Sakura was kindly provided by Osprey Games for free. We thank them for giving us this game which led to this comic! For more information on how we deal with gifted games, please see our FAQ!
The theme of Sakura is hilarious and it basically makes everybody we explain the game to laugh. It’s a push-your-luck game in which you try to be closest to the Emperor pawn. Other players can influence the position of the emperor and of the first and last players. You might think you’re smart by ending up right behind the emperor, but you’ll be sorry when another player makes him move one step back. This will lose you prestige and move three spaces back. It’s a game we would play with any of our gaming groups as a short game to end a game evening lightly. It’s definitely one to keep an eye on when it hits the stores if you like these types of games.
We’ve also played London and we’re jokingly calling it Nations-light. Absolutely a game that we were missing in our collection. Heinze simply enjoys these tableau-building games and he’s also really good at it. I’ve already decided that my goal for our second game will be beating my own previous score and not to try and beat Heinze. 😉
This week is going to be a quiet week with hardly any gaming nights planned for a change, except Gloomhaven and we’re looking forward to that!
Charlotte
The game with the silliest theme in my collection is “Kuve v Lakia: A Chronicle of a Royal Lapine Divorce”.
It’s about a Princess bunny and a Duke bunny who got married but almost immediately after noticed that they are completely incompatible. So now they’re getting divorced. Each player takes the role of either Duke Kune or Princess Lakia and tries to get the best outcome from the divorce — not materially; they’re both rich and do not care about acquiring more earthly goods — but by trying to influence the various bunny courtiers to get them on their side.
Mechanically, it’s an interesting take on deck building! But be warned, fitting with the theme it’s pretty mean…
Rachel
Oh wow – that game sounds and looks completely silly! Thanks for sharing! 😀
Dan
That would have to be “Before I Kill You, Mister Spy” by Cheapass Games. You play villains in a James Bond universe, trying to build your secret lair while capturing the spies trying to blow it up. But of course, when you capture a spy, you can’t just kill him — you must taunt him first by revealing your secret plan (and hope he doesn’t escape while you do).
Rachel
Haha, I love the fact that you have to reveal your secret plan as a villain!
Nosa
Rachel, thanks a lot for the post.Really thank you! Much obliged.
Alex
Pecunia non olet. In it, you’re a roman toilet owner and you have customers wanting to use your toilets. The amount of time/turns they spend on a toilet is represented by brown tokens 🙂 that are taken one at a time on each turn. When they’re done they pay you and leave. Senators don’t sit next to slaves and you can have 2 women in one toilet just because that’s the way it works. i guess 😉 Also, I love the “bad fish” card you can play on your opponents that adds a set of additional brown tokens to a victim of your choice.
Chris
Exploding Kittens – try not to get blown up by cats.