Kavango Board Game Review

Kavango

WBG Score: 9/10

Player Count: 1-5

You’ll like this if you like: Card games with interesting layers and scoring.

Published by: Mazaza Games

Designed by: Matt Brown, Zara Reid

This is a free review copy of the Delux version. See our review policy here.

I previously previewed this game here. But I wanted to write a full review as well because this game is good. It is very good. But I saw a very strange review on The Dice Tower where it was rated a 4, 5, and 7 out of 10 from the three reviewers there. Which to me was very interesting. I simply do not agree with their criticism. But I felt I perhaps may be a little biased. I met the designers a few times at various conventions over the years and thought they were delightful people. They gave me a copy of the preview version of the game to test, and have since sent me a full final version. I was concerned I was defending them from this criticism simply because I liked the designers.

Usually, I like to get my reviews out as quickly as possible. I don't like to create a backlog of reviews. That stresses me out. And as I typically play new games five or more times over one week, I feel I can get a good feel for them within a short period of time and my reviews out within the first month of receiving them. But for Kavango, despite thinking like this, I wanted to pause. Give myself a few months. And see if, after time, I still felt how I originally did. My first score for this game on BGG was a nine. Would I still feel the same way after months of play and many different games of this in many different scenarios. I have tried all play counts. With gamers and with non-gamers. With people who love heavier games like Ark Nova, and with those who prefer lighter experiences and were initially intimidated by this. I feel that now, after time, I can review this game as fairly as possible. I am sure I still have some bias, but the games I don't like that come from the designers I do, I simply just don't really talk about. I send them back with reasons for why they don't work for me. This game however, has seen may repeat plays. There is a reason for that.

So, with that said, let's get this to the table and see what we can gain from the Dice Tower review. But first, how does it play?

How To Set Up Kavango

Each player takes a landscape board and places it in front of them along with the matching Protection board, which you can place above this board to the right side. You will need space on the left for cards. Then place the main board into the play area so that all players can reach it. Place the bank of coloured cubes and card trays alongside this. Now, all players take the matching animeeple and completion tokens matching their colour and add their animeeple to the zero space on the score tracker, and their tokens next to their player board. Then, each player takes one, two, or three cubes from the bank matching their colour, depending on if players want to start with an easy, intermediate, or expert difficulty rating for the game. I recommend taking three for your first few games. It's a lot more fun to be able to do things!

Next, shuffle the goal cards and deal one to each player. You can remove these for a simpler game, but I think they add minimal complexity and give some nice direction for each player. Give each player one Conservation expert card as well; this will give each player a unique power to help them in the game. Explanations for all cards can be found in the rule book, but they are mostly self-explanatory.

Next, deal out two C cards for each player, and draft one at a time until all players have two cards. These are added to each player's Sanctuary on their player board on the right-hand side. These cards can be added to each player's main board later if they meet the requirements for these cards. Like the goal cards, they simply give each player some direction in the early game.

Now, set up the cards for round one. The process for this is shown on the player aids and card tray itself. Deal out three Action cards, two for a three to five player game, and six A cards and six B Cards. Five of each in a three to five player game. These 12 or 15 cards are dealt to each player. Finally, deal four research cards into the central board, face up so all players can see them. You are now ready to play.

How To Play Kavango

Play now proceeds through three rounds, starting with a draft phase. All players will look at the cards and pick one to play immediately. If the card they chose was an Animal, this will be placed directly into any space on their player board. This is the main way to score points in the game. But you can only add animals if you meet their criteria. This is broken down into two main areas. Each animal will have a minimum protection level required in order to be safely housed in your sanctuary, along with specific food requirements.

There are three protection criteria, Habitat and Poaching, as shown on your own Protection board that each player controls for themselves; and Climate, which is a shared level seen on the main board. During the next phase, players can add cubes they have to either one of these three trackers, filling them in from left to right. There are four levels for each, and you need to fill the complete section for each one in order to meet that levels requirements. The Climate protection is a shared tracker that all players can contribute too. Players are encouraged to all work together on this tracker with a reward of 10 points at the end of the game if they added at least eight cubes to it. Climate is everyone's problem after all!

Each animal also has specific food requirements, shown by various symbols. You will need to have the same or more of these symbols in your sanctuary already, either on other animal cards previously placed, or in your tucked producer cards (more on that soon) in order to add new animal cards into your sanctuary. For example, this Honey Badger requires level two or higher Poaching, and at least one Bee, one Small Mammal, and two Invertebrates. If you have a Water Snake and one other Invertebrate, this Pygmy Mouse, and one Bee for example in your play area already, you could add the Honey Badger from your hand to your player board in any position for free.

