King of Tokyo Duel

The Game

King of Tokyo is a highly popular game by Richard Garfield, designer of the even more popular Magic: The Gathering. These two are very different games. I have read about King of Tokyo but have not actually tried it. Now I have tried the two-player version. 

King of Tokyo Duel is a kaiju (monster) game. You are the monster. You fight the other monster while rampaging the city. This is a dice game. You roll dice to see what you get to do. You can reroll up to twice, and each time you can decide which dice to reroll and which not to. After rolling, you use your dice to perform actions. 

The different icons on the die faces mean different things. There is an icon for smacking your opponent. If you reduce your opponent's health points to zero, you win. There is an icon for healing. You can recover from your injuries. Two icons are for a tug on war on the game board. You compete to see who is causing more damage to the city and to the (human) army. This is translated to two tracks on the game board. You try to pull the marker to your end of the track. If you manage that with either one of the tracks, you win. Alternatively, if you manage to get both markers to move to about the mid point on your side, you also win. 

The other two icons are lightning bolt and exclamation mark. The bolt is money. You get to buy power cards, some of which are single-use, others give you a permanent ability. Exclamation marks are used for activating your monster's unique ability. The game comes with many different monsters, and every game you can pick a different one to play. They have different health values and unique abilities. 

The shop offers three cards. 

Some power cards come with tiles you can add to the tracks on the game board. They augment the tracks, possibly extending or shortening them, and creating new functions on some of the spaces. 

The Play

This is a simple and quick game. To win, you either knock out your opponent, or cause massive destruction. You are at the mercy of the dice. This is a game with some luck. Collecting lightning bolts to buy power cards is long-term investment. This can be risky if your opponent is going for speed. By the time you build up your abilities, you might be near defeat. So the tempo of the game is something you need to be alert about and respond to. 

Both the blue and red markers are in the lighted region on the right, which means game over. 

The Thoughts

This is a short and speedy game. It is fast and furious. There is some strategy so it is certainly not brainless. At the same time there is a fair bit of luck in the die rolls. The game is so-so for me, because I feel I don't have a lot of control. 

Dungeon Roll

The Game

Dungeon Roll is fantasy dungeon crawling designed as a dice game. You play three rounds, in which everyone takes a turn to explore and plunder a dungeon. After three rounds, you compare points to see who wins. 

White dice are the player dice. They represent the party of adventurers you explore the dungeon with. Black dice are the dungeon dice. They represent the monsters and also the treasures you encounter. Most faces of a white die are different adventurer types, like fighter, cleric and thief. They have different abilities. They are used to defeat black dice. Treasures and potions on the black dice need to be "defeated" too. You need to spend white dice to open treasures and to quaff potions. However you do get something in return. 

Exploring a dungeon means fighting through it level by level until you are defeated or decide to retreat. There are 10 levels, and every level is harder than the previous one. You only roll one black die for the first level, two for the second level, three for the third, and so on. Every time you clear one level, you have to decide whether to retreat and keep the score you have so far, or to attempt the next level and hope to score more. In case you fail to fight through a level you are attempting, you won't score points for the whole adventure. The next level will have more black dice. You will gradually use up your white dice. Some abilities let you restore some of them. At the moment I can't imagine how you can get to Level 10. By around Level 5 it already feels like the max. Maybe I need to learn to play better. 

The different types of adventurer have different abilities. By default they can always defeat one monster. However they specialise in certain monster types. E.g. a single cleric can defeat any number of skeletons. So if you roll many skeletons, and you have one cleric, you're in luck! 

When you use white dice to open treasure chests, you get all sorts of treasures and equipment. A thief can open any number of chests. Some items behave like a specific adventurer type. You keep them for future use. Some items have point values. Potions you quaff let you restore white dice. One of the black die faces is the dragon. Rolling a dragon means you are starting to disturb it. Dragon die faces are set aside. Once you reach three dragons, you wake the dragon and must fight it in order to complete the current level. Defeating the dragon requires three different adventurer types, so it's not easy. If you manage it, you score points and gain a treasure. 

Scrolls, which appear on white dice, let you reroll. Sometimes this can be a life saver. Sometimes it makes things worse. 

Every player gets a character card. You have one ongoing ability, and one once-per-excursion ability. When you reach a certain experience level (which is also your victory points), your character upgrades and both your abilities change. 

The Play

This is mostly a solo game. Only one player is actually playing at any one time. The others spectate. The only player interaction is thinking about well your opponents are doing and deciding how much risk you want to take in order to catch up to them or stay ahead of them. Rolling dice is exciting. There's an element of surprise and uncertainty. The game is tactical in nature. You do your best with what you roll. Overall it's pretty straight-forward. Still, the dungeon crawling theme comes out pretty well. You do feel like you're fighting your way through monsters and traps. The fact that you need to roll dice makes the experience one of risk-taking. 

The character card being tilted 90 degrees means you've used your single-use power.

