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Top 10 games I played for the first time in 2021

By Meeple Lady | December 30, 2021 | Comments 11 comments

We’ve made it to the end of 2021. Give yourselves a big pat on the back! 2021 was by far not an easy year for many, but I was thankfully able to play more games this year in person with close friends and family. Here are the top 10 games that I played for the first time in 2021.

10. Red Cathedral

The resource wheel in Red Cathedral, where you can pick up jewels, bricks and other materials.

Players in Red Cathedral are working to construct portions of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. They claim sections of the wall, and then later deliver goods to complete construction. Players can also decorate theirs and other player’s sections with decorations, in an attempt to gain area control majorities along each column of the cathedral. The mechanism that I adore about this game is the resource wheel where you collect resources based on where the die’s pips on the wheel. It’s a neat puzzly addition to your typical resource collection and delivery. Plus, it comes in a box half the size of your typical euro game.

9. Villagers

Villagers is a chill drafting game where you’re building out your village.

This darling card drafting game had been on my radar for a while but I never got a chance to play it until this past year. In Villagers, you are refugees who have survived the Great Plague working to start your own village again. You get to decide who can come set up in your village, whether crafts people, tradespeople, etc. The artwork is just so adorable, and it’s a chill low-stakes game of city building and manufacturing VPs. The game plays 1-5 players, which fulfills many game-night player combinations.

8. Angola

I got a chance to play Angola! this past summer at Consimworld.

Angola! is probably one of the most unique wargames I’ve ever played — it’s played in teams and you pre-program your commands, one of which must be a dummy command. Bonkers! Two factions are backed from the U.S. (FNLA and UNITA), and the other two are backed by the Soviets (FAPLA and MPLA). It’s a neat element I have not encountered. Also, if more wargames were team-based, I can see people being less intimated to jump into these types of games.

7. Beyond the Sun

I’ve only played Beyond the Sun on Board Game Arena, but it totally made my top 10 list.

Tech tree — the game! It kind of floors me that somehow a game designer managed to make a board game with a space theme that is incredibly dry, and I should know because I’ve played my fair share of crunchy yet incredibly dry eurogames. Most of the space games I’ve played are dripping with thematic epicness, and this game manages to turn that theme into cube-pushing in space. But, Beyond the Sun is oh, it’s so much fun! There’s something really satisfying about moving up the research tracks and managing your resources as you unlock portions of your player board. And sure, you’re “exploring” and “colonizing” in space over on this side of the board, it all just comes down to how many more ships do you have than the other player to collect these resources. Full disclosure though, I’ve only played this game on Board Game Arena.

6. Unfathomable

In Unfathomable, you’re on a cruise ship trying to survive the Deep Ones and all sorts of bad stuff.

Nope, this will never replace my beloved No. 1 game of all time Battlestar Galactica, but this reskin is worthy enough to hit my top 10 this year. Unfathomable is now set in the horror mythos world of Cthulhu and H.P. Lovecraft, with characters sailing across the Atlantic on the SS Atlantica. The game is immediately out to get you, and you don’t know which of your fellow boatmates have been turned into Deep One hybrids. While this game does not streamline the original BSG game (as some gamers had hoped for before Unfathomable was released), it’s still an immersive and haunting experience worth playing.

5. Mercado de Lisboa

Mercado de Lisboa is like Lisboa without a million steps in between action.

Lisboa is one of my absolute favorite games, but sometimes you just do not have the bandwidth to play such a long and complex game. Enter Mercado de Lisboa, a short puzzly brain-burner that clocks in at about 30-45 minutes, co-designed by Vital Lacerda himself. Players are building stalls and restaurants in order to bring in customers looking to pay for those goods. And like the storefront building portion of the original game, you’re trying to open in a location that will score up to three times.

4. Cascadia

The wooden tokens and hexagon terrain tiles make Cascadia such a gorgeous game.

This game was a surprise hit for me this year. Cascadia is just absolutely gorgeous, a tapestry of the Pacific Northwest. Players are building out their habitats and placing animals on hexagonal tiles in order to score objectives, either for the animal and/or largest continuous habitat. The dual drafting of the tiles and animals (players one of the four sets) adds strategy and depth to an otherwise basic tile-laying game. And its artwork is sure to lure nature lovers in for a game.

3. Dominant Species: Marine

We’re under the sea in Dominant Species: Marine.

I had been anticipating this sequel to the original GMT game and it did not disappoint. Dominant Species: Marine is a more streamlined game than the original, and while gameplay is also similar, a big difference is that your special abilities are not tied to your species (there are only four in this game), and they can be replaced as cards come into play. I also like the special action pawn spots that players can accumulate when they’re dominating in a habitat. Calculating domination is easier to do in this game, making the game less fiddly than the original, and the striking artwork makes this game a draw to the table.

2. The Field of the Cloth of Gold

You get a gift, I get a gift, everyone gets a gift in The Field of the Cloth of Gold!

Quite absolutely my favorite 2-player game of this year, The Field of the Cloth of Gold is simple to learn and quick to play, yet completely agonizing and just plain maddening! Every time you take a turn, you present a gift to your opponent, the random tile that’s placed on that action spot. This very thing creates an unbelievably high tension between you two, a strategic dance to avoid giving your opponent the tile they need, which often sits on the action you truly want to take. It’s an absurd gift-giving mechanism that forces you to hand over a gift while you smile through gritted teeth. It’s so unbelievably good.

1. Praga Caput Regni

Yes, this game looks super busy, but eurogamers will catch on quickly in this game.

Here we are at the top of the list! Praga Caput Regni was an instant love from the first play at Consimworld back in September. Not enough euros incorporate a timing element to game play (Tzolk’in is one of the few that come to mind), and this game does not disappoint. Various actions that players take on their turn cost more money or hand out victory points, depending on their point in time on the Action Crane, which rotates every turn. It’s very clever! In Praga, players are working to improve New Prague City by building city walls, bridges, the cathedral or other civic projects.

And just like that, we’ve reached the end of 2021. Where exactly did 2020 and 2021 go? It simultaneously feels like a blur and an eternity all at the same time. I feel fortunate for having been able to play a lot of new games this year, enough to craft a top 10 list. And for those who aren’t on social media, I also celebrated a personal milestone this past fall and married this wonderful gent.

Here’s to a wonderful 2022! May we all be safe and healthy, and play a bunch more games! What are some of your favorites of the past year?

Consimworld 2021: Attending A Convention Again

By Meeple Lady | September 23, 2021 | Comments 1 comment

A few weeks ago, on Aug. 28-Sept. 4, Consimworld held its annual convention in Tempe, and it was my first in-person convention since late 2019 because of the pandemic. My friends and I were going back and forth about attending something like this in person, and after attending the first day, we felt safe enough to attend during the week.

The convention was capped at 200 people, a group smaller than the usual amount, but in all honesty, even on the busiest day (the weekends), it did not feel like that many people were in attendance all at once. The convention kept the same space as previous years and tables were placed more spread apart. While masks were optional per Arizona rules, there were people masked up. I also didn’t mingle as much during the con and instead played with my usual groups. All these things helped calm my nerves about the whole situation, and I had such a great time gaming nonstop for many, many days.

