Unicorn Games
Mar. 2nd, 2023 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearLast night, we went to a new gaming group round the corner from Highbury & Islington and met some lovely people and played some fun games.
Two different sets of people had brought unicorn-themed games we hadn't played before.
Weirdly, I really enjoyed Kill the Unicorns, in which each player sets down different value cards on a 'hunt' and the player who plays the highest get to bag the unicorn (unless two players tie, in which case the third player gets the unicorn). Strategy is made more complicated by the fact that players can put curses and bonuses on certain unicorns (face down so the other players don't know the effect), so you don't always know if 'winning' a hunt will be good or not. Scoring is for sets - several unicorns of the same colour, or one of each colour - as well as stars on the unicorn cards themselves. There are also bonus tokens you can buy at the end of each round to enhance your unicorns or change their colour.
It was a really interesting game, with a lot to consider in each stage and I found it a lot of fun to try and figure out the best way to maximise my score and penalise the other players. I won by a very large margin, but I think I would have enjoyed it regardless, as my high score was rather a surprise.
We also played Unstable Unicorns, which is by the same people who made Exploding Kittens. I liked it more than that game, but not a huge amount. The art was cute, some of the cards were funny, and certain aspects of the strategy were interesting. The mechanics were very simple - pick up a card, play a card - and the aim was just to end your turn with seven unicorns in your stable. But it's one of those games where players can sabotage each other, so it's very difficult to win, as everyone gangs up on whoever is in the lead and it's generally clear when a player is likely to win on their next turn. I did eventually manage to triumph, because everyone else had run out of cards they could use to stop me, but it wasn't a satisfying victory and I had already given up trying to stop the other players from winning because I wanted it to be over!
It was a really fun evening altogether, though (we also introduced our table to Via Nebula and the other players crushed us, so I didn't win everything!), and we'll definitely go again.
Two different sets of people had brought unicorn-themed games we hadn't played before.
Weirdly, I really enjoyed Kill the Unicorns, in which each player sets down different value cards on a 'hunt' and the player who plays the highest get to bag the unicorn (unless two players tie, in which case the third player gets the unicorn). Strategy is made more complicated by the fact that players can put curses and bonuses on certain unicorns (face down so the other players don't know the effect), so you don't always know if 'winning' a hunt will be good or not. Scoring is for sets - several unicorns of the same colour, or one of each colour - as well as stars on the unicorn cards themselves. There are also bonus tokens you can buy at the end of each round to enhance your unicorns or change their colour.
It was a really interesting game, with a lot to consider in each stage and I found it a lot of fun to try and figure out the best way to maximise my score and penalise the other players. I won by a very large margin, but I think I would have enjoyed it regardless, as my high score was rather a surprise.
We also played Unstable Unicorns, which is by the same people who made Exploding Kittens. I liked it more than that game, but not a huge amount. The art was cute, some of the cards were funny, and certain aspects of the strategy were interesting. The mechanics were very simple - pick up a card, play a card - and the aim was just to end your turn with seven unicorns in your stable. But it's one of those games where players can sabotage each other, so it's very difficult to win, as everyone gangs up on whoever is in the lead and it's generally clear when a player is likely to win on their next turn. I did eventually manage to triumph, because everyone else had run out of cards they could use to stop me, but it wasn't a satisfying victory and I had already given up trying to stop the other players from winning because I wanted it to be over!
It was a really fun evening altogether, though (we also introduced our table to Via Nebula and the other players crushed us, so I didn't win everything!), and we'll definitely go again.
