Introduction:

Oh Goa, you shooting star. You burst onto the gaming scene in blaze of potential and acclaim only to slowly fade into the blackness of mediocre game space with the rest of the fondly rembered but little played cast-offs of the cult of the now.

Why would I start my review of this game with a less than glowing phrase like that? Afterall, it is currently the #18 ranked game here on BGG with a user rating of 7.9 with 3,145 players rating it. I suppose my perception of Goa as a game that was once highly regarded only to fall from grace not often to be played again is based first off my observations of my game groups play trends. When Goa first came out in 2004 my brother and I were the first in our game group to hear about it (here on BGG) and we rushed to buy it. Goa met with immediate positive feedback from almost everyone in our group, but then a strange pattern developed. Newer players to Goa in our group would demand to play it, but they were met with a little reticence from those who had played it a few times. Each Goa player would play about four or five games of it then never asked to play it again. I think that of the 15 or so people I tought the game there is only one who even occasionally brings it to game nights now, and even then he rarely pushes for it to be played.

The rest of this review is dedicated to answering the question of why Goa seems so good at first but ultimately doesn't draw one back to pull it off the shelf after its newness is gone.

Goa is a two to four player game that takes about 90 minutes to complete.

Designer and Publisher Information:

Goa was designed by Rüdiger Dorn the designer of Jambo, Arkadia and seven or so other less well known games.

Goa was published in the US by Rio Grande Games and you can get a copy for about $25 US. The price is a pretty good bargain for all the components you get.

Components:

The components are all of good quality, reasonably attractive looking and can hold up to significant game play.

Main Game Board - A gameboard with places to lay out a square grid of tiles, keep cards (action, money, colonists, ships, and exploration), A and B tiles, and colonization tiles.


Main Game Board (courtesy Ken Lowell)

Tech Track Boards (One Per Player) - This board serves as a place for each player to keep track at what technology level they are currently at in the five technologies (Ships, Spices, Money, Exploration, and Colonists)


Tech Track Board (courtesy Ken Lowell)

Spice/Tech Markers - Nicely colored and shaped markers to represent the various spices used in the game plus wooden gray colored cubes for use on the technology boards.


Spice/Tech Markers (courtesy Kurt Hesser)

Colony Tiles - Cardboard Square colored tiles representing colonies. Each tile will have one or two slots to hold a particular spice (some slots are wild cards.)


Colony Tiles (courtesy Ken Lowell)

Main Game Tiles - Cardboard square colored tiles. These are labeled on the back with an A or a B to represent which round of the game they are to be put on the main board. The main game tiles are auctioned off during the game and are central to the play of the game.


Main Game Tiles (courtesy Ken Lowell)


Game Setup:

1. Each player chooses a color and gets the appropriate player board and colored numbers as well as five gray cubes to mark their technological progress.
2. Give each player cards worth two colonists and four ships.
3. Randomly choose one player to go first and give them the flag and seven ducats. Give all the remaining players ten ducats.
4. Fill the main board with 25 of the 27 'A' tiles. Don't look at the last two and put them away.
5. Place all the other cards and colony markers on the board on their appropriately labeled spaces.


At Start Setup of Goa Game (courtesy of Andrew Agard)

Game Play Summary:

Goa is played over a series of eight rounds that each consist of an auction phase and an action phase.

Auction Phase:

1. At the start of each turn the first player places the flag marker and their number one marker on any of the auction tiles that have at least one accessible edge (i.e. a tile that is not completely surrounded by other tiles.)
2. Each player in clock-wise order then puts the next highest number of their color on a tile that touches the last tile played, if there are no touching tiles then the player may place their number on any other tile that is accessible.
3. The first player places the final number marker (so that player will in reality get to place two numbers.)
4. After the players mark the tiles to be bid on for this round a series of auctions occur starting with an auction for the start flag, which also brings with it an extra action marker. Auctions then proceed for tiles in an ascending numerical number using the numbers placed on the tiles by the players earlier in the round.

Auctions are one round only and the starting bid is to the player to the left of the player who is hosting the auction, as indicated by the color of the number on the tile. Each player in succession may make a bid that is higher than the last bid or pass. Bidding ends with the player who hosted the auction. The host may choose to take the money offered by the previous bidder and take the money and give that player the tile or make a higher bid and take the tile themselves and give the money for their bid back to the bank.

Auction Tiles

The tiles to be auctioned come in sevearl types:

1. Minor Colonies - These colonies provide spice to the owning player but don't directly influence end game scoring.
2. Red Advantage Tiles - These tiles give the owning player some bonus once every turn. E.G. There are red tiles that give the owning player extra ships, colonists or ducats every turn.
3. Purple Victory Point Tiles - These tiles simply give the owning player a certain number of victory points at the end of the game. Some of these tiles require the player do something special to earn the bonus victory points.
4. Blue Extra Card(s) Tiles - These tiles allow the player a one time opportunity to acquire some combnination of colonists, ships, or action cards.
5. Special Tiles - These tiles allow the player a one time opportunity to do something special such as taking a free technology improvement or special spice harvest or to swap the tile with any other tile remaining on the board.

Action Phase:

Each player will make three standard actions per turn and may have the option to take additional actions through the play of any action cards they have previously acquired. The current owner of the flag takes their first action and then other players take an action in a clockwise manner. Players resolve actions like this one by one until all players have played at least their three standard actions. Once the standard three actions are played players may use additional action cards to take an action in a similiar rotating manner until all players have passed.

Their are six standad types of actions that can be taken, and a selection of special ones avaiable to players via acquired expedition cards.