The entrance to the ballroom for Consimworld. I mostly gamed on tables in the foyer, which was close to the outside doors.

The night before the convention, my buddy Dan Bullock flew into town, and I taught him two of my favorite Hollandspieles. We played The Field of the Cloth of Gold and Brave Little Belgium.

Hollandspiele’s The Field of the Cloth of Gold is a perfect filler game.

Aug. 28

Dan and I arrived bright and early on Saturday morning to game. And like by early, I mean around 10 a.m. I am not a morning person.

We are ready to play games! As you can see, it wasn’t too crowded when we arrived Saturday morning.

We started this day by playing Red Cathedral as a 2P. I really enjoyed this game — I think its resource wheel is such a great game mechanism — but the scoring for two players threw me for a loop. The person with the second majority for a cathedral tower only gets one-third of the points. I think I will stick to 3-4P for this game.

I just love this resource wheel in Red Cathedral.

We then played what’s becoming to be our annual game of Maria. This 3P game based on the War of Austrian Succession is so good — and since we’ve been playing it every year, we’ve gotten much better at playing it.

Let’s go Prussia, Saxony and Pragmatic Army! I was holding my own until one of my armies transferred ownership.

Next up was a 3P game of Iberian Gauge. So this first game was such a learning experience, and we learned the hard way that the three people playing should not have started railroad companies far away from each other on the map! Our company stock prices were so low! Despite that — and the endless money exchanging that can bog down the game a bit — I already enjoy this game much better than its predecessor Irish Gauge.

Our first ill-fated game where us three did not start near each other.

We ended our day with Mexica, one of the meanest but most gorgeous games out there. Look at all those chonky, fun pyramids! *Making grabby hands gesture* This game is very cut-throat. Mean people will take over your district and block you from coming in. And by mean people, I mean me.

Mexica is such a gorgeous game. I adore these resin pyramids.

Aug. 29

On Sunday, Dan taught us Cuba Libre, a game I actually own but had never got on table. This is one of the shortest COIN games, clocked in at 3 hours, and a smaller deck with four propaganda cards. For those unfamiliar, propaganda cards are shuffled into the deck at certain intervals, and when one of those cards comes up, the table checks if one faction has achieved their objective and wins the game. We lost so badly to Dan.

First time playing Cuba Libre! This is one of the shortest COIN games out there.

Next up was Underwater Cities. My gaming group and I have been playing this game a lot online and it was a little chaotic to play in real life after being used to the program doing everything for you. There are just so many bits and pieces! Nonetheless, I enjoyed this game and won for the first time ever.

In Underwater Cities, I like how your hand of cards affects which actions you’ll take.

I then played another game of The Field of the Cloth of Gold. Seriously, best filler game ever. Including the teach, this game is probably about 20 minutes long. Easy peasy, and yet so agonizing!

I ended the day with a game of Meltwater. And while I feel like I’ve played games where the game board is disappearing on you (i.e. Survive: Escape from Atlantis), the bleakness of this game is just so brutal. Humanity is dealing with the effects of nuclear fallout, and the only habitable place on earth is Antarctica, which is slowly being polluted with radiation. My people did not survive.

The world is ending, and Antarctica is the only place that’s habitable for humans.

Aug. 30

I started the day with an in-person demo from Dan, co-designer of In the Shadows. I enjoyed the card play of this game, which involves suits, initiatives and action points, and how certain outcomes are resolved through its own deck. I like that much better than rolling a die. This game is on GMT’s P500 as part of the company’s Lunchtime Games series, games that run about 20-60 minutes.

We busted out Dan’s prototype of In The Shadows.

We then played Tigris and Euphrates. It’s my first time playing this Renier Knezia classic. We didn’t build many temples during the game, except for me, and that made a world of difference in my winning score. That said, I had no idea what I was doing the entire game. Beginner’s luck I guess, but would definitely play this again.

This temple ended up being the only one built in this game.

Monday nights are Consimworld’s welcome ceremony. I popped in for a minute to take this photo but didn’t want to spend too much time in a smaller room as it felt a little crowded to me. Nonetheless, the crowd was much smaller this year because of the attendance cap, for which I’m grateful for.

This room is usually super packed, but it’s a much smaller crowd this year. At left is John Kranz, convention organizer.

The last big game of the evening was Barrage. Dang, this game is so crunchy! I have only played it once two years ago at Consimworld 2019 (a prototype, no less!), but I knew back then that this brain-burner of a game would totally be up my alley. We played with the expansion, giving players asymmetrical powers. I love the game’s brutality, but also how everyone knows when all the water will flow so that you can plan accordingly.

Please send water. I love this deluxified version of this game with its 3D board.

We winded down the day with a game of Mandala. Along with The Field of the Cloth of Gold, Mandala is another recent favorite 2P game.

Once all six colors are represented, the mandala scores and cards are added to your cup for set collection.

Players are placing cards into their fields or mountains, and when all the colors are represented, the mandala is scored. Part area control, hand management and set collection, Mandala is a tense abstract in which you get to choose how your set collections will score. Pretty neat, and it has a gorgeous cloth mat that accompanies the game.

Aug. 31

During the course of the convention, Angola! was one of the games sitting on our table, which prompted a considerable number of people stopping by and commenting on the game. “This is such a good game!” they’d comment, which completely piqued my interest in getting it on table during the con, but we ended up scrambling to find a fourth player. At the 11th hour, like literally 9:59 a.m., we had found someone available to play at our 10 a.m. game. Success!

We wargaming with plexi and everything! What a fun experience!

Angola! is probably one of the most unique wargames I’ve ever played — it’s played in teams and you pre-program your commands. Wuuut!! Two factions are backed from the U.S. (FNLA and UNITA), and the other two are backed by the Soviets (FAPLA and MPLA). It’s a neat element I have not encountered. Also, if more wargames were team-based, I can see people being less intimated to jump into these types of games.

My deck of cards, which you preprogram for each turn. As the game progresses, you have more of your deck to choose from.

At the start of each turn, players program their cards, which represent chit stacks on the board, including the card that’s a blank bluffing card, and one by one, each player plays a card and takes an action. As the game progresses, your hand of cards gets bigger while the win condition thresholds get lower for the different teams. There’s also a mechanism for if your team is falling behind: you’ll be able to draw random cards from the foreign aid deck for reinforcement.

During the game, you assign column chits to your troops on the board. When you play the matching card, you activate the stack.

Next up was Pax Pamir 2, my top game of 2019 . So sleek, so entrenched in history, and so approachable, one that I can see getting on table often once I get my copy. (Which I hope is soon from the Kickstarter late last year!)

The last game of the night was a four-player game of Iberian Gauge. Since this was a second play for most of us playing, we did make the error of starting too far away from each other. That combined with another player made our company stocks skyrocket, which made for a very different game than the last.

Sept. 2

Thursday of the convention was my last day gaming. I had been looking forward to a game of Dominant Species: Marine all week. I had only played the original one time many years ago, but I remember really enjoying it but also getting crushed by the glaciers. Also, that game was very long. Marine, however, is a 4P game, instead of the original 6P, and this immensely helps with the playtime. Alas, there are no more cones in the game.

