Entry 83- Week 38: Gùgōng

         Upon reviewing our collection and more specifically themes of games we are finding that we are liking more and more that have an Asian theme to it. From Rajas of the Ganges to Xi’an, Momiji, and of course my favorite Tang Garden (the last three are from our favorite game designer, Francesco Testini). 

         We decided that this week we wanted to keep it up and play a game in which you purposely are “bribing” officials to gain more favor. Read on if this has caught your attention. 

GÙGŌNG (2018) 

BGG Description 

China, 1570. China is under the reign of the Longqing Emperor, of the Ming Dynasty. He inherited a country in disarray after years of mismanagement and corruption. He resided in the Forbidden city, which was the seat of many emperors under the Ming Dynasty. Constructed from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 72 ha (over 180 acres). It is also under the Ming Dynasty that the Great Wall of China was rebuilt, fortified, and expanded. Around this period, China was under heavy attack from the Mongols, so maintaining the Great Wall was essential. Most of what we now have left of the Great Wall, we owe to the Ming dynasty. 

The country was already famous for its very intricate bureaucracy, but this also led to a lot of corruption. Even though the penalties for corruption were very high, the highest Officials of the Forbidden City would pretend to uphold the ban on corruption, by accepting gifts of petitioners, and returning one of seemingly lower value. 

Gùgōng uses this extraordinary custom as its basis. Players take on the role of powerful Chinese families trying to gain influence and power by exchanging gifts with Officials. The gift cards you offer as a player have to be of a higher value than the one you receive, forcing you to make strategic choices regarding which actions you want to take each turn. You will travel around China, sail down the Grand Canal, purchase precious jade, help construct the Great Wall, secure advantages through decrees, influence the game through intrigue, and ultimately, receive an audience with the emperor. If only 1 player succeeds in doing so, he wins. If several players succeed, the player with the most VPs among those players wins the game. 

—description from the publisher 

Weight 3.09/5 

A Little More Info 

        The game board is large and at first feels very intimidating, but we can tell you that it is not as bad as you would initially think it is. The board is divided into seven (7) sections where you can take specific actions so let’s take a look at each before we discuss what each round looks like. 

        • Travel: This section is at the very top of the board. This is where you can place your traveler to move around from city to city gaining tokens that have an instant reward and then if you have enough, you can trade them in for additional rewards associated with your player board. During the Morning Phase of the game you refill cities that are vacant. 

        • Great Wall: This next section (below and left of Travel) is where players renovate the Great Wall to protect against the Mongol invaders. Once the wall reaches a certain point based on the number of players, various bonuses are given. Everyone who has a brick in the wall is eligible for Intrigue benefits (I bet you are a Pink Floyd fan and sung that last part adding the word "another" in it didn't you). 

        • Jade: The jade market (below and right of Travel) is where you can acquire pieces of jade which will give you increasing amounts of victor points for each one you have. The cost of each piece increases as more is bought. 

        • Intrigue: This section of the board (Above and left of the Grand Canal) serves a few purposes. 

                 o The first one is gaining the first player marker for the next day. If you are the first one in the round to move up in intrigue, you can the marker that indicates you will be taking (or keeping) the first player marker. 

                 o The next purpose is to be a tie-breaker in scoring points and other bonuses. Whoever is in the lead or is on top of the stack is considered ahead of the other players in status. 

                 o Lastly, Intrigue points can be used to gain rewards for when the section of Great Wall renovation is completed. The benefits include gaining additional servants to changing one of the Destiny Dice to even gaining one piece of jade. 

        • Palace of Heavenly Purity: This is in the center of the board (above the Grand Canal) and is where you place your Envoy meeple in it. Your Envoy must reach the top of the track to enter the Temple and be worthy enough to win the game. If you do not reach the top, you can not win the game at all. 

        • Decrees: This section (above and right of Grand Canal) of the game provides special advantages to assist you in your attempt to be the most favored family. There are three levels of decrees with various costs. Level 1 decrees provide benefits for each Morning Phase; Level 2 provide Day Phase benefits; and Level 3 are End Game rewards. Also, you can choose which decree you want and do them in any order (but you can only do each one once). 

