I wrote about my first couple of days at The Gathering, and this is the next installment in that series. Whereas my first post discussed specific games, this post is primarily commentary about what seems popular and some other random musings.
The easiest way to get or latest new and thoughts is to follow us on Twitter at @OpinionatedGmrs (or just look at the panel on the right of our home page). Social media isn’t widely used at the event, but some folks are posting thoughts using the #GoF2019 hashtag.
Times played: 4, with review copy provided by Asmodee NA
In Nagaraja, two players compete against each other
trying to explore a long lost temple trying to find the sacred relics of
Ananta. Each player takes their own
temple board, which is really just a 3×3 grid, and orients it so that the three
entrances are facing him. Six sacred
relics and three cursed relics are mixed facedown and then randomly placed on
the nine outside spaces of the grid.
Times played: 3, with review copy provided by designer
Squirrel is a pocket sized game that I had never heard of
before the designer contacted me via email.
This cute little hand-made game was funded on Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357750704/squirrel-a-pocket-tabletop-game-for-2-foragers/updates)
earlier in the week, and an advance copy had been sent to me. As you may know, I’m a big fan of games that
can fit in a pocket and possibly be played on a restaurant table, so I was game
to try it.
In this game, each player is a cute squirrel (one brown
and one black), and they stand in a forest – which it initially made up of a
3×3 grid with 2 cards stacked in each location.
At the start of the game, all the cards are facedown – that is, the
green leaf side is showing. The reverse
sides are all brown, with the majority of them having a simple brown leaf, but some
with acorns of value 1 to 3. The players
can choose their initial starting spaces, and throughout the game, they must adhere
to the rule that the squirrels can never be on the same space.
On a turn, you move your squirrel to an adjacent (orthogonal
or diagonal) unoccupied space. Then,
take a card from the top of any unoccupied space adjacent to your new location. However, if you have moved on top of an acorn
(more on this in a bit), you can instead choose to draw a card from your
opponent’s hand at random.
After you get a card, either from the top of a neighboring
space OR from your opponent’s hand, you then check your own hand of cards. If you have more than 3 cards, you must
discard one of your cards – BROWN side up.
If you made a gap or empty space in the 3×3 grid, you must play your
card to fill the hole; otherwise, you can play on any adjacent unoccupied
space. Since you always discard cards with the brown
side facing up, the forest will slowly turn from green to brown…
The game ends when all nine piles have a brown card showing
on the top. At this time, the players
reveal their hands, and the player with the most acorns in their hand is the
winner.
My thoughts on the game
The game is a nice little trifle, perfect for filling
time at a restaurant, or maybe on an airplane tray table. The games are short, probably 3-4 minutes
once everyone is familiar with the rules.
Initially, it’s just guesswork to
find some acorns (probably just like being a squirrel in real life), but then
once you start filling your hand with valuable cards, then there’s a little bit
of strategy that comes into play.
If you think that you’re winning – do you try to move
around to end the game sooner by dropping your brown leaves on previously green
stacks? If you have two “1 acorn” cards,
do you take a risk and try to bluff a bit to drop one down to then try to trick
your opponent into possibly squandering a turn for a 1/3 chance at only a “1
acorn” card? Or, if somehow an acorn lies
unclaimed, do I do my best to then bury it under another brown leaf so that it
is harder to get?
It is certainly easy to teach, and my one attempt to play
with a young child went off without a hitch.
Sure, the strategy here isn’t the most – but it’s a nice game that is
accessible to kids and/or non-gamers.
This is the sort of game that can literally be played by just about
anyone.
Squirrel is undoubtedly pocket sized. It comes in a cute and sturdy handmade box – and
honestly, the game could be even smaller… the contents really only fill about 30%
of the box depth. When on the table, the
game also doesn’t spread out as you’re just making a 3×3 grid of the cards
which are 2” square. The cards are
gorgeous. They are silk screened by hand and they have a nice rustic feel to
them. The work and craftsmanship that
have gone into this production are amazing.
Per the KS campaign: “If successful, Squirrel will be
joined by a further 3 titles in an eventual series of 4 collectable forager
themed pocket games by format 15 “
I look forward to hopefully seeing the later games in this series.
This year is the 30th Gathering of Friends, though it is only my third year attending. The event, held annually in Niagara Falls, is an invitational convention hosted by Alan R. Moon. Many attendees started arriving on Thursday/Friday, and it goes until Sunday night.
I arrived late in the day Saturday, and I’ve been busy reconnecting with old friends, playing a few prototypes, and getting in games of some of my favorites. I even did a day trip to Toronto yesterday (Monday)!
I’m going to go through things day-by-day, discussing news-worthy games along the way. This entry covers Saturday and Sunday. Keep in mind that impressions are based on one play, and photos are likely of pre-production copies.
I may have mentioned previously that I contract out to help manage elections on behalf of the various local electoral commissions. I’ve just completed one (state election) and, whilst still in health recovery for that, the federal election is about to start. While rewarding and interesting, they really are all-consuming beasts and life gets put on hold while they’re in swing with gametime going down the gurgler. Anyway, one down, one to go, and the good news is that there was at least some gaming done in between times.
I’ve begun adding each game’s BGG ranking (as at time of writing rather than time of publication). They might add a bit of context for unfamiliar games as to where they sit in the minds of the populace at large. For whatever that’s worth anyway … there are many fine games languishing in the rankings for lack of enough ratings to push them further up the pole.
Many years ago, before the detailed presentation of forthcoming games at Essen, you had to wander around the halls, bumping into new games. As there was not very much information about, it felt like an exploration of a large toy shop. You did not know what you are going to find but amongst the stalls would be some gems. The excitement came from discovering one.
So I came across Promenade at Spiel in October 2018. A friend had invited me to join him in a look at a pre published copy of a game. You never know what you’ll find so I joined him. The designer, Ta-Te Wu, originally from Taiwan, but now living in America showed us his game. It was a prototype, but decent looking. He did all the design and art himself and it looked really good.
Chris’s Trip to the Gathering of Friends: Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday
I wrote about my first couple of days at The Gathering, and this is the next installment in that series. Whereas my first post discussed specific games, this post is primarily commentary about what seems popular and some other random musings.
The easiest way to get or latest new and thoughts is to follow us on Twitter at @OpinionatedGmrs (or just look at the panel on the right of our home page). Social media isn’t widely used at the event, but some folks are posting thoughts using the #GoF2019 hashtag.
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