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Block Fortress
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Build your fortress, and defend it to the end! Block Fortress gives you the freedom to create a...
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layStation Classic - out 3 December 2018 It all began in Japan in 1994. The first PlayStation...
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Crackdown 3
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Crackdown 3 retains the core gameplay of Crackdown and Crackdown 2, featuring a number of different...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Tiny Epic Dinosaurs in Tabletop Games
Jul 13, 2021
Come on, we have all seen the Jurassic Park movies, or at least one of them. And let’s also admit that we think it would be pretty cool to work at a dinosaur theme park. However, when dino droppings hit the fan, we want it to happen on our off day. Welcome to Nondescript Dinosaur Theme Park Ranch, where we grow ’em, breed ’em, and sell them to the highest bidders!
Tiny Epic Dinosaurs (TEDinos) is the latest release in the Tiny Epic line from Gamelyn Games and is a worker placement game of dinosaur enclosure, husbandry, and contract fulfilling for up to four enterprising ranchers. Players will be acquiring dinosaurs and barriers, feeding them, breeding them, and attempting to fulfill public and private contracts for maximum VP gains.
DISCLAIMER: I will be presenting this as a Solo Chronicles, where I will be using the Solo Rules included in the TEDinos rulebook. Also, I will not be covering every rule, as there are just too many to describe, but will give a general flow and feeling of the game to help inform your purchasing decision. -T
To setup TEDinos, follow all setup rules in the rulebook until you have something that looks like the photo above. All of the setup, save a few steps, is exactly like setting up for a multiplayer game, and the solo player will be playing the game exactly as if it were multiplayer.
The game lasts six rounds and each round is comprised of seven phases. The phases contain actions to be taken like Collect Resources (plants, meat, and supply boxes), Assign Ranchers (the meat of the worker placement game where your rancheeples and Lead Tomvaseleeple will be placed on action spaces), Retrieve Ranchers (to use them again next round), Arrange Ranch (to place your dinos in different enclosures), Feed Dinosaurs (obvious), Breed Dinosaurs (every like pair of dinos make a like dino), Refresh for Next Round (resetting card stacks and offers).
Again, I won’t go into detail about these phases, but will detail how the solo game differs a bit from the multiplayer. The Rival Rancher (AI player) will be taking actions in the second phase of every round, Assign Ranchers, but will do it using a card deck specific to the Rival Rancher. Initially the Rival Rancher will be 1st Player, so they will play a card from their deck during Assign Ranchers that will claim all of the action spaces on one of the Action Mats and give them a dineeple. For the player, should they wish to claim a spot on the same Action Mat that the Rival Rancher is sitting on, it will count as a meeple being there, so the player will need to expend their Lead Rancher or two normal Ranchers to claim a space.
This simulates another player claiming a space prior to the player’s turn, and spaces are still available, but with the added challenge of holding the Rival Rancher’s meeple. Play continues in this fashion until the end of the sixth round where player and Rival Rancher alike will add up VP to determine the winner.
Components. Like all Tiny Epic games, there are a TON of components packed into a tiny box. That is both a great thing and a challenging thing. TEDinos takes up about half of my dining table when all setup and played. So it does sprawl a little. However, many of the components are very very small and for big oaf-hands, the pieces can be fragile and cumbersome. It looks great on the table as the color palette used is fantastic (especially against a purple play surface), and the art is superb. All the components are great quality, but the meeples suffer a bit as they are so small; my copy came with several dineeples being damaged or headless or tailless or legless. That doesn’t necessarily bother me too much so I won’t bellyache about it. All in all the components are what we now expect from the Tiny Epic line.
The solo gameplay is really good and really REALLY difficult. I feel that if you don’t go into the game with a strategy ready to go you will flounder and be overwhelmed by the prowess of the AI Rival Rancher. I was the first time and I thought I would never be able to even come close to winning. But, the more I play the more I recognize different tactics to use in-game to help benefit my ranch effectively. Each AI player can use a different mat that offers different AI strategies and those are found on the back of the normal multiplayer mats. This is a phenomenal idea and offers great replayability, even for the solo plays.
