Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Porta Nigra, Faraway, Dro Polter, Photosynthesis (revisited)

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Porta Nigra, Faraway, Dro Polter, Photosynthesis (revisited) · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:00
  Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, the Podcast where I pick up my audio recorder as I head
• 0:07
  out for a walk and deliver an episode to you while I stroll around.
• 0:11
  I'm Brendan Riley.
• 0:12
  It's a lovely day and that feels like a lovely time to talk about some games I've tried
• 0:25
  for the first time recently.
• 0:27
  Time for another board game espresso triple shot.
• 0:32
  For those of you new to the podcast, the board game espresso triple shot is an episode
• 0:37
  where I do three mini reviews of three games I've tried for the first time recently.
• 0:43
  So it's not full reviews.
• 0:46
  I haven't played these games enough to confidently tell you anything about them, but they are
• 0:51
  a good place to start for understanding what I think of them and getting a sense of how
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  the games play.
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  So in that regard, today I'm going to talk about three games I've tried recently and
• 1:01
  I often will pick one that I dusted off to talk about as well and I'll be doing that too.
• 1:06
  So to start with, this is the game that was on the top of my stack last month and I did
• 1:10
  not get it played, but I am happy to report that I got to play it today.
• 1:14
  That is Porta Nigra.
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  Porta Nigra is a game from Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer.
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  I talked about it a little bit in the Kramer and Kiesling full episode that I did
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  the other week, but I'm going to talk about it a little more now in more detail.
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  This game was published by Stronghold Games in 2015, which I don't understand how it was
• 1:40
  published in 2015 because I didn't feel like I was all that deep in the hobby yet, but I
• 1:44
  remember being just bombarded with discussions of this game.
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  So confusing.
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  Oh, the cicadas are loud today.
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  Anyhow, in Porta Nigra, you play some sort of Roman organizer who's helping to build a
• 1:58
  famous Roman city and set it up for success, I guess, in the Roman Empire.
• 2:04
  The game has a relatively simple mechanism.
• 2:07
  Essentially, it is a game where you're helping to build the city and you do that by buying
• 2:12
  bricks, spending those bricks to build towers and then scoring based on where you built
• 2:18
  those towers.
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  The game has a variety of different features that score.
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  Part of what makes the game interesting is it's an area control game, so you're trying
• 2:27
  to gain majorities in different areas, but each area score is a little bit different way.
• 2:34
  So paying attention to how to score in those different areas is a crucial part of making
• 2:40
  the game work.
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  The gameplay mechanism is really interesting.
• 2:44
  You, everybody gets an identical deck of cards.
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  If you're playing in a two player game, you're going to go through that deck of cards
• 2:49
  twice in a three player in a... Sorry. In a three or four player game, you're going to go through
• 2:54
  the deck of cards twice. In a two player game, you'll go through it three times.
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  And the cards have three or four actions on them, so they have
• 3:06
  like three or four different actions depicted on the card of like five or six different
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  actions that are available in the game.
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  Then at the bottom of the card is a little picture of a torch and generally the way it
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  works is if the card has three actions on the card, there are two torches at the bottom
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  of the card.
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  If there are four actions available on the card, there are three torches.
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  So you get to do most of the card, but not all of it.
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  And then what you do is you set the card down in front of you and then you have these little
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  action discs and you play them onto the card and when you cover up an action, then you
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  do that action.
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  And the actions are things like buying bricks, spending bricks to build things and giving
• 3:40
  money.
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  Those are three main actions.
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  There's a couple of others as well.
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  The couple of things that make the game really have interesting choices
• 3:48
  are deciding which areas you want to fight for control of.
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  It is an area control game.
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  So scrambling for that control is interesting.
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  Deciding how much money you want to spend moving around trying to get efficiency and movement
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  because the one of the challenging parts of the game is you can only do stuff in the
• 4:06
  quadrant of the board that you're in.
• 4:08
  And if you want to move, you have to move clockwise around the board and you have to pay
• 4:11
  one coin for each step you take in that movement.
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  So there's a really frustrating and fascinating thing where you're trying to figure out how
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  you're going to move and where to maximize efficiency, particularly given the limited number
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  of terms.
