The Odyssey Journal: April

Botany

9/10

Created by husband and wife team, Dusty and Amy Droz, this is the ultimate game for plant lovers everywhere. In Botany, you play as Victorian plant hunters embarking on global expeditions for the rarest plants around and return home to curate them in the name of scientific curiosity whilst building a reputation as the best plant hunters in all of England. 

It is not an understatement to say that this game has lived on my dining table consistently for the past month. Between the map board and the botanical art, this game is not only pleasing to the eyes but to the soul too. I kept wanting to come back night after night for another round of this game. There was something nostalgic about moving a pawn around a map, planning your trips to be the most efficient you can, somehow running out of money because you were too ambitious and running into bears, sinking boats, and ice floes along the way. This game captures your heart and looks good on the board game shelves too!

On your turn you are going to move your pawn up to three spaces, aiming for cities that match the plant cards in your hand. If you reach a matching city you place those plants in your wardian case for safe travelling back to your home estate. It is inevitable on your travels you will come across events that may help or hinder you, and sometimes your fellow competitors too. You will collect income from your estate as you go, but be careful not to run out mid-trip. Items, pets, and crew members can be collected on your travels to help mitigate the circumstances of events along the way. 

The only reason this game loses a point is because there are a few moments in the rules that are on the vague side and we did house rule a few things as we went along. However for me I've never really been a rules 'purist' so it was fun adapting the game to play the way we wanted to and it never ended in any arguments. There is a small 'take that' element where you can choose to give any poisonous plants (worth minus points) to your competitors, potentially scuppering their chances of winning, but they made decide to turn those negative points into positive by building a poisonous path in their estate, so be wary of the investment opportunities!

Keep an eye out in store too for La Fleur and La Petite Fleur by the incredible game designing duo!

Boreal

6/10

Boreal is an interesting competitive 2-player game that hit our shelves this month. This is a beautifully produced game from a young gaming company in France called Spiral Editions in which you are building a pyramid of 10 cards that you draft from a communal area to explore ruins of a lost civilization and gain access to ancient knowledge.

Hats off to Illustrator Yuko Iwase who created all the art in the game by hand and to Masafumi Mizumo for created a novel game in a world where introducing new mechanics is really hard! We've seen it all before in another popular game... right?! Boreal introduces an interesting rule about how you can draft your cards in the form of needing enough currency to do so, but on this linear board, your most expensive card is your opponent's cheapest. There are a couple of opportunities to swap card places in the river but these are few and far between, so you really want to try and plan your drafting a turn ahead.

I haven't played this game a huge amount yet to test how 'replayable' it is going to be as the overall strategy seemed on the light side, but this is an interesting cosy night in for couples who already have quite the collection of 2-player games and are looking for something a little different. I am excited to see what this publishing team create next!

Velonimo

8/10

From board game designer/legend Bruno Cathala (Kingdomino, 7 Wonders Duel, Sea Salt & Paper, Solstis), Velonimo is the ultimate throw in a bag and take on a trip card game, which we tested by successfully flying it to Italy and back! 

The deck of cards is made up of cows trying to win the Tour de France and gain the coveted carrot and peas jersey. Yes, the cows are on bikes. For the art and concept, this game deserves all the love! 

You will take it in turns to play runs of cards from your hand until someone runs out of cards. You do this by playing a larger run than the previous person. Each card you play in a run is worth 10 points, so if I play 3 greens or a run of 4,5,6, it would score me 30 points + the lowest card value (so a run of 4,5,6 would equal 34). You play 5 rounds in total and the scores are worth more each round. 

This game is fun, fast and very addictive. Every opportunity we had on holiday this game was out on the table. 

BUT

We did find playing it 2 players, that the scoring system just really didn't work. Because of the way the scoring doubles each time, you could win the first 3 rounds, lose the 4th round and then lose overall. We adapted the scoring down a little, and then got fed up and just house ruled it to best of 5 rounds wins.