Pack the Essentials
- Board's Eye View
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
Designed by Jacqueline Atkins, Pack the Essentials is an easy-to-play drafting and polyomino tile placement game from Wacky Wizard - the lighter side of publishers Wise Wizard. The theme is notionally about packing items of clothing into your 'suitcase' (individual player board). There's a solo version, and with 2-4 players you can either all play with identical suitcases or vary the game by flipping the suitcase player boards to their asymmetric sides.
The game is played over 12 rounds, and each round you'll always get to take one polyomino tile and a bonus, but the bonus depends on which turn order you pick. Go for first or second turn order and your bonus will be a single or two-square underwear or sock tile. Players in third and fourth place might end up with a less desirable polyomino tile but their bonus will include a rat tile, and these can be traded in in order to flip a polyomino tile to its reverse side, showing a cat rather than an item of clothing. This may not make much thematic sense - and we're pretty certain that Wacky Wizards aren't suggesting that cats should be stuffed into suitcases! - but for the purposes of the game it's a way of upping your points score.
This is a set collection game where you're trying to have as many tiles of the same colour adjacent to one another. Each game will also have three randomly chosen 'To-Do List' objectives, and these too will offer a way of scoring; for example, giving bonus points for each cat that's adjacent to a sock or underwear tile.
Pack the Essentials is family friendly, and the cute art from Adam Lachmanski and Antonis Papantoniou adds to the game's appeal. And tho' it's a game that non-gamers will be happy to play, the decision-space over whether or not to sacrifice choice of polyomino in favour of the more desirable bonus is sufficiently compelling to make Pack the Essentials of interest too to more seasoned gamers. And with a playing time of around 20-30 minutes, depending on player count, this game is never going to outstay its welcome.
One to pack for your holidays!