Isn’t this gorgeous? Players also receive their own play board, where you keep your ability card and which elements you can survive in.

A big difference in this game is that each species doesn’t have base abilities; you get ability cards to choose at the start of the game that give you a special power. Also, when you put a pawn on an action location, it resolves immediately, instead of waiting for everyone to place their pawns and resolving the actions down the action board. Similar to the old game, once you take an action, you can’t take an action above where you’re just placed, unless you reset and take all your pawns back. I enjoyed the few times I had a special pawn (which is gained from when you dominate in an element), which unlocks special actions on the board only available to special pawns and can also bump regular pawns.

Dominant Species: Marine — where are all the cones? The removal of cones, and the streamlining of game play, makes this games shine.

Lastly, I got to play Praga Caput Regni. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to play this game. Instant love! It’s a crunchy euro that adds a timing element. Players are working to improve New Prague City by building city walls, bridges, the cathedral or other civic projects. On your turn, you take an action that’s depicted on the Action Crane, which moves every turn. Sometimes the action costs money if it’s too early in the wheel, while other times, the action will give you VPs because nobody has taken that action in a while. Very clever! Plus, the king loves eggs. (Those are worth VPs at the end, too).

This looks like a very busy board, and it is, in the most euro way possible.

And that was Consimworld 2021! Thank you for making it down to the bottom of this post. I took extra days off after this convention so I could isolate and take a COVID-19 test, which came back negative, just to make sure I don’t get others sick. Overall, I had a great time. Everyone seemed respectful of keeping their distance, and the Tempe Mission Palms, where the convention was held made sure tables were spread out and that regular sanitizing occurred. Thanks Consimworld for having me! And hope to see you all there next year!

Congrats! You’ve completed your bridge building. Now give me all the eggs!

Friendship Con 2021: Atlanta

By Meeple Lady | August 20, 2021 | Comments 3 comments

My buddies and I try to meet up every year for our mini-convention affectionally dubbed Friendship Con. I couldn’t make it in 2019, and, for obvious reasons, a 2020 convention didn’t happen. Earlier this month though, we did manage to make plans and meet in Atlanta, where one attendee lives, and game together for nearly five days. And dear readers, after being cooped up in our homes and not playing in person for a very, very long time, the time in Atlanta was glorious.

Driving in Atlanta after picking up some dinner.

I flew into Atlanta and arrived early Wednesday evening, and after a quick dinner stop at Hattie B’s for hot chicken — I love all things spicy — we kicked off our convention by hanging out and playing Glory to Rome. This game was the first of many Glory to Rome games during our time here, and it was great to get re-familiar with this game as well as trying it out at different player counts and petitions (either Republica Romana or Imperium Romanum).

The sweetest part for me was that my friends surprised me with bachelorette party festivities that included matching pink and gold meeple T-shirts, cupcakes and balloons. I was so touched and super surprised! (Insert crying emoji here)

My friends are absolutely the best. Aren’t these T-shirts adorable?

Thursday

We then began Thursday morning with a game of Glory to Rome. If I remember correctly, I won this game, taking advantage of my Temple building, which expanded my hand size to 9 cards, vital to being able to follow others’ actions and/or spending cards to be able to do so.

I then taught Fort, which started a little clunky because I had misread the rule on cards in your Lookout, but after that snag, the game went swimmingly, and we even played Fort again a few days later. I was excited to play it as a 4P, after only playing it as a 2P last year. Time between turns at 4P didn’t seem long, as the game keeps you actively engaged by following the leader’s action.

My one friend loves to bake, so he made a bunch of yummy baked goods all weekend. These loaves were great with just butter or in a sandwich. We ate a lot of baked goods in Atlanta.

Fresh-baked bread! Warning, there are many food photos in this post.

Next, we played Rajas of the Ganges. This game is a great blend of dice rolling and worker placement. You have to manage your dice supply, which I failed to do, so you can take a majority of the actions, and I spent a couple turns collecting more dice to use on future turns. It also has a neat end-game trigger where you’re racing to have your opposite resources cross each other on the tracks around the board.

Rajas of the Ganges is so colorful and gorgeous board.

The last game we played on Thursday was Xia: Legends of a Drift System. One guy taught us an intro scenario, with the game ending at 6 points. I knew nothing about Xia before this game, but I’m always down to try epic space games, and Xia certainly fits into that criteria.

I particularly enjoyed that players can upgrade and modify their ships however they want (provided it fits onto your ships with polyomino ship part tiles), providing a unique gaming experience for all players. Heck, even blind-jumping into a black hole didn’t end up being too bad. FYI, it was not me; I’m so risk-averse to that type of exploration.

Exploring space and picking up cargo in Xia.

Friday

On Friday morning, I made a Filipino breakfast with chicken longganisa (sausage), garlic fried rice, dried fish and egg — also known as a longsilog. And the breakfast was complete with banana sauce to tie everything together. Sarap! (That’s yummy in Tagalog.)

After a quick morning game of Glory to Rome, I taught a game of Abandon All Artichokes. This is a quick card game that introduces the game mechanism of deck building. The artwork is just adorable, and the goal of the game is, by building out your deck each round, to eventually draw a hand of cards without any artichokes in them on your turn.

Such a neat game! I’ve been playing this a lot on Board Game Arena.

The next game was one highlight of my weekend: Battlestar Galactica! It’s my absolute favorite game! I got a chance to play as Helo, my favorite character and was human for most of the game, until the one cylon revealed himself and gave his second cylon loyalty card to me because I was currently the admiral. We then scrambled to make the humans lose, and we succeeded in doing so. Fun times! #SoSayWeAll

I was totally human in this game until near the end when I got activated.

Next, we played Wavelength — a game I had only played on Twitter with the game account, and it was a lot of fun trying to figure out clues that would lead players to guess the range correctly. My favorite example was Bad Actor Vs Good Actor, and I was the clue giver. I had blindly spun the range, and it landed in the middle. You then cover it up and make others move the needle to the area on the spectrum where the range was. My clue was: Nic Cage.

There was a great deal of discussion between whether he was a good actor or a bad one, and people ultimately decided he was somewhere in the middle. They then moved the needle to the middle, and we scored 4 points! Such a fun party game.

I then jumped into a 6-player game of Acquire. This game is a classic, but at 6P, it’s quite bonkers. It’s very hard to plan your next move as any company can be created or fold before it gets back to your turn, so you just have to roll with it and hope that you get those majority payouts when someone merges with the casino chain you have stocks for.

A classic version of the classic game of Acquire.

After dinner, I played a game of Dune: Imperium, a game I had been excited to check out. It’s a deck builder/worker placement, set in the world of Dune, and it actually features actors in the upcoming movie. Oscar Isaac, anyone? Yes, please!

While playing the game, I found it really difficult to get water, which thematically makes sense, but had an abundance of spice that I regularly sold to the market. The game has such good production quality, but in terms of recent deckbuilder worker-placement hybrid games, I enjoyed Lost Ruins of Arnak a wee bit more, a game we’ve been playing frequently online. But, I would definitely play Dune again if someone local had a copy.

