Panda Spin

Moon gate design

Initial score. Plan to play more on BGA. But overall really glad to see Carl doing more stuff away from Asmadi. The development team over there has really been on a slump with his last few releases. The new innovation has lost all of its cohesiveness and Aegean Sea has some good ideas but was developed into a now common Cieslik mess of randomness for randomness sake.

I was beginning to think that climbing games provide less fertile ground for innovation than trick-takers. Then along comes Panda Spin with its cards that don't win a trick returned to hand rotated to their more powerful ends, special effects, and its element cards that win tricks at the cost of drawing two new cards. Those same spirit cards can be discarded. In theory, those rotating cards add decisions about when to lose in order to strengthen your hand. In practice, the play felt quite chaotic, with trick winning bombs (sets of four or more of the same value) much more common than in Tichu, and hands in a state of flux.

The cards are good quality and the art is gorgeous.

A lot of fun - Not usually a fan of ladder games but this has some intriguing maneuvering.

Essen

Played at convention of board and card games lovers, with many Tichu fans. Always had a great time.