I mostly write about historical wargames on this website because that’s what I have the most thoughts and opinions about. However, I also love me a classic mid-weight Eurogame. Something German and from the early- or mid-2000s can really get me going. I would love to write more about them, but I don’t have anything interesting to say. In the words of a great philosopher, I just think they’re neat.
When I moved to Korea, I was interested to learn what, if any, games were being made locally. I had previously dug around a little in the Japanese board game scene when I visited there in 2019, but I had very little idea what to expect in Korea. I cannot understate my excitement at discovering Korean publisher Playte. This small operation has published several games for the first time, but it also republishes many classic German-style games with brand new art, usually lovingly made by artist Wanjin Gil. They are also known for their L-Board boxes, where the box itself unfolds into the game board – something that is sometimes brilliant and sometimes feels a bit gimmicky.
My Playte collection at time of writing. I have played all but one of these games.
I have bought and played many Playte games over the past nine months. I don’t feel qualified to write a full review of each and every one – both for my aforementioned lack of opinions and because in most cases I’ve only played these games a couple of times. However, I do want to share my love for this publisher and its games, so I’ve decided to make a tier list! For those who don’t know, this means I will be ranking these games by assigning them a letter to indicate how good they are (see the ranking scale below). I will also be ranking the quality of the L-Board using the same letter scale. These rankings are deeply rooted in my own taste for simple games that give me an opportunity to make interesting choices without overstaying their welcome. Your tastes may differ significantly, and you may not like these games nearly as much as I do. I’ll forgive you that flaw.
The Ranking:
S: An amazing game, I will play it at literally any time.
A: Great game, I will frequently suggest we play it.
B: A good game, I’m generally happy to play it.
C: It’s okay, I had fun but I’m not eager to revisit it.
D: Not fun, probably wouldn’t play again.
Pueblo by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kisling, art by Wanjin Gill and Jiyeon Lee
The wooden pieces are just so satisfying to play with. I have since bought the sticker set that makes the blank blocks look more like actual pueblo buildings and I’m excited to play it again.
Pueblo feels like a Platonic idea of an abstract board game. You take it in turns to place identically shaped wooden pieces on the grid, slowly creating an odd building in the middle of the board. Your pieces come in two colors: one for you and one blank. After placing a piece you advance the chief between one and four spaces around the board’s edge. He awards points to any colored pieces he can see in a line from his stopping point, with more points going to pieces on higher floors of the building. Points are bad, you don’t want these.
It's a game of passive aggression and trying to outwit your opponent in three dimensions. It’s not the kind of game that blows your mind, but you can play it with almost anyone and have a good time. I’m a big fan.
Rank: A
L-Board Rank: A
Can’t Stop by Sid Sackson, art by Kim Hong-Do and Wanjin Gill
There are actually two versions of Can’t Stop from Playte. I opted for the one that used a traditional mountain painting by Kim Hong-do as the background. The fact that it came with pink pieces was a happy coincidence for my pink-obsessed daughter.
This is a classic dice-rolling push your luck game designed by Sid Sackson in the 1970s. Honestly, that alone should tell you if this is a game for you. I play it all the time with my five-year-old daughter, and we have a lot of fun. The L-Board is a little clunky, but the art is beautiful and who doesn’t love rolling dice?
Rank: B
L-Board Rank: B-
Zombie Dot!, Game and art by Tetsuya Nishimura
The thin cards don’t quite lay flat and it created a slightly wobbly grid. I do like that it’s easy to read at a glance, though.
This is an odd sort of tile-laying game with video game-ish pixelated art. One player is the Zombies and the other one to three players are survivors who are trying to flee. Players must put down tiles, really big square cards, to create a grid. The cards are double-sided with survivors on one side and zombies on the other. The zombie player wants to block off all possible legal placements for the survivors before they empty their hands by playing all their cards to create a path of escape for their survivors.
It's reasonably fun but doesn’t quite manage to be exceptional. I don’t particularly care for the art and the physicality of the cards leaves a bit to be desired, which I think is important in a game like this. I haven’t ever played anything quite like it, and I would play it again, but I’m not sure I would recommend it.
