Sky Towers

 

The Game

Sky Towers is a card game from Japan, designed by Charles Ward, winner of the BGG 2020 9-card nanogame design contest. The game is an entry in the BGG 2021 54-card design contest. The voting period will start on 1 Jul 2021. Charlie contacted me and asked whether I was interested to review the game. I took a quick look and immediately said yes. The gameplay sounded interesting, but I must admit one big factor was the artwork (which he did himself). I could not resist Kong and Godzilla above. 

Sky Towers is a peaceful game about building towers. No monster battles, sorry. 

Sky Towers is a light family game which plays in 15 minutes. You stack numbered cards one on top of another to build towers. Everyone may build one tower at a time, unless you are playing with two players. Then you may build two towers at a time. To complete a tower, you need to reach a total of 21 exactly. You may not play a card that would cause the tower to exceed 21. On your turn you take only two actions. Your options are simple. You either draw a card, play a card, or abandon a tower under construction. One important restriction when playing a card is you may not play a number which is at the top of your neighbours' towers. If the top card on your left neighbour's tower is a 2, you won't be able to play any of the 2's in your hand for the moment. You need to wait until he completes his tower, or plays another number on top of his 2. 

Cards are numbered 1 to 10. For most numbers there are five cards. There are more 2's and 3's. There is only one 8 (Godzilla) and one 9 (Kong). The yellow kites on the cards mean victory points. Not all numbers have kites. 5's and 7's have purple flags, and these are tiebreakers. If tied in kites, you compare flags. 

Many cards have either special powers or limitations. 10's can only be used at the bottom of a tower. You can't play 10's on top of other cards. 1's will only allow other 1's to be played on top. When you play a 6, you can ask an opponent for a card of a specific number. He must surrender it to you if he has it. When you play a 5, all players (including you) with more than five cards must return the excess to the draw deck. There is no hand limit, but you have to be careful of the 5's. The 8 and the 9 can be played onto an opponent's tower, and it's usually... ahem... not to help them. 

There are four bonus cards in the game, worth 3 or 5 points. When you complete a tower which fulfils a bonus condition, you claim the bonus card. If more than one player achieve this, the latecomer steals the bonus card. The early bird does not keep the worm. That said, it is not easy to complete the bonuses, so it's rare to have two or more players achieving the same bonus condition. E.g. there are only five 4's and five 5's in the game. That four 4's or four 5's bonus can technically be fulfilled by two players, or by the same player twice, but it's hard. The bonus for 6-to-1 might be slightly easier, but it is still pretty challenging. 

This is an example of a completed tower - total of 21. These cards can now be set aside, to be scored at game end. There are two kites, so that's 2VP. Once this tower is set aside, you can start a new tower. 

Once the last card of the deck is drawn, you go into the final round, in which everyone may take three actions instead of the usual two. You do scoring after this final round. Incomplete towers score nothing. 

This is the Tokyo Skytree tower! It fulfils the bonus requiring a tower to have only 1's, 2's and 3's. Looks majestic doesn't it?

The Play

So far I have only played 2-player games. I think this is the best player count. The game is light and quick, because your actions are simple. You are mostly drawing a card or playing a card. So far I have never abandoned a tower. I think that's a big waste and should be avoided as much as possible. Probably sometimes you do need to give up to free up a slot for tower building. 

It is important to use the top cards of your towers to block your opponent. I always prefer to play my 7 early, to prevent my opponent from playing her 7, so that I can race for the three 7's bonus. This may not be the best strategy though. If my opponent draws an 8 or 9, she can play it on my 7 and spoil my plans. That's if I only have one 7 played. If I have two 7's in a tower, it is no longer possible to play an 8 or 9 on it, because the tower would go beyond 21. 

Sometimes you intentionally delay completing a tower so that you can continue to block your opponent. Quite a number of cards in the game create player interaction. You use 6's to steal cards from your opponent. If you are collecting 5's or 4's and think you opponent has one, use your 6 to demand these cards. This also means you need to observe how your opponent plays, and try to guess what she is thinking. Does she have the number you want? Is she only pretending to? 

Card counting is important. There are only five 4's, 5's and 6's. If you keep track of how many have been seen, you will know whether it is still possible to achieve certain bonuses. You probably want to count the attack cards like 5's and 6's, so that you know whether there is still danger out there. 

What kind of tower to build is not always a straight-forward decision. The bonuses create an interesting dilemma. The game is not just a simple exercise of making 21. The high numbered cards have no kite. You should plan for the bonuses. If a tower you complete also scores a bonus, you are killing two birds with one stone. The tower scores, the bonus card gives you points too. 

