Utter Loser

Appetizer – what attracts you to the game
Designer – John Gibson
Artist – Michelle Ball
Chris Kiser
Barry Pike, III
Publisher – Victory Point Games
Theme – It’s Pandemic: In the Lab with actual science…kind of.

Main – gameplay
Mechanisms – Puzzle mixed with dice rolling
Unique aspects – The puzzle of creating antibodies to remove molecules in an ever changing bacteria/virus by buying proteins and assigning them to specific molecules while using lab equipment and personnel…yeah it’s pretty much all unique in my opinion.
Good/not so good – If you don’t like die rolls determining whether you win or lose then that is a negative. There are ways to mitigate that so it can be less of a deal. What I like in this game is the resource management aspect with the funds and figuring out what is the best way to use it at that moment.

Dessert – the best part
I think the best part of this game is how you can take your turns in whatever order you want creating some good combos and allowing you to do much more than a normal turn would allow. For example you could use the lab equipment to help you buy one more protein to finish two antibodies that allow you to remove 3 molecules (one of which was only able to be targeted because of the second removed molecule) which then gives you enough funding to buy a new piece of equipment or some more personnel. When I get one of those turns I almost want to stand up and dance…almost.

Hooyah: Navy Seals Card Game in 3 courses

Appetizer – what attracts you to the game
Designer – Mike Fitzgerald
Publisher – U.S. Games Systems
Theme – You are a member of the Navy seals taking on different real-life missions.

Main – gameplay
Mechanisms – Co-op card game with a similar mechanism to TTR to get cards, but cards can have special abilities as well. Players grab cards to fulfill random events and a known op. 5 known ops must be accomplished before attempting the final mission.
Unique aspects – Even if you had enough cards to fulfill the known op, the random events that happened might ruin your plan so you have to over plan before going to fulfill the op. You get more health though if you don’t take as long to gather the necessary resources so there is a fine line to balance.
Good/not so good – Sometimes the events did too much damage, but it was balanced that if you failed an op you could attempt a new one after discarding all of your cards and taking one damage. The play time of the game wasn’t too long so any major complaints were mitigated by that. It wasn’t long enough to really make me frustrated.

Dessert – the best part
The addition of the special cards to the TTR mechanism allows for some familiarity with a twist. This could easily be a small step up for players of TTR or new people to co-op games.

A Review of Fleet solo variant in 3 courses

Appetizer – what attracts you to the game
Designer – Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle
Artist – Eric J. Carter
Publisher – Eagle Gryphon Games
Theme – Fishing!

Main – gameplay
Mechanisms – For the most part this is an auction game, but there are some other aspects as well. Once you complete the auction for the fish licenses then you can launch boats and hire captains to go fishing.
Unique aspects – For the solo variant you play against two captain bots who buy unique licenses and then launch boats as well (determined by a card turn). They provide a good challenge for sure and I’m still trying to figure out how to beat them.
Good/not so good – The iconography isn’t the best on the cards so until you get used to it there is a decent amount of rule checking. Beyond that it is a quick playing card game with some good decisions. Do you take a license purely so the captain bots don’t get a license or do you try for the license you really want and hope they don’t drive up the cost too much.

Dessert – the best part
I think the best part is that the boat cards you get are boats, captains and money, all at the same time. Multi-use cards are some of my favorite things in games. What aspect of the card brings the most value? Sometimes it is very difficult to decide.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig – solo variant – in 3 courses

Appetizer – what attracts you to the game
Designer – Ted Alspach
Artist – Ollin Timm, Keith Curtis
Publisher – Bezier Games
Theme – Building a crazy castle!

Main – gameplay
Mechanisms – Tile Placement
Unique aspects – The Master Builder is one of the most unique aspects to a game that I have seen in a while. When it is your turn to be the Master Builder you decide the price of the tiles for that round and then whatever is purchased, the money comes to you!
Good/not so good – For the solo variant you lose the Master Builder aspect and that is disappointing and money is probably too tight to build a good sized castle, but it is still enjoyable for periodic play. I enjoyed the frustration that came with not having enough money buy tiles when the perfect tile came out, or the joy you find when you finish a couple rooms on the same turn and get the room bonuses.

Dessert – the best part
The best part of the multi-player game is the Master Builder, but in the solo variant, the best part is getting combos of completed rooms allowing you to do much more on one turn than is normal.

