September 2024
Games I played for the first time this month, from worst to best, along with my ratings and comments.
Senshi – 4/10
The trouble with abstracts is that the strategic and tactical play have to create all of the fun. This is not impossible, but it is a tall order. When this is done well, as in old classics like Chess or Go, the play patterns are so emergently fascinating that an entire vocabulary has sprung up to better discuss them (atari, zugzwang, etc.). But even modern classics like Blokus and Onitama demonstrate similar motifs.
Senshi, on the other hand, is so simple that it feels almost incomplete. Many have commented on its Knizia-esque scoring, and indeed, similar scoring systems have been used as a very small part of larger, more interesting games. Your goal is to collect chips in four different colors. Whoever has the tallest stack of one color will be the winner, but whoever has the smallest stack of any color is first eliminated from contention.
It’s a fine foundation for a lightweight game, but a lack of randomness in how these chips are acquired doesn’t do the game any favors. On your turn, you do one of three things: put a stack of chips from the table onto your card, put a single chip into your hand, or put a single chip from your hand into your scoring pile. There are slight subtleties at each step, such as the fact that you can steal from other people’s stacks, and that putting a chip into your scoring pile causes chips of matching colors on cards to also score.
That’s about it. Forgettable, replaceable, and unnecessary. But also not really poorly-designed or unpleasant. I imagine there is a person out there that will really enjoy what Senshi offers, but that person is not me.
Dabba Walla – 6/10
In Dabba Walla, you take on the roll of a dabbawala (lunchbox deliverer), packing and stacking your bicycle full of lunchboxes to score the most points for your delivery. Indians have been doing this proto-Doordash in real life since the late 1800’s.
The packing part of the game is done with polyomino tiles, which need to fit into a relatively small space on your bike. However, they can be stacked as well, provided no gaps are left underneath. Certain tiles will score bonuses when placed next to each other, so there are some placement decisions about whether to go for those bonuses or to build a more useful foundation for the next level.
In order to take a tile, you will have to move to its location on your bike. Moving farther will cost you some points, but it may be worth it to get a more useful piece. The piece you take will be depicted on a card at that location, and the card will also show point bonuses for a particular color. You will need to balance between taking cards just for the point bonuses and taking cards for the tiles they depict.
Once each player has taken thirteen tiles, the scoring phase begins. The players unload their bikes, top level first, scoring points at each level. Each player will now play a card from their hand to adjust the scoring values of each color. Because of this, you are incentivized to keep a close eye on what colors your opponents are placing on each level so that you can also benefit from the colors they are likely to boost. You are also incentivized to stack as high as you can, since a level where you have tiles but your opponents do not is a great way to jump ahead in points.
Dabba Walla is quite a light game, easy to grasp and closer to a filler than a gateway, though it does run about 45 minutes. A good chunk of that time is spent on the scoring phase, which unfortunately is not very interesting compared to the tile placement phase. If the game were shorter and had a second phase that was as fun as the first, it could be a favorite filler, but as it stands I don’t think most people will keep it on their shelves beyond a few plays.
Seers Catalog – 7/10
One of the most clever and amusing children’s books in my house growing up was The Jolly Postman. In it, a mail carrier delivers mail to various fairytale creatures (Cinderella, The Three Bears, etc.). Most vividly, I recall the catalog he delivered to the Wicked Witch, including ads for all types of potion ingredients, brooms, and the like. Thematically, Seers Catalog is cut from this same cloth. Each card represents an item that a seer (get it?) might purchase in order to help with a werewolf infestation. This is amusing, no doubt, but the theme is pasted-on like so many catalog address labels.
What we really have here is a climbing game. Similar to trick-taking games, climbing games have players trying to beat the cards played before them. But instead of each trick consisting of each player having one chance to do so, climbing games go until each player passes, and require beating the current high cards in order to play at all. Very often, “going out” by getting rid of all your cards is the goal of these “shedding” games. And that’s very nearly true here as well. But the twist is that the very best scores will belong to the players who almost got rid of all of their cards.
So long as you have six or more cards still in your hand, you aren’t ever obligated to play cards. This allows you to keep sets and runs together. Though if the hand ends, you get a penalty for each unplayed card. But once you’ve shedded enough cards to have five or fewer remaining, you are now obligated to play cards if possible. And you are also now eligible for a point bonus, which is often enough to negate your penalty and then some. You receive bonus points equal to the number value of your lowest card still in hand. Thus, the ideal situation is for the hand to end with you having only one card left, and for that card to be the highest one in the game. Though this is easier said than done, because remember you are obligated to play this card if possible, and it’s quite likely to beat anything played before it.