Sky Towers on Tabletop Simulator

I managed to arrange to play online with Charlie the designer himself. We played on Tabletop Simulator. This allowed me to better appreciate some of the intricacies of the game. I had thought I was doing pretty well, but eventually I lost the game by just one point. I had overestimated the value of completing many towers. Charlie picked quality over quantity. 

Solo mode: Taroma version

In addition to the standard rules (for 2 to 4 players), Sky Towers comes with two solo modes. The first one is the Taroma challenge, in which you play against a bot named Taroma. 

This is how the Taroma challenge is set up. Just like the standard game, you start with a hand of five cards. Many of the rules are the same as the standard game. Taroma performs two actions per turn. He either draws a card or plays a card. He follows a very specific, predictable procedure. His cards are initially face-down. You will flip them over one by one until you find one which can be played. If none can be played, he draws a card. 

One important difference from the standard game is Taroma scores not only his completed towers, he also scores incomplete towers and cards in hand! This means every time he draws a card, if that card has a kite, he is already scoring points. When he is able to play a card, that's probably a good thing for you, because he's spending an action playing a card instead of drawing a card. His towers do block you from playing certain numbers. Imagine Taroma as a relentless train charging ahead and counting down towards the end of the game. Your job is to catch up to him and to slow him down where possible. 

I think one key to beating Taroma is the bonuses. He probably won't win any of them, and also doesn't consciously hinder you. The extra points from bonuses will likely be a great help in outscoring him. The 5's are probably another important weapon. If you can block him from playing cards, then force him to keep drawing, and then play a 5 to force him to discard, you will be effectively reducing his score. Despite having learnt these tactics, beating Taroma is still tough. Surprisingly when I finally managed to beat him, I did not use the 5 that game. I had thought it would be a necessity. I guess not. 

Playing Taroma is like playing a 2-player game. You get to build two towers at once. I put the completed towers on the left. Towers under construction on the right. 

Taroma's hand can grow huge, especially when he builds his towers in a weird way, or I intentionally block him from building using my own towers. Taroma never abandons a tower. 

Solo mode: Light version

The other solo mode is by a different designer - Koyomi Kawasumi. The game is highly simplified and almost feels like a different game. You no longer care about kites (or flags). You only want to complete towers. One tower is 1 point. Bonuses are still in play. Each bonus achieved is 1 point too. Your goal is to reach 10 points. Most card powers are ignored, except for the restrictions of the 1's and 10's. 

This is a purer solo mode where you really are just playing with yourself and not against a bot. There is no need to manage the bot. 

This is how the light version is set up. The default difficulty level is 4, which means a starting hand of 4, a hand limit of 4, and also 4 cards being removed face-down before game start. You can adjust the difficulty. The lower the number, the harder it is. One big difference between this and the standard game is you now have a hand limit. 

I stack completed towers on the left so that it's easy to keep count of how many I have completed. 

If you feel like giving your brain a break, this is probably the best mode to play the game. E.g. play it as a quick diversion on a long train trip. The light solo mode is less stressful than the Taroma solo mode. The focus changes from kites to completed towers. This feels natural and easier to grasp. In the standard game, it took me some time to fully appreciate the importance of the kites. I had an instinctive urge to complete towers as frequently as I could, but that wasn't exactly the best strategy. 

The Thoughts

The first impression that Sky Towers gives is probably not a very accurate one. You think it's a simplistic and casual family game, but dig a little deeper, and you'll find that it has some nifty ideas. You can't help feeling clever when you discover and apply some of the tactics in the game. Not to say that it's a deep, complex game. There is still plenty of luck. It is not "just a cute game". I would say it's a cheeky little treat. 

If you want to clandestinely give your kids some math practice, this is a good one because they will need to keep adding up the numbers at every tower. Games are always the best trap! 

If you are interested to download the game and print-and-play for free, visit the official website. If you want to vote for Sky Towers in the upcoming BGG 2021 54-card game design contest, follow the discussion thread. 

Teotihuacan: City of Gods

The Game

Teotihuacan is an archaeological site in modern day Mexico, famous for its many pyramids. It was once one of the largest cities in the world. It was most prosperous from 1AD to 500AD. Historians still debate whether it was the seat of an empire, but most agree that it was an influential city in its time. Some historians think Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic city. It has traces of different cultures. 

Teotihuacan: City of Gods is a worker placement game and a rondel game. I have not seen many rondel games lately. In this game you collect resources, build the pyramid, build houses and worship gods. Your workers are dice. When they work, they learn and improve themselves, represented by an increase in die values. This also means they are getting older. Eventually they die upon reaching 6. You get a reward for their ascension, and your die returns as a level 1 worker. I think of it as reincarnation. Perhaps we can also think of it as the mayor giving the freed up work permit to another younger family member. 

