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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 cruise for Orca sightings on a card filled sea in Whale to Look
Next: It’s 2075 and we’re cats in charge of the planet and it’s future in MLEM: Space Agency
And lastly: We test our trick taking skill and our friendships in Rage
Whale to Look
Designed by: Bruno Faidutti, Jun Sasaki
Published by: Oink Games (2023)
Players: 2 – 5
Ages: 9 & up
Playing time: 30 minutes
Whale to Look is an investigation and deduction game where players are captains of boats, leading their boats of tourists into the ocean to look for whales and orcas. Each captain controls 3 boats. One boat will have 1 tourist, another has 2, and the third boat has 3 tourists.
On their turn a captain will use one of their investigation markers to take a peek at one of the 12 face-down fish cards. Investigating means you have to move one of your three boats on to an area car. area cards are the areas among the fish cards where boats go to try and find the whale and the orca. An area card can only hold a max of 3 boats.
Once all players are done moving, the fish cards are turned over. Each area card counts the total value of the 4 fish cards around them. The area with the highest amount of fish sees the Whale. The area with the least sees the orca.
Each tourist in a boat that sees the whale or the orca is worth a point, with bonus points available if your boat lowered its anchor. Play 2 rounds, highest point total wins, and the winner gets to holler and whale
MLEM: Space Agency
Designed by: Reiner Knizia
Published by: Rebel Studio (2024)
Players: 1 – 5
Ages: 8 & up
Playing time: 30 – 60 minutes
MLEM Space Agency is a press your luck dice game, where players are cat astronauts trying to reach the depths of space and safely land on planets and moons.
Play starts by each player loading one of their cats into the rocket (one rocket holds all the player’s cats, so it’s a shared journey) but there is only one captain, the cat placed in the lead position on the ship. Each cat has a special ability.
On their turn, the captain rolls six 6-sided dice. The faces of the dice are 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, and a boost symbol. Roll all the dice, and decide which dice to use, depending on where the rocket is in space. Each space along the path can utilize only certain numbers or the boost symbol, and in order not to crash the ship, you have to utilize at least one of the dice matching the particular space on the rocket’s path.
Along the journey, the rocket will pass by planets and moons, and at the end of each successful roll, the players must decide if this is a good spot for their cat to leave the rocket to land on the planet of the moon. Or they might want to continue the journey deeper into space to find bigger scores.
Game ends when a player places their last cat, or if the rocket crashes 10 times. Add up the points, declare victory, and then go lie down in the sun for a nap.
Rage
Designed by: (Uncredited)
Published by: AMIGO (1983)
Players: 2 – 10
Ages: 10 & up
Playing time: 45 minutes
Rage is a trick taking game that takes place over 10 hands, with the hand size shrinking by one each time, until the final one-card hand.
Players use the deck of zero through fifteen in six suits to bid for a particular number of tricks and then subsequently take exactly that many. Along the way, trump is randomly determined and can be changed during the hand through the use of special cards. There are also special cards that make the trump not count for a trick, others that can be declared any suit and value when played, and others that will give bonuses or penalties for taking the trick on which they’re played.
Winner is the player with the most points after 10 hands, and they, of course, become all the rage.