How To Play Yaxha

Yaxha is a pyramid building game. You are going to make a selection of cubes that you want to add to your pyramid. Then you stack those cubes onto your game board. A lot of the game is going to be about how you choose the cubes and how the cubes score for you.

Getting Cubes

In BGA you select the card that has the cubes you want on it. Every player does that at the same time. In person you use a card to indicate which of the groups of cubes you want. Again, everyone does that at the same time. If you match with no one, you get those cubes to add. If you and someone else match, you then see who has the lowest tie breaker card. That person gets that one and the other person gets the leftover one. Finally you swap your tie breaker card so you won’t win a tie with that person the next time.

Placing Cubes

Then the other big part of the game is placing out your cubes. You need to place them on the lowest level or a a spot on a higher level that is completely filled in. You place starting at a 4 by 4 grid, then 3 by 3 and up to a single cube on top.

On the first level you place cubes however you want. That is going to change based off of how you score in the game. But we’ll talk about scoring next. After the first level, you must place a cube adjacent to a cube of the same color. That might be adjacent below, but if you can’t, you discard a cube.’

Scoring

Once your pyramids are built, you score them. There are two different scoring areas. The first way to score is special bonus scoring cards. These give you objectives as to how to place out your cubes. It might be something like all five colors visible on the bottom layer and you get five points. But they vary in what they are.

The other, bigger, scoring way is that you look at your different colors visible on your pyramid. You find your biggest group of visible cubes for each color and you score them. The larger the group, the more points you are going to score. But keep in mind, cubes in the middle of your pyramid on levels one and two, the 4 by 4 and 3 by 3, don’t count for scoring. The player with the most points is crowned the winner.

What Doesn’t Work

This is a really simple game. I think for a lot of people it is going to feel a bit to simple. Even the gamer-y type elements like the bonus scoring, that is pretty simple in what it is doing. Though, I might play with a kid without them, everyone else is going to understand them really quickly, even if they aren’t gamers. This is going to mean that it won’t work for a lot of people who want a bit more meat on a game. But I plan on talking about it as a positive as well for the game.

What Works

The game is simple to play and get to the table. In fact, it’s simple to teach as well, and that is going to make a good game for a lot of situations. I like a game that has fun elements to it, like stacking up your pyramid while still giving you a few fun choices to make. And Yaxha does that by knowing what it wants to be as a game without adding in too much to it.

I think Yaxha also makes a smart choice with how you get your cubes. That element of deciding do I go for a group I really want but someone else might really want or try for my second best option is good. It’s a simple decision but one that adds a little bit to the game. You might wonder how. I sometimes decide to go for one my opponent will get just so I can get a lower number. Yes, I might miss out on my second best option, but I control my choice for the future.

The game is also good with the scoring and the placement rules. They are simple, and I want that in a game like this. If it were to be much more, it would feel overly complicated for how simple the game is. But I still need to make a choice every now and again about how I place things. And knowing when to start the second layer and how to hopefully not lose out on playing cubes is good in the game. It isn’t a standout element, but one that works.

Who Is Yaxha For?

Yaxha is a great game for the holidays. I talk about holiday games fairly often where on Nerdologists.com. But what is a holiday game? It’s one that is easy to teach and play with basically anyone. It is great for those times when you don’t want to play a party game. So you play something like Yaxha because everyone is able to learn it. Now it is limited to four players, but for that smaller holiday gathering, it is one that works well.

It isn’t going to be for the people who want to play a really heavy or involved game. But those are for when you want to game. Yaxha is for when you want something to do but also want some time to chat around the table.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Yaxha

I think that Yaxha is a fun game. Is it a game that I want to own, maybe. Is it a game that I’ll play all the time, that is unlikely. But it really does have a nice niche for a game. And it is a game with a small footprint. I talk about it as a game where you play it at the holidays with that smaller group and chat. IT is also one you could take to a brewery or coffee shop and play as well as you have a chat. And that is the type of game I like to own a few of so I don’t get board with the ones that I own.

That said, it is simple. And I know that it is not going to be a game for a bunch of people because of that simplicity. But I think without the scoring objective cards it is one that I’d enjoy and my kid could play. So know what you are getting into with Yaxha. And I say try it on BGA if you can because it’s that good sort of game that is just fun to play around with. But it might just be that, try it a couple of times and move on.

Grades

My Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: D+
Casual Grade: B+
Strategy (out of 10): 4
Luck (out of 10): 4
Plan or Adapt: Adapt

I’ve added in something else to maybe help clarify my thoughts a bit more. This is the plan or adapt. I’ll put this disclaimer down to clarify. But is the game, Yaxha, one that you plan from the start and come up with a whole strategy, no. This is a game that you adapt to what is happening and the cubes you get.

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How To Play Tag Team

Tag Team is an autobattler game. What that means in this case is you flip cards and those cards do affects. Your goal is to knock out one of the other players fighters before they knock out one of yours. But let’s talk a little bit more about how that works.

The Fighters

Each player is going to get two fighters. These fighters offer different ways to play the game. Some are more support characters while others are damage dealers. You pick your fighters in a few different ways. One is to just randomly assign or assign “starting” difficulty characters.

The other ways are drafting. You may draft the simple or competitive way. In the simple draft you select one character from your hand of cards and then swap with your opponent and select another character there. The competitive way is to select like before and then discard a character. Then you swap hands and select a new character.

