Game Nite magazine issue 19

Game Nite

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the magazine of tabletop gaming

December 2017

Ludovic ROudy Co-designer/Artist

v

Issue # 19

The 7th Continent interview

Bruno Sautter co-designer

In this issue: Interview 26

Ludovic Roudy & Bruno Sautter Serious Poulp - The 7th Continent

Book Review 06

The Book of Games Strategy, Tactics and History.

mobile Review 08

Cottage Garden Uwe Rosenberg App

top 10 04

Top Reviewed Games of 2017

game Reviews 12

Mini Rails

16

Nightmare Forest

20

The Ruhr

36

Summit

44

Seikatsu

48

Tulip Bubble

54

Covalence

Interview Gallery 60

Index of Past Interviews

Review index 62

Back Issue Index

Trains and Stocks.

Alien Forest.

Game Two of Spitzer Trilogy.

Base Game and Expansion.

Gorgeous Tile Game.

Fortunes or Bust.

Scientific Fun.

Calendar 68

January 2018

Contributors 58

Game Nite Contributors

Š Game Nite 2017. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

All information contained in this magazine is for educational purposes only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of release. Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers with regard to the price of their products. All material remains the property of its respective creators. Opinions expressed by the writers are their opinions alone and may not reflect the opinions of Game Nite. Disclaimer: Game Nite receives review copies of games, but does not accept payment for reviews.

From across the table

Game Nite ISSUE # 19

I

’m always amazed when I see how diverse our readership is. It’s humbling to see so many readers from all around the world. Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore and Uganda are just some of the unexpected countries that we have reached - thank you for your interest! Social media is an amazing thing!

And speaking of social media, I would like to welcome all of our new readers who recently discovered us on Instagram! I was reluctant to join Instagram, but it has proven to be an interesting and enjoyable experience! If you haven’t visited our page, perhaps you might want to consider it, as there are photos that haven’t appeared in the magazine. I look forward to seeing some of your gaming photos! :) This issue’s Top Ten looks back at the most interesting games that I reviewed this year. Sometimes opinions can change over the course of the year and this list gives some insight of what I thought about several previously reviewed games when I looked back over them.

We’ve had a lot of people ask, “When does the next issue come out?”. Starting with this issue we introduce a new feature: A calendar for the upcoming month that shows the scheduled release date for the magazine! January 2018 features “Trajan”.

In this issue: Tom Franklin reviews “Summit: The Board Game” and the “Yeti” expansion.

Tom also reviews “The Book of Games”.

Special thanks to Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter of Serious Poulp for taking time from their busy schedules to share their thoughts on their brilliant “The 7th Continent” with our readers.

Serge Pierro

Editor in Chief/Publisher editor@gamenitemagazine.com

Cover Photograph by Serge Pierro.

Seikatsu © IDW Games

Editor in Chief/Publisher: Serge Pierro

Editor:

Eric Devlin Writers: Bill Braun Kevin Lauryssen Jeff Rhind Tom Franklin Steve Krause

Photographers: Serge Pierro Bill Braun Jeff Rhind Tom Franklin Steve Krause

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@GameNiteMag

Game Nite Issue #19

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Top 10 -

Reviewed Games of 2017

1 The 7th Continent Serious Poulp Designers: Ludovic Roudy & Bruno Suatter

2

Near and Far Red Raven Games Designer: Ryan Laukat

3

7 Wonders Duel Asmodee Designers: Antoine Bauza & Bruno Cathala

4

Whistle Stop Bezier Games

Designer: Scott Caputo

5

Hero Realms White Wizard Games Designers: Darwin Kastle & Robert Dougherty

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By Serge Pierro

6

Santorini Roxley Games

Designer: Dr. Gordon Hamilton

7 Tournament at Camelot WizKids Designers: Ken Shannon, Karen Boginski & Jody Barbessi

8 Saga of the Northmen Minion Games Designer: Scott Leibbrandt

9

The Climbers Capstone Games Designer: Holger Lanz

10

Magic Maze Sit Down!

Designer: Kasper Lapp Game Nite Issue #19

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Book Review

By Tom M Franklin

The Book of Games: Strategy, Tactics & History by Jack Botermans One need only read through some of the chapters devoted to commonly known games – Checkers, Snakes and Ladders, and Chinese Checkers, for example – to get an appreciation for the detail and the seriousness with which Botermans takes his analysis of each. His lengthy chapters on Go, Shogi, and Rithmomachia give a very fine overview of these complex games.

My one criticism of the book is with its strong emphasis on board games, I don’t agree with his decision to Jack Botermans’ “The Book of Games” does all of this and include games of chance such as Craps and Poker. His more. An oversized, coffee table-style book, this is a richly chapter on Tangram, a ‘game’ even the author describes illustrated history that draws on vintage game boards, as a puzzle, is equally, well, puzzling. clear yet artistic artwork for examples of gameplay, old photographs, paintings, and drawings to bring the games Boterman’s “The Book of Games” is well worth hunting to life. down. For fans of Abstract Strategy games (or “games” as I like to call them), many of the games he writes Each game is given a brief history followed by the basic about which have sadly fallen out of historical favor rules of the game. Botermans then provides an idea of are well worth reviving. For those simply interested in what your first full game might look like. In this section, a history and analysis of older games, this collection is game play is divided into logical phases with separate one of the finest I’ve seen. blocks of text devoted to Strategy Tips, Curious Facts, and Variations interspersed within the text. Boards and moves are analyzed and in some cases a transcript of an Author: Jack Botermans entire game is provided.

Publisher: Sterling Publishing

Recommended www.sterlingpublishing.com

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Photo : Tom M Franklin

A

s a board game fan and a voracious reader, it is little surprise that I have read many books on the history of board games. What I have found, though, is that most of these books are older titles that are heavy on words and sparse on illustrations. At best, some will have hand-drawn diagrams giving the reader an idea of the board and pieces. Rarer still are books that do justice to the depth of game play behind these classic games.

Mobile Review

By Serge Pierro

Cottage Garden

T

here are very few designers who are capable of putting out a steady stream of quality games.

One of them is Uwe Rosenberg, and lately he has been focusing on the “tetris” mechanic with games like “Patchwork”, “A Feast for Odin” and his latest offering, “Cottage Garden”. Due to the popularity of the game, it should come as no surprise that there is now an app available dedicated to it. Let’s see how well this translates over to the mobile platform.

When the game is first loaded there is a black screen with a small cat and then it transitions to the opening screen which features a larger animated cat and two small animated mice. Cats are a recurring theme throughout the game.

After the game loads you are greeted with a screen that has the main game types offered: “Ranked Game”, “Casual Game” and “Local Game”. Also featured are various other icons for several other sections such as “Options”, “Tutorial”, etc.

Players who are new to the game are going to want to take a look at the tutorial. It is fairly comprehensive and will get you up and running in no time. As a nice touch, there is a painted portrait of Uwe Rosenberg that is used

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as one of your guides. The tutorial has four sections, as well as the availability of a video tutorial. The tutorial for the game is pretty straightforward, however, the scoring system can take a little getting used to.

The Options section is quite sparse, as you only have a handful of options: Language, Sound Effects, Music, HD and Game Speed (slow, normal, Fast).

To setup a game against the computer you choose the “Local Player” option and then choose how many players you want to play against and at what AI level.

The easy level plays fast and somewhat decently and the hard level is challenging as the AI spends more time calculating its moves.

The user interface of the game switches back and forth between your move and that of your opponent(s). The display is clearly laid out and all of the information is available for the immediate game play. The scoring track is hidden at this point, but all of the player’s current scores are visible. When a player completes a garden the scoring track appears and the player moves the scoring token of their choice. The bottom of the screen can be toggled between the player’s scores and the Wheelbarrow which displays the order of the upcoming tiles.

The user interface is usually decent, however, at times there is the tendency to drag a pot or cat to a square in the grid and if you don’t place it “exactly” it returns to the lower right hand corner of the screen. This “drag and drop” feature of the game is its main shortcoming, as it is a bit finicky and can be annoying. That being said, the actual controls for flipping and rotating the tiles are excellent. Once a tile is in place you hit the check mark to verify your move and then there is an icon to press in the lower right hand corner to end your turn and the next player’s turn starts.

The end of the game is somewhat anticlimactic, as there is just an overlay placed over the game screen and the scores are displayed. In addition to the final scores there is a breakdown of how many Pots, Plant Covers and Bee Hives were scored.

The one thing that I absolutely hated about the game were the animated insects and mice running around the screen. They were not only distracting, but very annoying. This is more prevalent at the start of the game, however, they do start up again later in the game.

Unless I missed it, there’s no setting to turn them off.

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Mobile Review

(Cont.)

This is a game that should have great appeal to those who enjoy puzzle-like games and are looking to “kill a few minutes”. The play is light and should be of great interest to families and children, though it’s not a children’s game by any means, especially when trying to comprehend the scoring system. My mother used to like to relax with a handheld Tetris game and I could see this appealing to someone with similar recreational interests.

