Soda Smugglers

 

Soda Smugglers is a game by Reiner Knizia. It is arguably a cleaner version of Sheriff of Nottingham. Saying this sounds a little disrespectful to both games. However you can't deny the similarity. The core idea is the same, just that the execution is a little different. 

The box opens this way. 

Every round, one player is the customs officer, and the others are travellers. As a traveller, it is legal to bring one bottle of soda. But that's only going to get you 1 point, and that's not a lot. You want to smuggle more bottles in order to score more points. Every round each traveller draws five cards. Cards in the game have 0 to 3 bottles of soda. Of your five cards, you will use only three. You reveal one face-up and offer it as a bribe to the officer. The other two are bags you intend to carry across the border. 

The officer may accept one of the bribes. That means the officer scores points, and the player whose bribe is accepted gets to score both his bags. The officer may peek at specific bags. Eventually the officer can decide to stop a player suspected of smuggling. That player's two suitcases are checked, and if he is indeed bringing in more than one bottle, the officer confiscates both the suitcases. However if his luggage is legal, the officer must pay him $2 instead. 

That's basically the game. Everyone gets to be the officer twice, and the game ends. Richest wins. 

Money in the game are bottle caps. 

One bribe, and two suitcases.

Officer action tokens for accepting a bribe, inspecting a bag, and making an arrest

This is a game about greed. If you want to get ahead, you need to be greedy. There is much player interaction because you will be persuading the officer to take your bribe and let you pass, or you will be persuading him to arrest the other guy, or maybe you will be trying to trick the officer into falsely accusing you so that he must pay you a fee. There are several possible scenarios. You may offer a handsome bribe and tell the officer that you are fair and you want everyone to win. You may offer a low bribe and explain that times are bad and you are already offering as much as you can afford. It might be true, or you might actually have two full bags of soda. Sometimes even if you offer a good bribe the officer might just decide to arrest you anyway simply because you are leading, or because he has a grudge. In that case, maybe you want to bring just one bottle and set a trap for him. This is a game with some player psychology. 

I would say Soda Smugglers is indeed more streamlined than Sheriff of Nottingham. However I didn't find Sheriff of Nottingham complicated. I thought it worked perfectly fine. Soda Smugglers is even easier to teach. This will work well with casual gamers and non gamers. 

Money!

A full bag!

boardgaming in photos: cats, Kyoto and Essen

This is a giant version of Counting Cats, the latest game from local Malaysian publisher Meja Belakang. Haireey is now using this copy to run game demos. It's a great idea. This is a game of literally counting cats. It is a children's game and casual game designed with his young son in mind. You want to be first to count correctly the number of cats of a specific type. So this is also a speed game. 

A Game of Cat & Mouth also features a cat on the cover. This is a 2-player dexterity game. 

You use a mini catapult which looks like a cat paw to fling balls into your opponent's court. If you get all the yellow balls in your opponent's court, you win. If you look closely, along the cat's mouth are three white balls that can be knocked off. If you get them all into your opponent's court, you win too. The cat's nose is a hole. There's supposed to be a black ball in it. This black ball is an instant win condition. If you knock that black ball off, you win immediately. 

I found out that Sekigahara is getting a digital version. I have not played this for a long time. It's a wonderful game. I should play again. I recently watched a Youtube video of the designer Matt Calkins talking about the game, and I found it very interesting. 

I'd love to say that my game Pilgrim Poker has gone to Essen, but that would be a misrepresentation. Helmer from Norway wanted to get a copy (and one more for Hilko), and asked whether I was going to Essen this year. I wasn't, unfortunately. However Jeff helped me to bring the games to Helmer. Now as a boardgamer, there is a golden rule - don't ask your gamer friends to bring games back from Essen for you, because gosh they are going to have lots of games they want to bring back too. But bringing games to Essen, that is acceptable to ask. 

I got this lovely postcard when I was at the TOBE game fair in Taipei. I don't remember how I got it though. I think Michelle got it when I was doing demos of my games. This may not look like it is boardgame related, but if you look closely, this Guesthouse Bokuyado in Kyoto is a guesthouse that offers boardgames! If you are a gamer and you have plans to visit Kyoto, check them out! 

Red Notice

Red Notice is a two player game of cat and mouse. The criminal and the international police agent race around the globe. The criminal wins by cashing in a total of 1,000,000 in cheques. The agent wins by catching the criminal a third time. 

