A few weeks ago, Jon Adams, contacted me to see if I would be interested in reviewing his new game Cartography before the Kickstarter launch on October 14th. I’m always excited to play a new game so I jumped at the chance.
Cartography is an abstract but there is a hint of theme albeit small (think chess or Go). Players face off in a territory grab but there are no rules concerning dominance or majority. Instead, the game focuses on positioning. Early in the game, players focus on playing triangular-shaped tiles to the playing area to build up the map. Many of the tiles depict walls that segment the map into regions that become the regions to fight over.
On each turn, players have the chance to place one “stone” onto a dot on the map expanding their cluster of stones in a region. If you can fully trap the other player’s stones into a corner of the region, you can capture their stones to earn points. Players take turns attempting to trap the other player until both players pass ending the game. Players count the number of stones remaining on the board and the number of captured stones and the player with the highest sum wins.
Cartography is often compared to Go but since I’m not a Go player that doesn’t hit home with me. I can see the resemblance, yes, but if I were to pick a game or two to compare it to, I would definitely choose Hive or Fjords.
Both of these games are also abstracts that have a strong sense of positioning and to do well, you will need not only strong spatial skills but also patience. Unfortunately, I’m not a patient player which gets me into trouble quickly. In my opinion abstract games tend to reward the player that can recognize and capitalize on the other player’s blunder. Recognizing that blunder, however nuanced, is key of course. I usually mistake a seemingly poor move, with an aggressive response and only then realize, too late, that it was a trap.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many gamers enjoy this tight, head-to-head match-up in an all-or-nothing battle of skill and cunning. That’s not my style of game but I greatly appreciate the effort and the design. It’s very elegant and I can see how other players would like this. I know of a mother/son duo that would love this game and I’m hoping to introduce it to them in the coming weeks.
I wish Jon a lot of luck on his launch. I really think there are some good ideas here and it really looks great even at the prototype stage. Very well done Jon! Keep an eye out for this on Kickstarter, I know I will be.
Views: 2112