Base price: $20.
2 players.
Play time: 10 – 25 minutes.
BGG Link
Logged plays: 2
Another game from my recent little spree (though, unfortunately, I think this is the last of them). I didn’t realize that Funbrick had more games than the games I had checked out, or at least, I think that I didn’t realize there were so many more. Gotta love itten; they’re always up to something. I was at Blue Highway Games (can’t recommend that place enough; fantastic staff and service, and generally a good vibe) making some recommendations and as a thank you for the recs this was purchased for me. Board games for everyone! So let’s see how it plays.
In Tower of Doubt, you’re attempting to claim valuable real estate against a backdrop dominated by these mysterious, conspiratorial towers. Each one rises with giant gems on all four sides, but you’re not entirely sure what to make of them. Neither is your opponent! With only one half of the information on each side, you can see what your foe is planning but not why. Are they trying to take the greatest for themselves, or trick you into a misplay? You’ll have to trust your instincts if you want to claim these towers. Will you end up with the most valuable of them all?
Contents
Setup
You need a place for the towers themselves, so place the inner box between both players. Then, set the round winner tokens nearby:
Give each player a set of tokens and a little guy in the color of their choice:
This part’s a little trickier. You’re going to need to put all the towers in the bag:
Then, remove the towers one by one and place them on the spaces on the board. Do not look at the bottom of the towers, and do not let players see the gems on top. I usually put my hand or fingers around the gems and place it and then pull my hand away. If you goof this, you have to reset. Not seeing the towers is kind of the whole point. Once you’ve done that, though, you’re ready to start!
Gameplay
Gameplay isn’t too challenging. Control the most valuable towers and you win. Or, if you control both value-2 towers, you win. The problem is, most of the towers, well, you have no idea what they are. And you certainly don’t want to help your opponent figure it out.
To start a round, the first player chooses a tower and sets their player token next to it. Then, they pick the tower up (without revealing any gems) and look at the bottom. Now they know what that number is. The second player does the same to a different tower, and the round begins in earnest.
Each turn, you may choose a tower and place one of your tokens on it. When you do, you control that tower unless your opponent places a token on it. Then, it’s theirs. Each tower can have two tokens on it, maximum, so you may place a second token on a tower you already control to lock it down, if you’d like. If you already control two towers, you don’t take another turn (though you may lose control of one tower due to an opponent’s actions, so you’d take another turn). Once both players control two towers, the round ends.
Check the towers controlled by both players; the player with the higher sum wins unless their opponent controls both 2s, in which case, they win. If there’s a tie, the tie is broken in favor of the player with the higher value on their lesser tower. The winner gets a round win token, and you set up for a new round. The player who won the previous round always goes first.
Play until one player has won three rounds; that player wins!
Player Count Differences
None; two-player only game.
Strategy
- You can always try and bluff your opponent, but that will piss them off. First-hand experience. Your goal is really to make them think you’re taking the 3 or 4 when you’re really taking the 1 or the 0. If you look at it, see the 0, and then immediately go for it, they might think you’re going after the 2 and try to steal it from you and then they’re locked in on the 0. If you’re locked in on the 0, you’re almost certain to lose unless your opponent takes a 1 and a 2 for some reason and you take the 4.
- If they don’t take the bait for your bluff, you might have hosed yourself. If you place on the 0 and they ignore it, well, now that 0 is yours. Similar to above, unless your opponent makes an aggressive misplay, you lose.
- The pigeonhole principle works both ways on this one. There is no circumstance where you will see either all white gems or all black gems, as there are always one 0 tower and one 4 tower in play. As a result, if you only see one black gem or one white gem, you know for certain that the one black gem is the 0 tower and the one white gem is the 4 tower. Similarly, if you see two, look at one of them and if it’s not the 0 or the 4 (respectively), the other definitely is.
- Note the two ways to win a round. Yes, if you lock down the 4 and the 3, you’re doing very well, but you’re also taking on a lot of risk; if your opponent gets the next two highest-available towers, they’ll get both 2s and beat you. Just having the most points isn’t enough to guarantee the win. That said, seeking out both 2s is extremely tough on its own.
- If you have secured the 4, there are very few ways that you can lose. Not zero, but few. If your opponent gets both 2s, you’re dunked. If your opponent gets the 3 and the 1 and you get the 0, then they’ll win as well. You can try to get a 2 to lock your victory in, but that’s a risky gamble. I’d just generally say if you know you have the 4, try to avoid grabbing any fully-blank towers.
