Delta – Justin Bell
I picked up a review copy of Delta at SPIEL last year; our friend and former colleague Brody Sheard reviewed the game during the game’s crowdfunding campaign. Published by Game Brewer, Delta is a hand management game that tasks players working to discover the mysteries and potential of the Perpetual Steam Engine in a steampunk future featuring workshops, animal collection, and map exploration in a Euro-style game totaling 18 turns per player.
Delta is a tricky cat. It does many things well, but it is complicated by a number of issues that are unique to a production handled by a company I think does production as well as almost anyone in the tabletop business. The tension regarding the cardplay—made more interesting by a shedding mechanic that allows players to permanently remove cards from their hand, hence limiting future choices—is fantastic and the round-to-round fight for initiative in the game’s three card markets is the best part of the experience. The artwork by Nastya Lehn, particularly the cast of explorers, robots, leaders and others depicted on each character card, details the game world in a fun way, although I wish the theme broke through more consistently during gameplay.
A number of issues surfaced during my four-player game which ran a couple minutes shy of three hours. The most egregious of these issues was the lack of quality-of-life accessibility—Delta is begging for player aids. In every single round of our game (often for each individual player!), someone was passing the rulebook. One of the game’s core mechanics requires certain icons to appear on cards “in play” to trigger special actions, but many game factors limit those special actions. The exploration map isn’t clearly delineated, and I still wonder how a player maximizes a research track that doubles as a spendable resource. Delta is the kind of game that I would play with a group that already knows it well, as long as someone took the trouble to download guides/aids from BGG to assist the experience.
Ease of entry?:
★★☆☆☆ – Not an easy onboard
Would I play it again?:
★★★☆☆ – Wouldn’t suggest it, but would happily play it
Read more articles from Justin Bell.
Feierabend – K. David Ladage
Friedeman Friese’s famous fondness for ‘F’-fronted phrases forges forward! Feierabend, meaning quitting time, is a game in which you are factory workers putting in 70-hour work-weeks with little union representation, no vacation time, terrible (and sexist) pay, and nobody with whom to share your burdens. Throughout the game you work to demand union support in order to gain access to vacations and raises, while attempting to improve your social life.
The game is quite the puzzle. The score track goes well into the negative. Everytime you run out of options for free time, you have to return to the grind, which drives your score down. But, if you can reduce the number of hours you are working and increase your pay and find a soulmate… you just might be happy enough that the grind is not crushing you within its gears. If you are driven too far down, you could find yourself with no options other than joining your coworkers at the local tavern or just going home to sleep. I found the game funny (if just a little too close to reality sometimes) and enjoyable. This is one I have to wonder why I don’t have a copy in my collection.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?:
★★★★☆ – Would like to play it again
Read more articles from K. David Ladage.
Railroad Revolution – Andy Matthews
Have you ever had a game that sat on your shelf for years, still in shrink? You didn’t want to get rid of it, but you never took the chance to play it? That was Railroad Revolution for me. I bought it 4 or 5 years ago because I heard so many good things about it. It made it through 3 or 4 cullings because I didn’t want to give up the chance to play it. But I finally bit the bullet and played it, and I’m really glad I did.
Railroad Revolution is set in the 1800s at the height of railroad and telegraph construction. It took my group a bit to work through the rules as there was a bit of ambiguity, but we figured it out, and by the end we were humming along. The game features some of my favorite mechanisms — worker placement (non-blocking, but the first person to go there gets a bonus), track advancement (good incentives to balance your movement across the board), and route building (you’re laying train tracks from East to West and trying to build a network of train and telegraph stations).
If you get a chance to try it out, you should definitely give it a go, although since the publisher seems to be out of business, it might be hard to find a copy. Good luck!
Ease of entry?:
★★★☆☆ – There were a few questions
Would I play it again?:
★★★★☆ – Would like to play it again
Read more articles from Andy Matthews.
Compile: Main1 – David McMillan
Compile is a two-player game in which the players are competing rogue AIs racing to impose their code onto the world. The game is composed of twelve six-card decks. During setup, each player will select three of these to shuffle together into a singular 18-card deck. Then, using those cards, the players will attempt to add power to three different lines of cards to bring the power of that row up to a total of ten, which will allow them to “compile” that line of cards. The trick is that every card played into a line has a special ability that takes place whenever the card is played into the line—shuffling cards around within the line, forcing cards to flip over to their less powerful sides, or outright removing cards from play, as examples. The first person to compile their three lines wins the game.
In Compile, the game state changes so quickly from one turn to the next that it’s difficult to come up with any long-term, viable strategy. This forces me to play the game tactically, reacting to each situation as it arises, trying to make the best of whatever hand fate has dealt me. As a fan of heavy, strategic eurogames, this is a style of play I’m not super comfortable with, but Compile gives me the tools to not only make it palatable, but enjoyable as well. I look forward to spending more time with this game.
Keep an eye peeled for my upcoming review.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★★☆ – Would like to play it again
Read more articles from David McMillan.
Sky Team – Bob Pazehoski, Jr.
Sky Team does a great job of disrupting cooperative norms. The mechanics of play are downright refreshing, holding the randomness of dice placement in tension with the need to create balance on the game board. I also love that players can discuss what needs to happen until they roll the dice behind their shields, at which point silence is the rule. Allowing such a small window of conversation keeps discussion on the level of the ideal, only to then have reality join the scene in the form of a massive monkey wrench. These two decisions make Sky Team a welcome play for a guy who doesn’t get excited about co-op games.
Staring at the little cockpit board is also refreshing. Even if the idea of copilots not being able to speak is absurd, the setting of play is engaging and evocative. The attitude indicator is a genius component addition to the board, creating emotional swings as the wings move in and out of level. The coffee cups are clever. The mini-aircraft are great. I am fully appreciative of Scorpion Masqué’s efforts here.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★★☆ – Would like to play it again
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