Legions

Legions is a 2-player card game set in the world of Abyss. There are five regions between the two players, and you play cards to compete for dominance in each of these regions. There are two ways you can win. If you manage to capture five banners, you win immediately. Banners only appear on some cards, and it is not easy to achieve this victory condition. If no one achieves this by the time the draw deck runs out, whoever has more points wins. Many cards in the game have point values, so this is probably the more common way to win. 

Cards come in five suits, corresponding to the five regions. There are also many cards which do not have suits. They are jokers and you can play them anywhere. Every round you choose a card to play simultaneously to your side of the board. The player with the lower card goes first, and will also have first pick when replenishing his hand from a market of two face-up and one face-down card. However the second player will have the opportunity to attack the first, in a region corresponding to the card he doesn't take from the market when replenishing. Attacking means turning your opponent's cards face-down, temporarily disabling them. He can revive them by playing a new card in the region. 

When you have more cards in a region than your opponent, you control it and get to enjoy its special ability. For example one region breaks ties for all other regions. One region gives you a banner if you control it. After you play your card, you draft a new card from a shared pool. This means your opponent can keep track of what you have been taking, and this gives him clues about your intentions. 

When you have three cards in the same region, or one card in every region, you get to claim a hero. This is how you can score banners and points. You claim a hero from a hero pool, and you must move two of your cards to accompany that hero. The hero and these two retired cards contribute to your points and your banners. Since you are required to remove two cards, you become weaker in the regions they were in. 

Getting to five banners is a threat you can use against your opponent. Since this is a sudden death victory, your opponent cannot let you get too close. The game is tactical. You want to maximise the small advantages you get here and there, like the region powers. 

Legions is a light strategy game that can be a filler for gamers. 

Dionysia

Dionysia is a microgame from Buttonshy Games. So you know what to expect. A game with exactly 18 cards which comes in a wallet that fits comfortably in your shirt pocket. 

Dionysia is a two player game in which you draft cards to make a play. Cards represent scenes. Your play has three acts, and each act must have three scenes. You take turns drafting a card from a market of three face up cards. The moment you take a card, you must decide which act to add it to. When you take the second card for an act, you must stack it above or below the first card, slightly offset so that the icons of every card are visible. This below is what your work-in-progress looks like. For the first two acts where I still had only one card, I didn't need to decide where to position them yet. I placed them this way because I wanted to remind myself this was one potential configuration I wanted to use.  

The top section of a card shows an ability and a scoring criteria. The bottom section shows two icons. When you complete your play, the icons will form a 6x3 grid. The scoring criteria of a card indicates a sequence of icons you need to have in your grid in order to score points. This sequence can go from left to right, or top to bottom. If the sequence occurs multiple times, you score every occurrence. 

The abilities of the cards let you do various things, like rearranging your cards. Often they also help you score points. Of the three cards you have in one act (i.e. one column), only the ability and the scoring criteria of the top card will take effect, because those of the other cards are covered up. When you add cards to your play, you have to decide which card to use as your top card, and which abilities and scoring criteria you have to forgo. Where you position your card affects how the icons appear on your grid eventually, which you must also consider because of the scoring criteria. 

This is what a completed play looks like. If you look at the three scoring criteria, you can see that sword-skull-skull appears twice, cup-skull-skull appears once, and skull-cup-skull appears twice. 

Dionysia is a game of drafting and tableau building. There are difficult choices to make when you build your own play. You need to choose the scoring criteria to use and the card abilities to use, while at the same time you need to build your grid of icons to match the criteria you have selected. You need to consider multiple requirements at the same time. And then there's also your opponent to worry about. Sometimes you may want to take a card for the sake of denying him. 

