Actualol Newsletter - September 2021 (Patreon)

Hey-lol pledgends!

This was a month of firsts. We had the first ever collaboration on Actualol, doing a Top 10 with Dr. Ed Hope. And the first lookback at a classic game, with my video on Bohnanza.

And this month you can expect more of both! This week, I’ll be posting up another Top 10 I filmed with Ed. And I’ve filmed my next celebration of a modern classic which will be up later this month once it’s finished.

This week, I was interviewed by Gizmodo about my board game collection for their YouTube channel, which was exciting. The video should be up this month, I’ll share it with you then.

In this newsletter, I’ll give my thoughts on three new games that are out in time for Essen.

Actual Life

This month we finally got back into swing dancing, my second favourite hobby. I have the rest of my life to sit down and play board games, but I resent the pandemic for taking away two good dancing years - so I’m trying to really make the most of it now.

Actual Games

I wasn’t expecting to like Cascadia. I resent tile-laying games in which you all have your own personal area because they are such lonely experiences. And it’s all modern designers seem to want to make. But if I was to play one, it would be this.

Each turn you choose a pair, a habitat tile and an animal token, to add to your north-west American wilderness. You are trying to create big areas of matching habitats, whilst - more importantly - placing animals in certain arrangements to score points. And these change every game to keep things interesting.

It all sounds very familiar. And it is. But there are a number of small things about Cascadia which make me like it more than its predecessors. Unlike Calico, the puzzle isn’t restrictive - you don’t feel like everything is ruined if you get the wrong tile, you can just pivot your strategy to something else. And the game is such a breeze to set up and teach, it doesn’t have any fussy rules or components.

Choosing which pair to take is always an interesting decision, because each habitat can only take certain animals. The habitat you decide on is all about planning patterns for the future. Whereas getting the right animals is important for finishing those patterns off.

I really like Cascadia at two players, for a very chilled but puzzly experience. I’m wary about it at higher player counts because of the downtime. And this is the ultimate flaw of these personal puzzle games, you have nothing to care about on other player’s turns. But if you don’t mind that, Cascadia is a very interesting game.

On the other side of things is Juicy Fruits, another personal puzzle game, because that’s all modern designers want to make.

Juicy Fruits is bringing a new mechanism to the table. On your tropical island, you will slide a fruit tile across your board in a line, and for every space it moves, you collect a fruit. So you’re trying to move things around to make space to do big moves, to get more fruit. It’s a logistical challenge that feels like the Rush Hour puzzle I had as a kid.

You’re trying to collect certain fruit to fulfill orders - and when you do, that boat will leave and create more space to move around, so you can pull off even bigger moves.

Then there are upgrades you can buy to make you more efficient, but take up more space on your island and get in the way - so you have to decide if it’s worth it.

There’s no denying the puzzle is satisfying and original. But it is very insular. And I found after our second play that I was done with it. The shifting things around was a fun challenge once, but I had no appetite to come back to it.

Elsewhere, Juicy Fruits is the opposite of Cascadia. It has so many little components and steps to the set-up. The chunky wooden fruits just feel like an Azul-inspired gimmick, and are totally unnecessary. But it really comes down to that core mechanism - it is clever and it is unique, and if you find those logistical puzzles addictive, then you should definitely look into this one. I didn’t have much patience for Rush Hour back in the day, so it’s just not for me.

I won’t be going to Essen this year, and the thing I’ll miss the most is finding the quirky games. Thankfully, I’ve found one already in In The Palm of Your Hand.

One player closes their eyes and another will use objects to communicate what is shown on a card, by using their hand as a canvas. The challenge is for the guesser to then pick out the card from a line up.

For example, to convey a wave, you could lightly pull the felt across the hand and back again, mimicking the motion. To convey footsteps, you could use two cubes to prod along the palm. There are a nice array of implements to use that give different sensations, and I really love the creativity required to work out how best to get across the feel of a scene.

I really enjoyed giving the clues AND receiving the clues, trying to work out what was being told to me. As a bigger group game, it is much less interesting to be an inactive player, but we decided to share the job of giving the clues, which made it more fun.

I don’t think it has quite the mass appeal of Mysterium or even Paranormal Detectives, but I had a lot of fun with it, and I’m really keen to play it again.

New Arrivals:

• Quest
• Spies and Lies: A Stratego Story
• Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition

Games I’ve Been Enjoying:

• Trekking The World
• Coloretto

Song of the Month: I Know The End by Phoebe Bridgers

Video of the Month: Every Male “Thinkfluencer” on YouTube

Now Watching: Foundation 

Now Reading: Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I hope you have a great month,

Actually yours,

Jon