Overview

Sheepy Time is an area movement, push your luck, racing game for one to four players. Players take on the role of the Dream Sheep and over the course of a few rounds, players race to jump the fence as many times over in order to help everyone have a good night’s rest before the Nightmare threatens to rudely wake everyone up.

The game is set up like so:

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The game plays on a circular board upon which the Fence token sits. Players' Sheep tokens, the Nightmare token, and the Web token, if used, are placed on the board. The score board is set up with the corresponding Pillow Reference card for different player counts. Each player places one Wink token at the start and one Pillow token at the end of the scoreboard. The Wink token keeps track of how many Winks…

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Overview

In Mandora Fever, players build up a little village of mandrakes by enlisting the help of villagers who can provide them with food, protection and labor. But they have to be careful not to be greedy lest they end up with nothing to show for their efforts!

Set Up

[caption id="attachment_244281" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Set up of the playing area with Quest card missions, Mandora cards and Villager cards.[/caption]

The game is set up by laying out a display tableau of three Quest Cards with missions to accomplish and accompanying Village Mandora cards. Each player begins with three Mandora Villagers which provide Food in the shape of the leaf icon at the top left of the card.  They also get a Times Up! Card which ends the turn for the active player and one Baby Mandora Villager, which as infants go, is useless and provides no resources, except for wanting more and forcing active players to draw one more card.

[caption id="attachment_244280" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A starting hand of cards.[/caption]

Game Play

During a turn, players draw cards from their opponents hand to shore up resources that they use to complete Quest card missions and gain accompanying Villager Mandora cards.

Now about those Mandora…

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Let me explain.

I first learned about Andy Looney’s pyramid pieces decades ago when I read the snippet of a short story that he wrote. In that story, he described people playing a game called Icehouse. The game was played with colored pyramids on the floor of a subway station and progressed without specific turns. Intrigued, I asked around for more information on Icehouse, but in those pre-Internet days, I came up with nothing.

A Brief History of the Pyramids

[caption id="attachment_22461" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The Pyramids[/caption]

As it turned out, I wasn’t the only person who was curious about the Icehouse game. Many of Looney’s friends wanted to know more about the pyramids and, more specifically, how to play the game. Andy’s lifelong friend, John Cooper, came to Looney’s rescue by devising rules for the original Icehouse game. Looney’s NASA co-worker Kristin Wunderlich then convinced him to start a company to publish the game.

…

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Pyramid Arcade is a monster collection of boards, dice, cards, and pyramids. It is the result of over 25 years worth of work from Andy Looney, the man behind not only the Pyramid games, but Fluxx and Chrononauts. Inside the box you’ll find everything you need to play all 22 games written up in the 80-page rule book. Don’t let the length put you off, though — most games are only a page or two long and can be learned in as many minutes.

[avatar user="tfranklin" size="thumbnail" align="right" /]Hi, I’m Avatar Tom and I’ll be poking my head in to make the occasional comment or observation. For instance, in the rule book, Andy Looney, the man who created the Pyramids and the majority of these games, calls Pyramid Arcade his “magnum opus.” I think that’s an accurate statement.

[caption id="attachment_22378" align="aligncenter" width="500"] There's a lot gaming options waiting for you inside the Pyramid Arcade box.[/caption]

[mks_toggle title="To learn more about these components, what they’re called and how they’re used, click here to read more. To dive right into the games, read on!" state="close"]

There is a lot to, um, unbox here, so let me explain…

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Goodcritters is a negotiation game that can take on 4 to 8 players within a 30-minute timeframe. The premise of the game is quite simple: You and your fellow players just got back from a heist and all of you have trouble dividing it up. Your goal is to simply have the most money out of the group once The Fuzz shows up, which just happens to be a card placed just beyond half the deck of loot cards.

Each round, a player will be The Boss and will deal out the loot cards in the middle of the table to hear the groans and cheers from their mobster associates. They divide the loot however they wish and once they finalized the split, each player will play an action card and can use their threat token…

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Hocus Bogus

Like it or not, we’re living in an era of history where truth is becoming increasingly more irrelevant as “fake news” and “alternative facts” become more commonplace. With the decline of truth happening in real-time, it was only a matter of time before someone in the board game space took a stab at a game that takes inspiration from this real-life trend. The Game of Lies is a trivia party game where you and your friends gather around to suss out the bullcrap and figure out what’s real, what’s fake, and who’s bluffing.

The Game of Lies operates in the same vein as many trivia party games like Trivial Pursuit, Cranium, and Quelf. Each team takes a turn by answering a question, and if they get it right, they forward a number of spaces. The first team to make it all the way to the center of the board and defeat the final challenge wins the game.

It may sound quite familiar, but that’s about as far as the similarities go. Everything else in the game takes inspiration from the “alternative facts” trend. The categories are all based on lies, how many spaces you move presents an opportunity…

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As I sit here writing this article, fondly remembering the Christmas holidays, I am reminded that, for me, the best thing about holidays in general is having an opportunity to spend quality time with my friends and family. I’m certain that most people probably feel the same way; and that time of togetherness presents board gamers with a unique opportunity - a chance to share our passion with those we care about the most.

But finding the right game can be hard (although we do have some recommendations for you). Chances are that most of your family hasn’t played a board game outside of games like Monopoly or Risk. The challenge is to find a game that is not only easily accessible to board gaming newcomers, but also outside the norms that they are already familiar with. The ideal game will not only challenge the players involved, but will also foster a sense of fun and kinship as well as accommodate a large number of people. And that is why I propose that Codenames XXL is the perfect holiday game.

