Pinocchio has gone to print. It is estimated to land in Malaysia in July. Here's a sneak peek at what happens behind the scenes. The manufacturer Magicraft sent me this video for production check, to make sure the components are complete and correct. Of course the music was added by me. That's not part of the game manufacturing process. Pinocchio will contain rules in three languages - English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.
Thursday, 19 June 2025
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Space Base
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Dine & Dine event
Monday, 16 June 2025
A Gest of Robin Hood
The Game
The first thing I learned from this game is a new word. Gest. It means story or adventures. This is a COIN game - counterinsurgency. Normally these are set in modern day or close to modern day situations. Seeing this applied to a medieval era scenario is certainly refreshing. This is a two-player game, one playing Robin Hood and the other the Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin fights for justice, while the sheriff wants control and order. This is a tug of war. In the game there is a track for justice vs order. The players try to pull the marker towards their end of the track. When the game ends, the position of the marker determines who wins.
A Gest of Robin Hood is a serious wargame. Not a complex one among wargames, but it is a serious take on the folklore, very much unlike what I remember of the Disney animation movie. This is not a simple game and it takes some effort to learn. It is interesting to see the COIN mechanism applied to this setting. Too bad I was a lousy outlaw and I didn't really experience the full game.
Saturday, 14 June 2025
Harmonies
The Thoughts
Thursday, 12 June 2025
Tapestry
The Game
Tapestry is a civilisation game in which players develop their civilisations from prehistoric tribes to modern day nations. Player actions are designed as making progress on four tracks - science, technology, exploration and military. Every turn you simply decide which track to advance on. You pay the required resources and perform the actions specified on the space you advance your token into. Actions at every step differ. They get more powerful as you advance further. The four tracks have different characteristics and let you do different kinds of things. Let’s look at the various aspects of the game.
Ultimately you win by scoring the most points. Some actions give you points directly. Some give you points based on how well you have done in a certain aspect, e.g. territory you control or tiles you hold. Every era you start with some resources. Actions require resources. When you eventually run out, you must end your current era and enter the next one. You want to be able to collect resources efficiently because more resources mean more actions. Players may have different numbers of turns in this game.
The Play
I found it challenging to understand how Tapestry works. The rules are not complicated. However I had little idea what the right things to do were. The decision you need to make every turn is simple - which of the four tracks do you want to advance on? What I struggled with was how to evaluate the four options. I did horribly in my first game, missing out on almost all the large buildings. I learned the hard way that balanced development wasn’t a good idea. In my second game I decided to almost exclusively advance on the technology track. It worked better. However I wasn’t very comfortable that an arbitrary rule of sticking to one track worked relatively well. It felt like the game was playing me and not me playing the game. I only made an arbitrary policy, stuck to it blindly, and it worked, without me really understanding why. I only did some minor maximisation, e.g. if a space offered an additional benefit for a fee, I made sure I could afford the fee before I advanced to that space.
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Castle Combo
The Game
Castle Combo is a simple tableau game. You take turns buying cards from a market to place in your own 3x3 grid. The cards score points in different ways and also have various powers. You try to create a combination that works well together. You start with some money, and you will spend money buying cards. Some cards help you earn money. At game end, leftover money may help you score points if you have the right cards. The game ends once everyone has his 3x3 grid filled.
Sunday, 8 June 2025
The Guild of Merchant Explorers
The Game
This is a game about exploration. You start at the capital at the centre of the map, and you place explorer cubes extending from there to various parts of the map. There are different things to discover and to score points for. The interesting part is how your progress will reset at the end of every round. All your explorer cubes will be removed. To protect yourself from losing all progress, you need to establish outposts, so that in future rounds you can start exploring from these outposts as opposed to starting at the capital again.
This is mostly a multiplayer solitaire game. It also feels like a roll and write game, despite having no rolling or writing involved. Everyone plays the same map, but you have your own board and you place cubes on your own board. The game comes with different maps so there are different scenarios you get to play with. Every turn, a card is revealed from the deck, and it tells you how you can place your explorers. You know the basic exploration deck, but every game there will be some random advanced cards added which help you explore in powerful ways. There are cards for each terrain type. Usually a card will tell you how many explorer cubes you can place, and on which terrain type. Since you know most of the deck, just not what order you will draw the cards, you can somewhat plan your exploration.
The game is played over four rounds. In the first round only one random advanced exploration card will be introduced. In the second round, this same card stays in the deck, so you know what it is just not when it will show up. A new advanced card will also be introduced, and you won't know what it is yet. In the third round, the previous two remain, and yet another new one is introduced. In the fourth round… You think I’m going to repeat the same thing right? Then you’re wrong. A new card will NOT be introduced in the fourth round. However one repeat card is added which lets you use one of the three previous advanced cards one more time. After four rounds are completed, the highest scorer wins.
The Play
I learned the hard way about the need to plan for the future. A round ended much quicker than I expected and I hadn’t set up any outpost. The map is large, and you can’t try to do everything. You will probably need to focus on some areas and sacrifice others. This will somewhat depend on the advanced exploration cards that turn up in your game. It also depends on where you have set up your new bases for exploration, and the order the cards are drawn.
It is fun to plan your adventure. You can’t make exact plans since you have no control over the order of the card deck. The advanced exploration cards always bring some excitement. They are the big breaks. Sometimes you make bets, hoping the cards turn up in a certain order. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes you need to adjust plans.
The Thoughts
The Guild of Merchant Explorers is a pleasant family game. It’s multiplayer solitaire for sure. Think of it as a solo game that you play together with friends to compare how well you do given the same conditions. The exploration is an interesting puzzle to solve. You decide how much risk you want to take. You try to grab opportunities that come your way.