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Tawantinsuyu

TAWANTINSUYU: The Inca Empire

David Turczi

1-4 Players, 60-120 min, 14+.

Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire published by Board and Dice is another in the growing list of ‘T’ games from David Turczi. Previous examples are T’zolkin, Teotihuacan, Tekhenu. This time you are taking on the role of High Priests in the Golden Temple Coricancha atop a hill inside the Inca capital of Cusco. You will be placing workers onto the terraced sides of the hill to grow potatoes and Corn, Collect Stone and mine Gold. You will order the construction of buildings and stairs (makes going up and down easier), Sculpt statues in honour of the gods, Collect weaving and build your armies.

That seems like a lot

On the surface this seems a lot to try to manage at once. In actual fact your turn will consist of either,

Discarding a god card (or paying one gold) to place a worker on the relevant space on the hill side and thus take the action/s adjacent to it.

Or

Taking 2 of the secondary actions which consist of. Recruiting a worker, Drawing two god cards, Moving high priest one or two steps inside the temple or drawing two army cards keeping one and discarding the other.

Seems simple enough

At first glance this seems like a very basic worker placement. worker=action scenario. However the placement of the workers has the added twist in that they will remain for the rest of the game (an exception is coming) tying up that space for the remainder of the game. On the flip side if you place a worker adjacent pathwise to another worker of the same colour already placed you get to take extra actions and if the worker is on it’s own coloured space you gain further actions. In fact it is quite possible to place a worker and gain up to five actions instead of just one. Workers come in five colours each with differing abilities which are +1 action, reduced cost, claim a god card or even remove and claim an adjacent worker (the exception I said earlier).

The added wrinkle to your workers placement is that you have to discard a god card with the correct symbol for the space you wish to use unless you pay one gold instead (gold is scarce). These god cards also have special abilities that you can utilise by having built statues. So do you really want to discard that card or use its special ability?

You will also be acquiring army cards to compete for control of various regions to gain valuable rewards as a result of military conquest. Note there is no direct conflict.

Where your High Priest is within your temple will also impact your choice of location as the further away you wish to place the worker the more expensive it is, costing up to 8 corn or potatoes.

Moving your High Priest around in the temple not only grants you cheaper worker placement but also allows you to trigger powerful actions that are only available from within the Temple itself. These ‘power’ actions are,

Produce: Gain rewards from your production buildings.

Conquer: Engage in military conquest of nearby villages

Offering: Pay resources to gain temple advancements.

Rejuvenate: Refresh activated buildings and military units.

Worship: Sacrifice previously built statues to gain temple advancements.

As you would expect from a David Turczi game you will be scoring points throughout the game by building statues and stairs. You will also gain points whenever another player uses your stairs, Temple advancements and control of the various regions.

Once all the workers have been used up this signals the end of the game at which point you score bonus victory points from temples, tapestries buildings and resources. Highest score wins.

Game board Pizza

The Game board for Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire is a complete deluge of symbols and iconography. At first glance this can feel a little like sensory overload. Thanks however to some very well laid out rules and a player aid that is top notch., everything falls into place quite well. And the various actions integrate fairly well. You will very quickly find yourself trying to figure out this latest ‘T’ game puzzle. But and this is where for me the first cracks started to appear. This is not a puzzle you can realistically plan long term strategy for. You need to have the right god card (or gold) to use a speace and it is all too easy (and common) for opponents to disrupt or completely destroy those plans when placing their workers. This is instead much more of a game about making the best of what you have at a particular time. As you might expect this can lead to quite a bit of downtime in a four player game as each player will quite often have to totally reassess their play decision when it is their turn. In reality victory will come down to who got further up the temple, made the best tapestry or had the best conquest spots. So in short Math your turn out when it is your turn. Bring on Analysis Paralysis unless you just want to end up picking a path randomly which in a four player game can be tempting after waiting an age to have that turn.

Hits or Misses

Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire is a valiant addition to the list of ‘T’ games from David Turczi but it is not without its faults.

PROS

Quick Set-up: Setup is reasonably simple

Strategy Tactics: there is a good mix of these on display

Worker Placement Food Cost: The increasing cost the further away you place your worker is an interesting idea and it does work well here.

Colourful board: bright colourful board which feels in keeping with the theme (I am no expert)

Rules Aids: The Rules book and Player Aids are top notch and easy to understand.

CONS

Theme integration: while not tacked on it is certainly not immersive.

L-O-N-G: with the massive AP inducing turn times this game outstays its welcome.

Disjointed: While the core concept of expanding the Incan empire makes sense with increasing costs to travel further, Making tapestries + conquest + temple worship feel disconnected almost as if a few mechanics were slotted together to fill out the busy board.

Summarise

I normally really like a nice crunchy euro with variability of options on my turn. David Turczi can normally fit right into my wheelhouse. I love both T’zolkin and Teotihuacan. Also I am really excited to try Tekhenu as that looks like another likely winner. Unfortunately however Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire with its options overload and game time regularly over two and half hours outstays its welcome with the scoring opportunities feeling just a little too disconnected from what your trying to achieve. This is not one that will keep its home on my shelves.Please remember these are my honest opinions and your enjoyment might vary

You can buy TAWANTINSUYU: The Inca Empire from.

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Cottage Garden

                                                                                               COTTAGE GARDEN A Review by MAWIHTEC
                                                                                                                      1-4 Players, 45-60 minutes, Age 8+

Who is Uwe Rosenberg?
Uwe Rosenberg is a name synonymous with pattern building, thinking, puzzle element style games. Some of the most notable games he has produced in recent years include, Agricola (2007), Le Havre (2008), Caverna (2013), Glass Road (2013), Patchwork (2014) and most recently Feast for Odin (2016). in fact he is so prolific that he has to date designed approximately 60 games in the past 25 years. As well as contributing to other notable designers works such as Viticulture (Stonemaeir Games). So even if his name is not immediately familiar (shock gasp) there is an extremely good chance you have played one if not several of his games.

What is Cottage Garden?
The main concept behind Cottage Garden is deceptively simple. You are a gardener working on creating the most beautiful flower beds while your rivals do the same. Whenever you complete a flower bed you get paid (score points) and start on your next magnum opus. Unlike real life even the soporific sedated cats can be your best friends. Choosing to sleep taking up those difficult to fill spaces. As opposed to the real life version who dig up the garden to poop everywhere.

What’s in the box?
1 Nursery Game Board
36 Flower Tiles (polyominoes:- think Tetris shapes)
9 Flowerbeds all double-sided light and dark
1 Large Green Gardener (die)
1 Parasol Token
30 Cat Tokens
16 Flowerpot Tokens
2 Beehive Tokens
4 Planting Tables (score tracks)
1 Wheelbarrow
1 Rule book
12 Orange scoring Cubes
12 Blue Scoring Cubes

So, Multiplayer Patchwork then?
No.
Despite the obvious similarities between Patchwork and Cottage Garden with both using poly…Tetris like shapes and you needing to fit them together on what is effectively a square grid. That is more or less where the similarities end. Uwe’s latest offers you no time penalties, you can freely “miss” a go to obtain a sometimes valuable sleeping cat And who doesn’t love the idea of a 3D cardboard wheelbarrow.

Do I have to get my hands dirty?
Play throughout this game is easy to learn and easy to follow. You have two flowerbeds in front of you and on your turn you take the following straightforward actions.

– If the row of the main “Nursery board” containing the “Gardener die” has 3 or 4 empty spaces you refill that row with the planets from the “Plant Queue” using the wheelbarrow to follow the correct order.
– Choose a piece from the full/ almost full row and plant it in one of your flowerbeds (there is no saving it till later).
If there is no suitable piece OR you just don’t fancy any of the shapes you are free to do the following instead
– Take and place a flowerpot which takes up one square of your flowerbed.
– If you complete a flowerbed you immediately score it and replace it with a new flowerbed from the communal pile.
– You may at any point use one of your cats to fill up a single space which can be very useful but will not score you any points.
Obviously tile placement is going to be restricted somewhat and the rules are very straightforward on this. No overhanging pieces and no putting tiles on top of another piece.
– Move the Gardener (big green die) along the track and if he reaches the turn marker you rotate him up a number. He effectively doubles as the game timer or turn marker.

