Hi everyone and welcome back to On The Table, my top-of-mind catch-you-up-with-what-I’m-playing format. Here’s what’s been on my table in last two months that I haven’t written about in my normal format yet … or in some cases will never do if I don’t find a good story to tell for a particular game. As always, these are all very early impressions and not reviews, so opinions might change.
Greed Incorporated
Let’s kick things off with Greed Incorporated, a Splotter Spellen release from all the way back in 2009. It’s a game one can find surprisingly little info about on the internet … surprising only until one realises this game is rarer then hen’s teeth and if you find a copy, it can cost you upward of 200€ for a game whose box doesn’t even have a printed back side! I didn’t know much about it besides the setting and purchased it as part of my exploration of Splotter’s catalogue … plus someone was kind enough to sell me their copy for a very, very fair price.
Greed Incorporated is Splotter’s answer to the question “what if you capture the craziness off 90’s Wall Street managers in a board game and poke some fun at it?”. As “income”, player’s get a single asset (a producer or something that transforms goods into more valuable ones) per turn and can pick which one from their hand comes on the market. If a company picks up that asset, the previous owner gets a position on the managing board of that company and if they eventually make it to CEO, they’ll control the actions for that company until they leave. So it’s a typical “you control it but don’t own it” scheme as found in many train games. Where the craziness comes in is that each round every company needs to earn more money than they did in the previous one or else there’ll be some firing. And even that part doesn’t go as expected. It’s not a vote, it’s not highest manager had to leave, no, it’s a literal round of finger pointing and whoever had someone pointing to them has to leave. All of them! But that might be a good thing as it’s the only way to make money as a player which in turn one needs to invest in status symbols (=VP).
So far, we’ve only played one partial game because it can take quite long and we already laughed our asses off. The deals you make and the absurdity of it all just gets you. I’ve rarely seen a game where everybody couldn’t help but laugh that quickly. Will definitely write about it long form at some point!
Aelderman
Another only partial play so far, but after months of eyeing it I picked up a copy of this game about the Hanseatic League. In Aelderman, players move their ships along a map of the North and Baltic sea to wheel-and-deal and get the most influence in the Hanseatic League. There is also some city building in there which increases your production and also gives you influence. One of the stand out features is a wheel of resources on each player board that turns and simulates the changing supplies when picking up new resources at the various locations. The other are the city-action/demand cards that are placed at various locations and change over time.
Back at Essen 2023, I bailed out of a demo session during the rules teach as it seemed very convoluted. So far, I would say the rules aren’t actually thaaaaaat complex, but the graphic design is pretty sub-par and so are the rules. It’s been the first time in a while that I had to read a rulebook completely, only to then restart at the beginning to understand what it wanted to tell me in the first place. I’m still a bit lost game-wise as whatever I do feels super inefficient compared to what the automa does. Will definitive have to dive into this one more to find out if it is for me or not. I have a feeling it won’t be, but I love the idea of a game about the Hanseatic League I could enjoy solo. We’ll see if Aelderman will be the one or not.
Heat: Tunnel Vision
A sure bet for me on the other hand is the second expansion for Heat. More Heat is always good in my book. Similar to Concordia, new maps give me a reason to get the game back to the table solo which is something I always enjoy.
So far, I’ve only played the new tracks once each. The Espana map turned out to be a lot of fun, but less for the titular tunnel features that prevent players from discarding but by being a single long lap with a couple of very narrow corners just before the finish line. On first glance, the rain feature of heavy rain seems to have had more of an impact on how I play, but I likely don’t use discarding enough anyway and that’s why I might not notice the tunnels that much here yet. The other new track (the Netherlands) is 3 rounds instead of the usual 2 and was good, too, but for different reasons. I started in 7th place and with 8 racers in the game, for multiple rounds there was a tight wall of 3-by-2 racers in front of me which wouldn’t let me pass. That felt annoying, but the track redeemed itself by a photo finish where I won by a single step with no heat left on the engine block and after having had to play two stress for random card draws.
Playing with 8 racers on the track felt noticeably crowded, not sure yet if I like it or not because there now seem to be a lot more opportunities for slipstreaming or to get the 5th or higher position bonus. But in general, this seems to be another expansion worth having, especially for the variety of maps and championship cards. I’ll leave everything else to the full review.
Wondrous Creatures
I’m still deliberating whether I should write about this game in my normal format or not. Wondrous Creatures is a beautifully produced game about getting resources and actions from the map by placing your crew members, picking up the right cards from a shared market, and then paying for those that hopefully give you a good return in special effects or end game points.
