Gùgōng

GaGarfieldstar2,0

Another themeless workerplacement game. The +3 VP are very important during the game, this is pretty imbalanced. [c] Theme: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Not really --> Gameplay: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Place your worker here, here, here, here... --> Interaction: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Not much --> Artwork: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok, nothing special --> Luck: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Cards, tiles --> Strategy: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Yes --> Components: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]I played the deluxe... --> Play duration: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Very good --> Easy to teach: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]A lot to teach --> Rules quality: not yet read Setup time: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> No downtime: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> Replay value: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Not much --> [/c]

MeMestremutenstar8,0

Rating: 3/5 Production value: 4/4 Is the game in my collection/Love to have?: 1/1

EvEvanstar5,9

On the board there are seven action areas, each with a card. On your turn you take a card from your hand, then swap it with a card on the central board. If the number on the card you played is higher than the number of the card you took (but 1s wrap around to beat 9s), then you get to resolve the actions on your card, then the action space. Otherwise, you get to do nothing unless you pay some workers or a discard a second card to your personal discard pile. The new card you took also goes to your discard pile. Cards in your discard pile will become your hand for the next round. The game is incredibly tight. Workers get spent to augment actions often, and the balance of when and how to retrieve them is tricky. There are some actions that improve your action engine by turning one of your single workers into a double worker, or by adding an extra card into your hand, but each of these takes multiple turns of setup. Things also get tricky because many of the cards have the printed ability to activate action spaces on the board. The game is ultimately point salad, but the different action areas relate to each other better than average for that genre, and there's a good amount of player interaction. It also doesn't suffer from the problem of ZhanGuo where there's a single pile of cards and your card either beats the number or it doesn't.