Spectacular Review
Advert: this game was gifted by Matagot, this has not affected our opinion.
Board games that offer simultaneous play always grab my attention. As a family of five, games that can play up to six people also garner my interest. Spectacular ticked both of those boxes and additionally offered dice and tile placement. On paper it sounds like my sort of board game, but was it? Cliffhanger alert, you’ll have to read on to find out!
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Setup
Get all the boxes, player board and score pad out of the box. Common items such as dice, tiles and cylinders (watchtowers) need to be placed within reach of all players. Give each player a board, choosing which side to play, and a box that matches their special animal. Each player should empty this box and roll their dice, placing them and their tiles on the relevant spaces on the left of their player board.
Everyone then takes one of the small passing boards and places four tiles and four rolled dice onto it from the shared supply.
Finally every player has a chance to swap one tile from their reserve onto their main board and reroll any amount of dice they wish. The game is now set up!
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Gameplay
Over the course of the game you will choose one item from your personal supply and one item from the shared board. Your pick can be two dice, two tiles or a dice and a tile, whatever you choose is then placed onto your player board. The shared pool of resources will then get passed to the next player.
Over the course of the game if you can join three tiles together with a circle of the same colour in the middle (regardless of the colour of the land), you can build a watchtower.
Of course there are some dice placement rules. Most obviously dice have to be placed on tiles of a matching colour. Pip values also matter as ones and twos can only be placed on tiles with a heart symbol on them, and sixes can only be placed on your starting square printed on the board or on tiles surrounding completed watchtowers.
The player with the most points at the end of the game is going to be declared the winner which isn’t particularly unusual. Points come in four different ways. Firstly, there is a round of mid-game scoring where players tally their pip value of all the dice that lead to their starting ticket space in an unbroken chain.
The rest of the scoring comes at the end of the game. You will score points from the pip values of dice around completed watchtowers, but only if there is a dice on all three tiles surrounding it. There are also points available for animal diversity. Most points however, tend to come from connected areas of land mass, these score you the pip value multiplied by the number of tiles with hearts on that have dice placed on them.
There are optional objectives to add-in once you’ve got the hang of the game too.
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What it’s like
Simultaneous play is a big win for me, I like how it reduces downtime. Of course, there is sometimes that moment where everyone has chosen their tiles and dice but you. Equally this creates a natural countdown for those suffering with chronic procrastination, clearly adding some much needed pressure to pull their finger out!
There is a minor flaw with the draft however, as you can be found waiting for the person beside you to choose first. Unlike a card draft, items available around the table are not secret information. While I don’t think it is in the spirit of the game to do so, I could imagine a stalemate occurring with all players waiting for someone else to go first. I guess in that situation you would have to do a literal simultaneous draft.
Equally though seeing what might come your way is a really interesting part of the game and helps you strategize. I’m sure there are some clever people that can do that with a card draft, unsurprisingly that isn’t me!
Arguably dice with a pip value of three are the worst, with ones and twos being good for the heart tiles, fours and fives being optimum for tiles not around a watchtower and sixes great, but only if you have somewhere to put them. Heart tiles seem to be the most cherished items and snaffling these is important, especially if they match your biggest biome.
Spectacular is a game that really rewards following one strategy hard. Generally this will be to build a whacking great ecosystem of one colour and maximising the heart tiles in the region too. Although this hinders the diversity so someone following that strategy could do well. It’s just something you have to pay more attention to.
The mid-game scoring works at a natural punctuation mark in the game when the shared boards run out for the first time, so it doesn’t feel clunky or like it gets in the way. The additional objectives ramp up the thinkiness to give the game more shelf life and more brain burning.
The game works best at three to six players, I think there are better games to play at two, but it is fine at two. Sometimes at the lower player count you don’t see what you want in the market after the midgame scoring, which may frustrate some players. I’ve not tried the solo mode but there is one and I can imagine it working quite well.
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Table Presence
I will start by saying the game looks good on the table. The dice and tiles are colourful and towards the end of the game your board is looking quite vibrant. The little animals on each tile appeal too. However, Spectacular isn’t going to win any beauty pageants. The cylindrical watchtowers are utilitarian and the artwork is all fine. I did get excited when the boards that get passed around lined up perfectly with the player boards – it made me happy!
I like the box art. The way it all packs away into the box is a delight too. Everything has little tuck boxes, but again these could’ve easily been improved by having the contents printed on the side that you see when you lift the lid, meaning matching the contents, particularly on the player boxes, would’ve been easier!
There is certainly nothing that actually puts me off. Arguably, the lack of unnecessary adornment means, what you need to see for the gameplay is much clearer.
The rulebook was good and it has answered the questions I’ve asked of it.
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Final thoughts on Spectacular
There is one glaring issue with this board game, and that is the name! Spectacular is a really strong word that conjures up the thoughts of a wowsy production or a grand performance. Tenuously linking the word to the spectacular animals featured in the game is a stretch. The nature theme is loosey-goosey as it is, calling it anything else would’ve set less expectations on itself, I personally would’ve called it ‘Watchtower’.
Truth be told, there is nothing spectacular about this game. That’s okay though, as what it melds together in its nothing-new-way is really good fun. It is a lovely puzzle that you can ramp up the difficulty of with objectives once you’ve got to grips with it.
The other big positive is that it can sit up to six players without considerable additional time because of the advantages of simultaneous play.
Spectacular may not be spectacular, but it is a jolly good game that I am enjoying a lot!
Key Facts
Number of players: 1 to 6
Board Game Review Recommended Age: 10+
Publisher’s Recommended Age: 10+
Playing Time: 35 minutes
Setting Up and Take Down Time: 4 minutes
Designers: Eilif Svensson, and Åsmund Svensson
Publisher: Chilifox Games
RRP: £33.99
Summary
If Kingdomino, Sushi Roll, Calico and Castles of Burgundy had a baby that would be Spectacular! Obviously, because four board games are unlikely to copulate! I meant more the meshing of mechanics… doesn’t matter, the take home is – it is a really good game!
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Artwork and Components
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Complexity
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Instructions
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Interaction
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Value for Money
Overall
Pros
- Plays up to six
- Simultaneous play
- Different strategies to explore
- Extra objectives to add-in
- Storage solution
Cons
- Mexican stand offs in drafts
- Getting three pip dice
- The name
- The pressure if everyone else has chosen before you
Need more games?
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Reviewer’s Note
For clarity: we don’t get paid for our reviews. However, we were kindly gifted this game by Matagot. We have tried not to let this affect our review in any way.
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