Sushi Go

It’s Friday night. You and some friends have decided to eat at a conveyer belt sushi restaurant.  Unfortunately, the belt is moving so fast you can only grab one thing at a time.  Everyone is ravenous, not listening to each other, just grabbing what they like best.  The chefs are doing their best to refill the belt, but between these gaps, you get to talk to your friends about how good each of your meals are, and darn it, you just feel like the others are having a better meal.  But what they forget is that you are grabbing dessert each time it comes around, and you are going to stuff yourself with delicious pudding while they are left with nothing.

This is the basic idea behind Sushi Go, a quick and cute card drafting game. The game consists of 3 rounds, at the start of which you will be dealt a hand of cards.  You will select a card, and pass the rest to your left.  Simultaneously, everyone reveals their chosen card, then you repeat the process until you have no cards left in your hand.  You then count up points for cards played (except pudding, which is counted at the end of the game), discard all cards except pudding cards, then another set of cards is dealt out, and the next round is played.  After the 3 rounds are played, a final scoring round occurs where everyone counts up their pudding cards, and the person with the most gets 6 points, and the person with the least loses 6 points.  If two players are tied, they either split the bonus or split the penalty.

There are 8 types of cards:

-Sushi Roll: These cards have a certain number of sushi roll symbols on them (ranging from 1 to 3). At the end of each round, the person with the most gets 6 points, and second most gets 3 points (ties are split).

-Tempura: For every two tempura cards, you get 5 points. A single card nets you 0 points.

-Sashimi: For every three sashimi cards, you get 10 points. 1 or 2 cards nets you 0 points.

-Dumplings: These award points as follows:

-1 dumpling: 1 point

-2 dumplings: 3 points

-3 dumplings: 6 points

-4 dumplings: 10 points

-5 or more: 15 points

-Nigiri: There are 3 types of Nigiri cards:

-Squid: 3 points

-Salmon: 2 points

-Egg: 1 point

Wasabi: the next nigiri card played is worth triple the value (wasabi can’t be played on cards that were previously played)

-Pudding: These are played then kept in front of you for the duration of the game. As mentioned above, these score you points at the end of the game

-Chopsticks: Once you’ve played these, they stay out in front of you for the duration of the round (they don’t carry over between rounds). On a later turn, you can say “Sushi Go!”, put the chopsticks back in your hand and play 2 cards instead of 1.

For those that have never played a card drafting game before, a big advantage that it provides is the ability for everyone to be involved in the game at all times. A game like this or Seven Wonders (review to be posted in the near future) doesn’t increase in time as you add players, so you can scale up or scale down the number of players without fear of the game going too long or people reaching for their cell phones due to boredom.

Would I suggest this game? For me, this is a perfect time-filler game.  This works well for times when you need a quick game, and most people will probably enjoy the cute illustrations.  This is also a great game to introduce people to the hobby of board/card gaming.  I know of about a dozen people in my groups that have played and love the game, and they are a very diverse set of people (as far as the types of games they enjoy).  I have a feeling it will make it to the table more frequently than some of the games I own, just because it is so quick and light.

On the downside, there isn’t as much strategy in a game like this, versus a game like 7 Wonders. You do still get a fair amount of the same risk-reward gameplay as in 7 Wonders, and this is a much better game for new players (faster to pick up and not as much of a penalty when playing against veterans of the game).

All in all, I would say this is a solid buy. This is well worth adding to your collection.

If this review was helpful and you are thinking about buying this game, please consider purchasing via the link below.

Sushi Go on Amazon

 

Lords of Vegas

I’m going to start this review by saying: go buy this…now…stop reading and go buy this.

Not convinced?  Okay, fair enough, I guess I can explain why.

In Lords of Vegas each player is a casino developer in Las Vegas, when it was just a set of parking lots and motels.  The goal of the game is to be the most powerful developer, through shady backroom deals, aggressive expansion, and taking over other people’s casinos.

The game board is split into several blocks of undeveloped Las Vegas real estate.  Each block is divided into several squares, so one block consists of 6 squares, another 9, etc.  You are then dealt 2 cards which give you property somewhere on the board.  It also tells you how much starting money you have.  Once this is done, the rest of the cards are dealt into 4 stacks, with the Game Over card put on top of the 4^th stack, and the other 3 placed on top.  This means that you will not see one-quarter of the cards in each game.  Once the Game Over card is drawn, the game ends immediately, and the winner is determined by victory points (with money as a tie-breaker).

