New game for me on Board Game Arena this week is Verso. This is another small card game for 1 to 4 players where players are trying to create different runs of colors to score points. But it has a twist, the cards can flip. Is this enough of a twist to make Verso a good game? Or is it going to be a miss for me when it comes to these small card games after some good successes on BGA recently.

How To Play Verso

Verso is a push your luck run collection game. You create runs of numbers in three different colors and then you trade them in for points. Or you can also get points if you complete a 3 by 3 grid of cards, three of each color. Though you can have more of each color when you create that grid.

Player Turn

On your turn you have a decision to make. You take the top card of the deck and you either add that card, or you flip it and add that card. The cards are double sided so there is always a card that is face up. When you decide to flip a card you can not flip it back to the side it was on.

But you know something about it before you flip it. The number is always going to be one higher or lower, though the numbers do wrap from 1 to 6 or 6 to 1. And it is going to be one of the other two colors. If you flip it and it is the same number as another one in your grid, you discard that card and you don’t add it to your play area.

Scoring

Instead of playing out a card, you can score a run of cards. You score points for each scoring symbol on the cards in the run of cards. And then you discard the two highest valued cards from the run. When you score a color, you also cause your opponents to flip the highest value card they have of that color. So it is possible that will help them complete their 3 x 3 grid or cause them to discard a card or just give them a card in another color.

When you complete a 3 x 3 grid you score seven points.

End Game

As I said, when you end the game the player with the most points wins from scored cards. The game is over when the deck runs out of cards. Then players have one last turn to bank another run of cards.

What Doesn’t Work

The game is fairly basic and a lot of the decisions generally play themselves. There is a push your luck element where you can decide to flip and it might be discarded, but it might help. Because of that, the luck of the game is relatively high. Is the top card of the deck of cards one that is good for me, great, if not, too bad, hope it flips into something good, or maybe I’ll start collecting another color.

What Works

The game is fast. Because that decision space is limited games, even on BGA, being played asynchronously go by very quickly. That means it is a solid filler style of game.

The game also offers multiple scoring of cards which is interesting. Because you can create a long run, say two through six, it is possible to score that, lose the five and the six from the end and then next turn score two through four.

Pushing your luck is also interesting in the game. A normal run of cards, say you score a run of three cards, is probably going to be either seven or five points for you. So do you push to try and complete that 3 by 3 grid of cards? Seven points from that is a fair number of points.

Who is Verso For?

I think it’s a good at a brewery filler sort of game. It is so simple that it’s easy to play wherever and it won’t take up mush room to play. And it’s one that is easy to shuffle up and play it again. For a number of people, though, I think that Verso is going to be too light and have too few decisions in what you do in the game.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Verso

I think that this game is fine. Like I said, it in some ways plays itself at times. And because it isn’t a couple of cards that you have options to, that element of the game is just a bit too simple. The decision space is really around, do I push for a complete grid and do I flip this card even though I can play it because it might be better if it’s this, but I might lose it if it’s that. And generally, it’s probably just better to keep it as it is in that case.

Mainly, I think that Verso, while being a little filler is going to be one that doesn’t have the shelf life of other fillers. When I think and compare it to Ninjan or Scratch & Catch, two other small card games I’ve learned recently that are fillers, both of those have more interesting game play to them. Yes, I am saying that rock, paper, scissors is more interesting. But it’s more this games game play never feels like it changes. Nor does it give you stand-up moments of “I can’t believe you did that.” or “That worked perfectly.”

My Grade: C
Gamer Grade: D-
Casual Grade: B
Luck (out of 10): 7
Strategy (out of 10: 3

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