Sunday, February 18, 2024

Wargame review — Downfall

Axis & Axis & Allies

Designers: Chad Jensen & John Butterfield
Player count: 2
Publisher: GMT Games

When my friend Chad Jensen passed away, he left behind several designs he never had time to complete. One of them was Downfall, a two-player strategic-level wargame that models the collapse of the German war machine in the last act of WWII. There was a lot of potential in that work-in-progress, so veteran designer John Butterfield took up the torch and, with the help of Chad’s widow Kai, completed the design for GMT Games to publish.
(No small feat, considering no rulebook existed: John and Kai reconstructed the game based on detailed prototype components and Kai’s memories of playing Downfall’s many incarnations with Chad.)

Now, if you play any mid- to late-WWII east front game, you’re either at the wheel of the Soviet juggernaut, or you’re handling a retreat of German forces—not the most exciting of propositions. (Which is why east front games often focus on the brutal stalemate of the front line, until it crumbles one way or another. The drive back to Berlin by Soviet forces is like watching an hourglass inexorably counting down time.)
And if you play a similar game covering the western theater of operations, sooner or later—after explosive situations like the Normandy landings—you’ll find yourself either driving the Allied bulldozer, or handling a retreat of German forces. Again, not the thrill of a lifetime for the German player.

What the designers are proposing here is a framework where one player handles the Allies and the Germans fighting the Soviets, while the other player joins in as the Soviets and the Germans fighting the Allies.
While that basic conceit is not exactly new, the game’s many inspired design decisions coalesce into an exciting tug of war between east and west, with a disintegrating Third Reich caught in the middle. 

And the campaign game is underway!

Downfall’
s main engine is the initiative track that runs halfway around the huge game map, and which determines who plays next. Each faction (Western, Soviet, and both German groups) is represented there by an initiative marker, with whoever’s currently last on the track getting a go. That faction selects an available order (more on that in a moment) and pays the cost of said order—in initiative points—by moving their marker forward along the track, to the tune of one space per point. Then it’s the turn of the faction that’s now in last place on the initiative track, and so on.

Available orders fluctuate from turn to turn, as markers are drawn at random and laid out on the action track. Whenever a faction picks a marker, they pay the associated cost—which is not the same for all factions—execute the selected order, then slide down the remaining orders (towards space #1) and draw a new order marker at random to fill out the row. The cost of an order (in initiative points) increases by 1 for each eligible marker the active faction skipped over, starting with space #1; so if you really want that Reinforcement order now but it stands behind a handful of other markers in your color, you better be prepared to pay for it—and subsequently wait a while before that faction gets to play again.

All of the order markers will show up on the action track before the end of the game year, but in exactly what order remains to be seen. Maybe your orders to embark for Calais or to march on Moscow will have to wait, and you will need to do the best with what you have in the meantime.
And this is one design quirk (of many!) that will delight some wargamers—myself included—while irking others, depending on whether you think such a mechanic models the vagaries of war or else just feels “too gamey” for something like a wargame.

Orders—once you do get to play them—allow you to move units, conduct attacks on neighboring hexes, bring much needed reinforcements into play, engage in strategic warfare, and generally make life difficult for the other guy. (There’s a nasty little order that, as the Germans, you can use to make the other Germans—the ones facing your main faction—waste precious initiative points. Played at just the right time, that order tastes like honey.)

I want to point out that “moving a unit” is not dictated by an individual piece’s movement allowance (as is traditionally done) but rather by the order marker itself. For instance, one of them will allow Western units to each spend 4 movement points, whether they be mighty armored units glinting in the North African sun, or mud-stained grunts suffering the elements in the Caucasus.

Combat is resolved using a table that compiles step advantage (I’m attacking with 7 steps worth of units while you defend with 4 steps, so I’ll roll on the +3 column), and die-roll modifier advantage (my planes and a card I played grant me a +5, but the weather and your fortress throw a -4 into the mix, and so I’ll end up adding 1 to my roll), with results expressed in hits that must be distributed amongst attacking and defending units.

Those hits are absorbed by rotating a unit so that its top edge displays fewer steps (pips), and in some instances by retreating one or more hexes away from the location where combat took place. You can also decide (or be forced!) to flip one of your armored units back to infantry, which has left more than a few scars on my already troubled soul.

