Review: Piece o’ Cake

Oio, everyone.  I recently picked up Piece o’ Cake and found it to be more than a light filler (this is closer to pound cake…), which was a pleasant surprise.  Lets have a look.

WHAT YOU GET

• 57 Cake Slices, ranging from chocolate to fig cake.  Each slice will have dollops of whipped cream, as well.
• Rules
• Decent custom insert that keeps the pieces in place.  Without the insert, the Cake Slices would get all dinged up.

HOW TO PLAY

Before play begins, the Cake Slices are shuffled together and dealt facedown into 5 cakes of 11 slices each.  The two remaining slices are put back into the box and aren’t used.

Each round, one player is the waiter and will take one of the slice stacks and flip the pieces faceup into a circle.  That player then chooses how to divide the cake.  She can divide the cake into as many pieces as there are players (or less if she wishes).  Then starting with the player to the left of the Waiter, players each choose a piece of cake and either immediately add the slices of cake to their score pile by ‘eating’ them or ‘save them for later’ to try and get the most of a particular type of cake.  A player may also skip taking a piece of cake to eat any single type of cake she has and add it to her score pile.

Once everyone has chosen a piece of cake, the next player becomes the Waiter and serves the next cake.  Once all five cakes have been served, players score their cakes and what they have eaten…

SCORING

Players score the slices they’ve eaten and any cake that they have more of than any other player.

• For eaten slices, players score one point for every dollop of whipped cream in their score pile.
• For saved slices, a player only scores points for the cake if they have more than any other player.  Tied player share the points for the cake type.  For each majority, a player scores as many points as listed on the cake slice.  For example, kiwi cake is worth 8 points while chocolate cake is worth 11 points.

And to quote the rules, ” Whoever has the most points is the winner of the cake battle and should take a long walk to burn off all the extra calories.”  The winner should wait to take their walk, though, as this is one that will be played several times in a row whenever it is pulled out.

VERDICT

If you’re looking for an excellent new filler title for your bag, here it is.  The play is quick and fun with enough interesting choices for its length.  However, don’t let the simple facade fool you. With four and five players in particular, this game can cause some delicious cognitive suffering in a similar vein as Coloretto and Poison.  Pick it up if you get the chance.

The table is yours,

Phil