Every three months I write about the games I played in the last quarter that were new to me. They’re mostly new games, but a few classics that I’m seeing for the first time also show up. This time around, the games date from 2008-2013. You’ll also find that my write-ups for this article are a bit more verbose than usual, as I’ve started writing this snippets shortly after I play the games, when the memory is still fresher. —SA, 3/30/14

The Great

Rampage (2013). A dexterity game where you flick monsters around, drop them on buildings, and launch vehicles through the air. I’ve always loved the creativity of a city-building game (and we’ll be getting back to lots of those this time), but it turns out that the destruction of a city-leveling game is just as much fun. There’s some actual strategy here, as you try to collect sets of (eaten) meeples, but the fun is mainly in tearing things down.

Nations (2013). A traditional civ-light game that feels like it follows in the footsteps of Through the Ages (2006); in both games, you create your civilization primarily through card play, but you also get to manage a variety of resources. The difference between the two games is the time: Through the Ages seems to last 4 or 5 hours most of the time, while my 3-player game of Nations ran two hours after the teach. Despite that, Nations has plenty of depth: there are plenty of heavy logistics as you try to manage your food, stone, and other resources — but it’s not the sort of logistics that I personally find tedious; because you never quite know exactly what you’ll need, you can largely play by gut. The game is also nicely evocative thanks to all of those cards with specific historical inventions or events, and it also feels evolutionary because your civilization grows over time (slowly pushing you toward certain strategies). Finally, it looks like to me like there’s a ton of replayability through the variability of the card decks.

When I wrote my original civ-light article I said that most games tried for the title and failed. This one doesn’t have trade and the warfare is abstracted, but it still feels like a civ-light game should.

The Very Good

Bremerhaven (2013). A resource-management game in the contract-fulfillment category that’s built around an ongoing blind bid. I think the closest I’ve seen to this game is Bruno Faidutti’s Corruption (2000), which has as similar sort of ongoing blind bid. It’s a pretty terrific mechanic because it allows for hidden bids while still offering real information in the form of how many cards each player has put into each bid. The rest of the game is great too, because you have to carefully manage ships (bringing goods in) and demands (taking goods out) and they’re all on clocks. This creates a lot of rhythm in the game, which gives you the opportunity to go contrary to the rest of the group (which is often beneficial in an auction game), but only if you can manage things just right. In its base form it’s a dense 2-hour game, but if you like that sort of thing it’s a pretty terrific release.

Keltis: Das Kartenspiel (2009). One of the joys of attending a public game night at a store is sometimes you get to play unusual games that haven’t shown up much in the US market — such as this Keltis card game, which is now almost 5 years old. At heart it’s Lost Cities (1999) for up to four players, which makes it a winner all on its own. However, it’s also got some great variations like an orthogonal way to score (using doubles and some special cards). Like all of the Lost Cities/Keltis variants, this one is pretty abstract, as you’re just building up suits of cards in order, but like all of them it’s also got tight, tense, tough game play. As soon as I got home I went online to see if I could find a copy of this foreign game and managed to order a new copy for $13 from Germany. Yah for the internet age (though I’d have bought it at my FLGS if they stocked foreign games — unfortunately it’s really hard to do so and make it cost-effective).

A Study in Emerald (2013). This new Martin Wallace game combines deckbuilding and auctions — or if you prefer majority control, as they can be pretty similar. It also has some interesting teamplay, where you don’t want your teammates to come in last, lest you lose, but you’re still competing with them!

Generally, you fight for cards, then use those cards to fight more, all while maintaining several resources and trying to stay ahead in victory points. The result is very innovative and best of all it’s also pretty quick-playing — which too often seems to be a problem in deckbuilding games.

OddVille (2012). The first of several city-building games I’m going to talk about — and apparently the top pick. This tile-laying city-building game is pretty simple. Its best elements are its simple, tight resource management, its entirely unique buildings, and its Carcassonne-like restrictions on placing buildings (based on roads). Oddville is somewhat light, but it also has that creative feel which the best city and civ-building games do. Its only deficit is that there can be some swing based on the random card draws at various places in the game — but if you’re looking for a light game, that’s probably OK.

