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 Paper World

Paper World is the race to most points. You get points for each visible star that you have in your grid. And then you lose points for cards that you have discarded and cards in your hand at the end of the game.

Actions

On your turn you do one of two actions. And the actions are very similar in some of the details. You either take cards from five piles or play cards to your grid. But there are rules as for what cards you can take or what cards you can take. We’ll talk about the part that is the same for both, and then how playing can be slightly different. When you take or play cards you either take all of the same color of card or all of the same number of card to add to your hand or play area.

The rules do differ slightly playing cards, though. In that you need to play out cards, but you always need to build up. So you go from one to two, or from three to four, for example. But you can break that rule. There are two ways to break that rule. The first is that you can simply skip a number. If you skip a number, you discard a card for that, remember that discarded cards are worth negative points.

Or there is the scissors. The scissors can go on top of some cards. If you end the game with the scissors, they are worth two points. But there is another bonus. On a pile without the scissors (since you can’t cover up the scissors), you can skip a number without discarding a card.

Bonuses

The game also gives you three bonuses to go for. These bonuses give points to the first player to complete them, and then fewer to the next player. You get your bonus points from either placing numbers or colors in certain ways. For example, you might need to get 12 points in a column. Or you create a square in your grid with each different color. The points are fixed, though, so first always gets a set number and so on.

That’s how the game is played. Once three piles are emptied each player gets one more turn. And the most points in stars is the winner.

What Doesn’t Work

The game is very simple. This is not a massive negative, but it’s going to feel like there’s not much going on at times. And as you get down in stacks of cards, you are going to feel like you are doing the really obvious things. Because of the simplicity we’ll get some good things, but it does mean that it feels more limited in how it plays out and if you can do interesting moves.

What Works

Firstly, the game is simple. It’s a negative and a positive depending on who you are playing with. Because it is simple the game is also a fast game. You shouldn’t run into too many situations where you feel like you are locked in a long game. Even if someone maybe is struggling for a turn, the decision space is limited enough that you can’t spend too long on it.

There are a few clever moves you can do as well. Though that’s somewhat offset by the fact that there is sometimes not a great move. But you can be smart about how you play out your cards from hand, or add cards to your hand. Towards the end of the game you don’t want to get too many cards. So you might make a decision to take a number that only is showing in one spot and forgo taking more with a color.

Who is Paper World For?

I think that this game works best for people who want that quick little game. I actually think that adding cards to your hand element is pretty nice with deciding on number or color. But for people who want a game that has more thought going on with it, Paper World is going to feel very simple.

Final Thoughts on Paper World

There are elements of the game that I like. And I’ve had fun with my plays of it on Board Game Arena. But I think for me, it has a limited shelf life so it’s not one I’m likely to get in person. The game is just very light overall. And while I think there are some minimal strategies that you can employ, the game isn’t going to feel that different from play to play.

The two biggest differences in the game are number of copies of numbers, which I believe is based on player count. And the bonuses. But the bonuses are very limited in difference. 12 points in a column, a row of three of the same color, or ascending numbers. That is going to vary your strategy slightly. But the bonus points, especially at two players, aren’t enough to massively sway the game. One points versus two if you’re first is not that much. So it just works okay and the differences don’t feel that different.

My Grade: C
Gamer Grade: D
Casual Grade: B
Strategy (out of 10): 4
Luck (out of 10): 4

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How To Play Imhotep

Imhotep is a pretty simple game to play. On your turn you take one of three actions. You either add a stone from your quarry to a ship. You sail a ship to one of the locations. Or you gather more stone so it is ready for you to use. That’s it, the three actions that you do, and you do them over six rounds until all four ships have sailed to locations.

When you sail a boat you go to one of those different locations. But you can’t sail a boat unless it has enough stones on it. And you can sail any boat. You don’t need stones to be on the boat to sail it. So let’s talk about the locations you can sail to.

Locations

The main part of the game are the five locations. Each one of them is going to give you something different to do, but generally it’s about placing your cubes and scoring points. There is one that is different that we’ll get to, and how each scores points is different.

Obelisks

The Obelisks will be the first location that I talk about. When you sail to that location you add your stones to your obelisk as do your opponents. Whomever at the end of the game has the most stones on their obelisk is going to score the most points, and then fewer points as you go down in height.

