Tag Archives: strategy

PN Product Review: Coaster Games

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[Note: I received a free copy of this game in exchange for a fair, unbiased review. Due diligence, full disclosure, and all that.]

Games come in all shapes and sizes these days. Some are so elaborate that they practically come with their own wheeled suitcases to transport everything, while others happily fit in an Altoid tin.

But even with today’s market for micro-games, it’s rare that six different activities can all fit in your pocket at once.

Still, the game designers at The Dark Imp have managed to do precisely that with the subject of today’s review. Please join us as we explore Coaster Games, a six-pack of games each designed to fit on a drink coaster.

Coaster Games is designed to be played with nothing more than the coasters themselves, something to write with, and something to write on. Some games are for two players, while others are for 2 or more. And each one offers a totally different sort of gameplay.

Alien Farm is a hand-drawn version of Sushi Go, where you place different aliens in different spots on your farm, hoping to maximize your score at the end of the game.

Letter Market is a curious mix of Boggle and Scrabble. You have 25 points to spend on letters, and the letters have different values. You’re trying to write down as many valid words as possible, using the letters you’ve purchased.

Ice Cream Truck is a wagering game where you try to make the most successful ice cream truck business on a budget. Each round, you wager some of your money on either ice cream or investments and see how the weather affects your business.

Free the Frog is like a mixing pot of Hangman, Charades, and 20 Questions. One player is the frog, and chooses a word to break the spell. All the other players are trying to guess that word using the questions available on the coaster.

Treasure Split is essentially the Prisoner’s Dilemma made into a game. You and your fellow player walk along a path, picking up treasure. But you have to secretly decide whether you’re splitting the loot or stealing it. Each has its benefits, but the path is different depending on the choices both players have made.

Sleuth Box is like Battleship, but there’s only one spot your opponent is hiding. But you’re hiding somewhere too, and each of you has to sleuth out the other’s location.

Each game has its pluses and minuses, but even if one isn’t your cup of tea, you’re bound to enjoy some of the other offerings. Free the Frog was an instant hit, and we were able to vary the game’s difficulty through our choices of vocabulary.

Similarly, Sleuth Box inspired lots of replays. We would quickly start to develop techniques to find our foes, which our opponents started to counter the more we played. Instead of replays detracting from the fun, it allowed for some very cool, intense showdowns of cleverness and guile across a half-dozen sessions in a row.

Each game only lasts a matter of minutes (no more than 10 or 12 for the most involved ones), so new players are invited to sample all sorts of play styles, whereas people more familiar with each game monopolize their favorites for a few rounds before passing them along and picking up another one. This collection is a great way to keep a group occupied without making anyone wait too long for their turn, which can be a serious concern when you’re gaming with a big group or at a family gathering.

All in all, I was pretty impressed with Coaster Games. The gameplay for each was easy to pick up with a single playthrough, and none of the games invited burnout even after multiple quick replays. If you need a great stocking stuffer or travel game, look no further.

[Coaster Games is available from The Dark Imp for just £6.99.]

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PN Product Review: Countaloupe

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countaloupe

[Note: I received a free copy of this game in exchange for a fair, unbiased review. Due diligence, full disclosure, and all that.]

Everyone knows the exquisite tension that comes with rolling the dice in any game.

You might be counting the places until you land your token on the last property in a much-desired set in Monopoly, the dice already bouncing across the board. You might be sitting with four matching dice on the table, watching the fifth one tumble and wobble, hoping for that elusive Yahtzee. You might be on the brink of destruction in Dungeons & Dragons and only a miraculous toss of your twenty-sided die stands between you and oblivion.

You’re completely beholden to fate, or chance, or maybe both. It’s a central part of gaming.

But what if you had a little more say in the matter? What if your cleverness AND your math skills meant you could turn a dice roll to your favor?

That’s one of the things that sets today’s game apart from the rest. So let’s roll them bones and test our skills against the latest offering from the fruit-fueled Bananagrams family of games.

Today, we’re reviewing Countaloupe.

