The package we received arrived full to the brim. The submitted titles include family, party, strategy, cooperative and confrontational card games. And each closed in a neat box that fits into a larger pocket in the pants. All of them are characterized by the simplicity of the rules, the short duration of the game and a lot of randomness. More detailed descriptions of each of them – below.
Nine Minute Kingdom
Rome wasn’t built in a day. It probably took about 9 minutes, or a little longer.
For an empire building game, Nine Minute Kingdom has very simple rules. Keep one of the ten starting cards to build and pass the rest to the next player. We play until a colorful field of his kingdom grows in front of each player.
Before the game, we define goals – scoring methods. These focus on specific areas (their number and size), symbols and dots on the longest path. To the points for not adding a bonus for proper arrangement of symbols and … already. The whole game.
The devil is, of course, in the details: which card we choose and where we place it is crucial for scoring. We compete with other players for specific achievements, but when we see a matching card, it is worth changing your strategy and counting on gaining an advantage in a different field. This gives you a satisfying mix of long-distance planning and opportunistic / tactical play.
Nine Minute Kingdom after a few games can actually be played in a few minutes, which makes the game a nice break between other titles or as a dessert after playing a heavier title. Unfortunately, after two games we will rather hide the box than play the third.
The individual games do not differ enough to play kingdom building again and again. Randomizing targets gives you a sense of variety when those really only differ in color or symbol. The first two or three turns are also problematic. We choose one of the many cards when we do not know yet which way the game will go – the choice is then considerable, but paradoxically the impact on the score is small. It starts to get interesting only in the second half of the game, when we see which goals the opponents want to meet and we can make it a bit more difficult for them.
To sum up – the game can be fun if we do not expect it to delight us for many hours. Dosed in moderation – up to 9 minutes at a time – it can be an ideal filler for many groups.
Playability: 7 Build
Quality: 7
Originality: 5
Replayability: 5
Our rating: 6
The Suits
The first rule of The Suits – we’re not talking about The Suits .
Enter the dark basement: an assassin, mafia, mechanic, seducer and cook. Sounds like a joke, but it’s about a duel very seriously. Melee weapons, firearms and… coffee will be used. Also cards in the hand and we fight!
The Suits is a duel game – we play as one of the available characters and try to defeat the opponent.
We perform the turns alternately. The active player takes three from his hand of five cards, and from these blinds, the opponent chooses one to resolve. Discard the remaining two cards and refill the hand back to five cards. The opponent takes the turn and takes turns until someone loses the last life point.
By the way, the cards we play have minimalist but charming graphics and are very legible – even in low light we can recognize them without any problems.
Coming back to the duel – each character has special abilities and deck composition. The cards include weapons that deal damage to the opponent, a heart that means healing, coffee and money used to activate abilities, and a skull that is undesirable to play, but can sometimes work to our advantage.
The essence of the game lies in the interaction between the abilities of our characters. These can do wonders – from simple effects that increase damage and the number of cards in your hand, to more complex ones, such as discarding cards from your opponent’s hand, keeping certain cards for the next turn, searching the deck, weakening your opponent’s deck. There is a lot of it, because each character has its own unique style of play.
It is worth mentioning here that in each of the three boxes (seasons) of the game you will find 5 characters. These are compatible with each other and nothing prevents you from freely combining them in deadly duels. The number of possible combinations is then huge.
Okay, but why aren’t we talking about The Suits ?
Well, after you play it once and check your abilities in action, the next game with the same character will not bring anything new to the game. Over time, we notice that our opponent is “that guy who heals in a different way” or “that guy who can do extra damage for coffee.” At the same time, we are not able to react to his abilities in any way. And that’s the point.
The Suits game in its assumptions is a light, highly random card game for 10 minutes between assembling one larger game and unfolding the next one. Luck is the main factor determining the victory – we have a negligible influence on what our character will do in a given turn, and we cannot disturb the opponent in any way. Sometimes the moment of using an ability is crucial, but in the vast majority of cases the game is played without making any important decisions.
Is it wrong?
It depends on what we expect from the game. If we want to figure out an intricate plan and then implement it, we should definitely look elsewhere for that. However, if we have some time and want to move a few cards without too much effort, The Suits may suit us. This text would be better in English: “Then, The Suits would suit us”.
Playability: 5 Build
Quality: 7
Originality: 6
Replayability: 4
Our rating: 5.5
Merchants
Ships left, I wonder what will they come back with?
In Mercatores , we play the roles of merchants who bring goods from distant parts of the world. The game is divided into two separate parts – first, we fill the ship’s holds with goods, and then we sell these goods.
Loading
The players take turns loading: they play a card from their hand to the common market, draw 2 or 3 cards from it, and then add cards from their hand to their ship’s hold. This phase ends when a player has 15 or more cards on his ship.
Sale
This phase is different – players discard the goods they collected earlier and exchange them for victory points. The more cards of a given good, the more we will sell them for (similar to Beans ). There is a bit of confusion about the tax rule – having to discard an additional card without considering it for sale – and the effects of gray cards. These have special scoring rules and their value depends, for example, on the variety of goods we have or on additional symbols on some cards at our neighbors.
