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Paul Kellett (118 KP) created a post in Solo Gamers
May 9, 2019
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire in Tabletop Games
Feb 22, 2021
Excellent Work Placement Game
The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire- is a excellent work placement game. I love work placement games and this one is one of them. Lets talk more about the game.
Players sit in the roles of countries trying to develop industry and energy production over a period of time roughly from the end of World War II to the present day. Throughout the game, players will construct buildings, power plants as dice, and manage the pollution in their environment with the aim of scoring the most points.
To begin play, the main board for Energy Empire is seeded with starting Building cards. These are divided into three different sectors: Government spaces, Industry spaces, and Commerce spaces. A set of pollution tokens, depending on the number of players, is also stacked on a track as the game timer.
Once the game begins, it flows continuously without rounds. Each player chooses, on their turn, to take a Work Turn or a Generate Turn.
Work Turn- During this type of turn, players must place a single worker on the main board on one of the spaces which represent activities and resources to collect. For example, this may be gaining science, steel, or purchasing oil. Afterwards, depending on which sector the player placed their worker, they can activate any previously purchased buildings, assuming they have enough workers and/or energy. Players can also activate their nation card and move up on the United Nations track, which is a pure competition for end game points. Energy is also used if a player wishes to place a worker on a space occupied by another worker. The player must place additional energy under the worker until their placement stack is larger than any other already placed.
Generate Turn: This type of turn represents the player resetting their work potential for a new set of placing workers. They do this by first potentially collecting an achievement which represents end game points for a variety of goals. They then recall any workers to their Player Mat and discard all Energy tokens. Players can also spend any oil resources to gain oil power plant dice. Finally the player rolls any or all power plant dice they have. This might include Solar/Wind (green dice), Hydro Power (blue dice, limited to one per player), Coal (black dice), and Nuclear (yellow dice). The resulting number of lightning bolts on the dice are delivered as energy tokens to the player. If a clean energy source rolled the highest cardinal number, the player does not collect pollution. If coal, oil, or nuclear dice resulted in the highest number, then the player places a single pollution token into their environment. Players continue this process one after another until a predesignated number of pollution tokens are removed from the game. Players get one final turn and then points are tallied. Players receive points for keeping their player mat free of pollution, building power plants, the United Nations track, and various points for each building constructed.
The most engaging part of the game and the main reason to seek it out, comes from the theme of global power intrigue. The building cards show off the exceptional art in the game.
Manhattan Project: Energy Empire Cards
The global impact cards for the first half of the game are green with a milder impact. Once they go red, prepare for some serious negative events. On top of this theme, the actions associated with everything in the game fit just right. The concept in game actions connect directly to the theme concept. In addition, the country actions to move up on the United Nations track also represent the tone and success formulas for those countries. The mechanism for rolling dice to gain energy and how much pollution is delivered feels just perfect given the competing goals of clean environments and high energy production.
The worker placement mechanism itself (largest stack among existing workers) is not new, but it is just the right mechanism to promote the overall feeling of energy competition. Choosing the space on which to place a worker is highly engaging and the choices tense to maximize efficiency. It is easy to connect with both strategy and tactics in this game.
Even with this engagement, it is also easy to see optimal routes for gaining points assuming opponents follow their strategies. It’s not “easy”, but it is possible to not even worry about opponents blocking a particular path to victory with low numbers of players.
Its a excellent work placement game. One i highly recordmend getting and play.
Players sit in the roles of countries trying to develop industry and energy production over a period of time roughly from the end of World War II to the present day. Throughout the game, players will construct buildings, power plants as dice, and manage the pollution in their environment with the aim of scoring the most points.
To begin play, the main board for Energy Empire is seeded with starting Building cards. These are divided into three different sectors: Government spaces, Industry spaces, and Commerce spaces. A set of pollution tokens, depending on the number of players, is also stacked on a track as the game timer.
Once the game begins, it flows continuously without rounds. Each player chooses, on their turn, to take a Work Turn or a Generate Turn.
Work Turn- During this type of turn, players must place a single worker on the main board on one of the spaces which represent activities and resources to collect. For example, this may be gaining science, steel, or purchasing oil. Afterwards, depending on which sector the player placed their worker, they can activate any previously purchased buildings, assuming they have enough workers and/or energy. Players can also activate their nation card and move up on the United Nations track, which is a pure competition for end game points. Energy is also used if a player wishes to place a worker on a space occupied by another worker. The player must place additional energy under the worker until their placement stack is larger than any other already placed.