Tomb

Next up there is the Tomb. The tomb scores at the end of the game and you score for your areas in the tomb. The larger the area that more points it’s going to score for as scoring scales. And each of your areas is going to score separately at the end of the game. Stones for the tomb and the rest of them are always placed in the order they come off the boat, front to back.

Temple

Then we have the Temple. The temple scores each round. And you score points for each of your cubes visible from the top. Depending on player count the temple is longer and offers more scoring each round that way. Once the temple reaches it maximum length for the player count, you start a second row.

Pyramid

After the temple is going to be Pyramid. The pyramid is built up throughout the game. You start with a three by three base level. Then as you move up it goes to two by two and then a single one on top. Each of the spots has a specific value associated with it. And if more stones are brought to the pyramid than can be placed, each extra stone scores a single point.

Market

Finally there is the Market. The Market doesn’t give you points directly. In the market you gain cards. The cards might give you a special action, bonus scoring for a location, an immediate affect, or set collection scoring. The two scoring you just keep by you for the end of the game. The action will take place instead of your main action. And the immediate affect is, well, immediate.

After six rounds are played the total scoring is tallied. And the player with the most points is going to win the game. I’m sure that there are tiebreakers as well, but you can figure those out when and if you need them.

What Doesn’t Work

I do think there is one flaw that can happen in the game. The game can get stuck in a rut if players aren’t being a bit daring. What do I mean by that? It is probably to your advantage to fill up a boat before sailing it. Because that’s going to limit the number of cubes you can get out. If everyone does that, though, then the game can become stale. Yes, it matters where you end up with your stone still, but it loses some of the fun of the game.

I have only played a game where this became an issue. And I think that is because once a player starts doing it, all other players need to follow suit at least somewhat. Otherwise the one player is potentially going to run away with the stone advantage. Now, you can also stick them in spots, especially just giving them the most stones on the obelisk, but it does make the game less fun.

What Works

So that is a flaw with the game up there. But otherwise I really think the game can sing when played as it’s meant to be played. The game works really well when players are sailing boats early, either to optimize their scoring or the hurt others. And that’s the great cat and mouse of the game. You play a single stone into a boat that holds a single stone, I might sail that to the spot that is least useful for you. It really works best when you get in the other people’s way.

I also like how all of the scoring is different. Each location is going to give you some solid points throughout or at the end of the game. And the scoring you can get from the market, like a point for every three stones in the temple, for example, helps you formulate a strategy because those bonus points can help a lot. It also means that your strategy can be different every game if you want.

Next up, I think the game nails the game speed of play and game length. You feel like you get to do a bunch Imhotep. But it always feels like you want to do just a bit more. Especially when you see a partially filled ship sail, I always wish I could have gotten one more stone on it. But turns go fast, and the game with six rounds lets you do a lot and really optimize some scoring.

Who is Imhotep For?

I think this is a good game for a lot of people. Mainly because it is simple to learn what to do in the game. Then as you play you get to explore more scoring options and challenges of the game. And because there isn’t a ton of variety in the game, it’s going to be one that is easy for people to pull back out and play again.

Final Thoughts on Imhotep

I very much enjoy this game. In fact I picked up a copy of it. And when I can find the New Dynasty Expansion for it I will. The downside is that the expansion is not easy to come by so it’s not that cheap. And the most reasonable priced ones that I found on eBay didn’t ship to the US, to bummer for me.

But that is it that got me to buy the game? I think it’s the different scoring mechanisms. Each of them really does give you a great new way to play the game. And while they are fixed, so I’m a little bit worried that it might become stale over time, it is an easy to play and table game. It falls into that category of a game that I’ll like to pull off the shelf once or twice a year when I don’t know what else to play and I want to a puzzle to get to that is going to be different each time.

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

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How to Play Symbiose

Symbiose is a simple score creating game. I’ll talk about what that means here and how it works in a second. You want to create the largest scoring grid that you can based off of the cards in your grid and the cards in your opponents grid.

On your turn you pick one card from the “river” of cards. These are four cards set out. Then you take one of your face down cards and put that into the river where you took the card from. And that new card goes into that spot. That is basically the whole game. But, of course it’s not quite as simple as that. Where you put that new card matters.

