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THE OPINIONATED GAMERS
Reviews and Commentary on Boardgames
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THE SIX OF VIII (GAME REVIEW BY CHRIS WRAY)
Posted on March 14, 2024 by Chris Wray
* Designer: Carol LaGrow
* Publisher: New Mill Industries
* Players: 3 – 4
* Ages: 15 and Up
* Time: 15 – 60 Minutes
* Times Played: 3
“The reign of Henry VIII is one of the most fascinating in English history. Not
only was it a time of revolutionary political and social change, but it was also
dominated by one of the most extraordinary and charismatic men to emerge in the
history of the British Isles. … He ruled England with some of the most
intriguing personalities of the age, men and women who have left behind such
vivid memorials of themselves that we can almost reach out across the centuries
and feel that we know them personally. Six of these people were the King’s
wives.” — Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII
This past week, at Dice Tower West, I had the great joy of serving on a panel
with ThinkerThemer and Taylor Reiner. The discussion was about the top 10
thematic trick-takers. Carol LaGrow’s The Six of VIII — the game I’m reviewing
today — was second on my list, and it was (at least for me) the one that
triggered the most post-panel discussion. Several attendees at Dice Tower West
approached me to ask about the game, and I gave it my enthusiastic endorsement.
I’ve been a little obsessed with this game since I first learned its premise.
One day, while casually reading a trick-taking focused Discord server, I took
notice of a discussion of The Six of VIII. I didn’t immediately realize
precisely what this was — my brain is not used to mixing Tudor history with
trick-taking, so the use of numbers made me think of something more math-y — but
I became enamored once I realized what the designer had done.
Then I played The Six of VIII, and I absolutely fell in love.
The game uses trick-taking to show the history of the six wives of Henry VIII,
with thematic ties spread throughout. The big hook is that the cards are suited
after the six wives, with each suit being trump for a period of the game
approximately resembling each queen’s reign. Not only is the history great, but
so is the trick-taking. This is a fresh, thematic take on so-called “track”
games.
This week is Trick Taking Week here on The Opinionated Gamers, and the theme
this year is innovators. The Six of VIII innovates in a devilishly clever way:
in a genre littered with pasted-on themes (including all of my own designs), the
Six of VIII shines by having both an ingenious thematic implementation and some
fresh mechanics.
As an admission up front, I have a bit of a personal obsession with Tudor-era
history. I had once thought I’d try to write this review in the style of Hilary
Mantel — and I got close to finishing that endeavor and publishing it — but
ultimately decided that my writing did not do enough justice to either that
beloved author or this excellent game. Nonetheless, I have embedded a few hidden
Tudor references herein.
Continue reading →
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Posted in Reviews | Tagged Card Games, Carol LaGrow, New Mill Industries,
reviews, The Six of VIII, Thematic games, Trick Taking Games, Trick Taking Week
| 1 Comment
SEERS CATALOG (GAME REVIEW BY CHRIS WRAY)
Posted on March 13, 2024 by Chris Wray
* Designer: Taylor Reiner
* Publisher: Bezier Games
* Players: 2 – 5
* Ages: 15 and Up
* Time: 45 Minutes
* Times Played: > 5
Author’s Note: In the interest of fair disclosure, a game I designed (Xylotar)
is being published by Bezier Games in coming months. Additionally, the designer
of this game (Taylor Reiner) is a member of The Opinionated Gamers.
In spring 2016, I co-wrote an article for now-defunct Counter Magazine on the
history of climbing and shedding games. The article walked through dozens of
titles, everything from the public domain classics to newer designer games, and
it was an attempt to provide a short (but nonetheless semi-comprehensive)
overview of leading titles. Each game had its own twists, but in reading the
article, it became apparent that most climbers/shedders are entirely too
similar. Sure, there were a few groundbreaking outliers back then — Taiki
Shinzawa’s Maskmen comes to mind — but whether it be Chimera, Gang of Four,
Tichu, or the numerous similar titles, the primary variance was small shifts in
either the deck or the melds permitted.
While there has been significant innovation in trick-taking the past few years,
there has not been as much innovating in the climbing/shedding game space. But
that seems to be changing in the past year or so. This week is Trick Taking Week
here on the Opinionated Gamers. This is our second annual event, and I’ve
commandeered the calendar to spotlight innovators in trick taking and
trick-taking adjacent games.
