I’m going to start with a disclaimer. I should not be reviewing this book. I am so far removed from the music scene, that I honestly have no business weighing in with my thoughts and opinions. I don’t have real passion for music, either creatively or even recreationally. Sure, I have bands that I dig, but sitting down with a new album isn’t something I ever really look forward to, nor am I ever really seeking out new bands to fill out my playlists. I don’t use music to calm down or get amped up. The best I can offer is that putting on video game lo-fi tunes can help me work or go to sleep, sometimes. I don’t go to concerts or shows, and I’m so far removed from the pop culture discourse that it might as well be a different language for me.
The great exception is Sum 41. I’ve adored Sum 41‘s music since I stole my sister’s CD of All Killer No Filler when I was just a 12-year-old kid. Growing up in an isolated community, the only music on the radio was old country, and the best tapes around town were our parent’s hits from the 1970s that they bought in gas stations on the way home from the city, 4 hours away. Sum 41‘s pop-punk album had such an energy that I just couldn’t help but listen to it on repeat, over and over. I can’t tell you how many times I walked to and from school blaring All Killer No Filler in my Sony Walkman. This eventually got replaced with Chuck, which I liked even more. Growing up and changing through-out the years, Sum41
Enough about me. Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell is Sum 41’s frontman, Deryck Whibley’s memoir. Released in October 2024, half a year after their final (double) album, Heaven :x: Hell, and as they’re halfway through their goodbye tour, this book offers a unique insight to the band’s origins, group dynamics, and his own struggles.
Deryck begins at the beginning. His earliest memories, where he and his teenage mom moved from apartment to apartment 19 times before he turned 7. The small semblances of stability that showed up turn out to be fleeting, as the man he thought was his father moved out without a word. He talks about school bullies, being a punk in a prep/jock school, and meeting his bandmates, and how meeing Greig Nori propelled him and his band into the rock and roll party world.
Personally, I’m about as un-punk as someone can get. I’m a conformist, my high sense of duty doesn’t let me break rules, but I found myself relating to Deryck’s story. I also grew up with a single mother, bullied in school, and got into my own small number of fights. Our paths diverged when he picked up his guitar, and when he started taking drugs from Greig Nori. Sum 41’s first tour had a $0 budget for gas, they just filled up at stations and peeled away. There mere thought of doing so makes my skin crawl.
Deryck doesn’t express remorse for their chaotic punk lifestyle in their late teens and early 20’s. The trashed hotel rooms, the destruction they wrought, was their right. No words are spared for the souls who have to clean up after them, the people who have to clean up after their debauchery. Instead, a lot of the book reads as a factual retelling of the events of his life. “This happened, then this happened. So and So from such and such bands were there”. He doesn’t try to pass their actions off as anything other than, what they actually did. It doesn’t revel in the glamour, it’s just what happened.
For anyone who has been tangentially aware of Sum 41 over the last 20 years, you’d probably be aware of Their abruptly cancelled shows, Deryck’s back injuries, and his brush with death via kidney and liver failure in 2014. He talks about his herniated disk that he self-medicated with Advil and liquor for years, but doesn’t spend any time on digging into the roots of his addictions. We can all draw our on conclusions, such as a psychologically abusive manager, and being thrust into a gruelling tour lifestyle away from any semblance of supports at such a young age. He talks about his fling with Paris and how the band reacted, his marriage with Avril and how the band reacted, their divorce and how the band reacted, you may get the picture. Several of the people in the book get painted with a harsh brush, such as Deryck’s perspective of Stevo only caring about Deryck as long as the paycheques kept coming. And it’s important to remember that this is all Deryck’s perspective. He doesn’t dwell how his circumstances affected his bandmates, but plenty of ink is spent on how his bandmates reacted.
