Woody14619

Xia is a very open sand-box style game, allowing players to explore their “galaxy” and fulfill any number of primary objectives to score points. There are in all about 8 ways to score a point, from helping out a stranded player to chasing them down and blowing them up. You can mine, take on missions, trade between planets, or even just run around trying to explode other players.

The quality of the components is quite nice. There are tons of tiny plastic ships, metal coins, cool stands, and wooden tokens for everyone. The only down-side is that some components are made of cardboard, namely the large player mats and universe tiles. Anyone who’s played a large tile game, or one with a large player mat, knows how they warp at the slightest hint of moisture. This game’s mats and tiles are quite large, and warp within seconds of being opened. You really want to go with plastic, and either be thick enough to not warp, or thin enough that it drapes.

The rule book is well laid out, and is great for a reference. It’s not particularly good at teaching one how to play however. The best way to learn is to watch the videos on the manufacturers web page, and play a game or two yourself. There are a number of rules, and keeping them all straight can be daunting. This is a great game for people that like complex, open-ended games, so long as they’re not prone to rule lawyering and “making the most ” of every move. So, not so much for people who find Parcheesi challenging, or take hours per move in chess.

The biggest positive of the game though is the detail paid to balancing and offering tons of options for every player. There are 6 ships, dozens of titles and missions, and even NPC ships who work on a set AI rule list. Every game is significantly different, making it highly replayable and enjoyable every time.

For the cost, it’s well worth what you get, which is hard to say for most games its size.

Lagoon is a fun and inviting tile placing game with rather simple mechanics, but a system that builds complexity as the game progresses. Players take turns performing a set of simple base actions, all clearly defined on the set of “cheat sheets” that come with the game. Those actions can expand, shrink, or alter the playing field, which in turn alters the rules of play (much like Magic or Fluxx).

Each hex tile has two sides, with 2 of the 3 colors/energies in the game. Each side also has text which often impacts or slightly alters the rules of the game, either once or while the tile is in play. Placing a tile gives you a seed of that color, which can be used to remove a tile later, or as victory points. Each color is strong against one other color, and weak against the other (very much like Rock / Paper / Scissors).

The goal of the game is to collect as many seeds of the winning color, and tiles of the losing colors, as you can. To do that, you need to occupy or use seeds of at least one opposing color. You must maintain some balance, but in a way that favors the color you want. Other players are doing the same, likely for different colors.

Since some tiles can interact and cause complex patterns, when, where, and how those tiles come out adds both randomness and strategy when it comes to placement and side/color choice. Combine the fact that only one side of a given tile is played per game, and the ability to randomly remove tiles in sets of 3, and the game becomes exponentially replayable.

If you like the idea of concepts from Magic, Fluxx, and Hive blended together, you will love this game. Well worth the value in just game mechanics. Throw in the stunning artwork, and sturdy components, and rules for single player and team-play games, and it’s a steal for the price.