Building my deck, and searching for water and spices in Dune: Imperium.

I then learned Fantastic Factories. This is also a dice rolling/worker placement game where your workers are the dice. You’re constructing buildings and factories that produce goods and/or victory points. I really liked the artwork on this, and there’s something very satisfying about getting the right rolls for maximum output on your cards. When I returned to Phoenix after Atlanta, I saw that Game Nerdz had this game as its Deal of the Day for $22, and I currently now own a copy.

Enjoyed Fantastic Factories, a dice engine builder!

Friday’s epic game day ended with an equally epic dessert that my baking friend had made completely from scratch: a tarte tropézienne. The brioche took about a day to make, and the cream middle was just heavenly. It was the first time I had ever heard of this dessert, much less tried it.

The airy, sugary goodness of a tarte tropezienne.

Saturday

Saturday began with brioche French toast for breakfast, part of the same brioche batch from the dessert the night before. It was excellent.

Yes to more brioche! This time in French toast form.

We then played a few games of Just One, one of my absolute favorite party games ever. It’s seriously so fun and easy for all types of gamers to play. I’ve introduced Just One to many different sets of friends, and hilarity always ensues.

Players write down one word to help the clue-guesser guess the clue, but if they write down the same word as another player, they don’t get to show the clue-guesser their word. Sometimes it gets really hard (in a good, funny way) when as the clue guesser you’re left with one or two random words that have no context to each other. Also, I think everyone really enjoys writing with dry-erase markers on the plastic nameplate.

Next up was Chronology. This is a chill filler where you’re placing event cards along a timeline in front of you. It’s good for trivia and history buffs alike, but it’s forgiving enough where you can kind of guess when these events in history took place if your timeline is very spaced out in terms of its dates. If all your cards are dated close together, well, good luck!

I then got a chance to play BSG again. Such a treat! Sadly, I ignored the cardinal rule of this game by Executive Ordering the person on my left, who I totally thought was human. He then did a Brig check to get himself out of the Brig, and then revealed he was a cylon. The person on his left was also a cylon, and us humans didn’t stand a chance after that, and they eventually wiped out our population to zero. Womp womp.

All the human resources were in the red, and the humans eventually lost.

Next up was the Crew. So full disclosure: I played all 50 missions of The Crew on Board Game Arena earlier this year, and since it was all virtual, it added extra obstacles that you don’t normally run into when you’re playing the game in person. For example, remembering, sorta, what’s already been played during that mission, and asking simple yes/no questions that would take a minute in person but would take the course of one day online.

To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the Crew, but I played a few missions to see if I’d like it better. It’s still OK, but I appreciate how innovative it is in using trick-taking as a mechanism of game play, and not just the game play itself. And I can see how people familiar with trick-taking card games would enjoy this challenge.

Completing missions via trick taking in The Crew.

We then busted out Metro X, a short flip-and-fill. You’re trying to fill in train stations on a Japanese transit map using cards that are flipped over one at a time. Completing train routes will net VPs, and empty spots will be negative points at the end of the game. I like how you can write on these plastic cards, instead of using paper sheets for each game.

You can see that I did not full out all of my train stations. Alas.

After a few more games of Fort and Glory to Rome, which now everyone enjoys playing when there’s an hour in between games to end, we decided to play a 4-player game of Irish Gauge. At previous conventions, we usually play Chicago Express, and Irish Gauge has similar elements to the game, but as my one buddy put it, “It’s Chicago Express on crack.” Good times.

Sunday

On Sunday, we again began our morning playing a game of Glory to Rome. And then we busted out one of my absolute favorite games: Lisboa. I taught a three-player game of this, and it was a success. I ended up winning my first game of this. Just because I play this a lot and teach it at conventions doesn’t necessarily mean I win games.

Lisboa is one of my favorite games, even if your brain melts a little every time you play it.

We then parted ways on Sunday night to fly back to Phoenix. I packed up my stuff and games, including the neat swag bag my friend got all of us. I checked in my bag because I was unsure if TSA would allow me to fly with mega-tweezers, and I did not want my fantastic gift to get confiscated. My giant-tweezer collection grows!

If you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading! Thanks million to my amazing friends who made Friendship Con 2021 in Atlanta memorable. I think Phoenix will be the location of next year’s convention. And in case you were wondering, we’re already talking about our plans for it.

Pusheen Purrfect Pick: Perfect game for new gamers

By Meeple Lady | May 12, 2021 | Comments 4 comments

This review of Pusheen Purrfect Pick was featured on Episode 108 of The Five By. Check out the rest of the episode, which also features aco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, Lucky Numbers, Ginkgopolis and Burgle Bros 2.

The American Tabletop Awards recently announced their top games for 2020 in four categories: Early Gamers, Casual Games, Strategy Games, and Complex Games. Soon after, a discussion launched off on Twitter regarding the naming convention, and how the word “early” is a much better alternative for what many would call “filler” or “gateway” games. The group members said they selected that term because they wanted to be respectful without being reductive.

And as we know, as gamers dive deeper into the hobby, the term “gateway” is thrown around toward such games as Ticket to Ride, Catan, etc. to signify which game got them into the hobby. But we forget that these aforementioned games can be difficult for someone who has had no previous gaming experience whatsoever. And that high barrier to entry can be a turnoff from diving into our wonderful world.

So what makes a good game for early gamers — those completely new to modern board games? The consensus seems to be a game that’s fun and can be taught very quickly and easily. Pusheen Purrfect Pick fits that criteria, along with its delightful artwork that makes it easy to draw new gamers in. The card game from Ravensburger, designed by Steve Warner, was published in 2021 plays 2 to 5 players and takes about 30 minutes to play, and comes with a nice glossy double-sided board, two decks of cards and a Pusheen figurine made of a study rubber material that’s used as a first-player marker.

For those unacquainted, Pusheen is a cartoon cat, a rotund, adorable gray feline with little feets that’s an internet sensation. Her cuteness is directly translated in this board game, which includes her house, friends and yummy treats, a perfect game for new gamers and for experienced gamers who want something completely chill with the potential for a little playful meanness.

The game comes a sturdy, glossy game board that’s double sided. This is the side with Pusheen’s house.

To set up the game, pick one of the board’s sides — either the setting for inside Pusheen’s house or outside at the park — and place 12 random essentials cards face up on each space marked with a dotted line. Then randomly place 4 Snapshot cards face up next to the game board. Give the Pusheen figure to the player who most recently fed a cat as they’ll go first. This, sadly, will never be me as I’m deathly allergic to cats and will only play with cats in board games.

This side of the game board is set in the park. Essentials cards are placed in the dotted lines.

The game is played over a series of rounds, in which the active player places the Pusheen figurine on a paw space on the board. These paw spaces are situated in between four essentials cards, and the active player selects one of the cards to put into their hand. They then check to see if they satisfy any of the requirements from one of the face-up Snapshot cards, and if they do, discard the Essential cards for it, take the Snapshot card and place it in front of them. Each Snapshot card has victory points on it as indicated by the star symbols on it.

