How To Play Ninjan?

Like i said, Ninjan is a game of rock paper scissors. So the normal winning hands work in this game, but there is more to the game. You play the game over nine rounds, and the person who wins the most points is the winner of the game.

How Does a Round Work?

In Ninjan you deal each player a hand of ten cards. Those cards will be the ones that you play rock paper scissors with against three cards that are set out in the middle of the table. Each card is going to have a symbol and a number on it between 10 and -6. Each player picks a card to play.

The player who played the highest value card is going to go first. They take one of the cards from the middle that they beat and replace that card with their new card. That continues for each player going in numerical order and then if there are ties on numbers the “stronger” card goes first. So in a tie between rock and paper, since paper beats rock, paper goes first. In the case of a three way tie, it goes rock, scissors, paper.

Once every player has played out their cards, each player plays down a new card and you continue until you have a single card left in your hand and total up your points. But what if you can’t beat something because you didn’t play a winning card?

What If You Don’t Beat Anything?

So what is going to happen if when you come to your turn you have a paper and there are no rocks out there? You add your card to one of the piles. So you might make a pile better with a positive point card, or you might make it worse if you played a negative point.

What Doesn’t Work?

There is luck in this game for sure. I’m going to say this more as a neutral thing, but for some people it is not going to be fun because there is a bunch of luck. You get dealt a hand. If you find that you have a ton of a single suit and are locked out of getting points some hands. And especially at lower player counts since you see a smaller percentage of the deck, that might be the case.

What Works?

Firstly, the game is simple and easy to understand. Everyone knows rock paper scissors so they understand how that works. That means I can teach this game in minutes and people will understand what is going on.

But the game also has more depth than you might think. If you are playing a game and it’s a good rock out there, or maybe two, but you only have low papers, the other players might fight over the rocks. So if you play a really low, negative value, scissors and they play out paper, you might be able to grab a good point card of paper. That changing middle section is really interesting to work with. And there is more strategy to the game than first appears.

I also like that the game is one hand of cards. I think the first game that you play might go twenty minutes. And with a full five players it might be twenty minutes all the time. But because everyone picks a card at once, there is little downtime and the game keeps moving. And I think that negates the negative above because it’s over so quickly. I think you could even play in ten minutes if people are on the ball and not overthinking everything.

Who Is Ninjan For?

Ninjan is going to be for people who want a filler style game. It is purely that and it is one that I think is going to have great success for me for game nights. Why, because people know how to play rock paper scissors so that is going to be easy for them learn and understand. And it scales from 2 to 5 players which is going to make it a good game as people who up.

Grades and Final Thoughts on Ninjan

I went into Ninjan expecting to think it’s just an okay game. The concept of Ninjan with rock paper scissors is so simple. And my expectation was that I would find there wasn’t enough going on in it. But I enjoy Ninjan a lot. The little addition of scoring and playing against that center board versus playing against other players makes it a good time.

Now, I’ve only played Ninjan on BGA thus far. So I suspect it is going to work in person well as well. Mainly because I think that a lot of people will enjoy and get into it when they sneak out a card before someone else can take it and stick them with negative points. Or it could be the heartbreak of being one number short. Or it could be the smart play of throwing down a -6 of scissors and snagging a 10 of paper with it.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: B+
Luck (out of 10): 5
Strategy (out of 10): 3

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How To Play Pyramido: Forgotten Treasures

This is a very simple game. You make a 5 x 4 (or 4 x 5) grid. On your turn you select one of the three face-up tiles from five stacks of tiles. Your also take one of the gems next to that stack of tiles that’ll be used for scoring. Then you choose one of the facedown tiles to flip face up. After that you place your tile into your grid, and it always needs to be adjacent to another tile.

You do that until you complete your 5 x 4 grid. At that point in time you spend your gems to activate the area matching the color of that gem. Or you spend two wild gems to activate an area. And you decide which ones you want to activate.

Because after you complete that first round of building and scoring, you do it again. But now it’s a smaller area you are filling in. You leave the outside rows and columns empty and repeat the process. And you do that until there is a single tile on top.