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Needless to say this will be compared to Patchwork and I feel that this is actually a better game, as the opportunity to play on two boards helps to alleviate the problems associated with Patchwork. I also enjoyed the fact that the Cats and Pots were able to be used to fill in the empty spaces, as this allowed for some interesting decision making along the way, as well as providing points. Although this is not what I would consider a gamer’s game, I do think that it is a notch above “Patchwork” in terms of complexity and strategic decision making. The app does a great job of handling all of the “housekeeping” and is the perfect medium in which to play the game.

If you enjoy playing Patchwork on the mobile platform, then you will certainly be interested in seeing what Cottage Garden has to offer. And if you are a fan of the current series of games being designed by Uwe Rosenberg, then you most certainly enjoy what the app has to offer.

Version # Price: Devices:

15 $4.99 Android and iOS Developer: Digidiced

Recommended www.digidiced.com

Game Nite Issue #19

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Mini Rails

By Serge Pierro

Fast Track to Fun

A

fter all these years, trains still remain a popular theme for board games. Although many of the titles tend to be medium and heavier weight games, occasionally there is a title that defies that archetype, and Mini Rails is one such game. Designer Mark Gerrits condenses the essence of a heavier train game into a simple two action turn that plays remarkably fast and offers interesting decisions.

Mini Rails comes in a square 8 3/4” x 8 3/4” x 2 1/4” box that features spot varnishing. Inside the box is a custom, black plastic insert which has three storage areas. Two of the areas have two layers of storage, as one set of components is stored below the other. I love when companies go the extra mile to include excellent inserts such as this one.

The game comes with three, 8-page rulebooks that are in English, Chinese and Japanese. The rules are clearly explained and are followed up with a specific examples, for further clarification.

The board is put together by assembling the interlocking Frame tiles, which form the outside of the board, and then filling it in with the remaining Map tiles. It should be noted that these and all of the other cardboard components come pre-punched and are made of a sturdy cardboard stock.

The 10 Player Markers and 72 Train disks are all made of wood. The Train discs come in grey, white, blue, red, yellow and tan. However, the yellow and tan disks are hard to distinguish from across the table. The Player Markers come in brown, black, green, pink and orange.

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Also included is a cloth bag to randomly draw the Train disks. It has a drawstring and the logo printed on it.

To start the game, the frame of the board is assembled with the “Big City” tile in the middle and the other tiles randomly placed. Depending on the number of player, the appropriate amount of disks

are placed on the board and put in the bag. Each player next round’s turn order. After choosing their disk, the receives a player board and the associated set of Action player will do one of two actions: Buy Shares or Build tiles and player Markers.

Tracks.

The Central Market board is where the players will Buy Shares: Remove the Buy Tile from the board to make their choices and determine the next round’s indicate that you have used it this turn and place the player order. In turn order, a player will take their disk on the “zero” space of your Player board.

Marker and exchange places with one of the Train disks.

The position taken will determine where they are in the

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Mini Rails (Cont.)

Build Tracks: Remove the Build Tile from your player board to indicate that you have used this action this turn and place the disk on the game board, adjacent to an occupied space of the same color. Move the associated stocks on all player boards the amount of spaces indicated by the dots on the board. White dots move stocks in a positive direction and red moves them negatively.

uneasy alliances. Frequently a new player would jump to an early lead, only to find out in the end that their stocks were worthless because they weren’t taxed. All of these elements led to many interesting games, especially when players became more familiar with the game’s subtleties.

Since the Map tiles are double sided and can be rotated, the game has no dominant opening strategy that can carry over from game to game. As Taxed stocks start Once all players have taken their two different actions, to appear, a battle for either the stocks themselves or a there will be one disk remaining on the Market board denial strategy start to emerge and because the game can track. This disk is placed in the Taxed area of the board. be a low scoring affair at times, every point will count.

This area functions as a timer for the six rounds of play, as well as influencing the scoring at the end of the game. When there wasn’t a “great” play available, I found myself playing for the earlier turn positions in the following Play continues with a new set of Train disks randomly round. This was especially true when I calculated that drawn from the bag and placed on Market board. Play the odds would prove to be more favorable for what I proceeds as above, using the turn order resulting from needed on the following turn. the previous round.

Although the box says the game plays 45-60 minutes, The game ends after 6 rounds and scoring takes place. we found that it was closer to 30-45 minutes, depending First the Taxed area is checked for the stocks that were on whether or not analysis paralysis kicked in. It seems previously taxed. Any disks that are of the same color almost like a filler game on steroids. If you enjoy simple as the ones in the Taxed area are removed from the games that have depth, fast game play, and you don’t negative areas on all players boards. Any player who mind a “take that” element, then this is a game that I has disks that were not in the Taxed area will remove think you will definitely enjoy. their disks from the positive track of their player board.

Whatever disks remain are tabulated and the player Designer: Mark Gerrits with the highest score wins.

For what appears to be a simple game, there is a great deal going on beneath the surface. This becomes more apparent as the game progresses and you start calculating the odds of what disks are possibly going to be drawn, as well as the probability of what disk is going to wind up being taxed at the end of a round. As the game unfolds it is not uncommon for players to engage in cutthroat tactical play, while at the same time joining

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Publisher: Players: Mechanic: Ages: Length:

Moaideas Game Design 3-5 Route Building, Stock Collecting 15+ 45-60 Mins.

Highly Recommended www.moaideas.net

Nightmare Forest

By Serge Pierro

Alien Invasion

C

o-op games continue to be popular and many publishers are looking for a way to make their mark within the genre. With Nightmare Forest: Alien Invasion, SolarFlare Games continues developing games within their Nightmare Forest line and offers a unique co-op that is card based and and challenging.

Nightmare Forest: Alien Invasion comes in a 5” x 8 1/4” x 1 1/2” box that features some spot varnishing and contains no insert.

The game’s 16 page rulebook is the size of the box and unfortunately uses a small typeface. The book covers all of the pertinent information and only has examples for movement.

The linen finished cards are the main component of the game. They are a bit flimsy and tend to “grip” each other due to the “rough” finish, yet they shuffle very nicely.

The cardboard components are all made of a sturdy cardboard stock.

The Wound counters are translucent, red plastic “gems”.

The game includes 14 custom dice that have custom graphics on 4 of the 6 sides.

Cardboard standees are used for movement in the game and each figure has a plastic base.

The setup for the game is based on the number of players, for each player; take two cards from the Tier 1, 2 and 3 decks and one card from the Tier 4 deck. Shuffle them together and then randomly layout the cards as per the diagrams in the rulebook.

Players receive a Character card and the matching Standee, along with one Gear card and one Action token. Each of the players also start with the ability to use 4 dice.

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Players are also dealt two Character Ability cards and they get to keep one and discard the other. Since this is a coop it is recommended that you try to get some synergy between the abilities. Each player will place the number of Wound counters on their Character Ability card that matches the number listed on the card.

The level of difficulty is set at the start of the game. player’s turn they will turn over one of the Forest cards Eight rounds is considered “easy”, seven rounds is that they are adjacent to and resolve it. This could be an “normal” and six is “hard”.

Alien or something else.

To start the game each player will place their standee The dice are used to pay for actions or used in combat. alongside one of the cards along the outside area of the They can be used only once per turn. If you use all your Forest. This will be their entrance point. dice, your turn ends and you flip over your Action token to display “Turn Over”.

There is no turn order, players can discuss how they would like to attempt to “Clear the Forest”. On a Continued on next page>

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Nightmare Forest (Cont.)

Combat is resolved by rolling dice and seeing if you roll symbols that are equal to or greater than the defense value of the Alien. If defeated, the Alien goes into the Experience Pool (see below) and the player gets back one of their dies, the others are put aside for the rest of the turn. If an attack fails, the Alien rolls the number of dice equal to their Tier level and deals damage based on the number of symbols rolled. Players remain engaged with an Alien until they defeat them and they cannot move away. Since Aliens regenerate, they need to be defeated in one attack.

down at least one Alien per turn in order to have any chance of winning the game on the standard level. Joint attacks will be necessary to take down the Tier 4 Aliens, especially those with a strength of 11.

The main downside to the game is the luck factor when drawing Gear. Having Gear that yields higher damage is essential to taking down the Tier 3 and 4 Aliens. You can spend actions to sift through the Gear deck, but that wastes time. This is especially problematic in two player games, when even a Joint Attack can fall short.

Another problem was that of movement in empty You can spend a die to “Search for Gear”. You roll a spaces. If the middle of the Forest was cleared and the die and if the result is a symbol, you add a Gear card to top and bottom remained, there was a “large” distance your inventory. If you roll two symbols, you draw two that wasn’t readily defined. cards and keep one.