The game is played over 3 eras. You play a number of rounds every era. You do scoring at the end of each era. You also pay your workers. Experienced workers (4's and 5's) are paid double. If you want to keep costs down, consider "retiring" them just before the era ends. Many things that you do in the game give points. Highest scorer at game end wins. 

At the very centre you can see the main pyramid, which is already partially built at the start of the game. During the game you continue to build it, but it is not guaranteed that you will complete it. To the left of the pyramid you have three temple tracks. There are many ways to advance your pawn on these tracks. Each step you advance gives you some benefit, and these benefits get better and better. To the right of the pyramid there is another track - the Avenue of the Dead. You also have a countdown area. 

Along the edges of the board there are 8 different action boards. These are where you will place your workers to do stuff. Some let you collect resources. Some let you spend those resources to build stuff. Your workers move from action board to action board in a clockwise manner. On your turn you must move one worker 1 to 3 steps. You get to perform the associated action where he lands. If you already have other workers waiting for him there, your action becomes more powerful. Often you want to assemble your workers at the same action board to maximise your action. 

This is the action board for collecting stone. The table shows what you get depending on the number of dice (workers) you have present, and the value of the lowest die. On the left you can see a worship room. When you send a worker to this action board, you can give him permission to not work, and get him to worship instead. Worshipping translates to taking a powerful action, at the cost of locking down your worker. To unlock, you need to pay, or you forfeit a full turn. Both of these will unlock all your locked workers. Another way for your worshipping worker to be freed up is getting kicked out by an opponent. If an opponent wants to worship too, he can kick your worker out by paying a small fee. 

This is the action board for building houses. A house costs two wood. Building houses lets you advance on the Avenue of the Dead. As more houses are built, the point value drops. During era scoring, you multiply your progress on the Avenue of the Dead with the house point value. 

If you have two or more workers here, you get to build houses in the second or third row, which are worth more points. 

This is the technology action board. You pay gold to learn a tech. If you only have one inexperienced worker, you can only learn techs from the first row. If you have two, or if your worker is experienced, you may pick from the second row too. It is normally better to learn techs in the early game, so that you will have plenty of opportunities to make use of them. If you learn a tech late in the game, it may be a waste of gold. 

The tech at the bottom right allows you to advance on any temple each time you build the pyramid. If you intend to spend much effort on the pyramid, you should learn this tech early in the game.  

Situations like this often happen, because it is powerful to have many workers at the same action board. 

When your worker arrives at an action board, you may decide to not let him work. You need to pay a fee if you want him to work, and this fee depends on how many player colours are on the action board before his arrival. Using the screenshot above as an example, if the black player sends a worker here, he has to pay $3 to perform an action. The currency in the game is actually cocoa and not Dollars. For simplicity I'm using $. If you choose to have your worker not work, you earn money instead. You earn  an amount equal to the number of player colours plus 1. Using the same example, black would earn $4 by sending a worker here and having him not work. In this game there is a cyclical aspect in earning money and then spending it on actions. 

During game setup, you draw four resource tiles and pick two. These decide your starting resources and starting locations of your workers. During play, you may gain these blue bordered discovery tiles above. Some of them are one-time-use powers. Some are masks. During the era scoring, you score points based on different mask designs you have collected. 

The action board at the bottom right is for building the pyramid, and that at the bottom left is for decorating the pyramid. The pyramid is built using 2x2 blocks. At some positions there are symbols. When you stack a block onto the pyramid, if any symbol is stacked on top of the same symbol, you score an extra point. When the matching symbol is coloured, you get to advance on the corresponding temple. 

Decorating the pyramid works like laying 2x1 staircase steps from north, south, east and west of the pyramid, starting from the bottom step and working upwards. Naturally this has dependency on the progress of the pyramid itself, since the staircase has to be built on top of the pyramid. 

On the left you see the Avenue of the Dead. On the right you see the countdown timer. When the white disc reaches the black, you play the final round of the era. In this screenshot you can see three idle workers (dice). Whenever a worker dies (called "ascends" in game terms), you get to collect one of five prizes while that worker reincarnates to become a fresh value 1 worker. One of these prizes is an extra worker of value 3. You can only receive this prize once per game. 

The Play

I played with Allen and Han on BoardGameArena.com. This is a game of resource collection then conversion to victory points, so playing the game is all about doing these more efficiently than your opponents. By analysing the board you can see clearly where you can collect which resources, and where you can convert them to points. Many tracks and elements in the game measure your progress, e.g. the temples, the Avenue of the Dead, and your mask collection. The further you progress in one of these elements, the bigger the reward per step progress. That means you want to focus on just a few, to reap the most that you can, as opposed to dabbling in a little of everything, which will not get you much of anything. 

