In Fit To Print you’ll be frantically choosing which articles, photographs, and adverts you want to publish in adorably-named papers such as The Chestnut Press or The Evening Hoot. This manifests as players grabbing facedown tiles from the middle of the table, taking them back to their equally adorable 3D desks, before flipping them to see whether the tile is an advert, photo, or article, and deciding whether they want to keep it. Those that don’t make the cut get returned to the pile faceup, ready for a rival to claim and print them.

Read all about it!

There are two main phases in the game – the Reporting phase and the Layout phase. The Reporting phase is the one I described above which is just a grab against the clock. If it sounds like Galaxy Trucker to you, then yeah, that’s a fair comparison. The big difference, however, is what happens when the time runs out. Just for reference, there’s no timer included. Just use a phone, clock, stopwatch – whatever. The time limits in the rulebook dictate the difficulty level.

Once the time runs out, you move into the Layout phase, and that’s where the comparison to Galaxy Trucker stops. In that game, you make the best spaceship out of the parts you’ve got. In Fit To Print you’ve each got a board that represents the front page of your woodland broadsheet, and just like in real life, you don’t want to leave blank space on the page. So the idea is to make sure that you pick up enough tiles to cover the page, but at the same time you don’t want to pick up more tiles than you can fit, as you’ll get penalised for taking tiles you don’t place.

On top of that, there are rules for placing tiles. You knew there’d be more rules, didn’t you? Adverts can’t be placed adjacent to adverts, photos next to photos, or articles of the same colour next to one another. Just arranging your tiles to follow those rules is quite a challenge, but wait, there’s more! Photos have scoring conditions based on what’s placed next to them. Articles have either happy faces or sad faces on them, denoting good and bad news respectively. If the level of good and bad news isn’t perfectly balanced, you get penalised again.

On top of that, as if we needed more to think about, are the centerpiece tiles that can score you more points based on the conditions printed on them. It all results in a two-dimensional tile-placement puzzle which adds layer after layer of other things to think about. You’ll finish your layout and be happy with finally managing to cover the board, then start moving things and looking for ways to increase your score, only to realise that you can’t remember what it looked like. Argh! It’s simultaneously hilarious and infuriating, and it’s nobody’s fault but your own.

The Sunday papers

It’s frustrating when you teach a game to people and then play it on the understanding that it’s “just a learning game“, meaning you basically write that game off. Fit To Print actually has three rounds, so even if you do terribly in one round, there’s more than enough chance to redeem yourself later. I love the way the Friday edition works on a grid of 7×14 squares, Saturday on a slightly bigger 8×16 grid, with Sunday expanding once again and going to 9×18. It doesn’t sound like it’s getting much bigger, and on the boards, it doesn’t even look like it’s getting much bigger, but that’s just an illusion. The three issues use 98, 128, and 162 squares to fill respectively.

Why the basic maths lesson? Or should I say ‘math’ lesson for my readers on the other side of the Atlantic? I bring it up because it becomes really tricky to figure out how many tiles you have compared to how many you need. It’s not like you can even just spread the tiles out to get a rough idea. Designer, Peter McPherson (you might remember that name from Tiny Towns and Wormholes, both of which I reviewed here and here respectively) saw that coming and added a rule which says every tile you take has to be piled up on your little 3D desk. Trying to estimate how much of your board a couple of stacks of tiles will cover is a game in itself.

If you’re still sitting there on your throne of nerddom, thinking this all sounds a bit easy, I’ve still got a couple more surprises in store for you. You could add in the character cards which give each player a unique power, and there’s another option to add Breaking News cards which throw random events into each day which introduce different restrictions and bonuses.

As you can probably tell at this point in the review, this isn’t just an entry-level tile placement game. I can say from experience despite having a ton of variety in the way you play, and despite the various rules and constraints you’re working around, it’s still a very family-friendly game. I speak from experience. I played it with my wife and son and immediately after playing, they asked to play again. Take it from me when I say that that’s high praise indeed. We didn’t even bother using the relaxed, family-friendly rules in the rulebook.