Though the solo rules of TEDinos allow the AI player to be super tough, I find this to be one of the best in the Tiny Epic line. Tiny Epic Galaxies may still be my favorite, but I think TEDinos might be right behind. I can’t wait until this dino dropping-like virus is eradicated so I can play with my homies again, because I will certainly be pulling this one out quite a bit. I keep a spreadsheet of all my games in order of preference, and I admit that TEDinos has easily whomped its way into my Top 100, but will it get to Top 10 Games of All Time along with Tiny Epic Galaxies? I don’t know. Want to play and find out where it lands with you? Pick up a copy and have at it!
PS – I’m not one to shout out to other reviewers usually, but if you get a chance, do check out the Watch It Played video of this one. Rodney does a great job (as always) and helped me clear up some questions I had after reading the rule book.
Tiny Epic Dinosaurs (TEDinos) is the latest release in the Tiny Epic line from Gamelyn Games and is a worker placement game of dinosaur enclosure, husbandry, and contract fulfilling for up to four enterprising ranchers. Players will be acquiring dinosaurs and barriers, feeding them, breeding them, and attempting to fulfill public and private contracts for maximum VP gains.
DISCLAIMER: I will be presenting this as a Solo Chronicles, where I will be using the Solo Rules included in the TEDinos rulebook. Also, I will not be covering every rule, as there are just too many to describe, but will give a general flow and feeling of the game to help inform your purchasing decision. -T
To setup TEDinos, follow all setup rules in the rulebook until you have something that looks like the photo above. All of the setup, save a few steps, is exactly like setting up for a multiplayer game, and the solo player will be playing the game exactly as if it were multiplayer.
The game lasts six rounds and each round is comprised of seven phases. The phases contain actions to be taken like Collect Resources (plants, meat, and supply boxes), Assign Ranchers (the meat of the worker placement game where your rancheeples and Lead Tomvaseleeple will be placed on action spaces), Retrieve Ranchers (to use them again next round), Arrange Ranch (to place your dinos in different enclosures), Feed Dinosaurs (obvious), Breed Dinosaurs (every like pair of dinos make a like dino), Refresh for Next Round (resetting card stacks and offers).
Again, I won’t go into detail about these phases, but will detail how the solo game differs a bit from the multiplayer. The Rival Rancher (AI player) will be taking actions in the second phase of every round, Assign Ranchers, but will do it using a card deck specific to the Rival Rancher. Initially the Rival Rancher will be 1st Player, so they will play a card from their deck during Assign Ranchers that will claim all of the action spaces on one of the Action Mats and give them a dineeple. For the player, should they wish to claim a spot on the same Action Mat that the Rival Rancher is sitting on, it will count as a meeple being there, so the player will need to expend their Lead Rancher or two normal Ranchers to claim a space.
This simulates another player claiming a space prior to the player’s turn, and spaces are still available, but with the added challenge of holding the Rival Rancher’s meeple. Play continues in this fashion until the end of the sixth round where player and Rival Rancher alike will add up VP to determine the winner.
Components. Like all Tiny Epic games, there are a TON of components packed into a tiny box. That is both a great thing and a challenging thing. TEDinos takes up about half of my dining table when all setup and played. So it does sprawl a little. However, many of the components are very very small and for big oaf-hands, the pieces can be fragile and cumbersome. It looks great on the table as the color palette used is fantastic (especially against a purple play surface), and the art is superb. All the components are great quality, but the meeples suffer a bit as they are so small; my copy came with several dineeples being damaged or headless or tailless or legless. That doesn’t necessarily bother me too much so I won’t bellyache about it. All in all the components are what we now expect from the Tiny Epic line.
The solo gameplay is really good and really REALLY difficult. I feel that if you don’t go into the game with a strategy ready to go you will flounder and be overwhelmed by the prowess of the AI Rival Rancher. I was the first time and I thought I would never be able to even come close to winning. But, the more I play the more I recognize different tactics to use in-game to help benefit my ranch effectively. Each AI player can use a different mat that offers different AI strategies and those are found on the back of the normal multiplayer mats. This is a phenomenal idea and offers great replayability, even for the solo plays.
