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Jaws - Game & Chai
Put on your life jackets for this one, because we’re gonna need a bigger boat. I’ve been spending a few of my summer weekends trying to catch the shark in Jaws (the board game). Jaws is a thrilling 2-4 players asymmetric hidden movement strategy game from Ravensburger. Big disclaimer, I am a huge fan of the original 1975 movie and I recently re-watched it for the nth time. I am happy to report that it is still a certified classic. Fan-boying aside, this game comes in a fairly large box with the iconic movie poster printed all over it, and upon opening it you will find plenty of game components. Setting up could use a major improvement here as it is not as streamlined as I thought it should be. Reading through or explaining all the rules and abilities of each character will take a while because there are a lot of them, even though each individual rule is deceptively simple. This may bore some of those who are not into the hobby.
You play either as the crew - a team consisting of Chief Brody, Hooper and Quint or as the shark! The game is split into a sequence of 2 acts which can also be played as entirely separate games, so this is excellent value for money. But if you have got the right crowd for playing a tabletop strategy game, then I recommend playing these acts in a single sitting because the results of Act 1 on Amity Island, will influence Act 2 on the Orca. Hence Jaws feels like a constant tug of war where every move matters.
In my experience, playing as the shark was so much fun because you have to do your very best in eating all the swimmers, killing the crew and destroying the orca. On the flip side, it can also feel like a very daunting task to play as the shark, because even one slip up will cost you the entire game and can feel very one-sided towards the crew. Playing cooperatively as Brody, Hooper and Quint is equally fun as they all have their own special abilities. So, pick and assign your players wisely.
In many instances, I found that some of the rules in the book or the text on the cards are poorly worded or not explained thoroughly enough. In Act 2 you may end up drawing resurface cards for the same location, which the rulebook admits it gives an advantage to the crew, but it is still unfair. Having said all this, Jaws feels like the classic battleship game but with plenty of bells and whistles. Overall, I still feel like I want to keep playing this game and extract the most out of it, for as long as my friends are also invested. Apart from the game balance issues, this could be a recommendation for those into medium-heavy board games and/or fans of the movie.
Scythe Expeditions - Fred Cronin
While the summer’s arrival usually brings with it longer days and warmer weather (at least for some), this year’s heralded the arrival of the latest addition to my collection: Scythe Expeditions.
For the duration of my gaming career, I have been a huge supporter of pretty much everything Stonemaier has released, and Expeditions stands out as a vintage amongst an already stellar crop of titles. While this addition to the Scythe world builds upon the themes and imagery of the original, it takes everything in a totally new direction. Expeditions has up to five players (six with the Gears of Corruption expansion) explore Siberia and unlock the mysteries of a fallen meteorite. As players move further north, the benefits they unlock become increasingly powerful and it becomes a brutal race to claim glory.
With the number of moving parts to Expeditions, especially around the ways to rack up victory points, I was intimidated when I first opened the box. However, as gameplay got underway, these many routes to victory created fantastic diversity of play, allowing players to take different routes to the top. I was surprised to see how much faster paced Expeditions is compared to its predecessor, and loved how confrontational it could be even at two players.
After a good few games under my belt, Expeditions has easily lived up to the expectations Scythe had set up. Looking forward, with the release of its first expansion Gears of Corruption, who knows what gameplay July might have in store…
Quedlinburg Duel - Rachael Duchovny
This month has seen a range of new and old games hitting the table with ranging player counts and differing styles of gameplay. So what’s been new? First up was Quedlinburg Duel, which, as a fan of the Quedlinburg universe I was very excited to get my hands on and play. Zatu didn’t disappoint receiving my pre-order on release day, this was an instant hit. Whilst you’re still brewing your potions trying to avoid explosions the quacks are now treating patients using new ingredients all of which bring new challenges. This is a well-balanced duel, success may benefit your opponent avoiding too big a leading gap.
Another new purchase for me this month was Bonsai, a really cute tree building game where you score points based on how you grow your bonsai tree. This game had a very different feel between 2 and 3 player counts, but regardless of players if you end your turn and reveal a really great card you can almost guarantee it won’t be there when your next turn comes around. With only 2 players this seemed to result in much smaller bonsai trees being grown due to more immediate taking of cards with no or little reward.
Recommended by another Zatu blogger, Crack List, proved to be a hilarious little party game that packed a big punch. With a category selected you need to try to get rid of your hand of 8 cards by saying a word matching both the category and letter on your card. But beware, there are action cards that can really spice up gameplay. And should you end on a swap card… well, you’ve just thrown away the game!
