Back at the start of February we did a post about games for four players, well, there’s so many more we thought we’d revisit this and show off even MORE great games for four!
So grab a trio of pals who love those games that come in boxes… get down to your local Chance & Counters… book a table… and get these beauties out.
1: LOOOT
What is it with spelling these days? We started last list with a spelling ‘mistake’ and somehow we’ve chosen another one with an odd spelling, clearly Loot only has 2 ‘O’s.
Alright, alright, we realise this is actually a clever design choice, the game is about Vikings and the L is the figurehead at the prow of the longship, the T is the stern and the series of Os is a loaded shield rack. Very neat. Maybe it looked a bit less ‘long’ with only 2 shields?
In the game you are all competing to be the Jarl of the Vikings by getting the most riches by the end of the game. You’re sending your 13 groups of Vikings out from the longships on the coast and gathering resources and capturing buildings to help develop your home fjord. Do a good job and the treasure piles up!
We were very excited by this when it came out as we love Akropolis and this comes from the same publisher in a like-sized box so we expected something of a similar level and style. This does not disappoint, it’s a lovely crunchy little puzzle with a good level of interactivity between players.
The interactions come from the Viking placement as on your turn you have to put your Viking next to any other placed Viking on the map (imagine a hoard of pillaging Vikings spreading out across the land) so when you place one down on your turn you are giving your opponent more options for their turn and vice versa.
With constructions to build that gain riches, special shields that allow three one-off improved actions and longships that change how the end game scoring works for you this is a lovely hex-based puzzle and with only 13 turns each, it’s fast and fun.
2: HARMONIES
Harmonies is another stunner. Bear in mind that a good looking game may be eye-catching but it doesn’t always follow through to end up being a good one to play… but this one does! In fact it looks great and plays even better.
So, what’s it all about? Basically it’s all about the harmony of building a landscape that the wildlife you place in it are happy to live in.
On your turn you’re taking a group of chunky tokens from a shared platter and placing them on your personal board to build a landscape. You can also take an animal card and if you’ve fulfilled their needs you can place animals out on your display too.
That’s simple enough, but it’s the dance of the scoring that makes this a challenge, each type of landscape scores in a particular way so by placing tokens on the board efficiently you can maximise the score you get for this, but… animals need certain combinations of connected landscapes to make a home in and the higher the score for the animal the more likely it’s going to make you place those landscape tokens to score poorly… try to harmonise the balance of both these and your score can be huge.
With a built in expansion that adds nature’s spirits into the game this is a puzzle you’ll come back to time and time again. Sometimes it’s just fun to have built something beautiful and by the end of the game you won’t be worried about winning the game as long as you have a beautiful landscape in front of you. This creates a wonderful sense of accomplishment, now that’s a game.
3: REBIRTH
The name’s Knizia, Dr. Reiner Knizia. Legend. Prolific designer of board games and never seen without a bow tie in public, you have to appreciate that. He’s made a few games and this is one of his most recent ones… when we say a few he’s currently got credit on over 750.
Enough about ‘The Doctor’, this is Rebirth. It’s a Solarpunk take on a smooth euro game that is stunning in both design and gameplay.
The story is that the world as we know it is over, calamities have destroyed society and it’s time to rebuild in a more harmonious manner with nature. Scotland is the focus of the starter game and the Clans are building this hopeful new world with a view to be the leading Clan by the end of the process. There can be only one, well… one winner anyway. Side note: the tiebreak in this is genius… check it out.
In essence, everyone has the same tokens and will draw one blindly each turn and place it on the map, scoring in the process. Only three types of tokens exist, energy farms, food farms and settlements. Group farms and get more points, get the most settlers in a settlement area and score big on completion, place one by a cathedral and get a mission for end game points, have majority tokens placed by a castle site and get a big score boost at the end of the game too. Basically that’s it but as the map fills up and inevitably someone pips you to that hidden mission a turn before you complete it as you ‘just had to’ do something else the turn before… you realise this is full of simple yet tough decisions.
With a whole other advanced gameplay experience on the B-side of the board where you are rebuilding Ireland there is a lot to explore in Rebirth, Knizia at his best.
4: Explorers of Navoria
Life in Navoria was bumbling along all peaceful-like when something strange happened overnight. Three continents popped up from nowhere and the council is not pleased. It’s time for you to hire a team and go exploring! The opportunity for riches and fame is now, seize the moment and become one of the Explorers of Navoria.
Yeah, another beautiful game… the artwork of the four species that live in harmony is gorgeous, the cute magical Sprites, industrious tinkering Goblins, nature loving Beasts and those quick lived Humans.
The game is an intriguing blend of simple mechanics. Token selection, tableau building, set collection, track movement and worker placement all have their place here but are all intertwined in a simple and quick package.
Simply a round goes like this… draw or choose tokens and use these to draft a card to your tableau, activate the taken card for rewards. Repeat for each player until a certain point and then place the selected tokens on locations for resources. Collect income and then rinse and repeat three times, you’re done.
Very much a gateway level game that introduces you to lots of modern board game styles, well worth your time. Bear in mind it does need a fair amount of room to play so book a big table if you can!
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I’m sure we’ll be heading back to do some more four player goodness in the future so in the meantime explore these great games with friends and watch this space for another installment soon.