Nirvana

• Designer: Chikasuzu
• Players: 2-6
• Age: 8+
• Time: 15-20 min
• Played with review copy provided by Korea Boardgame

Roll and Write Daifugo was one of the surprising hits from last year for me.  After playing James Nathan’s copy (imported from Japan, of course), I fell in love with the game.  As I tried to source my own copy, it became apparent that Korea Board Games was planning a new (and hopefully improved version), and I tried to get myself to be patient enough to wait for that release.  The basics of the game are the same, but there is an addition of rule cards which can be used to change the feel of the game each time.  The scoring sheet is also slightly different to allow for these new rules changes.

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The Whatnot Cabinet

• Designer: Steve Finn
• Publisher: Pencil First Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 min
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In this game of rare, unusual and intriguing objects, players compete to assemble the best collection of twelve treasures in their display case.  Each player starts with an empty case, and pawns are placed in turn order on the spaces on the top the Journey board.  Five curiosity cards are dealt in a row, and one Wonder card is revealed for the game.  The 85 curio tiles are placed in the bag – these tiles are distributed amongst five colors and five object types as well as some special action tiles.  Some of the tiles have crown icons on them which are important for end game scoring.  The game will be played in 6 rounds, and in each round, players will place 2 tiles into their Whatnot cabinet thus having a fully filled cabinet at the end of the game.

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Diabolik – Heists and Investigations

• Designer: Luca Margano
• Publisher: ARES
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 13+
• Time: 90 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by ARES

Diabolik was a comic that was unknown to me prior to this week.  Per Wikipedia, it is one of the most popular series in the history of Italian comics, Diabolik was created in 1962 and consists of more than 800 volumes, and has led to the birth of the fumetti neri comics subgenre. The series is named after its protagonist, an anti-heroic thief, inspired by several previous pulp fiction characters from Italy and other countries. Its stories consist of monthly black-and-white, digest-sized volumes.

The series takes place in the fictional town Clerville and stars the titular Diabolik, initially represented as a ruthless and cruel thief who does not hesitate to murder anyone in order to accomplish his deeds, aided by his partner and lover Eva Kant. Over time, the character evolved his personality, developing healthy roots and ethical principles such as honor, the sense of friendship and gratitude, and respect for noble souls, robbing and killing other criminals. Throughout his adventures, he is pursued mainly by Inspector Ginko.

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What if you combined the economy of Netrunner with the creature-based combat of traditional collectible or living card games?  You’d get Worldbreakers: Advent of the Khanate that’s what would happen.  This debut design by Elli Amir is familiar in many ways, but combines elements from prior strategy card games in a novel way that stands on its own and is worth checking out.  I’ve played Worldbreakers four times with a review copy provided by the designer, and I’m looking forward to playing more and seeing what comes of the game space.

Magic: The Gathering is of course the starting point for a game like this in which players duel by taking turns playing events and units that engage in combat.  The first of several clever things that Worldbreakers does is turn Magic on its head by putting inexpensive smaller units on a more level playing field with their beefy brethren.  This is because the game is not a race to reduce your opponent’s health to zero, but rather to increase your power to ten.  And how do you get power?  Simply by attacking with any creature that goes unblocked, regardless of the creature’s size.  Obviously other card games like Magic, Star Wars: The Card Game, and Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn have all tried to make small units appealing in various ways to give players interesting decisions.  But the fundamental structure of Worldbreakers does that work for the game and influences all of your decisions from thereon.

I’ve skipped past the most salient part of the game though, which is its action menu.  The action menu is so clearly inspired by Netrunner with the ability to draw a card at will or to “click for a credit” (I mean spend an action to gain one mythium of course).  But that’s not a bad thing because the Netrunner action menu and economy is phenomenal, and not enough card games empower players with the flexibility to overcome suboptimal draws and the opportunity to shape their turns with such precision control.  The novel thing here is bolting the Netrunner economy onto a more traditional unit-based combat card game.  That feels fresh and new, and it confronts you with tough, wrenching decision points over and over again.

The One Hundred Torii

• Designer: Scott Caputo
• Publisher: Pencil First Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 8+
• Time : 45 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In the spirit of the game, first a mini-review:

Build garden with tiles

Create long paths to score points

One Hundred Torii

The One Hundred Torii is a game set in a Japanese garden.  Players work to build and expand the garden, trying to walk through as many of the iconic red Torii gates as possible. The game starts with the start tile placed on the table.  The rest of the tiles are shuffled and a few are discarded (for player count).  Each player gets a hand of 2 tiles and the rest are set aside as a draw pile.  One large Landmark token and one character token per player is put in the supply.  Each player starts with 2 Coins.

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First Empires

• Designer: Eric B. Vogel
• Publisher: Sand Castle Games
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 60 minutes
• Played with copy sent to me by the designer

First Empires is a game that has been on my radar – both for the designer and the publisher.  We had played Mr. Vogel’s recent release, Kitara, last year, and it was a tense area control game that was enjoyed here.  The publisher of First Empires, Sand Castle Games, is a fairly new company, but their maiden release was Res Arcana – a game which has been very well received here as well.  Given the combination of those two things, First Empires was high on my list of games to check out in 2022.  I was quite surprised and honored when the designer contacted me to play and review his newest release.

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