There’s not many games that include a ‘moody mule’ and in this one he’s the centerpiece of the game, so important in fact that the game is named after him. Yep, with a mule named Buckaroo, you can guess what he specialises in.
This beast of burden has been being loaded with mining gear since the 1970s, no wonder he’s so moody. We do wonder sometimes if he ever gets to the mine that he’s supposed to be carrying this stuff to, or if his owner just gives up and takes it themselves.
In the first edition of the game he was known as ‘Roo’ and was coloured white, since then he has been called by his full name and has also changed colour to brown.
We pause this blog for a Public Service Announcement…
‘Rumours have been circulating of the mistreatment of board game mules and we would like to take this chance to advise on the best way to look after your own mule.’
‘You are able to calm your mule before you load him up for his workday, there is a switch under his blanket that can be set between 1 to 3, 1 being calmest and 3 being extra moody, choose wisely! Always place the blanket on Buckaroo’s back before trying to settle him.’
‘People have then been sighted slapping Buckaroo on the hindquarters to try and make him stay down, please treat your mule gently and first, push his back down so that his feet touch the floor and then with a kind motion, gently push down on his tail, this will make him stay down.’
Thank you for listening, we now return you to your blog…
This is a game of light touches and smart decisions on what to place where… What game could possibly challenge those two skills and improve on such a classic? Prepare for something stunning…
The new dexterity contender: Nekojima!
Cats!
On wires!
That is all. Sold, Finito.
…Well, okay, maybe a bit more info?
Nekojima was released in 2023 and made a big splash at the biggest board game convention in the world, Essen Spiel. I was lucky enough to snag a copy there and this has proved to be very, very, very popular whenever I have shown it off to a gaming group. It’s now available in the UK so I can finally do a blog about it!
‘Neko’ is japanese for cat, ‘Jima’ means island. This island has a lot of cats and an electric network supply issue. Players take the roles of Denchuu (electric power cable poles) installers and try not to make the whole network collapse. With a steady hand and clever positioning you can be a winner in this awesome game.
Let’s talk through a usual round then tell you about the twists that make what could have just been a good game into a top tier epic game.
On your go you will roll the two dice. These represent the districts of Nekojima that need power, Food, Culture, Residence, Attraction. Each is a different colour on the board. Whatever two colours you get then you have to place the ends of your Denchuu in those districts. You will then draw a cube from the bag, if it is pink, white, or blue then you will choose from the Denchuu that has that coloured wire and place it on the board. Done. That in essence is how you play.
Now to explain the extra bits, well… First of all, don’t dice have 6 sides? Why only 4 districts? Well, the other two are a multicoloured side and a black side… the multicoloured side lets YOU choose the district it represents and the black side lets the NEXT PLAYER choose a district. Evil. Yeeeees… Muahahaha! Just enough interaction to mess people up. What a delight!
When drawing a cube, sometimes it’s a black cube, well… hold on to that until after you place your Denchuu and keep drawing until you get a different one.
You’ll notice something about the colour of the wires soon enough… Pink are short, white are longer and blue are the longest. Hmm… now, poles must be placed with the wire at the top, you may NOT touch the wire (I mean, it’s electrified, that’s just dangerous!), you can’t wrap the wire around the pole and (here’s the genius part) if the district is getting a bit full then you can place your Denchuu pole ON TOP OF ANOTHER IN THE CORRECT DISTRICT. Woah! Game changer! This is where it starts getting interesting.
I came here for the cats? WHERE ARE THE CATS?
Yes, yes, yes, ‘cat island’ wouldn’t be called that if there were no cats, would it now, well, remember those black cubes I mentioned, once you have placed your Denchuu if you have pulled a black cube that turn you may pass it to another player. After they have placed their Denchuu on their go they have to place a cat on a cable of the same colour as they just drew that does not already have a cat on it. The cats have various sizes, better to place the smaller ones first… and if you were the giver of the cube then you better hope the person you gave a cube doesn’t remember and give you one back later when the cats are chonkier. Uh oh!
There are more rules on placement and after you’ve placed Denchuu and cats you must check your installation, like any good Denchuu installer would in real life. Wires can’t go outside the play area (I like to think maritime rules apply here, it’s dangerous for shipping), cables must not touch other cables or the floor (again, plain dangerous!), cats can’t touch the board, poles, other cables or other cats. As long as you have installed it properly it’s on to the next turn.
But wait, there’s more!
The game also comes with a cooperative variant, a solo mode and four other game variants.
Urban Jungle that limits the height of stacking poles to two. Duo that pairs of people hold a pole each as they stack and play in a team. Skyscrapers that limits the number of poles that can touch the base. Expert that makes the installation check a failure if you do any of them during your turn.
Just a note here but I’ve played a duo variant with an odd number of players so that each time you go around the table you are paired with one of two different players. It’s ace! So there are even ways to amend the rules yourself. Do ask about this if you ever need to know!
Gosh. What a lot of variability, not to mention the four Kickstarter expansions that you might be able to find (Lazy Cats, Tsunami, More Cats, Lantern) and the just released Torii expansion that also includes the famous fortune telling cat Maneki Neko. So for a game that plays in less than 15 minutes (although, one is never enough), can be played with any player count from 1 to 8 too, it is a step up from a bucking mule but takes the essence of that classic and just does it better.
Get your claws into this now, it’s shocking how much fun it is so raise your gaming to new heights with Nekojima.