As most of you know, I love and collect board games. There is a game that I have where the recommended age is from 8 to Adult, and it is easy to understand how the game works, but also leaves some room for strategy.
I have begun work on designing a board game that I have had stuck in my head for close to eight years. I have an awesome friend who is also into board games, and I thought that two heads would be better than one while trying to figure out the mechanics of it all and how to design something fun with strategy, but nothing that an eight year old would understand. I'm not going to talk about the theme or anything, but we are using different mechanics from a few other games that we love. We have played tons and tons of games, and it has been fun coming up with ideas for the game that might take a similar theme, but add different elements to it so, really it's like a Frankenstein's Monster, but in a good way. By adding little things we love from games we have played, it's been fun talking about what would work, what wouldn't work, and what can we do to make it work.
I was worried about the theme, as there is another game with a similar theme, but then I started thinking, it's okay to use a theme that might relate. For example, there are sooooooo many games about Pirates. If you go to boardgamegeek.com, there are tons and tons of games about pirates, and even some that just rip off other pirate games. However, there are several games I have tried about pirates that are different from each other, and even though it's still pirates, game designers have made some great games that are completely different with the same theme. So, I am not so discouraged anymore. I will talk more about the game we are designing later, but it's now out of our minds, and into notebooks and there have been many internet searches, and studying, and trying to learn every little detail about the theme we are working with. It may take a while to get it from the notebooks to an actual prototype, which we will use to play test with a lot of different people and groups, and then refine it, but it's finally out on paper, and we have some great ideas.
Having said that, one thing a game needs is beautiful art work, especially on the cover of the box so that people will want to look at it and thing about buying the game. So, a few months ago, I was at board game store a few minutes away from my house, and I was drawn to a board game by it's cover called Bumuntu. It's an African tribe word which means Civilization. Here is the box cover....
I thought that the African Animal cover was really cool. So, I picked it up and looked at the back....
There is that old saying that says "Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover", but honestly, if you are wanting to purchase board game that costs between $25 to $50, they better show you what's in the box, and what the game looks like when it is set up and ready to play.
This is one of my favorite board games that I have ever paid close to $40. When you open the box, the tiles and pieces are sturdy and nice, and the art work is really cool. I'll tell you a little bit about the game with some pictures, and then I will add a link to amazon if you wish to purchase Bumuntu.
So, there are two boards. One looks like a jungle, and the other one has a scoring track and a ranking board. The tiles have cool artistic depictions of twelve different animals found in Africa. You can see them on the board.
Setting up the game is easy. You choose ten of the twelve animals and their tiles are placed on the jungle board. Then, there are markers for each animal used, and they are randomly put on the ranking side of the scoring counter. (You don't need to worry about any of the scoring until the very end of the game, so it's easy to not look at or use.
The ten animals chosen for your game have little cards that are on the ranking board. The jungle board has all of the tiles of the animals, which are put on the board randomly. Each player then chooses an animal tile on the edges of the board.
You also have a screen with a lot of helpful information.
The object of the game is to collect the animal tiles. The way you obtain tiles is determined by the animal tile you are on. For example, if I start on a Lion tile, I will collect it, but there is a catch. Every animal in the game has a different way of moving your player piece, or pawn, whatever you want to call it. For example if you are on a Lion tile, your screen in front of you has a picture of all of the animals, and describes how that animal moves. For example, The lion may move in any direction, but has to be moved exactly three tiles away. After you move your pawn, to the new tile, you then get to pick up the original lion tile you were on, and you put it behind your screen.
Here is a ranking board pic....
Let me explain how the ranking works. The animal at the top is worth the most amount of points at the end of the game. So the picture above shows a Giraffe at the top, and a Black Mamba snake at the bottom. So, in this situation, if the game ended right then, Giraffe tiles would be worth the most points, so whoever collected some Giraffe tiles would get some good points.
