Patron Newsletter - January 2024 (Patreon)

Hello patrons!

Welcome back to the newsletter. And thank you to the new patrons for coming aboard! I’m so grateful for your support.

I hope you enjoyed my Collection Culling video. I’ve now added the links to older videos to the description that I’d promised. In this newsletter I’ll be sharing the truth behind the culling video - and other games I culled which didn’t make the cut.

I’m currently playing games left, right and centre in preparation for my next video - my Top Games of 2023. So I’ll save any game reviews until next month, when I’ll share the games that did and didn’t make the list.

Actual Life

It was a busy month of working and parenting, but I did get to spend the day with YouTuber friend Dr. Ed Hope from my Festival video. We played a good few games of Orion Duel together, which I’ve also been enjoying on Board Game Arena.

Secrets Behind The Culling Video

Today, I thought I’d pull back the curtain a little bit, and share some inconvenient truths I left out of my culling video. I did cull a hundred games from my permanent collection in the first half of 2023. BUT -  not all the games in the video are games I culled in 2023.

As I was writing the video, I realised that I had culled a lot of old and obscure games that no-one would care about. So for the sake of the entertainment, I pulled a reality TV show trick and messed with the timeline - bringing in bigger titles that I have culled in the past, but not recently. There’s still truth to my criticisms, so hopefully not the biggest YouTube crime ever committed.

But for the completionists - these are the other games that I culled last year.

Games I that have too many other ones like it

Corporate America is a light negotiation game with a fun satirical theme of American capitalism (you can become President by having the most campaign funds). It feels very unique, it’s easy to get into - but I just have way too many negotiation games, and I can barely get them played as it is. I also felt that luck played a bigger part than I’d like. I’d play Waterfall Park, or the newer Zoo Vadis instead (videos coming).

Cockroach Salad is the same game as Cockroach Soup, which I’ve kept. It’s best described as a drinking game, but suitable for kids. You play your vegetable card onto the pile and have to say the right thing depending on the situation. If you screw up, you pick up the deck. Both are a lot of fun, but I just didn’t need two copies of the same game.

Pluckin Pairs is a party game of trying to think like everyone else that pre-dates Hive Mind and Herd Mentality. You get a random selection of images - Chicken, Window, Beer, House, Carrot etc. and you have to pair them up in whatever way you see fit. I would pair Chicken with Carrot, but someone else thinks Chicken makes more sense with Snake. You get points if your pairs match with other players. It’s solid fun - but it’s too similar to other games, and it’s got a really dated 90s look to it (despite being released in 2012!), so I don’t need it. I’d rather play Herd Mentality or Green Team Wins.

World Championship Russian Roulette is a fun theme - you have a team competing in a Russian roulette tournament - and you need to survive the longest! The Russian roulette works as a push your luck card flipping exercise - hoping to not hit the bullet. But, you can choose to cheat and not even put a bullet in your gun, BUT the other players can accuse you of cheating and kill you anyway. There are even special cards that let you point your gun at another player for a turn. It’s chaotic fun, but a little bit fiddly with everything going on. And for a game of pointing guns at each other, I think Cash n Guns beats it - although that is also fiddly!

Compatibility is an actual 90s party game that you play in pairs - everyone has an identical deck of picture cards (which are VERY 90s), and you’re all given a descriptive word. Which pictures do you think best describe “Ambition” and hopefully your partner picks the same pictures as you. It’s like playing the Mr and Mrs Game, seeing how much you agree on. It’s fun, but the whole thing is incredibly dated - including a pointless board. It could use an updated design. My one quibble with it is that playing on pairs isn’t particularly sociable. Herd Mentality has a similar feel, so I’d opt for that instead.

Pikoko is a trick-taking game where you can see everyone’s cards but your own, Hanabi style. Then you bet on how many tricks you think you will win. I’m not a huge trick-taking game fan, but I liked the way this one twisted the format. To be honest, this one left for a few reasons. I found that my friends didn’t like it as much as me, it’s a big box for a card game, and I’d rather play Cat in the Box or Skull King, which are smaller. Solid game, but not stellar.

Divinity Derby is a racing/betting game, with a cool mechanism. You share your cards with the players to your left and right, and use them to move animals forward in the race. Meanwhile, placing bets on who you think will win. It’s fun, but it’s the same card-sharing mechanism in The Rich and the Good, a stock market game, and I didn’t feel I needed both. And whilst I like the racing/betting mechanisms, there’s something really unappealing about the mythical beasts theme and artwork - I wish it was just horses.

Detective Club is a party game that uses Dixit cards to create a Spyfall-like hidden traitor experience. One player writes down a secret word that gets given to all but one player. They then try to communicate that theme with their Dixit cards. The other players will try to prove they’re not the traitor by playing cards that fit the theme. Then the word is revealed and you all get a chance to explain your choices - and I really like that aspect of the game. But my minor complaint is that the luck of the draw can make the wrong player seem guilty because they simply had no cards connected to the theme. I still like this one, but in reality I got rid of it because I have too many Dixit card games, and Stella and Mysterium are slightly better.

