Instagram story viewer> @meeple.mike> Posts

Mike Chan | Meeple Mike

@meeple.mike

5.2K

followers

2672

following

Board Game Enthusiast 🎲 ♟
Too many games, not enough time 🤦‍♂️
Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦
DM for reviews or just to chat! ☺️

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

@thekoreanmeeple made me do this

Missing my homies @kajadancecrew

#boardgamehumor #boardgames #boardgame #funny #kpop by @meeple.mike

286

88

7 months ago

Back from my trip to Japan, and finally got around to organizing these photos! Lots of people have told me they had fun following along on my journey on my stories, and I had a lot of fun doing these little missions too!

Because life is a game to me, I decided to bring cards from @alderaceg and @sirjoshwood ‘s Let’s Go to Japan to my actual trip to Japan, to see how many of the cool things on the cards I could match to in real life!

In no particular order:

1) Kiyomizudera Temple
2) Meiji Jingu Shrine
3) Soba and Tempura
4) Kinkakuji Temple
5) Hachiko Statue
6) Tokyo Station
7) Conveyor Belt Sushi
8) Yasaka Shrine
9) Sake District
10) Ikebukuro
11) Crepes in Harajuku
12) Ueno Park
13) Ramen!
14) Ryoanji Temple
15) Department Stores in Ginza
16) Gachapon Vending Machines
17) Food from a Konbini
18) Onsen
19) Shinjuku Gyoen Park
20) Shopping in Shibuya

Enjoy the photodump! by @meeple.mike

428

41

a year ago

Let’s go to Asmodee Canada and play some BOARD GAMES!!

YEAH!!!!

It’s #KpopDemomHunters in my head 24/7, even when visiting the grand opening of @asmodee_canada ‘s newest office.

Zoey: @theboardgamegarden
Mira: @meeple.mike
Rumi: @littlemeeples taken in Brantford, Ontario by @meeple.mike

502

49

a year ago

Luck is meant to be pushed. Let’s do so in Sky 5.

Sky 5 is a new push-your-luck game from @druidcitygames, where players are building a line of colourful Sky cards hoping to nab all 5 colours. Each turn consists of drawing a card or rolling the die to bank the cards you have.

There are 5 colours, but if you draw a colour you already have, you must give it to another player, which might help them! If you’re happy with the cards in front of you, you can choose to roll the die and bank, earning you points equal to the total numbers on your cards. However, hit a number you already have, and you bust, losing ALL your cards. What’s worse – your opponents can each take a card from you, getting them one step closer to their own Sky 5! If you ever are holding five different colours, you score an elusive “Sky 5” and get to bank instantly!

One thing I really enjoy about Sky 5 is how much your opponent’s choices matter! Many push-your-luck games are a solo battle between you and your fate, with the fun coming from watching your opponent’s fail. Sky 5 takes it one step further – every choice of whether you hit or bust will affect everyone else!

It’s silly, it’s simple, it’s Sky 5!

[A review copy of Sky 5 was generously provided by @druidcitygames] by @meeple.mike

56

8

2 days ago

It’s genuinely so exciting to see games from Asia come to a wider release.

@capstone_games is releasing a new version of Seven Prophecies, designed by Hinata Origuchi! I covered a previous iteration of this game published under Sunny Bird, and I’m so happy to see it able to reach a much larger audience now!

In Seven Prophecies, players are masters representing different seasons hoping to play the right cards in every round to prophesize their own victory.

Seven Prophecies is a trick-taker with bidding. To start, 10 season cards are laid out in a row, representing the 10 tricks in a round. The season depicted on each of these cards determine what suit you must following during that specific trick. You’ll have to evaluate your hand, then secretly place your seven Prophecy tokens on how many times you think you’ll win 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th.

Yes, you don’t just have to win tricks. You must expertly deduce and time your card plays to squeeze into the specific ranking you want! If you think you’ve got the worst hand ever, you can put all your tokens in the fourth place slot and try to lose every single trick! It’s the ultimate test of reading your hand.

