Players:3-4
Playing Time: 2-3 hours
Difficulty: 6 (of 10)

This game was simultaneously released in Germany by Hans im Gluck.

The Components

Goa contains a large set of pieces, including:

• 1 game board
• Player Boards:
  • 4 supply boards
  • 4 development boards
• Cardboard Bits:
  • 54 game tiles
  • 18 colony tiles
  • 20 auction markers
  • 1 flag
• Cards:
  • 18 colonist cards
  • 17 ship cards
  • 10 additional action cards
  • 45 ducat cards
  • 30 expedition cards
• Wood Bits:
  • 50 spice sacks
  • 20 success markers
• 1 rulebook

Game Board: A four-panel game board printed full-color on linen-textured cardboard. The game board is, as much as anything, a placeholder. It contains a central 5x5 grid for auction items, but also has places to put all the cards and all the tiles. Nonetheless, the whole has been brought together in a pleasing manner by filling the grid with Indian decorations and using a large picture in the background to hold everything together. As we'll see throughout these components, overall pieces have been used that are evocative of period India.

The board also does a really good job of helping you to set out the game by clearly displaying what goes where.

Player Boards: Each player also gets two boards of his own: a "supply board", which has spaces for plantations, colonies, and the auction markers; and a "development board", which marks the development of each five different technologies. Each of the boards is printed full color on medium cardstock, edged in the player's color (red, blue, green, or yellow).

The game of Goa is pretty complex, and it's these well-designed boards that really make it work by great use of icons & pictures. For example, the development board shows the five technologies, what each technology does at each of five levels, how much it costs to go up to each level, how many victory points each level is worth, and also which bonuses for reaching certain levels. The supply board, meanwhile shows how many plantations and colonies each player can have (four each) and also the cost of each colony. I still found a couple of things obtuse (e.g., exactly which bonuses went with reaching which levels of technology; and how many victory points colonies offered), but those are minimal compared to how much information is conveyed, overall meaning these player boards are superb.

Cardboard Bits: All the cardboard bits in Goa are printed on heavy, linen-textured cardboard, full-color. The 55 game tiles are broken into part "A" tiles and part "B" tiles. Each one offers certain benefits to its purchaser, and the icons which depict those benefits are mostly intuitive. (A few of the less common ones require lookup in the first game.)

The 20 auction markers are just numbered 1-5 in the four player colors.

The flag is just a colorful flag, though it includes a helpful reminder that its purchaser wins an additional action card.

Cards: The cards are all half-size, printed full color on sturdy linen-textured cardstock with rounded corners. They each include nice, rustic artwork that's attractive and evokes the period of the game.

Most of the cards are just simple markers. This includes colonists (in 1s and 3s), ships (in 1s and 3s), additional action cards (in 1s), and ducat cards (in 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s). There seemed to be enough in all card types.

The expedition cards are moderately complex cards which serve a number of purposes, and thus were somewhat confusing as a result. Each card has a special use, about half of which were clear from the icons, and about half of which really could have used some additional textual explanation, and were thus hurt by the internationalization of the game (though, they would be obvious within a few games). Each card also was used for forming colonies, and thus marked with between 1-3 colonists (and this was what always tended to confuse people on the card), and also had a symbol that was used for end-game scoring.

Having another deck of cards for the colony action would have been much less efficient, but made things much easier on first-time players.

Wood Bits: All painted wood pieces.

There are 20 gray, cubical success markers, which are placed on the development boards to note the level of success of each of the 5 technologies for each player. Pity these weren't color-coded for the players. It's not at all necessary, but would have been pretty.

There are also 50 spice sacks, which are very nicely cut and definitely evocative of bags. They're in five colors (white, green, brown, red, and black for: ginger, pepper, cinammon, nutmeg, and cloves).

Rulebook: A 12-page full-color rulebook. It was easy to read, with good illustrations and examples. It was also extremely easy to use for reference, particularly for the tiles and cards when you had icons that you didn't totally understand.

Box & Tray: The box is a large, bookshelf format. It has a great tray in it, with unique spaces for absolutely everything with one notable flaw: the tray is cut very slightly wrong so that the board doesn't slide into it right. As a result, things are slightly askew, and the board won't hold the other pieces in if you put your game sideways (bookshelf format), which is a real shame.

Overall, the components for Goa are: beautifully produced, very high quality, and have very high usability with just a few small glitches. As a result it earns a high "5" out of "5" for Style: as high as I can go.

The Gameplay

In Goa your object is to: increase technology, found colonies, and engage in expeditions to win victory.

Setup: The setup of Goa is complex, but largely laid out by the board. All the money, colonist, ship, additional action, and expedition cards are laid out on the board. Colonies are arranged in four stacks (Quillon, Cochin, Madras, and Calicut). All the spice sacks are sorted nearby.

A first player is selected and given the "flag".

