Joraku

"Joraku" is a Japanese term which means advancing to the capital. In Japanese history, sometimes local warlords will lead their armies and move to the capital, claiming that they are there to protect the Emperor from evil forces. In truth, they want to take control of the Emperor and rule the nation. The game Joraku has an interesting combination of two popular game mechanisms - trick-taking and area majority. This combination works well in presenting the whole concept of joraku. 

The game is played over three rounds. There are seven regions on the board, with Kyoto on the left and the other six regions being numbered 1 to 6. There is a little scoring table in each region, specifying the points you can score at the end of each round. You'll score the most points if you have the highest strength. Second and third places will score points too. In the first round, regions far away from the capital are worth more points and Kyoto itself is worth nothing. However by the third round this switches over entirely. In the early game you will compete in regions further away from Kyoto, but throughout the game you will advance towards Kyoto. 

During game setup you will place your daimyo (your clan leader). Everyone will start in a different region. During the game you will deploy troops, move them, move your daimyo, and your can also kill enemy troops. All of this is done through card play. This is where the trick-taking comes in.

There are three suits, and the cards are numbered 1 to 6, matching the regions on the board. In each suit there is one ninja, which is like a joker. At the start of a round cards are dealt out to all players. You will play one card at each trick, and someone will win that trick. Once all your cards are played, the round ends and you do scoring. Most of the trick-taking rules are standard. You must follow suit if you have cards in the lead suit. The largest card wins the trick, regardless of suit. If anyone has played a 6 and another has played a ninja, the ninja wins the trick. The ninja has no value, but it can beat the 6. 

Whenever you play a card, you perform an action. You do this when playing that card, not when resolving the trick. One of the most important things you can do is to deploy troops. You can deploy up to three soldiers, and you must deploy them in the region matching the card value. The number of soldiers you have is limited, so you don't always deploy the maximum number. You need to think about where you want your soldiers to be. If you play the ninja, you can deploy troops anywhere. If you do not deploy troops, you can use the card value to perform actions. You can move your daimyo or soldiers. Your daimyo can kill enemy soldiers. 

When comparing strength, your daimyo is strength 2, and soldiers strength 1 each. In the early game these regions far away from Kyoto are worth more points, so more soldiers will be crowded here. 

Most cards are dealt out at the start of a round, but there are some which are not known. You can somewhat count cards, but you do not have perfect information. Since you have to follow suit, you are not entirely free to do what you want. You can make use of this to limit what your opponents can do. If you can quickly get rid of one suit, you will have more flexibility. There is card passing before a round starts. That can help you adjust your hand, and the cards your opponents give you will offer some insights too. You know that if you don't have a certain card, it is quite likely one of your opponents has it. Most of the time you plan how to play your hand assuming others do have cards that can spoil your plans. The card play part of the game is quite strategic. 

The area majority plays a big part in this game. You must optimise your resource usage. You don't need to win by a lot, you just need to win by a little, but you want to win in as many regions as possible. That's efficiency. 

Winning tricks matters, even though you already perform your action when you play your card. One important reason is, of course, being able to lead the next trick. This gives you some control. Also, when you win a trick, there is a small evaluation done in the region where your daimyo is. You score points based on relative strengths. You want to make sure you are strongest where your daimyo is, because otherwise when you win a trick, you are helping someone else score more points. You can make use of this to take advantage of other players. Let them win the trick, but move your soldiers in to the region of their daimyo so that you can steal some points. It's not a lot, but it can add up.

The green daimyo is in Kyoto now

By game end all daimyos have arrived

Joraku combines trick-taking and area majority, and both mechanisms play important roles in the game. This is a game with much strategic planning and tactical manoeuvring. You have to think carefully about what cards your opponents might have and how they might be used against you.

Shady Lady

Shady Lady is yet another game by Kaya Miyano I have played this year. This is a very Japanese style game - minimalistic but clever. It has a juicy element of trying to read your opponents and sometimes cunningly misleading them. 

