Continuing where I left off yesterday…

• Tzolk’in is a rather clever worker placement game, with a gimmick of rotating plastic gears. The main gear keeps time and counts turns, and every rotation of the main gear moves the other gears one step forward. Moving the gears moves the workers and the further they move, the better stuff they get. On your turn you either place one worker or take workers away to trigger the actions. Lots of stuff in the game, it’s a bit of a pain to teach, but I think it works out just fine. However, I wasn’t terribly keen on it. Indifferent.
• Trick of the Rails is a trick-taking train game from Hisashi Hayashi (Trains, String Railway). Based on one five-player game, I’d say there are very few decisions to make in the game, but it’s likely better with fewer players. I’ll have to find out. I managed to grab the last copy directly from Japon Brand. Suggest.
• Vegas is a simple die-roller area majority game. Roll dice, place all dice of one number on the tile of that number. Once everybody runs out of dice, the players get money based on how many dice they have on the tiles. The player with the most dice scores best. The value of the tiles varies and in case of ties, both players lose and the next player rejoices. Clever, little game, fairly harmless but fun. Indifferent.
• El Capitán was an impulse purchase. Clever area majority game. We played with five, which apparently isn’t the best number. I don’t know, seemed interesting and worth exploring a bit more. The Mike Doyle art is gorgeous, but not always very practical. Suggest.
• Snowdonia is a train-themed worker placement game. It was the last game of the evening for me at the Lautapelaamaan con, and the messy rules made this a bit of a nightmare. I didn’t enjoy the game much. The game play wasn’t very interesting, and there were aspects of the game that felt out of place (locomotives, which I didn’t understand, and cards, which felt useless and complicated). The game dragged on, too. Indifferent.
• Soccero is a Finnish soccer game. Basically a roll-and-move game, but with some good ideas. Players can only move in straight lines, you can distribute your movement between players and when you shoot, a custom die determines whether the kick goes on the ground or high up (so it can go above players). All in all rather clever game. I wouldn’t mind owning a copy, but not with the 40+ euro price tag the game currently has. Suggest.
• Love Letter is a tiny little game, 16 cards. Turns are simple: draw a card, then discard a card and do what it says. When the deck runs out, the player with the highest cards wins the round. Many cards let you oust other players from the game by for example comparing your hands (lower hand is eliminated). Very simple, fun and clever. Suggest.
• We Will Wok You is a hand management and set collection game. Nothing particularly special to it. Indifferent.
• Hanabi is a co-op game where you see all hands but yours. The goal is to play cards numbered 1-5 in five colours in correct order. On your turn you either play or give a hint. Hints are limited and discarding cards (there are useless cards) gets you more hints. All in all rather clever, and one of the better co-ops in my opinion. Suggest.
• Thousand Islands Railway is a light rail game from Winsome Games. Our game took two hours, though, and was painfully slow. I’d like to try again with fewer players (we had five) and faster players. The game should be better. Too bad getting the Winsomes played is so tricky… Indifferent, but potential for better.
• Walnut Grove got a replay. We played this last year in Lautapelaamaan with tragically wrong rules. Now we got the rules correct and it turns out this is a rather nice little game. Bit of a solitaire puzzle, but if you don’t mind that, the game sure works. Lovely little game. Suggest.
• Zombie Dice is a harmless filler. Simple push-your-luck die rolling with a zombie theme. Indifferent.

Phew. That’s it for the backlog. Now, back to usual business…