Spots

Spots (2022) is a game about matching dice with spotty dogs to complete tricks and Dog cards. You play by selecting a Trick to determine how many dice you can roll, then placing them to match dice on the Dog cards. It stands out because there are lots of ways to try and complete your Dog cards, but any unmatched dice go to your backyard and inch you closer to busting and losing all your points.

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Spots is a game all about balancing risk and reward. You race other players to complete six Dog cards first by selecting the Tricks with the best likelihood of filling your Dog cards and not sending too many unmatched dice to the Backyard. When you have a value of seven in your Backyard you lose all your dice and end your go.

As you progress you complete your Dog cards and turn them over. To do this faster than other players you select Tricks that push-your-luck to get as many dice as possible, but without busting. Maybe you pick Walk, to avoid sending too many to the backyard. Or maybe you pick Run because you have lots of Dog cards with spots to fill.

The result is a game that works with players of all abilities. Younger players can enjoy slowly filling their dogs with dice. More advanced competitors can work at selecting Tricks with just the right probabilities of getting the dice they want (and how many you'll send to the backyard). But everyone still has a chance of winning. Spots is simple to learn, but has enough crunch to make every turn full of interesting decisions.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Spots 15 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 15 months ago.