Being the player who ends the hand by playing their last card feels mediocre. You don’t lose any points (empty hand), but you don’t get any points either (no remaining low card to score). How long will the round last? How long can you afford to pass on shedding your cards to keep sets and runs together? This is an excellent twist for a game of this type and it works quite well in practice.
If that were all the game offered, it might get stale rather quickly from a tactical standpoint. So, enter the special cards. In addition to their starting hand, each player will get two random special cards. It is a good decision to have these evenly distributed in this way, as they can be quite powerful (though some are clearly better than others). These do admittedly add some much-needed spice to the game, but unfortunately their complexity level is slightly too high and their interactions with other special cards are often confusing. No doubt these issues would lessen with familiarity, but this aspect reminded me of the same issues I have with Skull King.
Nevertheless, I think Seers Catalog is a strong design with more going for it than many of the mediocre trick-takers and climbers that have come out in the past few years. It’s even possible it could rise in my ratings as familiarity with the various special cards increases. It’s fun and well worth playing, though not as groundbreaking a climber as Scout or Dealt.
Andromeda’s Edge – 8/10
Hot off the presses, Andromeda’s Edge is a sci-fi-themed sequel to 2020’s Dwellings of Eldervale. They share a good bit of DNA, both mechanically as well as in their commitment to lavishly overproduced components with a price tag to match. Is it necessary to have each enemy ship (the majority of which won’t even appear in a given game) have its own unique sculpt? Of course not. But it is really cool. All the organizational trays you need are included right in the box, and some of them are even used to facilitate smoother gameplay.
Andromeda’s Edge is a worker placement game, but the places those workers can be placed are areas on a map. Consequently, it’s rare that your actions are truly blocked by another player’s worker, but if you enter a space they occupy, you will have to engage them in combat after taking the action. In Dwellings of Eldervale, you generally had to place a worker adjacent to one of your existing workers. But in Andromeda’s Edge, most of your worker ships have a range that allows them to be placed several spaces away. This creates a less constrained experience, with tactics revolving more around efficient action sequencing than merely avoiding being blocked.
The majority of the points scored in the game will come from progression along various scoring tracks. These score at random times during the game, and then all score again at the end. There are two main ways to progress along these tracks: building developments on the map or buying modules to add to your station. Developments are higher-scoring, but they provide no in-game benefit and in fact cost you one of your worker ships permanently. The modules are used for engine building, providing you extra resources and abilities, but generally scoring fewer points. Decisions are incredibly open-ended, bordering on overwhelming for new players.
Generally, I prefer the more open-ended and less conflict-oriented gameplay that Andromeda’s Edge offers over its predecessor. However, it does come at a cost of somewhat higher complexity. Everything works together quite well, but this is a rules explanation that will probably run 30 minutes or so. There is just a lot to cover. But then again, if you’ve paid this much for a game, you’re probably intending to get it to the table quite a few times. And it seems likely that it will remain strategically stimulating even after many such plays.
Creature Caravan – 9/10
If you don’t know about Ryan Laukat and Red Raven Games, you are missing out. Ryan is a true board game auteur; he designs, illustrates, and publishes all of his own games, and performs each of these tasks with considerable prowess. And his best game ever? It’s just been released.
Creature Caravan has the same quirky and beautiful illustration style you would expect from Red Raven. But it somehow feels more inviting and accessible than their other offerings. Megaland, for example, takes place in a barren world filled with bizarre creatures seeking to kill you over and over again. But the closest Creature Caravan gets to a true enemy is the Ember Zombies, who simply follow you around and can safely be ignored if your strategy dictates it. (Also, they’re kind of cute.) Don’t get me wrong, the aesthetic isn’t as cuddly as Everdell or something, but it’s also not so offbeat as to be off-putting.
The gameplay is driven by both cards and dice. You will start with a hand of eight random cards from a deck of nearly two-hundred unique creatures and items (each lovingly illustrated, of course). By paying their costs, you can add them to your tableau, where they will provide ongoing abilities. Because cards are always drawn randomly, there is lots of “draw three, keep one” action going on. This is just one of several ways in which the game is reminiscent of the venerable Race for the Galaxy.
