To the waterhole, march! – review of the board game “Savannah Park”

Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer have created many great titles. Should the Savannah Park by them be included in their greatness?

 

Creating large herde

Savannah Park is a light, fun, fast and simple family game whose rules can be explained in minutes. Preparation is also not time-consuming, although it can be a bit of a pain, because before the game you have to place all animal tokens on the board, yellow side up. The game itself runs very smoothly. Each player on his turn chooses one tile, turns it faceup in his color, and places it on any free space on his board. Other companions must choose the same item as well, but may place it elsewhere.

Points are earned for creating herds. Namely, it is considered how many animals of a given species are adjacent to each other, and then their number is multiplied by the number of waterholes. Importantly, only one, the largest group of animals of a given genus is taken into account. In addition, there are points for uncovered grass and trees. The fire fields are the most interesting limitation. They determine which tiles will be discarded if they are adjacent to this space at the end of the game. For example: if three trees are on fire, discard each token with exactly three animals on it. Of course, the person with the most points wins.

Waterholes here… and you got more!

I had a very nice time with this position. Obviously, the more players, the more difficult it is to plan something, because each person can choose a tile for which we have no place at the moment and instead of creating one large herd, we create two smaller ones. Unfortunately, he will only score one thing anyway.

On the other hand, the undoubted advantage of this item is its replayability, as there are additionally four different board layouts. Then the arrangement of fires and trees changes, and this significantly affects our tactics. Additionally, it is possible to introduce a variation called Lions in the Wild! , then every time we place a tile on a space with a lion figure, we get extra points and then move it to another place. It is also worth adding that there is a simplified variant for the youngest players!

Lonely Safari

I did not expect the single player mode to surprise me so much. We are fighting here with the table, and theoretically it is not very exciting to call, but the zero randomness took me the most. After placing the tiles with animals, you have full control of the game. As there are no other players, we always decide which tile to move. As a result, for the first time I have the feeling that reaching the highest point threshold depends only on me. I don’t have to count on luck anymore, but by properly planning myself, I can score over two hundred points. I really had a lot of fun on the solo, and scoring one hundred and ninety-five points was a lot of fun for me. It is because of the solo mode that I decided to give this title an eight in the playability category. Sure, I would like to play in a larger group, but then I know my plan may crumble. However, when I sit down alone, a brilliant puzzle in the style of sudoku awaits me.

The beauty of the African wilderness

Savannah Park looks decent. I especially liked the wooden meerkats figurines. I also appreciate the idea of ​​folding boxes for player-colored tiles, which in addition, when folded together, form a single image. Nevertheless, I have a few minor complaints to make, incl. The waterholes on the blue tile are almost invisible.

In addition, it is worth bearing in mind that after placing the tiles on the board, pulling a given tile from the center of the layout may disrupt the entire intricate structure. Also, the preparation of the game, although quick, is a bit tedious. Finally, you have to place the animal tokens on all free spaces. In fact, these are just minor flaws. In fact, nothing disturbs me very much, but nothing arouses great admiration.

Is it worth going to the Savannah Park?

The novelty from Portal Games surprised me in one respect, namely, I did not expect that I would have so much fun with my solo parts. This is undoubtedly a very interesting and engaging puzzle, which you will spend several dozen minutes with. The layout of the animals on the tiles has been especially cleverly designed, because to get the maximum number of points, all herds should be adjacent to each of the available types of animals (there are different species at the waterholes)!

There is a lot of combining in such an inconspicuous title, because if we want to move one tile to a given place, we usually first need to free that location. Only before that one would have to fire another one, and so on. To achieve the championship, you have to think at least a few steps ahead. And although I liked the game, unfortunately I am aware that there are many great titles available, and therefore Savannah Park may not stand out, because to tell the truth, it is not better than many family games, which does not change the fact that maybe with compete with them as equals.