12 Rivers: Review
Introduction:
12 Rivers is a point salad game, which involves card management to select pearls (marbles) as they roll down the stream of the rivers creating variable turn order. Each round as the players that resolve first will select the action last next round. Essentially players will use three tribe tokens a round to select where to block the pearls, this will either cost the player cards or gain them a card. When all tribe tokens are placed the dice will be released and each time a tribe token stops the pearl, that player will select one pearl stopped by them and then release the rest of the pearls. The game will end after five rounds, players will score varying points for each pearl on their villagers, score points based on the villagers scoring, and score for alpaca goal cards.
Game Anatomy:
The River Board:
The river is the centrepiece of the game. During the game different pearls will be revealed from a bag each round. Then each player will allocate their tribe tokens and the marbles will roll down the river, each pearl being drafted as it stops at a tribe token. Not only is the river board cosmetically fun to look at. It is also a functional drafting / turn order mechanic that feels more than a gimmick.
Pearls:
Pearls come in five colours. When placing a pearl on a village card the pearl has to match the colour opening on the village card. unless the opening is a wild represented by multiple colours.
Each pearl colour is worth a different point of placed on a villager at the end of the game, shown on this diagram above.
Villager Tiles:
Each villager tile has a card amount that will be gained by the player when the villager is gained and pearl spots that can be filled during the game.
Each villager also has a scoring condition. The general collection, villagers have general scoring conditions which normally work on the players entire tableau and can be scored even if the villager doesn't have a full amount of pearls on them.
There is also the personal collection of villagers, these villagers need to be filled completely to score and also have scoring that is based on this villager specifically. They often have wild pearl spots which make them great if villagers are needed to store pearls.
Alpaca Boards and Alpaca Goal Cards:
Each alpaca can hold six pearls, during the game when the pearls are gained they will go to the alpaca first. At the end of each round the pearls can then be moved to the villagers. This means that if a player wants the alpaca to hold more than six pearls it isn't possible instead pearls have to be swapped from the alpaca for the ones on the board.
During the game players have to make sure they have the right villagers to take the pearls off their alpaca. At times players may want to keep the same coloured pearls on their alpaca to gain the alpaca goal card. These are awarded to the first player to reach that number of the same coloured pearls on their alpaca. Each alpaca goal card is worth four points at the end of the game.
Fairy Tokens:
The fairy Tokens will be gained throughout the game if a player plays a tribe token to the right of a fairy token location. There is a player aid for everything the player tokens can do. This includes placing the tribe tokens at no cost, moving pearls on the alpaca / villagers to other villager tiles, gain an additional pearl when collecting pearls, act as a wild camp card and make a pearl space on a villager wild.
Tribe Tokens:
These tribe tokens are how players compete for pearls. The higher the river (closer to the pearls) the tribe token is placed the more cards the player will have to discard to play. These tribe tokens can also be played at the bottom of the board to recruit villagers. Villagers do not refresh until the next round so at times players may want to spend cards to gain villager tiles earlier, this section of the board resolves from the left to right when recruiting villagers.
Each player has three tribe tokens each round, this will also determine player order. In order of resolving from the top of the river to the bottom, when a tribe token is resolved it will be placed in the past open turn order for the next round. This varies the turn order and really creates an element of risk vs reward.
Camp Cards:
Camp cards are the currency of the game's actions. There is no hand limit for these cards either. The great element of the camp cards is they are not faceless cards. Each card has an ability attached, there are five different camp cards.
Instead of using these cards as a currency, two of the same camp cards can be discarded to activate its ability. Whenever camp cards are gained throughout the game, they can be gained from the revealed row (replenished after a card is taken) or taken from the top of the deck.
Setup:
- Keep all 65 pearls on the draw bag.
- Shuffle the fairy tokens face-down and give each player access to a reference card.
- Deal each player and alpaca and the matching tribe tokens, as well as a starting villager (only use the starting villager numbers that match the player count).
