One of my favorite games is Spades. It also uses “predictive bidding”. This seems like Spades X 3. So, I will be checking it out 🤠👍🏽 Thanks for the review.
Think this will strike a nice balance of simplicity and complexity for my game group! Definitely appreciate small games more after building up a larger collection!
Thanks for the review. I grew up playing Euchre and Hearts before I discovered modern board games, so I have a special fondness trick taking games. I've since been less excited about trick taking games since the luck of the cards dealt too often dictated a win or loss. I skeptically picked up The Crew, and the simple twist of playing cooperatively was such an unexpected surprise, and I am happy it has seen as much success as it has. I actually backed only Ghosts of Christmas and not the other two games. I was a bit wary of how punishing it is to miss your bid, but I'm definitely more excited and optimistic after hearing your thoughts. I'm still pondering different ways to potentially house rule the scoring system. Do you ever create house rules to address any of your personal distastes to a game?
Just ordered the game from their latest KS after seeing your most recent video. My family is into trick taking so this should be good. Does it still hold up with your group?
Woohoo. I was getting the other two games and added this one on a whim because of Liege of Games doing a vidio on how much he wanted it. Thanks Liege looks like a winner.
Very interesting, both in the method of taking a trick and how that can change, and in the overall scoring and betting on how many you can win. Only thing I don't like is the graphic design. Bit too much purple (which is my favorite colour). I'd like more easily visible difference between the different ghosts and their wheels.
I knew you reviewed this a while ago, so I came here to better understand the game. Couple of questions, are there set turns in this game? It just seemed to bounce around players so I wasn't sure. Also, early on you said that once a card is played in one of the three zones, all players that followed must play that color card in that same zone. How does green end up in two zones? Probably too detailed a question for a quick review, but curious none-the-less. :)
To me, the mechanic of past present and future deciding the base suit after the cards are played throws uneeded chaos into the mix. Skull King lets you bid but theres less chaos and lots of tactical maneuvering and backstabbing if you don't make your bid for the round. I also don't like that its a set amount of rounds since it can leave players going through the motions if they know they can't win as you pointed out. In bid euchre you can be one point from a blowout loss and come back for the win with careful card play. Thats where the fun is in trick taking games for me. That said I would love to try this game out if I get the chance.
have you played skull king? there's scoring in it where you get the most points for bidding correctly, rather that the highest number. Maybe that would be a good house rule for this game.
This game seems really good but I can't count/remember cards so I stay away from trick-taking. Skull King has some of this it's probably the reason why it's only collecting dust on our shelf.
I’ve played this a few times now and I have yet to ever see anyone actually change the suit. I played with 4 people, and it never fails that when someone is out of a suit, they play a red instead of changing it. Or when they actually play something different to try to change it, someone else plays a red card too which ultimately trumps it. So every hand, either the initial suit wins, or the trump suit wins, but it never changes anything. I wanna see a play through of this with you one day to see that actually happens.
This looks fun...BUT... decent chance of 1 player being out of the running before the final round is a way bigger problem than a nitpick. Most classic standard deck of card trick takers played to a set point value, and youd have SOME ability, no matter how unlikely, to run the table and pick up all points. Playing an entire round as dead man walking is literally a game killer.
The all or nothing scoring for hitting your bid doesn't sound like a good system given the number of moving parts in the game which can change up the content of the tricks. Other trick taking games where you score based on correctly bidding the number of tricks you'll take typically score a base value for each trick you take (e.g. 1 pt) and/or have some kind of bonus for bidding correctly or penalty for missing your bid (e.g. +x points for exact bid, or 10 pts / tricks bid and 1 pt for tricks above bid, or if you don't reach your bid, -10 pts / tricks missed and 1 pt for tricks made). All that said, there seem to be lots of better scoring mechanisms that incentivize "correct/accurate" bidding while giving players some points rather than the all or nothing method with this. Otherwise, interesting twist on trick taking.
I disagree, I play a lot of oh Hell with my family and bidding low and hitting it by spoiling cards correctly feels so good. Granted the scoring for that is 10+your bid as opposed to whatever you bid
My family loves trick taking. So glad you championed this one and keep mentioning it. Going to pick one up for my dad's bday in March. Ty
It's excellent :)
One of my favorite games is Spades. It also uses “predictive bidding”. This seems like Spades X 3. So, I will be checking it out 🤠👍🏽 Thanks for the review.
Its really solid :)
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Lol done
Think this will strike a nice balance of simplicity and complexity for my game group! Definitely appreciate small games more after building up a larger collection!
One of my new favorites for sure.
Could easily house rule: “zero points for not meeting your bid and -1 point for every extra trick over your bid (ie. bag).”
