Unearth Review

Herbaceous is one of the best games of 2017

Building Hoyuk

Hoyuk

Designed by Pierre Canuel

Published by MAGE Company

2 to 5 Players

60 to 90 Minutes

Tile Placement and Set Collecting

(7/10 Stars)

Hoyuk is a fantastic tile laying and set collecting game that has great production quality. The artwork is very nice and the game mechanics are solid and provide interesting choices to be made each phase of the round. Players can't remain on their own in this game either, they must join other players' on different blocks to try and optimize their chance at getting more aspect cards - and in return more building options and sets for points. The game includes rules to play a basic game, medium game, and advanced game. You can also shorten games by choosing to play with a lower number of houses that each player starts with. All these options result in variability in game length and difficulty.

On the down side, the game only comes with one storage bag and there is no insert to keep all the tiles separated. You will need to purchase your own bags to keep everything separated out or else you will be faced with a longer setup time to sort everything out. The instruction book is actually really good, but there is a slight learning curve for the iconography of the catastrophe cards. It is also interesting because if you don't have things separated out, it will take you longer to setup the basic game than the advanced game (since the basic game causes you to remove certain things - where as the advanced game you wouldn't need to because you use everything).

All in all, I am giving Hoyuk a 7/10. I think it is a really solid game with great game mechanics, artwork, rulebook, and the quality of the components is top notch. The game really needs some better storage options, but Hoyuk is one that I will continue to enjoy a lot and that is How Lou Sees It!

My interview with the board game designer Pierre Canuel and Mage Company can be read here: http://howlouseesit.blogspot.com/2014/02/hoyuk-coming-to-kickstarter.html

Hoyuk: Anatolia is an expansion to Hoyuk and is on Kickstarter only for another 40 hours or so! Check it out now or if you were too late, check Mage Company's website for future buying possibilities. http://www.magecompany.com/

I was given this copy of Hoyuk as a review copy for free from MAGE Company.

Who is the Belle of the Ball?

Belle of the Ball

Designed by Daniel Solis

Published by Dice Hate Me Games

2 to 4 Players

30+ Minutes

Set Collecting, Card Drafting

(8/10 Stars)

One of my past featured Kickstarters, the Belle of the Ball has finally arrived and the party can now get started! I was able to interview Chris from Dice Hate Me Games and the designer Daniel during the Kickstarter campaign and I was very excited to see the final version.

Belle of the Ball does not disappoint - the game mechanics are well thought out and work very well, the components are top notch, and the artwork is just fantastic.  With all of that and a well applied theme, Belle of the Ball may just become your new favorite set collecting game.

With elegant simplicity, Belle of the Ball may just be the star of your next game night.  The game provides good player interaction and the guest cards have some pretty funny names that will have everyone laughing (or at least smiling).  The Belle of the Ball cards provide the needed variance and strategy as you each try and create the best parties.  Collecting guests that share similar interests, I think the theme fits really well.  I like that the game has some different advance variants that will ensure good replay value.  Well worthy of being featured on my blog, I say don't wait for an invitation - go get a copy for yourself and start your own party today!  And that is How Lou Sees It.

Bite Sized Sushi

Sushi Go!

Designed by Phil Walker-Harding

Published by Gamewright

2 to 5 Players

15 Minutes

A Card Drafting Game with Set Collecting

Great Artwork, Simple, Quick, and Fun

Card drafting set collecting card game that is fun for both young and old. The mechanics and rules of the game are really simple allowing kids to completely understand and enjoy the game quickly while the game provides enough enjoyment that adults will be asking for seconds too! The game is as simple as choose a card from your hand and reveal that card at the same time as the other players reveal their card. You add that card to your play area and pass the remaining cards to the player to your left and play all over again. You continue until all the cards have been played - score that round and play another. Save room for pudding as that is the only card that stays from round to round and isn't scored until after the third and final round.