Each card has a few different things on it. It has a color and a symbol, these are snails, fish, or dragonfly on the top half. Then on the bottom half is scoring. Generally the scoring is going to be points for either a color or for a symbol on the card. Some cards don’t have scoring that depends on other cards and just gives you fixed points.

So, how does the scoring work? We have an idea, but there is more to it for Symbiose. When you play the game you have a two by four grid, two tall and four wide. The left most and right most columns score based off of what your opponents play out in their grid, on the left and right respectively. And then your two middle columns score for everything in your grid. Whomever creates the most symbiotic grid will score the most points and win.

What Doesn’t Work

This game has a level of luck to it. You start with eight cards face down and you flip one up randomly. Based off of the cards that are in play that game, you might never find a synergy to that first card. And the ideal cards for you scoring grid might be face down in your grid. So there is no way to know and when you flip cards what you’ll flip or if they will come back to you.

I also think it’s worth noting that the two player game is different. This isn’t a “not work” so much for me. But it is different. There is the river but it becomes a two by four as well. So you score off of that as one of your sides. Which makes it even more random because that is changing more often. In fact you might mess up your own scoring, or have to, in a two player game. So it’s more just be aware that the mechanisms are the same but the luck increases.

What Works

I love the simplicity of the actions in the game. Your turns go relatively quickly because you only have four a cards to take from. And I think it works well like a number of other games where at the beginning you have more choices as to where to place a card but it matters less. It matters less because your strategy will unfold as you go. In those final few turns it matters more because you know how you and your opponents are scoring. But your choices are much more limited.

This game is fast on BGA as well which is nice. But I think as quick as it is on there it is going to be an even faster game in person. This again comes because of the simplicity of the actions in the game.

I also really like games where you set your own scoring. It reminds me of Castle Combo in some ways, or Point Salad. But this is a little simpler, kind of. So that works well for me, you don’t need to be monitoring your cash to get cards or keys to move like you do in Castle Combo. So it’s simpler to table and play turns that way.

Who Is Symbiose For?

I think this is a game for people who like that building up of their own scoring. But beyond that, I think this is a great next step sort of game for a lot of people. The artwork is going to be fun for them as it’s nice art, and the game play is simple enough to learn. But it’s teaching and challenging them to new things.

Final Thoughts on Symbiose

I very much enjoy this game. I like a game where I create my own scoring and this one does so simply. And I really like that I need to pay attention to what my opponents are doing as well. This isn’t a highly interactive game, sure I could take something you want. But it’s better for me to score more points than to stop you from scoring points. But there is still that interaction because I want to use what you are scoring to my advantage.

And I also appreciate how fast the game plays. Which I think makes the game work really well for me as well. It feels like one of those smaller box games that is easy to add into the rotation. And while I love Castle Combo, one of my favorite games from last year, I think that Sybmiose will hit a similar spot in my collection and be easier to table. Is it a better game, I’m not sure, but it’s a game for a different and more common group.

My Grade: B+
Strategy: B
Luck: B

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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 Guild of Merchant Explorers

Guild of Merchant of Explorers plays kind of like a roll and write game, or flip and write game. So start by using that as a basis for how it is played. On a turn a card is flipped over and that tells you what type of terrain you can explore. And you want to explore terrain that has coins or is going to give you coins, because coins are your points at the end of the game.

Each card you flip has a certain way that or type of terrain that you need to place on. It might be wild but you need to place them so those two spots you are filling in are connected. Or it might be two grass lands which you can place anywhere, as long as they are connected to something previous, we’ll talk about that in a second. And then there are ones for each age that give you a special placement power that other players don’t have.

How To Place

So when you are placing you need to place off of a few different things, or a few different rules. When you start the game you need to start from your central city. And as you play, you can connect to paths leading back to that central city, or to villages that you’ve placed. I’ll talk about villages in a second. As you move from age one to two, and all the way up through four, you wipe what you have on the board each time, minus a few things.

So it might seems that you are always limited as you play out. But like I said you can play from villages as well. Villages do you give points, so one of the things you want to build to do well in the game. But they also give you new spots to build from. If I place a village on another island, I can now build off of that village. The rest of the rules apply still to what you are doing for placement, but you start in different spots.

And each era gives you a special card to use as well. Those special cards stick around, one for each era. And the one you pick and use in era one is going to be used in ages two through four as well. That is going to make how you expand compared to other players unique. And it is going to help determine your scoring strategy as you play the game.

