DIE POLYOMINOSE POLYAMORIE

DIE KARTOGRAPHIN

It probably began more than a decade ago with „fits“ (nominated for Game of the Year 2009) : since then, the game mechanics familiar from „Tetris“ have been implemented often, x times, in board games. From simple to complex, sometimes with playing pieces, sometimes with tokens, sometimes for drawing by players (latest in „My City“, nominated for Game of the Year 2020, as well as in “New York Zoo” or “Die Insel der Katzen”.

And our varied playful love of puzzling together areas featuring connected squares is still showing no sign of abating. In this game those areas are even filled with “life - forest, water, field and village landscape - as our task is the creating of maps. So, take care to draw carefully to avoid that the house looks too much like a tree! Or draw everything in colored pencils, this makes the map much clearer and results in pretty landscapes. For picking up and rotating you can only use the current round card which demands a very good spatial thinking ability, especially in case of mirroring. As as you can, basically, mark everything as you like while taking into account several options and possibilities for accruing victory points, you need to keep your brain focused.

If everything is above-board bin all directions with your fellow players is primary a question of trust. The number of players is explained by the volume of the drawing block and is probably more of a joke; furthermore, there are now other pads and variants available.

Minor, but very entertaining interaction is provided by the marking of monsters in your neighbor’s map who give penalty points if mot „captured“ or surrounded by adjacent areas. Out of sixteen different scoring cards that are provided, you use for in a game. Despite the resulting countless variations, you soon keep hoping for more. Anyhow, there is a mini expansion included in the game, which allows you to buy more powerful drawing actions.

As „Der Kartograph“ was nominated in 2020 for „Kennerspiel-des-Jahres“, he has earned a reward. And what pleases a cartographer more than drawing and coloring in? Of course, an emancipated female partner with whom you can communicate in the evening about your respective day jobs: Voilà, here she is! (Maybe created from the rib of a pencil)

The - true the cliché - smaller and more agile female hands, however, result in small stars and letters clamoring to be entered into some of the slots; in addition to the forest, water, field and village landscape, there are heroes and heroines appearing in „Die Kartographin“ who can fight monsters in their neighborhood (for the purpose of reducing penalty points). And those new monsters in turn must be marked clearly, as they trigger specific effects at the end of the round - for instance, zombies that have not been fought do procreate, nasty, but providing flair! However, the mostly negative effects might eventually be used to better complete one or the other scoring card.

Very nice in any case are those new 16 scoring cards which, however, lift the demands on your own multi-tasking abilities and your combinatorial imagination to an elevated level; the game also includes an additional „mini expansion“, to acquire various special actions. Overall, again a very well made stand-alone game and - when combined with the older „husband“ - a pleasant increase in variety.

"Die Kartographin" (and also "Der Kartograph") are not only one more very felicitous representative of analog games from the already very large family of „Tetris“ games (using drawing instead of playing pieces), but can be - for more variety and diversity - combined with the cards and maps of the other version. Due to the demands on imagination while taking into account several parallel scoring conditions, the game is especially geared to experienced players who can deal easily with the various scorings and the fine motor skill tasks; the bigger, however, the number of players the more uncontrollable and confusing the game becomes.

Harald Schatzl

Players: 1-8

Age: 10+

Time: 30+

Designer: John Brieger, Jordy Adan

Artist: Luis Francisco, Jessy Töpfer, Lucas Ribeiro, Davey Baker

Publisher: Pegasus Spiele

Web: www.pegasus.de

Genre: Puzzle, drawing

Users: With friends

Special: 1 player

Special: Many players

Version: de

Rules: de

In-game text: yes

Harald Schatzl: 6*

*if combined with Der Kartograph and using colored pencils

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise):2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 1

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 1

Action (dark green): 1