G W M
Australia
Sydney
New South Wales
Why is it that '90% fat free' sounds so much better than '10% fat'?
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Note to readers - my previous reviews have been a little to 'rules focused', so I am trying to move away from this style to talk more about experience and overall game feel, any comments welcome. GM
Vlaada Chvátil is one of the world's game designers who I believe is truly quite gifted at what he does.
Since my recent return to gaming in the past few years, I have been most impressed by all of his games that I have played. Whilst they are typically fairly involved (for example Dungeon Lords or Space Alert), they have a wonderful elegance about their mechanics, and the games themselves are fairly unique in my view. I often find that the highly mathematically based games such as the ones that Vlaada Chvátil does, sometimes lack a good thematic basis, this is not the case with his games.
Sneaks and Snitches caught my attention as a fairly quick game by the same designer. It appeared to have the thematic level I desired, without having a mind blowing set of rules, say with a game like Dungeon Lords. Having now played the game a few times, it certainly lives up to my expectations.
An initial positive for me about this game is the ease by which you can teach this, even to fairly inexperienced gamers yet still have a game which an experienced gamer can enjoy playing at the same time.
The essential premise of the game is that the players are all trying to blag (rob) various locations in the game to collect one of four types of item (Information, Artifacts, Jewelry and Gold). However, at the same time, you are also trying to snitch to effectively block your opponents from stealing. Each player plays one sneak (to steal) and one snitch (to prevent theft) each turn after having seen what is available at each location.
Outcomes
1. If you land a sneak with no snitches, you get the item present
2. If you have multiple sneaks and no snitch, the item remains at the location but the sneaks all get a treasure card
3. If you have a sneak and a snitch, the item remains at the location
4. If you have a snitch and no sneak, the item remains at the location
5. If there are neither present, the item disappears (due to an 'inside job by staff, nice touch!)
There are four types of core item cards, with victory points allocated to those in possession of the most of each (the exact points vary based on number of players). There are also victory point cards which count independently of the four main item types, plus special cards that allow you to swap cards, as well as cards that force the discard of existing items in players' possession (a potential leveller if someone is well clear for one item type). Game ends once the card deck is exhausted, most VP wins.
THE COOLEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME:
By far the coolest part of this game is the psychology of how folks play their sneaks and snitches, and trying to work out what the others will do. When I played this recently with some folks who I met through my local guild, BoardgameGlebe, we had a lot of laughs as we revealed where we had played cards, as you can start to see how the different players approach their decision making cognitively. This to me is one of the most fun aspects of the game, which I don't think reveals itself in the same humourous way in games like For Sale, although I have had a few good laughs in Modern Art when people have made interesting art valuation judgments!
Overall I rate this game a 7/10, and for the price, would highly recommend this be added to one's collection if you have a mixture of experience in your playing circles and/or you occasionally play semi-geeky games with non-geeks. I would also recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good laugh around gaming psychology, as this plays out beautifully in this game. GM
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Pieter
Netherlands
Maastricht
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You forgot:
5. If you have multiple sneaks and no snitch, the item remains at the location but the sneaks all get a treasure card.
Actually, this comes before your 1.
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Iain Triffitt
Australia
Five Dock, Sydney
NSW
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Guy Mullarkey wrote: I often find that the highly mathematically based games such as the ones that Vlaada Chvátil does, sometimes lack a good thematic basis, this is not the case with his games.
Did you mean to put Reiner Knizia in there instead of Vlaada?
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G W M
Australia
Sydney
New South Wales
Why is it that '90% fat free' sounds so much better than '10% fat'?
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Nice one Trif, enjoyed that add, Mr Knizia's games can be a bit that way, although recent iPad releases do a lot to make some of them more thematic...
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G W M
Australia
Sydney
New South Wales
Why is it that '90% fat free' sounds so much better than '10% fat'?
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Thanks Pieter, I have taken in that correction now, GM
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Why is it that '90% fat free' sounds so much better than '10% fat'?
