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Picture Perfect - Craig Smith
My game of the month is about taking a group photo of demanding posh people.
No, wait… come back!
Picture Perfect is a 2-4 player game where you’re trying to take the perfect photo. There are several characters (including a pot plant and a dog) each with their own set of demands. You score points depending on how many of their three demands you meet. There is however a catch. You don’t have access to all the envelopes containing their demands!
Some characters want to be hidden, so you can craftily position table ornaments in front of them. Some want to be next to or away from others. Some want to have a certain position in the picture, as shown by the grid on the player mat.
You can try and play dirty to keep the demands of some characters to yourself, but then other players might do the same. You can also opt to cut people out of the picture completely, but it means you don’t score points for them. If you place someone in the picture and meet none of their demands, you lose points! It’s not uncommon to hear people talking to their characters as if they were being actually difficult rather than just cardboard playing pieces!
Games of Picture Perfect can get hilariously messy, especially when characters have conflicting demands. You might also try so hard to meet the demand of one character, it causes you to lose points on another. The best part of the game is that you’re playing it behind a screen, so you have no idea how much better or worse your opponents are doing. It’s a solitary experience for the most part, but seeing how each other interpreted the demands is a guaranteed laugh.
Oath - Tom Harrod
One look at Oath, and I’d forgive you for mistaking it for being a Root-a-like. It’s by Leder Games, after all; the dream team of Cole Wehrle and Kyle Ferrin. Oath is not an asymmetrical factions game, though. It’s a one-versus-all action selection game, evolving into an all-versus-all halfway through. You play Advisor cards to build an engine of sorts. You can also play these cards to Sites, which impact the general engines of the world, itself. Cards have suits that represent factions, which are six different banks. Seeing their economies fluctuate via the multiple engines is a chin-stroking seesaw.
Theme-wise, one player is the Chancellor, who oversees the world. Are they evil, or misunderstood? Who knows. (In our games, each Chancellor tended to roleplay it differently!) The other players are individual Exiles, all looking to overthrow the Chancellor. They can achieve this by fulfilling an Oath. (Oaths are the main goal for the game. Controlling the most sites on the map, or by holding onto The People’s Favour – which costs increasing money. The Chancellor starts by holding this Oath). Gaining the Oath isn’t too hard. Holding onto it is the tricky part. To win via this method, you need to hold onto the Oath for two turns in a row. And once you hold it, you can be sure everyone will work together to try and take it off you!
There are other win conditions you can shoot for, instead. There’s a bunch of Vision Cards in the decks, which, if you find one, you can fulfil it. Again, you need to have completed the Vision by the start of your turn. (But only one turn, not two, like the Oath itself.) It still means everyone else has a whole round to retaliate and take it off you! There’s a timer mechanism, meaning that if no one completes Visions or can claim the Oath after a certain number of rounds, the Chancellor wins. Power struggles swing back and forth, and it’s fascinating.
Most interesting of all (to me), is how the board evolves from game to game. Oath shines as a campaign because the player that wins game one becomes Chancellor for game two. Any Sites they control at the end of the game remain on the world map for the next game. So do any cards played to these locations. The rest is all shuffled, so the world looks a little different game to game. I won the second game of our Oath campaign, which means I’m playing as the Chancellor next time around. And I already feel like a targeted man!
Calico - Hannah Blacknell
May was a bit of a month for me in terms of getting sick, and so in my games I wanted something not too complex in mechanics and not too long to set up or to play. But I also did need enough of a distraction from how I was feeling to give respite. I fell upon something that many would be surprised as a game I chose to play whilst ol’ ‘rona was flooding my system, I chose Calico.
Many describe this whimsical cat attracting quilt building game as “crunchy”, “brain burning” and “punishing”. Not your typical needs when you are so down in the dumps. Yet for me I adopted the idea of just speed playing, think less play more. This is easy when your head feels like it is 50% snot, as you simply aren’t firing on all cylinders. You just pick and play, think about what can be done but don’t try and “min-max” to get full points. Just play. Well from my extensive plays over the last month, I can tell you that this really is a different game if you aren’t a slave to the points and just enjoy it!
I have since played it in the “old” way, and although still enjoyable, I think I prefer the speed version. So for me, Calico is back to a game that matches the theme. Yes sometimes I do badly and score naff all points, but it only took me ten mins so let’s thimble up and get stitching another quilt!
Godtear - Northern Dice
Head to head is my main play count nowadays. Some folks prefer the big games with big counts, some like it solo. Personally, I’ve become a big fan of the intimacy of a one vs one. Especially if it involved decimating your opponent and everything they stand for, leaving no trace of possible glory whatsoever. As such, our Game of the Month for this month is easily Godtear: Eternal Glade starter set by SteamForged Games. A 1v1 area control, war game with a lot of diversity and interchangeability built into a beautifully simple system!
The game’s concept is super simple: control an area by placing a banner on it, defeat champions and slay followers. Each giving points and moving a scoring token along a track. It takes place over three phases and lasts between three and five rounds. First, you have the preparation phase where players move their models across the board, claim locations and set status effects on other models. Next comes the clash phase – this is where you go toe to toe and fight for pure glory, annihilating your opponent’s models and destroying their banners! And finally, the end phase where points are calculated and the token is allocated to the most victorious player. As soon as any player has or exceeds five points, they win!
So why is Godtear, a war game of all games, our top choice? Three reasons. Gameplay, variety and aesthetics. It runs a beautifully simple system that’s open to allow players to aim to get points as they see fit. Champions come in four flavours and specialise in one capacity over another. Cashing in on these strengths makes for very dynamic play and it keeps every battle a fight for mastery over tactical options.
As for variety, there are no end of champions to use! The system enables you to literally add a champion to a set and play. All models come as a set of a champion and followers and a banner. Players can choose up to three to take on an equal number of adversaries to really spice up the battlefield, making play engaging and excellently dynamic. And finally, aesthetics – this game feeds my need for pretty things and I’ll tell you what, Godtear absolutely nails those visuals. It’s a true stunner on the table and makes for a stunning experience all around.