How To Play Trek 12

Trek 12 is a roll and write mountain climbing game. But really you are trying to get runs of numbers or groups of numbers to score points. Every round someone rolls the dice. Then all the players use the dice. The fist number placed can be placed anywhere. But every subsequent using of the dice it must be placed adjacent to another number.

So, with two dice being rolled, how do you determine what number to use? You have a few different options, but only a limited number of times that you can use them. Firstly you can take the higher or the lower number. Or you can do the added total or the difference between them. Or you can multiply the numbers. That gives you a lot of options but as you play you use up options making it harder to place in runs or groups.

In the end, it is about the size and number of groups that you get. And the scoring is nice and simple. If you get a run that goes 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 that’d be worth 13 points (7 for the highest number and then one for each other number). And it works the same for groups. So if you had 11 by an 11, that’s 12 points (11 for the number and 1 for the additional ones. So small groups aren’t bad, but you get a bonus for the largest number which grows quickly in how many points you get.

What Doesn’t Work?

The solo mode doesn’t work. Trek 12 is going to stay in my collection for now, but I don’t see it as a solo game. Mainly, there is just too much upkeep. I can play it solo and just try and beat my best score, and that’d work. They were trying to be clever so it’s not just a beat your best score. But it is too complicated. Yes, it’s simple to just place the highest number each time. But you’re trying to make the solo player score well but not too well, it’s basically playing the game twice.

I also think that they try and pack maybe too much into the box. There are things you can unlock, I haven’t looked into that yet. But it takes what could be a small roll and write box and makes it fairly big for the game it is. Yes, I do like the other maps, but I’m not sure I need envelopes to unlock as I play. That games isn’t a big enough or complex enough roll and write to warrant that.

What Works?

I do think the different maps work. They are give the game variety and really do feel different. The basic map doesn’t give you too much to worry about. But the one which splits up the map at a few key points with spots that can’t have as high a number, it makes it tricky. And all the maps don’t make the game feel different in what you are doing, but do offer their own good puzzle.

The numbers work really nicely as well. The dice are 1-6 and 0-5. So you can get a lot of different numbers. And you can use the dice in a lot of different ways. In fact, you want to shoot for those higher numbers, 12 is the highest you’re allowed to put down, and that’s 6 in some spots. A group of two 11’s is worth 12 points, but if you can’t connect that 11 to anything, then you lose points. But picking if you do addition or multiplication or the difference is fun. Especially when you have a group of 6’s and roll a 6 and a 0 and can do the difference of 0 to put in a 6 into that group.

And I think that is a fun part of the game as well, though, creating the groups. There is some push your luck with picking the high numbers. But it can be so worth it. At the same time, you want to get those big groups. A group of three numbers in a run as your biggest run only gives you a bonus 1 point. But if you can get up to 7, that’s 15 points. So there is a good balancing act.

Who Is It For?

This is a roll and write for people who want a bit of a thinky puzzle but don’t want the rules overhead. Trek 12 is extremely easy to learn and play. But as you roll all of a sudden you are thinking about and worried about the numbers that are coming up. What do you leave for yourself so that you can manipulate the dice the best?

I I think if you play with people who can handle something like Super Mega Lucky Box, Patchwork Doodle, or Qwixx, Trek 12 is definitely in their range to play. And it’s also such a fast game that it’ll work well with those groups because even if it gets a bit too much trying to get the right numbers at the end, the game will be over fast.

Final Thoughts on Trek 12

I’ve come around in the span of a week on Trek 12. I do think that the solo play sucks and I recommend that people do not use it. But the game itself is fun roll and write game. Yes, there is too much in the box to unlock and stuff like that, this game isn’t heavy enough to warrant it. But the game is a fun and fast game that can easily get knocked out when you have a few minutes.

I said I don’t think I’d play it solo again. Let me put this way, I won’t play with the AI again. The payoff for playing the game twice with special AI rules is not worth it. But I also think that Trek 12 is one that could hit the table often when I want a roll and write game that I can play in almost any group.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: A

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The Game – Trek 12

My initial impressions are that Trek 12 is a fun game, but maybe not one of the best roll and write games out there. I do think that the challenge packs, things you can unlock, will keep the game in my collection for a while. I want to unlock them or open them and see what they are. And I do think that this game can move up higher as I do an expedition, not just a single trek. And as I play with other people.

