BON (Boast or Nothing)

Posted on September 11, 2020 by xitoliv

Designer: Yeon-Min Jung
Artist: Mr. Misang
Publisher: A.ger Games, 1979 Games
Players: 3-5
Ages: 8+
Times Played: 6 times on various purchased or borrowed copies

BON is a trick-taking game with one main conceit, and a few twists, though I imagine that depending upon who you ask, those numbers and categories may vary.  For me, the conceit is there in the name: Boast or Northing.  You want to win a certain number of tricks, or nothing, and that number will depend upon the player count. 

The notable twists: “Pass” cards that allow you to sort of skip revealing if you could follow suit and sit out a trick; and a rotating hierarchy of suit strengths such that the suit which won a trick most recently becomes the weakest suit and the suit that has not won a trick since the other two suits will be the strongest.

Also, what is likely the most entertaining rule book I’ve come across.

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SCOUT!

Posted on September 10, 2020 by xitoliv

Designer: 梶野 桂（Kei Kajino)
Artist: SINC
Publisher: ワンモアゲーム！（OneMoreGame!)
Players: 3-5
Ages: 9+
Times Played: 6 times on a purchased first edition copy

I wish I had a picture of the basement stairs at my grandparents house. It was this house. That’s my grandfather holding my father. Later that “breezeway” would be closed in; it’s what we used as the front door.

We went out each Sunday night, but there were times when the kids would sleep over. There was a bed in the basement I slept on, and when it was time to wake up the next morning (for french toast), my grandmother would wake me up the same way she notoriously had with my uncle when the basement was his room: she threw an old pot and its lid down the stairs, physically and sonically bouncing off the stairs, the walls, and each other.  

Sometimes I think I’ve sufficiently told you about how great of a game SCOUT! is, but other times I realize that you can’t smell the french toast I’ve made. So, today, I’m throwing all the pots and pans down the stairs.

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Dale Yu: Review of Merchant of Dunhuang

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Dale Yu

Merchant of Dunhuang

 

  • Designer: Gabriele Bubola
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: ~30 minutes
  • Times played: 3, with review copy provided by Mandoo Games

In Merchants of Dunhuang, players take on the role of competing brothers who end up trying to find the true value of a pound of flesh, with or without the blood inside it.  No, wait, that’s the wrong story.  As this game’s story goes: “In Merchant of Dunhuang, we are powerful merchants in Dunhuang who want to have the strongest power. To do that, we should control the supply of valuable goods, which means we need to use various people in the market to collect information and to use their skills. Be the lord of Dunhuang market with the help of little birds!”  If you search for this game on BGG, it is currently listed as “Merchant of Dunhuang”, but the rules translation that I have from the publisher has “Merchants of Dunhuang” in the art…

 

I had never heard of the game before talking to the nice folks at Mandoo, and then when I did some research, I realized that the designer of this game is also the designer of Hats and Skyliners.  Due to this great track record, my interest in the game immediately increased.  Like many games from Asia, it comes in a small package – but don’t let the size of the box mislead you to the “size” of the game on the inside.

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Dale Yu: Review of Mariposas

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Dale Yu

Mariposas

Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave

Publisher: AEG

Players: 2-5

Age: 14+

Time: ~60 minutes

Times played: 3, with review copy provided by AEG

Elizabeth Hargrave is one of the current hot designers in our hobby – it seems like almost every year, one or two names hit it big with a debut game and a strong followup (Recent Exhibit A: Wolfgang Warsch).  Most of our readers will be quite familiar with Wingspan, the 2019 Kennerspiel des Jahres winner, a game that has been lauded by gamers and reviewers since its release. 

Ms. Hargrave returns this year with another major release, again with a Nature theme – but instead of birds, the focus is now on the Monarch Butterfly.  The story of the Monarch Butterfly migration is truly fascinating, and they are the only insect to have a true 2-way migration like birds, moving between Mexico and the both coasts of the US each year.  The most amazing part of the story is that the average monarch butterfly only lives two to six weeks – so there’s no way that any single butterfly makes the round trip – and modern science really doesn’t have a proven theory on how the species knows where to go!   Well, the exception is that the overwintering butterfly can live for up to 8 months… but this butterfly stays in just one place.  If you’re more interested in this, there are numerous webpages that you can surely find via your favorite search engine.

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Valerie Matthews – Trambahn: The game we played 100 times in 3 months

Posted on September 7, 2020 by Valerie Putman

I have been a gamer for decades, but my husband was only introduced to the hobby when we met, less than 10 years ago.  He has had favorites:  Dominion (good husband), Tichu, Cartagena, Agricola, Caverna, and Wingspan have been a few.  Most of the games he has been exposed to are over a decade old—why buy new games when I have a collection of hundreds that he hasn’t played yet?  Still, about a year ago I put in an order for a half dozen two-player games, since that’s what we mostly play.  I bought:  Schotten Totten, Jaipur, Patchwork, Fox in the Forest, Trambahn, and 7 Wonders Duel.  We played them in that order—or rather, we played the first 5 in that order.  We never made it to 7 Wonders Duel because after we played Trambahn for the first time about three months ago, we have played very little else.

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Solo Gaming in the Time of Covid-19

Posted on September 6, 2020 by Mark Jackson

I started doing a lot of solo gaming when my oldest son (and chief gamer buddy) left for college in August 2019. Even with him home during this extended time of quarantine, I’ve still been playing solo games. And with him returning to campus a couple of weeks ago, the solo gaming has picked up again.

I know, I know – there are plenty of board game apps on iOS and Steam… and I own many of them. But there’s something really satisfying about physically playing a game: shuffling cards, moving pieces, seeing it all spread out in front of you. 

And, because I’m “that guy”, I crunched the numbers and found that 20%+ of my gaming this year was solo (compared to 6% last year). I expect that number to rise this fall.

So, what follows are my thoughts on a variety of solo games I’ve played over the last 8 months – ordered by number of solo plays in 2020. (Note: this is not necessarily how much I like a particular game for solo play – for example, I think Nemo’s War is a brilliant design but only played it twice this year… so far.)

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