#RiseofAugustus and #GameOf49 are games that surprised me, because despite being light and accessible family games driven by a #bingo mechanic, they also have enough substance to engage serious gamers. #Karuba (for 2-4 players) by Rudiger Dorn is the newest addition to this category. Route building and optimization are Karuba’s main elements. Each player's board is set up identically at the start of the game, and you are trying to navigate your team of 4 explorers to their matching temples while ideally picking up treasure along the way. One player is designated as the “caller” for the game who randomly draws 1 of 36 possible tiles each turn. The other players have the same 36 tiles laid out face-up in front of them, and pick up the called tile. Everyone then independently decides to either burn it fit for movement, orput it somewhere on their board to cut a path through the jungle for their explorers to use later. They don’t have to be attached to any other tiles, soso you can plan to connect paths later based on what tiles haven’t come up yet. The catch is that they can’t be rotated, and no two explorers can be on the same tile, so you have to be extremely careful not to accidentally trap your explorers against a dead end or against each other. You also have to watch what the other players are doing, because the first player to get to each temple gets the most points. When you burn a tile, the number of exits also determines how many moves ONE of your adventurers gets to make, so the rare and versatile 4-exit crossroad pieces can also let you make a surprising dash to a temple and steal it right from under someone who’s only a space away from theirs. Some tiles come with 1 and 2 point treasures pre-printed on them, and it’s a low scoring game--the highest award is 5 points for being 1st to a temple--so they’re not insignificant. But, you have to land on these by exact count so it takes excellent planning or sacrificing some movement points to grab these tantalizing bonuses. The game ends when all 36 tiles get called, or when someone gets their 4 adventurers to their temples. It’s an excellent game night opener or closer. Recommended. #boardgames #gameni
