Actualol Newsletter - March 2023 (Patreon)

Hi patrons!

Sorry for the delay with the newsletter, I promise that all my time and effort was going into my 10 Reasons Board Games Are Better Now video. I’ve been writing it on the side since January and it feels like a weight has lifted to finally get down in video form, something I’ve been thinking about for years.

I’ve just got back from Airecon, a board game convention in Harrogate, Yorkshire where I managed to play 22 games, old and new. So in this newsletter, I’ll tell you what I thought of them.

Actual Life

Airecon was full of surprises, last year it was sunny and pleasant - this year we had heavy snow. This was the view from my window on Friday morning.

And they’d changed halls within the convention centre to deal with the expanding numbers. I wasn’t as fond of the gaming rooms this time which felt like playing in a warehouse. 

Last year’s Airecon had felt unusually pleasant with carpets and smaller spaces, but I suppose this is the price we pay for a more successful convention.

And we had our first ever Actualol patron meetup! I met up with Vicci and Tim from the Discord on Saturday and we played Anomia, Quickity Pickity and Codenames Pictures together. It was really nice getting to play some games together and chat. I hope to see them and others for another meetup at UK Games Expo in June.

Whilst there, I bumped into James Wallis who is a games writer/historian (as well as designer and educator) - I recently got his book Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made about all the games that have won the Spiel Des Jahres. I was delighted to learn that he had not only watched my latest video, but that he enjoyed it and agreed with it! It was really validating to have that video endorsed by someone who knows a lot more about the history of game design than I do.

Actual Games: Airecon Spectacular

1. My Favourite Things

Eye My Favourite Things is one of my favourite party games of all time, that I’ve raved about in a few videos. But it’s been unavailable ever since I got a copy in 2018. In a stroke of good fortune, it is being republished by my friends at Play For Keeps and will be on Kickstarter later this year.  It’s still as great as ever, but now with an updated look and a name that makes more sense.

In each round you ask your neighbour to secretly rank their favourite things in a category of your choice - Cheeses, Bands, Spielberg Films, or if you want to get more personal as we often do - ex-girlfriends, family members etc. They present you a hand of cards, with the rankings hidden, and then you use them to play a simple trick-taking game. And you must guess their value, playing “Brie” (the cheese, not the ex-girlfriend), up against someone else’s “Jurassic Park”, in the hope of winning a trick.

It’s by far my favourite game to play with friends, or to get to know people, because you can set the tone, and it’s so interesting discussing each other’s opinions on topics, but without getting it heavy or mean. And I won, but let’s not make a big thing about it.

2. LLAMA

The first night was mostly spent catching up with friends and chatting, so after dinner we went to the local bar “Major Tom’s Social” and played a few card games.

LLAMA is perfect for that situation (we played it on Thursday night last year too), because it plays up to six and has a nice flow to it. I won, but let’s not make a big thing about it.

3. Vegetable Stock

Another light card game, this time a hot new Taiwanese game with some buzz around it. It’s a stock market game - each vegetable has a value, and every round the leftover card that isn’t picked pushes up the value of the vegetables on it. But if it goes up too high, the price crashes back to the bottom again. So you’re trying to collect the vegetables that are worth the most, and tank other people’s vegetables.

It’s a solid idea, and I can see why it’s popular, but I have a hard time loving these simple stock market games, because you have such little control, and it all seems to come down to the final round and someone else’s decision. I would absolutely play it again - it is so quick, but I can’t see it entering my collection.

4. Splito

One thing I re-learn every time I attend a convention is that it’s foolish to make plans. I will ALWAYS take games that I never end up playing. This year I was modest and I only took eight games to play, but I still only played four of them.

The happy problem is that you bump into people that you know from previous conventions and end up needing a game that plays six or eight players and realising you left the perfect game for that situation back at your hotel.

Splito was a card game we found in the library that played six, and it was surprisingly fun. It’s a simple pick and pass drafting game, in which you play cards into the gaps between you and your neighbours, á la Between Two Cities.

You can either pick goal cards to score points, or number/colour cards which you need to meet those goals. It’s got a nice amount of interaction with your neighbours and trying to compete with the rest of the table over common goals. I’ve picked up a copy to play more, but it’s worth a look for those who like light, simple card games. I won, but let’s not make a big thing about it.

5. King of New York

Another lesson to learn is that you end up playing weird stuff that none of us particularly wanted to - such as this 2014 sequel to King of Tokyo. I’ve never been hugely fond of these games, but to be honest I had a blast - probably because of the group I was playing with and the table talk. The player elimination was harsh on others, so I probably had a better time than them, but I enjoyed the balance of when to attack and when to defend. I won, but let’s not make a big thing about it.

6. Dorf Romantik

We were taught Dorf Romantik by a Pegasus Spiele employee, and it’s a new co-operative tile-laying game based on the popular video game. Serena has played the video game, so I knew a bit about its cute, pastoral vibe.

