Pixies (Saturday Review)

As we were walking through the forest on a mild, damp spring morning, with the mist still rising and the trees and other plants slowly waking up as the sun was peeking over the horizon, we saw, to our great surprise, little creatures emerging from flowers and the hollows of the trees. Some wore cupule hats, while others had slung oak leaf ponchos over their bodies. We even spotted some with little string instruments made from walnut halves. They were magical to behold as they walked along the forest floor and formed little groupings, three side-by-side and three deep. These were clearly Pixies by Johannes Goupy from Bombyx.

Colourful Pixies Everywhere

My enchanting introduction reflects the beautiful illustrations on the cards of this latest game from Bombyx, which appears in the same series of games as Sea, Salt & Paper. Created by the talented Sylvain Trabut, they are photos of models that Sylvain made himself from materials he found in the woods. These photos fit nicely with the style that Sea, Salt & Paper features, while also bringing something unique, special and even magical to the table. However, while the cards are certainly wonderful to look at and there is a lot of detail to discover, Pixies really is very much an abstract card drafting game. It is all about the four different colours that feature on the cards

As Bombyx has done for many of its other games, Pixies also uses the ColorADD code to help people with colour vision deficiencies. Every colour is also displayed as a little symbol. Now, while I personally feel these symbols are a bit tiny and also quite similar, seeing the standard applied across a whole range of games is wonderful. It should make the games accessible to more people.

Let’s focus on the gameplay though. As a card drafting game, a number of cards, equal to the number of players, are drawn from the deck and revealed. Players then take turns choosing one of the cards and placing it in an imagined 3×3 grid in front of them. The position of the card depends on its number. Imagine the grid numbered 1 to 9. The numbers run in reading order from top left to bottom right. So 1 is in the top left, 3 in the top right, 5 in the centre, 7 in the bottom left and 9 in the bottom right, etc.

Plus and Minus Points

Every card is placed face up, unless there is already a card in the slot. In that case, you have two choices. You either flip the newly-drawn card face down and slide it underneath the already placed face-up card – or you flip the already-placed card face-down and place the newly-drawn card face-up on top. If a slot already has two cards, then the newly-drawn card must be placed face-down into an empty slot of your choice.

Swirls on cards are plus points – one point for each swirl shown. Crosses are minus points, making it possible to lose points. If a swirl is next to a slash followed by a colour, you score one point for every card in your 3×3 grid of that colour. Some cards show all four colours and these can be scored as any colour, potentially even as multiple colours if you have cards that each score for a different colour.

As you would expect, the last player is forced to take the remaining card, before a new draft begins and new cards are revealed. We keep playing until someone has no empty slots left in their 3×3 grid. The current draft is finished and then we score.

On top of the swirls and crosses, we score cards in the largest area of the same colour. All cards horizontally or vertically adjacent to each other count towards the largest group. Each card in that group scores a number of points, based on the current round.

To top up your score further, for every card that has a face-down card underneath it, you add the number on the card itself. So a 9 in the bottom right with another card face-down underneath is worth an additional 9 points, on top of the swirls or crosses.

Quick Pixies

Pixies is played over three rounds, where a round ends after scoring, which means we score three times in the game and add the totals together to determine the winner.

That’s pretty much all the rules you need to play Pixies. It couldn’t be much simpler. It’s really easy to teach and doesn’t take long to play. You can finish a game in 15 to 20 minutes. As it’s just a deck of cards, it’s perfect to take with you and play with family and friends. The cards aren’t very big, the same size as those of Sea, Salt & Paper. Yet, you do need a bit of space on the table to make room for each player’s 3×3 grid and the drafting row. However, with a bit of imagination, you can probably fit it on a pub or restaurant table.

Pixies is also a really light game in terms of thinkiness. You’re very reliant on the luck of the card draw, making your decision mostly tactical. Sure, there is the potential for hate drafting, but really only when you end up with an equal choice between two or more cards. Otherwise, you’re better off focussing on the card that’s best for you and not worrying too much about what might benefit other players. Saying that, it is worth keeping half an eye on everyone else.

I really enjoy Pixies when we play it, but if I had the choice between it and Sea, Salt & Paper, I will always prefer the latter. Yet, with a family group, especially with younger children, Pixies is going to be the better choice, not only because of the enchanting cards.

So, off you go and have a stroll through the woods. Maybe you will also be enchanted by Pixies as I have been.

Useful Links

• Pixies: https://studiobombyx.com/en/jeu/pixies/
• Rulebook: https://studiobombyx.com/assets/PIXIES_rulebook_EN.pdf
• Bombyx: https://studiobombyx.com/en/
• BGG listing: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/411875/pixies
• Sea, Salt & Paper review: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/07/08/sea-salt-paper-saturday-review/
• ColorADD: https://www.coloradd.net/en/

Videos

Transparency Facts

I feel that this review reflects my own, independent and honest opinion, but the facts below allow you to decide whether you think that I was influenced in any way.

• I bought and paid for the game myself.
• At the time of writing, neither the designers, nor the publisher, nor anyone linked to the game supported me financially or by payment in kind.

Audio Version

Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/)

Sound Effects: bbc.co.uk – © copyright 2024 BBC

Music: Saving the Floe by Blue Dot Sessions

Playlist

These are the songs I listened to while I was writing this review: