Newton

*SLEEVED

A game about making scientific discoveries through a variety of highly abstracted means in Europe in the golden age of science.

The game is a 2-4 player game of 6 rounds where your goal is to get the most points by the end. Everyone starts with essentially the same hand of cards, which are the actions you select each turn, and you play these in sequence, one at a time per turn, until you have played 5(?) of them. This finishes a round, but a big twist here is that you MUST discard (or rather put the card out of play under your player board where it can no longer be used but can be a multiplier for future actions) at the end of each round!

The actions you can choose from are: 1) travel- there is a map where you need to visit locations and may be able to pick up bonuses off the board along the way, travelling is difficult and annoying similar to Marco Polo, 2) lessons- this is where you acquire new (and better) action cards that go directly into your hand- you need to some of this as you would run out of cards in the game otherwise, 3) grad student work (I forget the proper name of this action), you have a different pawn that can travel along different tracks (think pursue different avenues of research) and acquire bonuses but ultimately you want your pawn to finish in one of the end game scoring objectives at the end of the line, 4) general sidework/labour- you advance yet another player marker along a track that generates income (very slowly) but can also get you some nice bonuses along the way, 5) library- this is a very important but difficult action where you can place books from your player board onto shelf space in your library and if done correctly, can get you significant in-game points each round, 6) joker- this is what it says, it can duplicate a previous action. It should be noted that actions "stack", that is previous action symbols will help the action you choose to improve/strengthen it, and you want to do EVERYTHING but simply cannot come close to doing so.

You also start with a hand of randomly dealt 4 scientists (think leaders from Lorenzo il Magnifico) which when played either give you a nice one time bonus or a perpetual power and they all score points when played. You also can do "free" actions which actually require money to do, but can be very important: 1) add cards to the card selection, 2) juice/boost an action by 1 level, 3) buy a potion (potions are "wild" and are used for shelving books in your library.

The game is very reminiscent of other designs by these italian designers, and yet stands on its own. It plays very well for 2-4 players, it's quick and has a good replayability factor. My only complaint is that I wish there was less abstraction to it, as a strong euro game with hardcore science aspects to it is sorely lacking.

Own the [boardgame=286287]Great Discoveries[/boardgame] mini-expansion, the [boardgame=265291]Stephen Hawking[/boardgame] and [boardgame=265290]Robert Hooke[/boardgame] promo cards, the [boardgame=363526]New Horizon[/boardgame] and [boardgame=397436]Italy Grand Tour[/boardgame] boards, the [boardgame=389120]Extra City tiles[/boardgame], and the [boardgame=363525]Sun Set[/boardgame] promo cards.

mainly is the game of self-puzzle solving with kind of engine building to complete the different tracks advancements.

feeling a bit of

• card puzzle in Mombasa
• track upgrading in Russian Railroad
• map walking Orleans

fun and easy to understand with interesting choices, the not so good part is that its too low of player interaction.

Streamlined rules and smooth gameplay, but complex and challenging. The hand management itself requires a lot of planning as everything matters, the cards you buy, the order you play them in, and the card you sacrifice at the end of the round to permanently increase the strength of an action. There are essentially four maps/tracks that you are trying to route through together and figuring out the best route across all of them at the same time makes for an fun, absorbing puzzle. Lots of variability to keep it from getting stale.

One of the ugliest games I have seen in a while. Very brown and generic presentation, and the interesting theme is wasted here. There is almost zero interaction, and the only real reason to play multiplayer is compare scores at the end for the random puzzle that got generated. However it does make for an excellent solitaire game, as it plays under an hour while still giving you a meaty Euro experience.

12-05-2019 (121)

Improves on repeated plays. The first time can be overwhelm to discern all the cards, and places and tokens, and bonus. But after that it just clicks.

1 play / 2 players

LIKE: I enjoyed the card play, being able to choose which card is tucked and being able to buy more cards. I liked traveling the maps and placing book chits on the personal playing board. I was surprised the two player experience was quite good. I also liked that there was a lot to do in the game and I could barely reach a couple goals, the feeling of wanting to do more was evident. High amount of variability.

DISLIKE: There isn't much interaction between the players. The game is largely themeless. A couple places in the rules seemed ambiguous. Lots of min-maxing in the game.

OVERALL: A good point-salad experience, but because of the lack of interaction, I'm not sure how often I'd request this one. Feels like a race, at times. I did like some of the brain-burn it offered, so I was impressed with the game design. I noticed that even with the high amount of options, strategies could be developed. Perhaps with more players the cards become more competitive. Time will tell.

TRADED: not enough player interaction, too many games like this one.

I knew going in that I'd like it, but it exceeded my expectations. Very good mid-weight Euro that stands out a bit from the crowd because of the action selection/hand building mechanic. Lots of combos to puzzle over and variability at setup ensures this will have some replayability. I've enjoyed every game I've played from this group of Italian designers, with Tzolkin still my favourite.