It’s fascinating how Deryck lays out the grooming and abusive behaviours of Greig Nori, but repeats several times throughout the book that he didn’t feel like a victim. He wanted to be a part of the rock and roll circus, that he wanted to be around Greig, but just as friends. How everyone who he divulged his story to blatantly told him, “What the fuck? That’s abuse!” and he replies with a “no, no. It’s more complicated than that.” My heart bleeds for the kid who snuck backstage to meet his idols, and was rewarded with a decade of pain.
As a book, the writing didn’t grab or engage me, but it does feel honest and raw. As I said above, the book reads like a list of facts, not much time spent embellishing his inner monologue beyond a “What the fuck!?”. The audiobook represents a dual edged problem. On one hand, Deryck is not a talented audiobook narrator, it sounds like he’s reading words, not telling a story. But there is power in his story being told in his words with his voice. And a few moments throughout the book we’re treated to piano renditions of some of his best lyrics, which were delightful treats and reminds you why you are a Sum 41 fan. I find myself very curious to find some of the other band members responses to Deryck’s book, as some of their protrayls come across as less than stellar. But I also hope that I never find them. I wish nothing but peace and happiness for Deryck as he enters the next chapter of life, I don’t want him to be dragged down by a myriad of interpersonal drama.
I loved reading Deryck’s story, but I don’t think it will be a terribly engaging read if you’re not a Sum 41 fan, or don’t recognize the deluge of names Deryck lists off. As a Sum 41 fan, I loved reading Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell. It feels honest and unfiltered. A behind the scenes recap of the whirlwind that produced so much amazing music. Since reading it, I’ve been playing my favourite albums on repeat (Chuck, Underclass Hero, Screaming Bloody Murder) and have even spent more time listening to the albums that I was originally not a very big fan of (Half hour of Power, Order in Decline, 13 Voices), and have started to really enjoy them as well. If you’re like me, a Canadian kid who grew up listening to these guys rocking out, Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell is a must-read.
Board game burnout has come up as a topic of conversation within my circles lately. A friend who has been out of the hobby for a few years recently asked, “What have been the new, fresh, must play games over the last 5 years? Games that are different and really do something that thing else has really done before?”
Honestly, I had a fairly hard time answering that question. For me, Bullet❤️ has been a break-out hit, Beyond the Sun is one that feels fresh, but beyond that, everything kind of feels like it’s treading old ground. A tweak here, a twist there, and a bam, the hot new game feels like something we’ve already played.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit our biases, we generally play midweight euro games, and don’t really deviate from that genre, but still. Even my favourite games that were new to me just felt like twists on games I’ve already played. Akropolis is NMBR 9 crossed withKingdomino. Cat in the Box is a trick taking game with a twist. It’s a super cool twist, but a trick taking game, nevertheless.
This conversation inspired me to pull out some of the games on my shelf of shame that I felt could be unique. One of which is Picture Perfect, designed by Anthony Nouveau and published by Arcane Wonders in 2020.
In Picture Perfect, a party has already happened and everyone had a great time. Now, your goal is to commemorate the party by taking the perfect picture. Every guest has preferences, some want to be in the centre, others have friends they simply must stand by, and others have a slight vendetta against others and their preference is that someone else’s face is hidden. All of these preferences are achieved by putting preference cards into little envelopes for each character. The whole game is taking a small subset of preference cards, arranging your characters as you see fit, then flipping over a card to determine how the character envelops will shuffle around the table.
Each round, hopefully you’ll get access to more characters so you can try and accommodate as many preferences as you can. There’s a strong memory element in play here, as once you’ve passed a characters’ envelope on, you may never see it again. Hopefully you’ll remember that the dog really didn’t want to be next to any man, or that the fern really wanted to be next to the table, no matter how inconvenient that may be for the other characters.
There’s no limit to how often or when you want to move the characters on your board. If you find that you’ve completely forgotten everything about a specific person, you can just take them off the board. Everyone has a player shield, so you can’t copy what your opponents are scheming, but you can choose to rearrange your entire party at a moment’s notice.