Generate Turn: This type of turn represents the player resetting their work potential for a new set of placing workers. They do this by first potentially collecting an achievement which represents end game points for a variety of goals. They then recall any workers to their Player Mat and discard all Energy tokens. Players can also spend any oil resources to gain oil power plant dice. Finally the player rolls any or all power plant dice they have. This might include Solar/Wind (green dice), Hydro Power (blue dice, limited to one per player), Coal (black dice), and Nuclear (yellow dice). The resulting number of lightning bolts on the dice are delivered as energy tokens to the player. If a clean energy source rolled the highest cardinal number, the player does not collect pollution. If coal, oil, or nuclear dice resulted in the highest number, then the player places a single pollution token into their environment. Players continue this process one after another until a predesignated number of pollution tokens are removed from the game. Players get one final turn and then points are tallied. Players receive points for keeping their player mat free of pollution, building power plants, the United Nations track, and various points for each building constructed.
The most engaging part of the game and the main reason to seek it out, comes from the theme of global power intrigue. The building cards show off the exceptional art in the game.
Manhattan Project: Energy Empire Cards
The global impact cards for the first half of the game are green with a milder impact. Once they go red, prepare for some serious negative events. On top of this theme, the actions associated with everything in the game fit just right. The concept in game actions connect directly to the theme concept. In addition, the country actions to move up on the United Nations track also represent the tone and success formulas for those countries. The mechanism for rolling dice to gain energy and how much pollution is delivered feels just perfect given the competing goals of clean environments and high energy production.
The worker placement mechanism itself (largest stack among existing workers) is not new, but it is just the right mechanism to promote the overall feeling of energy competition. Choosing the space on which to place a worker is highly engaging and the choices tense to maximize efficiency. It is easy to connect with both strategy and tactics in this game.
Even with this engagement, it is also easy to see optimal routes for gaining points assuming opponents follow their strategies. It’s not “easy”, but it is possible to not even worry about opponents blocking a particular path to victory with low numbers of players.
Its a excellent work placement game. One i highly recordmend getting and play.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Chronicles of Crime in Tabletop Games
Jul 1, 2021
Find the murderer, the weapon, and the location. That’s Clue/Cluedo right? Yes. Find the priceless artifact that was stolen from the museum while other complications arise is Chronicles of Crime, and specifically the Curse of the Pharaohs case. Do you have what it takes to solve this crime, and more importantly, do you have a cell phone or tablet??
Chronicles of Crime is an app-driven storytelling, deduction, adventure board game that can be played solo or cooperatively. Players will be assuming the mantles of London detectives attempting to solve difficult cases at Scotland Yard. As it is a cooperative game players will win or lose together, but the game itself will be helping players along the way.
To setup, place the Evidence Board on the table and surround it with these components: Location Boards in a stack, but Scotland Yard attached to the bottom of the Evidence Board, Character and Special Items cards in face-down stacks, Evidence Category cards face-up, and the four Forensic Contact cards nearby as well. Open the app, choose the scenario to play, and let the app guide you through the introduction to the game.
As there are no real “turns” Chronicles of Crime allows freedom for players to essentially roam around London’s sectors looking for clues to whatever crime has taken place, interrogating suspects, asking the Forensics Contacts team for support when encountering people or items, and finally attempting the solve the case. I cannot really go into much more detail in word or photo, as I wish to avoid all spoilers, but the app will guide players and assist in gentle nudges along the way. The app will be heavily used as players will need to scan the QR codes on several components in order to interact with them, and scannable components may not always be assigned the same roles in other scenarios. Once players have explored as much as they deem necessary, they may claim the group is ready to connect the dots and win the game. Players win or lose by visiting Scotland Yard to solve the case successfully or otherwise.
Components. All of the physical components included in the box are incredible. The cards feature great artwork, the components are wonderful quality, and everything has unique QR codes to scan in the app. The box insert is cleverly-designed and certainly ready to accept expansion materials. The greatest component, however, is the Chronicles of Crime companion app. This app is simply amazing. It is absolutely necessary for play, but once downloaded it requires no Internet access (unless you decide to download additional materials or scenarios). The app is so well-designed and engaging, and the music is minimal but certainly mood-setting. I can clearly see why using an app is essential here, and allows the team to add more and more content without having to alter the physical components at all. A stroke of genius, in my mind!