Today, I want to highlight the most innovative shedding game I’ve ever played. I
predict Seers Catalog will do more than any other game in recent years to move
climbers and shedders forward.
The twist is that this is almost a game where you want to be the first to run
out of cards. With a few subtle changes, Taylor Reiner has turned this beloved
genre on its head, and the result is a fascinating game that is easily one of my
most-anticipated titles of 2024.
Continue reading →
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Posted in Reviews | Tagged Bezier Games, Climbing/Shedding Games, Gen Con 2024,
Innovative Games, Of What's Left, reviews, Seers Catalog, Taylor Reiner,
Trick-taking Week | Leave a comment
WELCOME TO TRICK TAKING WEEK 2024
Posted on March 11, 2024 by Chris Wray
Welcome to Trick-Taking Week 2024!
This is the second annual event where we here at The Opinionated Gamers spend a
whole week on trick-taking games. An enormous “thank you” to Dale and the
writers on this site for letting this semi-retired writer again commandeer the
calendar for a whole week.
Before we turn to the 2024 festivities, I’d like to do a quick shoutout to my
article last year on the recent infatuation with trick-taking. Last year, as I
reintroduced our long-abandoned Tricks and Trumps series, I told the story of
how trick-taking came to recent prominence. If you missed it last year, I still
think it is worth a read (even if the Tricks and Trumps series was again
abandoned, for a variety of reasons).
That article is one of the finest things I’ve written, because as far as I can
tell, it is the closest thing we have to an accounting of the recent growth. It
is from a limited point of view, and I welcome the perspectives of others, but I
think it is a fair description of recent years.
Other great articles from last year include:
* 7 Trick-taking games that deserve a reprint. Since then, Green Fivura and
Potato Man have either been reprinted or announced as forthcoming. But that
leaves five more titles deserving a fresh take.
* An interview with David Parlett about the history of trick-taking games.
* Reviews of Cat in the Box and 9 Lives.
* An overview of the amazing art of Sai Beppu.
* Interview answers from various designers about what makes trick-taking so
enduring.
But back to 2024. What’s in store this year? A couple of reviews, of course. My
tale of trying to bring small batch trick-taking to the United States. A list of
my top 20 trick-takers. And a history of climbing games.
I’ve given a theme to this year, which is that I’m going to celebrate the
innovators. Trick-taking has moved so far forward in recent years because of
innovative designs and mechancis. This year is a tribute to them.
So tune in. I’ll have the next article later tonight.
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Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
UNMATCHED ADVENTURES: TALES TO AMAZE! OR HOW A FIGHTING GAME TURNED INTO A
STELLAR COOPERATIVE GAME
Posted on March 8, 2024 by Mark "Fluff Daddy" Jackson
Since 2019, I’ve been a devoted fan (and playtester) for the Unmatched: Battle
of Legends game system – and been part of epic face-offs between so many
different heroes in so many diverse locations. (There are – if you’ve acquired
every bit of the Unmatched output from Restoration Games – currently 20
different locations and 47 different heroes that can be set against each
other.)*
Now, for the first time, those heroes gather together not to fight each other
but battle shoulder to shoulder against monsters of legend, bent on destruction
and/or world domination. Or, since this is Unmatched, you can use any of the
four included heroes to battle each other and/or any other hero in the series.
UNMATCHED FOR THE UNINITIATED
I’m well aware that some of you have not had the opportunity to play the
wonderful goodness that is Unmatched – so, a short primer on how the game works
is in order. (Yes, I know, some of you have played before. A lot. You can skip
to the next heading.)
Unmatched is a skirmish battle game, driven by card play and fought on a variety
of boards. On your turn, you get two actions:
* Maneuver – draw a card from your personal deck & optionally move your
fighter(s)
* Attack – play a card face-down to initiate a melee or ranged attack
* Scheme – play a Scheme card from your hand for its effect
You win by reducing your opponent’s hero to zero hit points.
If this sounds a lot like Star Wars: Epic Duels, you’re not wrong. That 2002
mass-market game is the forefather of this amazing combat system. (If you want
more detail, I did a deep-dive into the differences in my original Unmatched
review.)
