Yearly in October, the world comes collectively to have a good time one of many few actually universally beloved holidays: Fats Bear Week. Pushed by their organic crucial to pack as a lot into their fats reserves as potential earlier than hibernation units in, the brown bears of Katmai Nationwide Park in Alaska (a nature protect roughly the dimensions of Connecticut) decimate the native salmon runs to assist them survive the approaching winter. And after they say Fats Bears, they imply it. These behemoths will eat 120 kilos of salmon a day, as tens of hundreds of parents world wide look on in shock and awe by livestreams to vote in a match bracket for his or her favourite 1000+ pound contender. Fats Bear Week has all the pieces an individual may need: Drama, intrigue, scandal, and actually actually fats bears.
However when you’re itching to duplicate the expertise low season, look no additional than Katmai: The Bears of Brooks River, a recreation by Peter Ridgeway, illustrated by Tom Lopez. Capturing the pathos of the battle for dominance and the ever-shifting social hierarchy of apex predators with names like Headbob and Scare D Bear, Katmai is a two-player card recreation that guarantees thrilling gameplay at each flip.
Gameplay Overview:
Every participant selects a staff of Brown Bears: Sandy or Cinnamon. Each selections include a deck of bear playing cards and a pack of bear meeples (which the rulebook calls Beeples). Bear playing cards have dominance scores on them primarily based on how robust the bear is, and decrease scoring bears even have particular talents. Gamers additionally obtain salmon tokens and a bear cub token.
Seven double sided river tiles are organized in a line between the 2 gamers, forming the board. These tiles are divided into 4 areas, every of which has a fishing characteristic icon that interacts with the scoring aims and bear talents. 4 of the 15 double sided goal playing cards are chosen to begin off the sport, relying on the problem stage you need to play at.
Play begins by flipping the initiative token like a coin and calling ‘paw or nah’ as a substitute of heads or tails. The participant with the initiative token performs their playing cards first, however they’ll move it to their opponent at will in the event that they see a strategic benefit.
Every spherical, the groups play by their entire hand of playing cards, with two playing cards put aside facedown on the spherical’s starting. Bear playing cards are performed onto river tiles, and the participant who has the best scoring stack of bears on a tile, with a most of three bears per stack, will get to position a Beeple there on the finish of the spherical. Within the case of a tie, bear playing cards with the sow icon can select to play a bear cub token to interrupt it of their favor.
By strategically putting your Beeples alongside the river, you’ll have the ability to fulfill the patterns featured on the target playing cards, incomes you salmon. Play ends both when one staff is right down to solely two bears to position or when one staff ends a spherical with 4 extra bears positioned on the river than their opponent. The participant with essentially the most salmon tokens wins.
Sport Expertise:
Katmai is mild, however it packs in a shocking quantity of variability. The river tiles are double sided, flowing in two completely different instructions. There are eight completely different units of regular mode aims, and a greater variety of mixtures in order for you a tougher problem. These are distinctive sufficient from each other that completely different mixtures would require new methods each time you play. It may not be potential to perform all of them, forcing you to do some likelihood odds as you play, betting in opposition to which aims your opponent is likely to be specializing in.
Blind drawing two bears to depart out lends unpredictability to the rounds, including rigidity as you attempt to guess in case your opponent nonetheless has their heavyweight bears, or when you can danger making an attempt to seize a tile with out sacrificing your individual. The technique isn’t significantly complicated, and gameplay doesn’t current too many challenges, however there’s room for determination making and making an attempt to plan your turns. When you have got a two-player recreation that you simply play time and again with the identical individual, it might probably undergo from repetition. The variability that Katmai packs into its lean contents means you may play an terrible lot of it earlier than the sport begins to really feel rote.
I used to be stunned by simply how a lot we loved Katmai. Two-player card video games are one in all my most owned classes, however one thing about Katmai felt particularly pleasant. The setup is easy, with out taking on an excessive amount of area. It may be performed on a espresso desk simply as simply as a picnic desk. It’s fast to study and educate, while not having very a lot rule clarification, and the playing cards have a simple iconography that’s straightforward to determine.
The ability battle among the many bears alongside the river comes throughout in gameplay, and there’s a rewarding rigidity to the tug-of-war when each gamers want the identical tile to finish an goal. Gameplay will not be difficult or significantly progressive, however all the pieces simply works.
It might be petty, however what I do take challenge with is the selection to make use of Beeple to explain the Bear Meeples. With as many bee themed video games as there are already within the board recreation canon, this time period has been successfully claimed. The ‘Paw or Naw’ initiative token flip guidelines complicate a easy coin toss and feels a little bit foolish for an in any other case straight-laced nature recreation. The bear artwork is fierce, however the card backs appear to be one thing out of an Natural Essences industrial. The entire rulebook appears to battle with the steadiness of the whimsical anthropomorphization of the bears and the need to remain scientifically true to their nature and conservation. The gameplay itself doesn’t undergo from this imbalance, however it does make the rulebook learn a little bit oddly.
Last Ideas:
Katmai is a recreation that the northernmost state could be pleased with. I can see it being bought in reward retailers at cruise ship ports and being performed by the hearth at campgrounds. It’s a fantastic couple recreation that’s fast to get on the desk and simple to show. Whereas I believe the rulebook had a little bit of an id disaster by way of whimsy, it’s a fantastic alternative for somebody on the lookout for a light-weight and lean two-player recreation.
Last Rating: 3 Stars – Does so much proper, and can work properly for informal gamers who’re passionate in regards to the theme
Hits:
• Plenty of gameplay variability for such a small package deal
• Effectively designed card symbols with visually fascinating artwork
• Fascinating theme that integrates properly with the gameplay
Misses:
• I simply can’t settle for “Beeples”
• Gameplay isn’t significantly difficult, and the technique is shallow.
