Designed by: Michael Schacht
Africana takes place in distant times; when Victorian explorers roamed the globe, collecting artifacts, gathering icons, and generally exploiting the native populace for their own selfish gain.
The history of colonialism to one side, however, and Africana delivers as a game: for a sense of adventure and grasping of opportunity. Each player is moving their pawn (or ‘researcher’) around a map of Africa, joining expeditions and attempting to be first to complete them (which is very simply just about being the first to get somewhere).
The researchers move using a series of coloured cards that have to match the city they pass through and/or stop in: on your turn you can either play cards (and move) or pick up cards, or, if they have enough money, they can choose from the ‘book’ from which you pick adventures. Adventures work in a very similar way to expeditions – there’s a destination to be reached – but differ in their rewards, as successful completion brings the player in question valuable artifacts that can make the difference between first and last place when the scores are totted up.
Players start with an ‘assistant’ who allows your researcher one free move, and can also add more researchers during the game to give them more freedom of movement – but extra assistants will count against you at the end of the game.
It’s a simple set of rules and a play-time that is usually little over an hour.
No direct combat in Africana, but players are often trying to get to the same place. It's possible to stymie opponents by grabbing adventure cards you know they are wanting to complete a set of artifacts.
Once everyone knows what they're doing, Africana moves quickly.
Not a heavy game at all, but sometimes players might take a moment to work out whether to go for an 'easy' move or gamble on a potentially more rewarding one.
The order of the three decks of cards - expeditions, adventures, travel cards - change in every game, and the fun of the game is moving your researcher around the continent, grabbing what you can before anyone else does.
2-4
Players
8+
Years
60-90
Mins
Sam says
Victorian men running around a vast continent taking what they fancy. It feels like a part of history that should be marked by a reflective thesis rather than a fun romp, albeit I'm sure for designer Michael Schact the theme here isn't him marking his approval. I enjoy Africana, mechanically-speaking. It's simple. There's something about chaining your cards together to pull off a whopping move that completes two or three adventures that is really satisfying - and the fact you can't be sure who's won until the final count-up (usually, at least) keeps the game interesting. But a fictional setting would have served the game better, rather than painting colonialist exploitation as a light-hearted escapade.