The Greyt Games of 2019

In this post we each will discuss our favorite game released in 2019 and four we highly recommend checking out . If you would like to see all of the 2019 games we played please scroll to the bottom of the list. If the game has an * next to it, we demoed it only one time during Pax Unplugged so have not included it when determining our selections. If you would like to see our reviews of those games, please check out our blog post, Pax Unplugged 2019 Demos. We have also included a list of 2019 published games on our shame shelf that we hope to get to play very soon.

Joe’s Best of 2019 – Empires of the North

When I look at each of my favorite games, two things tend to jump out as primary mechanisms. I like a sense of progression where your turns tend to ramp up and get better each round and I like knowing that my character, faction, deck, etc. feels and plays different than the other players at the table. Empires of the North has those two things in spades. Before I played this, I thought I liked Imperial Settlers, but now I know Imperial Settlers was serving as a placeholder for Empires of the North.

Empires of the North is a card based engine building game with asymmetric factions designed by Joanna Kijanka and Ignacy Trzewiczek and published by Portal Games. Empires of the North shares a mechanical structure with the other Portal engine building games, 51st State and Imperial Settlers, where the players set up an array of cards which they can use to gather resources to play/build more cards or do actions to get points. Empires of the North and Imperial Settlers look and play very similar with the exception of the common deck and the action wheel. Without the common deck, each player in Empires works off of their specialized faction deck. Each faction deck is relatively intuitive in relation to their predetermined complexity rating and a player can look at the cards in the deck and have a good idea of how to play each faction. How many factions are there? Six in the base game and there are two expansions with two additional factions each. Some factions may utilize similar mechanisms but each faction plays different enough. Some rely on the action wheel, some rely on building a huge array of cards, and, my personal favorite, some factions use a mechanism to store resources or workers on the cards in the array to gain more resources or cash them in for points.

The engine building in this game is very focused unlike other card based engine building games which only have a common deck. In those games, there is the possibility of building cards for a particular purpose and never see another one of those cards you need for the rest of the game. Empires does not have that problem. Your next round will almost always be better than the round before it.

Empires of the North may be my favorite game of 2019, but it does have its problems. When it comes to card games like this, I like the game length to be less than an hour. I can see this lasting up to two hours with the full player count of four. I might play this with a total of three players if everyone has played before but, to me, this game really hits the spot at two players and a game can be about four or five rounds in less than 45 minutes. Although I do enjoy the art style, I can see players will have an expectation that this is a light and whimsical game with the cartoony Vikings and Scotsmen. It is not and if you are not ready for a mid weight+ engine building game, it will burn your brain. My last minor issue is that after multiple plays with the same faction, the player might go into autopilot and the subsequent games can feel a little too similar to previous games, but if Portal keeps supporting the game with future expansions to change the way the new factions interact with the game’s system, my minor issue will be averted.

Heather’s Best of 2019: Atlantis Rising 2nd Edition

I fell in love with Atlantis Rising 2nd Edition, published by Elf Creek Games, as soon as I saw the beautiful art, unique board layout, and exciting theme. Designed by Galen Ciscell and Brent Dickman, this collaborative press your luck, dice rolling, worker placement game is for 1-7 players and takes between 60-120 minutes to play. Players select an Atlantean leader with special variable player powers in order to collect resources and build a portal before Atlantis sinks beneath the waves. As the land tiles sink resources get harder to acquire and the pressure to complete the gate increases exponentially. It is a race against the increasing Wrath of the Gods, and approaching tidal waves.

The production quality of this version is off the charts. The artwork by Vincent Dutrait and Peter Gifford is gorgeous. The resources are not just cubes and actually look like gold, crystal, meteorite and iron bars. The mystic energy, which can be used to increase die rolls, build barriers to prevent flooding, or unflood tiles, are shiny, heavy, iridescent blue gems. The board tiles easily fit together and are simple to flip over as the island begins to flood. The only complaint I have is one of our portal slots was glued crooked during production, so one piece does not sit flat against the board.

I must admit that collaborative games are my favorite type of game so I tend to gravitate towards them. This being said, everyone we have taught Atlantis Rising 2nd Edition to, has enjoyed the premise, mechanics, and wanted to replay immediately upon losing, or increase the difficulty and play again if we won. The game feels tense from start to finish. With every Wrath of the Gods phase, when the players choose what tiles of the board to flood, and during the misfortune deck, when events cause more flooding or setbacks, I held my breath. I never felt confident we were going to win, until we actually did. In fact, during one game, all the players had given up hope of succeeding and were surprised when we had another turn to try. Although the game play can take between 1-2 hours, it never feels like you are actually playing the game that long. That is how a collaborative game should feel.

As someone who plays a lot of collaborative games, I appreciate the variability and increasing difficulty levels. As difficulty increases, the gates require harder to acquire resources, and players have less bonuses in the Misfortune deck but the gate pieces provide better actions when they are more difficult to build. We have passed two of the five levels and welcome the challenges offered by levels three through five.

Gaining resources by rolling dice gave me instant gratification and a feeling of accomplishment. I enjoyed strategizing how to best coordinate the team’s workers and how to best utilize our player powers. When debating which pieces of the gate should be built first we considered resource availability and bonuses on the individual pieces. Some gave a one time bonus, such as unflooding a tile, but others provided an additional worker placement location, such as trading resources and gaining extra one time use volunteers during the next round. This element added an extra level to planning and more options, especially as the board began to flood and disappear.

As my household usually plays two player versions of the game, we tried out two different ways to play. For our first game, we played a four player version, with each of us controlling two sets of workers. We then tried out the two player variant and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. In this version, players choose their permanent leader and special power but also have access to all the other leaders powers in the game through the hologram leader. Players take turns having the extra leader token, and utilizing the randomly shuffled remaining leader’s powers. At the end of the turn, the pawn is passed to the other player and a new leader’s power revealed. It is a great way to understand how all of the different leaders work, and creates a unique two player experience.

I can’t stop talking about this game. I have recommended it to several friends and constantly want to play it. I am thinking about playing it as I write this review. That is how much I love this game.

Joe’s recommended games of 2019

Marvel Champions – Arkham Horror LCG is one of my favorite games but Champions has a better pick up and play quality to it. It is still in its infancy but as more expansions are released and the system evolves, I can see my opinion of it improving.

Detective: City of Angels – I didn’t think the classic mode of this game would work but it has gone over so well with my primary game group. I don’t have the time to run roleplaying campaigns anymore, but City of Angels can scratch the RPG itch.

Watergate – Twilight Struggle is such a brilliant game with a few issues, a steep learning curve and long play time. Watergate is more intuitive and it plays in less than an hour. I still like Twilight Struggle more but I will be playing Watergate far more often.