You have a hand of three cards. There are only two types of sets in this game, three cards of the same value, or three cards in sequence. Cards are numbered 1 to 4, then 6 to 9. There are no 5's. On your turn, you have three options. You can draw a card then discard a card. One thing interesting is everyone has his own discard pile, and you can draw from the draw deck or from anyone’s discard pile, even your own. That means you have many options, especially when there are more players. The next thing you can do is to "Try". That means showing a set that you have made, and betting yours is the strongest. If it indeed is, you score a point. However if someone else shows a stronger set, then he scores the point instead. You need to go around the table once. It is possible that one other player shows a stronger set, and then that in turn gets beaten by yet another player. After all is done, everyone who has shown his set must discard the whole set then draw three new random cards. Only one person will score. 

The third option is to "Jack". This simply means making a bet that someone has a valid set. You point at that person, and he must show his hand. If he does indeed have a set, then you score a point. He discards his hand and draws three new cards from the draw deck. If you are wrong, he also discards his cards and redraws, but he scores the point. Because of this "Jack" mechanism, if you are very unlucky in getting sets, you can pretend to have made them and trick someone else into catching you, only to end up giving you a point. Or you can spend your effort catching others. You'll score points as long as you read them correctly, even if your hand is horrible. 

The cards are glow-in-the-dark. I don't know why. Marketing gimmick?

To win the game you need to get to three points. The rules are very simple so this is easy to teach. The game creates many opportunities for fun player interaction. Making sets is simple and everyone understands it immediately. But the game is not only about making sets. It is very much about observing and reading your opponents. Being able to make a strong set doesn't guarantee you will score. If someone else catches you before you declare "Try", he gets the point and you discard your set and start all over. You want to watch which face-up cards others are taking. If you think they have a set, catch them. It might be an easy point for you. But of course there is risk too. Do you keep taking face-up cards to give the impression you have found a good card for your set? When you take two 9's one after the other, everyone will be wondering whether you already have three 9's, the strongest set in the game. The only way they can stop you from scoring is to catch you by declaring "Jack". 

The art is by Sai Beppu, possibly the most popular boardgame artist in Japan. This is a bold design that's very different. I enjoy how she surprises us and offers new experiences. 

Shady Lady is easy for casual players to pick up and have fun with. It is also something gamers can enjoy because of the psychological play. I suspect this works better when you have a bigger group. 

New Old

New Old is a game from Japan. What stands out the most about it is the box design. It is deliberately designed to look like two boxes side-by-side, one brand new and the other one pretty old and worn. The cards inside and the rules are like this too. Some cards are normal, but others look like old cards at different levels of wear and tear. The rules come in two sheets, and one of them is made to look like an old and battered sheet.

The concept is simple, but interesting. Everyone starts with a hand of cards. You will discard some cards before you start. Throughout the game you will play cards. You want to play (discard) many of your old cards because any that you don't score you negative points. You want to play as few of your new cards as possible, because they score positive points. There is one special situation of playing all of your old cards. If this happens, then your new cards will score negative points instead. So you have to keep at least one old card.

From the card backs you can easily tell which are new and which are old

There are two discard piles set up

Each player tracks his own status. You go through two stages. In the first you play cards to the old card pile, and then in the second you play to the new card pile. Different players may exit each stage at different times. That is normal. The cards are numbered 1 to 6. You can play a card if it is the same number or one higher than the current top card. 6 cycles to 1. If the top card is a 6, you may play a 6 or a 1. You must play a card if you are able to. You may exit the first stage when you are not able to play any of your old cards. You reveal your remaining old cards before you and enter the second stage. In the second stage, you hope play as few of your new cards as possible because they are worth points. You can only exit when you are not able to play any card. These remaining cards are revealed before you and the round ends for you. You have to wait for everyone else to end their rounds. Once everyone is done, calculate points based on the diamond icons on your cards.

I have certainly played other games where you play cards of the same number or one higher. So this part of the game is not new. Despite the simplicity, there are some nuances to discover. I find that the first two cards you must discard must be considered carefully. Generally you want to be able to play as many of your old cards as possible, and as few of your new cards as possible. That means it is probably better to have all the numbers in your old cards. It also means with your new cards, you hope to have large gaps, so that you will soon be unable to play. Knowing this, you make decisions on how to discard your initial cards. You start with 7 each of old and new, and you must discard one each.

