This week we had enough time to get in two different games. Brian brought over one from his collection and Nikki and Jeff brought one from theirs. I thought I'd talk a little about both. The first game we played this week was Mission: Red Planet (Second Edition) which Brian brought along. This edition of the game came out in 2015 and was designed by Bruno Cathala and Bruno Faidutti. It plays two to six players and took our group of five approximately an hour and a half with additional time needed for teaching and learning the game. The theme of the game is somewhat self-evident. The artwork is a sort of steam punk space travel. The card art was very nice. The game board was not much to speak of. It was a circular puzzle-like construction instead of the typical folding rectangular board. Each team had its own color plastic mini's depicting an astronaut with a flag. There was no difference from one color to the next ... all used the same sculpt. Overall the components were of high quality and looked nice. The game was relatively easy to pick up. The goal was to acquire the most points by collecting different valued resources from the various regions on Mars or on Phobos its moon. To do this players send their astronauts to the Red Planet via spaceships (cards) which typically list the destination. To get your astronauts onto the ships you must use one of the 9 professional cards in your hand. Each player had the same 9 cards to choose from. Each card clearly states how many astronauts can be placed and where, plus other possible actions such as moving your astronauts, blowing up a space ship or resetting your hand of cards. There were also Mission, Action and Discovery cards that added additional goals and twists to the victory points and rules. The game plays over the course of 10 rounds. Spaced between rounds were three scoring opportunities (just after the 5th, 8th, and 10th rounds). Upon completing the tenth round the discovery cards are revealed and assessed. Points get calculated and a winner is determined by the highest points. A couple of the game mechanisms were reminiscent of other games we've played, however since the original version of Mission: Red Planet came out in 2005, its quite possible that it could have been the source of those mechanics or at least an early adopter. We all seemed to enjoy our game. Of course, Brian who brought it, ended up winning. That's to be expected when playing against others who are just learning the game and it didn't seem to detract from our experience. We all seemed to enjoy it. The concepts and rules were easy to grasp, and everyone quickly figured out how to use the professional cards implement some sort of strategy. The newbies all agreed that now that we've got one game under our belt and are familiar with the mechanics and game play, we'll be better equipped to play again. We said we'd be interested in playing again at a future game night. Better watch out Brian, we're coming for you! We had time to play Century: Spice Road for our second game of the night. This is a game released in 2017 and designed by Emerson Matsuuchi. This card-based "euro" game plays up to five players and took us about an hour or so at that count, including some teaching time. Chris and Brian hadn't played before, so Nikki took us through the rules and gave a refresher for the rest of us. The basic theme of the game centers around spice trading. The over-sized cards are nicely illustrated. The wooden cubes did a good job of representing the four spices with colors that were obviously different and easy to tell apart. Four plastic bowls are included to hold each of the spices as well as metallic coins, making this relatively simple game feel a little more robust. The goal of the game is to collect the most victory points. This is achieved by gaining the spice combination required to claim one of the five Victory Point cards that are available. The first two cards in succession add the bonus of a gold (3 points) or silver coin (1 point). Each player is given the same two starting merchant cards in their hand. Merchant cards allow you to gain new spices, upgrade spices, trade spices, etc... On a players turn, they may do one of four things:
This is a nice light-weight game that has plenty of strategy and thinking. It was almost odd to sit in silence periodically as each of us concentrated on our cards and contemplated strategy. Assessing what spices would be needed and cards to attain or play to get the outcome each of us needed. We seemed to be spending more time thinking on this game than in Mission: Red Planet. The game ended with Nikki winning. She is the current Century: Spice Road expert of the group, though Brian did score second best in this his first play. Again, we all seemed to like playing this one. Of course, with our group its rare that we don't have fun. Just getting together and playing games is part of the enjoyment. A great option for a shorter game! If you've had a chance to play either or both of the games described, share your thoughts in the comments. If you haven't played them, I hope you found my game-night descriptions informative. Always looking for your feedback, feel free to chime in or contact me with any questions or suggestions.
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