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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 up: We move our cats aside to make room for beautiful accessories in My Shelfie
Next: We pair up for medieval adventures in Dragonwood
And lastly: We try to make George Orwell proud in Farm Club
My Shelfie
Designed by: Matthew Dunstan, Phil Walker-Harding
Published by: Cranio Creations (2022)
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 8 & up
Playing time: 25 minutes
My Shelfie is a tile placement game where you are trying to organize the best shelf of all the players. And by best shelf, we mean the one that yields the most points for successfully getting your tiles in the appropriate places on your shelves.
During your turn, you must take 1, 2, or 3 item tiles from the living room board (shared by all the players), following these rules:
• The tiles you take must be adjacent to each other and form a straight line.
• All the tiles you take must have at least one side free at the beginning of your turn.
Then, you must place all the tiles you’ve picked into 1 column of your bookshelf to meet both your personal goals and common goals. You score points also if you connect item tiles of the same type.
The first player who fills all the spaces of their bookshelf triggers the end game.
The player who scores the most points wins the game. All other players suffer a terrible case of shelf-consciousness.
Dragonwood
Designed by: Darren Kisgen
Published by: Gamewright (2015)
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 8 & up
Playing time: 20 min
Dragonwood is a card collection game where you fight, stomp, and scream at creatures of the forest in order to subdue them and collect them for their victory points and their special powers.
The adventurer deck consists of cards numbered 1-12 and in five different colors. Players start with a hand of five cards. Draw one card, or attempt to capture a creature.
Players form combinations to attempt a Strike (cards in a row of any color), a Stomp (cards of the same number) or a Scream (cards of the same color). To capture, players roll a number of dice equal to the number of cards they have of the particular combination. Each creature has different minimum values of a Strike, Stomp or Scream needed to capture it, and a Victory Point amount.
The Dragonwood deck has 42 cards, five of which are displayed in the landscape at any time. In addition to creatures, this deck also has enhancements that are captured in the same way as creatures which assist players in capturing creatures, and contains events that also impact play. When both dragons have been defeated, the game is over and the player with the most victory points wins.
Farm Club
Designed by: Alexandros Kapidakis
Published by: BLAM! (2022)
Players: 2 – 5
Ages: 8 & up
Playing time: 20 minutes
First rule of Farm Club …
Farm Club is an optimization game with simple rules but requiring crucial decisions to be made.
On their turn, each player chooses from the available lots (animal + objective) the one combination that best serves their strategy: should they take a sheep or a duck? Where should they place it on his farm?
With only 9 rounds of play, Farm Club is fast-paced and constantly requires players to use their judgment: each animal, objective or placement will have an impact on the final score and so they should make good use of the 2 special actions allowing them to reorganize their farm or renew the supply of animals and objectives.
After 9 rounds, the player with the highest score wins.