- Reveal all five alpaca goals.
- Shuffle the villager tiles and reveal six in a display.
- Shuffle the camp cards and Deal six to each player, then reveal three next to the camp deck as a face-up display.
- The starting villagers will determine player order based on the numbers shown, lowest starting first.
- Starting with player one and continuing in turn, each player will place one tribe marker on the top most side of the turn track. This will continue in order until everyone has placed all tribe tokens.
How To Play:
The game lasts over five rounds, then each pearl on a villager will score, followed by each villager tile and alpaca goal card. On each round there is a preparation, exploration and scoring phase.
Preparation Phase:
In this phase place the floodgate token on the top of the river (preventing pearls from falling). The top of the river will then be filled with three pearls per player starting on the left side moving to the right.
Fairy tokens will also be placed on stump on odd numbered rounds and on the fox statues on the even rounds.
There will be one token placed per player count and the left tokens where the river flows will have the tokens placed on the first. I.e for two players it is the first two symbols on the left hand side (even if a token is already placed). Lastly the leftover villager tiles are discarded and six new villagers are revealed (for the first round the initial six are already set up).
Exploration Phase:
In turn order dictated by the turn track (even if multiple turns in a row). Players will gain their tribe token and place it either on the river gaining any fairy tokens adjacent to the placement or the player will place the tribe token in the village to gain more villagers. Each of these placements have a card cost or gain associated with it shown on the left hand side or directly next to the placement.
The last location to be explained is the lake. This is where any leftover pearl sits, in between rounds these pearls will not be moved away if they are on the lake and have not been drafted. This location will be the last location on the river to resolve, but there is no cost and unlike any other location the player can take as many pearls as they would like when resolving their tribe token from this location.
Collection Phase:
The collection phase will have all the pearls released. Resolving from the top of the river down the players will take their tribe token away gaining one pearl the token is blocking.
The tribe token will then go to the bottom left-most space on the turn track. Players that gain pearls first will be the last to place the next round. After the pearls from the river are collected the player in the lake can collect any amount of pearls they can fit from the lake, lastly the villagers will be recruited if any players tribe tokens are placed in the village. These villagers will not be replaced as they are taken.
After players claim any alpaca goals they can, they will then move their pearls onto any villager open spaces they can. The starting villager unlocks bonus points for completing a villager, but the pearls simply score for being on a villager instead of the zero that is scored if they are on the alpaca. Once a pearl is placed they cannot be moved, except for the breeze fairy.
Scoring:
After the fifth round each pearl on a villager will score, the players will also get points for each alpaca goal and each villager will score if applicable even if they are not filled with pearls (if a general scoring villager).
Final Thoughts:
- Point salad gameplay where each action gets the players points.
- Interesting card economy
- Set collection with many options, the pearls being different points based on colour; needing villagers that can hold those pearls; while also deciding to horde the pearls to get the alpaca goals.
- This is a bidding for turn/ pearl order game that some players might find too interactive, I found it the perfect level where it didn't feel deliberately mean.
12 Rivers is easily staying in the collection. It is a game with an outstanding table presence but it is more than its marble gimmick first presents to be. Ultimately this is a point salad game, with set collection and variable turn order. Players are deciding where to place their tribe tokens (workers) based on where they are placed, there is a card cost or card gain. Placing these tokens can determine when the pearls (marbles) are drafted (one at a time throughout the river, top first), what villager the player is drafting, fairy tokens gained that can turn the tide and if played right can be the only player to score numerous pearls from the lake. The earlier the token resolves the later the player will activate in the next round. Players need somewhere to place these pearls (villagers), since each pearl has a different score value based on colour. Each villager will have either a personal scoring that requires the villager to be full and general scoring villagers that don't need any pearls they are active scoring straight away. This point salad scoring, combined with trying to gain and hold onto pearls creates an interesting point optimisation that I have enjoyed thoroughly.
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