If the card you add from your hand is a Producer, you will add this into the appropriate column, tucked under your player board in the top right. Producers are seen in the A cards only, and are identified by the Producer symbols on the top left of the card, instead of showing a points amount, and the simpler art without the text. Producer cards do not get you points like animals, but they allow you to build up your engine so you have the right things needed by other Animals cards that you will be able to successfully place later. There are a limited amount of each Producer type, and gaining the right ones in round one will be crucial to your success.

The third thing you can do with cards is to simply discard them. This can be done with previously played cards in your Sanctuary as well, although this should be a last resort! Each discarded card will gain you one cube. Each cube is worth one million. Cubes can be used to advance levels in the three protection levels or by purchasing rewilding cards. Rewilding cards cost $4m can be bought on the next phase, and can act as any of the Producer cards. Critical if you do not gain the Producers you need in round one.

The final thing you can do with cards is play them as action cards. There are only a few in each round, and any action cards must be played immediately before being discarded. Action cards give you various powers, such as the below cards which allow you to swap an animal in your sanctuary with one from another player's board, gain $2m from the bank to spend on climate protection and gain a point, or gain a rewilding card for free. Pretty valuable when you consider they are usually worth $4m!

When all players have chosen and played their cards, they can then decide if they want to complete any of the four research cards drawn for that round. There are three different levels for each research card, and the further up the levels you go, the more money and points you can claim. You can only claim each research card once though. So, you must decide if you want to do it early in order to gain much-needed money to help you advance further in that round with other goals, or do you wait until you have reached a higher level to be rewarded with higher riches later on? Place a completion token on any research card you want to complete now, and then take your money and points as shown by that level on that card.

With any money you have, this is the phase of the game where you can now advance your various protection levels and/or buy rewilding cards. When all players have done this, players pass all remaining cards clockwise to the next player. The round continues with players taking one card from this new set of cards, playing that card, and then deciding if they want to complete any research cards and invest in any protection levels once more. Continue like this until all players have played ten turns. Any remaining cards are simply discarded.

After the round ends, players will complete any additional research cards they have left that they can now complete, and then four new research cards will be added for the next round. The next round's cards will be dealt to each player, with round two seeing the number of A and B cards reduced to three cards each, and six C cards added for one to two players, and five added for three to five. In round three, you simply have 12 or ten C cards (based on player count) along with the usual three or two Action cards (again based on player count).

At the end of the game, players will score points for all animals in their play area, plus ten points for meeting the criteria of three different conservation awards. The first is for adding eight or more cubes to the shared Climate protection. The second is for having at least one of the eleven different types of species in your play area, and the third is for reaching level four on both your own personal Poaching and Habitat protection levels. Players will also score points based on their own private goal cards, and any final research cards from round three. The most points wins.

Is It Fun? Kavango Board Game Review

I adore this game. I find the simplicity in rules and mechanics incredibly refreshing. The game looks like it will plays like something far more complex and it gives you the satisfaction and personal reward of playing a much heavier game, but it does so in a light and relaxing experience. The card play is so rewarding. Choosing which Producers to go for, to match with the Animal cards you want to get is highly satisfying and an interesting process to go through. But this all happens within a drafting game, where of course, you will not always get all the cards you want. If you see more than one card you "must" have in your first hand, it is obviously unlikely you will get the second, so which one do you go for? Choices like this are fascinating to me. But there are always ways to recover from any card losses, with the rewilding cards being a huge blessing when needed. And if you miss out on something juicy in one hand, there are always more coming your way in the others.

I think the game looks and feels incredible too. The production levels are fantastic, and the art is simply stunning. Everything about this game screams quality to me, and I simply adore it. Everyone I have played it with has enjoyed the experience too. Some have said it was a lot lighter than they thought, but this was a good thing. And of course, thinking a game is heavier than it is based on the number of components and size of the box but then finding out it is a lot simpler for me is a good thing. But players do need to have their expectations managed. And it must be said, the size and weight of this box, and number of components, do create a feeling this is a medium to heavyweight game, when it is in fact rated a 2.28 on BGG, and I would say even that is a little high. This is very much a medium to lightweight game at most. So, set your expectations accordingly. But, it still gives you a wonderful feeling of playing a game full of meaningful decisions, interesting card play, rewarding scoring, and challenging interactions with other players.

So, what about those Dice Tower criticisms? Well, let's get to them all, one by one. For the record, this was reviewed by Wendy, Camila and Zee. I tend to agree with Wendy and Zee on most things. Camila, I have often found I disagree with a lot of her opinions. We obviously have different tastes.