The world map is divided into six regions. The location of the agent is public information. However, that of the criminal is secret. The criminal’s location is only exposed when she performs certain actions. The agent knows where she is at that point in time, but when she starts moving again, her location becomes hidden again. 

During the game both agent and criminal are able to collect cheques. Cheques are the winning condition for the criminal. They come in specific colours and they can only be cashed in in matching regions. Whenever the criminal cashes in a cheque, her exact location is exposed. The agent also gains a benefit, for example a permanent road block. The agent can cash in cheques too, and she gains a benefit whenever she does so. As the game progresses, the agent gets more and more advantages that help her catch the criminal. 

This action board is how players compete to perform actions. Every round you have three tokens to place. You have your own pool of tokens, and this pool is the same as your opponent's. However every round the three tokens you draw are random. You can place your token next to any of the four action cards and on either side. Tokens are placed face-down and they are only revealed after all have been placed. You compare your token values against your opponent's. If you have the same value, you each perform only the action shown on your side of the card. If you have a higher value, you get to perform the actions on both sides, but your opponent still performs the action on their side. If only you have a token next to a card, you perform both actions. Your opponent doesn't get to perform any, since they don't have a token at all. 

Now there is a Pow token, which beats all number tokens. If you have played this, you remove your opponent's token. So you will get to perform both actions, and your opponent none. 

The actions in the game are moving, drawing cheques, cashing in cheques and security related actions. On the action cards there is also a wild icon. If you win that, you can choose any action. The security action differs between players. The agent can set up road blocks or radars. Radars cover a whole region. When the criminal enters a region, the alarm goes off, and the radar is removed. When the criminal performs the security action, she collects security action points. These action points can later be used to disable radars and roadblocks. 

In the screenshot above you can see black and white radars (large discs) and roadblocks (crosses). The white ones are the normal ones. Black ones are permanent and they come from the agent's upgraded abilities. This screenshot above is the perspective of the criminal, because you can see the criminal (purple pawn) in South America. The agent is the orange pawn and she is in Africa. 

This is a game in which the tension keeps building. I played the criminal first, and I felt the pressure escalate. At first I felt it was a little unfair. Why did the agent get upgrades regardless of who cashed in a cheque? Why was the net closing in on me and I had no relief at all? Only after having played more I understood this was a better balance, in addition to being more exciting. The only time the criminal gets any relief is when she is caught for the first and second times. You have two identity cards you can burn when you are caught, and they give you some actions, e.g. moving to a new location ignoring roadblocks and radars. Being the criminal was a tense experience. I had to work hard to stay ahead of the agent. The cheques I drew somewhat determined where I needed to go. But some places were riskier than others, and sometimes I decided not to even attempt certain regions. 

Strictly speaking there was no time pressure. I could play carefully and keep a safe distance away. Although the agent gained an upgrade whenever either of us cashed in a cheque, there was no other mechanism that forced me to rush. Sometimes it was the temptation to rush for the win that made me take risks. 

The action selection mechanism creates unpredictability. You can't plan your actions precisely. You don't know when your opponent will play the Pow token. You need to put some thought into placing those tokens. 

When I switched to play the agent, I realised how difficult it was to catch the criminal. I should have been more aggressive in cashing in cheques myself, to build my arsenal of weapons. There is much variety in the agent's tools, which can create different board situations. The criminal has several different identities, but only two will be used each game. These create replayability. I think it is fair to call this the grown up and married version of Scotland Yard. 

Playtesting: Inheritance and others

I recently started working on a prototype called Inheritance. What lead to this idea was a game Buddhima showed me. It was a game from Taiwan in which players had to close their eyes, and the sense of touch was used. I thought it would be interesting to try making a game that limited sight, and used touch. I had another prototype that did both, but it didn't seem interesting. It just felt like Werewolf. As I toyed further with the idea, I thought about how people in a coma could still hear the people around them talking, and sometimes they hear the truth and learn the true nature of these people. 

The backstory of Inheritance is something out of Hong Kong TV dramas. The rich business tycoon has just suffered a stroke, and he knows he needs to name a successor in his will. But who should he hand his business empire to? Is that person capable enough to run the business? Is the person loyal to the family business? Is that person his trueborn son or daughter, or in the case of possibly handing the reins to his wife, has she been faithful in their marriage? The tycoon has a secret goal, e.g. he may want to give the company to a person who is capable, and he doesn't care about any other factors. Each potential heir has a secret goal too. Most of the time they just want to be named successor. However sometimes there is someone who just wants to see the world burn. They win if the company is given to someone who is either disloyal or incompetent. 