And the board game does a good job of replicating it, with a very sedate experience, albeit not quite as attractive as the video game. I was shocked to find out that there is no win condition, you simply play until the end and score some points which then unlocks content for the next game in the campaign. I have a hard time feeling invested in something so sleight - I want the game to tell me if I did well or not.

There’s also no difference between each player - you have no pieces of your own and so it feels like you’re all taking turns in a solo game.

I can see the appeal as a VERY chilled game for two players, but I don’t think it suits my tastes, which is a shame because I love the idea of building a utopian island with trains and trees.

7. Qawale

This is a new abstract game in the same line as Quoridor and Quarto from Gigamic that I played twice over the weekend. It’s a very simple game in which you’re trying to get four in a row by picking up stacks of pieces then dropping them off, much like in the game Tak. This one felt a little too thin for me, it was over so quickly and I didn’t find any magic in it.

8. Rapido

I recently acquired Rapido (aka Excape) in a BGG trade and this was my first and last time playing it. It’s a push your luck dice game from Reiner Knizia, which hasn’t been two things that go together well for me - for example, I find Pickomino to have too much downtime.

Rapido is quicker, you roll two dice until you get a result you like. And in a clever twist you don’t have to add together the dice, but just place the numbers next to each other: 7+6 isn’t worth 13 but 76. But if you roll too much you’ll hit an X which makes you go bust and move further away from victory.

We all felt that the game was too heavy on luck - I won by a huge margin and I couldn’t point to any clever decision that I made or piece of skill. I would rather play Pickomino which feels more just, at least.

9. The Resistance (3 times)

It’s been many, many years since I played The Resistance, and I wanted to play it again especially since mentioning it in the last video. The fear is that with so much time passed I would hate it, but it’s still great.

I hardly ever get enough people to play social deduction games in London, and a lot of my friends don’t like to play them. So it was a real treat to find a group that was into it and we played three great games in a row. The lying must have been strong because the traitors won every game. I hope it won’t be so long before I play it again.

10. Lancaster

On Saturday we needed a four player game, and the Airecon library wasn’t providing. It doesn’t have much strength in depth - once people have looted it in the morning, there aren’t many good games left to choose from. We went with Lancaster, a 2011 euro game from Matthias Kramer (designer of Watergate).

It’s a dry-looking euro game about being an English noble in the 1400s, but it was surprisingly good. It uses worker placement - you send knights to counties to take actions and collect nobles, but you can be ousted by someone with a stronger knight. I really liked how streamlined and straightforward it felt compared to modern euro games, and with a good amount of interaction. Not one I need to own, but I’d definitely play it again. I won, but let’s not make a big thing about it.

11. Planted: A Game of Nature and Nurture

I spent a lot of the weekend looking in the games library for Summer Camp, a game from Phil Walker Harding that you can’t get in the UK, but it was always booked out. The same almost applied to his other US exclusive game, “Planted”, but we managed to finally grab it on Saturday.

It’s a family-weight game about collecting plants and making them grow. It has a very attractive look, with beautiful components - such as wooden pieces with artwork printed on and hessian bags to store things in. The gameplay is a pick and pass drafting game, that’s a bit more complicated than Sushi Go but not by much. You can draft water/food/sun cards you need to grow your plants, or take special cards for end game scoring.

I liked that you have to balance building your (small) engine with taking the resources you need because they are all lost after a round if you don’t have enough to use on a plant. It’s got some neat ideas, but like a lot of his games it lacks real bite. It’s a very solid gateway game that I would recommend especially for its aesthetics, but I’m not sure it’s quite exciting enough to enter my collection.

12. Quickity Pickity

I don’t tend to buy games at cons (because I have too many), but I couldn’t resist this little game from Oink after a quick demo.

It’s a competitive real-time game in which you turn over tiles and try to collect sets of fruit. Each set must have the same shape or colour, AND have the same face, either happy or sad. If you mix up your faces you’ll score -10 points! What makes the game interesting is that each round the sets score differently - so you have a slightly different goal.

I don’t always like competitive real-time games because they can be so hard, but I liked how simple the challenge was in this game, and found it to be a fun, breezy filler. Especially compared to their game “Nine Tiles Panic” which just had too much going on for my taste.

13. Anomia

For the Actualol meetup, we picked up Anomia from the library - one of the games that Daniel Radcliffe refuses to admit that he likes. 

It’s such a simple game to teach and pick-up, and just always a blast. It’s an easy pick for a game that will work for most people.

14. Codenames Pictures

Once again the library let us down - we were hoping for original Codenames but settled for Pictures. I think I maintained my self-appointed reputation of being good at Codenames in front of the patrons 🤞. Though did I shame myself by laying out a 5x5 grid and playing a few rounds before realising that the clue card for Pictures is only 4x5! Somehow the clues had succeeded regardless.

15. 878: Vikings Invasion of England

This was the big game that I’d brought from home. It’s a 2 vs 2 war game. We played as the Vikings turning up on the shores of England with hordes of viking warriors, trying to conquer enough English cities. We failed, but had a great time in the process.

