Last weekend I played two games by Tasty Minstrel Games; Burgoo and Dungeon Roll. I purchased Dungeon Roll from Orc's Nest in Covent Garden, the majestic-looking treasure chest caught my eye as I was browsing the shelves and the description on the box sounded quite fun and appealing to a fan of dice rolling games. Burgoo was given to me by a friend to help me reach my goal of playing 200 games in August, it is a loan but I have a feeling I may be purchasing it at some point. My notes on both of these games were quite lengthy, so I will concentrate on Burgoo tonight, to save my blog from turning into an essay.
Burgoo is designed by Dan Manfredini and consists of a collection of counters, with six different images of food ingredients to make a special stew. The premise of the game is that it is a cold Autumn month, and the community have gathered together to prepare a warming stew for all. The winner of the game will be the first one to add all of their ingredients to the Burgoo, whilst sampling it the most. It is making me hungry all over again, just typing this!
The game is set up by each player by randomly arranging ingredients of the six types into a column, this is called the Batch. In the two player version, as I have been playing it, each player constructs two Batches. They additionally take one of each ingredient into their hand and hide this from their opponent, keep it secret! All leftover counters are placed in the middle of the table and this becomes the Pot. As the game begins, there are three actions that players can take; adding ingredients, sampling the Burgoo and splitting a Batch.
Adding ingredients is how you empty your Batch; throw a robust onion into the hearty stew to give it a little kick! You can add an ingredient from the top or bottom of your Batch by throwing a matching one from your hand in the Pot. If your opponent has the same ingredient in the same place as yours then you acquire that piece in your hand, thus making your secret stash even bigger.
To sample the Burgoo you simply grab a wooden spoon and dip it in to the simmering Pot. Or, in reality, you pick up a piece from the Pot that would benefit you in a future turn.
When splitting the Batch you toss any ingredient from your hand into the Pot, then you split one of your Batches in any way that will benefit you, such as splitting it so you have two potatoes at the top, then when you next discard a potato you will be ridding your Batch of two. You can split a Batch multiple times, even down to one counter that is deemed both top and bottom, but you can only split once per turn. Doing this also could help out your opponent, though, so keep a watchful eye over their Batches and make sure you are not emptying their stack as much as your own!
This is an enjoyable game, I like the idea of neighbours coming together to make a big stew but trying to out-cook each other and finish up first. It is almost like a cooking show on the Food Network, with the chefs racing against time to finish their dish, but also sampling it and keeping a little stack of secret ingredients on their person. I have a bit of a penchant for games with a food theme (you may have noticed) and this one certainly ticks all the boxes with its accessibility and strategic game play. It even has a recipe for Burgoo printed in the instructions sheet!
Thanks for reading, next post will be focusing on Dungeon Roll :)
Marisa xx
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