Agent Avenue

Agent Avenue is a two player game with bluffing and psychological play. You are spies hiding in an innocent neighbourhood. You need to find and catch your opponent before they catch you. Well, that is how the story goes. In terms of practical implementation, you and your opponent race around a circular track, starting opposite from each other. Your goal is to run fast enough to catch your opponent. Movement is determined using a card drafting mechanism. You will collect cards during play. There are two other ways the game ends. You win instantly if you collect your third Codebreaker card. You lose instantly if you collect your third Daredevil card.

You have a hand of four cards. On your turn, you play two of them to the centre of the table, one face up and the other face down. Your opponent must then pick one card to add to their set. You take the other to add to your set. When you add a card to your set, you move a number of steps on the board as dictated by the card. If you already have other copies of the same card in your set, the movement rule will change, depending on the card. And that’s all there is to the game! Pretty simple.

Most cards in the game are good, helping you advance. However, there are some cards which force you to move backwards. Although you are the one who picks the two cards to be used on the current turn, it is your opponent who decides who gets which card. The key is making use of that face down card. When the face up card is a good card, are you hiding an even better card? Or if that face up card is bad, are you hiding an even worse card? The player who has to choose is put in a dilemma. This is where the psychological play comes in. 

The numbers on the cards mean the number of steps you move when you have one, two, or three or more cards. You first Double Agent forces you to move backwards one step, but your second lets you move forward 6 steps. 

An optional module introduces special tools when you land on the corners. 

As you collect more and more cards, the tactics change. Which cards you already have affect the power of the next card you get. Deciding which cards you want to collect and which cards you want to force or trick your opponent into taking is long-term strategy. If your opponent has two Daredevils, he will be reluctant to take any face down card. The same principle applies when you already have two Codebreakers. He wouldn't want to risk you taking the face down card. In specific situations, it is possible to make a play which lets you catch your opponent regardless of his choice. This is because cards behave differently depending on your existing set. 

I was green and I was only 2 steps away from catching Han. I would offer Enforcer and Double Agent. Han didn't have any Double Agent, and his first one would make him move backwards. If he took that and I took Enforcer, I would catch him. I had one Double Agent. If he took the Enforcer, he would move forward, but my second Double Agent would let me advance 6 steps, and I would catch him. 

Agent Avenue is a simple and clever two player game. I like that it is clean and concise. Minimal fluff. One nice touch is the art work for the same character varies. Most characters have six cards, and the art for each card is different. Check out the Codebreaker and the Daredevil cards below. 

Living Forest Duel

Living Forest Duel is the two player version of Living Forest. I think two player Living Forest works pretty well. Living Forest Duel is a slightly different game. 

One key difference is instead of revealing cards one by one from your deck on your turn, now you and your opponent take turns revealing cards from a common deck. There is still deck building and push-your-luck. On your turn you can choose to reveal a card, or if you are happy with the number of icons revealed of a certain type, you can choose to use up that icon type to perform an action. You will often be a little torn between the number of icons not being attractive enough and the worry that if you reveal a strong card you will hand your opponent a windfall. 

You can perform at most two actions in a round. Once you have done both, you must pass. If you reveal a third nocturnal animal, you will lose an action. This part of push-your-luck is still in the game. 

Of the various things you can do in the game, they now help you towards four different winning conditions instead of three. You win by either putting out enough fires, planting enough trees, filling the market with animals of your season, or pushing the evil spirit far enough towards your opponent. 

Fires spread from where the evil spirit is, and if they are not controlled well, they will lead to bad cards being added to the common deck. This is the deck building part of the game, where bad cards will lead to players finding it hard to get things done. You need water icons to put out fires. 

You need tree icons to plant trees. You need to create a 3 x 3 grid to win. Tree cards have icons along their edges. When you match the icons, you gain some benefit.

There is a mechanism to push the evil spirit along a track towards your opponent. This is yet another way you can win the game.

