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Cairn, published by Matagot games, is a two-player, point-scoring, chess-board-ish, tactical…thing? Matagot have an impressive catalogue and Cairn is a great addition in the two-player field, sitting nicely in a spot of ‘true’ two-player games where everything is designed that way rather than being possible to play with two but being better with more. Let’s take a look.
First up, this is the new and improved, 2022 version of the older Cairn game. But in the spirit of full disclosure I haven’t played the original so I can’t tell you precisely how different it is. As far as I can tell, there are some tweaks to rules about how you score points and what you can do to banish your opponent’s pieces, as well as some nice cosmetic changes.
First Impressions
Straight off the bat this games looks incredible. The artwork is stunning and in a nod to how much effort has gone into the production value, the inside of the box is as well decorated as the beautiful, textured exterior. That’s a nice touch and speaks of a game that is well loved by its designers and publishers – and well worth your money. The Cairn board and miniatures are equally detailed, colourful, and updated with a slightly more slick and modern style. The figurines (shamans from the sea/river and from the forest) are well detailed with some very tongue-in-cheek details such as the duck hat and quasi-fairy wings. Beyond that, there are surprisingly few components and quite a small board – more on which later. The non-shaman components are very high quality in terms of the printing and although they’re cardboard (and so will probably wear with time) they’re pleasingly simple beyond the incredible artwork. The box, as is often the case, is about six million percent air but somehow they size of the box compared to the game actually seems sort of perfect: a mini, high-quality cuboid of mystic-chess like brilliance.
Aim & Setup
The aim of the game is, much like the set-up, incredibly simple: score three points. There are two ways to score those points in Cairn and in between you can have some fun at moving your shamans (figurines) around the board and banishing (sending back to their starting village) your opponent’s pieces. Once you’ve read the rules, which will take you only a few minutes and come in both English and French, the set-up will take less time than your kettle to boil. You could probably get it done in 30 seconds if you really wanted to. Which brings us to one of its strengths: speed. The game can be pulled off a shelf, set-up, played and put away in 30 minutes. Some games will take significantly less time and despite the box claiming that the playtime is around 25 minutes, you will probably find some games taking as little as 10. That makes Cairn incredibly convenient for several reasons, including for those whose patience for board games is limited, and for those who have little time.
Board & Gameplay
Once you’ve finished gazing at how pretty the board is, you’ll notice that it’s really quite small: a 5 x 5 grid to be exact. Starting figures take up six of those spaces, and the starting megaliths (represented by cardboard pieces) take up two more. That lends the game both its speed, its tactical edge and feeling of intensity. Since you’re always playing so closely to your opponent, and since a single move can put you in range of ‘banishment’ it requires a certain level of thinking and tactical movement. You can do one thing each turn in Cairn (each involving moving one of your shamans), and you’re limited to a choice of three possible moves that are in turn dictated by three tiles. Those tiles change whenever they’re used – a mechanic that makes a lot more sense once you see them placed out and realise what each side of the tile allows you to do. Your aim is to score three points by ‘building’ megaliths and you do that by creating patterns of shamans – a combination of yours and your opponents – or managing to move one of your shamans off the other edge of the board. Along the way if you move a figure onto one of the megaliths already built then it activates a special power that you get to use. And that’s about it: move your pieces about like some old-school general shuffling armies across a map with one of those sticks that look a little bit like a golf putter, and earn three points. The change in possible moves each turn, movement of pieces and selection of megaliths to build (including the two randomised starting ones) lend a certain uniqueness to each game.
So How Good Is It?
Well, first off it’s actually really, really, really, really simple. That’s sort of both a massive plus and a bit of a negative. The box proudly announces the game time at around 25 minutes but I found that you could be done in 5-10. That’s great for when you don’t have much time, want something that you can get through quickly, or want to teach something that’s simple but with a bit of challenge. Of course the down side is that it can feel too simplistic if you win too easily – perhaps like when you first play noughts and crosses and realise that that is ‘a tactic’. Or not. Interestingly enough though, when I played with my six year old I found that the game took a lot longer – not because I was playing with a six year old but because actually I put more thought into all of the moves. Turns out I actually made a few mis-steps and gave him points by not realising that I had manoeuvred myself into a losing position which made me re-evaluate how simple it is and consider that perhaps there’s a bit more to it than I thought at first. And that trend continued because the more I played I realised that there actually is enough to think about that makes it fun even though it’s simple. In fact there are times that you win (or lose) too quickly. Many of your losses might actually come from not noticing that your opponent is about to be able to do something that you haven’t factored in which is why the chess comparison is pretty fair.
It's a little bit tactical, a little bit quick, and pretty fun. The rules, despite coming in two languages, are a tiny bit unclear on a first read through but then make perfect sense. I think there was one small niggle that I couldn’t easily figure out, and wondered if I’d missed something or misinterpreted a mechanic. But a small hunt back through the (actually quite small but well printed) rule-book sorted it out.
Overall, if you already have Cairn then this isn’t really worth getting. But if you don’t already have the original Cairn, then this is a great little addition to your board games arsenal that might fill in those “we don’t have enough time for another game of Scythe but don’t want to stop yet” moments. On balance, it’s not yet a favourite but I’m quite glad I bought it and I think it fills a spot in my game library in terms of short game-length, strategy things. It looks absolutely fantastic and is fun even if it didn’t quite fully capture my imagination. My kids love it though, and a certain person I know who doesn’t really like board games thoroughly tolerated it and even managed two games in a row. So perhaps I’m the weak link in the love for Cairn. You should probably buy it.