For each trick where you matched your prediction, you get to remove the corresponding Prophecy token from your own card. And while the act of planning and bidding is secret, once everyone is locked in, it’s all public knowledge! You can see what other players are gunning for and get a good read on what their hand is like!

As much as I love the art and theming of the older version, @ameliasalesart knocks it out of the freakin’ park with her design. Every card, every player screen – GORGEOUS. Each of the characters looks like they’ve jumped out of a vibrant anime. I could stare at them all day.

There are a lot of trick-takers out in the world, and I definitely think this one is unique enough to some real estate on my shelf!

Seven Prophecies will be at Essen, so keep a lookout if you’re going! by @meeple.mike

98

17

3 days ago

Gearing up for hopefully my last week out of town for work, but mentally my mind is still here, at @littlemeeples work trip/cottage retreat from a couple of weeks back.

Here’s some dope pics from @boardgamevisuals and @hxlia.w, banger food from @essiellle, and amazing gaming with amazing company.

Man, I love boardgaming. by @meeple.mike

124

15

5 days ago

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! 🦃

It’s time to play a Canadian designed game that’s perfect for this spooky month, and that’s the upcoming Headway from the Edmonton-based @meanhyenagames!

In this game for either 2, 4, or 6 players, you’re a skeleton, but magically separated into pieces! To become whole once again, you have to get a sip of your enemy’s Mojo, the delicious liquid leftovers of their soul.

On your turn, you’ll either Shift a body part, sending it one step down a path of interconnected limbs, or use its Special Ability. The ultimate goal is to get your Skull overlapping their Mojo. The Skull can Shift any number of times, the Ribcage can teleport a limb back to itself, the Arm can act as a teleporter, letting you Shift a card from Arm to Arm, and the Legs walk in pairs, allowing you to Shift both on a single turn.

In a way, it’s almost chess-like. Your Mojo is your slow-moving King, while you have a plethora of pieces to guide the way to the enemy. It’s also a lot like Hive in its tactility. I’m very heavily reminded of the unique abilities from Hive, and this game gives me the same wonderful back-and-forth gameplay.

Headway is a spatial puzzle that goes beyond just tile laying. It’s bizarre, strategic, and so very tactical! Headway drops on Kickstarter tomorrow, so please check it out if it looks neat to ya!

[A prototype copy of Headway was generously provided by @meanhyenagames] by @meeple.mike

76

8

6 days ago

Solo gaming is tough for me. I always get so in my head during the setup or lose interest midway through a game, and because I don’t have a place to keep a game set up and stored, I have to put it all away, and it feels bad.

Vantage circumvents some of my worries, as I see it more of an adventure. It’s like I’m watching a movie, but I’m still getting to make decisions and be off of a screen.

It fills a strange niche. I like it. by @meeple.mike

101

14

9 days ago

Jibber Jabble is undoubtedly one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve had this year (spoilers for my year-end list!)

Jibber Jabble is a silly little word game in @allplayhq’s Tiny Box Games series. Designed by Cassie Sikes (@cassaphras) and illustrated by Sai Beppu (@saibeppu - she’s everywhere!) - this hilarious little game is now a mainstay in any trip, car ride, or late night hang.

One player blindly draws a card with a word. Each other player must in turn, give ONE letter at a time, hoping to spell out a clue. The problem is: I guarantee none of your friends will be thinking of the same word you are!

I’ll never forget when we bent the rules and just started naming letters randomly, each person hoping to force THEIR clue out in the wild, only for a horrified guesser to stare back at us wide-eyed. Spelling out the word DASASTRING as a final clue for the word KITE was one of the hardest I’ve laughed this year. It’s tough to explain in words. You just have to play it.

I do have to point out though, this game is totally playable without the physical game. It’s a parlour game; the idea of the game is enough to get it going. But at the price point of barely 2 coffees, and getting a bunch of cards and hilarious ‘hint/help’ cards (everyone screaming out a letter simultaneously will always be a fond memory), there’s really no reason to skip over this! Plus, I often find having a physical box and cards to hold facilitates a game much better!

