Episode 193: Almanac: Dragon Road

1) The Pegs discuss their recent game plays including Hadrian’s Wall, Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, Street Fighter: The miniatures Game and many more;

2) All the Pegs review Almanac: Dragon Road; and

3) Look back at Cooper Island.

Show Notes

00:01:11 – Trivia: Funiculars!

Banter

00:07:25 – Patrick Ruins the Canal

00:11:33 – Irish Whisky Metagame

00:16:00 – Aprils Fools Games

00:21:39 – Harry Potter: Battle at Hogwarts Follow-up

00:23:40 – Jeremy and Penelope Play Phasmaphobia

00:30:56 – Danielle Standring

Plays

00:32:41 – Hadrian’s Wall * (2021) – Renegade Games; Designer: Bobby Hill; Art: Sam Phillips;

00:44:39 – Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition (2021) – Stronghold Games; Designer: Sydney Engelstein, Jacob Fryxelius, Nick Little (I); Art: William Bricker, Isaac Fryxelius, Garrett Kaida, Jason D. Kingsley, Justine Nortjé, Naomi Robinson;

00:51:48 – The Sherlock Files: Vol III – Puzzling Plots * (2020) – Indie Boards & Cards; Designer: Martí Lucas Feliu, Alberto Millán, Josep Izquierdo Sánchez; Art: Alba Aragon, Amelia Sales, Pedro Soto;

01:02:27 – Street Fighter: The Miniatures Game (2021) – Jasco Games; Designer: Alex Tune, Joe Vargas; Art: Gnomo Del Bosque, Mauricio Herrera;

News

01:10:57 – Stuffed Fables expansion: Oh Brother!

01:12:53 – Sticky Cthulhu

01:14:57 – Ecos: New Horizon

01:16:40 – Magic: The Gathering Plagiarism

REVIEW: Almanac: Dragon Road

01:23:11 – Rules Breakdown

Almanac: Dragon Road is a multiple-paths worker placement game designed by Scott Almes, with art by Chris Byer, Jacqui Davis, and published in Kolossal Games.  In Almanac: The Dragon Road, players take on the role of traders traveling the famous Dragon Road in search of wealth and fame.  Over the course of six rounds, players will visit six different locations in the game book, each with different takes on the same basic rules set.  

At the start of the game, each player collects their player pieces, gold depending on player order, a starting Caravan card – providing storage space for goods that will be collected over the game – and two random Contracts.  The first round of the game begins on the first page of the game book.

Gameplay itself is very straightforward worker placement: place one of your available workers on an available space, and take the noted action.  Actions will generally be things like gain or sell goods, buy new Caravan cards, and gain or complete contracts.  However, each page of the game book will provide some combination of additional action spaces for that location, variant placement rules, and distribution of kinds of action spaces.  In addition, each page presents the game board in a different thematic design, from crossing bridges to spelunking through a mine to balancing on cloud islands.

Each page, or location, in the game book is connected to two other locations.  After all workers have been placed, each player will then bet on who becomes the next Guide.  Being the Guide allows the player to choose which of the two locations available the players will travel to next.  In addition to providing a unique play experience, each location also has a different distribution of which goods are most valuable, to which goods are most available.  Choosing the next location to travel to may be as much about delivering one’s goods to a more lucrative market than exploring different game mechanics.

Each round also ends with the resolution of an Event card, which provides other choices and challenges for the players to face, including a simplified fighting mechanic.

At the end of the sixth round – after the players have completed their journey to the Dragon City – final scores are tallied.  Scores consist of the value of completed contracts, caravan cards, other tokens gained along the way, and cash, at a rate of one point per gold.  Contract cards that are collected but not completed will cost the player a number of points equal to the value of the card.  Point totals from all sources are tallied, and the player with the most points wins.

01:26:01 – Review

01:46:38 – Ratings

ReRoll

01:59:37 – Cooper Island (2019) – Capstone Games; Designer: Andreas “ode.” Odendahl; Art: Javier González Cava;

Check out our original review for Cooper Island during Episode 168.

Gameplay Photos

* Disclosure: These titles were received free of charge by the publishers or distributors. If you are interested in submitting a title for review, please read our Review Policy.