The Thoughts

Dungeon Roll is a light and brisk dice game, and it's flavourful as a fantasy adventure game despite the simplicity. 

Sky Team

The Game

Sky Team is the 2024 Spiel des Jahres winner. It was already getting many positive reviews before it was nominated. What surprised many people was it went on to win. This is a strictly two-player game, and the SdJ has never been awarded to such games. Sky Team is a cooperative dice game about landing a plane. You are pilot and copilot of a plane, and you must collaborate to do your job while under communication restrictions. There is a time limit. Within this time you must complete all landing preparations and in the final round you must land the plane right on the dot to win the game. 

There is a fixed number of rounds. By the final round you must advance the plane to precisely arrive at the runway and land it. No earlier, no later. The basic structure of a round is each player rolling four dice, and then taking turns to place them on the board. The dice are rolled behind player screens, so you don't know what numbers your partner has, and you can't discuss the numbers or where to place them. You can discuss strategy before the dice are rolled, but once rolled, zip. 

The board looks a little intimidating the first time you learn the game, as if you need to learn how to fly a real plane. However once the rules are explained to you, you will realise how well the board is designed. The icons and colours all make perfect sense and there are plenty of visual cues to remind you of how things work. You don't need to memorise the rules. The board is as good as a reference sheet.  The square indentations are where you can place dice. The pilot uses the blue spots, and the copilot the orange spots. Spots with both blue and orange can be used by either player. There are four spots which must be filled every round, two for each player. These are the spots near the centre of the board, controlling the wings and the engine. 

Let's talk about the wings first. The dice you place determine how the wings tilt. The difference between the two dice tilts the plane. You need to be careful not to tilt it too far in either direction, because you'll lose control and crash (and lose). Since you don't know what numbers your partner has, controlling the tilt can be tricky. 

Next, the engines. The semi circle above the two engine spots has two marks. If the dice total exceeds the first mark, the plane advances one step. If it exceeds the second mark, the plane advances two steps. The plane may advance one or two steps, or none at all, depending on the dice total. You need to remember that by the final round, the plane needs to reach the runway. If you fall short, or overshoot, you lose. 

There are columns of dice spots along the left and right edges. These spots only allow dice of specific values. These are tasks that must be completed before the plane lands. There is no hurry, but you do have to remember to do them. Every round, two of your dice must go to those mandatory spots, so you only have two dice that can go to other spots. It's not a lot. 

The dice spots at the bottom are for making coffee. Coffee gives you energy. In game terms, each cup of coffee you have can be used to adjust a die value by one. This can sometimes be a life saver. It's something worth spending a die on, as a form of insurance. You can use two or more coffee at the same time, for example drinking two cups of coffee allows you to change a 1 to a 3. 

That long board on the left represents your distance to the airport runway. Every time the plane advances, this distance is shortened. Notice those plane icons on this board. These are other planes which are in your flight path. If you advance into them, you crash and lose the game. You need to use the radio to tell them to get out of your way. Both pilot and copilot can radio these other planes. The pilot can do it once per round, the copilot twice. When you place a die on a radio spot, the die value determines which plane you can send away. The die value is your distance to that plane.  

The long board on the right is your altitude. It is effectively your countdown mechanism. By the time the altitude reduces to 0, you'd better be fully ready to land. This is a natural and thematic build-up to a climax. You need to time everything perfectly for that final round in order to win. 

The Play

I played Sky Team on BoardGameArena.com with my Hong Kong friend Jetta. We are separated by a 4-hour flight. We, okay I should say I, crashed rather spectacularly in our first game. I advanced our plane too fast and crashed into a Japan Airlines plane. I had misunderstood the rule about the engines. I didn't realise that the moment I placed the second die, the plane would start moving. I had thought the moving was done at the end of the round, and I still had time to radio the JAL plane to ask them to duck. 

We quickly made a fresh attempt. This time I was much more careful. If you play this game properly, you are not supposed to be communicating at specific times. You will have to learn to communicate through your plays. Figuring out how to communicate this way is interesting. You need to think why your partner is making this move. You have to think about how you should place your die in order to give specific hints to your partner. This little dance of trying to think what your opponent is thinking and how they will interpret your actions is fun. When my partner places a 5 on his wing, I will be able to calculate the range of numbers I can safely place on my wing so that the plane doesn't tip over. By placing a die, my opponent is helping me plan my play. Your play provides information to your partner. 

The game requires some long-term planning and prioritisation. With only two dice that you can choose to place in spots other than wing and engine, many of the tasks you need to complete can only be done across multiple rounds. There is quite a lot on your plate. You need to use you dice wisely. 

I was the copilot (orange). I placed two 2's on the radios, getting two planes a short distance in front of us out of the way. Now I had a 6 and a 1, and these must be placed on wing and engine. This was a tough situation, because 6's and 1's are extreme numbers. Putting either one on the wing was risky. If Jetta didn't have a number near mine, the plane might tilt out of control. It would be safer to place a 6, because the plane was currently tilting towards his side. If his highest die was a 3 and he placed it, the plane would tilt right by 3 steps and would still remain in control. If he only had 1's and 2's we would be doomed. Unless we still had coffee. 

