Matthew Bailey
On the seventh day of Christmas
My children played with me…
Seven pizzas cooking…
Six modules moving…
Five raised bannerrrrs!
Four wild rebounds…
Three perfect dishes…
Two risky predictions…
And a monster as big as a tree.
Today I’m going to be talking about Mamma Mia! Syndicate, an early prototype of a brand-new, self-published indie game by Mario Franzoni, which he has been developing as a passion project, and it definitely shows.
The game is a fun drafting and order-fulfilment experience with some really solid player interaction and a few clever ideas that I genuinely haven’t seen before. I think this will definitely be one to look out for as it moves closer to Gamefound, a link to which I’ll put in the comments below, and I’m sure the small indie creator would really appreciate the support.
At its core, Mamma Mia! Syndicate is a drafting and engine-building game played over four rounds, where you are trying to run the most successful pizzeria in town, with just a hint of organised crime still lingering in the background.
Each round begins with a draft. Players start with a hand of seven cards made up of ingredient resources and item cards. Everyone secretly chooses one card, reveals together, and resolves it, either gaining ingredient tokens, placing an item into their restaurant, or shouting “Mamma Mia!” to grab a new table from the shared pool. After resolving the chosen card, the remaining hand is passed to the next player, and this continues until all cards have been drafted.
I’ve always really enjoyed drafting games with the kids, and I’ve found recently that they offer strong tactical choices while still being relatively easy to understand.
The ingredient cards are straightforward, giving you meat, cheese, vegetables, or staff tokens. Ingredients are exactly what you need to serve pizzas, while staff act as wildcards, with two staff tokens able to replace any single ingredient when it comes time to cook.
Item cards are where Mamma Mia! Syndicate really starts to get more interesting, and they fall into three categories. Restaurant items improve your engine or reward clever combinations, neutral items tend to tweak the rules for everyone, and criminal items let you lean into more aggressive or disruptive play against your rivals. Once played, items stay in your restaurant for the rest of the game, their effects stack, and many of them score extra points at the end.
At the end of each round, players move into the serving phase. This is where you actually turn your ingredients into points by completing pizzas at your tables. Each table shows one to three pizzas that must be completed from left to right, and you can only complete one pizza per table per round.
You pay the required ingredients, gain the money tokens shown on that pizza, and trigger any item effects linked to serving. Tables come in basic, regular, and special varieties, and juggling which tables to claim and when to serve them is a big part of the tactical puzzle.
After four rounds, Mamma Mia! Syndicate comes to an end and players tally their scores. You score points for every completed pizza, additional points from item cards, and bonus points from specific item sets and combos. There are also clear tie-breakers based on completed tables and item ownership, so the game rarely ends in a draw.
It’s a neat mix of drafting, light interaction, and forward planning, with enough take-that to create player interaction without ever feeling mean-spirited, which some games can drift into.
All in all, it’s a really fun little game. I played Mamma Mia! Syndicate at both three and five players, and while it definitely shines at higher player counts, the kids and I still had a great time at three.
Managing the ingredients you want while also making sure you claim and use the right tables works really well, and we particularly enjoyed how often you have to adjust your tactics on the fly. It’s not uncommon for someone to grab something you had your eye on, or for the draft to suddenly dry up on exactly what you need.
I can’t really comment on the components as this is an ultra-early prototype, but what is here works perfectly well for demonstrating the game.
Overall, I really enjoyed this early prototype of Mamma Mia! Syndicate, and I’m very much looking forward to following the game through to its eventual conclusion.
Disclaimer – A preview copy of Mamma Mia! Syndicate was kindly loaned to me to play over xmas by Mario Franzoni via the UKBG Review Circle. No incentive has been given for a positive review and all thoughts and opinions are our own.
Kickstarter Link : https://gamefound.com/en/projects/mrfranz/mamma-mia-syndicate