> Unmatched: Battle of Legends: A Game System Review
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
The first thing you’ll notice when opening the box for Tales to Amaze! is that
there’s a lot of stuff packed into it: multiple card decks, miniatures, plastic
counters, and a number of punchboards in order to create hit trackers and
various other bits for the game. There are also three rulebooks: the Core Rules
(which teach the basics of playing Unmatched), the Set Rules (which go over the
special rules related to the four new heroes), and the Tales to Amaze!
Instructions (which teach how to play the cooperative adventure game).
Once you’ve gone through the assembly process, you’ll have 4 playable characters
(2 with sidekicks), 2 boss monsters, 6 minion monsters… and the card decks for
each of those. In addition, you will have a deck of initiative cards and a deck
of Amazing Event cards. Finally, there’s a good bit of other tokens/bits –
bridges, webs, acid blobs, invasion markers, and the like.
Come meet the crew!
The Heroes
* Nikolai Tesla – armed with a ranged weapon that uses his Tesla coils to
charge up and trigger various effects
* Dr. Jill Trent – she has two potential gadgets (she can only use one per
turns) and a trusty sidekick to help her figure out the smartest way to
eliminate the threats
* Annie Christmas – the riverboat captain and her gambler husband (sidekick)
have lots of tricks up their respective sleeves: she’s more dangerous when
she’s the underdog in a fight and he’s a gambler with some very slick moves
* The Golden Bat – a Japanese pulp hero… with a skull for a head and a rapier
to do serious damage with.
The Boss Monsters
* Mothman – he fights to cut off his territory from the human world, destroying
bridges and generally beating our heroes to a pulp
* The Martian Invader – busily beaming up cows and sending his little green men
(no, not the cute kind from Toy Story but more like the ones from Mars
Attacks!) to establish a permanent foothold on our planet
The Minions
* Ant Queen – who is a boss in her own right… she not only moves the threat
marker, but she also adds cards to the Initiative deck, making her stronger &
faster.
* Blob – this monstrosity spits acid and is just generally difficult to kill
* Jersey Devil – he scares cards out of players hands (and occasionally cancels
player cards when they are played)
* Skunk Ape – He’s basically a brute with an anger problem
* Tarantula – her webs slow down heroes & sidekicks… plus it’s easier for her
to attack players caught in her silky strands
* The Loveland Frog – another minion who adds cards to the deck and thus just
keeps coming like some kind of demonic Energizer Bunny (only he’s a frog)
GAME PLAY
The starting point is that pretty much everything from the hero (player) side
works just like normal Unmatched. There are specific exceptions (dealt with in
the rulebook) but it’s an easy variant to jump into if you’ve played Unmatched
before.
The player(s) have an overriding objective: get the villain (boss) to zero
health before they accomplish their nefarious scheme. Alternately, loss comes if
the boss finishes their four-step plan (destroy the bridges or complete the
invasion) OR if all player fighters are defeated (both heroes and sidekicks).
Each player is assigned a player number (1 through 4) and an initiative card of
that number is included in the initiative deck. In addition, each boss and
minion starts with a card in the initiative deck… which is thoroughly shuffled
and dealt out one at a time to trigger player and bad guy turns.
Note: the boss & minion initiative cards may have immediate effects (activating
the bad guy) as well as end of round effects (that are triggered in the order
the cards were revealed.) Some of the bad guys also have multiple cards that are
added to the deck as play proceeds, making them more and more difficult to deal
with. (Dadgum Loveland Frog…)
In general, bosses and minions will attempt to close with the nearest hero or
sidekick and attack. Just like the original Unmatched design, the player will
choose a card to play (or choose not to play a card) and then flip over the top
card of the bad guys deck. Damage ensues as well as particular effects – all of
those are resolved just like basic Unmatched.
Your objective is to defeat (kill, eliminate, send back to Mars, etc.) the Boss.
If you manage to do the same to some or all of the minions, great – but it’s not
necessary. (I did not say it was a bad idea – leave them alone and they will
hound you to death.)
VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
Just in case you don’t think the game is difficult enough, there are Amazing
Event cards that ramp up the difficulty. In general, we’ve found the game
easiest as a solo game – particularly with a character with big attack values.
On the other hand, the game becomes trickier with more players and more minions.