The progression of weather (and, ultimately, game years) works in a fashion similar to initiative markers, with a dice roll moving the weather marker along the initiative track each time a faction begins their turn with the weather marker behind of flush with them. (The 2d6 roll is capped at wherever the leading marker stands on the initiative track, so true runaway weather cannot take place; although beware of sudden bursts, for they do happen.) When the weather marker crosses into a new “weather zone” on the initiative track, fair can turn to mud or mud to snow, which creates logistical problems in strategic locations.

Once the weather marker reaches the end of the track and loops back to the start, a new game turn begins! All used order markers are returned to the mix, new cards are added to their respective decks, possible reinforcements make an appearance and, naturally, the weather wheel gets another crank.

Event cards throw in some uncertainty that will affect the ebb and flow of the entire campaign. Events are present in three places: face up on top of the draw pile (the upcoming event, not yet active), face up as the current event, and face up on top of the discard pile—each showing an actual event, along with variable numbers of card, airplane and die icons. Together, these three face-up event cards determine how many aircraft each faction can deploy to the map (hoping their range will be sufficient to positively affect critical battles) as well as bonus dice-roll modifiers and the influx of action cards.
For their part, action cards allow factions to surprise their opponents with extra steps or modifiers in combat, plus a host of assorted effects that move units in special ways, provide free combat opportunities, cancel a card play (or a dice roll!), allocate reinforcements, launch paratroopers…

The main goal of the game is to score victory points, normally accomplished through the capture of strategic objectives on the map. At game end, after a set number of turns, whoever has the most points wins—Western or Soviet. (Germany cannot win.) It can’t hurt to take Berlin, mind you, since that achievement, worth 1 VP, also doubles as the first tiebreaker. (The second tiebreaker grants victory to the player who holds the most action cards; and yes, one of my games ended with my being the lucky beneficiary of this rule, which my partner and I learned together while digging through the rulebook, looking for salvation.)

WAR PRODUCTION

Downfall comes in a slim and sturdy box that’s deep enough to accommodate a counter tray and all of the game’s 110 cards in sleeves. That’s with the two paper maps that make up the game board, and which you’ll be fine with if you have enough yardage of Plexiglass at your disposal, or if you resort to sticking the two halves together. (Post-Its on the back side can work surprisingly well.)
Should you be so inclined, you can purchase a pair of mounted maps that come with their own 3-inch box. They’ll take some time to lie flat, but once they do, you’ll be cooking with gas.

The rest of the equipment is pretty straightforward: a myriad of counters (with beautiful rounded corners), useful player aid cards, handy setup cards, a rulebook and a handful of six-siders.

It’s all the game needs to blow you away.


RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

The rulebook clocks in at 40 pages, with plenty of illustrated examples throughout. It’s a pleasant document to read and acts as an effective learning tool—even away from the map—but stumbles a bit when it comes to looking up specific topics in the heat of battle. Some pieces of information are not found where you think they should be (such as the initiative cost for the Re-seed order) but it mostly comes down to a fledgling index that’s missing some key terms like “reinforcements.”

Nevertheless, it’s a very good rulebook you’ll rapidly find yourself using less and less, thanks to rules that have been streamlined like a bullet train. The game presents very few special cases, shifting to a different system instead of trying to stick round exceptions into square holes. It simplifies all it can without losing its grip on the essence of each situation, like the way terrain costs are handled: moving into clear terrain costs 1 movement point, while everything else costs 2, for all units. Sure, weather will play havoc with swamps and mountains, and you’ll bless rail lines when you can use them, but you’ll take one look at the terrain chart and be done with it.
Naval and aerial rules have also been boiled down to essentials, which doesn’t mean they have a marginal impact on the business at hand. On the contrary, they influence everything under the sun, and in different ways as the game soldiers forward (as they should). But those rules don’t get bogged down in minutiae and as a result fade into the background after a few turns.

For all those details you fear you might forget (What happens exactly when a new turn begins? How does mud weather meddle with combat again?), the game’s various player aid materials have your back. I hardly ever look at the rulebook anymore, except perhaps to look up an obscure tie breaker when the game is insanely tight.


FUN FACTOR

The only point that makes people shriek when I tell them about Downfall is the length of the game. Fair enough: 12 hours for the campaign game is a far cry from the two-hour Combat Commander sessions most Jensen fans will be accustomed to. (Hell, even the “short” game in Downfall, the Overlord scenario, will require at least six hours of your time.)
But the key thing here is not to confuse long with slow.

