Coffee Roaster – The Unboxinating!

Welcome to the Unboxinating of the 500th game added to the U-Con Games Library. 500! It seems like just yesterday (or maybe a decade ago, time is weird) that I was lugging home the 50 games in the Library to organize. Now it has its own apartment and everything.  Libraries, they grow up so fast.

Anyway, today we are featuring Stronghold Game’s Coffee Roaster. The Library has 4 other Stronghold Games, one which I’ve already done an Unboxinating for (That’s Pretty Clever), Medina, Brikks, and Paper Tales so if you want to play more games by Stronghold Games, you now know which they are.  

Coffee Roaster is not only the 500th game added to the Games Library, but it is uniquely the only game in the games library that is a solo play game without the option to expand and add more players. Q-bits is the other game in the library that has a min and max player of 1, but there are other Q-bits you can buy in order to increase the max number of players. Coffee Roaster has no other versions of Coffee Roaster you can buy to add more players, so it is truly the only 1 player game in the Library. Sorta. Well it will be when I get another Q-bits. 

Number One: Your Parts.  We have bean punchouts, number punchouts, water punchouts and square deelie punchouts. There are also wooden bits for, I assume, marking rounds or time or some incrementation. Possibly two incrementations as there is a disc and a cube. If there was ever a game that would polish up nicely with the addition of Deluxe wooden chits, this game would fit that bill. Still, the cardboard punchouts will do the job (I just want little wooden burnt bean pieces).  There’s a velvet bag, several boards, a thing that looks like an old fashioned elevator floor indicator and my least favorite thing…

Number 2: Limited resource materials. I have laminating capabilities and dry erase markers, so we’re OK now. I just want to say tho, I am accumulating quite the pile of pads of limited resources. And also going through dry erase pens like mad. Hrrrmmm.

Heh. NOT ANY MORE! If you want to keep your scores, I suggest bringing a pad of paper and a pen. That’s a good idea anyway to have those handy for many other reasons than tracking your solo score. Or you can buy your own copy of Coffee Roaster and mark up your pad of paper to your heart’s content. Either is a valid option.

Number 3: Even though I have everything in bags, mostly because the Games Library stores and travels on edge, this tray is a nice addition to the design. It organizes your pieces handily and the pictures are clear and large so it’s easy to see which piece goes where.  It’s also a little extra nice touch that they didn’t have to add but did.

Speaking of fun extras that make the game just a little bit more awesome, here’s a double sided card to tell you the history of coffee. Neat and educational. Thanks!

Number 4: Snerk. I see what you did there, Stronghold Games. “Premium” solo-game. Well done.

Number 5: Wait…what? First, stop putting parts lists on the bottom of the boxes, especially when they are the ONLY parts list. Coffee Roaster has a very nice components layout in the instructions so they missed that rant. But! “Components may vary in quantity and differ in appearance”? I feel like I could switch out the parts with King of Tokyo and just point to this disclaimer on the box saying, “Well, YOU figure out how Gigasaur is gonna roll the perfect cup.”  Are they expecting different print runs to vary? Does Stronghold Games have that litigious a base that they feel they need to spell this out in case someone gets an extra burnt bean chit? This is a weird disclaimer and a bit unsettling if you happen to be missing parts right off the bat. Or find King of Tokyo in the box. 

Lastly :