Okay that sounds easy enough.
Do not allow yourself to be fooled. The simplistic gameplay hides a nice amount of strategy and can require quite a bit of forward planning. The flowerbeds are not just blank areas to fill there are randomly placed flowerpots and Plant Covers (think Cloches) printed on them. Requiring you to think much more carefully about the placement of your flowers. These can count as filled spaces and will both score you very valuable points so you will definitely try not to cover too many of them. Cats can be handy gap fillers but do not score any points.
That brings you onto the scoring. Which in this reviewers opinion is a stroke of genius. You will find you have six (yes 6) scoring cubes. Three in orange representing your flowerpot scores and three in blue relating to your plant covers. When you score a bed you move the score cubes along your track BUT you can only choose one cube to move in relation to the Flowerpots (orange) and Plant Covers (blue). If the cube reaches the end of the track before all points are added tough luck you lose the rest of the points. Considering though that the score track jumps from 15 (14 blue) to 20 on the last space this can sometimes be worth while. Additionally mid way along the score track there are some mice and a red line. Each cube that passes this earns you a cat token which you can choose to use straight away or save till later you can however only store two at one time.
Just when you think you have a handle on all of this once the last round is triggered, your sole aim is to complete your remaining Flowerbeds. You will start to lose points for every turn you make. This in turns makes every decision critical. At the end of this phase the player with the most points wins the game and ultimate gardener bragging rights.

Shh here is a secret.
Cottage Garden is about clever tile placement, looking ahead for future moves and thinking about your opponents possible plans. That is not all however. You will also need to plan for the final round. You do not want to have to lose too many points while you complete that final Flowerbed. This brings in the whole subset strategy of score management. Getting those helpful cats but at the same time getting into the Target Zone and the points boost that will give you.

The Summery
You will here lots of people comparing this game to Patchwork. This is very unfair Cottage Garden is a puzzle about shape placement, whereas Patchwork was more “button economic management”. Despite the simple gameplay mechanism this is a game that is very think-y. This can lead to some analysis paralysis while a player tries to work out their optimum move. For once I am going to say a bit of AP is okay though. Here we have a game that much like flowers in a garden should not be rushed but time taken to think, sit back and enjoy. In matter of fact sitting back will allow you to admire the gorgeous artwork that adorns the whole game thanks to the amazing talents of Andrea Boekhoff. Oh and did I mention it has a 3D Wheelbarrow?

The Summary
I really like Uwe Rosenberg’s style of games and this is no exception. What this does mean however is that player interaction is next to none and the game can feel a bit “multiplayer solitaire” but the cleverness of the scoring and the look of the game more than make up for it. It is going to suffer from unfair comparison to Patchwork. So is there room for both of these games on the shelf? Simple answer is yes and no. If you predominately play two player games then you will be fine with Cottage Garden or Patchwork. If however you have 3-4 players available as often then both should have a space on the shelf. This is a game that will play as well with both family play and boardgames group equally

The Good
Beautiful artwork
Clever theme
Great solo gameplay
Brilliant scoring mechanism
Good production Quality
3D Wheelbarrow

The Bad
Minimal player interaction
Can feel like multiplayer solitaire
Will be compared to Patchwork.

Engagement 3/5
Re-playability 3/5
Component Quality 4/5
Player Interaction 1/5
Total Score 75%

Authors 2021 Edit: No ratings have been updated As I feel it is better to let the review sit as it was written in 2017. I no longer rate games (out of any number or percentage) preferring now to recommend or not to different groups of players.

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Mint Works

                                                                                      MINT WORKS. Published April 2017
                                                                                                       By Mark (Mawihtec) Capell-Helm.

No of games played >15 (Inc. >5 solo >5 2 player)
Tags: Lightweight, Filler, Worker Placement, Engine building, Quick Playing, Portable,
Small Space, Quick set-up/ Tear down.
Play Time: <20mins
Complexity: Light
Player Count: 1-4 (dedicated solo play)
Age Rated 13+ due to small “mint” components (7+ should have no trouble playing)

A Brief history of Mint Works.
Mint Works came into being all thanks to Justin Blaske’s response to the 2015 Mint Tin Design Contest created by R4D6 on BGG. The list of constraints for the competition were as follows:
The game must fit within a mint tin.
While it did not win that competition, Five24Labs continued to refine it further before launching a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2016.

What is in it for me?
So just what do you get for your $10 (Approx £8)?
On opening the small, embossed, blue mint tin which measures approx 10 x 6 x 2cm (I said it was small). You will be greeted by a tin bursting at the seams. They have crammed much more into this tin than you would think was possible.
Your contents consist of.
A blue wooden Start player token, 30 wooden workers (designed to look like mints even down to the rough white surface texture so keep them away from the little-uns), A nice clear rule book, 2 Double sided AI solo play cards (4 AI opponents), 4 advanced play cards, 4 core starting cards, 2 starting deed cards, 21 deed cards and a card and turn summary reference fold out sheet. (Phew).


Size isn’t everything.
At this point I must point out a couple of minor niggles with Mint Works. As, with the tin being so small. What happens is that the cards can be tricky to get out without tipping it upside down and shaking it a bit. Which unless you have managed to use a small bag to hold the “mints” in such a way as to still be able to close the tin, means you are likely to have workers running away? This could have been sorted by either making the cards marginally shorter by 4-5mm or the tin slightly larger. The second minor niggle is again in relation to size this time of the rule book. Mint tins have curved corners yet the rule book does not. This means that the corners of the rule book will get damaged very quickly with putting in and taking out. A solution adopted by quite a few of the Kickstarter backers was to just trim the corners into a small curve (there is plenty of room) This is something the creator should have thought about and hopefully will be remedied.

Play time.
So just how do you play this game then? Mint works is at its heart a worker placement game with some clever strategic thinking. Your options at the start of each round are, Gain start player, Build a plan, Buy a plan and Produce workers. Optional actions available once you have the plans are Lotto (buy a plan unseen from top of the deed pile) and Wholesaler (produce workers but the plan owner also gains a worker at the end of the round). With having such a small number of actions available each round planning what to do correctly is vital. The starting player gets the choice of all the actions. So do you ensure you start first next round by claiming that? Or will that mean the building plan you want is gone? (You can’t build a plan until you have bought it) Do you need to be sure of getting the extra workers and risk missing the chance to build this round? Deciding when to go for what is surprisingly in depth for such a small form game. All the while trying to build your mini city with the aim of gaining enough stars (VP) to win the game. Because the game is won with just 7 stars choosing when to do what becomes even more important. In all the plays so far I have yet to determine a strategy that works in all cases. This is because you cannot be certain of taking a particular action when you want to.

Stars Shmars I want some.
The trick to gaining the required set of stars to win the game is the plans that you buy. Some of the plans will grant you stars just for building them. While others are worth more stars based upon the number of a certain plan class you have built. Some buildings will allow you to gain extra workers. Even more will reduce the cost to build plans. There are even some plans that will penalise your star count for having certain other plan classes e.g. Eco buildings do not mix well with heavy industry. You need to think carefully about the short term gain over long term plan.

Whoa sounds heavy man
Given all of the above information you would think this was a heavy game but it is honestly not. Once you have a grip on the rules (should take about 10 minutes, tops). You will find the play flows quite quickly. The various aspects of the game hold together very well and you will find yourself not having to over–tax your brain. This makes the game perfect for its target market. Out for a meal and waiting for the food to come? Sitting in a tent or hotel room? On a train journey? These are the times when this game will really shine its light the brightest. As I previously said this is a very portable game which takes up very little table space. In fact if you’re on a bus ride and you have an empty seat next to you, you have enough room to play this game with 3 people.

