Before I do, the majority of my plays have been on Board Game Arena. That helps with some elements of the games scoring, but also is less easy to maybe pick-up some other elements. So your milage is going to vary because you aren’t me, but might vary more because I have played Castle Combo more on Board Game Arena.

How To Play Castle Combo

In Castle Combo you are making the best three by three grid that you can. When you play out the first card it’s “in the middle” but you can build out the rest of your grid around it however you like so that you end up with a three by three grid. At the end of the game you will tally up your points and see who has the best grid.

Your Turn

So on a turn what do you do? Your turn consists of two parts. The first part is optional and the second part you must do.

The optional thing is that you can move the messenger pawn between the two rows. The two rows are mainly the same, as they are cards that you can buy. Or you can use the messenger to wipe the cards out of the row the messenger is on and refill it.

Bonus and Placing

Then you purchase a card from the row you are in. You might have a discount, or you might not be able to afford it, or it might be what you can pay. If you can buy a card face up, you spend coins for it. If you can’t afford a card, you buy it face down. It won’t be scoring with what the card says on front.

Then you figure out what bonus you get for playing the card. It might be coins which will help you purchase more cards. It might be a discount that will make future cards cheaper of a certain type. Or it might be keys which are the resource that you use to move the messenger.

The game continues until everyone has filled their three by three grid, which will happen at the same round. And then you tally up the scoring that you get from each card in the grid.

What Doesn’t Work?

I think one common challenge, at least early in playing the game, is going to be understanding the symbology. It’s not complex, but there is a fair amount. How is something going to score exactly? Well you need to look some symbols. What do you get, you need to look at symbols. And there is a good amount of variety. The basics of scoring generally are score X points for Y symbol or thing. But that is variable in what that thing might be. So I think for some people it’s going to feel too complex at the start.

There is also some luck involved. Now you can mitigate some of that. The messenger is your friend. But you need to balance spending keys, getting keys, and spending money. So it is tight that way, and sometimes you might find that you just aren’t able to get keys. So now you must buy what is in that row and what is in that row might not be good for you. Or you might have all the keys, but you can only spend one per turn, and you might be short on money. But you put yourself in those situations.

What Works?

So to talk about that last negative, while there is luck, I love the control you get. You decide what you get both for scoring and the bonus. The bonus might be great, but scoring is bad. But I need the bonus because otherwise I won’t be able to buy a card that I hope is going to be there for me next time. I love that back and forth of that in the game. And I think that it works really well and is fun that way.

I also like how fast the game and turns go. Even on Board Game Arena where I generally play asynchronously a game can cruise sometimes. Especially in a two player game, if you both get on at the same time, it is a fast and snappy back and forth with turns. And in person, the choices are not that extreme. You get two choices, activate the messenger and then decide which card to buy. There is one scenario where you gain a third, but it’s very minor and generally very simple.

And I like the complexity level of the scoring. I say that the symbols can be a bit. I think that is very true. But scoring is a great puzzle in this game. You need to think a lot about where you place everything and how they will interact. There are some cards that give you points if you don’t have a color banner. So that is a tricky thing, but it’s good points. Do you get that early and try and avoid, but everything you do shapes you scoring strategy.

Who is Castle Combo For?

I think that a lot of people are going to enjoy this game. It’s a great game for casual gamers because you can play it multiple times. I plan on playing it at my next game night, assuming a good player count, and it is one that I can see playing twice. Once as people turn and the next time as people will want to play it again.

For more seasoned gamers this is the warm-up or wind down type of game. It’s that great game for when you want to play something more or are waiting for the last person to show up for a bigger game. It is going to engage you in what is happening. But it’s also not going to take too long or require a lot of setup so it’s a great filler option.

Final Thoughts on Castle Combo

I really love Castle Combo. The game is a ton of fun and really offers some good choices. Plus, it’s fast, and it’s easy setup and get to the table. It’s what I look for a lot in games. I want to play all the big games, but sometimes you just need a smaller game. And I also want to plan out everything in this game and keep on finding myself running short in what I want to do. And I can play it a lot on Board Game Arena as well.

