Game Reviews: Scott Almes Solo Game Sampler

Here's some reviews of games designed by Scott Almes to be played solo. They are all published by Button Shy, so they are all 18-card games. The Simply Solo games are crafted to be "one player only, light on rules, and big on replayability."

He's designed more games than I am listing here, these are just the ones I have.

Food Chain Island

An island full of animals is the perfect place for a food pyramid scheme! The cards are laid out in a four by four grid of animals, each with a number that represents its size and a special rule on the card. The objective is to have as few animals as possible left on the island. Play stops when no animal can eat another because the numbers are too far apart or the cards are too far apart in the play area. 

The animals are only allowed to eat orthogonally and only a number that is 1, 2, or 3 less than its own number. So the Rat (#5 card) can only eat the Lizard (#4), the Mouse (#3), or the Spider (#2). The predator card moves on top of the prey card, replacing it on the island. If it eats again, the stack of cards gets even bigger. Written on the bottom of each card is a special rule that must be followed after the predator eats another card. The Rat says "Move one animal 2 spaces," which could be the Rat or any other critter still on the island. The lower numbered cards have more useful abilities. The game also has cards for the Whale and the Shark that can be used at any time to help the player rearrange the other cards to maximize eating. The Whale and the Shark don't eat (poor things!).

The player wins if only one, two, or three animals (stacks of cards) are left on the island.

Middle of a game

While the art is cute, I found the game not very thematic. Some of the food chains are not quite convincing (sure, the Rat is bigger than the Mouse but would it really eat a cousin?). Some abilities are thematic (the Bat can fly around to anywhere), others are just random (moving other cards or requiring certain actions to be taken). The game mechanics make you plan ahead as much as you can, so there's a little brain burning going on but nothing too tough. Occasional layouts are hard to manipulate into a successful outcome. I was never excited to come back to this game the couple of times I tried it. It isn't bad but it isn't my thing.

The game does have expansions but I don't have them and thus haven't tried them. Maybe they would spice things up.

Mildly recommended.

The Royal Limited

It's the swinging Sixties in England, where celebs are traveling in style which means they travel by train. Regular people want a chance to see them, so they get on the trains too! To support their endeavors, the player will build a train and populate it with celebrities and common folk. The game has twelve Train/Passenger cards, five VIP cards, and one Conductor card. The Conductor is used as a timer, keeping track of the four rounds of the game (the card is rotated at the end of each round). At the beginning of the game, the player draws two random VIPs and uses either side of the card.

At the beginning of a round, the player draws five cards from the Train/Passenger deck. Each card has a color (all pastels--either blue, green, or red) and a number (from 0 to 3). If a card is played as a train card, the player has to discard cards from their hand equal to the number on the card. Subsequent Train cards must not have the same number or color as the rightmost train card. That's how the train is built.

The player can also place a Passenger or VIP onto one of the train cards. The color or number of the occupant must match the Train card's color or number. VIPs only have a color, though some of them have no color and can be put in any train card. But the VIPs have special requirements, like being placed between specific values of passengers or in specific cars after the train is three cars long. So picky!

Once an occupant is placed, the special ability at the bottom of the Train card is activated and must be followed. Once the player is out of cards or doesn't (or can't) play any cards, the round is over. The Conductor card rotates (assuming it's not the end of the fourth round), any cards still in hand are discarded, and five new cards are drawn. 

A final situation--not good!

The score at the end adds up all unused cards (including unused VIPs) and an unoccupied Train cards. The picture above shows a score of six--five unused cards and one empty train car. Four or more is a loss, two makes you a Beginning Conductor, 0 makes you the Royal Conductor.

I found the game very fiddly and arbitrary. I was constantly scoring two to four points after spending a lot of time thinking about moves and rewinding moves that turned into impossible situations. For me, there are too many arbitrary requirements. Having VIPs restricted to certain colors and placing a train car with a different number and color created a lot of unfun tension. I just don't enjoy playing the game. I looked at some strategy tips online and they helped a little with scores but I still haven't gotten a zero score.

The game does have expansions but I don't have them and thus haven't tried them. Maybe they would get the engine running better.

Not recommended.

Unsurmountable

I previously reviewed this game here. Below is a cut-and-paste of parts of the review!

Unsurmountable challenges the player to build a continuous path up a mountain. Play starts with a "base camp" which is a row of five face-up cards. The rules are simple. The player can either place the leftmost card of the base camp on the mountain or use an ability listed on the base camp cards (the card with the ability gets discarded, so use wisely). The mountain is built up as a triangle--cards can only go on higher levels if there are two adjacent cards beneath it. The bottom row has a limit of four cards, the next a limit of three, the next a limit of two, and only one on the top.