Combat

Combat is simple, you create your deck or two cards to start and you put them in an order you choose. You each flip your first card and do what that says. Then you flip the next card and do what that says. And that is how combat works.

Between Combat Rounds

The meat of the game is in the choice here between combat rounds. Between rounds you draw from your action deck. The action deck consists of the non-starting cards for your two characters. You draw three of those cards and you select one to add to your deck.

When you add a card to your deck it must slot into the deck as it already is. So when you pick your third card, after the first combat phase, you can put it on top, between the two cards, or the bottom of the deck. This is because the deck never gets shuffled, so the order is maintained between rounds. The only way to change up the order of your deck is where you slot the new card in, and that changes it in comparison to your opponents deck possibly.

What Doesn’t Work

The decision space is limited. I think that is going to be a negative for some people. Mainly because the decision space is also based off of imperfect information. I know what and where you cards are from the previous round. I don’t know where you might add something in. So if you play a strong attack, I might move to block it, but you can play a card above it to push it down further. So it feels like guess work, or it might to some.

What Works

Firstly, I want to talk about the characters. This is like Dice Throne in that each character is going to be different. And like Dice Throne there are going to be elements that might feel similar between characters. It’s about blocking and attacking at the right time. So yes, that is something that exists in all decks. But each character is going to have a little twist on it. I plan to do my ranking of all the characters in the future. I want to do that because the characters are different.

The ease to the table is also great for the game. Every card does a good job of explaining what is on the card. So while they give you a little booklet to learn about the characters, that is not needed when you play. All the information to play the characters is on the card as you flip it. And they do this with text and symbols. So I use the text as a learn a character and then symbols after that because it’s faster.

I like the decision space a lot as well in the game. It is a fun head game to try and figure out where you place a new card into your deck. I know that you know I know where you best attack is, so you move it one lower. But I know that you know so you are going to adjust it so I adjust where I place my defensive new card. Unless of course you try and trick me and don’t adjust it.

Finally the speed of the game is great. It is fast to get to the table and it is fast to play. I think it is one that I rarely will ever play one match-up in a sitting.

Who Is Tag Team For?

I think Tag Team is for people who like a good head to head game. When you play it, it’s easy to learn and easy to play, so it’s a good one to play with people who like lighter games. I also think that it’s a great game for people who often want to play a game but find they only have a short time. It has good moments in the game as you block a big attack or sneak one through, but it is also really fast, so you can play multiple times in a sitting.

Tag Team Grade and Final Thoughts

I really like this game. I think that Tag Team works as a fast battling game to the point where it is going to likely get played more than Dice Throne. Now I love Dice Throne because there are more decisions to make in the game. But I thought that an autobattler could maybe only kind of work. But it is a game that works really well.

I think the big reason that it works so well is the different characters. Each one feels different and you need to plan out how you add cards and how you plan in the game. And it is so fast of a game. I think we played two games in person last night and it was maybe 10-15 minutes tops for each battle. The second was faster than the first even with more complex characters. It is going to go high in my Top 100 next year if I keep on playing it a lot because it’s that good.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B-
Casual Grade: A
Strategy (out of 10): 4
Luck (out of 10): 5

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How To Play Moonshine

Moonshine is an engine building game where you are racing to 12 points. To do this, you need to score patrons to your speakeasy by meeting their requirements. On the turn where one player gets 12 points, the game ends and whomever has the most points, as you can go over 12, is the winner of the game.

A Turn

Turns are pretty simple. You roll three dice, possibly more, and then per the rerolls that you have, you start with one on your speakeasy, and you try and get combinations to complete the patrons you have at your speakeasy. To do this you need to match symbols. The symbols are money, music, drink, and moons.

If after your roll or your opponents roll you cannot complete a patron’s requirements, you choose from two other options. First is you can choose to get a moon. If you do, you cover up a moon spot on your speakeasy or one of the patrons. I plan to talk about that more in the engine building section. The other option is that you draw patron cards and may replace one of your patrons.

Engine Building

The engine building is done in two ways. The first is with the moon tokens. When you get moon tokens from rolls or for your turn option, you place them on a moon location. These offer some benefits. On the speakeasy it is either unlocking a blue die to use or a wild symbol for money, music, or drink.

The patrons also might have one as well that you can spend into. When you spend into those, you gain that benefit for as long as the patron is waiting at your speakeasy. Once a patron is complete, they go to your speakeasy. They offer two things potentially there. The first is points, some patrons have a fixed number of points, some have no points, and others offer a variable number of points based on card color.

The other thing that patrons add is symbols. These can be symbols like money, music, drink or moons. These symbols are permanent and let you more easily complete other patrons’ requirements. Or it might be access to the blue or orange dice. It is also possible to get access to looking at more cards when you gain a new patron or three patrons waiting at your speakeasy versus just two, or additional rerolls.

What Doesn’t Work

This is one where i don’t find a ton that doesn’t work. As normal, in that case, I want to talk a little bit about luck. There is luck in this game with what you draw. Now you always draw a few cards to look at and choose one to add to your waiting patrons, but that is not always going to give you what you want. So it is possible that you just need to draw patrons again after a role.

And the other minor thing is there are a few patrons who when you gain them, they give you a moon and remove a moon from your opponents. There are not many and it doesn’t set your opponents back too far. But that is a negative player interaction that might feel tough for a player.

What Works

I like how simple this game is. The dice are easy to understand what symbols they give you. And it is easy to see what you want to roll for. I like it when a game can get to the table very quickly and is very easy to teach. There are a few symbols but those are really easy to understand after a turn or two in the game.

