Niagara (board game)
Game of the Year 2005 German Games Award 2005: 2nd place Mensa Select 2005 Swiss Games Family Games Award 2005: 3rd place Dutch Games Award 2005: Nominated
Niagara is a board game by Thomas Read Ching, which is published by Zoch 2004. The game was voted game of the year 2005, reached the second place in the German Games Award and was third in the category " Family Game " at the Swiss game prize.
Theme of the game and equipment
The players move small wooden canoes on a raging river to win gems of different colors of downstream creeks and bring them to safe beach. Along the way lurk dangers such as the crash over the waterfall or predatory players.
It is a question sent to plan and take into account the traits of the players.
The unusually shaped game board is placed over the box and provides the river with the bays Represents the river bed and the bays are a few millimeters deeper than the rest of the game board. At one end is the safe beach, the other hanging flaps of the board over the box edge addition - the waterfall.
Flat circular disks are placed in clear plastic in the river bed, on this move in the game trains, boats and the discs themselves move with the flow of the river. The canoes are made of painted wood in the player colors, the gems made of plastic. The features of the game includes the following components:
- Game board
- 10 ships in 5 colors
- A starting player - ring
- A cloud
- 12 flow fields
- 40 gems in 5 colors
- 35 paddle cards in 5 colors
The extension Flussgeister at Niagara includes
- 7 boats
- 1 beaver
- 1 moose
- 25 paddle cards and a sticker
And is to be played only with the original version.
The mini-expansion diamonds Joe includes a natural-colored canoe, a small game rule and a cotton bag. This small extension could temporarily be purchased from the game company, but is now out of print.
Game play
Each player has a limited number of movement points, which will be played in rounds. A point can be used upriver or down - to move or to and exit from the five gem -bays. A player has two canoes, the movement is valid for all canoes that are just in the water. Only in the movement against the tide, a player can with an empty canoe rob his teammates and acquire their gemstone.
Once in seven rounds each plays a special card, with which he can change the flow of the river accelerating or decelerating. After moving round, the flow of the river affects. The flow can bring a canoe from near the entrance to the beach to the precious stone bays or tilt it mercilessly over the edge of the waterfall. Crashed canoes are lost, but can be used by paying with a gem again. Fortunately, the flow velocity decreases at the fork half.
If a player carries the minimum number of gems on the safe beach, the current round is completed, the game ends with you. Thus there can be multiple winners.
Game strategy
Since the movement points are limited, it is recommended that the forward movement at least partially the flow to leave and use the points as possible on the way back to the saving beach. To grab gems of a missing color, it can also be useful to store on the way back a gem in a bay and instead to rob a different -colored with a teammate.
Target group and assessment
Like almost all games of the year is Niagara a family game. The gameplay is quickly determined to develop a strategy needs only little experience.