Scoring at the end of the game has an exciting reveal element to it. Once all 6 rounds have concluded, all players lay down their player shields, and one by one, each character has their preferences revealed, and each player scores points based on how many of those preferences were achieved. If all 3 preferences were met, a big 6 points. 2 out of the 3 will net you 3 points, a single preference met is 1 point, and missing all 3 preferences will lose you 3 points. The saving grace here is that you don’t score any characters that you chose not to place on your board.
Picture Perfect plays like a parlour game. The mechanics are light, and if you aren’t playing the bidding variant, there’s no way to really interact with your opponents, other than to just be better than them. You can try to do sneaky things, like keep a specific character’s envelope for an entire game, but players don’t have to place every character. The game mechanics are really just about getting more information, there are no systems in your way, handcuffing your ability to shuffle characters, and I really like that aspect.
The game comes with an auction variant built in, which you can play with right from the start. It shuffles a couple of action cards into the information swapping deck, so instead of swapping directly, each player can choose one of the envelopes they have in their possession to auction. You spend the items on your table, which are worth points in the end.
One of the biggest critiques I have for Picture Perfect, is that you can feel like you have no control, or that some of your decisions are arbitrary. Maybe you’ll get access to a character you need, and maybe you won’t. Maybe the characters in your possession will have conflicting preferences, so you can’t actually fully satisfy them. That’s the luck of the draw, as the preferences are randomized every game. I do like the envelope system where you stuff each character full of preferences for every game, that does give it a little bit of replayability, or at the very least, prevents me from memorizing what that little doggie wants.
So if mastery is not an option, I would really like for some more variability, however. Some variety in the preferences and more ways to swap information would give Picture Perfect some replayability. I know there have been a few expansions added, each one throwing in a new wrinkle, such as burglars, Sherlock and Watson trying to solve a murder, and movie stars showing up to steal the spotlight. I haven’t played with any of the expansions, but they don’t seem to mess with the core of the game at all. You are still swapping envelopes and arranging people, these expansions would just add another layer of considerations into the mix.
Picture Perfect isn’t a game where you can strategize your way to victory. At best, you can improve your memory and take calculated risks. It’s not meant to be a grand strategic experience; instead, it’s a light-hearted game about shifting friends around a table. The gameplay is light and lends itself to conversation and laughter, making it a delightful way to spend 30 minutes with friends. While it’s not a must-buy, I’d happily play Picture Perfect again if someone suggested it. There are definitely worse ways to spend your time.
Way back in mid 2016 I was in this precarious position of really falling deep into the hobby. My awareness of Kickstarter was ramping up dramatically, and the game that was generating a ton of buzz at that moment was Massive Darkness, designed by Raphaël Guiton, Jean-Baptiste Lullien, and Nicolas Raoult, and published by CMON.
Something in my brain latched onto this project. I’ve always wanted to get into miniature painting (no I haven’t), I’ve been looking for a great dungeon crawl adventure game (No I wasn’t), It’s solo-able, I’ve been searching for a good solo game (No I hadn’t), and surely after many successful Kickstarters, CMON would deliver a quality product, right?
Logically, there were plenty of things I didn’t like about Massive Darkness. From the fairly flat art style to the sign-off at the bottom of every update: “For the Darkness is Massive and full of terrors!”, a cheap and blatant rip-off of the mantra of the Red Priestess in Game of Thrones “For the night is dark and full of terrors.”
Emotionally, on the other hand, I wanted it. I put my money down and then began to pour over the updates and excitedly squeal at the unlocked stretch goals. Once the campaign ended, the waiting began. I stopped fervently hunting for the latest updates, and just let it sit in the back of my mind that one day, the game would arrive at my doorstep.
One day I got an attempted delivery slip in my mailbox, so I biked down to my local post office and handed them the slip. The box I got in return was about half the size of my fridge. I precariously balanced the box on my bike and walked it home. I excitedly and terrifyingly pulled box after box out of that package, not realizing how Kickstarter Stretch Goals really worked. Never before had I seen a game that took up more than one box, and now half a dozen boxes were cluttering up my dining room table.
Massive Darkness is fairly straightforward to play, despite the 30-page rule book. On your turn you have 3 actions, which you can Move, Attack or Interact. There are certain restrictions depending on if you’re in a tile with enemies, or if you’re changes to your abilities if you’re standing in a lighted tile or not, but the core of the game isn’t that complex.
Each adventure in Massive Darkness starts with a dozen decks of cards and a series of rooms laid out as dictated by the scenario you’re playing. Each adventure starts at level one, and as you progress through the dungeon, you’ll reach checkpoints that advance the game up to level 5, making the loot better, and the enemies stronger.
Enemies spawn at the end of each round (usually), or when doors are opened. Whenever a monster is spawned, it’s spawned with a ‘boss’ and their ‘mob’. The whole group acts as one, but it’s an excuse to place 4 or 5 of the goblin minis onto the table at once, and they’re not much other than glorified health markers for the mob. One interesting aspect of the game is that each enemy is spawned with a loot card, and if that loot card matches the type of attack that the enemy does, it’s added to their dice pool when combat happens, making them slightly more unique than just a standard opponent. A downside to this mechanic is when an early game monster spawns in with a relatively decent defense loot, they can become quite difficult for your early game gear to handle.
Combat is managed entirely with dice, and the die that come with Massive Darkness are quite satisfying. They’re large, have well-rounded corners and are brightly coloured. My only nitpick is the limitation of 3 die per colour, giving an attacker a maximum of 6 dice. I just like rolling buckets of dice, okay?? In combat, the attacking player gathers all the attack die (red and yellow) that they generate via their skills and equipment, and all the defence die (blue and green) that their enemy generates (including loot cards) and rolls them all together. The swords and the shields cancel each other out, and the BAM and diamond symbols may trigger any additional effects, depending on the abilities and equipment of the attacking hero and their equipment.
That’s really the crux of the game. Variety comes in the numerous heroes, who all have their own innate abilities, and the ability to mix and match classes with each hero, giving them further unique abilities. Some make sense, like having the warrior character play the barbarian class, but sometimes it’s fun to mix them up, like having the rogue character take on the blood mage class.
A component I really like is the plastic character tray, with indented slots for weapons and armour. The tray also has a pegboard for tracking health and EXP that you’ll spend on skills. If you’re playing the campaign version of the game, there’s another track to mark your “Micro-XP”, but the campaign rules are trash, and you really shouldn’t bother with them.
The real draw of Massive Darkness is all the big boss monsters. These minis stand head and shoulders above the rest and are usually quite a bit harder to take down. They can either be the core of a scenario (like having to chase down a giant spider before it gets out of the cave), or, they can just spawn in randomly. Usually, they can be defeated, and the sense of accomplishment upon doing so is really quite wonderful.
Each individual scenario usually has a goal for all the players to achieve together, either get through the tunnel, or search a specific space to find an item, then make it to the exit. As the game wears on, the event deck throws numerous baddies your way, but the only ‘timer’ in the game (unless a scenario specifically puts one on you) is the heroes’ health bars. Getting stronger gear and tweaking your character with new abilities based on their class is a fun experience, and the power and strength you feel when you wipe out an entire mob in a single blow is the kind of experience you remember and cheer for.
Massive Darkness isn’t a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. It accomplishes what it promised and delivers a ‘Dungeon Master-free dungeon crawl’ experience. It has exciting dice rolls and makes you and your friends feel like big damn heroes when you emerge victorious! The real problem with Massive Darkness is that shoehorned campaign element I mentioned earlier. The idea of slowing down your character growth by a factor of 5 just so you can try to emulate a sense of epic progression over multiple plays makes the ‘campaign’ element feel cheap and tacked on. Massive Darkness is so utterly satisfying when you play the scenarios as one-offs experiences. This also allows you to play with all the different characters and classes, as the combinations are nearly endless! Locking yourself into one hero and one class for half a dozen games isn’t fun, and I can almost guarantee that at the beginning of the campaign you’ll be looking at the advanced abilities with utter excitement, but by the time you’ve unlocked them, you really just won’t care anymore.
