Hey everyone, hope you had some lovely holidays! It’s been a while since I did an “On The Table”, so let’s clear my backlog of what I’ve played before heading into the new year.
For those that don’t know me: “On the Table” is my short, quick impressions format for games where it’s either way too early to write a full review or I decided they are not for me and there will never be one. So take these with a grain of salt, they are very much from the top of the hat. That said, have fun, here we go!
Tidal Blades 2
My pledge recently came in and so far I’m positively surprised. Tidal Blades 2 is the dungeon crawling successor of the original Tidal Blades, a dice chucker that some people really liked but completely fell flat for me. It looked gorgeous due to the wonderful art by Mr. Cuddington (the same artist duo that also did Brass Birmingham and Brass Lancashire) as well as a big box production with lots of plastic but featured a rather simple combat and worker placement mechanism.
Both games luckily don’t have much in common though except for a shared universe they play in, some iconography and like one side-mechanism. Tidal Blade 2’s combat system is now implemented as a 3×3 grid in which the player can place a card from their hand and then activate all cards in that row or column, triggering mostly move or attack actions. The play area is now a map of hex fields constructed out of up to three ring bound books for quick setup. There are also sold-separately minis to replace the cardboard standees and further increase the table presence.
I’m only 5 missions in, but I’m having a blast so far. Combat is quick, the bosses and minions have nice behaviour patterns (e.g. jumping back out of reach after attacking you), and there is enough collecting of symbols and spending them at the right time that there is a good amount of agency despite the dice rolling. The true test for a game like this will of course be the level design and if Tidal Blades 2 can maintain interest beyond the first few missions. The story itself is unfortunately (but quite expected) forgettable. So far though, I’m really happy I backed this and went for the blinged-out, pre-shaded mini pledge.
Civolution
I was also able to get my hands on a copy of Civolution, Stefan Feld’s big new release this year. The combine-two-dice-to-choose-action mechanism for some reason gave me vague Castles of Burgundy vibes, but it is very much its own beast. Each action can be upgraded two times, there are multiple categories of cards to advance your civilization, a map to explore and get resources from, income, attributes, goals, end of era events, weather, intermediate scoring, …
It truly is a decisive game that you’ll likely either love or hate. It has all elements of a civ game but comes together as something that feels more like an abstract efficiency Euro with a point-salady endgame scoring rather than something where you build your very own civilisation. It’s also a table sprawl, AP inducing and on the longer side, has multiple sources of randomness, comes with 40+ pages of rules (the main reason the previous owner sold it to me after only a few plays), and except for the map interaction feels rather multiplayer-solitaire. It’s a game of having big plans but not being able to do half of them. But, and that’s a big but, it is well designed, does some clever things, and with a little practice your scoring will increase immensely. So far, I would say there is not enough payoff (=fun) for all the work I have to put into this. I’m thinking too much about action efficiency and points than what I’m actually doing. But it might very well be your next favourite game.
Through Ice and Snow
This was sadly a disappointment for me. I really liked the theme of finding our way through a harsh winter landscape and the production also looked nice, but mechanically speaking it just didn’t work for me. The big caveat here is that I only played it solo, but I don’t think my opinion would change much if I would have played it multiplayer.
Each player has a very limited amount of workers they can use to trigger actions on a shared action board while certain tracks (food, fuel, motivation, …) go down each round. You can hunt animals, research specifies, increase your firepower, etc and on a bigger scope you need the expedition to reach its destination while coming out ahead of the other players. It most reminded me of Robinson Crusoe which I had only played once many years ago and a little bit of Halls of Hegra for some reason. The first solo scenario seemed broken, with it becoming impossible to complete if the navigation card you draw at random during setup is the wrong one. I gave Through Ice and Snow a couple of tries solo but then gave up and resold it.
Creature Caravan
I continue enjoying Creature Caravan, the latest game by Ryan Laukat and Red Raven Games. I’ll definitely do a full write-up at some later point but so far the key decider seems to be whether a player enjoys multiplayer-solitaire or not, which usually isn’t my cup of tea. The core dice mechanism and tons of different creature cards that potentially can strengthen each other works way better than one might initially think, making the tableau building a lot of fun. But it’s almost like people play independent games and at the end briefly tell each other the story of what they did and if it worked out or not. I wished there would be a tad more interaction that makes you care what other players are doing, either on the map or some form of contention in what new creatures are available to be integrated in your caravan. This feels like something that could easily be addressed with an official variant but at the same time as an intentional design decision, so I’m not hopeful there will be one coming. As a solo game though, big thumbs up. I created my own solo variant to have more of a goal to beat and enjoy playing that quite a lot.
Tea Garden
I had picked up Tea Garden online after missing out on it at SPIEL Essen 2024 but ultimately sold it rather quickly again. For me, it’s the weakest of Tomáš Holek three releases (the other two being Galileo Galilei and SETI) this year which still makes it way better than many other Euros this year. 😂 At it’s core, it is a deck building game where you can combine multiple cards to have fewer, more powerful actions or spread them out to have more, less powerful actions. You’ll be claiming locations on the map that allow you to harvest better and better quality tea leaves that you can then sell for better cards or to the external market. Unused green leaves get worse over time while fermented get better.
There is nothing wrong with Tea Garden. It has a nice theme, the core mechanism is something I haven’t seen in this form before, there is a good ramp up and what you can achieve comparing your first and last turn, etc. It just lacks something that makes me bring it back to the table. Would I play it if someone else suggests it? Sure. Do I miss it now that it has left my collection? Not really. In that sense it is similar to Galileo Galilei, but that one just wins me over with its beautiful art and theme plus I like the action-comboing more there.
