CAIRN (2019)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
2	25 mins	Christian Martinez	Matagot

In this game, players are moving their Shamans across the board, trying to position them in a way that activates a Transformation effect.

This basically means that pieces need to be lined up in a specific way to ‘take’ a piece.

Like CHESS, CAIRN is a game that, if you rush, you’ll make bad moves and miss traps being set by your opponent.

But it does have a few tricks that make it more than just moving pieces one at a time.

Players are limited to one of three Actions per turn. And when you pick an Action, you flip the Action tile, altering that effect.

For example, you use the Action tile to ‘move a Shaman one space orthogonally’. But when you flip it, the effect becomes ‘move a Shaman one space diagonally’.

This means your turn will deny your opponent the same Action. Of course it might be the tile effect they were waiting for.

And this is what makes it CHESS like, with serious consideration being given to each move you make. Because if you just focus on the immediate effect for your pieces only, you’ll be missing what your opponent is planning.

Something else that elevates the game is the use of Megaliths.

When a Shaman is taken out, a Megalith tile pops up on the spot the piece was removed from. These tiles add new random effects to that spot including Banishing opponents pieces or moving other Shamans.

These Megaliths are random and unknown until they are selected, which adds an element of chaos into the game, and gives another target for players to focus on.

But while this chaos is entertaining, it can make planning a little more difficult. I’ve lost many a Shaman just because I can’t take into account every single thing in the board state once I make my move.

Overall CAIRN is a fantastic 1 vs 1 game that is slow and thinky, and short enough to get a couple of plays in. And the art and miniatures make for a beautiful table presence.