Apparently I’ve not posted in over a year, so my last blog post was a lie. It does look like my host have upgraded their hardware and software and my blog is slightly more responsive though.
I might start posting again.
Here’s hoping…
Category: Uncategorized
Tanto Cuoro: Do-maid-ion First impressions
There are two types of board gamers, those for who the theme of a game is important and those for whom the theme of a game doesn’t matter a toss as long as the game has solid mechanics. (OK so putting everyone who participates in a hobby on a binary like that is ridiculous but I’m not exactly about to formulate an ontology of board gamers based on mechanics Vs. theme I’m just writing the opening paragraph to a shitty review, calm down…)
I bought Tanto Cuoro as a gift for a friend, partly because I’d read that it wasn’t terrible, and partly because she is obsessed with some really weird Japanese niche cultures. I wasn’t expecting the game to be that good, I didn’t even expect to play the game at all to be honest. But then I did…
Gameplay
At it’s heart Tanto Cuoro (Which is Italian for “A lot of heart” apparently) is a deck building game not dissimilar to Dominion, your goal is to assemble the a collection of maids to serve you and become the ultimate master of the house.
Each turn you get a hand of cards from you deck which contains a set of maids and or some “Love” cards which are the games currency, (Yes maids are paid in love not money, I’ll let you think of that what you will) and initially you are allowed to be “Served” by one maid per turn.
Being served by a maid means you play that maid and gain the benefits that maid provides usually this is one of:
- Extra Love: Giving you more currency to buy maids.
- Card Draw: Allowing you to draw more cards in the hope of getting more love to spend.
- Extra Servings: Allowing you to play more maids
- Extra Employment: Allowing you to hire more maids to your household.
Love is spent in the Town where you can either employ maids or purchase events, the maids you buy are added to your discard pile and are shuffled into your deck when it runs out, you can also buy private maids which don’t go into your deck but give you an ongoing effect which is usually helpful.
Events are basically a way to screw the other player over by making their maids ill which negates their bonuses, or giving them bad habits which loses you victory points.
You can also promote maids to “chamber maids”, which takes them out of your deck permanently and may give you bonuses at the end of the game.
Once two of the piles of maids is depleted the game is over and each player tallies up the the maids in their house hold and whomever has the most victory points wins.
Opinion
I wasn’t expecting to like this game, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t think it would be a terrible game… I just didn’t think it would be for me. I actually really enjoyed playing it though. Behind the cute anime maids in skimpy maid outfits, are some pretty solid mechanics, the art is also very well done if you are into the theme then that is a bonus, but building a household of maids and then trying to figure out how to chain them to get the most victory points is actually quite fun.
I’ve not played Dominion in 5 years, so the rules for that are a little rusty in my head, but I think this might oddly have a little more depth than the games of Dominion I played, which I found surprising.
If you like deck building games and either the theme appeals to you, or you are willing to ignore it then this game is well worth a look. Also if you don’t want to invest in the physical game there is a version available for iOS and while it’s not free it’s pretty cheap (£2.49 last time I checked) it also benefits from having a tutorial built in to it and varying levels of AI.
My crowning achievement was chaining a set of maids to add love and servings to my pool such that I managed to accrue 18 love allowing me to employ two copies of “Marianne Soleil” who is worth 6 victory points.
TEST POST PLEASE IGNORE
THIS IS A TEST POST THAT SHOULD POST TO TUMBLR AND NOT BE TRUNCATED. MOVE ALONG NOTHING TO SEE HERE.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc vulputate, arcu ac consequat egestas, eros nisi congue odio, id imperdiet erat justo cursus tortor. Praesent quis velit nisl. Nam vehicula velit tortor, eu pretium ipsum tincidunt vitae. Pellentesque et eros auctor, elementum quam placerat, euismod ante. Aliquam porttitor suscipit arcu id euismod. Nullam in porttitor arcu, in accumsan leo. Nulla vel tempor nibh. Etiam vel ultricies est. Nullam a auctor elit, quis pulvinar orci. Maecenas eu varius arcu. Etiam eleifend fermentum odio, nec lacinia risus pulvinar at. Donec lacinia sed nisl quis porta. Vestibulum dapibus, dui at semper tincidunt, diam nibh sagittis nunc, vitae mattis mi metus non nisl. Integer tempus consectetur metus. Cras laoreet volutpat elit, ultricies ullamcorper sem. Praesent tristique purus eu facilisis molestie.
