To paraphrase Disney’s Coco: “You will go home, you will put my picture on the Ofrenda, and you will never play board games again!”
I joke of course, but like music for Miguel, board games is a passion for many of us and I find myself enraptured with this puzzle from Osprey Games.
Dia de los Meurtos, the Mexican “Day of the Dead” holiday is not a theme I instantly would suggest for a board game, or a children’s movie, however in both cases I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I can connect with what has been produced in Ofrenda.
I first saw this title like many did back at UKGE, being demoed to much acclaim, which made it a very easy yes when the team at Zatu asked me to provide a review.
The artwork gives a wonderful homage to the festival and it’s traditions, whilst retaining a welcoming feel so that anyone who isn’t familiar beyond the Disney animation, or even less information, will still find a great, family friendly game to enjoy here.
Spatial tableau builders have become a staple of the gaming land space in recent years, and my shelf has grown to reflect that. From behemoths of the space like Everdell, which add in worker placement, Engine Building and even a cardboard tree for table presence, to the bag and tile driven Flamecraft Duals, Castle Combo and Harmonies.
Whilst being card driven, Ofrenda shares much more of it’s DNA with the latter list of titles.
Each player starts the game with the same board and a limited number of cards in their hand. The cards you receive drive each player to figure out the best way to arrange them onto your limited twelve spaces, and in which order.
The order and proximity of the cards you place will change from game to game, as each card has differing requirements in order to become “lit”, which maximises the scoring potential of your final board. All scoring is done at the end of the game, so although this is quite a short game (12 rounds of pick up a card, play a card), you do have time to reflect on your best approach.
The goal is to score the most points possible, however, in a rarity for this style of game, the specific cards do not have set point values attached to them. This means there is no “best cards” to get, and luck is therefore largely removed as the key driver for winning. This is a good thing, as all too often in games like this, whoever manages to pull out all of the aces and place them wins.
Instead this is a game about making the best opportunities out of what you pick up, fitting together patterns of the requirements to maximise the lit cards, adding more from candles and marigolds to get the most out of any given hand.
In a similar twist to Castle Combo, the set round limit of 12 means that although not playing a card is an option, it is one that should be taken cautiously, as any card not played means your tableau will be a card smaller than your rivals. The tension of playing something not quite perfect in the hope that a better card will come in time vs having only 11 cards to score at the end is an interesting and thinky puzzle to crack, and provides a bit of push your luck, especially at higher player counts where you will naturally see much more of the deck in every game.
You will like this game if you like some of the others I have already mentioned: Castle Combo, Faraway, Harmonies, Azul, Flamecraft Duals. Each brings something a little bit different to a packed marketplace and Ofrenda more than earns its place amongst them.
