Patrick Brennan: Recent Gaming

Some thoughts on games I’ve played for the first time in June 2009…

• Hula Hippos – This can be some decent fun for the occasional pullout as a filler. It’s just flick and hope really, but the spinning hoop is neat, and sliding hippos at it can’t help but make for ten minutes of fun. The attraction is the novelty value. 5ish.

• Masters of Venice – I’ve never played a game with so much fiddliness, adjusting prices and orders and share prices up and down with every cube revelation and every sub-move it seems. There’s a job here for a full-time accountant, which makes it very opaque after just one play, best moves being unclear. You want to think things will go smoother in subsequent playings, and I hope so because we have what seems to be a pretty decent idea: Lots of actions to take, different roles to perform, different strategies to try, learning how to take advantage of other people’s intentions – if I can get it to the table again. There was a bit of “let’s not do that again” after the initial play. I’m hoping there’s a learning curve and a reward for time investment. I’m also hoping a new homemade market mat, replacing all the pegs, makes play smoother and faster. At least I have hope. 6ish for the moment.

• King of Siam – It’s a game of tit-for-tat in an attempt to eke out an edge at the point that the other team are willing to let go, which makes for a tense battle with plenty of brinkmanship. The possible switches in winning conditions make life uneasy, and with only eight actions, timing is all important and the game tense. Not only every move, but every pass you make is important – which makes life a bit slow at times. It’s just pushing cubes around El Grande style, but the partnership rules make for an interesting mind-reading exercise, trying to set your partner up for the win if only he’d realise it and do this! Knowing when to save your firepower seems to be key. Lots to like, but ... it’s an abstract area majorities affair. 7ish.

• Crocodile Pool Party – The theme lends itself to having fun with the kids. “Look, I’m just a swimmer, dum-de-dum-de-dum” before turning into a thrashing crocodile and gobbling up swimmers. It’s an abstract move-and-capture game. Pieces are trying to get to the other side of the board. They can move one or two spaces, or reveal themselves as a crocodile after which they’re forced to move their exact movement, be it one to six spaces. So it’s about setting up traps with multiple coverage, chess style – and avoiding traps, whilst setting up your own. I can see how repeat play with an opponent will create some neat double-think while the pieces remain unrevealed in the start-game. A bit cat and mouse. In the end though, it’s only six pieces each and it’s not hugely deep. Treating it as a bit of a romp feels like the right niche. 6ish with this in mind.

• Match of the Penguins – Make Snap harder by trying to match any, some or all of six characteristics and have different protocols for claiming the different type of matches, which produces some funny moments as people see one match and yell out, someone sees something else and claim a pawn, while someone else is knocking on the table. Some decent fun but I don’t have to play again without kids at the table, and they’ll probably enjoy it once they get the (for Snap) complicated rules down. 4ish with adults in the meantime.

• The Wiggles Mix ‘N Match Game – It’s funny where things go when the Sunday night game selection meta-game is in full swing. With no one leading the charge on meat selection, the meta-game became one of how low can we go until someone caved in and insisted on a real game. Match of the Penguins didn’t do it. Neither did The Wiggles Mix ‘N Match Game. Flip a card, try to make a matching set. For very young Wiggles fans only. A 1. To finish the tale, Rum Rebellion, a truly, truly awful game, was the straw that broke the camel’s back and collected the vetos that got the night back on track.

• Indus – I picked this up at Tin Soldier’s 70% off sale, knowing its reputation. I’ve played twice, treating it as a light fast dice affair, playing by feel rather than calc’ing things out, having fun trying to stomp back on people who have the temerity to land on top of you. In this vein, there’s some decent fun; but for variety only, not a staple. Better with three players than with four, and best played at Huber-speed. 6ish.

• Fredericus – Another 70%’er. The game works fine as a card version of an action point game (i.e., manipulate things around using your four action points to collect scoring cards in a few different ways). On the downside, there’s a fair bit of setup required before you get started, and there’s a question mark over how much luck is involved in the scoring. I suspect that having your last goal card accidently match a card that you’ve previously picked up can often be the difference between winning and not. A 6 because of this, but I otherwise thought it was engaging and look forward to trying it some more.

• Wayfinder – It’s a multiplayer, multi-dimensional Mancala. The aim is to create groups of five identical coloured stones, be it yours or other colours, by picking up all of a group, then moving them along to other squares, dropping one stone off at a time. Which means very abstract. I like the time pressure where you must decide where to start your move before the player to your right has finished their turn. That keeps the game ticking along and introduces some sub-optimal play that makes for more interest. Moving stones around a 6x6 grid doesn’t get me too excited about replay, but I’ll admit it was different, interesting and engaging. A 6 for the moment. Not one I’d seek out, but I’d be happy to play again.

Some other games with updated impressions played over the last month:

• Escape from Colditz – The theme of course is wonderful. I’ve read most of the books and visited the castle. We play with a strict 1 hr timeframe with the Germans given 20 seconds on a stopwatch for their turn (plus another 20 seconds for card resolution if needed). The game can be a blast this way, everyone rushing to get things done. It gets harder to co-ordinate the perfect mass escape, so the Germans have a shot. There’s some other house rules, like being able to manipulate turn order and such. Under these conditions the game take its place in our five- or six-player game rotation.

• Canal Mania – Hasn’t come out for over two years, and I was surprised I didn’t remember how neat and clean the system is – and how much I prefer the cube production and scoring methodology over Age of Steam, although the contracts are a bit limiting. Makes life faster though. A welcome slice of variety in the Age of Steam world.