Final thoughts

My eyes lit up when I saw that Ian O’Toole was responsible for the art in the game. It’s fair to say that I’m a bit of a fanboy, but I also know that games with his touch on them tend to have great graphic design too, and Fit To Print is no exception. Being able to tell what a tile has on it at a glance is extremely important in a real-time game like this, and he nails it.

All this talk of real-time and the frenetic energy the game delivers might turn you off. You might have a disability which affects your fine motor skills, or vision problems which make it hard for you to tell at a glance which kind of tile is which. Maybe you just can’t stand real-time games because you don’t enjoy them. Almost all of my plays have been played using the real-time rules, but it’s important to note that there’s a turn-based variant included in the rulebook which alters the gameplay and makes it much more strategic.

The cherries on top of the Fit To Print cake are the solo mode, puzzle mode, and challenges. The solo mode works a lot like the multiplayer game, which makes it a great way to practice, and I really like the inclusion of the puzzles. Each puzzle has a strict setup of tiles available, with the knowledge that you can’t use them all. If you like to take your time to puzzle your way to the best score, you’ll love it.

Fit To Print blends puzzles and fast-paced gameplay into a tile-laying game that looks beautiful. It’s twee, it’s fast, it’ll hurt your brain, and you’ll have a lot of fun with it.

Review copy kindly provided by Alderac Entertainment Group. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Fit To Print (2023)

Design: Peter McPherson
Publisher: Flatout Games
Art: Ian O’Toole
Players: 1-6
Playing time: 30 mins

The post Fit To Print Review appeared first on Punchboard.

The Gig is a new mixture of genres to me. When it comes to board games, regular readers know I love roll- or flip-and-writes (I refuse to call them verb-and-writes), and while I’ve tried lots of different kinds, I’ve never played one with a real-time element. That kind of lunacy goes hand-in-hand with the Jazz Fusion vibes the  game’s art gives off. Have Braincrack Games got Ron Burgundy’s jazz flute in their hands, or something more like Ross’ keyboard?

More cowbell

The idea of The Gig is novel. Each player is a musician in the same band, but it’s a jazz improv band, and they all want to be the centre of attention. Each player’s instrument board is different, and the aim of the game is to cross out polyomino shapes on it, in order to score the most points. The biggest score at the end, wins. You know the drill.

In most games, the shapes you draw or place would be dictated by a symbol on a card, á la Hadrian’s Wall, or a cardboard tile, like in The Isle of Cats. In The Gig, however, each song (round) is a blank sheet of music. All players roll their dice at once, then the craziness begins. After rolling, you can pick up any number of your dice and plonk them on the row of the song which matches their values. It’s first come, first serve, so you need to be fast.

When all the dice are used, and your friends have stopped cursing each other for claiming the one place they desperately needed, it’s time to get your Bob Ross on, and get drawing. The shapes formed by your dice are the shapes you can draw on your instrument board, following a simple set of rules. Fill in your board, claim the bonuses, and get out under that spotlight as often as possible.

Nice…

The Gig is another departure from the more serious Euro games we’ve seen from Braincrack. Ragusa, Venice, and Florence are all great games, but after the light-hearted Last Resort, I’m really pleased to see them trying something different again. Not only trying, but succeeding. Before I go any further, I want to give a special mention to the artwork through the game. The styling is very cool, and so thematic, I love it.

The first song or two that you play feel a bit chaotic, but once you get the feel of it, and the way the dice interact with your boards, it’s a chaos you can embrace. It’s the difference between listening to freeform jazz and wanting to plug your ears with cheese, and suddenly understanding it and snapping your fingers in nodding appreciation, daddio.

It’s worth noting that there is an alternative, turn-based way to play the game. It’s great for teaching new players the game, and also if you’re playing with anyone who feels too pressured trying to place dice on the song sheet. If you can though, the real-time mode is definitely the way to go, it’s frenzied and hilarious.

