Sunrise Tornado Game Studio have a track record of crowd-funding very cute games. Up until now, our favourite has been Cat Rescue – a game of rescuing and re-homing cats from the streets, with lovely cat artwork, that has since been used in a number of their campaigns. The same designer and publisher combo also recently gained a wider audience with a reprint of Promenade released by Rio Grande Games.

 

Macaron continues with the cute themes – a small package that looks just like a luxury package of tasty marcarons. The artwork throughout the game is simple but lovely, and should be just the thing to attract lighter gamers to the table. However, if you’re expecting a light card game, Macaron might hold a few surprises – it’s a simple game, but it’ll certainly exercise your brain!

Macaron is a trick taking game that takes course over a number of rounds. Players will choose to play to 10 or 20 points to win. Points are gained by winning more tricks during a round, and by correctly betting on how many tricks they will win this round. At the start of a round each player will be dealt a hand of cards before choosing two to pass away to the player on their right. The last player will then select which ingredient(s) will be trumps this round, while the first player chooses the allergy ingredient. Each player then gets a chance to bet on how well they will do before the round begins with the start player starting the first trick. 

 

Gameplay then proceeds as a fairly standard trick taking affair, the lead player plays a card with a number and ingredient (set), each other player must follow with a card of the same ingredient. Once every player has played a card the player with the highest numbered card in the correct set wins the trick. Should you not have a card that matches the set then you can play a card of any set, typically this is a losing move, unless you play a card from one of the trump sets. Trump cards beat all other cards except for another trump card of a higher number. 

 

At the end of a trick the winner will earn 1 box, this lets them move along the scoring track 1 space. Should a trick be won by a ‘1’ card then the winner will instead gain three boxes. Should a trick be won which contains any number of cards of the current allergy ingredient then the winner will earn no boxes, unless one of the cards played this round was a ‘2’. The round will end either when each player has run out of cards or one player earns their eighth box at which point boxes will be converted into points and points will be rewarded for correct bets or lost for incorrect bets.

 
Amy’s Final Thoughts
 

Don’t let Amy put you off Macaron. It turns out that I’m quite good at it, and I’ve won every time we’ve played, so I can see why that’s been a dissatisfying experience for Amy. All too often the shoe is on the other foot and I’m being trounced in a game where her natural aptitude is higher, so I know how it feels.

 

For me, Macaron is a delightful trick-taking game. There are very few trick-taking games that work for two-players, which is a shame, because they’re a style of game I really enjoy, perhaps because traditional card games were the thing we played most when growing up. However, Macaron does not rely of this uniqueness as its only selling point, it has a few other unique aspects that I’ve really enjoyed puzzling out.

 

My strategy varies each round depending on whether I’m the player selecting the trump flavour or if I’m the player selecting the allergen (We’ve only played at two, so this just alternates every turn. The strategy when you’re deciding trump can be quite simple – I try to put myself in a position where I have a lot of the trump card and ideally, noting in one or two other flavours, so that I get to play trump often. If you’re deciding the allergen, it’s far harder to visualise the correct strategy – if helps if you think the other player has lots of cards in the allergen, and perhaps if you have the ‘2’ card from the allergen flavour, that’ll give you an element of surprise to win one trick. I love that we’ve played a number of times and I’m still trying to figure out the best ways to play for each turn.

 

 

Not only is there this enjoyable layer of interest, but you also have the option to bet on how you’ll score in each round. This element reminds me a little of Pikoko and also Fox in the Forest. Like Fox in the Forest, you might find yourself in a situation where you’re really playing towards the scoring sweet spot – you might have won a few unexpected tricks early on in the round, and then need to deliberately lose some tricks just to make sure your bet is correct. 

Macaron is a fast game whether you choose to play to 10 or 20 points, and I really enjoy tryin to puzzle out the optimal way to play every time this game comes to the table. I’m quite disappointed that I won’t get to play this more with Amy!