Yardmaster Express- an Express review

If you are anything like me, it can be sometimes hard to get people to play a new game. Especially if those people are more of casual gamers who are a little hesitant to try another new game of yours, especially since I like to play (and craft) complicated games. (Puerto Rico, Pay Dirt, Empire Engine, to name a few on my shelf)

However, some games are simple, and unimposing enough that the resistance is short lived. Once the game has been played, you all find yourselves shuffling up the cards….”Let’s play again! That was fun!” When that happens, I know I have found a good, short, enjoyable, simple filler game, that everyone can enjoy.

Now, I am not always a big fan of games in this category. Games like Uno, Phase 10 (which is really a LONG game), Blitz, Farkle, Rook, and Ratuki, etc. are fun, but for me are not a main event. I like to think and strategize typically. Don’t get me wrong- these are all good games for the niche they fill, and are fun with the family, but it is just not a niche that I need filled all that often. In other words, these are the games, I can get everyone else to play, but I personally am not as excited about.

So when I discover a game that meets those conditions, but also is interesting to me, and draws me into it as well, one that everyone, no matter their deep-thinking comfort level can enjoy, and is short and addictive (“Play again!” “One more time!” “Why not one more round!”), I take notice, and if I can, add it to my shelf.

Yardmaster Express is one such game. While a slightly larger micro game at 30+ cards, this is a good little filler game, that can be enjoyable in-between games kind of game, or if you are a little shorter on time, can be an enjoyable event to itself.

OVERVIEW:

Yardmaster Express is a micro game from a small board game start-up publisher, Crash Games, who recently brought us Pay Dirt, which I have been thoroughly enjoying. My PnP copy has been seeing lots of use!

Yardmaster Express is also another recently funded Kickstarter project that is really a great game for the package. It is the express version of Yardmaster, also a recent Kickstarter project and a small game as well.

Players take the role of yardmasters (imagine that!) trying to make up a profitable train consist to send out. Each player has their own train they are hooking up car(d)s to based on type or value. Once the trains reach a certain car(d) limit, the game ends, and players tally up their points.

CONSTRUCTION:

As with all it’s games, Crash Games generously provides the full color pdf files for Yardmaster Express on its game page on BoardGameGeek here:

As this games is all cards, it really is a simple, simple build. You print out the cards (5 pages total) double sided with the colored train cars on the front, and the grey wild cards on the back. Then I ran them through the laminator, cut the cards out, and rounded the edges. Other than making sure to keep the cards in order when double-sided printing so that the cards match up with their backs, this was a walk in the park, especially compared to some games I have crafted.

GAMEPLAY:

In one sense this game takes elements from 7 Wonders, Uno, and Stationmaster, and blends it into a nice, unique game. First, you draw a hand equal to the number of players in the game. This is a communal hand that gets passed around. On your turn, you draw a card to the hand, play a card either face up or face down, and then pass the hand to the next player.

The communal hand. I can choose to either play the red 2/2 card or the green 2/3 card…

This deck-drafting/communal hand mechanic is really neat, and while I am familiar with it somewhat with 7 Wonders, it really has a novel, unique feel to it.  Do I take that 4/4 card I can’t play, and bury it as a wild card in my train to prevent someone else from taking it, or do I take that 3/3 card in the hopes that the 4/4 card makes it around to me next turn?

Once a set number of rounds have been played (depending on the number of players), players tally up their points from the value of the cars added to the train. In addition, whomever has the longest run of a color gets extra points based on the number of cars in the run. You can also play with the caboose expansion which offers some variety of extra bonus points to earn by meeting certain conditions.

Admittedly this is a very simple game. This is a light filler type of game, and it makes no pretensions to be anything else. Even with that though, there is a little bit of strategy and planning involved, which I alluded to above. The sharing of a common hand makes this game really interesting.  The Caboose variants really make the game more interesting as well, and keep things different each game. These really help break up the monotony of always the same goal.

CONCLUSION:

Yardmaster Express is really a great game for what it is intended to be. It is a fun little filler suitable for all ages. If you can play Uno, you can play this. Is this a deep game, or a gamer’s game? No, not at all. In one sense it feels a little more strategic than Uno, mainly because of the card drafting/shared hand mechanic, but on the other, it feels just as simple and easy to play, although it doesn’t feel like brainless play like Phase 10 or other games with little decision making…

In short, this game really is worth checking out. The retail version should be out soon, or you can always make the PnP version, which takes only a little work to do. Finally a game I like that everyone likes to play, not just my gamer friends and family. 😉

 

Digging up a Gold Nugget, or a Pyrite Disappointment? A Review of Pay Dirt.