First, they talked about the focus being too much on the goals. For me, the main area to concentrate on is the animal cards. You will want to do well in the goals, but you do that by finding the right animal cards. The goals add a level of focus for each round, with the opportunity to gain money throughout or big points at the end. This choice is a wonderful addition to the game to keep your money coming in if you need it, or a big points reward at the end if you can get to the final goal.

Second, they talked about turn order issues. The only time turn order comes into affect in any kind of significant way is when you play an Action card at the same time as another player, and even this has minimal impact on the game. There is an element of importance to turn order in terms of which card you take from your hand, as you always get first choice from the hand you are dealt, but so does every other player with every other hand. But they also suggest issues around the shared Climate goal, that I will come to shortly.

They talk about liking the passion behind the project, and they say this can be clearly seen. I agree. But they say they think the game is too long for the simplicity of it. I would agree for game one. But play this again and you will fly through it. There are only three rounds, and each round you draft one card and play it. I have played three-player games of this in 40 minutes. This criticism screams of a reviewer who has played the game once or twice. The game is very light but can take a while to play for your first game. But after that first learning game I believe the weight to length is on point.

They also say the player boards are too big, and you can simply stack the cards instead. This is true. Stacking would be a disappointing way to play the game, it would take away a lot of the theme and delight from the artwork. But the boards are too big; this is a table hog, and they perhaps could be designed better.

They talk about the theme not coming through, and how it simply disappears when you play and that you are just matching symbols. I could not disagree with this more. Of course, that is what you are doing, but I struggle to see how most people would not name each card based on what it is, and at least glance at the artwork, and think about what each card needs based on what it is, rather than simply the icons on the left of the card. I suppose this is down to your own play style. But it does seem unlikely to affect most players in this manner. But then the reviewers on the Dice Tower do go on to say the irrelevance around the placement of the animals on their board affects this lack of theme. I agree here, the lack of relevance to where you place the cards is disappointing. I would like for additional scoring to be made available based on specific groupings or placements on the board. But you can place cards anywhere on your board and this does not affect anything. I disagree this makes the game theme-less, but it does remove some additional scoring layers that could have made the game more interesting.

The main criticism though seem to be around the simultaneous nature of the game, where players draft and play cards all at once. This links back to the earlier turn-order issue. They say players can all contribute money to the shared climate protection level in different orders which is a problem. They say if it is simultaneous, it all should be played this way, or not at all. I am unsure quite what they are saying here, as players all play at once in the choose card and play card phase, then in the complete research and invest phase, you can decide here if you want to place money into the shared climate goal or not. They say players will simply wait to see if other players do this first. Sure, you can do this. But there are ten points up for grabs if you add at least eight, and other players may not have cards that need higher Climate levels. If you do, then you need to add cubes there. If it helps other players, then so be it, but you will get ten points for doing so if you place enough, and you can now place your cards that require this level. There is no way you can reach the higher levels alone, so you need to assess if other players are looking at cards with higher Climate levels or not, perhaps even talk it through if you want. Or look at the C cards they were given during set up. It is all part of the strategy.

It is the only area of the game where there is some cooperation, so it does stick out, but in a good way. I don't think games have to be 100% one thing. I like a mix of cooperation within what is otherwise a competitive game. It also develops the theme that all players have their own poaching and habitat levels to worry about, as would any landowner or country looking to protect their animals. But climate is a shared concern for all humans. This is very thematic, and I think they completely missed the point here. Feeling like you don't want to do something that you need to do to place a card you want to place, just in case it may help someone else, is incredibly petty in what is a light, quick, fun card game. Personally, I like helping people in real life and in board games too. Positive player interaction is a good thing in my opinion. It never bothers me.

They talk about the player powers in the Conservation cards not being balanced, and this is true. Some are way more powerful than others. I have added a small house rule to address this by sorting the cards into categories and each player taking a card from one category per game, rather than simply being handed any at random. So they are right about this point, as I should not have had to do this. I tend to avoid house rules. But this is necessary in the game to add more balance.

If you want a heavy or a light game that either plays over two hours or under 30 minutes, you will be disappointed. But if you are looking for a clever card game that hits the light to medium weight sweet spot in the middle of this, playing under an hour (quicker with more experienced players) that offers interesting choices and clever scoring, this could well be for you. In my preview, I suggested this is Ark Nova lite. That may be a bit of a stretch in retrospect, but I stand by the sentiment. It is perhaps though more Ark Nova very lite!