Friday Filler: Temp Worker Assassins

How do you feel about your boss? Does the boss ever annoy the heck out of you? Do you have the urge to do something about it? You could go postal, take up the weapon of choice, and strike him down, but that would be too obvious, so why not put a bit of planning into it? Why not hire assassins and send them to do the job for you? The easiest way of getting them into the place where you work—Bureaucrat Castle—is as temps on a one-week contract. Unfortunately, only the security is so good at Bureaucrat Castle none of the assassins have been able to smuggle their weapons in. Fortunately, the assassins are so good they can turn anything into a weapon, including office supplies. So your assassins have a week in which to assemble the best weapons they can from the stationery cupboard and take the opportunities to strike at Bureaucrat Castle’s Health & Safety Halfling, Internal Audit Ninja, and Acquisitions Merger Viking! (If only real life was like this?)

This is the set-up for Temp Worker Assassins, worker placement-decking building, hand-manipulation game published following a successful Kickstarter campaign and a launch at UK Games Expo, 2017. It is designed to be played by between two and four players, aged fourteen and over, in roughly forty minutes. From one round to the next, players will send their assassins to the Forbidden Stationery Cupboard, the Really Spooky Recycling Area, and Malevolent R&D Department amongst others to gain offices supplies such as the Evil Pencil Sharpner, the Pointy Edged Clipboard, Not-So-Floppy Disk, and Hideous Highlighter Pen, all in readiness to launch an assassination attempt at a chosen target.

The game consists of some one-hundred-and ninety cards, twenty Assassin Meeples (five of each colour), a Starting Player Marker, and a fourteen-page rulebook. Of the cards, forty consist of four identical decks, one per player. These are mostly Fairly Sharp Pencils and Reasonably Blunt Pencils, providing +1 or +0 Attack respectively. Even if a player has all of these in his hand, they are rarely sufficient to make a successful assassination attempt on a target, so better cards are needed. These come in the form of the Stationery Supply cards, of which there are sixty. Four of these are placed face up to form the available Stationary with the Stationery Supply deck nearby. There are forty Department Cards, ten of which will form the various locations in Bureaucrat Castle where a player will send his Assassin Meeples to gain more cards, improve his hand of cards, and gain other benefits. Forty-five Target Cards provide the victims for the players’ assassination attempts. Five of these are actually Typing Pool Zombies, which mostly stationary, are easier to assassinate, but worth fewer Victory Points. Three of these Targets will be available to assassinate at any one time, as will one Typing Pool Zombie. Together, the number of Department Cards and Target Cards gives Temp Worker Assassins a fair degree of replay value.

The last card type in the game is the Turn Marker card. There is one of these for each day and they each provide a better bonus as the game progresses through the week. They are won by the first player to make a successful assassination attempt on a day and go into the player’s discard pile. Here is where it is worth targeting the Typing Pool Zombies as although they may not be worth points, a quick stab with a bunch of pencils might be enough to bump one off as soon as an assassin gets into the office and so get the Turn Marker card for that day. Lastly, there is the rulebook. This is nicely laid out and easy to read, but it is underwritten as some of the rules are not as clear as they could be despite the game’s relative simplicity. 

Turns are quite simple. Beginning with the Starting Player—who will change day-by-day—the players take it in turn to place one of their assassins on Department Card or Target Card to make an assassination attempt. The Department Cards provide several actions, including Clear (discard and refresh the Stationery Supply cards), Draw (draw cards from a player’s deck), Gain (Take a face-up Stationery Supply card), Research (take cards from the Stationery Supply deck, add one to a player’s hand and discard the rest), and Trash (remove a card in your hand from the game). Some Department Cards provide just one of these actions, but others give a mix of them which all must be carried out. Other Department Cards provide a bonus to weapon types during assassination attempts amongst other benefits. This being a worker placement game, it means that it is possible to block access to a Department Card for other players and it does mean that as a turn progresses, there will be fewer Department Cards for a player to put his assassin meeples on, giving him fewer choices. That said, this is offset by the fact that some Department Cards have multiple spaces.

