Hidden Roooms

I don’t often play solo but I do love puzzles. I was pleased to find Hidden Rooms which has a fantastic look and lots of nice handmade touches. It seems to be a reimplementation of the designer’s print and play Kidnap Machine from a few years ago. 

The game play is pretty simple. A random tile is drawn indicating which page of the monster manual to use. You are trying to move the child from the bottom right corner of the board to the upper left corner.

The child can only move orthogonally along already placed tiles. In order to move you draw room tiles randomly. You can succeed in your movement if the new tile has the same number or higher or if the tile is the same color.

After the child’s turn the monster moves twice along it’s set path. The monster of course has it’s big eye out for the child and if the child is within it’s vision the monster will veer from it’s path and chase the child.

Sounds easy right? well it’s more challenging than it looks and trying to find a safe path and play the odds makes a great puzzle. The wonderful production makes the game even more pleasurable to play. It’s quick but addicting.

Blend Coffee Lab

Saashi and Saashi continue with the coffee theme they started with Coffee Roaster in ブレンドコーヒーラボ (Blend Coffee Lab.). Coffee Lab is a trick taking game that incorporates winning a trick with being able to select one or two of the cards from the trick for scoring. 

The game is playable with 2-4 players but like with most trick takers the 2 player version seems less interesting so far. What makes BCL different from most standard trick taking games is as follows.

First following “suit” in BCL means you must if possible play a different color card than the ones previously played.

There is a “trend” which is determined at the beginning of the hand from the previous trick. It determines whether high cards or low cards will win “priority.”

Priority allows a players to choose one or possibly two cards from the trick to use in scoring. The last unpicked card determines the trend for the next hand.Winner starts the next trick like usual.

Players are collecting cards of 3 “roast” levels to make cups of coffee. A cup consists of one each of available color cards of the same roast level.

Cups of each roast level are scored for each of the three rounds with the best of each roast being scored for the finally tally.

It took me a few plays to see how best to try and play BCL. Winning tricks is obviously great but trying to figure out how to play your hand isn’t always easy. Trying to control the trend I think is important so deciding whether when to try and win a hand vs throwing out a card that may go unpicked to change the trend more favorably is key.  If you like trick taking games BCL is worth a try.

Little Town Builders

One of my favorite games to come from TGM in recent years is The King of Frontier which is a delightful mash up of role selection and tile placement. I was really excited to see they had a new game this year, Little Town Builders but a little apprehensive because sometimes the follow ups just don’t quite meet expectations.

Little Town Builders manages quit nicely in being a great follow up game. I’d call it a mash up of worker placement and tile placement. It comes with a double sided board for variety which is really nice. There are preprinted resource areas on the map which is made on a large grid. Each player gets a set of workers and a set of buildings. The game also comes with building tiles reminiscent of King of Frontier, wheat fields and a set of goal tiles (Japanese text, English paste ups made the game easier for us). Each player also gets a hand of random goal tiles. 

Game play is simple. 

Players can place their worker on any open space on the board and activate the surrounding tiles directly orthogonal and diagonal. If the tile has a tree or mountain you collect wood or stone. If there is a pond you collect fish. If there is a building and you own it you may use its ability. If your opponent owns the building you can pay them 1 coin to use it.  

You can build a building if you have the resources for it by placing your worker on a building area. In addition to abilities buildings are also worth points.

At any time if you meet one of your goals you may show the goal and collect the points.

At the end of the round after everyone’s workers have been played, you must feed you workers with either 1 fish or 1 wheat.  Hungry workers loose points.

The game last only 4 rounds and the player with the most points wins.

Desktop Hebocon Battle

Are you ready to rumble? Desktop Hebocon Battle will definitely not prepare you for the sumo ring or any other combat but it’s one of the coolest games I’ve played in a while. The game is themed around the real life Hebocon: The best worst robot competition. It is strictly for the technically challenged nonprofessional.

The goal of the game is to create and program your robot to do battle in the ring but not do it too well.

There are 2 phases. The first is making your robot. Your robot will consist of differently shaped polyominoes with various programmed movements or actions. You take turns collect programming pieces to eventually place on your player board similarly to other polyomino type games.

 Once everyone has collected their parts, the simultaneous building occurs. The first player to complete their board starts a timer included in the game and the rest of the players have 1 minute to finish. Players earn points equal to the number of spaces on their board covered but if you manage to cover all the spaces you get a high tech penalty of minus 8 points!

The second part of the game involves the battle. Players now take turns activating the polyominoes one at a time and move their robot or their board accordingly. The board has bonus chips for points and well as penalty spots. The big goal is to eliminate your opponents. If you push your opponent out of the ring you gain points and they lose points. The game ends once all players have used all their programming pieces (you must use all your pieces even if you don’t want to!) or if there is only one robot left standing in the ring. Bonus points for anyone still in the ring.

Way back in the day when I first got into the hobby, RoboRally was a huge hit for us with its silly random and chaotic movement and cute little robots. I tired of it since most games went on too long. Desktop Hebocon provides the same fun in a much more streamlined manner with a fixed game end. It’s really challenging to get much accomplished with your robot but it fits the theme perfectly. I’m sure some people will be able to see ahead and create and program their robots well (although maybe we should handicap them since it is a Hebocon) but for the rest of us it’s lots of laughs and groaning. The sumo battle is great and I feel like there should be side betting! I’m normally not into direct confrontation but in this case it’s all in good fun. Love it and looking forward to more plays.

