Keeping with the general summer theme of mancala games it is time to expand to a game, or two which borrow heavily from the concept of collecting and distributing pieces.
The first such game comes from creator Jeph Stahl; The Colony.
From the rules sheet The Colony is described as “a mancala-like game of antlike proportions for two players.”
It should be noted the term ‘antlike’ in this case comes from the theme of The Colony.
Again from the rules sheet’ “players take the role of rival ant colonies that discover a recently cut wood pile. Live eggs still linger in the cut logs. To restore and control the colony, players collect and protect the eggs. Collected eggs are moved to a safe location in front of the player. Players can place ants on the board which will protect the wood pile. The colony that collects and protects the most eggs at the end of the game is the winner.”
I will stop here in terms of game play for a moment, and focus on the aesthetics of The Colony.
To start the game comes in a wooden box. I am a sucker for wooden game pieces, including the box, probably as it harkens back to an early time before plastic became sadly the norm for games.
The 19 ‘log’ pieces which make up the game board are particleboard.
The 12 ants are wood cut stand-ups.
In terms of the look and feel of The Colony it is top-drawer as they say.
Game play is a bit less top-drawer, in-part because the rules are a touch ambiguous.
They start out simple enough, following a mancala pattern.
“Select Log Space – select a log space with at least one egg on it. No ants of either color can be protecting (occupying) the space chosen.
Move Eggs – pick up all the eggs on this space and distribute them one at a time onto the next log space in the direction of the arrows. Some logs give a player a choice of direction. When moving through the center log, there is no choice of direction or movement is made according to the arrow the player entered from. If a player picks up eggs from the center log, they may then choose which direction to move.”
But when you have one egg left to place, you move to an action phase which depends on whose ant might be on the last log, and how many eggs are on the log. The rules’ wording is not easy to immediately grasp, and that can be a turn off.
If you get past the learning curve the game is interesting, mancala with the addition of ants which impact the game by their placement and movement.
Originally released in 2008 as a short run for an event, a version by Blue Panther LLC was released in 2010. If you can find one, it is worth a long look, just be ready to spend some time getting the details of movement down pat.
