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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Harbour in Tabletop Games
Dec 19, 2019
In Harbour, you control a gobleeple (I am really horrible at this, but it’s a meeple in the shape of a goblin) who travels around town visiting buildings to enact their special abilities. Using these abilities will help you amass goods whose value is ever-changing on a uniquely-designed market board. Knowing when to sell your wood and livestock to purchase buildings is the key factor to creating a strategic path to income and winning the game of Harbour.
DISCLAIMER: I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy from the publisher directly or from your FLGS. Furthermore, there is an expansion to this game, but we are not reviewing it at this time. Should we review it in the future we will either update this review or post a link to the new material here. -T
To setup give each player a gobleeple of their color choice (I choose you, purple!), a player board of their choice – or randomly dealt, and one token of each good to later be placed on their warehouse spaces. Place the main market board in the middle of the table with one goods token per space on the market to indicate starting prices for each good. Have each player now assign goods to warehouse spaces not to exceed three total goods stored. Shuffle the main building cards and place out in a grid a number of cards equal to three plus the number of players (seven total in a four-player game). Determine the starting player and you are ready to begin!
On your turn you must move your gobleeple to another vacant building, even the starting one on your player mat, or another player’s built building (but you must pay them a good to do so). From there you may take advantage of any special abilities that building offers. It could be adjusting the prices of goods, trading one type of good for another, or allowing you to purchase buildings from the grid. Purchasing buildings brings the game closer to its end, as the end is triggered by a player purchasing their fourth building. The round continues until everyone has had equal amount of turns and the player with the highest VP in buildings wins! I will have you play the game to see the various abilities that each player mat and each building offer.
Components. This is a small game in a small box (ironically it’s a Scott Almes design – you know, of Tiny Epic fame). You are given lots of player mats that feature different characters and abilities that you can choose to emulate. These mats are great, laid out well, and have funny flavor text on them. Also included are the aforementioned painted wooden gobleeples in fun colors and with an even funner shrugging pose. To keep track of your goods and market values you use blocks with stickers applied. In addition to this is a giant stack of cards to represent the buildings you will be visiting and purchasing. I have sleeved mine and they all fit back in the box (even with a few promos included). Everything is of great quality. No problems at all for me, as per usual with Tasty Minstrel Games fare.
I do not own many market and economic games because usually they do not really interest me at all. I do have many worker placement games because I really enjoy the mechanic. This one, though, is special to me. It is one of the games I have Kickstarted that I feel really delivered and fires on all cylinders for me. Your opinions may vary if you have played it, but this game is an absolute gem. It is light, fast, and incredibly fun. There is a slight learning curve if you are not used to either economic or worker placement games, but after a few rounds it will all fall into place. If you are looking for a euro game in fun clothing, I highly recommend Harbour (and it’s a steal right now in stores). Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a rousing 10 / 12.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Reef in Tabletop Games
Aug 1, 2019
Reef is an abstract hand management, pattern building game that challenges the players to become coral reef architects and rebuild our fragile underwater ecosystem. This is a lofty goal, as our coral reefs in the real world are hurting for rejuvenation something fierce.
DISCLAIMER: I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy from the publisher directly or from your FLGS. -T
Setup is easy: shuffle the player mats and deal one to each player. The player that received the one board containing the starfish will be the starting player. Deal the players one of each colored coral piece, two cards from the deck, and 3 VP tokens. Place your reef chunks in the middle of your board in any order and you are ready to play!
On your turn you can do one of two things: draw a card or play a card. There are three cards face up to form the offer row, or a player can pay a VP token to the card with the lowest printed VP total to take the face up card on top of the draw pile (a la Small World). When you play a card, you immediately take the coral pieces on the card and place them on your play mat. The pieces can be stacked on other pieces of the same or different color, or on a blank spot on the mat. Once done, you check the card you played for any scoring conditions you may have met from your play mat. I will not go into detail about scoring, but there are several types of scoring that are employed in a game of Reef. The game continues in this manner until all of one color of coral pieces are used up. Players finish the round and then count their VP tokens. The winner is the player with the most VPs.
Components. The box is, what, normal sized? And the art on it is wonderful. So colorful and instantly recognizable. In fact, the art on the game in its entirety is truly amazing. I love it! The cards are of fine quality, but since they are handled a bit I sleeved mine. The VP tokens are of good quality, and I like that the pieces aren’t just perfect circles. It’s not a huge deal, but it helps with immersion just that much more. Same for the player mats. They could have been just as effective with square mats, but just that bit of wave makes it more enjoyable to play on for me. The big chunky coral pieces are so fun to play with, and handle, and, honestly, drop. They are very satisfying and great for those with colorblindness since they are all different shapes for the different colors they represent. All in all, Next Move Games knocks it out of the park on components AGAIN!
As you can tell by our score, we really like this game a lot. The first time I played it, my father-in-law used an interesting strategy and won the game. The next time I played it, I tried to use that same strategy and came in 3rd place. So, I chalked that win up to luck of the (card) draw and am now seeking more varied strategies to become the King of Reef. This is perhaps what also keeps the game from being a Golden Feather Award winner – I can play my game strategy and you can play yours, but that’s it. There is no real player interaction. As one Duke of Dice Alex would sing it, Reef is actually just “multiplayer solitaire.” While that is completely appropriate and non-offensive, I believe that with some more player interaction I would be more apt to bump this one to a 6. That said, we at Purple Phoenix Games give Reef a well-deserved bubbly score of 15 / 18. Emerson has himself another hit and I am proud to have it in my collection. You should grab it too, maybe.