Point Salad

I must say the name of the game did not inspire confidence. The term "point salad" has a negative connotation to me. It reminds me of soulless games which are a mishmash of different ways to score points. I want to play a game. I do not want to play the role of an Excel formula trying to maximize numbers. I played my first game of Point Salad with a little trepidation.

The Game

This is a pure card game in which you collect vegetables and also scoring criteria which help you score points based on those vegetables. A turn is super simple. You are just taking a card from the centre of the table to add to your collection. Everyone takes a card until all cards are gone, and then you score points to see who wins. 

The game is set up like this: three draw decks and six face-up vegetables. Depending on the number of players, some cards will be randomly removed from the game. In this game the card backs all have a scoring condition, and the card fronts are vegetables. On your turn when you take a card, you can take any of the six vegetables, or you take a scoring condition at the top of one of the draw decks.  If you take a vegetable, you must refill that spot with a card from the draw deck of the same column. This means the scoring condition previously available is now converted to a vegetable, and you have a new scoring condition. 

The scoring conditions vary greatly. Some give you points per a specific vegetable type. Some give you points per set of specific vegetables. Some give you points for certain vegetables but penalises you for others. Some give points based how many you have compared to other players, for example when you have the least, or when you have the most of a certain vegetable. 

The Play

What you do on your turn is super simple. You are just picking a card. But which card? That is a juicy decision. First there is the tricky balance between collecting vegetables and scoring conditions. You need both to score points. Collect too many scoring cards, and you may have difficulties fulfilling them all. Collect too few, and you may not be competitive. You still need the vegetables to fulfil the scoring conditions. When a vegetable you need turns up, but there is also a scoring card which matches your collection well, you will be forced to make a difficult decision. And this is just things that affect only you. You also need to watch your opponents. If there is a scoring card that is going to help your opponent a lot, you might be forced to take it. Well, you don't necessarily have to take the scoring card itself. You may take a vegetable in the same column, and that scoring card will be flipped over to become a vegetable. Sometimes you also want to stop your opponents from collecting certain vegetables. You only have one simple action every turn, but there can be a lot to consider behind that one simple action. 

The Thoughts

Technically, I guess you can still call this a point salad game, because indeed there are many ways to score points. And yes, if you look at the various ways of scoring points, they seem to be pretty arbitrary and general. You've seen these kinds of scoring criteria is many games. Yet, Point Salad turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I not only did not dislike it, I truly enjoyed it. I like the difficult decisions it presents. You need to carefully balance between collecting scoring conditions and vegetables. You also need to watch you opponents. There are many factors in play. And yet the game is short and succinct. It is not the kind of tedious cube conversion exercise that many point salad games are. So this gets a thumbs up from me. 

Isn't this just a relaxed daily life? （てか、ただのゆるい日常じゃないですか!）

The Game

This is a game entry I submitted to the BoardGameGeek database. I Googled the meaning of the original Japanese title and submitted the English translation - Isn't this just a relaxed daily life? That's quite a mouthful indeed. I'm going to just call it Relaxed Daily Life. This is a simple card game. The three main characters in the game are the policeman, the thief and the rich musician. The policeman wants to catch the thief. The thief wants to steal from the musician. The musician wants to bribe the policeman. They have a rock-paper-scissors relationship. To win the game, you need to collect a main character and help him catch his target. 

You have a hand size of three. On your turn you play a card then draw a card. There are 16 different characters in the game and they have different powers. E.g. peeking at an opponent's cards, swapping cards with an opponent, skipping the next player, reversing the direction of play and protecting yourself for a full round. Some powers are actually handicaps, e.g. one card can never be played, which means you may be forced to play another card which you normally wouldn't want to play. After you play a card, it is placed in front of you and added to your collection. Everyone can see what cards are out. 

The game mechanism of the main characters is interesting. You need to have played two cards of the same main character before you in order to use his power. When you use the power, you are attempting to win the game. You pick another player, and if that player has the target of your main character, whether in front of him or in hand, you win. For example you have played the second policeman card. You want to pick a player who has a thief, whether before him or in his hand. If you fail to catch the thief, you discard the second played card, but you still keep the first card in front of you. This is dangerous, because that policeman card is vulnerable to the musician. The second card requirement means if you attempt to win, you are also taking a risk. Playing main characters is not to be taken lightly. 

If the deck runs out before any main character manages to catch his target, you need to check the secondary victory conditions. There are four rare cards in the game. Whoever has more wins. If there is a tie, the player with the most main character cards wins. 

