Furmation of Rome

The Game

Furmation of Rome is a light card game for 2 to 4 players. Rome is being established, and you are one of the leaders building the city state. As you build the nation, you are also competing to be the most influential. Whoever can obtain the support of the most citizen classes will become the first emperor of Rome. 

There are six citizen classes - consul, clergy, legionary, philosopher, farmer and brigand. Each has a different token. 

Depending on the number of players, you will remove certain cards. For example monuments are used for 3 players or more. Brigands are used only for 4 players. The number of cards in each citizen class is important information, and you can look up those number on these reference cards. 

Citizens in the 6 classes

A player turn is simple - you play a card and you take a card. When playing a card, you can use it in one of two ways. You either place it before you to make it your supporter, or you discard it to use the power written on it. Players compare the number of supporters they have in all classes, and the token always goes to whoever has the most supporters (cards) in the specific citizen class. Using the power of a card means not being able to keep the card as your supporter, but sometimes the powers are very helpful and can turn the tide. 

When you take a card, you choose from three face-up cards at the centre of the table. It is not a blind draw from the deck. You get to choose. However your opponents can see what you have picked. 

The game ends after the deck runs out and all cards at the centre have been taken. You play all your hand cards as supporters, and then do scoring. Every token you have is 1 point. The player with the most points wins. 

With three or four players, the monuments come into play. If you have the monument and also fulfil the requirement of having three specific citizens, it scores 1 point for you. 

Brigands are used only when you have four players. These "supporters" are not played into your own supporters area. Instead they are "gifted" to an opponent. At game end, the player holding the brigand token loses 1 point. There is aggression in this game. Trailing players can gang up on the apparent leader by using brigands. 

This is a two-player game setup. There are three face-up cards at the centre of the table. You always pick a card here when you refill your hand. Your starting hand is three cards. There is a mistake here. With two players, brigands are not in play, so there should not be any brigand token. 

The Play

Gameplay is simple and smooth. On your turn, you are just playing a card and picking a card. Which classes to compete in somewhat depends on your initial draw of cards. How well you can compete depends on what cards become available at what time. You must also consider who else is competing with you. This is an area majority game. That means you can't fight everywhere. You have to pick your battles. If you try to be everywhere, you will lose everywhere and end up with nothing. You would be spreading your resources too thin. Whether to make a card your supporter or to use its power can be tricky. A supporter seems to be more permanent and reliable. Yet sometimes the powers can be highly impactful. Some of the powers are offensive in nature, so there is a take-that element. There will be some politicking among the players. Being able to play the look-weak game can be an advantage. 

How many citizens there are in every class is open information. The whole deck will be used, so you can count cards. If you want to secure a class, you have to control more than half of the citizens of that class. This seems pretty absolute. However, some powers will throw your calculation and planning off. 

The Thoughts

Furmation of Rome is the first published game from Malaysian game designer Poon Jon. I got to know Jon through TTGDMY (Tabletop Game Designers of Malaysia) and we have been playtesting each other's games for some time. I've always felt he is a designer with good design sense. He is sharp. I admire his work and always look forward to try something from him.

I have played Furmation of Rome when it was still in development. Now that it has made its way all through to production, I am pretty excited to hold it in my hands. This is a well crafted and well thought out game, not just a random take-that game. The game is simple enough that casual players will be able to handle it and have fun with it. For seasoned gamers, they will be able to appreciate the intricacies and the thought that has gone into the design. It is still a light game, but it's nevertheless a strategy game with meaningful player interaction. 

I've got my copy. Have you got yours? 

BOXCON 2024 KLIA2

22 - 23 Jun 2024 was the 2024 BOXCON. This time it was done at a smaller scale, and it was done at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 2. It was the airport management which reached out to the boardgame circle to invite us to have an event. They contacted Gray of Kaki Tabletop. I've never been an exhibitor at an airport, so I was keen to try it out. 

I brought two mobile phone stands to display my games. My box sizes were just nice for these stands. That highlighted box of Dancing Queen was just below a spotlight. Perfect! 

The other game I brought was Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs. This event did not target gamers, so I did not bring games to be playtested. The audience was travelers, and we expected they would not have a lot of time or interest to sit down to play. I only brought published games that I could sell. No prototypes. However I did have a setup to allow visitors to try the games, if they had time. 

This was the first time I used the counter display unit of Snow White. I asked elder daughter Shee Yun to help me assemble these. Later after she assembles more I will pass them to the distributor to be distributed to the retail stores. The CDU is meant for retail stores. Snow White has a small box so it is not very visible. The CDU hopefully will make it more visible, and hopefully that leads to more sales. 

I managed to teach Dancing Queen to new players quite many times at this event, and that was satisfying. It feels great to see people appreciate the game and the nuances. This couple came all the way from KL to visit the exhibition. They were not travelers who happened to stop by. Thank you for supporting Dancing Queen!