If you look at my hand above, having old cards in only two values is bad news. If the pile shows 1, 2 or 6, I will be forced to exit stage 1, and all those 4's and 5's will be negative points. 

Look how badly damaged they look

I think your tactics will change depending on the number of players. The number of the piles might increase more quickly if there are more players. If the number of the old pile goes past a number you have before it is your turn, you need to wait a whole cycle before you can play that card. You might not last till the next opportunity. Knowing this, sometimes you want to deliberately advance the number, attempting to mess up your opponents' plans. 

In one of the rounds I played, these were the cards I scored. I scored every single card! I was not able to play any of my cards. This was rather extreme. Thankfully the new cards I had were worth more points than my old cards. 

I am not entirely sure yet how deep this game is. I have certainly discovered some interesting tactics. I don't know whether these are all, and once I discover them, there is an optimal way to play. Not that they will guarantee victory, just that from a probability standpoint there are some best ways to play. Even so, this is fun to play. There is some luck and uncertainty. You have meaningful decisions to make. I really enjoy this kind of clever card games from Japan. This game designer Takuya Iwamura did all the art himself too. 

A shoe print! 

Even the box insert has been deliberately designed to look half new and half old

LOOP

LOOP is designed by Takashi Saito, who is from Nagasaki, Japan. I bought this game when I was traveling in Nagasaki. Because of this the game will have a special place in my collection.

This is a climbing card game, like Tichu and Big 2. You play different combinations of cards and your goal is to play all your cards. The most important twist in this game is you don’t play independent rounds. Every second round that you play, you use the exact same hands from the previous round. However every hand will be played by a different player. So if you have friends who like to complain about bad hands, tell them to play this game. If you think I won just because I had a lucky hand, let’s see what you can do with this exact same hand.

Cards come in three suits, and they are numbered 1 to 15. There are only a few combos you can play. You can play single cards, pairs, triplets, and straight flushes of two or more cards. Just like in Big 2, you must follow the combo type played by the lead player. A round doesn’t end when one player goes out. You need to determine the ranking of all players, so you need to play until all but one go out. This way you have the positions of all players. Everyone scores points based on his position. Now this is for the first of two rounds. In the second round scoring works differently. Cards are not reshuffled. You keep all the hands that have been dealt in the first round. Beginning with the last placed player, you pick a different seat to sit in. So you will play with somebody else’s hand in the second round. This means in the second round you know what kind of hands everybody has, and you can plan accordingly. This is an interesting twist to the genre. The scoring in this second round is different too. It is not just based on your ranking. It is based on whether you have improved the ranking of the hand you have, compared to the previous round. If you can make the lowest ranked card take the top spot, you will earn many points. If you are playing the top ranked hand and you are just maintaining the top spot, you don't gain much. If you do worse, you will lose points! 

Another interesting twist is the number 8. In some ways, it is a trump card. If anyone plays a combo that includes an 8, or if he plays a single 8, he wins the run and nobody else can play any more. He becomes the lead player for the next run. 8 is in the middle. If someone has played a 9, you can’t play your 8 to win the run. The 8 is strong, but not always.

The 8 can be used in another way. At the start of a round you must remove two cards from your hand. Usually you remove weak cards. However if you remove an 8, during the round, you may perform a special action by revealing that 8. You flip the strength tile to the other side. From that point onwards, 1 is the strongest, while 15 is the weakest. If you have a hand of low cards, and you have an 8, you can choose to use the 8 this way. Now there is a risk that someone else might also have an 8. He can use his 8 to flip the strength tile back to the original side. 

The game comes with fancy score trackers

LOOP introduces several twists to the climbing game genre, and they work well together. Most people are familiar with climbing games, so this is something you can more easily convince non gamer friends to try. I would say the play experience is still mostly that of a climbing game. If this is not your thing, the game probably won't change your mind. I find it novel that you get to play while knowing almost perfectly everyone's hands in the game (I say almost because there are two cards discarded). I have seen one round when the lead player was able to play in such a way that he went out without anyone else being able to play a single card! Information is power! I have also experienced myself that due to knowing the hands in the game I played my new hand in a different way, allowing me to do much better than the player who had it in the first round. 

The artwork is a little weird. I don't really understand what it is trying to say. Maybe it's trying to say deja vu. What if you get to live your life all over again, while knowing what has happened the first time you lived it. What would you do differently? Even the inside of the box cover has some art, which I also do not understand. But I like it. Maybe I'm just pretending to be sophisticated. 

There is an international edition of LOOP now, from iello, and the rules are a little different. This is good news for gamers outside of Japan. I'm happy I got myself this weird art version. 

Dog Poker

Dog Poker is first in a series of animal poker games from Japan by Kaya Miyano. I bought both Dog Poker and Cat Poker when traveling, and only later realised I already own Cat Poker. Cat Poker is the original Japanese version of Panda Panda. Although named poker, neither game is similar to poker. Or maybe animals play poker differently. 

In Dog Poker every card is a dog. There are seven species, and the number of cards is different for the species. Some are common, some are rare. You collect cards using a draft and pass mechanism much like 7 Wonders. All cards are dealt out to the players at the start of a game. Every round you must pass some cards to your neighbour. In the first round you pass four cards, and every round this reduces. By the fourth and last round, you only pass one card. Then you do scoring based on the cards you have. 

I need to turn back the clock and talk about what happens before you start passing cards. Every card in the game, in addition to being a dog, also has two scoring criteria. One specifies the point value of a single dog. The other specifies the point value of a specific combination of dogs. At the start of the game, everyone chooses one card from their hand to be used for scoring at the end. That means everyone knows one specific scoring card and can prepare accordingly. At the start of every round, one scoring card is revealed. As the game progresses, players will have more and more information about which dogs and which combinations will score.

You will play several games in succession, until someone reaches 100 points. The player with the highest total score is the ultimate winner.

Playing this game is about deciding which cards and combinations to go for. You start with limited information so you can only make guesses. Combinations are attractive. When you try to make a combination, you are taking a gamble that your neighbour will pass you the cards you need. The cards your neighbour passes to you can be important information to help you guess what kind of combinations he is trying to make, and this which cards he will or will not pass to you. Choosing which cards to pass to your other neighbour can be quite a dilemma. You don’t want to unwittingly give him cards which help him score big, but if you keep a card which you think is critical, you might be forced to pass a card which is also useful to you. 

One funny situation we had was Chen Rui managing a huge combo at the end of the third round. That combo needed all seven cards. We still had a fourth round to play, which meant she must pass one of her cards. Her only hope was to get back the same card from her other neighbour. Unfortunately for her, that did not happen. She would’ve won the game if she received the right card.

I think this game should be played with exactly four. With fewer players, you need to create dumb bots to play for the missing players. They are just stacks of cards sitting between human players which you randomly draw cards from or insert cards into. When playing with bots you lose some player interaction. 

Rikka

Rikka is from the makers of Tiger & Dragon, which I greatly enjoyed. The use of mahjong-like tiles is nice. Although not absolutely necessary, it does make the game experience better. 

You can consider Rikka simplified mahjong. It does feel like mahjong, but there are some important differences. You start with a hand of 5 tiles. On your turn you take a tile then discard a tile. Tiles in the game are like dominoes. They have two halves and each half is a number between 1 and 6. Numbers are expressed as firework patterns. You win a round by making a valid 6 tile combo. There are three possible combos, with different point values. You play multiple rounds and win the game at 10 points. 

All tiles in the centre start face down. When you draw a tile, you can draw any tile, including any previously discarded and face up tile. This is very different from mahjong. You have access to more and more known tiles as the game progresses. Another interesting twist is when a player wins a round, other players may also score. If someone else wins, but you are only one tile away from winning, and there is one face up tile that would have allowed you to win, you will score too, as if that tile is in your hand. Due to this rule, you can choose not to win yet when there is such a tile, and wait for an even better tile that will create a better combo for you. The downside of doing this though is you are giving your opponents more time to make combos too. With this rule, it is possible that a player who only scores but does not win scores more points than the player who wins. You certainly don't have this in mahjong. 