Basic setup for a 4-player game

 

Each turn, the active player will draw a card, which tells them which property they now own, as well as which casinos pay out (more on this later).  Each player gets their money and victory points (both if applicable), then the active player has several things they can do.  They can do any and all of these actions as often as they want, as long as they have the money to do so, and follow some restrictions on certain actions.  These actions are:

Build: You can turn one of your spaces into a casino, or join it to an existing casino.  When building a casino, pay the amount on the space, choose a tile from the available stock, then place one of your dice in the space with the die side shown that matches the one on the board.  There are 5 colors in the game, each with its own theme (and each with 9 tiles and 9 cards of that color).  The color you choose helps determine if you get paid, score victory points, and whether you are joining the space to an adjacent casino, or as a separate one.  Joining an existing casino requires that you build the same color as the casino you are joining.  If you are adjacent to an existing casino, but you build yours in a different color, they are treated as two separate casinos.

Sprawl: If you are the pit boss in a casino (also covered later), you can sprawl to an adjacent empty space.  To do this, pay double the amount listed for the space, take an available tile of the same color as the casino you are sprawling from, then place it on the board.  If someone else gets that property later from flipping a card, they suddenly take ownership of the space by replacing your die with one of theirs (keeping the same die face).  In this way, they could potentially become the new pit boss.

Remodel: Don’t like the color of your casino?  You can remodel the casino, changing each tile from one color to another (assuming you are the pit boss).  The entire casino must be remodeled, not part of it, so there must be enough tiles of that color available in the stock to do this.

Reorganize: This action allows you to reroll all dice in a casino.  This is the most likely way that the pit boss changes hands in the game.  A reorganization can only be done once per die per round, so you can do multiple reorganizations in a turn, but you can never roll the same die twice.

Gamble: Need more money to build more casinos?  Want to deprive another casino owner of some cold hard cash?  Gambling allows you to put up some money at another player’s casino (where they are the pit boss), and roll 2 dice.  Roll the right numbers and you get your money doubled.  Roll a 2 or a 12 and they have to pay you double.  But roll the wrong numbers, and you lose your stake to the House.

As I mentioned above (thanks for bearing with me), each casino has a pit boss.  This is the player that has the highest die in a casino.  Only one person can be the pit boss of a casino, so if there is ever two people tied for highest die, a roll off occurs until one person is victorious.  As the pit boss, you can use the Sprawl and Remodel actions, but most importantly, you are the only one that scores victory points from the casino.  So to go back to the beginning of each round, the active player draws a card, and takes their spot.  Then, the color of the card is examined, and any casino that matches the color of the card gives the people in the casino money (one million dollars per pip shown on their dice, yes, one million, this is Vegas after all).  However, the pit boss also scores victory points.  They score one point for each tile in the casino.  It’s good to be the boss.

Scoring in this game is also a bit different.  As you can see below, the first 8 spots are normal, but then there is a 2 between the 8 and the 10 spot.  This is a “gate”.  To clear the gate, you must be able to score 2 points at the same time.  Since each casino is scored separately, to clear that gate you must be the pit boss of a 2-tile casino.  And the point value on the gates increases as the scoring track increases, which prevents one person from running away with the game.  In effect, this keeps morale up among those with a lower score, and also requires that the leader continue to make new deals or try riskier strategies to stay ahead.

So how do you choose which color to build?  Well, there are several reasons you might choose one color over another.  Usually it comes down to the odds of drawing another card.  Since there are 9 cards of each color, if there are 5 red cards out but only 2 of silver, then you would usually want to choose silver, as the chance of drawing another silver is much higher than red.  If, however, someone has built a lot of red and you have a spot that will give you the pit boss of a large red casino, it might be worth doing that.  There are also 3 Pay the Strip cards, which give a few extra opportunities to score points and money (the Game Over card is also considered a Pay the Strip card, but in practice we only hand out points as money is just a tie breaker and often there is not a tie for 1^st place).  For the Pay the Strip cards, any casino that can connect to a square along the center of the board gives players money/points.  Any casino not touching it is left out.

Trading can also be a big part of this game, and change the course of the game as a result.  Trades can only be made for things that can be done right now (so no trading for future actions), but almost everything can be traded.  If you trade properties that includes a spot that is built on, the person getting the property replaces the die with one of theirs, keeping the same die face shown (so if you get a property that shows a 5, you put your die in with the 5 side shown).

