Hungary
Budapest
Welcome to the finals of the 43rd Stare Out Tournament. Press Esc to start.
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I'm admittedly a sucker for great looking games. If it looks good, it has to be fun too, right? Yeah, I know, I went there many times, but it's my favorite mistake, which I'm ready to fall for once again. Not knowing anything about Creepers, my first impression was that this is an extremely well presented product, so let's make a copy and worry later.
Components:
Despite that it's a print and play game, it easily outshines many commercially published games. Just take a look at the components:
(Doggies not included. They could get out from their Super Farmer's box so rarely, I let them hang around.)
The board is vivid, but not too busy, however the greenhouse roof is confusing as hell. The creeper tiles are stylish. Seems like a bit too curly and chaotic at first glance, but laid out on the board it nicely forms the creepy growing vine you aim for.
Now there's this very well designed rulebook. It's wonderful. Beautiful. Well laid out.
However I'd very much like to say it's well written as well, but it's my main beef with the game. It's not. The rules aren't that complex but there was so many thing left unanswered after reading it, that I almost gave it up on Creepers. It surely needs more examples and way more clarifications. What counts as second level object? How does the greenhouse works? What can be pierced? Do you have to place your start tile at all? I'm still not sure if we play the game properly, so as a group therapy I'll try to show you an example of play, perhaps I will figure it out on the way.
Gameplay:
The core rules are simple. You play for points. The player who reaches the given point limit first, wins. You gain points for either reaching landmarks on the board, like the ladder, flowers, or climbing on the second floor somewhere and such, or by actions, which means mainly screwing with the other players creeper. You do this by selecting from three "decks" called patches:
The patches replenished before every turn in the same way. You can either select the patch of your color which always consists of two face-up basic tiles, and two mystery tiles- one basic and one advanced, or you can select the mixed "screwage" patch which is four basic tiles, two from each color, allowing you to drive your opponents creeper south.
It's on you: you want to go for the points peacefully, or by ruining your opponents beloved weed, killing it, or gaining points for blocking it, abandoning your lil' Audrey II completely.
Either way, after selecting the patch you see to fit you have three action-points to spend. You can place a tile, place/move a stone to reserve a spot or remove a stone for two points. If you only placed tiles, you got free action to place another tile.
As you can see above, yellow placed four tiles of his own, gaining 3 points for forking the creeper early. Blue chose to step onto the warpath, and selected the mixed patch. Drove one open yellow ending into the edge of the board gaining four points for that, placed a stone to prevent yellow's growth, and placed his starting tile.
(You see, that's a rather stupid move from blue. On the next turn yellow could easily select the newly drawn mixed patch, place the two blue curves on both ends of blue's starting tile, closing it completely, and thus winning the game. But yellow didn't do that. Yellow isn't too bright either.)
Instead of winning the game yellow opted to climb the wall. To do this he had to place a tile adjacent to the wall and place a lifter tile on the wall, and scored a point for being on the second level. Now comes the confusing part. Placing a tile on the wall, adjacent to it means that the creeper is on the second floor, and on the roof of the greenhouse which scores one for the second floor and two for the roof. However placing the fourth tile north of the last piece doesn't mean that the creeper stayed on the roof. It fell off, and it's on the first floor again, scoring no point. It's not a biggie, he wants to connect the two yellow sticks for ten points anyway, but one would suppose it's still on the roof.
Anyways.
Let me fast forward a bit, just to show two other possibilities. Say, yellow on it's way to the other yellow stick. Here's a great opportunity for a nice combo.
Yellow can close on blue, and after that he can place a lifter on the opponent's creeper, and finish his move on his destination. While he's on the second floor, he still score for the flower bellow, which blue occupied already, and of course he accomplished the connection of the two yellow stick, which scored 1+1+1+10 point for him. But at this moment, where is the yellow creeper? Is it in the greenhouse, or is it on the roof? Huh? The 10 points what's matter, but it would be nice to know.
With yellow already winning blue decided to use his shiny pierce tile for a final blow, so he replaced yellow's tile with the piercing tile, and gained four point for that, not that it mattered much. If there would been for example a flower under the yellow tile, with the piercing blue would have gained the points for the piercing and the points for the flower as well.
With the point limit set at 30 point, the game ends, the winner is the yellow player.
Conclusions:
Creepers is a fine, fast paced tactical tile layer for two players who don't mind some nastiness. Playing nice is rather boring, much of the excitement comes from fiddling with the opponents plans, while you have to keep an eye on your beauty keeping it alive, and trying to reach high scoring spots in the meanwhile. We enjoyed it despite the constant doubts regarding some of the rules, but we could worked it out most of the times. Once you got the feel of it, it runs smooth and you can work on your exotic combos, and begin to form your strategies. If you have the opportunity, it's well worth to give it a try.
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Stefano Castelli
Italy
Rome
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An excellent review!
Did you craft it by yourself?
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Hungary
Budapest
Welcome to the finals of the 43rd Stare Out Tournament. Press Esc to start.
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Thank you!