A completed mountain with base camp

As the cards are put down, the paths don't have to connect. It's okay to have dead ends or cards that are not part of the ascent. The path has to start from the bottom edge of the mountain and go all the way up to the middle of the top card (the top card does not need the path exiting on the very top). A helicopter card is set aside as a one-use ability--the player can take a base camp card and put it on the bottom of the draw deck. The challenge of the game is to plan ahead in using the cards to build the path or switch things around with the abilities.

The game plays quickly (in about ten minutes) and is a lot of fun, especially trying to plan ahead with the cards. Making a trail isn't too hard until you start using the other limitations (like only one type of card per level or per side), adding more things to plan ahead for. I found myself not using the helicopter. It's nice thematically but the base camp would have to have be a bad combination to make it feel necessary.

The game does have expansions and I have enjoyed playing with them. See my review for more details.

Recommended.

A Nice Cuppa

The player is just trying to relax and make a cup of tea to soothe away the worries of everyday living. It's a simple seven-step process, from selecting a flavor of tea to the enjoyment of said tea. But the worries are ready to make trouble for you. 

Seven cards represent the Steps to make tea. The player shuffles these and plays them out in a random order, with the Focused side up (more about the other, Distracted side later). Seven of the ten Worry cards are shuffled and placed face down under the seven Steps. 

An initial set-up

On a turn, the player flips up one Worry then proceeds down the line of worries from left to right, performing the action listed on the bottom of the card. The actions make the player move around the Steps cards, which could be beneficial or could create problems. After the Worry cards have all activated, then all the Steps that are above an active Worry card are flipped. The other side of the Step cards are the Distracted side, though throughout the game they will flip back and forth. Once the flips are done, if any Worry cards are below a Focused Step, they are removed. As a final action that is optional, the player can swap the places of two adjacent Step cards. Then a new round begins. Rounds continue until the final Worry card is flipped up. Then the player has a last round without flipping a Worry card (since they are all flipped) but doing the other actions (performing the Worry actions, flipping cards, eliminating Worries under Focused Steps, and maybe swapping two neighboring cards).

For a score, all cards to the left of Step 1 are discarded (hopefully none if Step 1 is the leftmost card!). All the cards in ascending order from 1 are kept until there is a number lower than the previous one. The rest of the Steps cards after that are discarded. The player scores two points for every Focused Step card, one point for every Distracted one, and loses one point for every remaining Worry card.

Final scoring situation

The game moves smoothly and it is easy to see how you have to manipulate the card order. Planning to get the cards in proper order, flipped to the Focused side while removing Worry cards is the challenge. The slow build up of greater complications creates more tension, especially if the player gets all seven cards in the right order before the game is done. I found the challenge interesting and not overly taxing. The Worry cards are usually in different orders and the player doesn't see all the same cards every game, making for a lot of replayability.

The game does have expansions and I do have them but haven't tried them. I haven't played the base game enough to move on to more complicated Worries!

Recommended.

So it's tough for me to say whether I like Unsurmountable or A Nice Cuppa more. They both provide interesting puzzles that are not overly complicated or overly restricted. They give a nice brain-burn without brain-melt. I will definitely keep playing them both.

Book Review: The Shroud of Jesus by Dr. Gilbert Lavoie

The Shroud of Jesus and the Sign John Ingeniously Concealed by Dr. Gilbert Lavoie

With some very up-to-date scholarship (the book was published in 2023), Doctor Gilbert Lavoie explains his investigation of the Shroud of Turin, an object thought to be the burial garment of Jesus Christ. Lavoie brings his experience as a medical doctor to the study of the image. His investigation spans forty years and is a mixture of forensics and biblical theology.  

The main focus is on the forensics. As he examined the image, he came to realize that the blood marks on the Shroud were transferred to the cloth when the body was in a supine position. Lavoie goes into great detail and made many experiments to show how the blood marks would lay on a human, three-dimensional face and body. He used volunteers to help with the mapping, discovering that the blood originally flowed while the body was upright on the cross and then came to be on the cloth after the body was taken down and wrapped in the cloth.

But the image on the cloth happened separately and after the blood stains. Underneath the blood clots no discoloration like the image's is found. The coloring is on the surface of the linen fibers and what caused the coloring is unidentifiable. The image has details that show the body was upright when it was imprinted. The long hair hangs down straight and the feet are pointed down. The back is not flattened by laying on a hard surface. Lavoie accounts for the differences by studying the Gospel of John and the theology of the time of Christ.