The game comes with different variants, presented as different airports around the world you can land in. That's nice. Different airports come with different challenges. The basic rules remain. 

This was the final round. We were at ground level, and we were precisely approaching the runway. Now we must have the wings perfectly balanced. The landing gear also needed to be fully extended. We had done our preparation well and we had coffee on the ready. Our final round was a breeze. Everybody went home safe and sound. We had the kind of perfect landing where passengers applauded. 

The Thoughts

I fully appreciate why Sky Team won the SdJ. It is an excellent light strategy game. It is not too heavy so it works for families and couples. The setting is novel. I absolutely love the component design. It creates an immersive experience. At the same time, it is highly practical. The game board is also your reference sheet. 

That process of working out how to communicate with your partner through actions is fun. When you manage to achieve understanding and complete your mission together successfully, it is highly satisfying. This aspect makes the game a nice couple game. You feel the connection. 

Yamslam

 

The Game

Yamslam is an easy-to-learn and smooth-playing dice game which works well with non-gamers and casual gamers. The core mechanism is commonly seen in many other dice games. You get to roll dice three times on your turn, and after every roll, you may set aside and lock some of the dice. After the third roll, you score points based on the combination you achieve. 

You have 5 dice in Yamslam, and they are just simple dice with faces numbered 1 to 6. Odd numbers are black and even numbers are red. There are 7 types of poker chips in the game, corresponding to 7 different combination you can make with your dice. The point values of the chips range from 5 to 50. 

On your turn you get three chances to roll dice, and you try to make a combination which will earn you a chip. Every chip value is associated with a particular dice combination. There are only four chips in each value. Once all four are claimed, you won't be able to get any more even if you make that particular combination. In the photo above you can see a Large Straight, one of the highest valued combinations, worth 50pts. The highest combination in the game is Five of a Kind. If you manage that, you may pick any chip in the game.  

If the dice are passed around the table one full round without anyone claiming any chip, you will remove one highest unclaimed chip from the game. Once all the chips have been claimed by players or removed this way, the game ends. Whoever scores the most wins. 

These are all the combinations you can make in the game. 

In addition to the point values on the chips, there are a few other ways to score bonus points. At the end of the game, if you have 6 or 7 different types of chips, you score a bonus. If you monopolise all four chips of a particular value, you also score a bonus. If you happen to be the one to claim the last remaining chip in the game, you score a bonus too. The last remaining chip is not easy to claim because by then there is only one valid combination. 

When new to the game, it is difficult to remember which combinations score how many points. Thankfully the combination names are written on the chips, which makes things much easier. When you win chips, you should organise them neatly like in this photo above, so that it's easy for others to see what you have. This is important. 

The Play

Yamslam uses a commonly used mechanic, so people who have played similar dice games will feel right at home with it. It does take a short while to be familiar with the the combinations, but they are mostly straight-forward. In the early game, most people will be greedy and try to go for the high-value combinations, especially the Large Straight. Since all 7 combinations are still available, odds are good that you'll be able to make at least one of them. If you fail to make a high-value combination, you may be able to fall back to a similar but lower-valued combination. If the Large Straight doesn't work out, maybe you can still get the Small Straight (four numbers in sequence). If the the Full House doesn't work out, maybe you can still make Three of a Kind or Two Pairs. 

Things get more exciting when some of the chips run out. There will be fewer and fewer combinations available, and the risk of failing escalates. 

The bonus points are well designed. They make you want to both go wide and go deep. You want to collect many different types of chips, and you may also want to monopolise a particular chip type if the opportunity arises. It's not just about going for the highest valued chip on the table. 

Decision-making is fast. From your first roll, you can mostly decide which one or two combinations you want to attempt. It's not a difficult decision. Sometimes the best decision is obvious. However making the logically best decision does not always give you the expected results. This is still a dice game with a luck element. What the game does well is it makes you feel you have made clever decisions. When you win, you feel it is because of your smart choices. When you lose, it's just bad luck. This is what good user experience is. 

The combinations are shown on the sides of the game box. 

The recesses are numbered so you know exactly where to store which chips. 

I took this photo above to discuss how well the game components are designed. The game box is metal and has an unusual shape. These make the game stand out. The shape is not just any random shape. It fits the purpose of storing the 7 stacks of chips. When you pack up the game, the chips should all go back to their designated recesses. By doing this, the next time you play you don't need to set up at all. The game is already set up. This is brilliant! The game box has a felt bottom, and serves as a dice tray. You don't have to worry about dice rolling off the table. This photo above likely triggers all serious gamers. No proper gamer will store the game away in this messy state. It was downright painful for me to stage this photo. If you do this with this game, sorry we can't be friends anymore. 

