Agent Avenue

Agent Avenue is a two player game with bluffing and psychological play. You are spies hiding in an innocent neighbourhood. You need to find and catch your opponent before they catch you. Well, that is how the story goes. In terms of practical implementation, you and your opponent race around a circular track, starting opposite from each other. Your goal is to run fast enough to catch your opponent. Movement is determined using a card drafting mechanism. You will collect cards during play. There are two other ways the game ends. You win instantly if you collect your third Codebreaker card. You lose instantly if you collect your third Daredevil card.

You have a hand of four cards. On your turn, you play two of them to the centre of the table, one face up and the other face down. Your opponent must then pick one card to add to their set. You take the other to add to your set. When you add a card to your set, you move a number of steps on the board as dictated by the card. If you already have other copies of the same card in your set, the movement rule will change, depending on the card. And that’s all there is to the game! Pretty simple.

Most cards in the game are good, helping you advance. However, there are some cards which force you to move backwards. Although you are the one who picks the two cards to be used on the current turn, it is your opponent who decides who gets which card. The key is making use of that face down card. When the face up card is a good card, are you hiding an even better card? Or if that face up card is bad, are you hiding an even worse card? The player who has to choose is put in a dilemma. This is where the psychological play comes in. 

The numbers on the cards mean the number of steps you move when you have one, two, or three or more cards. You first Double Agent forces you to move backwards one step, but your second lets you move forward 6 steps. 

An optional module introduces special tools when you land on the corners. 

As you collect more and more cards, the tactics change. Which cards you already have affect the power of the next card you get. Deciding which cards you want to collect and which cards you want to force or trick your opponent into taking is long-term strategy. If your opponent has two Daredevils, he will be reluctant to take any face down card. The same principle applies when you already have two Codebreakers. He wouldn't want to risk you taking the face down card. In specific situations, it is possible to make a play which lets you catch your opponent regardless of his choice. This is because cards behave differently depending on your existing set. 

I was green and I was only 2 steps away from catching Han. I would offer Enforcer and Double Agent. Han didn't have any Double Agent, and his first one would make him move backwards. If he took that and I took Enforcer, I would catch him. I had one Double Agent. If he took the Enforcer, he would move forward, but my second Double Agent would let me advance 6 steps, and I would catch him. 

Agent Avenue is a simple and clever two player game. I like that it is clean and concise. Minimal fluff. One nice touch is the art work for the same character varies. Most characters have six cards, and the art for each card is different. Check out the Codebreaker and the Daredevil cards below.