Vaalbara has you play heroes to gain territories.
Will you piece together this new world?
Subcontinent of Vaalbara, Neolithic era. Your tribe sets out to explore uncharted lands in order to establish sedentary villages. Use the various talents of your tribe to optimize your development, expand your territory and enforce your hegemony!
Vaalbara Game Overview
Quick Rules Summary
Everyone has an identical deck of cards with 12 tribe members numbered 1 to 12 and draws a hand. On the table are 2 rows of Territory cards, one row for this round and the second for a sneak peek at the next round.
Players play a card face down and simultaneously reveal them and they are resolved from low to high.
Some give you money based on certain circumstances, some steal money from opponents and others manipulate the territory cards in the middle of the table moving them between rows and the deck.
Then the player takes a territory from the current row. These lands award money in various ways usually based on the territories you already have in your play area.
Then a new ‘future’ territory row is drawn, a new card is drawn by all players and a new round begins
How do you win?
When all players have 9 territory cards the game ends. Players get a bonus if they have 5 or 6 different territories and the player with the most money wins.
Main Mechanisms
There is simultaneous action selection with the card play but also a set collection element with the territory cards.
USP
Nothing new here, there are similar games with a lot of crossover but this doesn’t add much new.
Theme
The theme kind of makes sense when you read about Vaalbara in the Wikipedia entry and how different the world might have been.
Setup
Everyone gets a coloured deck and shuffles it. The territory cards are shuffled and two rows are laid out. I believe that’s it.
Components & Artwork
The components are very standard and the card stock is nothing to worry about.
The art for both the characters and the territories is really nice.
Ease of Teaching
It’s very easy to teach. Each character’s ability is straightforward. Some of the territory card scoring is a bit tricky and the iconography isn’t that straightforward but the clan cards are fine.
Similar Games
I know I’ve played a few games like this, but right now the only one I can think of is Citadels.
I’ve had a quick search and I think Nidavellir is a good option and a better game.
Vaalbara Review
Positives
The artwork is really nice.
The cards played are nice and simple so you can focus on the gameplay.
The drafting of territory cards based on the character played, mixed with being able to manipulate the territory cards is good fun.
The back of the territory card deck has the symbols of the player decks in order and are all different. This is used as a tiebreaker for players playing hero cards of the same value. As hero cards can manipulate this deck, it means that the turn order can change mid-round which is good fun.
Negatives
This mechanism has been done a lot and this is average by comparison.
Summary
A decent game that I will forget very soon.
Jesta ThaRogue