Strange World above the clouds

• Designer: Florian Grenier
• Publisher: Grrre games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 15 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3VLTyiu
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Create a strange world inhabited by puzzling creatures. At each creation restriction mistake, dangerous Tzimimes will appear.  Obtain the most Stars as you create a world made of 16 cards as you watch for the Tzimimes trying to devour your cards.

Each turn, draft 3 cards then play, alternatively, your cards, one by one in your world, orthogonally adjacent to a card that was previously played in your game area. Several types of lands have playing restrictions. If they are not met, the card is played face down, Tzimimes side facing up and does not score any Stars at the end of the game. Other lands have binding play effects. Some cards will add vertical and horizontal scoring.

In Strange World, you have to do your best with the worst. Indeed, with a tight draft of 3 cards, your opponents will certainly give you cards that are not so simple to play in your game area. But from the optimization of these restrictions comes the gaming fun.

In this game, over five rounds, players will start with a single card and add three cards in each round to build a 4×4 array of cards. The rest of the land cards are shuffled into a deck.  The other decks (Dark city cards, Fumarole cards, Traveler cards) are each placed to the side.

In each round, the players are each dealt a hand of 3 cards, and each player keeps one of the cards from this hand, passing the rest off to their neighbor.  Each player now keeps one of the two cards in their new hand, and then accepts the card given to them from their opposite opponent to finish building their three card hand.

Now, from the Starting player, each player plays one Land card face up into their world (if possible).  

• The card must be orthogonally adjacent to a previously played card
• The card may not break a 4×4 grid in the player area
• Two greenery cards cannot be in the same row, if you try to do this, you must instead flip over the card you are playing.  The World Eater side will not score any points
• Two water drop cards cannot be directly adjacent to each other. If you try to do this, you must instead flip over the card you are playing.  The World Eater side will not score any points.
• If you play a volcano card, you must place a Fumarole card over any card adjacent to the newly placed volcano  (if you cannot place a Fumarole card, you must instead flip the Volcano card over)

• If you are able to place two Fumarole cards adjacent to each other, you can place the highest valued Dark City card in between them
• If you can form a Dimensional Portal with two adjacent cards in the same row, you can choose a Traveler card and place it between two rows in your array.  At the end of the game, that Traveler card will score for any rows in your array that abut this Traveler card..
• Bonus scoring cards must be played in the top row of your grid.  If they even end up in a row other than the top, you must flip it over to the World eater side

This continues for five rounds until everyone has a 4×4 grid.  Then players score their world.

• 1VP for each grey card in your biggest contiguous group
• 1VP for each face-up card orthogonally adjacent to your water drop card
• 3VP for each greenery card
• 2VP for each different type of animal (the super small white circle next to the animal icon)
• VP for bonus cards based on the column underneath each (each card is different)
• VP for your traveler cards, 5 point base plus unique bonus on each card

My thoughts on the game

This tableau builder certainly plays quickly – there are only 5 rounds in the game.  You’ll get to choose at least two of the cards that you place each round, but the last one is completely at the mercy of one of your neighbors.  With these cards, you must then make the best you can given all the placement rules.  It would honestly be a miracle to get through this game without at least a few cards flipped over to the World Eater side.

If the rules above seem a bit confusing – well, now you know how I felt from reading the rules.  I do respect the attempt to put all the rules on a half sheet of paper – but man, these are some of the most confusing rules I’ve dealt with in awhile.  Multiple terms are used without ever being defined (not used in an example/illustration).  For instance, it took a good few minutes to figure out what the heck a Dimensional Portal was – a simple caption on one of the examples would have helped! 

Once you figure out what the terms mean, the wordless player aid does a very adequate job of reminding you of the placement rules.  If you’re an expert at reading IKEA directions, you’ll feel right at home with the player aid!

There are a lot of different ways to score points, and I think it’s hard to have a strategy at the start of the game – you’ll be completely at the mercy of the cards you get to play, and again, you don’t have full control over that… The bonus cards can be really strong.  If you get them early, you can try to play cards underneath it to maximize the bonus; but of course, your opponents will also know that and they may not pass you those useful cards any more.

Making a dimensional portal (hint – it’s the purple floating island thingy) is nice as you can then choose a Traveler card to place between rows.  Each traveler card pays off a unique bonus – but importantly, each is worth 5 VP no matter what – which makes it a very strong strategy to pursue.

The art on the cards is very expressive and fantastical.  Most of the iconography is good, though I will say that teeny tiny circle that helps you distinguish between the different animal species could have been a bit more distinct.

The game obviously depends a bit on card luck; you’ll do well if you are dealt a card you need to start each round and/or if your opponents have no choice but to pass you cards that are good for you.  The five rounds will probably only take a minute or two each to draft and the same amount to go around the table to place cards.  I suppose that you could place simultaneously, though it might be useful to watch what everyone else is doing.

For a game that is so short, it’s a fine game to try out and see how you can do with the cards.  It’ll take at least a game or two to get the rules down for the card placement.  By the end of my second game, I can confirm that I felt comfortable with everything, but I also felt I had fully explored this Strange World.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Dan B. (1 play): I agree with Dale about the rules: all the rules are there (I think), but they are very hard to follow as they are presented. An extra page or two with some pictures and examples would have helped a lot. As for the gameplay – there’s nothing wrong with it, but it just doesn’t stand out in any way from the many other recent games where you draft cards to build a tableau which scores at the end. I suppose if you want a game like that and don’t have one, you could get this one, but there are probably better options. (My personal favorite is Faraway, since I think it actually does stand out at least a bit from the pack in that you can’t get a high-scoring card at the end you have accidentally set up for.)

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Steph 
• Neutral. Dan B.
• Not for me… Dale Y

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3VLTyiu