One of the things that I have always wondered about is this: why do people purchase copies of Yahtzee? It consists of five standard six-sided dice and a scoresheet. Nothing more. Standard dice are cheap and there are literally hundreds of places on the interwebs where you can go to download a scoresheet. But this game never seems to go away.

First marketed in 1956 and based on games like Generala, Poker Dice, Yacht, at Yatzy, this is a game that has had an influence on game development for decades. It keeps evolving, but is it a survivor or is it on its last legs?

In our Back in the Day articles revisiting classic experiences, we won’t discuss how to play these games…they are old, and if you want to learn how to play, feel free to search the ‘net for answers. We’ll instead focus on what still works, and what doesn’t, while making a recommendation on whether you need to dig this one out of your attic or not!

[caption id="attachment_297267" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Box Cover (1973 Copp Clark edition)[/caption]

Variations on a Theme

At its core, Yahtzee is very simple. You roll dice. You get two chances to re-roll any of those dice…

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Reiner Knizia is one of the most prolific game designers around. His author page over at BoardGameGeek has a Top Games section with 717 entries as of this writing. Obviously, with such a long list of games written, some hit amazing highs (e.g., Ingenious, Ra), while others fall flat (e.g., At the Office,  Into the Blue). Regardless of the level of fun and engagement, some have called his games “an interesting scoring system and mechanics draped lightly with a paper-thin theme” (thanks KMortis!). Even as a fan of his work, I have to say that this is a decent description of many of his games.

There are a few of his games that, honestly, define what I love about board gaming. Blue Moon is one such game. But before we delve into the plight of the Holy City of Psi, let’s take a quick trip through the history of how the game was released.

Releases

Blue Moon is a two-player card game. It was initially released as a base game with two factions: the Hoax (wise scholars and librarians) and the Vulca (magicians of fire and passion). This box contained a pre-constructed deck for each faction, a game board, three dragon figurines used for scoring, and a rulebook.

[caption id="attachment_296239" align="aligncenter" width="600"]

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Walnut Grove - Andy Matthews

When I first got started in the hobby, I came across Walnut Grove on BoardGameGeek. It was definitely more in-depth than what I was familiar with, but the theme and artwork seemed quaint and appealing. I always wanted to try it out, but never had the chance. Then recently I was able to trade a copy of Sriracha for Walnut Grove and finally try it out.

Walnut Grove is a tile laying and worker placement game in which players farm the land with workers you hire over the course of the game. Over 8 rounds you’ll expand your property—gathering milk, fish, lumber, ore, and grain. You also have the chance to head into town and hire more workers, buy materials to construct buildings, and buy and sell your bounty.

Walnut Grove is certainly a bit tighter than I was expecting. You’re constantly clawing and scraping to make sure you can feed your crew and keep them warm. And it feels like you have a hard time earning enough money to do more than just subsist. Because it’s a tile laying game, there’s a degree of luck involved in the tiles that you draw from the bag. Sometimes you get what you need, and other times…

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I can remember several days in my personal history with Apples to Apples, such as the first time I played it and discovered that party games do not have to feel devoid of intellectual stimulation; the first time someone had some serious unintended innuendo come about with a play of a card. There was the time one of my best friends made a ten minute argument as to why Michael Jackson was the trump card in this game (i.e., he fits any nearly any adjective that can be played, and he fits them better than just about any other card could). But the one that I remember most was the day Apples to Apples started to wane in my game group’s rotation. More on that last date later; for now, let’s talk about what makes Apples to Apples tick.

The Game

Apples to Apples is, quite honestly, as simple as a game can get.

Players are dealt seven ‘red’ apple cards which have nouns printed on them (i.e., a person, place, thing, or event).

[caption id="attachment_296781" align="aligncenter" width="600"] A noun is a person, place, or thing.[/caption]

Players rotate being the judge, who will draw one ‘green’ apple card which has an adjective printed on it (i.e., a characteristic of a person,…

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Not long ago, I discovered Doomlings. The game has all the hallmarks of a winner: easy to learn, quick to play, a constant sound of giggling by the players. The game is a lot of fun!

