Hey gang, Steboost back again with a quick follow up on the single player game theme from the last installment of Critical Brit (read it HERE) in the form of another single player game (which can also be multiplayer) that might be up your alley this Christmas.
This time it’s the charming chill board game version of the charming chill video game, DorfRomantik.
I kept this one separate as it seemed odd to add to the last post, but I felt it was worth a post so here it is, in tabletop form.
DorfRomantik is a cooperative, or single player, tile placing game where you place hexagonal tiles to build little towns, farms, woodlands, etc to score points.
Each edge on the tiles have one of a few different things like woods, fields, towns, farms, etc.
Each tile usually has several edges of the same types allowing locations to expand and grow as you lay more tiles, but they 100% don’t have to.
You can put any tile anywhere, it just looks nicer if they match up.
The only exceptions are for rail and river tiles, they must continue off the map or until an end tile is found.
In addition to the stack of tiles you have a stack of task tiles that requre you to expand the areas around that tile with a certain number of a certain type of terrain.
So four farmland or six forest etc that are woth the corresponding points value.
You can expand beyond that but you must go up to that exact amount to get the points, this prevents the obvious idea of just adding all forest tasks to a big forest you already have.
You must also have at least three active tasks at any time, so if you complete one the next tile you take must be a task tile.
Three is fine for beginners but to get to the big points having 5 or six at once will be required but also this adds to the complexity and challenge.
Once all the tiles are placed you add up your task tokens and add the extras (longest river, railway, etc) to work out your grand total.
It’s a really simple game to understand and play once you’ve played or watched a game for about five mins and understood the few rules.
It can be played by any number of people, as it’s cooperative, so you simply take turns, working together having a chill time building this little slice of countryside. Beyond 3-4 players might get a bit slow so 1-3 is my recommendation.
As for replay ability, the box comes with five mystery boxes that contain extra tiles you unlock over several games, expanding your options and allowing for even higher scores.
If you fancy a break from Monopoly or Catan this Christmas, or you don’t have the couple of hours those can take and you want a chill thing to sit around and play while chatting, then I highly recommend Dorfromantik.
It’s amost identical to the video game (as that was essentially a digital board game with just lower tile requirements as you don’t want to be tracking 50+ town tiles by hand) and is available from most boardgame shops and online for around $30 USD and £30.
Special thanks to our resident Critical Brit @Steboost
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