Chess is finally fun! - Queen Alice Board Game Review
Transcript
Hello everyone. This is Cinema
and this is Johannes
and you are watching Board Gaming Ramblings.
Today we are taking a look at Queen Alice. This is an upcoming Spiel release and this is a review copy. So thank you so much for that. If you are going to Spiel, we would love to see you there. If you do see us walking around, sitting down or whatever we're doing, you can show us the secret sign. It looks like this and we would hope to see you there. if you want to make sure to find us. We will be at the Alliance booth from 2 to 7 on Saturday and 10 to 2 on Sunday. So, come by and say hi and play a game or 2,000 games. We won't have time for 2,000 games, but maybe one that will be fun. But today it's time for Queen Alice. The carddriven deck building chess playing mini games based special power resource management book collecting game about Alice
cake eating tea drinking.
Oh, and toasts. I don't know too much like I know thematically. I know about Alice in Wonderland.
Yeah. I also know there's this other book called Through the Looking Glass
which I haven't read and don't really know a lot about the theme. But in this game, Alice is becoming queen,
but she can become the red queen or the white queen. I don't know if this is thematic. I have no idea if this is theatic or not, but in this game, that's what what's going to happen. You will be doing stuff and we're going to talk about that more stuff soon. Uh to move these up. That's one part of the game. It's a Euro game. You're gonna get euro points by doing euro mini games and getting stuff. I'm gonna explain thematically nothing and mechanically how it works. You're gonna have a deck of cards in your hand. You're going to have most of the time three cards if you don't upgrade it. On your turn, you're going to do the following. You're going to discard one of the cards. When you discard the card, you get to do the discard card ability. And then you're going to play a card into the discard pile and do the play card ability. In the beginning of the game, your basic boring bad cards are not going to have any playabilities, but then you get more cards. The bronze cards, the silver cards, or the magical gold cards. You're going to be able to get stuff when you play the cards to enhance your actions as well. After you play a card, let's say I play this one. This is the white tower. That means I have to move this white tower out on this chess board. And where I move it is then what actions I get to do. So each of these columns have an action on them which are the suits of the deck of cards. Also in the middle is a star which is a joker where you have to pay to be able to do the action. But let's say I want to do the uh the diamond action. There is somebody here from the other team which because it's chess I can take him. And all the pieces here move like traditional chess pieces.
There is a card that shows you how they move if you don't know how the chess pieces move. So for example, the tower will move as long as they want in a orthogonal direction. And if I capture this, I will place it into my jail and I will get some extra stuff. For example, here since it's a horsey, I will get a toast and I will get some time. And then I will be able to do the diamond action. I'm going to very briefly, we're going to talk more about the actions, but basically you place diamonds out there to get stuff. You place hearts out there to mostly get special abilities. You move on this track to mostly trash cards from your deck or invite people to the wedding which is theatic thing or to get more better cards into your deck which go right into your hand which is a good thing. Or move on this book track here to get books which you can translate into not translate but change into bookmarks which might have an instant ability a wound ability and it's endame scoring.
Yeah. While you're doing all of these things, which are like four distinct mini games, you are also when you get to a certain point in that mini game, you'll be able to move Alice in one of the colors. If you do the white action, which right now I did the white action, which means I will have to to interact with the white portion of it or the red portion if I move a red uh action or a red token. So, I will get some points and when it moves to specific points, you will do a wish scoring which scores for everybody and you also discard one of these crowns. When you do a thing to the max, so like when you max out the miniame, you will get to take a crown and place it on the next spot of that color, which gives you double the points, but also makes the route shorter for Alice to move to the next scoring.