No matter which of the three scenarios you decide to tackle, you’ll never experience downtime. At all. Even when your “main” faction has relatively few things to do—like the Western faction at the start of the campaign game—you’ll still have your hands full trying to contain the opponent’s attack using your allotment of German forces. You’ll keep an eye on the cycling events that’ll impact many of your endeavors, trying to put in place the conditions that will trigger the replacement of card A with card B in the stack (the surrender of Italy, for instance) and keep History moving forward. You’ll track your opponent’s expenditure of initiative points, because that’ll determine when’s the next time they get to act. And you’ll watch that weather forecast like a hawk, lest unforeseen snow derail the crucial counterattack you spent your last few moves setting into motion.

My most recent game, an Overlord confrontation, lasted seven hours (which, considering my opponent had never played the game before, was surprisingly fast). When all was said and done, we both felt like we’d been sitting at the gaming table for two and a half hours—three on the outside. The game is that fascinating. And if Life hadn’t decided that we had other matters to attend to, we might have set up the damn thing anew and started again right there and then.

PARTING SHOTS

As much as there is to love in Downfall, my biggest infatuation lies in the uncertainty that permeates most systems. The game goes beyond dice-based combat resolution (a wargame staple) to ensure that while you may elaborate meticulous plans, you can’t know for certain how or when things will start to unfold.
I’ve already talked about order counters, and how all orders for each faction will eventually land on the action track but still keep details that pertain to timing and quantities shrouded in relative mystery. Likewise, weather likes to keep to itself: you know what the weather will turn to when it does change, but can’t be sure of when that will be. (Educated guesses are your best friends here.)
Reinforcements are not handed down with each new game year: they move into a holding pattern from which only one event—High Command—will free them. But when, exactly, will that event pop up? You’ll see it one turn early (when it’s revealed, face up, on top of the event draw pile), but that’s all the advance warning you’ll get.
The same can be said of every single event in the game, or indeed of the event trigger itself, which comes into play when a faction’s initiative counter reaches its own event space on the initiative track. So while you exert some measure of control over the timing of events, the balance is left in the hands of your opponent. Also, all events come from a single deck, which makes it difficult to know whether the event you're about to reveal will help you or not. (But remember, you have until the next event trigger until this newly revealed event becomes active.)

Still, is the game length a deterrent? It could be, but not if you can spare a long day to get through a scenario, or if you have access to an out-of-the-way table where the game can idle like the engine of a T-34 running low on diesel, between sessions sprinkled over a couple of weeks.

I myself am not a fan of long-winded, overly heavy wargames. I often see guys playing one such game at some convention, where they spend the morning setting everything up and, upon being asked where things stand at the end of Day 1, reply something along the lines of “Oh, we’re just getting started, you know, our units haven’t met on the battlefield yet.” Rest assured this is definitely not the way Downfall unspools. Every scenario—yes, even the campaign one—launches both players right into the action and never slows down. Remember that Overlord game I mentioned above? The conclusion to our game day (at the tail end of a seven-hour stretch) was so electrifying that we played our last few turns standing up.

Everything in the game moves like a well oiled clock, with systems engaging each other the way precision-made cogs mesh together. The game flow is so engrossing that at some point I mentally took a step back just to watch the machine in action, and I couldn’t help but break into a smile.

In point of fact, I’m still smiling.

 


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Saturday, January 6, 2024

A Year of Boardgaming, 2023 Edition

 


One more year to look at in the rearview mirror, and kind of a change in how I see boardgamingin that I decided to include online plays going forward. 
Why the change, when I was pigheadedly against it in my previous yearly reports? The pandemic made me realize there were friends out there with whom I'd only get to play boardgames online (essentially on Board Game Arena). And I thought that, when all was said and done, those interactions should count.
Of course, I also happened to be playing online boardgames with players I did see in person on a regular basis, what with someone launching a game of, say, Great Western Trail and each of us playing a turn or two each day. (Only to launch another one as a matter of fact, when that first game wrapped up, and so on.)

The net result was an uptick in games played, but I knew I was looking at an artificial inflation: I hadn't spent all of that time sitting down face-to-face with family and friends to push cubes around and slap cards on the table.
So I decided to do the only thing I could: split the main stats in two categories.