Gold. There is something about it’s allure that is difficult to entirely describe. That precious metal has been sought after for centuries. Emperors craved it, kings warred over it, prospectors gambled their lives and their fortunes for it, and now investors are plunking their money down for it, desperate for financial security.

Gold. Something about it’s color and luminescence captivates our imaginations. Young boys dream of finding buried treasures of gold and any good movie about treasure hunting usually features gobs of it. It is hard to think of another physical substance that has been so coveted over the centuries of human civilization.

Gold. It is still important today too, even beyond the the investment craze. It is a vital component for special electronic wires and components. It is used in all sorts of fine jewelry and rings. It has a significant demand and usefulness. Hence the gold mining industry.

We don’t often think of gold mining as a modern industry. When we think of mining we think of coal, ore, or recently natural gas, or Minecraft. But gold mining continues, albeit half-way across the world in South Africa where there are rich gold mines.

But wait! We would do well not to forget that it continues on our own shores, especially in Alaska. While we often equate gold mining here with the 1800’s and the prospecting boom, there are still gold mining operations in the area.

It is a hard, cold, expensive job, but someone has got to do it. Will that someone be you?

OVERVIEW:

My homemade box

Before you start packing your bag for the next flight to Alaska (I hope you packed plenty of long underwear!),allow me to clarify. In this case, I am referring to a new game put out by Crash Game: Pay Dirt. Pay Dirt is a worker placement game about the modern gold mining industry in Alaska.The game is 2-5 players (though the PnP version only has files for 4 players), and lasts about 90 minutes or so. It recently funded on kickstarter so expect to see it available in retail next year.  While winter clothes are not required, a determined attitude is.

Digging for gold in the frigid North is by no means a walk in the park. The gold is out in the bush, far away from civilization…which isn’t saying much since it is Alaska! And did I mention it is cold and hard? Equipment is always in need of repair or wearing out, good staff are hard to come by, funds are limited, and hardship are a plenty. Rusted axles, snap freezes, misfiled paperwork, dishonest employees, diesel shortages… wait, where are you going?

Just like the real thing, Pay Dirt nicely captures the challenges and excitement of the modern gold mining industry in Alaska. This is not your average worker placement game with a pasted on theme. The theme here is rich and engaging. In an abstract way, you do feel like you are trying to lead your ragtag mining outfit to victory (most gold wins!) But theme is not everything. To take the analogy in my title here, a good theme is like a good shiny appearance. Only by looking at what’s under the hood can we tell if this is the real deal, or a fake disappointment.

CONSTRUCTION:

If you plan on buying a copy when it is produced, then feel free to skip this part. But, if you are like me- a frugal, crafty kind of guy, then keep reading!

Pay Dirt has been my most exhaustive/involved PnP build to date. Part of that was due to some of my choices to make it nice, and part of that was due to the fact that this is a big game (on par with Puerto Rico, or Ticket to Ride as far as amount of components). I have been detailing some of the construction in previous posts: here, here, and here

The first step is to (obviously) print everything out. The tiles and the player boards I printed on matte photo paper. For the cards (Personnel and Hardships), I printed on high quality printer paper, double-sided (these have fronts and backs, and photo paper only can be printed on one side, hence regular paper).

The cards were the easiest to make. after printing them out, I ran them through my laminator. (Man, I love this tool!) After cutting them out, I pulled out my nifty, new, corner rounder  to give them a nice professional-ish appearance. The nipping with the cutter was tedious, but it made a difference.

The tiles were simple as well. Because this is the PnP version, the tile backs (with the exception of the pay dirt tiles) are not included. I simply glued the pages to cereal cardstock and pressed it with a dry iron on low heat. This worked well in “laminating” the paper to the cardstock. Once everything had dried for a day between thick theology books (to keep the boards from warping as the glue dried), it was just a matter of cutting out the tiles.

There are a lot of components to this game as well. You need some unique pieces to track the dropping temperature, to  mark bidding categories, and to mark the head miner. (I have half a mind to go and find a cheap hard hat to serve this purpose! 🙂 )You need 48 red cubes to track wear to your equipment, 25 gold nuggets, 25 gold bars (worth 5 nuggets), 40 workers, 10 each in Blue, Red, Brown, Green.

You can use counting cubes for most of this, and designate different colors to differentiate. However, I decided to get some wood dowels and make my own token. Talk about cheap! (But, labor intensive). I bought a 1/4″ square dowel and chopped it into cubes.