For me the negatives aren’t that bad. And I think in person is going to help make some of the symbols clearer. Online it’s not that bad, but it’s also just a bit more of a pain than to look up some of the symbols. In the box, you just pass around the one cheat sheet, could it be better if there were more, sure, but it’s a minor thing. And that is going to make that initial learning curve a bit easier for players as they can read that on their turn to help make their decisions.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+
Casual Grade: B+

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Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 70 through 61

70. Sagrada

• Published by Floodgate Games in 2017
• Build the most beautiful stained glass window

This game is just a great drafting game experience. The ease of play is wonderful as well because you draft a die and place it while other people are going on drafting their own dice. Especially with the 5-6 player expansion, which can be worked into the lower player counts, it makes it so you don’t need to spend time with what others are doing. But both ways to draft the dice and place the dice are mainly the same and really good. Plus the way you need to play the dice to not have colors or numbers adjacent makes a great puzzle.

Buy Sagrada

69. Mesozooic

• Published by Z-Man Games in 2018
• Slide your dino-themed park together in this light filler game

Mesozooic has a couple of great elements to the game. Firstly it’s drafting, and I really love drafting. But the game is more than that. You also need to complete a slide puzzle. You see you draft 11 cards and shuffle them up to create a 3 tall and 4 wide grid with an open spot. Then you slide them around frantically for 45 seconds like a slide puzzle to get the best dino-park that you can. It’s silly, light, and a very fun time.

Buy Mesozooic

68. 7 Wonders Duel

• Published by Repos Production in 2015
• Draft cards and build wonders in this head to head game

I like this game better than 7 Wonders. Mainly because I played 7 Wonders a few times at two and it isn’t a good game. 7 Wonders Duel is great that way, as expected. But the game is more than just a better version, I think that the drafting is very clever. I love the trying to avoid revealing a card that is good for your opponent. And some of the cards being face down so unknown until they are revealed. And the two side ways to win with science and military add in tension to the game as well. You can’t just draft your best engine, even though you want to.

Buy 7 Wonders Duel

67. Icecool

• Published by Brain Games in 2016
• Help your penguins sneak out of class and get fish in this dexterity game

Yes, the theme of Icecool is that simple and I love it for me. I love the flicking element of the game, it’s just fun. And I really enjoy the silliness of the game. This is one of my favorites for a late night of gaming. Just sit around and flick penguins and have a laugh. It is possible to get very good at the game, but it’s also a game where players can just have a great shot by pure luck. To me that is what makes it a fun game for all ages.

Buy Icecool

66. Super Fantasy Brawl

• Published by Mythic Games in 2022
• Choose your team and face off against an opponent in an arena

This game is coming back, kind of. I say kind of, I expect that most of the game is going to be the same, but CMON bought it from the now defunct Mythic Games. So I want to see what CMON is going to do with it. Because I love the simplicity of the game. Super Fantasy Brawl has you activate three different colors of cards each round. And you can do some on defense as well, but that means you won’t do as much on your turn. Then you either try to knock out your opponents for trophies or complete goals, or most likely, do both. The game is strategic but also fast and easy to play.

Follow Super Fantasy Brawl: Reborn

65. Trailblazers

• Published by Bitewing Games in 2023
• Create the best hiking, biking, and kayaking routes

Another drafting game on the list. This is the last one for this time, but there are four and possible five if you count drafting your team in Super Fantasy Brawl. In this one you draft cards to create trails. I love the trail creation aspect of the game because you really need to strategize as to how you’re going to do that. And I like how the game becomes more complex in your trail creation throughout as you add in other hubs that you need to start and leave from for each of the three routes.