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  The movement isn't one of those actions.
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  You can always move right before you take an action, but you still have to pay.
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  And then the third thing that is equally interesting about the movement and the different
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  choices is that the bricks you're buying, the game has a really clever way of managing
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  its supplies, its components.
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  The bricks that you're buying are each designated as part of a color.
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  And the way it works is that the bricks themselves are all gray.
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  And when you buy them, they are sitting in one of five color depots.
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  They've got red, blue, black, yellow, and white.
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  And when you buy the brick, it is the color that it is in the depot.
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  And then you take the brick and you put it in your tableau in your storage space for that
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  color brick.
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  You only have one, the only had to manufacture one color of brick.
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  The bricks themselves just maintain their color by where you put them.
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  So that's a really clever bit of game mechanism.
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  When you're building your little towers to gain your area of majorities, each majority
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  works in a different way.
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  And I'm not going to talk about all of those.
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  But you also get this thing whenever you build, if you build matching a certain pattern,
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  then you can take these bonus cards.
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  And that's probably where the true efficiency and true skill lies is acquiring these
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  bonus cards while you're also winning out on majorities.
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  It was really good.
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  I liked it a lot.
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  I'm looking forward to playing it some more.
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  It's definitely staying in the collection.
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  There's a reason it's highly rated.
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  So that's Porta Nigra from Kramer and Kiesling from Stronghold Games.
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  The next game I want to talk about was just published last year.
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  It's called Faraway.
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  The designers are Johannes Goupy and Corentin Lebrat.
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  And it's published by Catch Up Games.
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  This is not a problem.
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  It's not a publisher and those aren't, are not designers that I know at all.
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  Both designers have games to their credit, but I, oh, I have played.
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  Okay.
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  So, Corentin Lebrat is credited with, uh, helping design Draftasaurus and Trek 12 Himalayas,
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  both games I have played.
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  And so, I will say I'm familiar with their work.
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  Faraway is a really interesting, I don't know you call it,
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  path-making game, involving drafting cards.
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  It's a drafting game first.
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  There's a market of cards on each round.
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  You're going to play a card.
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  All the cards have numbers between like one and 70 on them.
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  You're going to play the card and then you're going to draft in the order of lowest to highest
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  number that you played.
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  So, if you played a low numbered card, you get to draft first from the market.
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  If you played a high number card, you draft the last.
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  And what you do when you draft is you take one of five cards from the market.
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  I don't know if it's always five or if it's just, or I think it was four cards from the market
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  when we played.
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  I don't know if you're playing with a three-player game, or like a two-player game.
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  If there would be three cards in the market, I don't know exactly how that works.
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  But you're, you're taking a card from the market and you have a hand of like two or three
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  cards, I think three.
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  Uh, then if the card you just played was a higher number than the card you played in
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  the last round, then you also get to take a shrine, which is like a smaller card that gives
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  you something as well.
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  Okay, so Brendan, why are you taking these cards and what are you trying to do?
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  You're planning a journey with these cards and the bonus cards that you take will
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  help with the journey.
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  So, here's the cool part.
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  Each card has some resources on it, sometimes, a scoring condition on it, sometimes,
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  and that number value.
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  The number value is not anything at the end of the game.
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  The cards themselves, the resources they give you are useful once they're revealed, and
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  the scoring condition happens when the card is revealed.
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  So here's the tricky part, the gimmick, and I'll see if I can explain this without searching.
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  So you're gonna play eight cards.
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  You're laying them out in a row, one through eight.
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  As you go, you're playing them from one to eight, and each time you play a number that's
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  higher than the previous number, you get a bonus card.
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  So, you know, if you go 1, 25, 45, 60, and then the next card you play is 10,
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  then you don't get a bonus between 60 and 10, but you did get a bonus card between
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  the others.
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  So, everybody plays until you have eight cards in the display.
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  Once everyone has eight, you turn them all face down.
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  Then, starting with the last card you played, you reveal and score the cards one at a time.
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  And what's interesting is, the cards require that you have resources in play, and the resources
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  are on the cards and on the bonus cards.
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  So, like, for example, let's say you have a card that will score the number one, and
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  one point for every bull's head icon that you have in play.
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  Great, but in order to score that card, you have to have two pineapples in play.
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  The game doesn't call them pineapples, but they look like pineapples.
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  So, if your card, with the bull's head scoring on it, is your eighth card, when you flip it
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  up, it's only going to score for itself and the cards in your bonus tableau.
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  Then, and it'll only score if you have those pineapples showing.
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  Then, you flip a card seven, and you assess the tableau again for card seven to figure out
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  whether it scores.
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  Card six, card five, and so on.
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  So, there's this interesting thing where, when you put a card down, you're planning that
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  the display that you take after the card you put down will be able to support the win
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  condition or the scoring condition of the card that you're playing.
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  Because you don't score it if it isn't showing when the card is flipped face up, and the
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  card is flipped face up in backwards drafting order.
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  I hope that that explained it because if it didn't, I can't explain it better.
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  That's the best I'm going to do, so hopefully that did it.
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  So, the way that's going to work is you draw all eight cards in your score.
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  We had a lot of fun.
• 10:13
  The game was actually relatively close, but a really interesting game.
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  Now, I thought it was fun. It definitely would go on the category of,
• 10:23
  "I will happily play at any time somebody brings it out."
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  I don't think I liked it enough to seek it out myself, but I definitely would go on the
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  "I'd buy it if I found it cheap" category.
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  And cheap even like 'five to ten dollar range,' rather than the 'only at goodwill' kind of
• 10:39
  purchase.
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  It's really interesting.
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  It's probably the kind of game that you get much better at once.
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  You've played a few times.
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  And if I didn't have a big collection, I definitely would be considered getting this, but just
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  with the number of games I have, I can't see this making a huge splash in the games that
• 10:54
  we choose to play.
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  But I had a good time with it.
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  That's far away.
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  So, I did get a chance to dust off one game recently, and that game was, Photosynthesis.
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  released in 2017, designed by Sabrina Miramon, and published by, oh, sorry, designed by Hjalmar Hach
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  with art by Sabrina Miramon, published by Blue Orange in the United States, along
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  with other companies elsewhere.
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  Photosynthesis is a beautiful looking game.
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  It's really nice to look at, to manipulate the pieces.
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  You get these really cool-looking cardboard trees that represent your share of the forest.
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  Each person is a different species of tree, and it's a lot of fun to look at the game.
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  It is a very mean game, and it's a game that sort of forces you to be mean, which isn't my
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  favorite model.
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  The idea that if you are playing well, you end up definitely being mean to other players,
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  whether you want to or not.
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  And I find that a little frustrating, because I don't generally like to be mean.
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  But also that this is one of those games where a simple mistake can really just wreck you
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  in terms of gameplay.
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  I have played Photosynthesis...
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  this is my fourth time now.
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  I'm mentioning it on the pod, because I dusted it off.
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  It had been a year and a month or so.
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  And as I look, that's about the time between each of my plays.
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  And I feel like maybe that's about the time that it takes me to forget how much I dislike
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  this game.
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  I can see that it is a game of tactics and strategy that really rewards thoughtful play.
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  Something about the thoughtful play that it demands does not click with the kind of
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  thoughtful play that I can... does not fit with the kind of thoughtful play that
• 12:34
  I can achieve.
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  So there's a really strong disconnect there that makes it not fun.
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  And then on top of that, I do really badly at it.
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  So I don't have fun and I do badly.
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  And the game forces me to be mean.
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  I don't know why I keep playing it.
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  Maybe this will be my lesson learned.
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  Next time I see someone setting up, I'll be like, "Hmm, that game is not for me."
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  But until then, it's probably on a year and a month or a little more than that.
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  You'll hear me talking about Photosynthesis again and I'll say,
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  "Why haven't I learned yet?"
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  Well, it's a pretty looking game.
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  So I'm like, "Ooh, that game looks pretty.
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  I want to play it."
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  And instead I should say, "Hmm, maybe I won't play it.
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  It's not for me."
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  So that's Photosynthesis from Blue Orange games.
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  I didn't even explain how you play.
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  In the game, you're putting trees into the forest and you gain basically currency, which is
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  energy harvested by the sun in order to, by sort of, grow more trees, plant more trees,
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  increase the size of the trees you've planted.
