Atiwa

Product Information

To set up the game, place the main action board on the table, putting terrain cards above the board and location cards below the board. The action tiles are shuffled and placed on the board as well. Put the appropriate board extension on the right based on the player count. Place all the pollution tokens in the bag.

Okay so there will be trouble. There’s always trouble. In Uwe’s intense games, someone is always at risk of starving or running out of room. And at Essen Spiele in October, the latest in his heavy-weight economic based building games is due to be launched by Lookout Games!There are several aspects of Atiwa that I really enjoy. The way that action tiles move from round to round is very interesting and can create some tense gameplay moments as you are hoping no one goes to the space you desperately need. There are some static placement spots that don’t change from game to game but some that are variable and I like the variability. There is a decent selection of terrain tiles which are all different and varied adding to the variability. I appreciate both of these things as it will make you change your overall strategy from game to game. Supplies For You

Uwe Rosenburg is well known for his farming and feeding your people type games. His games have been hit or miss with me in the past. Caverna is probably my favourite to date. The theme of Atiwa is what drew me in initially. I love the idea of a farming game where you are trying to work with nature to achieve your goals. So, how does Atiwa play? Lets find out. Not Really “Advanced” There is nice balance in your engine building. You will generate a tree engine – whether it is from bats pooping out seeds to generate new trees, or maybe having a lot of wild animals in your area which also lead to trees in the income phase – but in the end, you need trees to buy more land cards, especially village cards. Village cards provide spaces to house families, and as I said – this is one of the main ways to score points. Of course, as soon as you add more families to your area, you increase your food demand and you also increase the chance of pollution taking its toll on your cards…Each player takes an action, then play passes to the next player. This process continues until each player has had 3 worker placements. Then there is a bit of maintenance. So, here's a bit of a rarity for this blog: an actual REVIEW! ... as in: a fully-baked opinion that isn't based on mere first impressions, and has been written after I've got a decent number of plays of the game in question under my belt! In the game, you'll develop a small community near the Atiwa Mountain Range, creating homes for new families and sharing your new knowledge about the negative effects of mining and the importance of fruit bats to the environment. You must acquire new land, manage your animals and resources, and grow your community. The player who finds the best balance between the needs of their community and the environment wins. Theme(s) I’ve not seen an absolute runaway winner yet in quite a few games, which speaks volumes about the level of balance in the game. It’s easy to get complacent about such things, but after Hallertau when some players complained that it was just a case of ‘solving’ the puzzle to move the community centre in the game, it’s great to see another game which feels open-ended. Final thoughts

It’ll come as no surprise to you by now that I love Atiwa. I loved it after my first play at Gridcon last year, and that love has only grown. Part of my love is because the components are so adorable, part of it is the ease of play, and part is of how streamlined it is. Solo will take you half an hour, then you can reset in a couple of minutes and go again (steady now!). How many games can you say that about? Time will tell, I’m sure, but as I write this now, Atiwa is my favourite Uwe Rosenberg game, just edging out Nusfjord. I’m sorry my fishy friend, I love you dearly, but these bats are just too much. Atiwa is a wonderful game. Next, each player receives a Supply board along with eight Wild Animal, thirteen Tree, eight Fruit, thirteen Family, and seven Goat tokens which are placed on top of their matching spots. Each player also receives a Night card, one of each Overview card, and the Worker meeples in their chosen color. They also take a Village card which is placed into the third slot from the left beneath their Supply board. The leftmost Family token is removed from the player’s Supply board and placed into one of the huts on this card, untrained side up. The difference between the trained and untrained sides will be made clear later. ATIWA is a 1-4 player “advanced level” game based in the ATIWA region of Ghana and revolves around, you guessed it, building a new community! But this one has a fruity twist! You have seen a nearby area prosper as a result of harnessing the crop reseeding (aka pooping!) powers of the indigenous fruit bat population, and you want some of that action! You will therefore be tasked with establishing a village that exploits the eco-friendly relationship between fruit bats and farmers. Reforestation for roosting! Preservation for population growth! Poop for profits!The thematic touch of the untrained workers creating pollution for your community is a great addition. It always pains me to pollute my tableau, especially if I have to destroy a resource, or worse, a bat. It makes you think about what you are doing and pushes the theme of working with nature and the fruit bats for the greater good. Going Alone But even that’s not cut and dried. Anytime someone adds to their tableau, they get to take the Start Player marker from its current owner. So, do you add to your tableau right now (maybe you need space to place a Goat, for instance) and risk having the Start Player marker taken away from you? Or do you hold out for as long as you can before adding to your tableau? If you wait until your third worker, you’ll be missing out on the opportunity to take that Goat. So, is getting your hands on the Start Player marker worth giving up that Goat over? Receive income based on the number of families the player has acquired. Each trained family collects one gold, each untrained family receives between zero and two gold, drawn from a bag, but also causes you to place a pollution marker in your tableau. There are a couple of criticisms here as well. After several plays, it feels like the possibility of discovering new strategies is low. I fear that after a few more plays that this one may be relegated to being “solved” and become a bit samey. The solo mode scenarios should help with this at least. I also don’t love the graphic design choice of the main board and the terrain cards. It’s a long-running joke that Euro games can be all beige, but in Atiwa, various shades of brown and green really do the heavy lifting in the art department. I wish they had opted for some more vibrant art befitting the beauty of the Atiwa rainforest. That being said, I have enjoyed my time with Atiwa, but worry that the theme will overshadow the gameplay after a few plays. I can’t help but think that maybe Uwe Rosenburg meant it to be that way.