After 11 plays, we’re 6-5… with two of those losses using an Amazing Event card.
We’ve also played with heroes not found in the Tales to Amaze! Box: while Bruce
Lee easily defeated the Martian Invader (is that even a surprise?) and the
T-Rex/Raptors team sent them back to the stone age, the team of Beowulf, Little
Red, and Sindbad were not as successful. (And after finishing writing this, I
played a quick two player game against the invaders with Bigfoot & Bloody Mary…
and hurt them pretty bad before getting stomped.)
FINAL THOUGHTS
I have to admit – my younger son & I were early version playtesters of this box
for Restoration Games. We were not impressed and found the prototype at that
point to be a bit clunky and not particularly fun.
And this is why development/playtesting is so important… because the final
product is incredibly enjoyable to play and a worthy addition to a line of games
I love. (I haven’t played with new heroes in a 1v1 or 2v2 game, but both my sons
assure me that they’re great medium difficulty heroes and lots of fun to play in
that setting as well.)
If you enjoy Unmatched, don’t let the “cooperative” nature of Tales to Amaze!
put you off. If you’re a cooperative fan, give this a try – even if you’re
skeptical of its origins in a fighting game. The quality of the production and
the smoothness of gameplay is really something special.
MATH NERDERY
* I had some of the more math-inclined writers on the OG staff figure out just
how many possible combinations you can currently come up with to play Unmatched:
Here’s what they (well, Dan) came up with:
Assuming that:
* 1. Any hero can be played on any map.
* 2. Any two heroes can oppose each other.
* 3. Any two heroes can pair up for a 2v2.
* 4. You can’t buy multiple copies of a set and play the same hero against
themselves.
* 5. We can ignore details such as which side of a map each team sets up on.
Then there are 21,620 1v1 scenarios and 10,701,900 2v2 scenarios.
That’s a lot of scenarios, folks.
My copy of Tales to Amaze! was purchased through the Kickstarter for the game. I
have received review copies of Unmatched: Buffy, For King & Country, and Teen
Spirit… the rest of my Unmatched collection was purchased with my hard-earned
cash. Which reminds me – anyone want to buy my copy of Epic Duels?
THOUGHTS FROM THE OPINIONATED GAMERS
Erik Arneson (4 plays) – Mark sums up my thoughts very well. I’m a huge fan of
Unmatched, but I was very skeptical that a cooperative Unmatched game would
work. Thankfully, my confidence in the team at Restoration Games was enough to
make me a Kickstarter backer, because Unmatched: Tales to Amaze is absolutely
fantastic. I haven’t played with heroes from the other sets yet, but I’m eager
to give that a try.
RATINGS FROM THE OPINIONATED GAMERS
I love it – Mark Jackson, Erik Arneson
I like it –
Neutral –
Not for Me –
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Posted in Reviews | Tagged Cooperative, Cooperative Games, Restoration Games,
Unmatched | Leave a comment
LARRY LEVY: REVIEW OF FOR ONE: KNIFFEL
Posted on March 7, 2024 by huzonfirst
* Designer: Reiner Knizia
* Artist: Leon Schiffer
* Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
* Developer: Anatol Dündar
* Players: 1
* Age: 8+
* Duration: 15 minutes
* Times Played: 78
“For One” is a new series of solitaire games designed by Reiner Knizia and
released by Schmidt Spiele last Essen. Each of the games comes with 20-25
variants in the box to keep the gameplay challenging and fresh. Currently,
there are four games in the series. In For One: Galaktix, you roll dice to
advance your rockets along Tracks…In…Space for fun and profit. In Number Up,
you’re placing cards in a 5×5 display and trying to fulfill conditions in each
row and column. In Schwarze Rosen, you’re building a flower bed from
domino-style tiles and attempting to maximize your points. And For One: Kniffel
is, as the name implies, essentially solitaire Yahtzee (Kniffel is the name
under which Yahtzee has been marketed in Germany for many decades).
