by W. Eric Martin With Festival International des Jeux taking place in late February 2024, French publishers have been laying the groundwork for new games they'll feature at that event, so let's check out a handful of les offres...
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• Catch Up Games, for example, has announced a May 2024 release for Rivages ("Shores"), a Joachim Thôme design for 1-5 players that appears to be somewhat more interactive than the usual X-and-write game:
In Rivages, players explore the legendary islands of Myr, searching for remains of its long-forgotten wisdom.
Each player starts with their own map of an island that's divided into several colored areas. Every turn, they strike out the available symbols from one of the two cards in their hand, check matching fields on their map, then pass the cards along to their neighbor. By exploring certain areas, achieving goals on the island, looting treasures, and progressing on their own wisdom tree, they gather valuable parchments. Reaching a boat allows them to move to a new island full of new opportunities.
Whoever has the most parchments at the end of the game wins.
Each player starts with their own map of an island that's divided into several colored areas. Every turn, they strike out the available symbols from one of the two cards in their hand, check matching fields on their map, then pass the cards along to their neighbor. By exploring certain areas, achieving goals on the island, looting treasures, and progressing on their own wisdom tree, they gather valuable parchments. Reaching a boat allows them to move to a new island full of new opportunities.
Whoever has the most parchments at the end of the game wins.
The back of the box makes it look like you cross off on the card the fields you use on a turn, so your choices dwindle until (I presume) you have an intermediate scoring or just get new cards. The game includes 25 island game boards, which gives me a Silver & Gold vibe of players hopping islands repeatedly.
• Ahead of Rivages, in March 2024 Catch Up Games will release Courtisans, a 2-5 player game from Romaric Galonnier and Anthony Perone.
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I played a two-player game of Courtisans at SPIEL Essen 23, and it gave me a feeling of Biblios crossed with Hanamikoji — although the feeling of the latter probably won't be present in a game with three or more players. Here's an overview:
Tonight, the queen holds a banquet that everyone will attend. Will they leave a good impression? Backstabbing is fair game, and no trick is too dirty if it allows you to place your favorite families in the spotlight.
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Mock-up played at SPIEL Essen 23
In Courtisans, you receive and play three cards on each of your turns. One is played at the Queen's table to sway a family's influence, whether in a positive or negative manner. The two other cards are played in your domain and in an opponent's domain, and they can be worth positive or negative points, depending on their family's status at the end of the game. Choose where best to place your three cards if you want to end up with the most points and win.
In Courtisans, you receive and play three cards on each of your turns. One is played at the Queen's table to sway a family's influence, whether in a positive or negative manner. The two other cards are played in your domain and in an opponent's domain, and they can be worth positive or negative points, depending on their family's status at the end of the game. Choose where best to place your three cards if you want to end up with the most points and win.
The Hanamikoji feel comes from you trying to have an edge — or give the opponent an edge! — for each of the families in play. If I score a bit more than you here and here and lose a bit less over here, then I'll win. With more players, you can spread out the cards among multiple players.
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I've now played Faraway with six players following my initial plays with two that I wrote about following Gen Con 2023, and I still found the game delightful, even though it features players building isolated tableaus with the only interaction coming through open drafting, a combination I normally don't like.
In short, the game lasts eight rounds. Each round, you play a card from your hand to the end of your tableau, possibly gaining a bonus card that provides resource icons or endgame points. At game's end, you score your cards from right to left, which means you need to play cards with scoring conditions before you have the required icons or colors...then get those required icons or colors! Gameplay is quick, and I find the puzzle aspects of the game engaging, probably because failure is possible, whether yours or an opponent's.
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— Grégory Grard's Tribunal 1920, a two-player bluffing tic-tac-toe game in which you claim a space on the board, then your opponent can call you out if they think you lack the resources required to actually claim it.
— Rainbow 7, a design by Davrou and Alexandre Emerit in which players discard one card or a group of cards each turn, then draw one card, with the goal of having the lowest sum in hand or ditching all of your cards.
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— Scott Almes' Motu, in which players draft cards to build their own island, with each placed card needing to cover at last one symbol on that island while keeping the shoreline intact. The symbols score points three times per game, but fishermen score only if they're outnumbered by fish and hunters if they're outnumbered by birds, so build with care.
— Myriades, a real-time game from Benoit Turpin and the aforementioned Romaric Galonnier in which players see a prophecy card, then race to arrange their triangular tiles to create an island that contains only those items depicted on the card. The more successful you are, the more tiles you'll have on hand.
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Migo is a drafting game from Bruno Faidutti in which players are migo, also known as yeti, who love to decorate their cave with goodies taken from the mountain explorers that they eat — and thankfully no matter how many you eat, that supply doesn't stop! In detail:
Each round in a game of Migo, the player with the most points wins a flag, and whoever collects two flags first wins.
In the first round, shuffle the 25 double-sided cards, then lay them out in four or five columns depending on the player count. On a turn, draft a card from the end of a column and add it to your collection. Each card depicts one or more symbols — ropes, crampons, etc. — while also showing what's on the back. If you draft a sherpa, discard it immediately, then optionally flip over one of your cards. If you draft a mountain climber carrying vodka, on a future turn you can empty the vodka to take another turn immediately.
