Giants, Coming from Matagot at Spiel 08

Following on the heels of 2007’s Moai from Face 2 Face and Conquest of Paradise from GMT, French publisher Editions du Matagot is taking players back to Easter Island for another go at making giant stone statues and moving them across the island in Fabrice Besson’s Giants.

Unlike Moai, the emphasis of game play in Giants isn’t on avoiding starvation and raiding other villages to find food by any means necessary, but rather on the semi-cooperative effort required to place your moai in the proper locations on the island.

Players start the game with only a worker, a chief and a sorceror, although more workers can be gained during the game; players also have two tribe markers. Each turn, you roll dice to determine the number and size (1-3) of the moai available that turn. Players then have a blind bid for the right to claim moai from the quarry; the player who bids the most tribe markers has first choice, but the size of the moai she can claim is based on the number of figures she bid.

Once all the moai are claimed, players take turns placing figures on the board, using the sorceror to claim extra workers, tribe markers or logs and the workers and chief to provide the muscle needed to move the moai. (The chief can also take sorceror actions in some circumstances.) Figures from different players can occupy the same spaces, which is essential for moving the larger moai; the size 3 moai, for example, requires some combination of three workers or logs in a space for it to move into that space. (The virile chief counts as three workers on his own.) Using other players’ figures gives them points, and if you can move a moai to an ahu – whether an open one or one you reserved earlier – you can put it in place.

The game ends once a player has used all of her bases, and players then score points based on the location of their moai multiplied by their size, with bonus points for headdresses placed on the moai to complete their runway look.

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