Playing Doomlings

Doomlings is a card game. Although you can get/use community play mats, individual player mats, first player tokens, and the like, all that is needed to play are the cards. The base game of Doomlings has three types of cards: Ages, Traits, and Gene Pools.

[caption id="attachment_296769" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The various types of cards in Doomlings.[/caption]

Setup

Ages are the game’s timer. There are three types of ages: the Birth of Life card, the standard ages and the catastrophes.

[caption id="attachment_296771" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The Birth of Life, the ages, and the catastrophes.[/caption]

You start by shuffling the standard ages together and then dealing them face-down into three piles of three (nine cards); put the rest of the standard ages back in the box. Then shuffle the catastrophes together and deal one onto each of the three piles of standard ages (three cards); put the rest of the catastrophes back into the box. Each of these three piles of four cards is shuffled individually, then stacked.…

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Kinson Key Games has just recently launched their first Kickstarter: Galactic Cruise. I am a backer of this project. For quite some time, I had Kickstarter set to let me know as soon as it went live. I was on the site within 90 minutes of its launch and I was astounded by what I saw. The project was well past its funding goal, and the top three pledge tiers, limited to a total of 50 people, were sold out (more on those later). I knew at that moment that I just had to talk with the people involved in this project!

Continue Countdown: 10… 9… 8… 7…

6…: I recall when I discovered this project. I was looking through board games on Kickstarter and was immediately pulled in by the aesthetic. The artwork is just plain gorgeous! As this is a game about sending people on luxury cruises in space, describe the process that resulted in this theme and the retro feel. Did you go through other options? Did the choice of aesthetic impact choices in gameplay?

When we first began the design process, the game was much more rooted in reality. As we developed the game and streamlined it more, taking the game in a more whimsical direction became a more and more…

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This is the description of the game Aggravation on BoardGameGeek:

Players move their four pieces around the board from start to home. Lucky die rollers can make use of the shortcut spaces to speed movement. However, players can not pass their own pieces and landing on any one else's piece sends the landed-on piece back to the base where it must start again. First player to get all four pieces home wins.

Other than explaining that the game uses one six-sided die, going over the rules for moving a piece from the base area to the main board, and showing the reader a picture of the four-player board (standard version) and the six-player board (deluxe version), there really is little else to be said about how to play the game.

Aggravation came onto the market in 1962. Does it hold up to today’s standards?

[caption id="attachment_296762" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Irwin - Deluxe Aggravation - 1962 - Eng/Fre (photo by OTTOgd @ Boardgamegeek.com; used with permission)[/caption]

In our Back in the Day articles revisiting classic experiences, we won’t discuss how to play these games…they are old, and if you want to learn how to play, feel free to search the ‘net for answers. We’ll instead focus on what…

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Logic & Lore is a game that I knew right from the beginning my wife would love. She is someone who can sit for hours working on sudoku puzzles. So when asked if I would like to delve into this little game, it was an enthusiastic yes!

This small-box game only has a few components. Each player has a set of 12 star cards with ranks from 1 through 9, plus three black holes. There are nine alignment cards, also ranked from 1 through 9. Beyond that, there is a pool of memory tokens (36) with various symbols on them, some meeples for each player (7 per player), and reference cards (3). In the basic game, called the Star Light version, the black holes and the meeples are not used.

Star Light

To set up the basic game, the alignment cards are placed between the players ranked in order from 1 through 9 with the moon-phases face-up. Each player shuffles their star cards and deals them out face-down so that each of their cards is associated with one of the alignment cards. Make sure that the reference cards are on the Star Light side and that the memory tokens are within reach. Randomly choose a player to go first, and you are ready to begin.

Side note: there is…

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Introduction

The good folks over at Durdle Games have a Kickstarter for their new game, Logic & Lore. In addition to wanting to learn more about the game, this seemed like a great time to ask the designers (Darren Reckner and Jason Hager) a few questions about themselves.

So, in Meeple Mountain fashion, here are Six Questions with (and about) Darren Reckner and Jason Hager!