I also like the interactions in the game. I mention the few cards have that negative interaction. The game is also going to offer a chance to mess with your opponents on your turn when you roll the dice. But this is not too negative, they still get to take a positive action, get a moon or replace a patron, if they can’t fulfill a patron’s requirements. I like that the game isn’t purely solitaire though because you can set up your roll or pick your patrons in such a way to maybe fulfill them on an opponent role.

The engine building is Moonshine is good as well. It is simple, I liken it to Splendor. But that goes back to how simple the game is. I know how to leverage my engine pretty quickly once it gets going. And that moment of when do I stop building my engine and go for bigger points is nice. And because it is a simple engine, it keeps the game moving. Moonshine doesn’t stall out.

Who is Moonshine For?

I think this is a good game for people who like Splendor. And I think that this is a more enjoyable game than Splendor. So maybe for the people who think that Splendor is a bit slow in getting going, Moonshine offers a lot of the same engine building style, but is faster to get to it. And there is a bit more in terms of strategy, I think, than with Splendor but just a tiny bit more. So if you want to introduce someone to engine building concepts, this is a good game for that.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Moonshine

I very much enjoy Moonshine. It is a game that I already have played at least five times and have a few more games of it going on BGA. I also think it is very possible that it is a game that will start to feel similar. Your engine is not going to massively change from game to game. So it is never going to feel wildly different as you play it.

This is a bit of a negative, but it is also something to be aware of what type of game it is. Mainly, Moonshine is a great game for BGA because there isn’t too much going on. At the same time, if you want heavy engine building it is going to feel a little bit lacking and won’t stick around as long because of that. But it is meant to be an easy to get into and play engine builder, and it is great for that and for that reason I like it.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: C+
Casual Grade: A-
Strategy (out of 10): 4
Luck (out of 10): 5

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How to Play Arigato

Arigato is all about getting the most points that you can. You do this in a few ways, by sending workers to deliver their offering. You get points for artisans in your village, potentially, and you get points for completing the main objectives. At the end of 12 rounds, the person with the most points is the winner.

10 of the 12 rounds are going have those main objectives to complete. The objectives might be about having a number of artisans in your village with offering tokens, different or same resources, or total of number of artisans who have given an offering and more. The more of them you complete, the more points you get from them.

Morning Phase

You play the game over a few phases. The first one is the morning phase. In the morning phase you get five artisans and you split them into three groups. One artisan goes into your village. Each artisan is limited, and the card shows, as to where you can place them in your village. If you want to place an artisan and a spot is blocked you can discard an artisan from that spot to place them.

The other divide the other four two and two. Two artisans will get discarded for resources based off of their color. And the other two artisans get passed to your opponent at the start of the next day or round. Those will be used to create their new hand of five artisans.

Day Phase

During the day phase you flip over your cards, all are played face down, and you gain resources for them. You check and see if any of the artisans in town have an ability to trigger. Generally these abilities either give you more points or they give you more resources. Some abilities also trigger in the dusk phase, but we won’t cover that phase right now.

Then you spend your resources to place offering tokens onto your artisans. Just because an artisan has an offering token on it does not mean you need to move it to deliver that offering immediately. You might find that you don’t have the right combination of resources to complete offerings. If you want, you can trade two items in for one of another type. Once an artisan has an offering token on it, you can send them to deliver that offering whenever you want.

Dusk Phase

At the Dusk Phase a few things can happen, but the biggest is you check and see if you completed the objective for the day. If you did, you mark that with taking a token. And you also check and see if any of your artisans have things that would be triggered at dusk. The final thing that happens at dusk, though I might be off on order, is you discard your resources to get down to seven total. This is fairly rare that you will find yourself with more.

The game, like I said, ends after twelve days. You check to see your score for all the main objectives you completed. Then you add up the points you have taken during the game, and the points on the artisans who have delivered offerings. The player with the most points is the winner.

What Doesn’t Work?

The one negative I can think of is that there are a good number of symbols. On the artisans in particular you need to know what each section does and when the village ability is going to activate and what one it is. This is an issue only at the beginning playing on BGA because the more you play, the more you know just from looking at the symbols.

My hope, though, is for the physical version of the game, there are player aids. You don’t need anything much for it, just let the players know what the symbols are for because there are enough of them that it’ll be annoying to reference the rule book or pass around the rule books.

What Works?

Phases

I think that the different phases work quite well. Mainly because everyone is doing them at the same time. So it is generally a solitaire game. That means, though, that no player is going to have that much downtime. It’ll mainly just be waiting for the other players to complete their phase. And the phases are simple enough that it shouldn’t take too long.

With that comment about solitaire, I do want to comment about how it’s not purely solitaire. It is best to select cards in the dawn phase that is best for yourself. But if you find that you are not getting what you need, you also are able to pass on cards so that your opponent next turn is less likely to get what they need. It is a minor interaction, but can be a useful one at times.

Scoring

I really like the scoring in the game as well. All three elements work well in Arigato. I like that I can plan for those main objectives to get them, though, it’s improbable that you’ll get them all. But if you just go for those objectives, someone can score a lot of points from the artisans in their village and make up ground. And also getting a lot of artisans to deliver offerings is worth a lot of points.