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In Countaloupe, two to four players each have a deck of slice cards, numbered from one to sixteen. Your goal is to roll the dice and discard slice cards from your deck.

How do you do that? By looking at the results of your die roll and using a little addition.

To discard a card, you need one or more of the dice to form the value of a given card. For instance, to discard the 1 slice card, you need a 1 on one of your dice.

To discard the 2 slice card, you need either a 2 on a die OR a 1 on one die and a 1 on another. As the numbers of the slice cards go higher, you can use either a single die result (up to six, of course) or a combination of dice to add up to the value of your slice card.

And if you’re sharp, you can eliminate more than one slice card in a turn.

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Look at this roll. There’s a natural 3, so you can ditch the 3 slice card. But you also have a 1 and a 3, meaning you can ditch the 4 slice card. You have a natural 5, so the 5 slice card goes. Finally, you have a 1 and a 5, so the 6 slice card can be discarded. (The 7 slice card stays, because there’s no way to form a seven with the dice as rolled.)

That’s four cards in one roll!

And as the slice card values increase, so do the number of dice you can roll.

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At first glance, it looks like this player is out of luck. Those dice don’t add up to 7.

But if you notice, there’s a “X4” on the card. That means you roll four dice for this card, not just three! If that fourth die is a 1, a 3, or a 6, then that 7 slice card can be discarded. (Again, math is a huge help here in spotting different possible ways to make 7.)

That continues for slice cards 12 through 16, which give you five dice to play with.

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This is a lucky roll at such a high number. Not only can you make 13 to discard the 13 slice card — 1+3+4+5 — but you can make 14 AND 15 with the available dice, leaving only one card left in your deck before victory.

But your math skills aren’t the only way to affect the game. You’ve probably noticed that white die in each of the previous rolls. What is that for?

That’s the Chance Die, and it mixes up the circumstances of the table randomly.

  • If you roll SWEET, you can trade your deck for another player’s deck. This means you can just pick a deck where the player is ahead of you OR steal a deck where the dice in front of you will eliminate more cards.
  • If you roll SOUR, you must trade your deck with whichever player has the lowest number on top of their deck (meaning they have the most cards remaining to discard)
  • If you roll NOPE, you gain control of the Nope! Chip, which lets you either protect your deck of cards from a SWEET theft or play it on another player’s deck, preventing them from discarding any cards until they control the Nope! Chip in a future turn

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Essentially, the Chance Die adds a little more spice to the game and offers another tool — the Nope! Chip — to allow for more strategic play.

There’s also the game mechanic called Taking a Risk, where you reroll the dice and try to discard more cards, but that comes with the penalty of regaining discarded cards if you fail.

So as you can see, a game that would otherwise suffer from a lot of the pitfalls of other dice games — where a series of bad rolls early can leave you just sitting at the table as others race ahead — still gives you other options, like Taking a Risk, playing the Nope! Chip, or hoping for a SWEET roll, putting the power back in your hands.

It’s also strange to find yourself rooting for low rolls after playing so many other games where high dice rolls were desirable. I couldn’t believe the disappointment I felt on that first roll after tossing 5-6-6. I would love a roll like that in D&D!

Factor in relatively brisk sessions (usually around the 10 minute mark) and an immensely charming mascot that is begging for a spinoff game all its own, and you’ve got a recipe for a really fun game of chance and strategy that all ages can enjoy. It actually makes addition exciting. How is that even possible?

(Your replay value may vary, of course, but when we started adding a wagering mechanic, betting on how many cards you could discard on a given roll, it added a nice injection of freshness after a ton of replays.)

[Countaloupe is available from Bananagrams and participating retailers at just $9.99!]

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Solution to the Peppermint Patty Brain Teaser!

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[Image courtesy of SharpBrains.com.]

A week ago, we shared a brain teaser sent in by a PuzzleNationer named Bethany, who challenged us to solve the following stumper.

Today, we’re going to share not only the solution, but how we got there! Please enjoy this brief solve and tutorial, inspired by one of your fellow PuzzleNationers!

