Ninja Camp 

Matt

Ninja Camp is a small card game that is reminiscent of Hey, That’s My Fish!, where players move their ninjas (custom martial arts meeples!) around an ever-dissipating board until no further moves can be made. The spaces you move to and from actually become cards in your hand though, and have an endgame point value, which offers a bit more strategy, though not much. It was an okay filler game – fairly non-offensive – but it didn’t make much of a mark.

Steve

Of course I collected the majority of the trap cards. Why do I even play games with such mean people? Oh wait…I make bonehead moves in most games and I deserve it. I liked the puzzle Ninja Camp offered. Trying to traverse and collect cards for points and future movement options offered many choices. Once the board became sparse the game seemed to take a dive. This fell firmly in the “meh” category for me but the theme is great.

Pi Mal Pflaumen (Plums)

Matt

I teased Tiff about this game previously, primarily because of its name, but find myself eating my German words in regards to this well-crafted set collection trick-taking game. It has a challenging sequence of play where the value of the card you play also determines the drafting and activation order of the set-collection phase. It’s tricky and has a nice layer of (absolutely infuriating) player interaction. I really enjoyed it, even though I may have utter several sentences consisting solely of profanity and names of fruit.

Steve

Dan has been talking this one up so we decided to break the seal on the cards. I had a tough time at first understanding the mechanics of the game but after 2 rounds I started to settle in. This is a trick taker with the goal of set collection for points. There are some take that elements to help you with you collections by stealing fruit from other players but the doggy card protects your strawberry’s. I really like trick takers and would like to add this one to my collection when it hits the U.S. market.

Apotheca – Master of the Market Variant

Kelly

It’s hard to be the master! Relying on your opponents to gain crystals so that you can take actions makes for a pretty difficult game. It was clever, though, and at the end of the game, Matt and Ben only beat me in the turn before I was about to beat them. It was close and still pretty balanced, despite the point of the game being to pit multiple players against one.  

Matt

We’ve play a bunch of Apotheca since the Kickstarter arrived and it is without a doubt an excellent game. This past weekend though, we finally gave the “Master of the Market” variant a whirl. It pits several players versus a single “Master” and changes the way matches and apothecary powers can be used. I enjoyed it, though it was a very different play experience. It’ll be a good option to spice it up every now and then, not that the game needs that.

Android: Mainframe 

Steve

Most people may see an Android title and think “Oh, that’s that card game…” or “Isn’t that a long and heavy futuristic game”? Android: Mainframe is neither. It is a highly accessible game with a very easy and straightforward rule set that makes it easy to break the ICE for casual players. The gameplay itself feels very familiar, as it is essentially the “dots game” with special rules and limited abilities you can perform on your turn. The game is mostly abstract with the Android theme layered on, but I would not consider this a bad thing. Adding the touch of identities from the Android universe, each with their unique abilities and art, will have players feeling less “jacked out” from the experience. The game is highly geared toward a more casual player, so I am not sure how much longevity it has, but it is a game that I could introduce and play with my family while longing to play Netrunner and wishing I was stealing agendas from Matt.

Check out our Android Mainframe Review!

Oh My Goods! 

Steve

I can’t stop playing this! It is so good! Def one of my top games of the year. I introduced this to a few co-workers at lunch and we ended with a three way tie! They both loved it though. Everyone should be playing this.

Matt

I’ve played Oh My Goods at every gaming session I’ve had since the game arrived. It’s so simply, but so satisfying to build an engine out of the random parts you’re dealt each turn. It can be swingy and tough to perfect because of the random market, but I very much enjoy it nonetheless.

Check out our Oh My Goods! Review!

Crab Stack 

Matt

There’s not a whole lot to Crab Stack, but my one play of it makes me think it would be a fun way to introduce families and younger players to abstract games. Things move quickly – you move one of your crabs, which come in three different sizes, onto another crab of the same size each turn until you have no remaining options. Last crab standing wins! It’s a game I’m now determined to make a fully abstract version of, using only plain colored pieces.

Steve

Play Battle Sheep in reverse with certain sheep having certain movement points and you have Crab Stack.

Game of Thrones: The Card Game (2nd Edition) 

Matt

Inspired by a depressing episode of the HBO Game of Thrones series, I roped Kel into playing some A Game of Thrones Second Edition card game with me piloting a Stark/Night’s Watch deck against her Greyjoy/Martell. I swept her in a landslide due to some bad draws (and maybe my deck construction), but enjoyed my time with it anyway. The game is theme so well and I love how different the gameplay is from anything else in the card game market. Maybe I need a few expansions to help even the decks out…

Kelly

Matt built a couple of decks for this and we game them a shot. He played Baratheon-Stark to my Greyjoy-Martell. I can’t say with any certainty how well the decks are matched because I hardly drew any characters and Matt essentially annihilated me. I had hand after hand of reactions that did little to nothing and it was overall a pretty disheartening game.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition) 

Matt

I’ve been lucky to dabble in two Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition campaigns, with me at the helm of this most recent endeavor. I found DMing the game to be a bit scary and requiring of a lot of improvisation, but I really had a lot of fun and hope my players did as well. I look forward to coming up with the next piece of the adventure and putting the party through the ringer!

Agricola (Revised Edition) 

Steve

My only experience with Agricola is from All Creatures Big and Small which is an awesome two-player worker placement game. I have heard mostly groans and moans about this game so I really wanted to know what was up with this game. Matt had picked up the new version that was just released and it hit the table this weekend. The rules were mostly pretty simple but the choices, actions and cards that sprawl across the table in enough to make your head spin. I felt like I had a good strategy to work towards but that was quickly dead on turn two when Dan took all the wood! I never recovered and made a really crappy looking farm that had plenty of sheep. Even after a very unfortunate first play I really enjoyed the experience and would definitely welcome another play or more!