Manitoba

GaGarfieldstar7,0

Ok game. Nice action selection mechanism. Worker placement game where you gather ressources to score victory points. [c] Theme: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> Gameplay: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Worker placement, tracks --> Interaction: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]On the map a little bit --> Artwork: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Could be better --> Luck: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Random goals --> Strategy: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Yes, but only one path --> Components: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Very nice --> Play duration: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]Very good --> Easy to teach: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Quite easy (20min) --> Rules quality: <!-- size 7]Not read --> Setup time: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> No downtime: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Plays quite fast --> Replay value: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Random stuff, but nothing changes much --> [/c]

EvEvanstar2,5

Manitoba was just a little too light. There's very little to do in this game and few meaningful choices. Despite that you still feel like you don't get the time to accomplish anything, so it feels like it's aiming to be one of those deliciously crunchy medium weight euros without having the substance of one. You get about 15 actions across the whole game which are then divided between taking a resource from the central board or bumping a single track. Often times the resource you want is depleted which means your key decision point here is gone. A few times per game you are starting player so you get to do both a map action and a track action as a special bonus. The tracks main purpose is to skip a specific resource's scoring phase. Holding onto more tokens of a type becomes worth more money, the higher on your personal track you fill, and tokens wash away when scored, so this is an important thing to manage, but scorings come every two to three rounds during which you've been active player maybe once. There's a little more to it than that but not enough for me. ★ 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