The Thoughts

Yamslam is a simple game with wide appeal. It is easy to teach and engaging to play. It works well with non-gamers and you can bring it out at (non-boardgame) parties and gatherings. You can even use it to teach maths - high school probability. Despite being a light game, there are many design elements in Yamslam that I admire. A complex game doesn't mean it is a good game. Sometimes seasoned gamers equate complexity with quality. Conciseness and compelling experiences are more important than complexity for the sake of itself. 

Dice Forge

Plays: 3Px1.

The Game

The main selling point of Dice Forge is the fact that you get to modify your dice as you play. Everyone has two dice, and at the start of the game they are all the same. During play, you may spend gold to upgrade your die faces to better versions. Players' dice will gradually diverge. This is a little like deck-building games. Players start on equal footing but gradually augment their individual abilities.

This is the player board. You use it for recording your resource levels. The yellow row is for gold, the red row for sun shards and the blue row for moon shards. Your storage space is limited for each resource type. If it is full you can't collect more. You may expand your storage during the game. The green rows are for score keeping. Highest scorer after the last round wins the game.

The game is played over a fixed number of rounds, depending on the number of players. At the start of each player's turn, everyone including the active player rolls his dice and collects resources accordingly. The die faces mostly depict various resources in different quantities. Some die faces let you pick from two or more resource types. Some die faces grant special abilities, e.g. tripling the production of the other die.

The main board consists of seven islands floating in the sky. Each island has 2 or 3 small piles of cards. On your turn, one of your two options is to visit an island to buy a card (in the game this is called performing a heroic feat), paying sun shards or moon shards. Some cards give you special abilities, some give you points, and some give both. The number of cards available depends on the number of players. Sometimes you need to compete if others want the same cards. If you visit an island which is currently occupied, you bump the incumbent away. This costs you nothing, but the player being bumped gets a free die roll, i.e. he will gain some resources.

The other option on your turn is to visit the temple to make an offering to the gods, i.e. to upgrade your dice. You pay gold to make one or more upgrades to your die faces. The quantities of upgrades are limited, so sometimes you will need to compete too.

The game is beautifully illustrated and the production value is top notch.

The costs of cards are listed on the cards themselves as well as on the board. The game comes with variants. You can mix and match the cards available as well as the die upgrades available.

Some card powers are single-use while others are permanent. These here are all single-use. The card on the left gives me two extra rolls. The card in the middle lets me change one die face to "x3". The card on the right expands my resource storage capacity.

The Play

The gameplay is simple and smooth. You roll dice, collect resources, upgrade your dice, and ultimately your goal is to score points. The early game is mostly about upgrading your dice, and the late game is all about scoring as many points as you can before time runs out. The tricky part is balancing the transition from improving your scoring ability to using that ability to actually score points. If you only think of upgrading your dice, you will miss out on actual scoring, which is what matters in the end. If you start focusing on scoring too early, you will likely be doing it less efficiently because you have not built up your strength.

The die upgrades and the cards do have some synergy. There are combos you can make, which can help you create something which is greater than the sum of its parts.

Sun and moon shards behave a little differently - the kind of cards they let you buy are different in nature. You may spend two sun shards to take an extra action. This can be valuable in the early game. The earlier you improve your abilities, the more you will get to utilise them throughout the game.

The Thoughts

Dice Forge didn't work for me. It felt soulless. I only see the unique selling point - that you get to change your die faces. The rest of the game are common mechanisms pieced together to flesh out the game which is built around this single selling point. I can't say there is any major flaw or imbalance. I have only played one game. I do see there is some strategy in picking die upgrades and cards, and in finding synergies. I can't feel the story and the emotions. I only see an exercise in making upgrades and scoring points efficiently.

Player interaction exists but is limited. Die upgrades and cards are limited, so you may need to rush before some of them run out. If you can anticipate where your opponents want to go, getting there just before they do will give you a bonus because you force them to bump you off. Most of the time you are focused on upgrading your own dice efficiently, and then using them efficiently to score points.

One possible problem is your die upgrades may not always give you good returns. Even if you upgrade a die face to an exceptionally good one, there is only a 1 in 6 chance of activating that face. If you are unlucky, you never activate it, thus wasting your gold and your effort. Bad luck is very real. The fact that you get to roll dice on everyone's turn somewhat mitigates this. Since you do roll dice a lot, luck somewhat evens out.

Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age

Plays: 4Px1.

The Game

Roll Through the Ages has a few expansions and variants, and Iron Age is one of the variants. It's more a variant than an expansion because it takes out some parts of the original and replaces them with new elements. It's not just adding minor rules or small modules.