Unlike many of my OG brethren, I’m not really a fan of solitaire gaming. But
Kniffel called out to me. For one thing, I’ve always liked Yahtzee-style games
(the version I played with my family growing up was called Kismet, in which the
die faces had one of three different colors, permitting more categories to be
used.) I also thought the new game’s central mechanism was clever and
interesting. The fact that each session could be played in 15 minutes or so was
also appealing, as I find my attention span for solo games is far shorter than
it is with multiplayer boardgames. Finally, Knizia has long been considered to
be one of the world’s leading authorities on dice games, thanks in part to him
publishing the definitive work on the subject, Dice Games Properly Explained,
back in the 90’s. This book not only includes every public domain dice game you
can imagine, but also features quite a few of The Good Doctor’s original
designs. So if anyone was going to be able to create a solo dice game that
would strike my fancy, Reiner had to be one of the leading candidates.
Those are a lot of positive reasons, so I decided to give the game a chance.
After almost 80 games of it, I’m quite glad I did. Let me give you some insight
about why this title was able to overcome my solo-phobia, starting with a look
at what you get inside the box.
Components
The equipment for the game is solid. The colorful box is about 7 inches square,
so it won’t take up too much precious space on your shelves. The small fold-out
board is laid out like a Yahtzee score sheet, with 14 scoring rows and spaces
for 5 dice in each row. It’s clearly labeled and, best of all, it lays flat, so
that the dice are less likely to shift. The game comes with 18 small, plastic
D6’s, which are well made. The rest of the components are cardboard, including
a rectangular slider for each row. The upper right corner of each slider is
snipped off, so that when you score the row, you place the slider on the
appropriate space of the row and the hole shows the score printed on the board.
It’s low tech, but it works fine. There are also a bunch of other tokens, which
are used in various combinations in the different variants of the game. Even
the box’s insert has a use—it forms a well where you can roll the dice and this
turns out to be surprisingly useful. The components aren’t particularly
stylish, but they’re very functional and quite appropriate for a game with this
low price point.
Here’s what the board looks like:
This should look very familiar to anyone who’s played Yahtzee. As you can see,
the board is in German, as that’s the only version of the game that’s available
at this time, but even the most cursory knowledge of that language will allow
you to figure out the row categories. For those of you who don’t have the
Yahtzee score card committed to memory, there’s an Upper section and a Lower
section. The former consists of the six rows for each die face, plus the Bonus
row. The Lower section has the standard Yahtzee categories: 3 of a kind, 4 of
a kind, Full House, Small Straight, Large Straight, Yahtzee (aka Kniffel), and
Chance. Each space in a row can take one die and the numbers shown are the
scores you can get from filling out a row.
The rules are in German, of course, as is the booklet which gives the setup of
each of the 25 different variants. Fortunately, there’s an English translation
of the rules and the variants available on the Geek and armed with these, I had
no trouble playing my version of the game. This is good, since I don’t think
Schmidt has announced when (or if) an English language version of the game will
be released.
Here’s another picture, showing the setup for one of the more complex variants,
just to illustrate what some of the components look like.
Gameplay
So how did Knizia take a luck-filled classic and turn it into a challenging
solitaire game? By converting a dice game into a dice management game.
There are 25 different variants for how to play For One: Kniffel, grouped into
five “chapters” with similar effects. I’ll begin by describing the base
version.
Every variant tells you how many dice begin in your dice pool. For the base
game, you start with 17 dice. On each turn, you take five dice from the pool
and roll them. There are no rerolls, but you can place the dice in more than
one row, as long as each placement is legal. What’s a legal placement? First
of all, you always place the dice from left to right in each row. In the Upper
section, the rows are restricted to the dice pictured on them—1’s in the top
row, 2’s in the next row, etc. In the Lower section, you can place a die in a
row as long as you still have a chance of achieving the combination for that
row. For example, in the 4 of a kind row, placing a 2 in the first space and a
5 in the second space is legal, since you can still make 4 of a kind. However,
if you then put a 2 in the third space, you’ll only be able to place 2’s in the
remaining spaces. The only rows which work differently are the two Straights,
where the dice must be strictly ascending. So the Small Straight must consist
of a 1, 2, 3, 4, in that order (it’s the only row which has four spaces, not
five) and the Large Straight must consist of a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, in that order.