Paladins of the West Kingdom – Shem Phillips has done it again. Paladins takes a system similar to Orleans and turns it up a notch. It is quite complex and there are many gears within gears but when the system finally clicks, gameplay is very rewarding. It also has one of the best solo modes in a game that wasn’t initially designed to be solo.

Heather’s recommended games of 2019

Obscurio – This is a semi-cooperative party game and as someone who loves Mysterium and Dixit, this game immediately spoke to me. I love deduction games with a traitor and this one did not disappoint. The game flowed fast, and everyone had a blast trying to decipher the visual clues, avoid the traps, and oust the traitor. My only issue with the base box is I wish there were more cards, which hopefully means they are working on an expansion very soon.

Fantastic Factories – As one of my surprises of the year, this independently produced game caught me off guard and is one of my favorite games of 2019. It is a fast, fun, easy to understand dice rolling, engine builder, with multiple paths to victory. The game seamlessly utilizes different mechanics such as worker placement, hand management, dice rolling, and card drafting, without feeling overly complicated or dull. I never felt cornered or far behind in points and enjoyed the high replay value.

Skulk Hollow – A beautifully designed asymmetrical two player tactical fighting game that plays like an RPG boss battle. Although I am still learning how to move my fox faction around the board, I enjoyed utilizing different leader special abilities and battling an array of monsters. The box includes four unique bosses and plenty of future challenges!

Trails of Tucana – One of my favorite purchases from our trip to Pax Unplugged and is a game I will always be up to play. This flip and write has variable modes, no one correct way to play, and plays within fifteen minutes. It is portable, fun, easy to teach, and has great replayability.

Other Games We Played from 2019

Ab Durch die Maurer*, Aquatica*, Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale, Copenhagen, Cthulhu: Death May Die*, Dead Man’s Cabal, Dizzle, Fire in the Library, Ishtar: Gardens of Babylon, Kingdomino Duel, Letter Jam, Mystery House: Adventures in a Box, Nagaraja, On Tour*, Paranormal Detectives*, Point Salad, Silver & Gold, Sushi Roll, The Taverns of Tiefenthal, Ticket to Ride: London, Twice as Clever, Wingspan

2019 Games We Haven’t Gotten to Yet

Clank Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated, KOSMOS Adventure Games, The King’s Dilemma, Potemkin Empire, QE, Maracaibo, Medium, War of the Worlds: The New Wave

Bonus Bill Photos

Pax Unplugged 2019 Demos

Bill showing off some of the games we purchased

Ab durch die Mauer

Joe: Germans really know how to design kid’s games. It is essentially a memory game where you are trying to outfit a ghost with different articles of clothing but it’s done with magnets. You can pull levers or rotate the board in order to attach your magnetic ghost piece to one of the hidden magnets in the board to allow your ghost to traverse the board quickly or move through walls. I can see this game winning the Kinderspiel and still be a game that parents will enjoy playing with their children.

Heather: As soon as I heard that Ab durch die Mauer had ghosts traveling through walls by magnets, levers, and rotating the entire board I was intrigued! As an adult. I enjoyed the puzzles of trying to figure out which way to shift the board. This was the most unique game I demoed at Pax and one both children and adults will enjoy.

Aquatica

Joe: This was my number one priority to demo in the first look area. It combines a mechanism I really like, hand building, with a very different and interesting mechanism of a card tableau that ages. As the cards in the tableau age, they can give you temporary bonuses and once the card has completely aged, it can score. Our play of it couldn’t have been longer than 40 minutes with a rules explanation and the turns were very quick. This is definitely a game to look for once it gets a wider release.

Heather: When we sat down to demo Aquatica I was a bit nervous. Would I grasp the mechanics during play? Would I enjoy the game? Quickly, all of my fears disappeared and I found myself getting into the rhythm of playing cards, collecting cards, consuming cards for extra benefits, and trying to strategize how to gain the most points. Turns flew by, and the game flowed seamlessly from start to finish. I left the demo table wishing it was for sale immediately.

Azul: Summer Pavilion

Joe: I mainly wanted to try it because I enjoyed the original Azul and I wanted to see if this one played differently. The drafting mechanism is essentially the same but with a twist of having wild tiles. This version also allows opportunities to combo actions by surrounding icons and taking available tiles from the central score board. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It still felt like Azul but I think the changes made to Summer Pavilion allows for more interesting choices.

Heather: For those who enjoy the Azul series Summer Pavilion follows a similar format and gameplay. It has unique elements that set it apart from the first two but I do not know if I would own more than one Azul due to limited shelf space. I would replace my copy of the original Azul with this version as it has more interesting choices, chances to chain combos together, and adds in wild tiles.

Cthulhu: Death May Die

Joe: I am a big fan of the Arkham Files games from Fantasy Flight and previous designs by Eric M. Lang. I wanted to try it but I had no idea what to expect. Cthulhu: DMD plays like a pulpy action movie where you throw dice and kill monsters. The more action oriented storytelling is refreshing compared to the methodical mystery solving of games in the Arkham Files series. One thing I really enjoyed about DMD was the ending. Frequently in cooperative games, the session ending can be anticlimactic and you know a few turns from the end if you will win or lose. Our session of DMD came down to the wire with a final attack on the Avatar of Cthulhu and every player character was on the brink of insanity or death. Very easy to learn but like any co-op, the game’s system can be manipulated by the players. I still enjoyed it a lot and it was one of my favorite games of the convention.

Heather: I tend to enjoy shorter games but I became so immersed in Cthulhu: DMD I had no idea that 2 1/2 hours had passed during our play through. Cooperative games are my favorite style and this one did not disappoint. It had some flaws, such as unclear rules that could be taken advantage of, but overall was packed with impressive storytelling, game mechanics, and well crafted models. Having three actions during a turn, and a variety of action options, meant I never felt I wasn’t contributing in some way. As long as everyone on your team makes timely decisions, turn order does not take long and you always need to be considering your next move. I enjoyed that the insanity meter gave you negative effects and bonuses at the same time, and each character had unique abilities that meshed well together. Overall, I highly enjoyed this demo and we will be purchasing this for our gaming group.

Downforce with Wild Ride expansion

Joe: I’ve played other games from Restoration Games and Heather and I have even done some playtesting for the company but, for some reason, we hadn’t previously played one of the first games the company brought back. What fools we were. I like some racing games but they rarely feel like a real race. One car can jump out and every other car does their move to catch up. The cards used in Downforce can move multiple cars on the same turn and cars’ positioning plays more like a real Formula 1 race. The Wild Ride expansion added ramps which made the track more interesting but I enjoyed the pacing of the game and the card play more than the inclusion of jumps. It’s a great game and I highly recommend it.