The heirs have default traits - whether they are capable, loyal or trueborn (or faithful). For example the first wife is capable and faithful, but she is not loyal to the family business. However these default traits may not be the true traits, because of trait cards that are drawn by each heir. The default traits are only what appear on the surface.

An heir's trait cards are placed face-down before them. Heirs can peek at trait cards of other heirs, and openly discuss (*cough* accuse). They can reveal their own cards. They can reveal cards of other heirs. They can give cards to other heirs, potentially modifying their traits. Heirs will jostle to influence and expose one another's traits, and try to convince the tycoon to name them successor. Every round, the tycoon has only one opportunity to look at one trait card of one heir. After that he must write his will. At the end of every round, the tycoon rolls a die to see whether he suffers a second stroke. If he does, he... well... the game ends. The will is read, all goals and traits are revealed. The player or players who fulfil their goals win. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the reactions of my friends who playtested this with me. They loved the drama and the roleplaying. Whoever played the tycoon had to speak unintelligibly, and maybe drool a little. I am excited to work on this. It still has several problems that need to be fixed. I am only testing the four player game now. I need to get this to work at four players before I further develop it for other player counts. I hope this project goes far and eventually gets to a publishable state.  

ButtonShy Games is running their annual competition, with a theme of fear. I thought about using the Shaolin 18 Bronze Men. This would be perfect because ButtonShy makes 18-card games! The fear would be that of Shaolin apprentices facing the formidable 18 Bronze Men, a team of elite warrior monks who assess your martial prowess. This is fictitious and it is from Chinese martial arts novels. The real Shaolin Temple has a fighting technique with a similar name, but it is not the same thing. I playtested my prototype, but it didn't seem interesting. I'm not sure I will continue working on this. 

Jon's potential entry for this competition is more promising. And it is difficult to win. It is a cooperative game about not drawing the ghost card and stripping the deck until only the ghost card remains. It is a challenging puzzle. Players cannot communicate. You try to avoid having to draw a card without knowing what to expect, because it just might be the ghost.  

This is Haireey's racing game prototype. It has been through quite a number of versions. This is a game with some Magical Athlete vibes. I have played two of the most recent versions, and they are a little different. I like both. The earlier one is a bit more strategic. You need to decide which die roll ranges to bet on. Different ranges have different probabilities. Two dice are rolled. Safer bets mean a higher likelihood of moving your car, but it won't move far. If you go for riskier bets, a successful roll means moving far. 

The latest prototype has 3D printed buses by Hwa Siang. 

The the most recent prototype, the core movement mechanism is changed. Every turn only the active player gets to move, and everyone else tries to guess how far he will try to move. Everyone plays a card at the same time. The active player gets to move, but the movement range is reduced based on how many other players guess the correct number. 

The most fun part of the game are the unique player powers. Every player gets to use two powers and they all sound crazy. They are always on powers. One of my powers forces other players starting from  the same space to move backwards instead. 

Rasis brought a new version of his rice field game, Sawah Padi. I have played earlier versions of this, and it is nice to see how the design has improved. The grasshoppers, birds and scarecrows are all still here, but they are handled a little differently. 

The buttons are rice planted by players. If there is a grasshopper in a field, the rice score nothing. The same happens if there is a bird. However if you have both bird and grasshopper, the bird prefers eating the grasshopper and the rice is spared. Scarecrows defeat birds, but they don't help with grasshoppers. 

This is Red Chamber Rummy. It has found a publisher. The plan is Specky Studio will publish both this and Rebels of the Three Kingdoms. They will be part of a set, as both are based on well-known Chinese literary works. I am very happy with how Malaysian Holidays turned out. That was my first collaboration project with Specky Studio, with me being purely game designer and them taking the publisher role. My next two games will be illustrated by the same artist, Lim Chi Qing, and I eagerly look forward to her art. 

This photo above is a horrible hand. 0 (Jia Baoyu) is normally a useful card, but when you have four of them that's not helpful. This is not poker! 

I playtested with Allen and Yee Ling, and we tried the base game and both the main variants. The duplicate meld variant was fun. We made good use of the bonus for making melds that have already been played. At one point I played the 4th set of the 39 meld. A humble 1-point meld was now worth 4 points instead (see below)!