So it is the perfect game then?
With so much positive to say about this game you would think the easy answer to this question would be yes. Unfortunately life is never that simple. For a small lightweight quick to play game when you’re out and about the answer is most definitely YES. For games night where table space is not an issue as much and you want something more filling then probably not so much. The theme while nice does feel a little generic (place worker-get money/worker/build) and there are many games that offer more “meat on the bones” for the game night scene.

The long and the short of it then.
In summary Mint Works is a game of two halves. As a quick portable game, for solo or multiplayer with some proper thinking required. I love the massive amount of game that has been crammed into such a small tin. This is most definitely a keeper, and I will keep it in my bag/pocket almost all the time. For my family games nights with younger or less experienced gamers. This will come to the table from time to time. This is because it can teach worker placement in such a simple way that if you do mess up big the next game is only 10 minutes time. When I am at games night however, it will sit quietly in my bag. Not taking up valuable game space. For games night there are big box games that do what Mint Works does bigger and probably better.

Rate me up then.
Ratings are tricky because they are subjective. I will use a rating out of 5 where 1 is not for me/ I did not like and 5 is I will play this a lot.
Out and about? Need a quick gaming fix waiting for the food? 5/5
At games night for some serious game time? 2/5
Family game time with younger players, or less experienced gamers? 3/5
Home alone, ordered pizza delivery, solo blitz? 5/5

Portability 5/5
Content 4/5
Re-playability 5/5
Theme 3/5
Depth 3/5
Overall 4/5

Authors 2021 Edit: No ratings have been updated As I feel it is better to let the review sit as it was written in 2017. I no longer rate games (out of any number or percentage) preferring now to recommend or not to different groups of players.

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Awful Fantasy

Awful Fantasy Review Published 2017

AWFUL FANTASY A Review by MAWIHTEC

2-6 Players
15-30 minutes
14+ (Author note) Appropriate due to some stronger language used on 1 or 2 of the cards

Fantasy?
There you are a group of fantasy authors. Sat around the table talking about stories. Each one of you is desperate for the inspiration for your next story. So much so that you are willing to steal your friends-competitors ideas and try to sabotage their trains of thought. Will you be the first to tie down the three most important story components? Make no mistake each author is desperate to be the first to secure the “Plot” along with the “Protagonist” and “Antagonist” and get the use of the bestseller typewriter (win the game).

Write? I don’t write!
Do not panic you don’t need to actually write anything (phew). To achieve success in Awful Fantasy you will draw cards from the “Fantasy” card deck. All the while hoping to collect the three cards needed to complete your story and secure your victory. Meanwhile you will be using cards gained from the “Awful” card deck to either help you or hinder your rivals.

What’s in the box?
1 Rules sheet
60 “Awful” deck cards
40 “fantasy” deck cards
28 “Author” cards

Fantasy Anatomy?
Each player will start the game with an Author card. This is one area in which this game shines it’s brightest light. Each Author within this game is a lovingly satirised version of real world Authors. Will you choose to be?…
Thumbless Adams with his infinite improbability drive?
Anne Lice with her immortality?
J.R.R Tokin and his one peek to rule them all?
J/K Rofling and her Handicus Changus Upicus?
Or maybe you would prefer
George R U Fartin and his Stark Brutality?

In fact all 28 Authors contained in this game have a unique special ability. Which it has to be said is cleverly named in a thematic style true to that real world counterparts writings.

Then we move onto the antagonists *baddies*. Which true to all fantasy tropes include characters like
The demonic Hell-hound
The wizardly Novelmancer
and the ominous Dark Lord.

But “Who will be our hero?” I hear you scream. Your protagonists will be drawn from the eclectic mix of heroes you will find in any good pulp fantasy novel.
Will “Etcher Gumfoot” (detective) Solve the case?
Can the wise “Father Darol” foil the evil plans?
Or will the country woodcutter step up and become “The Chosen One”?

Your choice of plots would have pride of place in any airport bookshop’s
pulp fantasy section.
Can the hero “Solve a Murder”?
“Avenge your Family”?
Or even “Time Travel”?
All of which come with a suitably tongue in cheek flavour text… “The time travelorr fired, missing his target. His only chance to save the future lost! Luckily he had a time machine, So he went back and did it again”

How do I do it?
On your turn you have a few options available to you. You can
Complete a story to win the game.
Or
Play an Awful Card.
Or
Draw an Awful Card.

There are also some cards labelled “Interrupt” and they do exactly that. You can use them outside of your turn to hinder your opponents chances of completing their story.

HUH! Is that it?
So how does this all come together? The mechanics of this game are very basic. draw or play a card to try to complete a set of three cards. With a very small amount of “take that” sprinkled on top to mitigate to a degree the pure “luck of the draw” aspect to this game. “Does not sound like much of a game” you are saying right now! Normally I would be front and centre saying the same thing. EXCEPT for one over riding thing, The Theme.
The cards have plenty of flavour text cleverly written. The artwork has lots of very nice touches. (The Dark Lord is pictured sat on the toilet complete with evil helmet and pants down. Human skin toilet paper dangling near by) The creators have not stopped with the clever touches on the cards. Just scan the QR code on the back of the box for another. Awful Fantasy is one of those games that has two lives. On the one hand you have the very basic draw cards to complete a set with a large amount of luck involved. While on the other you have a very clever theme on top which if you are a lover of fantasy style fiction will feel familiar and fun in a gentle way.

What are you telling me?
If you are not a fantasy literature fan. Then this game will not generally engage you and you will probably not choose to buy, due to the simplistic gameplay.
Children, will find the gameplay easy to engage with but will struggle with a lot of the theme as the fantasy leanings are most definitely aimed at the older player.
If however (like me) You love the fantasy genre and have a group that do so as well I can see this being a little bit of fun If you are able to immerse in the theme embellishing the stories as you go.

The Short Short version!
Gameplay- very simplistic set collection
Theme- love or hate
A game to enjoy after a dinner party with more than a couple of bottles of wine

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A Dog’s Life

A Dog’s Life Review Published 2017

                                                                                                                  A DOG’S LIFE. A Review by Mawihtec

                                                                                                     2-6 Players, 45-60 minutes, Age 6+

A brief history
A Dog’s Life was originally released in 2001 by the French game designer, Christophe Boelinger. He is also the creator of games like Archipelago and Draco Mundis. Despite proving popular it fell out of print, until now. Beton Games have stepped up and taken what was beginning to look a little dated in the overall look and feel. They have updated the board art to make it brighter and much more contemporary, streamlined the gameplay to balance it out more evenly and make the gameplay into a 60 minute game from a 90 minute game. This makes it much more suitable for the target audience of the family with younger children. This is perfectly suited for the 6+ age range.

What is A Dog’s Life
The main concept behind A Dog’s Life is you play the part of Dogs looking for valuable bones to bury in your Dens. The first Dog to bury 3 bones wins the game. Along the way you will search bins for food, drink from fountains, deliver newspapers, fight, beg in restaurants, try to evade the dog catcher, escape from the dog pound and piddle on Lampposts (stop sniggering this is an important tactic honest)

What’s in the box?
1 Hand-painted Game Board
6 Pre-Painted Dog Miniatures
1 Pre-Painted Dog Catcher Van
6 Dog Cards
1 Die
72 Action Cards (12 per Dog)
6 Hunger Tokens (1 per Dog)
6 Den Cards
15 Trash Tokens
24 Bone Tokens
12 Newspaper Tokens
48 Piddle Tokens (8 per Dog)
1 Rulebook

A Dog’s Life?
At the start of the game each player is given a Dog Card this contains valuable information about the dog. Will you become A French Poodle, Whippet, Boxer, Labrador, Fox Terrier, German Shepherd or a Golden Retriever? Each Dog has a set number of Action Points (actions available). For example the Whippet has 9 Action Points because she is fast and agile whereas the Fox Terrier has only 7. you will then take your beautifully realised miniature dog all of whom have a very distinct look that suits their perceived personality traits. You will also take your Piddle Tokens, Hunger Token and Action Cards these are integral to your success or failure at the available actions each turn. Each dog is also randomly assigned a Den Card which are spread fairly evenly across the board. The Dog Catcher is placed in the centre of the board and you are ready to begin.

