welcome back to my super subjective summary of my gaming year of 2023. Now that we have taken care of the dirty work, let’s come to the bright side of life.
Oh, just a small distraction that could be the theme of this episode:
Call me mister weirdo, call me mister wrong
call me mister strange,
call me mister weirdo, call me mister wrong
call me insane,
I missed the hype train - any new games?
“Yeah”
Short mention:Cahoots – always played when we visit my parents; drop dead simple as UNO but always a good time.
echoes: Draculas Erbe – champion for all titles in the echoes series. Even if single cases might be quite tough or have some huge logic error (like this particular one), it’s always entertaining to puzzle the audio snippets together. It’s just a pity that they are once and done.
Klask 4 – everyone I have played this game with loves it. It’s basically foosball but the round board and the team variant where teammate sit opposite to each other is more than “shoot the ball as hard as possible”.
TEN – push your luck plus set collection was done a lot but here there is constant engagement and the bidding element keeps player interaction high – exciting until the last turn.
Infernal Wagon
This small real time coop domino game might be my big surprise of my gaming year 2023. This super-short description can explain its core features: build a track under time pressure. As long as symbols match everything is fine but be sure to face some tense moments when symbols don’t match. This game just works perfectly as a starter of a game night and/or after a rich dinner to get into gaming mood. In ten minutes, it can be explained and played and it’s palpable how the tension increase. Due to the lack of a fixed player order, communication and coordination is crucial as it should be in every great coop game. But here, the clock is always ticking creating an interesting dilemma on how much time to spend on discussions and advancing the track. Moreover, the collapse mechanism and figuring out how much destruction players can afford while still be able to win constitutes an excellent push your luck puzzle. Random events and just the right amount of modules spice things up and guarantee a fun experience for everyone- provided you like real time games. I highly recommend this one as a small but surprisingly satisfying family friendly filler.
Keep the Heroes Out
When played with two players, this game can be a blast. The dungeon defense crisis management is tense while still providing some free space for the development of the players decks and playstyles. Sadly, my experiences have shown that this development is somehow diluted with more players. It’s still acceptable with three players but with four players, this game seems to reach a tilting point. I have seen it in multiple sessions that very few cards could be bought and thus, the players had absolutely no chance against the heroes. Maybe it’s due to the decreased amount of turns in a four player game compared to a two player game which results in the fact that an individual player gets to do less things. Anyway, besides this caveat (which may be personal taste) there is a ton to love in this game: the artwork is charming and the different factions really feel and play differently. There are numerous different scenarios which introduce their own specific tactical puzzles: it is really astonishing how different these scenarios play while using the same core mechanics. However, this core mechanics always flow very seamlessly and there are never awkward situations or timing issues. I just love it when game mechanics blend into the background and the decisions of the players play the major role. I think it cannot be over-emphasized that a great tactical dilemma does not need to have very complex rules. Complexity for the sake of complexity is awkward, weird and unnecessary. Here, you can jump right into a scenario – setup and rules explanations for newbies are done in a very reasonable time span – and have fun with keeping the heroes out. I’m really excited to see what the expansion will be like…
Planet Unknown
Currently, this is the only tile laying game I need in my collection. Considering the huge box, I think that’s fair… There are so many aspects that check exactly the right boxes for me: I love the sci-fi setting – look at these cute little rovers. LOOK! Or let’s talk about the fact that you can adjust randomness and the level of tile placement restrictions very easily. Just play with or without the event deck and/or deal out more personal/shared goals player can work towards. Et viola, you can make Planet Unknown as crunchy as you like. And if you think you have solved the puzzle, try new corporations and/or planets. The different corporations have distinct playstyles that want to be explored but don’t turn everything on its head or require large rules adaption. Moreover, the different planets all just add a little extra. At this point, I could rave about the dilemma of which development track to focus on in order to unlock the most bonuses and trigger amazing combos but I guess you know that drill. As Super Motherload (see below), Planet Unknow combines two mechanisms I really adore. This mix is seen quite often lately, you can actually find many examples of “mechanism A but with mechanisms B” games. For me, it’s rare that the different aspect blend together seamlessly. Often it appears to me that popular mechanisms are combined to make a game that attracts as many gamers as possible. For me, the result often feels cobbled together and does not form a comprehensive unity (more on this observation at some board game related rambling in the future). So, it was a real delight to see that Planet Unknow is an exception where the sum is much greater than the individual parts.
