Designer: Corné van Moorsel
Publisher: Allplay
Players: 1-5
Ages: 11+
Playing Time: 40 minutes
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Times Played: 15+ with all versions, 3 with review copy of 2024 Allplay version provided by publisher
So, as readers of the blog have seen this week, there is a huge trend in releasing refreshed or reskinned titles. From a business perspective, this makes sense – if you can sell something that is already proven to be a winner, it’s an easy decision to make a reprint.
For new gamers, this movement is great because it gives them a chance to add a classic game to their game collection – often with updated art and/or rules.
Habitats is one of those games which recently received a new version, and I was more than happy to look at the new Allplay version. This updated version keeps most of the rules from the original, but now also includes an official solo version.
The components are also upgraded, with a nice colorful draw bag included in the game. Also, if you have chosen to bling up your game, you can have a great set of 90+ Animeeples in all sorts of different colors.
Another addition that I really appreciate is the dry-erase score board that Allplay includes. They have done this with a number of their newer games, and I find this to be a much nicer solution than a pad of score sheets.
Below is an exerpted previous review of Habitats from our blog:
In Habitats, you’re building a wildlife park and hoping to, naturally, do so while achieving the most victory points over three rounds.
Each player receives an entrance to their park and chooses a color, placing their score marker on the scoreboard, and their figure in the market. (Depending upon the version, these figures may be wooden meeples of a sort or they may be ceramic animal figurines.) The scoreboard is setup for the number of players, and a number of intermediary goals are set out for each of the three rounds.
The size of the market will vary upon player count, and the placement of the players’ markers will be dependent upon turn order.
On a player’s turn, they move their figure forward one, left one, or right one, and turn the figure to face the corresponding direction if the movement was left or right. If another player is occupying the space, the player moves to the next tile in that direction beyond the opponent and the player can’t move outside of the grid.
The player collects the tile in their destination location and draws from a pile of unused tiles one to replace where they’ve been (we refer to it as “pooping” the tile out, but, uh, I guess you don’t have to). The player adds the tile to their park adjacent to at least one other tile, and not bordering a road.
The tiles come in a few varieties. The majority of the tiles represent animals in the park and show at the top icons of landscape types the animal would like to be near. (This typically means directly orthogonally adjacent to, but multiple requests for the same terrain can be “chained” through one adjacent tile.) If the animal’s conditions are satisfied, you place the tile right side up, and if the conditions are not yet satisfied, rotate it upside down.
Some tiles arrive satisfied, such as flowers; some will be end game scoring conditions, such as largest lake area, or most distinct forest regions; others will be watchtowers, from which your visitors hope to see satisfied animals in certain directions; and a few are rear access roads to your park.
Players take 18-21 turns over the course of a game, with 2 breaks during, and one at the end, to resolve those scoring criteria that were chosen during setup, such as most variety of flowers or longest park diagonally.
In an addition to the points scored for these criteria, at the end of the game the satisfied animals will earn a certain number of points, as will the flowers, watchtowers, and roads.
In Habitats, you can only see so far ahead. When you move to acquire a tile, a new one will appear behind you. It might change your strategy (though it will take you 3 turns to get there). It might change your opponents game plan.
Sometimes you need a rocky terrain tile, but an opponent may too. Are they going there or somewhere else? How many are there to choose from? What path will you take to get there and will you be able to satisfy the animals you acquire on the way?
The market is one puzzle, but your park is another. (That last paragraph again.) Where will you place that rocky terrain – so that it satisfies this animal. And the one you think you’re picking up next turn. But that may clash with your backup option for next turn in case the other player does the other thing.
(It’s not unusual to play square-tiling games and think “I wish I could try this with hexes”, but that’s not the case here. I fear that hexes would make the adjacencies too easy, and I relish the puzzle of efficient placement of square-tiling adjacencies.)
You haven’t forgotten the mid-game scoring, right. You’re working on making the most compact park?
I like the gift that the new tiles provide. A sort of moment of bated breath waiting to see what is entering the market.
All round it’s a delight. A pleasant theme and an interesting puzzle. That chef’s-kiss balance of tactics and strategy.
Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers
Mark Jackson: Note – the 3rd edition rules of Habitats have you place 2 goals per “year” – which we like a lot!
Tery: I love Habitats,for exactly the reasons James Nathan described. When I first learned it I had very low expectations because it looked too light based on the artwork and the cute bits (an upgraded copy with little ceramic animals), but boy, was I wrong. There is a lot of game packed into a short time frame. Optimizing your path and trying to figure out what your options might be based on your fellow players is a puzzle I enjoy. It is easy to teach, works well with any number of players and it plays in a relatively short amount of time, even with more players. I have the 2nd edition, but we’ve tried the 3rd edition rule Mark mentions above and we like that, too.
Dale: I really like the puzzle of figuring out the paths. And, yes, clearly I refer to the tiles as being “pooped out.” I have definitely enjoyed the chance to play the solo version in the new edition as oftentimes I can’t find friends around to play games with me.
Dan Blum: I like Habitats although I prefer it with fewer players as the path optimization is more interesting that way (the more your path can get disrupted, the less optimization you can do). I played both Morisi and Netzwerk (and Isi for that matter) back in the day but didn’t find them engaging. I owned High Hand (the proprietary version of Switch) for years but never played it.
Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers
Habitats
I love it! James Nathan, Jonathan, Mark Jackson, Tery
I like it. John P (and I love Morisi!), Dale Y, Dan Blum
Neutral.
Not for me…
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