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Actualol Newsletter - March 2024
🕑 Added 2024-03-25 16:21:53 +0000 UTCHello patrons!
I hope you enjoyed my Top 10 Games of 2023 video and if it inspired any purchases that they bring you lots of fun!
In this newsletter, I've got three good games to tell you about (for once!) - Marabunta, Mind Up! and Rafter Five.
Next up on the channel will be a video about my collection. And an extra patron exclusive video to go with it!
Actual Life
It's been a challenging four days, we were in the hospital twice over the weekend because Aurelia had a 40C temperature and wasn't feeding. Then Serena caught the virus and was knocked out by it, so I was looking after them both. I don't know how people with 2+ kids do it! I'm writing this with a baby sleeping on me - hooray for smartphones.
Thankfully I'm yet to fall and Aurelia is over the worst of it, so hopefully we'll be back to our normal levels of sleep deprivation soon!
Actual Games
Last year it took me until September to find a new game that would end up in my Top 10 games of the year. So it's nice to find three contenders so early in 2024.
Marabunta is a two player roll and write game from the designer who never sleeps (and we must never sleep on), Reiner Knizia. What makes this one different is that you're both writing on the same board.
You play as ants, fighting to control a picnic blanket. Trying to win regions by having the highest total of your numbers in it.
One player rolls the dice and divides them into two piles - then the other player chooses which pile they want. In classic “I split, you choose” fashion.
High numbers are best, but colour is important because you can only write a number adjacent to what you already have. And you're trying to block off your opponent from being able to expand into other regions.
You can also aim for cupcakes, which give you points, and crates which give you special powers if you collect enough of them.
It's beautifully simple, and yet really tough to decide how to divide up your dice, and even then how to use them. I look forward to playing this one more.
Mind Up is one of those themeless card games with just numbers and colours, which I have a real soft spot for, when they're done well.
There's a row of cards on the table. You will each win one of those cards to score. To decide who gets what, you all pick a number card from your hand and reveal and put them in order, below the row - taking the card yours lines up with. If you want the leftmost card, you'll play your lowest, but other players might play lower than you.
It draws comparisons to 6 Nimmt, but that game is all about avoiding devastation, whereas Mind Up is more positive - trying to get the most points.
The card you win goes in front of you. The scoring is really interesting - your first colour is worth 3 points, your second 5 points, your third 1 point etc. So once you've established what your second colour is, you'll be desperate to get more of that colour in later turns.
And to make certain cards more or less appealing, some have bonus +2 or -2 points on the cards themselves.
Like 6 Nimmt you're trying to predict what other people will play, but you don't know what's in their hand. So there's some luck, but also some reward for going against the grain.
It's a hard one to describe in a newsletter but if you like an easy to learn card game, for 3-6 players, I'd recommend Mind Up!
Rafter Five is a fun dexterity game in a small box from Oink games. 
The box acts as an island, surrounded by water cards. On top of the box are 5 wooden people.
Every turn, a player must lift up one of the people, pick up a card from the sea (which looks like a wooden plank on the other side) and place the person on top of the plank, adding to the raft you're building. Then take one of your colour crates and balance it on the same plank.
The plank has to go on top of an existing plank, so everything becomes connected. By picking up a person you could be robbing another plank of it's vital counter balance and make everything collapse.
You're trying to survive your turn without anything falling into the sea. If you make someone else’s crate fall it goes on your penalty board. The player who fills their penalty board up first, loses the game.
It's a simple, fun balancing game that comes in a tiny box. There are better dexterity games, but for the price and size, this one is a winner.
Games I've been enjoying this month:
Little Tavern
Basketboss
Old London Bridge
Song of the Month - Don't Forget Me by Maggie Rogers
Video of the Month - Inside The View spinoff “The Look” by Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists
I hope you have a great month!
Actually yours,
Jon
Comments
Jean-Raymond Raynal
2nd kid is daunting at first, but you soon realize that it's just more of the same. Not as life changing. So you batch process. Anything after that is just same old... Although I stopped at 3 because the first few months, those are getting harder to get through.
Tim Wiser
Rafter Five is one of those games that you play once and instantly buy your own copy of. Such good fun. It was - in my opinion - the game of the convention at the recent Airecon. Every time there was a roar of laughter and a cheer from anywhere in the gaming balls you could guarantee that it was from a table with Rafter Five on it.
