Friday, 17 January 2025

Hanamikoji

The Game

Hanamikoji is a 2013 game, so it's no longer a new game. I've heard many positive reviews, but only managed to give it a go recently. It is indeed a wonderful design. Succinct and clever. Hanamikoji is a 2-player card game in which you compete to win the favour of seven geishas by presenting them gifts. 


The seven geishas have different point values, from 2 to 5. If you manage to get 11 points, you win. You can also win by winning four geishas. If the players each fulfil one condition, the player with 11 points wins. The point value of a geisha is equal to the number of cards in the deck (gifts) which are for her. The players sit on opposite sides of the table, and the geishas are lined up between them. Gifts are placed on the two sides of the row of geishas. Scoring is done only at the end of a round. Whoever has more gifts on their side of a geisha wins that geisha. So far, this doesn't sound unusual. What's interesting in the game is how the cards are played. You don't directly choose where to play the cards. Instead, you get four different actions every round. You must perform every action exactly once. You just choose the order in which you do them. It is through these actions that cards go into play. 


On your turn you first draw a card and then you must pick an action. One of the actions requires that you play three cards. Your opponent picks one of them to place on her side, and then you place the other two on your side. Another action requires that you play two sets of two cards. Similarly, your opponent picks a set first. Deciding which cards to play and how to group them is difficult. Since your opponent picks first, you need to avoid giving good options to her. That's hard to do. 

Only one action allows you to choose one specific geisha to influence. You play one card face-down. This is the only time you have direct control. The last action is to discard two cards. This is a painful decision to make, because you are giving up opportunities to influence up to two geishas. 

At the start of a round, one card is removed face-down. This creates uncertainly, making it hard to card count. 


As a round progresses, cards will get played and you can assess the game situation better. However scoring is only done at the end of the round, when you and your opponent reveal that one secret card you have committed. 


Scoring is done after both players have completed their four actions. If you have more cards played on a geisha, you win her favour and move the round token to your side. If anyone scores 11 points or wins 4 geishas, she wins the game. Else, start the next round. The second round onwards becomes interesting, because by now you will have some geishas on your side. If your influence ties with that of your opponent, she stays on your side. So you have a slight advantage, and you can afford to fight harder in other areas. 


The Play

The rules are simple, but this is a brain-burning game. The overall feel is a little like Lost Cities, Riftforce and Battle Line. You sit on opposite sides of a row of things to fight over. However in these other games you have much freedom where to play cards and which cards to play. Hanamikoji turns this upside down. You need to think hard about your every move. For two of your actions, your opponent picks the cards first. This is I-divide-you-choose. It's difficult to create options in a way that no matter how your opponent chooses, you will benefit more than her. This mechanism means often the options are equally good. There is always some unknown, so you cannot calculate precisely. There is the one card removed from the round, the one card which your opponent claimed face-down, and also the two cards she discarded. 

You have the same actions, and the game mechanism creates a tendency for the players to be equally matched. It's easy to end up having the same influence over a geisha. When you want to fight hard to win one geisha, it means you must give up on another. The outcome tends to be balanced. The trick is to make small wins beyond this natural equilibrium. You want to force your opponents to use more than the minimum resources to win a geisha. Small efficiency wins can lead to ultimate victory. 

My gut feel is it's hard to win the game within the first round. You'll probably get into at least the second round. The second round becomes very interesting because by now both players will have some geishas on their sides. The landscape is different. You just need to tie in strength with you opponent on these geishas who are already on your side. You want to focus on winning over those who are not yet on your side. If you can win over a geisha currently on your opponent's side, you are both reducing her points and adding to your own. 

The Thoughts

The game is short, simple, yet brain-burning. It is an excellent design and I highly recommend it. This is not the kind of fast-paced card game. It is thoughtful and deliberate. You'll play a bit quicker once you have a better grasp of the tactics. The decisions you have to make remain difficult and interesting. 