Engine Building

Finally, the engine building in the village is fun. It adds to what you are thinking about when you pick which card to add or what cards to pass or keep for resources. You can go for a village that kicks out a ton of resources and rotate that and really focus on getting offerings delivered. Or you might go for one that doesn’t produce as many but is going to give you a lot of points from villagers. It’s up to you, and I like that variety.

Who Is Arigato For?

I think that people who like engine building are going to like like Arigato. But it is nice that it is not a massive engine that you build. It is only ever four artisans and often fewer. So this one is going to work well for that engine building but also for people who want to learn engine building. The drawback is, of course, the symbols, but that is common with engine building games.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Arigato

I really like Arigato. Even though my first play is not great, because of all the symbols, every play after I feel like I learn more and more about the game. And it is fun to explore the engine building that is done. Especially since it is possible for it to go different ways and how you can use them to your advantage in those different ways. If the village were larger it might feel like a lot of upkeep, but four artisans in your village is the perfect amount for the game.

It is also nice that all the turns are at the same time. Again, that often lends itself to being a bit more solitaire in nature. But in Arigato that isn’t a bad thing. Like I said, it is possible to toss some cards to your opponent that they might not want. But that is not the focus of the game. I like a game where it feels like what I do is awesome, and I can mess with you a little bit. Arigato is a game like that.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+
Casual Grade: C+
Luck (out of 10): 4
Strategy (out of 10): 5

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What Is To Be Hero X About?

Imagine a world of superheroes. We can do that, we know Marvel and DC comic worlds. But instead of these heroes just having powers their powers are stronger the more people love them. That is the world of To Be Hero X. And Hero X is the hero who is most loved.

The show is all about those heroes and the ones who are in the top 10. They all want to be Hero X or at least will be taking place in the tournament to see who will become the new top ranked hero. The show is all about their stories and how they got there.

And I won’t go into more detail than that.

Who is To Be Hero X For?

Firstly, I do want to comment on fan service in this, because that will determine some of it is for you or not. But really, I like to do that all the time because people’s tolerance levels are different. There is very little fan service in this show, and it is never dwelt upon if it happens.

I think that this show is for people who are up for some fun animation. But there is more to the show than that, this is a show that is for people who want that slower build into characters and to delve into them at a deeper level. Is it heavy with plot, there is a lot of story throughout that connects to the whole, but it is also very focused on the characters.

What Didn’t Work For Me?

It is a bit jarring the first time you finish up the story with one character. Mainly because you get to like the character and then you move on to the next one. This is not a bad thing, but it is somethin to be aware of when going into the show.

It is also a bit tricky to keep track of the timelines and when it falls into line with certain characters. Generally you can make sense of it, but they reference events that might be occurring at a different point in other characters stories. And they do a solid job of giving you dates for things, but that is still a lot to remember.

What Worked For Me?

The animation on this show is amazing. And it should be, there are a ton of different studios working on this anime. And it shows in the different stories how there is different animation that is used. They are done to tell different and unique story beats and character stories. And there are some bonkers fight and chase scenes that use animation really well.

I also like the stories. Not all of them resonate with me quite as well, but how they intersect is really interesting. And the vast majority of the character stories are ones that I really enjoyed and I could connect with the characters. Each of them is unique as well and deals with some interesting things that unfold the larger story.

And without going into spoilers, I think the overall plot is interesting. This idea that the more people love you, the better hero you are is really interesting. And it has some very questionable implications to it as well that they dive into in the show. And where it ends, I think that is interesting and it makes me ready for a season two. I think there is a lot more world building that can be done around the main plot. But I suspect season 2 is going to focus a lot on the tournament.

Final Thoughts on To Be Hero X

This show definitely caught my interest throughout the whole show. I think the animation drew me in, but the plot and the characters really kept me there. It takes a bit to figure out everything that is going on in To Be Hero X. And I would say, there are elements that make me want to rewatch it right now to pick-up on some of the bigger story implications that I might have missed. To me, that is the sign of a good anime to watch because it kept me engaged and keeps me wanting more.

If it was one consistent animation style would it be as good? I think it would be. This is not an anime with style over substance but with the lead of BeDream making this and the animation partners, it rocks. And that is something else I didn’t mention but I feel like I always want to listen to the music both the opening and ending credits, but also the music in the show. The amount of time and effort that went into this show is very impressive and makes for a great show visually and story wise.

To Be Hero X is one of my top new anime this year. And you know from the last anime round-up that I have watched a ton of anime this year. So it is sitting pretty as a favorite.

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How To Play Tikal

In Tikal you want to get the most points. You get points for having treasures and majority at temple locations on scoring rounds. At the end of the game once all players take a scoring round the player with the most points is the winner of the game.

Two Part Turn

Turns are split into two parts, though the second part is where the majority of the turn is. So let’s talk quickly about that first part. On your turn the first thing you do is place a tile. It must be connected to another tile and accessible. To be accessible there must be a stone connection to another tile. If you draw a volcano you do a scoring round which we will talk about in the next section.

Once you place a tile you are able to do up to 10 action points of actions. The different actions cost different action points. I won’t go through all of them, just some highlighted ones.

• Place a worker
• Move a worker paying action points for stones that you cross
• Uncover part of a pyramid
• Find a treasure

Like I said, there are more, but these are some of the highlighted ones. When you uncover part of a pyramid you make it taller. The taller it gets the more points it is worth in a scoring round. And when you find a treasure, it is set collection. The more of a type of treasure that you have, the more points they are worth in a scoring round.

