Pampero and Why Euro Games Don't Hit the Same Anymore

Is this harsh? I feel like this is harsh, right from the get go. But I’d be lying to you and myself if I didn’t admit that most euros just aren’t that special anymore. Has the genre peaked? Reached the plateau? Peak of the windmill?

Well, Pampero is here to say capital N capital O, it’s a euro that is HOT TO GO. With fancy components and innovative mechanisms it was ready to shake up a very stale scene and… crickets. The public concensus? It’s fine. So what happened here? What is it that’s so different about it? And why didn’t it land? All of that is the subject of today’s video.

But do stay till the very end for a very special announcement, if you’ve been a long time viewer and if you’ve enjoyed Bessie’s contributions to the channel, you won’t want to miss this.

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.

Hoplomachus: Victorum Made Me Very Tired

Board games can be a lot to handle. Sometimes that doesn’t stop us. The mythical experience, the promise of something great at the other end of the rules is enough to keep us persevering, learning, untangling. But sometimes you pick apart a rubber band ball to find that all you have left is a bunch of rubber bands. Hoplomachus: Victorum is perhaps the best example of this phenomenon, a rich, indulgent, complex game that hides very little behind it’s bombastic veneer.

I’ve spent many hours engaging in false starts, gripping rulebooks, FAQs, youtube tutorials and playthroughs to understand this system at a level where I felt tactically capable of navigating it only to find that once I got there, there wasn’t much left.

Which is a darn shame. Hoplomachus: Victorum is a one player only game, and I was quite excited to explore a system with so much space exclusively designed as a solo experience. I wanted richness and depth, yet sometimes richness and depth isn’t enough. You also need pacing, structure, a rewarding experience, all things plenty present in other designs.

For more on Hoplomachus: Victorum, watch our video review.

No Pun Included's Board Game of the Year 2021

Welcome to the BGotYs! Ugh, acronyms - they are the worst. You know what’s not the worst? That’s right - it’s the best. And last year’s best is here this year, on your screens - right now!

Once again, we follow on in proud annual tradition at No Pun Included to pick out one game that we think is worth of your attention. What is that game? Well, not so fast. Before we reveal it we’ll have to charge you the fine fee of exactly one digital eyeball. Please submit it via the receptacle of pressing the play button above.

Brian Boru Review

Brian Boru: The High King of Ireland is the latest game from designer Peer Sylvester, also responsible for our 2020 Game of the Year - The King is Dead. This however, is a bigger grander feeling strategy game, full of clever twists and unexpected spins on familiar mechanisms.

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!

Cascadia Review

What do you get when you put a bear together with Carcassonne? Ironically, something with less bite than Carcassonne. Which absolutely shouldn’t deter you from giving Cascadia a spin because sometimes gentler does not mean worse. In today’s video Efka gives you the rundown on the latest tile-laying game from Flatout Games, taking you to the Pacific North West on a journey through nature and a crunchy good time.

Railroad Ink Challenge - A Love Letter

What’s green and yellow and dicey all over? That’s right, it’s a sweetcorn salad, but also Railroad Ink Challenge. In this voluptuous follow-up to the roll-and-write genre’s darling superhit, publishing house Horrible Guild crams every idea under the sun. How in the world can it still be great? Well, it is, and I’m here to tell you why Railroad Ink Challenge is the followup that the original more than deserved.

Rather than an exhaustive review of all the little variants and expansions crammed into Railroad Ink Challenge, we decided instead to strip it down and expose the things that really do make it shine. If you’re hoping for grandiose comparison between Lush Green and Shining Yellow, then sadly, we don’t deliver. If you want to know just what makes Railroad Ink Challenge so nifty, you’ve come to the right place.

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.

Sabotage Review

Today we have the pleasure and delight of shining a light on Sabotage, a strange strange design from board game extraordinaire Tim Fowers. Thematically, you’re either spies or supervillains fighting in a head to head game of cat and mouse. Mechanically… you’ve got a team asymmetrical hidden movement dice placement programming game which is something I had to learn to say out lout with confidence for this review. Does it all hold together or fall apart at the seams? Only one way to find out.

Pipeline Review

Pipes! Many people wear them, but also, since 2019, they are an economic simulator. Truly, they are the most versatile kitchen utensil. Thankfully, Pipeline from Capstone Games comes with so many pipe tiles that it could easily win the award for “Guinness World Record of Board Game with Most Pipe Tiles,“ which as we all know is one of the less obscure Guinness World Records.

With so many pipes coming out of the wazoo, it’ll take none other than NPI to see if they all fit together neatly into a good board game.

Pax Pamir Review

Frequently, before the publishing of this review, we got messages from our viewers expressing hope. As in, they hoped we would like this game. Let us say right now, Pax Pamir is a game like no other. Job done. Why even watch the video?

What we mean by “like no other” is that it’ll astound like no other, envelop like no other and confound like no other. It’s not uncommon to expect reviewers to dish out verdicts, but we see our job less as judges and more as guides. So if you’d like to know whether Pax Pamir is for you, then go on. Click that play button.

Batman: Gotham City Chronicles Review

Here he comes, here comes the Batman - he’s a demon on wings. And he’s gonna sell you a big box of plastic. Just before we rush off to UK Games Expo we want to leave a little review we have made for you of a teeny tiny game about a caped crusader and his, as it turns out by counting all the other miniatures in the box, seventeen thousand friends and enemies.

And since this is quite a long video, we’ll just let it do the talking. Hope you enjoy the review!

The Estates Review

Sometimes simple can mean complex and sometimes simple can mean vicious. In the case of The Estates - it’s both. Welcome to a game that says - hey - it’s time to play with some wooden colour blocks and maybe potentially breed an insatiable desire to tell your friends things you’ll come to regret for many years to come. “Sign me up,” you say? Well hang on just a minute, this review is far from over. Sit back, click play and don’t relax because this game is about to hit you like a ton of bricks.

We're on Kickstarter!

Hello dear NPI Viewer!

We’re very happy to announce that our Kickstarter campaign is live and we could really use your support. No Pun Included is built on viewer donations and without you, your love, your support and dedication we cannot keep going. Please check out our campaign page and maybe throw some money at us. We’ll be eternally grateful.

Elaine & Efka