Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
Yet I’ve created a golden rule for myself when it comes to Knizia Games: Even if I don’t like it on the first play, it deserves a second chance. Nobody is better at hiding deeper layers under a simple premise than Reiner Knizia. Often it takes more than one play to uncover those layers.
The main betting board is a decent size for up to eight people to scrabble around. It’s in a classic shade of British Racing green (yes, that’s an actual colour tone!). Once all the cards sit above and below the Show/Place/Win columns, it can look a tad busy. It’s a little too easy to forget/ignore the extra Prop Bets or Exotic Bets in the heat of the excitement. In Manhattan Project: Energy Empire, you’ll build tableaus and position workers to gain and convert resources as you feed your insatiable appetite for points. Speaking of points, this one feels quite point salady, as nearly everything you do (buying a card, buying a die, rolling dice, resetting your worker supply, etc.) gains or loses you points.The other standout aspect of Guards of Atlantis II is the victory conditions. Your team can win in 3 possible ways: The VIP Cards are a brilliant mode, and I’d never play without these. At the end of each race, each player gains two VIP Cards, and gets to keep one for the rest of the game. There’s 32 VIP Cards, and they offer fantastic, fun variety. Each are personal boons that only apply to you for the rest of the races. Where Marshmallow Test has a more satisfying arc, Cat in the Box and Ghosts of Christmas have more interesting twists, and The Crew provides a tighter experience, it seems that 9 Lives are too few to keep this one alive in my collection. At first, when I heard that one player has to act as The House, it set off alarm bells. What? One player can’t even participate? Their task is to roll dice and move the horses? I’m delighted to announce, though, that I ate humble pie once I took on this role. On New Year’s Eve, I was The House for eight friends. I got them all to name the horses before I introduced the game. For my commentary, I used these horse’s names rather than bland numbers. “Oh no, Watch Me Neigh-Neigh has lost the lead!”
For a moment there, I thought it had finally happened. After searching for months, years even, I thought I had finally found a big box Knizia design that I disliked. Some have been just fine, most have been great, several have been phenomenal, but after my first play of it, Qin seemed like it would be the one that wouldn’t do it for me. Besides the fact that each race plays out surprisingly differently (that’s how dice work…. go figure), the betting board is different every round as well. Along the top and bottom of the board, you’ll find Prop Bet Cards and Exotic Finish Cards. These feature bets such as “Horse 4 will finish ahead of horse 8” or “The top three horses will finish within a short distance of each other” and so on. Furthermore, players will gain a unique VIP card between each race that grants excitingly powerful benefits and abilities. There is just the right blend of board variety and asymmetric powers to satisfy our spoiled hobbyist appetites from one play to the next. The Exotic Finish cards offer further tempting bets, but also with exact conditions. One is, for example, “All horses move 6 spaces or more”, and another is a Photo Finish. (This means the 3rd place horse must lose by three or fewer spaces.) Exotic Finish cards have three spaces on them, so three players can bet here, unlike other spots. You draw one per race, with them staying there for the race’s duration. So come race four, there’s four Exotic Bets to consider.But the best improvement of all is undoubtedly the three-pronged path to victory. No longer is the game simply about slapping together an engine and then seeing who can crank out the most points. The dynamics increase tremendously by offering players 3 possible ways to win: But for those who don’t mind a scruffy game and want to take on a multi-turn action efficiency puzzle while they compete for area majorities, The Wolves has some neat things to offer. It certainly captures the restless, roaming spirit of hungry hounds ever on the prowl. Splendor Duel follows a much more engaging arc by starting as a classic engine builder but finishing as a mad scramble to cross the closest finish line. By providing multiple paths to victory, the competition becomes 3-dimensional and bitey. Finally, each player is dealt 2 VIP cards, choosing to keep one and discarding the other. The VIP cards are placed in front of each player, and they provide ongoing bonuses for the rest of the game – they may allow the player to place a bet in an occupied space or to bet after the NO MORE BETS announcement, etc. Predictably, my problem with Qin wasn’t that it was too bloated or broken or careless—I’ve never seen Reiner make those kinds of errors. Rather, after one play I found Qin to be too simple, basic, and redundant for my tastes. Mind you, I’ve enjoyed plenty of Knizia games that are simple and subtle, but I’m accustomed to such games having a clever twist that makes them special. With Qin, it felt as though that secret ingredient was missing.
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