Zooloretto Summary Card

Are you a fan of adorable furry things? Do you like games that make you go "Awww"? Do you miss the days of preschool lessons about baby animals? Then you probably are sitting in front of a Zooloretto board right now. I have yet to write a full review on the Spiel des Jahres winning game, because it just seemed too boring to even write about. Sorry, Zooloretto and its fans. I guess that's kind of harsh. I mean, I do like fuzzy things with cute faces. But sans expansions, Zooloretto is about as exciting to me as playing most children's games.

Okay, I'll be fair though and stipulate that it may be a fantastic gateway game to pull in non-gamers or even your children. Yes, "Z" has its purpose. And for those of you whom absolutely love this game--and there are many of you out there!--I have a (specially requested) treat for you. Here is an image of the Zooloretto money action summary card:

SUMMARY CARD - ZOOLORETTO:

Just in case you lost or damaged your copies, or need extras, here it is for your printing pleasure. Also handy for pasting to wood blocks or cardboard boxes if you choose to pimp Zzzzzzooloretto. Cheers to many happy (and accurate) plays.

But as a parting shot, I have to share a couple of comics from board2pieces.com that channel my "Z" feelings:

Board Game Review: Java

Or, "What Would Happen if Carcassonne and UpWords had a Baby"

Java is one of those games I never really thought I'd get my hands on. It's been out of print for years (word to all the OOP games out there!) and it costs too much dough for me to justify treating myself so nicely. So thank the gods for clever and generous Secret Santas! If you missed it, here's the scoop on how I got my little mitts on a copy of this OOPer and how it made my Christmas.

But what about the game itself? Once the buzz of the unwrapping presents wore off and I was done wheezing "My preccious!" at the Best Husband in the World, then it was time to test the game. Would it live up to all its hype? (All of which was generated by my own tongue...) Would it be a regular playable? Or would it be one of those nice collectibles you brag about, but never really pull out of the game closet? Well, here's my review:

First Impressions:
Weeeeeee! Okay, really, I'll stop being giddy and euphoric now. Serious pretend journalism time here. Honestly, it's hard not being impressed with this particular set. Aside from the fact that this "used" set is in mint condition and my Santa arranged to have all the little cards sleeved for us (so classy!), this board game was made to impress.

First, let's consider the tiles in this tile-licious game--they're thick and well-made. Whomever punched them out clearly didn't have too many problems, as all the tiles are cleanly punched and spectacular. The game also contains a miniature deck of "Festival" cards that have breath-taking artwork. Pair that with the painted wooden player tokens, and you have a well-crafted set. Plus the box contains a very functional organizational tray to keep different tiles sorted, organized, and neatly in place. Whomever worked on designing this game for mass market went to a lot of trouble, and I hope they know it hasn't gone unnoticed. I looked for ways to poo-poo this set, but really the only negative I can possibly figure is that the 17 x 12 x 2" box is larger than many other games, and will require some reconfiguring of my board game closet. Boo.

Set-Up:
First things first--the rules booklet. The good news is that the rules booklet isn't too long and you can be functionally playing inside 30-45 min. The bad news is that the dry text suffers from the same prob as so many other games: The rules are listed in such a peculiar order that you are required to understand the minutia before knowing the big-picture goal. I call it the Rule Jumble Paradox. If Rio Grande ever reprints the game, I might suggest a reordering to make the flow a little more accessible and smooth (I know an eager writer you could hire! Cheap!).
  
Beyond mastering the rules, the set-up is fairly straight-forward. Every player gets a slew of tokens, tiles, a game mechanics cheat sheet card, and three "Festival" cards. No big whoop. The whole game can be set up in about 10 minutes. 

The Gameplay:
In order to avoid violating the Rule Jumble Paradox, why don't I start by explaining the purpose of the game? Each player acts as a Javanese ruler who embarks on a quest to dominate and conquer a yet-untouched area of inner Java. How do the Javanese rulers do this? Through tile laying, a-course! Most of the tiles laid by players consist of three hexes connected to each other in a triangular formation. There are also double-hex and single-hex tiles available to "rulers" in limited quantities.

