Post Office

• Designer: Evgeny Petrov
• Publisher: Hobby World
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20-30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Post Office is a game in which you will arrange packages on your Shelves pads in order to complete challenges. By placing your packages of the same type next to each other and taping them up in certain ways, you will create combinations of symbols to score Victory Points.

The more efficient you are the more Victory Points you get. Earn the most Victory Points to become employee of the month!

1. Move your assistant along the shelves — it will point to the column or row where to place a package.
2. Place a package onto an empty slot of the shelf.
3. Packages make up a shape of the same color? Tape them up! Now they won’t get lost.

In this game you will also find colorful detailed illustrations by Natalya Kondratyuk, the author behind the comic “Post” and the winner of “Kommissia”.

To set up the game, each player gets their own player board which has a 5×5 grid on it as well as a movement track around the outside of this area. The player’s chosen assistant starts on the “Start” space of the movement track. Additionally, each player gets their 4 Starter package tokens and they are placed randomly on the four starting spaces of the board.  Each player also gets 3 Stamps to start. Finally, 4 colored sets of 4 tapes are given to each player.  Each is a polyomino of 4 spaces.  All of the regular package tokens are shuffled face down and placed on the table.  If you are choosing to play with the Challenge tokens, choose four Challenge tokens and display them on the table.

The game is played over 11 rounds, each one having players taking simultaneous actions. At the end of the game, all the player’s boards will be full and scoring is done.

To start a round, each player is given 2 random Package tokens from the supply.  Each player keeps one and then gives the other to the player on their left.  Next, everyone’s Assistant moves forward one space on their respective track.  Each player can decide to move their Assistant forward extra spaces, at the cost of one stamp per space moved.  Now, each player chooses to place one of their packages in the row/column corresponding to the current location of their Assistant.  If your Assistant is in the corner, you can place it anywhere on your board.  The space you choose must be empty.  If there are no empty spaces in your chosen row/column, you can move your assistant forward without cost until you have a legal play.  You are allowed to rotate your Package token before placing it; but once it is on the board, you cannot change its location nor orientation.  Then, players may choose to place one Tape token onto their board – the packages underneath the tape must all match the color of the tape token being placed on them.

To complete the round, all players again move their Assistant one space forward, and may again pay Stamps to move further.  The remaining Package token in their hand is now placed, following the same rules, and players again have the opportunity to place a single Tape token.  Note that the Tape token does NOT have to be placed on a Package played this turn – it can be any area which legally can have a Tape token placed on it.  When you place Tape tokens, you might cover Stamp icons – each time you do this, take a Stamp token from the supply.  If you are playing with the Challenge tokens, check to see if any player has achieved any of the Challenges.  If so, they take the token and flip it over – it is worth 8 stamps.  If multiple players achieve a Challenge at the end of the same round, one player gets the Challenge token and the other successful players simply take 8 stamps from the supply.

There are other icons seen on the Packages – though you generally want to keep them uncovered.  The green packing slip will score points for each piece of tape that is orthogonally adjacent to it.   The hearts, snowflakes, candy pieces and wine glasses are important for game end scoring – you will score points based on how many of these icons are visible at the end of the game. 

At the end of the game, everyone’s board will be filled.  The final scoring is then done:

• Score 1 point per Stamp you have
• Score for Hearts, Glasses, Snowflakes and Candy separately.  Multiply the number of icons seen on packages by the number of the same icon seen on Tape tokens.  Do this for each of the four types
• Score 5 points for each uncovered 2×2 square area of a single color.
• Score 3 points for each Tape token orthogonally adjacent to a visible packing slip 

The player with the most points wins. Ties broken in favor of the player with the most Stamps at the end of the game

My thoughts on the game

Post Office is a nice simple puzzle game that forces you to roll with punches a bit as each round you only get to pick out one of the two Package tokens that you get to place.  Additionally, the constraints of placement based on your assistant location means that even if you have the perfect piece, you may have to work a bit to get it in that perfect place.  As each additional step on the track costs you a victory point, you’ll have to figure out what is the most efficient way of placing your pieces on the board.

The scoring system gives you lots of things to think about.  You’re trying to place packages in places to allow you to place tapes, but you also might have times where you’d rather not place tape tokens – because you’ll eventually have to multiply the uncovered icons with those on your tape pieces.  Further, if you can get a 2×2 square in a color, you’ll still score points for the shape in addition to the bonus that you might get from the icons visible in that area.  That being said, sometimes it’s nice to get some Tape down just to cover up some Stamps and open up the possibility of a larger scoring option later down the road.

While it seems like there might be a lot to think about, in reality, the game zips along (at least it does here in our group).  Given the relatively high cost of extra movement, you’re generally not looking at more than one or two extra movements if you don’t immediately find a good landing spot for your Package token.  And heck, sometimes, it’s worth it just to plunk a token down and know that you’re giving yourself some scoring icons that will never be covered up.

If you choose to play with the Challenge cards, there is an interesting race aspect that is added to the game, and it gives you something to develop a strategy around.  The 8 point bonus for completing a Challenge first is a huge boon, and for my group, I don’t think I could play this game without including them.  It adds that extra bit to the game to make it interesting.

The artwork in the game and the rules is quite cute, and while I’m not familiar at all with the Russian comic, the artwork is very endearing and adds a lot to the experience.  The front three pages of the rules are actually done in comic book style, and I can definitely see the attraction to this graphic design choice.  The components are solid, and I must say that the double cut punchboards were awesome and made prepping the game so easy.  The only complaint I might have is that the game really wants a scorepad – with so many different scoring criteria, it would have been nice to have a pre-prepared scoring grid to use.

Post Office is a lighter puzzle game, and one that fits nicely in the super filler arena.  Our games are short, under 30 minutes, but there are still some interesting decisions to be made as you try to maximize the scoring with the constant onslaught of packages that need to be placed in your grid.   The base game would be great for families or casual gamers, but my regular group would only play this if the Challenge cards were added.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y (with the goal cards), John P
• Neutral.  Dale Y (basic)
• Not for me.