I think Massive Darkness is great when played as a power fantasy, ‘beer and pretzels’ game, if you will. If you come into this expecting some all new mechanics and a deep, rich lore, you’re really better off playing a video game. Massive Darkness does have the ability to craft an emergent narrative as you storm your way through the nests of goblins and slay the massive creatures that want nothing more than to rend your flesh from your bones. Unfortunately, I don’t really have a lot of experiences with games of this ilk, so I can’t speak to how it holds up against some others in the genre. All I can say is that I have a ton of fun when Massive Darkness hits my table, although the set-up ensures that my games are few and far between.
Personally, my favourite experience in Massive Darkness was when I was playing as the ranger and I stood at the end of a long hallway. A massive boss monster spawned behind us and was charging up. I sidled to the end of the hallway, and spent all my actions attacking it. I knocked off less than half it’s health, and it moved two steps forward. I was almost within it’s striking distance, I attacked twice more, the first attack did some decent damage, but the second roll missed entirely. I had one action remaining, and my escape was blocked. On the next enemy phase, that monster would surely grab me by the ankles and smash me into the ground like the Hulk and Loki. I took a deep breath and rolled a massive amount of hits and absolutely no defence for the boss. It came crashing down, dead at my feet. My friend looked over at me and said, “That still only counts as one!”
I also joined The Omnigamers Club on their podcast to talk about The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth. Available on all podcatchers and on YouTube!
I love 7 Wonders Duel, much more than the full 7 player game. In fact, it’s one of my most played games due to the fact that my partner and I played it over and over when it first came out, and it was one of my very first board game reviews on this site! Then we got the Pantheon expansion, and played it even more, falling in love with the new dynamics the expansion brought to the game. I think in total, I have something like 50 plays of the game, making it one of my most played games of all time.
Suffice to say, I was at the very least intrigued with The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth was announced. It’s a retheme and redevelopment of 7 Wonders Duel, and this new game folds in elements from both of the expansions while simplifying and streamlining the whole experience.
For those that haven’t played 7 Wonders Duel, The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth was designed by Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala. It’s a two player card drafting game where one player takes on the role of the Fellowship while the other controls the forces of Sauron, and are competing to be the first player to achieve one of the three victory conditions, which include getting the ring into Mount Doom/catch the nasty Hobbitses, have control of every region of Middle Earth, or, gather the support of all 6 races.
Players take turns drafting from a tableau of cards in the middle of the table. You can only take cards that are uncovered, and around half the cards are face down, which only get revealed once they’re fully uncovered. Most of the cards have costs, and if you’re ever lacking in resources, you can substitute a gold coin for one resource at any time. The cards you’re drafting have various benefits. The grey cards offer persistent resources to pay for cards down the road, yellow cards offer money, which is spent for resources you’re missing. Blue cards which advance the ring track, red cards which allow you to deploy troops around middle earth, and green cards which represent the support of a specific race.
There is also a shared display of landmark tiles which either player can purchase. If they do so, they gain the benefits listed on that landmark tile, but do not take a card from the tableau, which is very important if you’re trying to force your opponent to reveal a specific card for you. The game is played over 3 ages, and should the 3rd age come to an end and neither player has satisfied any of the victory conditions, then the player who controls the majority of regions in middle earth is declared the winner.
The theme here is more of a window dressing than anything else. While it’s difficult to imbue theme in a game where you’re just drafting cards, the theme in Duel for Middle Earth falls away really quickly, especially when drafting the red cards, and you just magically air drop soldiers into various regions across the board. That said, the ring track is a clever and thematic way to track 10 steps. That track could have just been a series of steps with each player moving their cube up the steps, but the plastic overlay showing the Hobbits making a break for Mount Doom, and the black rider nipping at their heels feels a lot more exciting.