How to Score

Then it’s all about how you score in this game. And the scoring is simple but there are a good number of ways to score. The first is simple, every time you cover up a coin, you gain that many coins. So if you cover up two coins on a turn, you get two coins which are two points at the end of the game.

You also gain coins for building villages. Earlier you build the village in a game the fewer points you will get. Why, because some spots are easier to build than others, so you likely will be building those to start the game.

You also explore spots with treasures. These give you a treasure card that you draw. Some of them give you points for the number of villages you have, or trade routes you create. Or it might be an urn that gives you more treasure for the number of urn cards you pull from the deck.

You establish trade routes as well. A trade route is going to connect two towns printed on the board. Not villages. You score points based on the numbers of your two connecting towns. And then you cover up one of the tows, so you can’t just connect the same high scoring towns again.

Finally each game you deal out shared objectives. The first player to complete it is going to get more points than the subsequent completion of those goals. And the most points at the end of the game wins.

What Doesn’t Work

There is an element of fiddliness that I expect to find when I play in person. On BGA it is great because it cleans up everything between rounds for you. When you play in person you need to remove all the cubes, but keep the villages in the right place. And that is going to be a bit more prone to a table bump or something like that. The game would be hard to make with a recessed board, and there are multiple boards, so I get it. But it is going to be a small concern.

What Works

Firstly, the card flip system and what you do with placing cubes is great. I really like how smoothly that works in the game. It is easy to track and use in the game. And it is nice because that means that everyone is playing the game at the same time. There is no roll or anything for a specific persons turn. I know a lot of roll and write style games do that now, as do more others, but it’s always nice.

I also like the cards you gather for each era. At the end of the game, I have three unique things that I can do. So, to make that clearer, in the final era, you activate all three, plus you choose one to activate again. So you decide, somewhat, how you build out your strategy. You get two cards each era that are special and choose to keep one, so while it might lead you in a direction, it is your choice.

And I like the scoring a lot in this game. I know it reads like a lot when it comes to what I wrote down for it. And that isn’t all the possible scoring in the game but nearly. So it is a bunch, but mainly, everything gives you coins. And on your first age, you probably get a village out and cover some coins. That is going to be about it. So it leads you into the scoring as you go and you can focus in on an area of scoring that you really want to make work for you.

Who Is Guild of Merchant Explorers For?

I think this is a great game for people who like roll and write games but want to bridge that gap between others. You play something that feels a bunch like a roll and write game, but it is still played on a board. The one thing I’ll say is that people looking for a very interactive game aren’t going to find it here. Which is okay but know that going into it. I was told by someone I play with on BGA that the game reminded him of Cartographers. And I think there is definitely an element that feels a bit like that. It is different, but if you like Cartographers you probably will enjoy this one.

Final Thoughts on Guild of Merchant Explorers

Now, I do like Cartographers a lot. So do I like Guild of Merchant explorers then? The answer is yes. This is a fun game that is easy to sit down and play on BGA and I think it’ll be easy to play in person. In fact, I plan on playing it in person sometime soon solo and competitively against other players.

I think what makes it so great for me is how the game expands out as you go. Yes, you wipe your progress between each era. And I though, or was worried, that it might make the game feel smaller and tighter. Mainly, can I make it to the edge of the board to get to that town there, or to cover up that area and put in a village. It turns out that the answer to those questions is yes, because if you start to place villages early, you really expand. And you add more cards each era as well.

There are some games that I play on BGA that I almost always have a game going. Forest Shuffle, Zenith, Rallyman Dirt and Pirates of Maracaibo, which I’ll talk about next week, are a few. I expect that Guild of Merchant Explorers is going to end up the same way. It’s an easy game to pick-up playing asynchronously and I enjoy that about it a lot. So a good easy game to play and enjoy, in my opinion. And a game that is going to give good variety and replayability and the possibility for expansions.

My Grade: A-
Strategy: B
Luck: C

Have you played Guild of Merchant Explorers? What do you think of it?

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How to Play Fromage

Fromage is a cheese placement game. You want to place out cheese every turn to score you the most points that you can. But there are certain rules as to how you can place out your cheese. And that’s where some of the strategy of the game comes in. But let’s dive into the basics of it first.

