Alrightgames: Golems expansions

The Matchbox Collection: Golems expansions

My set only included the one mini expansion, and that only added one new card type, which isn't all that different from the existing type. But it's not like I supported the Kickstarter anyway when buying these cheaply off eBay, so I can't really complain.

Sound and Time ***

'Sound' golems are handy but limited wild golems that act as a mobile resource too. 'Time' golems were already present in the base game, but now there are more of them that can be used as wild resources, which makes things easier. Not that you're supposed to use them in the solo mode, but I use them anyway (playing an extra 9-card round and setting aside 2 cards at the start rather than 5) so they don't have to stay in the box and I can actually win sometimes.

Alrightgames: Golems

The Matchbox Collection: Golems

2020 / Card game / 1-2 players

****

One of the better efforts in the collection, and certainly the most attractive, this is like Splendor with primordial monsters and cryptic iconography that I eventually got my head around without needing the reference to hand. The solo mode feels like a bit too much of an abridgement of the two-player game, but this at least means it's quick and doesn't drag out my defeat. Though I prefer to add in the mini expansions that I'm not technically supposed to for more wild cards and an extra round that rebalances the game more fairly at my level.

Ranking The Matchbox Collection

1. Eiyo ****

2. Golems ****

3. 15 Days ***

4. Rebis ***

5. Space Lunch **

Alrightgames: Agropolis expansions

Agropolis expansions

The rural sequel has fewer add-ons than Sprawlopolis, which I assume is a pointed metaphor for the decline of primary industry, and not that spin-off games with uglier colours don't sell as well. Usually comprising a single card, they don't add all that much anyway.

Invasion ***

In the same sci-fi ballpark as Wrecktar, but more nefarious as these aliens (or the government) threaten to screw up your livestock plans. Leave my cows alone.

Points of Interest ***

It's the same thing as last time, but they make a bit more thematic sense as low-key local attractions you'd drive to on a summer lunchtime to take a look at and have some ice cream. There's no reason not to kick off every game with them.

Seasons ***

The most punishing 'Opolis expansion yet, it can be dispiriting as the wind blows away all your plans while you're already worrying about your seasonal obligation, but a good farmer can shepherd it to their advantage. Like Interstate, I use it sparingly for special occasions or when I deserve punishment.

Combopolis ****

More justification to own both near-identical games (especially when it's included with one of the sets so you don't have to buy it separately), this is the combined experience you'd wish for and then regret once you thought it through. Forcing together two distinct sets of challenges and trying to achieve them with only half of each deck (give or take) should really be too hard to be enjoyable, so that probably makes me some kind of masochist.

Alrightgames: Agropolis

Agropolis

2021 / Card game / 1-4 players

*****

More than just Sprawlopolis with a palette swap (though it is mainly that – and unlucky for the farm-based sequel that green was already baggsied), this isn't essential if you already own that game, but it's more of it if you love it, and what it lacks in originality it makes up in quirks. The main difference is adding livestock of varied breeds, quantities and fussy demands that you're required to satisfy in challenges that seem more amusingly fiddly this time around, along with an animal-counting hard mode that you can ignore until you realise you've got lucky and pretend you were going for all along. If I had to choose one or the other, the charismatic critters would probably give Agropolis the edge, though it's less spoiled with expansions.

Alrightgames: The Mind (DIY)

The Mind (DIY)

2018 / Estimating card game / 2-4 players

***

Minimalist number deck The Game sees more use as a resource when I need to borrow some sequential number cards between 1 and 100 for a game variant or fan expansion, but you can play other games with them too, like this probability estimator. It's hardly a game at all, but it's an amusement.

Alrightgames: Santorini (DIY)

Santorini (DIY)

1985 (2007 edition rules) / Strategy board game / 2-3 players

***

I'd taken this for a kids' game when seeing the inappropriate cutesy box art of the modern editions, but its minimalist indie precursor is much more appealing, not least for inviting intellectual property theft using whatever unobtrusive tiles and other bits you have lying around.

I put unloved, unsellable Flanx tiles to use (two sides of two colours for the base plus three levels), with Atmosfear figures for fun. I didn't like the game all that much, but at least I didn't have to spend anything to find that out. Next project.

Alrightgames: The Grimwood

The Grimwood

2016 / Card game / 2-6 players

***

Some cheap cards that paid for themselves by padding out an order for a discount and free shipping last year when buying other counterfeit goods. We might not get around to playing the mean Halloween party game, but I came up with some functional solo rules so I still get to look through the creepy comic art.

Alrightgames: Carcassonne – Dutch Monasteries

Carcassonne: Dutch Monasteries

2014 / Tile placement board game mini expansion / 2-6 players

***

Resold

Possibly the most overpowered promos in the game, these alternative cloisters are more interesting than the puny standard ones, if you're not concerned by the temporal paradox of injecting buildings from the wrong time and place into your medieval French tableau. I wasn't planning on buying them until they featured in a larger set I was reselling already, and I can just keep house-ruling regular cloisters like I was before.

Alrightgames: Pass the Pets

Pass the Pets

2021 / Card game / 2 players

***

Completing the ex-McDonalds Happy Meal card game set much more comprehensively than necessary, this was also supposed to teach her the folly of gambling, but after the first surprising playthrough we learned exactly how many bad lizard cards there are and now she usually wins. Its hierarchy of pet values is sure to have caused arguments, but you have to admit that hamsters are comparatively rubbish, come on.

Alrightgames: Atmosfear II – Baron Samedi, Zombie

Atmosfear II: Baron Samedi, Zombie

1991 / Video board game expansion / 3-6 players

***

Finally getting to experience Baron Samedi in the incrementally rotting flesh, decades after seeing these stills in The Harbingers, the barely re-disguised Gatekeeper turned out to be a fun alternative host. And way more annoying with his constant interruptions if you were taking the game seriously, which is never advised, but we rolled with it and had a good time. They may have based his entire personality around the pun potential of catchphrases, but I can dig it.