Roux Dat: Tricky Kids, Unmatched: Lee v Ali, Castle Combo
A few years back, my buddy Sagan Ezell, who was the director of the Southern Board Game Festival at the time, came up with an idea that would not only grow the reach of the festival but also grow the community of board gamers here in Acadiana.
Once a month, one of the SoBo sponsors, Jet Coffee, hosts a game night at the coffee shop, and we advertise it on Facebook and on their socials. Since it’s started, we’ve had dozens of new-to-the-hobby gamers come by, learn about the world of board gaming, and even attend or volunteer at Sobo. The SoBo game nights at Jet Coffee have been an unqualified success.
I’ve missed the last few, but made sure to attend the December meet up. I’m glad I did! We had four or five tables of gamers going all night, and some new faces.
Sagan started us off with a first play of Tricky Kids, a very clever little trick-taking game from Danielle Reynoldsand Steven Ungaro (who co-designed a game we talked about last week, 3 Tricky Pigs, too).
Here’s the first twist. Players get a hand of cards, containing three different suits, but none of them have any value. Instead, in the base game, each player independently decides the value of each card, so long as the total among the seven cards that they can keep does not exceed twenty-one (21) points. The the rounds are played as normal, with the winner of each round earning a point chip.
And then there’s the second twist, each of those point chips are worth a different value depending on what color was the winning trick. Holy cow, this game is thinky and clever on so many levels but super easy to teach and breezy to play. Every time I thought I was in control, I wasn’t, and I love games like that. Solid little trick-taker and I can’t wait to play it with Dave and Carlos and Logan (who are big trick-taking fans in the group).
My love for Unmatched is well-documented, so I was excited to get a copy of Unmatched: Lee v Ali. I used to own Bruce Lee, the single pack, but traded him away for the complete collection of Orleans stuff. (Yes, Lee and Deadpool were that valuable back then.) This is a two-pack, with a double sided board, and introduces Muhammed Ali for the first time to the Unmatched universe.
These two are solitary melee fighters (well, put a pin in that description) that play very much like their namesakes. Bruce Lee has lots of ways to bounce around quickly, and can set up very dangerous combos that can overwhelm an opponent in one or two turns. I also like the fact that he can play cards that eventually cycle back to him, sort of like going to his basic judo moves and building up a whole series again.
Ali has the “flip token” mechanic that we’ve seen in other fighters like Alice in Wonderland, but this time he gets either a +2 to attack or +1 to hit range, turning him into from a melee fighter to a short range jabber. Just like Lee, Ali can set up a flurry of punches that can do a lot of damage in just a few turns.
Two thumbs up on this set. If Restoration Games can keep coming up with creative ways to portray historical and fantastical fighters, I’ll keep playing them! Our thanks to Restoration for sending us this copy.
I first played this at BGG CON 2024 with Andre from NOLA, Verla (the Board Game Ambassador) and Logan from the Acadiana Board Gamers krewe.
But I’ve played it dozens of times since then, all on BGA. Mistake! I went by memory instead of reading the rules thinking I’ve had 13 plays of it, and I forgot an important rule. For some reason, I thought the messenger moved every turn, instead of just when you pick a card that has the messenger movement icon. We figured it out about half way through.
Anyway, I still love this game. I love the fact that you know the length: it has nine turns, and so you can kinda sorta plan out your arc, knowing when to build the engine of your cards, and when to start collecting cards that will fit. I love the tight economy of the coins and keys, and I love the little combos that you can find. My least favorite thing, unfortunately, is the standard rule-book, which just doesn’t give a good explanation of every symbol you find.
I was fortunate enough to get a copy from my Secret Santa and so glad I got to introduce it to some other gamers in the area. After I left the meet up, they were setting up to play again!
All in all, a good night of gaming. If you are involved in a small local con, I’m interested in hearing any ways you have found to get the word out about your convention and grow your community.
Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ From Board Game Gumbo
** A complimentary copy of some of the games mentioned were provided by the publisher. **