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Gondola, a game by Jim Pinto and published by Big Kid Games, is a racing game with a theme unlike any other; racing gondolas through Venice.
In Gondola, each player becomes a Gondolier, a person in control of a Gondola, and you must race through the canals crossing checkpoints. The first person to pass five checkpoints is the winner of the game.
Inside the box
When the game arrived I was surprised how heavy it was for just an average size box, it's easily one of the heaviest games in my collection. The reason it weighs so much is the canal tiles, the amount and quality of them is surprising.
96 thick cardboard tiles are included, along with five gondolas of different colours and 25 flags - five of each player colour. The art is good on both the box and tiles. The symbols on the tiles are easy to understand and a reference guide on the back of the rule book is helpful.
How to play Gondola
The idea of Gondola is to race around the canal tiles and when you reach a checkpoint place one of your flags there, the first person to place all five flags is the winner. The setup of the game is relatively easy, all you do is:
- Place the six starting tiles, in number order, in the centre of the table.
- Shuffle the canal and bonus tiles and place in separate piles.
- Give each player a gondola and the flags of that colour, along with five tiles from the canal deck.
- Determine who goes first and place all gondolas on the starting tile.
Gondola is very straight forward and is played over a series of turns that consist of three phases:
- Place a tile from your hand down to a connecting tile. There are rules of how tiles must be placed but basically water cannot be blocked with the land side of a tile.
- Move your Gondola. When you place a tile you take the tiles speed value and compare it with the current value of the tile where your gondola is, whichever is lower is the amount of tiles you can move.
- Draw up to your hand limit. Hand limit is the number of flags you have left.
- Place the six starting tiles, in number order, in the centre of the table.
- Shuffle the canal and bonus tiles and place in separate piles.
- Give each player a gondola and the flags of that colour, along with five tiles from the canal deck.
- Determine who goes first and place all gondolas on the starting tile.
Gondola is very straight forward and is played over a series of turns that consist of three phases:
- Place a tile from your hand down to a connecting tile. There are rules of how tiles must be placed but basically water cannot be blocked with the land side of a tile.
- Move your Gondola. When you place a tile you take the tiles speed value and compare it with the current value of the tile where your gondola is, whichever is lower is the amount of tiles you can move.
- Draw up to your hand limit. Hand limit is the number of flags you have left.
Once a player has completed all three phases the play moves on to the next player and so on until someone places all five flags.
There are a few more in-depth rules like ‘open water’ tiles that stop your gondola dead in its track. Some tiles are narrow so only have room for one gondola to pass through and there are bonus tiles that allow you to place one tile immediately. Overall the game is good fun and its play time is around 15/20 minutes per player.
Player interaction is created by placing tiles to hinder your opponents and replay-ability is great due to the huge number of tiles on offer.
Final Thoughts
Gondola surprised me in a good way. It combines tile laying with racing and it works really well. The game is so much fun. At first, I thought there wasn’t enough player interaction but as soon as all the players get to grips with the rules that changes. Players place tiles to obstruct you making you change your plans mid-game.
There were a few niggles that made learning the game more difficult than it should be but nothing major, more to do with the lay-out than the spelling or grammar. The symbols are easily recognisable and after a few play-throughs the game plays at a great pace.
It keeps you engaged as the routes to the checkpoints can change at any time. The fact that your hand limit reduces down with each checkpoint you pass is great and stops any run-away leaders.
You get a great sense of ‘racing’ as more check point tiles are revealed and you try to work out the fastest route to get there. Players blocking you or bad tile draws can scupper your plans but you never feel like you can’t win. If Gondola does one thing really well it’s that it keeps all the players in close contention for the victory.
Overall this is a great game that is fun to play. Kids of around six or seven could easily learn this and enjoy it as unlike some race games there is very little math involved. The box could have done with some kind of insert as the tiles tend to move around when the game is transported but that along with the rule book are the only negatives I can find.
It happily sits in the light category of racing games for me.
Final Thoughts
Gondola surprised me in a good way. It combines tile laying with racing and it works really well. The game is so much fun. At first, I thought there wasn’t enough player interaction but as soon as all the players get to grips with the rules that changes. Players place tiles to obstruct you making you change your plans mid-game.
There were a few niggles that made learning the game more difficult than it should be but nothing major, more to do with the lay-out than the spelling or grammar. The symbols are easily recognisable and after a few play-throughs the game plays at a great pace.
It keeps you engaged as the routes to the checkpoints can change at any time. The fact that your hand limit reduces down with each checkpoint you pass is great and stops any run-away leaders.
You get a great sense of ‘racing’ as more check point tiles are revealed and you try to work out the fastest route to get there. Players blocking you or bad tile draws can scupper your plans but you never feel like you can’t win. If Gondola does one thing really well it’s that it keeps all the players in close contention for the victory.
Overall this is a great game that is fun to play. Kids of around six or seven could easily learn this and enjoy it as unlike some race games there is very little math involved. The box could have done with some kind of insert as the tiles tend to move around when the game is transported but that along with the rule book are the only negatives I can find.
It happily sits in the light category of racing games for me.