Let’s call it a disconnect. Mechanically, Loco Momo is occasionally interesting. Thematically, Loco Momo makes no sense whatsoever. Animals find a camera in the woods. Knowing immediately what it is for, they devise a contest whereby the best photographer keeps the camera. They then proceed to—stay with me now—stack themselves in a grid where each animal somehow has a different colored background, adhering to specific and abstractly devised patterns, cooperating perfectly for each opponent’s desires to keep it a fair contest?

I guess that’s one possible story.

Occasionally

The central board features four groups of four tiles. The tiles show one of five possible animals with one of three hued backgrounds. Players select any one animal tile, move it according to its rule, and take all the animals in the landing group with a matching color background. After filling the gap with tiles from the bag, play continues.

Meanwhile, the player manages a 5x5 grid, filling tiles from left to right in the row of their choice as they go. Each row has a rule: all the same, all different, paired with the tile above, etc. The goal for each column is matching the background hue.

Because of the move & match mechanic, players acquire tiles at different rates,…

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Castle Combo finds the table. I’m not sure I can pinpoint a singular reason. I love Stéphane Escapa’s art—not unlike the style of the current iteration of Mr. Peabody and Sherman, playfully disproportionate and colorful. I also love the simplicity of the turns—buy a card for a 3x3 grid. Far from frivolous, though, this simplicity is coupled with meaningful decisions that come from the interaction of cards within the grid. The playful nature of it all creates a feel-good, but engaging after-school family play. 

Ease

Players select a card from two rows of three, at first restricted by the location of the Messenger token. One spent key could move the Messenger or refresh the current row if the options aren’t quite right. After paying the coin cost, the card enters the grid and triggers an immediate effect. These effects typically provide coins or keys based on any number of conditions. The Messenger might move as the cards are replenished (indicated by the placed card), and play moves on.

In the event that none of the cards are appealing after exercising options with the keys, cards play face-down into the grid and grant coins and keys as a near-sighted boon. After nine turns each, the grids are full and the…

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Everdell Duo - K. David Ladage

My wife and I love Everdell. It is an amazing little engine-builder that has so few flaws that they are hardly worth bringing up. My colleague, Bob Pazehoski, Jr., has taken a deep-dive into the game and the expansions (I highly recommend reading those if you have not before). When the news of a two-player version first came into my view, I knew I would be getting this (add to that the fact that you could also order the larger-format cards for the original and this was a no-brainer). In order to kick the tires and give this thing a test drive, my wife and I dove in, read the rules, and prepared to play. We decided to start with the cooperative game using the first chapter scenario. Our first few actions were awkward as we got used to the things that were a little different from Everdell, but it did not take long before we knew what we were doing. The tactical and strategic choices that have to be made in a cooperative play are interesting and thoughtful! This game is, as Mr. Pazehoski put it in his review, “...a streamlined masterpiece…” ‘nuff said.

Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ -…

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Drachentreppe is simple. Three to six players select one of their three wizards to activate and roll the single custom die to determine movement up a gorgeously tactile spiral staircase. Results of one, two, or three grant movement up the steps and the choice to keep going. The other three sides end the turn with something special. The “wizard up” side allows the active wizard to jump ahead to share a space with the next highest wizard. The “wizard down” side triggers a clumsy fall to the bottom (unless “caught” by a friendly wizard). The dragon side prompts a visit from—you guessed it—the dragon, which is good and leaves the player with an egg. 

The simple, press-your-luck style is easy to understand and explain to adults and children alike. In practice, however, those simple rules reveal a host of inconsistencies and frustrations. 

The spiral staircase has a crowding rule that will make adults reach for a bottle of wine as the children giggle. If a third wizard lands on any one stair, the one who has been there the longest falls, uncontrollably and uninterrupted, to the bottom. That’s right, there is little use building a stable home base here, because eventually—and by eventually, I mean often—the foundation will be eviscerated by everyone’s favorite tablemate: blind misfortune! Even the Parcheesi…

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Looking at the box, I fully expected Gnome Hollow to be cute—the sort of cute that leads a publisher to take the Gen Con balloon sculpture by the horns and make it all gnome-y. I can’t say I expected it to be as substantial a game, though. As it turns out, there’s a lot going on in there. Sometimes you even lift back the pointy hat to find competitive little thieves behind the rosy cheeks and beards.