A common question from one friend to another, at least in the US, is “Where does your family come from?” We have a fascination with genealogy because very few of our families have been in the US for very long. My family has barely looked into its history, but it has always peaked my interest. As soon as I saw Legacy: The Testament of Duke de Crecy had a solo variant I thought that it had a very interesting theme, but I wasn’t sure how fun it would be. I mean, how much fun could it possibly be to research a fake family’s history? Turns out, quite a lot, but I’ll get to my opinion later.

courtesy of BGG
courtesy of BGG
courtesy of BGG
courtesy of BGG
In the multiplayer game you are competing to create the most influential family, marrying family members with the friends who provide the most advantageous benefits. In the solo variant, however, you are researching your family tree to prove whether or not you are related to a recently deceased, rich person. The friends become “known” family members and you are using their benefits to complete hints that tie you closer and close to the deceased.

In each generation you are given three hints, for a total of nine, that must be completed in order to claim victory. Using your guaranteed two actions you can identify specific members of your family as the “known” family members that you have received. You can also get small monetary gifts by identifying how rich your ancestors were, you can identify more “known” family members and several other actions that gain your prestige, income or honor points. Each of the family members you place into your family tree give you bonuses including more money, more actions, more “known” family members, etc.

courtesy of BGG
courtesy of BGG
The hints that you are trying to solve could be anything from “A male ancestor on your father’s side had a title,” to “Your grandparents had three children, one was a diplomat and the other married a Prussian.” Needless to say, some are much easier than others. The hints do not have to be solved in the generation in which they are revealed, but the sooner you can fulfill them, the better your end score. You have to manage your limited actions very well in order to complete each hint before the end of the game. It is not always easy, but it is a good challenge to and really works the brain.

What’s Good?

The limited actions makes for a very tough game. You have to make sure to use every action that you have to the best of your ability. One or two bad choices and it could mean a hint doesn’t get fulfilled.
Trying to manage the “known” family members and finding good combos to use is one of my favorite things to do. Timing when to put certain family members into the tree to get certain benefits in order to gain the title you need keeps me coming back to this game.
Hints in the last generation can really mess with your plan. Just when you think you have it all set up perfectly you get a new hint and have to find a Prussian to marry to your grandmother’s sister. That sounds like a negative, but I love it.
What’s Not So Good?

I never want to find out my ancestors are the ugly ones, but that isn’t really a negative, I just want my family to be pretty.
Having to think about whether a craftsman ancestor is the son or daughter of a noble or if your Russian great-grandparents had a Spanish daughter in order to not lose points is kind of annoying. It makes sense thematically, but I tend to not even pay attention to it at all.
What’s The Best Part?

Portal Games takes pride in the stories that are told in their games and this game is no exception. You could probably write a book on the family that you build and it is so rich in theme that is probably wouldn’t be that difficult to do either. I tend to talk about the family as I build it (yes that means I talk to myself) describing how one person was an outcast because they married the town fortune teller or how the underachieving craftsmen came from two noble parents. The stories are easy, and they are so good.

Originally posted on whoseturnisitanyway.com

If you were to ask most young kids what they want to be when they grow up Firefighter was probably somewhere on the list, right along with teacher, doctor, policeman and superhero. At leastthat is what most of the kids I grew up with wanted to do. We all wanted to help people. Flash Point: Fire Rescue allows us to play that role and attempt (that being the key word) to save the potential victims.

courtesy of BGG
courtesy of BGG
Flash Point: Fire Rescue is a cooperative game in which you work as a firehouse to extinguish a fire at one location or another and rescue 7 out of 10 victims (yes a 70% rescue rate is considered a victory). The base game comes with two modes that are great for allowing any group to join forces and fight fires. The basic game is a more family friendly or new gamer friendly version that succeeds in easing people into the game. It can easily help others get a grasp on how the game plays without overwhelming them with two many options. The expert game kicks it up a notch and makes it even more thematic. While making it more thematic it also makes it much more difficult, but a good difficult, if that makes sense.

courtesy of BGG
courtesy of BGG
Essentially the game plays like many other cooperative games where every person has a role and each role has a special ability. Each turn the player has a certain number of action points that they can spend moving, carrying victims, turning fire to smoke, removing smoke, driving the engine or ambulance or chopping through walls among a few other things depending on what map is being used. Some of the characters are better at removing fire, while others are better at removing victims. The captain even allows you to move another player on his/her turn. After the players turn is over, the fire continues to spread. In the base game it is as simple as rolling two die and placing a smoke (or fire if there is already a smoke present) or causing an explosion on the location the die tell you. In the expert game it gets a little more tricky with the inclusion of hot spots that cause you to re-roll the die and spreading the fire even faster. These die rolls (especially with the hot spots) can cause the sadist in everyone to laugh hysterically when you do nothing but roll to spread the smoke where smoke and fire already exist.