Yes, I made it, using my regular method. I printed everything on self-adhesive sheets, mounted on sturdy 4mm thick cardboard, made the board two-fold, sliced the tiles with a craft knife (quite a workout in itself), and finally edged everything with my favorite black marker. It took around three hours from start to finish.
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Hi, I can not find words for telling how huge and great job you made! Now I am on polish convention, called Avangarda, where i am also presenting Creepers. I haven't got net for free, so i will write all my comments after weekend. I see some small mistakes.
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Hungary
Budapest
Welcome to the finals of the 43rd Stare Out Tournament. Press Esc to start.
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Thanks! I think Creepers is a noteworthy game, which deserves attention. However, as I wrote in the review, there are so many gray areas left after reading the rules, that I'm really surprised, you see only small mistakes. To make it simple, I collect my initial questions here, regardless of that I figured it out since or not, but these should be cleared up in the rules:
1. I can't find anywhere in the rules, if I have to place my starting tile at all before the 8th point mark. Can one choose the mixed patch constantly for the first few times, placing only the opponents color?
2. Second level objects should be clearly marked, since it would seem logical that you need lifters for the ladder or the bench as well.
3. If the creeper is on the second level, on the back of another branch which is for example on the blue flower, is it eligible to the points beneath the first level one?
4. Being the biggest problem, the whole greenhouse roof thing needs a bunch of examples in different situations, like the questionable move in my second to last example.
5. Placing stones is another roughly described area in the rules. I can't place it adjacent to the opponent's creeper's open branches, that's OK, but can it placed adjacent to it's sides, or on any of the players' creeper tiles to prevent piercing or lifting for example?
6. Does it ends the game, if the player can't continue his own creeper if all the branches faces walls and he doesn't have a lifting tile, or he's just stalled and can wait for one to show up later?
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uff, finished
 First of all, I see wrong starting of the game at Your picture.
Wrong:
Creeper tile should “go from out of the board”, as on the following picture for ex.:
Right:
Another right starting move, with same tile:
Analogical situation is with the other kinds of tiles: straight tiles, crossing etc.
Another mistake is connected with stones.On you pictures You have 3 stones per player and one cube to mark changes on score track. This cubes are unnecesary. This is the role of one of the stones, another two stones per player can be used in game. To sum up:
Each player has 3 stones (one to mark changes connected with points value, and two which can be placed on the board)
Quote: I can't find anywhere in the rules, if I have to place my starting tile at all before the 8th point mark. Can one choose the mixed patch constantly for the first few times, placing only the opponents color?
You can choose constantly mixed patch, but remember about this rule: "extend opponent’s creeper by placing his tile (1 action,
this can be done only twice a turn) – the enemy’s creeper
had to be forked at least once from begging of game to do that"
Quote:
2. Second level objects should be clearly marked, since it would seem logical that you need lifters for the ladder or the bench as well.
Walls are the only objects (despite another creepers) which enable us to gain second level. (the rest of objects, are "on the ground") . The roof of greenhouse is not a second level object, it only reminds about bonus for the tiles on second level in this particular place.
Quote: 3. If the creeper is on the second level, on the back of another branch which is for example on the blue flower, is it eligible to the points beneath the first level one?
All bonus spaces give points only on the first level (except the roof of the greenhouse - it gives points only on second level)
Quote: 5. ... but can it placed adjacent to it's sides, or on any of the players' creeper tiles to prevent piercing or lifting for example?
Yes, You can.
Quote: 6. Does it ends the game, if the player can't continue his own creeper if all the branches faces walls and he doesn't have a lifting tile, or he's just stalled and can wait for one to show up later?
If all endings of player's creeper face walls and/or edge of the board, and he or she have no lift tiles on hand In his/her next turn he/she may take last time his patch. If there is no lift he/she immediately lose the game.
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Hungary
Budapest
Welcome to the finals of the 43rd Stare Out Tournament. Press Esc to start.
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Thanks for the clarifications, it's all good now. If I may suggest, you should work those into the rules as well.
- It's a bit confusing that the score marker and a playing piece are the same. Moreover the tile sheet contains five stone tiles, the rulebook states that a player have three stones, but it doesn't say that one of those should be used as a marker. If it's not too much work, you should include a unique piece for keeping the score.
- I can't find anywhere in the rules, that the starting tile must connect to the edge of the board, it should be stated, also mentioning that you don't have to place your starting tile at all until one of the score markers doesn't reach the 8 point mark, but after that you must start your creeper, and must fork it immediately. (I assume, placing the three way forking tile as your starting piece counts as forking.)
- Regarding the greenhouse roof. I may be wrong, but wouldn't be a bit more intuitive, if it would be mentioned as plainly greenhouse, leaving the roof out completely? I wouldn't list it as a 'board tile', but would say in the 'actions on the board' segment:
puts a creeper tile on the second level of the board (+1 point)
puts a creeper tile on the second level of the board in the greenhouse (+3 points)
- The 'Block' section of the end game conditions should be changed to exactly what you wrote.
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We are working on really big changes in rulebook (when we will end it I think it will be 2 or 3 pages longer
 ).
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