It’s cute as heck with those wooden animals and gorgeously illustrated cards. But for my taste, there is simply not enough gameplay in there. It’s a race for some shared achievements, but the animals don’t combo off each other as much as I would have assumed. On the other hand, with the full four players the blocking on the map was more interesting than I had thought. Overall though, I think I prefer playing Everdell or even Wingspan, and that already says a lot because both weren’t really my cup of tea.
Shackleton Base
This has been a game I’ve been looking forward to try for a while now but it was quite hard to get a copy. You have three rounds with 6 actions each to commercialise the moon and make the most VP in the process. During the start of each round, you’ll draft a combination of resources, credits and workers, and can then use those works for various actions like building new structures, doing projects, or gaining money.
This game is super clever in how the sort of area majority on the map interacts with the various actions. And it adds variability via its companies, of which three out of seven are used in any particular game. Similar to SETI, the companies are a factor that introduces new rules tweaks and major scoring opportunities. I really liked my plays of it, but somehow there isn’t enough there for me to crave going back to it again. It feels like I’ve seen what it can do and that’s it, which is a bit of a shame. Biggest negative for me though is that the 2p mode feels too loose on the map. Where there is fighting for majorities in 3p and up (and even in solo), in 2p it can easily happen that one player optimises one row and the other player another, working pretty much separate from each other.
Definitely one of the more interesting games of the 2024 year! Really glad I had a change to play it multiple times, but it’s not staying in my collection. Would always play it though!
Attika
After writing about it in my recommended games post, we played a session of Attika the other day. I love that it comes with a rulebook that is just 4 pages, how refreshing! And that includes examples and tips. It really is old school in that sense, but I greatly enjoy that you have to simultaneously race for connecting key points on the map and get resources but also not overspend in case the game turns into an efficiency race where everyone tries to be the first to build their buildings.
Every player has the exact same set of buildings which have different costs from 2 to 4 resources which can either be found on the map (unless someone built on top of them already) or be payed with resource cards which cost time to pick up. Players decide each turn if they want to draw two new buildings from their 4 stacks and potentially build it immediately or put it on their player board to build it later. The key here is that certain buildings are related and if you have one on the map already, the others can be built for free. So it’s a tricky choice whether to build early and have the chance of using the resources that are still on the map but potentially become boxed in – or – wait for later where you might be able to build them for free but there is less building space.
Everybody enjoyed it but it wasn’t the “we have to play this again!” type of moment I secretly had hoped for. Part of the charm of this game is to play it repeatedly and get more and more sneaky, so it might simply take more plays. On the other hand, it’s just not as flashy as many modern games. A friend compared it to other old school games like Hansa Teutonic and I would throw Iwari / Web of Power into that hat as well. If you like these style of games, you should definitely check it out.
Sammu-Ramat
After watching Candice Harris’ interview with designer Besime Uyanik, I was curious to try out this co-op meets conflict-game game. In it, players try to govern ancient times’ Assyria by using various advisors that all have their own particular powers. There are four main dimensions: military, health, supplies, religion. Based on which of the 20 included scenarios one is playing, player’s will have to defend their queendom while establishing new outposts, fight unrest, remedy plaques, etc.
Similar to Pandemic, there is some random event as well as a scenario based event towards the top of the turn that wrecks havoc but then there is resource income based on which outposts you hold, buying tech / effects, and many other aspects that feel like the game is putting more wrinkles into the typical co-op formula. On the one hand I’m quite intrigued and it’s hard to win, there are 20 scenarios, etc. On the other hand randomness can suddenly cause you to lose the game and the rules seem to get into the way somewhat. I think I prefer the pureness/simplicity of a Pandemic or rather the more advanced Pandemic: Rising Tide. But that might be because I haven’t gone too deep into Sammu-Ramat yet. I’ve played six or seven times, off which four I had to abort because I noticed I had overlooked some rule or event card and the two times we were certain to win due to good strategising when we drew the wrong random event and without any chance of doing something against it. That might already be a good summary of my experience so far: intriguing but so far without satisfying resolution.
Freedom!
A while ago – while I was doing prep for my interview with Vangelis of Hegemony fame – I learned of his game “Freedom!” which was one of the games that gave him the idea to try a card-based mechanism for Hegemony. Since then, I had been curious to try it out and by chance found a copy for quite a low price. It’s a historic asymmetric 2p strategy game where one side tries to conquer a city and the other tries to hold off the siege for long enough.