The player board is different. You don't have 5 types of goods. You just have goods (fourth row, grey). Grain (5th row, green) remains the same. If you expand your empire by settling more provinces, you will need more grain to feed your population every turn. The first row is gold. You can convert goods to gold to be used on a future turn. This is akin to investing and earning interest, because gold is worth more than the original goods it is converted from. You spend both gold and goods to discover new technologies. The 2nd row is ships. Once you discover the ship-building tech, you can build ships. They are worth points, and can also be used for war. The 3rd row is armies. You spend food and population to build armies, which are of course used for war.

Warfare is a new concept. Some die rolls let you decide to initiate a war of conquest, which lets you score points depending on how large your army is. Some die rolls force you to enter a war. You win or lose points depending on how well you fare. You don't directly attack a fellow player, but your military strength difference does come into play because of the other new mechanism - the tribute. One of the die rolls let you demand tribute, which is basically scoring points depending on how much stronger you are compared to every other player. The others don't lose points, but they can deny you points by paying you one good.

This is the player sheet used in Iron Age. In the base game, the more cities you build, the more dice you roll. There are no cities in Iron Age. Instead, you get ports and provinces. Both allow you to increase your dice. Ports increase your rate of collecting goods too, and do not consume food. Provinces increase your military strength and award tribute points. The turn sequence is very similar to the base game. You get to roll up to three times, just that dice showing skulls (disasters) are locked and cannot be rerolled. After rolling dice, you collect goods, workers and food, and then spend them to build ports, settle provinces, build ships, build armies and construct monuments. You need food to feed your people. You may spend goods, gold and innovation points to discover a new technology. The possible new phases are warfare and tribute. They do not occur every turn.

The game can end in three different ways - when a player discovers a specific number of techs, when a player scores a specific number of tribute points, or when all monuments are completed.

This yellow fate die is new in the Iron Age. It can affect your harvest. It may allow you to initiate a conquest or demand tribute. In this photo, the smoking bones icon means a good omen - you can set this die to any face you want. On the left side of the die, the helmet icon means you have the option to initiate a conquest. On the right side, the sun means a drought, and the food production on every die is reduced by one. Other than the fate die, the basic dice in the game have also changed.

The Play

I did a four-player game. Roll Through the Ages is a filler, and can be completed in about half an hour to 45 minutes. It is quite straight-forward, but it has some strategic depth. How it uses a dice mechanism to tell the story of a growing civilisation is interesting. In the Iron Age, a slightly different story is being told. You deal less with specific goods, and you have to manage the arms race more. Iron Age felt more like a full-fledged boardgame than a filler-type dice game. You have more decisions to make than the original game. Our game ran longer than an hour. I'm not sure whether it was more because we were unfamiliar with it, or the game is indeed more complex than the original and takes longer to play.

The Thoughts

If you like Roll Through the Ages, you should give Iron Age a try. The basics are familiar, but the overall feel is a little different. If you are new to the series, I would recommend starting with the original game, which is more straight-forward and plays more smoothly, but still has decent strategic depth. Iron Age is more for players who already know the original, who already like it, and want to inject some new elements.

Cubist

Plays: 3Px1.

The Game

In Cubists you are sculptors - cube artists - who use dice as the material for sculptures and buildings. You race to complete commissioned artwork, and you contribute towards building an art museum. Both of these give victory points. The game ends when someone completes five sculptures, or when the museum is completed.

These four columns of components are (from left):

(1) The player board. Every turn you roll two dice. You can use them to build sculptures in one of your two workshops here. If you choose not to, or if you can't use the dice yet, you can store them in your storage space (top right corner of your player board). You can store at most two dice. When you build a sculpture, you should build it according to the specifications of the customers. This is a business afterall. The customer requirements are in the next column.

(2) The players race to complete these sculptures requested by customers. Whoever completes one takes the card, and earns one or two bonus dice. The point value of a sculpture card is in the yellow star. The number of bonus dice is indicated by the red cubes. The most important use of the bonus dice is to contribute to building the art museum. You can use them for other purposes, and sometimes it makes sense to do so, but they are usually best used as museum building material, because they score 2VP per die.

(3) This is the construction site of the museum. It starts with one red die as a cornerstone. A blueprint card is randomly drawn at the start of the game (that green card), and everyone builds according to it.

(4) These are the artist cards. When you have two or three dice of the same value, you can use them to book an artist. Artists give a one-time special ability. Once you book an artist, you can use him any time from your next turn onwards. Once used he is discarded (sad but true). An opponent may take over your artist. If he has two (or three) dice of the same value, and that value equals or exceeds the value of your dice on an artist, he can eject your dice and place his in their place. So you probably don't want to wait too long before using your artist. There is much variety in artist abilities. E.g. some give you a die of a specific value, some let you modify the value of a die.

The basic rules around building a sculpture and building the museum are the same. When you add a die next to another, the values of these dice must be different by exactly 1. E.g. you can only place a 3 or a 5 next to a 4. When you add a die on top of another, their values must be the same. You can only place a 4 on top of another 4.