There’s lots of decision-making in choosing which card to take so you can further your own goals, and which cards to leave for your opponent. A lot of the game can boil down to “I want this specific card” so you count backwards all the turns it’ll take until your opponent reveals that card for you. Or, if the order is off, you have to consider buying a landmark to offset the order of taking cards from the pyramid so you can get the card you need.
Each of the 3 victory conditions are very easy to parse, which helps build tension when one player starts to go a bit heavier into one of those conditions. And part of that tension comes from trying to goad your opponent into overcommitting into one of the victory conditions, but not enough for them to actually win. If you can get your opponent to make sub-optimal moves just to deny you a card, you’ll likely come away with the victory.
Comparing it to 7 Wonders Duel, Duel for Middle Earth has been smoothed to a polished stone. All the wonky rules have been shaved off, everything is easier, and you’re able to calculate anything at a glance. Duel for Middle Earth is fascinating in that it managed to fold in the core aspect of both expansions into a package that feels lighter and easier to play than it’s predecessor. But because the game is smoother, it feels flatter. There’s less texture to grab onto. All of my games really felt largely the same, and I’m much less keen to replay Duel for Middle Earth, unlike 7 Wonders Duel, especially when playing with the expansions.
Because it’s simpler, a single game took me and my partner, like, 15 minutes. We set up, learned how to play, and played it twice within an hour. Not drafting wonders gets players playing quickly, and because the landmark tiles are available to both players, it doesn’t feel like someone has an unfair advantage and you’re just biding your time until they’ve triggered their wonders. There’s also less ‘remove a card from your opponent’ actions, meaning there’s less feel bad moments, but there’s much less ‘take another turn’ options, meaning there are less big, exciting turns
It feels like you’re unable to build an engine, unlike in 7 Wonder Duel. One of my favourite things was to take as many of the yellow cards as possible, so I could trash a card and get, like, 8 coins in one go. It feels like some depth has been lost, there’s less space to play and explore, especially when you include those expansions. The Pantheon expansion specifically, the whole first age is vying for the privilege of drafting which Gods are available to you, and slotting them into spots for you and your opponent to buy them next age. Drafting a God that does nothing for your opponent, and using it to fill their cheapest slot, is really lost.
All that being said, Going back to 7 Wonders Duel feels super clunky now. Trying to calculate how much you and your opponent would have to pay for every one of the cards gets tedious, real fast. It really highlights just how streamlined Duel for Middle Earth is. While I don’t think Duel for Middle Earth as it stands now will replace 7 Wonders Duel plus it’s expansions for me, I would absolutely use Duel for Middle Earth for anyone who hasn’t played 7 Wonders Duel before. It’s light and easy to play, the perfect game to play on a weekday night, or as a warm-up to a much larger game. Be sure you leave extra time when you pull it off the shelf, however. It’s the kind of game that begs you to play it two or three times in a row. And at the end of the day, the best game is the one that gets played, so that’s one of the highest compliments I can give.
When it comes to getting excited about games, there aren’t many instances anymore where there’s some radical new mechanic that grabs my attention. What ends up capturing my attention is theme and aesthetic. Gorgeous artwork really isn’t enough all on its own anymore, as it seems every game is simply gorgeous, but what can set a game away from the rest is a unique and whimsical theme.
Trolls and Princesses, designed by Pim Thunborg and published by Game Brewer after successful crowdfunding in 2023, has players leading a colony of trolls in their attempt to curry the Troll King’s favour. To do this, the trolls use their trollkraft (troll magic) to entice humans to work their caverns, swap babies, tear down church bells, and kidnap princesses and house them in luxurious caves.
The mechanical hook is that Trolls and Princesses is a worker movement game. You control 5 trolls and on your turn you’ll move them from one action space to another, then accrue action points that can be spent in that location. Every troll in that space gives one action point, plus any humans working that cavern, or if the troll king is present, are more action points. Out in the city, other players trolls will even offer you more action points.
