We think "I Cut You Choose" is not for us 😞 | A Review of Stamp Swap

[@unclesamb]

Very informative and helpful review, thank you! Quick thematic note: "Forever" stamps are a thing in the US. You can buy the stamp for whatever the current price is, and it will always be usable for standard postage even if the price later goes up. They don't have a price listed on the stamp, just the word "forever".

[@ThinkerThemer]

Whoa 🤯 that's cool!!!

[@juliel5474]

@@ThinkerThemerWe have the same in Canada as well. :)

[@paulsalomon27]

Hey you two! Thanks so much for the thoughtful review. :)

[@ThinkerThemer]

Thanks for watching Paul and for another unique game design. Look forward to seeing whatever you come up with next! ☺️

[@ncreson]

I love this review. Even though you didn't care for it, you still highlighted the fact that its not necessarily a bad game and just not your type of game. That is so much better than someone shitting on a game that they just don't like because of a mechanic they dont like. I love your channel

[@ThinkerThemer]

Thank you for such a thoughtful comment - this means a lot to us ☺️ Thanks for watching!

[@Cissewis]

Thanks Amy and Maggie for another great review! Really appreciate your honest thoughts :) Cis

[@ThinkerThemer]

Glad it was helpful and hope you've been well Cis! 🧡

[@kredal]

Great review, it's funny that you call it a miss, and still rated it so highly. I'm still interested in getting it to the table. So to explain the Forever stamps, it's purely an American thing, they're first class postage stamps that will always be accepted as postage for letters, regardless of how much you paid for them at retail. So if I bought a stamp in 2007 for 41 cents, it will still send an envelope now that postage is 73 cents. This is great for people who don't send many letters and just buy a roll of stamps about once a decade!

[@jameskirk4692]

Thanks for the great comprehensive review! Very informative and useful.

[@wedgeex]

One of the many reasons I love your channel. Not every game is going to land for every group and I'm glad you don't give everything a stellar review.

[@jcheung5145]

Which board game table do you have?

[@johndavidharding]

Thorough review! I can't wait to try this game!! I think you could have talked a little more about how the Reserve space gives you greater control over what you gain for your album. It is a crucial aspect of the strategy!

[@ThinkerThemer]

Yes that is true but it's only 3 items in the entire game. It does provide the reprieve for us of control / certainly though! Thanks for taking the time to comment.

[@olanmills64]

I like 'I cut, you choose' and the little tweak this game has where you also get to pick one thing to keep seemed intriguing. Now this review has me thinking I gotta play this before just impulsively ordering it, but in the end your review scores were still preihood 🤔

[@SteveinJersey1234]

Thank you so much for this extremely thoughtful review. It has spared me from making an acquisition which I very much would have regretted, as I share your thoughts 100% on why this game would not be for me or for my primary board gaming partner - my wife. I was all set to purchase based on several previews and because I love the theme of stamp collecting, a hobby I pursued years ago that I still have fond memories of. But those initial impressions made me overlook past negative experiences we've had with games featuring "I cut you choose" as a primary mechanic (e.g. Hanamikoji, Tussie Mussie's solo expansion). Unfortunately both my wife and I found this mechanic to be frustrating as it went against our instinctive preference for making decisions focused on benefiting our own respective positions rather than denying good opportunities for the opponent. So while I truly regret reversing my decision to purchase Stamp Swap - as I own and really enjoy many Stonemaier games - this is clearly the right decision for my wife and I.

[@paulsalomon27]

You should definitely check out Penny Black, if you want a light stamp collecting game. Great components and a light and breezy experience.

[@SteveinJersey1234]

@@paulsalomon27 Thanks for the suggestion! Will check it out.

[@Viragomp]

Thanks for the honest and fair review!! It looks like a really interesting game, but I'm with you on that mechanic -- the only 'I cut you choose' game I enjoy is Marabunta, which I think works great, but every other one I've tried fell flat (and I think Hanamikoji is *just okay* too). Cheers!!

[@whiskeygamesnerdstuff789]

Appreciate the video , been wondering about this one.

