Players: 2-6
Playing Time: 30-75 minutes
Difficulty: 2 (of 10)

The Components

Dragon Delta comes with:

• 1 board
• 7 pawns
• 27 stones
• 36 planks
• 78 cards
• 1 rulebook

Board: A four-panel board showing six villages and a series of islands located between them. It's the basis for the plank-walking between the villages that's about to occur, and it's particularly notable because placements on the board aren't controlled by any grid. Instead stone and plank placement are freeform (within the confines of the islands).

Each starting village is marked with a color, but it's unfortunately a bit subtle (just a strip of color to the side of the board)--and there's no corresponding mark on the village the player will be going to. I suggest starting players in the village opposite the one of their color, as it'll make impending victory that much clearer.

The board has oriental markings around the edges, and overall is done in an Oriental style which adds nicely to the theming of the game.

Pawns: 6 small wooden pawns in the six player colors (white, black, red, green, yellow, blue) plus a larger wooden pawn in brown, to mark the current first player.

Stones: Gray wooden discs. They sit on islands and support planks. (I was amused to see that they're also depicted on the cover as little wooden discs).

Planks: 6 cardboard planks eac in the six player colors, of six differnet lengths, labeled 1-6. These planks sit on the stones and span between the islands and the villages. The pawns will use them to cross. They're very cool looking, especially when stacked upon the board in various rickety combinations which really give the game the feel of a "rickety race", exactly as described on the cover.

Cards: 13 cards each in the 6 different player colors. They're printed on medium-weight cardstock with no texturing. Each card offers the ability to do a different action. Good iconography makes it easy to figure out which card does what.

Rulebook: An 8-page rulebook in full-color with illustrations and examples.

Overall Dragon Delta features good-quality components with good utility. However it really shines in the "coolness" factor of the components, which allow you to build rickety networks of bridges across the Dragon Delta. They look neat the they perfectly fit the theme. As such I've awarded it a "5" out of "5" for Style.

The Gameplay

The object of Dragon Delta is to get across the delta, to the village exactly opposite you.

Setup: The board is laid out in the middle of the table Each player takes 1 pawn, 6 planks (of lengths 1-6), and up to 13 action cards in his color.

Each player places his pawn in his starting village.

The stones are placed to the side of the board (for use by anyone) and a starting player is selected.

Traversing The Board. The board contains 6 villages surrounding a delta (really, a lake) filled with small islands. You'll get from one place to another by placing stones on the islands, then placing planks between those stones, then walking across those planks.

Order of Play: Each round each player will take his action cards and select 5 of them, placing them in order in front of him.

Then each player will simultaneously reveal his first card. Now, starting with the first player, each player will take their first action (unless someone revealed their dragon, on which, more momentarily).

This continues with the players revealing their second through fifth cards and taking those actions.

Afterward each player takes back all his action cards. The first player shifts one person clockwise and a new round of play begins.

The Action Cards: each player will have 9-13 action cards (depending on the number of players) and through these he can manage several distinctive effects. Once a player has selected an action card he then must take the appropriate action, which can sometimes be to the player's deficit. The action cards are:

Place 1 Stone. The player places a stone on any island without a stone already on it. The stone may be placed anywhere on the island as long as it doesn't touch the water, which can allow a lot of freedom in later plank placement.

Place 2 Stones. As above, but twice as many stones.

Place 1 Plank. The player places a plank from his personal supply. He must select which plank he's going to use before he tests it out on the board, which can sometimes result in getting a too-short plank (and having to put it somewhere other than desired).

A plank must be placed between a stone and a stone or between a stone and a village. There can't be more than 3 planks leading to a stone or to a village. Finally, planks can't cross over other planks (though they can clearly overlap a bit at a stone).

Place 2 Planks. As above, but twice as many stones.

Remove a Plank or Stone. The player may remove any stone without a plank on it. Or, the player may remove any plank without a pawn on it, if he can legally hold the plank.

Each player may have in his personal supply no more than 2 different colors of planks (meaning you can indeed take your opponents' planks) and no more than 1 plank of each size.

Move Your Pawn 1 Plank. The player moves his pawn one space, from one plank to another, from a plank to a village, or from a village to a plank. He can't move through or onto other player pawns.

And, if he has nowhere to move, he falls into the water! (And goes back to his starting village.)

Move Your Pawn 2 Planks. The player moves his pawn 2 spaces, generally subject to the earlier movement restrictions. In addition he may only move back to his starting space (for the turn) if there is no other way to move. (This can often result in a pawn moving the totally wrong direction.)

Jump Your Pawn. The player jumps his pawn over an adjacent pawn to a plank (or village) on the other side. However if the jump can't be made because there's no adjacent pawn or no place to land ... the pawn ends up in the water!

Dragons. Each player has one dragon card for each opponent. A player may only play one dragon card among his set of five. When you reveal a dragon card the associated player doesn't get to take his action that same turn (irrespective of whether he went before or after you). Dragons can't nullify each others' effects.

Winning the Game: A player wins the instant he arrives in his destination village.

Relationships to Other Games

Dragon Delta is a programmed movement race game. It's a genre that doesn't have many entrants into it, with one of the few others being Richard Garfield's RoboRally. Dragon Delta is considerably quicker than RoboRally and the spatial geometry is a lot simpler (primarily because there's no concept of facing).

Besides programmed movement, Dragon Delta also contains aspects of bluffing and simulaneous action, though those are both pretty synonomous with programmed movement.

The Game Design

Dragon Delta is, quite simply, a lot of fun.

You have strategy on the one hand, as you try and figure out how to get your pawn across the delta, both based on your own movements and those of your opponents. There's a lot of guessing and second-guessing. You need to figure out not only where your opponents will be, and when they might try and stop you, but also what building they might do that you can take advantage of.

You can actually be exceedingly clever through your movements, if you're good. One of the best moves that I saw in my first game involved a player hitting who's pawn was next to his with a dragon as his first action, then jumping over him with a second. He was afraid that he'd get stopped on the first move, but by playing a dragon he made sure that the opponent he wanted to jump would still be there by action #2.

There's also some chances to be strategically defensive in the game which can be very clever as well. This might involve movement, but it could also involve laying bridges to either block a specific connection or else to bring a stone up to its 3-plank limit.

Beyond that there's a huge amount of chaos to the game, as you have to constantly act and react based upon what your opponents are doing. It can get frustrating sometimes, but I also think it's what really makes the game shine, as it's darned funny to see how your best laid plans have been ruined by your opponent and to quickly adjust as well as you can.

With some games, chaos is to be avoided, but I really think that's not the case here, and that the game is better off for it (and as a result the 6-player game plays great; it goes longer, but there's that much chaos to play off of).

And finally, let me say that Dragon Delta is very original and very clever. It's a plain 'ole neat game.

Dragon Delta isn't a game that you're going to like if you're looking for a very staid game where strategy always wins. But if you like casual games, if you like American games, or if you like games that are just plain fun, this is one of the best of class, and thus I've awarded it a full "5" out of "5" for Substance.

Conclusion

Dragon Delta is a clever game of bridge building and programmed movement. It's frustrating and funny as you try and move across the playing field while keeping all of your opponents out of the way. It's casual and chaotic too, but if you like that sort of game, this is one of the best in the genre and very highly recommended.

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