You see, Atiwa is a game about bats. I mean, if you want to be pedantic, it’s about developing a small community in the Atiwa Range area of Ghana. But really it’s about bats. Loads and loads of outrageously cute bat meeples. I’m a little bit in love with the bats. As I mentioned above, Atiwa isn’t anything as like as heavy as A Feast For Odin, and while it’s lighter than Hallertau, there are plenty of familial traits passed down through its genes. The Atiwa Range is a region of southeastern Ghana in Africa consisting of steep-sided hills with rather flat summits. A large portion of the range comprises an evergreen forest reserve, which is home to many endangered species. However, logging and hunting for bushmeat, as well as mining for gold and bauxite, are putting the reserve under a lot of pressure. Zeitgeist, entre fabrication locale, éco-conception et thématiques écologiques, avec Atiwa, et d’autres, on sent que la catastrophe climatique, et environnementale, saisit de plus en plus le marché du jeu de société.Atiwa คุณรู้เช่นเดียวกับนายกเทศมนตรีคนนั้นว่าค้างคาวผลไม้ซึ่งครั้งหนึ่งเคยถูกดูหมิ่นและถูกล่าในฐานะหัวขโมยผลไม้ แท้จริงแล้วเป็นสัตว์ที่มีประโยชน์อย่างเหลือเชื่อ พวกมันกระจายเมล็ดพืชไปทั่วพื้นที่ขนาดใหญ่ของประเทศ ซึ่งช่วยปลูกป่าในพื้นที่รกร้างและปรับปรุงการเก็บเกี่ยวในระยะกลาง การตระหนักรู้นี้นำไปสู่ความร่วมมือทางชีวภาพระหว่างค้างคาวกินผลไม้และชาวสวนผลไม้ สัตว์เหล่านี้ถูกเลี้ยงไว้เป็น "สัตว์เลี้ยง" เพื่อเพิ่มขนาดของฟาร์มผลไม้ให้ใหญ่ขึ้นอย่างรวดเร็ว ต้นไม้สูงถูกปล่อยให้เป็นที่พักอาศัย ให้ที่พักพิงแก่พวกมัน แทนที่จะล่าพวกมันเพื่อเอาเนื้อที่ไม่ค่อยจะมีของพวกมัน แต่ถ้าคุณมีค้างคาวกินผลไม้จำนวนมาก คุณก็ต้องการพื้นที่จำนวนมาก... In this game, you will develop a small community near the Atiwa Range, creating housing for new families and sharing your newly gained knowledge on the negative effects of mining and the importance that the fruit bats have for the environment. You must acquire new land, manage your animals and resources, and make your community prosper. The player who best balances the needs of their community and the environment wins. Players must then feed their families based on the difference between the number of goats removed from their supply board and the number displayed on the family row. Goats, wild animals, fruit and gold can be used for food. On a player’s turn, they will place one of their workers onto an available action location, each of which can only accommodate a single worker, and then pay any associated costs before performing the action…or not. Players are allowed to place workers onto action spaces they have no intention of using if they choose to do so. And, players are not required to gain all the benefits from their chosen action location either. For example, if a player placed their worker on the space that rewards them with two Wild Animals, they could choose to take zero, one, or two animals. Everyone has that same goal; but interestingly, there isn’t as much direct competition as you’d expect. Each player has their own ecosystem of animals, trees, families and fruit – as well as their own cards for placing those things. Sure, you compete somewhat for the actions; but there are a lot of action choices available to the players, and there is no competition nor interference once things make it to your little world.