Polytempo

One of the things I really like about The Gig is the asymmetry. Each instrument’s board is laid out differently, and each has its own way to score bonuses. It’s a really nice way to do things, as it’s going to take you a long time to figure out how to do each of them well. There’s this wonderful feeling that’s like doing the Hokey Cokey as a kid (or Hokey Pokey as my Transatlantic friends might know it). You all descend on the song on the centre of the table, rushing in to try to claim the spots you want, especially as many of them carry bonuses when claimed.

After that comes the calm, as your focus turns towards your instrument board, and trying to work out the best way to use the shape you created. It means there’s tons of interaction between the players, but there’s never any meanness or spite in it. You’re so focused on what you want to achieve, on your board, that any clashes on the song sheet are the result of both wanting something, rather than trying to deny someone of something. It’s a small, yet important detail, which makes the game a fun experience for everyone around the table.

Final thoughts

I really like The Gig. When Lewis (one of the designers and heads of Braincrack Games) tweeted about a new game that was a real-time roll-and-write, my interest was immediately piqued. When you consider the fact that the game is in no way a reflection of playing music at all, it’s remarkable that it feels so thematic. A lot of that is owed to the presentation and artwork. It screams ‘jazz club cool’, and it’s gorgeous. The songbook pages are really clear and easy to read, and even the box lid looks like an aged LP.

It does a great job of simultaneously feeling like a party game and a clever roll-and-write, which is no mean feat. There’s a stupid amount of variety in the game too, not just because you’re at the mercy of the dice gods, but also through the sheer number of combinations of songs and instruments. There aren’t many games around at the moment that give that same feeling of being a ‘proper’ game – for want of a better word – rather than a filler, and do it in half an hour. But that’s exactly what The Gig does.

Dávid Turczi has once again got his mitts on a game to make a good solo variant. While the solo mode is decent enough, and a good way to practice, the multiplayer mode is how to get the most out of it. So much of the fun and laughter comes from the madcap scramble to roll and re-roll your dice, over and over again, willing them to land the way you want. The Gig isn’t going to melt your brain, and I’m sure the theme might not land with everyone, but grab some friends and some smooth tunes, and you’re going to have a great time.

The Gig launches soon on Kickstarter. Register here to be notified when.

The Gig (2022)

Designers: Jamie Gray, Dann May, Robb Smigielski, Lewis Shaw
Publisher: Braincrack Games
Art: Dann May, Robb Smigielski, Lewis Shaw
Players: 1-4
Playing time: 20-30 mins

The post The Gig Preview appeared first on Punchboard.

Unusually for a Euro game, there’s a pretty detailed backstory behind Pendulum. It’s a story of immortal kings, dragons, and a great iron clock. Whichever player exerts enough influence over the council will get crowned as the new timeless king, and usher in a new era. Exciting stuff, huh? All of this happens as the players literally have the sands of time, slipping away. Three sand timers govern the three distinct areas of the board, and actions can only take place when one of them is flipped next to your worker.

Tempus fugit

I had two big fears when going into Pendulum. Firstly, whether faster players would have an advantage over slower ones. Secondly, whether the real-time nature of the game, with simultaneous play and no turns, would turn it into a strangely unsociable experience.

Let’s start with the first worry – the relative speed of players. Euro games are about strategy, planning, taking your time and figuring out the next best move. My worry was that players who are prone to analysis-paralysis (AP) would be left thinking, while others took twice as many turns, if they could flip the timers fast enough. Having played Pendulum a few times now, I’m glad to be able to say that it’s really not a worry.

What I didn’t expect was how long each of the timers takes to trickle through. At 45, 120, and 180 seconds each, none of them is going to flipping back and forth like a slinky on an escalator. There’s plenty of time to plan and strategise, and that feeling is bolstered by the fact that you only start with two workers to place. Things get more frantic later in the game, when you get more workers, but there still isn’t the disparity I was worried about.

