Umbrella: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Pattern Recognition, Sliding Puzzle, Set Collection, Open Drafting, Abstract
Age: 8+Player Count: 1 - 4 PlayersTime to Play: 30 Minutes
Game Designer: Flavien Dauphin, Benoit TurpinGame Artist: Vincent DutraitPublisher: Pandasaurus GamesYear Published: 2024Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Game Designer: Flavien Dauphin, Benoit Turpin
Introduction:
Umbrella is a pattern recognition game that will have players sliding umbrellas from four directions in pursuit of meeting figure tiles. Build the right patterns and you will score a cluster of bonus points in the standard way of scoring, while in the advanced way of scoring you can gain immediate bonuses based on the umbrella colours you score with.
Game Anatomy:
Umbrella Tokens:
These wooden tokens come in four colours; blue, red, green and yellow.
Personal Board:
A player’s personal board will also hold their scoreboard, figure tiles, and umbrellas. Each board will contain a unique setup of starting umbrellas detailed by those pictured on the board itself.
At the bottom of the player board is a personal waiting zone. At the end of the game each umbrella here will lose the player one point, however, if this location is empty at the end of the game the player will instead gain two points.
Waiting Zones:
The waiting zones hold any umbrellas that aren't on a personal player board. There will be one zone shared between two players to the left and right side.
There is also one central waiting zone between all players. These waiting zones will hold umbrellas that are to be taken from and added to throughout the game.
For example, when an umbrella is gained from the left waiting zone, the last umbrella in the row (from that direction) will slide off into the waiting zone on the right (photo from the rulebook for example).
Figure Tiles:
These are the patterns that the players are attempting to create. Each tile is double sided to increase variability up to 48 different patterns.
An additional interesting aspect to each of these tiles is an asterisk in one of the corners. When this tile is placed on a player board it will be rotated to match the asterisk on the board location. Whenever a player completes a tile they will move that tile onto the leftmost available spot on an opponents board. During a 2-player game the person passing the tile can flip it to the other side for a different pattern.
Scoreboards:
Whenever the player completes a figure tile they will place a scoring token onto an empty spot on the scoreboard matching the colour used.
Each token on the score board is worth two points at the end of the game. If you fill all scoring tokens in a group you will gain the bonus points on the scoreboard for that group.
Each scoreboard has a difficulty level of 1-4 and each player must play on the same difficulty. At the higher levels there are a couple of changes. Players will instead score bonuses based on how many scoring tokens connect in a row rather than groupings. There will also be some tokens that are placed based on the tile orientation.
Lastly, at level four there are immediate bonuses that can be activated if surrounded by scoring tokens. These bonuses allow players to gain an extra turn, swap between adjacent umbrellas, or swap an umbrella from a waiting zone with one on your personal board.
Setup:
Game Setup:
- Place one waiting zone inbetween each player.
- Place one umbrella of each colour on all waiting zones.
- Place scoring tokens in the centre area based on the player count.
Personal Setup:
Each player takes and fills the their personal board with:
- A scoreboard of the agreed level
- Two figure tiles on the first two spaces
- One umbrella of each colour at the bottom of the board (personal waiting zone)
How to Play:
Turns in this game are extremely easy to remember. On your turn you slide an umbrella onto your personal board from either the left, right, top or bottom of your board from the corresponding waiting zone. Slide this umbrella onto the board and slide off the umbrella on the other side of this row. The goal is to match the figure tiles with a single coloured umbrella. One goal can be fulfilled per turn.
The game will end when either the last scoring token is placed, one player has 10 scoring tokens, or a player has no figure tile in front of them. If one of these conditions are met, each other player will have one last turn then scoring will commence.
- Points gained from the scoreboard.
- 2 points if your personal waiting zone is empty otherwise lose 1 point for every umbrella there.
Final Thoughts:
- Easy to recognise the pattern you seek but challenging to fufill the patterns efficiently.
- Multiple game end conditions.
- At higher player counts the umbrella tokens can become a scarce resource if certain waiting zones are low making the central waiting zone more crucial.
Umbrella is a fun spatial puzzle. The rules take under 5 minutes to read but the game play gives the players an interesting brain burner. On a base level players are simply trying to meet the chosen puzzle in front of them. When you understand the game, however, there are more decisions in play. These include working on multiple figures at a time, as well as planning the colours so you can get the bonus on the score board. Players also must consider the umbrellas they have in their personal waiting zone and when they can remove them. Once players understand this, the game is a cognitive spatial puzzle which I enjoyed thoroughly. This game is easily getting a Silver Seal of Approval.
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