The Play

This is a party style game. I am probably making it sound more strategic that it is. This is a straightforward game and you don't really need to think very hard. The game is in Japanese so if it is your first time (and you don't read Japanese) it will be a little cumbersome to play. You need to regularly refer to a cheat sheet. Some of the characters are of the same animal type, e.g. there are two bears, and two cats too. So on my cheat sheet I needed to differentiate the two types of bears and cats. Still, this is a simple game. Once you get familiar with the characters, it plays smoothly. 

There is a big dose of luck. Whether you draw a main character is luck. Whether you attack the right person is often also luck. Many of the card powers do let you do things which reduce the luck element. But then whether you get good cards is also luck. That said, since this is a casual and relaxing game, luck is not an issue. The card powers do give you some control, so you don't feel it is the game playing you. You still get to make meaningful decisions and take useful actions. 

Main characters have a black border.

I made a reference sheet. 

The Thoughts

Relaxed Daily Life is a light and casual game. It has the kind of attack cards which casual gamers like. Or perhaps I should say publishers making casual games think casual gamers like this kind of attack cards. I like the game mechanism around the three main characters. You need to hold on to cards, gather information, and wait for the right time to attempt to win. You want to minimise risk and maximise your odds of winning. 

In recent years I am no longer easily impressed with heavy Eurogames. I have become more interested in clever and minimalistic Japanese-style games. Now that I have tried more and more of these, the halo effect of Japanese games is starting to wane. The earlier Japanese designs I got to play were mostly famous titles. I heard of them because they had gone through curation by boardgame reviewers and influencers. So they were generally good games. They gave me the impression that all Japanese games were good like they were. Now that I have played more Japanese games, I become more grounded. There are average games from Japan too, and also games which don't click with me. I don't mean to say I dislike Relaxed Daily Life. I do admire the game mechanism, even though it doesn't get me super excited. This game is a keeper for me, because my non-gamer friends who are fans of Japanese culture will like it. This is a nice souvenir from Japan. 

Imperial Miners

The Game

In Imperial Miners you develop your own mining complex over ten rounds of play, adding a mine every round. You get to activate the powers of a series of mines, and these powers do all sorts of things like earning money and scoring points. Every card in the game is a mine, and there are four levels. The level of a mine determines how deep it must be placed. Usually the deeper it is, the stronger the power. Also the deeper mines are more costly to build. 

You can only build a level 2 mine after you have a level 1 mine, because you need to dig further down from the level 1 mine. The same principle applies to level 3 and 4 mines. Every time you build a mine, you trigger its power. You trace a shortest path from there to the surface, and you also trigger the powers of every mine along the way. 

Player board

4-player setup

In addition to levels, mines are also divided into factions. Factions affect the powers of some mines. Along the edges of every mine card there are six half mine carts. Some contain gold. Mines are built next to other mines. When a half cart that contain gold lines up with another which also contains gold, you score points. So this is another aspect to consider when you develop your mining complex.

The Play

You need to do a lot of planning in this game. This is like a project manager’s heaven. Or hell. You need to work with what mine cards you draw, deciding which to build, where to build them, how to create effective activation paths. You need to plan for generating income so that you can afford to build the right mines every round. There are many factors to consider. Every round there is one event which affects everyone. Often these are opportunities you want to utilise.

Event card

These are called progress charts. Some actions allow you to move your token along these tracks. Whenever you do this, you gain some benefit. If you manage to reach the top, you get a handsome reward. After that, you get to pick another track and start doing the progression again. 

There isn’t a lot of player interaction. You are kept busy enough with your own mining complex. This is a tableau game. You want to collect mines which combo well. Usually mines of the same faction work well together. The interesting challenge in this game is how to plan your activation path every round.

The Thoughts

This is a complex development game. There are many elements you need to consider and you make plans meticulously. This is the kind of game many heavy Eurogame lovers like. I didn’t like that there is little player interaction. There is a lot of work to keep you busy and engaged, but for me I didn’t find much which is new or interesting.

Seven Vice

Seven Vice is a micro game from Japan. It is a set collection game. Cards come in seven colours. If you collect four cards of the same colour you score 1 point. If you collect seven colours you score 2 points. To win the game you need to score 3 points.

You have a hand size of one. On your turn you draw a card and play a card, exactly like Love Letter. The card you play is added to your collection in front of you. You also use the power of the card. The card powers are the main attraction of the game. They help you collect sets. They also help you stop your opponents. Some powers let you steal others’ cards. One power forces a card swap. One power lets you take an extra turn. One power gives you a random card. All these powers are simple.