The Peppermint Patty Riddle

You’re facing your friend, Caryn, in a “candy-off,” which works as follows: There’s a pile of one hundred caramels and one peppermint patty. You and Caryn will go back and forth taking at least one and no more than five caramels from the candy pile in each turn. The person who removes the last caramel will also get the peppermint patty. And you love peppermint patties.

Suppose Caryn lets you decide who goes first. Who should you choose in order to make sure you win the peppermint patty?

When I posted this brain teaser, I said that “the question basically demands that you not only achieve victory, but figure out how to do so with your very first move.”

That was meant to be a hint. Because the best way to unravel this riddle is to start at the end.

Look at the last turn. If there are five or fewer caramels left on the board and it’s Caryn’s turn, she wins. For you to guarantee a win, she needs to see six caramels on her last turn. (Seven or more allows her to take just enough to leave YOU with six, which means she wins on her next turn.)

And that six is the magic number. Her previous turn, you need to leave her with 12 caramels. The turn before that, 18 caramels. The turn before that, 24. And so on and so on.

Why? Simple.

caramel

Let’s look at the 12 caramel turn. If she takes any number of caramels (anywhere from 1 to 5), she’ll leave you with between 11 and 7 caramels. You can use your turn to remove whatever number of caramels are necessary (anywhere from 5 to 1) to leave her with six.

The entire game can be broken into six-caramel increments.

And the closest multiple of 6 to 100 (your starting point) is 96 caramels.

Which means you can’t let Caryn go first. You need to remove 4 caramels on your first turn, and then use every subsequent turn to ensure Caryn faces a multiple of six, which eventually gives you the victory and the peppermint patty.

So the answer to the riddle is you should go first.

Diabolical!

Did you solve the brain teaser, fellow PuzzleNationer? Or do you have a brain teaser you’d like us to unravel with you? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

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Another Brain Teaser Submitted by Readers For Your Puzzly Pleasure!

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[Image courtesy of SharpBrains.com.]

When’s the last time you had your brain properly tied in knots by a riddle?

That’s a pretty common occurrence around here, honestly. In our puzzly explorations of the world, we stumble across all manner of brain teasers, riddles, logic puzzles, math problems, mind ticklers, deduction games, and wordplay-fueled bits of linguistic legerdemain.

Sometimes, we even receive them directly from our fellow PuzzleNationers!

And on those occasions, we happily share them with you, dear reader, so that you can also enjoy the challenge of unraveling whatever fiendish puzzly conundrum has been placed before us.

This time around, a solver named Bethany submitted this riddle she found online. It’s known as the Peppermint Patty Riddle.

Let’s see how we do.

The Peppermint Patty Riddle

You’re facing your friend, Caryn, in a “candy-off,” which works as follows: There’s a pile of one hundred caramels and one peppermint patty. You and Caryn will go back and forth taking at least one and no more than five caramels from the candy pile in each turn. The person who removes the last caramel will also get the peppermint patty. And you love peppermint patties.

Suppose Caryn lets you decide who goes first. Who should you choose in order to make sure you win the peppermint patty?

Now that’s interesting, because it doesn’t ask us specifically HOW to achieve victory. But the question basically demands that you not only achieve victory, but figure out how to do so with your very first move.

Tricky indeed.

Will you be accepting this puzzly challenge from a fellow PuzzleNationer? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!

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PuzzleNation Product Review: Homeworlds

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[Note: I received a free copy of this game in exchange for a fair, unbiased review. Due diligence, full disclosure, and all that.]

One of the coolest moments in a board game player’s life comes when you’re immersed in a game, and someone walks by, stops, and simply must ask, “What is that?” Because you’re showing them something new.

Homeworlds got that reaction the very first time I played it at the office. A coworker walked by, saw what is essentially an array of colorful triangles on the table, and asked the question. They didn’t know what it was, but they were intrigued.

Honest praise doesn’t come much higher than that, does it?

Homeworlds is a difficult game to review, because there’s so much to cover. The rules are expansive and complex, even though the elements are simple. It’s three sets of Looney Pyramids each in four different colors: red, blue, green, and yellow. And yet, it might be the most involved, complicated game we’ve ever reviewed on PN Blog.