Coming up for air

So let’s touch on my second concern, the simultaneous turns. I say turns, I don’t actually mean turns, as there’s no turn structure as such. You can carry out as many actions as you can fit in the time before each Council phase is triggered. As a result, there’s this inherent, self-imposed pressure. You’re desperate to get as much done as you possibly can, to try to keep yourself on an even keel in comparison to the other players. It reminds me of swimming. You’ve got your head down, fully focused on what you need to do. It’s only the occasional break for a Council phase, or waiting for a timer to run out, when you’ll have the chance lift your head up, breathe, and to look at what the other players are up to.

I don’t really like this feeling. One of the things I really enjoy about a worker-placement game is seeing which strategies my opponents are trying, and seeing how – if at all – our plans might collide. In Pendulum, it’s very hard to play like this, and it can feel like you’re all playing your own game, just occasionally coming back together for the four Council phases, and seeing what happens at the end. It feels like playing in silos.

The only time it doesn’t really feel like this is in a two-player game, where you can instead seem to spend a lot of time twiddling your thumbs, waiting for a timer to finish. Pendulum isn’t at its best with two though, I think three or four players is where the game does best. It supports up to five, but five people all trying to move the same things around the same shared board is just too crowded. The solo mode, added by the ever-dependable Automa Factory, is excellent, and I prefer it to two player.

Like clockwork

Here is a good place to mention the untimed mode that’s included in the box. Playing with the untimed mode pretty much nullifies that entire previous section of the review. The timers are still on the board, but only to dictate which areas can be activated, and have workers placed and removed. When all players have taken their actions, consulted the rulebook, made a cup of tea, and opened the custard creams, the timers get flipped. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until you reach the end of the included timer track, then do the Council phase.

I have mixed feelings about the untimed mode. On the one hand, I enjoy it more than the timed mode. It feels like a sophisticated Euro game with a nice action activation gimmick. On the other hand, however, I can’t help feeling like I’m not playing the game the way it was intended. I really like the innovation of adding the timers, and I love that someone has done something fresh with worker-placement, but I can’t help wishing the timers weren’t in there.

If there had to be a gimmick, a something special to make the game stand out, I wish they’d added a big pendulum. There’s meant to be a grand iron clock, so put half the action spaces on one side of the pendulum, half on the other. Then use the untimed mode for the whole game, with the pendulum shifted from side to side, between turns. Good, eh?

I’m wasted here…

Final thoughts

Pendulum is a good game. It’s not an amazing game, but it’s better than average. I love what Travis Jones has done with the design, and the clever thematic link between the setting and the sand timers. I just don’t enjoy the game as much when I use them. It’s a clever novelty, but it just misses the target for me. I don’t know who signed-off the sand timer design, but having tapered bases, instead of flared ones, was a crazy choice. They get knocked over far too easily, even with a bump to the table.

The presentation throughout is great, and the ten playable characters (well, five, each with two variants) all with their own unique stratagem cards and player mats, all feel slightly different to play with. It’s not a difficult game to learn and play, so anyone happy with medium-weight games will be well away with it. The fact that the rulebook contains a section dedicated to what to do when you forget to do something, just reinforces the feeling that the real-time doesn’t quite work.

All of my grumbling aside, there are going to be people reading this whose game nights thrive on chaos, who love a bit a frantic action on a table. For those people, I’d have no hesitation in recommending Pendulum. Solo gamers might see the Automa Factory name on the box and be tempted, but personally I’d go for Tapestry or Gaia Project instead if you want one of their titles. I really like the untimed game, it makes for a solid Euro game, but I can’t escape the feeling that I’m not playing the game I was meant to be playing.

Review copy kindly provided by Stonemaier Games. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Pendulum is available from our sponsor – Kienda. Sign-up using this link to get 5% off your first order over £60.

Pendulum (2020)

Designer: Travis Jones
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Art: Robert Leask
Players: 1-5
Playing time: 60-90 mins

The post Pendulum Review appeared first on Punchboard.