Is it hard being a dog?
A Dog’s Life is a relatively simple game to learn and this is helped by a very colourful and well thought our Rulebook with lots of pictorial examples. Everything is explained clearly and there are some interesting “Dog Facts” at the back of the book. To be honest after reading the Rulebook for the first time I only referred to it once during our first game and that was it.
Okay that sounds easy enough.
Honestly it is that simple. It will seem more complex when I write up a summary (sorry). On your turn you will have the following options available to you.
-Move your Dog. You can move forwards and backwards.
-Drink From the Fountains.
You can do this multiple times on your turn each time you gain
a Piddle Token (you can only hold 2 at a time).
-Piddle on a Lamppost.
You place a Piddle Token onto the relevant section on the Board
This Forces other dogs to lose the rest of their turn if they
reach it (if you do not have any tokens on your Dog Card you
can’t pee).
-Search a Bin for food or bones.
-Enter a Restaurant to beg for food.
-Pick up a Newspaper
-Deliver a Newspaper
-Fight another Dog. Useful if they are carrying Bones.
-Enter/Leave your den.
-Try to escape from the Dog Pound
if you have been unlucky enough to get caught.

You can do as many or as few of these as you like all dependant to how many Action Points you have left. Everything you do takes up an Action Point.
This was my main issue with A Dog’s Life, keeping track of used action points and we used a pen and piece of paper with the “five bar gate method” to keep track.
Once you have finished moving your Dog you will move the Dog Catcher by rolling the Die. There are some rules about this movement. You must continue in the direction he is facing and you must always use the full Die roll. Once the Dog Catcher has moved, if there are any Dogs on the same space they are caught and sent straight to the pound. If they are on an adjacent space they have a chance to escape.
Just like every thing you do requires an Action Point. The Success or Failure of almost every action is reliant on the Action Cards. Every time you want to resolve an action. You will turn over a card, the clear easy to understand cards, will tell you your outcome, good or bad.

Now introducing.
As this is a game squarely aimed at the family and appealing mainly to the younger members of said family. I feel it is time to turn over this review to my boardgames playing partner in crime. By day he is my 9 year old son George. But by Die he is Baba-g Boardgames whizz-kid (Author’s Note 2021 also now known as GooseProGaming, Minecraft YouTuber). After we had played A Dog’s Life several times I “interviewed” him about the game and what he did or did not like about it. So what follows is the transcript of that (please feel free to skip to the end scores if you want).

The Interview.
M- What did you think of A Dog’s Life?
G- I thought it was really good and I really enjoyed it.

M- What was it you liked most about A Dog’s Life?
G- I really liked having the Dog Catcher and the fact that if you are the other side of the board to your Den. You have to try to avoid the Dog Catcher to drop off your bones. It was good the way you roll the die to move the Dog Catcher but have to move it all the numbers in the same direction. Then you might catch Dog’s and send them to the pound. Even yourself sometimes.

M- What about the need to feed the dogs and the making them Piddle?
G- That was quite good. Making them Piddle was funny.

M- Was there anything about A Dog’s Life you did not like so much?
G- There was nothing I would really change. But if I had to change one thing about the game it would be. Once you have buried your three Bones you need to get to the Catchers Black Paw in the centre of the board to win.

M- Okay so it becomes a race to the centre?
G- Yes it mean the other Dog’s could try to stop you and win themselves.

M- What did you think of the Dog figures and the Dog Catcher van?
G- I actually really liked them I loved the detail on the dogs like the Hat and bones in the mouth. The van looked a little like an ambulance but it was OK.

M- What did you think of the Dog’s Action Cards?
G- They were good. Really easy to understand, even from the very start I knew what each thing meant. The pictures were very clear.

M- How about the Newspaper, Trash bin and Bone tokens.
G- They were OK a little small but still easy to understand. I would have liked it more if they were little plastic pieces instead of cardboard.

M- What about moving on the board was that easy to do?
G- I found it quite easy but there were a few bits that were challenging at the same time.

M- In what way were they challenging?
G- The restaurant entrance confused me near the Fire station I kept thinking I was going into the Fire station which was a Newspaper place.

M- What did you think of the Board itself and the artwork?
G- I thought it was all very very clever. My favourite was the Pandas on Chopsticks for the Chinese Restaurant. I also liked the matchstick sticking up outside the Fire station.

M- So overall is it a game you would like to play more or less often?
G- I think, I would like to play it more. I really liked being a Dog and piddling on the Lamppost and barking for food.

M- How did you find playing it with 2/3 players and how did you find playing it with more?
G- I definitely prefer it with more players. With 2 players I would give it a 5/10 Fun rating. With 6 players I would give it a 9/10 Fun rating, because with more people the Dog Catcher moves much more often making nowhere safe on the board.

My Final Thoughts.
A very clever and unique themed game especially if your a dog lover. Probably wont be the right style of game for many adult gaming groups. More suited to the families with 2+ Children especially if they are in the 7-12 age range. Some minor balance and runaway leader issues at low player counts but lots of fun at the higher. WOOF WOOF!

The Good
Beautiful Artwork.
Clever Theme.
Dog Miniatures look fantastic.
Family Friendly.
Suitable 6+yr.
Piddle on a Lamppost.
Play up to 6 Players.

The Bad
Less than 4 players feels a bit solitaire-esque.
Lower player count can be less engaging.
Some balancing issues with a couple of the Dogs.
Dogs Strength and weakness on Dog cards would have been nice

Engagement +4 player 4/5
Engagement -3 player 2/5
Re-playability 4/5
Component Quality 4/5
Player Interaction +4 player 4/5
Player Interaction -3 player 2/5

Total Score +4 player 80%
Total Score -3 player 67%

Overall 73%

Authors 2021 Edit: No ratings have been updated As I feel it is better to let the review sit as it was written in 2017. I no longer rate games (out of any number or percentage) preferring now to recommend or not to different groups of players.

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Ember

EMBER Review First Published 2017

EMBER from District 31

A Review by Mark (mawihtec) Capell-Helm

The Origin Back-story
Ever since EMBER first appeared on my radar way back in March of 2016, I have enjoyed watching this project develop over the past 12 Months into something that is now greater than the sum of its parts. Initially I was attracted to the bright graphical style and the simple set collection mechanics to conjuring the creatures. All of whom were lovingly drawn, rendered and then given special powers to help you and / or hinder your opponent. Using the magical equivalent of a deck of cards to control the forces of Earth, Air, Fire and Water meant creatures like Fairies, Eagles, Griffins, Bunnies and even the Great Cthulhu were at your command.

OK so far

Here was a game that had strategy and simplicity yet retained variety and Replayability. It was a game that was equally at home with the game group as it was with the younger player. In fact my son who was 7 at the time insisted on playing 10 games straight and loved every one of them. And at just £13 for 110 cards (56 core conjuring deck and 54 creatures) there was a lot of game for the money.

Keep talking
It would have been easy for District 31’s head Stuart Garside to rest on his laurels and move onto one of the many other projects that were bubbling away in the background. But he could not do that. He felt that the Ember universe was missing something? It did not feel complete. There was more crying to be let out. So after listening to suggestions and ideas from original backers, He locked himself away with his spell books and cauldrons. Until in September 2016 in a blaze of glory he burst back onto the Kickstarter scene with EMBER FROM THE ASHES. Here was a stand alone expansion which did not need the core set but once combined became so much more. It consisted of all new Creatures, 3 Spectral creatures whose VP relied on what other creatures you had and what their state of play was, 5 Artifact cards, A special Promo Card, Elemental Gods, 3 part Dragon creatures each card of which had its own special abilities but when combined as Head-Body-Tail gave access to even stronger powers. Also introduced were Tutors which provided you with hidden abilities to help or hinder in the end game. This project doubled its funding goal and was met with great positivity by reviewers and backers alike when it finished in October 2016. After running two successful projects and delivering on his vision of a much improved game Stuart Garside and District 31 wanted to focus on their next project…..

