More toys, more toys, more … no not that one, this one! What are we going to do with all of THOSE?
If you think you have what it takes to stay up to date with the latest toy crazes, then Overstocked is for you! Keep the most desirable toys stocked in your warehouse, and don’t buy too much of a toy whose popularity has already peaked! Let’s check it out.
What Is It?
A commodity speculation game where players are laying cards out each round either to their own play area (warehouse) or the shared central play area (popularity). Players only have 6 cards to play through the game (one per round), so they have to manage their hand so they can play cards at the right time to try and make high scoring groups. After 6 rounds, players look at the largest contiguous group of each toy in the popularity and in their warehouse and multiply those numbers for each toy to score, but the toy with the largest group in the popularity scores negative points, so players want to make sure they don’t have too many of those. The player with the most points wins!
Who Is It For?
- 1 – 6 Players – Works fine at any count, but I think it shines at 3 – 4. Less players meant not a lot of cards were played, and 6 players was a little too hectic for me
- Ages 10+ – The rules are pretty simple, but some of the scoring and some of the included expansions can be a little more tricky, so younger players might struggle a bit
- Players who like commodity speculation, tile laying, pattern building, and a little bit of chaos
- Players who don’t mind the potential of negative points
Expansions / Variants
There was a lot of extra stuff in this small box, which was super cool!
Advanced Variant – Players score half points (positive or negative as normal) for the toy with the largest group in their own warehouse. I thought this was fine and I could play with or without it in any game.
Solo Mode – In this you play against a bot, and essentially just want the bot not to have large groups of any toy since the bot doesn’t score negative points. I thought it was okay, a bit puzzley, but you had so little control that it just felt bogged down with randomness. The game starts with the bot just getting 2 points per even numbered card in your hand, which was weird. It’s not bad, but it just reaffirmed to me that I think the game is best with 3 -4.
Pre-Order Incentives – There’s one token of each toy type, and a token for workers and for empty crates. Players can take one after any turn and score that toy normally (they always score positively); workers and empty crates score 3 points per worker/crate in your biggest area. This is a neat mini-expansion which creates a little bit of a race element if you are building a large group of toys the same as someone else. Even if you don’t get a ton of points off of this, it can help in counteracting some of the negative points, which is also nice.
Industrial Mechanisation – These tiles range from 0 – 10 points, and after any turn a player can take one and place it in their warehouse following normal rules. It’s worth the number of points on it, and at the end of the game, all crates adjacent to the token also count as being adjacent to each other. I thought this one was really cool because, again, it creates a bit of a race for points, but it’s not just about grabbing points early, but about positioning the forklift well, so that you can best utilize the bonus adjacency.
Quantum Accounting – Each round the player who plays the lowest numbered card exchanges it for one of these cards instead. The Quantum crates will count as 2 of the 4 toy types at the end of the game. I thought this didn’t work great in a 2 player game, because it’s possible for one player to get a lot of these cards, which can severely help or harm them. With more players, it’s still just okay. Since you never know until cards are revealed if you’re the lowest, it creates more chaos because you may lose the card you had plans for.
PROS
- Cute art
- Plays smoothly
- Nice components across the board
- Rules are well-written
- Game play isn’t super complex but does offer a nice layer of strategy
- Small box with lots of stuff – plenty of replay value / variety
- I like that you can use as few or as many expansions as you want, and they all work well together or on their own
- Neat that you have your own area that no one can touch as well as the shard central area that is constantly evolving
CONS
- Bit chaotic at higher player counts – difficult to speculate much since the game state changes so much round to round
- I do think the scoring can be a bit confusing or overwhelming at first, and if you don’t understand the scoring, you likely won’t do well in the game either
Final Thoughts
This game took me a little bit to warm up to, because the way the popularity changes was overwhelming to me the first few plays, and it was hard for me to feel in control of how I was going to score.
But, overall, I do think the game is pretty neat, and offers good decision space, and simple strategy.
I also think that the mini-expansions are easy to add in once you get the hang of the game, and give the game a lot of variety play after play. This one is cute and definitely worth a few plays!
Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 6/10
Designer – Mandela Fernandez-Grandon
Artist – Archie Edwards
Publisher – Play For Keeps
MSRP – £16.00 (~$18.00)
Website
*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*
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