Do you want a definitive ranking of the Days games from Farplace games, or a recommendation of which edition to take to your next game night? Look no further than this very objective, very scientific feature blog. As of writing, the full set includes Woof Days, Cat Days, Dino Days, Space Days, Dungeon Days and Pirate Days, so these are what I’m including here. I’m also excluding Kickstarter special cards. I’ve brought out the excel spreadsheets for this, who says my undergraduate statistics modules were a waste of time?
Artwork
With artwork, I’ve given points based on the complexity of the subject, the degree of personality the card art has, the imaginativeness of the idea/name and the style of the Days board.
This gives us a ranking of:
1. Pirate Days
2. Space Days
3. Dungeon Days
4. Cat Days
5. Dino Days
6. Woof Days
Pirate Days and Space Days both have superb board art, really showing up the other four games. Whilst the Woof Days dogs are adorable, they feel very static and like generic pet portraits. Cat Days gained in the imagination of its names, whilst still slightly generic ideas, the names are interestingly based on personality rather than breed.
Complexity
With complexity, I’ve given points based on the number of cards with rules that are not just placement, the number of placement cards with complex placement rules, the player interaction score and the presence of any extra components more than just cards.
1. Pirate Days
2. Space Days
3. Dungeon Days
4. Dino Days
5. Woof Days
6. Cat Days
Pirate Days is a very complex edition compared to the rest. With its added dice rolling and a lot of stealing and removal elements, it can be a little tricky to keep up. However, none of the Days games are complex in the grand scheme of gaming, so all are still suitable for every play skill level. Cat Days is by far the easiest edition, as it has mostly placement cards and the least amount of player interaction to get confusing.
Replayability
With replayability, I’ve given points based on the number of cards with more than three options of consequence assuming a mid game board status, the number of different types of actions available, the number of elements of chance, and the complexity score.
2. Dungeon Days
3. Space Days
4. Woof Days
5. Dino Days
There are a lot of chance elements in Pirate Days which always keep a game fresh, as there’s no optimal strategy to rolling a die. Dungeon Days also scores highly due to its breadth of card options. In most of the editions, the further you go through the game, the fewer options you have for each card, and the more likely you’ll have a hand full of cards you can’t play. Whilst this decrease still happens in Dungeon Days, it is to a much lesser extent, so each game has more opportunity to be varied.
Player Interaction
With player interaction, I’ve given points based on the number of cards which let you steal cards, swap cards, remove or cover opponents’ cards, or can be placed on any board.
1. Space Days
2. Woof Days
3. Pirate Days
5. Dungeon Days
Space Days and Woof Days have very similar degrees of player interaction, with lots of opportunities to change the layouts of other peoples’ boards. Cat Days, and to a lesser extent Dungeon Days and Dino Days are much more focused on building the best board rather than tearing down someone else’s. Although, Dino Days does have the absolute annihilator of the Gigantosaurus, which really does decimate another player’s game.
Special Features
With special features, I’ve given points based on the number of unique actions that do not appear in another edition, and any unique components.
2. Space Days, Dungeon Days, and Dino Days
3. Woof Days and Cat Days
Most of the editions have similar rules and functions. Of course there always needs to be some cards with your staple actions like “Place on Sundays on your own board”, otherwise it wouldn’t work, but there are some especially interesting additions. I really like the diplodocus from Dino Days, which occupies two spaces, something not found in any of the other editions. The dice element from Pirate Days is also a fun new concept, although I think it brings the edition a little away from the base idea of the Days series as a pure card game.
Overall
The best way to play, obviously, is to use the cards from all the editions at once. Nothing beats the chaotic mess of having pirate captains battling triceratops, battling evil cubes, battling daschunds.
However, if you are looking for a recommendation of a singular “best” edition, the final order in this totally objective, and definitively definitive ranking is:
The three newer games, Pirate Days, Space Days and Dungeon Days pretty consistently occupy the top three spots across the categories. With these being the newest editions, this should be the case, you wouldn’t want a company making worse games over time. However, it is interesting to note that these newer editions aren’t necessarily hitting the top spots in the player interaction category.
The metrics I’ve used are just some of the ways you could define each category, and not every element is going to be important to what you’re looking for. Whilst I, personally, rank more complexity and more player interaction as being part of a better game, that might not necessarily be what you’re looking for. Take these rankings with a pinch of salt and interpret them however suits your game table.