GAMES
I played 145 different titles (up from 127 in 2022) for a total of 602 plays (better than the previous 380, although a third of the 602 plays were online). I spent 588 hours playing boardgames in 2023, versus 430 hours in 2022, which is quite an improvement, virtual or otherwise: that's 24.5 full days devoted to boardgaming bliss.
Out of those 145 titles, 68 were new to me (slightly up from 62 in 2022), and I ended up playing 15% of my collection (against 17% last year).

Here are the 10 physical games I played the most in 2023:
1. Heat: Pedal to the Metal (27 plays)
F1 racing in its most distilled form, and an absolute thrill. The first expansion (More tracks! More cars!) is coming out in February, and it'll be a great birthday present to myself.
2. Friday (26 plays)
One of the few Friedemann Friese games I truly enjoy, Friday is always good for a fun, short time battling the elements and trying to survive just one more year. Twice I've given away my own copy now: time to order a third one!
The last two campaigns published for this delicious nightmare were of dubious quality, and so I went back to explore the early volumes anew. I'll still give the next cycle a shot, but if it's as bad as its two predecessors, I'll stop buying new material for the game and just replay what I already own.
4. Combat Commander: Europe (20 plays)
I can't stay away from this tactical take on WWII for long, and it always shows in these end-of-year reckonings. In 2024 I'll have an exciting reason to spend even more time on this gem of a game—more on that soon.
5. Qawale (20 plays)
Despite my undying love of abstract games, they rarely make an appearance in here. Qawale broke the mold in 2023, and for good reason: it's quick, very clever, and offers the most refreshing twist on the old "four in a row" trope since GIPF.
6. Attack Sub (14 plays)
Fast and furious game of Cold War submarine warfare, to which we've made a couple of tweaks to lift it out of its '90s origins and bring it (a little more) into the 21st century. Great closer after a long evening.
7. Sky Team (12 plays)
Considering this brilliant cooperative game—about landing a passenger plane at airports around the worldunfolds in just 15 minutes, it's a real shame I didn't play more of it last year. I promise to do better in 2024.
8. Wing Leader (11 plays)
Still working our way through WWII using this astounding aircraft warfare system, playing scenarios in chronological order; we're coming up on April 1941, with Operation Retribution in Belgrade. All of our aircraft are now equipped with radios, at last!
9. Charioteer (11 plays)
A Roman-themed racing game that's always a blast, and for which I've put together a set of solo rules. Never again play without a full complement of chariots on the track!
10. The Search for Planet X (11 plays)
I really enjoy deduction games but it took me a while to discover this one. Scan the skies and determine where everything is! Great, original stuff.

And these are the 10 virtual boardgames I played the most in 2023.
(These games are here mainly because they're easy to play through online means, so I'll just stick to a dry list.)
1. Memoir '44 (43 plays)
2. Great Western Trail (25 plays)
3. Applejack (24 plays)
4. Qawale (15 plays) 
5. Sky Team (14 plays)
6. Patchwork (10 plays)
7. Viticulture (7 plays)
8. Heat: Pedal to the Metal (7 plays) 
9. P.I. (6 plays)
10. Azul (5 plays)


PEOPLE
During 2023, I explored the boardgaming world alongside 51 different players, up from 28 the year before. Much better! But also, not all in person; win some, lose some.

Here are the 10 people with whom I played the most face-to-face last year:
1. Jean-Luc S. (140 plays)
2. Suzie D. (88 plays)
3. François P. (39 plays)
4. Héloïse K.L. (25 plays)
5. Gustavo R.A. (21 plays)
6. Serge R. (15 plays)
7. Ophélie K.L. (8 plays)
8. Robert L. (6 plays)
9. William L. (6 plays)
10. Dominick L. (6 plays) 

Here are ALL the people with whom I played the most online last year:
1. Fil M. (76 plays)
2. François P. (65 plays)
3. Jean-Luc S. (53 plays)
4. Héloïse K.L. (12 plays)
5. Gustavo R.A. (9 plays)
6. Béatrice V.K. (7 plays)
7. Angelo W. (1 play)
8. Niko S. (1 play)

The GF lost her crown in 2023, and by a wide margin. Will she try to win it back in 2024? We (really meaning *I*) can only hope.
All four kids are on the list(s) again, including Béatrice who's overseas. Hell, even my dad is making an appearance this time around! I'm a lucky man.


LOCATIONS
The number of different places where I played boardgames rose to 17, from a mere 11 in 2022—almost back to pre-pandemic numbers. 
43% of my gaming was done at home (compared to 60% in 2022), 32% online, while the rest was scattered all over the neighborhood.


