Games Blue Lagoon Strategy Board Game

I bought this game because I like the designer's other work, and I'd seen some good reviews.Production Quality.The game is very well put-together! It has a board that is covered in islands and ocean. The board art is vibrant, but easy to read, even when it's filled with pieces at the end of a round. The manual is helpful, and laid out in an easy-to-understand fashion. The rules are explained over the course of two small pages. As for the tokens that represent your people, they are a little dinky perhaps, the artwork is a bit cutesy for my taste, but I could see most other people really enjoying it. The magenta and blue tokens are unfortunately not distinguishable by a colorblind player, which is unfortunate, but only becomes a problem when playing with a full player count. The wooden pieces for the resources are nice and chunky, with colors and shapes that are easy to distinguish, and the little huts are the best part, though I wouldn't want to step on one late at night. There's also a nice little bag, included for the resources.Gameplay.The game has few rules, and can be learned quickly. On your turn, you place either a token or a hut. Each token is double-sided, and can be either a boater or a villager. if you place a boater, they can be placed in any unoccupied ocean space. If you place either a hut or a villager, they can be placed in any unoccupied land space, as long as that land space is touching another space that contains another one of your pieces. If you place a piece in one of the spaces that contains a stone circle, you claim the resource that was in that space. play continues until either all the players have run out of pieces, or all of the resources on the map have been claimed. Scores are totaled based on a number of objectives, including collecting sets of resources, having the most pieces on islands, and connecting islands in a chain of pieces. Then you clear the board of all pieces except for any huts you placed, re-seed the resources at random, and play a second round of the game, but with the new rule that now boaters must also be placed in connection with existing pieces. This has the effect that all your excursions into the map now come from the huts that you already had out on the map. There is no other difference between the first and second rounds of the game.That is almost everything you need to know to play the game! It's a very simple set of rules, and that's fantastic. The strategy that results from those rules, however is delightfully deep. It's a game that I can teach to a 6 year old(and have), but would still be comfortable settling down to a serious knock-out match with a 'serious' gaming friend. The choices it offers-Which scoring objectives am I going to prioritize? How many objectives can I work toward by putting a piece here? Can I force a player to back off a resource I want by placing a piece that threatens to block them from getting a majority on this island over here?- are really, really interesting. I'm very glad I got this game, and it has been a success with everyone I've taught it to.

The artwork on this game is beautiful. The theme makes me think of the Disney movie, Moana, which is what drew my attention to it to begin with. I love that the pieces are wooden, which is always nice, rather than plastic, in games, for me. It's a strategy game that is fairly easy to understand. Try to make your path to collect coconut, water, bamboo, etc., while trying to cover more space, make longer chains, than your opponents. Works well with 2 or more players. Makes it more challenging to go where you want when you play with 3-4. Easy enough even for my 4 year old to play, since there's no reading involved, you just place pieces on the board and pick up wooden pieces. But enough strategy, just adults could play and be a bit more competitive.

Played a quick two player game and found it very easy to learn and teach, fast-playing, not too competitive (depends on the player), and overall pretty fun. Very little player interaction in our game. I love the cute art and that the colors are not your usual red green blue affair. The game board easily fit on our coffee table for a quick game after dinner. I like it. However I am subtracting a star because the bamboo pieces were completely missing. I can purchase replacements for 5 dollars a piece (6 are necessary so that's more than what the game cost). The game came shrink wrapped so it must be the manufacturer's fault. Other than that this is a great lightweight game about claiming territory strategically and has a few different ways of getting the most points so you don't always have to play the same way. There is not a lot of depth but this may be a gateway game for those who might be put off by more complex and time-intensive games. A great warm up or beginner game for those who are intimidated by lots of rules or who have little experience with board games. Recommended. Be prepared to have to substitute missing pieces.

Like other games by the designer (Through the Desert and Babylonia), this game has you placing pieces into the board to score points and sets of items in a very competitive space. It’s easy to learn, colorful, and is a superior family game that requires strategy to win vs the luck you see in most mass market games. Highly recommend!

Really easy to learn how to play, fun with two or more. I love that this is a strategy game, but it’s hard to know what the best strategy is, so it’s not easy to master. I also like how fast the game can be. It’s hard to find games that are this one that can be completed in under an hour

not sure why I bought it, its been in my shelf for 2 years, I have 30 games and never tried this one for just how uninteresting it seems

Blue Lagoon is very easy to teach and play. The instructions were quite clear. The complexity arises from the (potentially) conflicting scoring mechanisms. Remember what goals score how much is the only thing that will be difficult for beginners, but even that should only last a game or two. I've played with 3 and 4 players, and both counts play well. Since the game scores twice during play, some might wonder whether a run-away leader at the first scoring will inevitably win. I am happy to say that is not the case.

I'm a huge fan of designer Reiner Knizia, and own well over 100 of his games. Like many of his others, this game is very easy to learn, but has very clever strategies to be discovered as you expand your territory while collecting resources. For 2 to 4 players, this game will be great as a family game, or as a head to head battle for experienced gamers. Lots of fun, and highly recommended!