Tongiaki - Initial Impressions

Tongiaki, a new game about sending ships out to explore uncharted islands, is available for online play at BrettspielWelt, one of the best places to play games online. I've played Tongiaki twice, and have found it to be a clever game that's deceptively simple.

It feels new and fresh. Players start by populating a non-scoring island, and from there send ships out into the dangerous seas to find islands worth 2 to 5 points.

Each island has two or more beaches, and when a beach is filled the boats must go out to sea. On your turn, you choose an island and count the number of ships you already have on that island. You then add that many ships to the same island. (If you choose an island on which you have three ships, you get to add three more of your ships to that island.)

If your ship placement causes a beach to fill up, those ships are all sent to sea (your ships and those of any other player who had ships located there). If the path has not been previously explored, a new tile is randomly drawn and placed.

If it's an island tile, all ships are safe and are distributed on the beaches of the new island. If a sea tile is drawn, it's possible that the ships will sink (some sea tiles are tougher to cross than others). If the ships don't sink, another tile is drawn and so forth until an island is reached or the ships finally do sink.

My first game of Tongiaki was played with five players, and it seemed like you didn't have real control, and it took a bit too long between turns. In fairness, we were all brand new to the game and none of us initially had any idea what strategies would be successful. (In fact, the winner of the game claimed repeatedly that he had no idea what he was doing.) Others have said they enjoy Tongiaki quite a bit with five players.

My second game was with four players, and it felt much better both in terms of control and downtime. (Then again, all of us had played it at least once before.) I had developed some semblance of a strategy, and after the second game think I could do better in a third game.

Moving other people's boats -- and sometimes being able to send them to the bottom of the sea -- is a mechanic that appeals to me. I also enjoy the element of tension that exists because your ultimate goal is to have boats on as many islands as possible (preferably the high-scoring islands), but you're able to produce more boats if you have numerous boats all on the same island.

I look forward to playing the real-world version, published by Uberplay Entertainment, when it arrives in the states early next month.