Top Trumps

It's popular amongst kids, especially in the UK. For adults, it probably suits as more of a collector's item rather than as a game.

It is the simplest game you will ever encounter, and chances are you already know how to play it. The emphasis is on theme; whilst enjoyment factor purely hinges on your appreciation, knowledge and how much you are a fan of that particular theme.

My sister refuses to even call it a game - and that's completely understandable.

Name: Top Trumps (1968!!)

Versions/Themes: There are HEAPS of versions. Almost as many versions to choose from as there are topics under the sun (of course, this is a bit of an exaggeration). Here are only a handful of examples:

English Premier League Sport Clubs (Eg. Manchester United, Arsenal - see below)
Top Gear: Cool Cars
Dinosaurs
Roald Dahl
Wonders of the World
Power Rangers (in Japan)
NBA

Lord of the Rings (see below); Harry Potter; Star Wars;
World Football Stars 2013/14
DC Universe: Heroes and Villains
Disney Pixar
The Simpsons Classic Collection (Earlier volumes are dearer because they are rarer)
Plop Trumps (A spin-off, based on animal poo - kind of cool, but may yuck people out - see below picture of tin)

There's even a Royal Wedding Special as below

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge feature in their own card game

Publisher: Winning Moves

Original Game Designer: "None" really - the concept is as old as card games itself.

Players: As many as you want but doesn't play that well with lots of people.

Age: 6+

Time to play: Very fast - can be as little as less than 10 minutes?

Price Range (AUD): $10-$40+, depending on how rare the set is you are after and whether you are paying shipping.

Availability:  Quite widely available online. A very limited range is offered in the ABC Shop at the time of writing (Deadly 60 and Dinosaurs from memory)

Genres: 

• Kids
• Card
• Collection/Special Interest/References/Thematic
• Classic

Andre Lim's Rating and Brief Summary:

5.0+ out of 10. (Barely Passes as a game, but I reserve my judgement on its "fun" factor as that truly depends on where your interests lie and which themed pack you purchase - See my Rating Scale)

"Highest card wins". That's basically all there is to Top Trumps.

However, the fun factor of this game purely hinges on your interests. It is mind blowing to think that there are so many different versions of the game that appeal to different interests. For example, if you like superheroes and supervillains, you will enjoy the Marvel or DC Universe packs which feature your favourite comic book characters.

If you enjoy sport, you might appreciate some of the teams or sport-specific packs, particularly for a certain year (further you go back, the more expensive), available such as these:

Examples of club football (or to use the allegedly dreaded expression, soccer) Top Trumps
Taken from http://cartophilic-info-exch.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/waddingtons-top-trumps-arsenal-chelsea.html

Other varieties that I have are below:

From left to right, starting from top row Top Trumps: ....
Deadly 60 (based on the UK TV series featuring dangerous animals)
Simpsons Volume 3 (featuring Apu and Lisa)
Lord of the Rings Collector's Tin (Featuring Bad guys and Good guys - see below pictures in the Rules)

DC Universe Heroes and Villains (Batman, Superman, Joker, Scarecrow etc)
Disney Pixar The Collection (featuring Woody, Buzz, Mike Wazowski etc - see below picutres in the Rules)
Plop Trumps (Cards based on real animal poo - whilst gross for many, it is pretty educational in a very strange sense)

Whatever your interest, there probably is a Top Trumps pack available. And that is the beauty of Top Trumps in a nutshell. The packs can be quite cheap if you buy them in-store, but here in Australia the variety isn't that great. Ordering online can be significantly costlier, with shipping adding on 100% to 200% more on price ($10 or $20 dollars more), which is probably not worth it.

I'll explain the rules below but it's simple enough - each of the cards contains statistics unique to a particular theme. A random player calls a statistic out (for example, number of goals scored; strength; temperature; courage). Everyone plays their top card (they don't seem to have a choice, they always play the top card - for example, if using the Man United deck: Player A might play Robin Van Persie; Player B plays Wayne Rooney; Player C plays Antonio Valencia). Then the numbers of that statistic are compared. Usually the highest number wins (so, for number of goals scored for that season, Van Persie would win based on the 2012-13 season).

At the risk of sounding repetitive, Top Trumps' fun factor purely derives from the theme of the cards you purchase. I find that, no matter how childish the gameplay is, if the topic interests everyone it will still be fun for all and stimulate much discussion.

The Good:

• Fun if you choose a topic/theme that interests you and the group - promotes discussion and interest in a particular franchise or topic
• Collectors' item makes for some degree of attachment to the cards
• Extremely easy to play, perhaps even too easy (can be a bad point)
• Good for kids
• Statistics on card genuinely match the topic concerned. For example, you can be sure that Gandalf, Aragorn and Legolas all have high scores for the statistics "Fighting skills" and "Destiny of the Ring" (the latter statistic reflective of their importance to the storyline/events/fate of Lord of the Rings)

The Bad:

• Childish game - gameplay has very little strategy; some will argue there is no discernible "gameplay" at all.
• Too many to collect

What makes this game fun? 

The ability to play a game relating to something that interests you - be it a movie, a sport, a comic book series or some other random topic - generates quite a lot of fun, even if it is mindless fun.

- This concludes the basic overview of the game.

