Quicksand

One game we played while we were at EGX this weekend was “Quickstand” by Horrible Guild, played by myself and Jack(8.).

The game works by creating a long snake of cogs made of different colours and shapes. Each player starts with a hand of three cards, along with a central deck. To begin the game, you turn over the sand timers. In order to move the sand timers, you must play a card that matches either the colour or the shape of a particular sand timer cog.

When you play a card, the sand timer advances to the next cog. This means you cannot play a card on a sand timer that is blocked in front. The objective is to lay cards and keep the sand timers moving without letting any of them run out. An interesting aspect of this mechanic is that if you play your first two turns on the same sand timer in quick succession, you can actually run out of time.

We played the first level, which was fairly simple with two slow sand timers and one medium. The box also contains faster sand timers to increase the difficulty.

The component quality is a bit of a mixed bag. The cards are generally nice, although I’m not a fan of square cards personally. I found them uncomfortable to hold. The discs, which represent cogs, are somewhat strange as they don’t actually resemble cogs, and I would have preferred them to be more recognizably cog-shaped. Oddly, the spikes on the sides particularly the triangular ones are quite sharp, and when I first picked up a handful from the box, it wasn’t the most pleasant experience. The other components are as expected, and there is a decent insert. However, the artwork on the box doesn’t lend itself to a premium quality product. If this were to get re-released in the future, a complete visual design overhaul would work much better.

Jack really enjoyed this game, and it was good fun, providing a nice way to pass the time. However, if I’m honest, this is the epitome of a board game cafe game. I would definitely play it again if I saw it at a board game cafe, but I don’t think I would ever buy it.

A definite recommendation to play if you happen to come across it, and it’s different enough to stand out as something a little bit unusual. However, it’s not an essential addition by any means.

Not super easy to get in the UK at the moment but is available straight from Horrible Guild’s website.