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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: It’s pesticide warnings be damned as we grow big in Mutant Crops 
Next: We collect the finest breeds of man’s best friend to take on a stroll through the Dog Park 
And lastly: We warm up and stretch as we get ready to roll and write our way to the Diceathelon

Mutant Crops

Designed by: Sebastian Koziner & Rocío Ogñenovich
Published by: Atheris Games (originally by El Dragón Azul & OK Ediciones) (2016)
Players: 1 – 4
Ages: 14 & up
Playing time: 15 – 30 minutes

Mutant Crops is a fast and light resource management and worker placement game, where players are farmers in the near-future, where agro-toxics and contamination created some strange mutant plants.

You have 12 actions on the table (half face down, half face up) that allows you to gather resources (tokens), get plants, and nurture them. Each turn you have 2/3 actions (depending on the number of players)

Place your farmers on spaces to gain resources, such as seeds or water or food. Use your seeds to plant a type of mutant crop, and then use your water and food to unleash their potential, such as earning money or activating that tplant’s special powers.  Certain combinations of plant powers can yield greater advantages for your fields, including more money (victory points).

And it’s one worker to a space, so your farmer might be blocking your opponent from the space they need. But all’s fair in this battle of toxic farming.

Dog Park

Designed by: Lottie Hazell, Jack Hazell
Published by: Birdwood Games (2022)
Players: 1 – 4
Ages: 10 & up
Playing time: 40 – 80 minutes

Dog Park is a competitive set-collection and point-to-point movement game in which players take on the role of dog walkers who recruit, walk, and care for their dogs over four rounds. Each round is split into four phases:

Recruitment Phase: Players compete in two rounds of offers to add dogs to their kennels. Offers are made with players’ reputation (victory points), so must be placed wisely.

Selection Phase: Players decide which dogs to place on their lead to walk this round.

Walking Phase: Players journey through the dog park with their fellow walkers, collecting resources, earning reputation, and interacting with other walkers.

Home Time Phase: Players earn reputation for their walked dogs, and lose reputation for any unwalked dogs in their kennel.

Players must choose their routes and dogs carefully to earn the best reputation and prove they are the most accomplished walker of them all. At the end of the game, the player with the most reputation wins.

That’s a good puppy!

Diceathlon

Designed by: Chris Heaney
Published by: Self-Published (2022)
Players: 2 – 99
Ages: (not provided)
Playing time: ~ 10 – 20 minutes

Diceathlon is a roll and write game where players compete across 6 different sports to win the most gold medals.

The players roll the dice and, in turn, take a dice and write the number on their score sheet in one of the 6 sports. Each sport has their own specific goals for how the player can win the medal at the end of the game.

  • Crew – there are 2 rows, make sure the dice you place are equal on both sides of the row
  • climbing – ascend starting with 1 at the bottom and end with a 6 at the top
  • golf – score the correct total dice for one of the three different holes
  • skateboarding – complete the three obstacles correctly with the correct combination of dice
  • hurdles – make sure the dice you place are in the correct order of low numbers vs high numbers
  • the long jump – place a high multiplier dice so that the longer your jump is the better your score

Highest total score wins, NOW go for the gold.

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