For their part, your five personal dice will be rolled each turn and then be spent to provide you with resources to pay for cards or ways to draw new cards. There is plenty of re-rolling and plenty that can be accomplished with low rolls anyway, so this randomness never feels unfair. Choices in how to spend dice often involve sequencing your dice actions in between your card plays and finding synergies between the two. As this is something of a solitary puzzle, the game wisely has players do this simultaneously, which has the added benefit of supporting a player count of up to six without adding significant playing time.
But only about half of your points will come from cards you’ve played. You are also incentivized to use your actions to navigate your wooden wagon from one side of the board to the other. There are more points given the farther you manage to travel, but there are also bonuses of free resources and cards to grab along the way. The pathing isn’t as crucial as in a racing game, but there is still planning here, sometimes a couple turns ahead.
Creature Caravan is mostly a remix of existing mechanics. Card synergy, dice placement, and route planning are all here in ways you’ve probably seen before. But they are combined in such a clean and inviting way, and paired with such lovely world-building that the overall character of the game is still novel. This is a gateway game that does everything right.
A highly recommended game that I have most certainly played prior to this month, probably many times.
Xia: Legends of a Drift System – 10/10
There are lots of space exploration games out there, and they all have their merits. Most of the basic elements here can be found in other places. But no other game puts them together quite as well as Xia does.
Want to explore? Do it. Fight? Do it. Mine? Build? Trade? Kill? It’s all here. And each individual element is remarkably intuitive and simple. But together, it creates wonderful strategic choices as to which path (or hybridization of paths) to pursue. Much like the choice about which ship and special ability to take, Xia demands to be played again and again to fully experience all the different elements. It really feels like a vast galaxy, both in theme and mechanics.
Have you seen it? On the table? Real metal interlocking coins. Dozens of unique pre-painted ships. Xia is an explosion of metal, plastic, cardboard, and wood, lavishly illustrated. Table appeal. Eye candy. Call it what you will, it immediately grabs the attention of would-be players and every other passerby.
Sure, some will complain about an overpowered strategy after one game. Variants and “fixes” abound. But the veterans know that the variability and volatility in the system is a positive thing. Is there an obvious trade route? Well, let’s all use it then. Except then you become a sitting duck for the player who decides to focus on combat. Every choice has a counter-choice and no option is without its risks. Nevertheless, these complaints and more were all answered resoundingly with the never-play-without-it expansion Embers of a Forsaken Star. Simply put, Embers is one of the best expansions ever made for any game. I loved Xia already. For the players who didn’t though, this expansion is tailor-made to address their complaints. Mitigation of movement randomness. Inability to spam the same trade routes over and over again. Vast amounts of variety in new sectors, ships, and mods. Just thinking about this expansion makes me want to play Xia right now.
For me, Xia surpasses Eclipse, Firefly, Starfarers and many other games as well. There is a ton that happens in a relatively short time period. It creates great stories and captures the imagination long after the game is over. I can’t see this game ever leaving my shelf.
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Game Market West: Are indie game markets coming to the United States?
I attended Game Market West in Fremont, California, this morning, and the event was tremendous fun. For the gamer in me, this was an exciting shopping adventure, a chance to buy something off the beaten path. For the game designer in me, this was a delightful way to release a game.
Reflecting on the event, Game Market West feels like the start of a trend, one long overdue here in the United States. Japan has had Tokyo Game Market for about a decade, a place where game designers can take a design — often with just a few copies, and sometimes handmade — and sell it to the gaming public. Many of the wildly popular titles these past couple of years got their start at TGM. While sales never felt like the point, they came naturally for many of the titles. That’s what happens when such an astounding outlet for creativity exists like it does in the Japanese game markets.
I’ve been publicly hoping for something similar here in the United States for quite a while. Game Market West this morning felt like a massive step forward towards that happening. Put together by Johnny Chin (who is himself an accomplished trick-taking designer, and who also writes the newsletter over at BGG’s Trick-Taking Guild), this Bay Area event allowed producers of small-batch games a chance to sell them. The event was attended by about 200 people, and as somebody who released a game there, I can attest that it was a fantastic meeting point between game creators and game buyers.
There will be another Game Market West this spring. And Daniel Newman of New Mill will be hosting an Indie Games Night Market this December at Pax Unplugged. So it does feel like the start of a broader movement towards encouraging indie games in the United States.
The rest of this post will be some insights from this morning, some hopes for the future, and some thoughts on the release of the game I designed for today.
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