3-5 players, 8 years, 45 minutes of play
A game on the wild waters of the famous Niagara River and its waterfalls offers an interesting set of challenges that are likely to be preferred by those who like to risk a healthy dose of life.
It began vaguely in the late 18th century, when the Shone and Iroquois Indians led white adventurers to the gems along the river banks, hoping to pit them against each other and drive them away from their ambitions of territorial expansion.
Players take on the role of those brave adventurers (boaters) who want to collect gems along the banks of the river near the falls. You won't be surprised to find the most precious gems near the waterfall!
The first player who collects five different colors, four of the same color or seven gems of any color and brings them to the ground safely, will complete the game and approach them.
Here is the review of the game divided into 5 sections: Game components , Settings , How to play , What do we think? And finally , who do we think he will love? . So, if you don't want to read the full review, just go to the title you're interested in.
game components
1 game board with flowing bed and waterfall and 5 wells to store gems found along the banks of the Niagara River. Each hole is color coded to match 5 different types of gemstones.
1 wooden cloud, rain marker
1 wooden lifebuoy, start drawing
12 transparent methacrylate discs used to represent the flow of a river
1 set of bases and box. Unlike most games, this is important not only for storage purposes, but also because the game board rests on it to create the illusion of a waterfall.
Preparation
Place the box on top and bottom, with the open sides down (hmmm, more on that later), next to each other, so that they form a platform.
Place the game board on this platform so that it falls to one side.
Place 7 colored gems to match each gem point.
Place 9 transparent river discs on the river bed so that the upper river disc is under the rope extending into the river. Leave the upper spaces downstream empty. The remaining three free river discs are set aside for later use in the game.
Mark the Rainmaker (cloud) on space 0 (zero) of the weather track on the game board.
Each player takes two boats and seven paddle cards of the same color. The canoes are positioned on one or both beaches. There is no difference in the game on which side of the river the players use to get in and out of the water.
Each player chooses one of the round and rectangular squares around the edge of the game board closest to him. This is where you will place your paddle tokens and the first player or lifeline token.
Once a starting player has been selected, he receives a wooden survival token which is then placed on his round space on the game board.
How to play
On the first turn, the player must launch his boat into the river. Therefore, each player chooses one of his line symbols and places it face down on his rectangular space on the game board.
In the player ranking starting with the first player, each player launches their boat from the shore into the water through what the rules describe as "piers", but are more like wooden piers. This means placing the canoe on the clear disc just below the top.
The traffic rules to follow are:
1. Moving a ship on water costs no movement points.
2. Switching from one transparent disk to another costs one movement point and the movement points on the palette icon must be used in full.
3. Ships can only move in one direction per turn, ie upstream or downstream.
4. You can only take the canoe out of the water from the dock and it costs 1 point, as if you were going from one transparent disk to another.
5. Choose if and when the second boat goes on the water.
6. If you have both boats in the water, both boats must move the full distance of the paddle board, although they can move in opposite directions.
7. Each jar can hold a gem, to build a gem that costs two movement points.
8. You can place a gem from your ship on either of the two discovery points, even if it must be of a different color than the discovery.
9. If your ship is empty and moving upstream and its movement ends on the same disc as your opponent's ship containing a gem, you can steal your opponent's gem.
10. Collected gems must be removed to calculate victory conditions. Ships can land near the docks on either side of the river, and this is the only time they don't have to run out of all their movement points. They cannot therefore return directly to the water, even if they have save points.
The remaining paddle token allows players to influence the flow of the river and cannot be played the first time. During the game, players do not move the canoe, but can instead move the river flow 1 up or down.
The last part of the trick is to move the river. The river is moved by the weather indicator and the lower paddle board. So, if the weather index is +1 and the lowest paddle card is 3, the river will move by 4. This is accomplished by entering the number of discs associated, one by one, at the head of the river.
This can inevitably cause some canoes to cross the falls. If this happens, any jewelry they might have in the canoe is returned to the place where they were found. The canoe remains at the base of the waterfall until the player pushes a gem, at which point they can return the canoe to the shore of the dock.