Scoring Rounds

The other big element is the scoring round. When a volcano tile is going to be placed each player takes a scoring turn. On your turn you don’t draw and place a tile. Instead you just spend action points to take the actions defined above, plus any of the others you want.

At the end of your scoring turn, you score points for temples that you own the majority at and for treasures you have. Then the next player takes a scoring turn. So it is possible that multiple players might score a temple as majority changes as they move workers.

What Doesn’t Work

No real complaints for this one. Because of how scoring works the area control is not too in your face. But you do need to pay attention and manage a few things based off of what your opponents are doing. Probably the biggest thing that might get some people is when placing tiles you can maybe mess or block off areas temporarily to limit how your opponent can build out. That is the most negative interaction in the game and it’s not very negative.

The other slight negative is that the treasures are less impactful in scoring. Having a lot can help, but scoring temples that are worth a lot of points is just better, for the most part. But some of my negative opinion with them might be me messing up my scoring in the first game. Still it is more luck based to see if you can create sets because sets are worth more points, if it’s just a one off, that is a wasted action to get it in some ways.

What Works

Firstly, I really like how the Tikal scoring works. I messed that up big time in my first game. That’s not an issue to mess it up in a game as long as you learn from it. But I like that it isn’t just straight area control. If I take control of an area I get the points for it. Then if you score after me, you can move in and gain control of that area. Now I might block that if I can cap it off so that the temple is completed, an action I didn’t mention, but that is limiting points in the future for me as well.

Let’s talk about that capping off action. You need majority. And it is going to cost you all of your workers there. And they don’t go back into the worker pool, they are just gone. So that is a nice tradeoff as you decide what to do. Do I want to have a ton of workers available further into the game, or if we fight over a spot is it worth spending a number of workers to lock in that scoring every scoring round?

I like the action point system in Tikal as well. I think that it’s pretty slick and easy to understand. Once you take a turn you generally know the actions. There is also nice strategy in figuring out how you want to spend your actions or when you should put out a tent, an action that costs five action points, to help you get into the further reaches of the jungle.

Who Is Tikal For?

I think that Tikal is a game for people who like that action point management and that feeling of exploring while optimizing your scoring. Now that is saying a lot. It is less of a puzzle than some games, say Lost Ruins of Arnak, with a similar theme. So this one is pretty welcoming game and easy to understand and play.

It is not going to be a game that I’d introduce someone to as their first game. It is also probably not going to be a game where heavy euro gamers are going to feel like there is enough going on. But it’s that nice welcoming action point game for people who have played a few games, like Catan and Carcassonne, and they want a bit more.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Tikal

I really enjoy this game and system. I was not sure I was going to when I started, but it is easy to learn and play. Like I said the one thing that tripped me up was that I score at the end of my turn on a scoring turn. I easily could have gotten more points the first game had I remembered. That is a rule that I would drill into the heads of people I play with at the start of the game and then remind them at the scoring round. It is something unique about the game, so something to remind about.

This is a game that I want to add to my collection. Now, I know there are a lot of games like that which I play on BGA. I think that Tikal is a good one because there is a bit more going on to it and some things that make it feel unique as compared to other games in my collection. And I like it because it is quite easy to teach. Even with all the actions, I assume there is a cheat sheet like on BGA, that the players can see what everything costs. So it makes teaching the game faster and easier to get Tikal to the table.

My Grade: A-
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B
Strategy (out of 10): 6
Luck (out of 10): 2

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How To Play Schotten Totten

Schotten Totten is a lane control game for two players. In this game you want to either win three adjacent locations or five total locations. You win locations by playing better sets of three cards on your side than your opponent can on their side.

So What Wins?

In this game you are playing “poker” type of hands. At least you can think of that for rankings. If you play a straight flush (of three cards), that is the best, then three of a kind, flush, straight, and total value of the cards. So you can see the order is pretty similar to poker. But there is no pair options.

And when you win, for example, I play a straight flush of 9, 8, 7 – in any order, that can’t be beat. Even if my opponent plays the same thing, I did it first. So when I complete that, the token comes to my side. And at that point in time my opponent can no longer play there.

Note: The game calls them color and runs for flush and straight.

Playing Cards

So I already mentioned how you can get locked out of playing in some spots. It is also important to know that you must always play. So as you play out cards or figure out what cards are left in your hand, you need to think about where you might play in the future. And the more your opponent wins the fewer options you get.

You also need to think about the cards available in the deck. Because there are six colors 1 through 9 in each color. What is the likelihood that you are going to get a card from a middle of a run that you are trying to create? Better if it isn’t a straight flush but not great. So it is possible that you might find your opponent or you win a location simply because they are no longer able to beat what you placed down. For example, if they need a six to beat your run and you play that six, you lock them out.

What Doesn’t Work

There is a level of luck to this game. And that is needed. If it were a zero sum game, by that a mean a game where you know all the information, a player with a better starting hand would win. There is no need to play it out. But depending on your preferences for games, it might feel like too much luck. But that is kind of the point of the game.

What Works

This game is simple to learn and play. It is just laying out the tiles, which don’t matter what order they go in just that they are in a line. And then you shuffle up and deal cards. I think that I could get a new player playing Schotten Totten in less than five minutes.

Hand Management

And there is a nice strategy to knowing when to pivot from a location or when to invest more at a location. That is where the meat of the game is, so to speak. You need to know when you can still dig for a card. And you need to play out cards onto locations you might not win.