So, it's very much like a push and pull of doing actions, but you don't want to move too much on it. if like you go to a scoring that's very good for the other player but it's not so good for you. So you might think okay I'm not going to try to move on that colored alice or I might try to wait until I have gone better on it but then the other player might try to rush it to be able to do that thing. That's basically what you're doing in the game. The game is going to end when it's not basic like there's a lot of more things but that's like the overview base of what you're doing. You're going to play play until all of these are gone, which they gone when you get them and also when you get to these spaces where you have an X and then you're going to score victory points for the guests that you have invited. Basically, you get points for everything you take out of your deck, which interesting mechanism we're going to talk more about. Also, the Alice that has moved the farthest, you're going to turn these around, so they will be worth more points if you have moved enough on the cat track on that side to be able to score them again. that is because if you don't, you're not going to get any points for them at the end of the game.
A lot of things going on about the game. We're not going to go deep dive into anything, but let's go into everything. We're not going to go deep dive into anything. That's the end. No, let's talk about the game. Boom.
Yeah. Let's first just like appreciate how this game looks because like the artwork in this game,
like it blew me away. It's so beautiful and like just like the cover art in itself. I I think they've done an amazing job. There's a lot of different icons in this game, but I think like I didn't need like a player for the icons like once. I think they were super clear and you even have like a a little player on this card here that it's shows
it's quite big.
Yeah, it's a big player. It's a player board actually which shows like the cost for every actions. I think like it might look like a lot when you first see it because there's so many like they could have made it a lot simpler to look more simpler. I I really appreciate like the the beauty of this game and I don't think it meddles too much uh with the the clear clearness of the game.
It's very good. My favorite is also the character art on the pieces because they really have they have character personality like the difference between like the red and the white horse like very different characters and I just love that like I when you sit and look in your hand like a big part is the picture you could just have the symbol but these pictures are really nice. I love the presentation. And there's also tuck boxes for like most of the things that you will have. There's personal tuck boxes for, if I can grab one, for all the different player pieces, and there are tuck boxes for the red and white pieces. So, it's very easy to put into the box without having like an insert or anything like that. And as we said, we haven't we are not experts on Alice in like in general like the the concept Al, but we know Alice in Wonderland. And I just have to like appreciate time being a resource that you can use. I think that is like both thematic and and cool. Um, but this is a game with basically a lot of a lot of meaning four to be exact. But like they're very like on their own. Yes, they can give you some some resource that you can use on your next turn to do another mini game, but like in itself, this mini game here is like super simple and you might want to like focus heavily on one thing or even it more out, but
you basically have like a miniame here, here, and here. And
they can and
and there you just said three hairs, but you showed four. So, just here, here, and here. And this doesn't exist.
No, it's four of them because it's four suits in a deck of cards.
Yes. And like all the mini games feels like viable to go for and you could really easily like just ignore a mini game. Totally. Or multiple.
This is one of those games
where it's usually very good to do one thing very well.
Yeah. I think for me it feels like doing everything a little is not the best way to go in this game because you will get better stuff the more you do the thing. [clears throat] The only exception I would feel like sometimes like you would do and what I really love about this game is that you can like everything feels like a viable strategy.
Yes.
Like for example these powers feels very good. That feels very powerful, but you can easily win the game without a single one.
Yeah.
Like I remember first time I play I was like, "Oh, but you got those special powers. Can I compare? Can I compete with that now?" Because somebody had like some cool powers like those are really good, but I'm trying something different. And the thing I did, but then I didn't I wasn't able to, for example, have more hand size so I could have more things to choose from. But because I was able to discard so many cards, I mostly had good cards in my deck. So it feels like this is one of those efficiency puzzles I feel like which is my favorite part of this game is like trying to say see how can I do this as efficient as possible to be able to get the most points as possible because everything I do depends on so many things like it depends on the final scorings.
Yes,
which are these which you see in the beginning is going to be one for each board. And I when I play the game I and I think you do as well kind of look at the sides and also look at which is coming first and seeing like how can I do a strategy based around that.
