New to Me: Summer 2013

It’s been another quarter, and thus time for another listing of games that were new to me — mostly including new releases, but also including a few older ones that crossed my gaming table. As always this is an assessment of how much I like the games, rather than whether they’re great or not. I tend to prefer light to medium euros that don’t make me work too hard.

As you can see, there’s still a bit of emphasis on cooperative gaming; that’s because I was finishing up a complete book on the design of cooperative gaming. I hope to talk more about this in the future, but this could end up being the first “Mechanics & Meeples” branded game book! To keep up-to-date, I encourage you to join the Mechanics & Meeples page on Facebook that I’m now putting together.


The Great

Hanabi (2013). A cooperative game about playing fireworks cards to the table in the correct order. It’s a terrific game because it’s all about trust. The other players have to tell you what to play, but the language that they’re allowed to use is so deeply constrained that you have to have faith that what you think they’re saying is what they’re actually saying. Did I mention that it won the 2013 SdJ? I’d prefer to see the SdJ go to games with a bit more meat … but this game is so clever and innovative that I nonetheless have to say it’s well deserved.

The Very Good

The Rise of Augustus (2013). I can’t believe that I’m rating what’s essentially euroBingo so highly, but the honest answer is that The Rise of Augustus is very fun. You’re essentially operating several “cards” at the same time — and unlike in normal Bingo, you have to decide which card to allocate each ball (tile) that’s drawn. Nice color, competitive bonuses, and special powers complete Augustus‘ rule set, resulting in something that’s quite enjoyable. Overall, a great filler.

Catan: Explorers & PiratesCatan: Explorers & Pirates (2013). This expansion for The Settlers of Catan essentially offers four new rules sets that can be used in various combinations: exploring new lands; fighting pirates; gathering spice; and fishing. Though some of these topics have appeared in Catan games before, this is a new take on them. Generally, I thought it very successful: each of the new rules systems provided new strategic depth to the game. Also, unlike a lot of the Catan supplements, this one kept the game length down to a reasonable length.

Tournay (2011). One of two older “new to me” games this quarter. This is a worker placement game where you’re building a city out of cards. I love the creative aspects of building a city like you do here — even if it’s just a grid of 3×3 cards. Beyond that, It’s a fine worker placement game, though the actual mechanics don’t distinguish themselves.

The Good

Edo (2012). A resource-management game focused on programmed actions. I generally love programmed action games done well, and this one fits the criteria. It even has some interesting twists, like the fact that you program with tiles that have different actions on different sides — sometimes forcing tough choices. Beyond that, it offers up fair resource management.

Forbidden Desert (2013). Matt Leacock continues to fill in the cooperative game space beneath Pandemic. This one is a bit more complex than Forbidden Island, but still a pretty light game on the whole. There’s some fun cooperative interaction as you move around, dig up clues, and save allies who have gotten stuck in the sandstorm … and the actual components are tremendous. Still, it’s no Pandemic.

Relic RunnersRelic Runners (2013). A game of exploration, connection-building, and racing. As with many Days of Wonder games of recent years, this one is a bit light for me personally. Beyond that, it’s a well-developed, fun, beautifully produced game. A lot of the game centers around running through certain places on the board, and this allows for nice tactics. A great addition for casual groups, and still a fun game for more serious players.

Spyrium (2013). A worker-placement game where the big twist is that all the players put down their workers on a shared grid. Other workers then end up determining how much you must pay for actions or how much you can earn by turning them down. Beyond that, it feels pretty standard and it’s held back by a nonsensical steampunk theme. Some players suggested that a coal-mining game would have been much more interesting than what was produced. (I agree.)

Five PointsFive Points: Gangs of New York (2013). A surprisingly strong majority-control game, let down somewhat by mediocre components. This one has some neat concepts, like the players choosing where majority control is going to happen based on where they put their pieces; and a parallel auction of special powers. There’s nothing exactly new here, but it’s put together in an interesting manner.

Ground Floor (2013). A tough, long worker-placement game. I think some people might rate it as “very good”, as it has some intricate and interesting mechanics and simulations. The length kept it from reaching that category for me personally. Nonetheless, there’s some fun economics here — including supply and demand — that together create a compelling game. If you like that sort of thing, it’s well worth trying out — though some additional development could have pushed it up to “great” for the right playing group.

Divinaire (2012). This is an interesting game of predicting random card draws as you’re slowly given more and more information. It’s kind of shallow, but there’s a lot of good tension and opportunity for great tactical moves. The shallowness and a fairly abstract theming is what keeps me from rating it higher; I don’t think it’ll stand up to too many plays.

The Resistance: Avalon (2012). This is a slight variation of The Resistance from a few years ago. It’s a hidden teams game where you’re trying to figure out who’s loyal to you while simultaneously figuring out how to successfully conclude missions (by avoiding the disloyal players). It’s really simple, but it makes great use of its minimal rules, to produce a tense, fast-playing social game. I also think Avalon is a little better than the original Resistance thanks to some slight complexity that you can add to the game.

The Little Prince: Make Me a Planet (2013). A tile-placement game whose big twist is that players select tiles one at a time from a common pool. It’s pretty basic: at various times you place goals and the tiles that will help meet those goals. There’s some brinkmanship and some risk-taking. It’s all around a decently good game, hurt somewhat by high randomness and somewhat by the fact that a player regularly going next-to-last can end up in a bad position.

The OK

Flower FallFlower Fall (2012). Another super shallow game: you toss cards down onto the table, and try and control lots of regions. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this pseudo-dexterity game of dropping cards to the table, but you’ll be hungry again in five minutus.

Eight-Minute Empire (2013). As the name suggests, this is a very quick-playing war game — and it meets that criteria well, coming in at somewhere less than 8 minutes per player. However, I also found it very abstract, and thought that the interactions between the players could be very chaotic, not leaving a lot of room for strategy. It was thoroughly OK as a result, but not something I’ll be seeking out.

Road Rally USARoad Rally USA (2013). A simple racing game focusing on collecting sets of cards to play together and getting to certain checkpoints. Its card management could have been interesting, but the best strategy ends up feeling pretty one-dimensional. It’s not helped by very small components which literally belittle the game. The result isn’t something I’d turn down, but not something I’d seek out either.

The Meh

Warriors (2004). The oldest new-to-me game of the quarter … and I shouldn’t have bothered. It’s Risk as a card game, and the designers managed to include most the bad qualities of the original game — including beating up on the leader, king making, and a high randomness factor. There are some interesting elements, including armies that can only attack certain other armies, but overall this game isn’t worth the trouble. A supplement, Dragon Hordes, entirely ruins the game — so even if you want Risk in a card game, don’t get that!


I continue to have a backlog of topics to talk about. In the future look for a new cooperative interview and a look at a new deckbuilding game.

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