Super Motherload
Do you like pulp sci-fi art work? Do you like deck building? Do you like something extra? If you scream “yes, yes, YES!” I congratulate you to your positive perspective on life, the universe and all the rest – and you have excellent taste! For me, deckbuilding is fine but drastically better when combined with another aspect, an aspect that makes me understand why I bother collecting cards and optimizing my deck. In this context, it is very difficult to find my perfect sweet spot: if the progression is too slow, I get bored but if it’s to fast, confusion can be the result – what does this new card do? And when I get these two ones? In addition, I find it rare that there is interesting player interaction in deckbuilding games – maybe excluding dueling deck builders where it’s basically a race to do the most unpreventable damage. In Super Motherload, the pacing feels exactly right and the players’ progress is always visible on the game board. Here comes the most important aspect of player interaction: as the tunnels are drilled/ bombed together, it’s always a nice dilemma how to get the best rewards without setting your competition up for an even better prize. In addition, the fact that earned resources are accumulated on new cards until their costs are met adds a little extra touch of achievement every time a new card can be acquired. All in all, Super Motherload feels like a bigger game than visible on the surface (how fitting?): it manages to visualize the development of the players’ decks and the resulting improving of actions and combos. Moreover, it gets the trick right to provide interesting decision spaces without ever becoming overwhelming. It’s always engaging and its arc is just perfect - with a session often ending at the “oh, if I just had one more turn” - moment.
Tiger & Dragon
It’s hard to describe the appeal of this little trick taking game to a person who has not tried it. Its concept is a little bit weird, as an example, there are no suits and only numbers on the nice chucky tiles. In addition, the course of a round might not appear very spectacular: the player who can empty their hand of tiles first wins some points. Seen many, many times before, I know. In addition, a turn is super-straight forward: play a (matching) tile or decide to pass. So, what’s so special about Tiger & Dragon? This mentioned very elegant flow might not constitute a unique selling point - many small card games can feel similar. It’s the small moments where you try to slightly change the rhythm of a play sequence that are fascinating. Especially in a four player game, after about half the tiles have been played you try to make a smart move: but how to set up your partner for that decisive maneuver? There is certainly a luck factor to it but it just feels amazing when you play a tile your neighbor cannot defend but your partner can and they repeat the same move and you decide to pass in order to potentially score them bonus points and end the round. All in all, it feels a little bit like Tichu: straight-forward and subtle but with potential for really awesome moments.
“Wow”
Short mention:Paint the Roses – my choice when a coop puzzle with healthy dose of grey matter training deduction is wanted/ required.
Switch & Signal – stellar family weight coop puzzle with many moving parts – some different form of crisis management than the good old Pandemic....
Crokinole
With currently almost 50 sessions played, this accuracy extravaganza is one of my most played games of all time. That’s even more impressive when considering that I only own my copy for two years now. I think if you never had the pleasure of playing Crokinole it is not hard to see the beautiful smooth elegance of this game – but after some plays you understand what can be found under the obvious surface. It’s similar to Tiger and Dragon (see above). You might say: “What a surprise! A game becomes better the more you know it and the better you become at it. Revelation of the century!” Touché – but how many games do you play so often to really notice the small nuances. How many games do you play maybe three times before moving on?
Not That Movie!
Party games are a tricky genre for me: most of them fall in the “all-right but not spectacular” category. That’s not bad per se and I’d rather play games like Codenames, Just One, Werewolf, Werewords, Dixit or Concept with a large group of friends than just sitting around and doing nothing (except drinking and chatting). Other candidates from this category can be very divisive e.g. when the primary way to win involves lying/ bluffing or when creativity is required under time pressure and while everyone else is watching/waiting. So, all in all, party games very rarely leave my “friend zone”. However, there is one exception: Not That Movie! As any other party game, I would not want to play it the whole night or at ten consecutive game night but it is something special in the party game segment. Maybe it’s because I love movies, maybe it’s because I love a healthy dose of absurd trash talk. One thing I know for sure: I cannot remember having played any other game that is such a reliable generator of incredible mental cinema – a perfect match to the setting and an incredible achievement by just randomly combining two movie titles.