OTHER MUSINGS & RAMBLINGS
My H-index went up, from 8 to 11. Not a mammoth improvement, but I'll take it.
(In this context, my H-index is the number (h) of games which I've played a number (h) of times. So 11 means there are 11 games that I played 11 times each in 2023.)

My self-imposed challenges didn't go great, but I still managed to accomplish the following two:
  • Play 5 games 20 times each (the 5x20 challenge)
  • Log in 90 wargame plays (I'm jacking this one up to 100 for 2024)
These three ended up in the gutter, though:
  • Alphabet challenge (play one game for each letter of the alphabet—so Attack Sub for A, Black Fleet for B, and so on)
    I didn't make any effort to complete it but rather watched if "the thing would happen." It didn't, and I'll be happy to drop this particular challenge going forward.
  • Log in 50 abstract game sessions
    I racked up 48 of them and I could just have thrown in two quick things, such as the aforementioned Qawale. I'm an idiot.
  • 12 x 1 Named Games Challenge
    This is where you basically list 12 games that you would like to play in the coming year and, well, you try to get there. I failed. (Only 7 out of 12.)

My very first game of 2023 was a play of the short-but-tense Twilight Struggle: Red Sea with the GF, and I closed out the year with a fun play of No Thanks! that involved my dad. No complaints here.

Out of the games I was looking forward to in 2023, Oranienburger KanalAtiwa and Great Western Trail: New Zealand all ended up on my Top 10 list. I never did try Undaunted: Battle of Britain and I don't feel any urgent need to do so: I'm not getting great feedback from friends and acquaintances. 
Still no trace of Dutch Resistance; perhaps 2024 will finally make that one a reality. Skyrise is also supposed to show up this year, and that'll be a fun one to dive into. And dare we hope for I, Napoleon

But enough of maybes.
GMT's Downfall is already set up in the war room and should see some action before long, with The Plum Island Horror not far behind. I'm also very keen on trying my hand at Evacuation by Vladimir Suchy, whose Messina 1347 left quite an impression on me. Next fall will also give us MATRX GIPF, the conclusion to the seminal GIPF Projectand let me tell you that designer Kris Burm didn't keep the easiest one for last.

What are you waiting for? Get boardgaming!

 

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Sunday, December 24, 2023

My Top 10 Boardgames Published in 2023

    



Here's a look at my 10 favorite games published in 2023.
(Or else made available in North America so late in 2022 that there was no way to really play them before the calendar flipped.)


#10

ATIWA
First of three (!) Rosenberg games on the list. Much simpler than most of his "big box" games, with a cute theme and adorable bat meeples. You're building a village, tending to families and their environment, all the while trying to grow and maintain the fruit bat community.
Atiwa features a very original turn-to-turn mechanic that morphs the main action into another and—together with other design levers—ensures that each play shows a different aspect of the game's personality.


#9

MIND UP!
Mind Up! is very much in the 6 nimmt! mold—complete with exclamation point—but it takes things one step further without making the rules more difficult to master.
A row of cards is laid out on the table, in ascending order. Players simultaneously select and then reveal a card from their hands, grabbing from the tabled row the card that matches the position of the card they played. So if you want to grab the first card in the row, because its color is worth more points to you, then you need to play a card with a low value; but if someone else plays a lower card, well then you're stuck with the 2nd card in the row...
Not only do the just-played cards become the new row of cards up for grabs on the table (think ahead!), but all the cards you win (and score at the end of the round) form your hand for the next round.
Cleverer and cleverer.


#8

APPLEJACK
Designer Uwe Rosenberg does big & complex and short & sweet equally well, always offering a challenging and rewarding experience. This time around, players are invited to each create their own orchard, making sure they have enough connecting apples of each color when it comes time to score that variety. 
For a game that clocks in at 30 minutes and can be explained in five, the depth of the decision space boggles the mind.
(You can read my flash review here.)


#7

GREAT WESTERN TRAIL: NEW ZEALAND
Herding sheep—instead of cows—in kiwi-land, you hire builders to construct your buildings, shearers to profit from the wool before you ship off the actual livestock, sailors to move your ship around and open new markets, and shepherds to handle the beasts themselves. Throw in a little deck-building and a lot of planning ahead, and you've got another winner.
This third and last incarnation of the GWT engine is an excellent game, but it falls a little short of its two older brethren. Call it less elegant or slightly more convoluted: there's a little something that prevents it from reaching the dizzying heights of the original game or the Argentina incarnation.
(You can read my flash review here.)