Whomever has the most points from scoring their gems at the end of the game is going to win.

What Doesn’t Work?

This is an abstract game, so if you wanted theme in the game, it isn’t there. This idea of “forgotten treasures” in the title is just the gems. I think by looking at the game that is pretty obvious, but that’s something I wanted to call out. Because, I think the title does indicate there might be something thematic or adventure like about the game, this is a pure abstract game. Something I normally don’t love, but this is my only negative/word of warning.

What Works?

Turns are great and simple. I love how fast they go. You do need to think about things once in a while. Do I take that slightly worse tile in order to get the better gem for scoring. Or maybe will that come back to me again. But it’s very simple, I grab a tile, grab a gem, flip a tile, and you can take your turn while I place my tile. So the game, even on BGA being played asynchronously is one that can just fly if people happen to be online at the same time.

I also like the scoring in the game. I think that works really well. You activate the area(s) that you want to score by spending gems. But you also can overpay as well. If you pay two extra gems from the ones you collected when playing tiles, you score the ones printed on the tiles twice. So you if create a great area, then it might be worth to activate that one twice versus another lesser scoring area once. But that all depends on you having the right color of gems.

The pyramid building is the final thing that I want to talk about. Because you build up and leave an open row/column around the edge every time that sets up some scoring as well. If I pick and place tiles so that the gems on those tiles are at the edge of the are, they score throughout the whole game, as long as I activate that area. Even if that area isn’t on one of the tiles on top, I can always activate it along the edge. So I might want to focus on building out a specific area.

Who Is Pyramido: Forgotten Treasures For?

I think this is a great game for a lot of people. For gamers, it might be a little bit less thinky than they might hope for an abstract game. But for more casual gamers or people who maybe don’t play many games, this is an easy one to learn. And for those gamers, I do think the game offers a few good decisions each turn which works well. But I could see this as a game that becomes a family holiday favorite or something like that easily.

Final Thoughts on Pyramido: Forgotten Treasures

I enjoy Pyramido: Forgotten Treasures. And you know from some of my other reviews, like Harmonies, that I don’t always love abstract games. But this one works for me. I think it works for a few reasons that I mentioned above. But mainly, I think it works because you need to be a little bit adaptive as you play. But it still lets you come up with a plan for what you want to do and what you want to shoot for as you play the game.

And the game is fast. I think that is also a great element for the game. I said that it’s fast when you play it on BGA. And in person this game would just fly as you play it. So it just works really nicely that way for me as well while giving you a few clever things to think about. Mainly, how do you layer up your pyramid and when do you go from that really big scoring round, or do you just score everything (or as much as you can) once per level of the pyramid?

My Grade: B+
Strategy: B+
Luck: C-

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How To Play 61 Autumn Leaves

This is a pretty standard, not that complete roll and write game. I say that, but it does give you some interesting choices to make. In this game three dice are rolled and then each player picks one of those dice to activate a section. There are sections numbered one through 6, so the numbers correspond with it.

Then with the two remaining dice the player didn’t use, they pick one of those numbers to put into the section. The sections have different scoring, such as needing to match numbers, not being able to repeat numbers, or being up or down by one from the previous number.

With the final die, players then tally that number into their leftover dice values. You want to hit certain numbers, 11, 21, … 61 to gain bonuses. Then you roll the dice and go again.

The game will end when either twenty rounds have been reached, the number of leaves where you’re keeping track of that final die. Or when someone has passed reached or passed 61 on their leaves. Then players will count up the acorns from each location where they put numbers, bonuses for completing sections, and any bonus acorns from the leaves. The highest acorn value is the winner.

What Doesn’t Work

This game is going to be pretty simple for a lot of people. I like that about the game, which I’ll get to, but there is only so much decision space in the game. And there aren’t really any combos. If you get one of the leaf bonuses from that leftover die it can let you fill in a free spot, but that’s about it. Otherwise it’s just how well you can push down some tracks to score points. And can you outrace other people to them. And I think for a lot of people, they will want more to the game than just that.