In the first game we played, Allen built many houses in the early game, and neither Han nor I spent much on this. When the first era scoring came around, this gave Allen a huge lead, and from that point onwards we were never able to catch up. Since he was the only guy spending much effort on houses, there were not many houses built yet in total, and that kept the house value from dropping much. Since he had many more houses than we did (i.e. he had made much more progress on the Avenue of the Dead), he benefited significantly more than us when this was scored. In our second game, we learned from our mistake, and competed dutifully in house-building. That kept things more balanced and the runaway leader in check. 

The screenshot above was taken near the end of our first game. The pyramid was far from completed. In fact there were still two position at Level 1 not yet filled. The pyramid had four levels, and we were up to Level 3. 

Although we played a 3-player game, workers of the 4th player were still used. In our case the 4th player was red. Three red workers were randomly placed at three different action boards at the start of every era. They didn't move about. They only affected the action fee when we performed actions, and the income when we skipped actions. 

Money and liquidity is an ongoing concern. As you take action after action, sooner or later you will run out of cash. You will need to spend some of your turns making money so that you can afford the actions you want to take. The action boards are randomised from game to game. Depending on what areas you want to focus on, you will have some idea which action boards you will need for action taking, and which you can leave for income generation. Your opponents' actions will affect your strategy. If everyone else loves collecting gold, maybe you should forget about gold, and instead use that action board for income generation. Let the rest of them pay through their noses to take actions on such a crowded action board. Managing money is a very tactical aspect of the game. You are always hoping to perform actions when nobody else is around, and make money when everyone is around. 

The strategic aspects of the game include progress on the four tracks (the temples and the Avenue of the Dead), and the masks. You need to make a conscious effort to progress well. You need to focus. Techs also make you think strategically. If you already know a tech, you will want to make the most of it by taking the relevant action as often as you can. 

Worshipping is an interesting twist. Worship is powerful, but it does lock down your worker. It feels expensive to have to pay to unlock him (or them). It also feels like a big waste to forfeit a full turn to unlock. In our first game we were reluctant to worship. We only worshipped more in our second game. It that game, I was desperate to climb up the blue temple. The worship rooms were a good way of making such progress. Since more of us were willing to worship, sometimes we even spent a small fee to kick one another's workers from the workshop rooms, so that our own workers could enter and worship. This resulted in worship being a good deal for all of us. It wasn't too expensive. Unlocking others' workers was cheaper. Having your own workers unlocked by others without spending a cent yourself is great! Thank you sir, please come again! 

In our second game, the blue temple was my (black) key to victory. The penultimate steps at temples give players an extra scoring method. I aimed for the one at the blue temple, which would give me 4VP per junior worker (values 1 to 3), and 9VP per senior worker (values 4 & 5). 

I scored 31VP for this, which was a fantastic feeling! 

The Thoughts

Teotihuacan is a typical heavy Euro. It's point-scoring. It's multiple ways to score points. It forces you to prioritise in only a handful of areas, so that you can be successful in them. You know you can't be good at everything. The worker movement and the action fee are restrictions placed upon you. You need to manage them while trying to gather resources and convert them to points as efficiently as possible. There is no blocking in the worker placement here. At most you can make an action more expensive for your opponent, by having your colour where he wants to go, or by squatting at a worship room he intends to use. There's some tactical competition you need to manage. In building houses and the pyramid, there is a race element, since you want to get the more desirable houses / blocks / decorations. All in all, this is quite a rich game, with many ways to compete and many different things to do. 

I can understand the appeal and why the game is popular. It works, but it's not something that gets me excited. When I break it down, it's too much in the collect-resources-convert-to-points mould, and this is a turn-off for me personally if the game doesn't have some other hook. Not that Teotihuacan is not creative. It does have some interesting elements. The workers getting better over time is new. They age well, then they die, and they get reborn. I haven't seen that elsewhere. The worship actions is an unconventional element. Normally worker placement games don't lock down your workers. Actions becoming stronger when workers assemble is also something new. These were novel for me, but I'm happy enough to have seen them. I don't have a strong urge to revisit. Perhaps one reason the game lacks a hook for me is it is an open information game which feels like a puzzle. It presents many options, and you need to work out the best answer. I felt more like I was solving a complex puzzle than I was living the heyday of Teotihuacan.  

Lost Temple of Arnak is also a collect-resources-to-score-points game, but it worked better for me than Teotihuacan. The reason is the deck-building lets me craft my own superpower, and the card draw is exciting - not only in what you draw from your deck, but also what gets replenished into the card row so that you can buy. 

Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra

The Game

Stained Glass of Sintra is the second of three games in the Azul series. I have played the other two and enjoyed them both. So I was not going to pass up the opportunity to play this one. 

