Rebirth

The Game

I bought Rebirth not only as a boardgame, but also as memorabilia. I tried it for the first time at the 2024 Essen game fair. This is a design from Reiner Knizia, and I have been a fan of his for 20 years. The fair was massive. There were so many people that it was hard to find available seats to play games that you were interested in, especially if they were hot games. I was lucky to find a seat to play Rebirth. After playing, I found it nice but not groundbreaking. It felt like a slightly more complicated version of Through the Desert. I did not originally plan to buy a copy. Then I found out there was going to be a Reiner Knizia signing session. I thought this would make a meaningful souvenir for my trip. So I got myself a copy and braved the signing queue. Now, in hindsight, I’m glad I did that. Otherwise I would be regretting. 

Rebirth happens in a future earth where humankind has suffered severe calamities and is now rebuilding human civilisation, this time doing it in a way more aligned with nature. Whoever contributes the most in rebuilding civilisation wins. Your turn is very simple. You place a tile on the board, possibly scoring points, and then you draw a tile for the next turn. Everyone has their own set of tiles. There are three types of tiles - food farms, power farms and settlements. They score points in different ways. You play until everyone has placed all their tiles. You then do a final scoring and the game ends. 

Let’s talk about how you score points. Food and power farms both score points based on how big a connected group you have, so you tend to want to group your food farms, and your power farms. There are restrictions on where you may place which tiles on the board. Sometimes you place tiles to prevent your opponents from forming big groups. So yes, there is blocking and fighting for space. Settlements can only be placed in housing districts, and they are only scored when the district is filled. Settlement tiles have one to four houses. You use houses to compete for dominance in housing districts. When a district scores, whoever has the most houses scores the most points. The player with the second most houses scores too, but scores less. 

There are locations on the map designated for rebuilding castles. When you place a tile next to a vacant castle location, you start rebuilding the castle. You take one of your castle pieces and place it there. Castles in your colour score points at game end. Castle ownership depends on who has the most tiles adjacent to the castle location. Castle ownership can change hands because an opponent’s influence might overtake yours. 

Another major building type you can construct is the cathedrals. They are not worth points inherently, but every time you get involved in a new cathedral restoration project, you get to draw a mission card. These give you points at game end if you fulfill their conditions. 

All this is the basic game, played on a map of Scotland. The game also comes with an Irish map. The core gameplay is the same but there are some differences. It is slightly more complicated. So you get two games in one. 

The Play

Rebirth is about trying to grab small advantages over your opponents when you all play on a mostly level playing field. You have mostly the same set of tiles, just that you don’t know when you’ll draw which tile. Your opponent may have a 4-house settlement beating your 1-house settlement, but you will draw your own 4-house settlement sooner or later. This is what I mean by level playing field. So the game is about trying to do more than your opponents despite having the same resources. That means grabbing tactical opportunities that come up and also playing efficiently. 

You should somewhat balance between helping yourself and hindering others. It is best when you can do both. The play area starts with being big and open. You have many options. Only towards late game as more and more spaces are taken your choices dwindle. 

It is good to get involved in cathedrals early, so that you draw those mission cards early and can better plan your play around them. However the cathedral locations are far apart and you pay the price of dispersing your resources. So this is not exactly straightforward. 

The housing districts introduce a bit of a frienemy thing. Despite being competitors, sometimes you want to cooperate to fill up a housing district. Housing districts do score points at game end even if not completely filled, but usually you’ll score more for completed housing districts. This is an interesting dynamic.  

The tiebreaker rule is a little convoluted I must say. And it might not even be needed often since the points go high. In the case of ties, the control of Edinburgh Castle determines who wins. However if neither tied player controls Edinburgh Castle, it is the player who controls Stirling Castle who wins, even if they are not in the lead. I like this though, because it adds to the story and immersion. 

The Thoughts

Rebirth plays smoothly because of how simple a turn is. It gives you much freedom. There are many aspects you need to compete in. There is high player interaction. You need to constantly evaluate where to compete and who to compete against. The game components are excellent and they add much to the play experience.