Buy Trailblazers

64. Mind Up!

• Published by Pandasaurus Games in 2023
• Play the right number to collect and create sets of colors

This game is so easy to learn and play. I actually wrote about it yesterday in that exact context, so you can checkout the article after this. But it’s simply play out a card simultaneously with the other players. Then you look to see who played the lowest number, they get the lowest number from the middle. And after that it’s about trying to get the colors you want into the highest scoring column you have. The whole thing is just a really easy to play and simple time. I explain it better in the video, by the way.

Buy Mind Up!

63. So Clover!

• Published by Repost Productions in 2021
• Can you find the right pair of words based off of one word clues?

This game is always tricky for me to explain. Basically you have cards with four words, one on each side. And you have four of them making this little four by four grid. Each side is going to have two words, if that all makes sense and you’re picturing it. You need to create a one word clue so people can guess and put it back into that same order. Not that hard, well, it is when the words don’t connect at all. And there is going to be a mystery fifth card added in. But if you give the right clues you can lead people down the right path to recreate it.

Buy So Clover!

62. The Castles of Burgundy

• Published by alea in 2019
• Take a new kingdom and turn it into a bustling land

A game that I wouldn’t have expected that I like. But I really enjoy The Castles of Burgundy, a game of using dice to purchase and place new things into your land. As well as using them to sell goods, and get workers that let you manipulate your dice. There is a bunch going on and I feel like I need to nail down my strategy for it. But I really enjoy what this offers and it’s a new type of puzzle for me to spend time diving into as a game. I even have the fancy version coming that alea did with Awaken Realms.

Buy The Castles of Burgundy

61. Letter Jam

• Published by Czech Games Edition in 2019
• Work together to figure out what everyone’s letters are because you can’t see your own

If you know what Hanabi is that will help with it. But Letter Jam is a game where you can’t see the letters that form your word. Other players can see one of them at a time but they can’t see theirs. So you give clues to help people narrow down what their letters might be for their jumbled word. Of course everyone needs to get theirs figured out by the end of the game, but it’s cooperative so the challenge is great but fun to tackle.

Buy Letter Jam

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule.

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to continue my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition for another six weeks. After that expect this to be when I play my small games.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3

The best way to know when we go live, though is to subscribe and click that notification bell. I can’t promise, and in fact it’s pretty unlikely, that I’ll have events to click on ahead of time. Though I do want to get better at it. I hope that you can join a stream and hop into the chat.

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How To Play Mind Up!

Mind Up! is a game of few actions, you don’t make that many decisions in the game. And it is a game where you are trying to collect colors of cards to score the most points possible. How this is done has a nice little twist or process on it.

Each player has a hand of cards, starts with 7 will be 9 by the end of the game. Players pick one of those cards to use to get another card. As there are “x” number of cards in the middle of the table where “x” is the number of players. Those cards are sorted low to high, and depending on what number you played, you get where you fall into order of the played cards low to high. Then you keep the played cards in the middle and now those are the cards you are trying to get when you play out your next card.

Simple thus far. Like I said, it’s a color set collection game and you want to collect the most of the highest scoring color. Which color is that? Well, five colors are in play and the color that you play on your five scoring spot is your highest scoring. But you need to add colors left to right. So if the five is in the second spot, that is where you want to put cards. And colors always match where you already played that color.

The Big Twist

Mind Up! does have one big twist that I didn’t mention in the how to play. You play Mind Up! over three rounds. At the end of each round, after you score, you collect your cards and draw one new one. Those cards you just scored, those are your new hand of cards. It is possible that you’ll want to take a less than ideal card because it is good for you in the next round.

It’s a little twist on the game, maybe more than a big twist. And remembering what numbers are out there, it’s somewhat useful. But the big thing is that you know what colors are out there after the first round. If there is a higher number of purples than oranges, you know you don’t want to have your oranges on your five scoring spot.

Scoring

And I want to talk about how scoring works for Mind Up! as well. I said, it is set collection of the colors and that is true. But once you get a card, it is worth noting, the number on the card doesn’t matter. That only matters for where it is in the line-up of cards to pick.