Standard Actions

1. Technology Development - Turn in the amount of ships and spice as indicated on the technology track and advance your gray technology cube down to the next higher level of technology.
2. Build Ships - Take a number of ships on ship cards at your current ship building technology level.
3. Harvest Spices - Refill your empty plantations (colonies) with spices equal to the rate as your current harvest technology level.
4. Take Tax Money - Collect a number of ducats equal to the rate as specified on your current taxation technology level.
5. Take Expedition Card(s) - Take a number of expedition cards equal to the number specified on your expedition technology track. You may never have more expedition cards in your hand that is greater than the total number specified on your expedition technology track.
6. Attempt to Colonize - Turn over two expedition cards and add the number of colonists from those cards to the number of colonists provided by your colonization technology level. If that total is greater than the number of colonists required by the colony you are attempting to colonize you succeed and add the colony to your card. If your total is lower than the number needed you may try to make up the difference by playing colonists from your colonists card. If you ultimately don't have enough colonists then you receive a one colonist card for your effort.

Expedition Cards

Expedition cards serve a variety of purposes in Goa. They are a factor in determining the success of a colonization effort and as a way to score victory points at the end of the game (by making sets of expedition cards with the same symbol.) The other ways they can be used are:

1. In conjunction with a standard action to make the standard action easier. An example of this is there is an expedition card that lets a player make a technology development without using ships.
2. As a special action in its own right. There are a variety of these.
3. Some Expedition cards let the player receive an immediate one time gain in ducats (5) or colonists or ships.

End of Game:

After eight rounds of play the players total up victory points to determine a winner. There are five ways to get victory points (VPs.)

1. Technology Development - Each of the five tracks provides victory points depending on the level of technological improvements.
Level 1 = 0 VPs
Level 2 = 1 VP
Level 3 = 3 VPs
Level 4 = 6 VPs
Level 5 = 10 Vps
2. Colonies - There are four standard colonies each player may get. Victory points for getting them are as follows:
1 Colony = 1 VP
2 Colonies = 3 VPs
3 Colonies = 6 VPs
4 Colonies = 10 VPs
3 Expedition Cards - Players receive victory points based on the number of matching symbols they have on their expedition cards. For each of the different symbols the player has one or more cards for they score the following points:
1 of a symbol = 1 point
2 of a symbol = 3 points
3 of a symbol = 6 points
4 of a symbol = 10 points
5 of a symbol = 15 points
6 of a symbol = 20 points
4. Most Ducats - the player(s) with the most ducats at the end of the game get three VPs.
5. Tiles - Some of the tiles won at auction award victory points.


My Rating and Overall Opinion of the game:



I like Goa because of its theme, quality components and its auction and technology track mechanics. Goa offers a solid play experience for two, three or four players and has a reasonable play length. I would be able to give it a higher rating if it weren't for the nagging problem of too much variability introduced by the expedition cards.

Goa also somehow seems "tired" after a relatively few number of plays. I think it's because when it gets time to score you become very detached from the game. Even as it's relatively easy to calculate who won and who lost it's hard to associate a final score with any real life counterparts. If I won was I the best colonial power or the best trading company or the best explorer or what? No one seems to know what winning "means" other than you won the game. I suppose that is enough for playing a game or five of Goa but it's a seriously lacking element for most people to want to play it again and gain.

I am not sorry that I bought it and think that every game group should have someone with a copy. It was good fun while it lasted and so for those that have not played it is worth the expense to own.

I do think that if everyone who rated the game somehow was forced to re-rate it in the light of having played it even ten times that its BGG rating would go down some.

What's good about this game's design?:

Theme - the trade of spices in India is nicely integrated into the game through the use of the colorful wooden spice tokens, the bright orange box and the names of the colonies to be won. It's ships, colonists and ducats all have strong association with the "wonderful" age of European Trade Imperialism.
Low Down Time - Every player is involved with all the auctions so their is little down time there and individual actions generally take little time to complete (i.e. AP is reasonably low) so it doesn't take long for each player to get to take another action.
Auction Board - The random starting distribution of auction tiles, coupled with the ability of the start player to choose which tile to start the decsion tree for tiles to be auctioned ensures each game will have to have its tactics analyzed on a game by game basis.
Action Phase - The limited number of actions available always leave you wanting one more. Choosing the right action is important but does not usually lead to analysis paralysis.

What's wrong with this game's design?:

The biggest problem is the amount of randomnes that the expedition cards add to an otherwise Euroish game. Between equal players games can be won and lost based on the random turn of a few expedition cards.
Theme - (wait I thought that was a strength ) Conversely though it's hard for me to understand who I am in the game of Goa (other than a player) due to the compound scoring of such diverse elements as technology, colonization, expidition cards, ducats and tiles

Strategy Tips:

As the player with the flag you must choose a starting tile that will likely give you the most opportunities to pick a tile to auction when it comes your turn to pick the tile you will put up for auction.
As the player auctioning an item you should rarely choose to buy the item that you put up for auction. The cost of buying an item you put up for auction is effectively one more than double the number of ducats offered by the previous high bidder as not only do you have to pay the cost of the previous high bid plus an additional ducat but you also don't get the money you were offered from the previous high bidder.
The most important technology track to advance on is usually the expedition track followed closely by the harves and ship tracks. Taxation is usually a weak thing to choose and the colonists technology only helps until you have acquired your four main colonies.
In determing the worth of the start flag always remember that it provides you with an extra action which at the very least you could use to tax and get that many ducats back into your treasury. This same thought process could also be applied in acquiring extra action cards through any other means.