Nimalia

Game 7 of the “Bailey Family Summer 2023 Board game Bonanza” is “Nimalia”, played by myself, Jack(8,) and Toby (5).

“Nimalia” is a small box tile-laying game that challenges players to construct the best animal reserve on a 6×6 grid.

The first task in the game is to establish the rules you will be playing by. Since this is a compact game, all the components, including the scoring system, are presented on cards of the same size. You select one card of each colour and arrange them on the grid as depicted in the picture. This ingenious system ensures that at the end of each of the five rounds, you will score according to a different rule. There is a wide range of rules to choose from, varying in difficulty, allowing each playthrough to have slight variations and cater to different age groups.

You arrange the score track, composed of identical cards, and use player tokens to represent each participant. These tokens, representing different biomes like Sun, Water, Leaf, and Ice, seem like a missed opportunity. They could have been designed more creatively.

At the start of each round, every player is dealt three animal cards. Each animal card is divided into four sections, and the idea is that after the initial card, subsequent cards overlap with at least a quarter of a previous card.

Then, you pass your remaining cards clockwise, with each player choosing from the remaining two, and so on.

Once all your cards have been laid, you score points based on the current round. This scoring system is fascinating, allowing you to plan ahead and even sacrifice something in one round, knowing it won’t have a negative impact, as you can rectify it later when it gets scored.

In the game we played, we used the following four rules:

1. Earn 2 points for each distinct, separate area of rainforest (green).
2. Obtain decreasing points based on the number of giraffes in your nature reserve (0 giraffes = 8 points, 1 giraffe = 5 points, 2 giraffes = 3 points, 3 or more giraffes = 0 points).
3. Score 3 points for each column that contains exactly one penguin.
4. Earn 4 points for each square composed of four snow areas (a group of six snow areas counts as two sets of four).

There are numerous other rules, such as:

• Earning 3 points for each row that contains all four biomes.
• Earning X! (yes that is factorial) points, where X represents the length of your longest river (some rainforest pieces have rivers).
• The player with the most gorillas receives 5 points, while the player with the fewest flamingos gets 5 points.

All of these cards need to be placed on a 6×6 grid. While it starts off fine, by the end, you are faced with challenging decisions about where to position your cards and what to cover. You must always play a card and cannot place one underneath; it must always be on top.

The best way to describe this game is to envision the remarkable round-based scoring mechanism of “Minecraft: Builders and Biomes,” combined with elements of “Kingdomino” with card drafting.

In terms of quality, “Nimalia” comes in a neat small box, and everything is well-presented, considering its relatively affordable price point. The recommended retail price (RRP) is £25, but I managed to purchase it for £15 upon release. It can usually be found around the £20 mark. While it is a small box game this could easily have had a bigger box and tiles and it still would have worked.

It is worth noting that while this is a small box game it does require a decent amount of table/floor space to play.

There are a few aspects I would change. For instance, I wish it included a fold-out score tracker, and the wooden tokens could have been more representative instead of being abstract. Additionally, I have a personal dislike for rules that come as fold-outs rather than a rulebook. However, it is clear that these are minor issues and do not significantly detract from the overall experience.

In summary, “Nimalia” is an excellent and relatively simple tile-laying game that both I and the boys thoroughly enjoyed. It is compact enough to take on holidays or toss into a handbag. The mix-and-match rule set allows you to customise the game for different age groups, and both the boys had no trouble understanding the rules I selected. However, upon examining the manual, I noticed some more complex rule sets that would provide a challenge for older players as well.

It is very similar to many other games in a fairly crowded genre but for me, the small box size coupled with the round-based scoring that I loved about “Minecraft: Builders and Biomes” is enough to put it solidly on the recommend (and in my case keep) pile.