Oltréé
In the thick jungle of coop games, it can be difficult to find one that just matches all your needs – or the one need that is currently the most important. Do you want an interesting puzzle? Do you want to have epic moments? Do you want to spent a relaxed time? Do you want to experience a nice little story? I could go on but as mentioned before. I’ll cover this topic in a separate episode where it can get the attention it deserves. When it comes to narration driven coop games, I cannot think of a better choice than Oltrée – if you don’t mind a broadside of dice driven encounter resolutions. Our journeys and adventures around the castle were always like coming back to a great book and reading the next chapter: There are some aspects that are familiar, some problems the occur again but also some new elements to explore. Navigating through the different challenges of the current chronicle while also solving crises, developing the castle and protecting the provinces is never an overwhelmingly complex affair. It’s about the choices of the players and developing a plan how to be the most effective. It’s the classical crisis management formula found in many excellent coop games. However, it is not only the setting that makes Oltréé special. It is literally about the story the players experience: sometimes as given by the narration, sometimes created by the players and how they solve the different encounters – and the reactions/ explanations of the players. I have many fond memories about a manticore was defeated by throwing bread at it or how a dubious merchant wanted to visit the castle but was lost in the forest, just to be rescued by a ranger who just rescue the miller’s goat. The ranger, merchant and goat ran into a group of traveling artists that also appeared dubious (maybe colleagues of the merchant) and wanted to visit the castle. Again, the ranger could deescalate the situation after eating some bread and as a result, everyone was happy. Sounds almost like a classical fairytale…
Project: ELITE
This may be no huge surprise for the folks who follow along. It is one of my favorite games and whenever it hits the table, I love the frenetic action. It is not remotely played as often as I would like - “Oh, really a real-time game? Can’t we play something a little more relaxed?”. It’s always a struggle but sometimes I decide to be egoistic “I fear I must insist…” Maybe that’s part of the charm: it’s a rare pleasure. Just writing about it here, I can almost feel the adrenaline loaded battlefield atmosphere. I hope to get a chance to play it soon again – there are still some characters I have to try (the Terran box is just so super-brim full of extra heroes…)
The LOOP
It should not be a huge surprise that I’m a huge fan of coop games (mainly because I can play them with everyone – while it’s not a good idea to play competitive games with some of my friends). In my steadily shifting collection, about 40% are coop games and this fraction seems to stay about constant. With Infernal Wagon, the “quickie” section is covered, Not that Movie! is my choice for larger groups, Keep the Heroes Out is a perfect two player puzzle for about an hour, Oltréé is a great narration driven crisis management game for four players and Project: ELITE is the epic real time showdown. This leaves just one segment vacant: an optimization puzzle for 2-4 players that feels a little more like a euro game and that lets you pull of awesome combos that make you feel clever. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you … the LOOP. Colorful, silly, chaotic and under normal circ*mstances not my cup of tea but just as many other mentioned games here, there is something special to it – something that I have not seen in this form in any other board game. I’m not talking about Dr. Foo’s machine/ cube tower – that’s a nice little gimmick. I’m talking about the card driving action system, the slight deck building and the constant need to adapt to the current board state. At fist glance, other games such as Spirit Island have many similarities to The LOOP like a board where bad things happen and a card driven action system. However, only in The LOOP, I have experienced the ration between “players do stuff – game does bad stuff in return” being so ideal. By the way: it’s refreshing, that here the game does bad things first and players have to react. There is no massive upkeep and management of tokens on the board, no complicated sequence of consequences and consequences of consequences. The focus lies on the decisions of the players and how they coordinate their actions. In this context, it is really helpful that the board state and risk level are always plain to see while the capabilities of each player are not. You might see all cards but it’s as good as impossible to plan each player’s turn – while also considering where new cubes may or may not land. So, for players prone to alpha gaming (a problem I sometimes notice at myself) it is easier to switch of and let the other players decide what to do on their turn. Laying back a little lets you enjoy the turns of your teammates even more when they trigger massive combos such as neutralizing a specific clone, sealing a breach and thereby completing two missions at once. The LOOP is full of “Wow, that was an amazing turn” moments.
That’s all for now. Thank you for reading. My thoughts on some gaming related topics that I'm pondering about for quite some time now such as the management of expectations will be featured in the next episode. Until then all the best and happy gaming.