Placing Workers

On your turn you spend workers to activate different spots. One of things you can do every turn is make cheese. You spend a worker and a cheese token. Then you can also gather resources with another one of your workers. These resources are either livestock, building materials, order cards, or berries. And finally, you can spend a worker to activate a building, if you have a building to activate. When you place down a worker to make cheese you also spend a cheese token that you have. When someone is out of cheese tokens that is the end of the game.

The spots you can place a worker does have another feature to it as well. When you place a worker, it might be pointing across the board, or to the left or the right. The board will rotate after each player has placed each turn. And players place all at once. When your wedge of cheese/worker is pointing at you, it comes back off the board.

The Game Board

The game board is interesting as well and important for how the game plays. The board is split into four sections, so each player is going to have one section that is pointed at themselves. Each section is going to give you points in a different way.

One is more area control where you get benefits for having the most cheese in some areas. The other gives you a choice, more points for putting your cheese on one side of the cheese display, or more resources that you get if you put them on the other side. The third one is about creating pairs of cheese. And the final one is creating a path of cheese around a section of the board.

Scoring Points

So each section of the boards is one of the ways that you will score points. When you score points in a few other ways. One is that you can build a building that will give you points. Then you also get points for completing order cards. Finally, you score points for making cheese that is fruited or that is with jam. The berries will score points for fruiting and jam by multiplying the number you fruited with the number you turned into jam. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

What Doesn’t Work

This is a weirdly simple game, but also slightly complex game. I think that getting down scoring for each section, at least on BGA, can be a bit tricky. You want to make cheese and sometimes the best option isn’t to make cheese. Plus you need to think not only about what scores you points but when you’ll be getting your workers back because you can do one action per worker and you really don’t want to get stuck with zero workers one rotation. So what you do is simple but with the scoring it can be a bit more than it feels like. It’s not a real negative, just that you’ll likely learn scoring after a game or two.

What Works

I like the speed and simplicity of your worker placement. You do have choices where you can place your worker, but not too many. And you need to think about getting your workers back, like I mentioned. So a lot of the time how many spots you actually want to move is going to be fairly limited. Add in that everyone goes at once means that the game turns are only as slow as the slowest player that turn.

I like the timing mechanism of placing workers. I could place all my workers out, or as many as I can, turn one and not get them back until turn four if I wanted. That is going to be a poor decision, most likely, but you could do that. Or I decide that I really want to gain, let’s say, three cows. That means because I’m waiting a while for that worker to come back, I’m playing less powerful options or more specific options the next couple of rounds. It’s a great balancing puzzle of when you get a lot of resources or a harder to make cheese versus when you just want your workers back for the next round.

One last element that I like, and I like more in the game, but to highlight, is how you start to become different throughout the game. You might unlock a different building or just have different buildings than your opponents. That means that you get a specific bonus or an extra worker placement spot to use. And that I think is a fun element for a game like this. It doesn’t make you completely different from the other players, but just gives you a different way to hone your strategy.

Who Is Fromage For?

I think Fromage is a pretty solid welcoming game. Like I said in the what doesn’t work, scoring for each section might take a new player a game to figure out. But what you do on your turn is simple enough. Place a worker once to make cheese. Place a worker once to gather resources, and place a worker once to use a building if you have one. It’s really just that simple so it’s a fun theme that I think a lot of people are going to love. But for more seasoned gamers, it’s still going to be fun because you get an interesting strategy as to how you place out your workers and when you get workers back.

My Final Thoughts on Fromage

There’s one element that makes this a very solid game. I like it, let’s start out with that. But I think the best element of the game is how you get your workers back. That timing puzzle of when you put down a worker who might take another turn to get there, versus getting it back next turn, it’s fun. And you generally don’t want to get a turn with no or one worker, but it might be worth it to score a lot of points some time.

And I feel like each way that you score, whether it’s berries, which can be really high scoring, or in a section, they all give you good ways to get points without feeling broken. So one game I might decide to push hard on that area control board and make sure I get as much cheese on there as I can. Or I might play it smart with the adjacency part of the board, or I could just go for fruited cheeses and jams to get the best multiplier score that I can. I decide what type of scoring I want. And the game is fast enough that if it doesn’t workout, you can always just decide to play again.

