Actualol
patreon
Actualol Newsletter - November 2022
🕑 Added 2022-12-02 18:51:26 +0000 UTCHello newsletter receivers!
(Sorry for the delay, I’ve been struck down by the flu the last few days)
Welcome to the new patrons! Thank you so much for coming aboard and supporting my work - especially at such an uncertain time in the world. I can now look forward to the next year of making videos with excitement. Speaking of, I will be filming a Q&A video soon and then cracking on with my Top 10 Games of 2022, which I hope to release much earlier than previous years.
If you are new to Patreon, do come and join us in the Discord community, by adding your Discord account to your Patreon profile, which will connect you automagically.
This month I went to Lobstercon where I did a lot of gaming, so let me tell you what I played…
Lobstercon Autumn 2022
Cat in the Box (Deluxe Edition)
I was surprised by how much I liked this trick-taking game with a twist. The twist is that your cards are colourless and you decide what colour/suit it is when you play it, by assigning one of your tokens to the grid. And the grid provides a really easy way to see what cards have been played and what you’re up against - information usually only available to people with a good memory.
There’s a fun risk-taking aspect to the game, because if you have to play a “card” that shouldn’t be in the game because it’s not available on the grid, you’ve created a paradox, and get minus points.
The one thing I do love in trick-taking games is placing a bet on how many tricks you’ll win and trying to pull it off - as seen in the only two trick-taking games I own - Skull King and Pikoko - and it’s in Cat in the Box as well. I need to try this one again.
HEAT: Pedal to the Metal
I’ve been playing a lot of this lately. It’s the first racing game (without betting) that I’ve really enjoyed. As with many games I love, it’s all about knowing when to take risks. More on this one in a future video.
No Mercy is a push your luck card game from Reiner Knizia. It is very, very simple - flipping over cards, hoping you won’t go bust by flipping two of the same number. The twist - that makes the game really interactive - is that when you flip a number that someone else has in front of them, you can steal it from them.
So the cards are jumping back and forth between players, and it makes you want to keep flipping to find a ten so you can stop your opponent from cashing in a whole stack of them. It’s very lucky, but a lot of fun. I’m not sure it’s quite special enough to feature in a video (and hard to get hold of). The best game of this type is still PUSH. But I prefer it to Knizia’s Circus Flohcati.
Gang of Dice is a dice game from Reiner Knizia. You’re trying to roll dice, yahtzee style, to win certain challenges. 
Last Lobstercon I played another Reiner Knizia dice game called High Score, which was uninspired, and very similar. Gang of Dice is slightly better, but the decisions just aren’t that interesting, and the results all come down to the luck of the dice. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Wok and Roll is a simple roll and write game - you’re trying to mark off ingredients on your restaurant menu, to create dishes and score points. 
And it’s solid. It borrows ideas from the roll and writes that came before it, and creates a fine challenge with good decisions. But it just doesn’t stand out in the genre.
The Great Split
I was excited for this one from Horrible Games, an “I Split You Choose” game with a 1920s art deco theme. You are rich people, collecting expensive things. 
Every round, you will divide your loot of artefacts into two offerings for your neighbour - handing them a card wallet. Simultaneously, everyone picks from the two offerings they’ve received, and sends the other one back. It’s fun deciding how to divide your cards, and how to convince your neighbour to reject the cards you want so they come back to you.
The less exciting part is your player board - a stark series of tracks. For each thing you collect, you will climb a track. As you’d expect, you receive rewards for reaching certain points, and each type of artefact scores in a different way. It’s clever. But it feels very mechanical and solitary. I enjoyed the first half of each round, because it requires you to think about what your opponent wants, but the second half is a little too dry to match it. Not bad by any stretch, just not enticing me back in.
Kites is a cute real-time co-operative game. Your kites are six coloured sand-timers. And you’re trying to keep them in the air, by not letting the sand run out. 
You take turns, as fast you can, by playing a card and flipping the sand-timers displayed on that card. Of course, if you flip a sand-timer that is still full, it’s now got very little sand left! And to make things worse, each sand-timer lasts a different amount of time - so some need constant attention.
It’s a chaotic, stressful burst of fun - the game is over in ten minutes. We played it many times until we managed to win. If you’re looking for a rules-light game like this, I’d recommend it.
San Francisco was a real disappointment. A Reiner Knizia game, in which you draft cards to create a city on a personal board. 
I found the way you draft cards in this game to be downright annoying. You can go many turns doing nothing, just flipping a card and adding it to display - and there’s almost no decision. And then, by chance, when you do get an opportunity to take something, there is no choice! You either take this one card, or wait many more turns for something better, with no guarantee it will get any better! Woof, I’d never play this again.
Faces is an early 2000s party game that Tom Vasel used to rave about. I found it in a charity shop many years ago, and it has sat in my collection with only a few plays. This was its last hurrah. 
The game works on a basic level - you are picking which face looks like “they just smelled something bad”. But it’s just a little pedestrian. The game has the pointless board and scoring pawns found in mass market games. And it’s neither as clever or funny as modern party games.
Treasures of Nakbe is ANOTHER Reiner Knizia game. This one has a cute theme and nice artwork - adventurers are escaping a temple while being chased by a monster. 
And you each have a secret objective to keep three of them alive. On your turn you roll the die and decide which adventure to move, but you’re trying not to give away who you care about, because if the others work it out they will try to kill them. It’s fun for a couple of games, but not quite enough to entertain adults long term. I’d recommend it for families to play with kids - because it has plenty of drama.