If you are interested in reading about the components & rules to the game, please read on -

Rules & Components (Photos courtesy of my mum, Joanne)

Follow these easy steps:

1) Grab a deck of Top-trump cards

2) Distribute the cards as evenly as possible to all players. All players hold their cards face down, or if face up, hidden away from other players.

3) Randomly assign a player to be the starting player

4) Starting player calls out a statistic

5) Everyone takes the top card of their deck (without looking or choosing their card) and reveals their card. Highest number of that statistic usually wins, but occasionally, another victory condition has to be triggered (for example, earlier year)

6) Whoever wins takes all the cards placed down by everyone. (This rule can make the game finish very quickly, especially if a lot of people are playing). These cards get taken by the winner of that round and placed on the back portion of their deck face, hidden away from the view of others.

Example 1

Suppose North calls out the statistic "FIRST APPEARANCE" for Buzz Lightyear (1995)
West plays Nemo (2003)
East plays Alfredo Linguini from Ratatouille (2007)

North wins because they were the earliest first appearance. North takes Buzz, Nemo and Alfredo and places them to the bottom of their deck. North now calls a new statistic. This is repeated until someone loses all their cards.

6a) If there is a tie between two or more players, no one wins anything for that round. Those cards are then placed in the middle. A new round starts with a new statistic being called for a new card of the person who called the previous round. The winner of the next round gets to take all the cards in the middle (from the previous round) and the cards of that current round!

Example 2

Suppose East calls out the statistic "Destiny of the Ring" for Aragorn (a stupid move - enough characters have a high Destiny of the Ring stat, whereas Fighting Skills is unmatchable)  Aragorn's score is 5 - the highest value for this statistic
West plays Gandalf whose value is also 5
North plays Legolas whose value is 4

Because there is a tie, all three cards go to NO ONE. Under default rules, East calls out a new statistic for the next card, and whoever wins that call gets all the cards.

7) Whoever won that round round picks the next card from the top of their deck. They now look at it and get to call out any statistic they like in the next round.

8) Repeat until someone has no cards left. Whoever has the most cards when someone runs out of cards wins.


Variations?

To increase the fun/strategy/length of the game, perhaps the rules can be altered so that:

a) different people get to call out the statistic?
b) players get to choose which cards they can play?
c) not all cards are given to the winning player, just a few cards?

And that's it!!

Sultans of Karaya

A light, friendly, different and blindingly quick version of mafia (sort of, anyway). It is, quite surprisingly, very effective and a bang for one's buck.

Front cover holds a lot of meaning once you know the rules

Name: Sultans of Karaya (2011)

Publisher: MJ Games (in the US - Asmodee; but there are other publishers as well)

Designer: Alex Weldon (Illustration by Terry Michaux and Alex Weldon)

Players: 5 to 15!!! (but I highly doubt this plays well with more than 8 people; or at the very least, it's far more challenging with more than 8 people!)

Age: 12+

Time to play: 45 minutes +

Price Range (AUD): $13.95 to $22, though on ebay or other sites it may be about $45+ when shipping is included. The game is tiny so is probably not worth paying more than $15.

Availability:  Because this appears to be a relatively lesser-known publisher it seems to be hard to find.

Genres: 

• Mafia/Hidden Identity
• Social Deduction
• Some degree of bluffing

Andre Lim's Rating and Brief Summary:

6.9+* out of 10. (Decent to possibly borderline Great; the latter rating occurs only if the game is played with the right numbers of people - see my Rating Scale)

This is a pretty good game. There are plenty of positive things to say about it.

First, the most attractive element of this game is the fact that it plays very fast, and has several rounds. One other unique feature of this game is that, unlike other mafia games, you constantly change roles and identities and you (eventually) even get to see who everyone is.

Third, there are three teams involved in this game: The Loyalists (who are loyal to the Sultan - ie. the good guys), The Rebels (the bad guys) and the Neutrals. Neutral characters are on no one's side at the start but they can turn sides easily depending on what they do. See rules for further clarification.

Fourth, Sultans plays incredibly cleanly and is relatively simple to follow in terms of your game turn. On your turn you have one of three choices: peek at someone's identity/card, swap identities (cards) or perform a special ability. That's it.

However, one downside is that, from the perspective of a non-gamer, this game plays poorly in large groups. The only reason for this is because there is a lot of memory work involved in this game: hence, it becomes difficult to keep track of who everyone is where there are more than 7 players, and it becomes almost impossible to play the game with 10 or more players.

That being said, large-group games can most certainly still be done - it will just take a rather committed, willing and open-minded group. This point about it not playing well with large groups would apply mainly to those with a bad memory (like myself, to some extent), those who don't enjoy much of a challenge or those who aren't particularly into games.

*September and July 2014: Revised down from 8.25+. This game is too heavily biased towards the bad guys in small groups. With 5-6 players, when I play with my friends we find that the bad guys lose significantly more often than the good guys. The chances of calling a revolution with the slaves OR that the sultan is vulnerable to a kill from the assassin (after he reveals himself for the Loyalist's victory condition) is significantly high. When the group gets too big however (perhaps with 9 players in the group or above), the game is hard to play because it requires everyone to possess fantastic memories. The game requires the right balance of people - as for what that is, I'm not so sure. Perhaps 7 to 8 players fits the bill. With this number, the game can be really fun. However, it's a real shame that the quality of the game is significantly affected by the number of players playing, especially when it proclaims to play 5 to 15 players. That is why I have decided to revise its score downwards. The game has got a lot of things right though; perhaps the execution isn't completely there though. Game mechanics are simple and good in that sense but there isn't much meat in them. But it certainly is a bang for one's buck.

