Giants Board Game First Impressions

GIANTS! Sounds fun… right?

Sculpting Easter Island heads and moving them doesn’t sound so fun…

In this game, players incarnate clan leaders during the Golden Age of Easter Island. The board represents a simplified map of the island. Rock platforms (ahus) are where the Moaïs (monumental sculptures) will be erected.

Your clan competes against others, and you will earn more prestige by building and transporting larger, more imposing Moaïs than your opponents’ clans.

Each of your pawns represents a group of men. You can grow your population if you wish. You will choose each turn which part of your population will sculpt Moaïs and which other part will transport them, in cooperation with other players.

Statues are transported from the quarry to the ahus (the rock platforms) using paths made of pawns and the help of logs.

You can use your influence (Tribal Markers) to choose the best statues and mark to your color the statues you cannot achieve in your turn. You can also rely on your Sorcerer and his mighty powers, of the strength of your Chief, as well as on mystic powers of the Rongo writing tablets.

The winner will be the one who has erected the largest statues in the best places at the end of the game.

This is a fairly odd game. For one, the pieces and things are in their original language. No one knows how to pronounce it. So for the purposes of this ‘review’, I will name them by the thing we called them.

So the first player rolls the dice, which determines how many, and of which level (1,2 or 3) Easter Island heads are available in this turn.

Bidding

You then bid to pick. The higher bid gets the first pick. But you’re using resources that you use in the Action phase. So you can’t afford to bid too much.

Then you place workers. You have 3. Your normal dude that counts as one. A Sorcerer that counts as 1 and a Chief that counts as 3.

You place workers to be able to move the Easter Island heads from the centre of the board to the edge of the Island.

That’s pretty much it.

Giants Positives

Different Size Heads, Different Strength Workers

The level of the heads (1,2 and 3) and the strength of your workers (1 and 3) make you think about moving a head. A Chief of strength 3 can move any so putting him in the space next to the head allows you to move it to his space.

If you only have a 1 strength worker you can use wooden logs to make up the difference and roll it onto the next square.

Using other Clans

If you want to move your head into a space that another player owns, you can use them but you give them victory points. This allows for tactical placement.

Giants Choices

There are plenty of choices which is always good for a worker placement game. How much do you sacrifice to bid? Do you gather wooden logs? Are extra workers a priority? Do you get more stuff? Upgrade workers? If you’re doing some of this other stuff you’re not moving your Head so will you get it to a scoring position before the game ends?

Plenty, PLENTY to do… And you need to do ALL of it, now.

Jesta ThaRogue