My Score: B+
Strategy: C+
Luck: D

There isn’t much luck in Fromage. Some luck in what orders you draw, but they are just one way to score that you don’t need to lean into at all, so it’s a low luck game. But it’s also not so heavy in strategy that you are planning out. But, as I said, it’s that nice balance of just enough strategy and easy and fast enough to play that I think it works well for me.

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How To Play: Let’s Go! To Japan

This game is about creating the most enjoyable trip to Japan. And to do that you want to have the most points scored by the end of the game. You plan out, or travel about, for six days maybe going between Kyoto and Tokyo or maybe just hanging out in one of those cities the whole time. And each day you want to do specific things, because they are going to potentially give you the most points.

The game at the heart of it is a drafting style game. You get two cards, to start, pick one to play to one of the days and then pass the other to your opponent for later in the game. Later on, those cards are going to be picked up and chosen from again, which might be you picking up four cards and selecting two to add to your itinerary in front of you.

Each day you can do three things. And those things are going to give you points, lucky cat symbol, as well as the one on the top of the stack of three is going to give you some bonus scoring. The bonus scoring has to do with how much you have enjoyed your time in Japan and what you’ve seen. Or maybe how much stress there has been. But there is no guarantee you will score it because you need to meet the condition for scoring.

There is more to the game as well. You get some bonuses depending on how well you plan each day. And you can find out about those for yourself. The main scoring and playing loop is there though. Whomever has the most points at the end wins.

What Doesn’t Work

There is an element of luck to the game. You see a limited number of cards throughout the game, especially in a two player game. The cards you pass to your opponent, some of those cards are going to get passed back to you. However, this often times just means that you need to pivot on how you are approaching some of the scoring objectives. The game encourages adjusting on your feet versus very long term planning. And it’s a fast game, which I think can often be a bit more forgiving when it comes to luck.

I also think for a fast game, the teach is not the fastest as you play. Getting down how all the various scorings and bonuses work is not the easiest thing. When you have them down it isn’t that difficult a game to play. And I think there are elements of the game that start to make more sense once you play a single turn, or maybe two. But that initial time teaching it is going to take a little bit of time and effort.

What Works

Scoring

Firstly, I think that the scoring is satisfying. You score for each day and you can score a lot each day which is a lot of fun. It’s one of those things where everything is going to give you a bonus of some points, almost. And it’s fun to see those points pile up, even if it’s not a ton of points, just knowing that you got points from everything.

Bonus Tokens

Next, I think that there are elements in the bonuses that work really well. I didn’t talk about it much in the how to play, but you are moving up tokens for different things like cultural events, food, etc. And those give you more points, but some of the bonuses also interact with them. You can gain research tokens which allow you to pick from more cards. Or you might pick wild tokens that you can use to trigger scoring. You might get luxury train rides that give you points and make you less stressed. These are a great way to manipulate the game.

Speed of Game

I also really like how quick the game is. And the game isn’t going to take much longer for more players. The element of the game that is going to take longer is going to be the scoring, though even that shouldn’t be much longer. It’s a drafting game so everyone goes at once which means that you are only as slow as your slowest player. And generally you pick between two cards, so it isn’t like there is a massive amount of decision making space all the time in the game.

Choices

Finally, I think that the game offers good choices. While the choices are more in the moment based off of the cards you see, there is strategy to what you are doing. And as you start to lock in some of the scoring for each day those choices start to take on more weight. You want to end up with a bunch of stress free bonuses to get an end of day scoring, well, need to start loading those up on previous days. Or do you need to grab a wild token to bump up your food score to be able to complete one. You need to plan all of that out the best you can.

Who Is Let’s Go! To Japan For?

Firstly, I think that it’s for most gamers. This is a nice game that is a branch between a game that has a ton of choices, but a mainly random game. And most gamers will enjoy that sort of game. But the theme is also good for non-gamers as well. Going to Japan on a trip sounds like fun. And Let’s Go! To Japan shows you a lot of what is out there to see. Plus, for non-gamers, there are limited concepts that they need to understand. But I do think it’s a bit complex for someone just getting into games to learn and teach themself.

My Final Thoughts on Let’s Go! To Japan

Firstly, let’s talk about the exclamation points. I think that this could be a series of games that AEG does. All of them might be similar in how they play with a minor twist, so we might see a Let’s Go! To Italy or Let’s Go! to Australia for example, and I’d be happy if that happened. This game is a good time, and for me hits that sweet spot of offering good decisions but not being too complex as you go along.