On each ruler's turn, he (or she) lays a tile on the hex-honeycombed board, and then has the option to place a "developer" wooden token on top of the tile. Oh, but here's the fun part about tile laying: They STACK! Yep, as long as your tile can be placed on "even ground" and is not placed exactly on a tile of the same shape, then you can stack 'em up high. Four tiles, five tiles, watch them tower! And getting the literal high ground is how you dominate your cities via your developers. Interesting, no?

There are several other actions a player may take, including moving developers from tile to tile, placing extra tiles, building palaces, and more--but said ruler had better have the "Action Points" (AP) available to perform the action. This turn mechanic provides 6 APs to spend per turn, before finishing the turn with an optional "Festival" at one of their developer-occupied cities. Said festivals earn rulers big "fame points" (and those are whatcha want to win the game!). In order to throw (or participate in) a festival, the players must play at least one "Festival" card from their hand that matches the top card in the deck; This represents the only real element of chance in the game.

The game ends when three-hex tiles are exhausted, and then "fame points" are tabulated based on who dominates the most territories by literally holding the high ground.

The Review:
Java is a thinking woman's game (or man, whatever). Don't expect to pick up this game for a casual get-together or a breezy night of gaming, since most players will experience extreme Analysis Paralysis every turn. The Best Husband in the World and I have already agreed that this game is reserved for just the two of us, since we'd have to punch anyone else in the face for taking so long each turn. As it was, a fairly stupidly played game (I kept letting him cut off my cities into little villages) took us 90 minutes. And as our strategies develop, I anticipate this only lengthening.


Now, don't think I'm complaining! For all of the "Paralysis" and popcorn throwing (and Jeopardy! theme humming) that went on during our games, each turn was exciting and smile-inducing. Each of us found cunning and delightful places to stack tiles that the other person hadn't yet anticipated.

And what about that chance element? Annoying, sure. Most of us don't like to have craftily-played games trounced by chance card draws. And the fame-point-rich Festivals can have a significant impact on the game, especially if you get gonged a few times. During the last game we played, I was frozen out of Festivals for the second half of the lengthy game, and I fear that was an agent in my sad loss to the Best Husband in the World. But is it a deal breaker? No. Most of the time, the Festivals do not play a large enough role, and the odds are stacked neatly in favor of all players. I chalk up my experience to a rare fluke (I hope!).

How does this compare to other games? Compared to most games in my closet, this is definitely lengthier and requires a serious mental commitment to the game (read: No shows with Nathan Fillion can be on in the background). But I love the unique twist on what I have viewed as classic tile-laying play from games such as Carcassonne. Your brain will be pushed to think in new dimensions and to fight ruthlessly against your opponents (so no playing with anyone deemed "sensitive"!). Overall, for a long winter night's tete-a-tete with someone you love (to screw over), this game is magnificent. [Twists handlebar mustache devilishly]

Game: Java
Creator: M. Kiesling and W. Kramer
Publisher: Rio Grande Games

GRADE: A-

Ho-ho-ho! Board Game Geek Christmas Has Come Early This Year!

So, my husband and I are active members of the board game community, BoardGameGeek. If you don't know what "The Geek" is and you love board games, then you should be slapping your forehead right now since it's the absolute authority on all things boards and games. (If you are a member of BGG, look me up! I'm "wonderwitch".) And every year this magnanimous authority holds a giant worldwide Secret Santa exchange. Yeaaaa!

How could this work, you ask? Well simple, you sign up in November and a giant super computer positioned somewhere in Board Game Geek headquarters...named WOPR...randomly assigns each participant with a Secret Santa, who could reside anywhere in the world. Once you have your victim's gift recipient's name, you just check out their Geek wishlist for games, order, and ship. Then you taunt, poke, stalk, etc., until they have a general feeling of unease and anxiety.

Our sucker lucky target this year is someone who lives in.....oops....let's just say Europe (wouldn't want to give any specific hints!). I'm really stoked for the two items we sent this person. We worked off of his BGG wishlist exclusively, since it's our first year and didn't want to push our gaming agendas on someone quite yet. (That'll be next year.) It was an interesting adventure trying to find the games we wanted to send at European locations and in the right languages. And I temporarily went cross-eyed from converting Euros to dollars so many times. But it's all worth it. So much fun to surprise someone half a world away with a merry board game present!

