2017 · Animals
Meeple Circus
Players assemble a miniature circus by stacking wooden meeples, animals, and accessory tokens to create themed acts. Each round players draft pieces, arrange them into fragile towers during a timed rehearsal phase, and then perform by moving a ringmaster meeple to trigger scoring conditions. Scoring rewards balance, successful stunts, and fulfillment of audience cards while penalties apply for collapses. The game mixes dexterity stacking with card-driven objectives and light drafting, as players manage risk to maximize points over several rounds.
- Players
- 2–5 best 4
- Playing time
- 45 min
- Age
- 8+
- Complexity
- 1.4 / 5
About the game
- Design
- Publisher
Expansions
See them in Ludoya
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Where to buy it
Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.
On Ludoya's tables
Full stats in Ludoya- 163
- Plays logged
- 283
- Players
- 38m 5s
- Average play
- 65
- In collections
- 8
- On wishlists
5.6/10
from 26 Ludoya reviews
Garfield8.0 #53 I love such interesting games which try something new. Very funny! [c] Theme: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]Circus, doing aerobatics --> Gameplay: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Aerobatics dexterity --> Interaction: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]No --> Artwork: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Good --> Luck: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]It's dexterity not luck --> Strategy: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]No --> Components: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]Very good --> Play duration: :star::star::star::star::star: <!-- size 7]Perfect --> Easy to teach: :star::star::star::star::star: <!-- size 7]Very easy (10min) --> Rules quality: :star::star::star::star::star: <!-- size 7]Perfect (2 open questions) --> Setup time: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]Fast --> No downtime: :star::star::star::star::star: <!-- size 7]Almost no downtime --> Replay value: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]A lot of different cards --> [/c]
Evan1.6 It's a nice idea to have a circus themed dexterity stacking game, but in practice I found the components to be too poor to even try getting into the silly theme. Essentially, you do a few rounds of drafting for components. Then you have a timed session where you try to arrange the components like they appear on the victory condition cards. In later rounds, they also throw in some forced silly acts for the players to preform for each other while they build their stacks. I'm not thrilled with forced sillyness, but I might be able to get into it if the components were better. Most dexterity games paint their pieces with a sort of matte finish, or shape the pieces so they are large enough to get some friction. This game paints the bits with more of a slippery gloss finish. The player boards you start on are thin cardboard that had bowed in the copy I played. The wooden plank piece that looks like something you can balance on was also misshapen and wasn't quite flat. The other planks that came were, I just happened to draft a misshapen piece. I found the whole experience way more frustrating than fun even though I tend to really enjoy dexterity stacking games. The timed aspect seems to take away a lot of the fun tension I usually enjoy. :nostar: Art, Iconography and components functional :nostar: Clever or interesting mechanisms :star: Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players :star: Multiple plays stay interesting :star: Low or mitigatable luck elements :nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: Raw enjoyment
Rules questions
Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.
What's the goal of the game and how do we set up?
The goal is to earn the most applause by building successful circus acts across 3 acts (two rehearsals and a main performance). Setup places the clap-o-meter board, each player's ring and score token, 2 starting acrobats, shuffled Public Demands piles, 6 Component tiles, and act tiles plus the measuring ruler and Speed tokens as described in the setup steps (page 1).
Can I touch or move my components before or during the presentation?
Before the presentation all your components must be outside your circus ring and you are not allowed to manipulate them; when the music starts all players build their acts simultaneously and may then place components (page 2).
Are there any placement rules my pieces must follow to count?
Yes — every component must be placed inside your ring, placed on its side except for beams and barrels (which may stand upright), and any component on the ground must support at least one other component; pieces that fail to meet ALL these rules are not counted (page 2).
How do acrobat meeples score — do beginners/intermediates/experts score differently?
Each blue (beginner) acrobat touching the ground scores 1 applause; each yellow (intermediate) acrobat that does NOT touch the ground scores 1 applause; each red (expert) acrobat carrying no element scores applause equal to the height it reaches, measured with the ruler (page 3).
How do Speed tokens work — how do you get them and what do they do?
The first and second players who finish their act before the music ends take the Speed tokens (the single‑star and double‑star tokens, respectively), and each Speed token grants the amount of applause printed on it (pages 2–3).
Free, on web, Android and iOS
Play Meeple Circus with Ludoya
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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.