Why, because you need to manage your hand of cards. You might get stuck with three ones that don’t go anywhere, and now those are dead cards in your hand if you wait too long. And three dead cards or cards you don’t want to play isn’t that bad. What happens when it is the majority of your hand? Can you figure out which spot to maybe throw a card and lose, or do you keep everything alive.

Tension

The final thing I want to talk about is tension. The tension of that choice when you decide to give up on a location. The tension of when you want to show that you’re strong at a location and when you want to hold back. Or even when it gets down to it, the tension of the draw to see if you can get the one card you need to keep your opponent from winning three adjacent locations. The game always feels tense at some point in time.

Who is Schotten Totten For?

This is a two player only game. So I think this is a good game for couples in an evening when they don’t have a ton of time. I put it in that range of a game like Lost Cities where it’s easy to get to the table and play. But it is not going to be your whole evening. That is probably a sweet spot for two player games most of the time, and where most of the ones I play on BGA land. But that is who that is for, you do need to like that bit of luck and very head to head game play.

My Final Thoughts and Grade on Schotten Totten

I like Schotten Totten a lot. I think the games in the two player realm that I’d compare it to most are Lost Cities and Hanamikoji. It is less thinky than Hanamikoji for sure. So it is more on par with Lost Cities in terms of weight. But I like the fact it is just win locations, not see if you can get points like Lost Cities. I think that is easier to learn and teach than the somewhat complex rules for Lost Cities in terms of points. Mainly the negative points. So I appreciate that ease to the table when teaching a new player.

I personally think I like it better than Lost Cities. But it is not up there with Hanamikoji which is one of my favorite two player only games. I think that one just adds in enough more puzzle that it’s more interesting. That said, I think that Schotten Totten is likely to end up in my collection. Why, because it is a small game and one that is easier to teach and play than Hanamikoji. And I really like it for that.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+
Casual Grade: A-
Strategy (out of 10): 6
Luck (out of 10): 4

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Legendary Kingdoms – Part 1

Legendary Kingdoms – Part 2

More Parts to Come

What Is Legendary Kingdoms

Legendary Kingdoms is a solo, though you could do it cooperatively, RPG system. In this system you are using a choose your own adventure type of game play with skill checks. And there are multiple books in the Legendary Kingdoms. The choices you make progress the story in different ways. And while sometimes you are limited, you also hit very open world points. But that’s the basics of the system.

How To Play

Legendary Kingdoms is a game where there isn’t really a “winner” so to speak. It is an open world story driven solo or multiplayer choose your own adventure RPG, in case you skipped the section above.

Characters

To start off you start with a group of four characters in your party. I am not sure if it is possible to add more characters as you go. But it is possible to have your characters die if you are reckless in battles.

Characters use several different stats. There is fighting, stealth, lore, survival and charisma as well as hit points. These stats generally range from 1 to 5 when you start the game. It is possible during the game that they might increase. But it is not a common thing and it is driven by story. It is not an RPG system where you gain experience and level up.

Checks

The main crux of the game play is split into two parts. Story, which I’ll talk about next, and checks. When you do anything in the game you complete checks. This is even the case when you are in combat, though combat checks do behave slightly differently at times.

The basics of a check are fairly simple. They are either group checks, so a check for everyone, or an individual check. A group check you will use the stats of two of the four characters versus just one for the individual. The game often doesn’t tell you what a check might be before you make it, so you need to pick your character(s) somewhat blindly based on context.

Then you roll dice. You roll dice equal to the stat being checked against. In combat you check to see how many succeed and you get that many hits and damage dealt to an enemy which is determined by the enemy’s defense. In a skill check there is a set target number you want to match or beat like in combat. But in a skill check you want to get a certain number of success to pass.

There is a bit more for combat, but I won’t go into it here.

Story

The other large element is the story in the game. Like I said, this is a choose your own adventure style of game. By that I mean, you start with a passage, read that, make a decision and go to another passage to read from. It is interrupted by combats or skill checks, but generally it is reading one part of the story or another.

What I Don’t Like

So what is it about the game that might not work for me? I think the biggest thing I note in the game is the luck factor. Yes, the better a skill is the more dice you roll. That is a nice thing int he game, it is less swinging than maybe rolling a D20 and adding a modifier. Especially because it is the value on every individual die that matters. But it is still a luck game. In Legendary Kingdoms there is not much if any die mitigation so it is just a roll.

What I Like

Firstly, I like how simple the system is to play. When I want to get the game out, I grab some dice and start playing. Yes, you need a game sheet to use, but it is not overly complex to track that. And the checks are simple to follow as well.

Speaking of checks, I like how combat is just a bit more complex, but not too complex. If combat were as simple as it is for a skill check, it might feel way to lucky. But I like how you have armor and that armor might block attacks. And I like that as characters you get to go first and then the enemies go. There is no initiative system it is just nice and simple that way.

Another thing that stands out to me is that the writing is solid or slightly better than that. With a choose your own adventure it is very possible that it could be too generic because you don’t know how someone is getting to a situation. This one is just enough on rails that they can create a bigger story. Now it is at the point where I am in an open world point, so I want to know how the story is going to go. But I like the story a lot thus far, and I think there is some good interesting writing and plot happening.

Who Is Legendary Kingdoms For?

This is tough one to say. I think people who like a good RPG might enjoy this game. In particular maybe a video game RPG player who is looking for a way to spend less screen time. It is going to give you that RPG itch but not be too much. And it is something for an RPG fan who maybe wants to play more but can’t work it into their schedule. This is a game that is easily playable in an evening for thirty minutes and then putting it down and picking it up again.

Thoughts and Grades on Legendary Kingdoms

This game is a blast to play. Is it perfect, no, I wish there was maybe a way to add a bonus to a roll from time to time, just for those really important ones. And maybe it is the case where there might be a spell that’ll do that eventually. So there is a bunch of luck when it comes to rolling. And combat, like most RPG’s, is always a bit more time than the story. But those both are minor negatives to me.

The positives far outweigh both of those parts to me. I think that the game play is fast and fun. And I love the story elements to it. The decision of do you go further into the water or out, it is interesting. Do you spend more time pushing for treasures but potentially risking something? That is what you want from a good choose your own adventure style of game. And unlike the choose your own adventure books you might have read growing up, this one is logical. You can guess what might come next.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: A
Strategy (out of 10): 5
Luck (out of 10): 7

Oh, and if you made it down here, leave a comment as to what direction I should go in the story.

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How To Play The Gang

The Gang is a cooperative Texas Hold’em style poker game where instead of bidding on how strong your hand is, you are trying to get the hands of all the players in order after the river. But you work off of the knowledge from how strong people think their hands are prior to the river. If you get it correct three times you win, if you get it wrong three times, you lose.

The Texas Hold’em

The Gang follows Texas Hold’em style poker when you are building up your best hand of cards. For those who aren’t familiar, I’ll cover it briefly before we get into the rest of the game. You get a two card hand. Then more cards are played out into a communal pool. They are the flop, the turn, and the river. The flop is going to add three cards and the turn and river one card each. The player with the best hand between their cards and the communal cards wins the hand.

Getting the Order Right

So let’s talk about how you get the order right. In The Gang, let’s say for a six player game, you want the player with the best hand to have the poker chip worth six when you rank hands after the river and the player with the worst had having the one.

You are allowed to discuss how strong you feel your hand is. But you are not able to say specifics about your hand. An example might be: “My hand got better with the flop.” Or another example would be “I have a scoring hand now.” You are not allowed to specify how it got better or how it is scoring just that it is.

So after the initial hand of two cards is dealt, the flop, the turn, and the river, players take chips as to how they think their hand is. This is all after the discussion. But it is just the ranking of the hand on the final round that is going to determine if your order is right.

Tie-Breaking

I thought about putting this up in the Texas Hold’em section, but let’s talk about tie breaking. When you think of a scoring hand, for example two pair, you think of that being your hand. But it is possible to have the same thing as someone else. So you use standard tie-breakers like in poker. The higher pair of the two pair is compared, if one person has higher than the other, they are ahead. If they are the same, you check the next pair.

Now let’s use the example of a single pair. If you have a single pair and someone else has that pair, how do you decide the tie-breaker? Well, in that case you look at the kicker. That is that you look at the highest single card that you use to make your hand. If those are the same, often the case if they are in the communal cards, you keep comparing until you get through your hand of five scoring cards. If it is still a tie, the order doesn’t matter because they are the same.

Increasing the Challenge

So it is possible that you’ll find it gets too easy over time. So the game offers ways to make it more challenging or easier. One being positive and negative modifier cards. So if you win one round you flip a negative modifier card, such as a single player must take the one for the first three rounds of discussion. Or it might give you an extra card for your hand if you lost the previous time. This is going to add just a little twist to what the game is already doing.

What Doesn’t Work

The game can skew a bit easy at times. This is something that you can control with how much communication you allow. If you keep that to very general terms it is going to be more difficult. If you reference previous hands or things like that, it is going to be a bit easier. Also player count is going to make it harder or easier depending on how many players you have, the more the harder.

The other thing, and this more of a to be aware of, some knowledge of poker and Texas Hold’em does help. In particular with knowing how strong a hand is in Texas Hold’em can be important. A good pair might be the best overall hand. The game does give you a cheat sheet to know the ranks of hands but if you are a poker novice, this is going to be a notable learning curve.

What Works

The game is fast to set-up and play. While the discussion at times can take a bit, it isn’t generally that long. Because you care about getting it right at the end, only after the river is the discussion highly important. But for getting the game to the table, it is shuffle up and deal cards and that’s about it to get it to work. Especially if the players have played the game before, it is going to instantly get to the table.

The cooperative nature of the game works as well. That was my big concern going into the game. But I like how it works and the challenge of ranking the hands is good. We got better at it as we played. It is common, though, to end the game with a discussion around how strong you feel a hand is and for two players to have extremely close hands. That challenge works well for the game.

I also like the benefits if you fail or the negatives if you pass. And I think I could see even making that more challenging by playing on some of the harder modes. But they offer just a little twist or variety to what is happening in the game. Is it needed for the game, probably not if you don’t play too many times in one sitting. As the group changes, the dynamic is going to change. But with a group playing a few times in a row, it adds in some good variety.

Who is The Gang For?

I think The Gang is a good game for a mixed group of board gamers and maybe poker players or cards players. If you play a lot of cards, you probably have dabbled with poker of some variety. The trickiest part is going to be if you play with someone who doesn’t play poker. And by that I mean more hasn’t played poker. I don’t play poker often, but I know how it works as I’ve played some. But if it is completely new, maybe play a couple of hands of real poker first to get them familiarized.

Final Thoughts and Grade on The Gang

This one is interesting for me. Firstly, I want to say that I really like what it does for a cooperative poker game. And you will find that I rate it highly. However, on the flip side, I think it is a game that I want to play only so often and with varying groups. If I play it with one group over and over again, I suspect I will want to play it on the hardest difficulty. But I want to play it again, so there is that.

The other thing is that I think people who like The Gang are going to like it a lot. The people who doesn’t like The Gang, it is going to be a strong dislike of the game. Mainly because it is cooperative, limited communication, and poker. Somewhere in that combination there is a chance for a lot of players to dislike it. You might dislike cooperative games. Or you might dislike games where it limits what you can say. Or you might dislike the luck of poker. But if you are cool with all of those things, then it is a very good game.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: C+
Casual Grade: B-
Strategy (out of 10): 0
Luck (out of 10): 2

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How To Play Lost Cities

Lost Cities set collection game. You want to collect the best cards of numbers in five different colors and have the most points after doing that a set number of times. It is possible to play it just once, but most of the time I think that three is what people play.

The turn you take is simple. You play a card from you hand to one of two spots. And then you draw a card to your hand from one of a few spots. You keep on doing this until the deck of cards, one of the spots you draw from, is empty. Then you tally up the points.

Scoring and Playing Cards

The main element of the game to know about is the scoring. In Lost Cities you score points for any of the colors here you play cards at. However, there is a penalty for playing cards at a location. The first card you play down sets that locations value to -20. Though, if you play a number card that negative value is going to be less.

There are two types of card for each number. The first is multiplier cards. These double, triple, or more depending on how many you play, the value of the cards. But it also doubles or triples the value of the negative as well. Then there are number cards. These number cards go from two to ten. And as you play out cards, the multiplier cards need to be played first, and then cards in ascending order. For example, if you play out a four or blue, it is no longer possible for you to play a two of blue or a three of blue.

Discarding and Drawing

So I mentioned that there are multiple places to play to and discard to. Let’s use the example of having a blue two after already playing out a blue four. That card has no value for you. So on your turn you might discard that into the blue pile between the sets you and an opponent are collecting. On the other hand, if your opponent were to discard, for example, a green multiplier and you hadn’t started scoring on green yet, you can draw from there. So you either play to the collection on your side, or the middle for that colors discard. And you either draw from one of those color discard piles or the main deck.

What Doesn’t Work

It’s an abstract game where it is possible to just be dealt a hand that is not great to start out with. It might either be so spread out across all the colors you don’t know what to go for, or it might be so high in numbers that your scoring potential is lower as you don’t want to toss those cards. It isn’t that it doesn’t work, it is just that sometimes you might feel like your starting hand is kind of dead, or you might think, with multiple multiplier cards going into a color is smart idea and then never draw that color.

What Works

Now, that negative I just spoke about, that is also a positive for the game. Lost Cities is all about figuring out when to get into a color so that you don’t end up with negative points. And yes, it is very possible to end up with negative points on a round. Lost Cities reminds me of Hanamikoji in that both of them you work off of imperfect knowledge. And you need to make the best decisions that you can.

Game Speed

I like the speed that the game plays at as well. Now, I say that, I play asynchronously on BGA, so some games do take longer than others. But when the players are on at the same time the turns are simple enough, play and draw, that it moves quickly. So the game speed is good, but to tie it to above, it doesn’t just play itself which means sometimes you end up with a turn that takes a bit longer when you aren’t in the middle of a series of plays.

It is also nice that Lost Cities is played over three rounds. Again, this ties into that negative and why it isn’t much of a negative. When you play Lost Cities over three rounds you get a chance to come back. That allows you to play with a bit more risk sometimes and less other times. But there is almost always the chance to recover.

Meanness and Tightness

Finally, as a two player game this is very back and forth. I know, generally, what you want to get. So that might mean that I hold cards in my hand to try and keep you from scoring as well. There isn’t take that, but I might ruin your plans for a round. But that is also true for what you are doing to me as well. So while the game has elements of being mean, it works, as that sort of thing does better at two players.

But with that comes a fun part of the strategy or something you’ll stumble across. As I play out cards and you collect what I might want, you find that you all of a sudden can get a positive score in that color. So it is possible to pivot in the game like that. But with the deck running out as the timing mechanism you can’t overextend yourself because you might not have enough turns to play everything you need. That challenge and balance works very well.

Who Is Lost Cities For?

Obviously this game is for two people. But I think that this is the sort of game that works well for couples even if both of them maybe don’t love board games. The game is easy enough to learn, there is strategy so it isn’t too light, but it’s simple to play. So it’s a good game for couples and you can play a round in a short time, so it is that evening game as well for when you want to do something and not watch TV.

My Grade and Final Thoughts on Lost Cities

Lost Cities definitely impressed me more than I thought it would. I want to compare it to Hanamikoji because there is that element that I don’t know what is in your hand and you don’t know what is in my hand. It is only based off of what we play that we gather information about the other players hand. And that is true for both of the games, plus the row in the middle, but that is not actually similar in how it is used.

I think that Lost Cities is a game where it is possible to really do poorly at, though. But it is a game that is simple enough to learn. I feel like since I enjoyed the premise at the start it was fine even with my first game going poorly. If I hadn’t, I’m not sure I would have loved it as a concept for a game. Mainly because it is possible to get stomped. So if the puzzle doesn’t draw you in, Lost Cities is unlikely to work. Because the theme is not going to draw you in.

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

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