The Good:

• This game will keep you guessing. There is plenty of strategy and options involved with gameplay.
• Victory conditions are quite interesting and unique
• Games are very quick and relatively clean
• After first few playthroughs, rules are easy to remember
• Quite cheap in terms of price
• Because you play many rounds and score points for each round, there is an opportunity to experiment with many different scenarios. The game (in a sense, but not necessarily) rewards the person who plays consistently and wins with different team members.

The Bad:

• Plays "poorly" with large numbers of people (probably starts to get "bad" where more than 7 or 8 people play, in the sense of being difficult to newcomers, confusing and a memory-stretcher) - the exception is if your game group has a very very very good memory and does not mind a challenge.
• As alluded to above, those who have a bad memory will resent this game
• May be hard to grasp some of the victory conditions and character abilities when first played.
• Player elimination - but this is a minor problem because many rounds are played and each round doesn't take long.
• Game may, at times, appear to be imbalanced or favouring one side (especially if there are too many guards)
• From my experience, bad guys probably win more often with 5-6 players.
• It's certainly no The Resistance: Avalon, but what game is?

What makes this game fun? 

If you like hidden identity or social deduction (mafia) games, and want to experience a quick and interesting version of it, try this.

- This concludes the basic overview of the game.

If you are interested in reading about the components & rules to the game, please read on -

Rules & Components (Photos courtesy of my mum, Joanne)

There is not much to show here by way of pictures as the game has a dearth of components (not that it really needs any more).

Set-up

Everyone sits in a circle. The cards (usually N+1 cards, N being the number of players playing) are shuffled. Everyone gets a role card face down. The extra role card is placed in the middle.

What a 5 player game looks like.

The types and numbers of roles present depends on the number of players present.

For example, in a 7 player game this is the set-up:

1 Sultan
1 Guard
1 Assassin
3 Slaves
2 Neutrals

[I will explain what these are under Special Character Actions]

On your turn...

You may perform ONLY ONE of three actions:

1) PEEK at someone's card
2) SWAP cards with someone else
3) Perform a special character action [at the cost of REVEALING YOUR IDENTITY]

Note that, for Action 2), you cannot swap with a person who is already "revealed" (this means their card is face up, usually because they performed a special character action). However, a person who is revealed may choose to "hide" - which means that everyone else must close their eyes and they will swap with someone else whose identity is unknown (this also means that they may choose to not even swap with anyone else and may, for example, make noises pretending that they have swapped with someone else)

Special Character Actions: Explaining the Roles and Sides

Now I explain what each character does.
Note that I have not played or completely understood the implications of all the neutral characters so bear with me here.

The 8 different types of characters that exist in the game
Good guys are Blue (Loyalists)
Bad guys are Red (Rebels)
Green guys are Neutrals (No one's side - can change)

I find it easier, and more intuitive, to explain what the Bad Guys do first.

Bad Guys (Rebels)

The bad guys are trying to overthrow the current government powers above them. They can do this via one of these two ways:

1) Kill the Sultan (Assassin's Special Action) - this is the easiest goal to remember
2) Perform a revolution (Slave's Special Action) - this means that 3 slaves must be sitting next to each other in a row and they must all reveal themselves once a slave has called for a revolution.


Rebel Abilities

Assassin:

i) Reveal yourself to kill a target. This removes the target permanently from the game UNLESS a guard interferes (see below)

Slave (has two abilities):

i) Call for revolution. When a revolution is called, the slave reveals themselves. Other fellow slaves may CHOOSE to reveal themselves (if they are confident or think they can get three slaves in a row). If three slaves reveal themselves and they are sitting all in a row (ie. adjacent or next to each other), then the Rebels win. Of course, this is risky because if no one follows your call for revolution (because they aren't sitting next to you) you might risk being killed by the Sultan or otherwise detained/captured.

ii) JOIN revolution: When another slave calls a revolution, you may choose to join the revolution by revealing yourself. Only do this if you are next to another revealed slave and think there is a good chance of having three slaves in a row.

Good Guys (Loyalists)

The Loyalists wish to retain power via one of these two ways:

1) Neutralise the Bad Guys' methods of winning. Ie. Kill off all Assassins AND leave only 2 slaves or less alive. This is intuitive. It prevents the three-in-a-row victory condition and the kill-the-sultan victory condition.

2) "Proclamation": I made this term up, but the Loyalists win if a) the Sultan proclaims the throne by revealing their identity at any time (or if their identity is revealed for any other reason) AND b) the Sultan survives one whole round of turns (ie. the Sultan makes it back alive to the start of the player's turn when the Sultan was first revealed)

The Sultan has just revealed himself. A white token is placed there to indicate the "starting point" of the victory condition. If everyone else (after the person who has the white token) takes their turn once and it reaches the white token again, the Loyalists win.

At this stage the Rebel team has to ensure that the Assassin is in a good position to kill the Sultan (by ensuring the Assassin isn't next to a guard) OR they must be ready to perform a Slave revolution.

