Can a Board Game Save the World? | Daybreak Review

What's that law about the title being a yes or no question? The answer is always, yes, right? (No one correct me.) Ha ha, well jokes on you, this one is a straight N.O. How would a board game even save the world? With its dashing smile and can-do attitude?

Haaaaaaving said that... I think that maybe Daybreak is as close as we'll get, and I know, I know - that's corny and a tad sensationalist but... I dunno. There's something kinda transcendent about it. Something that makes it more than a board game. Actually, scratch that. That implies that a board game can't ever amount to being transcendent. What I mean is, Daybreak feels like just a bit more.

In both setting and gameplay, Daybreak feels like it's breaking ground, and to see both executed so well is a rare treat. So please, enjoy me gushing about a fantastic board game for 15 minutes - a treat for everyone, I am sure.

Sky Team is So Tense, it Game Me Hiccups

The Crew, The Mind, Magic Maze and now Sky Team, each wonderful games that want you to sit down and shut up (ha ha). The premise is simple. Land a passenger airplane without talking. Isn’t that just the best pitch? We’ve all dreamed of being a pilot. Sky Team says - you can do that, without the ridiculous complexity of Flight Simulator and none of the dangers of real planing. Here’s our review.

What follows is a transcript of our video.

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Sky Team asks a very simple question: have you ever wanted to land a passenger aeroplane? To which of course the answer is:

Elaine: NO! I don’t know the first thing about planing, I don’t want that kind of responsibility.

Efka: Relax, you’re not piloting an actual aeroplane, just a pretend board game one with dice. Let me show you how it works.

In Sky Team you and one other person will play as the pilot and co-pilot responsible for landing said aeroplane. You will do this by placing dice one at a time on this true to life accurate representation of a pilot’s dashboard.

There’s just one problem, just like in a real aeroplane, you’re not actually allowed to talk to each other. So that’s fun, but if that wasn’t enough, let me show you some other things you shouldn’t do.

Normally when we explain a board game, we like to start by telling you how you win, because that gives you context for what you’re trying to do. With Sky Team, I will instead be telling you how you lose.

This is the altitude track. It goes down by one at the end of every round.

If you haven’t reached the airport by the time it reaches zero - you crash and lose.

If you overshoot the airport at any point - you crash and lose.

If you don’t arrive at the airport before the last round - you crash and lose.

As you fly towards the airport, there will be other aeroplanes in the way. You and your co-pilot can shoot them down from the sky with this radio action. If you fly over any of them - you crash and lose.

Let’s say your aeroplane reaches the airport on the penultimate round. On the last round it needs to have a speed equal or lower to your brakes value. If it doesn’t – you crash and lose.

Let’s say your aeroplane reaches the airport on the penultimate round and on the last round your speed is lower than your break value but you haven’t perfectly balanced out your plane - you crash and lose.

Let’s say your aeroplane reaches the airport on the penultimate round and on the last round your speed is lower than your break value and you balanced out your aeroplane, but you haven’t deployed all your flaps - you crash and lose.

You haven’t deployed all your landing gear - you crash and lose.

You tilt your plane too far to either side - you crash and lose.

You flew through some clouds at the wrong angle - you crash and lose.

You ran out of fuel - you crash and lose.

You haven’t completely trained your intern - obviously that last one is fine, interns don’t really care about on the job training, they’re just doing it for exposure ARE YOU KIDDING ME, YOU CRASH AND LOSE.

Just one or two things for you to worry about as you’re not communicating with your team-mate. Unless, maybe you are.

As mentioned, each turn, one by one you’ll be placing one of the four dice you rolled at the beginning of the round.

You can place these dice anywhere you like, as long as the spot matches your dice colour – blue for pilot, orange for copilot – and the number restrictions. For example, I can only place a one or two here to deploy some of my landing gear. Each time you place a die, you perform the corresponding action.

That’s how you deploy brakes, landing gear, flaps, shoot other planes out of the sky, cross all the dots and i’s or even make some coffee.

Most actions are simple. Place a die, it does the thing. And when I say thing, nothing miraculous happens. If you radio to shoot a plane out of the sky, you just remove that plane. If you increase your brake value – well, you just increase your break value.

However. Two actions, balancing tilt and speed, are mandatory, and require a die from each the pilot and the co-pilot. Which means, two of the four dice you have, are spoken for every round. And that’s where communication comes in.

Let’s say it’s my turn and for my first die I put a 1 on the tilt action. If Elaine also puts a one, our tilt remains the same. If, however, she puts a higher die, such as a three, the tilt will move towards her equal to the difference. Tilt too far to one side - you crash and lose.

