Through the First Game – Giants | Giants

Kalle Malmioja

(Kuula)

Finland

I first noticed Giants in the winter of 2009 and since then wanted to play it. What lured me was the theme, beautiful hex game board of the Eastern Island, small figurines and of course the Moai’s with headdresses. Although I usually like my games with wooden cubes and meeples as I associate plastic figurines with war games. This time there was something different about them. They suited the game perfectly and gave it an overall positive feel. With the components provided it’s a game with beautiful photograph possibilities.

I went through the first game with four players and it took us 90 minutes with rules explaining. The rulebook was quite easy to follow and understand but there were few instances where things could have been explained in more detail.

The game itself is a dolled up euro pick-up and deliver game with route planning and a twist of semi-co-op mixed together. Pick-up and deliver portion is the most apparent mechanic as players have things which must be moved from A to B. In this game you build through auction your Moai’s and use actions to gain headdresses and deliver them to Ahu’s which are the bases along the coastline for the statues. To do this you must use your workers to make a route from the statue/headdress to the base. Here’s the little twist for co-op game. You can use other players’ workers and most of the times there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use them to save your own workers for even more delivering. So if you plan your routes carefully and have your workers available for other players you gain extra points and get to do more with the little you have.

There’s also dwindling amount of extra resources (wooden logs) which you can use to transport the statues/headdresses. While thematically cutting down the few resources on the island and using them for transportation is fine this mechanic is the first mishap of the game for me. Yes the resources were limited and they used them quickly in the island but nevertheless it feels misplaced as a mechanism and oddly unrewarding. We’re talking about 26 points here, evenly distributed among players, and in our game the scores were from 80 – 100. So taking the wooden log action just might be the worse action in your overall game plan. But an Eastern Island game without diminishing resources just wouldn’t be true. While it has its place in the game I think it could have been implemented better.

The second thing I disliked about the game that it was too long for what it could offer. Around midway of the game when the woods were almost chopped away and players had workers and markers the game had a little downfall. It didn’t build up to an end. What it did was that players went through the motion of doing the same thing over two turns and waited that someone built all his bases. Granted this was our first game and the strategic and tactical plays were few and non-refined but the game had shown what it is and it was too long. We talked about this and if we’re trying Giants again we do few modifications to make the game start faster. Game with playing time around 90 minutes should have in my opinion more meat around it.

To summarize the experience Giants is a beautiful well themed euro-game with meaningful mechanisms and player interactions. The first game showed few things I would have liked better if done otherwise but overall I think I got the game in the first go.

So do I see Giants taken out from the shelf again to our gaming table? I believe so.

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Posted Thu Mar 3, 2011 1:15 pm
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Cameron Chien

(Zeede)

United States
Rancho Cucamonga
California

Logs are good if you plan to move a size three moai. Being able to place one worker then two logs makes it so you can transport it that much more easily.

I think it's a mistake to go for the logs right out of the gate, however.

Cameron

Posted Thu Mar 3, 2011 6:31 pm
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Snowden Wyatt

(snowman882)

United States
Tucson
Arizona

NO TOUCHY!!!!

Zeede wrote:

Logs are good if you plan to move a size three moai. Being able to place one worker then two logs makes it so you can transport it that much more easily.

I think it's a mistake to go for the logs right out of the gate, however.

Cameron

Completely dependent on who you're playing with, I think. In the only game I've played so far, one or two players (out of five) immediately started stockpiling logs for later use. It quickly became apparent that everyone needed to get theirs before they were all gone.

I suspect that if you're playing with four or five, early log acquisition will be the norm as one or two will immediately go for it.

Posted Thu Mar 3, 2011 7:07 pm
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Bill Eldard

(Eldard)

United States
Burke
Virginia

Thanks for your review.

I found that I enjoyed the game more after two or three plays. While it is not a deep game like, say, Power Grid,it was after the first play that we began to see some subtle tactics.

Posted Fri Mar 4, 2011 3:16 am
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Jon Wooden

(Emsdad)

United Kingdom
Isleworth
Middlesex

Thanks for the review.

After a few plays, my take is similar - beautiful components (I actually took a photo of it to use in an article I was asked to write for our local magazine - p17 http://www.outandaboutisleworth.co.uk/assets/publications/Ou... ), interesting mechanics but game length is just too long. I actually think that you did well to fit it into 90 mins on a first attempt!

Personally I like the log mechanic, and we've found that they go pretty quickly once someone starts picking them up.

Overall - close to being a great game.....but not close enough I'm afraid....

Posted Fri Mar 4, 2011 9:09 am
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Cameron Chien

(Zeede)

United States
Rancho Cucamonga
California

It's my "pick-up-and-deliver" game for my collection. I find the train games to be boring in theme, and while I may only play this two or three times a year, I'm still glad I have it

Cameron

Posted Fri Mar 4, 2011 9:55 am
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Subject: Through the First Game – Giants