Boonlake

Brilliant Game. This game has lot of clever mechanisms. It has action selection. There are few possible actions that can be taken. They are all arranged in the form of strips in a column. In classic Puerto Rico style, whatever action a player chose, others get to do something as well. The moment the action is taken, that action strip drops down the column. Further up is the action strip in the column, further a player's ship goes down the stream. So, it's the players who decide whether it's a long game or short, depending on how speed their ships move. Each spot on the stream gives players some bonuses. There is a clever resource management aspect. There are resources you don't spend but you have on your production site whenever you want them(like in 7 wonders). There are coins and vases that you acquire by playing cards, by arriving at a spot on the river that gives you bonus, by placing tile on the maps, by cattle breeding and you use these coins and vases to increase your efficiency by playing more cards, by building levers that gives you temporary bonuses. There are also projects which players can complete to gain lots of points. Game consists of 4 rounds and at the end of each round there is an interim scoring based on cattles, settlements, houses and few other stuff. Also, in each round scoring , you get to decide which objective (4 in display) you want to score for. It's such a clever mechanism.

Game has a ton of icons. Rulebook does a pretty good job at explaining the game very well. I suggest to go thru rulebook first time without being worried and set up the game. After you have played it one time, i suggest to read the rulebook once again so that it makes more sense. Iconography is superb. From second game onwards, i didn't have to refer rulebook. Solo game is a solid challenge and pleasant to play.

There are little misses here and there. Vases as a resource wasn't great. One can play an entire game without even bothering about vases. Similarly the 4 objectives that gives you scores at the end of every round one of which you chose at the end of a round is a neat mechanisms but they do not give enough incentive considering the point salady nature of the game and considering the high scores achievable in game(scoring 200 plus is usual).

But the game has more hits than misses and i loved it. Players who complain this is a long game are playing it wrong. We ourselves can speed up or slow down this game.