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Board Games and TCGs

Is the Doomlings Castle Glass Expansion Worth It?

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Disclaimer

I was sent a free copy of the Doomlings expansion, Castle Glass. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. Make sure you also check out my review for the Doomlings Base Game and the Shadow Puppets expansion. I’ll be using my Amazon Affiliate link where possible. It really helps me out if you use it before you buy anything.

Table of Contents

What’s in the Box?

  • 30 x New Traits
  • 7 x New Dominant Traits
  • 2 x New Ages
  • 1 x New Catastrophe
  • 1 x Mystery Foil

What is Castle Glass?

Castle Glass is Doomlings‘ ocean themed expansion. It features vibrant sea themed cards for a fun and colorful upgrade to your Doomlings deck. You will need the base game to play with these cards.

Castle Glass introduces three trait classes to the game: Shells, Coral, and Fish. With these new classes comes the trait system, an additional way to rack up points. If you collect two or more of the same class, you get a class score bonus. The class bonus are as follows:

  • Regular Shells, Fish & Corals are each worth +1
  • Curious Shells, Fish & Corals are each worth +2
  • Exotic Shells, Fish & Corals are each worth +3

This means that if at the end of the game you have 2 shells, one exotic and one regular, you get an additional four points added to your total.

Review

I love Doomlings. It is easily one of my favorite board games, and will bring it out often at my table. Castle Glass is a fantastic addition to my collection, but I do have a couple reservations.

Art

I love the fun and vibrant oceanic theme in Castle Glass. Despite the simple design, Doomling cards always have a lot of flavor and whimsy. The fish are cute and they very creative with their shell and coral designs. Castle Glass has the prettiest Ages cards I’ve seen so far. I love the scene of the sand castles at sun rise/sun set.

Gameplay

I believe Castle Glass adds interesting mechanics to the game. I had a lot of fun with the fish cards. Fish cards had abilities that let you play multiple cards a turn, letting players build their school of fish quickly. You can use fish to cheat out other cards in your hand, draw for better cards, or get that trait bonus at the end. It was very flavorful. Coral cards seem to add some disruption. It would have players discard cards, or it would let you get bonuses for cards in your opponents gene pools. Shells lets players peak at the next age, which is very valuable information if used correctly.

The only issue I see with this expansion is that it adds a new scoring mechanic to the end game tracking. It is not a hard mechanic to track, but some people aren’t going to like having to count the number of shells and worry about the types. Honestly, I don’t think it will complicate the game too much, depending on your deck size. If you have a massive Doomlings deck and cards aren’t clustered, it will add a couple of points, but nothing that will get out of hand. I played with a small deck to make sure they came out more frequently, and it never felt like scoring got out of hand. Even if you don’t like the extra math, the mechanics in this set are worth it.

Conclusion

The Doomlings base game is perfect, and if you are trying to get into this game, start there. Now if you’re looking for expansions to spice up your deck, Castle Glass is solid. It has a fun oceanic theme with some interesting mechanics to shake up the meta. Whether or not you should buy this expansion really comes down to if you are willing to do the extra math at the end. I don’t see it as a huge problem, but I also see hot it takes away from the casual vibe the draws people to the base game. I will say I do prefer the Shadow Puppets expansion a little more, but I won’t be taking Castle Glass out of my massive Doomlings deck any time soon.

You can pick up your copy of Castle Glass on the official Doomlings store, or on Amazon through my affiliate link.

Board Games and TCGs

Sherlock Solitaire is the Quick Card Game to Add to the Rotation

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I was sent a free copy of Sherlock Solitaire to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review of the game.

What’s Sherlock Solitaire?

Sherlock Solitaire is a 1-2-player card game where the player solves crimes as the famous literary detective. Can you navigate the clues and danger to solve the mystery at large?

What’s in the box?