#6

SKIES ABOVE BRITAIN
Five years ago (already!?) I reviewed Skies Above the Reich, a brilliant solo wargame about breaking up formations of Allied bombers flying towards Germany with ill intent. And while designer Jeremy White said that he didn't see how he'd adapt the system to cover the Battle of Britain, Gina Willis showed him how and jumped in as co-designer.
This new incarnation of the system turns the tables and sends hordes of German bombers over Britain, which the player must defend at all costs. The rules overhead is slightly heavier but well worth the additional investment, for a game that's every bit as thrilling as its predecessors. (Yes, there were two!)


#5

HEGEMONY
I've been burned by enough Kickstarter projects to learn to disregard any kind of hype surrounding a new game being peddled on that platform. Most of the time I'm right; once in a while I'm wrong.
Hegemony proved to fall in the latter category.
It's an ambitious design, pitting asymmetrical roles against each other: the Worker Class, the Middle Class, the Capitalist Class, and the State. Everyone plays by their own rules but must come together to make it all work, and the game truly shines. I don't own a copy myself, something I'll remedy as soon as the 2nd edition comes out.


#4

ORANIENBURGER KANAL
Third and final Rosenberg game on the list; I'm frankly surprised something like this hasn't happened before. Now this might be his driest looking game ever, what with its generic cards and sterile grid of a game board, but I think it might also be one of his best. It's strictly a two-player game, with each opponent attempting to outbuild the other while optimizing the paths, roads, canals and railways that connect everything together. 
The game borrows the clever resource wheel from Ora et Labora and offers a real brain burner, with surprisingly few rules and a play time (90 minutes) that's more than fair for a game of this depth.


#3

PLANTAGENET
The Levy & Campaign series of games has long fascinated me, but there were always a few irritants that prevented me from truly loving what was on the menu. Plantagenet, the fourth L&C title, fixed them all.
Levy troops, raise money, gather food—then go to war! Of course, it won't hurt if you manage to convince a handful of lords and vassals to join your cause, and gain control of critical towns and cities.
(You can read my review here.)


#2

SKY TEAM
How many cooperative games do you know that play in 15 minutes, offer meaningful decisions, feature a generous helping of scenarios in varying levels of difficulty, come with fantastic components, and prove to be a nail-biter to the very end?
Just land the plane. Everything's going to be fine...
(You can read my flash review here.)


#1

MR. PRESIDENT
The most complex and longest game on the list, Mr. President puts you in the White House right after inauguration. Can you deal with everything your cabinet, your country, and indeed the world can throw at you?
I'm amazed at the scope of the package, at the stories it tells, at the palpable tension it generates from beginning to end. Yes it takes at least 10 hours to finish, and yes it's a solo game (which means you're sitting alone in your corner for those 10+ hours), but if you enjoy the sort of engine roaring under this particular hood, you're in for a ride like no other.
(You can read my review here.)

* * *

DISAPPOINTMENTS
I define disappointments as games I expected a lot from, and which failed to deliver.
Here are the "top" three from 2023.



I'm a big fan of Mike Fitzgerald's other rummy games, namely Jack the Ripper and Wyatt Earp. So this one sounded like a great new variation with a fun theme.
Turns out the game's tortured mechanics barely manage to avoid the "broken" label, and the whole thing's a sad and sorry bust. I played one game and knew this was going on the trade pile. Fast.


This case was a bit different: I felt no real desire to play Ark Nova, but the hype surrounding it was so over the top that I just had to see what everyone was talking about. 
And sure, it's a fine game, but it's not doing anything all that different from what I can get out of Terraforming Mars, for instance. I understand if you like the theme better, but people treated this like the Second Coming, which I thought it was not.


This is another case of "best game ever" that I had to investigate. And once again, it's a fine game with good-looking components, but it's another tableau builder that falls flat for me. I found myself missing the feeling of shared construction I enjoy in—yes, that one again—Terraforming Mars.
Hey, maybe I'm just not a tableau builder enthusiast? Wingspan also left me pretty meh.
* * *

STRAGGLERS
Let's end on a high note with three games that would have made the list had I encountered them back in the year when they were published.