The Good

Machi Koro (2012). A city-building die-rolling game, this one without any English translation at the present (and thus another of those rarities that I love to see at game nights). Actually, you’re not really building a city: you’re collecting city-themed cards which will generate money (or steal money) on certain dice rolls. There’s some strategy as you collect complementary buildings and some interaction as you steal from other players, but the joy in the game really comes from avidly watching for your number to be rolled. This really works, because some numbers score for you on any player’s turn.

City Tycoon (2011). An economic city-building game and yet another rarity in the US because its two releases were in Germany and in Poland. (The designers are Polish.) This is a game of pure logistics with a little card-drafting thrown in for good measure. You have to manage your money so that you can build stuff; and you also have to manage power and water, which you need to activate your various tiles. The gameplay is actually quite clever, and the activation of the tiles creates a nice little industry. My only real complaint with the game is that it’s pretty abstract: it doesn’t feel like you’re building out a city, just tiles of different colors. Be warned though, the high logistical requirements can make it feel like work; similar to Age of Steam, Power Grid, and others, you really have to plan out your turn toward the end of the game. 

Qin (2012). A Reiner Knizia game that feels like a super simplified TIgris & Euphrates. Basically, you place tiles to create territories, claim those territories with pagodas, and try to ensure that you stay ahead of your opponents in those territory types lest they grab your pagodas. It’s got some randomness with its tiles draws, but it’s slick, fast, and enjoyable nonetheless. (It ends up on the “good” list because it’s also not spectacular.)

The OK

Bang! The Dice Game (2013). Imagine Bang! with its secret roles, its deceit, and its speculation. But you can only do a couple of things on a turn, and they’re largely driven by the dice. There’s some excitement in what you roll (which is important for any dice game), but the minimal cleverness and tactics of Bang! are minimized even more. The game only runs about 15 minutes, so perhaps it doesn’t need more than that, but it’s not particularly deep either.

Saint Malo (2012). A die-rolling city-building game. It’s interesting because it’s pretty freeform building thanks to a geographical basis: you draw out buildings (and people) on a 7×7 grid. The people are a particularly innovative game element because you can choose different denizens (from citizens to nobles) depending on how many citizen icons you roll. This creates more variety than you find in a typical dice-rolling game. And, as is very important in dice games, there’s opportunity for excitement: you can get great or terrible rolls. Unfortunately, the game never really gets better than “good”; I think too much emphasis was instead put on the “innovative” fact that it’s played with dry erase markers on dry erase boards. Still, it was enjoyable if a bit long.

I’ve done my best to clarify the difference between the multitude of city-building games from last quarter. Oddville was mainly tile placement, while City Tycoon was mainly logistical. St. Malo and Machi Koro are probably the most similar on the face of things. However, the city-building and die-rolling of these last two games interact in opposite ways. In Machi Koro, you’re building a city to benefit from die rolls, while in St. Malo you’re benefiting from die rolls to build a city.

Karnickel (2013). This is probably intended as a kids/family game. You move rabbits around a roundel and eventually a train moves and you either gather carrots or get squished (“run away”). The play is largely random with lots of take-that and a very faint amount of press-your-luck (which is overpowered by the other elements). There’s nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t have any depth either.

Ubongo Duel (2008). I actually bought this years ago, but it’s sat around unplayed ever since. I love the original Ubongo (2003): it’s a very enjoyable game of super-fast thinking that often leaves me jazzed when I finish playing it. Unfortunately, Duel has the same problem as all of the Ubongo spin-offs that I’ve played: its puzzles are too tough, and so all of the adrenaline seeps out of you as you’re playing, and you’re left with somewhat dull puzzle solving. There’s still a bit of excitement when you figure things out … but it’s not enough. (And this was all with the easier puzzles in the game!)

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