Then the rest of the players in clockwise order do the same exact thing: choose one of the remaining cards surrounding Pusheen — or draw a random one from the Essentials deck — to put it into their hand, and then score any of the Snapshot cards remaining.

The Snapshot cards have requirements printed on them to score their victory points, as indicated by the number of stars on the card.

Game play continues until one player has 10 or more stars. If no one has 10 or more stars yet, then the Pusheen figurine passes to the player on the left, and a new round begins.

Easy peasy, right? Describing how to play the game took less than a minute to explain. It’s purrfect for early gamers. (See what I did there?)

So what’s on an Essentials card? There are three types: friends, items and actions. Friends and items cards provide the items necessary to fulfill Snapshot cards. They include charming things like other fluffy cats, rainbows, diamonds and the like. Action cards require the play to do them immediately as soon as they pick up the card. Some actions include removing Essentials Cards from the board or choosing any layer to give you a card of their choice. Actions to mix up the game.

The artwork in this game is just so adorable. But of course it is because Pusheen herself is very adorable.

For more experienced gamers, this game’s drafting mechanism for the gamed as if you see that an opponent needs a specific Essentials card to fulfill a high-value Snapshot card, you can place Pusheen away from any of those cards. It can be a little mean, especially at high player counts, because then it’ll be four turns until you get to place Pusheen where you want her. Again, the game is light enough that it’s just playful meanness.

But in the grand scheme of gaming, this meanness is a small possibility as most new gamers will probably not be playing like this.The game’s sturdy, high-gloss components mean this game can be played just about anymore. And it’s very portable — the box size is a small square, like those 2-player games you’ve seen from Patchwork or Targi.

Pusheen Purrfect Pick is 100 percent a light game. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s anything other than that. But for what type of game it is, it’s just delightful and something that is purrfect for early gamers and those who love adorableness.

And that’s Pusheen Purrfect Pick! This is Meeple Lady for The Five By. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as Meeple Lady, or on my website boardgamemeeplelady.com. Thanks for listening! Bye!

Brave Little Belgium: The WWI little army that could

By Meeple Lady | February 26, 2021 | Comments 1 comment

This review of Brave Little Belgium was featured on Episode 105 of The Five By. Check out the rest of the episode, which also features Codinca, Root: The Marauder Expansion, Dice Throne and Concept.

Every so often there’s a discussion online about how to bring in more diversity to wargaming and how to make wargames more accessible. There isn’t enough time on this podcast segment to address the first issue, but for the second one, having a rulebook that isn’t the length of a novella helps immensely. For gamers who don’t play wargames, there’s nothing else more daunting — well, other than a grumpy grognard on your table — than opening up a new wargame, seeing a million chits and a 50-page rulebook.

Luckily, publishers like Hollandspiele, which specializes in military history games, offers one such game that’s perfect for gamers who want to dip their toe into the proverbial wargaming pool. Brave Little Belgium, designed by Ryan Heilman and David Shaw, is a quick-playing 2-player wargame that came out in 2019 and plays in about an hour. The game comes with a mapsheet of Belgium, 8 dice, and 88 chit counters.

Brave Little Belgium is a 2-player wargame that came out in 2019.

The game is a great introduction to popular wargaming mechanisms such as chits and chit pulls, and the rulebook is an easily digestible and understandable eight pages. The game takes place during World War I. Germany has declared war on France and needs to plow through Belgium, which declared itself neutral but is now working with allies to try to hold off those German forces. One player plays as Germany, while the other plays as the Entente forces, which consist of Belgium, French and British troops.

The game takes place over at least 6 turns, max 8. The setup is probably the hardest part of the game — that is if you don’t know your Belgium geography. Chits are separated by army, and stacks of them are placed at various points on the map. There’s a handy-dandy diagram on the back of the rulebook, which I missed the first time I played and couldn’t help but laugh at myself when I realized it existed. There are also fort markers that are placed at the fort locations. Lastly, Garde Civique chits are randomly placed face-down across cities and towns on the map by rolling two dice and consulting the chart on the player mapsheet.

This chart for the Garde Civique setup makes each game a little different.

The army generals’ chits that start the game are placed in a cup of your choosing, as well as three Turn End chits, and special events chits that favor each player. A couple other army generals are placed on the turn track, meaning when that turn starts, they get thrown into the cup for the potential for their army to activate.

Chit pulls are a popular wargaming mechanism. You randomly draw a chit from the cup, and then that army activates. When three Turn End chits are pulled out, the turn ends. Sometimes that happens much faster or longer than you anticipated, which contributes to the tension of the game. There’s nothing like staring at your opponent and dramatically pulling the exact chit you need.

The turn ends when three Turn End chits are pulled. Here you can see all the generals that were activated.

Army forces are split into two types: infantry and cavalry. Infantry have two movement points, while cavalry have four movement points. Movement across the map takes one movement point between straight lines or two movement points between squiggly lines.

When an army enters a location that contains their opponents’ chits, a battle occurs. Players then move their chits to the battle section of the mapsheet and separate their troops based on their combat factor. The chits are clearly marked with a picture of a dice to represent that. Both players roll dice and hand out hits accordingly. This battle box is actually quite handy and makes it easy to understand how battles work.

The victory line on the west side of the mapsheet marks one of the German troop’s objectives.

For example, a unit with a combat factor of 5 has to roll a five or higher on their roll to successfully hit their opponent. To apply losses to your armies, you either turn the chit over, revealing a weaker army unit, or remove them from the game.

When battles occur at a fort, the fort will roll a number of dice based on each step it possesses, and it needs to roll a 5 or higher to hit. As the fort takes hits, and this is after all the army units have been depleted, it loses a step and it’s turned counter clockwise to indicate that.

Having this box on the mapsheet makes it easy to play out battles, and the Combat chit is placed on the location from which the battle is taking place.

To win, the German player must destroy a fort at Liege, destroy the fort at Namur and occupy a city on the other side of the victory line on the western side of the mapsheet with an infantry unit. The German player must complete these objectives by the Aug. 19-21 turn. If the German completes these objectives after that turn on Aug. 22-24, then the game is a draw. If the German player does this on the final turn of the game, the Aug. 25-27, then it is an Entente victory. To summarize, the longer the Entante player can hold off the German forces, the better.

There is one other way the German player can lose. When three Turn End chits are pulled and the turn ends, the German player can activate any armies that didn’t get activated during that turn. But they must roll a die first, and if they roll a 4, 5 or 6, they commit an atrocity and move up the atrocity track. The German player then moves their army like a regular activation. If the German player commits 5 atrocities, they immediately lose the game.

If the Germans commit five atrocities, they immediately lose the game.

If you’re vaguely interested in checking out a wargame but don’t know where to start, then Brave Little Belgium is a good one to check out for an hourlong game of battles, strategic movement, chit-pulling and dice rolling. It’s a classic David Vs. Goliath situation (the Belgium troops are small and spread out at the beginning, and the German forces are coming in hot and heavy, and it makes for a satisfying win when the Belgian army holds them off. I also particularly appreciate how you’re eased into the game with the introduction of more French and British troops each upcoming turn.

