Congratulations to Voodoo Prince, winner of the Trick-taking Guild’s 2017 “Golden Trickster” award!

Posted on October 17, 2018 by Chris Wray

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A couple of months ago, I created the Trick-taking Guild on BoardGame Geek with the goals of (1) having a forum to discuss trick-taking games, (2) giving an annual award to the best trick taking games of that year, and (3) enjoying the camaraderie of enthusiasts of the genre.

After discussion and nominations, the Guild — which now has more than 120 members — opted to give an annual award to the best trick-taking game of the year.  All trick-taking games released in 2017 were eligible.  The guild’s annual award is called The Golden Trickster, a nod to David Parlett, who called games in the genre “tricksters” in his book A History of Card Games.  Continue reading →

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Dare to Love (敢愛就來)

Posted on October 16, 2018 by xitoliv

Dare to Love (敢愛就來)
Designer: Chih-Fan Chen
Artist: Kim Chen
Publisher: Mizo
Players: 3-4
Ages: 15+
Time: 40-60 minutes
Times Played: 2 times with review copy

Dare to Love is one of Mizo’s new releases for Spiel this year.  As with their previous releases Raid on Taihoku, which I talked about yesterday, and Run Animals, Run!, which I have not played, the topic is serious, the tone is stark, and to a point, it is a game of experience over grand strategy. A simulation game – but of feelings. Sometimes of hopelessness.

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Dare to Love predicates the following background theme for the game:

Dare to Love takes place in the Empire Asomrof where homosexuals are oppressed. During a pogrom known as the Imperial Crystal Night started in the 107th year of the Empire, all homosexuals who were arrested by the Empire were imprisoned in floating crystals and were scheduled for execution later that night. Therefore, their lovers, families, and friends seek to save their beloved ones from the Empire’s tyranny.

There are two opposing forces in the game. One player will be an Oligarch, either the Emperor, Grand Inquisitor, or the Tycoon, who must ensure the execution goes smoothly; other players will be Rebels, who must fight against all odds and save their loved ones before they are executed.

Dare to love is a 3 or 4 player one-vs-many tactical skirmish.  The player representing the Oligarch will have several characters to choose from, and the players representing the lovers, families, friends of the imprisoned will also have a selection.  Once selected, the players will place the corresponding son, daughter, leader, or lover into one of the prisons. Continue reading →

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First Impressions of Pandoria

Posted on October 15, 2018 by huzonfirst
  • Designer: Jeff Allers and Bernd Eisenstein
  • Publisher: Irongames
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: 10+
  • Time: 90-120 minutes

Pandoria, the newest game from Jeff Allers (Piece o’ Cake/NY Slice, Nieuw Amsterdam) and Bernd Eisenstein (Peloppones), is many things, but the first one that I thought of after playing it twice was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.  Some gamer’s games look like they’re going to be meaty, so there’s no surprise when they turn out that way.  But Pandoria is a tile-laying game vaguely reminiscent of Carcassonne (every turn you place a tile and put one of your pieces on it), so how heavy can it be?  Turns out, it’s a thinky, studious game where you need to be at your best to do well.

So let’s describe the game.  Each player plays one of the five fantasy races of Pandoria.  The board shows an irregular hexfield roughly 14 x 10 hexes.  The tiles that will be placed are made up of two hexes joined at one side.  Each hex shows one of four different types of terrain—forest, hill, mountain, and city—and the two hexes of a tile never have the same terrain.  Each hex also has one or two symbols on it and the symbols for each terrain are always the same:  hills produce gold, mountains produce crystals, forests, shockingly, produce wood, and cities produce VPs.  Wood, crystals, and gold are the game’s three resources and each race has different starting levels for each of these.  Each race also has a special ability.  In addition, there’s a deck of cards and each card shows a spell on the upper half and a building on the lower half.  The players begin the game with a randomly drawn tile and four randomly dealt cards.  They also have from 4 to 6 pieces in their color, depending on the number of players, and a single leader; collectively, these are called figures. Continue reading →

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Raid on Taihoku and Infarkt

Posted on October 15, 2018 by xitoliv

Raid on Taihoku (台北大空襲)
Designer: Teng Chieh-Ming
Artist: Nuomi
Publisher: Mizo
Players: 2-4
Ages: 10+
Time: 40-60 minutes
Times Played: 3 times with purchased copy

Infarkt
Designer: Vladimír Brummer
Artist: Karel N. Moravec
Publisher: Czech Board Games, Efko
Players: 2-5
Ages: 10+
Time: 45 minutes
Times Played: 2 time with a friend’s purchased copy

Are black and white opposites?

For most purposes, I don’t think they are. A checkerboard pattern of black and white squares is a sort of ‘opposite’ of both.  As pigments, as light, there are ways they can be, but compared to a mongoose, they are at least both colors. Both solid colors next to some sort of tessellated, fractal, or random pattern.

Zoom out a little and maybe gray is the opposite end of the spectrum from black and white.

In a few months when it becomes year-in-review time, I’ll likely mentally-fail to be able to provide you a list of ‘best of’ or anything similar.  I can’t see a best/worst spectrum. For me, there’s only the spectrum that has black and white and checkerboards and gray… and that 11-dimensional pizza can be cut along so many axes, that I’m speechless when someone at a convention says ‘what’s your favorite thing you’ve played this weekend?’ or when it’s end-of-the-year-list-time.

More to the point here, Raid on Taihoku and Infarkt simultaneously occupy many of the same and many distinct areas of mechanics, tone, and theme. I’m quite delayed in bringing you this review, but I’m here now.

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Raid on Taihoku is a cooperative game where the players are civilians, attempting to survive the US bombing of Taihoku (now Taipei) in May 1945. Victory is each member of your family, the players, surviving the raid. On the other hand, if any of your family dies, the group loses. The raid was conducted by more than 100 B-24s.  

As the introduction for the rules state, the players are in a family facing life and death situations, and there is only one enemy: the cruelty of war.  Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: Preview of Four Taiwanese Children’s Games

Posted on October 14, 2018 by Dale Yu

 

 

Included in my most recent game shipment from Taiwan was a set of four nicely illustrated tins with games for the younger set (3yo or 4yo+).  While this isn’t really my thing any more, I figured that we could maybe get in touch with our inner toddler and take a look at them.

 

The tins are labeled “Play Again”, but BGG has the games Publisher as: Kang Hsuan Educational Publishing Corp.  The four games are clearly in a set, with each one stressing a different educational objective, and labeled as such on the tin:

OK, Chume, Boom!: Response Game

Monsters’ Party: Tactile Game

What to Wear: Color Game

Going Around the City: Strategy Game

Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: First Impression of Papering Duel

Posted on October 14, 2018 by Dale Yu

 

Papering Duel

  • Designer: Martin Nedergaard Andersen
  • Publisher: Mandoo
  • Players: 2
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 20 minutes

Papering Duel is a new 2-player game where you and your roommate (opponent in the game) are fighting over the wallpaper pattern in your new apartment.   You’re fighting over a wall made up a 3×3 grid. The wallpaper samples are found on clear plastic cards. Each player will have their own deck of cards – one player with a rectangular arrangement of wallpaper and the other with a diagonal pattern.  Each player shuffles their deck and draws a hand of three cards.

Continue reading →

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