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Tongiaki |
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Availability:
In stock
List
Price:
$24.95
Our Price:
$17.95
You Save:
$7.00 (28%)
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Description:
300 AD: The Polynesians embark on daring sailing trips and explore thousands of Pacific islands. Driven by overpopulation and a desire for adventure, they set forth into the unknown on simple catamarans called Tongiakis. Without any help from navigational instruments, they charted their course with the help of the sun, stars, wind and water temperature. Birds, reefs, cloud formations, fishes and distinctive waves were the signals telling them that land lay nearby. Each trip became a life-threatening journey, as landfall was often impossible to achieve or the way home became cut off by strong currents. Suspense was their constant companion. Will the next hour, the next day bring them to their goal... or will the ocean's currents force them to drift endlessly at sea?
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Our Review:
Tongiaki, a BoardGameRatings.com Recommended Family Game, is based on the exploration of the South Pacific by islanders using boats called Tongiakis. The ocean is "explored" by laying ocean or island tiles that expand the play area. Players begin the game with their boats on the island of Tonga, then gradually, once the beach is fully occupied, shove off into the ocean to explore newly-laid island tiles. Because the ocean is treacherous, cooperation is important to survival. Thus, certain currents can only be safely explored if more than one player makes the journey. If a player finds himself the sole occupant of an island, he can claim it as a Royal Island, blocking it off from further exploration and securing the island's points for himself. The game ends when the last ocean or land tile is played, at which time players receive points for each island at which they are moored.
Tongiaki is an excellent light strategy or family game. The game's biggest drawback, the randomness of the tile drawing, can be a bit of a frustration, but it still has great depth of strategy. The unique migration mechanic, if played properly, can have a dominoe effect that allows you to secure your position while simultaneously sinking your opponents' ships. At the same time, the concept of forced cooperation is interesting and compelling. The components are nice, the game plays quickly and surprisingly well even with only two players. Tongiaki is a nice game that is a pleasure to play.
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User Reviews:
|  Elegant rule, but still a believable model of reality
We just played two rounds. The first was flawed because we overlooked the rule that you can't add more than one boat to each beach, which resulted in it being unbalanced. The second round worked out very well.
I especially enjoyed that you have to be together with someone else in order to move forward. (More naturally and freely so than in Lifeboats.) It's just the right mix of working together and against each other.
It felt very organic; like a model of population dynamics, or Conway's game of life.
Overall, it has a simple elegance in its rule set, while still being based on a believable scenario: The explorations the Polynesians endeavoured must have been very hazardous, which is modelled well in the game.
We played the game with six players, and I think it should work with 7 or 8, as well, if there were tokens in other colors. Maybe an idea for an expansion pack.
The tokens were a bit too small for the clumsier ones among us. Also, it wasn't so easy to see the landings for each beach. Since we did not come anywhere near the edge of the table the game could easily be bigger.
One thing that takes a bit getting used to is that you first have to decide where you put your tile before you can look at it. Maybe there should be a rule that if a player forgets to declare that, the others get to vote on it.
by Sebastian (Dec 22 2007)
|  Too much luck, not enough strategy
My friends and I played this 5 times and even though we understood the rules, found it to be lacking in strategy. Much of the excitement for the game comes from what tile will be flipped next. So if this form of "exploring and discovery" floats your boat then have at it. Our experience was that there was too much luck involved so that even if someone won, there wasn't much thrill in victory. We haven't played this game since.
by Curtis (Jul 20 2007)
|  Hated it
THIS GAME IS THE WORST I HAVE EVER PLAYED. I HATED IT
by Allisona (May 22 2007)
| *gets ready to strangle this game*
A colleague and I have just attemped to play this game, and neither of us can figure out the instructions. It is driving me crazy!
by discoverylover (Nov 19 2006)
| Can't sit still on this canoe
What makes this an exiting game is that it stays close to theme - you have to take a chance out on the open ocean regardless of how prepared or ready you are. The ability to "come back" from being down may not be as strong as some like, but it's there for the taking. You can invade an otherwise tranquil island chain and disrupt an opponent's seemingly high score. You can also block movement with deft placements of your Royal Islands. And with the random tile placement comes high replay value. Plus the two-person variant playes extremely well.
by Greg (Dec 28 2004)
|  A game of risks--bear them alone or share the risk
So far, I have only played this game with two players. While it is clear that the rules are geared for multiple players, I had a lot of fun with this game for several reasons:
(1) The game is original in its core concept. Basically, your turn presents a choice between two alternatives: (1) First you can try to benefit from other players' strategies by placing your boats on the same beaches as theirs so that when their boats set sail, you go too. Of course, this means that if the expedition fails (either by misfortune or by another players' purposeful actions), you bear some of the losses. As an alternative, you could try to bear the risk of sailing into the ocean all on your own so that, if a tempest capsizes your boats, you are the only loser in that expedition, but if you discover a new island, you are the only one to reap the benefits of that discovery.
(2) The game tends to be very competitive. The next players' turn may completely change the layout of the board, the players' standing in the game, and the number of rounds left in the game. You never know if, in your turn, you will lay only 1, 2, or 7 tiles. Of course, the more tiles you lay, the closer you all are to ending the game.
(3) The instructions are not too difficult to understand, but, if I recall correctly, there were a couple of spots in the instructions were I had to read the instructions a couple of times to understand what they meant. But once you understand the instructions and the main concept, the game is really easy to play and a lot of fun.
by Carolina (Nov 20 2004)
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Rate Tongiaki by Uberplay Entertainment:
All reviews become the sole property of Wasatch Game Company. |
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