Even with the aforementioned caveats, everyone did Although you have one free movement per turn, there enjoy playing the game and it is easy to see why it has are going to be times, especially towards the end of the garnered a bit of a following. The game presented an game, where you will need to move to another area of excellent challenge and also includes other rules, which the Forest through empty spaces. In order to do so you I didn’t mention, that add a lot to the gameplay. This have to discard an available die for each space that you game was a bit of a surprise and is one that I can easily want to move. recommend for fans of challenging co-op games.

The Experience Pool is a community based area in which any player can spend the Tier level values of Designer: Dave Killingsworth the killed Aliens in order to: reroll one die, regain one Publisher: SolarFlare Games Wound counter after taking damage or to level up. The spent Aliens are removed from the game.

Players: 1-6 The players will win the game by Clearing the Forest of all the Aliens. They will lose if one of the players dies or the counter reaches the zero space on the Turn card.

Nightmare Forest: Alien Invasion proved to be an interesting challenge and an enjoyable game. The design is quite tight and leaves little room for error.

You have to make sure that you work as a team to take

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Mechanic: Co-op Ages: 8+ Length: 20-60 Mins.

Recommended www.solarflaregames.com

The Ruhr

By Serge Pierro

The 2nd Game in Spitzer’s Coal Trilogy

T

he Ruhr is the second game in Thomas Spitzer’s coal trilogy that is currently being published by Capstone Games. The first game in the series, Haspelknecht (see issue #12), and its expansion, Haspelknecht: The Ruhr Valley (see issue #16), both proved to be interesting and we were looking forward to seeing what the next part of the trilogy had to offer.

And it appears that the game has quite a bit to offer, as well as continuing the history of coal in 18th century Germany.

The Ruhr comes in the same 8 3/4” X 12 1/4” x 2 3/4” linen finished box as Haspelknecht, though the linen finish on this one is more pronounced.

The game comes with an unfolded insert that you have to fold. It provides two areas for storage, as well as two shelves to support the board, player boards and rulebooks.

The first thing that you notice when you open the box is that all of the punchboards, player boards, insert and rulebooks have been bundled together and shrink-wrapped. The other components are shipped in separate resealable bags.

The game comes with two manuals, one for The Ruhr and one for the advanced module, The Ohio. The large 16 page rulebook for The Ruhr is nicely laid out and breaks down each section of the game. It contains a 19 step setup, however, there are several references to taking components “in the player’s color”, and the components don’t have these colors. Since the game is icon heavy, several pages are devoted to the explanation of some of the tiles. Like most games that use iconography, the rulebook will prove to be handy on your initial plays. The 12 page rulebook for The Ohio is laid out in a similar manner and contains information for the components that are unique to the module.

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The four panel board folds out to a long horizontal rectangle and is double sided: one side for The Ruhr and the other side for The Ohio. Both sides are linen finished and the cardboard is of a sturdy, heavy stock. It is a bit odd that the “better” side of the board is for The Ohio, while the “bottom” side is for The Ruhr.

The four Player boards and other cardboard tokens are The 14 wooden dice include 8 black and 6 white. The made of a heavy cardboard stock and are linen finished. dice are not rolled during the game, they are only used to track the value of the coal.

The game comes with 146 wooden components. The Also included is a very nice black cloth bag with a player colors are: Red, Yellow, Blue and Green. drawstring, for randomly drawing tiles.

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The Ruhr (Cont.)

There is an easy to follow setup illustration in the rulebook and if you have previously sorted all of the components, it is relatively fast to set up. However, the instructions are for a 4 player game, if you are playing with a lower player count, you have to go to the back of the rulebook for the changes to accommodate those player counts. Although the 3 or 4 changes are minor, I would have preferred to have them with the other setup rules, instead of having to look them up in the back.

They can then choose one of the special actions.

The main special actions are: “Transport”, “Pilot” and “Hauling”. “Transport” moves a coal from the Transport Track to an empty coal storage along the river. The “Pilot” action allows a player to move any amount of spaces downstream to deliver their coal. The “Hauling” action is necessary in order to move your Barge from a position downstream, to any location upstream and has a variable cost, depending on the round.

Each round there are 7 phases: “Conduct Historical Event”, “Draw Obstacle/Demand marker”, “Choose Action and Position Barge”, “Deliver Coal”, “Claim Progress Markers”, “Purchases and Debt Repayment” and “Award Export Victory Points”. While that may seem like a lot, most of them only take a couple of seconds or less.

The other special actions deal primarily with combinations of the actions listed above, for example there is the “Hauling and Pilot” action which allows a player to move their Barge up the river and then travel downstream any number of spaces.

“Conduct Historical Event”: Move the marker one space at the top of the board and resolve the event listed.

The events are listed in the rulebook, but after a couple of plays you’ll no longer need the rulebook.

“Draw Obstacle/Demand Marker”: Draw a tile out of the bag and resolve it. This could be either beneficial or negative. The tile is removed from the game.

“Choose Action and Position Barge”: This is the first of two parts that can be considered the main phase of the game. A player will take their Barge and place it anywhere downstream at a coal storage space. They must be able to deliver the coal during the following phase.

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The “Deliver Coal” phase is where you move your Barge to a destination and deliver/sell the coal. If you encounter any obstacles along the way, you subtract 1 from the value of the die. The coal is sold for the value on the die, however, one Thaler must be spent to purchase a Development cube to be placed on their player board. If the appropriate place is already filled, then the player gets to keep the Thaler. The die is then place on the Coal Transport Track.

During the “Claim Progress Markers” phase, players will check their player boards and see if they have met the requirements to be able to claim any of the relevant Progress Markers. Claimed markers are placed on their board and their effects are now available.

As if The Ruhr wasn’t already a good game, it also The “Purchases and Debt Repayment” phase is selfexplanatory. Purchases include building Locks and comes with an advanced module called The Ohio, which Warehouses. This is the only phase that Debts can be provides another interesting gaming experience. It uses the second side of the game board and offers just enough paid off. tweaks and changes to take an already good game and The “Award Export Victory Points” phase is only kick it up a notch. One of the most obvious additions available if there are any Warehouses in Port Ruhrort. is that of the use of Coal cubes. Coal can substitute These Warehouses will score the number of points that for money on some special actions and is obtainable are currently available, based on the export of that through various means on the board and as a Special round.

Action. This addition to the economical structure of the game enhanced the purchasing of Warehouses and gave Play continues in this fashion until all twelve rounds players something to do on a turn where they weren’t have been completed. There are some small endgame going to use an action from the Special Action section scoring bonuses which are listed in the rulebook. The of the game’s board. player with the most points wins.

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The Ruhr (Cont.)

The only downside to The Ohio is that the game uses a different set of pieces for some of the components and thus you now have to learn a new iconography set. In order to save time during setup, you should already have The Ohio components presorted.

The other interesting aspect of The Ohio is that you are playing on the upper half of the river at the start of the game and then you have to unlock the lower half.

This is the opposite of The Ruhr. The rest of the game is quite similar, with only a few minor changes to give it a slightly different feel. I actually preferred The Ohio over The Ruhr, due in part to the inclusion of the Coal resource and having to wait to unlock the lower half of the board, although both versions are quite good.

The Ruhr is a game that is going to appeal to fans of euro-games and the fact that there are actually two games in the box, only adds to its value. Although I enjoyed “Haspelknecht”, I liked this one slightly more, as it had a more “traditional” feel to it, similar to something like Hansa Teutonica, though entirely different. The game is considered to be of medium weight, yet the gameplay is quite simple. Some players thought that it appeared to be daunting at first, but after a round or two they were in the groove and were no longer intimidated.

Although the “tech tree” was one of my favorite aspects of the game, I was a little disappointed to see

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that for the most part is was oriented towards an “All roads lead to Rome” path. It was possible to focus on a slightly different direction than other players, but for the most part you were “forced” to pursue certain stops along the way. I would have liked to have seen a more asymmetrical environment with multiple scoring paths to pursue.

The Ruhr is an excellent followup to Haspelknecht, and thus far, it is easy to see why this trilogy has proven to be popular in Germany. Fans of “traditional” euro-games will want to take a closer look at this one. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the final game in the trilogy has to offer.

Designer: Publisher: Players: Mechanic: Ages: Length:

Thomas Spitzer Capstone Games 2-4 Pickup and Deliver 12+ 120+ Mins.

Recommended www.capstonegames.com

Serious Poulp Ludovic Roudy & Bruno Sautter

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Creators of The 7th Continent

Photo supplied by Serious Poulp

Interview

By Serge Pierro

• Ludovic Roudy • Co-designer/Artist

• Bruno Sautter • Co-designer

Serious Poulp - The 7th Continent

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with our readers, can you tell us a little something about yourself?

Bruno: Hi, I am Bruno. I am 40 and I co-founded – with Ludovic Roudy – French board game publisher Serious Poulp in Paris in 2010. I am also the codesigner for the games we published, including The 7th Continent, on which I mainly dealt with scriptwriting, copywriting and level design.