The winning conditions are:
a. 5 jewels of different colors
B - 4 gems of the same color
C - 7 gems of any color
When players deposit their gems, they should be placed in front of them so that all other players can see them.
What were we thinking?
A colorful palette, interesting components, a completely different mechanism and an interesting abstract theme attracted my wife, not to mention most of the people we played with. He bombed with a couple, but since one was nearly in a coma and the other wasn't kind enough to push one of their canoes over the falls, we probably shouldn't read this too much!
Niagara is the 2005 Spiel des Jarhres winner and comes from Zoch Verlag , so it's no surprise it's a family game and not a two player game. However, we found that we could get it up and running in half an hour and with installation opportunities it would make a good filler, especially if you can get a used copy for a good price (there seems to be some quiet offerings at a vertical time last year. in Essen ).
The chances of failing come in the form of stealing your stones and / or speeding up the pace of the river. While it's not a complicated game, it has a lot to make it fun and we thought we'd give it a lot or play it again.
To provide the board with a secure platform / base, you need to have the top and bottom halves of the flat side of the box on top, so what we found odd was that (especially considering the high quality of all the other components) the artwork in the hand has not been printed upside down on the inner box so that the images on the base appear correctly during operation. We also thought it might be useful to print victory conditions on the sides of the chest. Normally it wouldn't be practical, but since it's visible to all players throughout the game, why not use it?
Regarding the game:
For social gamers, we hope you enjoy this relatively simple game, but it's filler regardless of your play style.
If you liked this review, you can see other games that I have reviewed here
A game on the wild waters of the famous Niagara River and its waterfalls offers an interesting set of challenges that are likely to be preferred by those who like to risk a healthy dose of life.
It began vaguely in the late 18th century, when the Shone and Iroquois Indians led white adventurers to the gems along the river banks, hoping to pit them against each other and drive them away from their ambitions of territorial expansion.
Players take on the role of those brave adventurers (boaters) who want to collect gems along the banks of the river near the falls. You won't be surprised to find the most precious gems near the waterfall!
The first player who collects five different colors, four of the same color or seven gems of any color and brings them to the ground safely, will complete the game and approach them.
Here is the review of the game divided into 5 sections: Game components , Settings , How to play , What do we think? And finally , who do we think he will love? . So, if you don't want to read the full review, just go to the title you're interested in.
game components
1 game board with flowing bed and waterfall and 5 wells to store gems found along the banks of the Niagara River. Each hole is color coded to match 5 different types of gemstones.
5 sets of player tokens (red, green, yellow, blue and brown) consisting of 2 boats and 7 paddle cards. There are six racket cards numbered 1 through 6, plus a cloud card. Paddle cards are used to move your canoe / boats along the river, while the cloud card changes the flow of the river from a simple point to a raging torrent.
8 precious stones in 5 different colors, red (ruby), blue (sapphire), transparent (diamond), yellow (amber) and purple (amethyst). In the game 7 gems are used while 8 coins are used.1 wooden cloud, rain marker
1 wooden lifebuoy, start drawing
12 transparent methacrylate discs used to represent the flow of a river
1 set of bases and box. Unlike most games, this is important not only for storage purposes, but also because the game board rests on it to create the illusion of a waterfall.
Preparation
Place the box on top and bottom, with the open sides down (hmmm, more on that later), next to each other, so that they form a platform.
Place the game board on this platform so that it falls to one side.
Place 7 colored gems to match each gem point.
Place 9 transparent river discs on the river bed so that the upper river disc is under the rope extending into the river. Leave the upper spaces downstream empty. The remaining three free river discs are set aside for later use in the game.
Mark the Rainmaker (cloud) on space 0 (zero) of the weather track on the game board.
Each player takes two boats and seven paddle cards of the same color. The canoes are positioned on one or both beaches. There is no difference in the game on which side of the river the players use to get in and out of the water.
Each player chooses one of the round and rectangular squares around the edge of the game board closest to him. This is where you will place your paddle tokens and the first player or lifeline token.
