Archive for the 'Tzolk’in' Category

Played: Euphoria After playing Euphoria last week with 5 players, a couple of us wanted to try it with 2 players.  The game is mostly the same with just 2 differences: it takes only 2 actions to build a market (not 4 when played with 5 players), and there are only 2 spaces where stars can be placed in each territory (not 5 as with 5 players). As before, I enjoyed playing Euphoria – the theme works really well with the game mechanics and working out how to use workers and resources is entertaining.  It worked fine with 2 players, although I think it’s more fun with more players as there’s more chance of your workers being bounced back to you, more chance of higher totals to earn commodities, and more development of the allegiance tracks and mines which make a big difference. I think most of the issues could be solved with a few more rules for scaling the game, such as making the tracks shorter.  I’ll post more thoughts about this soon. Euphoria worked well enough with 2 players – I would prefer to play it with more but, with the current rules, I think 3 players would be fine and 4+ would be best. Played with 2.  (To find out more about Euphoria, you can read my main review.)

Played: Tzolk’in It had been a long time since I last played Tzolk’in and it definitely showed as I tried to recall my previous games so I could create a decent flow of resources to then convert into points. Tzolk’in is definitely a tricky game to balance which makes it a good challenge.  There are several ways to score points and I think you definitely need to choose to pursue just one or two of these in order to do well. Tzolk’in works well with 2 players.  Each 2-player game can be a little different as neutral workers block some of the locations on the wheels (determined by randomly drawn cards at the start of the game).  I think the 2-player game may be slightly more forgiving as turn order can be quite brutal with more players because the last player in turn order can find the wheels packed with workers – whilst that means they could place their workers further around a wheel, it requires lots of corn. Played with 2. (For more details on Tzolk’in, you can read my full review.)

Played: Panik Panik is a very quick, light game with some bluffing.  Players place their ghost hunters in front of mansions in order to score points equal to the mansion’s value; however, each player only knows what a few of the mansions are worth (and each player knows about different mansions).  Placing a ghost hunter can expel one already placed there to a different mansion (chosen by the expelled card’s owner) so there’s some jostling during the game. Various ghost hunters have special effects too. With limited information on which to base to your decisions, the fun is from trying to read into what your opponent(s) have done.  However, that also means you need to work out if they’re trying to mislead you, and work out how you can mislead them too. Panik worked quite well with 2 players (taking only 5-10 minutes for a game); however, I think it’s better with more.  The mind games and displacing other ghost hunters mean there’s more to it than it first appears, but there may not be too much more to discover after some replay.  Can work as a gamers’ filler game, but more for a lighter audience. Played with 2 and 4.

James.

Tzolk’in is a worker placement game with a difference.  In this Mayan-themed game, players have around 26 turns in which to impress the gods the most, i.e. earn the most victory points (VPs).

Each turn, players either place any amount of their workers or remove any amount of their workers.  Players spend corn to place their workers on the cog(s) they desire taking the cheapest available slot (and the more workers you place in one turn, the more extra corn you must pay too). The unique part of this game is that workers are placed on small cogs which are located around a large central cog.  Each turn, the large cog is turned and this turns all the small cogs which moves all of the workers on them along one step.  When a player removes a worker, they get the benefit that the worker is next to and the longer a worker remains on a cog, the better the benefit when they are removed. Read the rest of this entry »

A few more forthcoming games that have taken my interest recently.  (I’ve combined all the Spiel games on my radar on my Essen 2012 page too.)

Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar (Czech Games Edition)
Tzolk’in is a game where the turning of cogs are at the very centre of a worker placement game.  Players place workers on small cogs which are located around a central, large cog.  The large cog is turned as the game progresses and this turns the small cogs.  Players spend corn to place their workers (filling the cheapest slot) on the cog where they want to place a worker.  When a player, removes a worker, they get a benefit based on where they player is on the cog – the longer they remain on a cog, the greater the benefit.  One cog has an interesting element to it where a player can take corn even if it is not quite ready but at the risk of angering the gods.  There’s still a lot of information to come about this game but, so far, it sounds really interesting.

1969 (Cranio Creations)
A resource gathering, dice-rolling and card playing game where players are trying to reach the moon in a space race before 1969.  Players gather scientists, cash and intelligence cards to prepare for different missions.  They only get one chance at each mission which scores VPs.  To undertake a mission the player rolls the 5 dice (and moves an appropriate number of spaces along the mission track); however, then all players get to play intelligence cards that move the active player back down the track (and the active player gets to play cards to move themselves forwards) – all cards are played simultaneously.  The biggest mission is the moon mission and completing any other mission means a player can start further along the moon mission track.  Sounds very good (reminds me slightly of Airships by Queen Games – a game I really like – not through any specific game mechanic, but just in trying to prepare to achieve tasks).
Check out the details and rules at Cranio Creation’s web site: bga.me/1969

Blackrock City (Blackrock Editions)
Blackrock Editions published a great game called The Boss a couple of years ago.  This year they are releasing Blackrock City – a wild west game where players bid their outlaws. The winner of a round moves their outlaw chief a number of spaces (equal to their bid minus the lowest bid) and takes gold from the city they land on.  The player who is second in a round gets a silver from the stagecoach. However, there are some interesting twists: the outlaws you bid with have a limited usage; players can not bid the same as the leading bid; each bid moves the sheriff around the cities which foils outlaws; and, cities have different effects after they have been robbed.

It sounds like a short, fast bidding game but with some interesting thinking around the bidding as players try to work out how to win rounds (or at least move the sheriff to annoy others) whilst positioning their outlaw on a beneficial city.  One interesting feature is that, twice per game, each player can place a 15 second sand timer in front of an opponent and that player must take their go in that time.  Also, I like how it plays 2-player with an invisible 3rd player.
Check out the details and rules at Blackrock Edition’s web site: bga.me/brc