Full disclosure: A review copy was kindly provided to me by Side Room Games. The Kickstarter campaign page for Maquis can be found here. What is Maquis about? Maquis, designed by Jake Staines, is a solitaire worker placement game in which you are the French Resistance during WWII. It has already had a previous life as a celebrated PnP and app, but Maquis is now being published by Side Room Games. It's a small-box game that packs a pretty big punch. Each game, you will draw two missions, which you will need to complete within a limited timeframe. To complete tasks and gather supplies, you must place members of the Resistance at various locations throughout the city. But be careful! There are several chokepoints around key locations, and for every worker you place, you will also place a police officer—one who is cooperating with the Nazis and who will make sure you never come home. If all of your workers are imprisoned, if you can't complete your missions within 15 days, or if your village loses all of its morale under the Occupation, you will lose the game. There are some fun twists that add spice to a game of Maquis. If you are blocked by a police patrol on the way home and have acquired a weapon, you can use it to shoot the patrol and make it home. However, weapons are scarce, and dead patrol officers are replaced by soldiers who cannot be killed and who decrease your town's morale. Also, you can try to control locations by blocking them off with your own workers—you won't typically place two meeples in the same spot on the city map. However, if a patrol officer cannot be placed, he will attempt to make an arrest. (Yikes!) Most interesting, however, may be the use of "spare rooms" that you can activate in designated spaces during the game. Need an extra safe room? A chemist who can make explosives? Spare rooms can help you customize a game of Maquis to get the resources you need. Things I like about Maquis Maquis is the most exciting worker placement game I have played in a while. The drama of sneaking around the city while having your Resistance members work together to avoid the police makes for a tense and thrilling experience. Every time you turn over a patrol card to see where your enemies will go, you'll feel a little nervous. The costs of failure are brutal, because you can't get your Resistance members out of jail if they are arrested. Maquis is also quick enough to never outstay its welcome, as well as portable enough to be enjoyed just about anywhere. The variability of the missions will push you get to know the game better, play it smarter, and choose resources—and spare rooms you build—as wisely as you can. Possible concerns about Maquis One of the biggest selling points for Maquis is its small size and portability. It is possible, however, that its size may eventually become a detriment. There are not very many mission cards, so even if you always draw two randomly and see several combinations of them, you might feel a little burnt out if you play a lot and feel like you are pulling the same missions again and again. Additionally, while Maquis is a difficult game, there are a few tried and true strategies that I find myself using repeately, although with variations. Should I back it? I definitely want a copy of Maquis for my collection. It's a quick, fun, and challenging solitaire game—one that shows just how intense a worker placement game can be! Play Through: If you want to check out some gameplay, click below for my preview video!
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What is this game about? Kokoro: Avenue of the Kodama is a roll and write (draw and write?) game about connecting shrines to various features around them, then scoring for the pathways you have made. Each player will create their own set of pathways on their player boards, using cards from the draw deck that dictate the shapes that are available each turn. Every round, one of six shrines will be scored. One player will act as the "caller" and draw cards from the deck, one at a time. Each player then has the option of either drawing the shape on that card somewhere on their board or "passing," which enables them to look at the top card of the shrine deck and find out which shrine will be scored next. Once four cards with a gold background have been drawn, the round ends and players score the shrine drawn for that round. You get points for every flower and caterpillar connected to the chosen shrine by your pathways. However, you must score more points than you did in the previous round. If you don't, you score a 0 for that shrine--plus take a five-point penalty at the end of the game. Brutal. You should also pay attention to the caterpillar and flower guardians, who grant bonus points at the end of the game. For advanced players, there are also some options that spice things up. The player boards are double-sided, and on the "non-standard" side you can randomize the placement of the flower and caterpillar guardians. You can also play with "decree cards" which give you a little more challenge when it comes to building your pathways. How does it play solo? Kokoro is essentially multiplayer solitaire to begin with. It's possible to play it solo by playing the game on your own and trying to beat your highest score. Overall Thoughts Kokoro: Avenue of the Kodama is a charming game, and one that is very easy to teach to others, including