[@victoriarobinson3909]

I'm going to give this game a try. I like cut and choose mechanism, you just need to stop thinking of them as YOUR stamps. They arent your stamps until you put them on the board. Where as the auction mechanic is everywhere, and it can get a bit tedious, especially in 2 players. You are just playing higher or lower then. I also like how you can choose what catagory you score i that round. So you dont get boxed out of scoring. If you dont score as much its down to your chocices rather than everyone elses.

[@gadgetgeekgirl]

I looked up "I cut you choose" games and discovered Castles of Mad King Ludwig was the highest rated. I love that game, but there is the catchup of adding coins to rubbish tiles which mitigates some of the problems I guess? The theme of this one didn't grab me so I was waiting to see if the gameplay was good. Thank you for honest review!!

[@paulsalomon27]

Ludwig is sort of an I-price-you-choose. Sort of different, but similar.

[@mariuszkania9947]

Another top notch A&M gameplay on Rahdo''s. Love it :)

[@ThinkerThemer]

Aww thank you for saying that!!! We learned from the best :)

[@Luke_L]

Hi Amy and Maggie! Looks like this one is a “try before you buy” for me. I have mixed experiences with “I cut, you choose”. My group didn’t care for Isle of Skye which was mentioned as the most similar game in Jamey and Paul’s. My group did enjoy The Great Split though which was an honorable mention. In any case, I’m only considering picking up a game if it really generates a lot of excitement for me, and I don’t feel that about this game based on yours and others’ preview videos. Thank you for the informative video! See ya next time :)

[@ludwigmises]

I think that the hidden tiles, the drafting, and the I-cut-you-choose is a bit too much; they kind of trip on one another. But I love the theme and the look.

[@nicholasschneider6655]

I'm confused, in two different ways, about the "problem" of nobody taking one of your two sets of stamps you've put on offer. 1. If you get to keep both piles, isn't that still a good thing? You now have (roughly) twice as many items to put into your show, even if some of them are not at all worthwhile. Or is there an issue with running out of space later? 2. If nobody picks one of your piles, does that not mean that BOTH of someone else's tiles were chosen, and therefore that person is left with nothing? Earlier in the game description, I thought you had said that when one of your pile is chosen, you get to keep the other (I was assuming that meant it's no longer available for other players).

[@paulsalomon27]

Great questions! 1. It depends a bit on how you play. I tend to draft all kinds of things that I want, and then make piles that feel sort of even so that no matter what I'm left with I'm happy. Then if I get both of my piles, I'm thrilled, usually. On the other hand, based on reviews, it sounds like a lot of people try to draft stuff they like as well as things someone else will want. Like if you pick the first player marker, I can grab a couple things you want, and try to get you to take my smaller pile and leave me with my bigger pile - the one more tailored to me and that I'm hoping to keep. This is a very cool and sneaky way to play, but it does mean that if you get both of your piles you're probably less happy with it than in the way I play. All of that is strategy and player choice, so I'm ok with all of it. I think the main thing is just that players don't expect for that to happen, and it strikes them as odd. Even players that quickly go "oh, good I get to keep all my stuff" have a momentary disappointment when their expectations aren't exactly met. 2. No matter what happens everyone will get at least one of their piles. The only way for someone to get both of their piles is if they are the last remaining player in the swap phase while everyone else has already claimed a pile. In other words, in a 4 player game, players A,B, and C end up swapping with each other in one way or another, while player D just gets their own at the end of the round.

[@BoardGameCo]

You should try Hanamikoji! If you haven't already.

[@BoardGameCo]

Nevermind....nevermind. I'll go be sad elsewhere.

[@ThinkerThemer]

🤣🤣🤣

[@ThinkerThemer]

Can we still be friends

[@nowvoyaging8881]

Thank you for the thoughtful review and for your honesty! I appreciate how much thought you put into this! Also, if you’re looking for another stamp collecting game to try, I recommend Penny Black! It is more like the tile laying of Art Society!

[@tehpickle1250]

Amy, those nails are on point! Green is so under-rated! Cute theme, but 'I cut you choose' seems to create a lot of AP in my group for some reason. It's also not a favourite mechanism in general. I'm happy keeping it restricted to much lighter 2p games like Hanamikoji or Tussie Mussie etc.

[@juleswatson7646]

Art Society is A+ gaming for me! Might have to give Stamp Swap a miss. Very insightful thoughts as always!