Tuesday, 14 January 2025

Nine Tiles

Nine Tiles is from Japanese publisher Oink Games, but the designer is Jean-Claude Pellin from Luxemburg. The Sanrio characters version I have is not the first edition. The very first edition uses just generic abstract icons. There are six different icons in the game. It is an abstract game, and it is easy to paste any theme on it. There is a Disney version, a Chainsaw Man version, a Pokemon version, and even a Moomin version. It is a real-time game. A speed game. Players race to solve a puzzle and whoever is fastest scores a point. 

Everyone has a set of 9 tiles. The tiles are double sided, and the characters on the two sides of a tile are different. Every character appears exactly three times, on three different tiles. You arrange your tiles in a 3x3 grid. When a round starts, you flip over the top card from the deck, and everyone races to change their own grid to look exactly like what the card specifies. This is all done in real time. You can flip your tiles and swap their positions. Whoever is first to make their grid look exactly like the card claims the card. You keep going until you run out of cards, and whoever has won the most cards wins the game. So the rules are super easy. However making the combination is not always easy. The pattern may require two Hello Kittys, but you are not exactly sure which two. You likely need to do much trial and error to figure out which side of each tile you need to use, to create the required combination. 

I'd say this is mostly a children's game, because of the simplicity. It is easy for non gamers to learn too, and may entertain them for a while. For gamers this would be too simple, and it likely won't have much replayability. It's probably the kind of game you keep for those occasions when you bring games out for casual gamers and non gamers. It can also be a filler or opener for game night. 

Sunday, 12 January 2025

Dancing Queen international edition coming soon from Matagot


Super excited that the international edition of Dancing Queen from Matagot has been announced. It will be available in English and French, 21 June 2025.

Friday, 10 January 2025

Betakkuma's Fart & Furious

Betakkuma is a character from Japan. I know him from WhatsApp. I currently use a set of stickers based on him. I find them funny. Now this game Betakkuma's Fart & Furious was bought when I was at the 2024 Essen game fair in Germany. I bought it at the Thailand pavilion. The publisher is Thai, and they licensed the character for this game. A Japanese character in a Thai game sold in Germany. That's globalisation! 

When I was at Essen, the Thailand pavilion was impressive. They had many designers and publishers, and also many games. Seeing our neighbouring country do so well was an encouragement for us Malaysian designers and publishers. Fart & Furious caught my attention because of the character. After listening to the brief description, I didn't immediately buy a copy. It is a party game about farting in the lift (elevator). That's a hilarious premise. I put it on my potential list. I was conservative about buying games because I didn't want to go over the weight limit. My plan was other than those I was determined to buy, I'd put games on the potential list, and I'd decide only by Sunday afternoon, the last day of the fair, which ones to buy. Now this was a little risky, because some games sold out early. Thankfully when I went back to the Thailand pavilion to get Fart & Furious, it was still available. 

The Game

This is a simultaneous action selection party game. Every round you pick a card to play, and everyone reveals their card at the same time. You only have five cards. When you play a card, it stays on the table. You only get all your cards back into your hand after having played them all, or when you successfully play the exit card (to exit the lift). If you are willing to spend the effort to remember what cards have been played, you will know what cards your opponents still have in hand. 

The three simplest cards are fart, breathe and hold (your breath). If you fart and someone else smells it, you score points. If no one smells it, you lose points. If you breathe and no one farts, you score points. If someone does fart, you lose points. If you hold your breath and someone farts, you score points. Otherwise, you lose points. This is very much like rock paper scissors, and these actions all make sense. You try to guess what your opponents might play. You don't always have a good basis on which to make your guess. After some cards have been played, you will have more information to help you guess. If everyone has farted, you know you can safely take a deep breath. 

One of the cards is the exit card, which means you are getting off the lift. Now the twist it this card only works if you are the only one trying to exit. If more than one person wants to exit, you all end up fighting at the door and no one gets out. If anyone farts, you all smell it (and lose points). 

The last card is the focus card. It doesn't have any effect by itself, but it doubles the effect of the card you play next round. If you manage to score points, you score double that. If you lose points, you lose double too. An exit card paired with a focus card gives you priority over regular exit cards.  


This building is your score track. For the short game, play till the 8th floor (8 points). For the normal game, play till the 13th floor. 

