Author: Xyon McKell

Alchemy is a hallmark of a lot of video game sidequest activities, and I was both amused and intrigued by the thought of a board game based around it.

 

 

The general setup is great and makes a lot of sense thematically: players gather materials, learn recipes (“orders”), and perform alchemy (all represented by different cards on the board). There are also cards representing assistants that can be hired to provide specific bonuses.

The key mechanics are worker placement and resource management. Collection and spending the proper resources to complete orders is the main way to collect victory points, which of course determine the winner at game end.

Taking actions is where the worker placement comes in. Players deploy workers to the board spaces associated with the card they want to claim/use. A significant amount of strategy revolves around this deployment. At least one more worker must be placed than those currently on the space (the previous workers are then moved to a general area for the rest of the round). So popular spaces become more and more “expensive” as the round goes on.

The second aspect to deciding how many workers to play involves bonus die rolls when taking certain actions. Playing extra workers increase the chances of collecting bonuses, but will also make that space require even more workers to use again in the future. It’s a really great aspect: players always get a set benefit for using the card regardless, but can mitigate the luck for bonuses if they choose.

There are other interesting elements that add depth, including players who go later in turn order getting more workers, elixirs which count as any resource when completing orders, etc. I found it all came together really well and provided interesting, meaningful choices during the game.

 

 

Ars Alchimedia has very nice looking components and attractive art, but admittedly it could have been “spruced up” a bit. It’s clearly reflective of Japanese design and original production in the economy of space everything has. There is an incredible amount of information and functionality compressed down into a general board and a bunch of different card types.

While impressive, this also makes things a bit overwhelming on the cards sometimes and leads to very small and occasionally hard to read type, particularly since TMG made the odd decision to leave the original Japanese text in addition to the translations. While the Japanese student in me likes this, from a gameplay perspective it’s unneeded and distracting. My opponent (who is not colorblind) also had some trouble telling the small colored boxed apart on the cards, which could have been easily addressed by using the symbols for each resources shown on the player’s tracking cards.

This is a hefty game cleverly packed into a small box, and as such while I generally really like the design and artistic style there are some minor resulting inconveniences.

 

 

The overall balance seemed good, with harder to get materials and orders being involved in higher scoring. Although there is luck involved in the available options on the board at any given time and some are strictly better than others. However there is a mitigating mechanism for turn order, so I think it all fits nicely and fairly.

I really enjoyed my first experience with Ars Alchimia and am excited to play it again sometime, try it with more players, etc.

One of the most intriguing things about how gaming continues to expand and grow is the way designers take inspiration from all kinds of unexpected (and sometimes “mundane”) sources to create original and engaging games. One example of such is Yakitori, a laser cut wooden game based around trying to maximize profit while grilling and selling the titular street food.

The gameplay is both a well simplified play on the chosen theme and a deep enough game in itself.  Each round players roll three dice and then use them to choose (in turn) which available actions they want to perform. The die values will determine action order within each action category.

1. At Market players will buy raw ingredients or sell their cooked dishes. There are three different types of meat tiles and three different vegetable tiles available in the game.
2. The Influence category allows manipulation of demand for ingredients, moving their individual buy and sell prices up or down.
3. Finally Grilling allows players to cook the food on their skewers or accelerate/slow the speed with which it reaches doneness.

The skewers are both a fun thematic component and a clever mechanic. Raw food starts on the lowest section of the skewer, and moves upward as time passes. Which section it is in when a player sells it will determine whether they get a monetary bonus (for perfect doneness) or a penalty (for overcooking vegetables or undercooking meat).

At the end of the game players also receive bonuses for cooking the most of a particular type of food and for groups of diverse types sold (although each food item sold during the game may only be counted once for bonuses).

There are meaningful choices each round, although in the 2 player game certain limitations almost felt too restrictive. It adds strategy but can be a little frustrating and makes the learning curve for playing well steeper than first apparent.

