Longhorn

PoPoteetstar7,0

Honestly, as far as 2p games go, slightly underrated.

EvEvanstar3,5

This is a 2 player filler game where on a player's turn they collect all the cow tokens of a single color on the tile the marker is resting on, then move that many spaces along the 3x3 grid of tiles. After the move you flip the marker over, indicating it's the next player's turn to go from the tile you dropped them off at. When a tile runs out of cows completely, the player who took the cow that caused it resolves the effect tile, which could be as good as getting you points, or as bad as automatically losing you the game. If nobody auto loses, then the game ends naturally on the turn that the marker can no longer move to a space with cows. Then each collected cow is worth points equal to the number of that color cow remaining on the board. It's a nice idea for a 2 player filler. The art is quite beautiful. I wanted it to be more interesting than it was. Ultimately, it didn't feel bad but it did feel a little swingy and fragile. For example, in our setup of the game we wound up with the center tile being the auto loss effect, with 2 colors of cows. As the starting player, I happened to be able to start my opponent on that space, which meant no matter what he did, after his action, I would be able to navigate the tile back to the auto loss space, resulting in my victory. We of course re-randomized, but then I was completely clobbered when my opponent maneuvered himself to the action tile that removed all of one color of cow from the game, thereby making them worthless. Of course i was the one I had pushed hardest in, which didn't feel great in terms of a single move eliminating everything I had worked for across the game. Not to say it's completely negative considering how short the game length is. I don't mind similar player elimination in super quick games like Lost Legacy, so I have trouble being totally against it here. It does give you some tension in terms of trying to force the opponent to move you to things you want vs keeping yourself away from things you don't. I would play this again I think, given the opportunity, although I don't know I'd push for it. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ★ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ☆☆☆☆☆ Raw enjoyment