A slightly more complicated one to explain is filling the market with animals of your season type. Initially the market has three summer and three winter animals. One player is summer and the other winter. The common deck starts with neutral cards, which can be used by both players. If you buy and add a card which matches your season, in the future, when it is drawn, its icons will only help you and not your opponent. Normally, you would want to buy animals which match your season. However, you are allowed to buy your opponent’s animals. They will not be useful to you when they are drawn in future. However, when you buy them, their slots in the market are replenished using your animals. If you manage to fill the market with your animals, you win immediately.  This way of winning requires that you do something bad to yourself. It is a little risky.

This is a game of making threats and forcing your opponent to react. There are four ways you can threaten to win. It might become a race, when the players decide to rush for two different conditions. However, most likely you won’t be able to resist trying to slow your opponent down. Pushing the evil spirit and filling the market with your animals are two things where your opponent can undo your progress. Planting trees and putting out fires are areas where your progress cannot be undone. If you are doing well, your opponent will have to try to overtake you or they have to try to be faster winning using another approach.

This is a tight game. You cannot go in expecting a nice family Euro style game where you can happily explore and everything gives you some points. You need to be deliberate about what you want to do and how you want to win. You need to be efficient and focused, else it is easy to fall behind and never recover. Some attacks are feints intended to waste your time defending. Yet you cannot completely ignore them in case that avenue becomes a viable winning condition for your opponent. 

I like the original a little more, but it might be because I played it first.  Living Forest Duel delivers a slightly different experience. Like the predecessor, I like how you need to be constantly thinking about the four different winning conditions. There is always a sense of urgency.

Drones vs Seagulls

Drones vs Seagulls is a two player card game about fighting for dominance over the beach. You and your opponent sit on opposite sides of the table, with a long stretch of beach between you divided into 7 segments. You both start with a same hand of numbered cards. The numbers are between 1 and 5. You take turns playing a card to one segment of the beach. If that segment belongs to your opponent and you now wrest control from him by having a higher strength total, you get to trigger the power of that segment. This is the most interesting part of the game. It is the various segment powers which let you do all sorts of nifty stuff. 

You play best out of three rounds. To win a round, you need to control more segments after one player runs out of cards. The other player still gets to play one last turn. You can win a sudden death if you manage to control all seven segments. That’s hard, but highly satisfying if you manage it. 

Segment powers can be randomised every game, creating replayability. One power lets you move one of your cards to another segment. One power lets you move your opponent’s card. One power lets you move two cards. You must use it on groups of at least two, and you cannot choose to move just one card. Powers are mandatory. If you win a segment, you must apply the power. Sometimes that's a bad thing. One power lets you discard an opponent card. One power lets you steal an opponent card and make it yours. One power flips an opponent card face down making its strength 1. As you can see, many of these powers can result in you winning another segment. When you win an additional segment, you get to use its power too. This becomes a chain reaction. This is where the fun is. 

One interesting power is having an advantage in the case of ties. You can imagine if you are currently winning several segments using this advantage, the moment your opponent wrests this power from you, you will suddenly lose several other segments. 

I really enjoy the clever plays you can make in this game. One thing I realise is the game doesn’t even use positional powers. There is no power which applies to adjacent segments. Yet there are already enough powers to make the game interesting. As you play more, one more thing you will realise is that sometimes you don’t want to win those segments with strong powers. The problem with controlling them is you become vulnerable to your opponent’s attack. Being in control of a segment doesn’t let you use its power. You only get to use the power the moment you capture it. 

There seems to be a tendency to want to play small cards in the early round and then gradually play higher cards. Early on you can win segments even with small cards, so it is wise to conserve your resources. However sometimes a well played high card can help protect a crucial segment, or at least deter your opponent by making it costly to attack. How you play depends on the powers present in the game. If the power which turns an opponent card to strength 1 is in play, you will be extra careful about playing your high cards. 

Drones vs Seagulls is a joy to play. Short and sweet and it makes you feel clever. You can think several steps ahead, and you should. You must not only plan for your own chain reaction of wins, you must also think about how the board situation will be and what opportunities you are opening up for your opponent. I heartily recommend this game. 

