La Granja: No Siesta! (Game Review)

Posted on December 9, 2016 by Mark Jackson

 

no-siesta

  • Designers: Andreas “ode” Odendahl
  • Publishers: Stronghold Games
  • Players: 1-4
  • Time: 30-45 minutes
  • Ages: 10+
  • Times Played:5 (with review copy provided by Stronghold Games)

 

I wanted to start this review by making some kind of sweeping pronouncement about the nature of dice games versus games that merely use dice… and then I realized that:

  1. I was about to go down the metaphorical gamer rabbit hole, take a giant swig of “Drink Me” and end up being chased around by playing cards with lances
  2. I could not possibly sound more pompous and self-important if I tried.

So, instead, you get a relatively straightforward review of La Granja: No Siesta (The Dice Game) from someone who (gasp!) has never actually played the well-liked Euro “parent”, La Granja. (That’s right – never played. Wouldn’t turn down a game if it showed up at the table, but I’m much more likely to end up playing The Dragon & Flagon or Sentinels of the Multiverse.)

By the way, I’m going to call the game No Siesta from here on out… the full name of the game is a bit unwieldy for blogging purposes. Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: First Impressions of Touria

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

Touria

  • Designers: Inka Brand, Markus Brand, Michael Rieneck
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: 10+
  • Time: ~45 minutes
  • Times played: 2, with review copy provided by R&R Games

touria

Touria is the land of the dancing towers, or so the rules tell me.  In this kingdom, there are four towers, one in each corner of the board – I mean, kingdom…  These towers are cleverly constructed so that they rotate around their base, and this is the magic behind Touria.  The game itself is really a big boardgame version of the Bachelor/Bachelorette.  As the story goes, the king’s son and daughter are both of marrying age, and they are looking for the first adventurer to come to the castle with enough gems and jewelry and whatnot to be their spouse. Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: First Impressions of Mondrian the Dice Game

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

Mondrian the Dice Game

  • Designers: Israel Cenderero and Sheila Santos
  • Publisher: Tranjis Games
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: 10+
  • Time: 20-30 minutes
  • Times Played: 2, with review copy provided by Tranjis Games

mondrian

I have always liked the clean blocky simplicity of Piet Mondrian’s artwork, and I was naturally drawn to a game with his name in the title.  I had seen some pre-show pictures of the game, and at least from afar, the game looked like it had you creating the distinctive color block patterns with cards…  Which was a little weird, because it was sold as a dice game!

At the show, I was given a nice demo of the game at the stand – and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the game is actually a dexterity game!  There is a grid of cards laid out on the table – in our 4 player game, this was a 6×6 grid.  The cards are placed face up so that you can see the color grid and point value on them. Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2016, First Impressions | 1 Comment

Dale Yu: Review of Glux

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

Glux

  • Designer: Jakob Andrusch
  • Publisher: Queen Games
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: 8+
  • Time: ~30 minutes
  • Times played: 3

glux

Glux is a nice light abstract game from Queen.  I honestly didn’t know much about this game prior to the show as Queen is usually pretty close to the vest with information about their games until the actual release date.  I did manage to take in a quick demo at one of the Queen booths at the show.

The board is a simple affair with a grid superimposed over a dark blue background interspersed with light blue “rooms”.  In a four player game, each player starts out with a start marker in a room in a corner of the board.  Each player has a cloth bag filled with 24 chips (marked either 6/1, 5/2, or 4/3 on the two sides).  The chips are shuffled in the bag and one is drawn at random by each player.  Simultaneously, each player decides which side of their drawn chip they want face up on their start token; all the initial chips are placed on their respective start chip.  Then, each player draws another chip and then keeps it secret in his hand. Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2016, Reviews | 1 Comment

Colony (Game Review by Chris Wray)

Posted on December 2, 2016 by Chris Wray
  • Designer: Ted Alspach, Toryo Hojo, Yoshihisa Nakatsu
  • Publisher: Bézier Games
  • Artists: Ollin Timm, Stephanie Gustafsson, Digital Imaginary Studios
  • Players: 1 – 4
  • Ages: 13 and Up
  • Time: 45-60 Minutes
  • Times Played: 5 (With 2, 3, and 4 Players)

Colony.png

Bézier Games’s latest title, Colony, was demoed at Gen Con and then released at Essen, generating considerable buzz at both conventions. Colony was one of the highlights of Essen for me, and I’ve greatly enjoyed my plays since, so I wanted to do a full review.

In Colony, players construct and upgrade buildings, and those buildings help with future production, resource manipulation, and victory points. There’s a strong element of engine building, and a variable setup, so Colony feels a bit like Dominion meets Catan or Machi Koro. The resources in Colony are dice, but to reduce the luck factor, the game game features dice drafting.

Colony is Ted Alspach’s reimplementation of Age of Craft, a Japanese design by Toryo Hojo and Yoshihisa Nakatsu. Ted did a designer diary for Colony at BGG, and I highly recommend it if you’re into the history of games or how they’re developed.

As described below, setup is variable. There’s a free iOS or Android setup app for download to help in that process. Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: First Impressions of Chariot Race

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

Chariot Race

  • Designer: Matt Leacock
  • Publisher: Pegasus Spiele
  • Players: 2-6
  • Ages: 8+
  • Time: 30-40 minutes
  • Times played: 3, with review copy provided by Pegasus Spiele

chariot

OK, so being the awesome boardgame journalist that I am, I actually had heard absolutely nothing about Chariot Race until I saw it on the Pegasus table at the Wednesday Press Event at the SPIEL fair this year. Sure, there are over 1,200 new games at the show, and it’s hard to know something about each of them – but man, this is from a well known designer with a track record of great games from a mainstream publisher. In any event, there was a good amount of buzz around the game, and when I had the opportunity to learn more about it, it wasn’t long before I had placed a request for a review copy as I was really excited to give it a try!

In this game, players are chariot drivers, trying to win a two lap race around the track. Each player chooses a color and gets a matching player board. Paper clips are used to denote the starting values in Damage (12), Speed (4) and Fate (3). Starting order is randomly decided and the chariots are placed in the starting positions on the track. Continue reading →

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