Though the solo rules of TEDinos allow the AI player to be super tough, I find this to be one of the best in the Tiny Epic line. Tiny Epic Galaxies may still be my favorite, but I think TEDinos might be right behind. I can’t wait until this dino dropping-like virus is eradicated so I can play with my homies again, because I will certainly be pulling this one out quite a bit. I keep a spreadsheet of all my games in order of preference, and I admit that TEDinos has easily whomped its way into my Top 100, but will it get to Top 10 Games of All Time along with Tiny Epic Galaxies? I don’t know. Want to play and find out where it lands with you? Pick up a copy and have at it!
PS – I’m not one to shout out to other reviewers usually, but if you get a chance, do check out the Watch It Played video of this one. Rodney does a great job (as always) and helped me clear up some questions I had after reading the rule book.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Bandada in Tabletop Games
Jan 19, 2021
Though I may not look it, I am indeed half Mexican. That said, the word, “Bandada,” means, “Flock.” I don’t really get to flex my Spanish skills often, and it shows. I definitely looked up the word Bandada before reading the rules this time. In any case, as gamers we all belong to the same nerdy flock of people who just like to have a great time with friends, family, and some colorful cardboard and plastic. Birds and other flying creatures have been all the rage recently, but will I be adding this one to my flock of gems?
In Bandada players are attempting to catch and return birds that have escaped from the local zoo. These birds are attracted to different food morsels (namely black, blue, and yellow dice) and by manipulating the food source players may be able to catch all the right birdies and score tons of points.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
Disclaimer the second: I am previewing this using the Solo Adventure Variant, which uses many of the same rules as the main multiplayer rules with a few twists.
To setup the solo player will roll all 12 dice and sort them by color. Shuffle the bird cards and reveal three cards face-up in a market row. Grab a scoring cube for the score card, and choose which location card to play. Select (randomly or not) a bonus scoring card and the game may begin!
There are other optional variant rules that can be added to the adventure, but I will not be detailing those here.
Turns are divided into two phases: the Drafting phase and the Cleanup phase. During the Drafting phase the player will choose one of the face-up bird cards to be added to their personal bandada, perform the action described on the top of the card, and then add it to their bandada (personal tableau).
After drafting and bandada-ing the player will perform the Cleanup phase by scoring points based on the bird card abilities printed on the bottom, discarding the remaining face-up cards, and then adding three new birds cards to that market row. This phase differs from the multiplayer rules in that birds are scored once added to the bandada in multiplayer and then again during the Cleanup phase. In the solo mode they are scored only once at the end of the Cleanup phase.
The bird cards all have actions printed at the top that will manipulate the food dice in some way. Actions could simply give the birds a specific number of colored dice and adjust the value up or down. Some abilities will have the player flipping the dice to the opposite side, or adjusting multiple dice by splitting a positive or negative value. Of note in this game is that dice values wrap around the die. For example to increase the value of a 6 die it then wraps around to become a value 1. Manipulation of these food dice will make or break the game success, as I found in all my plays.
The game continues in this fashion until after the fourth full round. The player then totals their score on the score card, adds the points from the bonus card chosen at the beginning, and checks for the victory condition on the location card (the rules suggest starting in Africa). If the player has met the victory condition, the trip was a success! If, like me, the player fails to make 35 points in Africa every time, they must play again!
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, but I have to say that this is a beautiful minimalistic game. It consists of primarily dice and cards. The dice are translucent and good quality, though translucent yellow with white pips can be hard to read at times. The cards are good quality as well and feature breathtaking avian art. It really does look great on the table and doesn’t take up a ton of room, so I have very few negatives here.
