Game
Reviews
Mystery Rummy Case 1: Jack the Ripper
So far I've played two games of Rosenkoenig and several Elchfests - my initial thoughts:
Rosenkoenig
Two players play on a grid of squares. Each player has a set of face-up cards which show how many spaces and in which direction the player may move the King (the King is the only moving piece on the grid - both players control him). When a player moves the king, he places a stone of his color underneath the king piece where it will stay (barring play of special cards) for the duration of the game. Players taking turns moving the king and filling up the board with pieces with the intent of forming large chains of stones of their color.
What I enjoy about the game is that it requires careful planning, while still movingly fairly quickly as you usually only have a few options per move. You are allowed to see both your own and the oppponent's cards, which allows for further strategy in anticipating the other player's moves. Excellent game.
Elchfest
Many people at
Essen that I have talked to have dismissed this one as a child's game and
really did not give it a second look. I think it is an incredibly
hilarious and fun game, personally. Two players are trying to move
their wooden elks across the table by flicking small stones in front of
their pieces, allowing them to place their hooves on the stones and keeping
them from hitting
the playing surface.
While primarily a skill game, there are points where you must decide whether
to go for an agressive move or sit back and play defensively. I can
see great opportunities for expanding on this game, adding sets to allow
a 4-player criss-cross and adding obstacles to get in the way of the elks'
paths. I had a hard time deciding whether or not to pick this one
up at Essen, but I am quite glad that I did. If finger-flicking games
aren't your
cup of tea, then
I'd say move on, otherwise, don't knock it 'till you try it....
I usually am not
one for games requiring memory as the primary skill, but I can deal with
it when I'm playing Mamma Mia. This is a card game about making pizzas.
On your turn, you drop ingredient cards into a single stack of ingredients
common to all players. Occasionally you will attempt to fill an order
by placing an order card at the top of the stack, but only if you are sure
you can remember that there are the proper types and amounts of ingredients
underneath. There are many different types of pizzas you can make,
from the Pizza Minimale to the Pizza Bombastica, all requiring different
combos of ingredients. I usually whip this one out when it's getting
into the wee hours of the night and I want something relatively quick and
easy-going. Nice game. For 2-5
players from
Abacus Spiele and Rio
Grande Games, author Uwe
Rosenberg.
One of my recent favorites is this new 3-6 player non-collectible card game by Wizards of the Coast. Only the quick will survive as players are competing to be the first to rid their stack of cards. When it is a player's turn to play, he flips over the top card of his stack, usually revealing a "right" or "left" card. If a right card is played, the player to his right must now quickly play a card, if a left card is played, the player to his left must now quickly play. There are many other cards that can show up, such as 2 left or 2 right, in which play continues with the player two to the left or right of the current player; Colored Dot cards which force one player in particular to play the next card; Rotate Colors where once you finally remember what color you are, you must lose it; and Left is Right / Right is Left (you can figure that one out - what a pain).
Speed comes into play because if it is your turn to play a card, and someone else realizes this before you do, they may play a challenge card on you. A challenge card may also be played if somebody plays a card wen they are not supposed to. If a player is correctly challenged, the challengee must grab all the cards played during that round and add them to his stack, and play continues with the challenger. If a player is incorrectly challenged, the challenger must grab all the cards played during that round and add them to his stack, and play continues with the challengee.
Whoever plays the final card in their stack is declared the winner.
This is an extraordinary
game. If you are the type who enjoys mind-absorbing fast-action reflex
games, you are in for a big treat with Twitch. One warning, however
- while the game is extremely fast paced, and one round will last
typically 5-10 minutes, people will want to keep playing for hours on end.
To quench my thirst for simple but enjoyable buying / selling economic games, I've picked up Parts Unknown from the noted goobers over at Cheapass Games. The idea is everyone in town is trying to copy the success of Dr. Frankenstein by creating strange monster robots of their own. You do not play the role of one of these monster creators, but instead you are seizing the opportunity to capitalize on this demand by speculating on the newfound market for body parts. Meanwhile, Frankenstein himself goes around window shopping, raising demand even further for those parts that he deems fashionable for the current season.
Or something like that.
