Dokmus

EvEvanstar7,2

In this game you have a grid of landscape tiles. You start with a single settlement piece on a corner tile's edge. Each round players draft turn order tiles, with each one having a special power. On your turn you can place three settlement tiles adjacent to your existing ones, and use your special power in any order. The powers manipulate the grid by moving a tile, rotating a tile, letting you bump one of your settlement markers one space or just becoming starting player. Then, each of the different terrain types have a special rule to deal with it. The ultimate goal is to have settlement pieces next to the different temples scattered throughout the board. The game is very engaging and clever considering it's simplicity. There's a big reward for being on all the tiles, so players really compete with each other for the moves and rotates, trying to get the most of our your limited actions. Some times require pulling a piece off the board, for example, if you leave any settlement tokens on volcanoes, they have to be pulled off. This isn't bad because these tokens are considered sacrifices to the gods, and there's a majority endgame scoring for most sacrificed. This is also fine from a scoring standpoint, since you really only care about being next to temples, so if some of your connecting pieces have to flay away to get there, it's no sweat off your back. It also helps the boards from getting impossibly clogged. I'm very impressed with this game, and I'm excited to see more. ★ 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