Played over 10 to 12 rounds (depending on the number of players), each round gives each player two turns. A player turn begins by playing a round card, which may put some humans into a specific village, and dictates where the troll king will reside for that player’s turn, then they get two troll movements. A troll movement is moving a single troll from any single action spot (represented by cauldrons) to any other cauldron, then using up all the action points that exist in that location (again, adding up any trolls, humans, troll kings, or outposts that may be in that area). The home cave has 3 main sections, one for mining resource, one for building cave rooms and outposts, and one dedicated to troll power. Each of the villages in town are functionally identical, but the number of people in each village may be different depending on the cards players play.
Mechanically, Trolls and Princesses isn’t any better or worse than any other worker placement game with a tight economy. The game is to squeeze the most efficiency from your limited number of actions as possible, with very limited moments for players to meaningfully interact with each other. The interaction that does exist is mostly positive, as when you go to the village where someone else has gone before you, you get to use their trolls for an extra action point. Beyond that, everything else is a race. The number of bells are limited, the princesses are limited, and the available outposts and changelings are limited. This isn’t a game where you can build absolutely everything though, so the odds of there being NONE of the resource you’re gunning for is low, it is much more likely that the princess will be in the ‘wrong’ village and be beyond your reach without at least a few turns to set yourself up.
A lot of the actions can roll into each other, or pay for themselves in subtle ways. As you buy things from the main board, you cover storage spots on your player board, which offer rewards. Doing things like paying a diamond and two troll power to steal a baby, but that baby covers a spot that gives you a diamond back, letting you roll right into stealing another baby, make the turns feel efficient and exciting. On the other hand, when you need to spend 6 actions accruing resources to accomplish a single goal, and if that goal doesn’t lead into more actions down the road, the game feels like a grinding mess. It’s particularly frustrating when on the very last turn of the day you manage to finagle all your resources together and get your trolls into the right spot to snag that last princess, only to realize you’re missing a bed to store her in.
The artistic direction of Trolls and Princesses is fantastic. From the cover art, to the gorgeous art on the Kings cards, it’s evocative of Scandinavian fairy tales. The player boards and components have a separate, more simple aesthetic that works really well for the game. The boards can look really busy, but there are tones of fun details to find, if you’re willing to look close enough.
One of the highlights of the game is just overhearing people talk through their turns. “I’m going to move a troll, and spend a diamond to steal a baby, which comes over here, then with another action point I’m stealing a cow, and hiring a human to work this mine, then for my second turn I’m moving this troll to destroy the cow and put an outpost over here”. My wife giggled at us as we revelled in stealing cows and babies.
At higher player counts, I found myself checking out between rounds. Each turn is fairly involved and insular, that I didn’t really need to pay attention. What mattered more is if my plan relied on collecting a specific cave tile or card, that the market didn’t get wiped in between my turn, which is much more likely to happen in a 4 player game. In my opinion, 3 players is about as high as I want to go in Trolls and Princesses.
Adding onto the high player count experience, the box is woefully low on resources, we ran out of all three resource types (obsidian, gold, and diamonds) in a 4 player game, and ran up against that limit in a 3 player game. There are plenty of x5 tokens in the box, but that’s a poor replacement for just actually having enough tokens to fulfill a reasonable demand. A huge miss by the publisher.
Trolls and Princesses revels in its efficiencies, and rewards repeat plays. Understanding how to roll actions into each other, when to build your engine and when to run it dry are all important considerations that players get better at with multiple plays. While the mechanics aren’t really anything innovative or unique, the theme carries a lot of my enjoyment for Trolls and Princesses. I don’t know if it’ll crack into my top 100, but if you’re in the mood for a medium weight worker placement game, Trolls and Princesses is a whimsical romp and more than an enjoyable way to spend an evening with a friend.