[@ThinkerThemer]

Thanks for always watching Jules ☺️

[@raymyers700]

I'm 100% with you on the split choose thing. I really hate it.

[@robertjackson8246]

Sounds similar to Tussie Mussie! But more involved....

[@ThinkerThemer]

Yes! Far more involved 😀

[@guandjs]

Thanks for the good review. I also dislike ‘I cut/price, you choose’ mechanic in games. Like in auctions, I dislike the sense of loss and having to assess and manipulate what others take. Hopefully, this game will work for some others but I will skip it.

[@MJGOLDHEART]

I just love your t.shirts 😁

[@ThinkerThemer]

Thank you! 🥰 The wonderful Andrew Bosley designed them! :)

[@MJGOLDHEART]

@@ThinkerThemer I would certainly wear one :-) beautiful art as always

[@Fahdingding]

I can compare Stamp Swap to Fit to Print: drafting, tile placement, various scoring objectives, 3 rounds. But I prefer playing the latter because of the added tension provided by the real time element in the game.

[@paulsalomon27]

@@Fahdingding Your plays of Stamp Swap weren’t great huh? ;)

[@Fahdingding]

@@paulsalomon27 Our group hasn't played Stamp Swap yet, but we love your game Honey Buzz. We will still give this game a try though once it's finally available in the market. 😊

[@markturner5644]

Massive fan of stonemaier but this one looks like another miss for me after Apiary

[@PurpleSmurfProds]

Apiary was very good though.

[@johnfavaro8008]

Interesting. Looking at the number of stamps face down I think this will be a skip for me. That and the surprise that you saw difficulties in play at 5 players which is usually an ideal stretch player count for me. Eventually I will find an I cut you choose game I want.

[@PurpleSmurfProds]

what about the face down stamps is a bad thing? I've played 8 times and the face down stamps are a ton of fun.

[@johnfavaro8008]

@@PurpleSmurfProds so I can't say for certain they are a bad thing as I haven't played obviously, but with roughly half the stamps being face down it makes the calculations for the division and which stack to choose a lot more guess work than I typically would enjoy. It might be fine, but it's enough to take me from interested to let me play it first. Also my collection is pretty large so at this point games need to really sing to me to make the cut

[@paulsalomon27]

@@johnfavaro8008 Totally fair. It's about a third of the items that are face down, though some of our playtesters favorite moments have been around that. Like snagging a rare face down stamp, or using the specialist powers to mitigate the randomness, since some let you peak at face down tiles. You're VERY wise to be selective with your collection. I do hope you get a chance to try it at some point though. :)

[@susanoerter1419]

love the theme. . .I PLAY 90% SOLO so not for me.

[@paulsalomon27]

Did you know there is a solo mode for Stamp Swap?

[@phairlyoddparent3972]

Thanks for the review! I’ll still get it for collection’s sake, but now I’m aware of some things that make it fall flat. Btw, have you played The Great Split? It’s an “I cut you choose” that I have found a lot of people like.

[@sharonlee9285]

Yeah,I love the theme but I don’t like I cut, you chose. I wonder if some other form of drafting might work?

[@ThinkerThemer]

I'm sure it could!

[@ThymeKeeper]

I have never understood the appeal of I cut you choose. I have no particular issue with it, but I have heard people say it's their favorite mechanism and I thought "Really? Why?" It feels sort of like saying high card wins is your favorite mechanism lol.

[@paulsalomon27]

I think people like their favorite mechanisms because of the style of choice or experience it provides them. Cut/choose has a lot of tough choices baked into it. The good kind of painful choices... Which is to say that some people like that kind of thing, but others very much don't. Same with take that, in a way. Or dice rolling for combat.

[@xragg]

Not liking the selections available has NOTHING to do with the "I cut you choose" dynamic. During numerous games I have played, I look at the purchase/draft/placements available and want none of them. It is a game mechanic that designers should also consider.

[@ThinkerThemer]

Yes we agree - the draft pool is random (and needs to relate to variable scoring conditions) and is further impacted by the inclusion of face down items. This is compounded though by the I cut you choose mechanic (in our opinion) as even in a moderately appealing pool this second step can then create even further unappealing (or unknown) choices.