Mariposas - Review of the new title Ghenos Games

Mariposas - Review of the new title Ghenos Games

If you are looking for a light but not trivial family game, you should probably consider Butterflies, the new title of Elizabeth hargrave (former author of the award winner Wingspan, which we talked about here, for the base game, and here, for the first expansion, Europe). The game, distributed by Ghenos Games - as well as Wingspan - is inspired by the migrations of Monarch butterflies from Mexico to North America and back, which take place over several generations. We got to test Butterflies: if you want to know more, here's what we think.



Mariposas - Review of the new title Ghenos Games Mariposas: a 5000 km long flight

In Butterflies we will find ourselves managing a group of butterflies on their long journey through North America, which takes place over three seasons: Spring, Summer and Autumn. The butterflies that depart from Michoacan will not be the same ones that will return to you at the end of the game; in fact, starting from our first generation butterfly other butterflies will be born, of the second, third and fourth generation, which will gradually take the place of the previous ones, which instead will gradually die. Only Generation IV butterflies will be able to return to Michoacan at the end of autumn (and they will give us a lot of victory points). We also remind you that Butterflies is a game for 2 - 5 players, with an approximate duration of 45-75 minutes.

Components, materials and graphics

As usual Ghenos does not disappoint with the quality of materials and game components. Butterflies it has box, board, board and resources in cardboard quite thick and resistant; the butterflies, a set of different colors for each player, are wooden tokens modeled in the shape of a butterfly; the numerous cards are of excellent quality. The graphics are aesthetically very beautiful, even if initially the quantity of flowers and colors on the map, together with the wooden tokens that will move above it, could appear unsettling due to the bright colors and the large amount of drawings; in any case, playing it always remains very legible, also thanks to clear and easy to interpret symbols. For more details on the materials, we refer you to our unboxing video, which shows what we find inside the Mariposas box.



Mariposas - Review of the new title Ghenos Games

The game mechanics

The main mechanics of Butterflies are set collection e movement on a hex map (done through cards). The rules are quite simple both to explain and to understand, even if getting a good score is not at all trivial. Each player starts with a generation one butterfly in Michoacan and two action cards, which allow you to move your butterfly (even more butterflies later in the game) on the map. The purpose of the game is simply to score more victory points than the opponents, which can be accumulated in various ways: in the game, with season goals (three, of which initially only the first is known, while the others will be discovered during the game); bringing back to Michoacan as many Generation Four butterflies as possible; accumulating migration passes cycle of life (obtainable by stopping on the various cities on the map).

The game is divided into three rounds: Spring, Summer and Autumn. At the end of each round there will be scoring of the season objectives; if the round in question is Autumn, the end-of-game scoring will take place. Each round is in turn divided into rounds, the number of which varies according to the round being played. Four rounds will be played in Spring, five in Summer, six in Autumn. Each turn, starting with the first player, each player will play one of the two action cards from his hand, make the move as indicated on the card and stop on a hex. Hexagons can be flowers or city:


  • if you stop on a flower you collect the flower
  • if you stop on a city, you discover the covered benefit that city provides (usually a migration pass card) and roll a dice to get a random flower.

The flowers are the resources of the game, they are of five different types and are used to reproduce their butterflies; each butterfly produces a butterfly of the next generation. It will take two or any three flowers to get Generation Two butterflies; three of the same flowers or any four to get generation three butterflies; four of the same flowers or any five to get generation four butterflies. Reproduction is a free action that can be taken if the hex on which the movement ends, whether it is a flower or a city, is adjacent to a Milkweed, indicated by a special symbol. The game continues like this, from round to round, until the points are counted at the end of the game.



Mariposas - Review of the new title Ghenos Games

Considerations

Butterflies it surprised us very positively: we did not expect a family game so simple but at the same time not trivial to master. The rules really explain themselves to anyone in no time, which pays off Butterflies a great gateway to the world of board games. The colorful graphics present, made up of the many drawings of the board. it might actually blow you away at first, but after a while it still becomes clear. In many players it could be a bit difficult to immediately identify which butterfly needs to be moved, since you can also move on hexes occupied by other players, and it may often be necessary to lift the butterflies to understand what is underneath the map; however this is not a big problem given the type of game (and certainly not felt at all in two or three players). The materials, as written above, are really excellent and the mechanics appear pleasantly linked to the setting (although it is basically an abstract). Definitely, Butterflies is an excellent introductory family game, easy to explain, quick to play and also suitable for those who are not used to board games.


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