The storytelling variant is a little more complicated and there are more components to manage. I am still thinking about whether the fun is worth the effort. It is novel though. With this variant, every time you make a meld, you check it off a list. The melds in the game are chapters in Dreams of the Red Chamber. Checking off a meld means that chapter has been written. At specific points, e.g. the 4th chapter being written, or the 6th chapter, whoever plays that meld scores a bonus. These bonuses create opportunities and dilemmas for the players. If you have a not-yet-played meld, should you wait and only play it when it will score a bonus? But keeping cards in your hand also means you are potentially sacrificing an opportunity to make more melds. 

Fetz the Hungry Dragon

Jon said I’d probably like Fetz, because it’s a lying game. It is true that many of the games I design have some form of deceit. I like that kind of psychological play. I like having a bit of gaming the people in games and not only problem solving. Fetz is a game from Thailand and it is the best party game winner of the 2026 Thailand Board Game Awards. 

The game box unfolds to become the game board

In Fetz you are all feeding the dragon. Whatever you manage to feed will be worth points. When you feed, you declare what it is without showing anyone. Others can challenge you if they don’t think you are feeding the dragon what you say. If you are caught lying, the food is discarded, instead of being fed to the dragon. Successfully feeding the dragon means you get to keep the cards you play for game end scoring. If no one has challenged you, you keep those cards face down. If someone has challenged you and you have been truthful, the cards would have been revealed and they stay face up in front of you.

A big part of the game is stock price manipulation. There are five kinds of animals you can feed to the dragon. Each animal fed will be worth between 1 to 5 points at game end. During the game you keep track of how many of each type has been fed. The animal type that has been fed the most will be worth the fewest points. Tracking this is based on what have been successfully fed, and that includes sets of cards which players declare are a certain animal type but are not inspected by others. If a certain animal type looks like it will be worth a lot of points, you can attempt to feed several at one go, and declare it as another type. If no one inspects, you will have gotten away with scoring many points without devaluing that animal type. If you are always truthful about what you feed, while you do score points, you may also be devaluing the animal you are feeding. This is why there is incentive to lie. 

The game board is mainly for keeping track of how many times each animal has been fed to Fetz. There is also a reference sheet to tell you how many cards to use for different player counts. 

There is one animal type you can’t feed the dragon - snakes. Snakes are an interesting part of the game. Each is -2 points. They are considered jokers. If you declare three sheep and someone challenges you, only to find two sheep and one snake, you are considered to be truthful. You get to feed the two sheep, which means you keep them before you. The challenger takes the snake. If you use a snake but no one challenges you, you will take the snake yourself, and you must reveal the snake. When you play a snake, you hope someone will challenge you and take the snake away. Else you will be taking it. 

The game is played until the deck runs out. You can roughly keep count of the cards. Snakes are always revealed so you know exactly how many are left. For the other animal types, since unchallenged cards are kept face-down, you don't know for sure. 

I found the game to be mostly about stock price manipulation and only partly about lying. I wonder whether it was because other players were aggressive in challenging one another and catching one another, that I didn't feel I need to lie a lot. When they got caught often, their progress slowed, and I was able to go sure and steady. I tried to be truthful most of the time, and I could steadily collect animals. There is some chaos in how the animal values will develop. It is a collective thing. As the game progresses, you become more careful in managing the animal values, trying to keep animals of high value, or trying to devalue other animals so that yours will become higher valued. 

I didn't like the game as much as Jon predicted. It might be due to the way I played. I played in a careful, calculated way, as opposed to a daring and risky way. I didn't have to lie much. I can certainly imagine if the game was close, we would need to lie, and lie skilfully. You want to trick people into inspecting your cards which include snakes. You also want to sneak some cards through without devaluing them. The art makes the game look like a silly rowdy game, but it is not as simple as it looks. 

Golden Meeple

 

Yay, I have a Golden Meeple! This is my avatar on BoardGameGeek.com. I recently received a GeekMail informing me that I have a new achievement microbadge - the Golden Meeple. This is for reaching 10,000 likes. I've been on BGG since August 2003. I used to upload many files - my concise reference sheets. That is why I have that fourth microbadge, Herculean file uploader. I didn't realise getting 10K likes would take 23 years. In the age of social media, I would have expected likes to be much more abundant. At the time of writing, 3812 BGG users have this microbadge. The next level up is 100,000 likes. I don't think I'll live to see that! 