Once you place your five dice, you have the chance to score rows. You can
always score rows in the Upper section, regardless of how many dice have been
played in the row. For example, suppose you’ve played three 4’s in the fourth
row and you want to score it. You just move that row’s slider to the third
space, which shows the value “12” (3 x 4). You then put the three dice back in
your dice pool and for the rest of the game, you can no longer put dice in that
row. In the Lower section, though, you can only get a positive score for a row
if all five of its spaces have dice in them (or, for the Small Straight, all
four of its spaces). Even if, for example, the 3 of a kind has three identical
dice in it, it still can’t be scored until two other dice (of any value) are
placed in the row’s spaces. The scores for the Lower section are all fixed,
regardless of which dice are placed in them—as you can see in the picture, they
range from 10 for the Chance row to 50 for the Yahtzee row. If you score such a
row, you place the slider on the scoring space on the far right of the row and
then put the dice back into your pool. You also have the option at this time of
scoring an incomplete row (presumably because you’re short of dice in your
pool). If you do this, you put the slider on the zero space on the left side of
the row and then return however many dice were in the row back into your pool.
Your score for the row will be zero. Whether or not the row is complete when
you score it, you won’t be able to put dice in that row for the rest of the
game.
After you’ve scored any rows you want to, you repeat the process by rolling five
more dice from your pool. If there are fewer than five dice in your pool at the
beginning of a turn, the game is over. The game can also end if you’ve scored
every row on the board.
During the game, any dice you place on a space on the board is eligible to be
returned to the pool (once the row is scored), but some dice will have to be
discarded. This happens if you don’t have a legal place to put the dice. For
example, you may have rolled a 2, but you’ve already scored the 2 row in the
Upper section and none of the unscored rows in the Lower section can legally
accept a 2. In that case, you’ll have to put the die with the 2 out of play.
If this happens often enough, the game will end because you won’t have enough
dice left to roll.
Once the game ends, determine your Bonus score for the Upper section. This uses
a different procedure than for Yahtzee, but it’s a pretty clever one (and one
that fans of Knizia will find familiar). Just check to see which of the rows of
the Upper section had the fewest number of dice in it and place the Bonus slider
in that position. So if the first five rows all had five dice in them, but when
you scored the 6 row, it only had two dice, the Bonus slider will go in the
second position, which, as you can see, is only worth 15 points. The Bonus can
be worth up to 100 points, so this means it can be worthwhile to concentrate on
the Upper section. It was also fun to see the signature scoring rule from
Reiner’s Tigris & Euphrates worm its way into this simple game.
Once you’ve done this, determine your score for the game by adding up all the
values next to the 14 sliders. The booklet that explains the rules for each
variant also has spaces where you can record your scores. Every variant lists
its scoring goals, including a Gold medal score (so if your score is at least
this high, you can say you’ve “won” the game) and lesser values associated with
Silver and Bronze medals.
I’ve just described the first level, which is the base way of playing the game.
Each of the other levels adds new wrinkles. The number of dice in the dice pool
varies from 10 to 18. Some of the levels put requirements on certain
categories; others double the points you can earn if you score it. Sometimes,
you have to place dice in a certain order. The game comes with a yellow die; if
you score a category that has a yellow die in one of its fields, its score is
doubled and you take back the yellow die, which you can use again. All told,
Kniffel comes with 25 different levels of play, which adds a lot of variety and
greatly increases the game’s replayability.
Evaluation
So was Knizia able to overcome my indifference to solitaire gaming? I’m happy
to say that the Good Doctor, that master of dice games, did indeed succeed.
Even the base game is fairly interesting and packs a pleasant amount of decision
making in a short timeframe. But it’s the different levels that make this a
worthwhile activity. Each one requires a different approach and I really enjoy
the change of pace. When I have a spare moment, it’s fun to sit down and rip
off 2 or 3 games in a half hour.
There’s obviously a reasonable amount of luck involved—it’s a dice game, after
all. In my first game, before I’d really figured out the basic strategy, just
about everything went right for me and I scored 326—good enough for a Gold
medal. In my second game, following the same script, just about everything went
wrong and I only managed a score of 141—well below the Bronze requirement. So
the dice definitely affect things. However, your decisions really do matter in
most games and it feels like sound strategy will let you succeed far more than
fail.