Part I: About Durdle Games

Q1: I am sure you have been asked a thousand times how you met and how Durdle Games came to be. So I am going to skip past that and ask the more important question: As a turtle (Jason) and a rabbit (Darren), how do you guys manage to not get on each other's nerves? Or, assuming you do get on each other's nerves, how do you get past that to work on interesting games?

Darren: What’s interesting about this comparison is that our playstyles and our design styles are actually polar opposite. Jason is a slow player but has a never ending fountain of ideas when it comes to making new games. I am a quick player that needs time to think about design stuff in my down time. Jason can discuss an idea almost entirely in the mind while I need to start writing…

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As a fan of the game Tokaido—a game where one of the things you are trying to do is to create these beautiful panoramas—when it was suggested that I check out the game Four Gardens, where panoramas are the focus, I jumped at the chance! Of course, when an aspect of a game shifts to become the entirety of a game, the mechanics will become a bit more involved. This is as it should be. What is needed, however, is for the process to result in a proper payoff. Does Four Gardens deliver?

Setup

The central feature of Four Gardens is a four-level pagoda that needs to be assembled before you can play. This only takes a few minutes. The instructions are clear, and when you are done (despite the size of this thing), the pagoda stores easily within the box thanks to a fairly well designed insert.

When playing, the pagoda is a presence! It dominates the table in the early game, and there is rarely a moment when the players are not looking this thing over, because the central mechanism of this game is dependent upon this feature. The pagoda is not something that is there just to be there and look pretty (like, for instance, the Evertree in Everdell). The pagoda is a pretty…

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Vienna - David McMillan

This past weekend, I finally got my copy of Vienna to the table. Vienna, for those not in the know, is the 5th game in the much-lauded (and also highly criticized) Stefan Feld City Collection from Queen Games. Reimplementing La Isla, which I reviewed as part of my Focused on Feld series, Vienna plops the players down right smack dab in the middle of Austria during the early 1950s. World War II has ended, but the Cold War is just getting started. Espionage is the name of the game.

Vienna comes with two modes of play: the basic mode—which plays almost exactly like La Isla— and an advanced mode that introduces a whole lot of new elements. I got to play the basic mode. A few mistakes were made, but I enjoyed the experience overall, and I feel like that was the consensus among the other players at the table as well. I’m really excited to get it to the table again so that I can dig into the new material.

Keep an eye out for my upcoming review!

Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ - The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ - Will definitely play it again

Read more articles…

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Monikers: Monikers-er - Andrew Lynch

Monikers is a great party game if you’ve got a group that isn’t afraid of getting silly. Monikers-er cranks things up, with a collection of obscure, seemingly impossible cards. All your new favorites are here: Mukbong, Washington Crossing the Delaware, Reiner Knizia. It’s the Monikers set for those who like their word selections eclectic, which I certainly do. The final endorsement: I’d rather play Monikers with just these cards than mix in the base set.

Ease of entry?:
★★★★★ - No sweat
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ - Will definitely play it again

Read more articles from Andrew Lynch.

Faraway - Andy Matthews

Faraway is a game about journeys—traveling through a magical land called Alula. Over the course of 8 rounds players will play cards in front of themselves in order to arrange resources and scoring conditions for end of game scoring. The catch is that you lay down cards from left to right, but score from right to left after first flipping all the cards face down. This means you have to constantly be thinking in two directions—setting yourself up with difficult scoring cards on the left side, while giving yourself things TO…

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Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run there’s still time to change the road you’re on. – Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)

An Alternate History

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) has a long and proud history. The one most people are familiar with, beyond the d20 iterations, is the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) line. If asked, I suspect most people familiar with the game would list the history of the game as follows:

• Chainmail: a set of combat rules; proto-role-playing. Primarily a war game.
• Original Dungeons and Dragons (OD&D): the original true role-playing game. Heavily rooted in its wargaming past.
• Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D): E. Gary Gygax's magnum opus. The three books which make up this version of the game (Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook, and Monster Manual) are the focus to which all other games point.
• Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition (AD&D 2e): this is the version of the game designed by the people at E. Gary Gygax's company after they kicked E. Gary Gygax out of it.
• Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition (D&D 3e; d20 System): after Tactical Simulations Rules (TSR) folded and was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, this was the result. The d20 System was the core of those…

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