The raw materials

These became the wear cubes and gold nuggets. I then chopped 13/16″ lengths in another 1/4″ square dowel to make the gold bars. The workers and tacking tokens were chopped from a 1/2″ round dowel. Everything was then soaked overnight in paint baths. While the coloring is not the most impressive (with the exception of the gold pieces), it was a cheap and somewhat fun…but also tedious. I think the results were worth it though for custom bits at a fraction of the price. Had I had to do it over, I would have bought some spray paint  for better finish results when painting.

GAMEPLAY:

Unlike some games that overwhelm you with details and choices right out of the gate (I am looking at you Caylus), Pay Dirt offers a streamlined, simplified experience without dumbing things down. There is still plenty of strategy here, but it is very accessible. The game plays over a variable number of rounds (ultimately determined by the players). Each round has four phases.

The first phase is auction, and really this is the heart of the game. When you start the game, you have old, slow equipment and few workers. In the auction phase you can upgrade equipment, hire personnel, and stake more claims. But the way the bidding works makes things difficult sometimes to get what you need. You will find yourself in all out bidding wars with your opponents for vital pieces of equipment, and valuable workers. Once one item is auctioned off (there are three pools of choices to choose from: equipment, personnel, claims), the next auction must be for something different. (Example: The player before started bidding on a new excavator (a equipment tile). Once that  auction ends, you may start bidding on an item, but not from the equipment category. So if there was a new wash plant you were looking at: sorry!)

Choices, choices, choices. Do I want a new wash plant? or a new claim with valuable gold? or more workers?, or maybe an excavator?

The Auction “house” The little brown cylinder marks the “no bid” area

Once everyone has had a chance to start bidding on something or has won something, then the auction phase ends, and all items won are incorporated into your outfit.

Play then moves to the Work phase. This phase is pretty simple- Simultaneously place your workers and preform actions. In essence your player board represents a conveyor belt of sorts as the gold is dug up, transported, and washed. Tiles are excavated from claims (they are kept face down until processed), moved from excavator to loader, and then through the wash plant. Once the pay dirt tile reaches the last space in this “conveyor belt”, then it is flipped over and the amount of gold you get is revealed.

Each piece of equipment is divided into 1-3 “stages” that the pay dirt must move across. Each worker assigned to an equipment moves the dirt one stage. So, until you get more workers, better equipment or both, it takes a long time (about two turns) to process each pay dirt tile. So it is imperative to upgrade your outfit in one way or another.

By using all five workers, I can pull a piece of pay dirt (The brown tile) from the claim, across the excavator, across the loader, and onto the first stage of the wash plant. Because the dirt hit every piece of equipment, they all gain 1 wear cube. (Notice too that the earth movers had been upgraded to have two slots instead of three, speeding up the process somewhat.)

Each time your equipment loads a dirt tile, it wears down a little (represented by wear cubes) Once the wear cubes gained are equal to the wrench icons, the equipment in question breaks down and needs repaired. You can assign workers to repair  and remove the cubes, but of course this ties up valuable manpower.

Cubes! Though, you don’t want too many of these…

In addition to this main task, you can send workers to town to sell gold for cash, or buy camp gear. (These are little upgrades to help your process: generators, test drills, etc.)

In other words, there is lots of work to do, and not enough hands to go around.

After the Work phase, the Hardships start rolling in. After all, this is Alaska. Whoever has the least gold, draws hardship cards for all the players, and distributes them at his discretion. This is a nice catch up mechanism, in my opinion. These hardship cards are not a walk in the park- they can really hamper your operation next turn. Whether you lose prized equipment you paid top dollar for, or lose gold, or employees, or have other difficulties that require more men, etc, you really have to fight to keep your operation moving some turns.

Hardships, they a’coming

Whoever is the head miner (Start player for the round) then looks at the temperature indicated on his hardship card, and drops the temperature on the main board accordingly. Once the temperature reaches 0, then the last round begins after this round finishes.

Since I am head miner this turn, the temperature drops 2 degrees. Brr…..

After the hardships are resolved, the final phase is  Income- every player gains $2,000. (a subsidary from the government) The round finishes and the next player to the left of the start player becomes the new Head Miner, and the next round begins.

That is really all there is to it. It takes a lot to explain it, but once you’ve played a round or two, it is pretty intuitive and straightforward. Once the game is over, players tally up their gold- most gold wins!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

So is this a nugget of gold, or a pyrite disappointment? The short answer: yes to the former, no to the latter. Pay Dirt really is a gem of a game. It is simple in one aspect. There is really only one strategy/one goal you are working towards. This is not a complex, point salad game. In fact this is the first game I’ve played in a while with not a ubiquitous victory point in sight. It is not overwhelming  too much to “newbie” players, or non-gamers….too much. It is after all a modern “euro” game so there is plenty to take in, and plenty to keep your mind busy, but it is not overwhelming or brain burning.

