The Great Zimbabwe

GaGarfieldstar10.0

#55 I really like it. It takes a little bit to explain it, but afterwards it plays quite quick. If everyone thinks a little bit beforehand you can do your turn within 20-30s. But in my second play one player was unable to calculate the costs and therefore was very slow. So it really depends on the players. [c] Theme: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]A little bit abstract --> Gameplay: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Meaningful decisions to make --> Interaction: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Good portion of interaction --> Artwork: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]Very appealing --> Luck: ☆☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Nope --> Strategy: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]YES --> Components: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Good, but nothing special --> Play duration: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]We finished our first 3 player game within 73min! But the second 3 player game took 165min... --> Easy to teach: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Not very easy --> Setup time: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Still ok --> No downtime: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Can be quite fast, but sometimes also very slow --> Replay value: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]Modular board, variable player powers etc. --> [/c]

anandyctedstar8.0

3-4 players

EvEvanstar10.0

Right from the start, let's just be clear that the rulebook is written very badly. It suffers from using a lot of game specific terms and then not clearly defining those terms in a way that's easy to find and understand. The game itself is very enjoyable however. The idea is players are building towers of disks on the map. To do so, they need to collect sets of all different goods by using any player's craftsmen on the board thereby depleting the available resources near those craftsmen. When you use an opponent's craftsmen, you have to pay them, which is money that player will get at the start of the next round. One of the most interesting things about this game, is as you build craftsmen or take cards, the number of points you need to win goes up, so you simultaneously advantage and disadvantage yourself at the same time. This is a deep game that rewards multiple plays. ★ 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