Ludovic: Hi, I am Ludovic, 45, and I have been a gamer forever. I am the originator of the concept behind The 7th Continent and I did all the artwork.

Ludovic: I think I started designing games when I was around 8 or 9. That’s when I made my first prototype, with a box and a handwritten rulebook. It was called “Jungle” and I still have it. It was a much improved version of the “goose” game… with no more than a couple of spelling mistakes, I swear! ;)

What games over the years have you enjoyed most, from both the point of personal enjoyment, as well as those that influenced your growth as a designers?

Did you start designing games at an early age? If so, do you remember what your first game design was like?

Bruno: I must confess a weakness for “brain-burning” confrontational games with a strong theme, especially when emphasis is put on metagame and combos (Magic, Mage Wars, Twilight Imperium, Key Harvest, etc.), and role-playing games. But I still like a variety of games (eurogames, wargames, video games, dungeon crawlers, etc.).

Bruno: Despite being a core gamer forever, I only started working on game design in 2000, under Ludovic’s impulse.

Ludovic: Role-playing games like D&D and other French ones (L’ultime épreuve, Rêve de dragon) and gamebooks; Fief with our houserules; Games Workshop

productions, especially Talisman (my first play was on a copy my brother had made), Dungeon Quest, Blood Bowl, etc.; wargames with miniatures, including Warhammer that we spent many hours painting with Bruno; Magic – opening boosters, metagame –, eurogames, Heroclix, etc.

When the opportunity presents itself, what games have you currently been playing?

Bruno: Recently, I played Quartermaster General, Fantasy Realms, 7 Wonders Duel, Secret Hitler, among many others.

Ludovic: I love discovering games and trying new game systems. Given the choice, I’d rather play a game I don’t know.

Who are your favourite game designers?

Bruno: I don’t really have one favorite game designer.

There are dozens I like, such as our fellow Frenchies Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala.

Ludovic: Gary Gygax will always be my #1!

Who are your main artistic influences?

Ludovic: I am a comics fan and I love the extraordinary work of Ralph Steadman, Geof Darrow, John Blanche, Russ Nicholson, François Schuiten, Ashley Wood, Winsor Maccay, Vincente Segrelles… there are so many!

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Interview

(Cont.)

for a long time but the perspective of a Kickstarter campaign – which means lighter “cost and time” constraints – gave us more freedom to try and find original systems. And that is where I got the idea of a puzzle made of numbered cards. We realized pretty soon how much work it would take but, again, Kickstarter was a good way to measure the hype and thereby validate the principle before finalizing it all.

Who are your favorite board game/card game artists?

Ludovic: I like so many of them I could hardly single one out.

What is your favorite medium to work in?

Ludovic: Games.

“The 7th Continent” was such an ambitious endeavor. The immersive nature and exploratory experience have no equal in the hobby. When did you get the idea for this game and early on did you realize how long it was going to take to develop it?

Ludovic: I have wanted to create an exploration game

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Bruno: The core system – exploration based on numbered cards – was imagined fairly quickly and took us far less time than the many other challenges we had to face (how to handle action resolution, Action Deck management, random events, collective actions, etc.).

We thought 1 year would be enough to develop the main mechanics, but it took us 2. Same goes with level design (scenarios, events, etc.), which took us about 13 months, instead of the expected 7.

How early in the design process did you come up with the idea of having the Action Deck be the timing mechanism for the game?

Bruno: We needed something that would put and leave

players under pressure all along the adventure and we tried a lot of different options before coming up with what turns out to be an easy and streamlined system.

While finding how to lift the curse is the aim of the game, surviving until you do is the gameplay element we chose to introduce at a rather early stage of game development and it made thematic sense – players spend energy represented by the cards in their Action Deck and then, the curse deals the fatal blow at any time once the deck has run out.

How long did it take to do all of the artwork for the game?

Ludovic: 2 to 3 years for the illustrations and graphic design. I am not a fast worker and there were a bunch of ergonomics issues to address, implying a lot of playtesting and some reworking.

The base game comes with four Curses and there are expansions for more. Were all of these developed at the same time or were they later added after the base game was completed?

Bruno: First, we worked on the key elements of all curses at the same time, thereby making sure they all worked in terms of mechanics and provided different sensations in how to lift them. Then, we worked on each of them in detail, starting with those in the base game.

The “Save Game” system is ingenious. How early on in the design process was this conceived?

Bruno: It was not included very early, but it was settled surprisingly quickly and happened to work well on the first attempt, once we had decided that only the last visited “terrain” card would be saved, which we liked Continued on next page>

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Interview

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(Cont.)

both thematically and mechanically (just like in real life we want to warmly thank for the amazing result they where things have evolved “outside” when you wake up helped us achieve. in the morning changing the outcome of the day).

There were several clever puzzles scattered There is a massive amount of text and story throughout the game. Who was responsible for spread across nearly 1,000 cards in the base set. coming up with the puzzles?

Who was responsible for all of this text and was the story written first or was it developed as the game Bruno: Ludovic came up with some of them, I designed others. Our passionate practice of board games, video developed? games (Myst – back in the days – Professor Layton, etc.)

Bruno: Ludovic and I worked on the “scenarios” together and I wrote all of the texts (most of them after the first Kickstarter campaign). Some events and story elements came during the design process, but most of the ideas we had had in mind before the campaign started. There was extensive proofreading by other people, whom

and escape rooms helped a fair bit ;).

Who’s idea was it to make the Discard card holder an integral part of the game and having the choice of two sides with different abilities printed on them?

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Interview

(Cont.)

Bruno: To be honest, like so many ideas in the game, it would be hard to know who came up with it. Generally speaking, we work as a pair so, while the artwork was clearly Ludovic’s job and copywriting was mine, it is much harder to know who has had a specific idea.

I was a little surprised that the longest Curse was the one that was suggested to be solved first. What made you choose a 16+ hour curse as the first one?

Bruno: All quests take many hours. We chose to recommend the Voracious Goddess as a first curse because it is the most intuitive one to solve: the objective is quite straightforward and described pretty clearly to players, as they just have to follow the route we “drew”.

That being said, one of the Stretch Goals unlocked by our backers during the last Kickstarter campaign consists of a smaller “initiation” curse (lasting about an hour or two).

I think that “The 7th Continent” would make for an excellent app for mobile platforms. Are there any plans of bringing it to Android and iOS? Bruno: No plans right now, but all options remain open.

“The 7th Continent” might be the ultimate solitaire game. Was having a strong solitaire mode one of Are there any other upcoming projects that you your early design goals? are at liberty to discuss or announce?

Ludovic: The 7th Continent was initially designed as a solo game, aiming to recreate the sensations of RPGs when your gaming partners are not there. It ended up being a 1 to 4 players game yet most people seem to enjoy it mostly between 1 and 3 players.

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Bruno: We have probably reached the end of The 7th Continent adventure, but once the game has been completed and delivered, we certainly want to keep exploring the many opportunities offered by our “Choose your own path®” system through new, fun universes!

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Summit

By Tom M Franklin

Summit: The Board Game

O

n the surface, Summit is a game where players attempt to climb to the summit of a mountain and return to base camp alive. What makes Summit special, however, is the game’s ability to be played Solo, Cooperatively, or Competitively. It’s quite a design trick – but do each of the variations work well?

In a very nice instance of design, each Character Mat is double-layered, with squares cut out for the small cubes that are used as place markers. Even if the cubes don’t always fit easily into the squares, this makes tracking your stats quite stable. (I’m looking at you Terraforming Mars.)

Given how often your character’s stats change during a game, this is a very nice feature.

Before starting players are able to choose from a random set of Item cards. These are objects that can help a player Regardless of the variant you’re playing, Summit starts during the game. (Crampons for faster movement over off with a set of Character Mats, each with a unique ice tiles, trekking poles, rope, etc.) Most Items have a set of abilities. Your Character Mat that will chart weight assigned to them which may further decrease your the amount of food and oxygen you’re carrying, along overall speed. with your strength, health, and speed. Since food and Each player gets a hand of three triangular-shaped tiles. oxygen are heavy, the you’re carrying, the more your strength is challenged. This means you’ll be forced These tiles represent sections of the mountain and must to move up or down the mountain more slowly. As be placed along matching length sides of tiles already on you use up food and oxygen your weight decreases and the board, but only when you’re at the edge of a preyour strength increases, as does your speed. However, existing tile and have the ability to move beyond that tile. since food and oxygen are frequently required, you’ll There are three different types of tile: Neutral (the most need to find a critical balance. easily traversed, you move quickly and without the need for oxygen or food), Ice (movement is slowed down by a factor of 4), and Thin Air (quick movement, but requires one oxygen from your supply when you enter the tile).