Scoring is instead multiplying the number of that color of cards that you got with the scoring position it is in. If you snag three blue cards on the three scoring spot, those are worth 9 points. If you get two oranges on the five, that is worth 10 points. Easy enough math to keep the game nice and simple as you play.

There is a minor twist on scoring. And that is that you also have +1 or +2 on some cards or -1 on some cards. This does not impact the multiplication. So with my two oranges on the five, they are still worth five. But then added and subtracted numbers get factored in.

And finally with scoring, the order of the scoring cards changes every time. You play with 1 through 5 as your multiplier. But between every round one person randomizes their cards and everyone else matches that order. So the five might be in the first spot or it might be in the last spot. So strategy on where you get a color changes every round.

Who Is This For?

I think that Mind Up! is kind of that mass market card game. And I mean that in a good way. There is an action in the game that you take. You don’t need to think about a lot of things, it’s simply play out a card to hope to get the card that you want. And then you add that card you get to your collection. But compared to something like Uno there is no take that or thing that can artificially lengthen the game. It is always fast.

So for that, I think people should look at Mind Up! as a filler game. And it does play like a filler. Everyone plays out their card at the same time. Everyone gets a card at the same time. And scoring, you guessed it, everyone scores at the same time. The game is made to play quickly no matter the player count. And I think that it does a good job of that.

Final Thoughts on Mind Up!

I enjoy games like Mind Up! And as it is small game, it is going to stick in my collection. I think that Mind Up! is a fun game though. Even with it being a small box, that is not the element that is keeping the game around. It is that I sit down and can play a game of trying to guess what your opponents are going to do that is always going to be fast.

It is going to be a bit random as to what cards you are able to get. At least through the first hand, after that you have more control and more knowledge. But again, it is a fast filler game, it can have a bit more of that as you figure out your strategy and how you want to play it.

And I like the element of figuring out how or if you want to go for getting cards on the five spot. If the five is in the fifth spot, you need to spend four turns hopefully getting cards out to there. If the four is a whole lot sooner can you load that up more than someone who is pushing out to the five. It’s an interesting puzzle to figure out each time.

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

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The Game – Splitter

So, this is a roll and write game that came onto my radar I want to say a few months ago. It wasn’t until December that I actually saw it available. Though, it might have been available prior to then, it wasn’t one that I sought out.

Splitter is a pretty basic roll and write, roll two dice and place those numbers. The twist on it comes with how you place them. When you place one on one half of the board, you need to put the other mirrored to it. So one number is always on one side, the other always on the other.

All while you are trying to create sets of numbers, a lone one, or two twos, up to six sixes. All giving you that same number of points. So one for a one, etc. At the end of the game, you add up all the points for sets you complete. And there are star spaces, any set completed on them is worth double points.

The downside to the game is it is random. There is no mitigation on the numbers rolled. So, in the last game, I talk about, I don’t think you could see, rolling a five when I didn’t want to. A group of fives that I play now because of a roll is a group of six fives. That scores no points.

That is a downside I think of the game. Especially when playing solo. I want certain numbers to come up. But there isn’t tension in it, it is a die roll. With more players, I think it might work better. Every late game roll, or more, will carry weight for being great or horrible for players. So I believe there will be more excitement at the table.

Upcoming Streams

So, change to streaming, not to the schedule. The plan for Wednesday is not going to be Lands of Galzyr. That isn’t because it won’t be coming. I plan on starting Lands of Galzyr next week. But wit the equipment on the fritz, the new piece won’t be here in time. So my plan is to play Slay the Spire, or maybe demonstrate some Gloomhaven via Steam.

Monday is going to be another chill stream like this one was. I will have the new equipment by then, so it is going to be testing that out. I hope that it goes smoothly, but I’ll get it figured out. And my plan is another game to play solo. I don’t know which it is going to be yet.