These are the artists. At the moment three are booked. The third artist booked with a pair of 1's has no loyalty at all. Any pair including another pair of 1's can take him away. The second artist booked with 6's is harder to sway, but it is not impossible.

The Play

I did a 3-player game with Allen and Han. I played in a simple way, focusing on just the sculptures, and contributing to the museum construction as often as possible. The competition in completing the commissioned works is fierce. There were a few times Allen was narrowly beaten in completing a sculpture, and it was quite painful for him because it meant much effort had been wasted. The new sculpture order coming in may not look anything like your half completed masterpiece, so often you need to start from scratch. Before you abandon a sculpture you can use the dice for signing up artists. That is a small consolation, but it's better than none.

I'm still unsure about going for artists. Some of them do seem powerful, but I feel they are risky - others may steal your artists. Also they are not exactly cheap, costing at least two dice. I only invested in artists when I had spare dice which I couldn't find a good use for. You do need to consider the artist abilities in the context of the current sculpture orders. Some artists may give you an edge in completing certain orders. Sometimes they let you take a combo-rific turn when the stars line up. That is fun and satisfying.

Deciding which sculptures to work on is something you need to do all the time. If many opponents are working on the same one, there is a higher risk of losing out. If someone is almost done with a sculpture, you probably don't want to go anywhere near it. Sometimes two sculptures are similar, and you want to build in such a way that you have the flexibility to complete it as one or the other. The number of orders is small, so there is no avoiding the competition. You need to choose wisely and hope for the best. This is a tactical decision you make all the time.

Which die values to use in your sculptures is another thing to consider. Ideally you want one workshop to use lower values and the other higher values, so that no matter what you roll, you can fit that die somewhere.

We played very quickly. I'm not sure whether it's us or it's the game. We generally play games at a brisk pace, often starting to take our turns before others finish taking theirs. In Cubist you only roll two dice on your turn. Even if you have two dice stored from your previous turn, that's only four dice in total to consider. There is not that much to think about when you need to decide where to place them. On other players' turns, you should take note of what they are doing, e.g. which sculptures they are going for and which artists they are investing in, but there is still plenty of time to think of your own medium- and long-term strategy. I find this a light and speedy game.

This is my player area. I have completed two sculptures at this moment. They have given me three bonus dice, and I have used them all.

The art museum construction is still in progress. I (green) have contributed two dice. Han (beige) has contributed two too.

The Thoughts

Cubist is a light family strategy game. It's easy to learn. There is a spatial element to it. There is some luck and excitement in the die-rolling. You have a medium-term goal to chase after in the commissioned works, and a long-term goal in the art museum.

Kingsport Festival

Plays: 4Px1.

The Game

Kingsport Festival is a remake of Kingsburg with a completely different setting and some changes in gameplay. It is now Cthulu-themed. You play cultists rolling dice to pray to the elder gods, the Old Ones. They give you stuff to help you expand your influence in the town of Kingsport, which gives you special abilities as well as victory points. The game is played over 12 rounds, and whoever scores highest at game end wins.

The twenty large square cards on the right are the elder gods, numbered 1 to 20. At the start of every round, each player rolls three dice. You take turns placing your dice on the elder gods to invoke them. Each elder god specifies the exact total dice value required to invoke it. Also, it can only be invoked once per round. This is worker placement. Players can and will block each other. You can invoke a god using all three of your dice, or just two, or even one. However you need to consider whether you will be able to place your remaining dice on your next turn, since the spots you want may be claimed by others by then.

You get various types of resources when you invoke the gods. In game terms they are something like death, violence and tentacles, but I tend to think of them as wood, stone and iron. Every round you may spend resources to expand your influence to one new area in Kingsport. To me it's a little like constructing a new building, so I naturally think of building materials.

The main board on the left is the town of Kingsport. You always start with establishing influence in the house at the centre. Thereafter you can expand to areas adjacent to those where you already have influence.

Every area specifies the cost (icons with spikes) of establishing influence, the victory points awarded (green circles with a star) and the special abilities awarded (text). When you establish influence you place a disc of your colour in the area. The graphic design is dark, and it's hard to see the discs of the black and purple players. I bet you didn't see the black tokens at first glance.

Throughout the game, a semi-random investigator turns up every three rounds to investigate the suspicious events in Kingsport (i.e. the dodgy stuff you have been up to). The strength of the investigators are semi-random. If he is stronger than you are, you will be penalised. If you are stronger, you gain a reward. If your strengths are equal, nothing happens. You can increase your strength by influencing some areas on the board. There is also a type of card you can use to boost your strength. The strengths of the investigators will generally increase as the game progresses, and this keeps the pressure up for the players.

Some elder gods give you cards. You have three types to pick from. One type is for scoring points, one for defeating investigators and one for manipulating dice (e.g. allowing rerolls, increasing values).

This guy on the left is one of the earlier investigators. The card on the right is an event card.