Loyalist Abilities

Sultan: Has quite a number of abilities

i) Claim the throne: Can reveal himself at any time to start the "timer" on Victory Condition 2)

ii) Execute: Can kill any one KNOWN rebel. Cannot kill hidden players

iii) Avoid Detention: If a guard accidentally detains the Sultan, the Sultan can avoid detention by revealing themselves

(This too also triggers the Victory Condition 2 timer, even if it isn't the Sultan's turn!! In this case, the white token will be placed on the guard that forced the Sultan to reveal themselves - the white token symbolises the "start" and "end" of how long the Sultan must survive for if the Loyalists are to win: in other words, the Sultan must survive one whole round of turns and be alive at the start of the player-with-the-white-token's turn.)

Guard: Has two abilities, one automatic and one that must be chosen

i) Prevent assassination attempt (automatic, but you must reveal yourself to activate it): If you are ADJACENT to the TARGET of an assassination OR ADJACENT to the ASSASSIN, you not only STOP the attack, but you kill the assassin in the process. This is a very powerful automatic ability. You must reveal yourself though obviously to do this.

ii) Detain: Can detain anyone. When someone is detained, a grey counter is placed on them and it means they skip only one of their turns. (It is unclear to me whether a slave can still react to a call for revolution - would it not defeat the purpose of this ability if a slave could still react to a call for revolution? Or does the ability still have use because it prevents a call for, but not the act of joining, revolution?)


Neutral Characters

Belly Dancer:

When hidden, with the loyalists. When revealed, with the rebels. This is because when she reveals herself, she dances: This causes guards adjacent to the belly dancer to be vulnerable: such guards cannot use their detain or "prevent assassination" ability!

Slave Driver:

If revealed, he is with the Loyalists. This is because when he reveals himself he may perform two actions involving capturing slaves:

i) Capture: The slave driver may capture any KNOWN/REVEALED slave then END his turn (compare this with the hunt ability). This involves placing a black token on that slave. So long as the black token is there, the slave cannot take their turn nor can they join a revolution.

ii) HUNT: The slave driver may take a GUESS as to whether a person is a slave. If they are a slave, he captures them with a black token (same rules apply as above under capture) and then gets to make ANOTHER GUESS. This keeps going until he guesses wrong.

If hidden, with the bad guys because he isn't capturing slaves.

Fortune Teller:

Can look at 3 player's identities and make a prediction as to who will win. If they are right, they win points. If they lose, no points. If it comes to their turn again and no one has won, they must hide.

The Vizier (complicated - I've never played with this guy, properly anyway):

Manipulate: Declares which team he intends to support (by grabbing a blue or red token, blue for the good guys, red for the bad guys - shares their victory if correct). Then he reveals a hidden player and forces them to use their Special Character Action immediately (by placing a yellow token - the forced player still chooses how they use their ability). This same player that is the victim to the Vizier's manipulation may not use their action again on their next turn, but may do so after that turn.

However, if hidden (chooses not to manipulate), he wins if he's next to a player who has won two points.

Scoring at the end of a round..

You win 1 point if you are on the winning team, even if dead.

You win 2 points if you are on the winning team, revealed yourself and you made an active contribution to your team's success. This rule is vague. I assume it means you actually took an action at the very least -- but how does one measure whether this contributed to your team's success?

I find it hard to enforce this rule about 2 points.

You can play as many rounds as you like - highest scoring person wins.

Ingenious

"A team is only as strong as its weakest member."

A game for the genuine all-rounder, the Jack of all trades...

2010 Red Box Edition - the one I have

The 2004 Edition

Name: Ingenious (2004)

Publisher: Fantasy Flight but Kosmos also does it. My version was published by Esdevium Games.

Alternate Names/Versions:

The version I am reviewing is the one that comes in the standard square box, which is quite large. It comes with a large board as well as plastic tiles and trays for each player to store their tiles on. Some may now refer to this as a "deluxe" version, but the reality is that this ought be considered the normal version - it is only said to be "deluxe" now that the Mass Market Edition has been released (see below).

Smaller Editions

The Ingenious Mass Market Edition comes with smaller/flimsier cardboard, rather than plastic, components and board; thus it is significantly cheaper by about $15 to $20. Hence, if you are not particularly fussed about quality then this is definitely a good option.

As a sidenote, it seems to me that there is perhaps a trend these days for companies to shrink the size of board game boxes to help consumers/purchasers conserve shelf space. Whilst this is a good enough reason for taking that step, don't let that reason alone fool you. These companies aren't completely altruistic: selling smaller board games substantially reduces shipping/transport/logistical costs for them and would therefore, presumably, increase their profit margins as well.

There is also an Ingenious: Travel Edition, which apparently only plays two players, but apart from that I am unsure how this compares with the Mass Market Edition.

"Simply Ingenious" is another small-scale version (and hence substantially cheaper by about $15 to $20). I don't know what the components are like though so I would guess, but am not sure, that it is similar to the Mass Market Edition discussed above.

"Simply Ingenious" - the box looks tiny

Alternate Name: Ingenious is also known as Mensa Connections in the UK, which is a product that seems to be endorsed by Mensa, the high-IQ society, in its store.

Mensa Connections

Spin-offs

There is also Ingenious Challenges, which appears to be a separate spin-off of sorts to the original game. It contains 3 challenges: a card, a tile and a dice challenge. Thus it doesn't seem like you need the original game to play it. Read here for more details.

At the time of writing it looks like this game costs $30 to $40 in the market, a price that already includes shipping.