How It’s Played

For any of you unfamiliar with Codenames, I’ll give you a quick rundown of how the game is played. First, the players split up into teams - a…

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I quite enjoy co-op card games. From Hanabi to The Mind, there is just something really nice about working as a group to get numbers played in a certain order. That’s why I was more than happy to review a new card based co-op, Two Stacks. Unlike the two games mentioned above, in Two Stacks, no information is hidden from you or anyone else. This really brings out co-operative thinking, which I think is quite neat. And before you wonder, no — it’s not too easy.

How it Works

In Two Stacks you are working as a 2 to 4 player team to play all the cards you have in front of you onto, you guessed it, two stacks. Two starting cards are laid out on the table, and in general players can play cards with a value one higher or lower than an existing card.

Players start with 4 face up cards in front of them as well as their role card, which tells them how they can play their cards. Along with numbers, cards have a colour: red or blue. In a two person game, your role will tell you whether you have to play alternating colours, or the same colours. When playing in a 3 or 4…

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anomia [uh-No-mee-uh] - noun - 1) A problem with word finding or recall. 2) Chaos. 3) The game where common knowledge becomes uncommonly fun!
(from the rulebook)

Anomia is a speed word game in which players are trying to name something in the category on their opponent’s card. Anomia Kids works in the same way, but it has been simplified for children. If you are already familiar with how Anomia plays, you can skip ahead to the “What’s New in Anomia Kids?” section below. If not, continue reading to learn how the games work.

Let The Shouting Begin (Gameplay Overview)

A game of Anomia is easy to set up: take one of the coloured decks of cards (the Draw Pile) and place it in the centre of the table within reach of all players. A turn will play almost as easily. On their turn, a player flips over a card from the Draw Pile and places it in front of them.

Players only ever have a single card faceup in front of them (their Play Pile) so each new card drawn on future turns is added to their deck of cards. Play continues this way, in clockwise order, until the symbols on…

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[caption id="attachment_10884" align="aligncenter" width="436"] This is the version of Bop It that I prefer (...not the current one with "Selfie It" as a command).[/caption]

No, no, our review has nothing to do with Bop It Extreme. In Drop It, you will simply drop it, as the title suggests.

The object of the game Drop It is to, well, drop your coloured pieces in the drop zone to score points. This sounds deceptively simple and whenever I teach the game, I am met with many “are you for real?” and “that’s it?” looks. After a few turns, the players always seem to take back their initial judgement as they discover just how complex Drop It can be (this is usually after they mess up a turn and score no points).

Drop It (Like It’s Hot) - Overview

In Drop It, players will take turns going around the table and dropping one of their coloured shapes into the drop zone, hoping to score points.

[caption id="attachment_10891" align="aligncenter" width="730"] The Drop Zone is pictured on the left.[/caption]

A player’s shapes include circles, squares, rhombi (diamonds), and triangles. All coloured shapes are used in a game…

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(Note: The version this review is based upon is a prototype, and may not reflect the final components and rules for the game.)

“You open the door and before you stands an Elite Goblin who looks very angry. What do you do?” I look at Clara, my six year old daughter, expectantly.
“I want to take my sword and bonk him on the head until it falls off!” she tells me, swinging her arms over her head.
“That's a little excessive, but I love it! Roll your dice," I encourage.
She rolls her small grey dice hoping for a hit. Two pips show. Success! She, her sister, and cousins shout in exaltation.
“He’s not dead yet. You only did two damage. Olivia, you’re up next!” I say as her eyes grow big with excitement.

And so combat went. The kids were invested, interested, and fully engaged.

[caption id="attachment_8138" align="alignnone" width="730"] Adventuring we will go![/caption]

A group of adventurers meet at a tavern. They overhear the whisperings of a goblin infestation and decide they are just the group to take care of this menace for the kingdom. So begins the story of Heroes & Treasure, created by Jason Davis…

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Outpuzzle your friends, or yourself, in this quirkily-themed strategy game.

You’re gonna throw the most rad get together. Party favors, check. Fun electric doodads, check. Wait, your home circuit can’t support it all! You start purchasing wiring and hastily running electrical; picking up more sweet stuff for the party along the way. Unfortunately, it looks like your neighbors are doing the same, obviously trying to steal your party guests. Good thing you’ve befriended a circuit-chomping mouse to sabotage them!  Oh no, they have furry companions too!

Overview

Circuit Breaker is a quirky circuit-tile placement game for 1-3 players in which you compete to prepare the best hastily scheduled house party on the block. Taking place over four rounds, players use their dice as the currency in the game. Players will work to quickly build their electric network, add sets of appliances to the network based on their secret objective, and try to sabotage their opponent's plans.

Gameplay

To set up, each player starts with a mouse tile of a unique color, a circuit breaker card, six dice,  a secret objective, three appliance cards, and one wire circuit tile. The party favors are set within reach of all players, a starting player is selected, and…

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"Oh yeah? Well, my dad can beat up your dad!" A boast ubiquitous to us all, in our youth. Now, thanks to designer Eric Lang and Calliope Games, we can put that claim to the test. Metaphorically-speaking.

Ancestree Overview

Ancestree is a game of comparing lineages to see whose is best determined by three factors: heritage, marriage, and money. You know, just like in real life. Played out across three rounds, players draft their ancestors (again, uncannily like my own life) and carefully construct their family tree to be more prestigious than your opponents'.

Gameplay is even more straightforward than the 14-page manual would indicate. Every round players randomly draw six tiles, each with a potential family-member on it. These tiles belong to one of five “heritages,” denoted by color or (in a considerate bit of design for the colorblind) by symbols. Some characters will also be "rich," indicated by gold coins at the bottom of the card which will pay out at the end of every round they are in your family tree. So, even if your uncle likes to take his socks off at the dinner table, he's worth two gold (six points by the end of the game)…

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