Heather: Downforce Wild Ride was just plain fun. I enjoy Formuila D but we never finish more than one lap due to time constraints. Unlike in some other racing games, Downforce is only one lap and that lap goes very fast and has high adrenaline. Due to the tight track style, it was hard to predict the first place winner until the last turn or two. The ramps added even more unpredictability and if played right a car could speed through two to three turns with one card. Even then, I like that your car does not have to win for you to win. You get a bunch of points if your car is triumphant but it isn’t essential. Like in Camel Up, you just have to place your faith in the correct cars to come in first, second, and third place. The game has just the right amount of luck and strategy for me to enjoy it.

On Tour

Joe: This has to be one of the most well produced roll and writes I’ve seen. The dice used are huge, the player boards are very vibrant and dry erase, and the cards might be a bit too big but are very clear and colorful. On Tour is a simple route building game where you put the numbers rolled into the areas listed on the cards in order to make the longest music festival tour. The game can get a bit tight and some of the other players found it stressful. I enjoy it. I liked it more than Railroad Ink and On Tour isn’t as punishing as that game but it also isn’t a roll and write I would want to pull out frequently.

Heather: On Tour is an easy to understand roll and write that caused me to question every move and some stressful decisions. I have to admit I am not great with pre-planning moves a few turns ahead. Those who are, may find the game easier and more enjoyable but even then there is a high luck element with dice rolls and cards. The game has variability as the player must place in two of the three regions available. After placing, I always wondered, was there a better option out there? I tried to leave major hubs open to loop across the USA, but only wound up forcing myself to block off the East Coast entirely. As more and more of my board filled, my anxiety rose. Other players around me though enjoyed the math puzzle and were able to better utilize the numbers available. The game is gorgeous and I will give it a second chance as I love most roll and writes, but I do not know if my opinion will change much.

Paranormal Detectives

Joe: I tired this out mainly because Heather was interested in this party game. Since I prepared beforehand and I knew the rules better than the rest of the group, I was roped in to being the recently deceased. The game is played in turns with the detectives playing cards and asking the ghost the who, what, when, why, and how of the death. The ghost then answers the question by using the method on the card. This can be manipulating string, pointing to letters on a spirit board, or playing tarot cards. Then the detectives can guess the five points to win the game. This is definitely not my kind of game but I thought it played pretty well. I just think that I would enjoy it more as one of the detectives trying to use the clues to deduce the murder rather than playing the ghost again.

Heather: As a person who enjoys party games, I thought Paranormal Detectives was creative, enjoyable, and unique enough to add to my collection. Unlike the semi-cooperative Mysterium, this is a competitive game, where the ghost gives a variety of visual, auditory and kinesthetic clues. If a tarot reading did not make the murder weapon clear the person has other options they can try. There are some cards that ask the ghost to draw on a person’s back or use the medium’s hand to draw a picture. I like that the game gives alternatives to these cards in case either party is uncomfortable with the cards based on touch. Even though I was way off base with my guesses I had a great time laughing with the other players and trying to figure out the mystery. I look forward to trying out the ghost role in my upcoming game night.

Trails of Tucana

Joe: Another path building roll and write but I found this one more enjoyable. Trails of Tucana was one of those Essen Spiel releases I wanted to try. This roll and write uses cards that show different land types and the players each make a line connecting two adjacent land hexes of those revealed land types. Players are then trying to use these lines to connect docks to icons or to other docks of the same type. The players also have ways to extend their turns by connecting the pair of icons on the player sheets to docks and get free roads. The game is extremely easy to play and teach and the cover has a toucan on it. C’mon, I’m not made of stone.

Heather: I enjoyed Trails of Tucana more than On Tour. Whereas, On Tour stressed me out and I felt there were no paths available at some point, Trails of Tucana had multiple options. I did not feel like I had to overthink where to place my roads. Yes, I may have skipped the best, most efficient option, but I still managed to score a decent amount of points. In fact, everyone scored within a few points of one another. I liked that every player sets their board up slightly different giving them diverse starting paths and creating unique ending boards. Although the goals and bonuses were the same, how we got there varied. We played the smaller board, and I look forward to trying out the “Grande” board and icon variant very soon.

Dead Man’s Cabal

Dead Man’s Cabal is a 2019 action selection game by Daniel Newman. This medium weight 2-4 player strategy game published by Pandasaurus Games has players making active and passive movement decisions during different phases of play in the hopes of scoring the most points for their resurrected party guests. The box claims it should take about 60 minutes to play.

How to Play

A game of Dead Man’s Cabal starts by setting up each of the rooms in a layout similar to a house floor plan or dungeon. Each room in the dungeon corresponds to different colored skulls and each type of skull will give the players different actions to perform during their respective turns. During a player’s turn, if they are the active player, they will pull a random skull out of the bag and select a row of skulls in the Ossuary to place it. The Ossuary is going to serve as the primary location to determine player actions. Like a conveyer belt, the new skull, which is always placed at the bottom of a row, pushes the row forward displacing the top skull in that row. The player adds this skull to their personal supply.

The active player then chooses any skull in their supply to return to the skull bag and performs the action associated with that skull. After that action has been performed, all players starting with the active player would then be able to take a passive action determined by the majority color of the skulls in the middle column of the Ossuary. The Ossuary tracker, cow skull, would then move to cover the color skull of the passive action, making it unavailable as a passive action for the next round. If there is no clear majority of skulls in the center column, the active player would select the action from the available actions. After all players have performed their passive actions or passed, the active player passes the skull bag to the next player to be the active player.

What are the colored rooms and their available actions, you say? There are four different colored rooms that work together to allow the players to gain points or acquire and use bones which are used as currency to take improved or alternate actions in each of the rooms.

The Athenaeum, gold skull room, allows the players to add ritual cards to their hand. Each player has a hand limit of five cards and the gold action would allow them to draw no cards and take three bones, draw a face up or face down card and take a bone, or spend a bone to refill their hand with face up or face down cards up to the hand limit of five.

The Sepulchre, red skull room, allows the players to acquire skulls arranged in the room. A player can take a skull and gain a bone, spend a bone to take two skulls, or spend two bones to gain three skulls.

The Scriptorium, white skull room, allows players to gain glyphs which are important to obtain for the next room. A player can replace one of their cubes with a rune and gain one bone or spend a bone to replace two of their cubes and gain two runes. Players also have the option to spend additional bones to acquire black runes from the rightmost column of runes.

Green taking two runes to be used later.

That leads us to the most important room in the game, the Sanctum or black skull room. A player has the option to place a skull from their supply and gain a bone or place two skulls from their supply by paying a bone. After players have placed their skulls, each player with the Sanctum action available can see if they have fulfilled the requirements of a ritual card in order to perform a summon or can spend two bones to perform an additional summon if they have completed another ritual card. A ritual card’s cost is indicated in the upper lefthand part of the card. The Sanctum would need to have those colored skulls in an unbroken, continuous line on the board in any order. Then each player in turn who completed a summon removes a skull that was used in the summon as specified on the card with the arrow pointing to a skull color. After a ritual card has been completed, if the player has any runes in their supply that match the completed ritual card, the player may place the runes on the card to gain access to the room without a color, the Oracle.

