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by Reiner Knizia
Rating: 7/10 after 5+ plays
by Reiner Knizia
art Michaela Schelk
published 2004 by Kosmos
players: 2-4 / (best 2-4 [4 players using partnership rules])
duration: 20-30 mins.
type: light strategy board game
PACE: QUICK. This is a neat twist on a dominoes like game, and turns are not at all complicated, allowing for a relatively brisk pace.
COMPLEXITY: LOW. Rules can be explained in less than 2 minutes. This is a tile laying game with a simple, but engaging scoring mechanic. The only tricky part to understand is who wins: at the end of the game, look at everyone's lowest score; whoever has the BEST (higher) lowest score wins. Otherwise, this game is no problem for almost any age.
LUCK: MEDIUM. Tiles are drawn randomly from the back, and having the perfect tile to score well in a color can be the result of better tile draws. Also, in a 3 or 4 player (non-partnership) game, there is obviously some player chaos, as players can not set themselves up for plays very often.
TENSION: MEDIUM. It is fairly tense trying to find the right way to play just enough offense to get you just a few more points then try and play defense to prevent your opponent from catching your lowest score.
VICIOUS: LOW. Though one can play some defense, and can be stingy with tile placement, the nature of hexagon shaped dominoes makes it very tough to completely block out any access to a colored tile. This is actually kind of nice because incredible viciousness would not suit this style of game.
INTERACTION: MEDIUM. Every tile you place is available for everyone else to score on, but sine all tiles are hidden from other players, you don't know when you are hurting them or helping them.
VISUALS: GOOD. If the board looks spartan in the picture, it looks quite nice in person. A nice, clean design for the board (which scales for 2-4 players), and then a huge bag full of 'hexominoes'. As the game is being played, a pleasantly colorful mosaic of colored symbols develops. Quite nice.
THEME: NONE. I don't like abstracts. I like this. WHat can I say? It's an enjoyable abstract.
GAMER APPEAL: PROBABLY. It makes good abstract filler.
NON-GAMER APPEAL: YES. It's enough like dominoes to have a familiarity, but very much it's own game, and, in my opinion, more interesting than dominoes, allowing for great appeal to non-gamers.
PLAYERS SCALING: GOOD. 2 players allows for best control. 3 players is still good, but 4 players doesn't allow for very good control, so with 4 players, stick with the partnership rules.
REPLAY: GOOD. I don't play it every night, but I do enjoy bringing this one out. Replayability is only hurt by it's omission of theme, so if abstract game don't bother you, then this game will have high replayability.
RATING: 7/10 after 5+ plays.
A simple little abstract game that most resembles dominoes. The difference? Well, I don't like abstract games, and I don't like dominoes, but I enjoy Einfach Genial, so there must be some differences! The graphic presentation is simple, colorful, and pleasant. The scoring is simple and clever, with wise tile placement scoring many points for you and at the same time limiting potential scores for your opponent. The winning condition is unique: the player with the best lowest score wins. In other words, at the end of the game find your color with the lowest score, then compare it to everyone else's score. Out of all those low scores, the highest one wins! It is fairly expensive as an import but a wonderful light boardgame that scales well, and stands out as for its uniqueness.