Fountains

• Designer: Kedric Winks 
• Publisher: the Op games
• Players: 1-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30-45 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/46iKWEO
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Welcome to the elegant city of Florimelle, where a grand beautification effort has begun. In Fountains, you’ll become a master Fountaineer tasked with transforming Florimelle’s gardens and plazas by creating the most magnificent Fountain the world has ever seen.  Fountains is a take-and-make game in which each player starts with a round fountain that features a spout and room for four features.

To set up, place the basin board in the center of the table, and at each of the 6 areas for tiles, place the prescribed number of tiles (based on player count).  The bonus tokens are shuffled and placed facedown in their area as well.   The Green, Blue and White pawns are placed on their starting circles on the board as well.  Each player gets a starting fountain tile, player aid, and 3 point tokens.  Each player places their scoring token on the start space of the score board.  If you are playing the advanced version, randomly choose three Fountain Design cards and place them face up on the table as well.

On a turn, move one of the three pawns 1-3 spaces clockwise around the central board, skipping occupied spaces, to land on an empty space. You then take the top tile next to this token and add it to your board (or choose a bonus token if you land next to them). Tiles must have at least 2 dark bricks touching 2 dark bricks on an already played tile.  You can build upwards, but if you do, the tile must be completely supported underneath.

You can expand out or up or both, but you want to ensure that you have a spout at your highest level and water flowing through all of your lower levels or else you’ll have dead zones that won’t score. And dead zones in your play area (i.e. not fed by a water spout) have a pond weed token placed in them to show that they do not get any water flow.  If that area gets water flow later in the game, you can remove the pond weed token.

When someone lands on the green, blue, or white space with the matching colored token, everyone scores for the linked item: lilypads, separate pools linked by constant water flow, and fish. (Fish come in three types, and the player who scores fish chooses which color scores.) For each item, you score 1, 2, 3, etc. points if the item is on the first, second, third, etc. level.

Some fountain tiles have coins in them, and when you place them, if they are fed by a water source, you’ll immediately score 5 points. This scoring only happens at the moment you initially place the tile.

The game ends when any stack of Fountain tiles or Bonus tokens is depleted.  Players then score for all three colors once again (scoring lilypads, pools and fish – each player choosing which color of fish they want).  Additionally, if you are playing with the Fountain Design cards, all players score those three cards as well.

The winner is the player with the most points. Ties broken in favor of the player with the fewest Pond Weed tokens.

My thoughts on the game

Fountains is an interesting tile-laying game due to the beautiful and differently shaped tiles.  Each player will end up with a gorgeous multi-layered fountain in front of them, and it’s definitely something to see. I really like the thick foam they have used for the tiles here, they feel so good in your hand, and they stack up nicely on the table.

The tile selection mechanism is interesting in that you have to move a pawn around the rondel to an empty spot, but you also have to figure out whether you want to trigger (or perhaps block) scoring of one of the features.   This is pretty much the only sort of player interaction here – competition for the tiles and the blocking of particular spaces on the rondel.  Otherwise, you’re just off in your own corner of the table trying to build your best fountain.

Once you have the tile, you then have to find the right place for it.  I find this part of the game a nice puzzle.  Trying to get your features up high will increase your scores, but you also want to try to do it in a way that preserves the icons on lower tiles as well.

As the game goes on, you’ll find that there is a lot of possibility for scoring.  If you have developed a fountain that scores well in one of the criteria, it might be worth your while to trigger it as often as possible.  More than likely, the VPs will add up quickly even if you end up getting a less than desirable tile for taking that spot on the rondel.

Overall, there is nothing particularly new here other than the geometry – which honestly might be enough for this one to hit the table over just-another-tile-laying-game that you might have in your collection.  As I often feel like The Op is trying to target the mass market, this will be a very nice introduction to the genre and provide a game that looks great on the table to boot.   The scoring may make it a touch more complex than a true mass market game, but that complexity will possibly make it better for the more veteran gamers too.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Dan B. (1 play): I want to like this more than I do, because it’s a good concept, the tiles look cool, and figuring out how to build up and score things well is somewhat interesting. However, it’s not as interesting as it should be. As Dale notes, the interaction is low. While early in the game blocking people from taking certain tiles can be important, later in the game there seem to be so many tiles that will work for people that this won’t matter much, so the interaction is in the timing of the scoring opportunities – and since it’s hard to catch up in a scoring type once you’re behind, this is mostly about trying to prevent players who are ahead in a type from scoring it.

While it’s not all that similar to Akropolis, the game does share the three-dimensional building aspect, with tiles on higher levels being worth more. I’d always choose to play Akropolis instead as the tile choices are important throughout the game and the drafting is more interactive.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Erik Arneson
• Neutral. Dale Y, Derek Jonson, Dan B.
• Not for me…

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