Green summoned the dog and removed the black skull.

Green summoned and added the two runes from the Scriptorium action.

The Oracle is the way for players to acquire bonus points at the end of the game. For each rune attached to a summon, the player places one of their cubes in any of the seven available locations in the Oracle. The spots in the Oracle correspond to certain end game conditions, such as, largest orthogonal grouping in the Scriptorium, the colored skulls used for summons, the skulls remaining in a player’s supply at the end of the game, or a flat amount of points.

Green added their cubes from the dog summoning.

Play continues with each player performing the active and passive actions until a player has completed seven ritual cards or a player has run out of cubes in their color. Once that round has completed, the players count the points from their ritual cards, upper righthand corner of the card, and gains bonus points from the Oracle if the player has the most cubes in a location or the second most cubes in a location. The most cubes in the star location gains twenty points, second place gains ten. For the Oracle locations concerning skulls used in summons, the player with the most cubes gains five points for each colored skull used and second most cubes gains three points for each colored skull used in summons. For example, if one player used eight black skulls in summons and had the most cubes in the black skull location, they would gain forty points. A second place player in that location with ten black skulls used would gain thirty points. The remaining two Oracle locations, runes and remaining skulls in the player’s supply, score in a similar way but with four points each for first place and two points each for second place. In case of a tie, each player gains the lower bonus point value. A tie for first would result in the tied players receiving the second place rewards and a tie for second results in no bonus points. The player with the most points is the winner.

Joe’s Review

I’m going to start with what I like about the game. The Gorillaz/Tank Girl style artwork is fantastic and the bones and skulls are very detailed and well constructed pieces. The aesthetics of the game make it very unique and it has a table presence unlike other games released this year. I did enjoy the economy with the bones and the skulls that gave the game a frantic spending rhythm where I wasn’t accumulating currency for the sake of it. I was constantly gaining currency in order to just spend it immediately. I also thought that the rulebook was very easy to understand. It was well worded, well arranged, and provided the reader with many diagrams.

One of Cabal’s gameplay mechanisms with the cascading active and passive actions was something I liked at two players but loathed at higher player counts. At two players, I felt like I had more player autonomy and I wasn’t taking actions that aren’t very beneficial to me or passing my turn and getting nothing. At two players, it isn’t a big deal to take a less than optimal action but at four players it definitely made the game overstay its welcome. In one four player game, the board was starved for gold skulls and two players didn’t have any cards in their hand. The game just dragged as a result and nearly doubled the playing time that was listed on the box. I can see this sort of thing happening if other skulls were in short supply on the board since each colored skull works with a certain room and each room’s purpose coordinates with the other rooms.

My primary issue with Cabal is the scoring. The Oracle room is completely out of hand and the point tracking room is undersized. The point tracking room counts to a hundred.

Not enough points on this board for any game. There’s also a lack of a +100 token.

If players know what they are doing, scores can reach or surpass two hundred. There are points on the ritual cards but they don’t really matter. The points from the Oracle make or break the game and create huge swings in points. It is easy to score more points from one space on the Oracle than all of your completed ritual cards. Every game, win or lose, felt like a blowout. I don’t find it fun to pummel my opponents and I don’t like to get completely buried. There is no tension in the scoring and it really hurts my enjoyment in the game.

Heather’s Review

Pandasuarus Games has been on fire the last few years, releasing unique games such as Nyctophobia and Wasteland Express Delivery Service. Their games all have interesting themes, such as Dinosaur Island, and quickly sell out. Dead Man’s Cabal is no exception in this way. The theme of resurrecting guests for your afterlife style party with well crafted skull and bone tokens is like no other game I have seen.

The component quality is for the most part stellar. The cards have neat Mindless Self Indulgence style artwork and recognizable figures such as David Bowie, a roleplaying party, Greedo, etc. The skulls and bones are well crafted and very detailed. Although you don’t have to set up the hallways for the board, it gives the game more depth and makes you think you are really running around a creepy old dungeon collecting bones and spirits.The one flaw I found component wise were the gold skulls. On the box they are a vibrant gold, but they look more tarnished and antique in reality. This would be fine, if it did not make it almost impossible to distinguish them from the black skulls.

As Joe stated, collecting bones did not seem pointless and our two player game flowed pretty well. Everyone had access to skulls, ample actions on their turn, and I never felt blocked. To me, two player is optimal for this game, but this could change when I get a three player game in. Much of the time I spent trying to block Joe from gaining too many points in the Oracle, and it is important for players to understand that is where the bulk of their victory will come from. Summons are important but the Oracle is vital. Our game was pretty balanced but there are a few promo cards (such as the Oracle tie breaker) that easily could have caused a wide gap in points. If players do not pay attention to the Oracle area or not focus on getting runes, they are already out of the running. I liked the flow of the game but wish the Oracle did not feel imbalanced at times.

I enjoyed the active and passive actions, but wish there was another option rather than just take the passive action or pass. Passing seems a waste but sometimes the actions did not align with anything beneficial (such as placing the only skull in my supply in the Scriptorium). It did not happen often in the two player game, but I did witness it in larger player counts. Overall, this game would not be my first choice at a game night but it is something I am willing to play again in the future.

Joe’s Summary
3/5 paws

Great aesthetics, well organized rulebook made the game easy to grasp, enjoyable dual economy system
Too swingy, can overstay its welcome

Heather’s Summary
3/5 paws

Interesting theme, quality components, two player accessible
Difficult to distinguish skulls, possibility for runaway scoring

Bonus photo of Bill pretending he is not trying to smell the bag.

Unexpected Favorites

Bill might be sleeping, but these games are worth waking up for!

Heather’s Pick: Ticket to Ride New York

Ticket to Ride New York is a much, much quicker version of the Ticket to Ride series. Created by Alan R. Moon and published by Days of Wonder, this 2018 small box edition utilizes the same rules as the original. Players race to collect cards and claim Manhattan routes, connecting their destinations and taking in breathtaking landmarks along the way. Taking only 10-15 minutes to play, this 2-4 player Taxi themed game was Heather’s most pleasant surprise of 2018.

Bill thinks he could run the route faster than a Taxi cab in New York.

How to Play

Players start with two transportation cards in their hand and the remaining cards make a draw deck. The first five cards of the draw deck are revealed and placed beside the board. If at any point during the game, there are three or more taxi cards visible in this area, the cards are discarded and five more revealed. Players are then given two Destination cards and may choose to keep one or both goals. All cards are kept secret from other players.

Sample setup with transportation card draw pile by board, five visible transportation cards to draw from and possible player starting materials (yellow taxis, destination card, two transportation cards)

In this version players score points by completing routes on their destination cards, each leg of the route that connects two locations on the board, and connecting tourist attractions. Players lose points for destinations they do not complete.