This is definitely a game enhanced by the production value and design choices. There’s a wonderful classic quality to a well made wooden game that fits nicely with the theme, and again the way the food tiles interact with the skewers is a unique hook to build gameplay around. The center slots on a couple of the tiles were a bit too tight to properly move along the skewers, but that should fix itself as we play more and seems better than having them too loose.

While the game seemed quite accessible, as I mentioned earlier I feel like there’s aspects of the strategy I wasn’t quite getting. This isn’t necessarily bad early on, as it encourages more play to begin to understand certain subtleties beneath the  seemingly straightforward base mechanics. The 2 player game definitely felt a bit cutthroat, where one mistake might put the game out of reach. It seems like this will play much differently with more players, something I look forward to trying in the future.

There’s more to Yakitori that initially meets the eye, and all around it strikes me as a nice package. It’s a game with a unique (yet accessible) theme, good production quality, and interesting gameplay.

I’m an avid gamer and have played a large variety of board games of different complexities and styles over the years. A particular type that has become more common recently is the cooperative game, where instead of competing against each other players work together to defeat the game itself.

In addition to being a nice change of pace and a fun and exciting genre, co-op games can also be a nice way to introduce new gamers to the hobby, as working with veteran gamers instead of against them can be less intimidating. I’ll include notes on how new gamer friendly each is, but in most cases having at least one experienced gamer playing to learn / explain the rules will be very helpful.

Here’s a sampling of diverse cooperative games that include several of my favorites.

 

Beyond Baker Street

Player count: 2-4

New gamer friendly?: Reasonably, but probably better to start with Hanabi.

Like Hanabi, Beyond Baker Street is a fun team game in which players can not see their own cards but received limited information from other players about them in order to figure out what to play when. Beyond Baker Street goes a couple steps farther than ordering cards within a color type to having changing total goals as well as a “time limit” of sorts and a general track that has to be exactly maxed out during the coarse of the game.

I enjoy the additional complexities this adds and experienced gamers will be able to jump right in here, but with new gamers I’d again recommend starting with Hanabi. Further thoughts here.

 

Ghost Stories

Player count: 1-4 (I recommend 2+, best with the full 4)

New gamer friendly?: Reasonably

Easily one of my favorite co-op games of all time. Fairly easy to teach but has a lot of variation and depth. Best on its own or with the Ghost Moon expansion  (Black Secret has fallen flat with my group so far). Notorious for its difficulty, but we’ve found it challenging rather than frustrating. The changing board, player powers and enemy cards make every game significantly different, which greatly aids its longevity. I’ve had good reception playing this with both new and experienced gamers.

 

Mysterium

Player count: 2-7 (I recommend 4+)

New gamer friendly?: Yes

I love the way Mysterium takes the base concept of Dixit and expands it into not only a fuller game, but also cooperative one. One player is a ghost trying to point “psychics” (the other players) to possible culprits solely through handing out cards with abstract images on them. The multi-round elements where players can get further clues towards each of their personal cards to guess is fun, and taking the competitive aspect out of this type of interpretive exercise is nice.

Have tried this with a mix of veteran and new gamers, and everyone’s had a lot of fun with it (having an experienced gamer around to play the ghost is recommended though). Some aspects of gameplay are lost with less than 4 players, so while it’s playable with 2 or 3 bigger groups are better.

Further thoughts here.

 

Project Elite

Player count: 1-4 (I recommend 2-4)

New gamer friendly?: Reasonably

Project Elite has an aspect that other games on this list do not have: real-time sections. In between periods of common planning and upkeep of the enemy alien pieces, players frantically roll dice during two minute real-time periods during which they attack the aliens and attempt to accomplish their goals. There’s a fairly large learning curve to initally start playing, but once someone’s played once I think it’d be pretty easy to teach. This is frantically fun and having upkeep outside of the real-time play is a wonderful design choice. It feels almost video game like in a great way.

Further thoughts here.

 

Ravens of Thri Sahshri

Player count: 2

New gamer friendly?: No

Ravens of Thri Sahashri is an asymmetrical two player game whose core concept requires both players having firm grasp of rules before play starts. The players are trying to complete certain goals while having completely different personal gameplay mechanics and communicating only through play choices.