Game Over, Green won due to money tiebreaker

 

So would I recommend this game?  If the first paragraph is any indication, yes I would.  It’s a game that lets you feel rather clever, and can punish bad decisions, but not overly so.  There is a fair amount of chance in this game (as any game about Las Vegas should), depending on how dice rolls during reorganizations go, which cards are drawn, etc.  However, the luck can often be offset by making the right play or the right deal at the right time.  It is a bit heartbreaking when it gets back to your turn, you have everything you need to complete your plan, just to find that the card you flipped on your turn undoes everything you worked toward.  It’s bound to happen, you just have to quickly bounce back and work on plan B (even if that means developing plan B on the spot).

If you don’t enjoy games where you are directly confronting the other players at the table, this would not be a game for you.  Also, if you don’t like games that involve making deals with other players, you may not like this game.  However, if those don’t apply to you, I’d highly recommend this game.  This is one sits fairly high on my list.

If this review was helpful and you are thinking about buying this game, please consider purchasing via the link below.

Lords Of Vegas on Amazon

Kingdom Builder

Imagine you are tasked with creating a kingdom from a patch of land, but you have the following obstacles to overcome:

1. Each time you build, it has to be on a given type of land (grass, forest, etc).
2. You have to build to match the whims of some random people that all want something different.
3. You are competing for this land with up to 3 different builders.

This is the premise of Kingdom Builder, a game that will test your ability to think on the fly more than to think several moves ahead.

Each turn will find you playing the one (and only) terrain card in your hand, building 3 buildings (all buildings are identical) on terrain that matches the card, then discarding the card and drawing a new one. On your first turn, you can place anywhere on the board that matches your terrain card, after that, you must build adjacent if possible.

This might sound like a boring game, and it would be if this was it, but that is only the core mechanic in the game. It changes with villages.

For each game of Kingdom Builder, 4 boards are chosen randomly and arranged on the table to make a 2×2 playing board. Each board will contain different villages, and during setup 2 tiles that match the village are stacked on each village space (so 2 harbors are placed on the harbor village, 2 taverns are placed on tavern villages, etc).  When you place a building next to a village, you get to take 1 (and only 1) token from the village.  On subsequent turns, these can then be used as bonus actions.  These actions range from building on grassland or dessert, to things like moving an existing building onto water (which is the only way you can build on water).

Typical setup for a 2 player game (apologies for the glare)

Each game also has a random set of 3 citizens, which give points at the end of the game depending on what they require. One citizen might require that you build next to water, another in a straight line across the board.

 

 

Finally, there are castles. These give you points if you have at least one building adjacent at the end of the game (all points are earned at the end).  Typically castles don’t score you a lot of points on their own; however, several citizen cards wants you to interact with castles, so for games that include these citizens, the castles become pretty crucial.

The game continues around the table until one person has built all 40 of their buildings. Once this occurs, the round is finished and scoring takes place.

Above is an example game that has been completed (again, apologies for the glare).  The 3 village tokens on their own in the lower left are what blue accumulated during the game.  Orange actually acquired their tokens late in the game, and even with less buildings placed and less tokens (and received later than Blue received theirs), Orange won with a commanding lead.  As an additional note, the score board in the upper left of the image is actually the back of one of the board tiles, each of the 8 tiles has that printed on the back. In my mind, this is a great use of resources, since you will never play with all 8 tiles, there is no need for a separate board.

Would I recommend the game? The answer is yes.

The game flows quickly since you have a set of rules that constitute valid placements. This helps speed up gameplay as your hand is often forced and your choices become limited.  The box says it takes 45 minutes, and we found that to be pretty accurate.  It’s also not a complicated game, so it works as well for people who are new to board gaming as it does for people who are seasoned veterans.

That’s not to say this game isn’t without flaws. It’s possible to get stuck in one area of the board if you draw the wrong cards (and with certain citizens, this can destroy any chance of a good score).  Also, while the game goes fairly quickly, it’s tough to plan ahead even with one card, as you can’t know for certain where the opponents will play.

Even with those flaws, since it’s so quick, if you have a bad game you can likely fit a second one in right away and make up for the bad streak on the first one. For these reasons, I highly recommend this game.

If this review was helpful and you are thinking about buying this game, please consider purchasing via the link below.

Kingdom Builder on Amazon