On their turn, players have three options:

Draw Transportation Cards: Players may draw cards from the draw deck or choose from the five face up ones, immediately replacing it with a new card from the draw deck. Players draw two cards, unless they choose to take a taxi (wild) one first. Players may draw from both locations and have no hand limit.

Sample of claiming a route- player trades in three green cards on turn to put taxi cabs between United Nations to Gramecy Park. Wild Yellow Cab cards could be used in place of any or all green cards to turn in. Taxi cabs left to the side just to show route for picture.

2. Claim a Route: If a player has the correct number of cards in the correct color and enough taxis to place on the route, they may discard those cards to claim the route. The route can be anywhere on the board and does not need to connect to any of their previously claimed spaces. The board indicates what color cards must be discarded to claim each route (blue for blue, pink for pink, etc.) with the exception of grey, where the players can play a set of cards of any one color. Players may turn in a combination of the matching color and/or wild taxi cards to claim the route. Players may never claim both sides of a Double Route.
3. Draw Destination Tickets: Destination tickets show two locations and the number of points received if completed or lost if not completed. Players must claim routes, making a continuous path between the two locations. A player may draw two more destination cards from the deck and choose to keep one or both destinations.

**Sample of completed Destination Card- Wall Street to United Nations**

When any of the player has two or less Taxi pawns left in their supply, every player takes one last turn. Players than tally their points and the highest scoring player wins.

Points earned or lost by completing or failing to complete Destination Cards. Point value is on the cards.
Each Route claimed has a point value indicated on the bottom left corner of the board. Add up all routes claimed.
One point for each tourist attraction connected by one or more routes claimed.

Review

I want to start by saying I do see the appeal of the original Ticket to Ride. It is a great gateway game that has helped many people discover the joy of modern board games. I own a copy, have taught it a few times, and even purchased a copy of My First Journey for my nephew.

This being said, I have never fully enjoyed the game due to its long playtime. I love the concept, the ease of teaching it, and the mechanics, but the game always feels sluggish. With a playtime of thirty to sixty minutes, players spend the majority of the time plodding across the board with limited player interaction. During the last few turns, it begins ramping up and the pressure mounts. This can be a great feeling, but at this point, when someone is blocked (on purpose or by accident) it usually results in frustration. After spending so much time crafting their routes, players often find themselves without a way to finish their goals, and I often witness them mentally check out during the last few rounds. Again, some individuals may find this their play style, but it is not mine. Because of this, when Ticket to Ride New York came out I did not really think much about it.

While searching for shorter games for library competitions, my coworker mentioned that Ticket to Ride New York only takes fifteen minutes to play and her family enjoyed it with two and four players. I played it and immediately felt the difference in play style. Although the game uses the same basic rules, it is a much tighter board, and forces almost immediate player interaction. This version adds in landmarks, with players getting points for connecting different tourist attractions. It adds another way to score and could be used as a teaching tool with younger players.

The game kept everything I enjoyed about the traditional Ticket to Ride and eliminated the one off-putting aspect, playtime. Each round kept me on my toes, and I really had to pay attention to where my opponents placed their taxis, or what cards they selected. I often was blocked, but instead of dreading the next few turns, I wanted to learn from my mistakes and try again. Sometimes I quickly adjusted and found an alternative route, but even if I did not complete my destination tickets, it did not bother me because of the short playtime. The whole game went at lightning speed and felt like playing an exciting, highly competitive last few rounds of Ticket to Ride. It has made me actually excited for the next small box version out in July, Ticket to Ride: London.

Joe’s Pick: Karuba

Karuba is a 2016 Spiel des Jahres Nominee designed by Rudiger Dorn and published by HABA. HABA is a German game company known for their well designed kids’ games. Karuba was published in 2015 along with Adventure Land as HABA’s foray into family weight games. Karuba boils down to a race between the players to move their adventurers to their respective temples in order to gain points. Karuba is meant for 2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up, and plays in about 30 to 40 minutes.

How to Play

To play, each player takes their own jungle board, four adventurers in the four different colors, four temples in the four different colors, and a set of jungle tiles numbered 1 to 36. The treasure tiles are then arranged by color and placed in stack of descending order, highest value on top and lowest value on the bottom, within reach of all players along with the clear and gold plastic tokens. For 2 players only the 5 and 3 valued treasure tiles of each color will be used. For 3 players, the 5, 3, and 2 valued tiles are used. With 4 players, all of the treasure tiles will be used. Players then cooperatively decide where to place the adventurers and the temples with a few rules. Adventurers must be placed on the coastline, left and bottom edges of the board, temples must be placed in the jungle, top and right edges of the board, and the adventurers must be at least 3 numbers distance, ie three spaces on the grid, away from their corresponding temple. The players take turns calling out an adventurer and their temple’s location. All other players will place the same adventurer and temple in the same location. This continues until all adventurers and temples are on each player board and every player board looks the same. One player, the leader of the expedition, will shuffle their jungle tiles in a face down stack. All other players arrange their tiles around their individual player board in order to easily access each numbered tile.

I personally like to create 7 stacks of about 5 tiles each. The manual suggests you surround the board edge with the tiles.

During the game, each player only has control over their own player board as they try to navigate their adventurers to the corresponding temples. Each turn, the expedition leader draws the top tile from the face down stack and calls out the number on the tile. Each player takes their tile of that number and can do one of two things: place the tile on their grid or discard the tile to move an adventurer. Tiles can be placed on any open space on the player board’s grid but the tile’s number must be in the upper left hand corner of the space. Players can not rotate tiles. If the tile has an open space for a clear gem or a gold nugget, the player takes the token from the supply and places it on the tile. If the player decides to move an adventurer, the tile is discarded and the player moves any one adventurer a number of spaces equal to the number of paths along the edge of the tile. For example, a tile with a T-junction will move an adventurer 3 spaces.

Number 33 called and added to the board with a clear gem from the supply.

Adventurers must follow the path laid before them, can collect any gems or gold they pass along the path, and cannot share a space with or move through another adventurer. If an adventurer is able to exit their grid at their temple, ie yellow adventurer reaches the yellow temple, on their move, the player takes the best available treasure in that color. If two or more players reach the same color temple at the same time, one player takes the best available treasure and the other player(s) take the next available treasure tile(s) and takes a number of gem and/or gold tokens to cover the difference. Play continues until a player has reached every temple with their adventurers or the expedition leader’s draw pile depletes. Players then count the number of points earned from treasure tiles, the number of clear gems each worth a point, and the number of gold nuggets each worth 2 points. The player with the most points wins.

A player board at the end of the game. Poor Mr. Blue.

Review

I usually don’t agree with the Spiel des Jahres awards. Every year I feel like one game gets snubbed or another game wins that didn’t deserve it. Karuba was nominated in 2016 and lost out to Codenames. Codenames has the mass market appeal as evidenced by USopoly printing of every sort of fandom but Karuba works better as a family game and should have won that year. I usually play one of the Spiel nominated family weight games and my reaction is one of three things: I don’t like it, it’s fine, or I’ll play it again later. I expected the same out of Karuba when we tested Heather’s library copy. I read through the rules, I thought, “seems simple enough,” and started playing. After it was over, I just stared at my board I wonderfully screwed up as I left an adventurer in the middle of the jungle. I stared and thought, “this is one of the best games I’ve ever played.” It’s just so simple and you think that it only gives you two choices: place a tile or move an adventurer. Karuba’s mechanisms turn an easy yes or no question into an interview that exposes your deep inner thoughts. Everybody’s board will be different at the end of the game even though each player received the same tiles in the same order with the same starting position. Play a game of Karuba with your family or friends and you can see what kind of person or player they are. Are they trying to keep options open for their adventurers, rushing one adventurer to their destination at a time, or are they maniacally stranding adventurers in the jungle with dead ends and winding paths? I always want to compare boards after a game. It helps to improve your next play or create a narrative dealing with why the purple adventurer is trapped in the foliage forever.

I usually don’t enjoy fast and simple games like this. The box says it plays in 30 to 40 minutes and I would say most of that is set up. In my opinion, Karuba should be on the list of gateway games to attract new players to tabletop gaming. It plays quick, it’s easy to conceptualize the end goal, it gives the player a deceptively large amount of choices, and it is extremely easy to teach. The game is so simple in design that it can be taught to anybody. As a gaming curmudgeon, I usually don’t ask to play a family weight game. I will make excuses to not play a Dominion or a Ticket to Ride or I will suggest a more complex game with similar mechanisms. I will always play Karuba. Ask me and I will go to your house and teach you Karuba. It is one of my top, if not my top, family weight game to teach.

Raiders of the North Sea

Raiders of the North Sea is a 2018 Mensa select family weight worker placement game created by Shem Phillips. This 2-4 player Viking themed game published by Graphill Games and distributed for retail by Renegade Game Studios combines worker placement, hand management, and set collection and plays in about 45-60 minutes. Using a unique worker placement system, players collect resources and Norsemen in order to raid further and further inland.

How to Play

Players start the game with 3 townsfolk cards, a player aid card, one black worker meeple, and 2 silver pieces. On their turn they place their available worker on an open location (paying attention to what is required to utilize the space) and take that location’s action. If they place their worker in the village they then choose to remove a viking meeple from a different village space and employ that space’s ability. If the player raids, they instead gain a worker through plundering and do not take a second action.

Raiders starting setup. All players have their silver, worker and player aid. All players have markers set to zero on all three scoring tracks (red, black and yellow). The rulebook has a picture on how to exactly lay out the board.

The first few turns center around the village, collecting resources and crew members. The available village actions are:

Gatehouse- Draw 2 Townsfolk cards from the draw pile keeping in mind hand limit is 8 cards.

Town Hall- Players play 1 Townsfolk card from their hand and use the card’s playable ability (ability under the play symbol). The card is then immediately discarded.

Treasury- Players discard 1 Townsfolk card to gain 2 silver, or 2 Townsfolk cards for 1 gold.

Barracks- Players choose a Townsfolk card in their hand and pay the silver indicated in the top left corner to add them to their crew. The card goes face up in front of the player and can be used during raids and their special ability (under the white plus sign on the card) used when applicable. A crew can not exceed 5 townsfolk but players may discard crew members to hire new ones.

Armoury- Using a white or grey worker exchange 1 iron for 2 armour (strength when raiding) or exchange 2 silver for 1 armour. The armour marker moves up the red armour track.

Mill- Using a black worker players gain 1 Provision, grey worker 2 Provisions, and a white worker 2 Provisions or 1 Gold. The max number of provisions a player can have in their personal supply is 8.

Silversmith- Using a black worker the player gains 3 silver and a grey or white worker 2 silver. Players may never have more than 8 silver in their personal supply at any given time.

Long House- Using a white or grey worker a player can exchange 1 livestock for 2 Provisions or pay the required plunder to gain an offering tile (along the bottom of the board) which are worth points at the end of the game.

Eventually players will have enough crew members and provisions to start raiding nearby harbours. Each location has a cost (certain worker colors, minimum number of hired crew, enough provisions, and sometimes gold). A player meeting the requirements of a raid places their worker, discards the appropriate number of provisions and gold, moves their score marker up the yellow victory track and takes one of the available loot squares. Possible plunder includes iron, gold, livestock, or Valkyrie. All loot is added to a players stash except the Valkyrie which requires the player discard a crew member, move their score marker up the black Valkyrie track, and place the Valkyrie token back in the main supply. When players raid, they receive a new worker from the raid and do not take a second action.

As players begin raiding inland their strength determines victory points. The red boxes indicate strength required to gain the victory points in the yellow boxes beside them. Strength is determined by adding up all crew member’s strength, hired crew special abilities if applicable, rolling one or two strength die depending on the location, and player’s location on the armour track.

Play continues until there is only one loot location left in the top Fortresses area, the Offering pile is empty, or all Valkyrie have been removed from the board. Players then add up their victory points, Valkyrie points, armour points, offering points, hired crew points, plunder points (1 gold =1 victory point, 1 iron = 1 victory point, and 2 livestock = 1 victory point). The player with the highest score wins the game.

Player Final Board with hired crew out. Players have moved up all three tracks (red armour, black Valkyrie, and yellow Victory tracks). Player on the right has two offering point tiles.

Review

Although the box claims Raiders takes between 60-80 minutes to play we found it took significantly less time, especially after we got the hang of it. The most tedious part of the game is the setup. It takes a while, upwards of 15 minutes. The board has a very detailed, specific layout provided by a small picture in the rule book. Heather thought the image should have been much larger and not cut in half by the binding. She often had to squint to see what went where, and lost her place during setup. Some players may be put off by the extensive setup for a middle weight worker placement game.

Once properly setup though both of us thoroughly enjoyed the game. Yes, the theme could have been anything and vikings are often over utilized but in this instance it worked. There were multiple ways to earn points and we rarely blocked one another. Heather, who enjoys games with limited player interaction really liked this aspect. There are cards that allow players to steal from each other but we became so focused on our own goals, we did not utilize these abilities unless we had no other feasible moves. It did not seem worth it. A player could spend a turn taking one armour point from another player or possibly raiding an outpost. The reward for utilizing the card in other ways, such as hiring it as a crew member, was greater than discarding the card to pursue other players.

The first few turns are slow but the game quickly picks up steam and there is always something to do. With minimal downtime, players have to pay close attention and quickly plan their next move. The game has excellent pacing and players are left with feeling they want to do more. With so many paths to victory, players can focus on certain tracks or try out a more balanced approach without feeling left behind in victory points.