Gnomenclature

The path to describing the gameplay of Gnome Hollow is not entirely linear. Every turn is a flow chart complete with if/then statements and cascading consequences (not unlike Mr. Lynch’s flowing review of Riftforce). A relatively simple, cartoony, flowchart by comparison, but a chart nonetheless.

Players add two (or more) hex tiles to the central garden to begin each turn. Tiles are predominantly green with some combination of glittery path and colorful mushroom(s). The great hope is to enclose a glittery path ring to unleash a series of fortunate events. The first is to (potentially) collect every mushroom depicted on the path. The second is to (likely) move a ring marker on the player board from its starting location to a bonus spot—determined by the number of tiles incorporated in the ring—and to receive any subsequent cascading bonuses.

Gnome Hollow Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

I was born after the decline of the milkman. I live in a small town where the idea could almost live again. Folks around these parts walk to pick up milk from their organic suppliers, but no one dons the cap and uniform for house calls. I have fond childhood memories of food deliveries, helping the mailman with his daily rounds, and, obviously, the daily passing of the ice cream truck. There’s some nostalgic romance in those aspects of bygone days, I guess.

The whole home delivery scene is appealing as a setting for a game. Milkman, from Dice Hate Me Games, puts players in charge of the whole operation—from farm to front door.

Raw

Milkman is a dice-chucker. Players each roll their two black dice on every turn. With two possible rerolls, they then make the best of their results and take action. The active player also receives a single roll of four white dice, granting a few extra options and first dibs in selecting customers for the turn.

On the dice, cows produce raw milk that is stored in tanks with limited capacity. Bottles convert an entire tank into whole, skim, or chocolate, stored in refrigeration with its own limits. Cash gives wooden cash tokens. Meeple select…

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What fascinated me as I read the story of the game’s design is a number. Actually, it’s an open-ended range of a number: two hundred plus. That’s how many times Chénier La Salle played iterations of this city-building game with his family. We have a lot of games we love, but we don’t own a single one that we’ve played two hundred times. The closest bet might just be Take the Gold, a silly little five-minute game from CardLords that my youngest daughter has played since she was three. Non-stop. Seriously, she has worn out more than one deck. 

Two hundred…plus. I love it. I wanted to know more, so I reached out to Chénier to see if he’d be interested in a conversation. To date, New York 1901 is his only design credit. I think I could live with that if…

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Pencil erasers. You know the sort, the molded 3D variety that were never intended to erase. They were more like elementary school status symbols, beacons of personality that wagged in the air as you filled in bubbles with your Ticonderoga No. 2. Truth be told, they were a bit of a nuisance for how they threw your pencil out of balance, but they looked so cool.

Finally, someone has made a game with erasers as player markers—minus the hole necessary to properly top a pencil. It was the artwork that first drew me in as I listed Kyoto No Neko among my most anticipated list for GenCon 2024. Even as I tore into the shrink to check out the illustrations, though, I had to pause to admire the kitties made of the stuff of erasers. Endearing, they are.

In fact, everything about Kyoto No Neko has a charming look. The square board is flanked on all sides by stair-stepped player-specific territories to create a unique overall shape. The finished grid is an overhead map of the city: rooftops, terraces, and roadways for kitty travel. Cute little kitty paw tokens are scattered about, face-down and waiting to be discovered.

Feline It Out

The whole of the game is a series of skill checks. Every token requires one of several…

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Over the years with Everdell, I’ve gone through phases. I’ve run through the expansions, ranking every Everdell experience along the way. I’ve played with my kids regardless of age, introducing even the youngest through My Lil’ Everdell. I’ve played with friends—I’ve even played Everdell digitally. I’ve explored strategies for my favorite tabletop world and I’ve followed that world to new edges of the map with the release of Farshore.

Most recently, I’ve settled into two-player outings with my elder daughter. She has an enthusiasm for Everdell that rivals mine and I cherish the chance to play together. I was immediately intrigued, then, when I found the announcement for Everdell Duo. I think it’s safe to say most players most enjoy Everdell as a duel. Sprawling table presence and ballooning downtime tend to keep the smaller, tighter experience appealing. The upcoming campaign is obviously hoping to scratch a developed itch and maybe rake in the folks on the fringes of the Meadow.