Easy to teach and play this is a great family or light card game for all ages. I like the playful artwork and the utility of the cards. 7 Wonders may be another game you have heard about - it uses the same card drafting mechanic of choosing a card and then passing the remaining cards to another player. This game mechanic provides a lot of strategy in such a simple idea. Do you take what you need now? Is there another Sashimi card out there and I should take one in hopes of getting 2 more? Wait...if I don't take the pudding card the next player will and they will make me have the least. The game is like its artwork - simple, clean, and fun. I highly recommend it with 7/10 Stars and that is How Lou Sees It!

I was provided a review copy of Sushi Go! by Gamewright free of charge. This has no impact on my review of the game. Please check out my other reviews and follow me on Twitter (@landonsquire)!

Valley of the Kings

Valley of the Kings

Designed by Tom Cleaver

Published by AEG

2 to 4 Players

45 Minutes

Deck-Building and Set Collecting

A very unique deck-building game. It provides a new feel as it mashes together deck-building with set collecting. It provides an interesting balance of utilizing cards in your deck and putting those same cards from your deck into your tomb for points. Very enjoyable. Took longer than I expected to play and it felt like there were many difficult choices to be made. I'm excited to see how the game develops with time and that is How Lou Sees It!

I was provided a copy of this game by AEG for review.

Yardmaster Preview

Yardmaster
Designed by Steven Aramini
Published by Crash Games
2 to 4 players
20 minutes
Set collecting, trading, and train building
Prototype version reviewed, on Kickstarter soon

Background/Introduction
I won a copy of a prototype version of Yardmaster from a contest on Board Game Geek. I was very excited to get my copy. Yardmaster recently won the ION award from the 2014 Salt Lake Gaming Convention. This award is given to......blah blah blah.

There are a lot of train themed games out there, but I have yet to play one myself that doesn't involve train routes - until I played Yardmaster. Yardmaster seems to be unique in this regard as the goal is to be the first to build or link up your train before your opponents. You are building a train by purchasing railcars using sets of cargo cards. Players score a set amount of points for the different railcars added to their train. First player to the designated amount of points wins.

Components and Rule Book
As this is a prototype I won't be saying much considering that what I played with was only a prototype. That being said, the quality of the prototype cards were very nice and I would be happy with that quality for the final version.

I would also like to say that even though high quality cardboard tokens could work for the exchange rate tokens, I would love to see these produced as high quality poker chips. Or at least an option for such as a stretch goal.

The rules presented in the prototype were straight forward and we'll explained. Simple game play is not over complicated by rules. Seem good enough. I would like to see some other variants possibly (again, maybe via stretch goals). I share some variant ideas a bit later.

The artwork is really cool. It is a good overall analogy to how I feel about the game. Clean, crisp, simple, and enjoyable. Like the rule book, the artwork does a lot by not over complicating things. Words are provided with symbols or depictions of railcars along with an old school feeling color theme that just seems to fit the game so well.

Game Play and Thoughts
Setup is easy. Shuffle the railcar and cargo card decks, put three railcar cards face up and deal out three cargo cards to each player. It may be very small, but I like the fact that it is easy to remember the number of cards as it is three and three and this doesn't change with amount of players. Each player also starts with one of the four exchange rate tokens given out at random.

Game play consists of performing two actions on your turn. You may perform each available action multiple times if you wish although you can only purchase one railcar each turn. Basically there is three different actions you can perform.

Gain a new cargo card
You may gain a cargo card by drawing blindly from the top of the facedown cargo deck, or you may take the top cargo card from the cargo discard pile (you can't perform the later if the top card is a bonus card).

Gain a new railcar
You may purchase one of the three face up railcars from the center by paying the number of cargo cards matching the color and number shown on that railcar. The color represents the type of cargo/railcar and the number on the car is both the cost and point value.

Trade exchange rate token
Each player begins the game with and can utilize at any time the 2:1 exchange as shown on their current token (i.e. If you have the coal exchange rate token, two coal can be any other cargo). As one of your actions you may exchange your token with any other player or with any tokens left in the bank.

The Yardmaster token allows the player to take an additional action (three instead of the normal two). This token is passed to the right after that players turn and play continues to the left. The first player to the goal point value is the winner.