Looks like that old excavator needs some repairing before you load anymore dirt this turn!

That said, it is also complex enough to keep the gamers among us interested. There is some strategy involved, from the auction phase to the dilemma of where to place your workers in the work phase. (too much to do, not enough hands to do it…). Do you focus on adding more workers to your outfit, or better equipment? Do you use camp gear to help supplement? Do you sell hard earned gold for some needed cash for auctions next round? Or, do you make do with what you have?

Your typical Euro is bashed for being “meh” when it comes to theme. With some games, the theme really is just the wrapping paper to the game itself. No so with Pay Dirt. This Alaskan gold mining theme is practically oozing from every part of this game (and I mean this in a good way). The theme is so closely connect with the mechanics, you really do get a sense of “roughing it” while making your fortune in the Alaskan wild.  I would recommend wearing flannel shirts while playing this game. A scruffy beard doesn’t hurt either, just to get int he spirit of things.

In case you can’t tell, I really, really like this game. Even for it being the PnP version, the art is great (Kudos to Crash Games for even making this available!), and the game play really is enjoyable, with out being too difficult. All the people I have introduced it to, have enjoyed it. While for some it was a bit of a shock to play a game where things are so hard to get things moving sometime (Those hardship cards don’t pull any punches! Between that, your poor equipment, and your meager amount of workers, you feel as if you are barely keeping your operation afloat the first few rounds), the game really does shine.

One gripe I have (and it is a minor one), is that while it says it plays 2-5 players, the two player games I have tried have been lackluster. Mainly because it is hard to have a lively auction round (where much of the action is in the game) with just two players. I don’t know if others who have played have had the same experience, or if there are tweaks to the rules for a two player game I am not aware of, but this is one spot where Pay Dirt falls short. But from 3-5 players, this is absolutely one of my favorite game, hands down!

Interested? Check out the game on Board game Geek here. You can find the PnP files if you want to craft it, or information for when it will be released to retail.

How about you? Have you tried this game yet? If so, what did you think? Be sure to share in the comments below, and if you want to keep more content like this coming, please subscribe! (either at the top or bottom of the page!)

Harbour: A Micro Experience.

It’s not every day you get a game unannounced in the mail. OK, I never have gotten a game in the mail that I did not already order. So, it was quite the surprise when a small media envelope showed up one day, and out poured a colorful handful of those little wooden cubes we all love, along with some brightly decorated cards and other paper parts.

Needless to say, whatever I had been doing when the mail arrived got pushed to the back burner for some time while I examined my game. A letter from Michael Mindes of Tasty Minstrel Games explained the purpose of the delightfully unexpected delivery.

The bits I had spread out across the kitchen table was a pre-production copy of Harbour, a new micro game that TMG is putting out on kickstarter June 15^th. I had seen the Print and Play files floating around the Board Game Geek (BGG) website for a little while ago, downloaded them, but had not printed it out. After a play or two with my new copy, I could see that I had been missing out on a good micro game.

Micro games are certainly becoming more popular as of late. Typically, they have minimal cards and bits and are played in 30 minutes or less. I for one find the concept intriguing. I have played several from Good Little Games (http://www.goodlittlegames.co.uk/), and found them to be enjoyable, short games. There are others as well, with various definitions of a “micro” game. Some draw the line at 18 cards, some at no more than 50. Regardless,the best ones, in my humble opinion, tend to boil down the best mechanics and concepts from the bigger, weightier games to a short and sweet gaming experience. That, in my mind, is the hallmark of a micro game, and Harbour nicely fulfills it.

OVERVIEW

Harbour is, in essence, a worker-placement game, albeit lighter than the standard fair (such as Caylus, Le Havre, Agricola, etc). You have one worker whom you send to various buildings throughout a whimsical fantasy port city, buying, trading, and selling goods to gain victory points. Basically, it follows the typical game-play formula of a good worker-placement game. You gain goods to sell to buy buildings to get points, as well as bonuses and extra benefits. While the bigger games would add more fluff to this bare bones, Harbour takes this formula, and condenses it into a simple to play experience.

One might think that this would make the game too simple/ not involved enough to intrigue those of us who enjoy heavier games, I found that Harbour nicely fills a niche in my gaming collection. While simple and relatively easy to explain and play, there is strategy involved. Your best laid plans will invariably go astray, especially in a 4 player game, so it is good to plan ahead, and think at least 2 turns out. Granted, you can choose not do to this, and play just for the fun of it, have a good experience, and perform decently. But, for those of us who enjoy finding ways to combo abilities, tweak the market to fit our plans for the next turn, etc; there is plenty to enjoy here.

