Ok, I like this game. A lot. I probably shouldn’t, but I do like it.

Why I shouldn’t like it?

1. It is almost too simple. Rules are easy to grasp and sometimes it looks like you are doing the same thing over and over turn after turn.

2. It can drag a little bit – it should play a little bit faster, but some analysis paralysis may happen from time to time.

3. It has some luck smeared all over the strategy.

But how come I like it?

1. I’m quite new to the hobby, so I’m not as tired of the worker placing mechanism as some of the guys (and girls) around here. That’s the heart of the game: place meeples, roll dice, retrieve meeples, score points. Repetitive? Yeah. But it is manageable.

2. Specially because of the bits! Man, this game is very well produced! While you are waiting for your turn, you can neatly arrange the little wooden blocks in your player board, have some fun with the afro meeples, make some bad joke about the love hut… The components are just endless fun.

And let me say this: you are gonna have an easy time convincing women to play this baby. The afro meeples could do the job alone, but when they see the little gold bar, they are sold.

3. There are various paths to victory! Ok, maybe not that many, but you can vary your strategy a lot and still come up as the winner. I tried the famous famine strategy and lost – but just for one point. I really don’t think the game is broken.

4. Blocking is interaction! I had to see myself to believe it, but “just” blocking someone isn’t as dull as it sounds. I do not remember my wife calling me so many bad names since that day she found unknown female underwear in the glove compartment (I can explain that!). It was something beautiful to behold: she actually came close to throw the dice cup at me.

Side note: we all know that the best sex is make-up sex, so I do recommend playing confrontational games with your loved one.

The other side effect of blocking is that you must adapt to survive. It is incredibly easy for other people to be aware of what you are trying to do – and block you they will. The best thing is that even if you pick up a card, or resource or building that you are not looking for you can benefit from it, so blocking is viable without throwing yourself out of the game.

5. Rolling dice for resources add a little bit of chaos, but I think is just the right amount of it, and I think the game is better because of it – if you roll badly, you might have to adapt your strategy, but you are not out of the game. And a fantastic roll is all it takes to keep everyone interested in the game, including that cousin of yours that is going to lose by a 100-point difference (the poor bastard will never get the cards he needs to get a decent score, but he looks so happy with his double sixes…).

The final opinion:

If you put this game under the microscope, it is really nothing special. There’s nothing original about the mechanisms, there are no grand strategies to master, the theme just holds because of the great bits…

But I can’t deny that the game is great fun, and that I would gladly play it twice in the same night (that’s a lot for me). It is not for everyone, because of its light nature, but it is easily one of my best acquisitions to date.

9 out of 10 (in BGG parameters).