So me placing a one here is an outrageously brazen move! I have no idea what’s behind Elaine’s shield, it could be all fives and sixes in which case that’s an instant loss. But think about what I’m communicating with that one.

Because I placed it as my first move, I’m saying to Elaine, this is my problem die.

Elaine: Your face is a problem die.

Efka: It’s true. I haven’t got anything better for there, and if you haven’t got low dice you have four turns to figure out a solution.

I’m also saying, all my other dice are probably low too, so adjust your plans accordingly. Maybe send a die to the coffee space, which, like in a real aeorplane, makes coffee and adjusts die values by plus one or minus one.

And if worst comes to worst, we can always spend the very hard to come by reroll token.

I want you to think about how tense all these situations are in play. I said you’re not allowed to communicate, but I can bet you ten pounds no one’s going to stop themselves from a painful wince if someone places a two on tilt on their last turn when all you have behind your shield is a six.

Or the agony of deciding whether to use a reroll, which lets everyone reroll any dice they want, but you have two of these for the entire game.

And obviously you can’t confer when to use it. You just have to decide to use it. For both players. Whilst the other person is giving you a deadeye stare. And you just sit with that. And stew. I mean, forget hiccups. This game is so sweaty it legit gave me swamp butt.

What truly makes Sky Team a masterclass in board game design is that it knows how to de-escalate that tension in the most dramatic way.

Die by die, move by move, mind read by mind read you watch as you and your partner sync up and read each other and your plan is maybe, possibly, just about coming together.

Still in silence! Until that very last die placement where you’re finally allowed to high five each other and go OMG that was perfect! How did you know I still had a four behind my shield when you put a 3 down on speed?

Or the alternative to that, where someone makes one misstep, like the co-pilot forgetting that they need to shoot down an aeroplane and instead putting the die down to retract the flaps. And the mad silent scramble by both players to somehow find a fix before they literally cause an international catastrophe.

Last year everyone’s darling was Heat, a racing game that didn’t simulate racing, but high drama movies about racing.

Sky Team, along with obviously being a future mega-hit, does exactly the same thing. It simulates not actual aeroplane landings but movies about aeroplane landings.

You’re not playing a pilot, you’re playing Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, maybe even Gerard Butler or Tom Butler.

Elaine: Who’s Tom Butler?

Efka: He’s the actor that plays the pilot in Snakes on a Plane.

Elaine: Oh. Why Snakes on a Plane?

Efka: Cause we needed a segue for the criticisms.

This isn’t gonna be long, don’t worry. My only real criticism is that Sky Team is incredibly precise and particular with the timing of actions. You move forward at the exact moment when someone places the second die on the speed action for example, not at the end of the round.

There’s a reason for that, it lets you set up more strategic moves. If you can’t shoot down the aeroplane that’s two spaces away because you’ve only got dice with like ones or sixes, you can move forward one space, and now your 1 die is eligible to take that enemy passenger plane DOWN!

But that sort of thing can be very fiddly during the portion of the game that has to play out without people talking to each other so when someone forgets - it’s tense, tense, TENSE… Oh wait you forgot to move your flap marker. No longer tense.

Aside from that, I mean, it’s a dice game where you roll dice and the values matter. So at easier difficulty levels, it’s tuned quite well towards that communicating without communicating action. Whereas with the really difficult scenarios, it’s just, did we roll the right dice? No. Okay. Let’s try again I guess?

Which isn’t really a criticism. Sky Team is an experience game. You can get better at it, but you don’t play it to get better at it. You play it for kicks, and let me tell you, this aeroplane’s got legs.

Also, don’t play this with strangers. In fact, don’t even play it with like acquaintances or co-workers or virtually anyone with whom you haven’t developed a level of comfort where you can just chill in each other’s company. Sky Team relies on intimacy to create that tension, so a disaster in the wrong hands.

But as long as we’re talking about scenarios, and as much fun as that base game is, this tiny box is a treasure trove of well thought out game-modes. From an intern you need to train, to fuel you have to manage to ice-breaks, wind - every module (aside from the hackneyed real time mode), offers an interesting spin to make sure that when you’re feeling comfortable with planing, it’s got another spanner to chuck in your face.

Try the intern module after your first game to vary it up a little bit, add the fuel module if you’re into players forgetting to do important actions and watching disastrous consequences unfurl in silence, and put on some ice-breaks when you really feel like taking things up a notch.

Sky Team is a top-notch recommendation from us. If your evenings are getting a bit stale and you’re bored of binge-watching streamers, inject a bit of swamp butt into your routine.