Building your train
When purchasing a railcar from the center, this must be added to your train if possible. The first card behind the engine can be anything, but then cards to be added after must match the color or number of the last car. If a purchased railcar can't be added, it gets stored in a player's sorting yard. Then, later in the game, cars will be added to the train if able, not costing any actions to do so.

Thoughts
Yardmaster is a great light set collecting game. Very easy to learn, Yardmaster still offers some nice strategy while keeping it simple. I really think that the artwork is great and refreshing. The game play is interesting, because players need to balance nabbing a train each turn and waiting to try and get a larger point value train (while risking the possibility that an opponent would nab that same train). Switching an exchange token with an opponent could mess with your opponent's strategy and perhaps keep a railcar still around while you try and get the last cargo that you need. The game is a light card game though, and at times the options seem very limited. I guess that is where some of the other strategy and risk taking comes into play. You will most likely be taking many cargo cards blindly, so that adds a luck element to the game (and yet you have the option of taking a known card - but that is just it - it is only one face up cargo card to choose from or you take one blindly. Interesting.

The train building and sorting yard is also an intriguing thing. You can purchase some higher priced railcars even if they can't be added to your train right now, but you risk not being able to add them at all. Placing lower valued cars is a safer bet that you will be able to continue to add more and more cars, but then again is taking 4 actions to purchase 4 different 1 value cars better than taking 1 action to purchase a 4 valued car? You won't be able to add on your train as easily, but you still have the same color you can add and get the value lower again to match other cars. But I ramble. The truth is, the game has some strategy, the game is simple, and it has a large luck component as well. Is it all balanced? I'm not sure yet, but I can say that it is a fun game that you can start playing within a couple of minutes and provides a nice casual game play that can be enjoyed by a wide range of people and that is How Lou Sees It.

A big SHOUT OUT to Crash Games for the prototype version sent to me free of charge and for the opportunity to review Yardmaster. If you are interested in learning more, I will post a link to the Kickstarter here when available. Video review also provided below. Enjoy!

Variant Ideas
-Sorting yard rail cars must be played/added to your train in order of purchase.
-Play with the exchange tokens face down. Reveal it when you use it. As an action you can take all the tokens and shuffle them face down and pass out again.
-Play either without the exchange tokens, or play with fixed tokens (can't trade them).

(Work in progress, I may add more ideas for variants, or house rules here in the future.)

Unemployed Unite!

Guildhall: Job Faire
Designed by Hope S. Hwang
2 - 4 Players
45 Minute play time
Ages 10 and up

Background / Introduction
Are you one currently unemployed or looking for a better job? A good place to go and hand out resumes is your local Job Fair. At this Job Faire your options are Robber, Tax Collector, Scholar, Peddler, Hunter, or Bricklayer. Out of those options in this day and age, I think I would have to be a Scholar myself.

Well, in Guildhall: Job Faire, players are trying to collect and grow the different chapters in their guildhall so that they might be able to perform more powerful actions and claim victory points. This review today is just based on this Job Faire version of the game which is a sequel of sorts to the first Guildhall game. The game can be played on its own, or integrated with cards from the first game. I hope to get you a review of the first version sometime in the future, but the game mechanics are all the same, just with different professions. Each of the professions are represented in all the different colored cards. As you add different colored cards of the same profession to a chapter in your guildhall, that profession becomes more skillful and powerful when you play them in the future. When you have a full chapter, you can then use that chapter to buy victory points. The player who can reach 20 victory points first is the winner.

Components / Rules
AEG does a great job with the box and quality of the components and rule book. The cards are of a nice quality, although I would have liked the little cardboard victory points provided to be upgraded to a nice metal or something (I'm not a huge fan of little coin like pieces being made out of cardboard and popped out of that large print out. For some reason I always tear a few of them while I try to get them out. Could just be a personnel error.). AEG leaves other slots or room for other cards if you decide to purchase both Guildhall games out now (or perhaps a future expansion?) which is nice to have.

