I got some new games! Been out of collecting new board games for awhile, but just picked back up on it last month. Kicking myself for missing out on the Gloomhaven Kickstarter. Dunno if i'll end up paying resale value or wait for a third printing.
Ethnos - This game has the feel of a Ticket to Ride mixed with a bit of area control. You are gathering bands of various fantasy races, called tribes, to populate the 6 kingdoms of Ethnos. Bands are either formed by matching a single race into one grouping or matching various races with a single color (color representing the kingdoms). The thing that makes Ethnos stand out from something like Ticket to Ride is it's use of special actions.
When you place your band of allies down the top card in the stack represents the leader. Depending tribe you chose as your leader you will be given a special action. These special actions are where the strategies of Ethnos kick in as you use some leaders to combo multiple bands on a single turn, which leads to triggering more special actions for more points, and other leaders will generate "side points" that are exclusive to those tribes. You play the game with a mix of 6 different tribes, but the game comes with 12, so as you replay the game you will have to adapt to new strategies depending on what mix of tribes you get.
What also makes Ethnos exciting is it's method of ending the rounds, called ages. mixed somewhere in the bottom half of the tribes supply deck are 3 dragon cards. When all 3 dragon cards are revealed the round immediately ends. This turns the latter half of the round into a "press your luck" type of situation after the first two dragon cards are revealed. You have to consider laying out small bands for small points or pressing on, waiting to draw the one card you need at the risk of revealing the third dragon yourself or have it revealed by another player trying to maintain their lead. As the lowest scoring player in the points race, you learn to fear that dragon, but as the highest scoring player you may want to provoke the third dragon into showing up as soon as you can by draining the tribes supply deck as fast as you can before other players score more points or gain dominance in territory in which they lead.
I like Ethnos a great deal and highly recommend it. The theme is a bit generic, if i'm being honest but the mechanics are sound and the latter round fight to get in a few more points before the last dragon shows up is what makes it an exciting game.
Spyfall 2 - My family likes Spyfall so i decided to get the second one before the price hiked up too much. The second package contains new locations and, realistically, that's about it. Though, they added an extra spy card for large games that can support 2 spies, you could just slip in an extra spy card from one of the other location decks in the original game if you wanted to include 2 spies in a larger game. I still stand by my original sentiment that Spyfall would work much better as a phone game, it's still silly, fun, and quick.
Burke's Gambit - We played this as a 4 player game so, other than saying it doesn't work great as a 4 player game, i don't have much to say about it. It seems like a fun hidden identity game with a 3 way hunt system that seems interesting but until i play it with a larger group, i don't really have an opinion on it. If you're looking for a quick-fun hidden identity game that works well with 4 players, check out One Night Ultimate Werewolf, or Coup.
Sushi Go! - Sushi Go! is a cute little pick and pass game. Everyone starts with a hand of cards, you pick one card you want and pass the rest of your hand to the left., pick from that hand, and repeat. You're trying to pick stacks of cards that will accumulate in bigger points at the end of 3 rounds. It's simple stuff, i didn't play a lot of it, but for a game this quick and simple i'd rather play Love Letter. I may have to play it a few more times before i'll come around on it but for now, it's just ok.
New York Slice - Alright, i may have just been hungry when i ordered this game and Sushi Go! on the same day, but this is another one i'll have to play more of. The aesthetics are pretty fun as it's all designed to look like it's a real pizza. From the pizza box it comes in, to the instructions designed to look like a restaurant menu. If you're way into pizza, and board games, it's a fun thing to have. As a game though, i don't feel like it's too deep...if it was then it would be Chicago Slice [ba-dum tsshhh!] ...but seriously, i'd have to play it a little more to get a feel for it's depth, though, likely very limited. It may even suffer a bit from analysis paralysis as the whole concept of the game is dividing portions of a pizza for players to choose from. Whoever divided the pizza gets the last portion. You're suppose to analyze what the other players will likely want from eyeballing the slices they've already collected and divide it in a way that will least likely benefit them. As of the game i played, i just vaguely divided the portions into something that seemed like it would reasonably benefit me, but i could see, for those actually trying to find a strategy, that this could lead to long drawn out turns.
So there you have it, check out Ethnos sometime and don't buy board games while your hungry. Though, maybe they'll fit in perfectly if you just want a little snack gaming session here and there.
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