With the rise of two-player versions, it seems everyone is out to streamline and redefine stellar gaming experiences. What changes have James and Clarissa Wilson brought to this newest iteration of my favorite game? Are they refreshing? Worthwhile? I surprised myself a little with my answers.

Remarkably familiar

Everdell Duo will strike all…

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Stalk Exchange - Andy Matthews

While I was at GAMA Expo 2024, I had the opportunity to preview and even play many games that will be released this year. But my absolute favorite of the show was Stalk Exchange, from TheOP. It was the only game that I came back to after walking the floor, because I wanted to see more of it. TheOP was kind enough to send me a copy for review, so I’m giving you a sneak peek at this one because it’s worth looking into.

Stalk Exchange is a market manipulation game, loosely set in the Dutch tulip bubble of the early 1600s. In this game players attempt to earn the most money by forecasting the value of 5 different types of flowers, then planting and harvesting those flowers in order to manipulate the value of those same flowers. Mechanically speaking it’s a very simple game: you plant flowers from the market, or you swap your private collection with what’s in the market. Flowers are planted bulb side up, and then bloom once the bulb has open spaces around it. Flowers are harvested once they’re completely surrounded by other flowers, bulbs, or the sides of the board. As flowers are harvested they’re placed onto the main…

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Sola Fide: the Reformation - K. David Ladage

Sola Fide (Latin for ‘faith alone’) is an interesting game about The Protestant Reformation. One player takes on the role of the Pope and the other of Martin Luther. Each side has a deck of unique cards with various abilities tailored for that side. Of the cards available, the players will use a drafting mechanism to select 15 cards that will be their deck for the game. Starting with a small hand of three cards, on a player’s turn they will either play a card from their hand and do whatever action is printed there, or they will pray (i.e., draw a card from their deck into their hand).

The game has 10 regions (of which three are available at the start of the game). Each region has two sides: the nobility and the peasants. The balance of power between these two factions in each region is measured on a sliding scale of four positions (one or two in favor of the nobility; one or two in favor of the peasants). On each side there is also a set of allegiances. These can be four or five spaces with a mixture of red (allied with Martin Luther), black (allied with the…

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“Yes, but which sylLAble receives the emPHAsis?” I asked. “Is it P’RAM-i-dice, like Paradise with an extra half-beat? PY-ram-i-dice, which begs pronouncing the first syllable as if I were Archimedes? Pyramid-ICE, as if it were a beverage? Or maybe emphasizing every syllable—PIE-RAM-EYE-DICE!”

I guess it’s a good thing when a game offers that sort of conversation before the teach, a conversation that inevitably ends with allowing the eventual winner to select the pronunciation that will live in perpetuity.

Pyramidice is a dice rolling pyramid builder from Ares Games and the mind of Luigi Ferrini, who had a semi-hit a decade back with Stronghold’s The Golden Ages. Rather than building a civilization, players are marking their civilization with pyramids on behalf of the Pharaoh while seeking the favor of the gods—and the occasional sacred cat.

Building blocks

Pyramidice is, in many ways, a procedural affair—add a stone die to the quarry, roll a number of dice determined by available workers, then choose from a list of possibilities until the dice are spent. You might reroll, attain a god card, send a stone die to a pyramid, carry out a god action, discard a die to refresh a card, or discard two dice for a point. As needed, you’ll discard cats to modify dice.

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Planta Nubo - David McMillan

There were only a handful of titles from Essen last year that I was really excited about, and Planta Nubo was up there towards the top of the list. I mean, a co-design between Michael Keller and  Andreas “ode.” Odendahl (the co-designers of La Granja and El Burro) and the G.O.A.T. himself, Uwe Rosenberg (Agricola, Caverna, Bohnanza): what is there NOT to be excited about? Unfortunately, due to the logistics (and shipping!) involved, I wasn’t able to obtain a copy from Essen Spiel at the time. But, thanks to our friends at Devir Americas, I finally have a copy in hand and was able to play it for the first time recently.

Let me tell you, folks, it was worth the wait.

There’s a lot of things going on and, even after having read the rules and having watched several videos, my wife and I still found ourselves going back to the rule book during our first few turns to figure out the meanings of some of the iconography. By the third round, though, we had a good feel for the game and were able to progress more confidently to the finish line. We had a great deal of fun and I am excited…

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