- Don’t give your opponent additional information. If you immediately see your opponent jump on towers that appear valuable to you (2 visible white gems on your side), that’s useful information! That means they’re definitely not bluffing you into a 0 (otherwise there would be 0 visible white gems). You can try to take them from your opponent. If they pick one they didn’t look at, they might be bluffing or they might have used their peek action to figure out multiple towers’ worth of information.
- Which tower to look at first depends on context. Try to glean what you can from the field of play before you decide. If you have two towers and you can’t tell which is which, I’d usually pick one of those to disambiguate the two. Then you get two pieces of information from one peek!
Pros, Mehs, and Cons
Pros
- I love the Funbrick series, both from an aesthetics and a size standpoint. I really like how itten presents these games? The box is very white, yes, but it’s a small box, very stackable, and there’s always some pleasant and whimsical cover art for the game itself. I find the game’s very inviting on the shelf at a game store and I’ve had to stop myself from buying them multiple times. This one was actually a gift (thanks Catherine!).
- The bluffing element in this game is subtle but delightful. If you can genuinely trick someone into going towards a tower you don’t care about or staying away from a tower that you want, it feels great. Otherwise, it’s very tricky. Are you going to risk signaling what you want to take by playing a token on it? Or are you going to wait and hope that your opponent chooses the one you want arbitrarily so you can lock it down? It’s not as easy of a decision as it sounds.
- There’s a lot of interesting information you can glean from your opponent’s intent. It’s not necessarily going to be the same game every time you play it. This is very much a bluffing game in the vein of Cursed Court, and I love Cursed Court. I’d say it’s much smaller in scope and scale, but that also improves its portability. Different players have different styles, whether they lead with what they want or avoid it or chase you or try to play mind games; even at this tiny of a scale you’ll have a pretty varied set of experiences.
- Very quick to play. Some rounds you might only have two moves! That’s usually not great if you and your opponent agree to mutually distinct towers, but on the plus side, it’s almost always only bad for one of you!
Mehs
- Going first really isn’t the best, so this is actually one of the few times that “play multiple rounds until someone’s won X” lands, for me. Going first sucks! You have to make the first move and your opponent gets to react to it, which matters a ton in bluffing games. Here, though, you’re just playing for information and control, so an opening volley doesn’t even do damage or anything, so you’re just out information with that first turn. If you win, great; do it again. If you lose, well, maybe it was just a bad information configuration, so let’s see how your opponent does with it. I think it makes a lot of sense to have this game be multiple rounds of play, even though they’re all virtually the same.
Cons
- A lot of the game’s setup depends on players not accidentally leaking information, which always makes for an unsatisfying reshuffle if someone messes it up. This happens a lot with hidden information games; when information needs to be hidden from both players, it’s really important that nobody sees more than they should, even accidentally. Here, if any player sees three sides of a tower, that’s too much and you have to reset the whole round, no matter when it happens. Yes, this could be misused by a player behaving inappropriately, just to get that out of the way, but if you play with someone like that you should stop playing games with that person. Just a recommendation. But the reset, while relatively quick, is still frustrating all around; it kills the momentum of the round.
Overall: 8 / 10
Overall, I think Tower of Doubt is fun! I appreciate, as a series, that the Funbrick games have so many varied options and genres between them. Having a neat two-player bluffing game is a lot of fun, though I think my favorite of the set will remain Viking See-Saw or 3-Second Try. They’re just both so off-the-wall. Tower of Doubt still does a bunch of things I like, though! For one, it’s got strong presentation. I really like that you use the inner box as the stage area and place the towers somewhat secretly. Good table presence for a small game, though I think all the Funbricks have that in spades. My one gripe here is the same for a lot of hidden information games (like Cryptid, for instance): one mistake can completely shoot the round to hell, forcing you to do an otherwise deeply boring reset. I get that it’s just the cost of doing business, but it’s still a frustrating experience for players. Not much you can do about it without trying to do something genuinely silly, though. But look, a slimmed down game experience can be great for travel or a date (though a bluffing game is risky for a date unless you know the person). I’m generally convinced that itten gets it right, and their vision is well-executed here (especially for the small footprint). If you enjoy bluffing games, mysterious towers, or crave portability, Tower of Doubt is going to be a solid choice! I like it a lot.
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