Gameplay is super speedy and agonizing for a solo player. Maximizing points on every turn and having to consider specific win conditions makes for a crunchy little card game that takes about 10 minutes to play. It is definitely something I will be reaching for whenever I have a spare 15 minutes. With setup and teardown I am looking at a fulfilling, if not frustrating, card game experience that can be both anxiety-triggering and also quite calming. I was not sure what to expect when I opened the box, but boy am I glad I have this little gem.
If you are in the market for a great little solo game that can also play multiplayer, looks amazing, and is quick to complete, then look no further. If you are an avian aficionado and need your board and card game collection to reflect this, check out Bandada. I need you all to also promise to write me back once you figure out how to succeed in Africa, as I just plum can’t do it. But I am going to keep trying. As I always say, a game that makes you want to play it more is a mark of a great game, and I think a great game comes in this little box.
In Bandada players are attempting to catch and return birds that have escaped from the local zoo. These birds are attracted to different food morsels (namely black, blue, and yellow dice) and by manipulating the food source players may be able to catch all the right birdies and score tons of points.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
Disclaimer the second: I am previewing this using the Solo Adventure Variant, which uses many of the same rules as the main multiplayer rules with a few twists.
To setup the solo player will roll all 12 dice and sort them by color. Shuffle the bird cards and reveal three cards face-up in a market row. Grab a scoring cube for the score card, and choose which location card to play. Select (randomly or not) a bonus scoring card and the game may begin!
There are other optional variant rules that can be added to the adventure, but I will not be detailing those here.
Turns are divided into two phases: the Drafting phase and the Cleanup phase. During the Drafting phase the player will choose one of the face-up bird cards to be added to their personal bandada, perform the action described on the top of the card, and then add it to their bandada (personal tableau).
After drafting and bandada-ing the player will perform the Cleanup phase by scoring points based on the bird card abilities printed on the bottom, discarding the remaining face-up cards, and then adding three new birds cards to that market row. This phase differs from the multiplayer rules in that birds are scored once added to the bandada in multiplayer and then again during the Cleanup phase. In the solo mode they are scored only once at the end of the Cleanup phase.
The bird cards all have actions printed at the top that will manipulate the food dice in some way. Actions could simply give the birds a specific number of colored dice and adjust the value up or down. Some abilities will have the player flipping the dice to the opposite side, or adjusting multiple dice by splitting a positive or negative value. Of note in this game is that dice values wrap around the die. For example to increase the value of a 6 die it then wraps around to become a value 1. Manipulation of these food dice will make or break the game success, as I found in all my plays.
The game continues in this fashion until after the fourth full round. The player then totals their score on the score card, adds the points from the bonus card chosen at the beginning, and checks for the victory condition on the location card (the rules suggest starting in Africa). If the player has met the victory condition, the trip was a success! If, like me, the player fails to make 35 points in Africa every time, they must play again!
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, but I have to say that this is a beautiful minimalistic game. It consists of primarily dice and cards. The dice are translucent and good quality, though translucent yellow with white pips can be hard to read at times. The cards are good quality as well and feature breathtaking avian art. It really does look great on the table and doesn’t take up a ton of room, so I have very few negatives here.
Gameplay is super speedy and agonizing for a solo player. Maximizing points on every turn and having to consider specific win conditions makes for a crunchy little card game that takes about 10 minutes to play. It is definitely something I will be reaching for whenever I have a spare 15 minutes. With setup and teardown I am looking at a fulfilling, if not frustrating, card game experience that can be both anxiety-triggering and also quite calming. I was not sure what to expect when I opened the box, but boy am I glad I have this little gem.
If you are in the market for a great little solo game that can also play multiplayer, looks amazing, and is quick to complete, then look no further. If you are an avian aficionado and need your board and card game collection to reflect this, check out Bandada. I need you all to also promise to write me back once you figure out how to succeed in Africa, as I just plum can’t do it. But I am going to keep trying. As I always say, a game that makes you want to play it more is a mark of a great game, and I think a great game comes in this little box.
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Live the life of a dog, controlling your favourite breeds, exploring a massive 3D world and building...
Slingshot Racing
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Slingshot Racing is an original racing game developed exclusively for iOS devices. Behold a...
