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John Moller
United States
Wyoming
DE
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I’ve always wanted to flip someone’s monkey. Tasty Minstrel Games has finally given me that chance in the form of their upcoming game For The Win!
For The Win is a tile laying abstract game full of strategy nuance and choice. You’re given 5 different types of tiles and you’re job is to get them onto the grid and touching each other. Sounds simple…but it’s not. Well, it is a simple enough concept to grasp and become addicted to, but the game is really complex from a choice standpoint. It’s very rewarding in it’s simple complexity.
You’ll start out with one of your Monkey tiles on the table, face up and ready for monkey business. On your turn you’ll get a crack at taking one or two actions out of a list of five. One of those actions is placing a new tile face up on the grid, but remember it can’t touch any of your tiles already on the table.
Other choices include moving 1 tile and shoving 1 tile which are only available to to face up tiles. Moving a tile one space is key and you’re going to have to do it since you need to get your tiles touching, remember: they can’t start play that way. Shoving a tile takes moving a tile to another level and used appropriately the effect can be harmful to your opponent.
Now, you’ve heard me talk about tiles needing to be face up. You’re probably sitting there wondering “when are they face down?” They’re face down when you decide to use one of the abilities. There are five character types in the game, Zombies, Aliens, Ninjas, Monkeys and Pirates. Each has a special ability and they’re all worthwhile…for the most part. One of your action choices is to flip a tile over and use their special ability.
Aliens have tractor beams which can pull a tile towrds them, placing it adjacent to the alien.
Ninjas have the ability to simply move to any other location on the grid. Ninjas use their stealth once in they are in play to be everywhere you want them to be.
You can use the Pirate’s Cannon to move a tile that is adjacent to the Pirate somewhere else.
The Zombies can turn and adjacent tile into another Zombie (one of yours or one of your opponents.) If your game is already in the midst of a Zombie apocalypse (all four zombies are on the table) then you can deactivate an adjacent tile.
Finally, Monkeys can flip every tile that is adjacent to them. Deactivated tiles can be re-activated. Activated tiles get de-activated. The Monkey can affect up to 8 tiles at once! Now that’s some serious mischief!
The final ability is that you can re-activate any face down/de-activated tile. The reminder here is that your tiles need to be face up to win.
I was able to get a few games in over the weekend and I’m really enjoying this little game. I secretly love abstract games, so that’s a big plus.
What I enjoyed most about For The Win is the abundance of choice. You have five tiles and six actions to choose from, which leads to a huge number of possibilities. One of the most important things in any game is for me to be able to make choices. Randomness is not an option in this game. It’s all there, you know what you have and you know what your opponent has. The game is in the choices that you make. …and there’s a metric ton of choices to be made. One of my opponents felt a little overwhelmed, but they felt it was probably just the first time talking.
The special abilities seem really well balanced. I haven’t used the zombies after multiple games, but I can see their value. The Monkey is my favorite. In the last game I played I had set myself up to win. I passed the turn and realized a well played Monkey was going to cost me the game. It was a sad moment. Aliens, Ninjas and Pirates see a fair amount of usage, so no complaints.
I seem to have neglected mentioning the turn structure earlier and since that is probably number one on my awesome list for this game, I should probably talk about it a little.
On your turn you control how many actions you take, one or two. It’s your choice. Then your opponent gets to take one or two actions. The trick is that you CANNOT take more than 5 actions in a round. You can’t just take two actions every turn. Once both players have taken five actions, The turn order changes (whoever had been going first now goes second,) which means that played well one person can take four actions in a row. Paying attention to this is absolutely key. Planning and playing towards the turn structure has been a rewarding experience. The first time I pulled off four turns in a row I was excited and it’s been a game changer ever since. It’s very important to try and deny your opponent 4 actions. They’ll always have the ability to take three in a row, there’s nothing you can do about that, but four is more than three. When you realize the game can come down as close as one action between winning and losing you will totally understand this.
The game comes with little guide cards that track actions, so it’s going to be easy to follow your opponent’s actions (and your own.)
My only "quibble" is that somewhere along the line I was lead to believe the game is about internet memes. It seems the kickstarter page might be the culprit. When I finally got enough information and realized that it really wasn't, I felt a small level of disappointment. I'm hoping that the concept of memes doesn't carry through to the final product or promotions as I think it's going to cause some confusion. For the Win! involves genre characters. It’s a clever tile laying abstract game with a mash-up of genre characters fighting together for the win! Not too hard to say, just as exciting a concept, and not confusing at all.
Tangent done, back to the game.
After several games, I’m still enthralled by the variety of choices, the intensity of play and skill level of my opponents. Those who have played it with me multiple times continue to get better, and I hope I do too.
I really found For The Win to be a very exciting game. It was tense and played quickly. We started getting the hang of it in the middle of the first game and I have very nothing negative to say about the experience. Quick, fun, easy to learn and difficult to master. These are things that Tasty Minstrel says about the game and they’re all true! It’s a great two player game and it can be addictive. I’m looking forward to playing it with one friend who will lose the first game and then want to play it again…and again… and again. It plays fast enough that this going to be a possibility. It’ll fit right in to many game nights.
For The Win isn’t “quite” available yet. You can’t get a physical copy in stores or over the internet, but you have a chance to make a difference. This game is available on Kickstarter. Go pledge for the game and help make it a reality. I did. I encourage you to do the same. It’s really a neat little game and I think most people will like it. Even if your main staple is heavy Euro games, this is a delightful change of pace that can give you that brain burner feel if you let it.
For The Win is designed by Michael Eskue with art by Eric J. Carter. It’s set to be published by Tasty Minstrel Games.
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