Once all the cards have been drafted, tally your score. Wool hats are worth 2 points each, empty vodka bottles are -3 points, and for each other symbol score 1 point per symbol, with a 4-point bonus for whoever has the most ropes, the most crampons, etc.
Ahead of the second round, flip half of the cards to their other side, shuffle the deck, lay out the cards in an inverted pyramid, then draft and score as described previously. For the third round, lay out the cards in three inverted pyramids. If a fourth round is necessary, choose one of the previous card arrangements or create your own.
In the first round, shuffle the 25 double-sided cards, then lay them out in four or five columns depending on the player count. On a turn, draft a card from the end of a column and add it to your collection. Each card depicts one or more symbols — ropes, crampons, etc. — while also showing what's on the back. If you draft a sherpa, discard it immediately, then optionally flip over one of your cards. If you draft a mountain climber carrying vodka, on a future turn you can empty the vodka to take another turn immediately.
Once all the cards have been drafted, tally your score. Wool hats are worth 2 points each, empty vodka bottles are -3 points, and for each other symbol score 1 point per symbol, with a 4-point bonus for whoever has the most ropes, the most crampons, etc.
Ahead of the second round, flip half of the cards to their other side, shuffle the deck, lay out the cards in an inverted pyramid, then draft and score as described previously. For the third round, lay out the cards in three inverted pyramids. If a fourth round is necessary, choose one of the previous card arrangements or create your own.
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Each player starts with an imaginary 3x3 grid in front of themselves, and they place a face-down winged monkey token above each column and to the right of each row. They each draw one card from the deck.
On a turn, you draw a card, then your opponent flips down any face-up monkey by your play area, then turns a different monkey face up. Place one of the two cards in your hand in an empty space in your grid that isn't in the same row/column as the face-up monkey. Two cards have special powers; one lets you swap two cards in your grid, and the other grants monkey immunity on your subsequent turn.
Once each player has placed nine cards, the game ends. Each card is worth as many points as the total number of cards in the same road segment, so an isolated road segment is worth 1 point, a road segment on two cards is worth 4 points (2 per card), etc. Whoever has the most points wins.
On a turn, you draw a card, then your opponent flips down any face-up monkey by your play area, then turns a different monkey face up. Place one of the two cards in your hand in an empty space in your grid that isn't in the same row/column as the face-up monkey. Two cards have special powers; one lets you swap two cards in your grid, and the other grants monkey immunity on your subsequent turn.
Once each player has placed nine cards, the game ends. Each card is worth as many points as the total number of cards in the same road segment, so an isolated road segment is worth 1 point, a road segment on two cards is worth 4 points (2 per card), etc. Whoever has the most points wins.
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You need to identify five clues related to the crime: the eye color of the criminal, their height, their accessory, the location, and the time. The game includes 18 clue cards divided across these five categories, and to set up, place one card from each category to the side, then shuffle the remaining cards and deal them out as evenly as possible.
When the round begins, start a 15-second timer. Each player has this much time to review their cards, after which they pass them left, the timer starts again, then they can look at their new cards. They keep passing cards until someone grabs the announcement token, which stops the timer. This person announces their guess in each clue category, then looks at the set-aside cards. If correct, they receive a case token that reads 1; if they already have a case token, they win the game.
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Cards in one of the categories
If they're wrong, they lose a case token (if they have one), then the round continues, with this person passing cards, but unable to guess. Continue to play until someone guesses correctly, or only one player remains, in which case they win automatically.
With the "Doctor Watson" variant, each player takes a vote token at the start of play, and whenever someone announces their guess, each other player reveals at the same time whether they think the guesser is correct. If everyone votes yes, the guesser wins a clue token automatically. If the voters are split and the guess is correct, the guesser wins a clue token and awards a clue token to someone who supported them; if the voters are split and the guess is incorrect, everyone who voted in favor of the guesser is also out of the round. The first player to collect three clue tokens wins.
When the round begins, start a 15-second timer. Each player has this much time to review their cards, after which they pass them left, the timer starts again, then they can look at their new cards. They keep passing cards until someone grabs the announcement token, which stops the timer. This person announces their guess in each clue category, then looks at the set-aside cards. If correct, they receive a case token that reads 1; if they already have a case token, they win the game.
If they're wrong, they lose a case token (if they have one), then the round continues, with this person passing cards, but unable to guess. Continue to play until someone guesses correctly, or only one player remains, in which case they win automatically.
With the "Doctor Watson" variant, each player takes a vote token at the start of play, and whenever someone announces their guess, each other player reveals at the same time whether they think the guesser is correct. If everyone votes yes, the guesser wins a clue token automatically. If the voters are split and the guess is correct, the guesser wins a clue token and awards a clue token to someone who supported them; if the voters are split and the guess is incorrect, everyone who voted in favor of the guesser is also out of the round. The first player to collect three clue tokens wins.