All in all I was, and still am, blown away by Chronicles of Crime. The marriage of board game and digital app is something I was leery of at first because I much prefer board games, but this simply works. And works quite well. I love being able to travel to a location, check it out, interrogate any persons of interest there, and try to assemble the story in my mind. I want to play all of the scenarios with different groups of people to see if that will change anything, but currently during COVID it’s a no-go.
Chronicles of Crime may never break into my Top 10 Games of All Time, but I will not be moving it out of my collection ever. Well, unless Lucky Duck Games decides to remove the app or something weird like that. I don’t have many board/digital hybrid games in my collection, and if I never add another I will still be happy with this one (ahem, keep your eyes peeled for the Chronicles of Crime: 1400 preview I will be doing soon – or will have done depending on when you read this review). Purple Phoenix Games gives Chronicles of Crime an enthusiastically shifty-eyed 11 / 12. I think you might get bonus VPs at the end of the game for putting on a British accent when you play. I’ll have to scour the rules for that one…
Chronicles of Crime is an app-driven storytelling, deduction, adventure board game that can be played solo or cooperatively. Players will be assuming the mantles of London detectives attempting to solve difficult cases at Scotland Yard. As it is a cooperative game players will win or lose together, but the game itself will be helping players along the way.
To setup, place the Evidence Board on the table and surround it with these components: Location Boards in a stack, but Scotland Yard attached to the bottom of the Evidence Board, Character and Special Items cards in face-down stacks, Evidence Category cards face-up, and the four Forensic Contact cards nearby as well. Open the app, choose the scenario to play, and let the app guide you through the introduction to the game.
As there are no real “turns” Chronicles of Crime allows freedom for players to essentially roam around London’s sectors looking for clues to whatever crime has taken place, interrogating suspects, asking the Forensics Contacts team for support when encountering people or items, and finally attempting the solve the case. I cannot really go into much more detail in word or photo, as I wish to avoid all spoilers, but the app will guide players and assist in gentle nudges along the way. The app will be heavily used as players will need to scan the QR codes on several components in order to interact with them, and scannable components may not always be assigned the same roles in other scenarios. Once players have explored as much as they deem necessary, they may claim the group is ready to connect the dots and win the game. Players win or lose by visiting Scotland Yard to solve the case successfully or otherwise.
Components. All of the physical components included in the box are incredible. The cards feature great artwork, the components are wonderful quality, and everything has unique QR codes to scan in the app. The box insert is cleverly-designed and certainly ready to accept expansion materials. The greatest component, however, is the Chronicles of Crime companion app. This app is simply amazing. It is absolutely necessary for play, but once downloaded it requires no Internet access (unless you decide to download additional materials or scenarios). The app is so well-designed and engaging, and the music is minimal but certainly mood-setting. I can clearly see why using an app is essential here, and allows the team to add more and more content without having to alter the physical components at all. A stroke of genius, in my mind!
All in all I was, and still am, blown away by Chronicles of Crime. The marriage of board game and digital app is something I was leery of at first because I much prefer board games, but this simply works. And works quite well. I love being able to travel to a location, check it out, interrogate any persons of interest there, and try to assemble the story in my mind. I want to play all of the scenarios with different groups of people to see if that will change anything, but currently during COVID it’s a no-go.
Chronicles of Crime may never break into my Top 10 Games of All Time, but I will not be moving it out of my collection ever. Well, unless Lucky Duck Games decides to remove the app or something weird like that. I don’t have many board/digital hybrid games in my collection, and if I never add another I will still be happy with this one (ahem, keep your eyes peeled for the Chronicles of Crime: 1400 preview I will be doing soon – or will have done depending on when you read this review). Purple Phoenix Games gives Chronicles of Crime an enthusiastically shifty-eyed 11 / 12. I think you might get bonus VPs at the end of the game for putting on a British accent when you play. I’ll have to scour the rules for that one…
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Throw Octopus in Tabletop Games
Dec 18, 2021
It’s a great sign when your 5-year-old wants to play a game over, and over, and over, and over… right? Especially if you also really enjoy playing? You never really know what to expect with new games and, luckily, this one is great… especially if you have kiddos or uptight friends.
