| 👨👩👧👦 | Players: 2-4 |
| ⏳ | Time: 45-75 mins |
| 🎂 | Ages: 10+ |
| ⚙️ | Mechanisms: Worker placement |
Today was the first time we’d had a chance to try 12 Rivers at two players, so we wanted to write a little about what it’s like with two! Given that a huge part of the fun in this game is unpredictability, how does it hold up?
We felt it was quite strategic and cutthroat at two, with the card effects and fairy bonuses playing a huge role in getting what you wanted. A few times we were able to use one of these to take an extra pearl or move a token unexpectedly, which is marble-ous when you’re the one doing it!
You only use half the rivers, which means less chances of the colours you want coming out. It made the colour bonuses a lot more valuable as they were harder to complete, and made us go for variety with the villager tiles in hopes of completing at least some of them.
Turn order doesn’t seem to matter that much, as at worst you’d have to wait three moves to get a go, and most of the time it’s one or two. It felt more important to put effort into snagging the specific pearls needed so there was less time to worry about it.
The lake spot, which can be really important to catch the runoff pearls, barely came into play after the first round, and at best you could hope for a couple to end up here. Having less players shifted the focus up the river, and while those top spots are expensive, they proved the best way to get exactly what you needed.
While at two players it’s a slightly different experience, it’s still a great one and we didn’t mind that it was a little more intense and even had a bit of take-that to it. We’re looking forward to getting this out with friends soon, but it’s good to know that it’s one we can sit down to when it’s just the two of us as well.
You can see this post on Instagram here and if you are interested you can find out more about the game on the Good Games Publishing website!
The copy of 12 Rivers used for this review was provided to A Tale of Two Meeples by Good Games Publishing
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