Designer: Reiner Knizia

Players: 1(!) to 4

Age: 10+

Time to play: 30 to 45 minutes

Price Range (AUD): $35 to $60, but one website sells it for $100 (which is absurd) - I got mine for $27 because my box was damaged (a good deal because the components were otherwise fine).

Availability: Widespread in online stores, but it may be quite difficult to tell the difference between the mass market edition and the "big-box" edition.

Genres: 

• Puzzle
• Abstract
• Strategy

Andre Lim's Rating and Brief Summary:

7.2* out of 10. (Decent - See my Rating Scale)

This game focuses on a unique concept that revolves around balance and equality.

Players attempt to score points in each of their 6 colours/symbols. Players are NOT rewarded for maximising points for one or two colours only: instead, there is an incentive to ensure that all colours are scored as equally as possible. Hence, scoring highly in one colour/symbol, but doing poorly in the others will probably mean that you will lose. No one (colour) gets left behind!

Overall, I feel that this is an interesting abstract strategy game that works well in the family environment. There is of course a moderate degree of luck as one has to draw tiles, but the rules do try to ensure there is fairness by allowing you to redraw all your tiles if you don't have tiles of your lowest scoring colour. Hence, I wouldn't classify this as a pure abstract game - it suffices to say that it plays like an abstract game that caters well for the family.

That is all I have to say in this summary - to better understand this game, check out the rules (in particular, the "Winning" Section).

* 28 July 2014: Reduced from 7.35. I have made the range of 7.2 to 7.25 a benchmark of sorts - it's a score that represents a game that has some different mechanic/feature about it that makes the game special. Ingenious, in the context of an accessible family game, probably fits that bill given its concept of "no one gets left behind!"

The Good:

• People who enjoy pattern-matching will like this game
• The board has quite a good lay-out: there are distinctly shaded areas that tell you the outer limits of gameplay for different numbers of players - contrast this to Gemblo where it is hard to see which areas should be used for different numbers of players.

• Has quite an interesting gameplay idea: "We are only as strong as the weakest member on our team." That is, whoever has the "the most amount of points in their weakest colour" wins (see below rules under "Winning" for a better explanation). This has been done before though: Knizia has merely re-used this concept from his (famous and by far more hardcore) game Tigris and Euphrates, except this time he has incorporated it into a less complicated family game. This concept alone is probably what separates it from other abstract games 
• Relatively easy to explain and learn, but occasionally I have found that some people do not understand the main premise of the game that well.

The Bad:

• Randomised tile drawing and the fact that not everyone starts off with the same pieces makes for a luck-based game, to some extent - which can work both ways in terms of enjoyment and strategy.
• By reason of the above, it is not something I would consider to be a pure abstract game (compared with Blokus, Gemblo or Chess where everyone starts with the same pieces)
• Lacks any real theme - but that is the nature of the beast when it comes to abstract games

What makes this game fun? 

The aims of leaving no one (colour) behind and striving for balance makes for an interesting and easily accessible game for the family.

- This concludes the basic overview of the game.

If you are interested in reading about the components & rules to the game, please read on -

Rules & Components (Photos courtesy of my mum, Joanne)

Everyone receives a score board with 6 pegs (1 for each colour/symbol).
And everyone also receives a tile rack with 6 tiles on it.

Tile rack with 6 tiles.
Tiles are drawn from a bag

The game board looks like this:

The board demonstrates different degrees of shading to highlight which parts are used for 2-4 player games:
The completely white tiles are for the two player game.
The slightly shaded tiles just outside the two-player board are the outer limit of  thethree player game
The whole board is used for a 4 player game.

Aim and Turn structure

Players try to score points by "symbol-matching."

What happens is, on your turn, you:

1) Place a tile on the board and then
2) Draw a tile to refresh your hand back up to 6 tiles.

Placing tiles

Usually a tile is placed such that as many of the SAME symbols are touching each other in a straight line.

However this is strictly speaking not a requirement - you can place a tile that completely fails to match any of the symbols (which can be used for blocking purposes - to stop other people from scoring in a colour they need)

Scoring Points

You receive a point for every matching symbol that is "connected in a straight line" to the symbols you just placed down. A straight line is defined as any of the imaginary 6 lines that emanate from each side of a given hexagon. For the purposes of scoring, you do not count symbols on the tile just placed down.

Example 1

For example, I have just placed the tile with a red star and the orange hexagon. I receive 1 point in red because there is 1 red star connected in a straight line to the red star of the tile I just placed down. The straight line I speak of is the imaginary line that is north-west of the red star of the tile I just placed.

Hence I score myself 1 red point on my score track:

Example 2

If this is the situation:

Suppose that Player B placed this piece (1 red and 1 green) in the gap above.

Player B places a tile

Then, B would score 4 Red points (2 + 1 + 1)
And B would also score 4 Green points (2 + 2)

To clarify how I got 4 points for Red:

2 points from the 2 red stars to the left of the tile placed by B (they are connected in a straight line to the tile originally placed);

1 point from the red star connected to the straight line diagonally south-west of the red star of the tile placed by B (this straight line hits an orange hexagon - which means that even if there were red stars beyond the orange hexagon, they would not be counted as part of the score as they are not "connected" to the tile originally placed - essentially this means that the orange hexagon halts any straight-line connection to other red stars beyond it).

The other 1 point being the red star connected to the straight line south-east of the red star of the tile just placed by B. This imaginary straight line hits a blank space (situated between a red star and a green circle) which obviously does not score any points.