GAME PLAY

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Photo : Tom M Franklin

At the end of each players Movement turn they must roll two dice. The blue Event die tells if you must draw an Event card from the deck. Some Events are good (found food, a discovered snow cave, or getting a second wind) while some are bad (part of the mountain collapses, exhaustion, or falling down a number of tiles and taking damage). The white Weather die tells you the climate conditions for your character on this turn.

If you roll the sun, it’s a clear day and you simply pass the dice to the next player. If you roll a light snow you must consume one food; a heavy snow means two food.

If you roll the Blizzard, the Blizzard marker moves up one on the side of the board and everyone must consume the amount of food and/or oxygen the Blizzard Track

indicates. The further up you go on the Blizzard Track the more food and/or oxygen is required to stay alive, starting with one food and going up to three food and three oxygen. Rolling the Blizzard on the weather die too often will lose you the game immediately.

In each game, the Summit tile is placed in the uppermost space on the board. The position of the Base Camp changes based on the difficulty level you want to play through. Harder levels start further down the mountain as well as higher on the Blizzard Track. This allows the tension to increase as players become more familiar with how the game is played.

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Summit

(Cont.)

The playing board is two-sided with one side for Solo COOPERATIVE PLAY and Cooperative play and the other side for Competitive The Cooperative game is won by having at least one play. There are some well-designed differences between member of your party reach the summit and return the variants and they each deserve attention. safely to Base Camp.

SOLO PLAY

Cooperative players are each given one Sherpa. This Sherpa can hold two Items as well as eleven food and The Solo game is a won by climbing from the Base six oxygen. The weight a Sherpa carries does not affect Camp to the Summit and returning alive. their speed, nor do they take turns as players. You To aid in this effort the player is given two Sherpas. can resupply from your Sherpa by sacrificing your Sherpas are able to carry two Items and eleven food and Movement Phase on a turn and then take as much from six oxygen each. Sherpas are not affected by weight, your Sherpa as you can carry, making certain to adjust nor do they take turns. In order to resupply or take your food, oxygen, strength, and speed markers on your an Item from a Sherpa, you sacrifice the Movement Character Mat as you do so.

Phase of your turn and take whatever you wish from the Sherpa. You then readjust your food, oxygen, and As well, players can agree to help resupply other players. the accompanying additional weight and speed on your For instance, if Player A is out of food and is either on the same tile or an adjacent tile from Player B, Player Character Mat as necessary.

A can ask for food from Player B’s Sherpa. If agreed, To counter-balance the benefits of the Sherpas, Solo Player A then sacrifices their Movement Phase in favor play also includes a Time of Day chart. Each turn is of resupplying from Player B’s Sherpa. considered to take one full hour. Choosing what time you want to start your game has consequences: from the hours of 5am through 6pm it is considered to be daylight and you move at your character’s full speed across all tiles. From 7pm through 4am it’s considered to be nighttime and your speed is cut in half (rounded down).

Solo play is a good way to become accustomed to the game and the strengths/weaknesses of the different Characters. However, since the game is made up of only your movements and limited Events, after your first game, all subsequent solo games need to be played at the most difficult settings (Reckless or Legendary) to make the game challenging.

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Countering the Sherpas in the Cooperative Game is the Time of Day track. Each round of player turns is considered to take one hour of real time. During daylight hours, your Movement is equal to your Speed; during nighttime hours, your speed is cut in half (rounded down). Mutually deciding what time of day you start your game is an important consideration.

As you move up the mountain you will likely encounter your fellow mountaineers. In the Cooperative game, you are automatically allowed to ‘leapfrog’ over your teammates. This mean you don’t count a spot on a tile that another mountaineer occupies as one of your steps.

Clever players can work together to climb up and down the mountain faster by sticking together.

Photo : Tom M Franklin

Since winning the Cooperative game only takes a single member of the party to reach the summit and returns to base camp you might think the game would be easier to win with more people playing. If everyone works together to get one person up and back, it should be easy to win, right? That might be true if everyone didn’t have a two-in-three chance of drawing an Event card and a one-in-six change of summoning a Blizzard. The greater the number of players, the greater the chance for catastrophe on the mountain.

After the first Cooperative play-through set at one of the easier levels (Chill or Trying) one of the more difficult levels needs to used as the starting point. As

well, if you haven’t already shuffled the five difficult Event cards into the deck, you should. You need to give the game a chance to make things interesting for you.

(I like playing with the six Sunny Day cards and the five Difficult cards to balance things out) COMPETITIVE PLAY The Competitive game is a race up the mountain and back down to Base Camp against all other players. In addition, the Competitive game eliminates the Sherpas and introduces two new elements: a Halfway Camp and Karma cards.

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Summit

(Cont.)

Photo courtesty of : Inside Up Games

The Halfway camp (or camps, depending on the number of players) is placed roughly halfway between your Base Camp and the Summit. Once you land in the center spot of the Halfway camp you can stop. On your next turn, you can forfeit your Movement Phase and resupply both food and oxygen to your desired capacity. As well, you can regain up to three health and draw three Item cards, keeping as many as you wish and have the strength to carry.

scoring points and four of them involve the speed of your ascent and decent: getting to the Halfway Camp before everyone else (worth 1-4 points), getting to the Summit (1-8 points) and back to the Halfway Camp (1-5 points) before everyone else, and returning to the Base Camp (1-6 points) before everyone else. The only other way of scoring points is the Karma Track, which ranges from -2 to 12.

Let’s say someone is behind you on the ropes and asks At the start of the game each player is dealt four Karma to pass you. Saying ‘yes’ gets you +1 Karma. Saying cards. Karma cards allow you to do either nice things ‘no’ gets you -2 Karma. Playing a positive Karma card or not-so-nice things to your opponents. Why do on someone automatically gets you the positive Karma nice things in a competitive game? The Competitive points, even if they refuse or cannot use what the card game is won on points and there are only five ways of offers. On the other hand, if someone is getting too far

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ahead of you, you might choose to play a Karma card that will steal their turn, but it will cost you -3 spaces down the Karma Track.

The Competitive game forces players to either forge their own paths up the mountain or risk being caught in bottlenecks where other players are willing to sacrifice Karma points to stay in the lead. Some tiles are more conducive to allowing for side trails than others, and taking too great a lead risks having all other players willing to risk Karma points to keep the leader from scoring other points. This game requires a balance of playing the right tiles against how good or bad you’re going to be to your opponents for Karma points.

With so few points up for grabs, you must play a thoughtful and balanced game to come out on top.

Summit: The Board Game works hard to differentiate its styles of play. There are certain event cards strictly for the Solo/Cooperative game, while others are meant only for the Competitive game. The two-sided board makes the differences in the games very apparent and the tracking/scoring easy to follow. These elements all work well.

My weekly gaming group and I all liked Summit’s artwork. From the drawings on the Item cards to the Character Mats to the board itself, the art works very well and fits the mountaineering theme nicely. The 200 cards are all standard glossy card stock. The mountain tiles are a thick cardboard, although during our first play, after punching out all of the tiles we noticed some of the corners were already trying to separate. Each player gets their own color of cubes and a specially designed Mountaineer meeple to mark your place on the mountain.

Summit also includes three plastic compartments that hold all of the cards, mats, pieces and board nicely. We

used the angled mountain tile holder throughout the game. Appropriately-sized zip-lock bags to store all of the pieces afterwards are also included, which is always a much-appreciated touch.

Again, the double-thickness of the Character Mats allows for cut out areas for the colored cubes to fit, which is a very nice design feature. (I’m still looking at you Terraforming Mars) As well, the board is laid out such that when you move food/oxygen/strength in one direction, you’re also changing your speed in the same direction. This may seem like a small point, but it makes keeping track of your stats very intuitive, thus keeping the game moving more quickly.

The rule book is a twelve page, full-color guide to the game. Unfortunately, the decision was made to try and include all of the rules for the three styles of play together. Columns are used, one for Competitive Mode, one for Cooperative/Solo Mode, to try and keep the differences separate, but we found this made for a confusing first read through of the rules. This format also made it considerably more difficult to look back through the rules to clarify questions we had during our many games of Summit. It would have been far better to have one booklet or section for the Competitive and another separate section for Solo/Cooperative with an Index towards the end instead of a list of Character Biographies.

I admire InsideUp for their attempt at making a game that can be played Solo, Cooperatively, as well as Competitively. Does it work equally well in all three modes? Not surprisingly, no. The Solo game should be played at the hardest levels for a true challenge and perhaps with only one Sherpa instead of two.

The Cooperative game needs to be played at similar difficulty conditions and perhaps require at least half of your party (rounded up) if not all members to return to Base Camp to consider it a win.

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Summit

(Cont.)

In the Competitive game the problems with bottlenecking from a single Base Camp can be difficult to overcome. Summit includes a second Base Camp to be used if there are four or more players but using it, regardless of the number of players would help.

My group was divided on Summit. The majority liked it a lot and enjoyed the different ways it could be played.