So, thanks to everyone who was involved in the creation of this game for making my life just a little bit more whimsical and hysterical! Can’t wait to laugh again soon!

[A review copy of Jibber Jabble was generously provided by @allplayhq] by @meeple.mike

105

22

10 days ago

I don’t know anything about The Legend of the Five Rings. I know it was a cool East Asian fantasy themed CCG and RPG setting. I know I really liked River of Gold, which was also set in that world. So I decided to give Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo a try.

To be honest, I wasn’t totally sold just off of the name and description. Area control isn’t always a hit with me, and the big box is reminiscent of big chonkers like Rising Sun which are always tough to get to the table.

Cut to me playing a 3P game of this last weekend and absolutely loving it.

In Gunsen, up to 6 players are Daimyo from rival Clans as they clash for control of a central fortress: The titular Toshi Ranbo. On your turn, you’ll draft a card from the row, add it to the a column on your player board, then execute every action down that column. That’s it. So as you can see, every turn will scale and scale until an explosive end!

The cards and actions are really simple. Most of them amount to either putting out some new troops, gaining resources, paying to play cards from hand, or moving your army. As soon as your troops meet any enemy troops, a battle is triggered, which involves counting some icons and rolling some dice. Resolve that, and your turn is over.

Gunsen is a race. There are 11(!) shared objectives to fulfill over the course of the game, and as soon as anyone hits 7, that’s IT. These objectives aren’t hard – win a battle, build both your buildings, play all your tactics – they’re things that you’d want to be doing anyway! But with such a limited time frame, you really have to grasp the timing and when to push for certain objectives over others.

I loved how snappy this game is. It felt breezy at 3, and I’m excited to try this at higher player counts – This might enter my rotation as a 5-6 player medium-weight game! I’d also love to check out some of the other clans. Each clan has unique personal objectives, tactics (passive abilities that last the entire game), special buildings, and even super soldiers that turn the tide of battle.

See you on the battlefield!

[A review copy of Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo was generously provided by @asmodee_canada] by @meeple.mike

222

14

11 days ago

I play a LOT of new trick-takers year after year, but only a handful of them give me that ‘Wow, let’s play again right away’ factor.

Identity, from Keita Kasagi, is one such game.

Identity is a game about fashion and individuality. There are five suits, and numbers range from -3 to +4. Each suit is a different girl, and each number is a unique outfit. Instead of the classic “must-follow” rule of most trick-takers, Identity wants you to NEVER follow. On your turn, you must play a card of a different suit AND number than every card that has already been played in the trick. You can’t be copying someone’s style!

The highest number takes the trick, while the lowest number leads the next one. If you couldn’t not follow, you take your own card back as a ‘negative trick.’ At the beginning of the game, you take two cards from your hand and place them aside to form your bet. The sum of the two cards is the number of tricks you are trying to win. Points are awarded based on how close you are to your bet at the end of the game.

It’s a simple game, but genuinely so interesting in how it turns the whole trick-taking genre on its head. Trick takers aren’t usually known for their theme, but I feel like the ‘unique identity’ vibe of the game matches perfectly in the gameplay. Be different!

I also love how there’s room in the rulebook just to give you the names of all the girls in the game. Because of course you need to know who they are. I’m partial to the lady in black and purple, Ayame Syaga. We all need a goth baddie in our lives.

And to think I just picked this up on a whim in a game store in Japan, knowing absolutely nothing about it. Just goes to show the wonders of impulse shopping (especially for cheap little card games).

In a sea of trick-takers, identity truly stands out.

If you’re like “Hey this sounds great but what the heck, it’s tough to find this one!”, then oops! Sorry! I want to point out that I get a similar kind of vibe and enjoyment from VIVO, one of Allplay’s tiny box games. So check that one out too! by @meeple.mike

88

13

12 days ago

Last bit of yap about our faves from the board game retreat weekend 🥲

I’m sorry to everyone who enjoys Night Soil but I’m just out for that theme 😅

#boardgames #boardgamecommunity #boardgamereview #bgg #boardgamegeek by @meeple.mike

115

9

13 days ago