Each player chooses a color and takes the development board, supply board, and auction markers for that color. He takes 5 success markers and places them at the lowest levels of the five technologies. He also takes 4 ships, 2 colonists, and 10 ducats (7 for the first player).

Setting up the Auction Board. Finally, the auction board is setup. This is a 5x5 grid of spaces in the middle of the gameboard. The 27 tiles labelled "A" are randomized, then the first 25 of them are placed on the auction board grid. (As we'll see, the same task will later be repeated with the "B" markers). These are the initial items available for auction.

Order of Play: The game is played in rounds, each of which is split into two main categories:

1. Auction
2. Action

Auction Phase: During this phase players will first select items for auction, then auction them off.

Selecting Items for Auction: The auction phase begins with the first player, who has the flag, placing the flag down on the auction grid, orthagonally adjacent to at least one auction tile (it may be placed on the edge of a board, or later in an empty space within the board). He places his "1" auction marker on the flag, identifying it as an item he'll be selling.

Then, in order around the table, each other player places their next numbered auction marker on an available tile that's orthagonally or diagonally adjacent to the previous tile (or to the flag, in the case of the first tile selected). When it's come all the way around the table, the first player gets to choose a tile to offer (in addition to his flag) and places his last auction marker on a legal tile. All told, this forms a sort of path around the auction board; each player now has one item for auction, while the first player has two, one of which is his flag.

About the Tiles. The tiles available for auction ofer a variety of benefits to player. In this first part of the game, tiles are available which: are plantations (these are placed on the player's supply board, complete with spice of the appropriate type when won); immediately give free ships, colonists, additional actions cards, or expedition cards; or provide 1 ship, 1 colonist, 1 spice, or 4 ducats every round. In addition there's a special victory tile that lets you ship some spice in exchange for victory points.

Auctioning the Flag: All of the auctions in Goa are simple once-around auctions. They're carried out in the numerical order of the auction markers (which is the order that the items were selected). For each auction, starting with the player to the left of the auctioneer (which is the player who put down their auction marker for that particular tile), each player chooses whether to make a bid; if he does it must be higher than the previous bid. The auctioneer gets last bid, and then whomever bid the highest takes the item. If the auctioneer won his own auction, he pays the amount to the bank, while anyone else instead pays the auctioneer.

The flag has two benefits: first, it determines who the first player is for the next round (starting with the upcoming action phase), and second it provides a free Additional Action card (which, as you might guess, offers additional actions in the action phrase).

Action Phase: During the action phase of Goa, each player gets to take three actions, with each player getting to do one action at a time, interspaced with all the other players taking their actions. Afterward, in order, players get to spend Additional Action cards for additional actions, until all players are done with them. (Each player can only hold one Additional Action over, max, at the end of a round.)

There are six possible actions that a player can take each turn. They are: increasing a technology; or taking an action associated with one of the five technologies (ships, spice, ducats, expeditions, colonies).

Increasign a Technology. Each technology track has five levels, each of which is worth additional victory points and gives additional action benefits.

(In additional players get an Additional Action card when they raise all of their technologies up to a higher plateau or an Expedition Card when they raise an individual technology up to level 4 or 5, and are the first to do so).

To raise up a technology takes from 1-4 spices of specific types and 1-4 ship cards (e.g., the four increases for the ship technology require: a ginger and a ship; a ginger, a cinammon and two ships; a ginger, a cinammon, a pepper, and three ships; and two ginger a cinammon, a pepper and four ships).

Ships. When taking this action you get from 1-5 ship cards depending on your current technology level.

Spice. When taking this action you get from 1-8 spice sacks depending on your current technology level. These spice must refill empty spaces in colonies or plantations, and typically must be of specific types, as determined by the plantation or colony (though many allow a choice of 2 or rarely all 5 spices).

Ducats. When taking this action you get from 4-12 ducats depending on your current technology level.

Expeditions. When taking this action you get from 1-3 expedition cards depending on your current technology level. These cards can be used for specific actions during the game (giving you specific cards, making it easier to increase technology, and giving other benefits), or they can be kept for victory points at the end of the game.

The level of technology also limits how many cards you can keep after you've drawn, between 1-5 total. After you draw you then must play or discard down to that level. (This is slightly different than the original German rule, which the game's author prefers, which says you must discard or play down to an appropriate level before you draw, which makes it harder to hoard specific victory point cards. Some players think that the expedition card track is too powerful as a result of this rules change.)

Colonies. When you take this action you get to try and found a colony. There are four possibilities, which you can found only once each: Quilon requires 6 colonists; Cochin 8; Madras 10; and Calicut 12. Your level of technology gives a number of "free" colonists, from 0-6 depending on technology level. You also get to flip up two expedition cards, which will give you additional colonists between 2-6. If your level on your technology track plus the expedition colonists equals or exceeds the level required for the colony, you get it. Otherwise, you can play colonists from your hand to make up the difference, or else fail to found the colony (in which case you take 1 colonist card).

Colonies are very similar to plantations: they contain spice fields and come with spice when you get them. They're also worth additional victory points.