        • Grand Canal: The Grand Canal (bottom of the game board) is where you can place ships to travel to be able to game three different types of rewards once a ship contains three servants and ends are certain locations. The three different rewards are as follows: 4 Victory Points (you can do this up to 3 times); Gain an extra card for you hand (done up to 2 times) which the extra card is used throughout the rest of the game; and Gain a Double Servant (completed only once) that can be used a various locations. Any ship that is left on the Canal will move one spot during the Night Phase. 

        Now that the we have an overview of the board, let’s look at the three different phases of each day which explains the game play a bit more as well. The game is played over a 4 day span. 

        The Morning Phase consists of preparing the board for the new day (for the first round this is done during setup) and is done in five steps. 

        • Step 1: Determine the First player. If you have the blue medallion from the Intrigue location of the board you can the first player marker and get to start the Day Phase. 

        • Step 2: Refill the Map. This is where you would draw new tokens to fill empty city spots in the Travel Section. 

         • Step 3: Roll the Destiny Dice. The destiny dice will be explained more in the Night Phase. 

         • Step 4: Execute Decree advantages. This is where you gain the Level 1 decree bonuses. 

         • Step 5: Receive new servants. You advance the Day Tracker to the next round and receive the indicated number of servants (placed in the Servant Pool on your player board) to be used in the Day Phase. 

        The Day Phase is where you take actions by “bribing” the officials in each of the seven areas of the board. This is done in two parts. 

        Part 1: Exchange Gifts- This is where you will take one of your 4 cards (if you received the extra card(s) from the Canal Bonuses you will have 5 or 6 cards) and exchange it with the official in the area of the board you want to do. 

        If your card is higher than what was there before, you can do the do the action on the card and the action of the location you went to. If it is equal to or lower, then you can use 2 servants from your servant pool or discard another card from you hand in order to do both actions, or you can do nothing and just take the action on the section you went to. 

        Part 2: Perform Actions- If the card you exchanged has a symbol of an area of the board and you gained (or paid) to use it, proceed with taking that area’s action before you take the action of the area you exchanged the card at. This is optional and you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to or not able to. However, you must take this action first if you are going to take both actions. 

        Next you can then take the action of the location you placed your card in. Just like the card action, this is optional and you do not have to do it if you don’t want to or are not able to do it. 

        Most of the locations on the board provide you with two different options to pick from (Jade and Decrees only have one action). Typically, the second option provides extras benefits but do cost extra servants to use. We will let you look at what the specific actions and options are for each location. 

        Once all players have exchanged each of their cards then you proceed to the Night Phase. 

        The Night Phase consists of two easy steps. 

        Step 1 is where you check the numbers on the cards in your discard pile and if you have cards that match you gain extra servants for the next day. The player that has matched the most cards gain a bonus of 3 victory points and moves their Envoy one step closer to the Palace (if there is a tie the player ahead on the Intrigue track gains the bonus). 

        Step 2 is where you move your ships one step further down the canal. If your ship has three servants on it, you make take the bonus action associated with the new spot. 

         If this was not the fourth day, you then proceed to the Morning Phase. If it is the end of the fourth day then you proceed to final scoring. 

        Final Scoring is done in four steps in this order: 

        1) Score the Great Wall if there are any servants left (with out Intrigue Benefits). 

        2) Score Level 3 Decree points. 

        3) Receive points for your position of arrival in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Remember that if you do not reach the Palace, you can not win the game. 

        4) Received points based on the number of Jade tokens you own. 

        If there is a tie after final scoring, the person ahead on the Intrigue Track wins the game and is declared the most influence family in China. 

        The game also has an expert mode and solo variant adding more replay ability to the game. 

What we like about the game 

        Going back to a standard answer… the artwork. We love the looks of the game on every aspect. It does give you a nice sense of being in ancient China. 

        If you are a seasoned gamer, learning the mechanics of the game is easy. If you are not a seasoned gamer, the learning curve is not as difficult as you may perceive it to be. We love that the game take place over just four rounds (days) of play. With the limited number of cards and servants you have, the game is quick once you know the action options of each location. 

        As for the game play itself, reaching the palace is the one thing that everyone must do in order to have a chance at winning. If you don’t reach the palace and you have the most victory points, you still lose the game. 

        Now is there one other area of the board that can help provide a victory solely? The answer is no. You must find the right balance for your strategy in order to win, and we love this aspect. 

