CONQUEST of PARADISE (second edition) 2017/2016 @ $57.00
GMT Games. A Strategy game of Empire Building in Polynesia designed by <PERSON>
I cannot remember playing the first edition (but I am 67 now and my memory flits in and out depending on whether the brain cell is charged or not) so I approached this version as being new to me. I find it difficult to get my wife, <PERSON>, to play GMT Games as she is not a fan of wargames with small cardboard counters, she has problems reading them across the table and spends so much time having to pick up pieces to see what they are, that games take a long time to complete. When <PERSON> saw that this was a strategy game with large hex tiles to represent ocean spaces and islands and that there were but a few, easily interpreted, not-so-fiddly, small counters, she was still apprehensive but agreed to give it a go; that was many games ago.
The game uses quite simple but efficient mechanics, including a single die-roll per battle engagement, plus a roughly accurate geographical map of the Paradise Islands of the Pacific Ocean. The map cleverly shows and boldly names the major islands such as Wake Island (even though it is just a tiny green speck in a sea of blue), Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz, and also the game-strategic islands of Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, the first two of these being starting points for all games, 2 players, 3 players (add Hiva of the Marquesas Islands) or 4 players (include Hiva and Raiatea - West Society Islands). During play the confusion of islands will often appear in the ocean at coordinates different from reality but that is part and parcel of the play that rearranges geography as we know it.
The CONQUEST of PARADISE is a game of Exploration, Discovery, Battles and Buildings, and like all good games its tactics and strategies alter depending on the number of players. 92
After two games with four players we all agreed that it was probably better as a two-player game, especially as the main starting islands for players are Samoa and Tonga, both of which are adjacent/attached to the known Independent Island Group which include the aforementioned islands as well as Kiribati, Marshall Islands, New Hebrides etc, many of these islands have permanent defenders (shown as Warriors) and some also show a Mosquito, which only comes into play when using the MALARIA advanced rule - there are several advanced rules that can be implemented either one at a time or however you wish, but only once you have the basic game rules under your belt. In full disclosure I have only played once using Malaria (it makes the game more edgy) and once with Random Events (although CONQUEST of PARADISE isn't strictly historical adding these extra cards is unnecessary, in our opinion, as they do nothing to make the game more pleasing to play, it just does what it says - adds random chaos); neither have I played CONQUEST of PARADISE solitaire yet. This review is about the games I have played, 2-player and 4-player.
To get the history, atmosphere and flavour of CONQUEST of PARADISE the author has included a 20 page booklet of notes on the islands with some usefully interesting information about each of them, though nothing that will actually assist you in the game. I, for one, had no idea that the STARBUCKS coffee chain was named after a character in <PERSON>'s "Moby Dick" (the first mate) or that the Starbuck island was named after a Captain <PERSON>, a whaler from Nantucket - it's amazing what you can learn from boardgames, even when you are not playing them.
The rules booklet itself is only 16 pages and these include the Front Page, Back Page Index, Inside Back Page Credits and the Page 2 Introduction and Components, as well as the 2 pages of Advanced rules and 2 pages of Solitaire rules, leaving just 8 pages for the actual rules; so few for a GMT (or other) wargame, making it one of the least daunting GMT Game rule books I have encountered. I have mostly enjoyed 2-player games as these lead to some superb variations on play after the first game where both players (will probably do as we do) follow what looks like the obvious paths to victory (victory being won by the first player to move their score marker to or past the game-determined indicator on the score track. One of the Advanced rules involves the South Island (Te Waka Maui) of New Zealand (Aotearoa). This tile is left to one side until New Zealand is discovered and then the player who does so also takes the South Island tile. 993