the identity of the 3 Hooky cards and thereby finding the 3 missing students. You can also earn points by learning which students are in the other players’ classrooms (hands of cards). The player with the highest score at the end wins the game.

Let the search begin!

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Last week, in his regular BoardGameGeek News article, Eric Martin disclosed that Amigo would be releasing a new version of their durable megahit Bohnanza, where the beans would be replaced with different kinds of flowers.  The game will be called Bohnanza: Dahlias and the art will be created by the very talented Beth Sobel.  This is a smart move by Amigo to expand the player base for this classic game, particularly since there is already interest from garden stores in stocking the new version.  Greater exposure is good for the publisher and good for the hobby in general.

In the comments section following this announcement, a few gamers expressed enthusiasm for the new version, since it would mean eliminating the “ugly” art of the original.  I acknowledge that pretty flowers will undoubtedly look nicer than cartoony pictures of beans.  Nevertheless, I was dumbfounded to read these comments.

Is there anyone who questions that Björn Pertoft’s imaginative and very funny bean artwork has played an enormous role in the acceptance and appeal of Bohnanza?  I mean, these are iconic images, which represent the hobby almost as much as the celebrated meeple, and they’ve been doing so for over a quarter of a century!  Even people who don’t understand some of the German language puns behind the pictures love these images.  They also do a great job of making an essentially abstract trading game more immersive and thematic.  After all, you rarely hear people say, “I’ll trade you a 16 for a 14”.  No, it’s always, “I’ll trade you a Stinky Bean for a Sick Bean”, which is a definite improvement.  Even after all these years, I still smile at the artwork when playing Bohnanza and I view the different bean characters as old friends.

Look, I have no problem if someone prefers pretty flowers to cartoony beans; a person’s personal tastes are never wrong.  But to call such distinctive and historically important art “ugly” seems to be going too far to me.  I find it similar to the objections many players have with the artwork in Knizia’s Modern Art.  Is the art depicted in that game less than attractive?  Yes, and that’s the whole point.  Using pretty art would have run contrary to the theme.  Similarly, in a rambunctious trading game like Bohnanza, cartoony art seems to fit the style of play more than attractive images.  It’s not essential, but that’s the concept that Pertoft chose to go with back in 1997 and, given how beloved those figures are, you’d have to say his instincts were spot on.

My point is, not every game needs to be drop-dead gorgeous.  Sometimes a less realistic or attractive style works better, particularly when the artwork is humorous.  Again, I have no issues if someone prefers a beautiful game, but dismissing a classic that has maintained its massive popularity for a quarter of a century as “ugly” seems unfair and out of touch.  Sometimes, witty does trump pretty.

Anyway, that’s my minor rant for the day.  I hope Bohnanza: Dahlias sells oodles of copies and exposes lots of new gamers to this great game.  But as beautiful as I’m sure this new version will be, I’ll stick to trading the beans.

Often the OG is the best, which is often the board game, although sometimes a board game is made after a card game or dice game. What second comers do you like more than the original? At Opinionated Gamers, we had a wide range of opinions and here are some of them regarding which : ‘the Card Game” (tCG) or “: the Dice Game” (tDG) is better than the original. Feel free to chime in in the comments.

Power Grid: tCG > Power Grid

Fraser: In my experience people who don’t like Power Grid much do likePower Grid: tCG, but people who like Power Grid think that Power Grid: tCG is OK and shorter, but not better than Power Grid as it lacks the integral dance between the auctions, the resources and the network.

Michael: 100% agree. My experience (and own opinion – go PG) match this exactly.

Sushi Roll > Sushi Go

Fraser: A friend of mine described Sushi Roll as being more accessible to non-gamers. The sushi train aspect of it thematically hides the drafting.  I think he is correct. Does it make it better? Possibly.  I will play either, but the passing is definitely more fun with Sushi Roll.

The Mind Soulmates

• Designers: Reinhard Staupe, Wolfgang Warsch
• Publisher: NSV
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 minutes

The short description: “The Mind Soulmates uses the same principles of The Mind, with players trying to co-operate without communication to master multiple levels of card play.

In this game, however, in addition to playing numbered cards correctly in ascending order, they must also play all cards face down, revealing them only after all cards have been played. To help them do this, one player takes the role of seer — and the seer knows more than everyone else!

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