Yes. So for example in this game focusing on the heart and the diamond if you're like going for the red Alice to become queen you should focus on those two actions. But if somebody like really pushes the white Alice to become queen those will be like less worth. So, and also these scorings kind of incentivize you for going like equally on both the red and the white a lot of the times, but I've been in a position many times and just like, okay, I I can do a really cool action, but then it moves the white queen alley up and I don't want that to happen because you will get a lot of points for that at the end of the game. So yeah, there there's so many directions to go for here. And as you said, you feel like you're doing something and you see the other players doing something else and just like, but that seems so cool because like there's different like pros and cons with going for the different different uh mini games. For example, I did like move heavily on this track. This is the tea party.
Yes.
And this is where you're basically thinning your deck and building your deck. And that feels super powerful because you can get like those magical gold golden cards. But I was in a position where I was so out of resources. I really struggled with that strategy because I didn't have the resources to do like almost anything. I really struggled.
But then there are ways to get around these kind of things. For example, let's say I want some good cards. And there are cards out there that lets you take cards. You start with one of them. for example, the king. The king when you discard the king, you get a bronze card. But let's say I, for example, have both of those flowers. Now, I can pay time to don't take a bronze card, but for example, take a silver or a gold card instead. So, there are ways to get around some of these. Like, I haven't seen a way to get special abilities here without actually doing that action. But the fact that like the deck building is I like I don't I I haven't seen any player not take any new card like you will get cards because the cards you get are better than the other cards but there are strategies in that for example one strategy I played which is of course a bit like tactical strategy depending on what comes up. I was in a position where I was able to get quite a few gold cards. And there was a position where I was able to get quite a few gold bishop cards, which basically gets you four points and a resource when you discard it and six when you play it. And when I then had a very small deck of cards, most of my cards was that card. So I was like, "Oh, I get four points and a resource and then get six points and then I get to do the action." And yeah, there is there is so much good stuff there.
Yeah. And the first time we played, I had a hand with a just like only bronze card. I didn't get any. Like I think I got a silver one last round. But I really like that you get those into your hand though. I really enjoy that. But I ended up winning that and I and and going heavy for for example this what you call it Humpty Dumpty miniame gives you really like more leeway on the resources because not only do you get resources from spending resources here you also get points u but you can also get these uh locked resources. So right now Johannes is only able to have at most three resources at the same time. that doesn't get you a long way in this game. So having like unlocking those resource cubes that's really good.
And we already talked about the balance of white and red. But then also this games makes it so that when you do white actions which uses toast and sometimes tea the resources you get will always be cake which is the ones you use for the red actions which is then uses cake and the tea and then you will always get toast. You will you will get toast. So there is so much balance going on like both in do I want to move this, do I want to move that. So you might be in a position where like I really want to go here and get the gold card but when I do that white Alice moves and that moves white Alice for example up to this scoring which right now would be good for me if I also move this but in a position where I like I really want to get the gold card but that moves that so that I don't want that to happen. So I might do something else first. There is so many parts to take and I feel like there is a lot of variability even though the actions themselves are so simple and then you also have the tactical thing of the map like sometimes you will be in a position where you can't do the thing you want to because might be blocked in or something like that but then there might be a position where for example oh you have moved down here for example to do an action like I have the king in my hand now I I didn't really want to do do this but I really want to capture the queen because then I three resources basically for capturing the queen and then if somebody wants to take the queen out again I get another time and time I can use as resources but I can also use if I have six or more time I can use six time to do the main action I chose again so there are a lot of stuff
yeah and like you you're you're you're trying to figure out as you said how to do it the more efficiently there's been so many times where I'm just like oh I see this great possibility on the board Now I'm just moving this here and that no that was a white piece
and I need to do the red action now because I don't have like resources for doing the white action or I don't want to do it. So like there's so many things to think about here and and because of that the first game will last like very very long. There's there's so much AP going on the first first game. I wouldn't say it would last very long. Like the first time you played two players was 90 minutes, which isn't that long.