        The last thing we love is that with each game the initial setup is different, so no two games will be alike. This keeps the game fresh and exciting. 

What we don’t like about the game 

        Believe it or not, there isn’t anything that stands out to us in the negative of the game. Even though I have lost two games to my wife and one game to our friend and remain victory-less thus far. This is a game that we find fun and enjoyable and if I ever win a game that may be just a miracle waiting to happen. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

        Gùgōng is a game that does take up a lot of table space but does not take a lot of time playing it. We were truly amazed by this and how easy it was to learn the game. 

        There is an expansion to the game which we don’t have as of yet but are planning on adding it to our collection that adds four separate modules to the game all of which can be integrated together or individually. We are excited to try this out in the future. 

        We do find this game to be one that will get tabled more often than not even in our large collection because of how quickly the game plays. And trust me, dealing with a very smart three year who often doesn’t to go to bed at night, a fast game is always welcomed. 

        Do we recommend this game for your collection? Why yes we do. My wife definitely feels that way since she is undefeated in the game; maybe someday I will be the most influential family in China, but until then, I remain a humbled peasant in the Ming Dynasty. 

        Is the price of the game worth it? We think so, however, on the secondary market the Kickstarter version (with game trays and upgraded components) of the game is sky-high in price and for us the upgrades would be nice to have but is not worth the weight in gold. The standard version of the game does the trick (we can add our own green glass pieces to use as the jade at little cost). 

FAMILY GAMER VERDICT 

(This is a new section where we give our approval or disapproval based on the BGG rating scale) 

        We give it a solid 9 out 10 rating with four thumbs up (because there is two of us).

Entry 82- Week 37: Mirror, Mirror

        Mirror, mirror, on the wall who has the red letter that needs to be delivered to the Princess? I had you going there for a second didn’t I. This week’s game is a simple two player chess and checker-like game with a twist. The whole objective is to find your opponent’s piece that is carrying the red letter and not to have your discovered. Sounds good so far, well, let’s see what Mirror, Mirror is all about. 

MIRROR, MIRROR (2011) 

BGG Description 

Game description from the publisher: 

You've entrusted your nine courtiers to deliver a beautiful love letter to Princess Persephone, but your opponent also has nine courtiers delivering an equally moving love letter to the same princess! In each case, eight letters are decoys and only the letter with the red seal is the "true" love letter. Intercept your rival's true love letter to make sure that only your letter sways her affections. 

In Mirror, Mirror each of the three types of Character pieces carries a letter, has a mirror on the back of the piece, and has a special way of moving on the board similar to chess. When your piece lands on an opponent's piece, you must say what color seal is on its letter. If correct, that piece is removed from play; otherwise your piece is removed from play. Choose carefully and make liberal use of your mirrors to discover the color of the seals on your opponent's pieces before venturing to intercept their letters. 

Weight 2.0/5 

A Little More Info 

        The game is played on a 6 square by 8 square checkered board with each player having nine pieces of three different types. 

        Let’s examine each type of character and what they can do: 

• Masters: Each player has two masters that can move one space in any direction. 

• Knights: Each player has three knights and they move like the chess knight in a “L” shape. 

 • Ladies: Each player has four ladies that moves like a checkers piece by only jumping over other pieces. 

        Each player receives one red seal letter, and four of each of the blue and gold sealed letters to place on the mirror side of the game pieces. 

        The above BGG description describes the objective of the game well, but you may be asking about the mirrors and why we have them. Once one of your pieces moves past your opponents you (and your opponent) can look from whatever angles you can on your side of the board to see what color letter the other pieces are carrying. 

        Again, the objective of the game is to find the other player’s red sealed letter to win the game. 

What we like about the game 

        We do like that there are only three types of game pieces to learn which allows for a smaller learning curve. The use of the mirrors is also a neat and unique aspect to the game (we don’t recall any other game using this). It doesn’t take long to play the game at all even if you are new to chess and/or checkers. 

What we don’t like about the game 

        If you have short-term memory issues, trying to remember what you had seen in the mirrors or if you guessed wrong on a certain piece and later come back to it may prove difficult for you. The work-around to this is always having paper and something to write with to take notes but that takes more effort for this simplistic game.