A solo WWII tactical war game with a bunch of scenarios, tons of units, and an automated opponent that—while pretty random—generates fun situations and gives the human player a run for their money. Why didn't I play this sooner?
Granted, my being late to the party meant that I could benefit from the revamped maps of the 2nd edition, and spare my retinae some graphics-induced searing.




Merlin feels the way great Eurogames did back when they were simple and efficient. While I love complex games, there's something satisfying in a well designed system that's straight to the point and super fun. 
A classic Feld that's a blast with just the basic game, and which becomes a tasty feast when you start mixing in some of the expansion modules.


I really enjoy trick-taking games with a twist, and Diamonds delivers in spades. You earn diamonds in four different ways that correspond to the suits of each trick you win, but you also trigger the suit ability of a card you play when it doesn't match the current trick!
It's a great example of what designer Mike Fitzgerald can do when he's not busy destroying his rummy legacy.


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Monday, December 18, 2023

Flash Review — Great Western Trail: New Zealand


Players
: 1-4
Works well with just 2: Yes!
Age: 12+
Playtime: 75-150 min
Complexity: 8/10


As a fan of both the original Great Western Trail and its Argentina variation, I had very high expectations when it came to the third and last entry in the series, New Zealand.
Did it live up to its pedigree? Yes and no.

Cattle is replaced by sheep, the workers you pick up on your journey don't exactly behave the way their predecessors did, but overall you're playing GWT. The main differences are as follows:

1. You can shear your sheep (instead of shipping them off), using their wool value to gain cash and eventually victory points.
This addition works really well, introducing the shearer to your roster of workers, and making it possible to 
earn quick cash while you're still on the trail, before you get to Wellington (your shipping-off port in this game).

2. Your train is replaced by a ship that travels to open up new business avenues (similar to the Rails to the North expansion for the original game).
The more sailors you hire, the farther your ship can move; and although you are not required to move your ship, it can provide you with significant benefits you'd be remiss to ignore.

3. Your deck can now be home to a variety of cards that are not sheep, adding a bit more of a deck-building feel to the proceedings.
And it's this change in the rules I'm not convinced I really like. It sure adds variety (the cards are not the same from game to game), but what they actually do is lukewarm at best. Some are sheep (admittedly sheep types you can't get anywhere else, but still), some are objectives (again, exclusive ones, but hey) while others are cards that you play for some resource (gain 1 pound, earn one certificate, etc.) before discarding them and drawing a replacement.
You might see why I'm dubious here: after a handful of plays, I still don't know if those cards bring a vital new mechanic to the game or just add noise to the system, providing resources players could have garnered through other means.

So two excellent gameplay twists, and a third one that leaves me a bit cold.
GWT: New Zealand is still a solid game, but it doesn't feel as refined as its Argentina brother—which to me stands as the pinnacle of the whole series.

Most easily forgotten rule: Contrary to both previous GWT games, you don't have to reveal all of your sheep cards when you reach Wellington. The cards you do reveal all need to be different, but you can hold some of them back if you want.


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Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Flash Review — Tesseract


Players
: 1-4
Works well with just 2: Yes!
Solo quality: fine
Age: 14+
Playtime: 60 min
Complexity: 5/10

A tesseract (a four-dimensional cube) has appeared in the sky, and a bunch of scientists must work together to disarm it before it destroys our universe.

Forget the thin sci-fi conceit: Tesseract is a cooperative game where players slowly dismantle a (three-dimensional) cube made out of dice they then manipulate to perform a variety of tasks. Get the job done before the tesseract finishes counting down, and you win.

Pretty colors can kill you!

The menu of operations available to players is a mix of classic (rotate a die, flip a die, change a die’s color) and innovative (exchange dice with a collaborator, manipulate a die to affect another die remotely, put a die back in the tesseract), all aimed at completing an array of 24 tasks before time runs out.

7 tasks down, 17 to go

The tesseract eliminates at least one of its own dice every turn, and whenever a column is empty, it triggers the base-plate symbol just revealed—and those are no good. Also, if the tesseract ever runs out of dice, the game is lost. But the fascinating thing here is that the raw resources players must use to defuse the ticking time-bomb are the tesseract’s dice themselves. So you have to speed up the timer if you ever hope to stop it. There’s no playing it safe.

That orange symbol removes an additional die from the tesseract. Sorry.

