Moving Day
- Designer: Mads Floe
- Publisher: Piatnik
- Players: 2-4
- Age: 10+
- Time: 30 minutes
- Played with review copy provided by publisher
July 1st is “Moving Day” in Québec, Canada. It’s no joke as more than 100,000 people (!) move on this special day. Why? Starting in the 1700s, by law all leases would expire on the same day. The law has since been changed, but landlords and renters still stick to July 1st as the universal moving day. And since so many people are moving on the same day, it’s of course near impossible to hire movers or even rent moving trucks — so everyone in the community shows up to help you move!
In Moving Day, your job is to pack all your stuff nicely into the available vehicles, trying to avoid crushing lighter items by putting heavier items on top, while also assigning people from the community to each vehicle. Some of them are pretty clumsy and might break fragile items if you are not careful, but if they bring delicious food with them, it might be impossible to turn them away…
In set up, each player gets a set of three vehicles, and the board is set up with N+1 groups of things, each with a helper card and a pair of box tiles.
On your turn, choose a set of two item tiles and one person card from a general display, making sure to place a snack on the neighboring groups to the one you took. Then assign the group to one of your vehicles. Be aware that your vehicles have limited space and different shapes, and you must fill the items from the bottom to the top. People also have different strengths and should ideally be strong enough to collectively lift your heavier items.
After eight rounds, the game ends. Each player now has sixteen item tiles and eight people cards assigned to their vehicles, and they calculate their score:
- Heavy items on top of lighter items break the lighter items below.
- Clumsy people will break 1 fragile item each.
- Heavy items score more points than lighter items.
- Score extra points for adjacent items of the same shape.
- Score extra points for adjacent items of the same type.
- Snack tokens are also worth 1 point each!
The player with the most points wins!
My thoughts on the game
The whole story of Moving Day in Quebec is really hard to believe – but yet it happens every year, and my Instagram feed supports the craziness each July 1. I once took a trip to to Montreal in the summer, in early July, and still saw some of the aftermath on the streets…
Moving Day is definitely a game on the lighter end; your choices are simple in number (only 2) and mostly straightforward. First you have to decide on which set to draft – taking into consideration the status of your trucks, helpers, etc. Then once you have chosen your set, pick which vehicle to assign them to.
It’s fairly impossible to play a “perfect game” where nothing gets broken and everything is carried without breaking – so you’ll have to figure out how to best manage the mistakes that will be made by your crew. I’ve seen a successful strategy where one person tried to have two perfect vehicles and just sacrificed everything in their third vehicle when their stuff didn’t fit…
It’s sometimes easier to stick to the low valued things as they are easier to stack safely; but of course, you’ll get little reward for this. Figuring out how and when to take to riskier high point things is the key to success here.
The game is quite simple to teach, probably less than 5 minutes with a short example round on the table and just about anyone can get started with the game. Our games have come in around 20-30 minutes, just as the box would suggest. There isn’t any direct player interaction, though there can definitely be some tension during the draft phase as you hope that no one else chooses the set you covet.
Piatnik continues to try to work their way into the simpler end of the strategy gaming world, and this is a fine addition to their repertoire. This is one that would be great with family and friends.
Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers
- I love it!
- I like it. Dale Y
- Neutral.
- Not for me…