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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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What Is Pop-Up GenCon?

On the same weekend as GenCon, FLGS across the country are going to be doing Pop-Up GenCon. This is a kind of like a mini GenCon, but much more limited than that, obviously. There are going to be games to demo and probably some special events that the different stores might put on. But it’s mainly a chance for the board game companies to put out some games to a larger audience.

You can find more details about it over on the GenCon website.

What Games Will Be There?

As GenCon says, it is subject to change. And with shipping, I fully expect that some games might not make it in time. But other games, they might show up that companies haven’t talked about yet because they aren’t sure they’ll make it, but let’s take a look at what is announced.

Dungeon Party

This is a fun, light looking game that uses dexterity to go through a bunch of dungeons. I know I saw this game, by Forbidden Games, when it was on Kickstarter because it was something different. You are tossing or flicking coins onto coasters to fight monsters and have a good time. A game that is definitely built for the bar or a really casual game night of relaxing and drinking.

Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write

This is a roll and write style game, with a fun play of words on it. You are building out your own Dinosaur Island, kind of Jurassic Park style but with maybe fewer park goers getting eaten. This reminds me of the roll and write, Welcome to Dino World, but I think that this going to be a bit more complex as you build out your park. From Pandasaurus games and the roll and write version of their game Dinosaur Island.

Captured Moments

I won’t lie, I know nothing about this game. It’s based on Downton Abbey which is a show that I haven’t watched, nor one that really interests me. It seems like a set collection game, but honestly, like the show, not a game that interest me that much. It looks like a fairly simple game that would be a good gift for a fan of the show.

Taco Bell Party Pack Card Game

Why is this a thing, I don’t know. This is a game that has been out for a little bit, I think it was part of the Target July release, if I’m not mistaken. But it’s a game, like the Captured Moments game above that is for a big fan of Taco Bell. This isn’t a complex game, you play down cards to get fans of Taco Bell to your scoring pile and the person with the most points wins. That might be simplifying the game slightly, but it’s not one that interests me.

Gravwell 2nd Edition

This is a game that I do know something about, mainly because I have the first edition. This is a really fun game and pretty easy to play. You draft different elements to power up your ships engines as you try and escape a black hole and get back to your dimension. The trick is you don’t know how the elements will work. You play them out and they activate in alphabetical order for each player.

But some will pull you towards the nearest object, repulse you away, or draw other objects towards you. So there is some thought that goes into what you play. Q might push you away from the nearest object 10 spaces but it’s later in the alphabet so that might be towards the black hole. It’s a really fun game and once you get it down, it’s very easy to play.

Dungeon Decorators

From Slugfest Games which made Red Dragon Inn, this is going to be another lighter and sillier game. You are building out a dungeon with, as they say, some light euro mechanics to score points and have the best dungeon at the end of the game. It’s not really a theme that interests me, but Slugfest Games makes some really accessible games, so one that probably would work for a lot of people.

Godtear

This is going to be a skirmish game, one that I think was on Kickstarter. It looks like it’s minis heavy and while the minis seem pretty cool, I’m not sure this is the type of game for me. There are going to be two different factions, it looks like, at the Pop-Up GenCons, so that is cool. For me I look at this and go, do I need another game like that if I have Super Fantasy Brawl?

Disney Mickey and Friends Food Fight

I don’t have a Board Game Geek link for this one coming from The Op (Usaopoly). This, not shockingly, doesn’t seem like a theme for me, and I’m guessing is going to be a nice light kids game. The Op does a solid job on their games, so I don’t think it’ll be like a Hasbro kids game but should offer a little bit of game play to it.

Bayou Bash

This is described as a chaotic racing game. Which, I don’t mind a good racing game and racing games should have some chaos to them. I am also interested in this one because it does have some drafting. Drafting and the ability to pick some of what you want to do always interests me. It makes me feel like it’s less luck driven than something where you are just rolling dice. And it sounds like it’s less about winning but about how cool you can look in the race, which is an interesting concept.