The Play

I didn't buy the game immediately at Essen because based on the short overview, it seemed like a pretty simple party game. The premise was funny, but the game mechanics didn't seem particularly new. Now that I have actually played the game, I realise some aspects of the detailed implementation are quite clever, and I admire that. So this is not a simple silly game designed by non-gamers. This is a simple silly game designed by gamers who know what they are doing. Yes, it's still a party game, and there's still luck, but there's also some thinking and strategising involved. You can decide to play without thinking too much. After all this is a farting game. You don't need to take it very seriously. 

When I played this with younger daughter Chen Rui, nephew Oswald (11) and niece Lauren (9), we discovered one particularly potent combo - focus plus breathe. If you breathe when no one farts, you score 3 points. If you combo this with a focus from the previous round, you'll score 6 points, which is huge. Even in the full game, 6 points out of 13 is about halfway to winning. When you know there is this powerful combo, you will be watching out for opponents trying to do it. This gives you a bit more basis for guessing what they will do. So the game is certainly not simple rock paper scissors. 

Well, maybe I'm completely overthinking this. I talk so much tactics and strategy, but then I'm not exactly winning much. 

The Thoughts

This is a silly and funny party game for 2 to 8 players. I've only played with four. I wonder whether it will be rather difficult with 6 or more players. When you choose to breathe, wouldn't you need to be very lucky to have no one else farting? Similarly, when you try to exit, chances are someone else will be trying to exit too. But then maybe at high player counts, clashes are expected. You need to try to gain an advantage over your opponents by farting when the most number of opponents will be smelling. When farting, you score points based on how many opponents smell it. I should try the player counts at the extremes to see how the gameplay experience differs. 

I've been playing boardgames as a hobbyist for more than 20 years. This is my first ever farting game. It's certainly something you will have fun with casual players. You won't be able to explain the rules with a straight face. 

Thursday, 9 January 2025

The World Game


This is an educational game, and it'll teach you about all the countries of the world. It is a card game. Every card is one country. On it you will find information like the capital, the population, the area and the number of neighbouring countries. 


This is a game for 2 to 3 players. You start the game by having everyone draw 20 cards from the deck. You hold all 20 cards in your hand as your own personal deck. At any point you only look at information on the first card facing you. That is your current country. During play, you try to win cards from your opponents. The game is played until someone loses all cards. At that point whoever has the most cards wins. 

On your turn you have two options. You compare stats, or you declare a challenge. If you want to compare stats, you announce one of the features on your card, e.g. the population. Everyone then shows their cards, and whoever has the highest number in that feature takes all the cards. The cards are added to the back of the winner's deck. This is how you win cards from your opponents. 

If your current country is a small one, you'd be at an advantage when comparing stats. You can decide to declare a challenge instead. When you do so, you pick a person to issue a challenge. It doesn't have to be yourself. The person who issues the challenge tests the knowledge of everyone else. If the question can be answered correctly, the first person to do so wins cards. If no one gets it right, the person who asked the question wins the cards. You can ask things like the capital, or which continent the country is in. You can show the flag and ask which country it belongs to. You can also ask where exactly the country is. The game comes with a world map, and you can point at the country on the map. The map itself is only labelled with numbers, not country names. 


My sister Mei bought this game for her 11-year-old son Oswald as a Christmas present. This is very much what you would imagine a parent buying for their child. It's something educational. My sister is not that keen about playing boardgames. When they visited Kuala Lumpur recently, they brought along the game so that Uncle (me) can teach Oswald how to play. The rules are pretty straight-forward. However, five minutes into playing, I was already itching to change the rules (sigh... game designers...). Based on the rules that come with the game, if the players are roughly equal in their knowledge about countries around the world, the game may drag for a long time. They will win cards from one another at about the same rate. It's not easy for one player to completely bankrupt another. Well, I might be wrong, since we didn't finish a game using the prescribed rules. I suggested that when we won cards, we could set them aside as a score pile, instead of adding them to the back of our deck. That way the game has a finite end. You'll play 20 turns, because everyone has 20 cards to start with. 

This game reminds me of Top Trumps which I used to play when I was little. I remember I have a deck with tanks, and one with battleships. The carriers were the biggest and often won. The submarines were the weakest. 