The Wolves

This is one very eye catching box cover! Ba-dum-tss! The game title is as literal as can be. You play a pack of wolves, and you compete with other wolf packs to be the dominant one on the map. You get to experience the life of a wolf, and all this is done using several clever mechanisms. 

The map is divided into regions, and there are five terrain types. Those six peripheral regions have tokens with quarter, half and full moons. These are the countdown mechanism in the game and one of the ways you score points. Certain actions like recruiting lone wolves to your pack, recruiting wolves from other players to your pack and stealing other players' dens advance the countdown. At certain points in the game these regions will score points based on who has the strongest presence. This aspect of the competition is related to the tempo of the game. 

The game has an interesting core mechanism, and it is related to the six double sided terrain cards every player has a set of. One of them has the same terrain on both sides, and that's the terrain your wolf pack is strongest in. In this example above I am the tundra wolf pack and I am strongest on snow fields. You get to perform two actions on your turn, and performing actions require that you flip between 1 to 3 terrain cards of the same type. All your actions are related to terrain. When you move your wolves, the terrain card you flip determines what kind of terrain they will move to. When you build a den, the terrain cards you flip determine where that den can be placed. It must also be next to one of your alpha wolves. If you don't have a certain terrain face-up, you can't do anything on such terrain. You need flip another card so that you get this terrain face-up. Or if the action you want to perform requires flipping two cards, and you only have one required terrain face-up, you are also stuck. This is the challenge the game poses. You have to plan cleverly what to do and what terrains to do them on, so that you eventually get to perform all the actions you want. You know what's on the other side of each of the terrain cards. 

Your player board is important. A big part of the game is engine building. Yes, I know it sounds weird to talk about wolf packs and engines at the same time. You start the game with many game pieces on your player board. As you perform certain actions, these pieces will be moved to the main map. This unlocks abilities and gives you bonuses. This also gives you points. When you build dens, you can increase the movement range of your wolves, you can increase the number of wolves you get to move per action, and you can increase the influence range of your alpha wolves (called their howl range). 

Wolves hunt in packs. There are five types of prey on the board, and you can score many points by hunting them. To hunt down a prey, you need to have your wolves on three different spaces surrounding the prey. 

This calendar is your countdown timer. Those wolf head coins represent lone wolves when on the map. If your alpha wolves howl near them, you get to recruit them to your pack. You get to place a new wolf on the map, and that coin is moved to this calendar. The moon icons indicate the times when specific regions will be scored. Other than lone wolves, the countdown can also be advanced by poaching wolves from other players and stealing their dens.  

There can be a mean streak in the game, because of how you can steal wolves and dens from other players. This is not easy to do though, and there are ways you can defend against it. To steal a wolf or a den from another player, the action is called Dominate. To do it, you need three terrain cards of the same type. This is only possible with your dominant terrain type. If your opponents want to avoid getting Dominated by you, they just avoid placing dens or regular wolves on your dominant terrain. Only regular wolves can be converted, not alphas. Another way to stay safe is to have two pieces on the same space. You are not 100% safe relying on terrain only. One type of bonus in the game is the terrain token. When you have such a token, you can spend it and treat it as any terrain card. This way, you can steal an opponent piece with 2 terrain cards which are not your dominant terrain, and 1 terrain token. You can even do it with 1 terrain card and 2 terrain tokens. Terrain tokens are hard to come by though, so you probably don't want to spend them like this. 

Right from the get go, you have many options. There are several different ways to grow your pack and score points. You can't do everything, and you will choose to focus on some. In one game I lost out in competing for area majority in the regions, but still did pretty well because I advanced in other areas. I like that when you advance in the various areas, they are not just a mechanism for scoring points. They do affect how effective your pack is. You do want to be able to mobilise more wolves, and to have them move further. This makes the game feel real and thematic. 

I was the blue wolf pack and many of my wolves and dens were stolen by others. Animals! 

I enjoyed The Wolves. It's a mid weight strategy game. It's thematic. It has a clever mechanism. You feel there are many things you want to do, and you are forced to prioritise. You have to plan smart and get your terrain cards on the right side. Scheduling your terrain flipping well to be able to achieve several goals through a few consecutive turns is rewarding. The engine building part of the game is satisfying. You grow your wolf family, and you stand proud at its head. 

I have maxed out my prey type and wolf speed.