Add these points together to get 4 points.

This is how B would score their progress:

Winning

The game ends when there are no places available on the board for a tile to be placed.

The winner is the person who has the highest score in their weakest colour. Therefore there is an incentive to score all colours as equally as possible.

For example, suppose this was B's score at the end of the game:

Player B's scoreboard at the end of the game

B's weakest colour is Orange as it is the lowest-scoring colour.

Thus B's final score is 8. 

In a sense, B could have spent less time on increasing points in Red and Purple to increase Orange instead - this is because, for the purposes of winning, it doesn't really matter how extreme B's first and second placed colours are (what matters is that all your colours are equally scored highly).

Thus, if Player C had every single colour on 9 points they would still beat B's score (because their lowest scoring colour is all colours - which is 9 points). Hence, this demonstrates that carefully working every colour equally is more meaningful than pursuing extreme values of other colours (as Player B did with Purple and Red)


Special Rules

Changing all tiles: After you have placed a tile, if you have no tiles of your weakest or lowest-scoring colour, you may replace your whole hand immediately (but only after revealing your hand to the other players). This ensures that you aren't stuck with a losing hand if you have no tiles in your weakest colour.

Free turn: If you score 18 in a particular colour, you get to take another free turn (that is, before refreshing your hand, you can play another tile for free)

Automatic win: If you score 18 in all colours, you automatically win.

Also included in the game is a solo and team variant of the rules.

Hey, That's My Fish!

One of the only games I own whose title not only contains a comma but is also, in substance, both an exclamation and an objection.

Name: Hey, That's My Fish! (2003)

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games

Versions: This version, compared to the (now out of print, if I'm not mistaken) Mayfair edition, is smaller in terms of box size and the components are a lot more 'cheapskate'.

The Mayfair 'deluxe' edition I speak of was apparently bigger and had larger cartoon-like plastic penguins. Just last year I was ready to order it from an online retailer only to be told that their supplier no longer stocked it - however, that was probably for the better as the deluxe version was 5x the price of the normal version and that would not have been worth it in my opinion.

I suspect they discontinued the deluxe edition in favour of the much more compact and smaller current edition,  which would sell for cheaper and (probably) generate more sales.


Designer: Alvydas Jakeliunas and Günter Cornett

Players: 2 to 4

Age: 8+

Time to play: 15 to 30 minutes. But be warned: relatively speaking, it can be frustrating to set up unless your friends give you a hand. But I suppose it isn't too bad.

Price Range (AUD): $15 to $25 (given how small the game is, anything over say 20 is quite expensive)

Availability:  Can be found online and in hobby stores.

Genres: 

• Puzzle
• Abstract
• Strategy
• Area-control game
• Kids?

Andre Lim's Rating and Brief Summary:

6.4* out of 10. (Alright, could be Decent - See my Rating Scale)

This looks like a kid's game - and it certainly could be. The theme of the game seems innocent enough: players position and move penguins to try and catch as many fish as they can from a sinking island of ice.

However therein lies part of the deception: the underlying strategy behind the game can be quite deep even for experienced adult players of the abstract strategy genre.

For example,  the positioning and timing of your penguins' moves is critical. Blocking also plays an essential role, especially with cornering opponents and limiting their space.

Overall, I think that whilst this makes for an interesting experience to someone who has never played the game, or even this genre, before (particularly because of the novelty of a disappearing game board as more and more ice blocks vanish from the board!), it will largely only appeal in the long-term to abstract strategy enthusiasts.

* September 2014: On second thoughts, whilst it is an interesting abstract game, there is only so much interactivity that is involved here in this game. I think it makes for a good past-time, perhaps even a "deeper filler" but it lacks that x-factor that makes a game decent or good. Therefore, on that basis, reduced from 6.5 to 6.4

The Good:

• Quite strategic and has some amount of depth (can also be a bad thing if you don't like this!)
• Variable gameboard set-up creates new scenarios each time your play, especially because you can toggle the positions of the quantities of fish and also the shape and size of the board.
• Novelty of a shrinking game board!
• Easy rules to explain 
• Quick game
• Pretty cool arctic theme

The Bad:

• For such a small game, it takes forever to set up the game board as you need to put all the hexagons together
• Not necessarily likeable or replayable for those not into abstract strategy games

What makes this game fun? 

If you like the idea of a quick area-control game that focuses on limiting the options of your opponent, whilst maximising your dominance with the right position-plays, then you should give this game a go. The shrinking game board also makes things interesting.

- This concludes the basic overview of the game.

If you are interested in reading about the components & rules to the game, please read on -

Rules & Components (Photos courtesy of my mum, Joanne)

The game comes with 60 cardboard ice floe tiles which you can use to set up the game board in any shape you like (though the game recommends a rectangular shape).

Notice there are 10 tiles with 3 fish (worth 3 points each - they are the most valuable);
20 tiles with two fish (worth 2 points each) and
30 tiles with 1 fish (worth 1 point each)

Here are all the playing pieces that come with the game:

In a 4 player game each player only gets 2 pieces/penguins of their colour;
In a 3 player game, each player gets 3 pieces;
In a 2 player game, each player gets 4 pieces

Now I'm going to demonstrate what happens in a two player game. Putting aside strategy, there is no real difference in gameplay apart from the number of starting pieces and the number of turns one has to wait before it arrives back at your turn.

