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Cartagena by Leo Colovini

CARTAGENA by Leo Colovini art Doris Matthaus publish Hans im Gluck/Rio Grande Players: 2-5 Duration: 30 mins. PACE: Medium. Thinking to be done. Can suffer from analysis paralysis. COMPLEXITY: Medium. The rules are light, the tactics are deep. This can be light and fun or way, waaaaay deep. LUCK: Low. Can be high if you want to since it comes with two sets of rules: one light set for families, one heavy set for gamers. TENSION: Medium. Trying to chart your path and make good decisions without setting up other players is a little nerve-racking. VICIOUS: High. Good players can find all sorts of ways to "burn bridges" (eliminate shortcuts). SOCIAL: Low. Every move you makes effects your opponents possibilities but still a lot of thinking so socializing isn't high on this one. THEME: Low. It's a Colovini game, so expect the abstract. This game is a fun race game and the pirate theme is nice, but weak. GAMER APPEAL: Yes. Much planning involved. More players equals more chaos. NON-GAMER APPEAL: Yes. Option of deep rules or light rules and simplicity of play make this one a winner. 2 PLAYERS: Excellent. Maybe even best with only 2 players. REPLAY: Good. The track is set up differently every time for some variety in strategy, but the basic concept each race is the same, and so are the tactics employed. I've played 20+ times. Good with 2-5 players. Best with 2-3 players.

by Leo Colovini

Quick summary | Each player has five pawns -- er...pirates -- that they are trying to move from one end of the track to the other. The board has several types of symbols. Play a card with a hat, and you can move any one of your pawns to the next unoccupied hat space in front of that pawn. That means you can jump ahead many spaces if many hat spaces are occupied. When you need more cards, you simply move backwards to the next space with one or two other pawns on it to gain one or two new cards. Players will be jostling for huge shotcuts (or 'bridges' as we call them) and trying to grab all the 2-card movebacks while preventing quality 'movebacks' for other players. Tons of tactical strategy in such a little package. This game is not going to replace Taj Mahal in your game group, but it has a very 'classic' feel to it. This game takes about 2 minutes to learn for the first time; it takes about 60 seconds to teach. It has a modular board which means that the value of the movement cards changes from game to game, even section to section. It can be played with gamers as very satisfying filler. It can be played with families, even younger children as a family favorite! Two sets of rules depending on if you want a slightly longer meatier game, or whether you want quicker game. It has lots of opportunities for sneaky play and rewards skill. IT PLAYS WELL TWO PLAYERS. It seems to appeal to non-gamers and women. It's my mother's favorite game of all time. Whew! I've lost track of many times I've played this (thanks, Rick T., from letting me borrow it.) And everyone I play it with likes it: game convention, my mom, my gamer friends, my non-gamer friends, even my game-loathing brother admits he kind of likes it. What tips the balance is the timeless quality about it. It won't knock your socks off -- the graphics are subdued, and the game is simple -- but I may well be playing this game 30 years from now with my grandkids. I really mean that. How many games have that kind of quality to them?

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