And to be fair, we’re going to spend way less time than usual covering the rules. There’s simply too much to explore, and to be frank, throwing a novella of rules at you doesn’t tell you about the game and why it’s worth your time.

So let’s try it a little differently today.

Homeworlds is chess plus Risk set in space. But unlike those games — or basically any strategy games with territory control and resource management elements — which require lots of different pieces and a host of tabletop real estate to enjoy, Homeworlds can easily be toted around and played on any flat surface. And it still manages to encapsulate all the complexity, variety, and tactical planning of those games.

You and your opponent are both playing spacefaring races that are trying to wipe the other player’s influence from the universe. You can do so by eliminating their fleets (through capture or destruction), destroying their Homeworld, or forcing them to leave their Homeworld defenseless.

There are specific rules governing how you build your fleet, how you travel to different star systems, and what you can do when you arrive there. These are all dictated by the colors of the ships in your fleet, which allow you to build new ships, travel, attack, or transform ships (swapping them out for ones with different abilities).

Any pieces not currently in use by the players sit in a communal bank, waiting to be pulled and deployed as either new star systems or new ships. (I love this aspect of the game. It’s like every time you travel to a new star system, you pull that place out of the ether and place it onto the table in front of you. You essentially make each game space you need to use.)

The communal bank adds a third player of sorts to the table, since you must always keep an eye on the bank to not only manage your resources but prevent your opponent from capitalizing on your moves. For instance, you must pull the smallest sized pyramid available for a given color. But size of the pieces does matter. So if you impulsively pull the last small green pyramid, you’ve left the bank open for your opponent to grab a medium or a large pyramid, leaving them with a more powerful ship than you.

Trust me, it’s a lot to take in at once, like the first time you play chess and you’re overwhelmed trying to remember how the little horse-shaped ones move while all the other pieces are doing their own thing. Unless you watch a detailed how-to video, your first few games of Homeworlds are going to be a wash. Because, like chess or Risk, there are important steps you need to take first before you can really get into the game.

But those early learning sessions are still great fun. You slowly drink in all the rules. You figure out choosing your Homeworld can affect the entire scope of the game (by determining how many or how few spaces away your opponent’s homeworld is). You puzzle out devious little tricks like sacrificing one ship in order to take multiple actions, sometimes even undoing that sacrifice in the same term, like you’ve built a perpetual motion machine or found a loophole in the rules.

As the game progresses, what was an overwhelming jumble of complexity becomes an elegantly balanced logic tree of possible options unfolding in front of you.

Catastrophes you might have accidentally caused in earlier games — or studiously avoided in later ones — become tactical moves you intentionally inflict in order to tilt the battle in your favor. Any reader who has sacrificed a piece in chess in order to capture a more important piece from their opponent knows exactly what we mean here.

That fluidity of play, the endless potential to affect the game, makes Homeworlds as exciting and dynamic as possible. In Risk, for example, one country is always the same number of moves from another. But in Homeworlds, an aggressive play can make the trip from your Homeworld to your opponent’s Homeworld perilously quick.

This game will undoubtedly be daunting at first. The instructional booklet alone is two or three times bigger than that of any other Looney Labs game I can think of. But when you get past that, you’ll find a game that is endlessly rich, challenging, and satisfying, one where every new game feels like a positive step forward.

You get to look out at that same eye-catchingly baffling array of colors and shapes that made someone stop and ask you “what is that?” and in an instant, you see moves, countermoves, chances to be taken, and gambits to be foiled.

And that’s pretty cool.

I don’t think there’s another game in the expansive Looney Pyramids library that gets so much out every aspect of the pyramids. The color, size, and arrangement of each is absolutely essential to the gameplay, and choosing the wrong pyramid at the wrong moment could be the difference between victory and defeat.

Homeworlds perfectly captures everything great about strategy games, tosses aside extraneous game boards, tokens, and pieces, and delivers a killer play experience at a fraction of the price.

[Homeworlds is available from Looney Labs and select online vendors for $20, and is part of PuzzleNation’s 2020 Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide, so be sure to check out this game and other offerings from Looney Labs in this year’s edition of the Gift Guide!]

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PuzzleNation Product Reviews: Martian Chess

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martianchess0

[Note: I received a free copy of this game in exchange for a fair, unbiased review. Due diligence, full disclosure, and all that.]

There are an unbelievable number of chess variants out there.

You can play with narrower boards and fewer pieces (TrimChess), or wider boards and additional pieces (Capablanca Chess). You can play All Queens chess, 3-person chess, or that multi-level chess game from Star Trek. In previous posts, we’ve discussed variations like ChessPlus (with pieces that merge and can move like two different chess pieces) and Tour de Force chess (where pieces can be recovered after being captured, or beheaded by a guillotine).

After years of writing this blog, I felt fairly confident that I’d seen pretty much everything that could be done with chess.

And then Looney Labs introduced me to Martian Chess, and showed me that the iconic piece-capturing strategy game has plenty of gas still in the tank, especially where creative game designers are concerned.

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Martian Chess only employs three types of game pieces — a large pyramid, a medium pyramid, and a small pyramid, based on Andrew Looney’s infinitely adaptable Looney Pyramids — and each piece moves a certain way.

Small pyramids (or pawns) move diagonally like a bishop, though only one space at a time. Medium pyramids (or drones) move vertically or horizontally like a rook, though only one or two spaces at a time. Large pyramids (or queens), just like queens in Earth chess, can move in any direction any number of spaces.

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You maneuver your pieces in order to capture whichever of your opponent’s pieces you can, and that goes for any piece. Martian Chess does away with the concept of checkmate, since there is no king to capture here. No, Martian Chess is all about scoring points (1, 2, or 3, based on which piece you capture) and outmaneuvering your opponent. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Oh, there’s one more important wrinkle here: you can only control pieces in your zone.

Each player in Martian Chess has a 4×4 game board in front of them. You can move pieces from your game board to your opponent’s board, but as soon as you do, that piece becomes theirs to control.

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[Two possible moves. On the left, I move a drone one space and retain control. On the right, I move a drone two spaces into my opponent’s zone, and it becomes hers to control.]

This absolutely changes the way you approach the game. In Earth chess, you’re encouraged to push forward and press your advantage. In Martian Chess, though, you have to be far more strategic, because as soon as your piece crosses the canal into the other player’s zone, they can use it however they like.

I confess, my brain melted during my first few games of Martian Chess, because I had to deprogram myself from years of previous chess playing. It completely changes how you look at attack and defense. Sure, if you’re going to cross the canal and lose control of a piece, you probably want to do so while capturing one of theirs for points. But sometimes, that sacrifice can serve to block one of their upcoming attacks, or provide a screen for one of your own.

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[We’ve each captured one pyramid, but mine is valued 1
and hers is valued 2, so she’s ahead on points.]

The game ends when one player has no more pieces in their zone. This adds another fresh element to the game, because you’re managing both your resources in terms of game pieces in your zone and the number of points you’ve scored.

If you’re ahead in points, but low in game pieces, it might be strategically worth it to push those remaining few pieces over the canal and empty your board, cashing in your lead early.

Other times, you’ll want to play it slower, looking for opportunities to zoom ahead in points and then take advantage.

One of the things I like about Martian Chess is that it feels like you’ve immediately been pushed into the tense second-half of a chess game. In Earth chess, the early rounds can be a little drab as players start pushing pieces into position for bigger moves down the line, but all the action comes later. In Martian Chess, you’re immediately in the deep end. I really dig that.

Easy to learn but hard to master, Martian Chess is a sharp reimagination of a game we all know, but one that feels intriguingly unfamiliar each time you break out the box and give it another go. It really does feel like chess from another world.

[Martian Chess is available now from Looney Labs as part of their Pyramid Quartet, and will be part of this year’s Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide, launching next Tuesday, so keep your eyes peeled for all sorts of puzzle and game fun!]

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