  • 2 Reference Cards
  • 2 Detective Cards (Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson)
  • 2 Case Cards (“The Valley of Fear,” “The Final Problem”)
  • 1 Wound Card (minor wound on front, severe wound on back)
  • 32 Investigation cards (8 of each number 1-4)
  • 16 Threat Cards (4 of each letter A-D)

How to Play

  • 1. Take a Reference card.
  • 2. Take either Detective card. Place it text-side up.
  • 3. Choose a Case card or select at random. Place the card text-side up. For new players, we recommend “The Valley of Fear.”
  • 4. Shuffle all 32 Investigation cards (numbers 1-4) and all 16 Threat cards (letters A-D) together to create the deck. Place it face-down.
  • 5. Leave room for the discard pile. Cards will be placed on the discard pile face-up and may be reviewed at any time.
  • 6. Place the Wound card sideways, with the minor wound face-up.
  • 7. Leave plenty of room for the play areas, which include the Crime Scene on the left and the Office on the right.

The publisher also has a fantastic tutorial worth checking out.

Review

Sherlock Solitaire is a quick and easy game to pull out when you don’t want a huge commitment. The game is easy to learn but hard to master. The game comes in a neat compact package for easy storage unless you sleeve all your card games. While I do love the art and design of the box, I had to toss it because it didn’t fit the sleeve deck.

The cards themselves are of fantastic quality. The pictures are beautiful and printed on nice sturdy card stock. While I am sure it will survive a few hundred shuffles, I opted to sleeve mine because I am a crazy person who sleeves everything.

Games of Sherlock Solitaire are pretty quick, and a welcomed twist on the classic card game. You can pull this game out whenever you need a quick game away from a device, and it is engaging enough to keep you entertained through more than one play-through. I like that there are options for added difficulty for those who feel like they have mastered the game early on. I never did, but it was nice to have options.

This isn’t your normal game of solitaire. I think there are enough changes to this version to make it a fresh new and exciting experience for those who don’t like the classic game. The game also features fantastic flavor with some truly beautiful illustrations. Even if you’ve never read the books, you can appreciate the game’s look and gameplay. I recommend it to anyone looking for a fun and simple solo game, and there are rules to add a second player if needed.

You can pick up Sherlock Solitaire for only $9.95 on Amazon using my affiliate link. There is also an app version for Android and IOS.

Board Games and TCGs, video game reviews

GAP: A Simple and Quick Card Game Staple for Game Night

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I was sent the board game GAP for free to review. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. If you enjoy my reviews, please like, comment, follow, and share this with your friends. You can also always buy me coffee.

GAP is a quick 2-6 player card game that is easy to learn and teach from our friends over at Arcane Wonders. The goal is to be the first person to get 15/30/70 points by matching the colors on the card. The point goal depends on how of a game you want to play.

The best way to learn the game is through the tutorial video on the official Arcane Wonders’ Youtube.

How To Play

In summary, you have a deck of four colored cards. The goal is to collect the most of a single color. You collect cards based on the numbers on the card you put down. For example if I put down a yellow 9:

You would only pick up the numbers written on the corner, with the biggest taking priority. In this case, you would pick up all the 9s from the middle. If none of these numbers are in the middle, the 9 is added to the pile, and nothing gets added to yours. You repeat this until everyone runs out of cards and tally the scores.

The Game

The game comes in a palm-sized compact box with one multi-color deck. The colors are easily distinguishable, and the shine looks beautiful. The cards do feel a little flimsy and are a little hard to shuffle. While they look nice on the table, I am not confident in their longevity, especially if you play with kids. I recommend using card sleeves.

Sample Size

I am the only one in my family that likes board games. My family agreed to help me with my review but were reluctant. My wife doesn’t like board games, and she’ll check out if it starts to get more complicated than Uno. My sister is a little more accepting, but she also has her limits. Her boyfriend is always down to play anything. 

Impressions

What I loved most about this game is how easy it is to get started. The rules are easy to teach, and the game is easy to understand once you get started. Halfway through our first game, everyone at the table was working on a strategy. By the second game, everyone knew what they were working towards. As simple as this game is, the randomness makes it engaging. My sister had a round where she was consistently working on a stack of blues when one turn forced her to pick up other colors.

Games of GAP only go for about ten minutes, depending on the type of game to play. Ten minutes is perfect, especially if you have people at your table who don’t like board games. Longer games at my table aren’t really an option, so I found this a blessing.

I loved it, and I am happy my family loved it too. If you’re looking for a game to play with your non-gamer buddies, GAP is a fantastic choice. It takes seconds to learn, and it’s fun enough to keep people engaged. GAP goes for $14.99. You can pick GAP up at the official Arcane Wonders’ store or online retailers like Knoble Knight Games.