Download - Mega Miniatures

Title: 10 Days in Europe
Designer: Alan Moon &
Aaron Weisblum
Type: Board / Travel
Manufacturer: Out of the Box
MSRP: $19.99
This relatively small (9" x 9" x
1.5") boxed game contains a 4-
page set of instructions, a map
board, eight wooden card stands
(four of each for days 1 through 5
and days 6 through 10) and sixtysix
tiles/cards. 10 Days in
Europe's theme is that each player
is trying to be the first to build a
10-day journey through Europe by
walking, flying or boating to various countries. The instructions
are concise and easy to understand. The game will start off by
mixing up all of the tiles/cards face-down (they are not the kind
that you can shuffle so don't try it) and each player taking ten of
them, one at a time per player, and assembling them on their
wooden racks in any order they want. Once you place a card in
your rack it cannot be moved to another position so your starting
placement will have a lot to do with how easy or difficult it
is to complete your journey.
After each player has filled in his rack with his initial draw of
cards play begins. Each turn you can draw a card from a common
face-down draw pile or from one of three face-up discard
piles. You will then replace one of the cards in your rack with
your newly drawn card and discard, face-up to any of the three
face-up discard piles, the one you don't want any more. You
could end up getting lucky and draw, and place, ten countries as
part of your initial draw and win the game right off the bat but I
really doubt it's a high enough chance too impact playability.
For you to win the game you have to declare that you've finished
the 10-day journey and then turn your cards around and
prove it to the other players. You travel from one country to the
next either on foot (by countries being adjacent to each other so
if I had Norway in Day-1 and Sweden in Day-2 that would constitute
a good two-day start on my journey), by plane (by having
the same color plane in the spot to the left of t he country
that I want to go to so I can use a green plane to fly to Albania
[green] but not to Austria [yellow]) or by boat (I can use a boat
labeled Baltic Sea to reach a country that touches the Baltic
Sea). Game play moves along pretty quickly unless someone
gets a case of analysis paralysis but that can happen with any
game. The box indicates that games should take 20-30 minutes
and that's about right even for your first few games when you're
still learning your way.
The components are all of very good quality. The map is
brightly colored and is easy on the eyes. The font used for each
location is easy to read. The board itself is about 17.5" square
and won't take up much room at all on your table. The cards
show either a country (along with its capital, population and
area) or a mode of transportation. The game supports between 2
and 4 players.
10 Days in Europe is not a hardcore game that requires a large
investment of either play time or digestion or rules. The game is
easy to learn and is a very good gateway game for people that
might be more familiar with "traditional" boardgames like
Sorry or Yatzee, but is also something that would work great as
a short filler game on a game night when you're waiting for the
whole group to get there. It's also a game that you can play with
your kids and set them upon the road of playing games for
years to come. The price tag on the game is very reasonable and
coupled with the nice components and playability for both
young and old make it a real value in my book.
Title: MixUp
Designer: Maureen Hiron
Type: Board / Tile
Manufacturer: Out of the Box
MSRP: $19.99
MixUp is a game for 2 players
that takes the familiar concept
of a Connect 4 kind of game
and adds a couple of extra elements
for game play. The box
contains a small 4-page rule
book, a plastic game board that
doubles as a carrying case for
the tiles and 54 games tiles.
Each game tile bears one of
three designs (crescent moon,
teardrop or lightning bolt) in
one of three colors (blue, green or red). The tiles are made of
plastic and feel like they will hold up very well even with lots
of use.
Each player will be trying to connect four tiles either in a 2x2
square or by a row of 4 straight tiles in any direction. One
player will be trying to do this with just colors an the other will
be trying to do it with just shapes, but to win you have to do it
with all the same colors or all the same shapes. So, depending
on how the turns evolve you might start out trying to win with
green (if your playing "colors") and decide to switch to red
halfway through the game because your opponent gives you an
opening that you can exploit while they were trying to build a
connection of teardrops. The game board is made of plastic and
contains slots that you'll drop your tiles into as you try to build
your block or line.
The age range (8+) is low enough that it can serve as a very
good starting game for your (or my) kids and is one that they
can play together while the grownups are playing something
else. I'd say that it may not have a lot of long-term appeal for
your more hardcore gamers but it's one that you can easily play
with your spouse who doesn't like your games with all of those
strange rule and fiddly bits.
Reviews by Mark Theurer
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