Schotten Totten

Schotten Totten is an older game from Reiner Knizia, first published in 1999. There have been several versions of the game since then, including Battle Line, which is the version I own. This game is not new to me. I recently played it online, and it was an opportunity to appreciate this gem all over again. Now that I have learnt to look at games from a game design perspective, I sometimes gain new appreciation for games I have already played before. 

Schotten Totten uses cards numbered 1 to 9 in six suits. You play three card combos on opposing sides of nine stones. If your combo is stronger than your opponent's, you win the stone. You need five stones to win the game, or you can also win by claiming three adjacent stones. Combo strengths in descending order are: straight flush, three of a kind, flush, and straight. If both sides cannot make any combo, you determine strength by the sum of your three cards. 

This is a 2-player game. What this means is your chances of drawing any specific card in the game is 50%. It's either you will draw it, or your opponent will. You share the same draw deck. Every turn you must play a card. When you start playing a card next to a stone, you are committed and you know what are the possible combos you can eventually make. If there is only one card, the possibilities are still many. By the time you play the second card, the possibilities narrow. This is a simple game, but it presents you with many difficult decisions. Sometimes you just have to gamble and hope for the best. You can estimate your odds, but your information is incomplete, and you have to make decisions under uncertainty. That's life. 

For my second game we used tactic cards. These are special ability cards which can do various nifty things. That card on the eighth stone forces both players to ignore combos and only compare the sum of the cards. 

It is fun to revisit an old game and to have new appreciation of it. 

Duel for Cardia

Duel for Cardia is a two player game which immediately makes me think - this is the kind of game I like to design. Players have the exact same deck of 16 cards, but a hand size of only 5. Every turn you each play a card simultaneously, and the higher number wins a ring. You need to win five rings to win a round, and you play best out of three rounds. Now the twist is in the unique card powers. Every card has a power. The higher card may win the ring, but its power will not activate. Only the losing card's power gets activated. It is the card powers which make this a strategic and very interesting game. 

Let’s talk about some of the card powers to get a better idea. The strongest card, 16, will win a match-up most of the time, so it will earn you a ring. However if you manage to lose a match-up with it, you will win the entire game, not just one ring or one round. To achieve this you may need to utilise one other card which weakens your next card. Or you take advantage of your opponent having played a card which strengthens his next card. So you see there are creative ways to use combinations of your cards and also to take advantage of your opponent’s cards. 

The low cards seem weak, but some have nifty powers. The 4 forces a tie, so you can use it to neutralise an opponent’s powerful card. The 1 discards both cards played. This is also great for wasting your opponent’s strong card. That is, if he does play one. 

One interesting aspect is past match-up outcomes within the same round are not permanent. For example your opponent has a power which lets him win all ties, and indeed he has won one tie because of this. Now if you have a new card which lets you disable the power of an existing card, and you choose his tiebreaker advantage card, the ring which he has previously won will need to be surrendered. That previously tied match-up no longer counts as a win for him. 

Cards come in four colours. There is one card power which forces your opponent to discard a card of a specific colour, or else give you a strength bonus of 7. If you can see he is out of a certain colour, or low on it, your card play can become very powerful. With the existence of this card, it means players will try to play their colours evenly. That’s another tactical consideration. There is another power which forces your opponent to discard cards of a colour you specify. If you can force him to discard cards, as the round progresses it comes easier or even entirely possible to work out what cards he has in hand. As more as more cards have been played in a round, the game becomes more strategic because you know what’s left in your opponent’s hand and deck. The board situation also gives you clues as to how your opponent might play. There is psychology and bluffing. 

This is a short game with a very simple core mechanism. It’s just playing cards at the same time and seeing who has the higher number. This probably won’t work as a game without the card powers. With the card powers it becomes a delicious mind game. You do need to spend some effort in understanding and remembering the card powers to fully enjoy the game. I can tell you it is very much worth the effort. 

