String Railway - FoxMind Games

String Railway is weird.  String Railway is different.  String Railway was fun?  I'm not sure I can answer that yet.  But String Railway is definitely one I need to play again.

Depending on how many players are playing you take this large piece of string (more like a thin rope) and put it in square, triangle or pentagon.  We have a normal sized dining room table and I don't think the pentagon would fit.  We played 2 player which told us to use a square.  (You are free to play the chaotic version and make any shape you want.)

Each player gets a starting station tile and 5 pieces of "string", 1 long and 4 short.  You take turns drawing a new station tile, placing it and laying your string down.  The string has to start and end on a station.  It can pass through any number of stations along the way (Within the rules of each station) and may pass through the river or mountain (Blue and Brown Strings), or over other railways.  However each string you pass over you lose a point.  Points are scored depending on which new stations  your railway connects with.  Some stations can handle only a single player, some can handle up to all 5 players connecting through them.

This game is different because as seen in the photo above their is no board or any official spot where stuff goes.  It's "put it where it works for you", and then the next player does the same.  It gets a little crazy.  

We played a 2 player game which makes each player control 2 different colors of string.  Essentially playing a 4 player game with 2 people.  Because of that I would think this is better as a 3-4 player game as I had to play both players and trying to have each do well, but not hurt each other.

In the end this game was interesting and different to play.  I really want to play it again with more players.  

Players:

John Stout

Angela Stout

Pros:

Like nothing I've played before.  Very open playing surface, could even be played on the floor if needed.  

Cons:

Because it's so open a slight bump to the string can open paths that were supposed to have been blocked off.  

Play Again?

I need to play this at least once more with 3-4 players to see if it's a keeper.  It was alright with 2 but I could see it really doing well with more.  

String Railway by Foxmind games

Designer - Hisashi Hayashi

El Gaucho - Argentum Verlag

The night started with me going downstairs to get a game we haven't played before.  It was early enough to learn something new.  I came back with several including El Gaucho.  We sat down and went through the rules, most of which were easy to understand.  Only being confused by a Spanish word for pasture.

In the game you are a owner of a cattle farm and you hire gaucho's to bring the best cattle back to you so you can sell them.  Their are several breeds of cattle with numbers from 1-12 on them.  To score you want to form ascending or descending rows of cattle.  When you round up a cow that has a number that can't fit on the end of your row you need to sell the row (herd) and start a new herd.  You score by number of cattle in the heard times the largest numbered cow in the herd.  So if you have 5 cattle numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 then each cow would be worth 10, and you would score 50 points.

And you collect the cows by rolling dice (training your gaucho's) and you use the dice to pick which cattle you can get or other activities that the gaucho's can do.  Including stealing an opponents cow, or getting an extra die.

While the theme seems lighthearted and almost silly, the game had lots of interesting decisions you had to make, as to which cow to select or activity to have your gaucho preform in order to get the most points.

I enjoyed this game very much with it's fun art and theme to the interesting and thoughtful game play that forced you to think about every move in order to better your herds.

Players:
John Stout
Angela Stout

Pros:
Colorful fun art.  Tiles felt durable with nice wooden pieces.  Neat dice corral.  Fun game play.

Cons:
Nothing yet.  It may change on more plays though.

Play Again?:
I definitely would want to play this again.  I would also like to try it with multiple players.

El Gaucho by Argentum Verlag

Designer - Arve D. Fühler

Fish Stix - Peaceable Kingdom

We also played Fish Stix the same night we played Celestial Rainbows.  This is a game that the other three members of my family had already played without me once.  The setup is very easy as each player gets a score sheet from the pad and they will need a pencil or something to mark with.  You take the fish stix's and make some draw piles.  Players take turns trying to match the color and direction of the fish on the sticks to score points.  As seen in the pictures below a stick can go next to any other fish, however you only score when the fish match and match the direction they are traveling.

Game in the early stages of play.

