Churrascaria: A Cutthroat Game of Gluttony - Review
Information:
Mechanics: Take That, Push Your Luck, Hand Management
Player Age: 10+ Player Count: 2 - 6 PlayersTime to Play: 25 - 35 Minutes Game Designer: David M. Thomas
Player Age: 10+
Introduction:
I am a carnivore and I enjoy that fact so a game with this theme instantly caught my attention. For this game, you are trying to score the most points by eating the most meat (positive points) and ignoring the negative points gained through eating salads and desserts. Players will have a plate in front of them that can hold up to four food cards, any more and they will have to eat (score) the lowest cards. Players will manipulate their own and their opponent's food items through various action cards. Once the food deck runs out, one more round is played then the highest score of eaten foods is the winner.
Game Anatomy:
Food Deck:
The food deck is made up of two food types; meat which is worth positive points, and salad or desserts worth negative points.
Some meat cards have effects that activate when they are eaten.
Action Deck:
There are three types of cards in the action deck; actions with abilities that you will play on your turn.
Reactions that will be used out of turn to defend.
As well as special card that will be immediately resolved when drawn and the player will then draw a new card to replace.
Food Request Token:
If the food request token is green it will signify that the active player will draw another food card at the end of the turn. This will also make the player draw a card when the special action card is played. If the token is red it will signify that the player is not to draw a food card. This is important because anytime a player draws a fifth food card they will have to eat the lowest-scoring card on their plate.
Setup:
- Give each player a salada and frango card as the starting two cards on their plate.
- Shuffle the food card deck and place it in the middle.
- Give each player a food request token on the red side.
How to Play:
On a turn the player will have two actions, and can perform the same action twice if need be. The options are:
- Flip any player's food service card.
- Eat any food item in the active player dish, placing the item in the scoring pile (stomach) and activating any effects.
At the end of a player's turn they will refill their action hand back to four cards and draw a food card for their plate if their food service card is on the green side. The game will end one round after all the food cards have been drawn. Every player's stomach is scored and whoever has the most points is the winner.
Final Thoughts:
- Interesting bonus action on the meat cards.
- Fun push your luck element to filling your plate.
- Could use some more variation in the action cards.
- Some cards needed clarification.
Churrascaria is a light take-that game with a fun theme that excels at higher player counts. This is the kind of game best played with a group that enjoys heavy player interaction as you are constantly manipulating each other's plates, trying to feed your face with the good-scoring meat while making your opponents eat salads or desserts. If take-that style games make you hungry for more, I think this is one you should try. It lasted the perfect amount of time to not overstay its welcome, It had plenty of fun conflict with other players as we blocked and manipulated the board state. The biggest issue being that some cards needed a bit more clarification than the rulebook supplied and there wasn't as much variation in the action cards as I would normally like to see in this kind of game but overall it was an enjoyable game of meaty delight.
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