What’s Good?

The basic and expert modes really allow the game to be more accesible by the masses. If you are playing with kids or with newer board gamers then the basic mode might be the perfect amount to give them good choices, but not overwhelming them at the same time. Then the expert mode makes the game more suited for experienced board gamers and gives you someplace to expand to with repeated plays.
The solo option is a solid one. Like most cooperative games you are playing multiple roles and the only tricky part is remembering what order the characters take their turns. In the past their have been challenges on the Solo Gaming on Your Table thread where people compete to get the best score. Those definitely revitalize the game when they do happen.
The dir rolls, while not the main mechanism add some good moments in the game. When you know that a couple different locations will end your game and yet you still have to roll the die to see where the fire spreads, it can addsome good tension every turn.
What’s Not So Good?

While the base game allows it to be played easier, if you are contantly playing that level it can get a bit dull.
There are a lot of expansions and while that is good (I’ll speak to that a bit more below) it is hard to getthe expansions to the table unless you have a consistent group who wants to play this leaving too many on the shelf unplayed.
What’s The Best Part?

The variety of locations is a huge addition to the game. You can fight fires in a couple different houses, an office building, an autoshop and even on a submarine. Each of the maps add one or a few new obstacles or impediements to successfully fighting the fire, but mostly the maps provide an additional challenge because of the layout. These maps add a great amount of replayability, where the basics of the game remain unchanged, but the board is completely different. The players must adjust to the new maps challenges, but don’t have to learn a new ruleset in order to play them.

Originally posted on Whose Turn is it Anyway

oddball Aeronauts, a game by maverick:muse (Nigel and Lloyd Ash Pyne), has been billed as a tableless game and that’s completely true, but I would also call it a perfect game for Google+.

Right now the game is a two player game, but with the latest stand-alone expansion (on Kickstarter until December 5th 2014) it brings it up to a four player game.

Each player takes control of a different faction and fights to the death of the others! Each faction has their own set of cards that are unique to them so as long as you and the other players own the game you can all choose different factions and be all set.

The game plays relatively simple, but behind the simple play, lies a deeper strategy. During the game each player announces their type of attack (sailing, boarding, guns) and then secretly decides on how many of the top three cards they will use to attack the other players. Once both players decide there is a reveal and the attack values are added up. Tricks (special abilities of the cards) can be played to aid you in your win, or loss and magic can be played to help increase your attack value. To the victor goes the spoils, causing the other player to lose more cards and/or gaining cards back depending on the attack type.

Over Skype/Google Hangouts, this game essentially runs no differently than it would face to face. The only difference would be in the delay of the reveal due to the video being sent to space before coming back to your computer. That is negligible though. This game works very well online and doesn’t require anything extra on the part of the host of the game which is even better. You can fight it out oddball style with people from across the world as if they were in your living room.

Originally posted on Whose Turn is it Anyway

Ghost Stories is a cooperative game where each player is a Taoist monk, with their own special abilities, who are fighting against ghosts that are attacking their village. The village consists of nine tiles in the center of the board with the four Taoist monk player boards provides a place for the ghosts to start their journey towards the village.

Each turn the player can move and activate a tile or exorcise an adjacent ghost. At this point the different abilities, chits and other things that you have collected can be used to add to what you collect/do or make it easier to exorcise the ghosts.

Exorcising the ghost (and some actions) is the only time where this game might make some people not want to play this game online. In order to exorcise ghosts you have to roll the dice to see if you have enough of the specific color needed to defeat that/those ghosts. People like to roll their own dice so this could bother some people. My friends came up with a great idea where they assigned the colors on the Ghost Stories die to the numbers on a d6. This way I could roll the dice myself and report the results to my friends.

I have never played Ghost Stories at a normal table, but I don’t feel like I missed out on anything in regards to the experience of the game. The game flowed smoothly, with only a few questions of what the spaces do again, or what my powers did, but those were minor and would be non-issues as soon as I had gotten more plays of the game in.

Originally posted on Whose Turn is it Anyway

You are caught in a dream, trying to get out before you succumb to the nightmares. That is the basic premise of Onirim and as simple as the premise is, so is the game. The basic game consists of 76 cards consisting of 58 labyrinth cards, 8 doors and 10 dream cards. The original edition includes 3 expansions and the 2nd edition includes an additional 4. Onirim can play 1 or 2 players, but it seems to be a pretty standard introduction to solitaire gaming so that is what will be addressed here.