And that’s Brave Little Belgium! This is Meeple Lady for the Five By. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as Meeple Lady, or on my website boardgamemeeplelady.com. Thanks for listening. Bye!

The Field of the Cloth of Gold: Giving gifts even when you don’t want to

By Meeple Lady | January 25, 2021 | Comments 2 comments

Dear readers — Happy 2021! As you may have noticed, I didn’t end last year with a recap of the best games I’ve played in 2020 because, to be honest, I didn’t play too many new games last year and overall just felt so drained and uninspired. 2020 was such a bleak year for many, and it seemed for a brief moment that 2021 wasn’t off to a much better start.

This past week though, everything seems slightly less horrible. And that, my friends, is a start. And guess what? I even got some gaming in!

The Field of the Cloth of Gold is a 2-player game from Hollandspiele that came out in 2020.

I received The Field of the Cloth of Gold, published by Hollandspiele, during the holidays. Designer Tom Russell provides this charming description about it: “This game was created to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the world’s most famous three-week party, in which King Henry VIII of England, and Francis I of France, spent ridiculous amounts of money and resources to peacock at each other.”

The Field of the Cloth of Gold is a two-player game that plays in about 20 minutes. One player is the king of England, and the other the king of France, and players work to amass a hand of tiles so they can play those tiles into their court and score them when taking actions.

The tiles in the Field of the Cloth of Gold come in four colors.

Tiles come in four colors: gold, blue, white and red. Your hand is kept secret from your rival (I used tile holders from Rummikub so I wouldn’t have to hold tiles in my hand) while your court is in public view. Tiles that aren’t in your hand or your court, or on the board are kept in a container of your choice so that you can randomly draw them when needed. This place is called the Darkness — and yes, that’s what the rulebook calls it. Also worth noting that the rulebook is a mere four pages, making the game easy to learn and jump into.

There are seven locations on the cloth board — a very nice bonus to the game, I might add — and players have two tokens each that they can choose from to move to an open location for their one action on their turn.

The game can seem like your standard worker-placement point salad but for each action you take, your rival is presented with a gift — the tile that’s randomly drawn and placed at that action location — to be placed in their court.

This very thing creates an unbelievably high tension between you and your opponent, a strategic dance to avoid giving your opponent the tile they need, which often sits on the action you truly want to take. It’s an absurd gift-giving mechanism that forces you to hand over a gift while you smile through gritted teeth.

Every action location has a tile underneath it and that tile is gifted to your opponent when you take that spot.

There are seven action locations on the board.

The first spot is Dragon, where you move the dragon token so that the dragon blocks a location from being activated.
The second spot is Secrecy, where you can tiles from the Darkness. The number of tiles depends on where you’re sitting on the score track.
The third spot is Gold, where you reveal gold tiles from your hand and place them in your court. If you have more gold tiles than your rival, you score 2 points.
The fourth spot is Blue, where you reveal blue tiles from your hand and place them in your court. If you have 1/2/3+ tiles, you score 1/3/6 points. The blue tiles in your court are then removed from the game.
The fifth spot is White, where you reveal white tiles from your hand and place them in your court. You score 1 point per white tile in your court. The white tiles in your court are then removed from the game.
The sixth spot is Red, where the active player reveals their red tiles from their hand and places them into their court. Both players receive 1 point for each red tile in their court and then the red cards are discarded from the game. Note, the rival player does not get a chance to place red tiles into their court during this action.
The seventh spot is Purple, where you reveal all tiles from your hand and place it into your court. You score 2 points for each set in your court. A set is a collection of four tiles, one of each of the colors.

This back and forth continues until one person hits 30 points or there are no more tiles in the Darkness. Also, as one moves up the score track, they draw more tiles during Secrecy (represented by the black box in the photo below), ramping up the game. But as you move up the score track, your gold tiles are worth less at the end. These points from your gold tiles are added to your score on the score track, and the player with the most points wins the game.

The game ramps up as the players’ scores increase.

The Field of the Cloth of Gold is incredibly tense but also very fun! Game play is quick, and the game is over before you know it. A simple decision opens up opportunities for your rival and you try your best to mitigate them. I know I spent my games staring daggers at my opponent, hoping he’ll vacate the spot I need to score points. But then again, I also left my one token on the location he wanted to go to. And when in doubt, you can always send out the dragon to wreak some havoc!

Hanamikoji: Getting charm points with the geishas

By Meeple Lady | December 16, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

This review of Hanamikoji was featured on Episode 102 of The Five By. Check out the rest of the episode, which also features Forbidden Desert, Sorcerer City, Chai and Just One.

There was a time in my life when my two-player games sat unplayed on my shelves. But since 2020, the year that none of us could’ve ever predicted, many of those games have since hit the gaming table.

Hanamijoki, first reviewed by Ruth in Episode 18, is one of those delightful two-player games that have come into the rotation. Designed by Kota Nakayama and artwork by Maisherly and Mashiro Misaki, Hanamijoki is an abstract area majority card game that features gorgeous and colorful Japanese style geisha artwork.

One geisha is holding an umbrella, one playing a flute, one pouring tea — each scene is unique in activity and color. This version I have is published by EmperorS4 but this game is now being published by Deep Water Games.

Hanamikoji comes in a small box that’s easily transportable.

This small portable box, which is about the size of a small paperback, includes 7 geisha cards, 21 item cards, cardboard victory markers and cardboard action tokens — 4 for each player. Though the game comes with few components, it packs a big punch with its tension-filled back-and-forth gameplay. And you don’t need a lot of table space to play this game, which is good these days as many game tables have evolved into multi-purpose spaces within the household.

In Hanamikoji, players are working to gain the favor of the seven geishas by collecting their favored performance item, in this case, cards that match the geishas’ symbol. The seven geisha cards are displayed in between the two players, and this is where most of the gaming occurs as cards are placed above or below each geisha card based on which player plays them. Each geisha card has a number on the top left of the card, which indicates their charm points and equals the number of matching item cards for that geisha. The geishas range from 2 to 5 charm points.

Hanamikoji is played over three rounds. One item card is randomly removed at the start of each round. Players begin a round with a hand of six item cards, and on their turn, they draw an item card from the deck and spend one of their actions playing cards from their hand. For those actions, there are exactly four of them, and each player gets the same set to be used in any order by the player on their turn.

Hanamikoji action tiles — Each player has the same identical four action tiles.

The four actions are represented by cardboard tiles, and if a player uses that action during the round, they flip it over to the non-colored side. So, what are these actions?

The first one is choosing 1 card from your hand and placing it face down in front of you. This card will remain a secret and will be scored at the end of the round to go toward that geisha’s charm points.

The second action is choosing 2 cards from your hand and placing them face-down in front of you, and these cards will not be scored during this round.

The third action is choosing 3 cards from your hand and placing them face-up in front of you. Your opponent then selects one of these three cards to place in front of a geisha on their side, and you get to place the other two cards in front of a geisha on your side of the table.