This game works well for younger kids as their is no reading involved.  My 6 year old was able to match colors and directions with ease, though he didn't always make the "best" play as he would get a certain fish he wanted to match stuck in his mind and play that card.  Usually to my despair as he blocked off a nice long run of a certain fish right before my turn.

The game also works well for adults as the game board can change so much between turns, one really needs to pay attention to his fish stix and the board to see where the best placement is.

Thanks to my mother Launa Stout for the gift of this game.

Players:

John Stout

Angela Stout

Megan Stout

Stephen Stout

Pros:  

Quick setup and take down.  No reading makes it great for younger kids.  Enough depth and strategy to keep adults entertained while playing with children.

Cons: 

Nothing I can think of.

Play Again?:

Yes.  I see many more plays of this game in our house. 

Fish Stix by Peaceable Kingdom

Designer - Susan McKinley Ross

Celestial Rainbows - Griggling Games, Inc.

I had high hopes for Celestial Rainbows when I pulled it out to play with the family.  It's got attractive colorful art complete with Travelocity gnomes. (The gnomes are not actually travelocity's gnomes, they just made me think of them)  We read through the instructions and were left feeling a little confused.

We re-read the rules and felt confident that we knew what we were doing.  We dealt the cards and started playing.  In this game each player has two cards that sit face up and two that sit face down.  On your turn  you get two actions.  Which include swapping a card with another players face up card, or playing a card among a few others.  The goal is to create as many rainbows as you can as a team, but you can't talk about the cards that are face down in front of you.

My first issue was that I don't know what colors are in the rainbow, and what order they are in, and the instructions don't tell you it either.  I think we also got dealt a bad hand as all the "special power cards" in a row, even though we shuffled the game and inserted them in the deck away from each other and shuffled more.

My second issue is that it just wasn't that fun.  My 9 year old daughter who loves rainbows asked if we were almost done as she was bored.  That's not a good sign when the rainbow lover is tired of the rainbow building game.

Players:
John Stout
Angela Stout
Megan Stout
Stephen Stout

Pros:
Small package which could travel well.  Cooperative game with no real stress or tough decisions.  Art was psychedelic and enjoyable to look at.

Cons:
Instructions felt poorly written, perhaps printing them in color to better show what was expected would have helped.  Game almost felt like a team building activity and less like a game.

Play Again?:
It's real hard to say.  I'd be ok with giving it a second chance as we already know the rules.  But it probally won't happen.

Celestial Rainbows by Griggling Games, Inc.

Designer - Ian Brody

JurassAttack! - Green Couch Games

After a few games with the kids this evening I pulled out a new game.  The game was a quick little 2 player game called JurassAttack!.  We had never played this before and I knew I only had a few minutes before the kids were done changing into pajamas and brushing their teeth.

We cruised through the rules pretty quickly.  I did however have the JurassAttack! Promo Pack mixed in so we weren't sure about how all the cards worked.  We started off and almost right away the kids showed up and started asking questions.  We had to keep them from asking too many questions about what does a number 9 do or that Tyrannosaurus Rex looks awesome so the other person didn't know what we had.

We stumbled through the first game and I won 25 to 22.  But I know we interpreted a few of the cards from the promo pack wrong.  We played again much to the kids excitement, as they both said they liked watching us play it.  We feel we played the promo pack correctly this time and my wife clobbered me with a score of 36 to 16.


Players:
John Stout
Angela Stout

Pros:
This game was easy to learn and was quick and fun to play.  The art was enjoyable and it would be good for gamers of all ages that can read.

Cons:
We both agreed that the card size was annoying.  Their was no reason for the extra large cards.  Just the 8 cards from the promo pack make it so the box barely stays on the game.  If they had been standard sized cards it would have stored better.

Play Again?:
Yes.  My wife asked to play a second time right after the first which is a good sign that she enjoyed it.

JurassAttack! by Green Couch Games

Designer - Ryan Cowler

After much thought and many games I have decided to start a blog of gaming.  I plan to put reviews to games, write play reports, talk about accessories I like and dislike.

Either way i'm just starting out.  Hope you follow.