Another Alice in Wonderland-based game? Well, yes. Hot on the heels of my review for Madcala comes the review for a flip ‘n’ write come trick-taking game with the same thematic ties. While Madcala was a head-to-head mancala-style battling game, this one is a bit less punchy and a lot more heads-down. Druid City games also sent me this and after a handful of plays, here are my thoughts.
Off With Their Heads!! Is a game in the same vein as Welcome To or Fliptown. A deck of cards is used for players to cross off certain sections of their sheet, creating combos, scoring opportunities and fulfilling certain tasks. The difference in this one though, is that the card you use to choose your action is selected in a pseudo-trick-taking-style mechanism.
Getting Started
Starting this one is a breeze, chuck everyone a pencil and a sheet, deal out a hand of cards and put the little Queen of Hearts standee on its board, in the centre of the play area. That’s it really, after that you're ready to select some cards, cross off some stuff and try to squeeze out some of those juicy, juice points.
The Sheet
What are all flip ‘n’ write or roll ‘n’ writes about? The sheet. The sheet in these games is the centrepiece; it will show what you can do and what you should be aiming for when playing. In this one, you are trying to assemble guests at the Mad Hatter's tea party while filling in 3 sections as efficiently as possible.
The top section of the sheet has you filing out mushrooms in the Meadow to get points, the middle has you filling the Woods and the bottom has you filling out the Keep and it's various passages. Each section has it's own rules, it's own point scoring mechanisms and various challenges for you to complete and invite certain guests to the tea party.
Pseudo-Trick-Taking
What garners which section of the sheet you can complete is the card-play. Each player is dealt a hand of 9 cards, of which they will play 7 ‘bouts’ to fill in their sheets. Each of these bouts is resolved as follows; each player picks a card from hand and places it face down in front of them. When all players have chosen, they are all flipped and then they are ranked. The winner fills out the Meadow, the loser the Keep and the two middle players fill out the Woods.
Each bout is ranked in order of suit and by the value of the card. In the centre of the table is the Queen of Hearts and she rotates around a small circular board every hand, where she is designates the strongest suit and as you go round, the strongest suit will change.
While this game is akin to Welcome To it is very different in it's action selection. Players have more control over what they pick and all players will have more differing outcomes when the bout is resolved. The trick here is picking the correct cards at the right time to try and fill out the bits of your sheet you want.
The other wrinkle here is that each section has certain parts that can only be filled out with a red or black card, adding an extra sprinkle of spice to these bouts. On top of that, you always write the number you selected too, which makes every bout quite tense and have quite heavy ramifications. Especially when you selected what you thought would be the winning card, only to be pipped at the post by your neighbour, so annoying.
Poker Hands
Everyone plays 3 rounds of 7 bouts but is dealt 9 cards each time, so what happens to the other 6 cards? Yes, you guessed it, at the end of the game every player is given points depending on the poker hand they have created. I imagine, thematically, it’s something to do with impressing the Queen of Hearts.
This little system makes selecting your cards for the bouts a little more tricky too, what 2 cards do you save? What parts of your sheet do you want to fill? Who do you want to invite to the teat party? Decisions, decisions. I do think this whole action system, is not only quite unique for a flip ‘n’ fill game but it also gives you a lot to think about and is enjoyable to boot.
Tea Cups and Biscuits
What would a flip ‘n’ write game be without a little bit of combo-tastic gameplay and mitigation? In Off With Their Heads! This comes in the form of tea cups and biscuits. Perfectly fitting for a teas party, even if I do say so myself. You start with 1 tea cup and get more by filling out nodes of the sheet that show a picture of a tea cup. These tea cups allow you to modify the colour of the card you play or completely change the area o the sheet you need to place it. Valuable indeed!
Biscuits on the other hand, when you mark a node that has a biscuit on it, immediately lets you fill out the same number/colour combo in the different area of the sheet. Guess what though? They can be chained, giving you, in the right circumstances, chances of having an uber turn and jumping all over the place. Again, in the right situation, very powerful.
End Game and Points
Once you have played 3 rounds everyone tots up their scores and a winner is declared. Each zone scores in different ways, depending on how each player filled them out. Then your tea party is scored, which can be a very big point scoring opportunity if you concentrated on it. Your poker hand is also scored, with the best hard getting a bonus. As with all of these types of games, it's 5 minutes, heads down while people do some light mathematics but it's not too bad here and not a lot needs to be added up. The sheet helps too with a nice little section for scoring at the bottom.
Final Thoughts
I do have a soft spot for verb ‘n’ write games. I like that they can be played just about anywhere, have a small footprint and can normally be played by everyone. The rules are normally straight forward and the joy is how you select your action and where you are going to stick it.
Off With Their Heads! Is quite different in it's action selection and I enjoyed that greatly. While it's not true trick-taking, which I adore, it's in the ball park and tickles that part of my brain. The sheet you are filling will never be filled completely and I found that time runs out very quickly in this one. Meaning you should try and concentrate on a strategy with your sheet, unfortunately, other players will get in your way, which I also liked. Nothing better than watching your friends faces contort with pain when they realize you stole the section they wanted from underneath them.
The artwork is adorable, the symbology is clear and everything about this quirky little game is enjoyable. If you like verb ‘n’ write games, I think you will like this one, it has something little different, something a little weird and I had a lot of fun with it.
Right, I am off to assemble a tea party and play poker. See you next time!