The production quality is extremely high. All of the artwork is eye catching, unique, and consistent. Besides the setup page, the rule book is well laid out, and iconography easy to understand. The components are mostly high quality. The board is a thick folded cardboard we worry may break eventually. Garphill has a new neoprene play mat, that is compatible with both of the Raiders expansions, and may solve this issue. All other components were impressive. The game comes with actual metal coins, unique shaped wooden tokens, and linen finished cards.

The game scaled well with both 2, 3, and 4 players games and setup and rules are always the same. Although the board layout and general gameplay is always the same, a common problem with worker-placement games, we do not see it becoming stale over time due to the various paths to victory. Yes, players know they will always start in the village, gaining resources and eventually raiding up the board, but where they will go and how they will utilize their available resources can alter each time. There are also two expansions, Fields of Fame and Hall of Heroes, we have yet to try, but have heard adds new quests, increases complexity, and introduces interesting mechanics to the game which may also improve on its replayability.

As a middleweight game, it may not be the best first foray into worker placement and not complex enough for those wanting a heavier worker placement game. To us though it was a great middle ground for Joe who enjoys longer, heavier games and Heather who enjoys lighter, quick ones. The game was a fast paced, unique worker placement game with a fun usage of the Viking theme.

Heather: 4/5 Paws
+ Low player interaction, multiple paths to victory, fast paced, easy to learn and teach
– Board setup hard to see in rulebook, long set up time, cardboard board

Joe: 4/5 Paws
+ Unique worker placement mechanic, minimal downtime, multiple player options and ways to get points
– Would prefer more complexity, extensive setup

The Quacks of Quendlinburg

The Quacks of Quendlinburg is the 2018 Kennerspiel des Jahres winner created by Wolfgang Warsch. This quirky, 1-4 player press your luck game is published by Schmidt Spiele games and distributed in America by North Star Games and takes roughly 45 minutes to play. Similar to Orleans, players select from a variety of ingredient chips to add to their personal potion bags, hoping to create the best potion without an explosion. Although there are numerous deck building games on the market Quacks is one of the few bag building ones- making it a unique experience.

How to Play

Played over nine rounds, the alchemists blindly pull ingredients from their bags, hoping they pull out chips in their favor. At the start of each round, a random fortune teller card activates, giving all players (unless otherwise stated) bonuses, such as adding an additional chip to their bags. Players then simultaneously pull ingredients from their personal bags, trying to progress as far as they can along the potion track, which increases their victory points and spending power for the round. The white number on the pulled chip tells the player how many spaces to place it from the dropper or previously placed chip and the chip’s icon indicates what special ability is activated. There are four different ingredient rule options. In this post, we will be using set one for all examples.

Set One Abilities

Pumpkin: No ability, just moves one space.
Crow Skull: Depending on the number on the chip, the next 1, 2 or 4 chips you pull from your bag you may either place one in your pot or put them all back into your bag.
Toadstool: If there are 1 or 2 pumpkin chips already in your pot, the toadstool chip moves an extra space and if there are 3 or more pumpkins out already it moves an extra two spaces.
Mandrake (becomes available at the start of round two): If the chip drawn immediately after the mandrake is a snowberry place the snowberry back into your bag.
African Death’s Head Hawkmoth: If you have more deathmoths than the person to your left and right you move your dropper forward one and get a ruby. If you have drawn more than only one player to your left or right you only move your dropper.
Garden Spider: If the garden spider is your last or next to last chip in your pot you get a ruby.
Ghost’s Breath (becomes available at the start of round 3): If you have 1 ghost’s breath in your pot you get a victory point, 2 a victory point and a ruby, and 3 two victory points and get to move your dropper one space forward.

Individual Player board with dropper (red piece with droplet), chips, flask (bottom right), rat tail, and rubies

A player continues drawing chips, until they choose to stop or the value of all the white snowberries they have drawn exceeds seven. If the player’s potion explodes they may choose to use their full flask to put the last played chip back into their bag and flip the flask over to show it is empty. After players stop drawing chips, they find their last placed chip, and use the next visible space to determine values during the evaluation phase.

Quacks scoreboard with evaluation phase steps and sample ingredient books with directions of chip powers

At the end of each round players follow the evaluation phase steps on the scoring banner:

The player(s) with the best potion who did not explode roll the bonus die.
Check to see if any players’s qualify for bonuses from the death moth, garden spider or ghost’s breath.
If the player sees a ruby on their next visible space they get one.
Players take the victory points (number in the lower yellow box) on their visible space and spending power (white number on their visible space). Players buying chips must either purchase one chip or two different chips paying attention to their cost and can not carry over any funds into the next round. If a player exploded they must choose either victory points or money. During the last round, rather than buying chips, players divide their money by five and take that many victory points.
Players may turn in two rubies to move their dropper forward one space or refill their flask (during the last round every two rubies turned in is a victory point).

At the end of the round players check the scoring track and calculate how many rat tails are between themselves and the lead player. They place their rat marker that many spaces past their dropper, moving them further along the potion track. At the conclusion of the ninth round, the player furthest along the scoring track is named the top Quack of Quedlinburg!

Review

Wolfgang Warsch has been on a roll with his games and The Quacks of Quedlinburg is another stellar one great for novice and experienced players. Joe found the rulebook concise and easy to understand and liked that the language independent boards include reminders of rules. The individual player boards tell you what is in your starting bag (which helps you remember how many snowberries are left in it), the scoring track lays out the steps for the evaluation phase, all of the ingredient books describe the chip’s powers, and the designers included a quick reference sheet with rules and examples for all of the sets.

The theme works well for the mechanics and game. Although the mechanics could be used with another theme, being a quack doctor was just plain fun. You could imagine an alchemist adding rat tails, spiders, and deathmoths to their potion batch, experimenting with ingredients, searching for the elixir of life (or whatever you imagine your potion to be). Being an eccentric alchemist added some role-playinig flair to the game.

Although the box art did not appeal to us we were impressed with most of the internal components. There are linen finish cards, heavy card stock boards and chips, and colorful wooden markers. As a librarian, Heather thoroughly enjoyed the 3-D ingredient books with bookmarks telling players which set they belonged to. The well crafted player boards were spacious and had a spot for everything you collected, including your rat tails, a flask, and rubies.

Due to the variety of options such as different ingredient sets (including an option to mix and match between sets), a double sided board with different dropper tracks, and the random fortunes, this game has immense replayability. We tested out each of the sets, including trying our own combinations and found that none of them created an impossible lead with each player progressing towards different goals, and each had at least one interesting new chip rule.