GAMEPLAY

Each player gets a player board with their starter building (gain 2 resources or buy a building). There are variety of ones to choose from with various abilities. The sheer amount of starter boards available (my copy came with 11, the base game will likely come with 7) while not necessary, is a nice touch, and should make for a variety of combinations for each game. On your board is your resource tracker, an inventive way to keep the number of bits down to a minimum, and a special ability unique to your player board/character. There are also symbols that give special abilities (Anchor, Coin, Top Hat, and Warehouse). These with the exception of the top hat are stackable, meaning the more you collect of those symbols (each building you buy has a symbol or two), the more powerful the symbol becomes. (For example, the more coin symbols you have in your possession, the more of a discount you get when buying a building. )

In front of you is the harbour, with various building cards available to use. While there are many choices for you to consider, your task is somewhat easier because of a few key rules: you can use only one building per turn (You move your pawn to the building to perform it’s action- that is the extent of your turn), you cannot use the same building twice in a row, and you cannot use a building someone else is occupying. These simple constraints work well and turns go by quickly.

Your main objective at this point is to gain resources, either through trades or production. Some buildings help you more than others, and so it is beneficial to buy up the more profitable buildings, because then the other players will have to pay “rent” to use your building. Once you have gained enough resources, then you can buy a building. You sell the goods to the market, and buy a building based on the value of goods you sold. I like how this keeps things simple for the game play by combining the two distinct actions into one.

Of special note too is the market mechanic. I dabble in game design myself, and one thing I have worked on is a variable market that is based on supply and demand. Fulfill the demand, and the value of the good goes down. Harbour’s mechanic, while simple, does the job beautifully. What ever resources you sell in the market fall to the bottom, and the resources that were in bottom slots get bumped to the top. It can definitely throw off people though, as they expect to be able to sell cattle for $5 next turn, only to see it drop to $2 the next turn! I found especially in the 4 player game, the market can be quite volatile. It seemed that it was better to focus on the resources at the bottom of the market rather than the top, because invariably, when it would come time to buy a building, those resources would be at the high spot.

This process continues until someone buys a total of 4 buildings and all other players take a last turn. The most points at the end wins! While often the one who triggers the end wins, it does not seem that is always the case, especially in 3-4 player games. In the 2 player games I have played, focusing on the cheap buildings, and rushing to the end quickly can often get you the win. However, once there are more players, especially in a 4 player game, it is more difficult to rush to the end, in part to the fluctuating market, or because someone cuts you off from a building you really want to use so it is advantageous to focus on the larger buildings.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Harbour definitely captures the essence of the worker-placement genre. While certainly lighter, I feel it preserves much of the fun elements that make many of these games so enjoyable. So far, I have had 4 plays under my belt (and I hope for more). It would seem, however that while it is lighter, and a little more prone to luck, more experienced gamers will likely excel easier at this game than others (I won 3 out of the 4 games) The fantasy theme is definitely fun as is the “flavour” text, and I would imagine those who enjoy that kind of art and genre would really get a kick out of it. Personally, fantasy is not my favorite when it comes to themes, but the art is pulled off well, and is attractive, for the most part. I did not care for the art of the Bookkeeper, and may just remove that player board. Others will no doubt be fine with it, but I really don’t care for skeletons. Sorry.

The “flavour text” with the player boards is fun to read for the most part, however there were a few I found a little crude for my tastes. Again, not a big deal for most players. I just tend to tolerate less of that kind of content. With the sheer volume of player boards available, though, this is not an insurmountable problem in the least.

The game itself, in regards to game-play is fairly accessible. I had the opportunity to play it with some non-gamers (my parents), some casual gamers (my wife and her sister) and a more hard-core gamer (A friend of mine). While those unfamiliar with the more “Eurogame” mechanics of a worker-placement game will face more of a learning curve, the more casual gamers will pick this up easily. For either group, the curve is not insurmountable, and after a few rounds, most everyone had a good idea of what was going on and how to play.

It would seem micro games are a trend here to stay, for the moment at least, and Harbour certainly captures the best elements of a good micro-game. While it could definitely be a good filler game for those longer game nights, for those like me who have limited time in the evenings, it certainly gives you a good gaming experience for the 30 minutes (give or take) you put into it. If you want to try Harbour, check out the kickstarter campaign when it goes live, or download the Print and Play files

here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/weblink/178444/pnp-v6