Actualol Newsletter - October 2020 (Patreon)

Welcome witchy well-wishers,

The season of gaming is upon us. We must harvest this year’s crop of games, so that we have enough to last us through the winter. 

Or, just play the ones we already have, that works too.

London’s lockdown level has been upgraded, which means that my brief window for playing games with other people has been hermetically sealed. Serena has a torrid winter of gaming ahead of her, and three player minimum games be damned!

In exciting news, I have started work on not one, but TWO board game songs, both ambitious in their own ways. I hope to have one finished before the end of 2020, but I have a few obstacles to overcome first.

I hope you found my Essen preview video helpful. In this newsletter, I will share my thoughts on some games that didn’t make it in, but might be for you.

Actual Games

Monster Expedition is a light push your luck dice game from King of the Euros, Alexander Pfister. In short, he has taken the Reiner Knizia game Heckmeck (aka Pickomino) and made it more interesting.

The core of the game is that you roll dice and then you must set aside a collection of one number. Then you can roll again, but you must set aside a different number. If you only roll numbers you have already set aside, you are punished. In Heckmeck you go bust, in Monster Expedition you lose your highest dice.

You are trying to collect a high total to capture a monster, which gives you points, and gives you powers to improve your chances. Banking three sixes is great, for example. But ones, twos and threes are just as important because they will upgrade the number of dice you roll on future turns.

It’s quite impressive how many clever touches he’s added to the Heckmeck mechanism, but without making it feel bloated. What it doesn’t do is fix the only problem I had with Heckmeck - downtime. It takes time for a player to roll their dice, decide one to bank, roll them again, decide which one to bank and so on. And as an onlooker, I’m not compelled or invested enough to make it worth it.

If you like Heckmeck, this is worth checking out. With your eyes closed, because the box art and theme are not up to 2020 standards. Well, 2019 standards. In 2020, anything goes.

Aquatica is an engine building card game, in which you’re trying to build an underwater empire. A theme that’s saying “ignore me, try to act like I’m not here”.

The hook of the game lies in your player board. Location cards are placed into a slot, allowing the card to slide further in. Each location has actions or bonuses at different depths, which you will spend to rise the card to its next depth.

The thinkiness of the game is in finding locations that work well with each other, and choosing the best order in which to raise the cards. It’s engrossing and when you string together a dance of actions it’s immensely satisfying, and gives that popular engine-builder feel. 

But it can be overwhelming as the potential permutations of available cards is staggering - and can you really, honestly consider them all before making your choice each turn? Getting lost in analysis paralysis isn’t my idea of fun, so it’s a pass from me. But it’s an innovative take on a popular mechanism, so if you like engine builders I suggest you give it a go.

Cloud City is a 3D tile-laying game from Sushi Go and Barenpark designer Phil-Walker Harding. Each turn you add a tile to your personal city, immediately placing the matching skyscrapers onto it.

There are three levels of structure. You’re trying to create straight lines between buildings of the same level. If you do, you can take a walkway to connect them, which are worth more points the longer they are. The clever play is in planning your city, so that your walkways cross over and under each other, in a pleasing basket weave.

I found this to be deceptively infuriating. On the surface the choices are simple, but I kept getting annoyed at my earlier decisions because it had ruined my current situation. Not ideal for a family game.

The game is void of player interaction, which is the opposite of what I look for in a family game. And the chintzy mass of plastic in the box just makes me think of it lying on a landfill site for eternity. This game will last forever. It will be relevant for six months, at best.

Actual Life

It is terrifying to look back at a month finding so little of note that I can’t muster a paragraph in its honour, but such is the life of the lockdowned. I hope to do something interesting next month.

Games I’ve been enjoying lately

- Meeple Land

- Tobago: Volcano

Games that have just arrived

- Mysterium Park

- Thrive

- Micromacro: Crime City

Video of the Month - Why We Won’t Raise Our Kids in Suburbia (and moved to The Netherlands instead)

Song of the Month - Class of Deja - Kano ft. Ghetts and D Double E

Now watching - AP Bio - Season 2

Now reading - The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain De Botton

Happy Halloween to you all! I hope all your horrors are self-inflicted.

Actually yours,

Jon