Actualol Newsletter - September 2024

Aloha memberinos!

Coming very soon (probably Monday), is my ambitious 100 Games by Reiner Knizia video. 

Everything’s been pushed back getting that finished, so next week, we’ll have the member exclusive Top 15 Anticipated Essen games, and another exclusive video shortly after that.

While we wait for all that, let’s have a newsletter - reviewing three new games - Cities, Gnome Hollow and War Story: Occupied France.

Cities

In Cities, you’re each building neighbourhoods of the same city, by placing tiles in your 3x3 area, and filling it with features and buildings.

You get all of these things through an interesting draft. Every round there is a row for each type, with four options to choose from. You can only take one set of buildings each round, one tile, one set of features. But which do you take first? What is more important? What will the other players steal first? So there’s a nice bit of interaction in that competition. Also one of each row is face down - which is a fun gamble if you don’t like what’s available.

The placement in your neighbourhood is less interesting. There are no placement rules, but each game you have some goals you’re racing to complete first - for example, in New York City, you’re trying to build a big Central Park first. 

Each round you also take a scoring card. Which means by the end you have 8 scoring cards. This is where the game loses me. That’s too many scoring options to focus on - and some you get so late in the game that you’ll only fulfil through luck. The game gives you too many potential scoring opportunities, but not nearly enough buildings to ever feel satisfied with meeting them. You get to the end of the game and you’ll have multiple scoring cards which you’ve had to ignore entirely. 

As personal puzzle games go, it’s somewhere in the middle. It has elements I like, but it doesn’t come together as a complete package. It’s more about what you get than where you put it. And as a city-building game, it lacks a soul. For example, there’s no thematic purpose for the three building colours. It’s too easy to see through it, and I don’t find what’s left to be engrossing enough to stand on its own.

Gnome Hollow

In Gnome Hollow, you play as Gnomes laying tiles to create mushroom rings. It’s a rare example of a game in which you’re laying tiles in a shared area, a la Carcassonne.

But don’t be fooled - in Gnome Hollow the shared area is a mirage. Yes, you will place tiles near other players, but you scarcely ever interact. You’re only focused on your own rings, and unlike Carcassonne there’s hardly ever the opportunity to grab some quick points from other people’s work.

That’s not the only way it misleads. It presents itself as a lightweight, family game. But it is laden with rules and tokens that make it far more complicated than you’d expect, or want.

On your turn, you add a tile, and place a gnome to claim a ring. Once the ring is complete, you will collect mushrooms from it, which you can sell at the market. You will also move a ring marker on your player board to complete a bonus action. You can place signposts which you add to a ring (for no discernible reason) which give you stronger actions. You can collect wildflower tiles which act as a wild pathway, and add wildflowers to the wildflower market, which you want to collect for end game points. There are way too many things going on, seemingly to make up for the fact that the tile-laying is a boring and uneventful decision. But none of the additions can salvage the game. Gnome Hollow is not worth your time.

War Story: Occupied France

War Story: Occupied France is a choose your own adventure set in World War 2 - you play as SOE operatives sent to France to help the French Resistance. And your first mission is to arrive in France, stay hidden and try to locate The Resistance. 

Each mission has a thick story book - in which you read encounters, and make decisions by turning to the right page. It’s a really lean system - you could probably jump in without reading the rules. And the text is tight and to the point - you’re not wading through waffle, it’s nicely focused on the plot to keep you engaged. 

At every turn you will have decisions to make - do you arrive in France by parachute by boat? And there’s certainly the sense (or good illusion) that your decisions have impact - there are different ways to complete these missions, and paths you’ll never see. 

Most encounters involve a skill check, and these are very straightforward - you will usually add up the skill points of your characters involved. You can choose to spend some of your few precious tokens to boost your total, in an attempt to get a better outcome. There’s no dice, or luck - it all comes down to when you choose to use your resources.

The game simulates small scale fights - giving you a map to plan out your attack and decide how to divide your spies and weapons. And it can come with big consequences, in our first mission three of our four characters had died by the end. 

Crucially, none of the story resolutions felt contrived or unrealistic. There’s clearly been a lot of thought and historical research put in to make it feel genuine. 

The game contains three missions, and the first two took about 2 hours each. They claim there’s the potential to play them again because different decisions will tell different stories - but I can’t imagine returning to them myself. 

If you like narrative cooperative games, and you’re into the theme, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

Song of the Month - Sophie’s House by Half Alive

See you soon for the Kniziathon!

Actually yours,

Jon