Once a player feels he has enough Stationery Supply cards to hand—there is no hand limit—he can make an assassination attempt. This is not a simple process, as it does require a player to chain his Stationery Supply cards in order to have the greatest effect—learning how to do this effectively is one of the game’s challenges. So Scaring Staples grants ‘Up to 2 Staplers get +2 Attack’, so a player needs to have another two Stapler cards in his hands and they will also have their effects as well as an Attack value. This allows for a certain degree of deck design, player trying to Gain cards from the Stationery Supply that will make a particular card work. In many cases, a player will also be discarding and drawing cards from his deck. In the early stages of the game this may be an issue because a player is unlikely to have particularly powerful cards in his deck, but later in the game, if he has been able to raid the Stationery Supply cards, he will certainly have better cards to draw from. One notable difference from a great many deck building games is that when taken from the Stationary Supply, the cards do not go into a player’s discard pile, but his hand. This means that he can prepare for an assassination attempt on his turn as much he might have to reply upon what is in his deck. If successful, the assassinated Target card goes into the player’s victory pile. Some Target cards provide bonuses in addition to their Bounty value.

After an assassination attempt, whether successful or unsuccessful, an assassin meeple is sent to Security. (He is not arrested, fired, or anything, but can return to work the following day—it appears that Bureaucrat Castle is really keen on its temps working out their period of employment.) The player discards both his hand and the cards played as part of the assassination attempt, draws a new hand of five cards, and continues play. Once everyone has played all of their assassin meeples on a day, it ends, they clock off, and a new day begins with a new Turn Marker card. This continues until the end of the fifth turn—or Friday—when everyone clocks off and the game ends. The player with the most Bounty points gained from assassinated Targets is the winner.

One issue with the game is the Typing Pool Zombies. They sort of provide a catch-up mechanism should another player be running away with number of Targets successfully assassinated. Essentially, they enable another player to make an early assassination attempt at the start of a day in order to gain the benefit of the day’s Turn Marker card. They do provide a powerful bonus, but only if a player can grab it. There is nothing to stop the leading player from grabbing the Turn Marker card bonus early on and so give his assassins a further boost. Now when taken, a Turn Marker card goes into a player’s discard pile—and not his hand like Stationery Supply cards—but it is a powerful bonus when it comes back out to play nonetheless. The problem essentially, is that as a catch-up mechanism, there is no guarantee that it will actually help…

Physically, Temp Worker Assassins is a very nicely presented game. The cards are sturdy enough and their instructions easy to read. The artwork though, especially on the Target Cards is very good—if only it had been bigger! The rulebook is somewhat underwritten, but does include a good example of how an assassination is supposed to work. It would have been nice if the assassin meeples had been a bit more thematic, but you cannot have everything.

Temp Worker Assassins not only has great artwork, but it has a fun theme too. A lot of thought has gone into the names and looks of the Target Cards as well as the name of the various offices and departments at Bureaucrat Castle (you may not have actually worked in some of these locations, but it probably feels as if you have). Once you get the hang of it, a game of Temp Worker Assassins should play faster than the suggested forty minutes—which feels a bit long anyway. This should only take the one play through, but after that, the game’s humour, and the replay value in the variety of the Department and Target cards will bring Temp Worker Assassins back to the table.

The Dominion of Trains

Let go on record and simply state that I do not like Dominion. This does not mean that it is a bad game. The 2009 Spiel des Jahres winner from Rio Grande Games is an innovative design, being one the the first deck-building card games, but I find it too mechanical and lacking in theme. So I do not own a copy and rarely play it although I know that it is a popular game. I do though, own and like Trains, a deck-building board game from Hisashi Hayashi, the designer of Sail to India and String Railway, and arguably that is very much like Dominion, both in terms of its design and the fact that each has won an Origins award—Dominion for Best Traditional Card Game in 2008 and Trains for Best Board game in 2013. Fortunately, Trains has a number of features that make it more interesting than Dominion.

Trains is not just a deck-building card game. It is a deck-building board game. The difference being that the players are building their decks to take actions on a board all of which consist of creating their railway networks—laying track and building stations. For in fact, Trains is also an area control game. Designed for two to four players, aged twelve and up, Trains sees the players compete to build the most valuable railway networks in the area surrounding the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka. What this means is that there is direct competition between the players rather than just a race to acquire the most Victory Points.

In terms of set-up, each player receives an identical ten-card deck consisting of three types of card—Normal Trains, which generate money for a player; Lay Rails, used to expand a player’s network and to connect to features on the board that will score him Victory Points; and Station Expansion, which let a player build the Stations in the towns and cities to score Victory Points. On his turn, a player uses a hand of five cards drawn from the deck to carry out actions—generate income, purchase new cards, and use the actions on the cards to do various things, but primarily building his network on the board. Where possible, a player’s cards are used to generate both income and actions and a player is free to make as many purchases as he can afford and take as many actions as he can. Once done, a player’s hand of cards goes into the discard pile. Lastly he then draws a new hand of five cards and thinks about what he will do on his next turn. The latter action—thinking about what he will do on his next turn—is explicitly stated in the rules. As part of the game, it is a welcome addition counter to players prone to ‘analysis paralysis’.