Friday, 3 January 2025

boardgaming in photos: playtesting

28 Dec 2024. Jon organised one last TTGDMY playtesting session before the end of 2024. (TTGDMY = Tabletop Game Designers of Malaysia) This time it was done at FnD Mindspot in Wangsa Maju. We had the highest attendance numbers in the whole of 2024. That was a splendid end to 2024. There was a teacher who came all the way from Seremban bringing a group of primary school students. They are from a boardgame club so they are experienced players. One of them, a 12-year-old girl, designed a game, drew and handcrafted it herself, and brought it for playtesting. 


This is one game design I'm currently working on - Malaysian Holidays. I want to design a game that is suitable for non-gamers and casual gamers, and one which is attractive to them. Thus this topic. Malaysia in a multi-racial and multi-cultural country, with many different religious beliefs and traditions. So we have many public holidays, more than many other countries around the world. The typical working Malaysian adult loves having public holidays fall on Mondays or Fridays, because that means we get a long weekend. If a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, that's good too, because by applying for one day of annual leave, we get a 4-day break. Now the absolute worst is for a public holiday to fall on a Saturday. Many companies don't work on Saturdays anyway. At some companies we only work half day on Saturdays. Public holidays on Saturdays are a waste. This game I am working on aims to convey this Malaysian salaryman mindset. In the game you have an HR Manager who will cancel holidays. For example the company is running a roadshow, so you have to work even though it's a public holiday. Is this too realistic? 


This is another game I'm working on - I Will Survive. I plan to submit this to the ButtonShy contest. The special rule for this particular contest is interesting. As usual, you can only use 18 cards when designing the game, but what's different this time is for any particular game you play, you will only use half the cards, i.e. 9 cards. The other 9 cards will not be used at all. This can create much variability, because the game will be different depending on which 9 cards are in use. This rule plus another training activity I have learned before gave me the idea for I Will Survive. You are shipwrecked and stranded on an island. You need to salvage equipment from the slowly sinking ship, but you don't know the situation on the island so you don't know exactly what you need to survive. The cards in the game are mostly equipment you need for survival. Only half the cards are in play, and which ones being in play determines your survival condition. One of the players is a lunatic. He's not trying to survive. He's trying to get everyone killed. 


This is one of Cedric's latest projects, Tea Ceremoney (not a typo). It is based on the Chinese tradition, the tea ceremony which is done on wedding days. He has spent a lot of effort on the components, sourcing from Shopee and getting the right ones to create the right gameplay experience. 

The player board is an angpow (red packet). 


This is a prototype from Nick. It is a multiplayer melee dice game. You sit in a circle. You attack the guy on your right, and defend against the guy on your left. Whoever gets killed drops out of the circle. You play until you are the last man standing. 


I bought this paper cutter recently, and it's one of the best investments I've ever made. I used to cut paper for making prototypes using a normal blade cutter and a ruler. It's slow, tedious and tiring. I felt I needed to get something better, and I asked around for suggestions from fellow game designers. I received many suggestions. Eventually I decided to try this Fiskars cutter. It's pricey compared to other options, but since I do a lot of cutting, I thought it would be worth getting one. I'm glad I bought it. It works great. I can cut much faster now. It has saved me much time and pain. Highly recommended. 


I had a family holiday in Japan in December 2024. I am a big fan of many Japanese game designs, so when I have the opportunity to check out Japanese games, I try not to miss it. We visited the smaller cities this trip, so it wasn't easy to find game stores. I found toy and boardgame sections at some department stores. One surprise find was a small shop at Nawate Street (nicknamed Frog Street) in Matsumoto city. Nawate Street is a touristy area. The shop sold various souvenirs, but it also had a very nice boardgame section. Totally unexpected. The shopkeeper was an old uncle who enthusiastically recommended games to me in Japanese, and I had no idea what he was saying. I had to use Google Lens to translate the box covers and box backs. Eventually I did buy a few games I thought would be interesting. This trip I bought five souvenirs related to boardgames. They are on the right and bottom right in this photo above. 