The mechanism for claiming tiles is similar to those in the other games of the series. At the start of a round, you randomly seed the discs with four tiles. On your turn, you may take all tiles of one colour from a disc or from the centre of the table. When you take tiles from a disc, you move all the unclaimed tiles to the centre. So tiles will keep accumulating at the centre. The first person to take tiles from the centre is penalised. As a consolation though, you get to be start player next round. A round ends when all tiles have been claimed.

Each time you claim tiles, you have to place them on your player board. The top half of your player board is made of eight window strips, randomly arranged every game. The bottom half is one wide piece with eight doorways. Tiles you claim are used to fill the windows. You have a pawn above your player board. It starts the game at the first (leftmost) window. You may move it rightwards at any time. Whenever you place tiles, they can only go to a window below your pawn, thus the need to sometimes move it to a suitable window so that you can place tiles. Based on this photo above, if I claim three pink tiles, I can't put them in the first window, because that's to the left of my pawn. Instead, I will probably move my pawn one step right, then place those three pink tiles in my fifth window. 

On your turn, you only have two options. The first one is to claim tiles. The other is to not claim tiles, and instead move your pawn back to the leftmost window. This is the only way your pawn ever moves left. 

Whenever you fill a window, you pick one of the tiles and move it to the doorway below. You discard the other four tiles. You score points as indicated below the doorway, and every window to the right that has been scored before scores again. You then flip the window, because you still need to fill the other side. The window is only completed after you fill both sides. Only then you will remove it from your player board. 

The game is played over 6 rounds. From Rounds 2 to 6, a different colour will be assigned as the bonus colour. For Round 1, the bonus colour is randomly assigned. Whenever you complete a window, if it has tiles in the bonus colour, you score 1 point per such tile. 

At the centre of this board you can see the penalty table. Every time you are penalised your marker moves down one step. The penalty gets more severe the further you go. The first player in a round who claims tiles from the centre of the table is penalised. Whenever you claim tiles and are unable to place them, you are also penalised for each such discarded tile. 

At this point two windows had been completed and had thus been removed. At game end, there is an end game scoring. There are two ways to play this, and you pick one before starting the game. In this game, used the first option. The doorways are grouped into four pairs with four spaces each. For each pair, if you have 2 to 4 spaces filled, you earn 3, 6 or 10 points. 10 points is a lot. In this photo, my rightmost group had 3 spaces filled, so I would want to fill in the last one to score 10 points. 

The other way to do end game scoring looks at your number of completed windows, this is 2 in this example. You also look at the colours of the tiles in your doorways. Pick a colour with the most tiles. In this example it would be 2, whether you pick red, white or green. Multiply these two numbers to get your score. In this example it's a paltry 4 points. I would not be playing this way if we were using this scoring method. 

The Play

Despite sharing the same tile claiming mechanism, Stained Glass of Sintra feels rather different from its siblings because of how the player boards work. Every time you complete a window, all windows to its right score again. To maximise this, you would complete the rightmost window first, then gradually work leftwards. However to do this means you need to choose to reset your pawn frequently. Resetting your pawn costs you one precious turn. This is a dilemma. 

If you want to minimise resets, then you would want to move your pawn as slowly as possible, filling your windows patiently and gradually from left to right. That is not easy to do, because the tile availability will rarely align well with your player board. You are torn between conflicting needs. Sometimes when there is a good opportunity to grab many tiles at once, you may have to move your pawn many steps to position it at the right window which can take that many tiles in that particular colour. Sometimes you may not even have such a window, and if you were to take those tiles, you would end up being penalised. 

Managing the timing of your reset is important, and one reason is to avoid missing opportunities like the above. You know that as your pawn moves right, you will have fewer and fewer options. You can only use windows below your pawn and to its right. You often need to deliberately plan your reset. 

The reset is sometimes good. Sometimes it buys you time. If you get into a situation where any set of tiles you take will lead to a penalty, doing a reset gives you a much needed break. Other players may take those tiles you don't want. You may be making some of your windows available again, thus saving yourself.  

I found it challenging to coordinate completing windows with the bonus colours. I think it's a nice-to-have. Do it if the stars happen to align, but don't force it too much. This game mechanism does give you a bit more to think about. No one minds a few extra points here and there. It's just that it may not be worth the effort centring your strategy around it. The end-game scoring though, is something you want to plan ahead for. That takes conscious effort if you want to score anything half decent from it. 

You can decide to play with or without keenly observing your opponents. Naturally if you watch your opponents, you will do better. You can grab the tiles they want. You can delay taking tiles you know they don't want. If you feel competitive, by all means be so. If you just want to relax, the game is still enjoyable when you just focus on your own needs. It's an adjustable depth game. 

The Thoughts

I am pleasantly surprised that the three games in the series give me significantly different experiences, despite how similar the tile claiming is. The player boards make all the difference. Player interaction is all centred around the tile claiming. If you look for different types of player interaction, then you won't find them. However the different player boards and and how they work do give you different spatial experiences. They are all great family strategy games. 