Cras quis ligula id sem pellentesque porttitor. Nunc in posuere augue, a pretium lectus. In gravida odio mi, eget ultricies quam pellentesque at. Mauris non odio sed tellus volutpat feugiat. Quisque nulla turpis, convallis ac accumsan eget, bibendum vitae turpis. Vivamus laoreet ultrices elit, quis eleifend sem consequat ac. Praesent vestibulum erat augue, vel ullamcorper lorem ultricies sit amet. Quisque aliquet euismod eros, at fringilla odio lobortis non. Sed nisi odio, fringilla eget tortor at, vehicula fermentum felis. Nullam dignissim vestibulum blandit. Cras consectetur consectetur massa, et dapibus mi dapibus eu. Vivamus in quam lacus.
Sed sagittis auctor metus, vel malesuada urna elementum nec. Ut vel laoreet purus. Donec adipiscing orci urna, eu pulvinar arcu ultrices non. Donec sit amet ornare nisl. Ut auctor sit amet lorem ac consequat. Nunc sagittis, ante sed pharetra ultricies, turpis est consequat libero, eu porttitor leo neque ut tellus. Praesent nibh neque, sodales sit amet eleifend quis, consectetur non mauris. Phasellus et sapien velit.
Fusce elementum, mi eu cursus sollicitudin, nibh quam fermentum enim, ut sodales diam urna id felis. Phasellus ultricies augue a felis varius, a sollicitudin nulla pellentesque. Fusce porta sed odio eu bibendum. Mauris pellentesque ornare felis, sit amet ultrices lorem viverra in. Ut quis dui sit amet sapien fermentum consectetur. Nulla semper hendrerit sagittis. Etiam est felis, tempus ac commodo sit amet, vehicula sed felis. Ut eget erat eleifend, lacinia eros id, porta tortor. Ut tellus lacus, sagittis ut viverra nec, consequat nec nibh.
Praesent id sollicitudin sem. Cras convallis dolor eros, ac feugiat dolor facilisis sed. Morbi volutpat porttitor enim lacinia fermentum. Fusce eget sagittis arcu. Nam lobortis congue tempor. Fusce nisl sem, consectetur ut laoreet mollis, porta in odio. Nulla pellentesque a odio non commodo. Proin sit amet consectetur dui, a egestas neque. Ut sit amet fermentum lectus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer eget lectus et metus vehicula tristique eu sollicitudin tortor. Proin lorem enim, auctor ac magna vel, euismod blandit neque. Aliquam porttitor semper nulla eu gravida.
Test Post Font
this is a test post and should either appear in glyphs or in all lower case.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Dream Journal: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum But They Don’t Know It
Quick note about a dream I had last night, the dream was set in military hospital which was run by John Cleese. The hospital had a full compliment of staff who were all military personnel who had been sent home from “The War” for some reason or other.
The thing is it became apparent towards the end of the dream that the staff at the hospital were all actually patients being treated in a mental asylum, but they didn't know it.
How to Tell If You Need a New Bike
Pistachiastrophe!
I got my first Graze box today and I was quite enjoying it until… I’m sure I’ll live…
Which Poem Should You Read?
Want to read a poem but don’t know where to start? Book Riot have you covered. This flow chart will help you pick a poem to read to suit your mood.
Acapella Video Game Theme Tunes
Smooth McGroove is my new hero with his Acapella covers of video game theme tunes. I’ve embedded a bunch here but It’s worth checking out his YouTube channel for more.
ZOMG They Are Remaking the Duck Tails Game!
This might not be significant to anyone who doesn’t remember the original NES or Gameboy game but in a time when every cartoon franchise had to have it’s own shovelware game, Ducktales rose above the piles of accumulating gaming manure as a truly excellent platform game.
It’s been a very long time since I played it, and I can’t be bothered doing any research at the moment, but if I recall the game followed Scrooge McDuck on a round the world quest to save his three kidnapped nephews. And it was awesome!
For the uninitiated here is a sample of the original NES gameplay: