Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More
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 travel forward in time so we can shop in a mall from the 1990’s in Superstore 3000
Next: We build pyramids to honor the gods, one block at a time in Imhotep
And lastly: We find out just how high numbers can be stacked in NMBR 9
Superstore 3000
Designed by: Rodrigo Rego
Published by: Space Cowboys (2024)
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 10 & up
Playing time: 30 – 45 minutes
Superstore 3000 is a tile placement game in which players are designing a retro-futuristic mall in the year 2964. The object of the game is to build the tallest and most incredible mall to satisfy as many customers as possible.
Each player builds their own mall by placing shop tiles and being the first to meet the criteria to collect the unique attraction tiles that will make your building even more exceptional.
In turn, players are going to purchase stores, entrances, and other components that comprise a shopping mall. They are going to build it piece by piece, in order to satisfy customer wants and desires and they come through the entrance of the mall. For example, your main entrance has three customers to start. One might be looking to shop, the other wants a haircut, and the third customer wants some books. Well, you will want to try and satisfy these customers by building a shopping store, a barber shop, and a bookstore.
Make sure you build these shops within three spaces of that entrance, because that is as far as a customer is willing to walk. The more satisfied customers, the more victory points. There are also VP’s for certain set collections, and bonuses for unleashing specialty stores and attractions. All players will buy their main stores from the market for 0, 1, 2 or 3 dollars.
Try to have the most of the same type of store in order to earn the most VP’s. Earn bonus VP’s along the way. and as always, the most VP’s wins the game, and receives an oversized set of novelty scissors to cut the ribbon at the opening of their award-winning Superstore.
Imhotep
Designed by: Phil Walker-Harding
Published by: KOSMOS (2016)
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 10 & up
Playing time: 40 minutes
Imhotep is a worker placement game where the players become builders in Egypt who want to emulate the first and best-known architect there, namely Imhotep.
Over six rounds, they move stones (represented by wooden cubes) by boat to create five seminal monuments. On a turn, a player chooses one of four actions: Procure new stones, load stones on a boat, bring a boat to a monument, or play an action card.
There are several boats on which to load your stones, and the order in which stones are loaded are important. When a boat is either mostly filled (meaning all spots taken except for one) or if all the spaces are filled, a player can then choose to sail the boat to a port of their choosing. There are 5 ports to choose from – Market, Pyramid, Temple, Burial Chamber, and the Obelisk – each port scores points differently.
While this sounds easy, naturally the other players constantly thwart your building plans by carrying out plans of their own. Only those with the best timing — and the stones to back up their plans — will prove to be Egypt’s best builder.
NMBR 9
Designed by: Peter Wichmann
Published by: Abacus Spiele (2017)
Players: 1 – 4
Ages: 8 & up
Playing time: 20 minutes
NMBR 9 is an abstract tile stacking game, where players must stack numbers in order to score points.
The game includes twenty cards numbered 0-9 twice and eighty tiles numbered 0-9; each number tile is composed of squares in some arrangement. When the first card is revealed, each player takes a number tile matching the card and places it on the table. With each new card drawn after that, each player takes the appropriate number tile, then adds it to the tiles that they already have in play, with each player building their own arrangement of tiles.
The new tile must touch at least one other tile on the same level along one side of a square. A tile can also be placed on top of two or more other tiles as long as no part of the new tile overhangs the tiles below it; new tiles placed on this same level must touch at least one other tile, while also covering parts of at least two tiles and not overhanging.
Once all the cards have been drawn and the tiles placed, players take turns calculating their score. A tile on the bottom level — the 0th level, if you will — scores 0 points; a tile on the 1st level above this is worth as many points as the number on the tile; a tile on the 2nd level is worth twice the number on the tile; etc. Whoever scores the most points wins, for everyone else, their number is up!