Salad Master is a competitive game where players try to use their knowledge of the nutritional properties of different types of vegetables. It is a companion game to Meat Master, which we looked at last week – which has players working with meat sources instead of plant sources.
In Garden Nation, players take on the role of one of 4 factions of garden denizens; each working to have the most influence over the garden. The garden itself is made up of 7 territories, in a familiar hex pattern, and each of those territories has 7 action spots, which mirror the orientation of the larger territories. The territories are numbered, and they are randomly placed in the frame. Each player gets a scoreboard, the building pieces in the matching color, and each is dealt 4 secret missions, of which they need to keep 2 different ones. A display of 4 common projects is placed on the board. The torticrane is placed near the board; you will use it soon. A starting player is chosen, that player starts their population counter at 38. All other players start at 35. The starting player places their turn order marker on the first spot of the turn order track, and the other players place theirs next to the track.
Dice Conquest is a 2022 Wizkids release, new to many at SPIEL 2022, that puts the players together on a team of Heroes fighting off creatures, trying to get to Kalterstorm the Dragon. If they are able to defeat this boss monster, they win. If any of the Heroes dies at any point on this quest, the whole team loses!
The game offers 8 different heroes to choose from, and players can choose who they want to play with. Each hero comes with a special ability written on the bottom of the card. Heroes also have a special Critical Hit ability that comes into play whenever the player uses a die with his Critical Hit number showing.
I’m such a sucker for boardgame themes (he says sarcastically). I absolutely love the flavor text on the first page of the FYFE rulebook: “FYFE is an abstract tile laying game for 2 to 5 people by Kosch”. Perfect. Tells me everything I want to know about the game! Based on the components, there is a beachy feel to the game with a board that looks like a beach, scoring surfboards and seashell lucky charms. But, interestingly, no story to go with it at all.
“The aim of the game is to fill your player board with tokens and scoring boards to maximise as many scoring opportunities as possible. A game lasts exactly 25 rounds. The player with the most victory points at the end of the game will be the winner.”
Romain Caterdijan should already be in the lead for Larry Levy’s Designer of the Year award; I think I have already run across 4 games from SPIEL 2022 designed by him. In this game, you’ll have to take pictures of animals to win the most victory points. On your turn, you either take an Album card or you can place a Landscape punched card from your hand onto the previous Landscape card in the game shoe. If any animal appears partially or entirely in the camera lenses of your Landscape card, you can take the corresponding Animal Photo tile(s) and put them in one of your photo Albums while respecting the constraints of the Albums – only snow animals, for example. A complete Album allows you to earn even more victory points so you have to organize your photos well. And if an animal fits completely in your lens, it’s a Perfect Shot and one more step to victory! As for the Yeti, it is so fierce, wild and mysterious that you can only see half of it in the photos you take. It will take two different halves to prove to the world its existence … and gain more and more victory points.
The intro from the rules: Skull Canyon Ski Resort is finally celebrating their grand re-opening with a huge festival, after being closed for many snowy seasons in a row. Hopefully by now, skiers have forgotten the rumors of yeti sightings on the mountains. Hit the slopes and brave the terrain, competing against other skiers for points and fame. Play sets of cards to complete a run, but remember to do it in style to wow the onlookers! Take the lift to reach different parts of the mountain and claim the most difficult runs!