Ravens has elements of deduction, press-your-luck card drawing, and color/type matching. There are tons of little rules working in concert, but the game does a lot with them and comes together mechanically and thematically. It takes some time to wrap your brain around, but I adored it once initiated.

Further thoughts here.

 

Shadows Over Camelot

Player count: 3-7

New gamer friendly?: Reasonably

For years this was my go-to cooperative game, and probably my most used to intro new gamers. The presence of different quests to do and a choice of activities is appealing, and the theme classic. It does have significant downtime between turns as the player count gets high, but is still a lot of fun. One barrier to entry here is the possible presence of a hidden traitor, secretly working to help the game defeat the players.  This can be difficult for new gamers as they can’t really ask for help with playing if they end up a traitor. Still, while newer games have replaced this a bit in our group this is  great co-op all around.

 

T.I.M.E Stories

Player count: 2-4 (best with 4)

New gamer friendly?: Somewhat

As much an experience as it is a game, T.I.M.E Stories provides a compelling and fun first mission as well as fantastic framework for future expansions/adventures. It’s hard to talk about in detail because of the exploration and story based nature of the game make any specific comments spoiler prone, but T.I.M.E Stories is a fun and immersive adventure that I highly recommend.

Because of that spoiler-ish nature, when starting with the base game mission everyone playing must be new to game. So unlike the other games on this list it’s not possible to have someone who’s previously played the game take part to teach and explain as things go. Experienced gamers don’t necessarily have an advantage here, but they might understand rules quicker

Full review here.

 

——-

Hope this feature has been useful in shining a light on some gems in the cooperative genre. While these are some of my personal favorites there are many other excellent games of this type to discover.

In the wake of a murder investigators are on the scene and their forensic scientist knows who did it and how. However the murderer is secretly among their ranks and will try to distort the evidence and distract the rest of the group away from the true explanation.

 

 

Deception is an asymmetric game where one player is a “forensic scientist” who knows the truth behind a committed crime and is trying to direct the rest of the players (investigators) to the proper means and a particular clue by conveying details about the crime scene. The twist is that one of the investigators is the murderer, and is trying to misdirect everyone else.

 

 

The general idea of the game is similar to Werewolf/Mafia, but getting actual concrete information from the gamemaster (Forensic Scientist) to discuss and interpret makes a huge difference and turns this into a more structured and cerebral game. Each player has four “clue” cards and four “means” cards in front of them. One of each in front of the murderer define the solution the players are trying to figure out. The Forensic Scientist knows the solution and provides information only through indicating which options on descriptive “scene tiles” best match their idea of the crime.

So there is still a social discussion and bluffing aspect, but having a starting point for discussions and a goal beyond just identifying the murderer elevates this greatly over it’s (admittedly fun) inspiration games. It also seems to play quicker overall than such games, which is another nice bonus.

 

 

I’ve also seen some comparisons of this to Mysterium. There are some general similarities in base mechanics relating to having an asymmetric role of information distribution, but otherwise this really is a much different game. The biggest contrast (in addition to linguistic clues vs Mysterium’s Dixit style card matching) is Mysterium is purely cooperative while Deception is a hidden role game with an antagonist(s) among the players with a subversive goal. I understand the parallels, but the two games don’t feel that similar to me. I enjoyed both in different ways and see value in having both games on hand for different moods and groups.

 

 

There’s good variety in the clue and means cards and the evidence tiles, which will provide excellent replayability. Since this was our first couple of games we played without the accomplice and witness roles, and without event tiles. They all seem like they’ll add even further depth to an already compelling game.

Overall this is an excellent entry into the social deduction genre and I’m excited about getting to play it more in the future.

I adore the Escape Game phenomenon, and was excited to try out this board game attempt to capture the same type of feeling and fun. Here’s a SPOILER FREE look at ThinkFun’s home version.