Then we count the points and choose the winner. And it happens about 10-15 minutes after the first cards are dealt.
To win in Mercatores , we have to figure it out a bit. The decisions made in the first phase of the game will translate into opportunities for scoring in the second phase. We have to observe the actions of the opponents, take the key card for them, and then sell our goods in such order as to earn as much as possible and give as little opportunity to earn for others as possible.
The whole thing is accessible, fast, but original gameplay. Over time, we will see that a bit too much depends on the cards drawn, some choices are apparent and there is one, optimal order of selling goods in a given situation.
Fortunately, the speed of the game means that we do not focus on its shortcomings – batch, two, and we keep going!
Playability: 6 Build
Quality: 7
Originality: 5
Replayability: 5
Our grade: 5.75
Farm Fuss
Race on elbows and hooves.
Farm Fuss is about the animal race on the farm with Horse, Dog, Goat, Chicken and Pig, among others. How to make each animal have a chance of winning? They must have special movement abilities.
After unfolding the game, draw the initial order of the animals and deal players with cards that look like dominoes. Each card contains pictures of two of the nine animal runners.
During the game, players alternate playing cards, which causes one of the animals to use its movement ability and the order of the race changes. After playing the last card, we give a score – for each played card of the animal that won the race, we get 3 points. Likewise, we score points for animals in second and third places.
Therefore, it is worth following during the game who controls which animals and prevent your opponents from scoring high, by implementing your own strategy yourself.
A lot happens during the game – the favorites are sent off at the end or overtaken by players who were so inconspicuous. The cow pushes everyone, the cat perversely goes to the end of the peloton to take the lead at the right moment, and the goat … she is stubborn and cannot be moved like this.
The variety of effects creates a lot of confusion, which in a four-player game turns into chaos. He is partially controllable, but only the last player can be sure of the order in which the animals will reach the finish line. This is both the greatest advantage and disadvantage of Farm Fuss .
Our score depends on the order of the animals at the end of the game and the number of cards with the winning graphics played. In practice, the initial few moves make no difference to the score, while the last few can turn the scoring upside down. And this is a trait that, when accepted, translates into fun in the game.
We play cards, the order changes, someone will be happy, someone just broke the plan. Some animals have an easier path to victory, others are unpredictable and can win by surprise. Therefore, without taking the game quite seriously and not worrying about animal control, we can have a good time.
Playability: 6 Build
Quality: 7
Originality: 6
Replayability: 5
Our rating: 6
Mixture Mischief
Crow’s leg, mandrake root, pinch of grated fern, stir and it’s ready. Once we have the witcher’s instant soup in the mug, we can sit down to read the review of the game Mixture Mischief .
In the absence of the great alchemist, the players were left alone in the great laboratory with the responsibility of guarding the cats. This is the perfect opportunity to prove that by working together, we are also able to prepare magical infusions with miraculous properties. Just don’t let these cats bother you too much!
The object of the game is to prepare as many potions as possible before the deck of ingredients runs out. The premise is simple: the cauldron must contain 6 ingredients in different colors and with different symbols. The task would be easier if it were not for the fact that during your turn you have to add a card to the potion. And one more thing: when we add a card with a symbol or a color like those already in the cauldron, those cards are discarded. There are also cats in our team – neutral players whose cards are face up, giving you a chance to plan your move. Communication in the game is limited – we can only ask other players about some characteristics of the cards.
The assumptions of the game seem interesting at first glance. We have the promise of an abstract logic puzzle that we solve together. Some of the information is uncovered, but we have some limitations in communication. The only problem is that the whole thing didn’t mix well and there were lumps left.
It is relatively easy to come to the point where there are already 4 cards on the table. It seems that only the last two should be added, but these must have very specific colors and symbols. Limited communication gives very little information and as a result it is very difficult to prepare a potion.
We have had some games where we were unable to prepare any potions, and the peak achievement was 3. We had the impression that it was more dependent on choosing the right card than on establishing a plan. Feelings lingered regardless of the number of players and the chosen difficulty level. The game was a bit better as a solo puzzle – then you can focus on implementing the plan.
Mixture Mischief may prove to be a curiosity or a challenge for one person. However, it is difficult for me to recommend it as a game for each group.
Playability: 4 Build
Quality: 6
Originality: 5
Replayability: 4
Our score: 4.75
Don’t let go of the peacock
The game, as the name suggests, is a party game. We deal cards between 3–7 players. Among them are Peacocks – special cards that are automatically lost when played.
During the game, we do everything we can not to “let go of the peacock” – we will pick more cards “for the other leg”, pass them to each other “right to left” or exchange them [xxx]. In the end, someone will have no choice but to let go and … lose.
The cards have simple effects that make the game dynamic and unpredictable. One moment it seems to us that we are not in danger of losing, but then the situation changes and we have only one option not to lose.
The game is supposed to play with descriptions and illustrations on the cards, the mechanics are simple and the gameplay is as fast as a monkey behind a store. The whole thing is quite fun, as long as we accept the kind of humor offered. It is definitely worth getting anesthetized before playing.
Playability: 5 Build
Quality: 6
Originality: 5
Replayability: 4
Our rating: 5