I played it with three. You have only played two. H. And the first time I played it with with three, it was a bit it felt a bit too long. But that's like the when you look at it's like, okay, I have these pieces. But the this is one of those games where very often I feel like, oh, I have this brain activity the first time and I move to this. This was like this the first time and it moves down here from the second word on. Yes. because the flow gets so much better. So if you play this once and you feel like your brain is exploding, I'm pretty sure when you play it again, it's going to feel way easier. So after the first time with two players, every time we played after that was an hour.
And this is a lot of game in an hour.
Yes.
Like this is a lot of good stuff going on in an hour. With that said, should we do some final thoughts?
You want to begin?
Absolutely.
Do it. I'm ready.
Go.
This is like a
It's a board game. Oh, it's your father.
Um, it's both. Like, it's both a beast of the game because like it it takes up a little space on your table. It is a huge like mental overload, especially the first time. There's like so much going on that you need to juggle and try to find out. But at the same time, it's also a one-hour game with two players. It goes like this. If you're not like AP prone, like we've had pretty simp and we have still played it in an hour.
Absolutely. There's pretty simple actions. It's just like pay resources, move like do the thing and and that's it. And if you're familiar to the chess movement, you don't really need to think a lot about this puzzle either. It's so beautiful and it's so thinky and there's so many things you like want to do
and you feel like when we played it and just like we spent an hour and just like no we played longer than that.
Yeah.
Because you feel like you're doing so much.
Oh yeah. But at the same time, suddenly the game is over. And this is like you're trying to squeeze out as much as possible before it's over. And you're trying also to control when it will be over and how because of those two Alice fighting to become queen. And that will influence what you're doing in this game a lot. And there's a lot to think about, but I don't think like it's it's not brain and you think like everything you do is cool, but then you look at the other players, you're like, you're doing cool stuff. Why am I not doing that? And you're trying to do a little bit of everything, but at the same time
when you're so close to completing that f like that mini game, that's so good. You're spending a lot of resources on it though, but the the the payback, is that the word? Yes.
Okay. The thing you get back. Yeah,
it's good. I'm I'm very happy with this game. I'm going to land this on a nine. I think it's really good.
Queen Alice makes me very happy both in the presentation of the game, but this is one of those games that makes my brain very happy. It puts me into a flow state, I would say, when I play this game where everything just makes sense. Once in a while, it stops. I was like, "Oh, I have to think about this thing." But most of the time, I'm going to be like, "Oh, it's my turn. I'm going to do this. going to do this because that's pretty cool and I get this cool stuff and I feel awesome when I do the next thing.
This is one of those games that's addicting.
Yeah,
because it's so short. I would easily I played it quite a few times now. I would easily play it way more. I would easily play this again and again. Maybe like after five more plays, I would be like, I need a break now. But this is one where I'm thinking about it. I would really love to play it. I feel like the game mechanisms blends perfectly together. I really think that this is very interesting and unique. I haven't seen it done in I haven't seen chess like this done in a board game any any other time. And I really love that they pair that with the deck building so that you have like an agency also about which cards and then you can do capturing, you can do like all the special abilities. And I really love the fact that there's not like 60,000 different special abilities. It's like the queen is good at capturing extra pieces and trashing cards out of your deck. And then the pawns are also good at trashing cards out of your deck. And then you have even strategies which we didn't touch on which is like this one for example. If you trash it, it's two points per red towers if you you can go for that. There is like in these there might be you can go for a getting all the pawn cards and just discarding them. The first time I played this game, I didn't put out a single one of these. I put out one of these. I basically almost only went for getting cards and discarding them and I won quite a bit. So, I got like almost half of my points from just discarding cards. And I think it's really cool that there's so many viable strategies. I am
really loving this game. I'm going to land on a 9.5. Queen Alice is absolutely one to check out if anything like this sound interesting to you. If it doesn't, then you don't have to check it out because you don't have to. You can do whatever you want. For example, subscribe because that's something you want.
That's mandatory.
And we hope to see you at Spiel. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Johannes.
I'm Ca. And you've been watching Board Gaming Ramblings. And bye-bye.