review

Under spanish reign

West of Africa

Canary islands in the late middle ages

Daily life on the Canary Islands in the late Middle Ages! The Spanish lords planted commodities, tried to sell them for a good profit and found and developed settlements when reigning over the islands as Alcaldes (which was a kind of Lord Mayor).

With these introductory words, the game is already nearly completely explained: Each player tries to become Alcalde on the islands, plants commodities and sells them for profit. Sounds a bit trivial and not really thrilling or challenging. But when the game is over and you liked the interaction, you will absolutely want to play the game again, because it is a very tactical game. You are very motivated to pay much closer attention to your fellow players next time and remember that there is no element of chance!

What is the game about?

The mechanisms of the game are based on: 1) all players choosing one to five cards from a deck of eight cards, 2) those cards determining the turn order for players and 3) your implementation of card actions when it is your turn.

Action options are: Move workers, cultivate goods, sell goods, found a settlement or move a ship. The card “minus 4” is not an action. It only reduces the total of all action cards by 4 points. And this takes to the determination of turn order in each round. Each action cards shows a points value of zero to eight points. Each player adds the values of his selected cards, deducts the Minus Card, if selected, and names the total. The player with the lowest total is the new starting player. In case of a tie the gold track acts as tie breaker and decides who goes first.

Yes, there is no money in this game. Instead of money, we have a marker token for the gold track (0 to 40) which indicates the amount of gold that we own. At the start of the game we own 15 gold. Gold is necessary to cultivate goods and when we sell goods, we receive gold. For winning the game, the total score in points on the victory point track decides the winner. You score points for the founding (building of settlements, for becoming Alcalde or for earning most or second-most gold at the end of a round.

How to play a round?

Each round of the game comprises three phases:

I. Select cards, II. Implement actions according to the selected cards, and III. End of round.

Throughout the game, the gold track is always used as a tie breaker in case of ties. The player with more gold wins a tie or moves first in turn order. In case of a tie on the gold track the tie is won by the player whose marker is “further up” (see board). The selection of cards decides, when you will do your turn and which actions you will be able to implement. If you select five cards, you immediately pay 4 gold in this phase.

The cards are laid out face-down and players name the total point value. Then turn order is determined: The player with the fewest points puts hi his marker token on Case 1 of the turn order track. I do not need to especially mention that turn order is of immense importance in that game. In Phase II players resolve the card actions in turn order. The sequence in which you resolve your actions is up to your choice and you need not resolve a card that you did select. You can use island cards twice. When a player selected the Minus card, it is - at that point - given to his left neighbor. A ship in Round One is a special case - each player puts his ship on a free mooring next to one of the seven islands.

Now a look at the actions details:

The action „Move workers“ is used to move workers from island to island. If you want to move workers, you only have to select and play the card Move Workers. You receive four action points which you spend to move workers. Withe one action point you move one worker from one of the ships to La Gomera or Fuerteventura or - along a sea connection - from one island to an adjacent island. Each worker on an island is worth 2 points when the Alcalde is elected and also reduces the cost for each cultivated case on the island by one gold. When a player deploys all three workers on the same island, cultivation on this island is free of charge!

The action Cultivate Goods is only possible in connection with the use of an Island cards. Those island cards indicate where a player can cultivate goods. You take a goods marker and place it on a suitable case. You can cultivate any number of goods, but must have available the goods markers for free cases and can only place one marker per case. You pay three gold for each goods marker. These costs are reduced, if you workers on the island and use them. If you use workers, they are returned to the left or right ship case.

The action Sell Goods is used to sell goods out of the storage cases on the islands, in which goods are stored. You must, again, play an additional island card to be able to resolve the action. You must pay attention to the selling price, which is six gold on the westerly islands and nine gold on the islands in the middle. On the islands in the east, the selling price is even twelve gold per good. To transfer goods from the storage cases in the West to the East, you use your ship.

The action Move Ship enables you to load up the three goods on your ship in the harbor, to move the ship - along the sea connection lines - up to three harbors and to unload goods from the ship. When the movement of the ship ends on a harbor where all moorings are taken, one of the ships must leave. A ship is worth two points when the Alcalde is determined.

To win the game, you must not neglect the action Found Settlement. For founding a settlement, you must play the card and at least one additional island card. For cost for each settlement varies from six to 12 gold. Each settlement gives you three victory points instantly. However, you must be Alcalde on the island to be able to resolve this action.

End of Round:

When all players have resolved their action, the game round ends. All players take back their cards and have all of them available for the next round. Minus cards that were played have been handed on the respective players on the left.

Now the following actions are resolved:

Victory Points for most gold - The two players with most and second-most gold earn one victory point each.

Harvest of cultivated goods: All goods go to storage.

Determination of Alcalde: On each island, the Alcalde is determined, each good is worth one point, each worker and each ship count two points. Whoever has most points from this, becomes Alcalde and receives the Alcalde Marker. For each Alcalde, you receive one victory point.

Finally, settlements on the settlement track are replenished.

What is new in “West of Africa”?

On the board, the islands show cases for cultivating of goods and for settlements. Those cases are limited, therefore players must - when selecting cards for action - consider also the cases on the board and turn order, because otherwise it might happen that a player cannot cultivate goods or found a settlement, because all cases are taken when it is his turn. This mix of strategic planning and tactical cleverness will let you succeed. Basically, the designer has created a mechanism with those action card, that determines action, but also demands experience as in an auction.

I believe that the game does not tolerate mistakes easily! You must not neglect the use of ships and workers - determination of Alcalde, reducing of costs for cultivation and higher price for goods after transport. Therefore, you should select those cards as often as possible. Gold, of course, is scarce and if you own gold, you should use it to found settlements. In each round, you must consider anew which cards you actually select. There is no strategy that always guarantees success!

I believe that players are permanently challenged in West of Africa: Which island offers the best opportunities to use my cards? What will the other players do? When will I therefore resolve which action to stay ahead of my fellow players be one step, that is, one victory point?

Game end and scoring:

When, at the end of a round, one or several players have achieved 25 or more victory points, and/or all 20 houses on the islands have been used for settlements, a final round is played. Then each player receives one victory point for any 10 gold he owns.

Conclusion:

The game is designed very clearly as regards to board and components, but is not overly impressive visually. The components fit the topic and are geared to the game idea. The board with the victory point track and gold track is free of involved graphic design, which does not impede fun to play nor functionality. You permanently direct your glances to the board to calculate which action options are currently available.

I was convinced from my first game on, that the game offers a high replay value. You need more than one game to find out which tactic needs to be combined with which strategy to result in success. With West of Africa the designer has managed to acquaint players with the question of “how do I become the most successful Alcalde? In an entertaining and challenging way”!

Erwin Kocsan

Players: 2-5

Age: 10+

Time: 60+

Designer: Martin Schlegel

Artist: Harald Lieske

Price: ca. 35 Euro

Publisher: ADC Blackfire 2016

Web: www.blackfire.eu

Genre: Worker placement, development

Users: With friends

Version: multi

Rules: de en

In-game text: no

Comments:

Standard topic

Interesting mechanism details

Needs a mix of strategy and tactics

Compares to:

Worker placement in combination with action cards

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Erwin Kocsan:

A well-working implementation of the topic, based on a functional, streamlined graphic design and interesting mechanisms, providing a high replay value.

Chance (pink): 0

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0