In Throw Octopus, players are underwater city planners. Of sorts. Depending on the mode of play, players will attempt to rid themselves of their hand of seascape tiles, which depict wonky underwater creatures. The first player to shed their entire hand of tiles will be the winner!
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
To setup, chuck the tiles into a giant face-down pile and swirl them around to shuffle. Or try to riffle-shuffle, like, a thousand little cardboard tiles. Good luck. From the pile each player will choose eight tiles for their starting hand. Eight tiles, eight octopus tentacles. Coincidence? Also shuffle the Octopus Cards and place in a draw pile nearby. Flip over one of the tiles from the pile to serve as the starting tile. Youngest player goes first, and the game is ready to play!
On a turn, players will try to play one of their tiles to the ever-growing seascape being built on the table. Only by adding a tile from their hand to an appropriate place within the seascape can hands dwindle. At times a player will play a tile to the seascape depicting an octopus icon. After placing this tile, the active player will draw a card from the deck and either perform its action immediately or save it to be used at a later time (the card will instruct the players which to do). These cards could have players drawing more tiles, forcing other players to draw tiles, giving the active player the ability to manipulate tiles already placed in the seascape, or THROWING THE ADORABLE PLUSH OCTOPUS that comes with the game at an opponent. When the octopus is thrown at a player, they must immediately draw two tiles and skip their next turn. Should a player not have any other play, they must draw a tile from the pile and pass play to the next player.
As players are gaining and playing tiles to the board, the seascape is constantly changing, thus reflecting the real-life constantly-changing seascapes across the world. I may be reading too much into it. In any case, once a player places their final tile, they win and may challenge the players to a rematch immediately.
Recently added two-player rules allow for Speed Octopus play. In this mode, players are attempting to add to their own seascapes, and when they cannot play a card, they must discard a tile from their hand to their box top/bottom and draw a new tile from the shared pile. Once the game ends by players unable to play legally, points are scored for completed creatures in their personal board and negative points are earned for each tile in their box top/bottom. In this mode the cards and plushie are not used, but we house-ruled the usage of a Throw Octopus each time a creature was completed, just to further humiliate the other player.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, but what we received was a box full of tiles, cards, and just the cutest little octoplushie we have ever seen. I really hope that all copies of the game come with this style of octopus, as my daughter immediately confiscated it the first few nights to sleep with her, no joke. I can only imagine the upgrades this will receive as a result of a successful Kickstarter campaign.
This is a silly, and sometimes frantic, tile laying game with take that and dexterity elements. Throwing the octopus and seeing the finished seascape at the end of the game are so satisfying. The art is great, and the concept is unique. I just know we will be playing this game for years to come. Again, if you happen to have littles in your your life or uptight friends, this is the game for you.
In Throw Octopus, players are underwater city planners. Of sorts. Depending on the mode of play, players will attempt to rid themselves of their hand of seascape tiles, which depict wonky underwater creatures. The first player to shed their entire hand of tiles will be the winner!
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
To setup, chuck the tiles into a giant face-down pile and swirl them around to shuffle. Or try to riffle-shuffle, like, a thousand little cardboard tiles. Good luck. From the pile each player will choose eight tiles for their starting hand. Eight tiles, eight octopus tentacles. Coincidence? Also shuffle the Octopus Cards and place in a draw pile nearby. Flip over one of the tiles from the pile to serve as the starting tile. Youngest player goes first, and the game is ready to play!
On a turn, players will try to play one of their tiles to the ever-growing seascape being built on the table. Only by adding a tile from their hand to an appropriate place within the seascape can hands dwindle. At times a player will play a tile to the seascape depicting an octopus icon. After placing this tile, the active player will draw a card from the deck and either perform its action immediately or save it to be used at a later time (the card will instruct the players which to do). These cards could have players drawing more tiles, forcing other players to draw tiles, giving the active player the ability to manipulate tiles already placed in the seascape, or THROWING THE ADORABLE PLUSH OCTOPUS that comes with the game at an opponent. When the octopus is thrown at a player, they must immediately draw two tiles and skip their next turn. Should a player not have any other play, they must draw a tile from the pile and pass play to the next player.
As players are gaining and playing tiles to the board, the seascape is constantly changing, thus reflecting the real-life constantly-changing seascapes across the world. I may be reading too much into it. In any case, once a player places their final tile, they win and may challenge the players to a rematch immediately.
