VERITAS BOARD GAMES

💭 Designer:
Christian Kudahl, Laura Kudahl

🎨 Artwork:
Fanny Pastor-Berlie

🏢 Publisher:
Nerdlab Games

🗓️ Year:
2024

Have you ever thought that one of your closest neighbours might be a spy? No? Neither have I. But in the two-player game Agent Avenue, you're not so sure whether your neighbours can be trusted. You suspect that your opponent is involved in some shady business... but he thinks the same about you! You can't just accuse someone without proof, so it's time to gather evidence: outsmart your opponent and, above all, outrun him in this fast-paced card game.

How to play Agent Avenue
Agent Avenue is essentially a set-collecting game disguised as a racing game: during the game, players play cards, and the number of steps they are allowed to take on the game board depends on the number of identical cards that have been played. Before we delve deeper into the gameplay and rules, let's first take a look at the setup.

Setup
The game board is placed in the centre of the table with the normal or advanced side facing up. Each player takes one of the two game pieces and places it on the house (starting position) in the corresponding colour. The 38 “Agent” cards are shuffled and both players receive a starting hand of four cards. The advanced cards are only used when playing with the advanced side of the game board, more on that later.

Gameplay
What players try to do: overtake each other. They do this by performing three simple steps in sequence during their turn:

• Step 1: Playing cards
  The player whose turn it is plays two cards, placing one face up on the table and the other face down. These must be two different cards. Immediately afterwards, you replenish your hand to four cards.
  Four times per game, a player may choose to discard a card and draw a new one before playing cards.

• Step 2: recruiting
  The opponent (i.e. not the active player who just played the two cards) chooses a card first. He must now recruit that card, which means he places it in front of him and carries out the movement (number of steps).
  Each card has three boxes containing a number that indicates how many steps you must take. When you recruit a particular “Agent” for the first time, you move your playing piece forward or backward by the number of steps indicated in the first box. If you have already played the same “Agent” before, you place the new card next to it and determine how far you can move based on the second box. The third time (or more) you play the same card, you naturally look at the third box.

• Step 3: End of turn
  Once both players have moved their pieces the correct number of squares, check whether there is a winner before continuing to play. There are several ways to win:
  • One player's piece has passed the other player's piece;
  • A player wins when they have recruited three “Codebreakers”;
  • A player loses when they have recruited three “Daredevils”.

Advanced mode
When players choose to play in advanced mode, they place the game board face up and the advanced cards come into play.
The gameplay remains essentially the same, except that “Black Market” cards are added. The stack of fifteen cards is shuffled and then three are placed face up. When a player lands exactly on a square with the Black Market symbol, they may choose one of these three cards. These can be cards with one-time or permanent effects.

Team mode
The game can also be played in team mode with three or four players. Team members then play their turns simultaneously, with each player playing one card without consulting the other person.

What do I think of Agent Avenue?
Gameplay
The game has the advantage that it's so short, because unfortunately there are some things that would otherwise definitely bother me. The main thing is that you regularly find yourself in a situation where escape is simply impossible, purely because you have the wrong combination of cards in your hand at that moment. No matter what you play, the outcome will remain the same. Yes, you can discard a card four times per game and pick up a new one, but even then you have to be lucky enough to pick up one that can save you from that predicament. This is annoying, but because a game (at least for us) never lasted longer than ten minutes, fortunately those frustrations didn't go too far. Incidentally, it's a shame that the game doesn't include anything to keep track of how many times you've discarded a card, not only to count the number of times but mainly as a reminder that it's an option. I regularly caught myself completely forgetting that I could have exchanged a card.

Unfortunately, Agent Avenue can also fuel “analysis paralysis” due to the way cards are played. Players are eager to recruit certain cards themselves and therefore try to outsmart their opponents by carefully selecting which cards to play face down. Although I find this to be a very enjoyable system, it can sometimes slow down the pace of the game when players spend too much time considering how best to feed the wrong (negative) cards to their opponents.

Theme and Artwork
The theme itself does not necessarily permeate the gameplay, but I do appreciate the concept of players attempting to “capture” each other so that they can unmask the other. The characters on the Agent cards do not add much to this; I believe they are simply meant to represent your neighbours.
However, I do find the artwork colourful and cheerful, and it's cool that each character has been given different illustrations. All Black Market cards are also unique, with beautiful artwork that matches the names and effects of the cards. They are nice to look at and don't look cluttered when the cards are laid out on the table.

Extra modes
In addition to the simple mode, players can also choose to play the advanced mode. I don't see why you wouldn't always do this, except perhaps the very first time you play Agent Avenue. The rules remain the same, but there are some extra cards with different effects that can influence the game. These effects seem rather random and unbalanced, but perhaps we just happened to have unfortunate combinations on the table. The game is so short that you only use a few of these cards per game. We haven't tried the team mode, but since nothing significant changes here either, I don't think I would have to adjust my opinion of the game much. I think this should be purely a two-player game.

Who is this game suitable for?
Agent Avenue is suitable for players who don't mind a short game that is mainly based on luck. The game seems to require more tactics and strategy from players than it actually does, and in principle you are mainly concerned with set collection; recruiting cards that are as optimal as possible for you to be faster than your opponent. Sometimes the end is rather abrupt and other times you can see that there is no escape, which means that winning does not really feel like winning.
It is a fun introductory game with clear and simple rules. Anyone can play it and quickly understand it well enough to explain it to the next player. This makes me think that the game is very suitable for novice players or more experienced players who have already discovered that they enjoy a fast-paced, simple card/racing game in which you mainly need to be lucky with the cards you draw.

⭐ Score: 6,5 / 10

This review is not sponsored and does not contain any paid promotion;
it is solely a personal recommendation.