‘What can I do you fer?’
‘Um yeah, I’m looking to build a factory. I’m going to need 3 crates of wood and 3 crates of clay then I’ll be on my way.’
‘I’m afraid that’s not gonna be possible. We only got 2 crates of wood.’
‘But I’m pretty sure I saw another crate in the warehouse. Can’t you just go over and get it?’
‘You must be new here. This is storage. Not warehouse. If you wanted something from warehouse you shoulda talked to warehouse earlier. So what you see here, is what ya got. If you need something and it ain’t here, well, you’d better do a better job at plannin’ next time. Them’s the rules. It’s how things work around here. No way around it. It’s the same for you as it is for all The Colonists.’
How it Plays
The Epic Strategy Game. It’s emblazoned on the front of the box like a badge of honor. Or perhaps it’s a warning. With a self reported playing time of up to 4 hours, The Colonists isn’t shy to let you know that you’re in for a long night of gaming. But worry not, for a game that aims to steal away your evening, it’s relatively easy to learn and play. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not ‘My First Board Game’ material, but it’s not as intimidating as 8 pounds of cardboard might initially suggest.
You are charged with growing and nurturing your fledgling colony. You’ll gain points for the buildings you construct, coins you collect and the colonists you employ. There is a main board made up of hexes with action spaces and a personal community board for each player. On your community board you’ll arrange the buildings you’ve constructed and store the resources you collect.
The game is divided into 4 eras, each of which is further divided into 5 years, which is further divided into half years. Each half year, players will carry out 3 actions in turn order. 629
An action means moving your Steward on the main board to an adjacent space and carry out the associated action. These actions usually involve collecting resources or spending resources in order to construct buildings. If there is an opponent’s Steward on an action space, you must pay them some amount of resources dictated by the current era in order to move onto it. Optionally, you can move your Steward to any market on the board. This may be useful if you want to move quickly across the board or if there is nothing useful to do in the adjacent spaces.
At the end of the year, the starting player will add 3 more action spaces to the board. In this way the actions available to you will increase as the game goes on. Additionally, if you have any colonists working in your buildings, you’ll need to feed them and your production buildings will generate goods.
There are some more nuances to the rules and how exactly some of the actions spaces work, but for the most part, that’s a good overview of how the game plays out. Different eras will introduce new and generally more powerful action spaces. Costs and strengths of buildings will likewise grow as the game progresses. There is, however, one concept that deserves explaining: Storage.
You begin the game with a limited number of storage spaces and an even more limited amount of warehouse spaces. When you collect resources, they must go into one of these spots on your community board. If you have no more room, tough luck, to the garbage they go. Most importantly, when using resources to construct resources you can only expend what you currently have in storage. You’re free to move resources between storage and the warehouse freely before carrying out your action, but once you start the action you’ve locked everything in.
With hundreds of chits and tokens to contend with, I highly recommend using a counter tray to save on table space and speed up play.
First Impressions
The Colonists can be intimidating. The box is large. The play time is lengthy. And its physical footprint on the table is deep. But hopefully the above overview will lessen your apprehensions. It really is an approachable game. If you’ve played and learned any mildly complicated strategy game in the past, you’ll have no trouble getting a grip on The Colonists. The greatest impediment to enjoyment is the length of time it take to get through a complete game. Personally, I’ve never been bothered or put off by activities that take a long time. 629