Karen is a new twist on Balderdash, that plays with real one star reviews found on the Internet. There are three modes to it. For one, you read the review, for example “There is no God”, and you all write down a fake answer of what it’s reviewing. Then they’re all read out and you have to guess the right answer (it’s for a church btw). In the second mode, you have to fill in the blank of a review e.g. “I stayed in this hotel and found a ______ in the kettle”. And for the third, you have to write a plausible review of a specific place and get people to guess your fake review.
And it’s fun, for a bit. It’s a good game for Christmas because I think a family will enjoy it once. But after a few plays I was done with it, the answers all came out quite samey. It’s like the idea is funnier than the execution. But it’s better than most mass market Christmas games. But then so is Balderdash.
Fun Facts was a hit! Phew. I was starting to feel like a buzzkill. The 3rd game in the Just One, So Clover! line - this one has you guessing things about each other. “From 1 to 100, how much do you like dancing?” You write your answer on the underside of your player board, then place it somewhere in the line in relation to your friends, ranking yourself. 
You are playing cooperatively, trying to get everyone in the perfect order. It’s a fun challenge that gets everyone talking, and I really liked the questions - they helped you learn about each other, but never in an intrusive way. “How comfortable are you with being naked?” was a funny question. I had assumed you would need to play with close friends, but we still enjoyed it with some convention friends that I don’t even know the surnames of. I’ve always wanted a game like this in my collection, and this is the best of its type. I only wish the name was more inspiring - I don’t see it catching on.
Come Together is a strategy game about running a 1960s music festival. It’s heavier than I would usually opt for, but from some reliable designers, and with a cool theme so I thought I’d give it a go. 
And I was pleasantly surprised. I really liked the way the theme integrated in what you’re doing - recruiting acts, putting them on your stages, needing to collect the right fans to enjoy that type of music. And the way you do an action is you get more stuff if others join in too, hence “Come Together”.
So there’s lots to like. But there’s so many extra elements on top of that - tracks and rules that I didn’t need, and which complicate and lengthen the game. I wish it was a simpler game. But if you like the theme, and you like a medium/heavy euro game, then take a look.
Die Wandelden Tulme or The Wandering Towers has a striking table presence - big cardboard towers that stack on top of each other, and from two great designers Michael Kiesling (Azul) and Wolfgang Kramer (6 Nimmt). 
It involves moving the towers to imprison other player’s meeples inside them. Meanwhile, trying to get yours out and get them to the victory castle. It’s fun and chaotic, and I enjoyed the interaction of trapping each other. But ultimately the result came down to luck of the card draw. I won and it was because I kept getting really lucky with drawing the movement numbers I needed to get home. Fun for families, though.
Tiny Turbo Cars is a race game, heavily inspired by the classic video game “Micro Machines”. And in another ode to the 90s, it revolves around these sliding puzzles.
Each round you simultaneously try to program your car’s movement by arranging the icons you want on the puzzle. Racing to finish, because you’re punished for finishing last. Then you resolve your movement, and inevitably hit into obstacles, and each other.
It’s reminiscent of Colt Express, but with less direct conflict/screwage. For what it’s trying to achieve, I think it does it well, with minimal rules. I’m not personally nostalgic for those slide puzzles and that being the heart of the game doesn’t do much for me. But if it sounds up your street, I would recommend it. I’d just rather play Colt Express.
Doodle Rush is a chaotic speed-drawing game that plays in 6 minutes. You each have six words, and you’re all racing to draw them, and have people guess them, with lots of shouting. And it was great fun. It’s like a simpler, quicker, more intense version of Pictomania. I’m not saying it’s better - some will find this one too loud. But it maintains its place in my collection.
Phantom Ink is one of the best party games I’ve played this year. Each ghost is trying to communicate the same word to their team. The mediums offer up two question cards in secret that the ghost answers by slowly writing out a word, one letter at a time, until the mediums shout “silencio”. Knowing the question means you know more than the other team, so you don’t want to make the full answer public information. But by keeping the word short, you can often mistake it for something else! I love deducing the word from the tiny fragments of clues that you have, and there’s loads of team discussion. If you like word guessing games, this one is strong.
I wanted to hate Foundations of Rome, it comes in the biggest board game box I’ve ever seen. It is a monument to plastic monuments. 
But annoyingly, the game underneath the nonsense is actually good. Designed by Emerson Matsuuchi (Century Spice Road), it is a light, innovative city building game, with a shared board. 
You are competing to buy deeds so you can build your buildings in the best places to score points. It is interactive but not mean, it is strategic but not complex, and it is distinct from any other game I’ve played. But it’s also a bad omen for the industry. I really hope they release a cheaper, smaller version of this great game.
So Wrong It's Right is a fast, shouty game. You are all asked a very easy trivia question with a two word answer, e.g. “which city is named the big apple?”. And a card is flipped to tell you HOW to answer. Either Flip It - “York New”, Switch It - “Yew Nork”, Ditch it - “Ew Ork”, Got it (the normal answer) “New York”, or Not It - another answer in that vein, like “Paris”. The fastest to shout out the right answer wins the card, and you go again! It’s silly fun, but for the right group it will be a big hit. It’s easy to teach but twists your brain up in the right way. Similar to Anomia.
Been Enjoying Lately:
- Mists Over Carcassonne
- Air, Land & Sea: Spies, Lies and Supplies
- HEAT: Pedal to the Metal
Song of the Month - Bad Thing Twice by Carly Rae Jepsen
Now Watching - Babylon Berlin Season 4, The White Lotus Season 2
Now Reading - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Happy December!
Actually yours,
Jon
Comments
Kerry Kenney
wow! Such a great roundup!! this is brilliant!!! you definitely saved me money just reading this and I'm excited to pick up Kites!!
Daniel Mackrell
Updates like these are why I'm still a very happy supporter. Loads of interesting games here that I otherwise never would have heard of. Fun facts and So Wrong It's Right have got my interest!
