This week I played eleven games. Nine of these were unique titles and two were first plays for the year.
Deep Sea Adventure: A press your luck filler game from Oink Games in Japan, in which you dive down a trail of treasure to take as much as you can and get back to the submarine before everyone’s air runs out.
Tzolk’in the Mayan Calendar: A worker placement game that is built around a board of turning cogs. Every turn you either place workers on the lowest value space on a cog, paying if you have to place your worker any further around and paying for any extra workers that you place. Or you retrieve previously placed workers and gain the benefit that they are facing. At the end of each round the cogs will turn one space, taking the workers with them so the longer you can leave a worker on a cog, the greater the reward.
Head Chef: A prototype of a game that will be on kickstarter in about three weeks time. This is a filler card game where the players are taking cards to build different menu items which can then be played for prestige points. You can watch my introduction here, the gamesplanation here or my play through here.
Great Western Trail: A deck building point to point movement game in which each player is a rancher, moving a herd of cattle (cards) from Texas to Kansas City. Along the trail you will have a chance to sell some of your herd which will then get refreshed in the hopes of having the highest scoring hand when you get to your destination. You can watch my introduction here, the gamesplanation here or my play through here.
Flash Point: A Co-operative game for 1-6 players in which everyone tries to work together to rescue the inhabitants of a building and put the fires out before the building is destroyed.
Tash Kalar: An abstract strategy game in which each player is a wizard, sending players (tokens) into an arena to create various patterns. Once a pattern is created a stronger being with special one off actions can be summonsed. Players compete to manoeuvre their players in order to fulfill various quests and gain points.
Santorini: A two player abstract game that can be opened up to three or four players. Each player has two figures from which they will move one and build a level of a building next to their new location. The aim is to get a figure standing on the third level of a building but the other player may be able to stop you by adding a fourth level dome which can’t be stood on.
Roll For The Galaxy: a dice version of Race For The Galaxy. Your job is to add planets and developments to your tableau, all of which will give you benefits in subsequent turns. You will then create goods on those planets which can be shipped for money or points. You can watch my videos here.
The game that I want to focus on however is Concept.
Concept is a co-operative deduction game. The idea behind the game is that a player has a card with a list of words or phrases and needs to get the other players to say the words by putting markers on a board next various pictures. In essence it’s could be seen as this game for people who can’t draw. I usually hate this style of game with a passion. I think that my largest aversion is the inevitable postmortem combined with the fear that no one will ever understand what is going on in my head. I am acutely aware that the way I see the world and the connections that I make in my head are vastly different than the ways in which others would view the same things. This style of game forces you to reveal those differences. I guess it all comes down to the people that you are playing with. If you can play with a group that will just buy in to your thought process rather than feeling the need to undercut you and tell you what you should have done, then this can be a fun game. In fact the game that I had I found myself laughing harder than I have in a while. It is so frustrating to have your team mates constantly saying can-can when the thing you are trying to communicate is this guy.
Enjoy Gaming!
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