Inkwell has picked up a lot of hype online, and as someone who loves small box games and solo games, I had been eyeing it up for a while. So I jumped at the chance to nab a free review copy from Zatu (the perks of being a reviewer - find out more here!)
Tell me about the game
The first thing you should know about Inkwell is that it’s gorgeous. It’s themed around the drawings in medieval manuscripts, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Ashmole Bestiary, and the art design takes that theme and runs with it. The cover has intricate designs inspired by celtic knots and other art from that era, with muted colours and beautiful gold foiling. Inside the box, there’s a faux suede game mat that continues the theme, a handy rules reference on the inside of the magnetic lid, and high-quality wooden and metal game pieces. Overall, the presentation of Inkwell is top-notch, and this is all in the base edition - there’s no deluxe version.
Gameplay-wise, Inkwell is a drafting and set collection game, where you’re a monk trying to complete manuscript pages before the Abbot comes by and forces you to turn over and start a new one. I recently reviewed Railroad Tiles, and I think Inkwell has a very similar vibe - a chill but puzzley game with minimal player interaction where you’re all working on your own little board/tableau/etc.
Inkwell has picked up a lot of hype online, and as someone who loves small box games and solo games, I had been eyeing it up for a while. So I jumped at the chance to nab a free review copy from Zatu (the perks of being a reviewer - find out more here!)
Tell me about the game
The first thing you should know about Inkwell is that it’s gorgeous. It’s themed around the drawings in medieval manuscripts, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Ashmole Bestiary, and the art design takes that theme and runs with it. The cover has intricate designs inspired by celtic knots and other art from that era, with muted colours and beautiful gold foiling. Inside the box, there’s a faux suede game mat that continues the theme, a handy rules reference on the inside of the magnetic lid, and high-quality wooden and metal game pieces. Overall, the presentation of Inkwell is top-notch, and this is all in the base edition - there’s no deluxe version.
Gameplay-wise, Inkwell is a drafting and set collection game, where you’re a monk trying to complete manuscript pages before the Abbot comes by and forces you to turn over and start a new one. I recently reviewed Railroad Tiles, and I think Inkwell has a very similar vibe - a chill but puzzley game with minimal player interaction where you’re all working on your own little board/tableau/etc.
How does it play?
The fundamentals of the game are very simple. You lay out the game mat and fill each “inkwell” with cubes representing different colours of ink. Each player starts with a first page card, which has one or more uncoloured illustrations from a particular manuscript. The page cards have coloured (or wildcard) squares dotted around the illustrations, and you fill these with the ink cubes to complete the drawing. Players take cubes from an inkwell at the start of their turn and immediately place them on their card, and if you can’t use every cube in an inkwell, you can’t choose it. This puts you somewhat at the mercy of whatever random colours are drawn from the bag when filling the inkwells, but you can always take a gold leaf cube (made of real metal, but probably not gold) from one of the central inkwells, which can be placed anywhere on your page.
Furthermore, there are a limited number of inkwells, and once a particular type is empty they need to be refilled. When this happens, the Abbot advances one space, and every three spaces will force everyone to turn their page if they haven’t already. Turning a page is how you score points - scoring that card and moving on to another. You get points for every complete illustration, and for every cube of a certain colour. If you turn your page without being forced to by the Abbot, you get a bonus gold cube to add to your next page card.
Although it might not sound like it, the Abbot is very much driven by the players. There are three different types of inkwell, and the Abbot only moves when one type is empty, so players can either speed him up or slow him down by taking from or avoiding particular inkwells. In the games I've played, all players have been on the same page (ba-dum tsss) about keeping the Abbot moving slowly to maximise our points on each page, leading to a generally chill experience.
What else is there to Inkwell?
Another aspect to Inkwell is the technique cards. These give you certain bonuses, like taking an extra cube of a particular type, or not having to take every cube from an inkwell. The technique cards are laid out face up, and are part of an inkwell, meaning that if you take the cubes from that inkwell you have to take the technique, or vice versa. Plus, you can only take two techniques per page card, which can lead to you being blocked from taking ink cubes from inkwells with technique cards.
If I’m being honest, I don’t think the technique cards add a whole lot to the game - most of them are nice to have but not game changing, and some weren’t even used in the games I played. But they do add a nice bit of replayability, and it can be very satisfying when that one extra cube from a technique lets you complete an illustration.
Inkwell also has a solo mode, where you roll a dice (aka Brother Dicelius, groan) to determine which inkwell is emptied between your turns. I found this harder than playing against real players, since the randomness of the dice meant that inkwells were being refilled more often, thus moving the Abbot forward more often. With real players, it’s normally to everyone’s benefit to delay refills by strategically taking from other inkwells.
Anything more to add?
There’s not really much more to Inkwell. It’s pretty simple and relatively easy to pick up and teach, making for the sort of game you might play on a cosy evening, or at the end of a board game night when everyone’s winding down. The charm is in the excellent theme and presentation, using actual illustrations from the era it’s based on and going the extra mile with components and design. Something I really want to mention is that the wooden ink cubes are colourblind friendly, with the blue, red and green ones having symbols on them, and the plain cubes being the easily distinguishable yellow and black. It’s a nice touch that really demonstrates the thought put into Inkwell. I’m very happy to have added such a charming game to my collection.
