Papua

Can you be the great leader you were born to be? Discover, lead and survive your way through your own scientific discovery in Papua.

The objective of the game is to be the most successful expedition leader. Successful in this case means keeping your explorers alive and focused, gathering the resources you and your team need to survive, gather the most spectacular collection of discoveries to earn prestige and dazzle the world.

It’s a lot to ask of you, sounds difficult right? Maybe even impossible? The rush of adrenaline from your small steps towards success will make it all worth it!

The island of Papua

The island is split into zones, each round a different zone will be forbidden. Spooky…

But all the zones have a purpose when active:

• Huts – Allow you to increase the number of dice you can roll + recruit more explorers for your mission, while giving greater control over the results of the dice thrown
• Logistics – This allows you to gain extra benefits which can benefit all aspects of your mission
• Expeditions – There are seven kinds of species to discover; spider, bird of paradise, butterfly, reptile, plant, beetle and tribe. There are three destinations to choose from to make your discoveries; the jungle, river and volcano. You must secretly bet using coins and explorers to win the discovery of your chosen destination. Are you afraid of some of the discoveries you might make?…
• Funding – A mix of the dice, the symbols on the field notebook card and the number of explorers placed could make for a wealthy combination! You will always gain money, but how much is up to the fate of the dice, symbols and explorers. So choose carefully!
• Hunting and Fishing – Food keeps your explorers on side, the less food you have the less energy will be amongst your team to help you complete your expedition.
• Field Notebook – Whatever situations you encounter along your journey could make or break the success of your discoveries, keep yourself up-to-date and help the future (although why would you want to if you want to be the best in history?!).

Game Round

Papua consists of various rounds which are made up of three phases.

The start phase ‘Phase A’ is made up of four steps. Firstly, three new expedition cards are revealed for players to have more destinations to make their discoveries. Then more logistic counters (how many counters depends on the number of players) are revealed, followed by the next field notebook card being revealed, revealing the next event along your journey. Is it going to be good or bad? Nobody knows… The player with the least energy then gets the benefit of choosing the forbidden zone, stop your competitors (and unfortunately yourself) from entering a zone of your choice, the power is in your hands! The order of the individual players is then determined based on the levels of energy, with the highest going first!

The players’ turns ‘Phase B’ is where the zones come into play. Send your explorers out to do your work and help you achieve greatness! First, however, you must roll the dice, who knows when a catastrophe may appear to ruin your work…

The resolution phase ‘Phase C’ is where you complete all your explorer’s actions from their zones and see your hard work reveal in front of your very eyes! You must go in order of the number of the zones (which change every round as does the forbidden zone)

Once the rounds are over you naturally meet the end of the game, or in this case the end of your expedition. The game ends either immediately once the expedition cards have run out or at the end of the round if a player’s energy drops below zero. Scoring then commences, taking into account your money, food, remaining energy, explorers, different kinds of expedition cards, same kinds of expedition cards and the field notebook cards you have obtained along your travels. Science cards may benefit you at this point of the game if you have a card that activates at the end of game.

My thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Papua. It’s not my usual choice of game style to play but the theme, artwork and mechanisms intrigued me into buying it, and I’m so glad I did as it is a game I can’t wait to get to the table again and see what else I can get out of the experience of Papua. It has broadened my horizon on game styles and expanded my knowledge of this theme and gameplay, actions and strategy. It goes to show any game can change your mind and make you fall in love, and I have fallen in love with Papua and how important discoveries such as this hidden gem can be.

But the question is…can you make THE greatest discovery? Or will you fall along the way…