The three combos in the game have one common requirement - the bottom number must be the same. You can rotate and rearrange your tiles at any time. If the top numbers make a perfect sequence of 1 to 6, your combo scores 6 points. If your top numbers make two sets of numbers in sequence, your combo is 3 points. Otherwise, your combo with just the bottom being the same number scores 1 point. 

It is important to take note of what your opponents are taking and discarding. If anyone takes a face-up tile, he must be trying to make a combo with one of those two numbers on it. When a player discards a tile, he is probably not attempting either of those numbers. 

The game comes with six optional modules. You can play with any combination of them, even all at the same time. One module allows you to say uno. Well, kind of. When you are one tile from winning, you can declare so, after which you may not change any of the five cards on your rack. If you draw a tile and you don't win with it, you cannot keep it and discard another tile. You must discard it. If you win the game after having made such a declaration, you gain an extra point. 

Another module is the direct hit. If you discard a tile which another player can win with, he declares so and wins immediately. In this case he doesn't take points from the bank. He takes the points from you! With this module, you have to play much more carefully and defensively. 

The other four modules add more combos. This changes things up a little. You don't necessarily need to have bottom numbers that are all the same. It becomes harder to guess what your opponents are trying to do.

I find the game enjoyable. It's certainly much easier to learn than mahjong, but it still has many fun aspects of mahjong and more. This is a game in which you must consider what your opponents are trying to do. Since you can take any face-up tile, it is possible to switch to collect tiles of another number if you see many tiles of that number being discarded. You only need six tiles. In one game we played, Chung saw that no one wanted any 4. The rest of us knew he was trying to collect 2's, and we deliberately avoided playing any 2's. He switched to collecting 4's, and managed to win. Maybe we should have taken some tiles with 4's to stop him. But then we would be spoiling our own hands. 

The game is short and easy, yet there are interesting decisions to be made. There is certainly some luck. Sometimes you keep drawing the tiles you need. The fun is in taking a gamble when both of your options seem equally viable. You need to consider risk and reward. Do you go for an easy win, or do you attempt to make a strong combo. This game gives me an urge to buy Tiger & Dragon. 

Ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e is the 2025 Japanese edition of an old game from Michael Schacht, called Crazy Chicken (2003). This is a simple, mostly abstract card game, so it is easy to retheme. I would never have imagined a game about crazy chicken getting transformed into a game about traditional Japanese woodblock prints. 

In this Japanese edition of the game, you are collecting pieces of art by famous artists, and you will run exhibitions. Every suit represents one artist. Cards have point values. The point value distribution and the number of cards are different for the various artists. 

On your turn you will draw two cards from the draw deck or discard pile or both. And then you will either discard a card or run an exhibition. Running exhibitions is how you score points. You must have at least two cards of the same artist. You play them as a set in front of you. You don't score points immediately though. You only do so at the end of the round, if these cards still remain in front of you. Another player may run an exhibition for the same artist, if they have more cards of this artist than you do. If this happens, your exhibition will be cancelled, and all its cards will be discarded. Ouch!

There are seven artists in the game. A round ends when the deck runs out, or when there are exhibitions for six artists. Everyone still gets one more turn, but you can't run an exhibition for the last artist. You can only try to overtake one of the six ongoing exhibitions. 

It's a pretty simple game. You need to consider how soon to run an exhibition. An exhibition with too few cards might get overtaken, but if you wait too long, someone else might run an exhibition with the same number of cards as you have, putting you in a tough position of not being able to play yours. You might never draw the card you need to overtake before the round ends. 

Another twist is how you score points. When you do score an exhibition at the end of a round, you only claim the lowest card in the set as points. Playing a big set is not always the best thing to do, because you might be forced to include some of the low cards. Yet if you don't play a big enough set, it might get overtaken. 