I found the different variations to be nicely planned but not as well executed as I would have liked. While trying to be all things to all gamers, I feel parts of Summit needed some additional tweaking to make it a game I would look forward to playing again and again.

Summit: The Yeti Expansion

Designer: Publisher: Players: Mechanic: Ages: Length:

Conor McGoey Inside Up Games 1-6 Tile Placement 14+ 20-30 Mins. per player

Recommended www.insideupgames.com

up and down the mountain. Tiles placed on the board must match the lines as drawn on the board (long edges must align with long edges, short edges with short edges).

The Yeti, however, has no need for the tiles the players As if climbing up and down a mountain wasn’t hard must use. He simply moves from one intersection on enough, why would you want to toss in a creature whose the board to another – regardless if players have placed every move is designed to injure or kill you? tiles over them. This means the Yeti will be able to move much faster than the players at all times.

If you’re a fan of Summit: The Board Game, the answer is simple. Because the Yeti makes the game much, much The Yeti starts each game at the summit of the board, better. looking down at his intended victims. On each player’s turn, regardless of which variant you’re playing, the Summit: The Yeti Expansion is one of the smaller weather die is rolled to see how far the Yeti may move: expansions I’ve seen. Inside the box you get two the sun means the Yeti stays where he is; one snowflake additional Character Mats (but no new cubes or means one intersection; two snowflakes mean two Mountaineer meeple to accompany then), some Yeti intersections; a Blizzard means three intersections.

Expansion cards to add to the Event, Karma, and Item decks, a one-sheet rules guide, and, yes, your very own This means instead of simply charging up the mountain Yeti meeple. as quickly as possible, you have to try and avoid the Yeti as he intentionally comes after you. The most direct In Summit: The Board Game, players need to place route up or down the mountain will likely not be the triangular tiles on the board to create their path to climb safest one.

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In the Solo and Cooperative games, the Yeti is moved at the start of each turn. In the Competitive game, the Yeti is moved at the end of each turn. When the Yeti moves along the edge of an occupied tile, any players on that tile take damage. When the Yeti crosses over two occupied tiles, both players take damage.

(However, players can only be attacked once per turn) The Yeti causes damage equal to the cost of two food or one health per turn.

In the Competitive game the player whose turn it is gets to decide where to move the Yeti. In the Cooperative game the Yeti will always attack the player with the highest health first. (If there’s any confusion, the Yeti always gets moved so as to do the most detrimental damage to the team) I tend to be a fan of expansions, as my Carcassonne collection will attest. The question I’ve been asking lately, though, is, “How important is this expansion to the game?” In the case of the Yeti, the answer for me is, “It’s essential.” Summit: The Board Game is a good game without the Yeti. With the Yeti Expansion, it becomes a greatly improved game.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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Seikatsu

By Serge Pierro

Aesthetically Pleasing Tile Placement

S

ometimes a game will grab your attention due to its components, but unfortunately, the game play doesn’t match the aesthetics. That is not the case with “Seikatsu”. The graphic design of the box and the quality of the gorgeous plastic tiles only enhance the fast, yet simple, gaming experience. Plus, it also features a unique scoring method!

“Seikatsu” comes in a 9 1/4” x 9 1/4” x 3” box that features a foil stamped logo and spot varnishing. Inside the box is a black, custom moulded, plastic insert that fills the entire box. However there are sections only for the Tiles and scoring pawns, the rest is flat and just takes up space. If it wasn’t for the board this could have shipped in a much smaller box.

The 8 page rulebook is the size of the box and is easy to follow. However, there appears to be a scoring mistake on one of the examples.

The 4 panel board has a matte finish and a black linen finished back.

The beautiful Garden and Koi Pond Tiles are the main attraction of the game. These are made of plastic and measure 1 1/2” in diameter and 1/8” thick. The graphics are printed on the Tiles and appear to be coated to prevent the image from coming off. The back features two engraved Kanji for “Seikatsu”, which means “life”.

The scoring pawns are made of wood and are pink, blue and green.

Also included is a cloth bag with a silkscreened logo and a drawstring.

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The setup for the game is dependent on the number of players and the relevant number of Garden tiles are placed in the marked spaces that surround the Koi Pond in the middle of the board. Each player randomly draws two tiles from the bag and place their Scoring pawn on the “0” of the scoring track.

On a player’s turn they will place one of their Garden After making their play the active player will draw a tiles either on an empty space or adjacent to a tile already tile and play proceeds to the next player. on the board. If they place a tile next to another tile of the same Bird type they will form a Flock and receive The game ends when the last tile has been placed one point for placing the tile and one additional point and a round of final scoring takes place. It is this for each of the same tiles that it is adjacent to. endgame scoring that is the most interesting aspect of the game, as each player scores points based on their The formation of Flocks with Birds is the primary view/perspective of the board. This time the Flowers on scoring method, however, there are four Koi Tiles that the tiles are scored based on the highest total in each of act as wild cards that can represent any of the Birds the rows extending from the player’s side of the board. when played. But once the Koi tile has been placed and Example: 1 flower = 1pt, 2 = pts., 3 = 6 pts., 4 = 10 pts., scored, it acts as a null marker for the rest of the game. 5 = 15 pts. and 6 = 21 pts.

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Seikatsu (Cont.)

“Seikatsu” presents the players with a tradeoff between As a fan of solo games I was happy to see the inclusion playing a Bird for a Flock, and scoring immediately, or of a variant that had three levels of depth. I found that setting up rows of Flowers, and scoring at the end. the first two levels were a bit too easy, however, the hard level is tough and will prove to be challenging to most As someone who prefers two player games, I found players. that the two and three player versions of the game to be equally enjoyable. Two players allowed the classic head While the game is light and plays very fast, there is to head matchup and deeper strategic play, while at the enough substance to keep everyone engaged. Nonsame time the three player version had the board change gamers had no problems joining a game and hardcore at a faster pace and was challenging in tracking both of gamers enjoyed trying to calculate the best play. Needless your opponent’s rows of Flowers. to say, everyone was impressed with the quality of the plastic disks and the overall production value.

Initial plays revolved around the building of Flocks, One can’t help but notice the eye-catching design of yet as more games were played the focus started to shift more towards the Flowers. Though in order to the box, or the gorgeous tiles played onto the board, win you will have to balance both approaches. It was “Seikatsu” is a game that draws your attention and essential to block any opponent’s attempt to place 4 or 5 doesn’t let go. I am happy to add this game to my Flowers in a row, as the number of points earned is quite collection and I’m sure that it will continue to find its substantial. As the game progressed towards its end, the way to the table, as both a light and fast filler to play focus on rows of Flowers became paramount and the with gamers, as well as a game to play with family and associated strategies dominated play. non-gamers.

The only real downside is that the scoring chart for the Flowers is listed in the rulebook, whereas it should have been printed on the board or at worst, as a player aide. I hate having to look up scoring in a rulebook, especially when there is plenty of room on the game’s board for it to have been included. This was a missed opportunity and could have been nicely integrated with the rest of the graphics on the board. And speaking of the board, personally I would have preferred that it was rendered in watercolors, as that would have fit the theme better.

Designers: Publisher: Players: Mechanic: Ages: Length:

Matt Loomis & Isaac Shalev IDW Games 1-4 Tile Laying, Area Effect 10+ 30 Mins.

Highly Recommended www.idwgames.com

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Tulip Bubble

By Serge Pierro

Prosper Before the Bubble Bursts

O

ne company that has recently caught my attention is Taiwan’s Moaideas. With engaging games and excellent production values, they are starting to separate themselves from an already crowded field. Tulip Bubble is their latest offering, and like its predecessors, this looks like another worthy addition to their growing catalog. Let’s see what it has to offer.

Tulip Bubble comes in 8 3/4” x 8 3/4” x 2 1/4” box that features spot varnishing. The game includes a custom, black plastic insert that includes a clear plastic cover to keep the components in place.

The game includes two 12 page rulebooks that are the size of the box: one is in English and other, Chinese. Both are heavily illustrated and contain numerous examples. The back page is devoted to explaining the iconography and card distributions.

The two panel game board is double sided and is made of a very sturdy cardboard stock. One side is in English and the other, Chinese.

All of the cardboard components are of a decent stock, though not as thick as the game board.

The game includes three, wooden, custom tulip meeples.

The cards measure 2 1/2” x 4” and are of a decent card stock.

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The game also includes 5 sturdy player screens.

To start the game each player receives a player screen, a set of bidding tokens and $20. The red, white and yellow Tulip meeples are place on the Price

Level Track. To prepare the Event deck, remove the “Bubble Bust” card and shuffle the remaining cards and remove one of the from the game, without looking at it. Take two cards at random and shuffle them with the “Bubble Bust” card and place them on the bottom of the deck. Reveal the top card of the Event deck and

resolve it. The Tulip cards are laid out in the “Next Shipment” area, with the number of cards equal to the number of players, plus two. One player is given the first player token and play begins.

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Tulip Bubble (Cont.)

The game is made up of 7-9 rounds, depending on Tulips can be sold to a Collector for their current value, when the “Bubble Bust” card is revealed. Each round is plus the bonus value listed on the Collector card. The made up of four phases: “Event Phase”, “Selling Phase”, Collector card is then removed from the game. Collector cards have specific requirements. Ex: Three “C” rank “Buying Phase” and “Cleanup Phase”.

Tulip cards in the same color: bonus +10 Guilders”.

For the “Event Phase” the top card of the Event deck is turned over and resolved. These will either raise the price The last selling method is for selling “Financed Tulips” of a specific color Tulip by 1, raise the cheapest Tulip (see below). When you pay back the bank for financing by 2, lower the most expensive Tulip by 2, or end the the Tulip, the bank is paid and you receive the Tulip game when “Bubble Bust” is revealed. Since each space to place behind your screen. You also receive back the can only have one Tulip, the affected Tulip continues to bidding token that was placed on the Tulip. “Financed move in the same direction to the next available space. Tulips” can’t be used to sell to Collectors.

This can lead to some dramatic fluctuations in value.

The “Buying Phase” is where players bid on the Tulips After the Event resolves, a new shipment of Tulips in the “New Arrivals” and “Just Sold” areas. Players will arrive and the cards that were previously in the “New have two turns in which to bid. On their first turn they Shipment” area are moved down to the “New Arrivals” may use up to two of their bid tokens, while during their second turn, they may only use one - even if they area and the “New Shipment” area is refilled. didn’t bid during the first turn.

During the “Selling Phase” each player will have the Players bid by placing bid tokens on the cards of opportunity to sell any of their Tulips for the current market value. Tulip values are based on their color and interest. Once everyone has bid, starting with the their designation of: “A”, “B”, or “C”. “A” Tulips are “New Arrivals”, each of the bids are resolved from left the most expensive and “C” Tulips are worth the least. to right. If there is only one bid on a card, the bidder To find the current value you cross-reference the color pays the current value and places the card behind their of the Tulip meeple on the Price Track with the card’s player screen. If there are two or more bids on a card an auction commences with the first bid having to letter. be at least one Guilder higher than the market value.

Tulips can be sold to the Market for their current value Bidding continues until there is a winner. Players who and paid out in Guilders. The card is placed in the “Just were outbid are compensated. Ex: If the Tulip’s market Sold” area. value was “5” and the final bid was “9” and there were

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The last phase of the round is the “Cleanup Phase”. two players who were outbid, then the difference (9 − 5 = 4) is divided between the two players, thus each player During this phase the remaining Tulips are counted.

The Tulip color that has the greatest amount remaining would receive 2 Guilders from the bank. has its value decreased by one space on the Price Level There is also an option to “Finance the Tulip” instead Track, while the Tulip color with the least amount of buying it with cash. To do so, the player who wins remaining has its value increased by one space. If two the bid places the Tulip in front of their screen and takes of the colors are tied for either amount, they both move the amount of Guilders bid from the bank and places in that direction. If there is a three way tie, then the them on the card, along with their bidding token. The values remain the same.

Guilders must be repaid in order to take ownership of the card and the player now has one less bidding token The Tulips in the “New Arrival” and “Just Sold” areas available for future rounds. It can be paid back at any are placed in the discard pile and place proceeds back to time, as long as the “Bubble Bust” card hasn’t been the first phase. revealed, and the card is then placed behind their screen.

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Tulip Bubble (Cont.)

The game can end in one of two ways: The “Bubble are going to play “denial” or try to focus on a Collector Bust” card is revealed or if a player spends 120 Guilders that you think no one is going for. The Collector and buys the “Black Tulip” card. bonus is fairly substantial and provides a nice boost for upcoming auctions, as well as providing more Guilders When the game ends, players will add up their for scoring at the end of the game.

Guilders, taking in account that Tulip cards behind screens are worth nothing and any Financed Tulips have The only possible downside to the game is that there is to immediately be repaid to the bank. The player with the random element of the market being manipulated via the Event cards. For the most part this can be the most Guilders wins. calculated to within one card (the card removed at the From the production quality to the actual gameplay, beginning of the game) and then there is also the matter Moaideas is a company to keep an eye on. It’s hard for of where the “Bubble Bust” card is positioned in the last a small company to get noticed in a crowded market, three cards on the bottom of the deck. but they are currently pushing all of the right buttons.

Tulip Bubble continues that tradition with a game that I’m always a fan of games that have simple rulesets, yet has simple mechanics, yet provides an experience that is provide thought provoking gameplay. Tulip Bubble not deeper than expected. This is especially true as the game only meets those requirements, but it went over well progresses past the first couple of turns and players start with all different types of players - from family members to react to the changes in the market and the bidding to hard core gamers. The game scales well with 3-5 gets more intense. players and newer players were not overwhelmed by the mechanics. Players who enjoy bidding games and stock The bidding is where most of the game’s strategy and market games will find this to be rewarding. It will be tactics is going to take place. As Event cards are revealed, interesting to see what the future holds for Moaideas. it starts to become clearer what Tulips are going to be gaining or losing value in upcoming turns. However, Designer: Kouyou with the further adjustment of the Tulips during the Cleanup Phase, this isn’t “written in stone”. There are Publisher: Moaideas Game Design times when it is worth buying Tulips that you don’t gain Players: 3-5 any immediate benefit from, but by doing so you are Mechanic: Auction, Stock Market able to manipulate the scarcity and pricing of Tulips that you already own.

Ages: 15+ The inclusion of the Collectors give players a strategic path to pursue, but since this information is out in the open, the bidding of certain Tulips will start to receive more attention. At some point you have to decide if you

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Length:

50-70 Mins.

Highly Recommended www.moaideas.net

Covalence

By Serge Pierro

Molecular Deduction

C

ovalence is another offering in Genius Games’ line of science base games that feature contemporary mechanics, that are playable by gamers, yet also serve as an ideal platform for educational purposes. This time we have a co-op game in which there is one player, known as “the Knower” who gives clues to the other players, known as Builders, who then have to build a series of molecules before running out of guess tokens. Let’s see what this has to offer to both hobby gamers and as an educational aid.

Covalence comes in a 5 1/4” x 8 1/2” x 1 1/2” box that features spot varnishing.

There is a cardboard insert that contains one large well to store the cards and components, as well as two shelves to support the rulebook.

The 12 page rulebook is the size of the box and covers the base game and the “Chemist Expansion”. There is a section dedicated on how to give clues, as well as various hints scattered throughout. The rulebook design is by Joshua Cappel (see issue #15) and is clearly laid out.

The 52 linen finished cards are broken down into two different decks and the card stock is more than adequate for this type of game.

The Element tiles are punched from a standard, sturdy punchboard stock and the Clue and Guess tokens are made of wood.

To set up the game each Builder is given 3 Carbon tiles: 2 Nitrogen tiles, 2 Oxygen tiles and 7 Hydrogen tiles. Depending on the number of Builders, “X” Clue cubes and “X” Guess tokens are placed on the table. Then four cards from both the Number Clue and Organic Clue decks are laid out face up alongside

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the decks. These will be cards that the Knower will use to give clues to the Builders.

Each Builder will have 3 Secret Molecule cards placed facedown in front of them and only the Knower will have access to them, as these will be the molecules that he is trying to have the Builders build. The Knower can only “communicate” by presenting the cards to the Builders, as no talking is allowed.

On a turn, the Knower will take any number of the four face-up Number Clue cards and either zero or one of the four face-up Organic Clue cards, in order to give the clues.

Example: The Knower knows that the molecule that Builder #1 needs to build is Ethanol, which contains 2 Carbon. So the Builder takes a “2” card from the row of Number Clue cards and a Carbon card from the row of Organic Clue cards and presents them to the Builder. The Builder now knows that the molecule that they are attempting to build contains at least 2 Carbon.

So for a molecule such as Ethanol, some of the following clues could be given: 2 Carbon, 1 Oxygen, 6 Hydrogen and Single Bond. You could also use the “negative” form of a clue by playing the “0” Number Clue card along with a “Double Bond” Organic Clue card to indicate that there are no Double Bonds in the molecule, thus it is a molecule with Single Bonds.

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Covalence (Cont.)

To win the game the Builders must guess all of the Secret Molecule Cards in front of them. However, if the Builders run out of Guess tokens, then all the players lose the game.

While I previously had enjoyed ION from Genius Games, I found Covalence to be less interesting from the viewpoint of a gamer. It seemed a bit random and all of the guessing and such didn’t really do anything for me. However, as a teaching aid I thought it was brilliant. This game is ideal for the classroom, as the more students play it, the more they become familiar with molecular construction. For instance, one of the Easy molecules is Propene and it has 3 Carbon and 6 Hydrogen and two of the Carbon are double bonded. It is the only Easy molecule with 3 Carbon, so as soon as “3” Carbon is given as a clue the student/Builder will know that the molecule is Propene. And this is where the true value of the game comes into play, as the students are actually learning about the construction of molecules and memorizing their structure. The game also includes an expansion, so there are numerous molecules that can be studied.

While the learning about the composition of the molecules is very rewarding from a scholastic viewpoint, it does somewhat hamper the replayability of the game. Once everyone has learned all of the molecules there is little need to continue playing the game and this is something to consider if this is of importance to you.

This is a tremendous resource available for high school teachers, as well as families that homeschool, as the engaging game play will have students learning the material, while

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at the same time not having to feel as if it is being forced upon them. Teachers who are fortunate enough to have an openminded administrative board should be presenting this as something to add to the curriculum. Parents who home school their children will most definitely want to add this to their collection of teaching resources, as presenting this material as a game is a great way to break up the “monotony” of studying at home.

However, gamers can pass on this one as it is best suited for scholastic pursuits, but it would make an excellent game for them to play with their children in order to reinforce the material being learned in school. Once again Genius Games has done a wonderful job of articulating scientific information in a game that uses contemporary mechanisms.

I only wish they were around when I went to school!

Designer: Publisher: Players: Mechanic: Ages: Length:

John J. Coveyou Genius Games 2-4+ Co-op, Deduction 8+ 20 - 40 Mins.

Worth Trying www.gotgeniusgames.com

Contributors Serge Pierro Serge has playtested numerous games for several companies, including

Wizards of the Coast and AEG. He has also written for Duelist, Inquest and Gamer print magazines. His award winning photography has appeared in both newspapers and magazines. He has self published a game, and has several other designs ready... but, currently finds his free time devoted to doing Game Nite.

Eric Devlin Eric has been the North East Regional Representative for Wizards

of the Coast, the brand manager of Legends of the Five Rings, as well as working with Sabretooth and Third World Games. He has an extensive background in playtesting for top companies. He has also written for Games Quarterly, Duelist, Inquest and others.

Bill Braun Bill has been a contributing writer for PSNation and High-

Def Digest, an Editor and Publisher Relations Director for 30PlusGamer, and the co-creator and podcast host of A Band of Gamers.

Tom M Franklin Tom lives in North Carolina where he and his wife are staff to their five cats.

His writing has appeared in his agent’s Inbox and the occasional hand-written letter to friends. He grew up playing Abstract Strategy Games (back when they were simply called games) and still regards dice of all kinds with suspicion. His Board Gaming Claim to Fame is having taught over 300 kids how to play Chess. Considering he’s been playing board games for over 50 years he really should be much better at them than he is.

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Jeff Rhind Jeff is a single father raising a 19 year-old son and a 8 year-old daughter, and slowly coaxing them into the world of tabletop gaming. He has been gaming for many years and shares his love and appreciation for the hobby by reviewing and talking about games on his web site: completelyboard. com as well as his You Tube channel at youtube.com/completelyboard.

You can also follow him on twitter @jeffrhind

Kevin Lauryssen Kevin has a Master in Audiovisual Arts and majored in Animation. He works as a Freelance Draftsman for multiple companies in Belgium. He’s an avid gamer who has created a web-comic about boardgaming. His work can be found at www.game-night.be

Steve Krause Steve

is a newspaper designer based out of Pontiac, Michigan.

He first became enchanted with modern board games with Betrayal at House on the Hill, and it’s been downhill ever since. His work on board games has appeared in Slate, and he runs the @ boardgamesofinsta instagram account and you can follow him on twitter at @steve_krause.

Contributors Welcome Game Nite is always interested from hearing from people who are interested in contributing to the magazine, either regularly or as a guest contributor. If you have an idea for a series or a one shot feature that you would be interested in doing, feel free to contact us - we’d love to hear from you!

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Interview Gallery

Steve Jackson #1

Dan Verssen #1

Paul Herbert #1

Reiner Knizia #2

Franz Vohwinkel #2

James Ernest #2

Mark Copplestone #2

Reiner Knizia #3

Peter Adkison #3

Brom #3

Chenier La Salle #4

Ryan Dancey #4

Brian Snoddy #4

Beth Sobel #5

Bruno Faidutti #5

Tom Jolly #6

Antoine Bauza #7

Dennis Lohausen #7

Ryan Laukat #8

Chad Hoverter #9

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Matt Leacock #9

Greg Isabelli #9

Ignacy Trzewiczek #10

Jacqui Davis #10

Johan Koitka #10

Jamey Stegmaier #11

Michael Menzel #11

Kay Wilke #11

Vincent Dutrait #12

Mike Fitzgerald #12

Sandy Petersen #13

Mihajlo Dimitrievski #13

Bruno Cathala #14

John Ariosa #14

Friedemann Friese #15

Joshua Cappel #15

Eric Vogel #15

Mac Gerdts #16

Keldon Jones #16

Steve Finn #17

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Game Review Index

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• • • • • •

This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the 2-4 of Us Small World Stella Nova Shoot-Out Postcard Cthulhu Postcard Empire

• • • • • • •

Tile Chess Cards of Cthulhu Samurai Spirit Golem Arcana Pairs Sutakku Timeline

• • • • • • • • •

Baseball Highlights 2045 Samurai Sword Paperback For the Crown Trench Firefly Cutthroat Caverns Rise of the Zombies Shadow Throne

• • • • • • • • •

Rhino Hero Attila Spurs and Sprockets Chaosmos March of the Ants AquaSphere Fidelitas Rise of Cthulhu Maha Yodah

• • • • • • • • • •

Animal Upon Animal Sushi Draft Stones of Fate WWII: Stalingrad Stockpile The Magnates Sentinel Tactics Flip City Space Movers 2201 Dark Tales

• • • • • • • • •

Nevermore Gold West Arcadia Quest

Dragon Flame

New York 1901

Lift Off! Tesla vs. Edison

Yashima Targi

• • • • • • • •

Outer Earth 1944: Race to the Rhine Runecast Cycling Tour Witkacy Firefly: Fistful of Credits Dozen Doubloons King Down

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Game Review Index

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• • • • • • • • • • • •

Steam Works Web of Spies Cartography Xia: Legends of a Drift System Orleans Raiders of the North Sea Hoyuk Wizards of the Wild Myths at War Ring It! Hogg Wild for Wealth The Martian Investigations

• • • • • • • • • • •

Cosmic Run Imperial Harvest Under the Pyramids (Eldritch Horror Expansion) Bomb Squad Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization Luna Biblios Dice Trekking the National Parks Fuse Skulldug!

Horrible Hex

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Cuisine a la Cart Foragers The Shadow Over Westminster Scoville Valeria: Card Kingdom Onitama Knit Wit Worlds Fair: 1893 Flip City: Reuse Gruff The Walled City Empires at Sea

• • • • • • • • • • • •

JurassAttack!

Oh My Gods!

Looting Atlantis 13 Days Apotheca Tiny Epic Galaxies Automobiles Daxu Slaughterville Kheops Scoville: Labs Ancient Conflict Treasure Chest

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Dr. Eureka Stockpile: Continuing Corruption Sugar Gliders Dawn of the Zeds: Third Edition Vast: The Crystal Caverns The Networks Grifters Trajan Conspiracy!

Secrets of the Last Tomb Best Treehouse Ever Matryoshka

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Imhotep In the Name of Odin Centauri Saga Draconis Invasion Dastardly Dirigibles Flamme Rouge Haspelknecht Hansa Teutonica Star Trek Panic Theomachy Commissioned San Ni Ichi Small City Game Nite Issue #19

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Game Review Index

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• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Kanagawa Lunarchitects Hero Realms Santorini Vinhos: Deluxe Colony Sun Tzu Bermuda Crisis Tavarua Explorers of the North Sea America San Allies Crisis

• • • • • • • • • •

Hanamikoji Element Villages of Valeria Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition 7 Wonders Duel Oceanos Herbaceous A Feast For Odin Schotten Totten This Belongs in a Museum

• • • • • • • • • • •

Ninja Taisen Space Invaders Dice!

The Dresden Files Card Game Pyramids Quests of Valeria Amun-Re Cultists of Cthulhu Magic Maze Knot Dice The Cohort Crazier Eights

• • • • • • • • • • • •

7&7 March of the Ants: Minions of the Meadow Honshu Web of Spies Saga of the Northmen Tournament at Camelot Haspelknecht: The Ruhr Valley Plague Inc. Zephyr Terrible Monster 5ive Duress

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Fantasy Realms Space Race Isle of Skye Unearth ION Escape from 100 Million BC Battle for Souls COG Near and Far Terraforming Mars Caverna: Cave vs. Cave Pocket Mars Terra Mystica Hafid’s Grand Bazaar

• • • • • • • •

The Climbers Whistle Stop The 7th Continent Witches of the Revolution Viral Sentient Road Hog PeltaPeeps

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Phil Walker-Harding