Game Review: Pick & Pack

By Patrick Korner
March 27, 2008

Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designer: Simon Hunt
Players: 2
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 20 minutes
Rules Language: English
Online Play: YourTurnMyTurn.com

One of the nice things about reviewing games is that you’ll occasionally get the chance to review something you’d never in a million years have expected to like – only to find out after playing that it’s exactly the sort of game you should have checked out in the first place.

For me, Pick & Pack is such a game. Oh, wait, that gave away the punch line, didn’t it? Drat. Ah well, read on if you want to know why I feel that way, okay?

Pick & Pack is a two-player abstract-ish game designed by Simon Hunt and released in 2007 by Z-Man Games. The game’s theme is certainly unique: The apple-picking machine in a factory has gone haywire and it’s up to the players to try to coerce the machine into picking the choicest baskets of apples for them. Compounding the difficulty of that challenge is that each player can move the picker only horizontally – and since players sit at right angles to each other, this means, of course, that your opponent’s horizontal moves will look like vertical moves to you. Oh, and if that weren’t enough, there are special action tiles at your disposal that let you do nasty things like steal apples from your opponent or force him to sell apples at half price, or nice things like double the value of your own apple shipment.

Component-wise, the game’s quite nice – especially for a printed-in-China title. Of all the manufacturers who have made forays into Chinese production, Z-Man seems to be getting the best of it. The Z-Man titles have consistently looked “solid” - in other words, with rare exception, you don’t immediately look at the box and think “Made in China”.

In this case, your shekels buy you a small square box, exactly the same size as the much-loved Kosmos two-player line (hmm, what a fortunate coincidence) and with a nice linen finish to it. Inside the box you’ll find a double-folded board, a set of chunky, pre-punched cardboard tiles, a wooden cylinder (the apple picker) and some well-illustrated rules. I can find nothing to complain about with the components – the artwork is solid and easy to recognize during play.

Game setup is simple: Randomly place the apple tiles – each of which show between 1 and 6 apples on them – on the gameboard’s 6x6 grid. Then set the picker onto the lone 6-apple tile. Next, players place their action tiles onto the 12 spaces intended for this purpose: two rows of six on opposite sides of the board. Players can either place them simultaneously (which is less complicated and definitely the way to go your first game) or take turns placing them (recommended for experienced players only, since the apple tile layout will eventually start hinting at strategic options). That’s it – you’re ready to start pickin’!

Play is quite simple: Move the picker to any apple tile. Take that tile and add it to your open basket with the fewest tiles in it. You start the game with four empty baskets; as the game progresses some of these will get closed up, either by yourself (good) or by your opponent (not so good). If you have more than one basket tied for fewest tiles, you pick which one gets the new tile. That’s it.

Well, almost. If you move the picker to an empty space (that is, to one where the apples have been previously picked (which, incidentally, is a fun phrase to bust out a social occasions (and don’t you hate it when authors digress into multiple nested parentheses?))), you get to use one of your special action tiles instead, specifically one of the two at either end of the row where the picker sits. (This means that ending on an open space in a row where you’ve already used up your action tiles is not allowed.) There are six different special actions:

• Premium (and its counterpart, Wholesale): These tiles will close up apple baskets (which, as logic would dictate, means you can’t add apples to those baskets any more). Premium tiles go on your own baskets and double the value of said baskets; Wholesale tiles go on your opponent’s baskets and cut the value of said baskets in half.

• Rush Order: Set this tile aside for now, then trade it in later to take a double turn.

• Quality Control: Steal the topmost tile from any of your opponent’s open baskets and add it to one of yours (following the rule about adding to the basket with the fewest tiles, as usual).

• Order Mix-Up: Swap the topmost tile in any of your open baskets with the topmost tile in any of your opponent’s open baskets.

• Malfunction: Flip an unpicked apple tile or an opponent’s action tile face-down; that tile can’t be used any more.

If you’re like me, you probably read the above thinking, “Hmm, this sounds a little random. What’s the point of grabbing high-quality apple tiles if it’s so easy for the other guy to mess with you?” Well, there is some truth to that – there will be times when your best-laid plans are simply undone. But with more play, you’ll start to see how you can set up difficult choices for your opponent – sure, he might be able to steal a good tile now, but in doing so he’ll make it possible for you to pick an even better tile off the board. Even the Wholesale tile has its drawbacks: By playing it on your opponent, you’ve made it that much easier for him to end the game by closing up all his baskets. And you might not be ready for the game to end just yet…

Since the entire board is set up at the start of the game, Pick & Pack is a game of gradually collapsing options; as tiles get picked, you have fewer and fewer plays available. This means that you’ll probably be thinking about your moves the most early on – the last few turns will go by very quickly. I find this means that early play is all about strategy, while late play is mostly tactical. It also means that the mid-game is critical. Early play is a lot of punch-counterpunch, but mid-game is where you can try to force your opponent into suboptimal choices.

The mechanism central to the game (the picker and how it moves) works very well – I really like the way your moves dictate those of your opponent and vice-versa. Part of the fun is trying to see how you can scuttle your opponent’s plans while keeping yours intact. There’s a lot to think about, certainly more than the game’s size and whimsical artwork would have you believe. This might actually be the game’s main flaw – there’s enough going on that it probably won’t appeal to more casual gamers. While it’s possible to play the game in a more random, tactical fashion, I think that would rob the design of much of its muscle. The reason the game works is because it gives you lots to think about, so trying to avoid that thought leaves a decidedly watered-down game.

Overall, I like the game a lot. It’s relatively quick (none of the games I’ve played have lasted more than about 30 minutes), thought-provoking and well-produced. The “mess with your opponent” factor may be a little off-putting to some, but as mentioned above repeat play will reveal that such messing about is often a double-edged sword. As a Z-Man release the game raises some eyebrows – since it’s unlike anything else in that publisher’s stable – but as a spiritual successor to the Kosmos two-player line, it meets expectations very well.

Thanks to Simon Hunt for permission to use the in-play image, which is of a prototype with the actual artwork.

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