Set-up

Each player puts their pieces, one at a time, anywhere on the board.

So Green might put its piece here:

Then Yellow places its piece here:

If this continues on this is what the board might look like:

How to move

On each turn, players MUST move one penguin only in one direction.

Penguins must obey the following rules:

• Penguins must move in a straight line in any of the six directions available from their hexagon. They may not change directions halfway through their movement on that turn (of course, they can change directions on the next turn movement) - they have to keep moving in the same direction. 
• Penguins can move as many or as little spaces/hexagons as they want so long as they maintain their movement in the same straight line direction.
• Penguins must not move over gaps 
• Penguins are impeded (ie. stopped in their tracks) by other penguins (for example, in the below picture Green moves the south-west penguin horizontally to the right all the way until it is adjacent to the yellow penguin - this is the furthest it can go)

Scoring: The ice floe tile that was under the penguin BEFORE IT MOVED will now belong to the player that moved that penguin. The number of fish on the ice floe dictates how valuable it is - the more fish, the more points. Hence you only score points after you move a penguin. 

You will want to secure higher-valued fish by moving your penguin onto those tiles - but you won't be able to score them until the next turn (and only if you move that particular penguin)!

Examples

In this example below, the Yellow penguin (that was adjacent to the Green penguin that was just moved by the Green player above) has now moved to the north east corner and hence, the Yellow player can now take the ice floe tile with 3 fish on it. This is worth 3 points.

Yellow may move that same penguin again to obtain the 1 fish tile it ends the turn on, but only on the next turn.

Yellow just moved the yellow penguin - taking the ice floe tile worth 3 points and leaving a massive gap in the bottom-middle of the board.

If we fast forward the game after some turns have been played, it might look like this:

Notice how the north east corner has been created into an isolated island. Yellow will basically be guaranteed points from those ice floe tiles (as no one else is on it) but it will not be able to cross back into the 'mainland' and neither will any other penguin be able to access that isolated island.

Whoever has the most points, after all moves have been exhausted and no one else can move any more of their penguins, wins.

Ricochet Robots

Robot madness - a game for the visually, creatively and, mathematically, gifted.

Hari's favourite game thus far.

This review is dedicated to my friend Hari Raja, who, since high school, has never ceased to impress me with his sheer intelligence. Such intelligence includes, but is not limited to:

• playing "mind chess"; 
• working out creative solutions to difficult Extension 2 HSC Mathematics questions in his head (there was a stage where he refused to use working-out paper);
• his IT prowess;
• being generally intelligent otherwise; and
• utterly thrashing us in games of Ricochet Robots.

Name: Ricochet Robots (1999)

Versions: This is the 2013 edition which includes the additional 5th Silver Robot (the original version only contains the yellow, blue, green and red robots). It can be viewed as a luxury or "Deluxe" edition.

It also includes 8 double-sided board pieces (incorporating old and new boards released over the years, I suppose), 4 of which are needed to make a complete board. Thus, the number of board variations that can be created is fairly large.

The other versions work fine but may not have the silver robot or have as many game boards.

Publisher: Abacusspiele (also Z-Man Games)

Warning: A disappointing feature of this game is that some of the boards do not align well in the 'middle corners' when you punch them out of their cardboard.

Designer: Alex Randolph

Players: 1 to Infinity (literally - as many people as you can surround the table with. However, this game could accommodate an infinite amount of people if an online version of it was created)

Age: 10+

Time to play: 30 mins+ (Possibly longer if this is your first time)

Price Range (AUD): $56.95 to $107 (I got mine for $46 but prices have risen since then)

Availability:  Can be found online and some hobby game shops. It isn't that widespread.

Genres: 

• Puzzle
• Abstract
• Classic of sorts
• "Games like chess, but not quite as intense as chess"

Andre Lim's Rating and Brief Summary:

7.5* out of 10. (Great, arguably one of the best games the Abstract/Puzzle genre has to offer - See my Rating Scale)

If you don't like puzzle or abstract games, run away now.

This game is all about manoeuvring robots to reach a particular goal. Robots do not have brakes and travel in a straight line - they only stop when they hit an object (a wall or another robot).

Players must "bid" the number of moves they think they need to reach the goal. The person who makes the lowest bid AND successfully demonstrates the solution wins a point.

With the right (and willing) group, the suspense and tension as everyone desperately tries to find a solution to the given puzzle makes for a competitive and fun game. What I also like about this game is that it can play as many people as you want (within reason of course - your friends have to be able to fit in the room and be able to properly see the game obviously).

However, this game isn't for everyone - especially those who don't like computing solutions in their head. Put another way, I find it very hard to see the average person enjoying this game. In that sense, I believe this game discriminates against the majority of people because it would seem to only attract a certain breed of people: those who enjoy maths competitions and engaging in challenges that test the outer limits of their brainpower.

[As a sidenote, when our group played this game with Hari he virtually won almost every single round. Hari was consistent with finding solutions to the puzzles regardless of how complex or simple they were; however, for the rest of us mere mortals, we could only demonstrate flashes of momentary brilliance and were thus only able to win every now and then.]