The one at the top right corner is a woodcraft puzzle. I have seen a similar Chinese puzzle called Hua Rong Dao (华容道). I think they are of the same concept. On the right there is a red box - Nine Tiles. It has a Hello Kitty (Sanrio) theme. I later realised this was not designed by a Japanese. It was not originally a Hello Kitty game. Oink Games published it in Japan and attached the Hello Kitty theme. This is a real time game and it's pretty simple. I consider it a children's game. I bought a cheap shogi set. I've read a comic book series about it. It's like chess but you can capture opponent pieces and then put them back into play as your own. 


This is a thing called netsuke. A netsuke is an ornament used during the Edo period. You wear it on you. This netsuke is actually tiny. It is intricately crafted. This is not a souvenir you can buy. I took this photo in an art museum. This is a piece of art on display. 

Tuesday, 31 December 2024

my 2024

2024 has been a memorable year for me. Having been a boardgame hobbyist for 20 years, this was the first time I visited the Essen game fair in Germany. For boardgamers, Essen is a pilgrimage. I went purely as a gamer. I was not an exhibitor. I did not go as a publisher or as a business. I was a consumer going there to fully enjoy myself. And what an experience it was. It was earth-shattering to me, a first timer. So many games, and so many are interesting. So much to see and to be amazed by. By gamer standards, I didn't buy that many games from the fair. Mostly small box card games, and only a few standard sized boardgames. Several months in, and there are still many I have not yet played. I have much homework ahead. 

 

Of the games I played for the first time in 2024, my favourite isn't even a recent game. It is Seven! (with exclamation mark). This is a simple and silly card game. The core mechanism is straightforward. It is something casual players can easily pick up and enjoy. Despite the simplicity, I like how it creates tension and surprises for the players. There certainly is some luck, but it's exhilarating when you feel you've read your opponents correctly. I am working hard on creating games like this - simple yet enjoyable, and not rehashes, and not dumb. 

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a race game, and normally race games are not my thing. However I enjoyed it greatly, despite having only played it online. Days of Wonder (the publisher) is working their magic. Excellent game choice and amazing production. 

Riftforce is a 2-player card game which gave me a pleasant surprise. Even after reading the rules I wasn't confident I would like it. Only after playing it I was able to appreciate the intricacies of the design. 

An Infamous Traffic was a memorable experience. This is a game about China and the opium wars. This story is not often told in boardgames. 

I have played many trick-taking games, and by now I tend to be wary of them. OnStage / SangDen from Vietnam turned out to be delightful. It has several neat ideas, and they come together splendidly. 

Other new-to-me games I like are Hegemony, Ticket To Ride Legacy (Legends of the West), Sky Team and 300: Earth & Water

The number of plays I had in 2024 is less than in 2023. In 2023 I had 813 plays, of which 678 were Race for the Galaxy, Star Realms and Ascension. After deducting these three which greatly distorted my total, the total becomes 135. In 2024, I had 534 plays, of which 440 were the same three games plus Dominion. Deducting the big four, the total becomes 94. The big numbers come from games with digital versions. That is why I manage play a lot. Some are played with Han, and some against AI's. In 2024 I played 72 different games, slightly more than 2023 when I played 61 different games. I knew I was playing less in 2024, because I was busy with work, and also my boardgame time was spent not only on purely playing games, but also on designing, playtesting, publishing and selling games. 


I published two games in 2024, Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Snow White was originally slated for end of 2023, but it was delayed and released only in early 2024. Ali Baba was scheduled for December 2024, but I managed to get it out by early November. I guess that's an improvement. I have started work on my 2025 game. I have decided the next one will be Pinocchio. I have been thinking about which game to choose for some time. I pick Pinocchio because I want my next game to be something simple and has wide appeal. That means it needs to be something casual gamers and non-gamers can easily learn and enjoy. The price point needs to be low. Non-gamers find it hard to accept the typical price points of games that gamers are used to. 