The Unlosable Game - Dorfromantik the Board Game

Just when you think the well of tile laying games like Carcassone is exhausted, here comes Dorfromantik to say, “what if we change it up just a little?” And turns out changing it up just a little means winning the coveted Spiel des Jahres award for 2023 - phoah! That’s a prize if there was one.

So what’s the change? Well, dorfromantik removes the possibility of losing, and I imagine when I say that you have more questions than excitement. How in the world does it work? How is it fun? Well, that’s what our review is for.

You can watch the video here and read the transcript below.

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Dear friend, have you heard the good word of placing a tile? Would you like to sip from the fount of hexagonal delights? Are you familiar with the sumptuous relish of making a landscape that looks like a map that you built yourself by following an eight page rules manual? Then let me seduce you with a little gem called dorfromantik. That’s just… that’s a cool name.

[Efka] You might be asking me,

[Elaine] How do you dorf?

[Efka] Let me show you. Each turn in dorfromantik you take a tile off a pile and place it anywhere you like.

[Elaine] Does it have to match other tiles?

[Efka] No, unless it’s a river or a railroad, those have to match, anything else is fine as long as it’s adjacent, no double dorfing.

[Elaine] How do you win?

[Efka] You always win.

[Elaine] WHAT? Yeah just place the last tile, the game’s over, count up your score – you’ve won.

[Elaine; long pause, taps fingers on the table] Where is the game?

[Efka] That is an excellent question.

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So dorfromantik is a pretty cool game, but to explain why, I’m gonna have to get a little game design nerdy, so bear with me. If you enjoy simple elegant games, I think you’re going to have a great time with this despite it bucking every conventional game sensibility, and if you like complex meaty games – I think there’s actually something to learn here.

Every game relies on tension residing in players, and that tension is usually expressed with the question CAN I WIN.

In competitive games you ask this question in relation to the other players. Can I win against Colin? Probably. Maybe? Dunno, Colin can surprise you.

In co-operative games, like dorfromantik you ask this question together with the other players. Can we fight the system? Can we beat the clock? Reach the threshold? Here’s the thing, in dorfromantik the answer to all these is yes, before you even begin playing. And yet, it’s still surprisingly tense. How does it achieve that? It simply expects you to play it more than once.

Like I mentioned, all you do on any given turn is draw a tile and choose where to place it. But at any given time, there are three special tiles on the board.

These look like any tile in the game but additionally they feature a quest. For example, this tile says build a forest extending from this tile that is exactly five tiles big. So if I have this quest, and I draw a tile with a forest, I can place it in such a way that it extends that forest, and as soon as that forest encompasses five tiles, I take the quest marker off and place it in my score pile. I now have five points!

Once this is done, I’ll draw a new tile from the special quest tile pile, and it’ll be a new quest. It’s a village quest! Then I draw a number tile from here, it has a six on it, now I need to work on a village that’s six tiles big.

And you’ll notice, there’s already tricksy things you can achieve. If you’ve been drawing village tiles before but had no village quest, you can still build up an area that’s say, four village tiles big, and then when you draw the village quest, bam, autocomplete, draw a new quest, we need a four tile long railroad bam, autocomplete, a field of six, got that ready, autocomplete – that feels very good, especially since it rewarded pre-planning.

There’s a few extra ways of increasing your score. The longest river and the longest railroad will score you one point for every tile in that river or railroad.

But wait, that’s already getting a bit tricky because if I have a river of seven I can’t put in this quest tile that needs a river of six, I have to start a new river which is now competing with my one longest river oh no what do I do?

And there’s also these flag tiles for forests fields and villages, they’ll also score you one point per tile in those forests fields and villages as long as that area is completely surrounded by other features at the end of the game.

This once again pulls you away from making many little scoring areas and asks you to work on a big one, with the added tension of not going full hubris and never closing it off before the stack runs out. Ugh, I want to place more, but I also need to finish it, and not place more. I’m gonna place more.

At which point you might be asking? Well, what’s the point of points if I win anyway? The simple answer is you’re trying to beat your previous score. But I won’t blame you if you think that’s too milquetoast or not particularly interesting, but hang in there, we’re getting to the actual point.

Let me tell you how our very first game of dorfromantik went. And let me start by saying, it’s just a surprisingly lovely time?

There was something intimately collaborative about drawing a tile, and together figuring out how you expand this landscape. I did say the game is tense, but not tense in a way where much is riding on any one given placement. It’s chill tension basically. Is that a thing? It is now!

So turn to turn you discuss, you collaborate, investigate this map you’ve conjured. How about here, oh I dunno do we really need to expand this forest? Oh wait, wait, look, it fits perfectly here! Yeah it scores zero points tho why would you put it here?