Comparing the three of them, I find Summer Pavilion more forgiving, because you collect tiles into a batch and only then decide how to allocate them for placement. You also have 4 holding spaces to hold tiles for the next round. There risk of penalty is less. However you may enjoy the excitement and urgency of the penalty mechanism. If you want that, go for the original Azul or Stained Glass of Sintra. 

Dancing Queen won 1st place!

The results for the BoardGameGeek 2021 9-card nanogame print-and-play contest have just been announced, and I was ecstatic to find that Dancing Queen won the Best Overall Game.  A big thank you to all those who supported me and voted for me, and also those who helped me with playtesting the game and reading the rules. A shout out to Allen for the multiple rounds of adjusting the graphics and layout for me. 

• Contest results
• Dancing Queen contest entry and discussion thread
• Dancing Queen game page on BGG
• Rule book 
• Download the print-and-play file 
• Play at Tabletopia (free to play)
• Play at Tabletop Simulator (software required)

I also won Best 2-player Game, Best Rule Book and Best New Designer. 

The Game

Dancing Queen is a short 2-player game which uses only 9 cards. You are attending a dance party, and you may bring your friends, whether boys or girls or both. You have in mind a dance you want to do. Different types of dances require different numbers of boys and girls. If you manage to perform the dance you secretly wished for, you become the winner. Beware that the boy your friend brought might turn out to be a girl dressed up as a boy!

When I started designing this game, I had Love Letter as my muse. It is a microgame with only 16 cards, and it is a design I greatly admire. Dancing Queen turned out to be something rather different, but I tried to apply a number of guiding principles I learned from Love Letter. Every card has a purpose. No card is wasted. 

Every card in Dancing Queen is a dancer. When you play a card, you play it face-down, so your opponent wouldn't know what you have played. You will play at most 4 cards, and one of them is designated to be your lead dancer. The rest are backup dancers. Each card has a girl half and a boy half. Depending on how you orient the card when you play it, you determine the gender. The half pointing at your opponent is the gender of the card. In this photo above, the player has played two girls, while the opponent has played one girl and two boys. 

A complete game takes about 20 minutes. You will play several rounds. The winner of a round gets a trophy (yellow cube). Whoever reaches 4 trophies first wins the game. At the start of a round, both players simultaneously play a card, and these are the initial lead dancers. After that you take turns either drawing and playing a card, or proposing to end the round. Whenever you decide to draw a card, you must immediately play it, either to add a backup dancer, or to replace your lead dancer thus demoting him (or her) to become a backup dancer. When you play the card, you must also decide its gender. Some cards allow you to transform another card on the table, from boy to girl or vice versa. 

When a round ends, both players reveal their lead dancers and score points accordingly. Higher scorer wins the round. The scoring methods all depend on the game situation. E.g. the pairs in play are all same-gender pairs (like in the photo above), or there is an even number of cards in play. Some cards have an instant-win condition. If the game situation matches the condition exactly, you win the round immediately. E.g. the Spice Girls card requires exactly 5 girls (and no boys). If your lead dancer is the Spice Girls and there are exactly 5 girls in play, you end the round and win a trophy immediately. 

The 9 cards in the game all have two halves, so there is a total of 18 different winning conditions in the game. 

Youtube rule explanation: 

Malaysia Board Game Design Competition 2021

 

There's a public category and a student category. Theme is unity of Malaysia. No restriction on genre or number of players. Game must be playable within 1 hour. Further details here! 

Lost Ruins of Arnak

The Game

Lost Ruins of Arnak is one of the hottest games in 2021. It has just been nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres. When I first heard of it, the setting did not grab me at all. It seemed like a very typical run-of-the-mill Eurogame. I hadn't intended to try it. However this game has been everywhere and getting a lot of good buzz. My curiosity overcame my resistance. I was still rather sceptical even after reading the rules. I had to sit down to play to understand what the fuss was all about. 

In Lost Ruins or Arnak, you play archaeologists who have just discovered an island belonging to a long lost civilisation. Think Indiana Jones. You will explore the various sites on the island. Those which are further inland will require better transportation tools. You will also study the main temple on the island. The game uses both worker placement and deck-building. You only have two workers, and you don't ever gain more. Workers are used for discovering new sites and collecting resources at sites. The deck-building improves what you can do in the game. The game is played over 5 rounds, and every round you get to draw 5 cards. Some actions require transportation tools, which are available on cards. Some cards provide basic resources like coins and compasses. Some cards provide special actions. Everyone takes turns performing actions during a game round, and the round ends when everyone is unable to perform any more actions (due to running out of cards and resources) or chooses to pass. You then shuffle all cards used in the current round to the bottom of your deck, then draw 5 cards in preparation for the next round. 