When I played this with my family, we started off playing in a very conservative way. We kept hoarding cards and the game moved slowly. We wanted to secure more cards before we started playing them. Then my wife Michelle got impatient and started playing cards even when she didn't have big sets. We suddenly realised the importance of speed. If you don't play quickly enough, you might not have enough time. Sometimes you can get away with playing just 3, or even 2 cards. 

Ukiyo-e is a clever little card game with some strategy and risk-taking. I am glad to have come across this edition. It's a travel souvenir, and also a decent game. 

Gambler x Gamble!!

 

Gambler x Gamble!! (two exclamation marks) is a game from Japan released in 2024. It is a reimplementation of a 2016 game called Gambler x Gamble! (one exclamation mark), which won the Group SNE Contest in 2015. We all know what it will be named when it gets a third edition, don't we?

When I read the rules, the first thing that comes to mind is this is Machi Koro without dice! Instead of rolling dice to see which cards generate income, players collectively play cards and you add up the card values. Now I'm a big fan of Machi Koro. I think it's lovely. It doesn't mean I'll like a near clone of the game. It just means I like this kind of gameplay. I played this with Jon, who dislikes Machi Koro because he was traumatised by a gruelling 2-hour session with too many red cards. Our game was a little skewed because it was a little rushed. He wanted the pain to end quickly. So I feel I have not fully experienced Gambler x Gamble!! yet. I need to play again. 

Here's how the game works. You start with some money. You get to pick two different cards. Cards are gamblers you recruit. When the sum of the round matches the number on your gambler or gamblers, they make money for you. You can spend that money to recruit more gamblers, hopefully to help you make more money even more quickly. The end goal is money. The game ends when someone has $20 or more, and the richest wins. 

Every round, every player will contribute one card to the sum of the round. In the beginning, you only have two number cards, 0 and 1. That means you will be contributing either 0 or 1. The start player of the round plays his number card face-up. The rest play theirs face-down. You can discuss and tell others what you have played. Being honest is, well, not mandated by the rules. After everyone has committed a card, the start player has one chance to increase or decrease the sum by 1. Then all cards are revealed, and you calculate the sum. Whoever's gamblers match that sum makes money, as specified on the gambler cards. Pretty straight-forward so far. 

There is more to the game, of course. Every gambler card has a normal side and a lucky side. Every round, you have the opportunity to spend money to recruit an additional gambler. Alternatively, you can flip one of your gamblers to the lucky side. The main difference of the lucky side is it earns more money. Each time the lucky side scores a hit, it is reset to the normal side. 

There are two special gamblers, 4 and 8. If they get flipped to the lucky side, and they then score, the owner wins the game immediately. Some gamblers give you additional number cards when you recruit them. You may get the -1, 2 or 3 number cards. This lets you manipulate the sum in different ways. 

I have a feeling the game is more than meets the eye. The game we played was pretty short. The things you do are simple. However I don't think the game is simplistic at all. I realise that you may not always want to buy lots of cards (recruit lots of gamblers). In our game, Jon and Ji Li assembled a large team. By having a bigger team, you can have a wider range of numbers, and chances are one of your gamblers will score. However spending so much money on recruitment is also slowing you down in reaching $20. The ROI might not be quite right. I didn't have a big team, and I tried to upgrade my gamblers more to earn more. 

I think managing vested interests is important. You have to watch what your opponents want because it helps you better guess what numbers they will play. During the game you can discuss, and even collaborate. If someone buys one of those instant win gamblers, you suddenly find everyone else nervously cooperating to avoid the sums of 4 or 8. Negotiation and deception can play a big part in the game. 

Some parts are indeed like Machi Koro, but the overall play experience is different. I need to play this again to explore the strategy space more. Also the player interaction. I think the group mentality will determine which strategy works better. For example whether the players are pushing the sum to be higher. If most people go higher and you are the only one with low cards, you will be in trouble. Your choice of what to buy depends on the group mentality. 