Games I never needed

I love the core idea of Linkee - you have to find the link between four words, and you get those four words by answering super easy trivia questions in your head. But as a party game it’s a bit thin - definitely good with the family at Christmas, but doesn’t offer much beyond that. It doesn’t really play on your trivia knowledge, it’s just the first to realise the link, so it’s mostly “who has the fastest brain”. For the same challenge, I’m completely addicted to Connections the NYT daily game. There is also Linkee Daily, but after a while they reuse the same questions which is the most disappointing thing ever.

Fuji Flush is a small box card game that has had a renaissance as a cult-hit at conventions - because it’s a very simple game that you can play with a big group. It’s hard to explain, so I won’t try, but it’s VERY light. You mostly play what you can each turn, but there’s a kind of “ganging together” mechanism that gives it some appeal. I bought into the hype and hunted down a Spanish copy, but I didn’t need to. I was buying into the vibe more than the game, and a few conventions later I haven’t found the magic. It’s fine, but I’d prefer people brought out 6 Nimmt or something else instead.

Felix: The Cat in the Sack is an auction card game with some bluffing - you’re all putting up a cat for sale each round, face down - then bidding on the stash. If you bid high, you might be communicating that you’ve submitted a great cat, or you could be bluffing hoping that someone falls for the hype. When a player passes out of the auction, a cat gets revealed, so you begin to understand what’s up for grabs. I don’t have any strong criticism of this one, because it’s been a while since I’ve played it. But my auction card game desires are sated by High Society and For Sale.

Krazy Wordz is a game of making fictional words. You’re all given a description and some scrabble tiles - you have to create a brand new word to describe a “Stuffed Animal” or a “Chocolate Bar” - then you lay out all the words and all the descriptions and secretly vote on which is which. I like the challenge in theory more than the game itself. Playing through a round is more fiddly than I’d like from a party game. And the misfortune of drawing descriptions that are similar can feel harsh on those players. It’s alright, but it feels like it should be better.

Don’t need that energy anymore

As mentioned in the video, for a long time I was on the hunt for weird and wonderful party games, and these ones were so niche that it felt like to include them in the video I would be talking to only one specific viewer.

Tokyo Train (aka Loco Motive) is from the same creative brain as Ugg-Tect - with a similar premise: you play on teams of two and must communicate to your partner how to arrange the passengers, but without speaking English. You can use hand gestures and the long Japanese names written on the cards, racing to finish before the other teams. It’s loud, silly fun. But pretty one dimensional. It packs an Ugg-Tect feel in a tiny box, which kept it in my collection for longer, but I never play it.

Brick Party is ANOTHER game like Ugg-Tect, that I actually prefer. In this game you’re using Lego pieces to build a structure faster than your rivals. And each round the difficulty rules change - sometimes you have to build with your eyes closed, or with one hand etc. I played this last year, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was running a team-building exercise. I think it would be great fun for kids.

Go Go Gelato is also better suited to kids - you flip a card and have to arrange the plastic ice cream cones and balls before the other players. There’s some puzzling because you have to work out how to arrange them, and a nice dexterity challenge because you can’t touch the ice cream balls with your hands, only with the cones you’re holding. It’s fun for ten minutes but I don’t really need this kind of experience anymore.

Word on the Street is a team party game (from my first Christmas video) in which you’re trying to win letters of the alphabet by pulling them to your side of the street by using them in a word that fits the current category. It’s a fun challenge, but a bit weird playing on a team because you can only pick one answer, and you have to discuss and decide against a timer. Definitely the kind of game I’d pick up to play with my daughter when she’s old enough, because it’s all about spelling.

Cube Quest is a two player flicking game that I liked in my dexterity mega review video.  You’re trying to knock your opponent’s king off the board, by flicking your plastic cubes at their defences. Each cube has special powers that are simple but give the game some strategic thought. I can’t fault the game for what it is, I just can’t think of a moment where I’d bring a game like this out. When I’m playing two player I’d rather sit down with something thinky. But again, it would be great to play with a kid.

Duplik is a quirky drawing game from my Alternatives to Pictionary video. One player must describe a detailed drawing to the other players, who have to recreate it from their description. Then the game reveals criteria to mark the drawings by - details that if they’re present in the drawing will score them points. And it’s so hard to draw it all against the timer. But the game is fun for a few rounds, but not much beyond that.

Too lucky

I touted Show Manager for a long time as an underrated gateway game with an interesting theme, but terrible artwork. You are collecting actors to put into the cast of musical theatre productions. It has some really innovative mechanisms that I’ve not seen in any other game. But after playing it recently, I found that the card display for recruiting actors introduces a lot of luck to what cards you end up getting. It could probably be fixed in a redesign, but for now it feels dated and not worthy of my collection. Hollywood Golden Age is an auction game about casting movies that I much prefer.

Penny Press is another gateway level game with an interesting theme. I really liked the light area control battle of sending journalists to news articles to steal them from each other. But after many plays I found that it was unfavourable to players later in the turn order, and getting bumped off consistently can make players fall behind, with no chance of catching up, which just isn’t fair.

Games I’ve been enjoying lately

• Forbidden Jungle
• Match of the Century

• Basketboss

New arrivals

• Empire’s End
• Romi Rami
• Art Society

Song of the Month - Date Night by Kita Alexander

Video the Month - Roast by Please Don’t Destroy

Have a great month everyone!

Actually yours,

Jon