Die Macher

Before the convention, I signed up for this classic gaming monster. It’s a game about the German election, it’s complicated and epic. The game takes place over six rounds, each having an election in a different German state. The last round has two state elections back-to-back. The order of a round is that you bid on turn order (which is very important, as you can get to see what other people do first), and then change your party’s platform to match that of the people and take secret actions in each of the states. Then you form coalitions with other players, and you need to, because it’s rare to win it alone. You can control the media and change what issues the people want. You “hold meetings”, which are basically just putting out some cubes.

Next, you bid on the opportunity to publish opinion polls, which influences either your party’s popularity or another party’s. You can even bury the poll and not publish it at all! After all of that, you can convert those “meeting cubes” into actual votes. Finally, you conduct the election and get victory points and money. Before the start of the next round, you decide whether or not you want party contributions (think of it like a PAC). Money’s always good, but it means that some people will leave your party. At the end of the game, you tally up how well the national agenda (which is based on how each individual state went) with your agenda. In all, it’s just a ton of moving parts. I played with a fun group, it took us the entire morning and even into the early afternoon, but it was delightfully challenging, even if it’s not for the faint of heart.

Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra

If you haven’t played the original Azul, this one is much like it. You get the opportunity to draft pretty tiles from several central groups, trying to use them to score points. Rather than making a mosaic, like in the original, each row is a pane of stained glass. The twist in this game over the original is that you have a figure above your board in this one that indicates which row you can add tiles to. You can move the figure to any row to the right, but if you want to add to a row to the left, you have to pass and move your figure back to the left-most row. This makes for a slightly more thinky game, but overall, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Hokkaido

I was not impressed by this follow-up to Honshu, as the ideas here were not all that fresh or original. This is still at its heart a type of card placement game, where you’re playing overlapping cards to build a city in a tableau. However, rather than the innovative possible trump and trick-taking/drafting mechanism in Honshu, this is just a simple card draft, and here you just turn in resources in order to slightly alter your map. This does add a mountain range to the game so that you’re balancing your city on either side of it, but that’s really the only thing I like about this implementation. I do recommend that people try Honshu if they have a chance, as it was a quality title.

House of Borgia

This game is based on the classic Liar’s Dice, but with a bit more meat to it. You have a secret cardinal that you are backing for pope, and all the cardinals are in a tableau on the middle of the table. Each time you make a bet, if it’s unchallenged, you’re able to take an action with the cardinal. This means that your initial bluffs could not even be about what is on the collective set of dice, but just that you wanted to take that particular action in order to manipulate the order of the cardinals. Additionally, you also need to keep your cardinal secret, as if he’s exposed, you’re eliminated, so you can also bluff regarding the various cardinals. With higher player counts, I do think it’s better to play with the variant than an exposed cardinal costs you some influence rather than completely eliminating you, as it’s harder to bluff in that type of game.

Fuji

Another fun co-op where all players roll a set of D6 dice with three colors on them. The goal is for all players to reach the village safely before the lava reaches them. Each tile that you attempt to move to has a couple conditions that will determine your total on the square. In order to succeed, the sum of the matching dice must beat the other players sitting next to you. We were 0-2, but it was a great game. The mechanic of the volcano reminded us of The Downfall of Pompeii.

The River

A polished worker placement that plays quickly with clean mechanics. Each player has their own board to which they are upgrading the spots as the snake through the river and try to match up land types. The first player to build 4 building cards or fill their player board triggers the end of the game. This would be a fantastic game for someone new to the hobby that is just getting into resource management games.

Gang Schon Clever

Similar to Qwixx, each player has their own dry erase game board that is trying to maximize points in 5 different categories. For four players, there were four rounds where each of us rolled a set of six different colored D6 dice. Any dice greater than the value of the die you selected would determine any dice that would be set aside. You would then use that die and cross off the appropriate space on your board. Each color had a different way to use the number. The white die was wild, and also used to sum the value used in the blue section. This game would be great with two players.

Paper Tales

This game was a little strange but was very quick. Over four rounds, the first thing you would do is draft a hand of five cards. Once you had your characters, you would set out a two by two grid that would determine your attack strength. You would compare your strength level with the players sitting next to you. All ties or treated strength would score you points. Next, you would build if you were able to, and then finally age all of your characters. Once your character aged twice, they died and you would then be able to choose another one.

Belratti

In this co-op, the players take the role of a museum curator (The Cats), or the artists (The Owls). The Cats request 2-7 paintings that meet a theme based on two random pictures. The artists then decide how many each of them will contribute without showing their cards. The criminal Belratti then adds four of his “forgeries”. All the paintings get shuffled and the Cats have to determine which paintings are the authentic ones and which them they belong to. Think a much lighter Mysterium meets Dixit.

Railroad Ink: Blazing Red Edition

A very cool game where you create your own network of highways and railroads based on the dice rolled. There are 12 exits and the goal is to create as long of a path with no unfinished work (open ends). Can’t wait to pick this up!

X-Code

Playing on a fancy tabletop for a new release called X-Code. A co-op, fast ordering card game for 2-8. Luckily, we were in a smaller room as we were quite loud. This game could be described as “Pit” meets “Fuse.”

Arboretum

A fantastic rummy-esque card game with beautiful artwork. It takes about 4 minutes to learn, and 40 minutes to finish with four players. A copy of this gem has been added to the PPG Vault.

Drop-It

A super fun and light dexterity-dropping game. At first glance, it looks like plinko, but you have to watch out. You only score if you aren’t touching the same color, shape or defined zones on the sides and bottom.

Anachrony

A very complex worker placement game that was new to all of us. This game had much buzz last year and so reserving it at the library was a good decision. The game took the better part of our afternoon, but it was a very memorable first play at the con.

Nocca x Nocca

The game is an amazing little abstract containing 5 black and 5 white dice. The board is simply a 5×8 grid. Purchased in Japan, we have already logged 13 plays. It takes 5-10 minutes per game, but the moves demand much attention and cleverness.

Tales of the Northlands

A delightful worker placement, resource management game based on an old British cartoon called Noggin the Nog.

Betrayal Legacy

After a very early flight to DFW, a few of us decided to try out the new legacy game – aptly named: “Betrayal Legacy” – based on the classic Betrayal At House on the Hill.” You never know who will become the Betrayer. Our lofty goal is to finish all 12 chapters (one Prologue)…we will try our best.