Our Review

Island of rare species

LA ISLA

A_lle  L_ieben E_s A_nspruchsvoll

ALEA and Stefan Feld is the story of a cooperation between designer and publisher over many years. It began with RUHM UND EHRE (2006), went on with IM JAHR DES DRACHEN und NOTRE DAMES (2007), MACAO (2009), DIE BURGEN VON BURGUND (2011) and BORA BORA (2013).

What awards did this cooperation bring? Well, whatever you may think about rankings – for some players a good game only starts if it features 20 pages of rules and is a strategy game filling an evening with several ours of play, while some others are tasked too hard with a one-minute explanation of a game. Thus it is difficult to make comparisons. But one does not have to be conceited to be happy about awards, as, besides having an impact on one’s ego, they usually have a noticeable impact on one’s bank account.

Well, to my knowledge, ALEA has managed 1. Place in Deutscher Spielepreis three times: In 1999 RA achieved second Place, but already in the second your of the publisher being in business TADSCH MAHAL did win the award in 2000. In 2002 came PUERTO ROICE and in 2005 LOUIS XIV.

And how did Stefan Feld fare with Deutscher Spielepreis? Well, he has been really unlucky there. In 2007, NOTRE DAME was worsted by SÄULEN DER ERDE, and in 2011 DIE BURGEN VON BURGUND again only landed in second place, beaten by 7 WONDERS; in 2012 his game TRAJAN was beaten by VILLAGE and in 2013, a really strong vintage, the excellent BRÜGGE was only ranked third behind TERA MYSTICA and TZOLK’IN. Here, at last, the Austrian Award Spiele Hit Für Freunde provided a bit of consolation.

And there is pretty much the same picture for „Spiel des Jahres“. In the year 2006 when THURN UND TAXIS won Spiel des Jahres, REVOLTE IN ROM made the list of recommended games; in 2007 with ZOOLORETTO winning, NOTRE DAME also made the list, as did IM JAHR DES DRACHEN in 2008, and Keltis won, with a similar result  for DIE BURGEN VON BURGUND and LUNA in 2011, with QWIRKLE winning. From then on, when we take a look at recent nominations, Stefan Feld’s games are probably no longer really suitable for the players targeted by Spiel des Jahres Award. But the Award Kennerspiel des Jahres has been created for exactly that kind of games. In 2011 STRASBOURG was nominated, but lost against 7 WONDERS; 2013 the same thing happened to BRÜGGE against DIE LEGENDEN VON ANDOR, in 2014 AMERIGO made the list of recommended games, and the winner was ISTANBUL. Luck really did not favor Stefan Feld in that respect. If you look at the range of his game over the years he is, in my opinion, second to none in accumulated “points”. So, after this retrospect, what can we expect from LA ISLA?

The cover of the box in the GLEN MORE size shows nearly extinct animals in a cut-out section, animals that must be explored and caught in the game. The board itself consists of a 10-cornered board to which 10 „teeth“ are added in random selection. This ensures that each game is different due to the varying arrangement of the board parts. On the completed tableau in a jungle design you distribute 35 tiles featuring five different types of rare species. There is the Dodo Bird, The Giant fossa, The Golden Toad, the Sardinian Pika and the Owleth Moth. All of these animals are real, but are deemed to have been extinct for a long time. There are eight tiles of each kind, one was thoughtfully provided as replacement tile, probably to avoid being pestered by replacement demands from careless players.

Eight explorers each in colors red, white, blue and black, represented by small, wobbly plastic figurines set out to search for those animal species. There are also four cardholders  with three options for placement, which play in important role in the game, together with 180 cards. 120 cards can be categorized as easy, 60 need to be rated difficult. The rules recommend an introductory game with the easy version. In addition to the main board there is also a board with Kramer track and five tracks for the various animals, with five purple markers to indicate position. Five double-sized animal tiles and 60 cubes, representing resources in 5 colors, supplement the straightforward components.