Another aspect of the set-up is that the range of cards available to purchase varies from one game to the next. Every game has the eight default cards available to purchase—Express Train, Limited Express Train, Lay Rails, Station Expansion, Apartment, Tower, Skyscraper, and Waste cards, but the remaining eight are randomly determined from the thirty available. This not only makes play different each time, it also allows the game to be tinkered in terms of options. Want an easier game? Then for example, make sure that the Landfill card is available so that players can use it to get rid of Waste.

The cards are categorised into five colours. Purple cards allow a Station Expansion, whilst green cards are construction cards that either Lay Rails or nullify the extra cost of construction, such as Collaboration, which cuts the cost of building track where another player already has track. It also prevents a player gaining Waste from any construction that turn. Blue cards are train cards. The standard Train cards simply generate a player income, but others grant an action or bonus. For example, a Tourist Train grants a Victory Point every time it is played, whilst an Early Train lets a player put purchased cards on the top of his deck. Yellow cards, like the Tower and the Skyscraper grant Victory Point at game’s end, but do clog up a deck. Red cards are action cards that grant various benefits. For example, the Ironworks generates income for each track laying green card played that turn, whilst Station Crew gives a player the choice drawing another card, gaining income, or returning Waste to the Waste stack.

Most deck-building games have an aspect of their design that clogs up each player's’ deck. Usually, this consists of two types of cards. The first type consist of cards that are less effective as the game progresses, typically being replaced by better and more effective cards. The second type consists of Victory Point cards, purchased towards winning the game, but doing nothing else. Trains has both of these, but takes the concept further with Waste. Every time a player lays track, builds a station, or constructs a building, he earns a Waste card—and a Waste card does nothing except clog up a player’s deck and when drawn, his hand. 

What does Waste mean? Its effect forces a player to balance his hand and deck. It also curbs a player from expanding too quickly. Yet Waste cards do not wholly impede a player—one or two Waste cards in his hand from one turn to the next will not prevent his making purchases, laying track, expanding stations, and taking actions, but any more Waste cards  than that and a player may find himself unable to act. Fortunately, a player can forgo his turn in order to divest his hand of all Waste and there are certain cards that will let him get rid of Waste, such as Landfill.

The obvious aim of the cards is to lay track, but this is primarily a means to an end rather than a means to scoring Victory Points. The main means of scoring Victory Points is by laying track into a city and then building stations. Cities can have between one and three stations, the extra stations after the first being more expensive to build, but scoring a player more  Victory Points. The second means of scoring Victory Points is to lay track to a Remote Location on the edge of the map—typically this involves building through expensive terrain like mountains. The third method is by buying Yellow cards, though this is also expensive.

Once a player has built into an area, it does not mean that another player cannot build  into the same space. It does make it more expensive though, and whilst this serves as a barrier, a player can lay track into an area held by another player to cancel out any potential Victory Points he might gain by building a station there or by laying track into a Remote Location.

Play continues until a player places his last rail cube as track or places the last station, or four piles of the cards available to purchase have been exhausted. Once one of these conditions has been met the game ends and the player with the most Victory Points wins.

Trains is a nicely presented. Both the rules booklet and the cards are easy to read, the double-sided board is clear and functional. The cards themselves are nicely illustrated and do feel good in the hand.

The question is, is Trains really like Dominion? The answer to that would be both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. There are many cards that look and feel familiar—such that one gamer I know refuses to play it because it is too alike—but the gameplay is different. It is more streamlined, there is less emphasis on setting up your deck as an ‘engine’ that runs perfectly, and a player needs to balance both his deck and his hand as the game progresses. Trains is easier to learn, both because it is more streamlined and because the theme is more accessible. That theme is nicely implemented both through the cards and the maps, though the latter do offer little in the way of variation between the pair of them. The range of cards available and their random determination each game means that every game is different—and that adds to the replayability.

Trains is not quite an introductory deck-building game—Star Realms might be better at that—but it is not a difficult game to learn by any means. It is a medium-light Euro game, just a step or three on from Ticket to Ride in terms of complexity. Overall, Trains is a very accessible, likeable deck-building that makes much of its theme.