Gatsby

Gatsby is a light 2-player game about trying to gain the favours of the rich and famous. There are 15 characters in the game, three each in five different colours. However each time you play, a few are removed unseen. To win, you need to collect three characters of the same colour, or five characters of different colours. If no one achieves either condition, you compare total point values of characters you manage to collect. 

The fun part of the game is that some characters are face-down. You don’t know which characters are in play. You need to take a specific action to peek at and possibly swap the positions of characters. You play on three different boards, and there are characters on all three. You place or move your markers on these boards in order to win characters. 

There are four action tiles which let you perform different combinations of actions on the three boards. You share a common disc with your opponent. On your turn you move the disc to a new action tile and perform the corresponding actions. What this means is you are also preventing your opponent from performing that action, because he must move the disc when his turn comes. 

The three boards work differently. There are five tracks on the race course board. You fill them from left to right. When a track is full, whoever has more markers wins the character. At the dance floor, which is a square grid, you win characters when your markers connect two edges and when you occupy four specific spaces. At the tower building, you win characters when you reach specific levels. One interesting twist here is whoever is behind moves two steps at a time. 

The general mechanisms of the three boards do not make an interesting enough game. What makes the game fun is the special powers on some of the spaces. Some let you peek at and swap characters. Some let you swap markers with your opponent. Some let you specify which action tile your opponent must use next. Some let you draw a special single-use action tile which is only available to you. These special action tiles can be very powerful. One dilemma you often have is when you place your marker on a space, you are making adjacent spaces accessible to your opponent, and these newly accessible spaces may have useful special powers. 

The game is a tug of war with three arenas you need to compete in. Tension comes from the unknown characters. You need to figure out which are in play because it affects your strategy and you also need to know that to stop your opponent from winning. Due to this hidden information, you can have psychological play, trying to mislead your opponent. There are also clever action combos you can make. These are fun tactical plays which make you feel smart. 

The Fox in the Forest

The Fox in the Forest is a two-player-only trick-taking card game. It's a clever little card game and works well when you have only two. You will play multiple rounds and whoever gets to 21 points first wins the game. The most important thing to keep in mind when playing the game is this table below. 

Every round you will play 13 tricks. There are 33 cards in the deck, in three suits, and the cards are numbered 1 to 11. So every round 26 of those cards are dealt to the two players. One card is revealed to determine the trump suit, and you have 6 more cards in a draw deck. Based on the table above, the best case is you win 3 or fewer tricks, or you win 7 to 9 tricks. You have to be careful not to win too many because you will score nothing. The way points are scored creates a bit of dilemma. If you win very few tricks early in the round, you will try very hard to win no more than three. However that is not easy to do. Once you get to four tricks, you will try very hard to score more.

Most of the basic tactics in trick-taking games still apply here. The trump suit concept is standard. Cards in the trump suit beats other suits. Also you must follow suit if possible. One thing special about the game is that odd numbered cards have special powers. The 7's are worth 1 point each. The 5's let you draw then discard a card. The 3's let you change the trump suit. You need a draw deck because sometimes you will draw a card. When doing this, you get more information about what may be in your opponent's hand.

At the start of a round, you see 13 out of 33 cards. There are 6 cards still in the deck. You can't be exactly sure what cards your opponent has, but chances are if you don't have it, he probably has it, and that's what you have to be prepared for. As the round progresses, you will get a better and better idea what he may have in hand. So the game is quite strategic. You can make educated guesses about your opponent's hand. You can plan somewhat well how to play out the rest of your hand. You are constantly thinking about how the current round will end. Your aim may change during the round. Maybe you're originally planning to win 3 or fewer tricks, but you may find yourself aiming to win 7 instead halfway through. 

If you like trick-taking games and need one that works well for two players, this is a good choice. This is also a convenient travel game. 

