I was back in my hometown Kota Kinabalu during the Christmas period, and met up with an old friend to play some boardgames. We did a four-player game of Brazil Imperial. I have played this once before, but quite some time ago. This is a very pretty game.
These were the three objectives I chose. Originally the plan was to play Clans of Caledonia. Then the plan changed because it was a Monday night and we wanted to do a shorter game. We had work the next day. I had never imagined Brazil Imperial to be considered a shorter game than Clans of Caledonia. I have played both, but I remembered neither clearly. I thought Brazil Imperial was pretty complex. It is a 4X game.
Brazil Imperial was thought to be quick because it was a rush game. You need to race to complete your objectives, because if others beat you to it, you will miss your scoring opportunities. Indeed there is time pressure. I thought I did rather poorly in this game. I didn't quite remember the game and I had to learn it all over again. In the early game I chose to enhance some actions, but I later realised I didn't utilise them as much as I felt I should. That was a little wasteful. To my surprise, I ended the game in second place. A distant second, and I was only 1 point ahead of 3rd place. Still, that was better than I had expected. I was pretty peaceful and didn't do much warring. There was some fighting in our game, between Nicholas and Chua, but there isn't much time to fight in this game. Still, the outcome of battles can have a huge impact. So you do have to watch out for war, or you want to make use of it.
I played the game in a pretty Euro way - choosing one or two aspects to focus on and maximising my points related to those aspects. Having played the game twice, my impression is about the same as last time. It's okay. It's a civilisation game.
My sister and her family were back in KK too, and my nephew and niece loved playing mahjong rummy when they were there. This is our standard Chinese New Year game, but I guess now it's a Christmas game too.
I saw this at a supermarket when in KK and bought one. This is the name of my little indie game publishing studio - Cili Padi Games. Coke has been making cans like this for some time in Malaysia. Coke cans have common Malaysian nicknames. Cili padi is Malay and it is a type of small chilli. People who are small in size but feisty are sometimes given such a nickname. This is also why I use it as my brand. I want to make games which are small but pack a punch.
I played a lot of Take Time with my nephew, niece and brother-in-law. We really enjoyed this. We have only worked through to Level 3 so far. Now that I have played more of this, I develop some general strategies and best practices. Now that can be a bad thing. If these are so effective that the game becomes too easy, the game will feel solved, and it will feel pointless to keep playing. The tweaks and limitations introduced by the different levels address this problem. Also your card draws are random. The card draws can create very different challenges from game to game, even for the same level and part.
Sometimes when we finally won a level after many failed attempts, we all stood up and cheered and gave high fives.
What a beautiful game!
3 Jan 2026 was the first playtesting session for the year. TTGDMY (Tabletop Game Designers of Malaysia) did not organise as many playtesting sessions in 2025 compared to the year before. This first session in 2026 went well and we had good attendance. I playtested Apa You Cakap, Pilgrim Poker (aka Bet West, Saikoyu) and Math Dice. I brought Rebels of the Three Kingdoms too but did not have enough time to play it. Many other games were playtested. The session went about 6 hours!
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