Dale Yu: First Impressions of Keepsakes and Catapult Feud

Keepsakes

• Designer: Bobby West
• Publisher: Play All Day Games
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Keepsakes, players create a line of memories, competing to select, arrange, and recall those memories in order to gain the most Keepsakes, representing the player’s score. Players start with two Keepsakes, and may gain or lose more as they complete challenges and recite the line of memories, represented by various face-up and face-down cards.

Players take turns by drawing a new memory card, adding it to the line of memories, defining the memory, and reciting the line of memories in order, starting with the first one played. Players may then call out if the person seems to have done something incorrectly, with Keepsakes trading hands accordingly.

Each memory card is different; they may require players to say something only they know, something they can see, something that they prefer, etc. Sometimes tasks appear, requiring players to complicate their turns, or players can opt for available challenges to increase their Keepsake collection. Some memory cards may reorder the memory line or be turned face-down, forcing players to reorient themselves or risk losing Keepsakes.

Play ends when any player has zero Keepsakes remaining or the memory deck runs out, and whoever has the most Keepsakes wins (ties permitted. With that in mind players can opt to play cooperatively instead to attempt to gather the most Keepsakes collectively.

This memory game might be better classified by me as an activity – but one that is fun and enriching when played with a group of friends or by family members.  The reason for this is that all the players end up learning things about the other players in the game based on the memories shared as the game plays out.  Though it isn’t part of the rules, players often tell the story that goes with the memory, and that is a cool part of the game.

I’m of the opinion that these sorts of games/activities aren’t played to be won or lost but rather to be experienced.  For family get togethers, retreats or other events where you want to develop bonds and memories with the other players, this could be a good fit.

Link https://www.playalldaygames.com/product-page/keepsakes

Catapult Feud

• Designer: Kristian Fosh
• Publisher: Play All Day Games
• Players: 2
• Age: 7+
• Time: 30-45 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Build your castles, set up your troops, load your catapults and use your cunning tactics to win the day! The War for the Floor has begun once more!

Catapult Feud (original series was named, ‘Catapult Kingdoms’), is a game of last person standing. Your objective is to knock down all your opponent’s troops!

Starting with the youngest player, choose your family: Chaufort or Cunningfields. Then, use your bricks to build a castle to fortify your troops. Using your catapult, launch boulders in an attempt to destroy your opponent’s castle and knock over their troops. When all troops of one family are knocked over, the battle is over. The winning family must have at least one troop standing upright.

The game is played in a series of rounds. During a round, starting with the youngest player, everyone takes a turn. Each player’s turn is divided into four phases: Tactics, Aim, Fire and Cleanup. Perform these phases in order, finishing each one before moving to the next. When all players have had their turn, the round finishes. You keep on playing round after round until there is only one player with troops on the table.

This game reminds me of my childhood; I spent many a day playing the old Crossbows and Catapults, and you pretty much have to pay a king’s ransom to find those sets on Ebay at this point.  This version is a nice modern replacement, though only with catapults.  Which, let’s face it, is the more fun weapon anyway.  Any kid can use the crossbow to slide a puck across the floor and blow up a castle; it takes true skill to launch something via catapult to hit the target.

The components are really nice; the plastic bricks feel nice and the boulders are a nice rubberized material that are hard enough to blow stuff up but also likely not to cause injuries to young players.  I gave the game a test run with some cousins over the Thanksgiving holiday, and it provided hours of fun.  I’ll admit that we didn’t play by the “rules”, we just set up the castles and flung boulders at each other, but for the young kids, they were happy and enthralled, and that’s all that matters.

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/49WDxvS

Until your next appointment.

The Gaming Doctor