What it all comes down to is each player, in turn, chooses what to buy from other players, what to buy from the deck of body parts, what to put in your store display, and a selling price for each good they display. A die is rolled, Frankenstein moves, and people offering the cheapest price sell off the appropriate goods to the townspeople according to current demand. Several players may band together to set a high price for Cheese (a type of brain), collecting wads of money, only to be undercut by another who sells for a smidgen less. That's ok, though, the other guys could just buy him out, maintaining their premium Cheese Brain price. Kooky.
The day ends after
Frankenstein travels a certain number of rounds on the board, or when all
the townsfolk die off (due to lack of body-part supply). I've only
played this one only a few times so far, but I've loved it each time and
look forward to playing again. The game is listed for 4-10
players - in my opinion, the lower number
of players the better - a large number can make it rather lengthy.
This is my current favorite of the Cheapass line of games.
From the mind of Mike Fitzgerald (creator of Wyvern CCG) comes the first in a proposed series of "mystery" card games based upon the old game of Rummy. This departs from many other mystery card games where card(s) are removed from the deck and your job is to deduce what is missing. Rather, this game is all about scoring points. Points are scored primarily through melds of evidence against a suspect or the playing of other cards such as scenes, suspects, victims, and alibis. You can also score points if you correctly guess who will be declared "The Ripper" by the end of the hand, and all points scored through evidence melded against this identified Ripper are doubled. When someone goes out (runs out of cards), the ripper is caught, and the suspect (there are 6 in all) who has the most points melded against them on the table is declared the Ripper. Points are scored, play a series of hands until someone reaches 100 points and wins.
A nice little addition to the game are the gray cards included which provide an alternate way of ending the hand (similar to shooting the moon). If all 5 victims are played on the table before someone goes out, the Ripper is finished his spree and now tries to escape. At any time thereon, whoever has the Ripper Escapes card may now play it and immediately end the hand, scoring 35 points (while others receive nothing for their melds). Other cards are included which aid in this mission - cards which help run through the deck for victims, and cards which force victim cards out of other players' hands (in case they are holding out). There is a lofty penalty for holding on to the Ripper Escapes card if he is caught, though, so if you see the writing on the wall, you might want to change alliance to the detectives and discard the card from your hand.
Personally, I love this game. Nice illustrations, relatively quick gameplay, multiple scoring options leading to diverse gameplay, and a "mystery atmosphere" are all pluses I've observed. I can't wait for Case #2 to come out!
For
2-4 players, released by U.S.
Game Systems, Inc.
This is a game of buying and selling various commodities (wheat, grapes, lamps, carpets, camels, and gems, in respective order of rarity) for 2-5 players from designer Sid Sackson - released by Abacus Spiele and Rio Grande Games. Basic gameplay is as follows:
Each player has a pawn on a 4 X 5 rectangular board. The 20 spaces are divided into 3 different types of areas - Oases, Trading Camps, and Cities. At an Oasis you can buy cards for money (piaster) - mathematically, the more you buy, the more they rip you off. At the Trading Camps you can trade your commodities for whatever commodities that particular camp has to offer (there are 10 different camps, holding different commodities, and whatever you give to them they keep for trading with the other players). Here, the more you trade, the less they rip you off. Finally, at the Cities, you can sell off everything you've traded for - the amount you get depends on the commonality of the item you are selling and how many of that item you have to sell. Everyone begins with 200 piaster - whoever gets a total of 500 piaster first wins (300 profit - sounds easy enough, eh?)
Of the large batch
of games I purchased following Essen '98,
this is probably my favorite. Each turn is played very quickly: players
decide where they want to go, want they want to buy / sell / trade, and
their turn ends. Colorfully illustrated / board and cards by Doris
Matthäus add even more to love about
this delightful game. One gaming note: there is a rule which
causes any commodity which has just been sold to receive a temporarily
lower selling price - for example, 4 gems sold to a city which had just
been sold gems would now sell at the price for which 3 gems would normally
sell. This is most noticeable when someone wants to cash in 6 cards
for maximum profit - their profits are then cut in half. Sneaking
in and selling 2 lamps when you see someone is about to unload 6 is a viable
strategy. It's also quite deflating for the opponent (I've seen two
of my opponents cry - if you've played, you know the feeling). All
in good fun!