The board, that is the island jungle, is interrupted by various single colored cases, which are marked with tent, water bottle, rope, backpack and Stetson. This produces segments of values 2, 3 and 4, depending on the boarders. This is also indicated by numbers with the segments.

At the start of the game each player is dealt one of the large animal tiles, which provide a small starting advantage for the respective species, and one resource of each color.

Each of the following rounds begins with a card phase and then four action rounds are played. In the card phase each player draws three cards from the pile, each of those cards offers three options: First of all, a bonus, if you decide to place the card in your card holder – the bonus can be an additional resource, a color for a joker or additional advancement on the animal track. A second option is to acquire a resource in the color indicated on the card or, as the third option, to advance the animal marked on the card on the track. You place each of the three cards beneath one of the slots marked on the cardholder with A, B and D.

Now, the action phases are implemented. In Phase A you take the card that you assigned to slot A and put it into the card holder, the card shows now the bonus that you chose and take. The bonus is now valid – maybe even over several rounds – until replaced by another later in the game. Identical functions are not allowed.

In Phase B you turn over the card under slot B and take the resource indicated on the card from general stock. The card is then discarded.

Phase C is used to place an explorer on the jungle board. This happens in turn, beginning with the starting player. Explorers are placed on the colored cases and you pay two corresponding resources of this color. IF you have now explorer left, after five rounds the earliest, you can relocate one of your own on the board. If you cannot place an explorer or do not want to do so, you may take a resource of your choice instead. If your explorers have surrounded a jungle segment with an animal you take the animal. Then you advance on the Victory Point Track according to the number of explorers involved.

In Action D the last remaining card is revealed and the animal, that is depicted in the bottom right-hand corner, is advanced one step on the corresponding animal track. Furthermore, the player advances one step on the Victory Point track for each animal tile of this kind that he owns. The big tile represents two animals.

The end of the game is triggered by the numbers at the edges of the animal tracks. Depending on the number of players, the game ends instantly at 7 to 11 points as soon as all animals together result in this total sum.

The final scoring awards 10 points for each complete set of five animals. Furthermore, each animal is multiplied with the number that it has reached on the track and the value is marked for points. Finally, you get 1 point for every two resources that you own.

My evaluation: The game is chance-dependent due to the three cards that I draw at the start of a round. If the combination fits my strategy and if they correlate with my special abilities is out of my control. Each round the same dilemma. Which special ability do I replace with a new one, which resource do I need in phase 2 to have two of the same color to be able to place the explorer on a territory of my choice?  Which animal do I force in phase D. Will I stay with the animal that I was randomly assigned at the start of the game (is equal to two animals in scoring) to achieve as high a multiplicator as possible at the end? But this decision might trigger the end of the game faster than I would like it to happen. Those criteria make for a varied and interesting game.

As regards to components: The board with the animals tracks is made from very thin card board. I would have expected the same quality as used for the island parts. The explorer figurines also come across as cheap. Really bad, however, are the summary cards, made from thin cardboard. They are simply too small and very hard to read, they could easily be twice their size.

But enough complaining, LA ISLA was welcomed by my fellow players as a good game and that is the most important thing, after all. A nice touch is the small box size, which suits me and my scarcity of space very well, for my collection of more than 2000 games. I would recommend the game to families who have gaming experience and for games among friends and, of course, for all fans of Stefan Feld.

Rudolf Ammer

Players:2-4

Age: 10+

Time: 60+

Designer: Stefan Feld

Artist: Alexander Jung

Price: ca. 25 Euro

Publisher: alea / Ravensburger 2014

Web: www.Ravensburger.com

Genre: Set collecting

Users: With friends

Version: multi

Rules: de en fr

In-game text: no

Comments:

Variable board

Varying use of cards

Lots of fun to play

Compares to:

Set collecting games with collecting via several preparation steps

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Rudolf Ammer

A Stefan Feld game that is simpler than what we are used to, nicely designed and featuring very clear rules.

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0