Fire Tower – Bob Pazehoski, Jr.
I had a chance to sit with this strange little entity recently. Players each respond to, defend against, and aggressively wield the everlasting fire that has ignited in the center of the board. The aim? Survive—and burn your opponents’ towers to the ground, relegating them to participation in the consolation game known as the Shadow of the Forest. Eliminated players participate in the wiles of the forest fire, exacting revenge upon those who wrought their demise. I won’t lie. It’s weird.
The game is pretty on the table as the orange fire crystals slowly—and then rapidly—spread across the central grid. The play begins quite slowly before launching to a lightning finish. Players put up blockades of a sort, pour water where they are able, redirect the wind to send the fire elsewhere, and unleash chaotic bursts of flame on the way to a bit of a disappointing finish. Fire Tower is incredibly aggressive. Yes, you can simply play defense the whole time and let fate decide, but a significant portion of the deck begs you to issue militaristic commands to the flames in the name of player elimination.
At heart, Fire Tower is an abstract area control game with bells and whistles attempting to match the setting. (Note: We also played with a couple modules from the Rising Flames expansion.) In reality, though, I didn’t care for the use of the setting. If the game were defensive or cooperative, I would understand. But as a guns-blazing attack-fest, I’m not a fan of the forest-fire-as-weapon concept. It was OK, but I’m not itching to go back.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?:
★☆☆☆☆ – Would play again but will cry about it
Read more articles from Bob Pazehoski, Jr.
Bower – Justin Bell
Bower is a two-player-only tile placement game designed by Pierpaolo Paoletti and published by Cranio Creations. Players are trying to build the best nest they can, by placing 12 tiles over the course of the game to cover a 6×4 tableau area. The tiles feature a mix of feathers, flowers, shells, and gems that will eventually be scored in six different columns shared by the players. The hook? Each player only knows three of the scoring goals, with the others hidden using a small screen with tokens that are facing away from each opponent.
This led to a couple of interesting twists. The first is that the scoring goals are hidden…but if you are sitting at a normal kitchen table, you’ll be able to see over the central screen and directly at your opponent’s tiles. In some ways, it feels like Bower could use a much higher screen, because as it was, I was able to see all the tiles my opponent was building, so it was somewhat easy to guess what a column’s scoring goals might be based on their tile placement. Even if you didn’t want to cheat, it’s hard to not notice all the things happening on the other side of a low wall!
Bower has a mechanic that grants players a chance at bonus tiles, which sometimes lead a player to gain access to more scoring opportunities. Bower is a very low-scoring game, so these bonus tiles are critical. But the bonus tiles are drawn randomly, so expect to have one player luck their way into a tile that happens to give them an edge. The production is fine, the game plays fast, but just a few turns into the game, Bower became an experience I didn’t expect to try again. Everything was fine, but nothing was particularly interesting.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?:
★★☆☆☆ – Would play again but would rather play something els
Read more articles from Justin Bell.
Dorfromantik: The Board Game – K. David Ladage
Have you ever purchased a game and, upon getting half-way through the rules, you realize that you have been an idiot because the game you are learning has been around for over a year and you never picked it up? I did that with Dorfromantik. I mean, since it was released in 2022, I have managed to miss some 100 weeks of potential game play with a masterpiece!
I love tile-laying games (Carcassonne has seen its fair share of time on my game table) and this one is well designed, gorgeous, fun, engaging, and has elements to be unlocked in an optional campaign. My wife happens to love tile-laying and cooperative games, Thus, everything about the game seems tailor made for our particular gaming sensibilities. After Christmas, she and I opened it up, read the rules, and played a practice game (we wanted to know what we were doing before we dove into the campaign). That practice game hooked us! This has become our go-to when we have a bit of free time… and I figure it will be until we have gotten through the campaign at least once. Perhaps, then, we will get a copy of Dorfromantic: The Duel…
Ease of entry?:
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ – Will definitely play it again
Read more articles from K. David Ladage.
Ultimatch – Andy Matthews
I first heard about Ultimatch at the 2024 GAMA Expol; getting an over the shoulder demo of it from Fireside Games. It’s bright and colorful, and you know I love light card games. So when they offered to send me a copy for review, I happily accepted
Ultimatch is a cooperative, low-communication card game in which players work together to clear out a pyramid of cards by matching cards from their hand against faceup cards in the pyramid. While I’m sure there’s plenty of other games that take this same path, Ultimatch does something different by mixing in color and math matching; providing many different wants to proceed. You can match the same number (any 5 clears out any other 5), same color (any yellow clears out any other yellow). But you can also add or subtract numbers to match a pyramid card (any color 2 or 3 will clear out a 5, just like any 8 and 2 will clear out a 6). But the game also allows you to perform the eponymous “ultimatch” by adding or subtracting 2 specific colors: (add a blue 3 and a yellow 2 to match a green 5, or subtract a red 3 from a yellow 7 to match an orange 4). Win the game by clearing the entire pyramid, or lose the game if all players have to pass in sequence.
Ultimatch has a lot of things going for it. The artwork and graphic design are very eye-catching, the playtime is quick: my son and I played 3 games in about 20 minutes, and _some_ of the matching is easy. Even though there are excellent reminders of how to match a green, orange, or purple, it’s still _just_ enough thought to make you pause and think; it’s almost like there’s too many choices. The game itself is fun and relatively breezy, but if I’m going to play a card game, I’d probably pick something else.
Buyer note: Ultimatch comes in a tuck box, which is my absolute least favorite way to get a game.
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 Andy Matthews.
The Tragedy of Othello – Andrew Lynch
Every now and then, I read a manual and I can’t picture the game. It doesn’t happen often, and it’s rarely a positive sign. With The Tragedy of Othello, a 90-minute card game about actors auditioning for the role of Iago, I couldn’t make it stick across multiple attempts. I read the rules on my own. I read the rules on my own again. I read the rules with a group of willing and eager players, who quickly lost both their willingness and their enthusiasm. I can’t tell if The Tragedy of Othello wants to be a party game, a serious card game, a game of social deduction, or something else entirely. It seems like a silly, chaotic mess (non-derogatory) of a game, but it’s packed with a strangely onerous number of rules, none of us could understand what we were trying to do, and in the end it seemed like that use of “mess” maybe was derogatory after all. I couldn’t get it. A group of actors vying for the role of Iago in Othello is a fun premise for a game, and it may well be a fun premise for this game, but after four different tries, I’ll never know.
Ease of entry?:
☆☆☆☆☆ – Gave up
Would I play it again?:
☆☆☆☆☆ – No chance
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