Ending Part "A": Four rounds of actions and auctions are played out, then part "A" of the game ends. At this point all remaining tiles are removed from the auction grid, and 25 of the 27 part "B" tiles are laid out on the 5x5 grid.

Part "B" tiles are similar to those in part "A", but typically better. There are: bigger plantations; more tiles that provide ships, colonists, additional actions, and expeditions; a couple of victory point tiles; and a number of special, light blue tiles which provide various special functions in the game (such as refilling plantations, increasing a technology, etc.).

Ending the Game: The game ends after another four rounds of auctions and actions are played, at which point the game is scored.

Scoring is a bit ... complex. Here's what all you get points for:

• 0, 1, 3, 6, or 10 points, depending on level reached in each technology (1-5).
• 0, 1, 3, 6, or 10 points, depending on how many colonies founded (0-4).
• 0, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, or 20 points, depending on how many expedition cards held with the same VP symbol (0-6), for each symbol type.
• 3 points for the player with the most money.
• 1 point each for the smallest plantations.
• 2-4 points each for various special VP tiles.

The player with the most points wins.

Relationships to Other Games

Goa is a complex, historical strategy game that reminds me strongly of the Alea Bookshelf Games. It could easily have been a #9 in that series. It reminds me the most closely of: The Traders of Genoa, also by Rudiger Dorn, because both games have a particularly baroque auction system, though it's not that distant from The Princes of Florence either, since each incluse a bipartite auction/action system.

Goa bases its auctions about a system of player auctioneers who take home their earnings unless they buy their own item. Reiner Knizia's Modern Art is another notable auction system with the same mechanism.

Finally, Goa is also a resource management game, centering around producing resources, then using those resources to gain other advantages in the game. The definitive example of this gameplay is, of course, Klaus Teuber's The Settlers of Catan.

The Game Design

Overall, Goa is a complex, thoughtful game. Here's some of the design I liked best:

Interesting Auctioning: The auctioning, as I already mentioned, is baroque. It includes lots of weird ornamentation. However, the result is enjoyable to play and allows for quite a bit of strategy. Initial flag placement, and later decisions on which tiles to auction all have strategic basis, while the actual auction itself includes all the normal strategy implicit in a once-around player-controlled auction, which is quite a bit.

Some Strategic & Tactical Depth: There's some real & interesting strategy in the game, centering around which spice types to concentrate on, and thus which technologies you can improve, amd thus which later moves you can make. The game is a constant juggle of trying to figure out what you need to increase to make most efficient use of your turns when you're taking technology-based actions. In addition, there are some tactics, mostly involving when to take actions (and the flag) in order to beat out your opponents to the 4th and 5th levels of technologies, and thus win free expedition cards.

Weak Theme, but Colorful: The theming of the game is somewhat weak, as is the case in many German games. Despite that there is a lot of color in this game which adds to the enjoyment.

Here's some of the problems I had with the gameplay:

Limited Value of Strategy: Although there is real opportunity for strategy, toward the end of the game it all evens out. Most player manages to get 3-4 out of 4 colonies, plant most types of spice, and also raise their technology tracks to fairly similar levels. There is a little bit of differential between individual player abilities, mostly based on which individual technologies they raised up to level 5, but it's a lot less than seems to be promised by the strong strategic basis of the early game, and this can ultimately be a bit of a disappointment.

Overly Complex Scoring: The scoring is overly complex and as a result a bit opaque. It's hard for a first time player to keep track of all the possible methods for scoring, and it's not simple to add up all the points and see how each player is doing. A single, in-game method for scoring points would have been much more intuitive and improved the game quite a bit.

Other Overly Complex Systems: Overall, there's a lot of complexity in the system, and I think this really comes out in how many mistakes first time players make. I believe I personally messed up three different rules the first time through (that plantations and colonies come with spices; that expedition cards are only discarded to hand size limit when using the expedition action, not when getting expedition cards from other methods; and specifically how the "viceroy" tile worked), which may be a record for me on a new game. Skimming web sites and newsgroups implies most first-time players likewise mess up something.

Somewhat Mechanical: At various points, the gameplay can feel somewhat dry and mechanical, with choices being very obvious based on current situation.

Overall, I feel like Goa is a very strong game in the "advanced strategy" category that's held back a bit by minor end-game strategy problems, scoring issues, and a fairly high complexity. Nonetheless, Goa is still a very good game, one of the best in its category to come out in 2004, and thus it earns a high "4" out of "5" rating for Substance.

Conclusion

Though it has some end-game and scoring issues and a high complexity, Goa is one of the best "advanced strategy" game releases in 2004, and is highly recommended for anyone looking for a new game which requires serious strategic thought and plays in about two hours.

In consulting DriveThruRPG we've come up with a number of products which we think might be related, but some might be inaccurate because the name, Goa, is so short. Nonetheless, take a look, as purchasing through the RPGnet Store helps to support RPGnet.