Actualol Newsletter - April 2023 (Patreon)

Hey there newsletter heads!

Thanks for taking my etiquette video with the spirit it was intended!

I got back yesterday from our biannual gaming convention Lobstercon, so in this newsletter I’ll tell you about the games I played there.

The next video will be recommending a selection of small games (probably ten) so I will be redacting their plays from the list to keep them a surprise when the video drops.

In other news, the channel has reached 80,000 subscribers and 6 million views, within a day of each other. Thank you for helping it continue to grow.

What I Played At Lobstercon

1. REDACTED

2. Velonimo is a simple card game from Bruno Cathala, and after enjoying Sea, Salt and Paper - I thought it was worth a look. 

You are trying to get rid of your hand before anyone else, and the earlier you bow out of the round the more points you will get. To play cards you have to go higher than the last, but you can combine the same colours/numbers for big totals. Like many card games in this vein, the advantages you can gain are slight, and your room to strategise is small. Perhaps after many plays with the same group, you would find some joy, but after one, rather long game it had already outstayed its welcome.

3. We played the new version of Ra, a classic Reiner Knizia auction from 1999, now with new Ian O’Toole artwork. 

And it was great - I love the decision making that comes from having fixed bidding tokens - so you know what values other players can beat you with. And the drama of the Ra tiles being drawn which force auctions to be called, escalating the round, so that it might end before you know it. The new edition is on the big side, but it does a good job of making the gameplay smooth. I will talk about this one in a video in due course.

4. I want to like Biblios more than I do. 

The drafting phase is great - taking one card at a time and deciding how to assign them before seeing the next one - I wish it was in more games. The auction phase is solid. But with the chaos of the dice manipulation, and the general unknown of who has got what - I find it to be too unpredictable for such a long game.

5. Zendo is one of the first modern games I ever played, so it had been over 10 years since I last tried it. 

One player is the game master, establishing a secret rule such as “a blue piece must be touching a red piece” and producing two example structures - one that obeys the rule and one that doesn’t. The other players take turns building their own structures then ask if it fits the rule, trying to deduce what the rule is. It’s a very clever game that offers something quite different - everyone should try it once. My brain doesn’t get excited by deduction, so it’s not one of my favourites, but I like how pure and simple it is.

6. Broom Service was last seen in my abandoned Top 50 series, so it’s a game I have a lot of love for. 

I wanted to play it again to see how I feel about it. I love so much about the game - the choice of brave/cowardly action is exciting, if brutal at times. I love the challenge of trying to work out what actions the other players will pick. But I came away wishing it was shorter - it doesn’t have the long-term strategy or depth for how long it takes. It is longer in my Top 50!

7. Longboard is a card game from Reiner Knizia - and I always want to give his games a chance, even though he’s so hit and miss. 

This one is certifiably fine, but little more. You are trying to create runs of surfboards. Your hand is public on the table, and you can steal another player’s card by swapping it for a higher card. Which makes the game interactive, but much harder to predict. It doesn’t have the purity of Lost Cities/Schotten Totten, or the tightness of Arboretum. There’s nothing “wrong” with it, but there’s also nothing to make it stand out - so I’d rather play 20 other card games.

8. Town 66 is a tile-laying game in a small box from Oink Games. 

You are collaboratively building a town, by placing a house each round. But you can’t have the same colour or shape in a row or column, so it becomes a tricky puzzle that feels a little like Sudoku. First impressions are middling - it’s a fun decision each turn, but I’m worried that luck plays too big of a part in which tiles you draw. I need to play this one more.

9. Oh My Brain shares a lot with Velomino, it’s another game from Bruno Cathala (and Theo Riviere), in which you’re trying to get rid of your cards. 

In this one, if you can’t play a card on your turn you lose a brain, (because the zombies eat you), and its most brains wins. The interesting twist is that you have a card rack that acts as a secondary hand - which you draw up from, so you know what cards you’ll have later. I love that as a mechanism, but I didn’t find it to be very useful - the game is changing so often that your plans go out of the window pretty much every turn. And your success will mostly depend on getting the best cards. I preferred it to Velomino, but there were too many turns where I had no meaningful decision and I was just along for the ride to want to play it more.

10. REDACTED

11. It’s been a few years since I last played Pandemic: Fall of Rome, the version of Pandemic from Paolo Mori (Libertalia, Caesar), and it’s still brilliant. 

We had a perfect game of it, full of hairy moments, a building tension that ended with a nail-biting climax, pulling off a miracle victory while moments away from death. It adds so many small but clever twists to the original Pandemic formula. I’d love to see Paolo Mori and other top designers’ take on other modern classic games.

12. It’s also been a few years since I last played The Quest for El Dorado and we had a great game of it. 

It’s such a smooth, but interesting deckbuilder - Reiner Knizia really puts other designers to shame when he’s firing on all cylinders. I may have find myself a copy of this new version with the bigger cards.

13. REDACTED

14. Ok, let’s just assume that it’s been a few years since I last played all of the rest of the games, because this is getting silly. 

Junk Art is still a great dexterity game that manages to give you ten games in one box, with beautiful pieces. But I find myself veering away from its complexity - I don’t need ten games in one box, just one really good one. I want my dexterity games to be quick to get into, with no fiddliness - and something like Catch The Moon or Riff Raff offer a cleaner experience.

15. Detective Club is still a fun twist on Dixit/Mysterium games, by introducing a hidden role who doesn’t know the word that everyone else is trying to communicate when playing their cards. 

