YORKTON - Every once in a while you can be wandering down an online rabbit hole and find a gem.
That was the case recently as I perused print and play games on Board Game Geek, in particular wading through entrants in a variety of game design contests.
One just contest was the currently running 2024 Solitaire Print and Play Design Contest.
It was among the entrants my eye caught sight of the visually outstanding ‘Awaken the Ancients’ by designer Gregg Jewell. Jewell is building a rather nice list of design credits – most notably Galdor’s Grip – and this latest work while still ‘in progress’ may be his best.
The core game has 18 two-sided cards, and you need some wooden cubes or beans in a few colours – so it’s an easy ‘build’.
AtA is a solo game with the core mechanic being piece movement in a mancala fashion. You pick up the ‘seeds’ on one card and distribute among other cards. It’s simple, but there’s meat here too.
The ‘seeds’ here are in a variety of colours and to awaken certain ancients you must accumulate the right mix of seeds on that card. The goal is to awaken all eight.
Once awakened though the ancients are hungry and will ‘eat’ (remove from game), certain seeds if they are placed on that card again. If too many are eaten you will not be able to achieve the win condition.
As noted the basic card art is fantastic – the 16 core cards are doubled-sided featuring what Tolkien would call treants. This game looks great on the table.
The game requires eight ancients in play, as with 16 available replay of the core is good.
Designer Jewell has also created four small expansions. Two are just some added markers you supply with different impacts on the game.
The other two add five new cards in total, again with impact on game play.
You can add any one, or all to the base game, making replay interest extremely high.
Interestingly, once the random layout is complete, AtA becomes a perfect information, so an abstract strategy game, where your decisions based on complete information wins, or loses, not luck of the card draw etc.
While remembering this is a work-in-progress so the rules may be tweaked, AtA is a huge winner in my books as it is. A must have for solo game fans.