Once a starting player has been selected, he receives a wooden survival token which is then placed on his round space on the game board.
How to play
On the first turn, the player must launch his boat into the river. Therefore, each player chooses one of his line symbols and places it face down on his rectangular space on the game board.
In the player ranking starting with the first player, each player launches their boat from the shore into the water through what the rules describe as "piers", but are more like wooden piers. This means placing the canoe on the clear disc just below the top.
The traffic rules to follow are:
1. Moving a ship on water costs no movement points.
2. Switching from one transparent disk to another costs one movement point and the movement points on the palette icon must be used in full.
3. Ships can only move in one direction per turn, ie upstream or downstream.
4. You can only take the canoe out of the water from the dock and it costs 1 point, as if you were going from one transparent disk to another.
5. Choose if and when the second boat goes on the water.
6. If you have both boats in the water, both boats must move the full distance of the paddle board, although they can move in opposite directions.
7. Each jar can hold a gem, to build a gem that costs two movement points.
8. You can place a gem from your ship on either of the two discovery points, even if it must be of a different color than the discovery.
9. If your ship is empty and moving upstream and its movement ends on the same disc as your opponent's ship containing a gem, you can steal your opponent's gem.
10. Collected gems must be removed to calculate victory conditions. Ships can land near the docks on either side of the river, and this is the only time they don't have to run out of all their movement points. They cannot therefore return directly to the water, even if they have save points.
The remaining paddle token allows players to influence the flow of the river and cannot be played the first time. During the game, players do not move the canoe, but can instead move the river flow 1 up or down.
The last part of the trick is to move the river. The river is moved by the weather indicator and the lower paddle board. So, if the weather index is +1 and the lowest paddle card is 3, the river will move by 4. This is accomplished by entering the number of discs associated, one by one, at the head of the river.
This can inevitably cause some canoes to cross the falls. If this happens, any jewelry they might have in the canoe is returned to the place where they were found. The canoe remains at the base of the waterfall until the player pushes a gem, at which point they can return the canoe to the shore of the dock.
The winning conditions are:
a. 5 jewels of different colors
B - 4 gems of the same color
C - 7 gems of any color
When players deposit their gems, they should be placed in front of them so that all other players can see them.
What were we thinking?
A colorful palette, interesting components, a completely different mechanism and an interesting abstract theme attracted my wife, not to mention most of the people we played with. He bombed with a couple, but since one was nearly in a coma and the other wasn't kind enough to push one of their canoes over the falls, we probably shouldn't read this too much!
Niagara is the 2005 Spiel des Jarhres winner and comes from Zoch Verlag , so it's no surprise it's a family game and not a two player game. However, we found that we could get it up and running in half an hour and with installation opportunities it would make a good filler, especially if you can get a used copy for a good price (there seems to be some quiet offerings at a vertical time last year. in Essen ).
The chances of failing come in the form of stealing your stones and / or speeding up the pace of the river. While it's not a complicated game, it has a lot to make it fun and we thought we'd give it a lot or play it again.
To provide the board with a secure platform / base, you need to have the top and bottom halves of the flat side of the box on top, so what we found odd was that (especially considering the high quality of all the other components) the artwork in the hand has not been printed upside down on the inner box so that the images on the base appear correctly during operation. We also thought it might be useful to print victory conditions on the sides of the chest. Normally it wouldn't be practical, but since it's visible to all players throughout the game, why not use it?
Regarding the game:
- Look closely at what other players are collecting. If possible, collect 4 gems of the same color as this is the fastest way to win, but beware of other players trying the same tactic!
- Try not to give your opponents a chance to push you down the waterfall, but take the opportunity to help them on their way!
- Look for opportunities to destroy other players' efforts by stealing their stones, being careful not to give other players the same opportunity.
Who do we think will love?
Families with tweens and tweens should find a game here that will create a lot of fun and laughter when played with the right spirit and between players who don't take things too seriously or personally.For social gamers, we hope you enjoy this relatively simple game, but it's filler regardless of your play style.
If you liked this review, you can see other games that I have reviewed here