Santa Maria is a dice-rolling, tile-laying game.

Title: Santa Maria

Year Published: 2017

Designer: Eilif Svensson, Kristian Amundsen Østby

Publisher: 

Players: 1-4

Game Time: ~90 Minutes

Set-up Time: ~5 Minutes

Ages: 12+

Theme: Colonial

Mechanisms: Dice Rolling, Tableau Building, Tile Placement, Variable Player Powers

How to win: Have the happiest colony at the end of 3 years.

Game Description

Each player establishes and develops a colony.

How to Play Santa Maria

Round-Up

So this mixes up a few mechanisms that I really like.

There’s a bit of dice placement in there which is always good. I love a bit of Bora Bora etc My favourite thing about dice placement over worker placement is the differing values of the dice. Working out how to best use them and how best to plan for them is something I enjoy doing.

But, only if the values of the dice don’t matter. I mentioned Bora Bora, there if my rolls are all low and yours are all high we are still on a level playing field. Games like Kingsburg however… Well, the player rolling higher SHOULD win.

The Triomino tile placement is always fun, takes me back to endless hours of Tetris on the Gameboy but also games like Patchwork. You not only have to fit them in but you have to look at what you can get and which row/column the spaces can fit so you can plan for the dice activation.

There is also plenty going on with the ships, the tracks and the resource management part. All in all, it’s a very simple game with a lot going on and plenty to think about.

Rating

A really nice mix of mechanisms and interaction

I give it a 7/10

Santa Maria First Impressions March 2018

My first impressions of Santa Maria including a brief overview of gameplay followed by my final summary.

Jesta ThaRogue