What Works

For me, I find that I like the simplicity of this game. I think it’s a charming roll and write game, and compared to other simple roll and write games, it is giving you an option. You need to make two decisions, or really three each turn. What section do you activate, sure that might be limited, but you decide. And then what number do you play in there, again limited but you decide.

It’s also a filler type of game. And sometimes that is used in a bad way to mean light and nothing there. I already talked about how there is a little bit there. But the game is also really fast. And I like that when I play the game, even on BGA, it often plays really quickly. A two player game is able to get knocked out quickly because of how it works. If it were a big combo filled game it wouldn’t offer that.

I appreciate as well how simple the game is to teach. What I wrote above is basically the game. I think that some people might ask a question or two about the scoring sections, but they are generally simple. And I think that it’s one, because of that, and the speed of the game, people see and want to play again.

Who Will Like It?

I think this is a great family accessible roll and write option. Or maybe not great, but one that is very approachable. And the theme, for what it is, being fall, is just a fun simple theme. I like that about it because it isn’t a thing where someone will balk against playing a fantasy game or something like that. This game’s theme is one that appeals to so many people.

Final Thoughts on 61 Autumn Leaves

I enjoy this game a lot. 61 Autumn Leaves is just a fun simple little game. And I like playing it on Board Game Arena. It is a nice game because I can play 61 Autumn Leaves asynchronously and I don’t need to remember a board state. This is the type of the game that works really well there.

That said, and I said it at the beginning, I want a real copy of this. I would love to get a version of this with six sheets, some dry erase markers, and the three dice. It is an easy game that I hope gets turned into a physical product. I even downloaded the image for it so I can print and play it, which is rare for me.

That said, I also think 61 Autumn Leaves is the type of game that can get overplayed. I find that I’m not at that point. And I expect I won’t be at that point for a while. But while there is an interesting range of choices to make, it is simple in what it does. I expect that I will eventually run my course on it, but I also expect it is one I’ll come back to. It’s a roll and write that is easy to teach and play and that is the type of game to consistently hit my table.

My Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: B+

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It might be a bad idea to hire a bunch of blind fireworks employees, but that’s the theory behind Hanabi, you, and everyone else you’re playing with, are trying to create the best fireworks show possible, but you can’t see your own hand of cards. In fact, they are facing away from you so that everyone else can see them. On your turn you can do one of three things, you can spend a clue token to give someone a clue about the fireworks that they have, you can either point to all the cards of a certain number of all the cards of a certain color in their hand and let them know what the number or color is. Or you can play down a card onto a firework either start a firework, playing the one card, or to continue a firework, playing the next highest number of that color. Or, finally, you can discard a card to get back a clue token. If there aren’t clue tokens, you can’t give a clue, so hopefully you know what’s safe in your hand to discard or play.

This game has a ton of fun tension to it. Does the person who is coming up know what to do, can you give them a clue that will keep them from discarding the only five of a color and maybe discard a one that has already been played. The mechanics of the game are really simple for the amount of tension that it causes. Sometimes, you think you have the perfect clue, because you want them to know that they have a blue four, but, then you realize that they have more blue cards and they have more fours, so it won’t focus them in on a single card. Or maybe you want to let them know that they can discard a card so you can get another clue back, but is that the best use of your clue to get a clue? But sometimes there might not be a better option.

Hanabi is one of those games that the longer you play it, the better you’re going to get at it, because you’ll know what the better clues are. And, I think that is what really makes Hanabi shine as a game. Mainly because if you can remember where cards are in your hand and previous clues, clues for you can then be built upon. Maybe blue isn’t that useful and four isn’t that useful, but using both will help you get to the blue four, but hopefully will also let people know about other parts of their hand. For example, if they can see the blue five, and the blue fireworks are at a 3, they know that their other blue card isn’t needed. This, however, requires both the clues given to be good and that the person can remember, and while I think that it’s possible to do both, it’s really hard to know since, you don’t know what five cards you have in your own hand perfectly.

