Odyssey Journal: February 2025
Robyn JarvisFabulous February has come and gone and we are saying hello to March already!
This month I had the opportunity to play Spiel Des Jahres 2024 nominee, In the Footsteps of Darwin, as well as a couple of small but crunchy games Solstis and Scout, and finally, the insanely lovable Spots.
Thanks to everyone who has popped in to say hello and supported Odyssey Games in the past month!
- Robyn, Director
7/10
With it's unusual theme and attention to detail on each tile, this game is elegantly produced and easy to play. That being said, did it deserve a nomination for Spiel Des Jahres in 2024? I'm not so sure!
Unboxing In the Footsteps of Darwin is a dream to do. As you pull out the high quality journals, chunky cardboard tiles, and little wooden ship, you instantly want to be exploring the high seas and literally following in Darwin's footsteps. The game plays simply with each player taking turns to choose a tile from a row of three and move the wooden ship for the next player. You take it in turns until each player has placed exactly 16 tiles in their journal and then you score.
There is some strategy to the tiles you want to choose. You may be aiming to collect rows of birds or mammals, or maybe collecting one of each species from a particular continent. Each tile can give you a bonus at the end of the game leading to extra victory points, but the fact that you can only choose from 3 tiles each round stops you getting bogged down in decision paralysis which is really nice.
This game is perfect for players who are short on time but want a 30 minute game that is replayable time and time again.
9/10
Roll dice with spots. Put the correct spots on dogs. First to complete 6 dogs win. That is the game!
Such a simple premise can't be that fun right? Wrong! If you aren't immediately taken by the silly dog artwork, then how about rolling 8 dice at once? Whether you blow on your dice, shake them 5 times, use a specific dice tray or do a ritual dance before rolling, there is not a single person on the planet that doesn't like rolling chunky dice.
This game balances the luck elements of a dice-based game with interesting strategy. Knowing when to bank your dogs is key as if you roll too high and go bust, you will lose all the dice currently in play in front of you.
I'm all for a thinky game with a crunchy strategy that gets your brain humming, but sometimes there really is something to be said for just pure fun in a box. This is the game you pull out with people who don't really game, or those gamers who are a bit fatigued from last night's Twilight Imperium run. It really is just addictive and superb.
Solstis
Launching in April, Solstis is the next tiny box game for playing on pub and café tables everywhere.
In Solstis, you draft 1 tile from your hand and 1 tile from a central pile and place them in front of you to create a mountain tableau. You will score points for the largest contiguous area, for creating paths from the bottom to the top, and there are also animals you can collect along the way to help score extra points as you go.
This 2-player game looks lovely, but is not for the faint of heart. This tiny box packs a painful punch as there is only one of each tile for the mountain in the box. This means you are only ever going to create half a mountain, and that tile that you really needed to create that path? Well, your competitor just placed it on theirs!!
Luckily, if you can't place two tiles on a turn, you can take a rainbow, which you can place anywhere and will complete that path for you. But you may only get one or two rainbows per game, so be choosy with where you place them as every point counts.
In the few games I have played of Solstis, most have ended in being only a few points away from winning or losing. There is hardly ever a landslide (excuse the pun) victory. This means you are scraping your way up that mountain to light every beacon you can.
A big strategy game in a small box, lovely for fans of tableau building and demolishing opponents by taking that ONE tile they REALLLLY needed.
8/10
If you ever dreamt of running away and joining the circus, then this is the crunchy card game for you. If the bright colours don't immediately make you want to pick the game up and investigate further, then take off that lid and dive into a world of topsy-turvy cards with two numbers on and chunky purple dollar bills.
But what does it all do?!
In Scout, you will play runs of cards to 'outbid' your competitors and win the best circus acts. The twist that turns this quick to play card game into a world of intrigue and strategy is that you cannot move the cards in your hand around; you must keep them in the order they were dealt to you. However, to make it slightly less mean, you can flip your hand upside-down at the beginning of the game, if that helps make sense of the jumbled mess you've just been handed. It is a deeply enjoyable game that packs a riddle waiting to be unpicked inside.
Scout comes from Oink Games, the same publishing group responsible for small games with a big impact like Deep Sea Adventure, Startups, and A Fake Artist in New York. These are great pub games: simple to learn, but a lifetime to master. You'll come back to the table time and time again with this one too, thinking up ways to score more points this time around.
It is worth noting that this game plays better at 3-4 people, with adjusted rules for 2 players.