Actualol Newsletter - July 2020 (Patreon)

Hey there patron pals,

This newsletter is a little late because I was waiting to finish my Best Travel Games video. A video I’ve been trying to make for two years, since I started writing it on holiday in 2018. Funny that it took a year where holidays are off the cards to get it finished! To continue the theme, I will share five more great travel games in this newsletter.

Thank you to everyone who watched my first VLOG earlier in the month. It was exciting for me to try a new style of video, and I’m glad some of you enjoyed seeing behind the Actual curtain a little. Expect more!

Actual Life

Thank you to everyone for their supportive words about my back injury, bringing new meaning to the term “Patreon backer”. Thankfully, after a few scary days where I struggled to walk or sit down, it is doing much, much better. I am pretty much back to normal and feeling very lucky.

As lockdown measures ease in the UK, we’ve been easing ourselves back into normal life. Our world is now limited to where we can cycle too, and we’ve been exploring new parts of London. We found out that we can get a ferry with our bikes across the river Thames, and on Sunday we visited Greenwich (of Meantime fame). 

5 More Great Travel Games

I have a lot of small box card games. It’s one of my favourite game formats. I get excited by their efficiency of space, and the idea that you could own hundreds of them and it would barely take up any room. 

There’s something so satisfying about distilling gaming down to a simple deck of cards, like you’re returning to the roots of gaming. I’m delighted that Schmidt Spiele, NSV and Amigo continue to release these small games, and long may they stick to their guns.

These five games do break some of my strict travel game rules - most card games struggle to be wind resistant and some of them require more table space than a aeroplane tray table. But they can all be played in a pub, or on a picnic bench, and most of the time that’s enough.

Land Unter / Turn The Tide is a forgotten gem that’s currently only available in Germany. 

The name of the game is survival. You each have a hand of number cards that you have to play, and timing is everything. If you play the highest or second highest card that round you will be punished. So you’re trying to read the other players and play your high cards when it’s safest. Plus, some of the punishments are better than others, so you have to know when to willingly take them. 

It has close similarities to 6 Nimmt - trying to avoid damage, with a big reveal each round. I enjoy them equally, but Land Unter is a little more economical with table space.

Tempels Des Schreckens is the German version of Yusuke Sato’s Timebomb, which is my favourite hidden traitor game of recent years. The majority of players are adventurers hunting for gold, and the saboteur faction are guardians protecting the gold. 

Each player is dealt an equal number of grave chamber cards, that could either contain gold, be empty, or be a fatal trap. 

You look at your cards so you know what you have, then shuffle them and place them in front of you, so you don’t know which is which. 

You take it in turns to search each other’s cards, picking one to reveal. It’s up to you what you tell the group about the cards you have. As an adventurer you probably want to publicise your gold. But how do the others know you’re not a guardian trying to get them to hit a trap? 

I love how much it encourages discussion, and even the adventurers will need to lie at times to protect the guardians from finding the traps on purpose.

No Thanks is a classic filler game. The cards are bad; you don’t want them. And yet each round a card is flipped, worth bad points from 3-35, and someone must take it. 

So you take it in turns to resist it, by paying one of your chips onto the card. If you run out of chips, you’re forced to take it.

At some point, a card worth 26 bad points might have so many chips on it that it becomes worthwhile to take. Because those chips are vital for helping you resist much worse cards. You want to hold out as long as possible to accrue more chips, but if you wait too long someone else will take it. 

If you end the game with cards that have consecutive numbers, you will only receive a penalty for the lowest in that line. So there are many situations where players are happy to take cards that are terrible for others because it won’t affect them. But not until everyone has paid a few chips onto it! Be careful, chips are secret and you might not realise that Jimmy has run out and will be forced to take the card you want.

Microbrewers / Brew Crafters Travel Card Game is a game of brewing beer. The cards are multi-use. On your turn you can either play one to upgrade your brewery, improving your engine. Or you can brew beer, by playing a set of ingredients matching a recipe.

In classic engine building style, you need to balance improving your engine with actually using it to get points, because you’re racing to get to 21. 

And you'll want to work out which type of beer to specialise in, with the right upgrades that work well together, so that you’re most productive. Microbrewers has the feel of a larger game, so it’s a great addition to your travel game arsenal.

High Society is an incredible auction game. You're playing as rich socialites, splashing cash on luxury mansions and sports cars to show off to your friends. 

But at the end of the game the player with the least money left over loses the game - how can you be a rich show off if you've got no money? You need to get the most points but without paying too much. 

To make it harder you're faced with tabloid scandals that you have to pay off to avoid having your reputation ruined. One player will take the hit, losing points, but making them a lot less poor than everyone else.

The reveal at the end of who spent the most is always exciting. It’s a brilliant game that everyone should try once, and it’s just a bonus that it’s so travel friendly.

Games I’ve been enjoying lately

• 10 Minute Heist: The Wizard’s Tower (on Tabletop Simulator)

• My City
• Smartphone Inc (on Tabletopia)

Games that have just arrived:

• Watergate
• Herd Mentality

Video of the Month - PLEASE UPDATE (Funny sketch about Zoom calls)

Now watching - Dead To Me - Season 2 

I hope that you have a lovely month.

Actually yours,

Jon