A quick review of some of the titles that were available at TGM Dec 2017. I wasn’t able to attend but that didn’t stop me from coveting some of the games that would be sold there. I have managed to acquire a few of them and here are my impressions along with a quick summary of the games.

Era of Voyage the Dice Game . 

Era of Voyage (航海の時代) the original is a nifty rondel game. I’ve heard rumors it’s been picked up by another publisher. It’s successor the dice game is also a trading game but removes the rondel movement and replaces it with dice.
On a turn you roll 2 dice which are to be used independently to either gather resource or “invest” in an island which will allow you trade powers to use instead of gathering resources. Everyone starts with the same basic income card where a die roll may get you a resource, mone, or VP. There is a port which also has an income on it. There is no board but the main port and islands are represented by cards.  

The dice limit your actions to the islands/cards with the same number of pips or the same basic resource actions dependent on roll. If you invest, you place one of your tokens on the island. If you have the most tokens on the island at the end of the game you will earn the island’s VP.
The game is triggered by using a number of VP from a shared pool based on player number. You also earn VP by having the most investments on islands. 
This is a fun and fast filler and we’ve really enjoyed it. The are several island cards and 3 starting port cards which give a nice variety. The game can go very quickly or be more strategic dependent on how the rolls go. I like it, fast to set up, simple to teach, comes in a small box. Recommended and I would be at all surprised to see this game picked up by another publisher.

コプラス (COPULAS)

I am huge fan of games with polyominoes. I saw a picture of Copulas and had to have it. 
Like Blokus, Copulas comes with nice translucent polyominoes in player colors but only “U” and “cross” shapes. Players use the pieces to cover up or capture Copulas, small cosmic lifeforms scattered in the night sky on the board. The Copulas are worth varying values.

The board is modular which adds nice variety. Players the must take turns playing their pieces and alternating shapes on each turn. Pieces played can not cover more than 9 points of Copulas and must touch previously played pieces. 

Endgame scoring is based on captured Copulas as well as scoring based on how their pieces are grouped or not. Bonus points are given if all of a player’s pieces are connected.

Players get negative points for isolated groups and individual pieces on the board.
The end game scoring provides lots of incentive for area competition and clever placement. The modular set up is always a plus for variety. It’s a fun fast game like others in this genre and it’s small size earn a place in my collection. (It easily fits inside the Blokus box )

Troika

Troika is the newest game from Oink Games. I love, the look of Oink games. Initial games from Oink were innovative and exciting. The last few have seemed less innovating and exciting but they still look good. Troika, the newest game is space themed. Troika comes in the nice small Oink box. The tiles might be a bit on the thin side but there are a lot tiles to fit in that small box! The game involves collecting gems but you also must refuel. Game play is a pretty simple game of drafting tiles and push your luck. On a turn you can “excavate” a face down tile or a face up tile. If it is face up it goes in your container face up in front or you or if face down it can be one of 3 tiles kept secret from other players (hand limit). Alternatively you can discard a tile from hand or container back to the excavation field and the tile maintains its face up or down orientation.  

You must collect 3 tiles of the same number to be used as fuel,if you don’t have fuel you are stranded and take negative points. Runs of numbers on tiles in sets of 3 are considered gems and will score equal to the right most single digit of the set. That means if you have an 11 at the right most spot you would score 1. The round ends when some yells Troika (meaning you have a fuel set and more than 5 tiles in your container) at the end of their turn or if all the tiles in the excavation area aare face up. Points are awarded to the player with the highest score in the round. The game is played over 3 rounds.

So Troika makes a nice filler and it looks great next to all the other Oink games on the shelf… Being able to end the round early with a Troika adds a nice push your luck element to the tile draw. I think I would still rather play Deep Sea Adventure for push your luck fun. If I wanted something with some semblance of control via drafting, Troika might be a choice. The scoring is also clever were bigger numbers are better but not always…

Fool’s Field

Fool’s field is a nifty little 2 player game from Kuuri Keikaku (空理計画). The game consists of only 23 cards. The characters on the cards are nicely done. Each card has one of 3 symbols on the each of the 4 sides. They symbols are swords, shields and flowers. The goal of the game is to be the first to empty your hand of 6 cards after the draw deck has emptied.
Ona turn a player may “deploy” by playing a card into a 3×3 card grid.
The trick of course is that only 2 out the possible combinations of pairs of symbols on the edges of the cards can be played next to each other.
When one of the players  chooses or can no longer play they may “retreat”, picking up all the cards in the playing field and discarding down to 6. The other player fills their hand from the deck but gets to play first into the grid. 
The game is deceptively simple but the distribution of card symbols amongst the cards make it quite a challenge. “Retreating” can be a great action but it allow your opponent to set the tone of the grid by playing first. I love little card games like this, portable with simple rules but a reasonable amount of tough decision making. 

Wargames can be long, arduous affairs as players think deeply about current and future moves but then have to start over when their opponent takes their turn. (No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.) This naturally pauses the game every turn and can quickly bog down a game. Wartime attempts to do an end-run around such problems by having players move their pieces simultaneously. Players use multiple sand timers to activate their troops. A troop can’t act again until its timer runs out and new troops can’t act unless there is a free timer available. While this sort of time pressure limits the possible complexity of the game, it greatly speeds up the pace and brings out the split-second decision making that occurs in actual combat.

Wartime: The Battle of Valyance Vale

Designers: Christopher Guild, Brad Lackey, Christopher Parks, Joshua Tempkin
Publisher: Wizkids
Players: 2
Ages: 14+
Time: 10-30 minutes
(review copy provided by publisher)

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