Taluva
Ξ September 29th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Boardgames | Edit|

Got to play the game Taluva at Mage Cafe yesterday courtesy of wolfx. This is an oldie but goodie that was released in 2006 but only bought recently by wolfx.

It’s a tile laying game for 2-4 players and it plays about 30 minutes. In this game, the players are Gods directing the formation of the island of Taluva. This is done by laying a 3-segmented hex tile consisting of a volcano and two other terrains on the existing board. The tile laying can expand the island via a new volcano exploding in a new area, or raise the island level by an existing volcano exploding and covering the pre-existing land.

The players are also Gods of their own people and can direct their people to settle on the new land, building huts, temples and towers. There are a certain number of huts, temples and towers that every player possess and players must race to finish building all of the two (out of three) building types to win. This task is made interesting by the rule that the players must be able to build a structure every turn or else be eliminated immediately! Since the different structures have different rules as to where they can be built, it can happen that a careless player will run out of valid building spots and lose immediately. If none of the players manage to win before the game ran out of tiles, the game then goes into tie breaking mode where the highest number of temples > towers > huts built wins.

Simple rules, simple turns, but the game manages invoke a dynamic sense of pace and urgency depending the players’ aggression. There are turns where players may need to play aggressively to place their buildings. However there are also turns in which players need to play defensively to keep some buildings back to ensure they have building options to last till the tiebreaker. The game’s mechanic of building expansion further complements the dynamic pacing by encouraging moments of aggressive plays via opportune tile placements.

The game on Saturday was played between wolfx, ryan and myself for 3 rounds. The games were short enough and interesting enough to warrant repeated plays. The first game went to me as I was more observant and managed to spot openings to put out my two towers before racing off to finish my huts for the win. The second game went to ryan as wolfx and myself raced to deny each other but left ryan unchecked. Ryan won, again by the two towers - all huts route.

The third game was very tactical and defensive in the beginning as we played to hem in temple and tower building. First blood went to ryan as he tricked wolfx and myself to deny him his temple only to see his tower rise. Defensive plays eventually opened up to offensive plays as the island opened up new spaces, making creative tile placement easier to execute. One by one the temples went up, but the towers were more difficult to come by. Single huts were placed strategically to deny 3rd level tile placements. I made several aggressive plays to try and put out my 3rd temple, but instead found myself running out of huts to place. In the midst of saving my ass, I inevitably did kingmaking as I opened up a space to place my first tower to see ryan won by placing his second.

Overall a good game, has lots of strategy and potential for creative plays.