Board Game Pizza – The r/italy games club

Welcome wandering souls to this new episode of Board Game Pizza, the cyclical thread on board games and RPGs.

Whether you are an experienced player or a novice or someone who knows nothing about this world, you are welcome.

I would like this thread to be used to make small reviews, ask for opinions or advice, even clarifications on an unclear part of the rules or why not, look for companions for a DnD campaign or to play some online board games.

Don’t be afraid to ask, the expert players are here to help and if I can, in my small way I will try to help too.

GAME OF THE MONTH

Le due torri trick taking game

I opened the box with already a certain expectation, because the first chapter had left me with that typical desire for good things that end too soon. And I have to say that Le Due Torri did not disappoint.

On the surface it seems like the same game. The cards, the chapters, the characters, that bare-bones communication that forces you to look at others as if you had to read minds. But after a few rounds you start to feel that something has changed. The game has more layers, more things to keep in mind, and every time you think you’ve found the rhythm something comes along to shift it slightly. The Tower cards, for example, the mechanic in which the White Tower and the Black Tower cancel each other out if they end up in the same round, seems like a detail, but in this new chapter, the small differences are that extra something.

What struck me most, however, was the atmosphere. There’s a silence at the table that you don’t often find. It’s not the silence of the tense concentration of competitive games, it’s something softer, you’re there with cards in hand, you’re trying to understand what others have without being able to ask, and time slows down in a strange way. Someone plays a card and for a second everyone stares at it, then someone else sighs, someone insults them and you understand that you will hardly close this chapter.

Compared to the first chapter, the narrative structure works better. The fact that halfway through the game changes perspective, moving from one part of the story to another, avoids that feeling of repetition that began to be felt towards the end of the previous one. Following the second book of the trilogy, the focus quickly shifts from one region to another, from some characters to others.

It is not a game for every evening and should not be consumed in a hurry. It works best as a date, something to return to calmly, perhaps always with the same company, preferably with four players so you can use all the characters in the chapter. Clearly, if you liked the first one, the second one is a must-buy, but if you haven’t tried them yet, my advice is to start with the first one to be able to follow the whole story in its entirety. I’m anxiously awaiting the last game to close the trilogy.