        For once, the artwork in the game is minimal. It doesn’t draw us into playing the game. If the game board wasn’t so plain, we might feel differently about it. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

        If you are not a fan of chess and/or checkers, you probably would not like the game. It requires you to plan and strategize what movement you are doing and the possible movements of your opponents. 

        That being said, if you want a simple two player game that is easy to learn and takes up very little space (a TV tray will fit this game) then this would be a neat game for your collection. You can find some new ones on the secondary market for between twenty and thirty dollars.

Entry 81- Week 36: Chronicles of Avel

         This week we played a game that we just picked up because our FLGS had a handful of copies a few months ago then all of a sudden they were down to two copies. It is a game that I kept looking at over and over but decided at first that I wouldn’t like it because it is a co-operative game and I prefer games in which “there can only be one” winner (you did the Highlander voice didn’t you). 

        The game this week is also a dungeon crawler that provides you with a different board each time you play so the adventure is never the same from one game to the next which is a lot of fun and keeps the game interesting. 

        Oh, did I tell you who published this game yet? It is by Rebel Studio, the same company that brought you the beautiful game Meadow (see Entry 73). So how do we like this game of theirs? Read on my friend, read on. 

CHRONICLES OF AVEL (2021) 

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BGG Description 

Chronicles of Avel is a cooperative board game for the whole family. Take the role of brave heroes and heroines with a mission to save your magical land. 

Create your character and give them a unique name. Get your equipment, upgrade it and prepare for battle. But remember to wisely choose what you carry as your backpack has limited space. Armed and ready, explore the land in search of adventure and fortune. 

Answer the Queen’s call and fight together against the servants of the Black Moon. Defend the castle, banish the Beast, and save Avel! 

In Chronicles of Avel players will be exploring the world of Avel, moving on a modular board created from hexagonal tiles (different every time). On their journey they will encounter dangerous monsters to fight and roll dice to determine success. Each victory leads to a prize - new weapon, armor, potions and gold - which will make heroes more powerful and unstoppable. But to earn equipment players will have to search through magical bag and choose using only their sense of touch. Victory awaits for those who will cooperate, prepare themselves and defeat the Beast and all his servants. 

Weight 1.93/5 

A Little More Info 

        This is a game that you are fully engulfed in co-operative play. The rounds go quickly, and the action is constant. 

        Each turn you can take two actions which are the following (you can duplicate an action): 

        • Movement: Move your character pawn to an adjacent tile. If the tile is flipped, turn it over and reveal it adding a monster to it if it needs one. 

        • Battle: You get 3 clashes (dice rolls) to defeat and/or take damage in a monster fight. Your equipment and potions add additional dice and/or bonuses in the fight. Defeating the monsters gets you various rewards. 

        • Tile Action: There are a handful of tiles that have specific actions that will help you to win the game. From creating moon seals (to close a monster portal), to creating traps for fighting the beast, building walls to protect the castle, and more. 

        • Rest: Because you are will most likely take damage during battle, resting allows you to earn two toughness markers (hearts) back to restore your health. 

        There is an additional action you can take if you are sharing a tile with another player (with no monster) which is you can freely exchange equipment and coins. You just have to remember that everything must be fit on your character sheet or in your backpack. 

        So now what needs to be addressed is how you win or lose the game? To win the game, defeat all the monsters and the beast. Sounds simple enough right, however, if any monster or the beast reaches your castle tile the game is a loss. 

        Last thing to note is that in the solo mode, you take four actions per turn instead of two and the Beast has the same strength as in a two player game. 

What we like about the game 

        Like most of our entries, we discuss the artwork in the game. Each tile and monster is beautiful. It fits nicely with the theme and feel of the game. Also, as someone pointed out in our 4 player game which I got to introduce three other players to it the Beast figure actually has a butt. 

        The next thing we liked about the game (when played correctly) is that the battle action you get three attempts to defeat the monsters. Any damage to an undefeated monster stays with them and they don’t get healed. Even at a 4 player count, the game is fast. 

        Because you are working together, you can plan out your turn ahead of time so that there isn’t a lot of downtime. With only two actions you take each turn, the play is fast. 

        We do love that this game can be setup in many ways and does have suggested setup patterns with difficulty levels. This means that no two games will be alike since you shuffle the tiles facedown. 