My first published game Dancing Queen has sold out. I have no more stock available. There may still be stock at some of the retailers which have bought copies from me. Dancing Queen will have an international release by a large publisher likely within the first half of 2025. Since an established and experienced publisher is publishing and marketing it, normally I would not need to work on the publishing part of the game any more. They have many more resources than I do and can do it much better than I can. However there is something about the older art and theme that I still feel attached to. So I decided to still do my own small print run, with the agreement of the main publisher of course. So there will be a second Malaysian edition of Dancing Queen, in addition to the international edition. This edition will have Chinese added, because I want to enter the Chinese language market, not just in Malaysia but also hopefully in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. The international edition will be in English and French, and will likely be focused on the US and Europe markets. So I'm hoping to do something for Dancing Queen to prepare for expansion to Asian markets. 

The second Malaysian edition of Dancing Queen will be different from the first. This time I am getting Magicraft to do the printing. I won't be using the custom-made Ricola-style box. It will have normal paper based cards and not PVC cards. It won't come pre-sleeved. So the 2022 first edition of Dancing Queen will become a rare edition. If someone offers to buy your copy at a high price, please don't sell it. Either that or take the opportunity to charge an arm and a leg. The second edition will have a lower price point, because those changes above will help me lower my production cost. 



2024 has been a busy year for me in the game design and publishing part of my boardgame hobby, especially in the marketing area. I counted that I have participated in 7 events as an exhibitor. Game On Lah in Putrajaya in February, HELP University Open Day in May, BOXCON (KLIA2) in June, Asian Board Game Festival in Penang (Malaysia) in July, MTG Family Day in August, C2AGE (comics, cosplay, anime & games) in September, Thailand Board Game Show in November. I don't always break even with my sales at events, but events are more about exposure and marketing than profitability and sales. Breaking even is nice, but it is not always something to be expected. Or maybe I need to learn to do my sales better. 

The Malaysian boardgame market is small. We the people in the industry still need to work hard to grow the market. We need to invest much effort in creating awareness, in spreading the love of boardgames. We are far behind many other Asian countries. 

Having spent much time, effort and money on many different events, I have learned much and I strive to be more selective in 2025, and to manage my booth better. I need to be clear about the objective I'm trying to achieve for each event, be it building my brand, connecting with other people in the industry, selling my games, getting my games playtested by strangers or learning from others. Certainly my trip to Bangkok to exhibit at the Thailand Board Game Fair has been eye-opening. 

Other than exhibiting, I have also attended other types of events. I went to some Tzu Chi activities. I visited the boardgame club at Monash University. Some of these help to introduce more people to this wonderful hobby of ours, and that's something I'm happy to do. 

I took part in the Pegasus pitching day, in the Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia (YBAM) game design competition, and in the Hippodice game design competition. All were good learning experiences. 

With so much time spent on all these activities, it is no wonder that I have been spending less time playing commercially published games. 

Boardgames is no longer purely a pastime. It is something bigger to me now. Not only a business I am trying to grow, but also a mission to bring happiness to people, and to help people create memorable moments. Got to work hard in 2025 too! 

Friday, 27 December 2024

Rebirth


The Game

I bought Rebirth not only as a boardgame, but also as memorabilia. I tried it for the first time at the 2024 Essen game fair. This is a design from Reiner Knizia, and I have been a fan of his for 20 years. The fair was massive. There were so many people that it was hard to find available seats to play games that you were interested in, especially if they were hot games. I was lucky to find a seat to play Rebirth. After playing, I found it nice but not groundbreaking. It felt like a slightly more complicated version of Through the Desert. I did not originally plan to buy a copy. Then I found out there was going to be a Reiner Knizia signing session. I thought this would make a meaningful souvenir for my trip. So I got myself a copy and braved the signing queue. Now, in hindsight, I’m glad I did that. Otherwise I would be regretting. 

Rebirth happens in a future earth where humankind has suffered severe calamities and is now rebuilding human civilisation, this time doing it in a way more aligned with nature. Whoever contributes the most in rebuilding civilisation wins. Your turn is very simple. You place a tile on the board, possibly scoring points, and then you draw a tile for the next turn. Everyone has their own set of tiles. There are three types of tiles - food farms, power farms and settlements. They score points in different ways. You play until everyone has placed all their tiles. You then do a final scoring and the game ends. 