And I want to double down as well on the scoring for this game. I won’t lie, there is a good amount of scoring. But at the same time it is generally fairly easy to follow after going through it once. And by the end of the game, you understand the scoring well. It reminds me of another drafting game, Sushi Go Party! where often times it’s good to do a quick overview of the scoring, but it’s also as good to start playing, because it becomes more evident as you go.

Finally, probably the highest level of praise I can give a game. I want to teach more people Let’s Go! To Japan. I want to play it more and I want to teach it more. Because it’s a game that I suspect a lot of people are going to enjoy. And when it comes down to it, that’s what I want, I want people to enjoy games and find those games that work for them.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: A-

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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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How To Play Ecosystem

Ecosystem is a pretty simple game and a drafting game. Your goal is to create the best five across by four down grid of animals to score the most points. This is done over two rounds, each round consists of a hand of ten cards.

Within those two rounds of Ecosystem, there are turns. On a turn everyone selects a card from their hand and puts it face down in front of them. That card is going to be added to their ecosystem in a way to optimize their scoring. Each type of animal or biome provides scoring in a unique way. Then you pass your hand of cards, first round clockwise and second round counter-clockwise, and receive a hand of cards.

Once all the cards are used from the two hands the game is over and scores are tallied. Each animal and biome scores according to it’s rules. And you score the diversity of animals and biomes in your ecosystem. If you don’t have enough you get docked points. Highest score wins.

What Doesn’t Work?

I think that there is one major thing that might be a turn off for some people. That is the diversity in the cards from game to game. I like Sushi Go Party better than I like regular Sushi Go, why, because it allows me to select what subset of cards I use each game, and Sushi Go does. Ecosystem is like Sushi Go in that it only comes with one set of cards. So if I play the game a number of times, I start to stumble across the same strategy, potentially. But, to mitigate that, Ecosystem is not a drafting game where you use each card, so there are always some cards missing from the drafted hands.

What Works?

One thing I enjoy about the game is that fact that you don’t use every card. I see how it would become an issue if you saw every card every time, but in Ecosystem you never will. And, you see 120 out of the 130 cards with six players. But if I play the game at two or three, we see forty or sixty cards respectively, which means we fail to see most of the cards. That is going to swing your strategy as you play.

I also enjoy how the scoring works in this game and how the diversity of creatures works. I think without that diversity of creatures it would end up being pretty standard across the board. But, because you want to diversify and they provide motivation to, I think it’s builds on the game nicely. When I need to think about not only my best scoring play, but how to avoid a 17 point potential swing, -5 points to plus 12 points, it adds a layer to the game.

Now, it doesn’t ratchet up the complexity of Ecosystem too much, and that is a good thing. Because, the last thing I like is that the game is a relaxing game. When I sit down and play a game like Ecosystem, I get to enjoy the artwork. I enjoy the puzzle of the experience, but it is not a stressful one. and with a game with pretty artwork, I think that fits what the game is going for. The game is not one that should stress you out as you play trying to get that perfect combination.

Who Is It For?

So, who is Ecosystem for? I think that this is a good game for a family with younger kids, not too young, though. You need to read your player aid when you draft the first few games. The scoring is not complex, but there are eleven things you need to think about as you play.

I also think that Ecosystem is a great game for that bit of downtime at a work lunch, or when you want to play a game but not think too hard after a long day or week or work. But one that offers just enough to keep playing it as that filler experience. It is like Sushi Go Party (or Sushi Go) that way. Though, those two are less filler games than Ecosystem is.

Final Thoughts on Ecosystem

At the start I asked the question, is this game too simple to stick in a collection? From my response I think you know my answer. I see why for some it might end up being that way. But for a relaxing filler game, Ecosystem is a great option. I play a game that offers some fun decisions or risks as I go, but not a game that offers too much.

I like to own games where I see them, and I think, this is a game I can play with most anyone. And Ecosystem is that sort of game. If I play this with my parents, it’ll work, and I played it at a game night, and it worked. That is a type of game that I enjoy to own because it’s not a party game, and it’s not Uno, but it is a game that I see most anyone playing.

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

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