        We also like that if you don’t have your own character name you can roll for it on a constellation chart with many combinations to get. 

        As a side note, there is a companion app which is not required for the game but is nice because it assists you with character names and tile setup. 

What we don’t like about the game 

        There isn’t anything that we didn’t like about the game with the exception that we really feel it is not a good two player game. It really stands out a three and four players. 

        The character sheets should have been double sided (with male and female characters) so that you don’t have to tear out more sheets than needed because just to get to the gender you want to play. Also with the character sheets, they allow you to color them to make your character even more “special” which is not really needed at all. I think most people would have been fine with generic outlines on the player board or even a triple-layer board which you could select a male or female side. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

        My wife loves cooperative games more than I do, but I have to say that this one is a huge exception. I love that it is an easy game to play and that it has the battle element that keeps the game engaging. It has a very nice table presence that does not take up a lot of space. 

        If I would have known that I would have liked this game as much as I do I would not have waited so long to get it. Rebel Studio has another winner on their hands. We love Meadow and we love Chronicles of Avel. Maybe our next game of theirs to review will be Blossoms which is sitting on our shelf.

Entry 80- Week 35: On the Origin of Species

        If you are looking for a game that has beautiful artwork and simple game play that will not take long to complete, then let us introduce to you the wonder game of On the Origin of Species by Mont Täber. 

ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES (2019) 

BGG Description 

"I am very anxious to see the Galapagos Islands, -- I think both the Geology & Zoology cannot fail to be very interesting." -- Charles Darwin, Letter to his sister, Catherine in August 1835. 

Assist Charles Darwin during the Beagle journey across the Galapagos Islands, discovering new species and researching them in order to improve your knowledge. 

During their turn, the active player must choose between two actions: 

• Research: Put 2 research pieces on 2 different species tiles on the board, gaining the knowledge of air, land or water habitat. 

• Discover: use the acquired habitat knowledge to place new species tiles on the board, obtaining victory points and evolution, characters and objects cards. Additionally advance the Beagle on its track. 

The game finishes when the Beagle reaches the last space of its trip, leaving the archipelago through New Zealand. The players score the evolution points according to the final goal card, adding them to the points obtained during the game. The player with more points in the scoring track wins. 

—description from the publisher 

Weight 2.33/5 

A Little More Info 

        As stated the above, the game is just that simple to play. Two actions to pick, move the Beagle, gaining cards and points along the way (mid-journey scoring & discovery), and do a short final scoring when the ship completes the journey. 

        The only things to add in this section is that when you use the Discover action to place a new tile, you must place it adjacent to where you are pulling your Observation cubes from. 

        Also with the Discover action you do not just have the option to place tiles in an open spot, you can upgrade locations as long as the new tile is a higher level than the previous (the only exception is if you have a scalpel tool card). You keep the tile you replace because they are worth points at the end of the game. 

        There are character and tools cards that you earn while placing tiles that when used can assist your gameplay. The one card that you will definitely want to find is a map card which allows you to use the top three tiles in the evolution tract (where the species tiles are selected from). 

What we like about the game 

        First thing in this section is that the artwork of the game is just stunning and eye catching. The artwork on the species tiles gives you the feel that you are actually looking at Darwin’s sketches with color. The overall aesthetics of the game is warm and welcoming. 

        We love that the game only has two main actions to take. Keeping the game play simple allows for even the younger players to enjoy the game. With the only text on the game pieces being the species names (which you don’t have to read), we feel that your younger gamers can learn and enjoy the game with ease. 

        Lastly, the game is not, we repeat, is NOT a table hog. The largest component is the game board which would fit on a standard dining room table with extra room. For the individual players, the only items you have in from of you are your observation cubes and the cards and tiles you collect throughout the game. 

What we don’t like about the game 

        Since we have only played the game at the two player count, we feel that the game is a little too fast for our expectations of the game. Each species tile you place moves the Beagle one or two spots along the map so the journey is completed as you feel like the momentum of the game is just building. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

        This is a game that we would recommend playing. For me, I would call this a sleeper game from our collection. The learning curve on the game is small, it is quick to lay, and is deserving of attention. 

        So if you have this game and haven’t played it yet, dust of that box and hit the table. If you have not picked this game up yet, I would highly recommend this game for your collection.