123: Junta: Las Cartas | Paleo | Twilight: The Game

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 backstab and frontstab as the money grabbing rulers of the República de las Bananas in Junta: Las Cartas Next up, we hunt and grunt together as we fight for survival across the prehistoric wilds in PaleoAnd lastly,  we test our knowledge of angsty sparkly vampires in Twilight: The Game Junta: Las Cartas Designed by: Johannes Krenner, Christoph Reiser, Sebastian ReslPublished by: Alderac Entertainment Group and Pegasus Spiele (2017)Players: 3 – 6Ages: 12 & upPlaying time: 45 – 60 min Junta: Las Cartas is a card game, where players are members of a corrupt junta, vying for power as president of a banana republic. Each round, the president divides a set of money cards among the players. This represents each junta member’s supposed fair share of the country’s wealth. But did everyone get an equal share? Did the president keep the lion’s share? Players then begin 2 rounds of voting to determine if the president is being honorable, or a thief.  Junta member’s use their political cards to cast their votes, or take alternate actions, such as stealing another member’s money, or striking down votes already cast by other members. Once the voting is complete, and the dirty deeds done, the president will either retain power and his share of money for the next round, or will have lost it all to the rebellion leader who will become the next president.  The last action of the round is to move your money out of the country and into your Swiss bank account. The game ends when all the money cards have been put in play, and the player with the most cash in their Swiss account, is the winner. Paleo Designed by: Peter RustemeyerPublished by: Hans im Glück & Z-man Games (2020)Players: 2 – 4Ages: 10 & upPlaying time: 60 – 90 min Paleo is a co-operative adventure game set in the stone age, where players try to keep the human beings in their care alive while completing missions.  The goal is to reach a state of technology and sustenance where the early humans are able to complete a cave painting BEFORE the community suffers from too many deaths. It’s a classic competition of human vs nature. Each player starts by controlling two cavepeople. Each caveperson has traits, such as hunting or scouting or crafting. A player draws three action cards face down from their deck, and must choose which action to take.  The backs of the action cards identify the type of card: for example, mountains on the back mean that it is likely that stone collection will be taking place. Or a forest on the back likely means that wood gathering will be that card’s goal. Sometimes, a card will offer unexpected surprises and obstacles. The two action cards not chosen go back in the payer’s pile.  Simultaneously, all players flip the action card they kept to see what the community can potentially accomplish. In most cases, a player can use their cavepeople to help any other player achieve their goal.  But if you help another, then your cavepeople can not accomplish your own goal. The community must decide how best to use the resources of people, goods, and items, and to which action cards are the most important to accomplish. A player at any time can choose to “go to sleep”,