Another fun card game to be played was Faraway. Full of twists and a surprising amount of strategy, due to the scoring mechanism, this beautiful fast paced game of exploration was a real hit.
Speaking of simple little card games, Dino days is a cute little card game for 2 players that is super simple to learn, quick to play and whilst not particularly challenging for the seasoned gamer provides a bit of quick fun whilst you’re waiting for the oven to perfectly cook your evening meal.
Some oldie but favourites to hit the table were Camel Up and Tantrix. I feel Camel Up is better at higher player counts as that provides more element of risk to your gambling but even at 3 you can have fun messing with these camels sending them backwards, forwards and betting on who will be victorious or finish last. Tantrix is an excellent abstract game where you compete to make the longest coloured line by strategically placing tiles to block opponents and increase your length.
Finally, owned for a while but finally came off my shelf of opportunity was Terraforming Mars and I have to say I did love it and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to play it! Sometimes getting a classic really can be the best option!
Isle of Cats - Sam De Smith
This month, Isle of cats has been top of our play pile. The reason is simple, beyond my general love of polyomino puzzlers: it's excellent as both an all-ages family game and a more complex, heavier weight game with my almost-adult teenager. So it comes on holiday, travels far and wide, as we rescue cats before the island is invaded!
The game integrates 2 of my favourite mechanics, polyominos (tiles) and card drafting. Each turn you draft cards that enable you to rescue cats (coloured tiles of various awkward shapes), get to the island quicker, find treasure (small tiles for filling odd gaps) and learn lessons (end game bonuses). You spend :fish: to keep cards (of which have 20 a turn) and to entice cats aboard your ship, getting rid of rats and filling the rooms as efficiently as possible in family (colour) groups - all before the vile Vesh pirates arrive to wipe the magical cats out!
We love this. It's fast, fun and tactical. Or possibly Catical. My 8yo is utterly smitten, although trying to get our cat Harley to sit in the box was wildly optimistic. In fact after our first party we IMMEDIATELY went and ordered the 5-6 player expansion off Zatu!
Ark Nova and Trepanation - Chris Bagley
June was quite a busy month of gaming for me with a healthy mix of new and old games, and even some an expansion thrown into a favourite for the first time to spice things up.
Ark Nova
I supplemented my regular game of Ark Nova this month with the "marine worlds" expansion for the first time to a great reception. The regular worker placement, deck building and resource management of this "build your own zoo" game is hugely popular already but the expansion changes it up a bit.
It allows players to add an aquarium to their zoo as well as the usual reptile house, petting zoo and aviary. Of course this means the card pool is bulked out with a large variety of sea creatures, however the game balances itself out nicely by none of these cards feeling overpowered, and a clever refresh of the cards
available to players whenever a 'reef' icon appears. As well as the animal cards there are also new "partner" cards, several marine related conservation projects to support, and even a new partner zoo which adds an icon of your choice to your board. This actually sped the game up a bit by allowing my group to play animals into enclosures earlier and more often.
Asymmetric action cards available to draft at the start of the game adds variety and new abilities for each player to your games as the final new cards in the box.
Lastly, a quality of life change as the components get upgraded to wooden meeple style pieces instead of a generic cube, which look much nicer on the table if not adding anything mechanically to the game. We love Ark Nova in our house and adding a little more to the game to improve variety and speed it up has had the effect of adding 20 horsepower to a Ferrari, just improved a masterpiece.
Trepanation
A new game made it to our table this month which went down very well with my group. For those unfamiliar with the game, players take on the role of a 'quack' physician in the Victorian period, with the aim of putting on "shows" of your miraculous procedures and becoming the most famous doctor in town.
What's interesting about this one is the familiar worker placement style has a twist, where each meeple (representing your physician at different times of the day) is placed on the same location, but on separate time slots. This allows you to plan out your day to the smallest detail, but throws up some interesting conundrums. Do you take the early 'show' time slot to guarantee that you perform the show you want, and then spend the day picking up the doctors tools, medicine and beer (anesthetic?!?) you need to perform it? This potentially shows your hand to your opponents though, and allows them the pick of the board's resources (blocking you) but may leave them with a far from great choice of shows to perform later on in the evening.
The grim subject matter is opposed by the charming, cartoony style of the town board, the physician boards and the inoffensive "show" cards which, though depicting some toe curling 'procedures' were just fine with my 12 and 10 year old.
It was a very interesting game of bluff and double bluff which turned out to be a nail biter late on as players tried to perform the shows they needed to complete sets and get those sweet 'fame' bonuses at the end, and will definitely be a regular at our table from now on.