The main game board is on the right, and one player board is on the left. Along the top of the main game board is the card purchase area. On the left half of the board you have the various sites to be visited for collecting resources and sites waiting to be discovered. At game start, the five beach sites are already discovered. On the right is the temple you will study. Everyone has two markers at the temple. You perform research to advance your markers. That's done by simply spending the required resources. Every step you take gives you some benefit, e.g. collecting some other resources and gaining an assistant. The higher your markers go, the more points they will score for you at game end. Once you reach the top, you may spend resources to buy temple tiles, which are worth points. 

This is the card buying area. There is a magic staff here which indicates the round number (it's Round 3 now). Cards to its left are artefact cards, and to its right item cards. Since the magic staff keeps moving right, there will be more item cards in the early game, and more artefact cards in the late game. Artefacts are purchased with compasses, and items with coins. Artefacts may be used immediately upon purchase, for free, but in future you need to spend a tablet whenever you use them. Items are put at the bottom of your draw deck when purchased. Most likely you will draw them next round. They are free to use. Both artefacts and items have point values (bottom right of card). 

Your player deck starts with only 6 cards. You will use it up quickly since you draw 5 cards at the start of every round. The basic currencies are coins and compasses. The lightning icon means free action. On your turn you may play those cards with lightning icons as many times as you wish, to take the corresponding resources, and these don't count as the main action of your turn. There is one or more transportation icons at the top left of every card. You spend cards as transportation tools when you place your worker. The transportation cost depends on the location you are sending your worker to. There is a hierarchy of the transportation modes. Airplanes may replace any other form. Cars and ships may replace walking. If it's a place you can walk to, you can drive there too. 

To discover a site, you not only need to pay the transportation cost, you also need to pay many compasses. When you discover a site, you first claim a statue (worth 3 victory points) and the benefit printed on it. You then draw a site tile to be placed at the site, and you gain the benefit stated on it. You don't know what you'll get beforehand. Finally, you draw a guardian tile. Guardians are monsters which guard a site. If you are able to defeat a guardian, you earn points and gain a single-use power. Guardians don't immediately hurt you. Only at the end of the round, if you are forced to leave a site without defeating its guardian, you will gain a fear card. Fear cards are weak cards which clog your deck and they cost you 1VP at game end if not removed. It is best to discover a new site early in a round, when you have more resources and thus are more likely to be able to defeat the guardian. 

In the screenshot above, this guardian draw was a lucky one, because two of the three resources required to defeat it happened to be already provided by the site itself. The player only needed to have one compass to defeat it. 

This is a site tile. This particular tile lets you draw a card and gain an arrow head. 

You have two markers at the temple, a magnifying glass and a book. The book may never overtake the magnifying glass. Icons on the right tell you what benefit you gain whenever you move a marker to a particular row. They also tell you how many points the marker will score at game end. Some spaces here are seeded with bonuses, and only the first person to reach these spaces get to claim these bonuses. The victory points for reaching the top of the temple are different depending on the order of arrival. So despite no blocking at the temple, there is still a race element. 

Some levels at the temple let you recruit assistants. Assistants are single-use-per-round abilities. If there is a particular assistant you fancy, you will have to race the others to get him or her. 

Assistants who have been used in the current round are turned sideways. You reset them only at the end of the round. On the player board there are four hex spaces where you may place statues. Whenever a statue is placed, you get to claim some resources. However by doing this you will lose some points, as indicated on the hex spaces. 

This Ostrich is an item card. If you use the card power, you draw a card and then place a worker at a discount of one car. However if you use the card as transportation, it is worth 2 cars (top left corner). 

This Obsidian Earring is an artefact. On the left of the card you see a small tablet icon, which means you need to pay a tablet each time you use the card, except for the first use when you buy it. 

This is a fear card. Everyone starts the game with two of them. During play, you may add more to your deck. Fear cards can only be used as boots / walking - the most basic mode of transportation. Some actions in the game let you remove cards from your deck. You should aim to remove most if not all fear cards from your deck. 

You have many options throughout a round. Not all actions require cards. For some actions you only spend resources, like defeating guardians, studying the temple and buying cards. You only have two workers, and they are normally used for collecting resources at sites, or discovering new sites and collecting resources there. Sending workers out require transportation tools, i.e. cards. Playing some cards are a player turn action. Cards have a wide variety of abilities. 

Your main ways of scoring points are studying the temple, and discovering sites plus defeating monsters. Your cards will be worth points too. 

The Play

I played with Han and Allen on BoardGameArena.com. We tried both sides of the board. The advanced side is slightly more challenging, but there are only tiny rule additions. 

