Here are three more games I tried at Essen 2024.
Duck & Cover
Duck & Cover won much attention at the fair. I had read about it even before the fair started. That's good marketing. The publisher Captain Games had people dressed in me-riding-duck suits. Journalists took photos, thus publicity. They also had cute loud yellow duck shirts for booth staff. You really can't pass their booth without taking a second look. The game itself is good too. They sold out during the fair. The game was on my maybe list, but when I finally decided to buy, they had sold out. Too bad.
Duck & Cover is a family card game. Every player gets a set of 12 cards, numbered 1 to 12. Each card has a point value. In this game, points are bad. You want to score as few points as possible. The winner is the player with the least points.
At the start of a round, you shuffle your deck of cards and then lay all your cards out in a 4 x 3 grid. There is a common deck of cards which is shared among all players. It works like a roll-and-write game. You flip over a card, and everyone does what the card says. In Duck & Cover, the card is usually a number between 1 and 12. It tells you which of your cards you may move. There are two days to do this. You may use your card of the specified number to cover an adjacent card. When you do this, you will cover one of your numbers. This means in future if the common deck specifies that number, you won't have a move. Covering a card also means you are now hiding the point value from view, i.e. you are reducing your points (which is good). The other way you can move your card is to move it (together with any cards under it) to any empty space. You may choose to not move your card, if you so desire. Sometimes this is the best move.
As more and more cards are covered, your play area will have fewer and fewer points, and also fewer and fewer stacks. If you manage to stack all your cards into one, the round immediately ends and you score a bonus. You get to deduct points based on the last visible card you have. Remember losing points is good. Gaining points is bad. The other players will gain points based on all their still visible cards. The game lasts three rounds, and the lowest scorer at the end of the game wins.
There is another way a round can end. When a common card is revealed and no one has that number anymore, this card is set aside. Once a certain number of cards are set aside this way, the round ends. Everyone scores points based on their remaining visible cards.
This is a family friendly game, good for young and old. It's short. There are some interesting tactics to ponder. I like that every deck has a different theme, and every duck in the game is different. When I played, my deck was famous historical figures. It had duck versions of Einstein, Caesar, Cleopatra and Napoleon.
Duck & Cover is essentially a roll-and-write game. It is literally multiplayer solitaire. You are playing a solo game at the same time as your friends. It's just that you are comparing scores at game end. You can't interfere with other players, well except for mocking them for poor plays.
~~~~~
Onix
Onix is a light family game. It's a simple card game about collecting sets of icons.
At Essen I had to keep reminding myself to take photos of box covers or at least the names of the games I had seen, so that I could remember them. There were simply too many games to remember the names of.
Onix is set up like this. Everyone starts with four sets of cards, and each set has just one card. Every set starts with a different icon. There are only four different icons in the game. At the centre of the table, set up a circle of five stacks of face-up cards.
To score points, you need to collect sets of exactly four different icons. When any of the sets in front of you has exactly four icons and they are all different, you flip the set over and move it to your score pile. At the end of the game, every card in your score pile scores 1 point. Some cards have two different icons. They help you complete a set quicker, but they are still just one card, thus worth 1 point.
On your turn, you choose a visible icon from the central circle. You will claim at least one card from the centre with that icon. Now if either of the cards next to the card you take also has the same icon, you take that card too. If the subsequent card also has the icon, you take that as well. In the best case, you take the top card of all five stacks. You place the cards you claim into your sets or you create new sets with them. A set must not have duplicate icons. There is no limit to the number of stacks you can have.
Now here's the additional spice. In addition to collecting cards with a specific icon, you also get to perform an action associated with that icon you chose. So you are not only considering which icon based on how many cards it will help you claim, you are also considering which action you want to perform. One icon lets you claim an additional card. One icon lets you claim a card to directly place face-down in your score pile (that means immediately scoring 1 point, and also maybe you will take a card that an opponent wants). One icon lets you discard one card from an opponent's set, which sets them back. The most brutal icon is the one which lets you steal a card from an opponent.
The game ends when one of the five stacks at the centre runs out. This is a short and sweet game. There is ample player interaction. It is a decent family game and party game. There is some aggression. The game is easy to learn so it will work for non-gamers and casual gamers.
~~~~~
Kezao
Kezao is a speed game, a dexterity game. It is a pattern recognition game. The cards are various drawings in different colour combinations. At the start, everyone is dealt a certain number of cards. Your objective is to discard all your cards.
The game comes with five dice. The basic game uses four. The fifth is for the advanced game. The active player picks two dice to roll. Once rolled, the dice specify the rules for discarding cards. E.g. they may say the card must have green, or the card must not have blue. Something along these lines. Everyone looks through their hand to find valid cards, and discard them as quickly as they can. Every round there is a limit to the number of cards the players may collectively discard. This is first-come-first-served. Once that number of cards is discarded, no one may further discard cards. The round ends. So this is all about beating your opponents in finding the right cards and discarding them.
Sometimes the die roll results in a paradox. E.g. one die says no red, the other says you must have red. When this happens, throw the rules out the window (figuratively). You may discard any card. You need to be fast to beat your opponents to discarding cards. Sometimes, you may discard a card by mistake. This is bad. You will be penalised and you will draw cards. This is a big setback.
The fifth die adds new rules. If you play with it, you roll it every round, together with the two dice chosen by the active player. The fifth die may do things like allowing just one die criteria to be used.
This is a simple and casual game. It'll work as a children's game.
No comments:
Post a Comment