The Opinionated Gamers

Arraial

• Designers: Nuno Bizarro Sentieiro, Paulo Soledade
• Publisher: MEBO Games
• Players: 1-4
• Ages: 8+
• Time: 30-40 minutes
• Times played: 3, with review copy provided by MEBO Games

Arraial is a game based on the eponymous traditional Portuguese summer festival.  In this game, the festival visitors are found on different colored polyominoes – and you have a street board where you will try to fit them in as tightly as possible.  This game also fits in well with the pervasive theme of SPIEL 2018 (and this week on the Opinionated Gamers) – that is, games with polyomino placement.

There is a central board that is placed in the center of the table, it is square in shape and there is an octagon on it where three color piece cards will be placed.  Each player orients their street board so that it is oriented vertically against one of the sides of the central board. It is ok if multiple players have to share a side of the central board.   A level bar is placed at the appointed row on your board based on player count.

Bloxx!

• Designer: Klaus-Jurgen Wrede
• Publisher: Noris
• Players: 2-4
• Ages: 6+
• Time: 15-20 minutes
• Times played: 4, with review copy provided by Noris

Oneof the big themes of SPIEL 2018 was the use of polyominos in games.  Another was the ascendance (and possible jumping of the shark) of Roll-and-Writes. Bloxx! is one of a few games that sits firmly at the intersection of these two Venn diagram circles.

In Bloxx! each player gets an identical scoring sheet at the start of the game.  The goal is to fill in the sheet as completely as possible while trying to circle as many pre-printed numbers as possible.  There are two special dice in the box, and these dice and the pads are literally the only components for the game.

Brikks

• Designer: Wolfgang Warsch
• Publisher: Schmidt
• Players: 1-4
• Ages: 8+
• Time: 25-35 minutes
• Times played: 4, with copy purchased at SPIEL 2018

One of the big themes of SPIEL 2018 was the use of polyominos in games.  Another was the ascendance (and possible jumping of the shark) of Roll-and-Writes.  Brikks is one of a few games that sits firmly at the intersection of these two Venn diagram circles.

In Brikks, each player gets an identical scoring sheet at the start of the game.  The goal is to fill in the sheet as completely by filling in each horizontal line as fully as possible.  The scoring sheet looks like an arcade game with a grid of 11 rows to be filled in. Underneath this grid is an area used to mark bonus scoring and then a energy bar to show where you have captured and then later used energy points.  Each player starts with as many as four energy points (depending on the number of players), you will notice a slight green haze around the first four energy circles to denote this.

The Great City of Rome

• Designers: Matthew Dunstan and Brett J Gilbert
• Publisher: Abacus/Z-Man
• Players: 2-4
• Ages: 10+
• Time: about an hour
• Times played: 4, with review copy of The Great City of Rome provided by Abacus

In the Great City of Rome, players are competing architects in the Great City of Rome working to layout the best buildings in the Great City of Rome in order to gain the favor of the Emperor of the Great City of Rome.  Each player’s initial building plan is modest – two starting cards along with five bucks and your emissary pawn. You will eventually be building a 4×4 grid of cards for the Great City of Rome, so make sure to reserve enough table space for your sprawl.