Solo Mode

Some of what just keeps Trek 12 in that fun range is that the solo mode on the game is fine. The issue with the solo mode, and I mention it, is that you are basically playing two characters or two times. The mechanics work well enough for the AI, Max, but it’s also extra work. And when I do something, I want to make it good but not too good for Max. So it feels like more of a balancing act.

I don’t always want a beat your previous score, but compared to this mechanic, I think I prefer that for solo game play. And in all fairness to Trek 12, I do think I could just play it solo as a beat my own score. There is nothing that Max is doing that really pushes me at least in the trek style of game. Maybe the additional rules will make more sense for an expedition.

Different Mountains

I do think that the mountains in the game are interesting. The first one that I played is very basic. Most things connect nicely together so you can get those groups or those runs of numbers. Then the other two in the base box, they start to stretch that out a little bit further by making the difficult spots to go. And the expansion one, I like how it changes up the numbers on things. It makes you have to plan more.

Is there enough difference overall, I am not sure. I think that is one of the things about this game. It feels interesting, but the different maps don’t feel interesting enough. Or maybe like they could do more with them. Or even, maybe just make people start in the bottom corner and build out to make it feel more thematic like climbing a mountain.

Upcoming Streams

I think my plan for next Monday is to continue with roll and write games. Most likely looking at Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw. Or maybe one of the other roll and writes, I still have Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write to play as well. That is likely going to be the plan of attack for the next few weeks, though I know that some crowdfunding games that I likely will unbox aren’t too far away. So those will get slotted in when they show up.

And on Wednesday I am going to be playing some more Stars of Akarios. This week it won’t be more space combat. Instead, it’ll be time to get down onto a planet and start exploring. I am excited to show off different mechanics than the ones that we’ve seen so far. It does mean that I need to brush up on the rules as well.

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How To Play Fleet The Dice Game Solo

So, game play solo to multiplayer doesn’t change up too much. I’ll get to the solo rules at the bottom. But this is going to be a combo filling fishing game. The main focus is to catch fish because each fish gives you a point. But to do that you need to get boats and licenses of the different types for when fishing happens.

But there’s more beyond that, there is also a town phase where you can build up buildings. Or you can sell fish at the market which gets you coins, which I’ll talk about soon. Or you can go to the wharf and work on getting a king crab boat or chartering a boat for your own fishing.

And finally, there are coins. Coins fill in on a track, mainly filling in squares. As you go, that then allows you fill in stars. And whenever you do, that is when you get ahead in the game. A star then allows you to fill in a spot in town, one the wharf, or on the fishing boat tracks.

In the end, everything gives you points. Normally you fill in spots by drafting dice. And you do in solo. But the rival captain in solo doesn’t have their own board. They fill in your board from the bottom up. If you’re unlucky that can really limit what you can do, or fill a building immediately before you can.

What Doesn’t Work?

The biggest trick or thing that might not work as well for this solo is remembering where you are at. Since fishing takes place every other round, it can be tricky to remember sometimes. Now a lot of that is that I forget to fill in the little spots to let me know what phase I’m moving to. If I got better at that, it’d be much easier to keep track of. But because this is a bigger roll and write game, it makes it a bit trickier.

What Works?

Combos work really well in this game. But I don’t think that they are too overpowered. I didn’t find myself just going with the Market action, which just gives me coins too often. Mainly, because every other thing gave me something I want as well. There is even a building that just gives you six points, but six points can be a lot. But the stars are where you really get the combos, the rest of it is more building an engine.

I do think that the stars might be my favorite part of the game. It felt like being able to do two things on a turn, which sometimes it was, versus just one thing. Though, sometimes, if you just go coins, you still really only did one thing.

I also like how pesky the solo captain can be. She manages to mess up fishing plans, but if she has to take a market action, she gets rid of your next star, and that sucks. It makes the game feel very challenging. But she also isn’t too hard to keep track of. I wish maybe there was a reference card as to what she prefers and the order she goes, but once you need to reference the rules less, you can leave it on that for her.

Who Is This For?

The solo mode is for solo gamers. I feel like a lot of solo gamers are going to like Fleet The Dice Game because it offers a really good challenge. I’ll probably take more about the overall game later like I said, but with solo experience, most solo gamers will handle it fine.

