Unsettled – David Wood
Unsettled is a cooperative exploration and survival game set in space. Players, along with their robot companion, Luna, explore alien worlds collecting data and materials, constructing facilities, making discoveries, and gaining breakthroughs while also trying to stay alive. Players don’t battle aliens, but rather the environment. For example, the first world, Wenora, is dominated by fungal spores that can infect players. That is not always a bad thing because it could help you accomplish the team’s goals. The base game also comes with a second planet, Grakkis, and expansions add even more worlds and capabilities.
The Kickstarter campaign for Unsettled was launched in 2021, and while I only just received my copy a couple of months ago, it was definitely worth the wait. Each world has a unique environment and tasks that must be accomplished before the crew becomes exhausted. Players use three “Focus” dice on their turn to perform different types of main actions, such as moving, collecting materials, and investigating. Player turns are quick, and the free actions obtained from breakthroughs and anomalies allow players to help each other on their turns. The components are outstanding, and the stackable component trays make setting up a breeze.
If you’re looking for a highly thematic and challenging co-op game with gobs of replay value, Unsettled fits the bill.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★★☆ – Would like to play it again
Read more articles from David Wood.
Sides – Justin Bell
Sides is another in the long line of the easy-to-teach, word association party game category best defined by Codenames, Just One, Decrypto, Wavelength, and many others that have hit my table over the years. That means things are going to be tough sledding for new entries—how is this game better than any of those classics? Sides has the pedigree; one of the co-designers, François Romain, gave us So Clover!, another classic party game in the word association vein.
In Sides, a sequence of seven cards with 1-4 letters each are spread in a row on the table. One or two players serve as the Investigator (depending on player count), and they pick a number between 1-8. Witnesses (all other players) look at the Word card for that round, then use the number picked by the Investigator as their active word for the round. Then, using one of the two letter cards at either end of the row, Witnesses work together to come up with a clue for the active word that starts with the letter of their letter card. Once completed, new letter cards are drawn so that new words always start with seven letters on the table. This is a high score challenge, with the clock tied to the 26-card letter deck. A “perfect” score is 17 words using 26 letter card clues.
It’s a slight riff on the Just One formula, but Sides is harder because of the constraints tied to the clues allowed by Witnesses. In my experience, “harder” equals “less fun” when it comes to party games. Some of the words are so hard that you’ll have to give 3-5 clues to the Investigator. Any suggestions for a one-word clue for “piranha” using either an R or a P? Players often gave up without giving a clue in order to move to the next letter in the sequence. Sides isn’t bad, but when stacked against the competition, there are dozens of better choices out there.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?:
★★☆☆☆ – Would play again but would rather play something else
Read more articles from Justin Bell.
Lunar – Andrew Lynch
Lunar has a great hook. This team-based trick-taking game for 4 players has divided the deck up into suit and rank cards, with each player receiving an even amount of each at the top of the round. The player who leads the trick can choose to play either a rank or a suit, but never both. When it gets to your teammate, they have to play whichever type of card you did not. You are, effectively, playing one card. This is clever.
Clever doesn’t always translate to a good game, but I’m of the opinion that Lunar pulls it off. The scoring system, much like with Fox in the Forest, is centered around trying to win just enough tricks to secure points. Win too many, and your score for the round plummets. Because of that, all manner of creative plays are possible. It’s a must-follow game, but that doesn’t mean you have to be the person on your team to follow, and maybe your teammate is out.
Oh, and that brings me to the other wrinkle: the trump suit is chosen at the top of each round by each player eliminating one suit from consideration. Short, dramatic, and unpredictable (possibly to the point of being a fault, but that’ll depend on your taste), I found myself more fond of Lunar than I expected.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★☆☆ – Wouldn’t suggest it, but would happily play it
Read more articles from Andrew Lynch.
Ganz Schön Clever – K. David Ladage
Ganz Schön Clever translates to That’s Pretty Clever. This is an apt description. The game consists of six colored dice (yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, and a white die that can be used as any color). On their turn, players roll the dice, select one to set aside, and use its value in the designated color-coded scoring area. They do this three times per round over four, five, or six rounds (depending upon player count).
Each scoring area is different. The blue and yellow are grids of numbers; the rest are lines. Scoring in each section is based on different criteria, from how many spaces can be checked off, which spaces are checked off, and what values are used to fill in spaces. Still, if this were all the game was, it would be no more special than Yahtzee. Rest assured, there is a lot more going on here! Each section provides ways of earning bonuses that range from re-rolling the dice to being able to use more than three in a given turn. Each time you select a die, any of the other dice in your pool that have a lower value are lost to you for the round. At the end of your turn, other players may use any one of the dice you didn’t. And so on.
There are actual strategic considerations with each choice of die. In the end, the game is surprisingly interesting and, if I do say so, pretty clever.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ – Will definitely play it again
Read more articles from K. David Ladage.
Paladins of the West Kingdom: The Vassals Mini-Expansion – Tom Franklin
The Vassals mini-expansion comes with the Paladin’s Collector’s Box, the oversized box meant to hold both the Paladins of the West Kingdom base game and the City of Crowns expansion.
This expansion is about as mini as it gets: 8 Yellow Workers, 1 King’s Favour card, 8 Tavern cards and 1 Reference card. That’s it. The Yellow workers do two simple things: they act as wild pieces (only without the Suspicion card requirement of the Purple workers) and reduce the cost of any item by either one Coin or one Provision. Paladins is a game with a very tight economy, and a discount of one can make a big difference—to the point that when they appear on a Tavern card, they’re scooped up right away.
This expansion is so good it’s now a permanent part of my Paladins games.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ – Will definitely play it again
Read more articles by Tom Franklin.
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