Game Overview

Game Name: The Whatnot Cabinet
Publication Year: 2021
Designers: Eduardo Baraf, Steve Finn, and Keith Matejka
Artists: Kim Robinson and Beth Sobel
Publisher: Pencil First Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game

Over the course of just a few rounds, new objects fill up a cabinet to form a full collection. There are bonuses for aligning colors and types in the right places, while actions offer very different ways to acquire tiles. Did I mention how beautiful everything is, too?! So bright and pretty!

Box Insert Surprises

Not every game offers a nice storage solution, and there are arguments to be made about how an insert is mostly to protect the components during transport. Why not both?

Voila! I was so impressed with this plastic insert that I had to capture it. Everything fits nicely, including the wooden pawns in their own designated areas.

The pawn spaces also include silhouettes to make it easy to put them away since the shapes are unique. Easy to use!

Never mind the extra well on the right: I wanted to show the space for the cards, while the bagged tokens fit on top.

Off on a Journey

The solo mode only uses 2 different sets of pawns, but here they all are! Note that the colors are different, as are the shapes. This makes it very easy to tell them apart.

At its core, the game offers just 5 actions to choose from each round. There are varying degrees of risk associated with them, and victory points for relying on a blind draw.

It’s all very fast and simple, though! I read the rules while exhausted, and felt ready to dive in pretty quickly.

A reference sheet provides quick descriptions of the actions, too, although they’re intuitive after playing.

The Fanciest Cabinet

My first play might have been the most comical moment I’ve had in ages. It all seemed pretty easy, so I expected things to go well without much thought. No, Jessica. NO.

A cabinet always ends up filled, so don’t think I did all that well. I actually scored just a hair above the lowest scoring tier and literally laughed at myself. So much for that!

The columns and rows award victory points based on what’s on the shelves. It’s simple on the surface…

But don’t play as I did! The decisions aren’t going to take hours to figure out, yet there’s a lot more going on here.

Taking a Step Back

With that learning play out of the way, because we’ll just leave it at that, I looked more carefully at the ways to score victory points. Thoughtful planning is certainly needed.

Special cards worth 1-2 victory points present situations to complete certain goals. For instance, the far-right awards 1 victory point for filling in all of the corners.

Ah, but don’t think it’s easy! 2 of these are flipped over in the first rounds of the solo mode. They go away quickly.

It can also be lucrative to take more risks in the solo mode. The first 3 spaces award a lot of victory points, actually.

Beautiful Objects

The artwork is simply so bright and cheerful! But like the pawns, the colors are also augmented with banners. Note how these are illustrated here, along with a type icon.

There are plenty of duplicates, yet not enough to seem noticeable during play. Identical tiles can actually be very useful when putting together a row or column.

Also note that some tiles feature a crown icon. For the most part, this means an extra 1 victory point.

It’s all quite strategic, though! Crown icons can seem nice at first, but the actual object needs to be the right sort.

A Few Extra Points

Besides the crown icon is another little bonus associated with a certain type of object. For the solo mode, a random card like this is drawn during setup.

For instance, I wanted to collect shells over other objects when it made sense. The smallest boost is important!

All in all, though, this is still a rather light sort of game. And to be clear, that’s far from a negative. Sometimes, it’s nice to appreciate lovely artwork and simply relax.

I kept playing! My breaking point when a game feels repetitive is pretty high, so there was no stopping me. Ha!

Deliberate Placements

While aligning colors in columns and types in rows are the most reliable ways to earn victory points, every tile placement must be thought through carefully.

Depending on how the solo opponent acts, the number of tile options can vary greatly. Blindly drawing from the bag is also possible, especially when the right ones are hiding!

But placement also depends on the other ways to score victory points. Like this example: How to make it work?

As I mentioned, the decisions are balanced and not designed to think through for hours, or even minutes.

Highlighting the Best

Alright. I’ll give myself away. That there is a Stealthy Elephant! This was part of the reason why I knew I needed this game. Ha ha! Such an adorable one at that, too.

It was funny when I didn’t pick up this tile because I didn’t need it. But didn’t I?! Every collection needs some sort of elephant. That’s just a simple fact of life.

Yet don’t despair if you really wanted to do a search. This post features a Stealthy Elephant hiding elsewhere!

I still wasn’t too thrilled with my skills, though they were improving. I even broke into the 40-point tier!

Session Overview

Play Number: 1-8
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 23, 33, 35, 45, 40, 31, 36, 44 (3 Wins & 5 Losses)

Take a look at this splendid collection! I nearly ended up with the perfect cabinet, which would have resulted in 3 victory points per row and 4 victory points per column. Note the middle column should have a 2-value token. This worked out nicely, but I still need to practice. I’ll make it there at some point! This was a lovely kind of experience that didn’t get repetitive until right around the end. Still, though, that’s 8 plays in a row. Not bad at all!