The art is in a Japanese comics style

This is a straightforward game that non gamers can easily learn. At the moment there is only a Japanese edition so it’s a little troublesome to learn if you don’t know Japanese. The game comes with English rules but the cards are in Japanese only. 

This is a very Japanese minimalistic style game. After trying it, I feel it is just okay, because I have played many similar games. So there is nothing new and interesting for me. However I must say the powers are well designed. Some allow players to suddenly catch up. Some allow leader bashing. So there are moments of surprise as you play. You also have good player interaction. 

Boardgaming in photos: about Malaysia and holidays

Once in a while I do a gathering with Ruby, Edwin and Benz, my ex-colleagues. This time Xiaozhu had a last-minute matter to attend to and couldn't join us. I asked them to help me playtest Malaysian Holidays. They are all big fans of Japan, so when the Japan destination card came out, everyone was keen to score it. 

I initiated a small collaboration project with fellow designers and publishers in Malaysia, to help one another promote and sell games. I place some of my games with them, and they place some of theirs with me. Whenever I attend any boardgame related event or gathering, or even on some private occasions, I bring a bag of local-published games to sell. Doing boardgame publishing in Malaysia is difficult. You wouldn't be doing it if not for a great passion for boardgames. The market in Malaysia is tiny. It is underdeveloped. There are Malaysian gamers. Most play international games and not many pay attention to local games. I was one such gamer myself. Local designers and publishers need to work together to grow the local market. 

A gamer from Belarus visited Malaysia, and bought a copy of Dancing Queen. I'm always excited to learn that Dancing Queen has reached yet another country. Even I have not been to Belarus. 

Those few days after the designer diary of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was released on BoardGameGeek, I received several international orders. They kept me busy packing games and making post office runs. I'm happy to be able to sell my games internationally. The effects of publishing this designer diary remind me that I need to do a better job at marketing my games. A big part of doing publishing well is marketing, and I know it is one of my weaknesses. Also it is not exactly what I enjoy doing. Just that I know I should be doing it. I still hope to find good publishers for my games. I would prefer to let people with the skills and the reach to do it than to do it myself. I enjoy doing the game design and development part. 

One first time experience for me was selling to a gamer from Saudi Arabia. Being able to sell Ali Baba, an Arabian themed game, to a buyer from Saudi Arabia is a wonderful feeling. 

I had the joy of playing again No Thanks. This is a game from 2004, which was roughly when I got into the hobby. I remember first playing it using cards from Category 5 (6 Nimmt). I also remember playing a copy at Witch House in Taiwan. For many years I never properly owned this game. Only last year I bought the latest version. Now it comes with expansions. I have not yet played the expansions. I find even the base game great fun. We did a 6 player game.

In this game you want to minimise taking cards, because the numbers on the cards are all negative points. Every round a card is revealed and when your turn comes, you either take it or pay money to a pool. Money is positive points. The pool will grow. When you take a card, you take the money in the pool too. So at some point the pool will be attractive enough for people to be willing to take the card. Sometimes someone will run out of money and will be forced to take the card. The important twist in the game is when you have consecutive numbers, only the lowest number in the sequence counts. If you have the 24, you do not fear the 25. The 25 card does not affect you, but it's minus 25 points to others. You will be happy to let others contribute a ton of money to the pool before you take the card. It's a simple game, but very clever. 

This is a game design I am working on - Sabah Honeymoon. This is my entry for a game design competition run by an organisation based in Singapore which promotes trade and tourism in Sabah. I come from Sabah, so I was excited to learn about a competition which is about my home state. This time I decided I needed to make a game with a board. I feel to make a game about tourism, having a map makes the game more relatable. 

Buddhima and Jon helped me playtest Sabah Honeymoon and gave me several good suggestions. 

My old friends Ah Chung and Moh Yen helped me playtest Malaysian Holidays. I have two works in progress related to holidays. I have decided that Malaysian Holidays will proceed to publication. I hope this can be released in 2025 too. However this publishing project may be a little different from my previous games. Hopefully it works out. 

Malaysia is a country with many public holidays. I wanted to make a game which is relatable for Malaysians, and I thought this topic of public holidays would be great. On social media, every year near the end of the year there will be people doing analyses about the public holidays of the following year. They list public holidays which fall on Mondays and Fridays, because these mean long weekends. They also list public holidays which fall on Tuesdays and Thursday, because by taking a one-day annual leave (on Mondays or Fridays) you can have a four-day stretch of holidays. You can plan traveling during these long weekends. This kind of thinking is common among Malaysians. The game aims to convey the joy of public holidays. Photo courtesy of Choon Ean. 

Dancing Queen on Dice Tower

The Dice Tower is the number 1 English-language boardgame media channel. My game Dancing Queen just turned up on their show, reviewed by Chris. This is an exciting moment for me, seeing my game on The Dice Tower. It wasn't a standalone review video. Dancing Queen was reviewed together with several other card games. 

The segment for Dancing Queen was short. When I watched it, my heart sank a little. The video says that you play your objective card face-up, and you play other cards face-down to try to fulfil your objective. The correct way to play is you play your objective card (called your lead dancer) face-down. A key point in Dancing Queen is you don't know what your opponent is trying to achieve, and you must observe and guess. This is how bluffing and feints come into play. If the lead dancer were face-up, the game wouldn't work. No wonder Chris didn't like the game.  

I hurriedly left a comment below the video to clarify. Chris responded quickly. It turned out that he did play the game correctly, just that he explained the game incorrectly in the video. The shot was taken at the end of a round, and that was why the lead dancers were face-up. 

I imagine The Dice Tower must be receiving tons of review copies of games. I'm happy that Dancing Queen stood out enough that they made time to introduce it. It's disappointing that it didn't click with them, but I need to learn to accept that not everyone will enjoy my games. I always appreciate it when people take time to try my games and share what they think. That is always precious and I always learn something. Sometimes when I send out review copies, the reviewer never mentions my games. I do ask beforehand whether they are interested, and I only send review copies if they are. Still, there are some whom I don't hear from anymore. I guess that's part of life being an indie publisher. I need to continue to work on marketing my games and getting exposure for them. 

The international edition of Dancing Queen will be released by Matagot in June. This will be an important opportunity for me to observe how an established international publisher does marketing and promotion. Got to keep learning.  

Dancing Queen segment on The Dice Tower here. 

Zenith

The Game

Zenith is a two-player (or two-teams-of-two) card game about exerting influence across the solar system. It will be released mid 2025, and it is already available on www.BoardGameArena.com. In addition to Earth, four other planets in the solar system are now colonised and populated. Your goal is to exert enough influence to form an interplanetary government. 

The main board shows five tracks representing the players’ influence. These are tugs of war.  You want to pull the tokens to your side of the board and your opponent tries to do the same to his side. When a token reaches your edge of the board, you claim that token. A new token is then placed at the middle of the track, and you start competing again for this new one. To win the game, you need to collect three tokens of the same colour, or four of different colours, or any five tokens.

On your turn, you just play a card and then refill your hand. A card can be used in three different ways. The basic usage is to pull a token towards you. Most cards have secondary effects, so you can gain something else in addition to pulling the token. Some effects are conditional so you want to play the card only when the condition is met, so that you gain more. The second way to use a card is to play it to advance yourself on a tech track. You gain some benefit, and this benefit is cumulative. When you advance further, you also claim benefits of all previous steps. The third way of using a card is to just exchange it for some resources, depending on the card type. 

Cards come in five different colours, one each for the five planets. The colour determines which planet you can influence. Cards also come in three types - humans, robots and animods. The type determines which tech track you can advance on and also what resource you can exchange the card for.

Cards you play to your side of the board stay there. This is an important part of the game. The cards you have in play give you a discount for the next card you play to the same planet. There are card powers which manipulate these played cards, e.g. discarding your opponent's cards, getting some free cards, and even stealing your opponent's cards. 

The Play

Zenith plays smoothly. There are many cards with many different powers and it is fun to see what you can do with your cards. You have two currencies to manage. Money is needed to pay for card plays to exert influence. Another premium currency zenithium is needed to advance on the tech tracks. Both currencies are tight and need to be managed carefully. There are five different colours and three card types, so you don’t always get what you need. That is an interesting challenge to manage.

One interesting mechanism is the leadership token. Some actions allow you to claim the leadership token, and when you control it, you can take take an action to upgrade it. The leadership token increases your hand size to five or six, depending on whether it is upgraded. This gives you more flexibility. There is only one leadership token in the game so you are fighting with your opponent over it.

There is some engine building in the tech track aspect of the game. If you invest effort in it, in the late game, the tech actions are very powerful. The tech tracks are not static. They can vary from game to game, so there is variability.