The fourth action is selecting four cards from your hand and placing them in two piles of two cards each face up. Your opponent then selects one set of cards to place underneath the corresponding geisha, and you take the other ones to place in front your geisha.

Players go back and forth taking one action each until they’ve exhausted all their action tokens. Players flip over secret cards that score, and count which player the geisha favors based on the number of item cards each player has given them. The victory markers on the geisha card will then move toward the player who gains her favor.

Hanamikoji cards — Players play cards on their side of the board to gain charm points.

Players aim to win 4 geishas or 11 or more charm points. If there is no clear victory in the first round, players play until three rounds are over. In between rounds, the victory markers do not reset, but instead stay toward the side of the player who curried the geisha’s favor the previous round. If nobody gets the 4 geishas or 11 or more charm points after three rounds, the player with more geishas wins the game.

This game is tense! You’re initially presented with limited information, as the round progresses, more and more cards are revealed but there’s still are still hidden cards from the one your opponent saves and the one removed from the game.

You also have to make calculated guesses regarding which cards to play or save for a future action because you don’t want to get cornered into giving your opponent only good options because those are the only cards left in your hand.

Hanamikoji is quick to set up and easy to learn. It doesn’t take up a lot of table space, plays fairly quickly at 15-20 minutes, and is compact for easy travel, for when we all decide to travel again. Lastly, even though the game seems deceptively easy, there’s a lot of strategy to explore.

It’s one of the best “I cut/you choose” game mechanisms where you still feel like you have some sense of control over your destiny instead of being at the complete mercy of the other player. And the lovely artwork is just so pleasing and calming — when you’re not racking your brain about which cards to play.

And that’s Hanamikoji! This is Meeple Lady for The Five By. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as Meeple Lady, or on my website boardgamemeeplelady.com. Thanks for listening. Bye!

San Diego Historical Con 2020: Wargamers go online

By Meeple Lady | November 20, 2020 | Comments 3 comments

With in-person conventions falling by the wayside this year because of the global pandemic, a spate of online conventions have been cropping up. Last weekend, the San Diego Historical Games Convention — or SDHistCon for short — made the jump into the virtual convention world, and, as someone who has never been able to go in real life before, I’m so glad they did!

Run by Harold Buchanan — designer of the COIN game Liberty or Death: The American Insurrection — SDHistCon is a historical board and miniature gaming convention that’s taken place around the Veterans Day weekend. Buchanan said this year’s online convention took about five weeks to plan and it sold out in two weeks, with 170 gamers virtually attending. The in-person convention attracts wargamers from all over (there’s overlap with the Consimworld crowd), and who doesn’t want to spend a few days in sunny San Diego in November?

Buchanan has been running this convention since 2015. On this year’s experience, “first, we had an absolute blast managing the convention — a testament to the people involved. Second, the outpouring of appreciation from participants is overwhelming. I may have underestimated how much we needed the interaction with other gamers,” he said.

The entire convention was based out of Discord, which initially greeted you with the #Lobby, #Lounge and a few other general channels. The channels were then organized in alphabetical order by game designers, who then had their own subchannels (both for text and voice) for the games or sessions they were running. It made it easy to hunt down which room you were looking for based on the schedule on Tabletop Events. Inside the schedule, it also listed if a game or demo was going to be carried out via Tabletop Simulator or Vassal, online platforms many use for gaming, and whether you should download it ahead of time.

“We refused to go forward until we were comfortable the technology would work, we were properly staffed for support and we had the interest from the celebrity designers that have always made this con an unparalleled experience,” Buchanan said.

And that celebrity designers’ list? Impressive and consisting of many, many years of experience.

Friday

The COIN Reunion via Discord. I am totally fangirling here.

The first session I attended that Friday night was the COIN Reunion, a panel discussion with most of the great COIN designers of the GMT game series. The COIN designers present were Volko Ruhnke, Mark Herman, Morgane Gouyon-Rety, Bruce Mansfield and Brian Train. It was so lovely hanging out with them all in one space and learning more about each designer and their design processes, and what it took to get their game published. And here’s a hint: It definitely does not hurt to have Ruhnke look at your design!

I then popped into photographer Scott Mansfield’s “Photographing Your Games” session, and this was an absolute treat! Mansfield shared his presentation through the Discord stream, along with many tips for lighting and angles, as well as incorporating storytelling and compelling captions with your image on hand. Also, using simple tools such as foam core and flashlights, you can really make your image stand out. This was one highlight of my convention!

Look at how awesome all these wargames look! Scott Mansfield makes it look so easy!

After that, I hung out during “After Hours” with Moe & Harold while they caught up with designers Ananda Gupta and Bruce Mansfield, with Scott Mansfield joining in later on during the stream. Again, lots of fun, light-hearted discussion about each designer and their games, and the convention overall — like hanging out with a bunch of folks catching up.

“After Hours” with Moe and Harold on Moe’s YouTube channel.

Saturday

I popped into an afternoon demo for Hollandspiele’s Brave Little Belgium with designers Ryan Heilman and Dave Shaw. Two other players had signed up to play this, but I was observing the game through Vassal and listening in on the discussion on the Discord channel. Heilman was nice enough to navigate through how to find a room in Vassal, which I downloaded for the first time for this event. It’s always great when a designer teaches their game, and since I do own a copy of this, its time to get Brave Little Belgium on table soon.

Looking forward to playing Brave Little Belgium in person soon!

Later Saturday afternoon, I popped into Andrew Bucholtz’s table, where they were playing Liberty or Death, to say hello and watch a few rounds. I wanted to see how this game looked on Vassal, the online system I’m least familiar with since just downloading it for the first time during the Brave Little Belgium session. The board for Liberty in Vassal just looks so gorgeous!

Liberty, the second COIN I’ve played, has a gorgeous board.

On Saturday night, I joined Cole Wehrle during his panel discussion for a second edition of John Company. He his brother Drew streamed on Discord and Twitch, and it was neat seeing early iterations of John Company and learning what went behind its creation. I’m so looking forward to the updates to this sandbox-style negotiation game.

Cole and Drew Wehrle of Wehrlegig Games discussed upcoming second edition of John Company.

Lastly, I joined a game of Pax Pamir, my top game of 2019, with Dan Bullock and to other gamers. We played on Tabletop Simulator, with discussions on a table channel in Discord. The convention had a bunch of open tables for gamers to congregate in through Discord and get a game going. Our 4P game lasted two hours, and I won by getting the last dominance check, which doubles VPs for the check. Good times!

Sunday

On Sunday morning, I joined and watched a demo for Bullock’s latest game, 1979: Revolution in Iran. Like his previous game No Motherland Without, 1979 is another interesting and tense card-driven game. This game also adds a card-drafting mechanism to rounds — what an cool twist! Can’t wait until this game is out!

Overall, I had a great time at SD Hist Con. I particularly enjoyed the variety of games and panel discussions — there were so many events to choose from, and I’m bummed I couldn’t make it to more, such as the Wargaming Bootcamp! It’s also inspiring to see how battles or historic eras influenced these designers so much that they would devote a good chunk of their time to creating something for everyone to enjoy.

