Castello Methoni

EvEvanstar8,5

Players get a hand of cards, each representing a terrain type on the map. On your turn you get two actions. One option is to play a card, then place a wall segment along the edge of a space where the terrain type matches of one the two sides of the wall. Then you add a cube to one side of the wall, and a cube belonging to an opponent to your left or right on the other side. The other option is to play a card that matches the terrain type of an active market to take $2 from the bank. When you enclose an area by walls, you pay $1 per space to the bank and $1 to each other player per cube they have in that area, and then you mark it with your claim tower. Sets of three of the same color cubes then form a large house marker. If one of your walls is already bordering another enclosed region, you can pay the owner of the tower in that region $2 per space plus $1 per cube and $5 per large house, and to merge the two areas. At the end of the game, you score $3 per space in your enclosed areas, plus an extra $1 per space if those spaces are one of the three types on your secret objective card. Then bonus points for largest area, and points for owning multiple areas. This is my favorite kind of abstract game. Nice pieces, tons of back and forth player interaction, simple rules and ambiguous valuations. Who you pay is important. What you set up for other people is important. Deciding when to take a loss to make your own area more expensive to take over in the future is a tough decision. Do you want to form enclosed areas around your own cubes, or around opponent's cubes? The card draw luck is the only true luck element of the game, but you do get to manage your hand quite nicely. Despite each card being only one terrain type, the fact you just need to use it so that one side is that type, each card is effectively two types, plus it can be chucked for money once the matching market is active means that there is a lot of clever mitigation opportunities if you manage your hand well. ★ 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