Tim (right) was there too. 

Most exhibitors were local game designers. We also had some game retailers. 

Gray is the main guy behind the event. He had just recently done another game expo at Great Eastern Mall.

Group photo before we packed up at the end of Day 2. 

It was a smaller event this time, but I enjoyed catching up and exchanging ideas with fellow game designers and enthusiasts. 

boardgaming in photos: Snow White goes to Ipoh

8 May 2024. HELP University ran an open day welcoming secondary school students to their campus. It was a festival-like event, and vendors were invited to set up stalls. I was invited and I thought why not try going to a new type of event. It was a Wednesday, and I had time that day. The attendees were mostly secondary school students, so this was not specifically a boardgame or game audience. 

I met a lecturer that day who had designed her own card game to be used as a teaching tool. When she saw me selling card games too, she came over for a chat. Events are opportunities to meet people. That's another plus. 

I taught two of the students Dancing Queen. I was also able to showcase Snow White that day. When taking photos, I asked the students to do the Cili Padi Games hand sign with me. 

A player in Ipoh saw Snow White at Book Xcess, and took a photo to show me. That was so kind. Book Xcess stuck the price sticker on top of the title of the game, so you can't even see the name of the main character. You just see Ow Ite. 

I'm not sure whether he found another copy of the game where the sticker was at a different position, or he moved the sticker after buying the game for the sake of taking this photo above. Now the game title is visible, and so is Snow White herself. Unfortunately Prince Charming has to take one for the team. This actually reminds me of the Pixar movie Monster Inc, and Mike Wazowski. 

Mike behind the barcode. 

25 May 2024. I attended the TTGDMY playtesting session at Kajang. For the prior few months I had been busy with work and had not been making much progress with my game design projects. I had already missed quite a few playtest sessions, and I still didn't have any new or significantly updated prototype to playtest. So I went purely to help other fellow designers playtest their games. 

Poon Jon's first game is finally out. I played Furmation of Rome when it was in development. It feels great to have the final released version in my hands now. 

Goat n Goat

The Game

Goat n Goat is a game from Hisashi Hayashi, designer of Yokohama, Trains and Sail to India. It is a card game with an interesting hand management aspect. It reminds me a little of the classic Lost Cities. 

During game setup, you lay out the mountain cards in three colours at the centre of the table. Mountain cards are worth points, and players will compete to claim them. You will also lay out a row of six goat cards (right side of this photo). This is the card row from which players refill their hands. 

The numbers on the mountain cards indicate the requirements to claim them. You need to have a flock of 7 goats to claim the mountain numbered 7. 7 is at the same time the point value. Some mountain cards have different values on the two sides. You use the side relevant to your player count. With two players, the mountains 8 and 9 are in play. 

With higher player counts, the mountain values are lower. 

On your turn, the two mandatory actions are playing cards and refilling your hand. You may play any number of cards of any colours, as long as they all have the same value. Cards come in three colours, and they are numbered 1 to 5. 1's are most common, and 5's are the rarest. When you play cards, you set them before you to form up to three flocks of goats, according to colour. When adding a goat to a flock, the value must be equal to or larger than the previous goat. If you add a goat with a lower value, the whole existing flock must be abandoned. They go to a penalty pile which you keep until the game ends. This penalty is an important aspect of the game. 

As you grow your flocks, eventually you will use them to claim the mountain cards. You may only do this once per turn. It is an optional action. When you use a flock to claim a mountain, you discard the whole flock to the common discard pile. After this you will need to collect goat for the flock of that colour all over again. 

Trading a flock for a mountain card is optional on your turn. You can decide when the best time is to cash in. Refilling your hand is mandatory. The number of cards you must take from the card row is based on the value of the card or cards you have played this turn. For example, whether you have played a single 1, or three 1's, or five 1's, you will take just one card from the card row. If you have played a 5, you must take five cards from the card row. This is an interesting twist. You have a hand limit of eight. If you go beyond that, the surplus cards go to your penalty pile. Taking more cards is not always good. 

The game ends after the draw deck is exhausted twice. Your score is based on the mountains you have claimed, and you deduct points based on the number of cards in your personal penalty pile, i.e. for discarded flocks and surplus cards. 

The Play

The game looks simple, but once you start playing, you will realise it is not as simple as it appears to be. There are a few aspects that make you think. You need to plan carefully and think a few steps ahead. Instinctively, playing many cards is a good thing. Not necessarily so in this game. If you play many 1's on your turn, you are only going to replenish your hand with one card. Then suddenly you feel short on options. The hand management is tricky. The 5's feel precious, since they are rarer, and they let you take many cards. However I found out that they can be dangerous. They can easily make you go over your hand limit if you are not careful. When planning how to add goats to your flocks, you need to do so carefully too to avoid being forced to abandon a flock. 

One important rule is when the game ends, any cards left in hand go to the penalty pile too. When the draw deck runs out, everyone still has one more chance to play cards and to claim one last mountain. Because of this leftover cards rule, you want to plan for that last turn to be able to play every card in your hand. That's not exactly easy to orchestrate. 

In a two-player game, the game already ends when the deck is exhausted for the first time. 

The Thoughts

There is more to Goat n Goat than meets the eye. The rules are still simple, but the challenges it throws at you make you go mmm... I see what you did there. It is not as innocent as it looks. I like how clever it is. It is a pleasant surprise for me. You can't fully appreciate the trickiness until you play it yourself. Thumbs up!

Capybara n Capybara

The Game

Capybara n Capybara is a game from Japan, by Hisashi Hayashi, designer of Yokohama, Trains and String Railway. Capybaras come from South America. They became an internet meme only a couple of years ago. They are usually portrayed as the most friendly and peaceful animal. I found out they are actually huge rats. They come from the rodent  family. In the game Capybara n Capybara, you collect capybaras and line them up in a queue, then score points based on their types and positions. 

There are five kinds of capybaras in the game, A to E. That card on the left is the start player marker. 

These are mission cards. During game setup, you randomly pick one. It is open information and it applies to everyone. It decides the bonus points you score at game end, and it affects how you arrange your capybara queue. Let's take the one on the left as an example. In your queue, every pair of capybaras of the same type scores 1 point. However, if you have three or more of the same type in sequence, they score nothing. 

Every player has a queue of capybaras and a monkey, like this. The left side is the front of the queue. The monkey starts the game at the back of the queue. On your turn, you must move the monkey forward or backward. When it moves forward, you have two options. You either add capybaras to your queue, or you claim a pumpkin. If you decide to gain capybaras, you may gain up to three of them, depending on how far your monkey moves. To claim a pumpkin means fulfilling the scoring criteria on one of the pumpkin cards. Usually a pumpkin card specifies a certain combination of capybaras, e.g. two A capybaras and two B capybaras. By advancing your monkey to move over these four capybaras, you'll be able to claim the pumpkin card. This is not always easy to do. There is a way to substitute capybaras you are short of. Advancing your monkey across any three capybaras can be treated as having fulfilled one capybara condition. E.g. you may advance your monkey over A, C and D capybaras, and you can consider yourself as having advanced over one B capybara. 

The other option you have on your turn is to have your monkey retreat towards the back of the queue. You have to advance your monkey whether you want to claim capybaras or pumpkins. Once you are at the head of the queue or near there, there won't be much you can do. So eventually you have to spend turns "winding up" your monkey again to prepare for the next useful move. When your monkey retreats, it moves only three steps. Sometimes you need to retreat for multiple turns before you have something useful to do again. As they say - work-life balance. Give your monkey a break.  

There are two rows of cards at the centre of the table, the capybaras and the pumpkins. The game ends after any player completes the fifth pumpkin card. 

The Play

This is a game that needs a fair bit of table space, because those capybara queues will grow pretty long. The star of the game is actually your monkey and not the capybaras. The capybaras look cute but they just stand around in the queue doing nothing. It's the monkey that'll be busy moving forward and backward getting things done. This is a game about arranging and planning your resources to fulfil tasks. Most likely players will end with four or five pumpkin cards. The pumpkins are open information, so there will be some competition if players are aiming at the same ones. The common row of capybaras can also be a source of competition. 

Your queue of capybaras is your resources. Advancing your monkey is a form of utilising your resources. Retreating your monkey is replenishing them. You try to collect capybaras and complete tasks as efficiently as possible, i.e. using as few steps of your monkey as possible. 

A fifth pumpkin claimed by any player triggers game end. You have to think about the values of the pumpkins when you decide which ones to attempt. The values can vary from 4 to 7 points. If most people will end up having around five pumpkins, then it may be better to go for the higher valued ones. Else you'd be at a disadvantage. If you think you can get to five pumpkins much faster than others by going for lower valued (and thus easier) pumpkins, it can be worth a try. 

When you complete your third pumpkin, your monkey grows up. The young monkey retreats 3 steps, but the adult monkey retreats 4 steps. 

That pumpkin at the centre requires the monkey to advance 8 steps.

The Thoughts

This is a light strategy game. There is a little strategy to consider and it's not just a simple casual game. There is little direct player interaction. You'll be mostly busy with your own queue of capybaras. It's generally a peaceful game. There is some competition because the common rows are shared. You may be wanting the same capybaras or pumpkins as someone else. There is a race element, because you are all heading towards the fifth pumpkin. 

The queue mechanism is not often seen. However I realise the positions of the capybaras are not all that critical. Yes, it is important for the mission card, but for fulfilling the pumpkins, so very much so. As long as you have the right capybara types, it's usually good enough. Maybe I should use this game as an inspiration to design a game with queues.