Thanks for the review. I grew up playing Euchre and Hearts before I discovered modern board games, so I have a special fondness trick taking games. I've since been less excited about trick taking games since the luck of the cards dealt too often dictated a win or loss. I skeptically picked up The Crew, and the simple twist of playing cooperatively was such an unexpected surprise, and I am happy it has seen as much success as it has.
I actually backed only Ghosts of Christmas and not the other two games. I was a bit wary of how punishing it is to miss your bid, but I'm definitely more excited and optimistic after hearing your thoughts. I'm still pondering different ways to potentially house rule the scoring system. Do you ever create house rules to address any of your personal distastes to a game?
Just ordered the game from their latest KS after seeing your most recent video. My family is into trick taking so this should be good. Does it still hold up with your group?
100% yes :)
Woohoo. I was getting the other two games and added this one on a whim because of Liege of Games doing a vidio on how much he wanted it. Thanks Liege looks like a winner.
Its great :)
Very interesting, both in the method of taking a trick and how that can change, and in the overall scoring and betting on how many you can win.
Only thing I don't like is the graphic design. Bit too much purple (which is my favorite colour). I'd like more easily visible difference between the different ghosts and their wheels.
Totally reasonable on the color aspect.
I’m a little confused unless I missed it, but if you only play 3 cards each round, why would you ever bet higher than 3?
You're betting on all 4 rounds, 12 cards total
I knew you reviewed this a while ago, so I came here to better understand the game. Couple of questions, are there set turns in this game? It just seemed to bounce around players so I wasn't sure. Also, early on you said that once a card is played in one of the three zones, all players that followed must play that color card in that same zone. How does green end up in two zones?
Probably too detailed a question for a quick review, but curious none-the-less. :)
To me, the mechanic of past present and future deciding the base suit after the cards are played throws uneeded chaos into the mix. Skull King lets you bid but theres less chaos and lots of tactical maneuvering and backstabbing if you don't make your bid for the round. I also don't like that its a set amount of rounds since it can leave players going through the motions if they know they can't win as you pointed out.
In bid euchre you can be one point from a blowout loss and come back for the win with careful card play. Thats where the fun is in trick taking games for me. That said I would love to try this game out if I get the chance.
have you played skull king? there's scoring in it where you get the most points for bidding correctly, rather that the highest number. Maybe that would be a good house rule for this game.
This game seems really good but I can't count/remember cards so I stay away from trick-taking. Skull King has some of this it's probably the reason why it's only collecting dust on our shelf.
Totally reasonable.
You convinced Jesse so guess it's worth considering 🤔 have a great 2022 with hopefully being as close as possible to being full time content creator🙏
Lol yep :) have a great year riha
I’ve played this a few times now and I have yet to ever see anyone actually change the suit. I played with 4 people, and it never fails that when someone is out of a suit, they play a red instead of changing it. Or when they actually play something different to try to change it, someone else plays a red card too which ultimately trumps it.
So every hand, either the initial suit wins, or the trump suit wins, but it never changes anything. I wanna see a play through of this with you one day to see that actually happens.
This looks fun...BUT... decent chance of 1 player being out of the running before the final round is a way bigger problem than a nitpick. Most classic standard deck of card trick takers played to a set point value, and youd have SOME ability, no matter how unlikely, to run the table and pick up all points. Playing an entire round as dead man walking is literally a game killer.
Depends on who you are....I play to have fun, the fun never stopped.
We love Skull King
I'll have to give it a shot :)
Texas Showdown is easily my favorite
Haven't played that one.
House rule: Each trick you take is worth 2pt. For each trick you win over your bid -1pt. For each trick you win under your bid -1pt.
The all or nothing scoring for hitting your bid doesn't sound like a good system given the number of moving parts in the game which can change up the content of the tricks. Other trick taking games where you score based on correctly bidding the number of tricks you'll take typically score a base value for each trick you take (e.g. 1 pt) and/or have some kind of bonus for bidding correctly or penalty for missing your bid (e.g. +x points for exact bid, or 10 pts / tricks bid and 1 pt for tricks above bid, or if you don't reach your bid, -10 pts / tricks missed and 1 pt for tricks made). All that said, there seem to be lots of better scoring mechanisms that incentivize "correct/accurate" bidding while giving players some points rather than the all or nothing method with this. Otherwise, interesting twist on trick taking.
I was 100% concerned about this, and then played it...and wasn't anymore :)
I disagree, I play a lot of oh Hell with my family and bidding low and hitting it by spoiling cards correctly feels so good. Granted the scoring for that is 10+your bid as opposed to whatever you bid
Haven't played that one sadly.
looks interesting, but I have no idea how to play based on this intro.
His intro definitely implied you have played a trick taking game before
Totally fair, there's a lot going on.
The reason you like this game over other Trick Taking games, is because of the biding aspect.
Could well be :)
I'm not a fan of that art. It'll give me nightmares.
Fair enough :)