Let’s talk about how you score points. Food and power farms both score points based on how big a connected group you have, so you tend to want to group your food farms, and your power farms. There are restrictions on where you may place which tiles on the board. Sometimes you place tiles to prevent your opponents from forming big groups. So yes, there is blocking and fighting for space. Settlements can only be placed in housing districts, and they are only scored when the district is filled. Settlement tiles have one to four houses. You use houses to compete for dominance in housing districts. When a district scores, whoever has the most houses scores the most points. The player with the second most houses scores too, but scores less. 


There are locations on the map designated for rebuilding castles. When you place a tile next to a vacant castle location, you start rebuilding the castle. You take one of your castle pieces and place it there. Castles in your colour score points at game end. Castle ownership depends on who has the most tiles adjacent to the castle location. Castle ownership can change hands because an opponent’s influence might overtake yours. 


Another major building type you can construct is the cathedrals. They are not worth points inherently, but every time you get involved in a new cathedral restoration project, you get to draw a mission card. These give you points at game end if you fulfill their conditions. 


All this is the basic game, played on a map of Scotland. The game also comes with an Irish map. The core gameplay is the same but there are some differences. It is slightly more complicated. So you get two games in one. 

The Play

Rebirth is about trying to grab small advantages over your opponents when you all play on a mostly level playing field. You have mostly the same set of tiles, just that you don’t know when you’ll draw which tile. Your opponent may have a 4-house settlement beating your 1-house settlement, but you will draw your own 4-house settlement sooner or later. This is what I mean by level playing field. So the game is about trying to do more than your opponents despite having the same resources. That means grabbing tactical opportunities that come up and also playing efficiently. 

You should somewhat balance between helping yourself and hindering others. It is best when you can do both. The play area starts with being big and open. You have many options. Only towards late game as more and more spaces are taken your choices dwindle. 

It is good to get involved in cathedrals early, so that you draw those mission cards early and can better plan your play around them. However the cathedral locations are far apart and you pay the price of dispersing your resources. So this is not exactly straightforward. 

The housing districts introduce a bit of a frienemy thing. Despite being competitors, sometimes you want to cooperate to fill up a housing district. Housing districts do score points at game end even if not completely filled, but usually you’ll score more for completed housing districts. This is an interesting dynamic.  

The tiebreaker rule is a little convoluted I must say. And it might not even be needed often since the points go high. In the case of ties, the control of Edinburgh Castle determines who wins. However if neither tied player controls Edinburgh Castle, it is the player who controls Stirling Castle who wins, even if they are not in the lead. I like this though, because it adds to the story and immersion. 

The Thoughts

Rebirth plays smoothly because of how simple a turn is. It gives you much freedom. There are many aspects you need to compete in. There is high player interaction. You need to constantly evaluate where to compete and who to compete against. The game components are excellent and they add much to the play experience. 

Sunday, 22 December 2024

300: Earth & Water


The Game

300 is a game from Japanese designer Yasushi Nakaguro. He is the editor of a Japanese wargame magazine, and has designed many wargames. 300 is a historical wargame based on the Persian invasion of Greece. Persia is rich and can bring many resources to bear. Greece has capable leaders and excellent fighting tactics. The game is played over only 5 rounds. It is highly condensed. Among wargames, you'd consider this a filler. However this is a game with some depth. You don't get many actions, but you must think through every action carefully. 


This is the game board, small and simple. It shows most of Greece and a corner of Persia. Blue is Persia and Red is Greece. Cubes are armies and discs are navies. Persia has more money and can afford to buy more armies, navies and cards every round. However Greece has better fighting abilities. When rolling dice, any Persian roll of 5 or 6 is treated as a 4. So the Persians are at a disadvantage in battle. The Persians need to overwhelm the Greek by numbers. 

Armies need to be kept supplied. Every city provides supplies. You need to capture cities to be able to support more armies on the board. A supply check is done at the end of every round. Armies you can't supply are disbanded. This is a tricky thing to manage. There is no use having a huge army when you can't supply them. You'll lose them at the end of the round. Orchestrating any extended offensive is not easy because of the supply checks happening every round. 


There is a small shared deck of cards. Many historical elements are included. A card has two halves, one meant for the Greek and the other for the Persians. Some events only occur once. When such an event occurs, the relevant side must spend one token to mark the event on the board. This handicaps the Greek more than the Persians, because the Greek have a much smaller number of game components. 