Heather enjoyed that the game was competitive, press your luck and had limited player interaction. If your pot exploded it was your own fault. She felt a rush as she pulled items out of her potion bag, and enjoyed internally debating whether to balance the bag with a variety of chips or stack her bag with a few types. The only time she experienced minor blocking was when a chip numerous players were purchasing ran out. With so many chip options though, it did not really effect the gameplay. This is a game she can play a few rounds in a row without feeling drained or bored. The game makes you want to reach into the bag and pull just one more chip to move further along the track but your greed often quickly causes your downfall. She liked that even if she messed up one round, she could purchase more chips and easily bounce back the next round. Everyone who has experienced it has enjoyed the mechanics and theme, and asked to try other ingredient sets. This is her current favorite game and one that sees a lot of table time.

Joe found that Quacks was more enjoyable than he finds most luck based games. Most of his issues revolve around some of the component quality and his own terrible luck. Statistical probability does not directly correlate to Quacks of Quedlinburg. If you have one snowberry in your bag with a dozen other chips, you will pull that snowberry and explode. Matt from Shut Up and Sit Down said it best, “When you pull a ‘cherrybomb’, it’s disastrous, but when you pull a different ingredient, you feel relief. You never exist in an indifferent area.” Most games have you performing the motions to see the reward later in the game, but Quacks will keep you on the edge of your seat because your ingredient bag is a wormhole of wonder that will either win you the game or not let you advance past your opponents.

Although we both thoroughly enjoy this game, there are some minor flaws. Often chips get stuck in the bag, so you really have to mix them by hand when playing and check the bag corners. We purchased our own set of tarot bags (which also matched the player board colors) to help mitigate this issue. Often when playing, players will reach the last space (35) and want to keep pulling chips as that should mean more money and points, but they currently have nowhere to go. The upcoming expansion will apparently address this with an overflow pot. Our biggest problem is the white snowberries have begun to show dirt and turn grey. The game gets heavy usage, but by game five they were starting to collect oils and dirt.

Heather: 5/5 Paws
+ Low player interaction, high replay factor, quirky theme, she enjoys deck/pool building and press your luck games
– Can not score past 35 (expansion may fix this)

Joe: 4/5 Paws
+ High variability, easy to teach, little to no downtime, little chance of a runaway winner
– Extremely lucky based, bag quality is lacking

Ganz Schön Clever

Ganz Schön Clever (That’s Pretty Clever) is a 2018 Kennerspiel nominated roll and write by Wolfgang Warsch. The quick paced game produced by Schmidt and distributed in America by Stronghold Games plays between 1-4 players and takes roughly 30 minutes to complete. Similar to the games Qwixx and Qwinto and inspired by Imhotep, in Ganz Schön Clever the player rolls different colored dice- each with a different scoring mechanisms, bonuses, and completion options. Players have the ability to choose very different scoring paths and each gives them the opportunity to chain bonuses.

How to Play

The game centers around six different colored dice, each with its own unique abilities:

Yellow- Using the yellow area of the score pad, players cross off the value shown on the yellow die. Players may only cross off one value at a time. Players score by completing columns.
Blue- Working within the blue box on the score pad, players take the blue die value and add in the end result white die value, marking off the sum. The more spaces marked off in the blue area, the higher the point value.
Green- Working along the linear green path, players must continue getting green die value greater than or equal to the number indicated in each square. As players mark off blocks in the green line, the number of points received increases.
Orange- A free sequence with multipliers along the path. Any number on the orange die can be placed in any block. Players score the sum of all numbers along the orange line.
Purple- Numbers must go in ascending order along the purple path, with a 6 resetting the sequence. Players score the sum of all values along the purple line.
White- Used in conjunction with the blue die to create a sum but also a wild die (can be used as any color, but if using as blue you must add the blue die to its value).

Sample Score Pad and 6 Different Colored Dice

During each round, the active player rolls all six dice and selects one to use on their score pad. If any of the remaining dice are a lower value, they are placed on the silver plate for the passive players to select from at the end of the active player’s turn. The active player takes all remaining dice and rolls again. After three rolls, the passive players select one die from the silver plate to mark off one space on their sheet. The round continues with a new active player rolling all six dice until all players have been the active player once. Then a new round begins with the same turn structure. Play continues for a number of rounds depending on the number of players. The player with the highest score wins.

What sets this game apart from other roll and write games is the bonus system. At the beginning of the first four rounds, each player gains a bonus that can be used immediately or when the player chooses. These bonuses include rerolls, the ability to take an extra die, a free “X” to be used on the yellow, blue, or green spaces, and a free “6” to be plugged into the next orange or purple spaces. The colored sections of the scoring pad give similar bonuses that have the possibility to be chained together. For example, a player can choose to take a yellow die which completes the row to gain a green “X”. That green “X” could then allow the player to gain a blue “X” which can be used to complete the row to gain an orange “5” to be filled in the next space. The last kind of bonus included for each colored section of the scoring pad is the fox head. The fox heads are only used for end game scoring. Each marked off fox head will score the player’s lowest point total an additional time. For instance, if the player’s lowest point total was yellow with ten points and the player was able to mark off three fox heads, the player would score an additional thirty points for end game scoring.

Review

Ganz Schön Clever makes no excuses for what it is. It is a challenging roll and write that does not need a theme. The game play is unique and there is currently nothing on the market like it. The bonuses add a nice layer of complexity and often can help focus the player with small goals. Although luck based, there are plenty of paths open to players and neither of us found ourselves without a die to place. Both of us chose different strategies with Joe trying a balanced approach and Heather focusing on completing as much of the yellow, orange, and purple areas as possible. Neither strategy gave us a runaway lead. With so many options on how to play and the luck factor, this portable game has a lot of replayability. The game played quickly and you always felt if only there was one more round you could accomplish more.

We found very few negative aspects. The majority of the components are wonderful. A clear rulebook, well constructed dice, a sizable scorepad, and utilizing the box for gameplay was a nice touch. We found the markers to be small, hard to hold, messy, and we preferred to use our own pencils or laminate a few sheets to be used with overhead markers. The scoresheet is a bit intimidating at first glance but the comprehensive rulebook made it easy to decipher. Heather found the all the symbols straightforward except for the +1. Although in the same format as the bonuses that give you extra points, the +1 is not added to your score. Instead, the player may use an extra die. Confusing at first, but with a few playthroughs, this is easily remedied. Joe tried three games of solo mode and thought the simulated player did not adequately represent a “human” player. It felt tacked on and as if it was not originally planned to have a solo mode. Overall, both of us thoroughly enjoyed this unique roll and write.

Heather: 4.5/5 Paws
+ Unique, fast paced, multiple paths to victory with minimal blocking, challenging and fun
– Symbols to delineate between extra die and extra points scored

Joe: 4/5 Paws
+ Well thought out scoring system with the ability to chain bonuses, easy to learn and teach, plays quickly, component quality
– Superfluous solo mode, markers are too small