Rank: C
L-Board Rank: n/a
Potato Man by Gunter Burkhardtand Wolfgang Lehmann, art by Wanjin Gill
It’s actually really hard to photograph trick takers during play, as the cards cycle so quickly, so please enjoy this photo that is mostly just the scoring cards to Potato Man.
A pretty classic must not follow trick taker (i.e. you must play a color that has not yet been played this round). Each card color has a different range of card values and you win different points for winning a trick with a given color (the colors with higher value cards award fewer points), but if you can empty a color’s pool of available points you can get one of the highest scoring prizes for winning with it again. The highest value cards, in red, can be defeated if someone plays Potato Man, the lowest value cards in yellow.
I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of trick takers, and I tend to be pretty bad at them, but Potato Man hits a good spot for me in terms of remaining fun without burning my brain too much. I really like the can’t follow rules, and that if someone can’t play a card it ends the round immediately. If you’re ahead you might want to try and get your hand down to just one color so you can end the round early while your lead is intact. It has interesting decisions without being overwhelming.
Rank: B
L-Board Rank: D
Mino Dice by Manfred Reindl, art by Wanjin Gill
Speaking of trick takers, Mino Dice is a trick taker where instead of cards you use dice. Each round you blind bid how many tricks you think you will win, and you only get points if you’re right. Being wrong will cost you points, often many of them. When you play into a trick you pick a dice, following the established color if possible, and roll it to determine its value. The dice all have different values printed on them based on their color, and there are a few monster dice that trump other dice (and each other in a slightly hard to remember rock-paper-scissors type situation), so you may have some idea what you’ll roll but you can’t guarantee it.
Definitely a trick taking game for people, like me, who want their trick takers to be a little bit dumb. I really enjoy it, but some people will hate it.
Rank: B+
L-Board Rank: n/a
Linko by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kisling, art by Ans Kim
It’s got stacks of cards and a market in the middle! So many cards, just sprawling everywhere. It’s great.
Where Pueblo is a Platonic idea of an abstract, Linko feels like that for a card game. The game is a big deck of cards of different values with lynxes drawn on them. On your turn you play a number of cards in front of you from your hand. They must all be the same value, but that’s the only real requirement. Then you look at the cards in front of other people and depending on what they played you could steal their cards or make them take them back into their hand. At the end of the game, every card in front of you is worth points and every card in your hand is worth negative points. It’s simple and plays incredibly quickly. Just a great card game.
Rank: S
L-Board Rank: n/a
Meow Meow Dice, Game and art by Sunhyuk Chae and DODAM
This is a pretty straightforward yacht game with a very cute little cat theme. You roll four dice and can re-roll one fewer dice than your previous roll until you have locked in your final set of dice. The dice have 5 unique sides, one is repeated, all of which represent parts of a cat. You can then use your set of dice (hopefully) to buy a card from the market which will score you points. The whole game only takes like 10-15 minutes, it’s adorable, and it’s a lot of fun. Will it blow your mind? Absolutely not, but as a fan of yacht and Yahtzee type games, I really enjoy this one.
Rank: B
L-Board Rank: n/a
Hội Phố (Second Edition), Game and art by Toàn Nguyễn and Mẫn Trần
In some ways I feel the least secure in my current ranking of this game. Hội Phố is a relatively simple game. You get a hand of cards each with different values and then you all play one card face down into the middle of the table. When revealed, the two cards with the highest values get money (the amounts are printed on the cards) and the lowest ranked card triggers its power, which can be pretty powerful or pretty meh. The round ends when the hands are empty, and whoever has the most money wins a contract. The most contracts at the end of several rounds will win the game. There are a few more nuances than that, but that’s the core of the game.
I played this one asynchronously on BGA which may have colored my opinion, since I think this game is probably much better if it is played quickly all at once. I think the bidding is fun and the decision space around trying to track everyone’s money (which is hidden) and also when you can trigger your powers is interesting. I’m not sure it all quite hangs together, though, and there are probably better games that do something similar. I’m not sure, though, so maybe my opinion will change with time.
Rank: C+
L-Board Rank: n/a
Big Shot by Alex Randolph, art by Wanjin Gill
I just think this game is really pretty. Love the little money tiles, the card with your player color, and the experience of putting cubes on boards. It’s great.