Splendor Duel

 

The Game

Splendor Duel is the two player spinoff of the hugely popular Splendor. It retains the core mechanism and adds on some new ones, making it a little more complex. Think of it as slightly advanced Splendor and specifically designed for two. 

The core idea in the game is you collect gems then spend them to claim cards. Cards act as discounts for future cards you claim, and some cards have point values. The game is a race to reach a specific number of victory points. 

In the game there are gems in five colours, pearls and gold. I'll call them all treasures. Pearls are rarer than gems and no cards give pearl discounts. Gold is best because it is wild. Unlike the original Splendor where you may collect any three treasures available, in Splendor Duel you claim treasures from a 5x5 grid and you claim up to three in a straight line. Treasures are not immediately refilled. It is only done when a player performs a special action. When replenishing the board, it likely will not be full, because there are still treasures in the hands of players. The number of treasures is finite. 

Cards in the game have price tags - what are the treasures you need to pay to claim it. When you have the right treasures you can pay to claim the card. From that point onwards the card is a discount voucher. For example if you claim a red card, in future you can always pay one red gem fewer when you claim any card that requires red gems. This doesn’t seem like much initially but it will add up. 

Let’s talk about how you win. Some cards have point values. If you reach 20, you win. If for any one specific colour you have 10 points, you also win. In the screenshot above I have four points in red. Some cards have a crown icon. This is effectively another type of victory point. If you get 10 crowns, you win. So there are three win conditions. 

There are several other quirks, e.g. some cards have one-time powers. Scrolls are a special currency which let you claim an extra treasure. Your opponent gets a scroll when you perform certain actions, like refilling the board. Like the original, when you claim a single gold, you also reserve a card. Reserving means claiming a card without making payment yet. The card does not take effect and only goes to your reserve area. You have to pay for it on a future turn before it takes effect. You can reserve a card for the sake of denying your opponent. Also, this is the only way you take gold.

The Play

Splendor Duel feels familiar because most the elements in the original are here too. If you like Splendor you will feel right at home. Despite appearing simple, this is a game you should play with a plan in mind. You should look at the high valued cards and plan how to be able to eventually afford them. The cheaper cards that you claim should be part of a deliberate long term plan and should not be picked at will. You need to watch your opponent to see if you are aiming for the same cards. If you are not going to beat him to a specific card, you might as well switch tact and aim for something else. You can be nasty and reserve a card you know he wants. Just remember your reserve can only take three cards. 

The Thoughts

The beauty of the original Splendor is in its simplicity. Splendor Duel still has a smooth gameplay experience, in that every turn is simple and short. However it does add several elements and give you more to think about. You can’t take any treasure you want. You are limited by the positions of the treasures on the grid. An important skill still required is having a long term plan and aligning individual turns to maximise your progress towards your long term goal. Gosh this sentence sound like I’m doing management training. 

Splendor Duel is a light to medium strategy game. It’ll work as a gamer spouse game. 

Beer & Bread

 

The Game 

Beer & Bread is a 2-player game about baking bread and brewing beer. You and your opponent are neighbours in the same village. While you are competing, you also share some resources. You score points for making beer and making bread separately. Your final score is the lower between these two. That means you need to be balanced in making beer and bread. 

The game is played over a fixed number of rounds, alternating between high and low seasons. One key difference between the two season types is how the cards are handled. The game is driven by cards. At high season, after you play a card, you give your entire hand to your opponent. He does the same. So you will keep exchanging hands. What this means is a card you want but do to play now might be taken by your opponent. Also when you have knowledge of both hands you can plan accordingly. At low season, there is no hand swapping. Your cards are safe with you. However in case you don’t like your cards, there are three cards in a public pool you can use. You may exchange one of your own cards with one of them. In this case, the card you give up may potentially be used by your opponent. That's something you have to consider. 

Cards are used in three ways. You can play a card to collect resources. Resources are limited in the common village fields and if they run out you will get less than what your card says. Also your storage is limited. If it gets full, you can’t dump your surplus. You must give the surplus to your opponent. Village etiquette says so. 