And?
Until January 2017. When, following the clamours of backers for more of the EMBER universe and an inspired decision to shake up the rules. LIGHT & DARK was born. A short run-time project which smashed its £1000 target in 51 minutes and went on to achieve over 1000% over its target. This project introduced us all to a new rule set that completely turned the original game on its head (quite literally) and not only that it introduced us to more Creatures, more Artifacts, more Elemental gods three part dragons, more Promos and Postcard/ Player aides which when revealed added more powers and more twists and turns.

Phew
So here we are currently 3 campaigns over 200 cards Replayability by the bucket load untold numbers of combinations of cards. This is one game that will take a long time to master just when you think you have a great strategy along comes your 8 year old son (yes that same one who was playing EMBER over a year ago) and conjures a card then uses it in a way you had not thought of scuppering your victory dance and winning for himself. There is no 1 strategy wins all in this game. Do you try to conjure creatures to burn through the deck to get the cards you want? Do you set your sights on a Dragon God with which to destroy? Or do you just sit tight slowly building forces for a sudden surge using your tutor’s hidden power? All these strategies and many more are at your disposal. YET at its heart it is still that beautifully drawn and imagined gentle set collection game only now it has teeth and they can be sharp.

In short
This is definitely one game I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone. Be they 7 to 70 there is quickness and simplicity to the rules that makes it easy to understand but at the very same time has enough strategy for almost all gamers. There is also a very solid solo play mode which keeps me coming back for more.

Rate me up then.
Ratings are tricky because they are subjective. I will use a rating out of 5 where 1 is not for me/ I did not like and 5 is I will play this a lot.

At a games night for some serious game time? 4/5
Family game time with younger players, or less experienced gamers? 5/5
Home alone, ordered pizza delivery, solo blitz? 4/5

Portability 4/5
Content 5/5
Replayability 5/5
Theme 5/5
Depth 4/5
Overall 4/5

Authors EDIT: Four years have passed since I wrote this review. I still play and more importantly enjoy EMBER from time to time with my son (now almost 13). While it does not get to the table as much as it did when I wrote this review I am still the proud owner of a complete set of EMBER containing every card or promo ever produced. I have chosen not to edit any scores as they were true at the time of writing and to a degree still are valid even if the number of regular plays has dropped off considerably.

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Viticulture

Viticulture review published 2016-18

                                    VITICULTURE by Stonemaier Games. A Review by Mawihtec

1-6 Players
45-90 minutes
13+ Age (Can be played well by younger but might be a little slow paced)

What is Viticulture?
Viticulture puts you in the position of having inherited a rustic vineyard. You have only a few plots of land, an old crush-pad, a tiny cellar, and three workers. Will you achieve your dream of calling your winery a true success first? Viticulture is a worker placement game. Which, for those of you either new to the board game hobby or unsure of the term generally means, players taking turns to place Meeples (pawns) onto a game board space so as to obtain an action, result or resource. These spaces are normally limited in quantity and availability. Often leading to competition or blocking for the desired spaces. Some well known examples of this type of game are, Agricola (2007), Caylus (2005) and Stone Age (2008).
Viticulture follows this trend extremely well, especially at 3 or above players. This is when competition for spaces starts to become quite challenging but not in a combative way. After all what could be more civilized than wine making?

Wine + Thinking?
Right from the start Viticulture will get you thinking. There is so much to do and there never seems like there are enough workers or spaces. Get ready for some relaxed yet polite and cerebral blocking. Picture the scene, there you are on a picture postcard Italian hillside. Glorious sunshine, you are the lord of all you survey.
But you have no wine? Easy grow some.
But you have no grapes? Easy plant some
Oh you have no trellis! OK so I need to build trellis.
Oh and there is no demand for your wine. Or space to store it for that matter either!…….
And all the while you are trying to make wine, from grapes you do not have, growing on trellis that is not there, trying to fulfil orders you don’t have. All the other players are trying to do exactly the same thing, PHEW!
This is the very essence and the very thing that makes Viticulture the exciting brain testing challenge that it is, every decision matters. Using your workers to plant vines, harvest and then crush grapes, age wine and collect and fill orders while trying to improve the vineyard to allow you to do everything in a more efficient way. The whole experience is rich with theme and challenge and so well balanced. You will find yourself jealous of the opponent who has suddenly acquired a lot more workers. They on the other hand will be sat there trying to work out how to get the money to upgrade the cellar before the wine ages and needs to be thrown away due to lack of storage. So much so that when on your turn you are torn between just two options you will breathe a sigh of relief.

What do I get in the box?
Viticulture is in a surprisingly compact box. But do not be fooled there is a heck of a lot of game in there

Dual sided game board English/German
6 Dual sided Vineyard mats English/German
42 Vine Cards.
36 Wine Order Cards.
38 Summer Visitor Cards.
38 Winter Visitor Cards.
30 Worker Meeples (6 colours).
36 Mama and Papa Cards.
24 Automata Cards (for Solo Play)
6 Grande Workers (6 colours).
1 Grey Temporary Worker Meeple.
50 Glass Tokens (wine and grapes).
6 Rooster Wake-up Tokens.
6 Cork Victory Point Tokens.
6 Wine Bottle Residual Payment Trackers.
48 Wooden Structures (8 of each colour).
72 Punch Board Lira Coins (1, 2 & 5 values).
1 Bunch of Grapes First Player Token.
1 Rule Book
1 Quick Reference Guide.

Damn I am confused already?
Yes Viticulture not only a heck of a lot of components in the box. It also has a proper Rulebook none of these 3 or 4 page efforts. If that scares you? Do not be concerned. The gameplay is just so intuitive that by the end of year two (in game not in real life) you will not even look at the Rulebook and just have the player reference guide handy for the odd occasional look.
Each “year” (round) in Viticulture Is played across four “Seasons”

SPRING. Starting with the first player, everyone selects their turn order for the current year. This in of itself presents you with your first challenge. Do you want to have your workers up at the crack of dawn and out in the fields working? Or are you feeling a little more relaxed? Let them get up later and you will be rewarded for your kindness with Cards, Money, Victory Points or even a temporary worker to use that year. Given the tightness for available spaces you may well find yourself swapping back and forth over your decisions.

SUMMER. You will get to place your workers onto the yellow spaces. Improve the Vineyard by building structures that will grant you bonus abilities or even an extra personal action space. Planting Fields with the oh so valuable vines. Giving Tours, tourists love visiting wineries while on holiday and they will gladly pay much needed lire for the privilege. But be warned you do not want to use all of your workers straight away. You need some of your workforce for the winter.

AUTUMN. OK it is referred to as Fall in the rules. The shortest of the “Seasons” with you only collecting either a Summer or Winter Visitor Card.

WINTER. A chance to use your remaining workers on the blue spaces, to fill wine orders earning you valuable victory points and money. Harvest grapes based on what you have already planted Red or White varieties abound. Crush harvested grapes into wine or convert them into Blush or Sparkling varieties depending on the cellar space available. You can even choose to train an extra worker ready to start working for you in the following year.
Clean up ready for the next year and repeat until one player reaches 20 points. At which point everyone finishes the current year and most points at the end wins.