Goal

To unlock all of the 8 doors using keys or 3 cards (alternating symbols) in the same color. IMG_4586

Set-up

To start the game the solitaire option players draw cards until they get 5 non-dream or door cards. Once they have 5 they reshuffle the drawn door and dream cards back into the deck and that is all that is required for set-up.

Gameplay

There are two options to start the game, either play a card or discard one. If you play a colored card with a moon or sun symbol in the corner, you then draw a new card to replace the one you played.

If you discard a card (with a sun or moon symbol), it will never be shuffled back in, but it will allow you to draw a new card.

If you discard a card (with a key symbol) you get to preview the next five cards. You can put the next five in any order, but you must discard one of the labyrinth cards.

In order to unlock doors you can do one of two things. If you draw a door and have a card with a key on it in the same color, you discard the key and unlock the door. The other option is to play three cards in a row (1 per turn) with alternating moon and sun symbols then you get to search the deck for the door and then reshuffle the deck.

When you draw a door but do not have the key you set it to the side until you have 5 cards in your hand again and then you reshuffle.

When you draw a dream card, you have a couple of options. Your first option is to discard your whole hand (including the dream card). The second option is to discard a key card in your hand with the dream card. The last option is to discard the next 5 cards from the deck (except for any other door or dream cards which are reshuffled into the deck)

Winning and Losing the Game

You win the game if you can successfully unlock all 8 doors.
You lose the game if you run out of the deck before you have unlocked the doors.

My Thoughts on the Game

I had seen this game recommended as a solid introduction to solitaire gaming many times so even though I have been playing solitaire games for a while, I jumped on a deal to get this game. The first time I played this game I thought it was much harder than it actually was. It isn’t that hard, but it’s also not that easy either. After quite a few plays I am winning around 25% of the time, which probably isn’t a very good percentage, but it is mine, so I will own it.

Overall I like the game as a portable, quick, limited space needed game. Beyond that though, I don’t think I will be playing the base game much more than in situations that call for those kinds of games. I have been told that the expansions add quite a good amount to the depth of the game so maybe I will change my mind once I play a few of them, but the base game, doesn’t do a whole lot for me.

I do like that Onirim can be played relatively quickly and without a huge amount of thinking. Some games make you think about so many options that your brain gets stretched to the brink of breaking on almost every turn. Onirim is not that kind of game. Sometimes you are playing a series of cards turn after turn without having to think about it at all. Then a dream card comes up or you need to decide about discarding a key. That is where some depth comes in. The depth is a kind of break from the monotony of playing labyrinth cards.

What I don’t like about it though, is that the depth is too few and far in between. Even when the depth comes in it is only a limited amount of depth too. When I pull a dream I have to figure out is I should discard my hand, a key, or 5 unseen cards? Most of the time that is an easy decision, and even when it isn’t, it is still not that difficult of a decision. It’s not a game that will make you think much at all.

Expansions

The original edition came with 3 expansions so I would be remiss if I did not talk about them as well. You can play with each of them separately or combine 2 or all of them.

Expansion #1 – The Book of Steps

This expansion adds only 9 cards (10 for 2-player), but a whole lot of complexity. Before the beginning of the game you take 8 of those 9 cards and shuffle them. Those 8 cards have doors very similar to the doors in the deck, but as you lay them out one at a time in a row it dictates what order you must follow in unlocking the doors. That means the first door you flip over is the first door you must attempt to unlock.

The 9th card is a reminder of 3 spells that you can cast using cards in your discard pile. For 5 cards (removed from the discard pile) you can take the last 5 cards of the deck, pick 1 to put on top and arrange the other 4. For 7 cards you can move one of the doors, from the row of doors, one spot. For 10 cards you can get rid of a nightmare card.

This expansion was tough, but I liked it much more than the base game. Out of all of the expansions I would say it was my 2nd favorite. It definitely added to the complexity of the game by telling you the order in which you must try to unlock the doors which was nice, but it also gave you some choices to help combat that difficulty.

Expansion #2 – The Towers

This expansion added 3 towers in 4 different colors. IMG_4588Those towers were shuffled into the rest of the deck and nothing else was added. The towers add a new goal in addition to unlocking all 8 doors. Each color had a 3, 4, and 5 tower card and on each tower it had 0, 1, or 2 symbols on the left and right. The new goal is to lay down 4 towers (one of each color) in a row without aligning the same symbols from one tower card to the next.