It’s from a line of war games from Academy Games that let each player play one of two factions on each side - making for a fun team game. The gameplay is very straightforward, with cards controlling your movement and custom dice for each faction. For example, the berserkers are stronger than the norsemen faction, so you factor that into your decision-making. It has a nice balance of strategy, but with enough dice luck to deliver an occasional exciting upset.

This one has a slightly odd (but thematic) arc to it, where the Vikings arrive in huge force, and then the English get stronger over time. I will always keep one of these games in my collection because I really like them, but I’m intrigued to compare it to 1775: Rebellion which I haven’t tried.

16. Durian

Oink games can be very hit and miss, and this one was firmly in the miss category. It has a cute theme of a fruit shop, in which you’re trying to not over order stock. Each of us has a card with fruit demands, but you can only see everyone else’s cards, á la Hanabi. Each turn you add fruits to the centre, but without exceeding the demands - or else someone will call you out - á la Perudo. 

The inspirations are strong, but it’s not nearly as fun as either of those games. It feels like it plays itself, too much information is public and there’s very little room for bluffing. The one appealing quality is the cute bell that you ring to call out the previous player’s bid. But I wouldn’t play this one again.

17. String Railway: Transport

I’ve never played String Railway, and this is a more obscure sequel from the same designer. Your table represents Japan, and you are connecting stations together with bits of string acting as your train lines. Then you must spend actions to transport cubes from place to place to score points.

It’s a very quirky design, but it provides some interesting decisions. I would like to play it again when I’m less tired, and the artwork is less aggressively bad.

18. Make The Difference

Back to the Oink games booth to demo their latest game - Make The Difference, which is a gamified version of Spot The Difference. And it works remarkably well. You have sheets of paper with hand-drawn illustrations on, and you must adapt them by drawing on marks and lines. Then the other players have two minutes to spot the differences between your sheet and the original.

You’d think it would be obvious, but it works by putting a simple clear perspex sheet over the top that makes everything look the same. I managed to fool my opponents with two quite big lines, and you get more points the longer and more audacious your markings are.

It’s more fun than I’d expected, but it can get a little dull towards the end of two minutes of staring at the same thing. And the demo perspex was bent which meant you had to press it down to see. In general I find games like this fun once or twice, but I can’t see the appeal to play it over and over again.

19. The Mind: Soulmates

On Sunday I managed to grab a game with Mike Murphy from The Brothers Murph and his “This Game is Broken” co-star Dave Luza. Dave had a copy of The Mind: Soulmates, which is a new twist on The Mind.

The game is made harder by using only numbers 1-50, and you have to play them face down onto the pile. But it’s also made easier because one player gets to look at some of the cards before the round starts and then writes a number clue on a whiteboard. They can alert players to a card that is close to another so that you’re more likely to succeed. And it really works, we managed to get to Level 7 before we lost all our lives.

It was fun - I love The Mind so any variation of it I will enjoy. But I didn’t quite see the need for it. There wasn’t much creativity in the clue giving. And it’s just a little bit more fiddly with extra components so I don’t see it replacing The Mind. But I could imagine it winning over a little contingent of gamers who prefer it because it seems more thoughtful.

20. Birds of a Feather: Western North America

I used to own the original Birds of Feather and couldn’t find any fun in it. But I was too polite to refuse this new reprint. Thankfully it was short.

You each pick a bird card each round. If you visit the same wilderness as other players, you get to see each other’s birds, as if you brought them along as pets (it would actually make more sense with dogs!). Then in the next round the last round’s birds stick around so you have a chance to see them before they disappear - if you have a card of that colour.

If there is clever decision-making game in this game, I’ve never found it and it’s very obtuse. I got nothing from it and I will try to avoid it in the future.

21. Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery

Spartacus was the BIG game of our con that we finally got around to late on Sunday. My friend Ben had brought it last year and we just couldn’t find the right time or group for it. So this year we tried a bit harder and made it happen, and it was well worth it.

This is one of my favourite epic games. But I’m sad to say I hadn’t played it in seven years. That was shocking to realise - I barely feel like I’ve been playing games for seven years - time is vicious.

You each control a Roman house, and you are trying to gain influence by playing cards and negotiating with each other. You buy gladiators and weapons at auctions and then pit them against each other in the arena, all the while betting on one of them to be decapitated. It is a wild game, full of backstabbing and threats and throwing money at each other to do things. I love it, and I feel stupid that I’ve left it this long since playing it. This is what becoming a reviewer does to you! I won, but let’s not make a big thing about it.

22. Sea Salt and Paper

Before running off to get my train home, we played a round of Sea, Salt and Paper. So it doesn’t really count, but it was still fun for a moment. If you want to know more, watch my Top 10 Games of 2022 video.

New Arrivals

• Her Story
• Rolling Heights

Games I’ve been enjoying lately

• Green Team Wins
• Nuns on the Run

Now Watching - The Last of Us

Now Reading - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Song of the Month - Ceilings by Lizzie McAlpine

Video of the Month - Taboo - SNL

Actually yours,

Jon