Basic Gameplay:

There is a brief instruction manual that introduces the concept of the game and sets the stage, but really everything the players need to know is explained on the various pieces that will be part of the game. At the beginning the players are presented with five sealed envelopes depicting various areas of the Manor and the first Scene Card. The card sets up the story context for the game and walks the players through how the solution wheel works in a nice little intro.  It then points players to the first envelope to begin the game proper.

The solution wheel is particularly well done. Solutions to each puzzle / envelope are indicated by paired colors and symbols, and if correctly entered into the wheel a symbol matching the current puzzle will be shown in two places on the wheel, indicating that envelope should then be opened.

General Thoughts:

Stargazer’s Manor is well designed and produced, and reasonably thematic. The puzzles make sense and are pretty well held together with the story framing. The quality of components is high, particularly at the price point. A good job was done overall evoking a location and providing some hands on puzzling without getting crazy in the cost department, but there is of course a visceral feeling to the exploration of an Escape Room that can’t be captured in a primarily 2d game.

The box says it accommodates 3-8 players, and given this type of game can only be played with a given group once we went with the maximum to get as many people involved as possible.

It may have been because all but one of us have previously played an actual Escape Room and were experienced puzzlers, but we didn’t need nearly that many people and it was tough keeping everyone involved since it’s mostly a “one puzzle at a time” experience. Four of us would have been plenty, and that’s the number my intuition recommends trying this with.

We found the puzzles on the easy side, but still had fun and again it might have been because of our experience level. The game tends to point you rather directly at the next thing to solve, which is a bit of unnecessary handholding given how few things there are to choose between.

Outside of possible tape damage to some paper pieces if you aren’t careful when opening things, none of the components are permanently marked while playing. Combined with instructions on the website on how to put everything back in the proper envelopes when finished, the game can be packed back up afterwards and given to a new group to try. Nice touch by ThinkFun.

Summary

So in conclusion while Escape the Room: Mystery at The Stargazer’s Manor is not quite equal to its inspirational namesake and tends to the easy side, it’s still a fun experience well worth trying out. ThinkFun has another out already (Secret of Dr. Gravely’s Retreat) which I’ll definitely try sometime.

It’s sometimes hard to find games that are younger player friendly and yet offer something for older / more experienced gamers. Here’s a brief look at two such games I tried recently that take one great concept each from more complex games and build introductory level experiences from there.

 

Abraca…what?

The cartoonish characters and silly name had me expecting a much lighter game than Abraca…what? turned out to be. Players have a “hand” of five spellstones in front of them that they can’t see the values of, but that are visible to all other players. This recalls games like Hanabi or Beyond Baker Street, but here instead of a cooperative exchange of information towards a common goal players try to use what they see to “cast” (play) their own spells, often to the detriment of other players. Each spell has an associated value, and the value is the same as the number of that spell that exists among all the spellstones in the game (so for example, there are 5 total copies of spell #5). Having a few hidden spellstones each round adds an appropriate amount of luck, but there’s a solid deductive core in this game and it was fun to play with my niece and nephew and see them start to put it all together as the game went on.

Given the humorous player artwork and title I would have liked to see similarly silly spell names (and perhaps effects) instead of things like “fireball,” etc, but it’s a small criticism. Would be a reasonable light-gateway game to have on hand for new gamers of nearly any age.

 

Sushi Go!

Next up is a game with perhaps even more universal appeal than Abraca-what? in Sushi-Go! Trimming away everything from games like 7 Wonders except the card drafting, Sushi Go! simply adds a well implemented set gathering goal to create a easy to learn, quick playing card game with nice balance and (light) strategic choices.

The artwork is cute and the sushi theme has just a bit of context that aligns with the desired pairings of different card types. There is enough variation to have the hands feel and play out differently from round to round, and the core mechanic of “take a card, pass your hand, then repeat” is wonderfully simple. Strikes me as a great game to have on hand for quick plays in between diving into heavier fare. Also, this is again a game that introduces a concept prominent in more complex games is an extremely straightforward manner.

 

——-

That’s all for now. Hope to be back with more soon. 🙂