OK so far!
Despite the number of options available to you during the summer and winter seasons. The gameplay is very easy to pick up. Each space is clearly marked with the reward gained or action taken. For example, When you place a worker on the “Tour” space it clearly says “Give a tour collect £2” or the “Summer Visitor” space Says “Play” followed by an icon for the yellow backed cards. At no point did any of the options feel confusing or ambiguous. Planting Vines is again a simple process of placing your worker on the “Plant (green card icon)” There are however restrictions on the fields themselves. Each field has a value of 5, 6 or 7 Lira. And you can only plant vines up to this value on those fields. In the case of the 5 Lira Field this could potentially be, 5 Vines of a 1 value, 2+2+1 or a 3+2 value. Leading to some careful planning of the use of your spaces. The number of spaces available to use is well balanced at approximately ½ the initial available workers due to the scaling mechanism. This can mean that you can quite easily find your perfect move blocked. This is where in my opinion, Viticulture really excels. Whereas in most worker placement games, if the preceding play has used the space you want tough luck. In viticulture however all is not lost. You have Visitor cards that can potentially help you. Or you have your “Grande Worker” This is a guy (or gal) you will grow to love. When a space is blocked by a normal worker the Grande Worker can step up and take the action as well. This can be super helpful but as you only get one use each turn. Use them wisely! In games involving 3 or more players the first player to use a space can claim a bonus. So you could well decide to hold off your master plan to jump onto a space and claim a valuable bonus, thus stopping others from benefiting.

Mamas and Papas!
No I am not talking about a sixties pop group. At the start of Viticulture each player is given a Mama & Papa Card which determines your starting possessions (think of it like your inheritance). This ranges from Cards to Money to Structures. All of which you will need if you are to out-perform your opposition. I did find that in my opinion some of the Mama & Papa cards seemed a little off-balance. Not in a game breaking way but just seemed to give a player a slight starting edge. They still needed to play well to win not once did it feel over the top unfair.

Visitors.
The summer and winter Visitor cards are basically action cards that allow you to gain extra bonuses, some of which can not only grant you additional paths to victory but also impedes your opponents success. This is an area where a little more luck creeps into the game. A player could get a good run of visitor cards which in turn gave them a really big leg up. Fortunately this does not happen too often so is not a game breaking issue but some might find that luck element a little too “lucky” for their taste.

My thoughts.
I really really like Viticulture a lot. It has masterfully created the feeling of “I need to do everything at once” but not being able to. This is a difficult balance to achieve. Varying strategies to play for. Will you build your vineyard up first to get higher value grapes thus higher value wine for the big orders? Or do you train workers early to give you more options? Or do you focus on tasting rooms and windmills to get bonus points from planting wines and having tours?
Viticulture does an excellent job of keeping players neck and neck right throughout the game. There are the gorgeous wooden structures in your windmills, tasting rooms and yokes.
Despite the minor quibbles I have of the “luck of the draw” from the orders and visitors cards this is a game that I will play again and again. It is firmly in my top 10 favourite games list.

Pros and Cons.

Pros
Component quality. This is top notch with the structures looking like they are supposed to look, Non generic Meeples.
Theme. Oh my dies this game just drips theme. Every aspect of it just feels right.
Re-playability. Does not outstay its welcome and leaves you thinking I want more.
Non-Definitive round limit. Not having a set number of rounds means you will have the chance to make up for a poor decision in an earlier round.
Challenging. Your decisions matter every time.
Accessibility. Easy to teach, Easy to learn. Just what you want in a worker placement game.
Every game is different thanks to the Mama and Papa Cards and the Visitor Cards.
Solo Play. A very comprehensive solo play using an Automata deck makes the game a worthwhile outing for a solo play to try to discover new strategies.
Scaling. The clever use of multiple action spaces means that Viticulture scales well from 1 all the way to 6 (3-4 is probably the sweetest spot though).
Rewarding. There is very little downtime, lots of options and some good thinking needed.

Cons
Balance. Some of the Mamas and Papas cards felt a little off balance. Not a huge negative but worth mentioning.
Luck. The luck of the draw on the Visitors and Wine orders can mean that occasionally one player will just get a “very good run”.
Money. This might sound odd but for me the Punch board coins felt a little off given the quality of everything else. Fortunately upgraded components are available. But straight out of the box a minor gripe.

Engagement 5/5
Re-playability 5/5
Component Quality 4/5
Player Interaction 3/5

Total Score 85%

Authors 2021 Edit: No ratings have been updated As I feel it is better to let the review sit as it was written in 2017. I no longer rate games (out of any number or percentage) preferring now to recommend or not to different groups of players.

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Children of Wyrmwoods

Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods

Players: 1-4, Time: 450mins, Age 16+

By Board & Dice

A copy of this game was sent to me by Board & Dice to review.

There was no obligation to provide a positive review asked or given

Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods is a 1-4 player, co-operative, story driven, escape room, style game published by Board & Dice. It is the Third release in Board and Dice’s Escape Tales series of games following on from the 2018 release Escape Tales: The Awakening and its successor Escape Tales: Low Memory.

Before I begin, This review is spoiler free and all images are from the very first opening of the game. Also be aware this game is rated 16+ not just to get round CE regulation testing, but because the content has a more mature leaning. Saying that I found this to be the most accessible of the three releases for 14+ age range (depending on the child)

Country Boy?

Going into Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods you are provided with very little information. Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods begins with you taking on the role of Gilbert a small town orphan boy in love with the Mayor’s Daughter Sevilla. This love has been kept a secret from her father, That is until now. She has discovered her father is ‘up to something?’ Has he found out about you? Whatever it is begins with you going into the cellar to find out more. But first you must find a way to open the door!

What’s in the Box?

Inside your copy of Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods you will find,

Story books, Location Cards, Game Cards, Rest and Focus Cards, Rule Book, Progress Tokens and Action Tokens and a Map.

You will also need access to a mobile phone, tablet or laptop. This is because the game uses an app to keep the puzzle answers hidden and allow you access to individual hints (or even answers if your completely stuck) as opposed to your needing to open envelopes or cut cards. What is nice though is that once you have downloaded the app you can play offline. If you have played either of the previous Escape Tales games then you will already have all you need on your electronic device as Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods is already included on the app.

How does it work?

Board and Dice have managed to create a very rules light games with their Escape Tales games. As in Escape Tales: The Awakening or Low Memory, to play a game of Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods you will,

  1. Reveal a location card or cards

  2. Collect a specific number of action tokens.

  3. Place a token onto a grid space of the map grid card.

  4. Read out the relevant paragraph from the story book.

  5. Take associated actions, cards etc. as depicted in the book.

  6. Attempt to solve puzzles.

  7. Enter your solution in the app.

  8. Follow the directions of the app after a correct puzzle answer.

There will also be additional steps between 6 and 7 involving getting puzzle answers wrong, asking for hints. Trying again and using more hints.

Without the pressure of the ticking clock and no final score to worry about, you do not feel so reluctant to be using hints and/or taking longer to solve a puzzle. You can even use the final hint to reveal the answer itself if you need to. This will probably happen because the puzzles can be much more ‘brain burning’.

You will very quickly realise that you are not given enough tokens to visit every space available. You will need to work together and prioritise your options before spending tokens. However if you do run out of tokens on a location there are Rest or Focus cards which can provide you with a few more. After resolving the effect of the cards you will be awarded a few more tokens to use this will have far reaching effects on the story though so be warned. The more you use the bigger the impact on the story itself. You need to pay attention to everything as there can be clues all over as you try to uncover the plot of this interwoven epic.

Are you a Clever Trevor?

There is definitely something for everyone in Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods. The game consists of a good mix of puzzles ranges from the simple Square is worth 4 triangle is worth 3 how much is the pentagon worth style going all the way up to the ‘My brain is melting’ end of the spectrum. I would certainly not be exaggerating say that most players will find themselves needing to use the apps inbuilt hints at several points on their journey.

The puzzles themselves try to have some relationship to the story itself. much more successfully than in the other games in this reviewers opinion. To say more would be spoiler territory.

I want to tell you a story?

Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods is based on your journey as Gilbert. You try to discover the secret the Mayor has been hiding and how it affects you. To this end Board and Dice have taken the Escape Tales games into a much closer stance to the old school point and click computer games from the 80’s and early 90’s. You will have a character card with several traits like stamina or charisma. When you are using tokens to search a location it is akin to using energy. At a certain point you will run out of energy (tokens). Do you then take time to rest (take a Rest card) and deal with the consequences that involves, or do you instead try to push on through and Focus more intently on the task in hand? Both of these decisions will have long term effects on your characters abilities (spoiler territory so I won’t reveal any more information sorry).