You got auction on my area control game! You got area control on my auction game! Players accumulate debt to buy cubes that they place on the board in an all-or-nothing area control game. My favorite aspect of Big Shot is its “highest untied” rule – when an area reaches 7 cubes whoever has the most cubes in that area wins it. However, if there is a tie for first place all tied players are discounted, which creates some really interesting decisions around placement. It has the potential to be a bit of a brain burner, and it can be pretty punishing if one player makes a major mistake, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome and has plenty of interesting decisions. Just a good board game.
Rank: A-
L-Board Rank: A
Sardegna by Stefan Dorra, art by Wanjin Gill and Jiyeon Lee
Another gorgeous game with wooden bits on a pretty board. The cards are small but not too small. It’s just such a nice tactile little game.
Sardegna is an area control game that reminds me a bit of El Grande and a bit of Concordia (both great games). Players play cards from their hands to add or move pieces on the board, but you can only pick up your played cards when you play the card that triggers scoring. You can see what the next two areas on the map that will be scored are, and have some potential to adjust future ones (within limitations). I’ve only played it at four players, and it feels like it is a game that is designed for this player count. Without players tripping over each other on the island I’m not sure it would feel as competitive and interesting. But at that player count, it is phenomenal. Peak area control gameplay that plays in under an hour.
Rank: S
L-Board Rank: A
Rose King by Dirk Henn, art by Wanjin Gill
You have to keep the cards oriented in the same direction, shown by the crown on the board, and I keep playing this game upside down as a result.
Another excellent abstract game. Use cards to move a little crown piece around a grid, placing pieces of your color wherever it lands. It must land in an empty space, unless you spend a card from your limited pool to flip an opponent’s piece. Points are scored for continuous connections of pieces. Rose King is just an excellent and fast playing little abstract game. I keep coming back to it, it’s a blast.
Rank: A
L-Board Rank: A
Venice Connection by Alex Randolph, art by Wanjin Gill
I absolutely bought this game just because it’s so pretty and I’m a sucker for laying tiles. No regrets.
Abstract, but this time it’s tile-laying! Venice Connection feels most like a puzzle game, as you put down identical tiles from a limited pool until one person places the final piece closing a loop or declares it to be impossible to do so. I didn’t expect very much from Venice Connection, but I was pleasantly surprised. It only takes about five minutes to play and it’s easy to make a weird little meta with your opponent over the course of half an hour, which I always find interesting. It could potentially drag to halt if players sit down and math out potential moves, but if you play it quickly it’s good fun.
Rank: B-
L-Board Rank: n/a
Yut Nori, traditional game, art by Wanjin Gill
Yut Nori is a traditional Korean board game whose origins are not entirely clear but it’s definitely over a thousand years old. When you play a game that old, you should set yourself some expectations. It’s basically a classic roll and move with elements reminiscent of Sorry! and its ancestors. You move your pieces and if you land on someone else’s they go back to the start and you get to go again. The game’s board, which is traditionally made of cloth, gives you a few potential divergent paths if you can land on the right space. You have four pieces you need to get all the way around the board, and you can even stack them if they land together to move faster (but risk worse outcomes should someone else land on you). To move your pieces, instead of rolling dice you throw sticks and the combination of face up and face down sicks tells you how far you move. It’s fun!
This is a pretty classic board game. Not the kind of thing you should drop everything and seek out, but I play it a lot with my daughter. Sometimes games that last this long do so because they’re just fun.
Rank: B-
L-Board Rank: n/a
Part 2?
Several of Playte’s most popular games are obviously missing from the above ranking because I don’t own them and haven’t played them. There are also a few Playte games that I own but have not yet played, and so they are also not included. Let’s be honest, my Playte obsession is nowhere near finished and it is entirely likely that nine months from now I will have another pile of games I want to gush about. I may even revisit some of my rankings from this post. In the meantime, if you love classic Eurogames like I do, and if you appreciate games that come in small packages, you should check out Playte. They’re probably my favorite publisher at the moment and I’m excited to see what they’ll do next.
My current unplayed collection of Playte games. I’m still missing some of their more famous games, but I’m trying to pace myself so that I’m not buried under a pile of tiny board games.
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