The easiest towers to fit next to another are the 5 towers, but they also provide you the best bonus when discarded. If a tower is discarded you are able to look and arrange the number of cards in the deck equal to the number on the bottom of the card. The easiest tower to fit next to the others therefore also allows you to look at the most cards. The towers are in their own row so they are not played alongside the labyrinth cards. There is only one other difference in this expansion. If you have any towers played and you pull a nightmare card, you must destroy one of the towers or otherwise put the nightmare card back into the deck and reshuffle.

This is my favorite expansion. It adds more cards to the deck, which helps make the game a little easier, and provides two goals that you can work on simultaneously. Also, once you have your towers laid out it provides a different way to peek at the top cards and put them in the order you would like them to be. This would be my go to expansion and in fact it might just stay shuffled into the regular deck.

Expansion #3 – Dark Premonitions and Happy Dreams

This expansion adds some good and some bad. I don’t mean to say good parts to the game and bad parts to the game, but as the title suggests, there are dark premonitions which add negative effects whenever you obtain certain things (like unlocking 2 red doors, 3 total doors, etc). Then it also adds 4 happy dreams which give you special powers. IMG_4590The dark premonitions can be pretty nasty. You start the game by randomly selecting 4 out of the 8 dark premonition cards so you get a different game each time. Each premonition has a trigger, like 2 red doors unlocked, 2 of any one color unlocked and so on. Then the results can be anything from discarding your current hand to putting one of the doors back into limbo. I had a particularly nasty combination once where after you got both red doors unlocked you removed all of the rest of the red cards from the deck. If they would have been my first pair of doors unlocked then I would have also had to put one of the red doors back, making it impossible for me to win the game.

The happy dreams, on the other hand, are exactly what they sound like. They allow you to either remove one of the premonition cards for good, look at the top 7 cards of the deck and arrange them or search for one card out of the whole deck and put it on top. There are only four in the whole deck but if they come up at the right time then they are great!

This was my least favorite because it seemed like a harder version of the original base game without adding too much choice. Granted, the happy dreams are good things and can be powerful, but there are only four in the whole deck. Also, seeing as you can get a combination of dark premonitions that could make the game unwinnable (unless you use the happy dream to remove one) it relies too much on luck and not on skill or logic.

Like I said earlier, the base game isn’t super exciting, but it’s a decent game and probably good for an introduction to solitaire games. The expansions add enough for me to come back for more and make it a regular to take on trips since it is so small. In the 2nd edition there are even more expansions which would probably be worth a look too. If you are looking for a cheap, intro to lightweight challenge in a solitaire game that is easily taken on trips or squeezed into a short amount of time, then I recommend Onirim as a good buy.

I am not a fan of this game in the slightest so take my review for what it is. To me this game is a mechanism and that’s about it. The mechanism is solid, selecting characters from a set group that everyone has and then deciding when to play which one. The problem is, that’s it. Unlike Glass Road (similar mechanism) there isn’t any other real decision to be made past that which I would love to see. It’s not a horrible game, I just want more.

I am not lying when I say this is probably my favorite filler game, but to be honest it is darn near close to my favorite game no matter the type.

The point of the game is to collect as many points in the different colors as possible. There are five colors and whoever has the most points (in cards) in each color at the end of the game, then they get the points. The points that each color is worth will change throughout the game (I’ll cover that in a bit).

The game is broken down into two parts, donations and the auction. In the donations part the player takes one card at a time off the top of the deck and must decide to put in face down in the auction deck, face up in the pile for the other players or in their hand without showing anyone. They repeat this until they have looked at one more card than the number of players. Once a card has been placed somewhere it is there for good. After that player looks at all of the cards for their turn the other players, in turn order, get to pick a face up card.

After all of the cards have been gone through, then the auction phase begins. In the auctions phase each card is offered up for auction, one at a time. If it is a coin card, then you bid with # of cards and discard them face down. If it is any other card then you bid in coins and discard coin cards face up.

Here are the types of cards:
Green, orange and red cards (value 1-3)
Brown and blue cards (value 2-4)
Coins (value 1-3)
Church cards (raise or lower one or two die(dice) and must be played as soon as it is chosen)

I could play this game over and over again, but I also realize it isn’t for everyone. It is a fast playing game with some pretty difficult choices to be made. It can easily be completed in 30-45 minutes.

My favorite thing, besides the pulling of cards and deciding which ones your opponents get a choice from, is that because of the church cards there could literally be only around 10-15 total points to be fought over.