Recently added two-player rules allow for Speed Octopus play. In this mode, players are attempting to add to their own seascapes, and when they cannot play a card, they must discard a tile from their hand to their box top/bottom and draw a new tile from the shared pile. Once the game ends by players unable to play legally, points are scored for completed creatures in their personal board and negative points are earned for each tile in their box top/bottom. In this mode the cards and plushie are not used, but we house-ruled the usage of a Throw Octopus each time a creature was completed, just to further humiliate the other player.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, but what we received was a box full of tiles, cards, and just the cutest little octoplushie we have ever seen. I really hope that all copies of the game come with this style of octopus, as my daughter immediately confiscated it the first few nights to sleep with her, no joke. I can only imagine the upgrades this will receive as a result of a successful Kickstarter campaign.
This is a silly, and sometimes frantic, tile laying game with take that and dexterity elements. Throwing the octopus and seeing the finished seascape at the end of the game are so satisfying. The art is great, and the concept is unique. I just know we will be playing this game for years to come. Again, if you happen to have littles in your your life or uptight friends, this is the game for you.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Gorinto in Tabletop Games
Mar 2, 2020
I have been noticing that as I do more and more reviews and previews I am learning to absolutely adore abstract strategy games. Like, I LOVE them now. So when a call for reviewers came out for a new abstract game with art by Josh Cappel, I was immediately intrigued. I love games with an Asian style (even if loosely themed), and games that reward players for thinking ahead and maximizing their turns. Wait, it plays in 30-60 minutes too? I’m a fan.
A “gorinto” is a Japanese five-tier pagoda tower where each tier is representative of something of religious importance. In this game, each tier is representative of one of the elements: fire, water, wind, earth, and void. In this prototype version, the season tracking pawn is a representative gorinto. To gain deeper understanding of these elements and attain ultimate Wisdom is the goal of the game of Gorinto.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and the final components will be different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign running until March 4, 2020, or purchase through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, each player will choose a color, take the play mat of matching color, and place their score marker on the score board. The season tracker will be placed on the scoreboard as well, along with the randomized Goal cards and end-of-game element scoring cards. The main play board will be populated with randomized element tiles pulled from the bag in the shape of a mountain, with 10 tiles placed along the side and top edges of the built mountain of tiles. Determine the first player and the game is ready to be played.
On a player’s turn they will choose one of these outlying tiles to move onto the board. Once placed, the player will choose tiles, based on the placed tile’s power, from the board. For example, “fire spreads tall,” so if a Fire tile is placed on the board, a player may choose any tile from the column where it was placed two spaces above or below the placed tile. The number of tiles that can be plucked from the board depends on the player’s “understanding” of the element (the number of tiles of that type on the player’s board +1). With two tiles on a player’s personal board, they can choose three tiles when moving that type of tile, in the example – fire.
Tiles moved from the left side of the mountain can only move horizontally in their row and tiles moved from the top of the mountain can only move vertically in their column. With each of the elements possessing different ways tiles can be chosen from the mountain, and understanding of each element affecting how many tiles can be chosen, players need to plan ahead for their turns… except that other players will be doing the same and planning their own strategies to destroy their opponents’ plans.
When there are fewer tiles to be moved outside the mountain than there are players, the season (round) ends. At this point, players will score the Goal cards before setting up for the next season.
Each season the Goal cards will be scored – so players will know throughout the game upon what they should be concentrating their efforts. Examples of these Goal cards are: score your tallest stack (1 point per tile), then score your shortest stack (0 points if no tiles on a stack); score your stacks with odd number of tiles twice; score the stack with the median number of tiles three times. By being able to manipulate and keep track of the tile stacks players can be planning their scores ahead of time for each season.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, but already one can see the direction this game is headed, and it’s glorious! I have seen the Kickstarter page, and am super excited about seeing nearly every component get a fantastic upgrade. The art direction is incredible, the physical components are plastic and cardboard heaven. I am even pretty happy with this prototype copy. Yeah, the tiles are squarish wooden tiles with stickers, and the retail copy will have sexy interlocking plastic tokens, and the player boards in prototype are rectangular, but the retail copy will have a fancy contoured edge. Even so! The game looks amazing on the table, and will be even more so once it goes to manufacturing in earnest.