The rule book is well done and the game really isn't that complicated. Each of the cards have icons on them reminding players what they do. I will get into the cards a bit more in the actual game play section, but one thing that I think a lot of people may have trouble with is the symbology of the cards and keeping track of what each ones mean. For more experienced gamers, this may not be a big deal, but at least for the first few games, you will probably have to refer back to the rule book to remember how each profession works or what the bonus actions do with the victory points. You should get the hang of it after a few plays though, and then it isn't a huge issue. I do wonder though if it would have been better to summarize the concept or main action that that profession takes right on the card. Then they could have still had symbols on the card showing the difference as the cards get more powerful. For those interested, there is a file on www.boardgamegeek.com that has the action explanations for reference in a well presented way that you could print off and have handy for each player.

Game Set Up / First Turn
All of the profession cards (120 cards) are shuffled. This is a lot of cards to shuffle! The victory point cards (30 of them) are shuffled and 5 are flipped over face up for purchase. 9 cards are then dealt to each player from the profession deck. Each player then goes through a first turn set up phase. This includes discarding any cards you want, and re-drawing up to 9 cards. Then you place 3 cards from your hand face up onto the table in your guildhall (no cards can be duplicates here in your guildhall and you can't play a card into your action area later in the game if you already have that card in your guildhall). You group cards of the same profession together and these are called chapters.

Gameplay
On your turn, you have 2 actions that you can perform. Your choice of actions: Play 1 card, Discard any number of cards and draw back up to 6 cards, and Buy 1 victory point card. Each of the profession cards have an action associated with them and you can perform better actions if you match the number needed by how many cards are in that specific chapter. There are some limitations given with some of the cards, but I won't go into detail about that. The fact is, the game is really simple. The hard part is remembering the symbols and terms used in the game and getting used to those. At the end of your turn, all of the cars played in your action area gets transferred into your guildhall. When a chapter has all 5 colors, that chapter is complete and turned over face down (those cards no longer control the actions related to that profession). You can have a maximum of 3 completed chapters in your guildhall at one time. The game ends when at the end of a turn, someone has 20 or more victory points. The player with the most points wins.

The Cards

Here is a quick summary of what the general actions are from each of the professions. Keep in mind that they change slightly as you have more of that kind in your guildhall. Some very cool different cards and 3 of the six are very interactive with the other players.

Robber - Take cards from one other players hand into your guildhall. Doesn't she look so happy?

Bricklayer - Draw cards from the deck, then place cards from your hand back on top of the deck.

Peddler - Swap cards in your hand with cards in one other players guildhall.
Place the cards from the other player's guildhall into your hand. Then take another action.

Tax Collector - Gain VP equal to the number of Tax Collectors in your guildhall. Place 1 card from your guildhall in one other player's guildhall. He is going to go all Sheriff of Nottingham on all you!

Hunter - Look through the discard pile and swap cards from there with cards in your guildhall.

Scholar - Draw cards from the deck and put them directly into your guildhall.

Thoughts

I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened up the box, but what I found was a very enjoyable set collecting game. It seems that whenever anyone sees a game these days made up of cards, the immediate thought for some is "I wonder how much this game is like Dominion?" Well, the victory point cards have shields on them, and both games are made up of cards...but that is about it. Guildhall Job Faire does a great job at creating something very original and enjoyable. To score points you need completed "chapters" or sets, but what profession are you going to focus on while you do that? Then you have to decide what is going to be the best help to you to purchase? The 3 points that also allows you to play cards from your hand into your Guildhall? Or do you spend more and get more points but no bonus action? This game has a lot more too it than just a set collecting game, and it does it very well. The symbology isn't my favorite, but it is something that I can get past. The only other thing is that the game only has the 6 different professions. I feel that you may grow tired of using the same ones. Luckily AEG has the original version as well to help remedy that. So, with an available 12 different professions now between the two, you should be set for a while. 3 Fingers up or 8/10 stars. If you are looking for a fun new set collecting card game with a lot of strategy to it, I would recommend Guildhall Job Faire and that is How Lou Sees It.

A big SHOUT OUT to AEG for making this review possible. Remember to keep playing board games!