These three characters represent the three Persian events. At this point one event has occurred, thus the blue cube. Two of the Persian events are the king dying. Whenever the king dies, that whole round is cancelled. This is usually very bad for the Persians, because it means one round wasted and not being able to attack. In this game the onus is on the Persians to invade. In the worst case, the Persians may only have three rounds. Your king dying on you is a major headache. Every round you decide how many cards to buy at the start of the round. Card are needed to perform actions, e.g. to march, to sail, to attack. You can also play cards for their effects. If you want to do more, you have to buy more cards. The dilemma for the Persians is if among the cards you buy is the event for the king dying, you must show it immediately and the round also ends immediately. If you have spent a lot of money buying cards, you've just wasted not only the money but also your whole round. 

Scoring is done at the end of every round. You count the number of cities you control. You score points if you control more than your opponent. You only keep track of one score, which is the score difference between the players. If the trailing player scores points, he doesn't actually gain points. You just deduct points from the leading player. When the game ends, whoever has points wins. The game can end in a tie. That's when neither player has points. 
 

Greece has two major cities. If Persia manages to capture both, the game ends in an instant victory for Persia. This, of course, is not easy to do, but it is still something you have to watch out for. 


Persia has two major cities too. If Greece manages to capture both, it is game over too for the Persians. 

The Play

At first glance, 300: Earth and Water gave me a wrong impression. It looks like a microgame, because the box is small, the board is small. There aren't many rules and they are straight-forward. There aren't many components. The number of actions you can take is low. This is a short game. Compared to regular wargames, this is a microgame. However this is in no way a simplistic game. This is not a light game. You don't get many actions, but you need to think through carefully how to utilise your actions. You don't want to waste any action. Much thought needs to go into every small decision. The cards contain many historical events and characters, which bring out much flavour. There are many powerful cards. Since the deck is shared, there is no guarantee that you will draw a powerful card for your side. You will likely go through the deck several times, since it's a small deck, but still there is no guarantee you'll see every card. How aggressive the players are in buying cards affect how quickly the deck runs out and gets reshuffled. This is a consideration when you play. 

I played Persia. That meant I could splurge on armies and navies. However their poor fighting ability was a major pain in the neck for me. As long as Greece rolled a 5 or 6, I would lose. I had to fight using numbers. I had to fight wars of attrition and try to wear the Greek down. 

Supply is critical. A supply line being cut can mean severe losses. There are two cities on islands in the game. Even if you capture the city, the port can become blockaded by your opponent. If you can't lift the blockade by the end of round, you will lose control of that city. This is something to watch out for. Navies have great movement range. They can attack any coastal city. You can't defend against that. The best you can do is build your own navies so that you can reinforce and counter attack. Yet navies by themselves cannot capture cities. You still need armies for that. That's another conundrum. 

Every round you don't score many points. Every point is precious. There is uncertainty in how soon the game ends, because depending on how frequently the Persian king dies, the game ranges between 3 to 5 rounds of play. There is always a sense of urgency. 

Other than the home bases, both sides have captured 3 other cities.

Major Persian invasion through land. 

This card is very helpful to the Persians. For one battle, their die roll is not capped at 4. 

Some cards are response cards which cancel other cards. 

Persia attempts an amphibious landing at Athens, defended by just one navy.


By the end of the game, neither Greek major cities had garrisons, but the Greek score was comfortably ahead. 

The Thoughts

300: Earth and Water is a compact and short game. This is not a casual player's game by any means. It is an entry level wargame. It is short, but not simple. There is luck in the die rolling and in the card draw. You need to be able to accept that. Life is unpredictable. You do your best to manage what life deals you. You take the macro view and do not fixate on any specific battle or event. Luck averages out somewhat. You do what you can to improve your odds. I like that the card draw makes each game a little different. Not all of your events will occur, because some would be drawn by your opponent. When you get more familiar with the cards, you advance to a higher level of play, planning for what may come and also using your opponent's knowledge of that to bluff. 300 is a succinct and flavourful game with good strategic depth.