Game Review: Robot Master

By W. Eric Martin
August 23, 2008

Publisher: Cocktail Games
Designer: See below
Artwork: Patrick Cerf
Players: 2 (See below)
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 15 minutes
Release Date: Spiel 08
Rules Language: French (English rules available at Spiel)

Version played: Preproduction copy
Times played: Four

As long as French publisher Cocktail Games doesn’t run out of tiny tins that hold a few dozen square cards, game designers will be aiming to fill those tins, as with this compact production by a mystery designer. See if you can guess the designer’s name from the clues below.

Each of the 36 cards shows a robot (clue #1) which is numbered from 0-5, with six of each card (clue #2). In the main game, you shuffle the deck, deal twelve cards to each player, then place one card face-up in the center of a 5x5 grid that the two of you will now fill, turn by turn, with each card being placed going next to one already in the grid. One player will score the columns and the other the rows, and you want to maximize your score for each line because there’s a twist (clue #3).

The value of a line is the sum of the robots in it, except that a pair of identical robots in a row is worth ten times the face value of a single robot (two 3s gives you 30 points, but of course two 0s are still worthless) (clue #4); place three robots of the same type in a row, however, and they’re worth 100 points no matter which type they are (clue #5). The goal isn’t to have the highest overall score, however, because whoever has the single lowest-valued row or column at the end of the game loses (clues #6, 7 and 8).

If you are somewhat knowledgeable about games, then you have undoubtedly recognized all the signs of Reiner Knizia: short and simple rules, a tricky scoring method, and the Euphrat and Tigris twist of a player’s score being the lowest value achieved across several categories. Robot Master isn’t a deep game, and the listed playing time of 15 minutes is ten minutes longer than the games I’ve experienced, but maybe some folks like to do pretend mind-reading more than I do. At heart, you’re playing the odds on which cards the opponent holds and whether they’ll be forced to fill in a row that will benefit you.

The trick, of course, is that you don’t care about most of your rows – all you care about is the lowest-scoring one. Flip this thought on its head, and you realize that stuffing one of your opponent’s rows is all you need to come out on top. Go ahead, get your triples! They won’t help if I can keep one of your rows to singles or a low pair.

In addition to the basic game outlined here, the rules include variants for a team game with four players, a solo game, a game in which you draw cards after each placement (giving you less control at the beginning and more at the end), and a series of games in which the winner scores the difference between his lowest score and the opponent’s lowest score each time.

Robot Master isn’t a game you’ll play all evening, but if you’re looking for something to spring on non-gamers in bars and cafés – something I’m always looking for so that I can quickly demonstrate the games I cover on BGN – this would be a good contender to Frank and Doris’ Pico. The box is fatter, but the explanation and game play are more straight-forward and the game play is equally speedy.

Full disclosure: Cocktail Games hired me to edit the English rules for Robot Master.

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