When collecting resources, you use only the top bit of the card. Within the same season, if you collect resources multiple times, playing cards in the manner in the screenshot above, you may get to collect extra resources. In this example because the water icons are connected, the second card gives you 2 water, and the third card gives you 3 water. The third card gives only 1 grain, since the grain sequence is broken in the second card.

You can play a card to fulfil an order. That’s how you score points. You spend the required resources. The card is placed face down in your bakery or brewery, temporarily disabling it. You need to clean up your work space before you can complete your next bread / beer order. That brings us to the third action type, which is the clean-up. When you play a card for clean-up, you clean both your bakery and brewery. Also that card you use turns into a permanent ability - an upgrade. This can be very helpful. Some upgrades let you collect more resources, some let you convert resources when you are short on certain types, some give you more points based on certain criteria. 

If used as an upgrade, this card lets you collect more water. 

You compare points after the last round, looking at the lower of your bread points or your beer points. The higher scorer wins. 

The Play

This is a pretty typical order fulfilment game. You collect resources to fulfil orders. Cards determine what resources you can harvest and also what orders you can fulfil. Every round you try to puzzle out what's the best you can do given the cards you have access to. It is challenging to match production and demand. During play there will be various tactical considerations. For example if you are going to overproduce and you will be forced to give the surplus to your opponent, if his storage is full too, or the surplus is something he already has too much of, then you don't really mind the overproduction. If you think he is aiming for a certain order, you can deliberately deny him by using the card for clean-up. There is meaningful player interaction, even though it is not very direct. 

The resources in the game are water and four different crops. 

At the end of our game I managed four each of beer and bread orders. Han did not do so well with bread orders, only managing two. 

The Thoughts

Beer & Bread is a pleasant two-player Eurogame which presents some challenge. It will work well as a spouse game if you are looking for something not too confrontational. 

Skulls of Sedlec

 

The Game

Skulls of Sedlec is from Button Shy Games, and they specialise in card games consisting of just 18 cards. These are called pocket games. They come in a wallet which is easy to carry around. Skulls of Sedlec is for 2 or 3 players. On every card there are two skulls. You collect skulls and stack them into pyramids. With two players, you make a pyramid with 9 cards. With three, you use 6 cards. There are 5 different types of skulls and they score points in different ways. Whoever scores the most points wins. 

At game setup you lay out 6 face-down stacks in the middle and flip over one card. On your turn you have only 3 options. You may flip over two cards and draw one of them, you may draw a face-up card, or you may play a card from your hand. Your hand limit is 2 cards. When you hold 2 cards, you must play one of them because you no longer have the option of drawing another card.  

Lovers (red) when paired score 6pts per pair. Nobles (purple) score 1pt for every noble and peasant (yellow) at levels lower than them. The noble in this photo scores 4pts for the four peasants. Criminals (grey) placed next to priests (blue) score 2pts each, because it means they get pardoned. Skulls are considered adjacent when their sides touch, but not when only the corners touch. The criminal in the second level (from the top) is not considered adjacent to the priest in the first level, because they are only touching at the corners. The first criminal on the fifth level is considered adjacent to the priest in the fourth level because their sides touch.  

The Play

This is a 5-minute game, light and breezy. There are some tactics to consider, but it is not taxing. Your hand limit is two, so you can't hoard cards and plan far ahead to play them in a perfect manner. You have to make decisions based on limited information. You adapt as you go. You try to avoid being the one revealing cards, because that helps your opponent. Sometimes you count turns to try to avoid this. You might take a card your opponent wants for the sake of denying him, even though it may not help you much. 

The Thoughts

Skulls of Sedlec is novel. Relaxing but not brainless. Being portable means this is a convenient travel game. You can play a game or two while waiting for your food at a restaurant. This is the kind of target audience I'm aiming at for my design Dancing Queen too.