Marabunta
Designed by: Reiner Knizia
Marabunta is a two-player game of battling for control across a small map, broken into five regions. At the end of the game, the dominant player in each region will score points, and the most points will win.
Marabunta uses two well-used game mechanics: it’s a roll-and-write (roll dice; assign the results) but it also uses the I-split-you-choose method to divide the results into two piles; one player doing the dividing, and the other getting first choice.
The dice numbers (from zero to 3) are written on the laminated map using dry-erase markers: if I’ve written a 3 and a zero and you’re written two 2s, your combined total of 4 is currently beating my 3. But there are restrictions: the numbers come in different colours, and must be written in the matching-coloured region (zeros are wild have have no colour). And any number you write must go adjacent to one of your previous numbers, and this is an absolutely critical rule, as players can and should look for ways to block off their opponents from parts of the map…
Other sides of the dice are flags – used to increase the value of a particular regions – and crates. Each player has a small board where they cross off crates, and triggering bonus numbers or bonus points. Marabunta also has a tile flipped in each round, and whomever is rolling/splitting the dice must also choose which group to place the tile in. The tile may be an additional number, additional crates, or additional flags.
Finally there are crates scattered around the map you can claim by writing a number into the hexagon there, and cupcakes, which are worth points when you collect them.
When the final tile is revealed every subsequent round the same tile is used in the splitting, and the tile itself allows a player to cross a cupcake off the map. When all the cupcakes are gone, the game ends. Or the game ends when a territory or scoring leaf is full – players total up points to determine the victor!
Sam says
From a designer whose games I usually either appreciate or actively love (Babylonia is a favourite) Marabunta was a rare miss for me. Not because it’s a bad design – far from it – but because the I-split-you-choose challenge of breaking up the dice, with their far-reaching consequences, felt like an anxiety-inducing regret generator. I do like the screwiness on the board, and the bonus-triggering crates. How you get to the point of active play though, while clever, just veers too far into the agonising part of ‘agonising decisions’ and I feel like I’m failing to gain command of an out-of-control machine. But that’s my shortcoming, not the games, and many will love it for the same reason I didn’t.
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Take That!
You can - and probably will - be blocked out of parts of the board, although your two 'anthills' give you two different starting spots and the crates may provide a third. Area control games tend to feel feisty, even when there's no direct interaction, but the passive-aggression here is palpable!
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Fidget Factor!
The game's frequent pauses are down to the active player choosing how to split the dice, and then both sides how to apply them to the board. But while there are lulls, they are not horrifically long.
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Brain Burn!
High. Not on the rules, but on the splitting of those dice. Each number - even the zeroes, which while providing no control benefits are at least 'wild' so can be played on any colour - has far-reaching ramifications in who gets it, where they put it, and what is sacrificed when it's taken.
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Again Again!
The board has two sides, with a slightly more complex terrain on the reverse and different crate-induced player bonuses on the player boards. But frankly the introductory game has plenty of tactical variation: splitting the dice is always, but always, tricky.
