Cavum

EvEvanstar5,9

In this game, you play three rounds, digging routes, shipping gems along your routes and fighting for area control of the cities on the five sides of the play area. Between rounds, dynamite goes off clearing areas that once were filled, helping to mix the board state up. This was a very elegant game. In particular, the way your turn goes is you get minimum 1 maximum 4 actions depending on how fast you want to move. The round ends when each player has used all twelve of their actions but collecting gems (the point of the game) has to be done last. It's a fantastic little twist that adds this whole push your luck element to the game, where too slow and people will snatch your gems out from under you, and too fast and you miss out on the gem spots other players lay down. At the start of each turn you auction your points for turn order, and at the end you auction to get the lowest bid on selling each gem type. Knowing when to sell and when to hold to complete recipes is another crucial and fascinating element of the game. :star: Art, Iconography and components functional :star: Clever or interesting mechanisms :nostar: Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players :star: Multiple plays stay interesting :star: Low or mitigatable luck elements :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: Raw enjoyment

BrBrandonstar5,2

My wife really likes this game but I really struggle at it myself. It can be a real brain burner.