Cause it’s pleasing, and that’s valid. Anyway, we talked, we laughed we ached, the tiles were dwindling and with that stack getting oh so tiny finishing up the last objectives felt very important. Are there even any railroads left? We just need one more!

And then it’s over. We looked at our score pile. We literally cleared every quest tile available in the game. Amazing! Our score must be really good. We could have maybe made our roads and railroads a little longer, opportunities to improve but overall we’re champs. Right?

Ahem. So, there’s this campaign sheet that gives you a score chart. We accumulated a 147 points. And then looked at this and it told us that a possible high score is 400. Whoops.

This was my first clue that there’s just way more going on than I initially gave this credit for. In fact, I don’t even think you could get 400 points from just these initial starting rules. But that’s the thing, once you finish, the game is far from over.

I don’t wanna call this a campaign game, it’s a weird label that gives all kinds of expectations, like having to get the same people together all the time or keep playing it past the point where you want to, or remember all the rules that you’ve unlocked. No no no, nothing like that.

But you do unlock things. Each time you finish a game you check your score. That’ll tell you how many pips you’ve earned, which you can the color into this track. This will lead you to various things you can unlock, and yes there are boxes you open, but they’re not like these massive surprises that are gonna wow you – they are just more different things you can and try and explore.

Achievements that say, hey do this, unlock a new thing. Can you, gonna make something up, dunno if it’s actually in the game, create a long river that loops back onto itself? In the space of one game? Whilst juggling all the other things?

So when I said you win every game by default, I was sort of lying. You do win, but you actually only feel like you’ve won if you achieved the task you set out to do at the very beginning. In that sense it’s almost like you pick your own objective, your own quest. What sounds fun to you? Do that! Can you do two things? Three?

And also, you want to beat your previous score. Which on our second game we totally failed by scoring 146 points – that’s one measly point lower for those keeping track.

And that’s the appeal of dorfromantik, sit down by yourself, or with someone who’s company you enjoy, and have another go. I wouldn’t play this with strangers at like a club or whatever, but it’s perfect for couples or good friends. It’s moreish, relaxed, and it’s got that tile laying goodness. Every game is a little different and offers a new thing to take on. It’s nice.

Some of you might also recognise dorfromantik in its video game form which was how it originally appeared in the world at the height of lockdowns and then sort of petered away like most pandemic things, you know, like sourdough bread, or the sensation that one day everything is going to be fine.

(Weird disclosure time, this is not a review copy. We bought this game. But the video game maker did originally send us a code for the video game back when it came out, so there’s that.)

I actually wasn’t really that excited for dorfromantik the board game, I liked the video game but then just sort of forgot that it exists. But I think this is actually the form this game really works in. Playing with two is just great, and seeing the whole thing you’ve built at all times and planning new placements with a bird’s eye view feels much better than scrolling around an lcd screen of rampant tile growth.

The rules, whilst being nearly identical feel more contained and cohesive – I think this game is in its perfect form. It might be “not for everyone” but I don’t think I’ll stop thinking about dorfromantik the board game. I’ll always want to dorf it just one more time.

A Review of Everything Too Many Bones

Howdy bone fans. What a video today - a comprehensive review of everything ever published for Too Many Bones so far. In this monstrous video you’ll learn about the popular dungeon crawler, why you’d want to buy it, why you wouldn’t want to buy it and what to buy or not buy. Is it a buyer’s guide? Yes. Is it a critical analysis? Yes. Is it too long and overambitious? Yes. The game, or the video? Yes.

Enjoy!

Descent: Legends of the Dark Review - A New Kind of Dungeon Crawler

NPI has the scoop on perhaps the hottest game of the summer, and what better way to avoid the plague than by staying inside and moving fantasy heroes around a map for hours on end in an expansive story driven campaign with cool combat mechanisms. Can Descent: Legends of the Dark deliver on all of that? You’ve come to the right place to find out.

Bloodborne: The Board Game Review

I need to stop going into a big project after another big project with no little project to fill the gap in between. So expect something small and cute for our next video - but right now we have big, scary, moody, dark and expensive. Is it good? No. Is it interesting? Heck yes.

Bloodborne: The Board Game is not a fantastic game but it gets close. If you’re tickled by near greatness, this review delves into the whys and hows.

Sprawlopolis Review | Pocket Series Part One

Announcement! For the next six weeks we’ll be celebrating the best that small board games have to offer. Tune in for this first episode where we feature Sprawlopolis - one of the best city building games out there fitting into a demure 18 cards, a rulebook and a wallet to fit it all in. What could be more pocket than that? Answers on a pocket postcard.

