Pyrmaid Review
Oceania
Published by Mayfair Games, Inc.
Design by Klaus Teuber
Illustrated by Bernd Wagenfeld
Graphics by Pohl & Rick
Rulebook, mounted fold-out board, 16 Scout tiles, 60 playing tiles, & wooden ship pawn, full color, one or two players; $15.00
In the midst of the overwhelming number of pricey European games on the market, it's nice when a fairly inexpensive item like Carcassonne comes out. If you look at Oceania, though, you'll see that Mayfair Games, Inc. offers an even lower-priced alternative. With a savings of time, money, and size, this item has charms all its own.
The object of the game is to score the most points for your explorations.
Oceania is a large, uncharted area depicted on the board. The players are the intrepid explorers who start at the more familiar edges and begin doing what any good adventurer does -- whittling away at things until they've got the whole area mapped. Oceania is revealed as Sea Tiles are drawn at random from the pile. Players take turns placing the Explorer Ship on a chosen starting space, drawing a tile, then finding a way to make that piece fit.
There are land masses, the sea, and white dotted lines to which the active player must pay heed. The lines connect the distant lands to the points of origin -- they're sort of the "shipping lanes" in this new world, and you have to maintain that trail of bread crumbs. The different configurations of tiles means you'll have to choose where to fit . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: September 9, 2005
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