Many interesting mechanism in here like the fact that the cards of both parties are mixed and a player can only play cards of their side for their actions but the other’s for their action points. If a player does so, the other player can skip on one of their cards and instead of the effect of that just discarded card. Overall though it was just not for me and we aborted the first play after noticing we had made a rather severe rules error. The full play went more smoothly, but again it’s just not for me though the friend I was playing it with enjoyed it quite a bit.
Tidal Blades 2
I played two more sessions of Tidal Blades 2, this time 2p and 3p. I still enjoy this game quite a lot and so far every mission has brought in some new tweak that was interesting. The actual story though seems to unfold a bit too slow for my taste. I’m now in mission 8 or 9 and now there is finally some actual meaningful development … which might be why I’m still only this far in the campaign at this point. Like I really enjoy the gameplay and the monster design, the minis are also gorgeous. So it is remarkable I’m not actually bringing this to the table more. I really should. Guess it’s another example of why games need to be a little bit addictive nowadays as there is more and more good competition of what else to play. But it’s definitely a keeper for me.
Lacuna
This cozy 2p game came back to the table and it was lovely as always. In it, players place three pawns each to claim territory on this abstract map of flowers. At the end, whoever is closest gets that flower and most majorities in flowers wins. But while placing pawns, you already get to pick up two flowers which helps to screw with majorities a lot.
Lacuna makes me wish I had a partner that would like to play it with me over and over again, kind of like how I feel about Lost Cities the card game: One play is good but forgettable. Playing it over and over again is the real way to enjoy it.
Caper Europe
Another 2p-only game came also back to the table: Caper Europe. I’m horribly bad at drafting games, but this one about thieves performing heists is just too charming to not like. It’s a tuck of war on three different fronts with alternating rounds of hiring thieves (and get some money in the process) and then spend money to buy equipment. Plays quick, come with four different flavours in the four of city cards that add a tweak, great production. Lots to love here.
Calico
I also had picked up a copy of Calico to be able to play it solo a bit more after having played it 3p at a friends house many months ago. I really like this tile layer for its harshness and difficulty, but it didn’t quite hook me enough. There are too many other games I want to play more right now that I’ve resold my copy already.
… and All The Rest: Ins and Outs
Besides what I already wrote about, I’m excited to have gotten copies of Railways of the Lost Atlas, Azul Duel, and House of Fado in. The former was really difficult to find, it has taken me a surprising amount of time to track down a copy. Haven’t had a chance to play either yet though. Probably more something for my backlog as right now I’m the most eager to get back into Greed Incorporated and Heat: Tunnel Vision. I also still need to try out the Sky Team expansion which I picked up all the way back at SPIEL 2024! Weird I haven’t played that one at least solo yet, but there were too many other interesting games coming in. I’ve been on a bit of a buying spree as I found multiple games second hand I had been eyeing for a while now. So right now, I’m back into playing and consolidating …
… which brings me to the outs. I’ve already sold Shackleton Base, Freedom!, Calico, and Wondrous Creatures by now. I’m seriously considering giving up on Leviathan Wilds and selling it as well. It is a very cool game, but it didn’t manage to lure me in enough solo so far and if I’d want to continue in a campaign, it would be Tidal Blades 2 right now. I definitely enjoyed Leviathan Wilds more as a 2-3p experience than solo because of how the supporting of other characters works, I think that might be part of it. But I like the production and the ideas in it, so I might just keep it a while longer. Feels like a good game to have around.
And as a follow-up to my new year’s purge / give-away: I’ve managed to put almost all of those games into new hands. Some went to readers, others to friends, and for a good bunch, I did the following: When there was a sunny winter day, I took a crate full of them and parked myself on a bench at the Alster lake, a popular strolling location here in Hamburg. I put a sign “Games for free” on the crate and it took only a minute or so until two young teachers came to ask about what games would be good for their classes. That kicked off me acting as a guide and giving out recommendations as people came by to take a peek.
This was a super nice experience: of course there are always some people that are a…holes, selfishly just grabbing stuff without a word of thanks, but the vast majority was super kind and grateful. It felt a bit like being Santa, seeing people walking away with a new game and a big smile on their face. I was even able to help someone who had just moved here find a board game cafe and potentially gaming group. I’ll think I’ll do the same thing next year again and make it an annual tradition to slim down the size of my collection. Much better to have someone else really enjoy a game than to have it gathering dust here with me.
So that’s me. As always the question: what has been on your table? Any games you’re particular excited about to get back into right now?