Project: Elite Review

Let’s face it, we’re not the target audience for this game. NPI has always been a staunch resistor of “Big Kickstarter,” and upon initial glance, this is one of the genre’s naffer offerings. Generic theme? Check. Generic minis? Check check check check check. But any ol’ cardboard doesn’t just get featured in an NPI review so maybe there’s something hiding behind the plastic.

Project: Elite is a real time dice chucking madness simulator where every second you feel like you’re on fire - and trust me, you won’t have time to check whether that fire’s coming from an alien’s mouth or your own gun accidentally pointed at you. Appropriately, Project: Elite isn’t a game of high stakes action - it’s a game of foibles and a comedy of errors.

So let your guard down for a moment and let this plastic wash over you as we tell you why exactly is it that maybe, against all odds, this game won over our hearts.

Forgotten Waters Review

You might have never heard about them, but let me tell you, pirates are cool! Well, not real pirates. Real pirates are… boy this suddenly turned. Fantasy magical pirates are cool. You know, the ones more about adventure and ridiculous consequences? Sign me up for some of those non-real life magical pirates, PLEASE. And do it quickly because this intro has gone really awkward.

Forgotten Waters is by far not the first pirate game to hit the… waters but so very rarely do they float. Which is why I’m incredibly delighted to tell you that in a rare occasion, this one doesn’t just float - it paddles! Watch our review for more.

This video was sponsored by Skillshare.

Cloudspire Review - 50% Genius, 70% Disaster

Oh no, there he goes again bashing another big Kickstarter board game, you might say. And you know what, you would be right. Cloudspire is so big and so indestructible (no, really) that it can take a big swing. But here’s the trick, frequently if you give large containers filled with various bits a good bashing - things will fall out. And sometimes those things might be amazing. So let’s see if this Kickstartosorous will leave a nugget of gold after you sift through it.

We Review (nearly) Everything Arkham Horror: The Card Game - Part 1

What makes Arkham Horror the Card Game so captivating? Perhaps it really is that good. Perhaps, like The King in Yellow, once you’ve experienced it you’ll just never be able to get away from it. Either way, we want to help you decide which parts are worth the entry cost. So we’ve sat through it. All of it. And here it is, act one of our Mega Review of Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

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Tainted Grail Review

After 7th Continent we did not think we’d be intrigued in seeing another ‘continent composed of cards on your table’ open world board game but here we are. Better sharpen your scythes as you take on the role of hapless villagers trying to unravel a world-ending mystery so “dark” it’ll give Vantablack a run for it’s money.

Tainted Grail is everything “Kickstarter board games” but hyperbolized. The scope? If you want to finish this beast and have time to play some other board games in your life - better take all your annual leave at once. The bling? Let’s not mince words because Awaken Realms does not mince plastic - it’s all truly gorgeous. The cost? Actually, forget other board games - if you bought this - you can no longer afford them. Whether you should buy it is another matter altogether.

Letter Jam Review

If you came here to find out what exactly letter jam is, then I still have absolutely no idea. If however, you’re looking to find out more about Letter Jam then step right in. The doctor will see you now. What’s that? Feeling a little peaky? Have been feasting on a diet of empty calorie party games? I’m afraid we’ll have to make drastic changes to your diet. Here’s a prescription for one medicinal word party game from Czech Games Edition, the makers of Codenames et al. Take one at least once a week or more frequently. We have created an informational video with everything you’ll need to know. Who’s next?

Comanauts Review

Diving into peoples dreams, miniature black holes, Winnie the pooh - those are not items from my Amazon checkout page - they’re just some of the elements that make up the whole that is Comanauts. There’s enough ideas in this board game to fill up an Olympic swimming pool and they’re so eclectic that it’ll probably make google bots think this entire page is gibberish spam. I don’t think I’m doing a very good job explaining it so here, just watch this video, it’ll make it better. Uh oh, I think I hear the google bot knocking on my door. Hurry, click play before it takes me to spam prison!

Gen 7 Review

It is a well known rule of physics that in campaign games nobody can hear you scream. But I’ll tell you what - Gen7 doesn’t care about physics. It’s big, loud and it’s barrelling down your door, yelling at the top of it’s lungs: “love me, for I am all that is cool.” Sequel to Dead of Winter? Check. Campaign game? Check. Sealed envelopes? Check. Replayable? Check. It’s like a board game by Gucci if Gucci was still fashionable (I mean, I have no idea, maybe Gucci IS still fashionable - fashion experts - let us know).

But it’s not until a board game has been through the NPI gauntlet can we truly find out if it is actually hip or whether it is just a hipster. Want to know more? Only one way to find out.