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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 sharpen our pencils to fluff pillows, await guests in High Season: Grand Hotel Roll & Write
Next: We gather Materia and feed our familiars to become masters of magic in SpellBook
And lastly: We’re fancy French rail barons trading our way to the top in Paris Connection
High Season: Grand Hotel Roll & Write
Designed by: Virginio Gigli, Ryan Hendrickson, Simone Luciani
Published by: Lookout Games (2023)
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 12 & up
Playing time: ~ 45 minutes
In High Season: Grand Hotel Roll & Write, you prepare rooms, accommodate guests, make personnel decisions, and court the favor of the emperor, all while managing your money and trying to avoid loans.
Each player has a hotel board and staff board. At the start of a round, roll dice based on the number of players, then place them on the six spaces (numbered 1-6) on the action board. On a turn, draft one of the dice, then use the associated according to its strength, which is based on the number of dice on that space when you remove it. The actions allow you to:
Prepare as many rooms for guests as the strength of the action, paying the cost for each. Occupy a prepared room by paying the cost minus the action’s strength; gain the depicted one-time bonus when doing so. Advance on the emperor track equal to the action’s strength; gain the listed bonuses as you reach them, with a point bonus for reaching the end of the track first. Earn Krone, the game’s currency, equal to the action’s strength. Hire a staff member on your board, paying their cost minus the action’s strength. Two staff members give you a permanent bonus, two grant a one-time effect, and two provide bonus points during scoring.
If you are the first player to occupy one of the eight rows or seven columns, you earn bonus points that are unavailable to anyone else who occupies this row or column later. When you occupy all the rooms in a contiguous color group on your board, you gain an immediate bonus of points (for a blue group), krone (red), or steps on the emperor’s track (yellow).
The bonuses and effects of the staff differ on each board, so you need to figure out how to take advantage of the opportunities available through them in combination with your particular arrangement of hotel rooms and the dice available each round.
After seven rounds, players tally their points – don’t forget to subtract points for debt – the winner is the player with the most points, and win the High Season, while all other players must answer the emperor for committing high treason.
SpellBook
Designed by: Phil Walker-Harding
Published by: Space Cowboys (2023)
Players: 1 – 4
Ages: 12 & up
Playing time: ~ 45 minutes
Spellbook is a set collection and engine-building game, where players are each trying to become the greatest wizard of the Annual Grand Rite. Players are gathering bits of raw magic, called Materia, to feed their pet familiars and to learn spells.
Each player starts with 7 blank spell books – all players will play with the same 7 books, and will learn the same sets of spells. Each book has its own color: red, purple, green, black, white, blue, and yellow. The Materia players are gathering also come in these 7 colors.
From a community set of Materia, players will either collect Materia by drawing from the pool, or from randomly selecting from the pick bag.
The goal is to get at least three of the same color to unlock a spell in that color spellbook. Three is the minimum required, but you can also unlock a color spell with four or with five Materia of the same color. Using more Materia to unlock higher spells yields more powerful versions of that color’s spells, more game end VP’s, and it allows players to cast more spells from that color’s book.
Materia also have symbols on them (suits) – collect three of the same symbol and combine them to make a wild Materia!
Some book’s spells can only be cast during one of the three phases of a player’s turn (morning midday and night) where players can take either their standard actions for those three phases, or if they have unlocked a spell, they can cast a spell instead of the standard action on that phase.
The game ends as soon as a magician’s grimoire is complete or a familiar is fully fed, then the player with the most points wins and will finally be able to Spellbook – B O O K, like that.
Paris Connection (also known as: SNCF: France & Germany)
Designed by: John Bohrer
Published by: Queen Games (2011) [new release by Rio Grande Games in 2024]
Players: 3 – 6
Ages: 8 & up
Playing time: ~ 30 minutes
Paris Connection is a portfolio-building game with a train theme, with the objective of having the most valuable stock portfolio at the end of the game. Players can own and trade stocks as well as influence the value of each company.
There are 6 colors of wooden locomotives, each color representing a company. Players are dealt random hands of 5-10 locomotives (depending on number of players), which are essentially a stock portfolio; the rest of each color are placed in a pool. On your turn, you can either increase the value of a single company by placing 1-5 locomotives from the remaining pool of that company, or you can trade one locomotive in your portfolio for one or two locomotives from the remaining pool in a company.
The game board is a map of France, with cities worth anywhere from 1-4 points. Connecting to a city adds to a company’s value.
The game ends when Marseille is reached by a company, or when there is only one company with locomotives remaining in the pool. Players’ scores are determined by the value of each company at the end multiplied by the number of locomotives the player has for each color.
But beware – don’t have more train stock than you are allowed (depending on # of players) because if the game ends and you have more than the allowed limits, you get slapped with very severe penalties that will ensure your defeat. Parlevoux Frances?