The components are great fun, the lazy susan (gentle!) the tesseract rests on works like a charm, and you do feel the mounting pressure throughout the game. With four different difficulty levels and a gazillion possible starting setups—just look at that cube—the experience should remain challenging for a long time.

Solo gameplay involves a single player going at it two-handed. It’s not my favorite solo system, but it works well.

I’ll just add that the official age suggestion seems out of line here: an interested 10-year-old could certainly play Tesseract without any problem. (Maybe even at 8; kids are sharp.)

Most easily forgotten rule: When you contain a die from the tesseract, you get to destroy an identical die (color and value) from the Primed Area.



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Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Flash Review — Framework


Players: 1-4
Works well with just 2: Yes!
Solo quality: a bit boring
Age: 8+
Playtime: 30 min
Complexity: 3/10

Just like Applejack, this is one of Uwe Rosenberg’s simple-yet-clever designs, albeit under a more abstract guise: you’re just building a series of interlocking tasks that you try to complete.

The game is played with a huge variety of tiles that players organize in rows and columns, with no predefined grid to adhere to. When it’s your turn, you pick one tile from a limited selection on offer and add it to your structure, making sure the new tile orthogonally touches at least one other tile. Then you check if you’ve completed some of your tasks, and put one of your wooden markers on each of them that’s done.

Some tiles will display one or more tasks, in the form of a number on a colored background; other tiles will show one or more colored frames (used to complete the aforementioned tasks); and a third category of tiles will sport both bits of information.

Which would you pick?

To complete a task, you need the required number of frames in the requested color, arrayed in a continuous chain where at least one link in the chain is in direct contact with the task at hand.
In the example below, the 5-yellow task is done (I should put a wooden marker on it), but the 3-gray task is still missing one gray frame
—and the 4-brown/orange task has nothing going for it. Yet.


Some tiles are self-fulfilling (like a 5-green task that also shows a green frame), which makes them easier to pull off and kind of a no-brainer. Where things get twisted (and interesting!) is when you have to deal with, say, a 7-brown task surrounded by a yellow frame: Do you place that tile next to your group of brown frames, or would it be more effective to forsake the 7-brown task and instead use the yellow frame to complete a bunch of yellow tasks elsewhere?

The first player who completes 22 tasks (i.e. runs out of wooden markers) wins the game. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll just want to play it again, and again. It’s amazing how much gameplay Rosenberg can pack in a 30-minute game with two and a half rules to learn, with something addictive thrown in for good measure. So don’t be fazed by the apparent simplicity of Framework: it’s dead easy to learn, yet damn fun to play.

The solo game is, as with most of Rosenberg’s designs, a beat-your-own-score type of puzzle. So the first time you play it, you don’t win nor do you lose: you just set your own benchmark
then you try to do better. Not my kind of solo experience, but it’s over in five minutes and it’s not an unpleasant exercise.

Most easily forgotten rule: In this case it’s not a rule you’re likely to forget, but rather a completed task you’re just not seeing. Keep your eyes peeled!



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Monday, November 6, 2023

Flash Review — Sky Team


Players: 2
Age: 12+
Playtime: 15 min
Complexity: 4.5/10

It’s been an uneventful flight across the ocean, the airport is in sight, and all you and your co-pilot need to do now is safely land that behemoth. Shouldn’t be any problem, right?

Sky Team is a cooperative dice-placement game that, despite its slim 15-minute play time, manages to generate thrills galore throughout and then enthusiastic high fives when the wheels finally touch ground.

Each turn, both pilot and co-pilot roll four dice and assign them one by one (without talking to each other!) to critical systems. Two dice placements are mandatory—engine power and horizontal axis—but you’ll have to take care of the rest eventually. However, will you have the right dice values at hand when you decide to deploy the landing gear, lower the flaps, or apply the breaks? And don’t forget to stay in touch with air traffic control so that they can clear the runway as you start your approach…

The starting scenario, Montreal, uses only the basic functions of the plane, and it’s still a blast to play. As you fly from one airport to the next, new challenges will include fuel management, ice worries, wind problems, further traffic headaches, and even a pesky intern stealing some of your precious time away from vital maneuvers. (And publisher Le Scorpion Masqué keeps adding new, printable scenarios to their website.)

At the very least, it’s worth 15 minutes of your time to give the game a shot.
But I’m convinced YUL love it.

Most easily forgotten rule: Axis and engine power are resolved as soon as their two dice are in place (and not at the end of the turn).



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