205: SteamRollers | Applejack | Spit!

What this episode covers

Welcome to Which Game First where we boldly explore the hilariously huge world of board games. Did we unearth any hidden treasures you’ve been missing out on? Let’s find out! First up: We roll dice to roll out our trains full of cargo in SteamRollersNext: We race to plant orchards but the real prize is the honey in ApplejackAnd lastly: We’re dealing as fast as we can to out stack our opponents in Spit! SteamRollers Designed by: Mark GerritsPublished by: Flatlined Games & Stronghold Games (2015)Players: 1 – 5Ages: 10 & upPlaying time: 30 – 45 minutes SteamRollers is a roll and write game where players use dice to build the best railway network, upgrade their engine, and beat their opponents to the most lucrative cargo deliveries. Each round, six-sided dice are rolled (number of players plus one) and people draft one die with which to perform an action. They can draw a railroad track on their personal board, use the die to upgrade their engine, deliver a cube from a common supply board using their personal network (if their engine is strong enough) for victory points, or take a special card which allows the player to break the rules in small (or big) ways. Points are scored by building tracks that connect cities and towns, and then fulfilling the moving of goods to the correct city based on its color. For example, use your route to move all the green goods to the city in the green sector of your map. Once half the cities on the supply board are emptied, the game is over at the end of the round. Players total their delivery points and add extra points for their network, engine and cards. The player with the most points wins, steamrolling their way over everyone else to victory! Applejack Designed by: Uwe RosenbergPublished by: The Game Builders & Stronghold Games (2022)Players: 1 – 4Ages: 8 & upPlaying time: 30 – 60 minutes Applejack is a tile placement game where you assist someone named Applejack in planting apple trees, then harvesting the apples, setting up beehives between the trees, and planting apple blossoms.  On their turn players choose 1 tree tile from the harvest board in the middle of the table. This tile shows a combination of types of apples and apple blossoms as well as beehives. The beehives show the cost for the tile in honey. The tree tile will be placed on the player’s orchard. The beehives need to be placed next to other beehives on tiles already in play in order to get the players honey tiles. The harvest board keeps track of the harvest, and acts as the timer for the game. When the Applejack die on the harvest board comes across a specific apple icon, this type of apple will be harvested – again gaining the player’s honey tokens. But only if they arranged the apples in a meaningful way. After 19 turns each player’s orchard is filled and the final scoring takes place. Apples, apple blossoms and collected honey will be scored. Whoever has the most honey gets to savor the sweet taste of victory. Everyone else gets a mouthful of applesauce. Spit! Designed by: (uncredited)Published by: Patch Products (2000)Players: 2 (or more)Ages: 8 & upPlaying time: 15 minutes Each player tries to rid themselves of their deck of cards by playing onto two foundation piles.  Play your cards in numerical order, up or down, but move fast! If you waste a split second and fall behind it could be all over!

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