Silly Start-Ups & Brand Bidding - A 2GP Review of "Venture Capital" by Sixpence Games

Two-Gun Pixie Presents:

LEGENDARY GAMING

018 – Silly Start-Ups

& Brand Bidding

Step right up to the greatest circus in the world and put your money where your mouth is, nerds.

This time around the Great Grognard and the Twenty-Sided Warriors bring you a game of losing your shirt and gaining a fortune. This brings to the gaming table the classic theme of the American Dream; entrepreneurship.

So, come one, come all, and enter the shark tank of...

Venture

Capital

The copy of this game I received for review purposes was a prototype of

the game and came with no game box or rules (I was given a PDF of the rules)

Designers: Thomas Eliot

Publisher: Sixpence Games Year Published: 2016

:Manufacturer Suggested Player Age: 8+ Number of Players: 2 - 6 Average Play Time: 15 minutes Game Type: Card Management, Secret Bidding, Set Collection

The Box

As mentioned above, no game box was supplied for review purposes of this game.

The Components

CARDS! CARDS!! CARDS!!!

This game has no components other than the rules for the game and a deck of cards:

15 Start-Up Cards 6 decks of 15 identical Bidding Cards (one deck for each player)

I found the prototype cards to be of decent production and good enough to run some test plays. The art on the cards is fun and cute in a cartoonish style that should appeal to the younger players.

We used a PDF of the rules supplied by Sixpence Games. The rules were written very straightforward and we found no confusion in reading them. As you’ll see, the rules are very easy.

You will learn to play this game in a moment!

Synopsis

Use bidding cards to try to buy up start-up companies and gain same-type sets for bonus points.

At the end of the game the player with the most points in Start-Ups wins.

Set-Up

Each player receives their own Bidding Deck of 15 cards. Each player’s deck is identical to every other player’s deck denoting amounts in numerical order from 1 to 15.

Shuffle the Startup deck and place it in the middle of the play area within reach of all the players.

The top card from the Start-Up Deck is flied over for all players to see.

Game Play

At the start of the game a player will flip over the top card of the Startup deck for the players to bid on.

Each player will secretly select one of their bidding cards and place it face down in front of them. When all players have chosen a bidding card everyone turns over their card to reveal their bid. The highest bidder gets the Startup – in the case of a tie the Startup is rewarded to the Next highest non-tied player. In the case of all the players actually tie then no one gets the Startup and it is discarded. Then the next card from the top of the Startup deck is drawn and played face-up. Play will continue in this manner until a player wins.

The bidding cards you use are discarded for rest of the game SO USE THEM WISELY!

Since you can only use each of your Bidding Cards once it does take careful planning to hold on to the cards for the right Start-Up in order to maximize your collection.

The winning player is determined after ALL 15 Startup cards have been played. The player with the most points wins.

YAY!

0.o

“The most points?”

“How do we score points?”

Good question.

Startup cards may have a number printed on them; 1, 3, 5, or 7.

Some might list a Type such as; App, Device, Service, etc. The more matching types you have gained during the game, then the more bonus points they will score you at the end.

Cards are worth the points printed on them PLUS additional bonus points for categories. For each category you count up how many cards you have successfully bid of that category and square it. These are your bonus points.

That's it.

No…

Really. A blind bidding game of tact and reason. Pay close attention to what type of Start-Ups your opponents are trying to score and be mindful when you use which Bidding Card to try to secure which Start-Up.

Final Thoughts

There is not much to this card game; component-light, super-easy rules, and easy to travel with. The fun comes from the actual bidding and out-bidding of your friends. There is also a bit of fun concerning the silly start-ups presented in the game.

The game's artwork is good and fun to look at. In fact, I'd say the art is great for the game. It is a little silly and cartoonist which fits the atmosphere of the game perfectly.

The quality of the cards is ok, nothing to write home about but they are not as cheap as some prototypes we have received for review. I'm sure the final production version will be far superior to the beta version.

Overall, the Twenty-Sided Warriors and I all seemed to enjoy playing this game. Personally, I feel that this is a great family game. This may also be a great gateway game for younger players. This game will definitely rate better with families I’m betting. Well, family oriented or not, this gaming group, which consists of 20s, 30s, and 40 year olds, had a fun time playing Venture Capital.