When asked what his highlight of convention was, Buchanan replied, “The chance to document and share the teaching of great designers like Mark Herman, John Butterfield, Cole Wehrle, David Thompson and Volko Ruhnke.”

But honestly, the real heroes were behind the scenes, folks like Bobby and others, who popped into sessions to make sure things were going swimmingly — technology wise — and were always so friendly when you popped into the #Lobby channel to ask a question. Thanks for everything! And a big thanks to Buchanan who enabled me to attend the weekend’s festivities. “It became personal for many to make the experience excellent,” he said.

And that it was. Whether gaming in person or virtually, the San Diego Historical Games Convention is a fun and inviting place to learn and play wargames.

Cinco: An underrated filler game on Board Game Arena

By Meeple Lady | October 19, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

Those who follow me on social media know that I’ve been playing a lot of games online, namely Board Game Arena. I am still not comfortable resuming my weekly game nights at my place, which bums me out as now I have a lot more space in our new house. One game that I’ve discovered on BGA — and have never heard of before until a few months ago — is Cinco.

Cinco is a quick end-of-night filler game that my friends and I have all enjoyed playing online. Think Connect 4 but with 5! Plus, fivefold more strategy than Connect 4. It plays about 15 minutes and worth checking out online.

In Cinco, you’re first dealt a hand of 4 cards. The cards go from 1 to 90, and when it’s your turn, you can either play a card, draw a card, or exchange your entire hand of cards if you have exactly 4 cards in your hand.

When you play a card, you place a marker on the board, which is this numbered hexagon, on any space the value of the card or higher. So, if you play a 65, you can place your marker on the 65 or any open space higher than that. When you select a card to play on your turn, the BGA interface actually shows you where you can place a marker. When you or your team connect five markers in a row, you win!

The 1 and 2 are valuable cards, because you can place the almost anywhere on the board.

You can play Cinco with up to 6 people, either two groups of 3 players, or three groups of pairs. We’ve enjoyed it as a 4P, as you play in two teams. You have no idea what cards your teammate holds, so it’s always so satisfying unknowingly working together to maximize your five-in-a-row options.

Cards can also become wild if you play it and that number and all the numbers above it have markers on them. It’s sometimes strategic to fill up the higher numbered spaces to make one card you have in your hand wild. Having a hand-size limit of 4 cards though really makes the game tight. You should always try to have the most cards in your hand, but sometimes you have to play a card to block your opponent — and even more painful if it’s a low-numbered card — instead of being able to draw on your turn.

Lastly, it’s also advantageous to hold on to really low numbers because you’ll be able to use them for almost any space, and they can be placed in the tough-to-reach center of the hexagon. For a game I’ve never heard of a few months ago, Cinco has quickly been one of our go-to games each game night.

And this was the end. I could not stop the black player from getting five in a row. *Yells Cinco! into the void*

Pan Am: Travel the world in about 60 minutes

By Meeple Lady | September 14, 2020 | Comments 1 comment

We’ve made it to the ninth month of 2020, folks! Pat yourselves on the back. It’s been a busy two months for me, as I’ve been moving and undertaking some home projects in between organizing boxes and boxes of board games. I am seriously never, ever moving again.

In all honesty, I haven’t had much bandwidth or time to play a heavy game recently. I’m hoping to get back into that soon. In the meantime, a shorter game I’ve been truly enjoying is Pan Am, which plays in about 60 minutes.

Pan Am board game box — I’ve been really enjoying my games of Pan Am recently.

It has all the elements I enjoy: worker-placement, bidding and route building (and blocking!), all packaged in a gorgeous game. And for a company that hasn’t existed for almost 30 years, that iconic logo immediately transports you to the golden age of flying. And with my personal travel in short supply these days, it’s fun to travel the world via the beautiful destination cards that the game comes with.

In Pan Am, players are competing to build a network of air travel. They’re bidding for airport landing rights, purchasing planes that fly longer ranges, claiming routes, and buying Pan Am stock. You’re also trying to create favorable routes in order for Pan Am to purchase them at a profit so you can invest in growth for your company.

Pan Am event cards — There are a couple of event cards for each round to randomly choose from when creating your event desk. It creates a unique game each time!

The game plays for seven rounds, and at the start of each round, an event card is drawn. These events tweak the rules for the round and affect the stock price of Pan Am. The goal of the game is to have the most Pan Am stock, and while it’s good to purchase the stock early while the price is still low, you usually don’t have enough income to do so.

Pan Am stock price — The stock price of Pan Am will fluctuate throughout the game. Best to get it early — if you can afford it!

For our 2P game, you start with 5 engineers (this number varies based on player count), and you take turns placing one engineer on action locations on the board. Some of these locations have numbers on it, so placing your engineer indicates your bid for that action. Another player on a future turn can outbid you by placing their engineer on a higher-valued spot in that location. Your engineer is then returned to you to place somewhere else, or at a higher-valued spot in that original location on your turn. All the locations with a bid can only have one winner on it when resolving.

Pan Am player board — In our 2P game, players start with 5 engineers, 2 destination cards, one hidden directive card, 3 planes and $12.

Other locations, like routes, resolve in placement order and don’t require a bid. This makes claiming routes especially tight as your opponent may want to build before you and foil your plans. To build a route between two cities, you’ll need landing rights either by having an airport in one of the cities you’re connecting, having the city’s destination card in your hand, discarding a card in your hand from the same region as one of the cities you’re connecting, or discarding two cards from the same region that’s different than the one you’re connecting. Lastly, you’ll need a plane from your fleet that can fly the route between the two cities. You place the plane on that route and then your income increases by how long the route was.

I absolutely love the bidding mechanism of this game. Even though I’ve only played this game as a 2P, it makes all your actions extremely tight and tense. Players might be fighting for that one destination card that satisfies the route they want to build, or maybe you’ll spend your action to be the first to build a route this round. You have to keep an eye out for what your opponents are planning!

Pan Am destination cards — There are always four destination cards in play, and players must bid on the card they want to take into their hand.

The last location that hasn’t been mentioned is Directives. This allows players to draw a directive card, which gives them a one-time or end-game bonus and can be powerful when played during the right phase. This location also allows your engineer to get Priority Access during the next round, meaning you’ll get to place your pawn first before the first player takes their turn.

Pan Am Directives deck — Directive cards offer bonuses and are kept secret from other players.

Once everyone places their engineers, you resolve each location in order, paying your bid if you need to. If you’re unable to pay your bid, you have to sell back any Pan Am stock you have at half price to gain some money for the bid.

The last phase of each round is the Pan Am phase. This is where Pan Am expands along one of its route, hopefully hitting a route you’ve already built so you can sell it to them. When you sell them a route, you get a payout based on how large it is and your plane is returned to your fleet. Your income, however, does go down, but the nice profit bump is well worth it. Players then get their income and move onto the next round. The player with the most Pan Am stock after seven rounds wins.

Pan Am routes — Here’s Pan Am expanding along its South America route.

Pan Am is super enjoyable, and the artwork is just delightful to look at. The game is widely available at Target for about $30. And while I personally am not flying anywhere in the near future, I can dream of faraway locations to visit while playing this game.