I’m continuing my slow walk through the alphabet, looking at my game collection and choosing a few favorites for each letter. Next up is N.
NMBR 9
NMBR 9 is a tile laying game where each tile is shaped like a number between zero and nine. There are two tiles of each number. Each turn, a card is drawn depicting one of the numbers. Players simultaneously place that tile into their personal play area, following a few simple rules: the new tile needs to be adjacent to another tile, if its not the first one on that level, and if playing on top of other tiles, the new tile must cover parts of at least two different tiles and it must be fully supported by the tiles below it (i.e. no holes under the tile). At the end of the game, players get points for each tile equal to the number on the tile multiplied by the level of that tile, with the ground floor being the zeroth level.
I love how frustratingly deceptive the tile shapes are in this game. You think you’ve planned ahead to get a high-numbered tile on your second or third level, only to find out that there’s a hole you didn’t account for … or you aren’t going to cover parts of at least two different tiles. NMBR 9 is super quick, and the type of game we often play at least twice in a row.
Newton
In Newton, players take on the role of an aspiring 17th century scientist, training apprentices, traveling Europe, and discovering new theories. Players will take five turns in each of six rounds, putting out a card into their play area and taking the associated action. The more times they play the same type of action in a round, the more powerful that action will become. At the end of the round, one of the played cards is tucked under their board, permanently making that type of action more powerful, but removing that card from their deck. Actions include traveling around a map, working to earn money, training apprentices in various tasks, placing books into your bookshelf, and learning new lessons (i.e. taking new cards).
I struggled with Newton the first time I played it, but in a way that made me just want to play it again to figure it out. There’s a real puzzle to determining which card to bury under your workstation each round, because, while it will strengthen that type of action, it also removes one of the times that you can take that action from your hand. The bookshelf is also quite a puzzle, since you have various requirements for each book placement — like places you’ve visited on the map and the types of cards you’ve played that round already — but if you can complete regions of the bookcase, it gives you points or resources each round. While the theme could be almost anything, I also enjoy that they chose a scientific theme … even all but two of the scientists in the game are men.
Now or Never
In Now or Never, players are trying to rebuild a village and attract people to occupy it from around the landscape while fighting monsters and completing quests. There is a shared board with monsters and stories (if you’re playing the campaign mode, otherwise you can just get rewards on those spaces, without the story). Some of the spaces on the shared board also represent actions you can take, like buying gear to help you fight monsters or trading various resources for other resources. Each player also has a several specialists who will help them heal, build up their town, and provide other benefits. They each also have a town board where they are constructing buildings that might give them ongoing abilities, game-end scoring, and places to house villagers they’re picking up around the board.
It’s hard to describe this game in just a couple of short paragraphs, because there is so much going on. It is also a big game, that barely fits on our table, especially at three players. (I haven’t played at four, yet; though, I’m not sure I’d want to, since it’s already a 3-hour game at two). For me, this game sings with the campaign, where each player has a character that they take through six chapters as everyone tries to figure out what is going on with the landscape and how to save it.
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What are your favorite games that start with the letter “N”? Or is there one from my list that you love or are hoping to try? Let me know in the comments!