Discover India:
ComponentsThe Quality of the components for this are for the most part quite good. The Tokens are of quite thick carboard and the main board is colourful and well laid out. The game comes with wooden player pieces and Festival markers which are excellent and the cards have good artwork with facts about each city they represent. It also comes with a cloth bag to store the tokens in, enabling a random pick to be made when replacing them on the board.
The cards are of quite thin stock however, making them feel a little flimsy but are otherwise functional. The tokens utilities both symbols and colour to distinguish the various types but whilst it would appear this is friendlier for Colourblind players it actually makes it harder to distinguish certain tokens from one another. I feel it would have been better to adopt one or other of the methods and not mix the two or at least pick more distinct colours for some of the tokens. That said it is not impossible to play nor does it hinder the game in any serious way but it could have been made easier.
GameplayThis is a really easy game to pick up/teach but actually working out how best to place you token to gain maximum points is quite tricky which makes for a really interesting and strategic game.
Players represent tourists visiting India as they visit each city they take a token, which has one or two symbols & Colours on, which is then replaced immediately from the supply. If the city they visit has a festival token on it they gain a card worth 1 VP at the end, each token is placed on either an exchange space (In the first turn that is the only choice) or directly onto their board but has to go on a space connected to a previous token placed there.
At the end of the game players score for chains of similar tokens (so the ones with double tokens can be used for 2 chains) the longer the chain the more points (8+ scoring the most). Each turn players walk or fly to a destination but if someone has flown in the previous turn the next player has to walk which means placing their piece in a city linked to where the previous player went. The piece you collect from the city can be placed directly on your board, swapped for the piece you have on your exchange space and that placed on your board or you can "Buy" a piece from someone else's exchange space. To buy a piece from someone else you lose a VP, they gain a VP and then you swap the piece you collected for their exchange piece and place it on your board. Play continues until all boards have been completed and then they are scored.
Conclusion:I really enjoy playing and teaching this game as the mechanics are very simple. The best bit about this game is planning where to go, which tokens you need and the best way to place them on your board for maximum score. There is plenty of strategy here, with room for players to hinder other players plans. This game does appeal quite well to both Gamers and Non-Gamers alike and certainly provides a nice game to start/end a games evening or even fill in between other games.
This is really a fun game providing plenty of enjoyment for repeated plays and will certainly get plenty of table time.