very inexperienced gamers. For that reason it may have a future with me as a classroom game. Its art is charming, and the varying ways to play are nice additions. This is definitely a family-friendly game with a little bit of added challenge for when the base game is exhausted. But I still worry that it's too easy to exhaust the game too quickly. I've played Kokoro a lot, but not addictively—it's just not the most exciting game of its kind. You can definitely do some advanced planning when building your pathways to chain a lot of things together, and that can be satisfying. But Kokoro doesn't have that bite that my favorites tend to. (Among path-building roll and write games, I still favor Metro X, which can be hard to get but is a great game.) Nor does it have a strong sense of buildup over time—if anything, you can be penalized for peaking early if you have a great round but can't profit off of your previous successes. Kokoro is a fine game overall, but it's only fine. Do I recommend it? If you love roll and writes or are looking for a low key, family-friendly game, then Kokoro may be for you. As a solo game, I'd pass it over for more thrilling fare. Overall Score: 3 stars Rating Scale: 5 stars — I love it! 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh. What is this game about? Hostage Negotiator: Crime Wave is a standalone expansion to Hostage Negotiator, a solo classic from Van Ryder games that I have already reviewed on this site. Crime Wave works the same way as its predecessor: You use conversation cards and die rolls to simulate a hostage negotiation with one of the game's abductors. If you can rescue at least half of the hostages and either capture or kill the abductor, you win. Expect a harrowing, immersive gaming experience—I loved the original Hostage Negotiator and I'm also definitely feeling Crime Wave. Although gameplay remains the same, Crime Wave comes with some new material to work with. You get a new set of conversation cards that are slightly different from the ones in the base game, as well as a new deck of Terror Cards to give you new challenges from the abductor each turn. You also get three new and entirely different abductors to test your mettle against. Look under the insert, and you will get an even bigger surprise! ;) The components in Crime Wave are also bigger and better. You'll get a roomier board to track your interactions with the abductor, as well as bigger, chunkier dice and meeples. The box itself is much larger than the original box for Hostage Negotiator, and is even designed to store the original box in case you want to use it for more portable gaming in the future. How does it play solo? Like its predecessor, Crime Wave is made just for solo gamers. Overall Thoughts If you're just getting started with Hostage Negotiator, I still personally recommend the original. I think the abductor stories are a bit more relatable, which makes it easier for me as a player to latch on. Also, there's nothing wrong with a small box and smaller components. I also think that the "starter abductor" in the original, Arkayne Massua, is better to begin with, even though he's the most generic adversary in the game. The starter adversary in Crime Wave, Lijah, is only interested in escaping and is not set up with a Major Demand. I think a more "standard" ruleset (in this case, with a Major Demand) is best for your first outing with a game. That said, Crime Wave is a very worthy follow-up for the experienced Hostage Negotiator fan. I particularly enjoyed being able to switch out between sets of conversation cards. While the zero-point and one-point cards are essentially the same, higher value cards offer different rewards and penalties, and will absolutely force you to change the way you play. Having some fresh cards to play with felt great. Also, to maintain game balance, there are instructions on the back of the player board that tell you how to mix and match sets of new and old cards effectively. (You will get advice for combining Terror Cards, as well.) The game also includes a couple of special negotiator cards that give you special abilities, and also a character image to imagine other than the standard dude with aviator sunglasses. There are a couple of negotiator expansion packs that were sold as KS add-ons, and while their special actions can make your game easier, what I like best is the idea that there are multiple negotiators with interesting stories to engage with during gameplay. As the size of the new game box will show you, Hostage Negotiator is meant to be enjoyed in full, and having more add-ons will definitely improve your gameplay experience. Even though Crime Wave is technically standalone, you're better off getting it as an expansion to the base game—and picking up as many abductor packs as you can. Having more varied choices has been the key to keeping this game alive in my years-long relationship with it. Do I recommend it? Yes. Crime Wave doesn't feel as "complete" to me as the original game, but it's a great gameplay experience. Overall Rating: 4 stars (Original Hostage Negotiator, plus the HN universe as a whole, is 5 stars for me) Rating Scale: 5 stars — I love it! 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh. |
AuthorMy name is Liz Davidson, and I play solo board games. A lot of solo board games... Archives
August 2021
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