I love that you each take it turns to justify why you picked your cards. Whilst I had fun, I don’t think this one is long for my collection, because I still prefer the mind-reading required in Mysterium and Stella.

16. I used to be all about the quirky party games, and Brick Party was one of my first - a team game in which one player communicates to their teammate how to build a lego structure. With fun restrictions each round, such as not using your thumbs. It’s fun and loud, but I don’t quite have the appetite I had for it before, or the friends to play it. Better for playing with kids, I’d bet.

17. We played many games of Insider over the weekend, which left me with mixed feelings. I recently reacquired it after ditching it for Werewords years ago. I prefer the simplicity of Insider, using cards instead of an app, and the tiny box. But it’s such a fragile game - some rounds the words are so easy that the Insider doesn’t need to do anything and is therefore invisible - other times they are so hard that it’s impossible for the Insider to get everyone close without completely giving themselves away. Ending a round where everyone loses feels like a waste of time - whereas at least in Werewords the werewolf would take the win. We also tried the follower role from Insider Black which was fine, but didn’t fix any of my problems with the game. The best games of Insider are brilliant, but they are too few and far between to call it a “brilliant game”.

18. The same can be said for Spyfall - another innovative hidden traitor game. The best games of Spyfall are so much fun, as you pussyfoot around the location, trying to weed out the spy by asking the right questions. But more often than not, the spy will give themselves away on their first answer, proving an easy victory. Or the others will be too obvious in their answers and give the spy an easy guess. It’s a game that new (and rusty) players need to warm up to, and you go back each time, thinking that it’s worth another eight minute attempt to get from the game what you know is possible. With both Insider and Spyfall, they are perfect in the imagination - and each game you hope you’ll attain that level of brilliance, but in my experience you rarely do. Whereas games like Fake Artist or The Resistance don’t need warming up to - they are fun from the first play. With a heavy heart - like a 40 year old giving away their football boots - Spyfall is leaving my collection.

19. Duplik is a quirky drawing game that I once recommended as an alternative to Pictionary. 

One player has a drawing that they must describe to the other players in as much detail as possible. Then their drawings are marked based on previously unknown criteria dictated by the game. It’s a fun challenge for both sides and results in a lot of laughter at everyone’s terrible rushed drawings - and how differently everyone interpreted the instructions. If you like drawing games, this one is worth trying to find.

20. Biss 20 is in the Cockroach Poker line of games. This one turns the drinking game 21 into a co-operative game. You take it in turns to count to 20, and every time you get there successfully, you add a new rule. It starts by swapping numbers - so instead of saying “10” you have to say “15” and vice versa. Then you introduce actions that you have to complete on certain numbers - such as clicking fingers, crossing your arms, whispering etc. Eventually the whole number list because a series of pitfalls you’re trying to avoid. And a memory game because you can only see the latest rule. If you make a mistake, you lose a life and start again. I can’t see myself playing it a lot, but it’s a fun end of the night game. Although, I suspect you’d have just as much fun playing 21 and making up your own rules.

21. I played someone’s deluxe version of the new Ra. This one comes with over a hundred wooden tiles, similar to the ones in Cascadia - which feel more robust for shuffling in the huge bag. 

It’s hard to justify the price, but I can see the appeal. On the other hand, I think the metal point tokens were a mistake - they are heavy and don’t stack up. And of course the box is bigger - but not by as much as you’d expect. An annoying case of either version not quite being perfect.

22. Coral is a quick little abstract game with 3D pieces. 

You are adding your blocks to the collective structure - trying to have your coral the most visible at the end of the game. It was hard to get a sense of after one play. It had some neat ideas, and I’d certainly play it again - but I’m also not rushing to find a copy.

23. I’ve played Concordia - so I rectified that. It was as described, a very clean, thinky euro game. 

I liked how much you could plan ahead, and I found myself waiting for my next turn always knowing what I wanted to do, which kept the game moving fast. I think I’d need to play it again to fully understand how to do well.

24. REDACTED

25. I’ve only ever played The Castles of Burgundy on Board Game Arena, so I rectified that. 

I really enjoy the puzzle of this online, and it was similarly good in real life. Turns move quickly, so it never gets boring - but it still took us a while to get through at 3 players. The player interaction is minimal - so I’m not sure I get much more from playing it in real life, but I’d be open to playing it again.

26. Block Party is a new party game from Big Potato, that involves you “drawing” with coloured cubes. 

I didn’t especially enjoy building the pictures, but I liked guessing what other people’s depictions were. This masterpiece is by Graeme - can you guess what it is?

I also liked that if the guesser for the round gets it wrong, you can choose to steal the points by guessing. I’ve played similar games in the past and this is the best iteration. I wouldn’t personally own it - but it’s a solid party game, and I’d have no qualms in playing it again.

27. I never play Codenames as much as I should - because I’m always trying new games. 

Most gamers at Lobstercon are playing the new hotness - so quite a few people were surprised to see us play a game that is shock, horror 8 years old! We had three great games of it - I continued to prove my reputation as one of the best players in the world, by opening with a 5 clue and winning my game as spymaster. Unfortunately my games as a co-guesser were losses, but I think any onlookers would absolve me of responsibility 😇

Games I’ve been enjoying lately

• Lords of Vegas
• CV
• Survive: Escape from Atlantis!

Song of the Month - One That Got Away by MUNA

Video of the Month - When your opponent takes a bathroom break

See you next time!

Actually yours,

Jon