But for once I relented, and agreed to play a few games of Kahuna.
Premise and basic rules
Kahuna is a game where two priest-sorcerers are competing to demonstrate their superior magical power by taking control of a small group of islands.
This is done by playing cards to lay down bridges, and through these bridges taking control of islands.
Basically each player starts the game with a hand of 5 cards. Each card has the name of one of the islands on the game board. On the game board each island is connected to its adjacent islands by a bridge. Some islands have 3 bridges, some have 4, some have 5 and some have 6.
At the start of the game each player is dealt 5 cards into his hand, and then 3 cards are dealt face up onto the table. The rest form the game deck.
On a players turn he can play as many cards as he likes. He can play a card to lay down a bridge of his colour (black or white) onto an empty slot adjacent to the named island. Alternatively he can play two cards to remove a bridge of his enemy, so long as both the cards played are adjacent to that bridge (i.e. one of each island either side, or two of one of the islands). At the end of each of his turns he can draw a card into his hand, either from the face up three cards or from the top of the deck. If he draws from a face up card it gets replaced from the deck.
If he controls more than half of the bridges around an island then he takes control of that island, and gets to place a circular token on the island to indicate his ownership. As soon as he does this all enemy bridges connecting to that island immediately vanish.
If at any time he drops to half the bridges or less on that island he loses control of it.
When the last card is drawn the round ends. At the end of a round the cards a shuffled back fromt he discard into the deck, but the player's hands stay the same and the board remains unchanged.
Each round scores a certain number of points for winning (having the most islands) - 1 for the first round, 2 for the second round and for the third round a number of points equal to the difference in islands controlled.
Style and art
The game board was quite pretty, on good solid board with nice bright colours. The wooden bridge pieces are just sticks, which is a bit disappointing. The island control tokens are circular bits of wood, but do have a natty Kahuna palm-symbol inked onto them which looks quite good.
The black vs white colour choice is quite nice.
So fairly functional, but if I had paid money for this I would be a tiny bit disappointed in the quality of the pieces.
Playing the Game
We played a series of games to get a feel for it, and played around with various different tactics.
One of the things I imeediately liked about the game was its relative simplicity. The best board games, in my opinion, are those based around very simple concepts but with great tactical depth, such as Othello, Chess or Draughts. Kahuna immediately scores on the simplicity and elegance of its play - it did not take very long to understand the dynamic of the game and the flow of strategy.
The game seemed to me to break down into three phases.
In the first phase, both players move to establish strongholds, set up for future plays and to interfere with their opponent's set up.
In the second phase, the board is starting to get crowded, and there are big swings and turnovers as control of islands swings back and forth.
In the third phase the board is almost full up, and players drop down bridges to fill in the last remaining gaps then try to break the other player's advantage.
The first phase is very enjoyable and probably offers the most tactical options. You can build up your cards then blitz a load of islands, or you can work slow and steady to gradually accumulate influence. However eventualyl a pattern egane to emerge - it became clear that whichever player made the opening gambit would invariably end up in a worse position because the other player could react to them and move to destroy their bridges.
The second phase is where most of the action takes place, and it seemed that in each game (not round) the person who could disrupt the other's plan the most would be assured of victory. The problem here is the randomness of the game: because you can't plan what you are going to draw its very difficult to plan ahead, though knowing what cards are left in the deck can let you play the odds a little bit.
The final phase, oddly, is very dull. Once a player is established in the lead it is very difficult to break that lead. Destroying bridges does not help unless you can immediately replace it with one of your own. This is very tough to do as you require 3 cards of islands adjacent to the bridge you are targeting, out of 4 cards which meet that requirement int he whole deck. Destroying a bridge without being able to replace it immediately is tactical suicide, as when the opponent reclaims his bridge and island he will invariably blow up a load of your ones to.
Strengths of the Game
The game has several strengths.
The game is very quick and easy to learn. Playing with decent pace you can complete a game in about half an hour. Taking time to think probably stretches it out to an hour.
The game is quite satisfying, in that it has an expansion, conflict and consolidation pattern to it. Its also a fairly good buzz when you siddenly sweep into the lead with a move you have been planning for 10 turns.
The game mechanic is essentially elegant and simple, but with complexities aising from this.
The game is perfectly balanced, by nature of both sides being identical.
The game appeals to those with a gambling streak, as there are several times when you have to take risks on calculated odds.
The game rewards patient play and careful attention to detail.
Weaknesses of the Game
Sadly there are flaws to this game, and to me the flaws outweigh the strengths.
The game is essentially very random. Though I an not entirely opposed to random elements in a game, a good strategy game should allow the more skilful player to win at least 2/3 of the time. With Kahuna I get the impression that if I were to play 100 games against any decently intelligent opponent, we would get damn close to 50 games a piece. Try that with chess...
The game is very static in the endgame, and it is too easy for the guy in the lead to stay in the lead. I always prefer games that give an edge to the losing player, but this is a rare quality in strategy games. In multiplayer games at least you tend to get diplomatic solutions to players rushing ahead. In Vampire for example (my all time favourite game) if one player gets too strong almost immediately the entire table will conspire to beat him down. In Kahuna, if you are in the lead at the end of Round 1, you will win the game 9 times out of 10.
The game, ultimately, is not very interesting. I admit by the end of the session I was bored with the game and never wanted to play it again. I may have a slight bias as an all-round gamer rather than a boardgamer, but to me this game lacked the backstory, interest, tactical variation and depth that other games (e.g. Game of Thrones) might have.
Conclusion
Pete likes this game. But then Pete likes all board games - I swear the man dreams of wooden pieces marching across cardboard maps.
I enjoyed this game briefly, but felt it lacked long term substance. Pete would probably tell me that I didn't really get it, and that there are levels of strategy buried deep that I haven't even realised yet.
If this game is your sort of thing, you probably own it already. If not, I probably wouldn't bother getting it. Personally, I won't be playing it again.