What Am I Looking At?

Well, you can probably eliminate a few of them. I’m not interested in the Disney, Downton Abbey, or Taco Bell Games at all. Godtear, since it is a hex skirmish game is also not that high on my list. In fact, most of these are not that interesting to me, but I’m curious about Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write. It’s one that I considered backing on Kickstarter when it was there with Dinosaur World. I like a good roll and write game, and I think it’d be interesting to compared to Welcome to Dino World.

What games interest you? I hope that there’ll be more, and let me know about your Pop-Up GenCon experience or GenCon experience if you are going this year? I’ll be curious to hear about the events and if the Pop-Up ones are fun for people. Plus, I think since I am going to to the GameZenter, formerly Fantasy Flight Game Center, maybe we’ll see some Fantasy Flight Games there to demo.

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The Game

In Ohanami, you draft two cards at a time and put them into up to three different columns. Splitting up the cards that you drafted is fine, but there are rules to placing in a column. The number you put down either is put at the top and has to be higher than the highest number in that column, or at the bottom and lower than the lowest. So you will end up with three different columns all in numerical order.

The scoring in this game is interesting. You play through three hands, the first hand you score all of your blue cards for three points each, then next hand as you continue to build the three columns in front of you, you score blues for three points each and green for four points. Finally in the third hand you score grey for seven points. As well at the end scoring pinks based off of how many pinks you’ve collected. The player with the most points wins.

What Doesn’t Work?

Honestly, I got nothing for this section. That isn’t to say that this is a perfect game. I think that everything works well and it is light fast fun. Jokingly, I wish I paid more attention to the artwork on the game. The game goes so fast that you don’t really have that much time to appreciate it.

What Works?

The drafting in this game works really well. 10 card hand would be a lot to draft from, but you draft two at a time. That means it goes by really quickly. The drafting is also extremely simple. Something like Sushi Go Party has a few more moving pieces to it and the scoring, here you simply draft two cards and add them to columns. Or you can toss a card if it doesn’t work for you. So there is some strategy in your drafting, but there is very little to no hate drafting in the game, because getting points yourself is better than taking an ideal card for someone else.

The scoring adds a lot of depth to this game. It seems pretty simple, but it does make what you draft matter. If you get blue cards in round one, let’s say 5 of them, that’s 15 points in round one, 15 points in round two, and 15 points in round three, assuming you don’t add any m ore. If you get them in round two, you miss out on the first 15, and so on. So while blues can score you the most points, 9 per blue card, that’s only if you get them early. So blues are worth the most in the first round, greens in the second and greys in the third. But you also have to think about pink, you can score a lot of points if you have a lot of them. A few pinks, say two or three will probably cost you point in the long run, but if you can get up to 6-7, now you’ll score a lot more points, and up to 10-12, way more points. So there is a balancing act, because pinks don’t score you points early.

And really, the time works so well for this game. After teaching it once, the subsequent games were 15-20 minutes, so extremely fast. That makes it a great filler and it should be a game that works well with less than four players, even though that’ll make it more random. Because you don’t know when you’ll see cards and who will see them first, you can’t fully strategize anyways, so the randomness at less than four won’t be a big deal. In fact, it can probably enhance some strategies if things shake out right and you’ll see your own hand again more often, in four players you only see two cards again. But no matter the play count the game shouldn’t balloon too much in length. It’ll take longer if you play with analysis paralysis prone players, but hopefully even they can play this game fast.

Final Thoughts

This is going to be a game that is good for a lot of people. The game play is so fast, and there are interesting decisions to be made as you go along. The scoring is what pushes those decisions but gives you flexibility to think about strategy and to think how much of a gap you want to create between numbers, do you want to throw away a card and things like that. And this is a good game for non-gamers and introducing them to an idea, such as drafting. This is as about as simple a drafting game as you can get, so even before something like Sushi Go or Sagrada, this game would work really well.

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

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