If you have ever been to Colombia you will learn a secret: the doors speak. No, they don’t use words to communicate but instead will tell you a story via the aldabas that are on each door. An aldabas is a ornate door knocker that adorns each door in colonial times. These announced your social status for a variety of different people. Today we will look at a new game that shows off these amazing pieces of art!
Aldabas is a KIckstarter campaign game produced by Grand Gamers Guild. It is designed by Joshua J Mills and Nat Levan. Art by Juan Vargas. It plays 1-4 players in 30 mins.
Overview
In Aldabas players compete to fill their neighborhood with influential people as they perform their jobs. Those with the best company and fullest coffers are held in highest regard and win the game!
Gameplay
Each player is given a vault board along with 5 cards to start. There is a central dock with a card in each slot placed in it. Your goal is to build a grid of Door cards and use the powers each has as you build.
On your turn you have three different actions available to you and you have the option to use two of them. You may repeat your actions you take on a turn if you wish. The actions are as follows:
1-Take Two Coins: Pretty simple, you just grab two coins from the supply and place them in your purse.
2-Buy One Door: Here players may purchase one of the door cards in the dock by paying any coin costs attached to it and placing it directly into your hand. When you claim a door in this way all the other doors slide down and a new one is placed in the right most spot.
3-Place One Door: Finally players may also choose to select a door from their hand and place it in an empty space in your block. Doors are placed in a way that there is something to the left and below them for it to be a valid placement. This will activate the power on the card along with the doors beside and below it immediately as well.
Play continues around until a player has hit a end-game condition and then turns are continued to the end. The game end is triggered when the supply runs out of coins, a player fills their final space in a 4×3 block or the dock cannot be filled.
End-game scoring is done once this happens where cards in your vault come out and count towards influence for each profession. The person with the most and second most influence in an area take the scoring conditions for each area and scores it. Then the player with the most influence overall wins 3 additional points. The player with the most influence at that point is declared the winner!
Highlights
I really enjoy the way these cards play off of each other. When you have a new door enter your player grid it can bounce some fun interactions between cards. The card color types can never be touching each other which adds another level of difficulty when it comes to trying to place them in the right spots for the actions you are looking for. I appreciated the ease of making it happen while at the same time the challenge of getting the most out of your placement.
The influence in each profession is a hard thing to keep track of around the room-each player not only has what you can see but if they have dipped any cards into their vault it is hidden information you won’t know to the end. I love hidden information in a game that comes out and really changes things up-and this one definitely does that. The bonus scoring here is something you have to pay attention to as the game progresses-not only is it important to win but then you need to be ready to score the profession you win with the most points you can. It’s a layered scoring affect-I really like how it is takes strength in one area and forces you to be stronger in another.
The art on these cards are amazing. The aldabas designs are all beautiful and very well done-I loved just looking at them and the detail on them. The colors are simple but they really pop off of the cards and accent the door knockers well. The graphic design is also very clear and easy to follow through the symbology. Overall the art on these cards are all stellar and you will really enjoy them as well!
After playing this game at multiple player counts I must say I have really enjoyed it at each different level. It is very easy to learn and play and presents enough meaningful decisions and choices throughout the game to keep even the most experienced player interested. All of the players at our games had a good time with this one as well. The chained effects of the doors are satisfying and make for some fun mechanics in the game and one that I personally really enjoyed.
So if Aldabas sounds like the game for you I would recommend you go over to their campaign page and see if it is something you would like to back! Check out the campaign here and learn about how you can get a copy of this great game:
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