I realise I have played quite many games by Kaya Miyano - Trio (originally Nana in Japan), Panda Panda (originally Cat Poker), Dog Poker, Trick & Snipers, Shady Lady and Zombie Tower 3D. I enjoy many of them. 

boardgaming in photos: Rumble Nation, dnup

I played the physical version of Rumble Nation. This is a minimalistic area majority game. I normally dislike area majority games, but this one is just so clever. It's a game from Japan, and the setting is Japan too. 

You roll three dice to determine what options you have on your turn. You must use two of the dice to choose the region you will place your cubes, and the third dice determines how many cubes you will place. You are somewhat restricted in what you can do, but you do have meaningful choices throughout the game. I played this in KK with Buddhima and Jon. This was Buddhima's copy. 

Now that I have added Malaysian Holidays to my list of published games, I need to update this group photo. My next game Pilgrim Poker is coming out soon too, so this group photo will need to be updated again soon. 

I played the physical version of dnup. I must say it is much better playing this in person compared to playing in online async mode. This doesn't work so well in async because you don't remember well what has been played before. You break your session down to many small turns over several days. dnup is much more fun with table talk and discussions. You are able to better gang up on the leader. 

Reference card showing the four options on your turn

Notice the cards are rounded only at two corners

That day we playtested Buddhima's upcoming game called Change. I have played this before and this was a game I already wanted to buy after the first try. Buddhima has been a little worried about the timing of publication for his game, because it shares a similarity with SCOUT, dnup and Panda Spin. It too has cards which have different numbers at the two ends. You will also rotate your cards and change their values. After dnup, we played Change, and I am confident it delivers a different play experience compared to other games which shares this rotate concept. It requires a different strategy. 

This is Jon's worker placement game, about Grab Food and Lalamove delivery services. You prepare and deliver food, or you deliver items. In game design Jon is heading towards slightly more complex games. Not yet heavy games, but around light-medium to medium weight. 

One challenge Jon presents in this game is storage for goods. You can exceed storage temporarily within a round, but you need enough storage space to be able to carry over goods to the next round. To increase storage you must recruit, and once you recruit, your salary cost increases permanently. 

This is the worst starting hand in Mahjong Rummy. I don't have a passport - a straight flush meld of at least 3 tiles. Without a passport I can't play. I have already lost in the first round of play. Now that's player elimination. I can heap on tons of complaints as a modern gamer, but this is just a traditional gambling game and people have fun with it. There is some skill involved but it is mostly luck. You play this to spend time with family and friends, not for good game design. 

Now that younger daughter Chen Rui is back in Malaysia for her summer break, we have started playing our Regicide Legacy campaign. We are on Mission 9 out of 12 now. It has been an interesting ride so far. I am amazed by the amount of work they have put into creating this campaign. There is so much art created, and much of it is only used in one mission. If you beat the mission on your first try, you will use this art only once. Playing the campaign is playing many variants of Regicide. There is a story which unfolds as you progress. Your deck changes. You get to play with different powers. You fight different bosses. Some of the missions took us many attempts to beat, we also managed some with just one attempt. 

I have played a second game of Quartermaster General: East Front. This time I played the Soviet Union and Han the Axis. Han managed to get to Moscow, and even Vologda. At one point (above) I managed to encircle his forces, cutting off his supply lines. I gradually pushed back, but by game end I did not manage to reach Berlin. We were tied in points, and I lost on tiebreaker. What a close game! 

We played Soothsayers again. It's July now, and I'm still pretty confident this will be my favourite new-to-me game in 2026. 

I only recently discovered that the art is from a real tarot card deck, and not art created specifically for the game using the style of tarot cards. 

We played Madeira. I did horribly because I have forgotten many of the rules and I didn't relearn it properly. I want to blame BGA for making playing blindly too easy, but I know it is my own fault. 

I had a session with Jon, Ji Li and Buddhima. It's great to meet up in person to play. Nowadays I play more games online than in person. I should do physical sessions more. 

For probably less than 24 hours, the designer diary of Malaysian Holidays was on the front page of BGG. Of course I took a screenshot.