The Jewish culture did not have graven images, so something like the Shroud would have been a great scandal. Evangelist John reports going into the tomb and seeing the cloth and believing, though he does not describe what he sees on the cloth. Several times earlier in the gospel, Jesus describe how He will be lifted up. Readers naturally assume that means being lifted up on the cross, but Jesus was also lifted up at the Ascension into Heaven, and Lavoie argues that He was lifted up in the tomb as well. The argument is fascinating and detailed and holds together very well. 

The book presents a compelling narrative. Lots of pictures of the Shroud and of Lavoie's experiments reinforce what the text tells readers. The book ends with pictures of a full-size sculpture of the body seen on the Shroud. The sculpture was commissioned by Lavoie in the early 2020s.

Recommended--highly for those interested in the Shroud of Turin.

TV Review: The Wrong Mans Series 2 (2014)

The Wrong Mans Series 2 (2014) created by Matthew Baynton and James Corden

After being inadvertently drawn into a massive conspiracy in the previous series, innocent Brits Phil (James Corden) and Sam (Matthew Baynton) wound up in a witness protection program. Their car exploded but they managed to escape; the government faked their deaths to protect their families. The guys have different names and live in a small Texas town. Sam wants to go back home even though it would be risky for his girlfriend, who suspects a conspiracy and has spent the time since his funeral advocating for a government release of information. Phil is more settled in, though that changes once he fakes a call home (which he isn't supposed to do) and the neighbor answers, saying his mom is in hospital for serious problems. Phil decides he does want to go back since his mum has no one else. They work together through all sorts of schemes and complications involving Mexican smugglers and Eastern European terrorists.

The show gives an enjoyable comedic take on over-the-top conspiracy/spy shows like 24 and Alias. The story is totally bonkers but in a fun way. The two leads keep things moving along and are charming enough to keep viewers rooting for them. Things turn out well even as more and greater implausibilities are piled up. The Christmas theme running throughout is a nice touch. I enjoyed the whole thing as diverting fun.

Recommended.

I watched it for some credits on Kanopy. Weirdly, Series 1 is not available though I had seen it a long time ago.

 

Book Review: Spider-Man: Brand New Day Vol. 2 by B. Gale et al.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Volume 2 written by Bob Gale and Zeb Wells; art by Phil Jimenez, Chris Bachalo, and Barry Kitson

Spider-man's problems continue unabated. Even though J. Jonah Jameson is out of the Daily Bugle (his wife sold it while he was incapacitated by a heart attack), the new owner is even worse--he hates Spider-man, he makes up stories all the time, and he can't remember anybodies' names. The police are mixed about Spider-man's helpfulness, some like him, some don't. He barely has enough money to make ends meet. New villains keep showing up. The latest is a drug addict who accidentally winds up in the lab of Curt Conners (i.e. the Lizard). He assumes the needles there are full of drugs when they actually have animal stem cells. So the drug addict becomes Freak, an evolving and seemingly undying baddie. The Green Goblin-knockoff called Menace is after politicians. Finally, Wolverine shows up to "help out" with one of Spider-man's adventures. 

The stories are interesting enough though the new villains lack something. They do not come off as iconic or especially menacing. They are a big problem. Spidey has the usual comic quips and bad luck which is fun. They've gotten the essence of his character down. I'll keep reading.

Mildly recommended.

Movie Review: Escape from New York (1981)

Escape from New York (1981) co-written and directed by John Carpenter

In the far flung future of 1997, Manhattan has become the maximum security prison for the United States, walled off with 50-foot barrier and existing as a no-man's land where criminals have to take care of themselves. The system works well until terrorists hijack Air Force One with the President (Donald Pleasance) on board. They crash into Manhattan. The security guards stationed on Liberty Island get a call from Washington that the president needs to be recovered because he was going to a critical conference and was carrying an audio tape with key information to pass along. Luckily, ex-army-commando-now-criminal Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is about to be shipped over to Manhattan to serve his sentence. Security recruits him to save the president, offering him a full pardon. They also give him two subdermal capsules that will explode in 24 hours if he does not bring the president back in time for the conference. They drop Plissken on the top of the World Trade Center, where he makes his way down to the street and searches for the president.

Of course this classic 1980s action film is dated. The special effects are a bit clunky but not too bad. The predicted future is not anywhere near happening even now, three decades after the supposed events. Russell starts his performance with a Clint-Eastwood vibe that seems like he is not even trying to make the character his own, though his character has a cool name and an eye-patch. He settles into the role as the movie goes on and becomes a charming anti-hero by the end. The grimy world is typically strewn with garbage and darkness; the characters are all in tatty clothing of post-apocalyptic landscapes. Actually, there have not been much advances in that in the past forty years.