For me, this is one of those games that when it gets to the table, because it plays fast, 15-30 minutes depending on number of players and familiarity with the game, it generally gets played a second time, and maybe a third. Now, I can see how this might go over poorly, I’ve played with different groups and it’s gone over well, but especially for a new person into a group of experienced players, they won’t understand the full strategy of giving clues, because of inexperience. If this leads to visible frustration in the more experienced players, I can definitely see that souring the experience for the new player. And if you are a player who would get frustrated, I can understand not wanting to teach it, especially if you are going for the elusive 25 point perfect victory. But generally, this is a game that’ll get played twice and because I haven’t gotten the perfect 25 and no one I’ve played with has, we always want to try and do better the second time.

Piggy backing off of what I just said, I think that is one of the things that makes this a good cooperative game. And while not all cooperative games do this, I think that this game and Letter Jam which uses a number of similar things to Hanabi, do well is create that score that you always want to better. I assume that you could end up getting perfect scores on both and decide that you’re done with them because you can’t get better, but I think that isn’t that likely to happen or happen often that Hanabi is always going to be a challenge. And the fact that the deck is a random shuffle means that all the games are going to be different, though you’ll go through all of the cards.

Overall, you can tell that I really enjoy this game. I really like cooperative games, and I like that this one comes in a small package. Not only that, but it also does something that is different. People understand the idea of playing cards down in ascending order, but Hanabi is a twist upon that they won’t have seen. I’ve had good luck with this in several settings and player counts. I think it’s better at a higher count because you have more options of clues to give, but at two players it was fun as well. It’s been a while since I’ve played this one, but, now I want to play it again. And because of the time frame for it, it is one that I can pull out and get to the table easier.

Overall Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B+

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In this game you have a hand of four disks. Three of the disks have flowers on them, and one of them has a skull on it. You go around the table playing your disks face down, until someone bids on how many disks they think they can flip over without getting a skull. Then it goes around until there is a winner of the bid as everyone else has passed. The winner of the bid thing has to flip over all of their discs they’ve played first as well as any selection of other players disks to reach the number of their bid. If they only flip flowers, they flip their play mat to the flower side, and if they win a bid again, they win the game. If they flip a skull, they randomly lose one of their disks, and a new round of playing disks and bidding begins.

Skull is an interesting game that way, pushing your luck as to how high you are going to bid and trying to read players to figure out who has put a skull in their stack of disk and if it is the top disk in the stack. The reading of the players is really where the complexity of the game works best. Did someone bluff a bid, and they actually have a skull in their stack, so should you bid higher knowing that or should you pass and stick the person with that bid? If people play with less bluffing in their game, the game will fall apart as bluffing is the strong point of this game. Bluffing that you haven’t put in a skull so that someone bids higher and flips over your skull, and then trying to determine if that might backfire on you.

The game also looks nice on the table. The disks work well and give it a unique look for a game that is so small. That said, the disks take a game that should be the size of a deck of cards and turns it into something about five times larger or more. That is kind of absurd and takes the game from being a game you’d always bring with you, to a game that you would bring if you have the room. So while the disks look really nice, the game likely would be better served by being a deck of cards so that people could just take it with them or easily leave it in a glove box.

I also think that the game can run into some issues with lower player counts. Technically it’s a three to six player game, but I would really say that four is the minimum and probably five should be the minimum. With fewer people it’s harder to bluff on bids because of there being fewer disks, most likely, to bid on each round. We played at three players a few hands and then two games at four players, and even at four players, and I’d think this would be true at any count, if you have everyone with one win, it can break the game. The penalty for losing a game is losing a disc at random, so theoretically if you’re down to two discs and one is the skull, you could end up losing it so you only have the skull, but when everyone is one away from winning, it generally just ends up that you flip every single disk, because you want to block other people from winning.

Skull is a good simple poker alternative. I don’t think that it’s much more than that, but it’s probably more accessible than teaching someone the full rules to Texas Hold’em. The game can get a little bit weird at times, as I talk about in the above scenario that we had happen. Even with it getting weird though, I think that will be fairly rare, and the game says it plays in 45 minutes, and maybe with the upper end player counts it might, but it should play faster than that. Overall, it’s not a bad game, and it offers some interesting chances to bluff.

Overall Grade: B
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B

Have you played Skull, if so, what are your thoughts? Are there other bluffing games that you like?

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