* July, August and September 2014: Revised down from 8.7+. I admire whoever designed this game because of its elegance and clean rules, and the mental challenge it provides to a group of gamers. However, it's not a game I would play every single time nor is it a game that everyone would look forward to. I still consider it to be arguably one of the best abstract games you can play given a certain group of people, but that group of people may be hard to come by. I think it's "accessible" to everyone in the sense that almost everyone can appreciate the beauty of this game (especially playing with experts) - but whether they can actually feel competitive is a completely different thing. But it's certainly not accessible to everyone in the ordinary meaning of the phrase due to its difficulty and the inherent abstract nature of the game.

The Good:

• Easy to explain, simple gameplay 
• If played with the right people, can result in intense games
• Unique in that it's one of the only games I have experienced where there can quite often be a DEAFENING silence (not otherwise required by the game) as everyone scrambles desperately to think of a solution to the puzzle.
• The bidding system makes for a competitive and interesting game
• Can play HEAPS of people (as long as they can fit around the board and see everything properly). I find this to be a unique feature because it is very rare that an abstract strategy game can field so many players (especially considering that many abstract games are usually 2 player)

The Bad:

• People who don't like puzzles won't appreciate this game
• Some of the puzzles can be quite hard and complex
• Requires some degree of perseverance and, in some senses, a mind that is good at visualising solutions
• May be perceived to be an anti-social game (given the long pauses of silence mentioned above)
• Hard to find a group that may enjoy this game and continuously replay it, especially if they aren't that good at it.

What makes this game fun? 

The thrill of working out the solution to a puzzle before your competitors do makes this game quite enjoyable.

- This concludes the basic overview of the game.

If you are interested in reading about the components & rules to the game, please read on -

Rules & Components (Photos courtesy of my mum, Joanne)

Join 4 pieces of the game board together (ensuring there is 1 of every colour in the centre out of green, red, yellow and blue).

You can place the timer in an easily accessible location. I prefer to place it in the middle of the board.

Place the robots in ANY POSITION THAT DOES NOT HAVE A SYMBOL (literally anywhere on the board that doesn't have a coloured symbol).

Hence, this is how the board might look like at the start.

Now, after placing the robots, make sure you place the corresponding coloured starting square under its respective robot (see below).

To make things easy to explain, I have placed the robots like so:

Robots have been RANDOMLY placed on the board.

Note that each robot has a coloured square underneath it that matches their colour - this is to mark their starting location

Next, shuffle all the tokens face down and someone randomly turns one over:

Now, whichever token that has been turned over is NOW THE GOAL.

The COLOUR of the symbol dictates which coloured robot must go onto the goal.

Here, because the symbol is green, it means the Green Robot must go to the Green Shield/Hexagon/Star symbol.

Bidding Moves

EVERYONE must now think of how many moves they will require to get the Green robot to that goal location.

A move is defined as:

- A continuous movement made by any given robot in a straight line , until it hits an object (such as a wall or another robot)

- When counting moves, all moves of robots must be counted - hence all robots can be moved and they can be moved in any order, so long as they move in a continuous straight line (not diagonally) from their starting point to an obstacle. See below for clarification.

Bidding Moves

When a player has found a solution, they yell out their bid (which I will call the "First Bid" or the "Original Bid"). Once they yell out their bid, the timer is turned upside down. Everyone else now has roughly 1 minute to make their bid before the timer runs out.

ANYONE (including the original bidder) can choose to beat the Original Bid during this 1 minute duration and anyone (EXCEPT for the original bidder) may bid higher than the Original Bid.

After the time runs out, if the person who bid the Original Bid fails to complete the puzzle in that number of moves, the player who bid the next lowest number of moves (or the next player who called the same bid the next fastest) gets to complete it. This continues until someone has completed the puzzle.

Example

In the above example, Hari calls "SIX". The timer is turned over. Everyone now has 1 minute to make a bid.

Hari cannot bid above Six during this time, but can choose to go to five if he wants to. He chooses not to because he can't find a solution lower than six moves.

However, during the 1-minute period, Andre calls "FIVE"; David calls "SIX". Jack calls "SEVEN".

Thus, the turn order will go like this:

1) Andre
2) Hari
3) David (because Hari called Six first - hence there is a small advantage to being the First bidder; but it doesn't prevent someone like Andre from calling a lower bid than the First Bid)
4) Jack

Because his bid is the lowest, Andre goes first. However, after demonstrating his solution, he fails to get the green robot to the target destination in 5 moves (he miscalculated).

NOTE/CHALLENGE: The optimum solution IS IN FACT FIVE MOVES, however - can you see it below? (Credit: Hari Raja)

The robots are then placed back onto their starting positions.

"Six Moves"

Because his bid is the next lowest, Hari then demonstrates his moves like so:

Move 1: Move Blue from its starting position (blue square) to the left until it hits the wall (remember only walls and other robots stop robots from moving).

Move 2: Move Yellow up one space until it is stopped by the Blue Robot.

Move 3: Move Green to the right until it hits Yellow

Move 4: Move Green up until it hits the wall

Move 5: Move Red down one square so it hits the wall

Move 6: Move Green onto the Green Star/Shield Symbol

6 moves! Hari gets the Green Star token and scores 1 point

Now, the starting positions/squares are now SHIFTED to reflect the NEW positions the robots have taken like so:

This ensures that, for the next round, if someone fails to demonstrate their solution in the number of moves stated in their bid, we can remember the starting positions of the robots.

Then, a new token is flipped, and the same process repeats itself (Bidding and demonstrating the answer by moving the robots) until all the tokens are gone.

Winning: Whoever scores the most points (tokens) wins