The film is full of colorful characters played by minor stars. Lee Van Cleef is the head of security negotiating with Plissken and tracking his progress from outside. Plissken keeps running into a taxi driver (Ernest Borgnine) who helps out a lot. The Brain (Harry Dean Stanton) is the science guru of Manhattan, creating gas and other necessities for the isolated island. His girlfriend (Adrienne Barbeau) is the chesty woman, almost the only woman in the prison, though she is a tough woman, not a sex object. The guy holding the president is The Duke (Isaac Hayes), a maniacal crime lord in a land full of crime. He has all sorts of ways to hold his power and to get out of the prison, if they can rely on The Brain's map of a booby-trapped bridge. They all give entertaining performances and give the film some grounding. 

The ending is the typical anti-hero outcome of the 1980s, a bit of nostalgia for me. Carpenter is a solid director and delivers another fun synth score for this film like he did for Halloween. 

Mildly recommended--this is a fun action film though Russell and Carpenter have done better. 

TV Review: Eighty-Six (2020)

Eighty-Six (2020) created by Asato Asato from the light novel series

The Republic of San Magnolia, a somewhat-ahead of our time country, is at war. They tout their defense forces as unmanned drones heroically knocking back the enemy. But the drones are not unmanned, they are vehicles piloted by people (mostly teens) from the Eighty-Sixth district. Eight-sixers are considered socially inferior to the grey-haired, blue-eyed denizens of the other eighty-five districts. So naturally they are disposable and maybe not trustworthy. The military uses handlers (safe tucked away that the capital's military headquarters) to direct the drones' attacks. One handler, Major Lena Milize, is outspoken in her contempt of the situation. Her military equals at HQ spend most of their time drinking and enjoying themselves and making fun of her for how seriously she takes the responsibility. Her record stands for itself, with many successes. She's assigned to a new group, one that has caused previous handlers to go crazy or commit suicide. 

As the story goes on, it spins away from the capital and Major Milize. The focus narrows to the elite unit which survives several battles and gets involved in harder and harder missions. They eventually get the opportunity to leave the battlefield behind, but they have more loyalty to each other and to victory than they have contempt for the oppressive elitists hiding at the capital. And they slowly gain some respect for Lena

The story deals with a lot of different issues. There's class division that makes both sides contemptuous of the other, though some characters are able to look beyond that and recognize their shared humanity. The Eighty-sixers also deal with a lot of death in their ranks, since they are constantly on the front line and don't always have the resources they need. The interesting social dynamic is supported by exciting action sequences and an extra sub-plot where two siblings wind up on opposite sides of the conflict. The whole package is handled well.

Recommended.

Book Review: Uniformity with God's Will by St. Alphonsus Ligouri

Uniformity with God's Will by St. Alphonsus de Ligouri

In this short work, Saint Alphonsus Ligouri recommends that the greatest and surest way to holiness is to desire what God wills in all situations of our lives. Sure, it is easy to consent when we have good things or are experiencing good times. Even in those times, we experience a temptation to forget about God, to give the credit for those good things to ourselves (or luck or chance or fate). Conversely, we blame God for the bad things that happen to us, the suffering we undergo. Ligouri's key insight is that God desires our good at all times and in all situations. When suffering comes, do not complain about it, especially to God. He knows what we need and what is for our perfection. Perhaps we need humiliation or discomfort to move us away from sin and selfishness, to move us toward Him by conforming our will to His. If we can do this, i.e. unite our will to God's will, a sense of peace and joy is ours, even in tribulations. It's how martyrs sang and prayed as they were led to horrible deaths. They offered their lives to God and knew that their actions, even though probably not chosen by them, were in conformity to God's will and brought them to the Kingdom.

Ligouri includes some very practical advice in various situations, internal and external. Accepting concrete situations as a gift for our betterment is the truth path to holiness. Everything is from God who loves us and wants us to be His. We just need to offer ourselves.

Highly recommended--this is a quick read and the center of living a holy life.

SAMPLE QUOTE:

Sickness is the acid test of spirituality, because it discloses whether our virtue is real or sham. If the soul is not agitated, does not break out in lamentations, is not feverishly restless in seeking a cure, but instead is submissive to the doctors and to superiors, is serene and tranquil, completely resigned to God's will, it is a sign that that soul is well-grounded in virtue.