Skymines

1.5 plays / 3 players

LIKE: The gameplay is great. The push and pull of the different companies claiming a region on the board is great interaction. The rest of the game is a puzzle on how to play your cards and optimize your turn, standard euro stuff, but fun. Combine this with a little worker placement, and you have yourself a nice game. The "books" tiles in Skymines is given a little point boost, which I quite liked.

DISLIKE: The illustrations on the board and in the game are pretty, but not functional. The icons for the 3 resources and 4 companies are too detailed to discern quickly. Add bad eyesight and bad lighting and the game is unplayable without enhancements. The player's aid is almost worthless, I believe someone made a better one on BGG. I felt the iconography of the "max" action token spaces was strange, the original had the rewards more obvious and legible. Learning curve is a bit high, as I've discovered with new players. I also found the naming of the resources to be poorly thought-out: carbon, titanium, and .... minerals? I kept saying the wrong word when explaining rules. Very frustrating.

OVERALL: What a horrible teach and confusing icons... yet the game itself shines. I have played and taught the original edition (Mombasa) and it had simpler illustrations. Yet this edition was too noisy. I taught two new players and suffered from a poor teaching (my fault), but towards the end, their eyes were alight with enjoyment. Next time I will print out better player aids.

I think the tech tiles with the additional scientist icon requirement plus mineral is difficult to move to, yet they're frequently on the low-cost A/B tiles. I think those are best completed with at least 4 slots, otherwise the extra scientist for 2c will be needed. Therefore, I think racing up the Helium track first is best for unlocking the extra slot quickly.

Similar games: Mombasa, Blackout Hong Kong.

Prerating this an 8. I loved Mobasa, like loved it, but hated the colonization theme and the companies light handed treatment of said theme. And this takes all the good things in Mombasa and improves on them a little bit.

Actually got this to the table and I dont mind the the graphic design at all. It's not one of my favorites but I dont find it bad. However the cards and the differences between the green and blue, especially on the science tiles, is a tremendous pain in the ass. You could think you are close to getting something done and then not be very close at all. Very, VERY annoying.

That still doesn't stop me from elevating this to an 9. This is a really good game.

I didn't play Mombasa before. I feel Skymines is very interesting and strategy. You need to plan ahead. This is a great game for AP but I like GWT more.

koszulki, metalowe monety

NK 11/27/23

20/03/2025 collection update

I've never played Mombasa. Went with this when deciding between the two because it was suggested there might be slightly better balanced with the rework and I liked the theme. If this were an original game, I think this would have way more hype behind it. Considering it's basically a clone of Mombasa, that means it should be essentially top 100 strategy game. The stock/area majority system is brilliant and the hand management is intuitive and fairly original. I've not played anything with a hand system. Quite like that

WONDERFUL