Sagani, is the name Swiss doctor and philosopher Paracelsus gave to natures spirits of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Welcome to Sagani, where achieving harmony between these natural elements is the central goal for these spirits that populate this world. But what is the big question left unanswered? Well… What is the origin of the harmonious melodies forged into sound disc that awaken these spirits? Connected to Uwe Rosenberg’s other game Armonia, Sagani is more of a tile playing game that continues Uwe’s explorations in contracts, tile placing and pattern building found in games Nova Luna and Framework. Spoiler alert – if you like them… you will probably enjoy this game as well.
Opening the box/Components
The box is beautifully illustrated by Lukas Siegmon, which is likely to instantly grab you if you see it on the shelf. Look closer, and you will notice strange, whacky looking creatures in the sky, erupting from a structure in the distance. These are the stars of the game.
These quirky creatures (the elemental spirits) feature on all the tiles, and each represent a different element; Fire (red), Water (blue), Earth (green) and Air (white). These tiles a presented in a quality thick card punch out board, which gives you confidence they will last replays of this game for years to come. You also get a score board, wooden score markers, sound discs (24 per player in a selection of colours), 10 cacophony discs (red versions of the sound discs) and a first player marker.
The spirit tiles are two sided, on one side is the score available for that tile, and one of those quirky spirits creatures, and on the reverse side, presents a ‘contract’ of sorts. Conditions that must be met to score this tile – more on how this works to follow.
The score board, has been illustrated to fit in with the wider theme, and present clearly marked points for the score needed to win the game, adjusted for player counts. There are also four cutaways at the top of the board, which snuggly fit one of spirit tiles each.
So how do you please the spirits of nature…
If you have played either Nova Luna or Framework, you will grasp the basics of Sagani very quickly. Simply put, select a tile, place a tile and if you meet the requirements of either that tile or another, score them.
To set up, each player selects a colour, taking all the sound discs and score marker which is then placed on the 0 position. The tiles are shuffled and then stacked into 3 piles of 24 tiles. These are placed so you can see the illustration and the score value. You then reveal the first 5 tiles from one of the piles, revealing the requirements to score them.
Depending on the score, you may have 1, 2, 3 or 4 coloured arrows, worth 1, 3, 6 and 10 points respectively.
On a players turn, they will start by selecting a tile. You select a single tile from the display and then place it into your personal display. You must place this new tile orthogonally to existing tiles (no diagonals allowed – even though some tiles do have diagonal arrows on them). You can place them in any orientation, and this is key when trying to score those valuable points.
Once the tile is placed down, you must place a number of sound discs, equal to the number of directional arrows present on that tile. If you have run out of your usual supply of sound discs, you must take the remaining required in cacophony discs and a score penalty each. However, to help with this, you are permitted to recover discs from scored tiles, if possible, first, so it is always worth checking what you can score!
So how do you score? When placing the tile, you need to be checking if you meet the requirements of the tile. To do this, the arrow must be pointing towards another tile (orthogonally or diagonally) towards another tile that corresponds with the colour of the arrow.
There can be other tiles between them, so for example, a red arrow might be pointing towards a tile in red but has 3 other tiles between them. Once an arrows requirements are met, you move a sound disc to cover it. This does mean that as your display grows, you want to really do you best to keep track of everything you are placing and if it can help complete a tile scoring requirement. This is because, once the final arrow is covered, you retrieve your sound discs (allowing them to be used elsewhere on your display for a new tile placed, helping to avoid those dreaded cacophony discs, or stored ready for your next selection), and then flip the tile and score the points.
You also have the Intermezzo. When there is only 1 tile remaining in the display, you can choose to place it in the Intermezzo storage and draw a fresh tile to place instead. Once there are 4 tiles, you trigger the Intermezzo. Each player, starting with the one furthest behind, gets to choose if they want one of those tiles. This is optional, but once everyone has chosen, normal play resumes. If no one takes a tile, the Intermezzo is cleared, and those tiles are removed from the game.
Once the display is clear, you replenish it with 5 new tiles.
The end game is triggered once you reach the necessary score position on the score track, which is higher at a lower player count. Once triggered all players have completed an equal number of turns.
Final thoughts
I have said it once before, but if you like Nova Luna or Framework, there is a good chance you will enjoy this – I definitely recommend you giving it a go. There is enough similarity to help grasp the rules quickly, but enough differences to keep all these games in your collection.
That said, if you have never played the other games, you will be pleased to know that the rules are easy to follow and you will be set up and running in no time.
This is a fun game with plenty of character, and although the theme could be anything, the chosen theme creates a charm that is just enhanced by the illustrations.
Most games we have played last around 45 minutes, which makes this a game that you can easily get most people to give it a go, and could even be slotted in during busier periods.
Sagani is a fun game, and I can see it often finding its way on to the table, whether with regular gaming partners or teaching someone new.
About the author:
We are Peaches and Meeples, busy professionals who love to chill out to fun table top games. We love board games, card games, miniatures games, competitive or co-operative. Put some dice in our hands and we are in our happy place.
We are also proud guinea pig parents to two lovely fluffballs of joy.
