Neta-Tanka: Deluxe Edition

EvEvanstar4.6

This is a pleasantly tight worker placement game, where the key feature of the game is you not only benefit from the space you are in, but you also get a bonus benefit printed between two action spaces if you have a worker on either side of the bonus. Gameplay is fairly straightforward with you gathering recipes and completing them for point salad-ish victory points. Turns can drag a little because players take turns placing one worker at a time, but then during resolution, each player does all their actions in turn order. This additionally adds a lot of intrigue in terms of predicting what resources will be left on the board once actions get resolved. Particularly because the restock actions happen when players resolve those spaces. At least the downtime is for a game mechanism that enhances play. The components for the game are generally nice in the KS version, but the KS bonus gameplay parts serve to loosen the game up substantially, and I'm not sure it's an improvement. Additionally, the board has nice art, but the art definitely distracts from the clarity of the icons and paths. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ☆ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ★ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★★★☆☆ Raw enjoyment

KuKushstar6.5

A big fan of designer's 'Shakespeare' and hence i backed this on KS (i don't back often). I loved the theme /art already and was excited to love to the game. I did enjoy my plays and the few interesting twists with the links, resources-on-the-board and timing of relocation makes the game special indeed. However, the game has a serious enough flaw from a long-term replaybility point of view (an important prerequisite for a game to sit in my small collection). The game does very little to nothing to encourage deferent play styles/ strategies. There is no reason to get creative and try different things and i can imagine it getting all same-y soon. Definitely needs an expansion or something to reach its full potential!