What is really exciting is the different ways that Board and Dice have implemented the various cards within Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods. Location cards are no longer just two side by side, now some are double sided while others will be… Well you will find out. The Game Cards are no longer just puzzles or items but there will be Story cards revealed where you will need to make a pivotal decision based on your own moral compass. The resulting effects will have sometimes major effects on the story. Add to this you now have the ability to combine items together in true point and click fashion or even interact with cards to find out what Gilbert thinks of them. This is done in a smooth and intuitive way using the app and can reveal extra information to aid you.

Good and Bad?

Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods is an ambitious attempt at building on the story driven adventure play-style experienced in their previous games. As you learn more about the story you realise every decision matters. This is something that is achieved to much more success than the previous two games.

Cons-

The story is long at 450 minutes (that is seven and a half hours!) in reality my firsy run through was under that. You can however save your progress.

You do not know how many cards you need to complete a puzzle unless you check the app. An extra step that if the app said on the solution page number of cards is not needed.

Some of the possible story points might feel a little unsatisfactory at times. I felt like some of the story paragraphs could have been a bit more detailed.

Pros-

The puzzles in Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods were in my opinion much better than those from the previous offerings as they felt much more relevant to the story (for the most part). Your mileage might differ there but for me these felt much more cohesive.

App tells you how many cards you need for a puzzle (if you want it to).

A full story experience that has some nice twists. Also each of the story segments are not overly long at just a small paragraph each normally.

No time limit meaning you can spend as long as you like on the current puzzle.

Re-playability You don’t destroy any components.

The story setting was very atmospheric and appealing to me.

Final Thoughts?

My time with Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods was a delight. I found the story to be full of promise which it mostly lived up to. My play-throughs were done in 4 sittings and I did 2 complete playthroughs and then went through the cards and books to uncover the remaining content. The puzzles were definitely a generally higher standard this time round. Even image clarity on the location cards was improved (a major gripe of mine from the earlier game reviews).

While this game plays up to 4 (in theory more could easily join in it would just be crowded) I felt the story lent itself more to solo playing while the puzzles definitely needed more eyes (3 players at least)

The amount of content in Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods that gives you 7 ½ hours of story driven gameplay is phenomenal and much higher on the value for money scale than the much shorter hour long offerings of other escape room games.

If you enjoy escape rooms style gameplay, are not put off by the long game time and If you enjoyed the storytelling aspect in previous releases ‘The Awakening‘ and ‘Low Memory’ Then Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods is well worth a look. Overall a huge next step in the series showing that Board and Dice are invested in making this style of adventure story game a success. In my opinion this release is head and shoulders above the other two games and really shows potential for the series going forward. I will eagerly await the next release in the series.

You can order your copy of Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods from,

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Escape Tales: Low Memory

Escape Tales: Low Memory

Players: 1-4, Time: 3 X 3 Hours, Age 16+

By Board & Dice

A copy of this game was sent to me by Board & Dice to review.There was no obligation to provide a positive review asked or given

Escape Tales: Low Memory is a 1-4 player, co-operative, story driven, escape room, style game published by Board & Dice. It is the follow up to the 2018 release Escape Tales: The Awakening. Before I begin, This review is spoiler free and all images are either from the very first opening of the game. Also be aware this game is rated 16+ for a reason and not just to get round CE regulation testing.

Into the Future?

Going into Escape Tales: Low Memory you are provided with very little information. Escape Tales: Low Memory takes place in 2060 and you begin the game as Elizabeth, a researcher who is having a hard time remembering anything from the past 24 hours. Over the course of the game you will complete 3 stories all based around different characters interwoven into one whole of a story.

What’s in the Box?

Inside your copy of Escape Tales: Low Memory you will find, 3 Story books, Location Cards, Game Cards, Stress Cards, Rule Book, Progress Tokens and Action Tokens.

You will also need access to a mobile phone, tablet or laptop. This is because the game uses an app to keep the puzzle answers hidden and allow you access to individual hints (or even answers if your completely stuck) as opposed to your needing to open envelopes or cut cards. What is nice though is that once you have downloaded the app you can play offline.

Progress?

Progress Tokens? They are new. Yes where as in the previous Escape Tales game you had to find the exit before moving on. This time due to the more narrative driven aspect of the story you will reach a point in each room when you are forced to move to the next location. This is irrelevant of how much of the current location you have explored.

At a total of 9 (yes nine) Hours playtime this is a long game but do not panic, you don’t need to complete the game in one sitting. There is a very simple save and resume function explained in the rule book which allows you to record your progress and get back up and running again really quickly. In fact as you play through the stories you will reach points when the game suggests you save and resume at another time.

How does it work?

Board and Dice have managed to create a very rules light games with their Escape Tales games. As in Escape Tales: The Awakening, to play a game of Escape Tales: Low Memory you.

  1. Move to a location- a location consists of 2 Tarot sized cards and a smaller map grid card. Giving a total of 12 searchable points in each location

  2. Take Tokens- Collect a specific number of action tokens.

  3. Place a token onto a grid space of the map grid card.

  4. Read out the relevant paragraph from the story book.

  5. Take associated actions, cards etc. as depicted in the book.

  6. Attempt to solve puzzles.

  7. Enter your solution in the app.

  8. Follow the directions of the app after a correct puzzle answer.

As there is no ticking clock pressure and no final score to worry about, you do not feel so reluctant to be using hints. You can even use the final hint to reveal the answer itself if you need to (yes we did on a couple of the puzzles). This also allows for the puzzles to be more intricate and brain burning.

You will very quickly realise that you are not given enough tokens to visit every space available so you will need to all work together and prioritise your options before spending tokens. However if you do run out of tokens on a location there are Stress cards (A different set for each story) which can provide you with a few more. After resolving the effect of the Stress card you will be awarded a few more this can have far reaching effects on the story though so be warned. As you would expect with a name like Stress Cards, The more you use the worse it gets for you.

The pressure builds as you move through the story due to the fact that you will be awarded progress tokens at points in the story and these can trigger moving location. Even if you have not solved all the puzzles. You need to pay attention to everything as there can be clues all over as you try to uncover the plot of this interwoven epic.

Are you a Clever Trevor?

There is definitely something for everyone in Escape Tales: Low Memory. The game consists of a good mix of puzzles ranges from the simple collect all the bits style going all the way up to the “My brain is hurting” end of the spectrum. I would certainly not be exaggerating say that most players will find themselves needing to use the apps inbuilt hints at some point on their journey.The puzzles themselves generally try to have some relationship to the story itself. Some more successfully than others. To say more would be spoiler territory.

I want to tell you a story?

The 3 interwoven story narrative works really well and while Escape Tales: Low Memory’s story is not as dark as their previous outing. I did find it an interesting and unique adventure. It reminded me of those movies where you follow different characters as they lead to the finale.

Good and Bad?

Escape Tales: Low Memory is an ambitious attempt at building on the story driven adventure play-style experienced in their previous game with. As you learn more about the story you realise every decision matters. This is something that is achieved to different levels of success.

Cons-

Some of the location card images are hard to see properly, this is quite a big issue especially as visual reference is so important. The box is plenty big enough to have allowed for larger location cards and this would have improved the playing experience greatly especially if you have 4 players all trying to see what an image is. I had hoped that following their previous outing having the same criticism levelled at it this would have been resolved.

The story for me personally was not as emotionally investing as in Escape Tales: The Awakening. The characters just did not come across as well in my opinion.

Some of the possible story endings might feel a little unsatisfactory at times.

At 9 Hours Escape Tales: Low Memory is a long game.

Pros-

The puzzles in Escape Tales: Low Memory were in my opinion much better than those from Escape Tales: The Awakening. Your mileage might differ there but these felt more cohesive.

App tells you how many cards you need for a puzzle (if you want it to).

A full 3 story experience that has some nice twists. Also each of the story segments are not overly long at just a small paragraph each normally.

No time limit meaning you can spend as long as you like on the current puzzle.

Re-playability You don’t destroy any components.

The futuristic story setting was more appealing to me than the previous setting.

Final Thoughts?

My time with Escape Tales: Low Memory was a mixed bag. I found the story to be full of promise which in my opinion it ultimately did not quite live up to. My play-through was done in a 3 sittings over 3 days and I came away feeling glad that I had completed it. But a little flat after the emotional investment in the previous outing. That being said I did find the puzzles to be of a generally higher standard this time round. Let down only by the lower than expected location card clarity.

While this game plays up to 4 (in theory more could easily join in it would just be crowded) I felt the story lent itself more to solo playing while the puzzles definitely needed more eyes (3 players at least)

The amount of content in Escape Tales: Low Memory that gives you 9 hours of story driven gameplay is phenomenal and much higher on the value for money scale than the much shorter hour long offerings of other escape room games. I do think that even with the potential to replay this game I was not engaged enough to want to go in again.

If you enjoy escape rooms style gameplay, Like the idea of a more futuristic storyline  and If you enjoyed the storytelling aspect in previous release Escape Tales: The Awakening  (you can find the review here) Then Escape Tales: Low Memory is well worth a look. Overall a good next step in the series showing that Board and Dice are invested in making this style of adventure story game a success.

You can order your copy of Escape Tales: Low Memory from,

 

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Escape Tales: The Awakening

Escape Tales: The Awakening

Players: 1-4, Time: 180-360 mins, Age 16+

By Board & Dice

A copy of this game was sent to me by Board & Dice to review. There was no obligation to provide a positive review either asked or given

Escape Tales: The Awakening is a 2018, 1-4 player, co-operative, story driven, escape room, style game from Jakub Caban, Matt Dembek, and Bartosz Idzikowski, and published by Board & Dice.

Before I begin, This review is spoiler free and all images are either from the very first opening of the game or in one case images without context. Also be aware this game is rated 16+ for a reason and not just to get round CE regulation testing. It deals with some difficult subject matter including referencing suicide which could make it unsuitable for younger players. With that said here we go.

Promise or Premise?

Going into Escape Tales: The Awakening you are provided with very little information. Your daughter is in a coma for an unknown reason. The doctors are baffled and she is deteriorating. You meet a man who tells you that his child had the same thing happen. He goes on to tell you that there is a book containing a ritual that might help you but there is a cost involved (were not talking cash here either). Are you ready to do what it takes?

What’s in the Box?

Inside your copy of Escape Tales: The Awakening you will find,

A Story book, Location Cards, Game Cards, Doom Cards, Rule Book and Action Tokens.

You will also need access to a mobile phone, tablet or laptop. This is because the game uses an app to keep the puzzle answers hidden and allow you access to individual hints (or even answers if your completely stuck) as opposed to your needing to open envelopes or tear cards. What is nice though is that once you have accessed the app you can play offline.

Action Tokens?

“Action Tokens. We thought you said it was an escape room game that means there is a timer yes?” I hear you ask.

Well, no. Escape Tales: The Awakening breaks the 1hr and done mould of other escape room style games. In fact the publishers have claimed 180-360 minutes (3-6 hours!)on the side of the box and I can confirm my first play-though came in at just under 4 Hours (minus comfort break).

Do not panic, you don’t need to complete the game in one sitting either. There is a very simple save and resume function explained in the rule book which allows you to record your progress and get back up and running again really quickly.

This is how we do it?

Board and Dice have managed to create a very rules light game with Escape Tales: The Awakening. To play a game you will basically

  1. Move to a location- a location consists of 2 Tarot sized cards and a smaller map grid card.

  2. Take Tokens- Collect a specific number of action tokens.

  3. Place a token onto a grid space of the map grid card.

  4. Read out the relevant paragraph from the story book.

  5. Take associated actions, cards etc. as depicted in the book.

  6. Attempt to solve puzzles.

  7. Enter your solution in the app.

  8. Follow the directions of the app after a correct puzzle answer.

Now to be totally clear there will also be hidden steps between steps 6 and 7 which consist of get answer wrong, ask for hints, find out you need more clue cards, try again and use more hints. You can use the app to tell you how many cards you need to solve the puzzle.

As there is no ticking clock pressure and no final score to worry about, you do not feel so reluctant to be using hints. You can even use the final hint to reveal the answer itself if you need to (yes we did on a couple of the puzzles).

You will very quickly realise that you are not given enough tokens to visit every space available so the need to prioritise your choices is worth discussing before spending tokens. However if you do run out of tokens on a location there are Doom cards which can provide you with more after resolving the effect of the card. As you would expect with a name like Doom, The more you use the worse it gets for you.

The pressure builds as you move through the story due to the inability to move to another location until you have found the exit to your existing one. This is not always an obvious doorway either.

You need to pay attention to everything as there can be clues all over as you try to complete the ritual and save your daughter. Escape Tales: The Awakening has multiple endings so your choices really will matter.

I’m not in Mensa?

There is definitely something for everyone in Escape Tales: The Awakening. The mix of puzzles ranges from the simple “A+B=C” variety going all the way up to the “This card needs to lay across these two at this angle, while looking upside down” variety. I would be so bold as to say that 99% of groups will get stuck on some of the puzzles and need hints at some point.

The puzzles themselves try to have some relationship to the story itself. Some more successfully than others. To say more would be spoiler territory

It is all about the story?

The overarching story of a man trying to perform a ritual to awaken his daughter from her coma works really well. You will find yourself becoming emotionally invested in the main characters journey throughout the complex and branching storyline, containing multiple endings and decisions with far reaching consequences on the outcome of the story.

Some may find the emotional tone and some of the subject matter referenced uncomfortable. It’s a dark story with plenty of emotionally disturbing themes. However these points are in my opinion dealt with in the right way and not shoved in your face.

 Pros and Cons?

Escape Tales: The Awakening is an ambitious attempt at creating a story driven adventure in the escape room style games with a hint of Choose Your Own Adventure thrown in for good measure. This is an aim that if does to different degrees of success.

Cons-

Some of the location card images are hard to see properly, this is quite a big issue especially as visual reference is so important. The box is plenty big enough to have allowed for larger location cards and this would have improved the playing experience greatly especially if you have 4 players all trying to see what an image is.

Some of the key decision points in the game will likely be reached with incomplete or insufficient information.

Escape Tales: The Awakening is not a cheerful game.

At 3-6 Hours Escape Tales: The Awakening is a long game.

Pros-

Puzzle cards are marked with clue identifiers to help you keep them grouped.

App tells you how many cards you need for a puzzle (if you want it to).

A Mature theme not watered down for extra sales.

No time limit.

Re-playability You don’t destroy any components.

Final Thoughts?

I personally enjoyed my time with Escape Tales: The Awakening. I found the story to be thouroughly engaging with some meaningful decisions that I became emotionally invested in. My first playthrough was done in a single sitting and I came away feeling drained as the puzzles were taxing. That being said I did find some of the logic connundrums to be a bit of a stretch and a little obtuse.

In fact there was one puzzle that even after all the hints and revesling the answer I could still not see how it was worked out. This very fact stops me from reccommending this game to a solo player. You really need at least two or preferably 3 players so you can combine your thinking. That is where this style of game really shines.

With the first play of Escape Tales: The Awakening you will experience roughly 60-70% of the content. A second playthrough allowed us to experience many of the same puzzles this allowed for speedier play but was still worthwhile. I cannot see my group playing 3 times or more just to try to access the extra endings. Even saying this, the amount of content is equivilant to at least three of the Exit games so value for money is very high.

If you enjoy escape rooms style gameplay, are not put off by the storyline and tone or the need to really look hard at the cards or use a magnifying glass (which is what I did but I don’t have great eyesight any more). Then Escape Tales: The Awakening is recommended

You can order Escape Tales: The Awakening from