God #3 lets you take one death resource or one tentacle resource. God #4 lets you take one violence resource and one magic point, at the cost of one sanity point. Everyone starts the game fully sane (12 points). Each time you invoke any half-decent elder god, you got nuts a little. That's the price you have to pay for worshipping these mad gods. If you go completely crazy, you won't die or lose the game, but each time you need to lose more sanity, you lose victory points instead. There are ways to regain sanity. Players who roll low totals may improve their sanity for free. Some actions let you recover sanity too. One twist is some cards and some areas are more powerful when you are somewhat crazy, so you don't really want to be too sane, yet you want to avoid being completely bonkers. It's a tricky balance.

The Play

I played with Ivan, Dith and Boon Khim. The highest player count is five, and I think the game is best with more players, because there will be more competition. I've played Kingsburg before, but I had forgotten what it felt like. When I played Kingsport Festival, it immediately felt familiar. The hook in this game is the dice mechanism. Since there are die rolls, there will be luck in this game. If you roll high all the time, you will do well. There are some balancing mechanisms - players who roll low get an earlier turn order, and also get to restore some sanity.

Deciding how to place your dice is the core of the game. You need to consider your opponents' die rolls. If you are going to split up your dice, will you be able to place your remaining dice on your next turn? Do you want to intentionally block your opponent? Which elder god is giving you the resources you want? Do you simply go for that or do you change plans so that you can screw an opponent at the same time? How to expand your influence is the strategic part of the game. You need to consider both the victory point scoring and the abilities you will gain from the areas you have influence over. The areas you expand into should be consistent with your overall evil master plan.

The investigators are a constant pain in the neck. Your first instinct will be to keep increasing your strength to beat them off. However I suspect ignoring them is a valid strategy too. The effort and resources saved this way can be spent on other, possibly more profitable, activities. In our game we were all rather conventional and none of us dared to ignore these pesky busybodies. So I can't prove my theory yet. Maybe next game.

The Thoughts

Kingsport Festival is a mid-weight Eurogame, even though the setting is very Ameritrashy. The mechanisms are definitely Euro, despite the death and violence. And tentacles. When Kingsburg first came out in 2007, the dice mechanism received high praise from many gamers. It is indeed clever, but I didn't particularly like or dislike it. So I am quite neutral towards Kingsport Festival too. I'm not a Cthulu fan, so the setting doesn't attract me. Nor does it bother me. However I do think the changes from Kingsburg make Kingsport Festival a better game.

Roll for the Galaxy

Plays: 2Px7

The Game

Roll for the Galaxy is the dice game version of Race for the Galaxy, but it is not just a simplified or shortened version of the game. It is a game with a similar feel, but it uses different mechanisms. Imagine Mona Lisa being painted by Picasso - familiar yet very different. Here's how it plays.

Players each develop their own galactic empire, starting with one homeworld, and two additional worlds or technologies. This is a tableau game, so as you develop new techs or colonise new planets, you add them to your tableau, and they grant you new powers or benefits. Every planet or tech is worth points. The top-end techs grant bonus points depending on your tableau at game end, e.g. bonus points for techs, or for goods, or for different coloured dice. You can also collect victory point chips during the game using the Ship action. The game ends once a player reaches 12 worlds and/or techs, or when the VP chips are exhausted.

Dice represent your people, and also represent actions you can perform. You start with five basic white dice, plus a few more depending on your start worlds and techs. New worlds you colonise will give more dice.

When a round starts, everyone rolls his dice behind this screen. You first arrange the dice below the small strip, according to the icons rolled. Once done, you pick one die (regardless of icon) and move it onto the action icon on the small strip for the action you want to execute this round.

Once the above is done by all players, the screens are removed, and you get to see what everyone else has picked.

These five big tiles at the centre of the table represent the five action types in the game. After seeing the actions everyone has chosen, these tiles are used to indicate which actions will be available for the round. If an action has been picked by at least one player, other players will be able to execute it too as long as they have dice assigned to that action.

By default, the action a die can be used to execute depends on the icon you have rolled. When you pick an action for the round, you guarantee that this action type will be active, and all the dice you have in that column (including the one placed on the strip) can be used to perform the action of this column. If you have dice in other columns, you will need to hope that other players have picked these columns.

In this photo, I have rolled two Explores (eye), two Develops (diamond), and one Settle (circle). I place one of the Develop dice onto the Settle action icon, meaning that I will definitely be Settling this round. Every die in this column will be used for Settling. I have moved another Develop die to the Settle column using a special ability. My two Explore dice are left in their default location. I will only be able to Explore if my opponent picks Explore.

The five actions in the game are: Explore, Develop, Settle, Produce and Ship. Explore means drawing tiles from a bag. Every tile is two-sided, a world on one side and a tech on the other. When you draw one, you must decide which side to use, and then you place it under your Develop stack (for techs) or Settle stack (for worlds). In this photo above, I have one tech waiting to be Developed and one world waiting to be Settled. I already have two Settle dice on the world, so I just need three more to complete the colonisation.