And today was our turn! Our very, very kind Santa had his FedEx elves deliver our mystery gifts to our doorstep today. Yippeeee! Like two kids on Christmas morning, my husband and I sprinted from the front door (rudely slamming it in the face of the FedEx man) and jostled elbows side-to-side to get to the box cutter and begin opening our precious package. Our three year-old rolled her eyes. I swear. With mouths watering and eyes ablaze with early Christmas fervor, we found two a-m-a-z-i-n-g gifts inside.

The first one was a game that our Secret Santa had taunted us about, noting that he was going to "throw us some curve balls". Said curve ball ended up being a game I had never heard of, and didn't even have on my BGG wishlist: Infinite City. But you know what? I am so jazzed that this jolly (fat and red?) elf has so much enthusiasm for the game, that he sends a brand-new-in-the-shrink copy as a holiday present. Oh, you know it has to be good. That's like if you were to go to a new restaurant and someone in your party orders for you (okay, I guess that specifically would be kinda rude...but you get my point.). I cannot wait to try it and love it. And bonus!--it's two-player capable. If any readers have any feedback on Infinite City, I'd love to hear what you think of it.

The second gift was a different kind of curve ball. Yes, it was from our wishlist....but I don't think we dared hope that this would be a Secret Santa item. We scarcely ever thought we'd get our hands on a copy! The game is....Java! This is a Rio Grande title that's been out of print for over six years and is mega-sought after. And the copy we got? Yeah, it's gorgeous and mint condition. The opened game has protective sleeves on each of the cards in the "palace cards" deck. And it looks like it's never been played. My husband had to tie a lobster bib around my neck so my drool wouldn't land on the game pieces.

So if my Secret Santa is out there reading this, I'm sending a very big THANK YOU to you, and I hope you and your loved ones have a very merry Christmas!

The Joy and Simplicity of Zooloretto

As mentioned in the last post, we just received a copy of Zooloretto via a trade over at boardgamegeek.com. Our game inventory cycles out pretty regularly so that we only keep games we really treasure and want to plain-ol' wear out. Last week's trade was Pandemic for Zooloretto. Good trade? Let me know what you think.

We've played Zooloretto before. Actually, we first saw it last Halloween at a costume party and had the enjoyable experience of gaming in costume. I was a flapper. The feathers were everywhere. And even though we played the rules a little wrong back then and in spite of being a little drunk on gruesome ghoul green punch, the game always stood out in my memory as having a whimsical theme, and being light and enjoyable.

What I found out is that this first impression was spot-on.

In Zooloretto, you are a zookeeper who is setting up a brand-new zoo. You need to stock your pre-built cage areas with animals and set up kiosks. The bulk of the gameplay is tile drawing--pull some tiles from a bag and place them in a "truck". By truck, I mean little wooden boat-like piece that has room for 1 to 3 tiles. Then one at a time players decide which truck full of animals would be the best fit for their zoo. Since you only have 3 to 5 types of cages, you want to be picky about the types of animals you bring in, as it's only one type of animal per cage. Extra animals with no cage space cost you money. You can also draw and select coin tiles to spend on zoo improvements or changes, and kiosk tiles to give your zoo bonus points.

Natch, we played this two player this past week. And although I think the gameplay was a lot more dynamic last ghoulish feather-filled Halloween with 5 players, there's still something enjoyable about 2 players volleying back and forth trying to stick each other with undesirable tiles and trucks. At this point the game is pretty straight-forward though and can easily and competently be played while players are distracted or in a hurry. What does that mean? I'm grateful for something light and easy-going, but I'm hella looking forward to trying out the MANY expansions for the game, and hoping they can add just a little more depth. And cuteness. Because baby pandas in a board game aren't cute enough, right?

 (Awesome image courtesy of Boardgamegeek.com)

Game: Zooloretto
Creator: Michael Schacht
Publisher: Rio Grande
Awards: 2007 Spiel des Jahres