Panorama

• Designer: Jules Messaud, Melody Leblond
• Publisher: Scorpion Masque
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 min
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

What a lovely sunny day. Relax and enjoy the view from your hot air balloon! In this leisurely tile placement game for 2-4 players, each player will try to create the most beautiful Panorama before the sun sets.

Put your panorama together one tile at a time, and choose them wisely: At the end of the game, you’ll score points based on the number of animals and flowers in each type of terrain (yes, even animals love flowers)! But watch out… The further you move to select a tile, the more you leave behind for the hot air balloons of your opponents to pick up!

Games stay fresh and replayable through the common objectives, such as the longest river or the sky with the fewest clouds.

To start, place the appropriate Centerpiece (based on player count) in the middle of the table, then shuffle the Panorama tiles and place stacks of 4 at each side.  The Sun/Moon token is placed Sun side up at the stack of tiles at the sunrise symbol.  Choose three objective tokens to use in this game.  Each player gets a starting tile and a Hot Air balloon of matching color.  Choose a starting player and place their balloon at the Sun Token and then randomly place the other balloons in a clockwise order.

On a turn, whichever balloon is at the location of the Sun Token gets to go.  First, that player must choose a free tile to add to their Panorama.  Take any tile that does not currently have a Hot Air Balloon at it and move your balloon to that location.

Now, place the tile that you took and add it to your Panorama – place it to the left or the right of your current Panorama.  Once placed, you cannot move your tiles nor place any new tiles between them. The tiles have wavy edges on them to make sure that they nestle together just right.  Based on the patterns on your tile, you might want to position it up or down against its neighboring tile.

You will likely place your tile to aid you in scoring (animals + flowers) or for objective tokens. You will score your flowers, but only if they are in terrain zones which have Animals in them.  Each flower scores 1 point per animal in its terrain zone.  The Objective tokens are given at the end of the game to whoever has best met the requirement.

When you are done with the turn, you advance the Sun token clockwise to the next location occupied by a Hot Air Balloon.  Continue playing until someone takes the last tile at a location, and this triggers the end of the game.  That player deflates their balloon and lays it flat on the table.  Flip the Sun Token over to the other side so now it is the Moon Token.  All other players get one final turn and then the game moves to Final Scoring.

Take out the score pad and record the following scores:

• Objective Tokens – give 10 points to the player(s) who best met the requirements of each Objective
• Terrain Scoring – for each flower, score one point per animal in its Terrain Zone.

The player with the most points wins.

My thoughts on the game

The box for Panorama even happily declares that this is a “cozy” game, and after my first few plays, I can wholeheartedly agree with this terminology.  Players take turns drafting tiles from the rondel and adding them to their growing Panorama. It’s really an easy going game, allowing players plenty of time to admire their beautiful landscapes and dream of the perfect tile they want to choose next.

The basic scoring in each game is the same, try to combine flowers with animals in your terrains, hopefully as large as possible.  The three objectives change each game, and the different objectives certainly give you options to consider.  The payoff for them is large – at 10 points, they are certainly not to be ignored.  

That being said, I’ve also seen players do really well by following the simple rule of picking up as many tiles as possible – that is just making do with the nearest tile at all times and they figuring out how to score the best from those.   When you think about it, does it make sense to go all the way around the rondel to get the “perfect” tile if it means that every other player on average will get 2 tiles before you go again?

The art in this game is great and it helps foster the coziness of your hot air balloon travels. The game is super light and should only take 15 minutes or so to play.  In fact, my only real complaint about the game is that I wish it were a touch longer!  (And, that’s probably saying something good about the game that I want more of it each time…)

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

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