Flash Review — Boonlake

Players: 1-4

Works well with just 2: Yes!
Solo quality: Good
Age: 14+
Playtime: 80-160 min
Complexity: 8.5/10

There’s much to do in the abandoned region of Boonlake: exploring, settling, breeding cattle, hiring helpers, sailing, building, modernizing… What will you tackle first?

In addition to a central board depicting the virgin territory of Boonlake (revealed and built throughout the game with hex tiles), each player has their own personal board where they can navigate between production sites to ensure a constant flow of much needed resources, where they track developments and advances that’ll net them juicy bonuses, and where actual levers that they acquired during the game can be pulled for extra actions or other special effects.

There’s also a delightful “flowing river” action board with each action represented by a tile; unchosen actions flow downstream to be worth more when a player finally decides to pick them.

Boonlake is a heavy strategy game full of tough decisions, and where selecting an action tile allows everyone to do something, while giving you a little more (‘cause it’s your turn, after all). I especially love the scoring tiles you can score when you feel like it: if you score them later, they’ll be worth more points, but they’ll also cost you a heftier penalty if it turns out you can’t meet the ever-increasing requirements.

The solo module is a slightly intricate affair (with a dedicated AI board!) that simulates an opponent getting in your way. This one works better than many systems of its kind.

Most easily forgotten rule: If you build a settlement in a region where you already have one, you must pay (lose) 5 points.

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