Review of Konja

Blurb from the publisher: 'The land is thirsty.

Konja is a press-your-luck tabletop game, in which you and an opponent assume the role of a shaman wizard, summoning clouds to a dry land.'

What you get: Your EUR 25 or equivalent will buy you Konja, a press-your-luck dice game for two players that can be played in around 15 minutes.

In addition to the rulebook in English, French and German that can be found on the publisher's website free of charge, the game also contains the following items: 18 Relic cards, 22 Spell cards, 27 gold tokens, 18 Magick tokens, 18 Power tokens, 27 Cloud tokens, one Spirit token, one Start token, 5 Green dice, 2 Red dice, 2 Purple dice, 2 White dice, 5 Ancestor tiles, one Pyramid of Summoning tile, 5 Idols, and one Reference Sheet.

The game is language neutral. If someone can explain you the rules (and there's three major languages covered right there), you are good to go.

Gameplay: You need to summon clouds worth 21 points in order to win the game and awaken Chango, the ancient god of storms. Players play in turns, each completing the turn's three phases before play proceeds to the other player. There are three phases in the game: Ancestors, Bones, and Collection.

Ancestors allows you to gain a favour for the turn. In addition to the favour, both players also receive a blessing. There are five Ancestors: the Relic, the Spirit, the Spell, the Resource, and the Rain. Favours include discarding any number of Spells, sacrificing relics, upgrading clouds etc. Blessings include refreshing all Relic cards, gaining resources, summoning clouds etc. An ancestor is marked when he is chosen. All of them have to be chosen once, in order for them to become unmarked again.

During the Bones phase the active wizard rolls five Green and two Action dice. The green six-siders have the exact same statistical spread (from one to six as expected), and are exchanged for resource tokens and clouds. The Action dice have three blank sides and one of Magick, Power, and Gold. They activate a wizard's Relic cards. They are both combinable with spells (cards with immediate effects obtained by the Spell Ancestor that need Magick tokens to function), and Relics (permanent effects which get exhausted and subsequently refreshed by the Relic Ancestor).

Collection is about the opponent attacking the active wizard. The opponent rolls red dice, which, if higher than a die of the active player, they will eliminate it and take its place in the final pool. The active wizard then exchanges his final dice combinations (red dice included) according to the Pyramid of Summoning for Power, Magic, Gold and Clouds. The patterns are not dissimilar to those of other dice games: one dice more than four earns a Power, two dice with the same number gain two Magicks, three dice with the same number earn a three point cloud (with the cloud's points increasing the more identical dice the player sacrifices) etc.

The game can be also played to 30 points. Finally, the Shayka variant eliminates the PvP confrontation.

The strong points: After the the Cthulhian Ancient Terrible Things and the freezing Snowblind, I know what to expect from Pleasant Company Games: push your luck dice games. The innovation here is that the game is custom-made for two players, and the take-that element is more obvious.

The idea behind Konja is combo making. No die roll will be wasted. The point is not to aimlessly reroll, but to use your resources in the best way possible in order to get the rainmaking points the soonest possible. This is not a straightforward exercise, and you can't keep petitioning (see: bribing) the Rain Ancestor for clouds. You need power, you need money, you need quite a few things in order for your rolls to be meaningful and productive, to exchange this with that while activating a third thing that helps your cause... or makes your opponent's life harder. The balance between the known and the hidden elements of what you can do is one of the aspects that drives the game.

The first player does not hold an advantage, seeing how both players will compete over the exact same number of turns. There are quite a few things that you can do during your round; too bad that some of them (the Ancestors, wink wink), will also partially help your opponent. In reality the game feels a bit like a puzzle with the dice rolling being the unknown variable. You are trying to help yourself the most, knowing that your opponent will also get a boost from your choices. Thus, you are trying to minimise his gains during your turn, and preemptively activate the Ancestors he would like to so that he lags behind. You cannot fully block your opponent (that wouldn't have been fun), yet your actions are important. It is as fun to upgrade your cloud tiles as it is to downgrade your opponents, and this is only the most straightforward of examples. Some of the best moments in the game come when your opponent realises that he is missing a crucial resource to create a combo that would have made a difference, all because of your play earlier on.

Having said that, the game is not an exercise in negativity. It is about making the most out of what you have in your hand. The direct PvP element is a spanner in the works and not more than that. Depending on the context, such attacks may even help you. Like in many other games, timing is of the utmost importance.

Konja is easy to learn, teach and play, it does require however a certain experience in order to master it. Most of the game happens because of player choices and the combos that are created, not because of what the rulebook says. There are a few points of contention here and there, yet a careful reading solves everything.

Just like Ancient Terrible Things and Snowblind, the art and production values are of a very high standard. All of Pleasant Company Games' productions have a very distinct visual representation and are immediately distinguishable. The art lies somewhere between wondrous, spooky, and bizarre, without however becoming adult-oriented. The little skulls on the six-siders instead of pips are cute, to say the least. I would love to see them in other types of dice as well, and import them to my favourite RPGs. The pictographs are easy to understand, and if you have any trouble, the two reference sheets are well done. I would have preferred to have all the info in one page (there is some dead space), but it is not tragic.

The weak points: Attention: dice game. Contains luck. Skill definitely plays an aspect, it isn't called however a push-your-luck dice game for nothing. If you don't like dice, you might want to steer clean.

You wouldn't expect to overanalyze a dice game, Konja however may cause (minor) AP issues on those who cannot take on-the-spot decisions. On the one hand it is not rocket science. On the other hand there are some amongst us who tend to overanalyze information that has not been determined yet, like a future die roll. 'What should I do now if my future roll is X?' Please, don't do that. It makes games like this drag impossibly. This isn't really a speed game, but it should be played up-tempo.

Just because Konja is a two-player game and has a take-that element does not mean that it transcends into slapstick comedy. The game is thoughtful, reserved in some ways. I consider this a positive. Don't come here expecting a gung-ho, guns blazin' battle of wizards. The game is more subdued than that.

You probably won't meet to play Konja as the main event, it is however a worthy filler. The fact that it is custom made for two players increases its replayability, even though it takes quite the space. Playing it in space-limited areas is not going to be easy, taking into account the amount of cards you need to spread.

Conclusion: Konja is a two player custom-built dice roller with quite the punch. There is always something useful and entertaining to do in order to promote your cause or hinder your opponent. The take-that element is balanced while the game avoids the problems usually associated with dice-rolling games. The artwork is nice, while the theme is as original as they get. Let it rain!

For more info on Konja and Pleasant Company Games take a look at http://pleasantcompanygames.co.za.

Shameless plug: for more gaming news and content (including, for example, pictures of Konja that I am unfortunately not able to upload on RPG.net for the time being), and to better keep track of my reviews, subscribe to my Antonios S facebook and twitter page.