The solo experience is easier to keep track of than it is with a lot of larger games. But it’s not going to feel too simple if you play a lot of solo games. And compared to a lot of roll and writes that you can play solo, Metro X, Ganz Schon Clever, Railroad Ink, Fleet The Dice Game offers more challenge.

Newer players to solo games or to roll and writes will find it more challenging though. The game has more bookkeeping that you need to do for the solo character than most other solo roll and write games. Mainly because most others won’t have a solo AI.

Final Thoughts on Fleet The Dice Game Solo

I want to play it more, and that’s a good sign. But I also want to play it with other people. Mainly because I feel like it’ll move fast and the dice drafting will be more interesting. That is one piece of the game that isn’t a negative or positive as the solo experience goes. You know what the AI will take, so you can either draft it out from under them if you really don’t want them to have it, or not. It’s an interesting manipulation but a simple one.

But, I do think after a few plays that I like the game as a solo one quite well. It feels different was a solo roll and write experience because of that AI. And I feel like I’m just getting into the strategy. And I don’t think there is a set strategy. Thus far I’ve gone fishing heavy, and it’s yielded solid results, but could I push money more, or could I push buildings more? There’s a lot to explore, which I really like. This makes me realize I need to get Hadrian’s Wall to try another complex roll and write.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade (for solo): B+
Casual Grade (for solo): D+

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Ascension is one that I started playing a while ago, but just recently came back to it. Ascension is a pretty straight forward deck building game where you are trying to get the best engine going of buying power and fighting power to get the most honor points. You get honor points by killing monsters during the game, but also then from the cards that you purchase. The game is straight forward and has a nice rotating market that can be frustrating if you don’t get what you want or the market just becomes monsters and you’re just about buying things. On your turn you play out five cards and basically do what they tell you, that is generally adding up attack and purchase power and then using them, but some cards will have special abilities like additional card draw, or they’ll be constructs, cards that go into play permanently and give you some bonus that way. You can find my whole review here.

So let’s talk about the app and how well it works on a phone. Now I’m just doing phone only as I don’t have a tablet that I use for these. The app implementation on the phone is actually really good. The game plays extremely quickly, much quicker than in person. Or at least playing solo on the app does. Pass and play with someone in person does as well, but you can also play it online against other people. The interface is very good and the tutorial gets you up and running fast in the game and the game takes care of some of the extra work for you. Of course you don’t have to shuffle, but negative monster affects, those can run automatically, and it keeps track of your purchase and attack power for you each turn so you don’t have to mentally track that and reminds you if you have any left.

Let’s talk a bit about the AI. I tend to think that it’s just okay. On hard I win most of the time, so a lot of the time when playing it I am more interested in trying out a new strategy to see how that works or to see what score level I can get to. On easy, the AI basically goes all in attack every time, which means that the game goes fast but you don’t really have anyone competing with you for the good cards or combos. I think with adding in some of the expansions, which are additional purchases it could keep the game more fresh and interesting, but I do think the game can get a bit repetitive over time playing against the computer, no matter the level of AI. Now, playing against people online, that’s going to obviously be more engaging in terms of strategy, but obviously takes a considerable amount more time.

Some of the bells and whistles in the game are nice though. You might want to know what constructs your opponents have, you can look at that. You might want to see what you have in your discard you can look at that. But the information isn’t dominating the screen, those are all things that you can look at versus stuff that clutters it up. And you can expand all the cards, so even though I’m playing on a small phone screen, if I need to read what a card says, which I don’t now but did before, I can just hold it down and it’ll pop up for me so I can see it large enough to read.

Overall, the game feels very intuitive in what you are doing. The game play is very fast as you go, so I can probably now get through a game in 10 minutes playing solo against four AI opponents. But, the game does lose some replayability over time against the AI just because their strategy isn’t always the most unique. I don’t think it’s a bad AI and I don’t win every time, more due to luck of the draw than great AI play. But it’s still a fun time to sit down and play fast, and I could easily buy some expansions to make it more diverse in my game play if I really wanted. This is a good app implementation, and if you really wanted you can play it online with friends or as a pass and play as well, which will give you a good representation of the real game. Definitely an app that I’d recommend.

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