Daitoshi
Sadly also on my to-sell pile is Dani Garcia’s new release Daitoshi. I’ve seen a number of people really enjoying this, but somehow it’s not for me. Learning the game was a struggle, but now that I’ve internalised the rules, it’s actually quite easy to teach. In essence, the city acts as a roundel that players can extend not in number of action spaces but in depth of the action taken. Suddenly, you go somewhere and not only can get a new machine for your factory but also do X, Y, and Z, all tide together by requiring the same colour of worker to activate. It’s really quite clever and hard to describe, but I had it multiple times that my plan was screwed because someone placed a new extension in the wrong-for-me district.
I’m actually not quite sure why this game doesn’t work for me. I think part of it is that it feels too mechanical and the theme does nothing for me. It’s lacking something where I have the feeling I’m achieving something besides just victory points and there won’t be memorable moments or stories to tell afterwards. Perhaps a few years back I would have played the heck out of it, but the way my taste is right now, there is no reason for me to return it. The people I played it with enjoyed it quite a bit though, so this might be just me and not the game.
Trailblazers
I got Ryan Courtney’s Trailblazers back to the table and it’s still good fun. I probably should do a full write up about it at some point, but so far we haven’t even started integrating any of the expansion modules yet and for some reason I never really got to playing it solo.
In Trailblazers, players do four rounds of drafting track tiles and puzzling them into their own park. Points will be awarded by having loops of a single colour that start and end at a camp of that colour as well as some in-game and end-game goals. These goals are quite daring stuff like build a blue canoe route that encircles both other camps and players inevitably bite off more than they can chew. It looks so simple and achievable in the beginning …
Keep in mind this is a drafting game, so being too obvious what you are going for can also be dangerous as the previous person in drafting order might just not let any of the pieces you need get through to you. It’s simple, it’s fun, and if you don’t pick up the bigger retail or KS boxes but one of the travel or pocket editions, you can get it for around 15-20€.
Pipeline
Speaking of Ryan Courtney, I also brought back Pipeline to the table to try out a new solo variant (“Oil Baron”) a BGG user had posted. This once again showed me what a brilliant game this is and how much I still suck at it. I’m usually good at both spatial puzzles as well as Euros, but this game just gets me 😀
In Pipeline, players start off with a tiny amount of money and surprisingly few rounds to get rich before the game ends. You buy oil, build longer and longer pipes to refine said oil and either sell it directly or fulfil contracts. So far, so generic. What makes this game deadly is that every action counts, every placement of pipe tiles you get is important, every barrel of oil someone else gets to buy before you might increase the price so you no longer can buy that raw oil you needed so desperately. If you like tight economies like in Evacuation, definitely take a look at this game.
Leviathan Wilds
I still continue to play Leviathan Wilds, a game in which you use your prebuilt (by combining a character and a trait) deck to climb giant creatures and smash the crystals that control them. I really like the theme and production, but it becomes more and more clear to me that I don’t enjoy it solo. The co-op dynamic of helping each other by triggering actions when it’s not your turn is just too much of the fun of playing this for me. I also noticed how I’m not so much drawn into continuing our journey. Like it’s fun and some part of me wants to, but there are other games that draw me in more right now. I think this might be a game where you need a fixed playing partner like a spouse or other family member to truly enjoy it. In comparison, Tidal Blades 2 seems more suitable to be a jump-in, jump-off kind of game that also manages to pull you forward solo. But let’s see, maybe I’m just not deep enough into Leviathan Wilds yet to truly get hooked.
Landmarks
Word-clue-giving game Landmarks continues to spread joy. I got feedback from a few more people that bought it and enjoyed playing it with their families over the holidays. Personally, I’m not craving to play it right now, but it’s a good game to have in the collection and I’ll definitely come back to it from time to time.
Misc & New Acquisitions
Also got a number of older games to the table lately: Heat (which I still enjoy), The Great Wall (which I still don’t 😂), John Company 2nd Edition (which I still keep introducing to new players, so it remains more a spectacle than a game with true competition), Gloomhaven Buttons and Bugs (only played scenario 1 so far and then Tidal Blades 2 came in …), Galileo Galilei (which I still enjoy), …
I’m excited to finally have gotten my hands on a near mint copy of Splotter’s Greed Incorporated, a game I know shockingly little about but am eager to try as I continue my journey through Splotter Spellen’s back catalogue. I also managed to find a copy of Bus for a good price. I’m not really sure how often I will get that one to the table due to its 3p minimum, but it seemed like a good game to have in the collection. It’s fun, it’s quirky, it’s easy to teach … and knives get out almost immediately!
Right now – with Civolution checked off – I’m most interested in continuing onwards with Tidal Blades 2. The story is forgettable, but so far the variety of monsters and level-specific rules was good fun. It also works well solo, so it has a good chance of getting to the table in the next days while I’m still on vacation. I also want to get back to Roads & Boats. I had it already set up but tore it down again when Tidal Blades 2 came in. For some reason, I still have a hard time getting into R&B. I have a good time moving my donkeys and resources around, but I’m not at a point where I can properly read the map and get ideas on how to optimise what I’m doing. But I plan to give the BGG solo challenges a try and I also still got the scenario book to explore.
What has been on your table lately? Any current favourites or games you are excited about right now? Let me know in the comments.