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We're in October ALREADY - so here is the Game of the Month for the September that we barley even got to know...
Earth - Arnaldo Amaral
I know… I’m late to this party. But boy, am I glad to be here! I finally got my hands on a beautiful Kickstarter copy of Earth and it jumped straight into my top 5 board games of all time on the first play.
Earth is a well thought out game for 1-5 players, designed by Maxime Tardiff and published by Inside Up Games, that truly pays an homage to how unique and beautiful our blue planet is.
The objective in Earth is to score as many Points as possible and to do so you will be populating your own island with flora and terrain cards, building an engine that will help your ecosystem flourish, and the more symbiotic it is, the more points you will end up racking.
You score points throughout the game using Growth, Sprouts, Compost, Fauna, Flora and Natural Events, which can be further increased by a symbiotic relationship with the climate, island type and ecosystems you will have in your island. This astonishing collection of different cards means that it will be pretty much impossible to ever play two similar games (there’s 25.600 different possible starting setups!).
Players take turns simultaneously after the active player chooses one of four particular actions: Planting, Composting, Watering and Growing. Each have their own unique steps to follow which leads to further growth of everyone’s islands.
Earth is such a complete board game. It can be played solo, in teams or competitively against other fellow board gamers. Every time we play it we keep finding out new ways to score points and it’s an experience that I am looking to repeat a lot! I am so happy to have it in my collection and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone. It really is a must have, independent of whatever version you may get.
Fit To Print - Dan Street Phillips
This month I have been playing a lot of Fit to Print by Peter McPherson. McPherson, best known for the Tiny Town series, this time has teamed up with Ian O’Toole (one of the best board game artists working today) for this cute but crunchy little puzzle game. You are playing as a woodland critter journalist as you search for content for your daily newspaper, laying out the page to get as many points as possible. Phase one sees you all grab for tiles from a shared, face down supply, and phase two is placing them onto your personal player board. You score a point for each article, photos give points for being next to certain types of article and adverts will gain you income.
The main challenge however is you lose points for empty space and no tile of the same colour/type can be placed next to each other. Oh yes, and did I mention that this was done simultaneously and under a time limit?! We really enjoy the chilled out version of the game, gently looking for tiles and creating the highest scoring newspaper we can, but I can totally see the chaotic nature of a shorter time being just up some players’ streets. The standout here, however, is the production. Each player, as well as their player board, receives a totally unnecessary but totally cute little desk to put your tiles onto in phase one, and the artwork is just gorgeous. Characterful creatures each with their own personal player power and a whole deck of breaking news event cards to add a little extra spice for those who want it. And best of all, it plays in under 30 minutes!
Journeys In Middle Earth - Pete Bartlam
Lord of the Rings – Journeys in Middle Earth is my Game of the Month not just because by the time I’ve spelled out the title I’ve used half my words up but because it is pretty much all I have done last month. It is very, very, very (did I say very) good. I’ve also spent a large part of my time painting up the 31 beautifully sculpted minis with my new set of Army Painter Speedpaints 2.0 and I must say they are looking pretty damn fine.
But why is it so good? I hear you ask. Well, listen and I will tell you a story – and I guess that is the point for it is the story-driven narrative, so rich in Tolkienesque thematic character, that makes the journey worth while.
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Lord of the Rings – Journeys in Middle Earth has an associated free to download App. Apparently, Fantasy Flight Games have a great reputation for theses Apps. The App acts as the Dungeon Master, Narrator and logistics manager all wrapped up in one.
It sets the scene of your campaign, you tell it who will be adventuring : Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Bilbo etc and it tells you which of the 22 double-sided terrain tiles to start from and off you go.
As you explore it reveals more tiles with their secrets to uncover and enemies to fight by testing against various skills. You control the heroes with their card based skills, draw cards for hits from a deck you’ve carefully manipulated and the App will log them and tell when to remove the defeated.
The brilliant thing about the App is if you replay a campaign or even one adventure it will reveal different terrain. The key parts of the story remain but the way you get there changes. Furthermore if you get expansion packs to add to the Collection it will automatically include Terrain and Enemies from them as well so the replay level is great. You can try different parties on the same campaign without it getting stale.
I must go now, the road goes ever on!
Arboretum - Seb Hawden
I had heard many folks swooning over a little tree game called Arboretum, yet, I did not think I was ready for the amount of nastiness and backstabbing there was in this very unassuming foliage-based card game. It’s cute, a little bit thinky and comes with a side order of ‘up yours’. The game includes ten sets of trees numbered one to eight and all adorned with beautiful tree artwork. Don't let this fool you though, you will be cursing those darn trees by the end of the game.
Your only task is to build a little grid in front of you connecting different types of trees, any run of ascending or descending numbers, with the same type of tree on either end scores for you, or does it? In order to score these runs of trees you have to have the highest amount of that tree left in your hand at the end of the game, it's both juicy and downright heartbreaking. If you do score though there are bonus points for a run of all the same tree and either starting with a one card or finishing with an eight card, which can sway the game for you.
There are some real ponderings to be had in Arboretum and for a short game, it really gives you weighty decisions at every turn. Do you keep the trees your opponents are collecting to stop them scoring? What trees do you go for? Does Brian have the number eight card of your tree type? That’s the other clever rule too, if your opponent has the eight card of a tree type in their hand and you have the number one card, it makes the eight card a zero, it's bloody brilliant.
Arboretum has you constantly checking peoples grids, trying to remember what cards they pick up and constantly trying to outwit each other. It's such a massive joy in such a small box.
Dune Imperium - Harold Cataquet
My pick of the month is Dune: Imperium. I was never hooked by Paul Dennen’s first design – Clank! A Deck Building Adventure – but that was a great deck building game that plays best at three (but is still good at 2 or 4). The theme of sneaking into a dragon’s mountain lair to steal artifacts just seemed trite. But when Dune: Imperium came out, I was in love. The game is a deck builder, but it’s so well designed.
To be honest, it’s more of a worker placement game than a deck builder, but every time you play a card, you’re always second guessing whether that was the right card to play. Contrast that with most deck builders, where your play is often automatic. Not here! Every one starts with the same set of cards, but you also have your own leader card giving you a special power. And if that wasn’t enough, there are also two expansions to tempt you. Dune: Imperium - Immortality makes the game a bit more thinky, but to be honest, I think it slows down the game a bit. On the other hand, Dune: Imperium – Rise of Ix is the perfect expansion. It makes the game more of deck builder and introduces a few new rules that you could easily incorporate in the base game (and making it play even better). So even if you are just going to buy the base game, do have a look at that rulebook for those small changes.
However, my mouth is watering at the prospect of Dune: Imperium – Uprising. It’s a stand-alone game that plays up to six (Dune: Imperium maxes out at 4). The 6 player mode introduce team play (3 v 3), but you could also play the game with most of the cards from the base game and either of the expansions. If you are never going to get 6 around the table, then I’d say stick with Dune: Imperium. But if you can usually get 6, then get Uprising instead.