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Welcome to Which Game First where we boldly explore the hilariously huge world of board games. Did we unearth any hidden treasures you’ve been missing out on? Let’s find out!
First: We try to stay red and ripe while avoiding rot and decay in Diced Tomatoes
Next: It’s a beautiful day in the rapidly expanding neighborhood in Simplicity
Lastly: We roll our way down the road of raw materials, knights, cities, in Catan Dice Game
Diced Tomatoes
Designed by: Arkadiusz Greniuk
Published by: Agrypelago Games, The Game Crafter, LLC (2018)
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 12 & up
Playing time: 15 – 30 min
Diced Tomatoes is a dice rolling and dice placement game in which you look to grow the most tomato vines that yield the highest values.
Each player gets 12 dice, 11 of them red and 1 of them black. On a turn, a player will choose 3 of their dice to roll.They can either use those dice to create their own tomato vines, or they can use any of those 3 dice to sabotage their opponents vines. Roll high numbers and keep them for yourself. Roll low numbers and stick the other players with lower value vines.
The black die is a rotten tomato, used to lower the overall value of your opponent’s tomato yield from that vine.
Each player has spaces to build 3 vines. You build vines by placing the dice in sequential order, or by placing dice of the same value on the same vine. It takes 4 dice to complete a vine. Upon placing the 4th die, the vine gets cut, and the die from that vine that is on the tomato marker is the die that will score.
During the game, players can earn hearts by placing your dice on your opponents vines. Then cash in those hearts to clear any bad vines you have in front of you.
The first player to chop 6 vines gets a 3 point bonus, and triggers the end of the game. The player with the highest cumulative score wins, and celebrates their victory, while the rest of the players are forced to … catch up.
Simplicity
Designed by: David Brain
Published by: Fractal Juegos (2021)
Players: 2 – 6
Ages: 10 & up
Playing time: 30 min
In Simplicity, players are creating neighborhoods. The bigger the neighborhoods, the more points they are worth.
Neighborhoods are made up of sets of identical buildings that are joined orthogonally.
Buildings are chosen and placed based on the building’s matching symbol. For example, a building with a triangle symbol can only be placed on the mail board in a triangle spot. When you place a tile, place one of your two meeples along with the tile.
Where you place your tiles dictates the order for the next turn.
Points are earned by placing meeples in neighborhoods and multiplying the values. (2 blue meeples in a 4 building neighborhood will earn 8 points) But remember you are using 2 meeples, each their own color, and the lower of the two scores is your final score for the game. And that’s all there is to say. Its Simpli City.
Catan Dice Game
Designed by: Klaus Teuber
Published by: Mayfair Games (2007)
Players: 1 – 4
Ages: 7 & up
Playing time: 15 – 30 min
Catan Dice Game is a roll and write game set in the Catan world of games. It is about building settlements, roads, cities and hiring knights, but in this variation, players utilize dice instead of placing little figures: Every player has their own score card called the building sheet, which depicts a mini Catan. You build by drawing the settlements and roads on your scorecard.
To build, you need resources. These are collected by a Yahtzee-like mechanism that involves throwing six special dice (depicting the different resource symbols) up to three times. After each roll, the player can select which dice to keep and which to roll again. In the end, he may build using the thusly determined resources, and is awarded victory points for any finished buildings, which are recorded on the scorecard.
The player with the most victory points wins. Now it’s time to SETTLE the score once and for all.