The Game
Whale Riders is a 2021 game from master designer Reiner Knizia. The art is by Vincent Dutrait, one of the best in the industry. This is a medium weight strategy game. It is set in a fictitious world. You are merchants traveling the seas riding killer whales. Winter storms are coming, and you are embarking on your final voyage of the year before winter sets in. You purchase goods to fulfil contracts, and contracts give you points. When this final voyage is completed and you return to your home port, the game ends and the highest scorer wins.
So far all this sounds pretty typical - collecting resources to fulfil contracts and score points. What makes Whale Riders interesting is the mechanism around buying goods. It presents challenging decisions, tricky player interaction and also an element of luck and surprise. There are many tactical choices you have to make.
All your riders start at your home port at the top right. There are seven other ports on the map. You first travel towards the final port at the top left corner. At each port You may stop for as long as you wish, and buy as many goods as you like. After getting to the end of the journey, you must turn back and return home. On the way back you may still stop to buy goods. Riders who arrive home get to buy pearls set up at the home port. Once these pearls run out, the game ends. Pearls are your points. You also get them when you fulfil contracts. Sometimes you even buy them directly at the ports.
On your turn you have two actions. There are only a handful of things you can do, and they are all simple. One basic action is simply riding from one port to the next. You always ride in one direction and you cannot backtrack. You only turn back once at the end of the route, and after that you can only move in one direction - home. What that means is you only have two opportunities to visit each port, except for the end port which you can only visit once. You can decide how long you want to stay for each visit. The longer you stay, the more you will be able to buy.
The other important action is to buy a tile. At each port there are slots for four tiles. Their prices are based on the slot they occupy. The tile nearest to the sea is always free, and the others cost $1, $2 and $3, more expensive when further from the coast. When you end your turn, if there are tiles you have purchased and thus empty slots on the board, you will need to refill. First you need to slide the tiles remaining on the board such that if there is a cheaper slot next to them, they move to that slot. So you are sliding tiles towards the sea, and they become cheaper. After that is done, you draw tiles from a bag to fill in the empty slots, which are now the most expensive slots.
Some tiles in the bag are not goods, but storms. These tiles are handled in the same way. The only difference is you can't buy storms. These storm tiles will eventually occupy the cheapest slots at a port, making goods there more expensive. They can take up all four slots and close the port to trade. There is a sense of impending doom in this game, as goods become rarer and prices go up. It becomes more and more expensive and difficult to complete contracts.
Contracts specify what you need to collect and trade in to fulfil them. Your rewards are pearls and money. Pearls are your victory points. Money will be needed to fund your subsequent purchases, to further fulfil other contracts. They are your cash flow.
The Play
The rules are straight-forward and intuitive. The interaction and tactical considerations are delicious. The two actions per turn, which can be seen in some other Knizia games, is genius. In the game we played, there were several times when I felt I just needed a third action and I would have pulled off a fantastic move. Being limited to two actions forces you to think carefully and also to plan ahead. One aspect of the game reminds me of pool / snooker. It is not just about buying what you need. It is very much about not setting up a great move for the next player. This is not always easy to do. Sometimes you are desperate enough for something to be willing to leave a golden opportunity to your opponent. This is the kind of dilemma you face in Whale Riders.
When multiple players stop at the same port, it can be difficult if you are fighting over the same tiles. However it can also be a good thing if you are looking for different goods. Each of you buy what you want, and together you keep prices low for one another. If you are by yourself at a port and have already bought the goods you are interested in, you may be forced to buy things you don't really need, hoping to draw tiles that you do need, and to drive down the prices of the new tiles.
Let me give a few more examples. Let's say you have to choose between a 1 vegetable tile and a 3 pottery tile. You need that 1 vege tile to complete a contract, but then 3 pottery is such a good deal! How do you choose? If you don't buy the 3 pottery tile, you are making it cheaper for the next player. If you don't get the vege, you might not be able to find another any time soon.
Here's another situation. Everyone has turned back and you are the trailing rider. That means as long as you stay at the current port, there will be no one else coming to compete for goods. You can take your sweet time buying goods. You hope to draw 3-goods tiles because you are monopolising this port. However there is a risk of staying too far behind. When your opponents get back home, they will be buying those precious home pearls cheaply.
There is a tension between moving fast and moving slow. You want to position yourself to buy goods you need, and hopefully at a low price (free is best). How many contracts should you try to complete? How soon should you rush home and end the game? The weather and trade deteriorates at an unpredictable pace. Your job is to maximise your opportunities and gather pearls as efficiently as possible. You also need to consider how to end the game at a time convenient for you.
The tile closest to the sea is always free.
The rainbow coloured crystal is a wild.
By the time we headed back, many storm tiles had come into play. Our homeward journey was much quicker.
This is certainly a game with the Reiner Knizia signature. Elegant, polished and strategic. This is master craftsmanship. It is a clean design. With just a simple ruleset, the game presents many interesting situations and tough decisions. The game is easy to learn and plays smoothly. It is among the most enjoyable new games I have played this year. I greatly admire the design. The game comes with two variants which we have not yet tried. One of them gives players unique powers, and they seem crazy strong. Sign me up for the next game!
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