However, the tiles are white with white backgrounds of every animal, except there are two tiles of each animal with a brown background. When a player collects a tile with a brown background, that player then gets to change the order on the ranking board by either moving one up, or one down one spot. So, if that were to happen, something could move the Elephant card on the ranking board to either the second spot, pushing the Flamingos down a rank, or they could move the Elephant down one, and the Rhinoceros would then be in third place over the Elephants. It's very simple. So, a good strategy would be to collect a few tiles of one animal, and then you might want to try to rearrange the ranking board so that the certain animal tiles you have been collecting will be worth more points at the end of the game.
However, as tiles disappear, you can still collect the animal tiles you are on if you movie in the right direction, but it may not land you on a tile. It might put you on a space without a a tile at all. If you look at the picture of the screen above, in front of the screen, there are some little tokens with bananas on them. Sometimes when you collect a tile, there might be a little banana icon. When you collect that tile, you gain a banana token. So, when you find yourself on a spot without a tile on it, you can spend your banana tokens and move your pawn however many spaces it takes you to get back onto a tile. Also, before you move and collect a tile, you can use banana tokens to move your pawn from one animal to another animal tile you might be wanting to collect. It doesn't matter when you use the banana tokens, and it doesn't take away your turn. So, if I was on an empty space, I could pay tokens to get to a tile, and then I take the actual turn, so it's good strategy to save up those banana tokens until you really need them.
After the last tile with a brown background is collected, even if there are still tiles on the jungle board, the game ends. Everyone removes their screens, and using the scoring and ranking board, you add up the points, and the person with the most points wins. Also, one thing I forgot to mention, some of the tiles have a little cross or a mask logo. those give you bonus points as well. There aren't a lot, but there are a few on the board.
One thing I love about the game is that it's simple, but fun and complex for strategies. Also, one thing I have been loving in certain board games lately, is that designers are trying to make their game re-playable as they can, and this one is no exception. There are twelve different animals in the game, but you only use ten, so you are able to start to choose different animals, which will switch the game up, but once you have all of the tiles you are going to use for the game, you turn them face down, and randomly put them on the board, so if I sat down and played the first game, changing the animals up, and randomly placing the tiles on the jungle board are going to be different every single time. Each animal has it's own special way of moving, and so choosing to play with a different combination of animals, plus the randomly placed tiles, will change the game and your strategy quite a bit. Also, you can put the animal ranking and score board, and randomly choose which scorning order then game will have, and that also changes twenty times during the game. It's would be next to impossible to play the exact same game twice. There's always a fun challenge with it. The game doesn't take very long to play, and it's just really fun and interesting.
Above I said that it was for ages 8 to Adult, but it's actually 10 to Adult on the box, but I have a niece that is eight, and she plays it just fine without any help. It really is a simple, but really fun and attractive board game. I will leave the link for it on Amazon right below this sentance.
I am not sure why the game is a little more expensive on Amazon. It's made by WizKids games, and I am pretty sure they might have it cheaper on their website, but honestly, I love this game, and I think a fifty dollar game that can brings your family and friends together, and the amount of re-playability is way worth the price. I love video games, but I love board and card games where I can sit with the people I love and just hang out and having fun playing a neat little game like this. If I somehow lost my copy, I wouldn't hesitate to purchase Bumuntu again.
With how crazy the world is right now with the pandemic and not a whole lot of electronic entertainment out there as we strive to find a new normal, this game would be a fun and great addition to your family and friends.
Well, that's it for this post. I hope you all are reading my stuff, and having some fun while staying safe. I got my fifth Covid test the other day because I was feeling a little fatigued, and went to see my doctor. I'm very healthy, and I am so thankful for that, and I am thankful most of you have been safe. Wear your masks, and remember to tell your family and friends that you love and appreciate every one of them. Things have been so weird for close to a year, and I don't want to lose any of you, so please be careful.
I will be back with another post soon!
Uncky Nate OUT (drops a mic)!
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