Quick, easy and legible
The first impression after opening the box – it is too big for its contents. It could be half the size as there is a lot of empty space in it. Visually, I like it, although there aren’t many graphics. As befits an abstract logic game, markings and illustrations are kept to a minimum so that the elements in the game are readable during the game.
Preparation does not take long. Place a circle in the center of the table. Place the previously assembled moon in the indicated recess, and random tiles in the remaining ones. The remaining tiles remain facedown next to the board. Each player receives twenty-one cubes of the selected color. They all place one disk in a pile in the field next to the moon. And that’s it, you can play.
A trip around the moon
The person whose marker is at the top starts. He chooses one of the first three tiles clockwise from the moon. After taking the tile, move the moon to its place, and move the player’s marker on the wheel by the number of spaces indicated on the selected tile. If you have one or two tiles left at the start of your turn, you can refill the circle with new tiles. However, if all the recesses are empty, we have no choice but to do so.
It is important to remember that the order of the players’ turns depends on the position of their marker on the track. The turn is always played by the person whose puck is last. This way, the player can take several tiles in a row until he is ahead of any marker. If you have to stand on someone else’s occupied space, the new token lands on the one already there, so it is still treated as the last one.
After selecting the tile, place it in front of you. We will add the next ones sideways to the existing ones. The tiles in the upper left corner always have the number by which we move our marker on the order track. In other parts, there can be a maximum of three tasks to be performed, which are simply layouts that we need to create from the downloaded elements. If we succeed, we can cover the circle with a disc of our color. The game is over when one of the players has used all of their markers.
Lunar sudoku
One of the first associations I had after the end of the game was sudoku. We have to control the exact tiles on an ongoing basis and check vertically and horizontally whether we have met the conditions to cover a given circle. It’s easy to miss something, especially during your first game, as not only adjacent tiles count, but strings of the same color as well. So, having a blue tile with the requirement of four reds, we can add one red tile to the blue one, and the next three red ones, if they are adjacent to each other, will allow us to complete this task. At the same time, most of these tiles have more layouts that would be nice to consider, so after a few turns it makes for a great puzzle.
For sure, Nova Luna will not find fans among people who like any interaction between players. Everyone plays for themselves, and the only way to disturb someone is to take the chosen tile. To know what another player was hunting for, we would have to analyze his play area, but to be honest I didn’t feel the need to. I was too busy with my plans and optimization when choosing the next pieces of this puzzle.
Also, players who expected the mystical journey of the moon through all its phases, or the mapping of this journey around the wheel, may be disappointed. None of these things. Nova Luna is painfully non-climatic and any additional history to what is happening on the table only harms this game. It is a very successful, abstract title that will force gray cells to increase efficiency and allow you to spend some time with friends in a pleasant way.
Comparisons to Patchwork are not accurate in my opinion. Certainly there is a similarity in the selection of elements (three tiles in front of the moon and replacing the empty field), but that’s about it. Quilt sewing is a tetris game for two people only, the tiles have specific shapes and must fit within the designated frames of the board. Yes, both are logical tiling, but my feelings are very different. For quilts do not like, and I bought your copy only after the release of the Christmas version and collector, inner voice compulsion to have this title, if necessary, demonstrate and explain the principles of friends. After all, it’s a classic… Nova Luna It’s definitely more to my taste and I will be happy to reach for it. It is a quick game with simple rules, but requires a bit of thinking and planning. I am very satisfied with the good arrangement of adjacent tiles that help each other in fulfilling tasks.
After the first game was over, I wanted to play again right away. Knowing what to look for, I wanted to transform my new thoughts into a better setting as soon as possible and see how it would work in practice. The short playing time is most favorable to several games in one evening, although the number of players should be taken into account. Of course, with a full squad, the game takes a little longer, although there is no major downtime. However, the approach to planning should be definitely different. It is more difficult compared to a two-player game, in which we have a great influence on what tiles will be available to us. With four players, the situation around the wheel changes so much that it is difficult to predict what will be left at the beginning of our turn. I will choose this game much more often as a proposition for two people than for a larger group.
Solo variant
Since everyone plays for themselves and other players, we are unlikely to be interested in playing solo. The rules are similar and the goal has also remained the same. We try to optimally arrange the collected tiles. And I was surprised that despite the lack of interaction in a larger group, I liked the competitive game much more. However, I prefer to race against other players who are the first to use all their markers. For people who want to practice arranging and carrying out tasks, it is a good proposition for a lonely evening.