You only have 5 rounds, and each round you only draw 5 cards. At first I felt there was not much I could do with this. I didn't have many resources. The temple looked absolutely daunting. How the hell was I supposed to climb all the way to the top? Only as I played on that I realised my powers grew steadily and I could do more and more in each subsequent round. One reason is the cards I buy will let me do more and also more powerful things. Once more sites are opened up, we have better options for worker placement too. Gradually we abandon the beach sites in favour of the more attractive inland sites. In the screenshot above, we have discovered four inland sites. 

In general, this is still a game about collecting resources and converting them to points, and that conversion is done mainly through climbing the temple and discovering sites (and defeating guardians). These are the two general paths. What is fun about the game is towards the late game, your options widen and you get to plan more and more elaborate sequences of actions. You will have more cards, more variety in powers and more resources. It is an interesting puzzle to solve, how to order your actions and where to compete to get the most points. 

In this game, I (green) realised trying to move both temple markers was difficult, and decided to abandon my book marker. I focused on getting my magnifying glass to the top, which I eventually did. I managed to accumulate enough resources to buy a large temple tile too. 

Temple tiles come in 3 sizes, with the bigger ones costing more resources. The large tile is worth 11VP, which is a lot. The others are 6VP and 2VP. 

Deck-building plays a big role in the game. You won't have a huge deck, and you won't shuffle many times, likely just once per round. The deck starts with 6 cards and you draw 5 every round. Throughout a game you'll probably buy 6 to 10 cards. You will remove cards too, so your deck will not grow very big. New item cards purchased go to the bottom of your deck. This is before any of the cards drawn and used in the current round get shuffled and returned to the bottom of your deck. So most likely by the next round you will draw that new item card. You may even draw it in the current round if you have some draw card powers. Buying an item is basically planning your next round. Artefact cards can already be used upon purchase. They are then shuffled to the bottom of your deck together with all other used cards at the end of the round. If your deck is thin, which is likely the case, you may draw the same artefact card again next round. This is what's different about the deck-building in Lost Ruins of Arnak - instant gratification! You will get to use your new cards pretty soon. In most other deck-builders, it takes some time for you to draw your new cards.  

This was near game end. We had discovered six sites, two in the deepest part of the island, and four in the middle. Discovering the most distant sites cost 6 compasses, while the middle sites cost 3. 

This is the other game board. The main difference is some assistants are placed in the middle of the temple. When your magnifying glass marker reaches this spot, you get to recruit one of these assistants. The costs of moving up the temple are higher compared to the basic board. 

The magic staff is at the 5th position now, which means this is the fifth and final round. 

This was one very handy artefact, which could be used to defeat a guardian. This helped me tremendously. In this particular game I defeated four guardians. That's a whopping 20VP! This game I wanted to work more on discovering sites and fighting guardians, since the temple research cost was high. This artefact aligned well with my strategy. 

I love this item card. I can use this to buy artefacts at a discount of 3 compasses. Although both compasses and coins are basic currencies, I find that compasses are of a higher value than coins. Saving 3 compasses is a lot! I can't imagine using this item card for its transportation value (1 ship, at the top left corner). 

The Thoughts

Recently I find myself quite tired of resource conversion games. Many popular games and many heavy Eurogames use such a mechanism - collect resources then convert them to points. Lost Ruins of Arnak is certainly such a game. Even after reading the rules, I was doubtful that I would enjoy it. Now that I have played it, it was better than I expected. It doesn't offer anything particularly new. The magic staff is clever but it's just a novelty and not a crucial part of the game. What's most enjoyable about the game is its deck-building formula. You get to enjoy your newly purchased cards very soon. You don't shuffle you deck many times. The fun of deck-builders is condensed. The tedium of deck-builders is removed, leaving you with a strong unfiltered dose. When I played A Few Acres of Snow, I greatly admired how the tedium of the deck-building simulated the difficulty of running a colonial war. Newly purchased cards take time to come up. It is hard to get the right combination of cards to do something efficiently. You are at mercy of the luck of the draw. I enjoy the hardships there. However, in Lost Ruins of Arnak, which does things in a completely opposite way, I find that I enjoy the quick satisfaction too. The key concept here is instant gratification. 

Lost Ruins of Arnak presses all the right buttons for gamers who like development games. You become more and more powerful. Your progress at the temple accelerates towards a climax. It all feels a little formulaic, but I must admit it works, and that's probably what matters most. I enjoyed the process. 

In the second half of the game, as you gradually build up your abilities, you find many tools at your disposal. You have many ways to slice the fish. You have your cards, your assistants, better sites, the one-shot powers of defeated guardians, and also statues to activate those spots on your player board. There are many possibilities and different sequences to consider to maximise your score. In the end it's still about scoring points, but when you have so many colour pencils to fill in your colouring book, you can't help feeling like a talented artist. That's basically how I felt when playing Lost Ruins of Arnak.