Santa Maria

GaGarfieldstar2.0

Very abstract, ugly board game. [c] Theme: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]No --> Gameplay: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> Interaction: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Very little --> Artwork: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Not very good --> Luck: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Dice rolling, random marker revealing --> Strategy: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Very little --> Components: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]The board, the laughing faces --> Play duration: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Very good --> Easy to teach: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> Rules quality: <!-- size 7]not read --> Setup time: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> No downtime: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> Replay value: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]A little bit of random stuff --> [/c]

EvEvanstar10.0

Santa Maria is a fantastic game where in each of three rounds you can buy a tile and add it to your player board, or spend money to activate one of your buildings on the tiles, or draft and place a die and then activate each building in the column that matches the pip value on the die drafted. Buildings you activated with money don't activate again, and the die used covers the last building activated so you have to plan your board layout carefully. Each player also gets a few dice that are unique to them that activate the row with matching pips. The game only goes three rounds but it is an intense three rounds. People always beat you to the die you want and to grabbing the tile you need because it has the building you want printed on it. There are other game features you have to consider as well such as valuable boat tiles that want specific resources delivered to them, and competing to be first on a track that generates points each round. The gameplay is tense throughout and no matter how good you might be doing you still feel like all your choices were probably bad. Even passing is tense, as when players pass they get to choose amongst a series of important bonus actions to resolve. The component quality is not great. The boards are somewhat dull in color, and the components, even the nice wooden ones feel a bit thin. Oddly the resources in this game line up perfectly with the Stonemaier Games upgraded resource chests, so I'll be using those for future games. One troublesome thing is that the VP tokens have big smiling pink happy faces on them, which feels at odds with a conquistador theme, although that theme is super pasted on. Regardless, I highly recommend checking this game out. ★ 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

Toni Cutillasstar8.0

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