This is a resource management game. There is some luck in what cards you draw, and you do your best with what you get. It is an everchanging puzzle to figure out. At the same time you must watch your opponent and which planets he is aiming for. Although this is a game about maximising efficiency, sometimes you must sacrifice efficiency to prevent your opponent from sneaking in a early win. 

Hand size is 6 when you control an upgraded leadership token, but once your opponent steals it away, you go back to 4. 

The Thoughts

Zenith is a well polished mid-weight strategy game. Don't let the cartoonish box cover fool you. This is not a simplistic or light game. It has plenty of tactics to keep the gamer in you engaged. 

ito

The Game

Ito is a party game from Japan and supports up to 10 players. It's a huge success in Japan, having sold more than 350,000 copies. I decided to buy it and give it a try when I saw this number on the box. 

This is a pure card game. It has cards numbered 1 to 100, and also many topic cards. I'll describe how the game works beginning with this topic card below. 

Every round every player draws a number card. This is a cooperative game. Your common goal is to arrange your number cards in ascending order. You cannot tell what number you have or show your card. You must rely on the topic to convey how big or small your number is. Using the topic card above as an example, if your number is a small one, you want to say an imaginary world which you don't want to visit. If you get a big number, you want to say a world you are keen to visit. So the 1 to 100 is a measure between two extremes related to the topic. After everyone states an imaginary world, you arrange your cards face-down in a row, from small to large. You then reveal the cards to see whether you have made a correct arrangement. 

In a four-player game this is what the row of cards looks like. The coloured cards tucked below are just to indicate who has contributed which card. If you reveal the cards and they are in the correct order, you win. Otherwise, you lose. The rulebook doesn't say how many rounds you need to play. You can even play just one round. You play for as long as you wish. 

Failure

Success

The Play

The four-player game feels a little easy. I think the game will be more interesting and challenging with more players. The difficulty is also determined by the kind of cards you get. Even with four players, if one player gets 55 and another 56, it's going to be very hard to get these two right. You need a bit of luck. 

There are many topics to talk about. You need to think about not just any item. It has to be an item which reflects the number you have. This is not always easy to do. The game generates conversation on a wide range of topics. It's a good ice-breaker. I can use this for my training work. It lets you understand how your friends think. When you lose a round, there can be even more discussion because it means people value and see things differently. You find both similarities and differences among your friends.   

The Thoughts

This feels more like a group activity than a competitive game. Yes you can call it a cooperative game. It feels more like a group problem solving exercise. It is simple and easy for non gamers to get into. Perhaps it is not that important whether you want to call this a boardgame or a group activity. What's important is the group enjoys it. 

Schrage Vogel / Odd World / Weird Bird

The Play

Schrage Vogel is German for "weird bird". This game comes in a tiny tin box which looks like it's for mints. The game was first released in 2015, and it was called Odd World then. That edition featured different planets. I much prefer this newer artwork. 

This is a pure card game. Every card is a bird. There are 9 types, and they are numbered 1 to 9. The card backs are different, as you can see from the photo above. There are always two different birds on the card back. This tells you that the bird on the front is one of them. 

During the game you collect birds (cards). Every bird is worth one point. However for any bird type where the number of birds you have is an even number, these birds score nothing. This is a key point. 

During setup, everyone draws 3 cards. You reveal two of them, so that everyone knows what you have so far. The third is kept secret. Your opponents can see the card back so they know the two possibilities, but they don't know exactly which bird it is. There are two draw decks at the centre of the table. On your turn you have to decide two things - which deck to draw from (remember you can see the card back), and who to give the card to - yourself or another player. You must decide before looking at the front of the card. Every card is, by default, one point, so most of the time you want it for yourself. However if this might be the 2nd, 4th, 6th etc of a bird type you already have, maybe you want to give it to someone else. Or maybe this is going to hurt someone else and you want to give it to him even if it can benefit you. 

The game ends when one player has all 9 types of birds, and you compare points to see who wins. In case of a tie, whoever has more bird types wins. This means the person who collects all 9 types has an advantage. If there is still a tie, you check who has the most number of birds in a single type. 

The Play

The game takes about 10 minutes to play, so to gamers this is a filler. The early game seems overly simple. You'll mostly be taking cards for yourself. Only when you approach mid game then you realise there's more than meets the eye. If both the birds on a card back will cause you to have an even number of that bird type, then this is a card that will certainly hurt you. You probably want to give it to someone else, or take the other card. However, the pain might be temporary. Yes, that bird type is worth nothing now, but if you can get another one later, you're back in business! In the mid game, you can probably still gamble. In the late game, things become different again. You don't know your opponents' face-down bird, so you don't know exactly when the game will end. If you still have many bird types where the count is an even number, you'll be biting your nails. Near end game when you screw over an opponent, it will likely be hard for him to recover. So the temptation to sabotage others becomes bigger. It becomes almost irresistible when either bird on the back of a card will hurt an opponent. There is no risk of unintentionally giving him one point. 

I am making the game sound more complicated than it is. This really is a simple game, and even non gamers will quickly grasp these tactics. 

That face-down card at the bottom is my secret bird. It might be a 2, it might be a 6. If it is a 6, then I have two birds which are 6's, and I will score nothing for this bird type. Sometimes you can guess your opponents' secret birds through their actions. If I keep taking cards which are possibly 6's, my opponents will know my secret card is a 6. 

The Thoughts

I admire the mechanism in Schrage Vogel. Simple and clever. Because it's simple, this is a game that will work with non-gamers and children. 

Potato Tomato

The Game

Potato Tomato is a party game from Thailand. This is a social deduction game. You are either in Team Potato or Team Tomato. Your aim is to kill one member of the other team, after which your team wins. At the start of the game, you know which team you are on, but you don't know who else are on your team. The game is a process of working out who is friend and who is foe, and then killing off one foe in order to win. There's a twist - players may switch teams during the course of the game. 

You get five identity cards at the start of the game. An identity card is either potato or tomato. Depending on which ones you have more of, you belong to that team. During the game you might swap cards with others, and this is how you might switch to the other team. When you attack another player, you give fire tokens to your target. Anyone who accumulates 5 fire is forced to reveal one identity card. You lose once all five of your cards are revealed, and your team loses with you. 

On your turn, you draw cards from a small action deck. You keep drawing cards one by one for as long as you like. The cards come in four types - blue, green, blue + green, and grey. Every card specifies an action you can perform, so you want to draw more cards. However if you get to three green or three blue cards, you lose your actions and you are penalised instead. So this is push-your-luck. 

There are many types of actions. There are specific rules about how many cards of each colour should be in the action deck. The game gives you more cards than you need, allowing you to choose the mix of actions you want to play with. This action card above lets you swap one of your identity cards with another player. Note that any such swapping is limited to identity cards which are still face-down. Cards which have been revealed are locked. 

Players will attack one another and reveal one another's identity cards, until one person gets all cards exposed and loses together with his team. The game is a process if identifying your teammates then working together to defeat the other team. In case things go south, you may try to betray your team. 

The Play

This is a game with a lot of attacking. Randomly at first, maybe. Or maybe some people do have personal grudges. As you gradually work out who's on which team, your attacking will be more deliberate. I did a five player game. Being the guy who brings and teaches games comes with its occupational hazards. I'm often the first to get targeted in games like this. I told them to hold their horses because some of them might be on the same team as me. My initial cards were 3 potato and 2 tomato, so I was Team Potato. However it wasn't that hard for me to switch to Team Tomato. I only needed to swap one potato card with a tomato card. I was first to have cards exposed, but it didn't necessary mean they could be sure of my identity quickly. You need to reveal three cards of the same team to be sure of a player's identity. Even when you reveal four cards of the same person, they might be 2x potato and 2x tomato, and you still can't be sure. Also the player might still swap his last card. I find this rather clever. 

In our game, Alex and Danny were quick to work out that they were both in Team Tomato. I appeared to be on Team Potato from the cards initially revealed, so they came after me with enthusiasm. Seet Han was initially in Team Potato. He didn't come to my rescue, and instead switched teams and started attacking me too. Eventually Ong was my only ally. Team Potato had three of us and we probably could have worked together to kill Alex or Danny in time. Unfortunately I couldn't muster enough support (or sympathy). There can be some politicking in this game. 

The Thoughts

This is a highly interactive party game. There is a lot of "take that". The team mechanism is clever. There is a gradual build towards a climax as identities become more and more certain. The more information you have, the nearer you are to the end of the game. Sometimes you might be surprised with the results. The process of working out who's who is organic, sometimes confusing (because you forget which cards have been swapped with which other cards), but usually funny. Initially I wondered whether the game would be less fun or feel unfair when the number of players is odd, due to the number of members per team being unequal. Having played the game, this doesn't seem to be a problem. It is possible to jump ship. This feels more like an individual victory game than a team victory game, because teams are not fixed.