I mentioned in my intro that I am falling more in love with abstracts the more I play them. Has it just been that abstracts have been getting better and better lately, or am I leveling up as a gamer? I don’t know and I don’t care. Abstracts hold a very special place in my heart now, and this one is one of the best I have played. Most abstracts get a bad rap for being themeless and boring to look at, but Gorinto brings it and I’m totally diggin’ it. I love games like Gekitai, Calico, Elementos, Hive, and Onitama, and now there’s another to add to my display case of amazing abstracts.
If you enjoy themed abstract strategy games, games that make you think without bogging you down, and games that make you smile even when you lose simply because you enjoyed the experience, you should check this one out. There is still time to back it through Kickstarter, but the campaign ends on Wednesday, March 6. At the time of writing, the campaign is funded at over 500%.
A “gorinto” is a Japanese five-tier pagoda tower where each tier is representative of something of religious importance. In this game, each tier is representative of one of the elements: fire, water, wind, earth, and void. In this prototype version, the season tracking pawn is a representative gorinto. To gain deeper understanding of these elements and attain ultimate Wisdom is the goal of the game of Gorinto.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and the final components will be different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign running until March 4, 2020, or purchase through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, each player will choose a color, take the play mat of matching color, and place their score marker on the score board. The season tracker will be placed on the scoreboard as well, along with the randomized Goal cards and end-of-game element scoring cards. The main play board will be populated with randomized element tiles pulled from the bag in the shape of a mountain, with 10 tiles placed along the side and top edges of the built mountain of tiles. Determine the first player and the game is ready to be played.
On a player’s turn they will choose one of these outlying tiles to move onto the board. Once placed, the player will choose tiles, based on the placed tile’s power, from the board. For example, “fire spreads tall,” so if a Fire tile is placed on the board, a player may choose any tile from the column where it was placed two spaces above or below the placed tile. The number of tiles that can be plucked from the board depends on the player’s “understanding” of the element (the number of tiles of that type on the player’s board +1). With two tiles on a player’s personal board, they can choose three tiles when moving that type of tile, in the example – fire.
Tiles moved from the left side of the mountain can only move horizontally in their row and tiles moved from the top of the mountain can only move vertically in their column. With each of the elements possessing different ways tiles can be chosen from the mountain, and understanding of each element affecting how many tiles can be chosen, players need to plan ahead for their turns… except that other players will be doing the same and planning their own strategies to destroy their opponents’ plans.
When there are fewer tiles to be moved outside the mountain than there are players, the season (round) ends. At this point, players will score the Goal cards before setting up for the next season.
Each season the Goal cards will be scored – so players will know throughout the game upon what they should be concentrating their efforts. Examples of these Goal cards are: score your tallest stack (1 point per tile), then score your shortest stack (0 points if no tiles on a stack); score your stacks with odd number of tiles twice; score the stack with the median number of tiles three times. By being able to manipulate and keep track of the tile stacks players can be planning their scores ahead of time for each season.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, but already one can see the direction this game is headed, and it’s glorious! I have seen the Kickstarter page, and am super excited about seeing nearly every component get a fantastic upgrade. The art direction is incredible, the physical components are plastic and cardboard heaven. I am even pretty happy with this prototype copy. Yeah, the tiles are squarish wooden tiles with stickers, and the retail copy will have sexy interlocking plastic tokens, and the player boards in prototype are rectangular, but the retail copy will have a fancy contoured edge. Even so! The game looks amazing on the table, and will be even more so once it goes to manufacturing in earnest.
I mentioned in my intro that I am falling more in love with abstracts the more I play them. Has it just been that abstracts have been getting better and better lately, or am I leveling up as a gamer? I don’t know and I don’t care. Abstracts hold a very special place in my heart now, and this one is one of the best I have played. Most abstracts get a bad rap for being themeless and boring to look at, but Gorinto brings it and I’m totally diggin’ it. I love games like Gekitai, Calico, Elementos, Hive, and Onitama, and now there’s another to add to my display case of amazing abstracts.
If you enjoy themed abstract strategy games, games that make you think without bogging you down, and games that make you smile even when you lose simply because you enjoyed the experience, you should check this one out. There is still time to back it through Kickstarter, but the campaign ends on Wednesday, March 6. At the time of writing, the campaign is funded at over 500%.