Meme Melee Mash Up

Alien Ninja versus Dinosaur Tricksters versus Pirate Wizards versus Robot Zombies or Alien Dinosaurs versus Ninja Pirates versus Robot Wizards versus Trickster Zombies or Alien Wizards versus Zombie Tricksters versus Robot Pirates versus Dinosaur Ninjas or… Take an Internet meme like Pirates versus Ninja versus Robots versus Monkeys and whisk into a stiff froth and what you have is Smash Up: The Shufflebuilding Game of Total Awesomeness!, a card game published by Alderac Entertainment Group. Best known for its Legend of the Five Rings CCG and Legend of the Five Rings RPG, Alderac Entertainment Group has within the last three years expanded rapidly into the design and publication of board and card games. Smash Up, which was the  2013 UK Games Expo Awards Best General Card Game Winner, is a light card game, designed for play by two to four players, aged twelve and up, in which different factions team up and battle for control of the world!

Smash Up consists of eight factions – Aliens, Dinosaurs, Ninjas, Pirates, Robots, Tricksters, Wizards, and Zombies, each represented by a twenty-card deck. A ninth deck, containing sixteen cards, consists of the Bases, such as the ‘Temple of Goju’ or ‘Evans City Cemetery’, which the factions will battle over. To win, each player must take control of a pairing of two of these factions, usually randomly determined, which might be Robot Tricksters or Pirate Zombies, and use it to take control of these Bases. Score enough points from these Bases – fifteen Victory Points is enough – and a player will win.

Each faction consists of Action and Minion cards, the latter valued between one and seven Power, but at the heart of the game are the special abilities particular to each faction. Aliens zap the minions of rival players back into their hands; Dinosaurs, many with lasers for eyes, get to stomp on Bases with their big Power and scare other factions when it is not their turn; Ninjas sneak onto Bases just at the right time when you least expect it; and Pirates can set sail easily from one Base to another. Robots bring out lots of tiny little microbots that quickly stack and power each other up; Tricksters – fae such as gnomes, gremlins, and leprechauns play seemingly random ruses that protect their Minions or have consequences on attacking players; Wizards cast spells that let them play extra Action cards; and Zombies never die, but end up in the player’s discard pile to swarm back out again. Playing one faction might be easy enough, but mastering Smash Up means getting to grips with how one faction interacts with another, because the abilities of one faction will usually affect the other faction in a pairing. 

The game starts with each player taking two faction decks and shuffling these together. This is the ‘shufflebuilding’ of the game’s title and it is how a player forms his deck for the game. Then a number of Bases are laid out, equal to the number of players plus one. Each Base has a Breakpoint, ranging from sixteen to twenty-five. When the total value of Minions on the Base played by everyone equals or succeeds this Breakpoint, the Base is smashed and Victory Points are scored. Each Base awards points to the player with the highest total value in Minions on the Base, and then to the players with the second and third highest totals. As soon as a Base is scored in this fashion, a new one is added to fight over. Each Base has a special ability of its own. For example, ‘The Central Brain’ grants everyone Minion a +1 bonus to its Power when played on the Base, whilst the ‘Rhodes Plaza Mall’ awards one Victory Point to each player for every Minion he has on the Base when it scores.

Each turn a player can play two cards – an Action card and a Minion card, though he does not have to play either. Played onto a Base, a Minion has a set of instructions that trigger as soon as it is played. Usually this means getting to add another Minion to a Base or sending a rival Minion away, but the exact effect varies from one faction to another, and this essentially is Smash Up. Play is very simple, but things get somewhat complex when it comes to working out how the cards interact with each other and how they continue to affect the game from turn to another. This requires keeping track of the text on the card, and that can slow game play down, as can having to add up the total value of the Minions on a Base at the end of almost every turn, though neither really impedes play. Indeed, the text on the cards actually adds a little tactical substance to the game.

Physically, Smash Up is an attractive game. The cards are very nicely illustrated and the rules are clear and simple. The language used in the rules is sometimes annoyingly, if not patronisingly, informal and should never got past the editor. The inclusion of a scoring track would have been a useful addition.

A recent trend in game design has been the ‘deck building’ game, a type of card game in which a player builds and manipulates his own deck of cards in order to create the optimum deck and so win the game. Alderac Entertainment Group has published several of these, including Nightfall and Thunderstone, but Smash Up cuts to the chase – one ‘shufflebuild’ of two twenty-card decks and a player is ready to go and finds himself playing a simple, but strongly themed beat ‘em up card game that adds a little complexity and a surprising tactical substance when working how the cards interact. Smash Up: The Shufflebuilding Game of Total Awesomeness! is light and fun, attractive and varied with innumerable combinations to try out and see who gets to Smash Up the world!