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  But the thing is, the trees block each other's light.
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  So if your tree is next to a tree of equal or smaller or larger size, your tree doesn't
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  get any light when the sun is pointing out.
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  Now the sun rotates around the board, so different trees get light in different stages.
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  But ultimately, I find it really frustrating.
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  So, all right, that's enough of photosynthesis.
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  I'm, lots of people like it.
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  It's not for me.
• 13:55
  All right, the last game I want to talk about today is another new game I tried and
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  this is Dro Polter.
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  Dro Polter was designed by Paul Schultz, published by Oink Games
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  with Art by Rie Komatsuzaki and Jun Sasaki in 2023.
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  It is, it fits in the standard Oink Games line, meaning it's one of those very small
• 14:18
  box games, which look really amazing, are cute and usually are fun to play.
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  Now I find that Oink Games tend to be relatively simple affairs, particularly because they
• 14:31
  come in a small box and they're relatively easy to play, but they also usually turn on a
• 14:36
  really interesting gimmick.
• 14:38
  In Dro Polter, the idea is everybody gets five weird shapes, all relatively small, and
• 14:44
  the game comes with a little bag full of bells, these tiny metal bells.
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  So you get these five weird shapes, like one is a ring, one is a little yellow square, one
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  is a red cube, like they're all slightly different, they're all really small, though, think
• 15:02
  about the size of a meatball.
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  And you put them all in one hand and then somebody flips a card at the beginning, it's
• 15:08
  random after that, it's whoever won the last turn, you're going to flip over a card and
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  you reveal on the card, there are pictures of some of the five components, not all of
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  them, some of them, between two... no, there were some cards that had one...
• 15:27
  up to four.
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  And what you have to do is, using only the hand that the components are in, you have to
• 15:33
  drop the components depicted on the card.
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  So if it's a ring and a red cube, you have to drop the ring and the red cube, but you have
• 15:39
  to hold on to the other components.
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  Once you have dropped those, then with your other hand, or with the hand holding stuff,
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  you grab this white ghost, which is the polter part, I guess, to claim the round.
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  So you could have multiple people who successfully dropped the things, kind of simultaneously.
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  Then it's the first person to grab the ghost that ends up being the winner.
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  So you grab the ghost, you're the first person to grab the ghost, you win the round.
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  When you win the round, then you take one of the little metal bells and you add that metal
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  bell to your hand full of items.
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  Then you're going to shake, put both hands together and shake up the items,
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  and then kind of put them all into one hand and close it.
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  Then remember your bell, if you won the bell, it's included in there.
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  Then whoever it is that won the bell is going to flip over the next card and then everybody
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  goes again.
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  But now, if you have a bell in your hand, you have to try not only to drop the right things,
• 16:39
  but you'll stop to hold on to the bell.
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  The bells are small and round, really easy to drop.
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  If you drop the bell, you lose it.
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  You don't get to pick it back up.
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  All the other items that you drop, you get to pick up.
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  If you drop the wrong thing, you pick up everything you've dropped and start over.
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  But if you drop a bell, the bell is gone back to the score thing no matter what.
• 16:57
  If you're playing, we did have a rule like if you're going to shake your hand up and the
• 17:00
  bell falls out and we're in between rounds, that's okay, it doesn't count.
• 17:04
  It's only during the round that you have to worry about dropping the bell.
• 17:07
  So, Dro Polter is fun and really really easy to play, an interesting dexterity game
• 17:12
  if that's your sort of thing.
• 17:13
  Now, the challenge, of course, is that it is also a dexterity game that you play with
• 17:17
  one hand.
• 17:18
  So, it's very limited for people with mobility or dexterity issues, but that's going
• 17:21
  to be true of any dexterity game.
• 17:23
  So, what games have you tried recently?
• 17:25
  I'd love to hear over on Boardgamegeek in Guild 3269 or you can send me a message,
• 17:32
  wombat929 on boardGameGeek is my username.
• 17:33
  You can send me an email, brendan@rattleboxgames.com.
• 17:37
  I thank you for joining me today and I hope your next walk
• 17:39
  is as pleasant as mine was.
• 17:40
  Bye-bye.
• 17:41
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