The dice management is the main challenge of the game. You’d like to focus on
the categories that yield you the highest scores, but you have to make sure
you’re scoring categories quickly enough that you’re adding dice back to your
pool, so that you always have 5 dice ready to roll. Dealing with both the
scoring and the dice availability is a nice balancing act. As the game goes on,
you’ll usually have to take some chances, although you can increase the odds by
maximizing the number of dice values you can work with. Having a backup plan in
case the Dice Gods hate you is pretty important. None of this requires brain
burning analysis, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. Just a nice short
game that gives me a little bit of a mental workout while entertaining me with
its varied levels.
There’s really only one thing in the package that disappointed me and that’s the
Goal system. The concept is a great one. I’ve never cared for solo games where
the goal is to top your current best score; what I really want is a way to tell
if I’ve “won” the game or not. So a scoring goal for each level is just what
the, uh, Doctor ordered and having lower thresholds cited (for Silver and Bronze
medals) makes it even better. The problem is that it doesn’t seem as if Knizia
and/or the development team put in too much effort to accurately set these
goals. For the most part, they seem to be way too easy. After my first half
dozen games, once I’d refined my strategic approach, I ripped off 17 consecutive
games where I topped the Gold goal—most of them well above the requirement. Now
I suppose it’s possible that I’m just a Kniffel savant, but it’s far more likely
that the goals just aren’t high enough (particularly since others have noted the
same thing on the Geek). But there are other levels where the goals seem quite
accurate, or even a bit high. There’s one level that’s identical to another
level, except the first level has a stringent requirement that the second one
doesn’t have, and yet the first level’s goals are higher than the second one’s;
this implies that the first level is easier than the second one, which makes no
sense. It really would have been better if the Goal system gave you a genuine
challenge for each level, maybe one you’d have to work your way toward (and
until you do, you can measure your progress with Bronze and Silver medals). But
that’s not the way it works at all: I’ve topped the Gold standard in about 70%
of my games and it’s usually not close. Actually, a 70% win rate in a solitaire
game wouldn’t be unreasonable as long as the victories were close ones and there
was tension to see if I could sneak over the line, but it’s not unusual for my
scores to exceed the top requirement by over 100 points. This is definitely
disappointing, but I enjoy the game enough to ignore it, even as I easily ace
most of the levels.
The other mild complaint I have is with the rules. For such a simple game, I
sure had a bunch of questions after my first read through. Of course, I was
working from a Google translation of the German rules, so that could easily have
been the issue, but they definitely made it harder to learn the game than it
should have been. I eventually figured it out, but it made me realize that it
isn’t just complex games that have problematic rules these days.
So my first foray into solo gaming in quite a while has very much been a
success. I’ve played all 25 levels at least twice–most of them at least 3
times–and have enjoyed them all. Leave it to Reiner to figure out how to make a
fun solitaire game out of Yahtzee, for goodness sake. Then again, maybe I
shouldn’t be surprised. I mean KNI-zia and KNI-ffel? It was obviously meant to
be!
Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers
Mario: I’m not that much into Solo-Gaming, but I like this one quite a bit. It
offers enough variety to keep you entertained through the 25 levels. I agree
with Larry’s comments about the winrate. I also managed to get the Gold standard
in all the Levels I’ve played so far (15 to be exact). But maybe the average
hardcore Euro strategist like us isn’t the real target audience. Not sure what
Google translate made out of it, but I can assure that the German rules are fine
(… at least for a German).
Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers
I love it:
I like it: Larry, Mario
Neutral:
Not for me:
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DALE YU: REVIEW OF PORTALS
Posted on March 6, 2024 by Dale Yu
PORTALS
* Designer: Maxim Istomin
* Publisher: CrowD Games
* Players: 1-4
* Age: 10+
* Time: 20 min/player
* Played with copy provided by publisher
The great wizard Dominick Dey discovered a way to travel between different
worlds using elemental magic, and spent centuries bringing back amazing
artifacts, strange fruits, and exotic creatures. But one day he did not return
home, and his fate remains unknown. In this abstract game, you are travelers
between worlds. Your task is to follow the path of the famous wizard, collecting
magic keys and using them to open portals to other worlds. Only a mage whose
mastery rivals Dominick Dey’s will find him first and win the game! During the
game, players draft fabulous Elemental stones to complete various shapes on Key
cards. By activating completed Key cards, players fill Elemental boards with
stones and gain Victory Points for matching colors and adjacency.
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Posted in Essen 2023, Reviews | 1 Comment
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