It’s a good game, and I would play it anytime I need an easy game to teach or just a short time to play a game.

I’ve had this game for a while and sadly it has taken way too long for me to actually get it to the table. Here are a few details about the game without going into too much detail.

This game is similar to a lot of worker placement games where the more players, the more direct conflict but it is very scaleable down to 2 (there is even a one player solo variant on that other site that is pretty fun. It is also very re-playable because the random starting business paired with random economic forecasts forces you to specialize and switch up your normal strategy.

So here is what I think about the game:

1 I like this game!
2 The player boards are ingenious. I love that I build my company and actually build it as I go instead of “building it” with blocks or something like that.
3 It is easier to play than the size of the rule book may make it seem and the rulebook is super helpful.
4 It has way more strategy to it than I thought it would.
5 Advance planning is a must so you don’t waste time on something you can’t build because you spent all your money (hypothetically of course, you would never really do that).
6 Constructing the right levels at the right time is key to victory.

I backed this on the second Kickstarter (which was really for a small expansion but had an add-on for the game itself). Rahdo’s run-through sold me on the game and here is what I think about it.

Gameplay:
The game is a simple, entry-level worker placement game. I could easily see this as a good introduction to worker placement game for either people completely new to games or new to that mechanic.

The basics are that you have four places you can place workers. The back alley, the new parts area, the junkyard and the mechanics. The back alley will be played by some people a lot (it allows you to pick one of three off the top of the deck of new parts, move your pawn to an earlier choice spot, but you also don’t get to use that worker for an extra turn). The new and junkyard are similar in that you get to get new parts for your car. The new area allows you to pick one new part while the junkyard has you picking one or two parts.

Beyond assembling your car just to work (it must have specific things to work otherwise you pull in scrap parts which is never good), there are investors which give you goals for the parts you put on your car and extra VP at the end.

Components:
The game looks really nice and has solid pieces for everything. It could have had fancier pieces, but it doesn’t take away from the game at all.

Replayability:

Overall:
I am not sure how much depth there is for a two player game, but if you had 3 or more playing I think the decisions for what to take and when to take it would become very interesting. It is a quick game and easy to teach so I will be pulling it out a lot when time is limited.

I like this game a good amount. Let me break down the game into it’s parts.

Gameplay:
The game plays pretty easy although you can definitely miss a few rules and play completely wrong. There are two sets of rules, an introduction game that plays without factions and then the more advanced game with factions.
I would recommend only starting with the introduction game and maybe even playing it twice before venturing into the advanced rules. It is still a fun game played this way, so you don’t have to worry about that.
The basic premise of the game is picking up and delivering goods for the best return on your effort. The fun part is that the game randomly increases the prices of the goods and it also charges you for storing the goods past the end of the turn.
There is a lot more to this game than that, but I don’t want to type the rules here.

Components:
I’m not sure if every copy came with the giant Zeppelins, because I kickstarted the game, but they look awesome. The only problem is they are too big for the hexes on the map, so if you can get your hands on different Zeppelins, I would recommend doing that. Beyond that, I like the board set up a lot and the rest are basic pieces.

Replayability:
There are a few different factions and two characters for each faction that you choose one from. This allows you to play it many times with the possibility of changing up your strategy if you so choose.

Overall:
I like this game, it isn’t too complicated (especially the intro game), but it does provide good strategy. My favorite part (it bothers other people though) is how you have to plan your four moves before anyone moves for that round. Then it depends on what you played to see who goes first for each move of the round. That adds a ton of strategy and disappointment when your plan is thwarted by others mid-round. Flexibility is key!

I got this game as a Kickstarter stretch goal and to be quite honest I never would have picked it up otherwise. I am not a dice game kind of guy, because I such at rolling dice. I’m glad I got it though.

This game is very simple to teach and play and depending on the number of players, it can be a very quick game.

You can play solo with the basic scoring or with goals to build certain cities like Tucson (David Short, the designer’s city), Essen and others. Those make it a nice extra challenge for a solo play.

Then you can play with more players too. The rules are very simple and I won’t get into them here. Basically you take three dice or all of the dice left over from other player’s turns and roll them.
There are lower levels, mid-level and penthouses for low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise buildings. As long as you place one die on a current or new building you can re-roll. The player who gets the most points wins based on types and Heights of buildings.

This game is for sure a filler and it does a good job of providing some decent strategy (what type of dice to take, where to place them, etc). Will I play this every week? Probably not, but if I have a small amount of time or am teaching strategy to younger players this will be my go to game.