The Develop and Settle actions simply mean placing dice onto the Develop and Settle stacks. When the number of dice on a stack equals or exceeds the number on the topmost tile, you complete the development or colonisation and get to add that tile to your tableau.

The fourth action is Produce, which means placing the die onto a world to represent a good produced. You won't gain any benefit just yet. You need to use the fifth action - Ship. To Ship means to use a good on a world. There are two ways to use it. You can Trade it, which means earning cash. Cash is important. Whenever you use a die, it goes to a Citizenry area and stays there, until you can afford to pay to bring it out for use again ($1 per die). The other way to use the Ship action is to Consume the good, which means discarding it to gain victory point chips. You gain at least 1VP. If the colour of the good matches that of the world, you gain an extra VP. If the colour of the ship matches that of the world, that's another extra VP too. In the best case, you earn 3VP for one Ship action. In this photo I have five worlds with goods of matching colours, which means good scoring opportunities.

At the start of a round when you do dice rolling and dice assignment, they are done simultaneously by all players. After everyone is ready, the screens are removed at the same time to determine which actions will be available for the current round. After that, usually everyone can perform actions simultaneously too. This minimises downtime.

The game ends when one player reaches 12 worlds and/or techs, or when the VP chips are exhausted (the number of VP chips depends on the number of players).

The Play

Roll for the Galaxy has a bit of multiplayer solitaire feel. I'm a big fan of Race for the Galaxy, but I do not hesitate to say this, even though it is sacrilege to many fellow fans. Defenders of the game will tell you that there is player interaction, just that it is more subtle than other games, which is true. A big part of the game is trying to figure out what actions others will choose, and you need to leech off your opponents. You also need to watch what they are doing in order to gauge the tempo of the game. Sometimes expediting or delaying the game end is the key to victory. You do not directly interfere with your opponents' empires. You are mostly focused on building your own. Player interaction is indirect, but it's there.

Just like Race for the Galaxy, in Roll for the Galaxy you also need to guess what actions your opponents will pick. In this photo my Development stack is empty, which means I am not likely to choose the Develop action. If my opponent wants to Develop, he'd better choose it himself and not hope that I would do it.

You need to remember to maintain a more-or-less steady income, so that your used dice quickly return to work. If you frequently run out of cash, your progress will be fitful.

So far in Roll of the Galaxy I see there are these three main types of strategies - setting up your infrastructure to grab VP chips, going for high valued planets and techs, and customising your empire to score points from 6-cost techs. These can be found in Race for the Galaxy too, but there are some strategies in the former game which don't have equivalents in the newer game. Of course, there are some tactical elements in the newer game which are not present in the older. E.g. powers for manipulating dice, and making use of the different die-face distribution of the dice.

One part of the game which slows down is the Explore action. There is some downtime here if one player takes a few Explore actions while others have not allocated any dice for Exploration. It takes time to look at the tiles drawn and choose how to place them on your player board. This can take a fair bit of time when you are new to the game. After you are familiar with the tiles, this phase should move faster.

The dice come in seven colours, and the die-face distribution differs depending on the colour of the die. The white starting dice have more Explore icons than others. The valuable green and yellow dice have more star faces (jokers).

The inside of the player screen is a reference sheet. This looks rather intimidating, but once the rules are explained, you will find this very comprehensive and useful.

The Thoughts

Roll for the Galaxy is a development game and a tableau game. As your grow your empire, you gain more and more powers, which help you further expand your empire. It is satisfying to see how your tableau develops and to make use of combos between your planets and techs. Putting together a coherent set of planets and techs is what tableau games are all about. Often you need to make do with what you draw from the bag, and this is part of the challenge. With so much dice rolling, the game may sound luck-heavy. However I find that there many ways to manipulate your dice and to mitigate luck. Your basic abilities already let you reassign one die to execute any action you want, and there is also another basic ability to let you spend one die to reassign another. So you are never fully at the mercy of what you roll. I find that more often than not my dilemma is that I need to decide how best to reassign my dice, and not that I'm stuck with die results I can't do anything with. Should I split up my dice to try to do a few different actions (hoping others will pick actions I don't pick)? Or should I try to focus all my dice on one action type - the one which I can guarantee will happen? What type of die colour should I go for when I picking new planets to Settle? When I pay to reactivate dice, which ones should I pick?

I can't help comparing Roll for the Galaxy with Race for the Galaxy. They feel very similar, and yet are quite different at the same time. Roll is definitely not a simplified or more luck-heavy version of Race. Although overall I would say the strategy space of Roll is smaller, the play time and the number and type of decisions you need to make are about the same as Race. Does that mean if you own Race you don't need Roll? I'm a long-time fan of Race. To me, Roll is an alternative way to enjoy Race, so I don't find it redundant at all. If you didn't enjoy Race, there is still a chance you might like Roll, because some of the fundamental mechanisms are rather different.