March 28, 2024

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Atiwa – a worker recruitment game about flying foxes

Atiwa – a worker recruitment game about flying foxes

Every time Uwe Rosenberg releases a new game, you hear “Oh, new Rosenberg” from one corner, and only a groan from the other corner, maybe “Once again, new Rosenberg”. Some of these “critics” even claim that Rosenberg has since Agricola It always releases the same game with different themes, components and levels of difficulty, thus ignoring each new release of the game author from East Friesland. First of all: Rosenberg will also take people with him ativa (Observation games) Do not collect. Because where Rosenberg is, Rosenberg is in. Attiwa is no exception here.

Finally a poop game with a serious theme

Rosenberg was inspired by the game Atiwa Article by the Max Planck Society on the reforestation of African forests by fruit bats. The so-called palm fruit bats, a species of bat widespread in Ghana, feed on nectar and fruits, which they collect on long flights at night and whose seeds they again excrete on the way. Thus the seeds that are excreted lead to the growth of new plants. As a result, a local king in the town of Kebbi in southern Ghana has placed a colony of these fruit bats under his personal protection, while elsewhere the fruit bat population continues to decline as they are caught and sold as food in markets. The full background story of the game is described in detail in an accompanying booklet and will be discussed in a separate book by Uwe Rosenberg.

Green Ghana is built on dung

Atiwa - cover illustration. Cropped - Image courtesy of Lookout Games

Atiwa now picks up on this concept. In Attiwa, each player has their own board with bush animals, trees, fruits, families, and goats as well as their own village adjacent to that board at the start, which provides room for three families, bush animal, goat, tree and flying fox. Any number of other locations and landscapes can be placed below and next to this village, which not only provide extra space for said markers, but also give minus or victory points at the end of the game.

Atiwea is a working placement of resources in the forest

On a large game board depicting an African landscape, players can use their three workers to perform various actions, which mainly involve taking or exchanging resources. In addition, you can get more locations and landscapes from these fields, for which you have to pay a certain amount of gold and trees depending on the type of location. The range here stretches from the home to the small town. These cities differ not only in costs but also in space for families and victory points at the end of the game.

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Natural cycle in Atwa

The game spans seven rounds, where players alternately place their three workers on the game board and attempt to start their own engine using the board. This is where the theme of the game comes into play. We want to plant trees, which in turn produce fruit, which in turn attract flying foxes, who in turn plant more trees with their droppings and restart the cycle. Of course, we want to settle families in our villages. However, these are contrary to our noble aims, because without sufficient education, they not only search for gold and thus destroy the environment, but also endanger the natural cycle by eating flying foxes. So we educate them and give them enough goats, bushmeat and fruit to keep them away from the flying foxes. Only when all this is in balance will you get the optimal number of points in the end.

Flying foxes do their thing

By the way, we can always send our flying foxes in groups of three at the end of our turn on a night flight and exchange fruit for a tree. And when the flying foxes return to our show at the end of the tour, they not only find space in private fields, but also with educated families. And educated families have another advantage: they earn gold without destroying nature, while uneducated families pollute the landscape and thus block spaces on location and landscape cards with pollution markers until the end of the game.

The end of the round cleans up

Atiwa - Material - Image courtesy of Lookout Games

At the end of the round, the following things happen:

  1. Families generate income and may pollute the landscape.
  2. Nature takes its course: the more bush animals we have in our landscapes, the more trees are preserved, because bush animals also eat fruit and excrete seeds. The more trees we have, the more fruits we get. The more fruit we have, the more flying foxes we attract to our landscape. This is the game engine that you have to run on the board.
  3. Fruit bats are returning from their nocturnal flight and need shelter in our areas and landscapes.
  4. Families want to feed her. If the demand can still be covered with goat’s milk at first, you will have to gradually rely on other resources, with bush animals and goats better covering the demand with their meat.
  5. There is an increase in families and animals depending on the round field. Here you have to fulfill certain conditions. This means that there are a certain number of marks in the screen. And an area on its places and landscapes.
  6. workers return.
  7. Preparing for the next round. This means that the landscape is filled in again and that the workfield board that covers the field for the next round has shifted to the left, resulting in new workspace groups.
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As written, after seven rounds it ends and points are evaluated. There are points for gold earned, for locations and landscapes, for unlocked fields on the resource board (eg for planted trees or stable families), for trained families and for flying foxes. There are minus points for missing food. As always, the player with the most points wins.

a surprise! A good, objective connoisseur’s game for tight time windows!

Attiwa surprised me positively, even if he was kind of a typical Rosenberg. Placement of workers with thread and mechanism of deployment. But the game is wonderfully intertwined and cohesive. If you build your engine well, you will be properly rewarded each round, and it not only feels good because you get the resources for it, but also because you do something thematically well. You create harmony between man and nature.

Low barrier to entry – for the connoisseur’s game

The hurdle to get into Atiwa isn’t particularly high despite its connoisseur’s game status. The rules of the game are quickly assimilated due to the strict thematic link and individual actions on the game board can also be immediately understood thanks to the icons. However, this also means that after a few games, Atiwa will feel told and doesn’t offer much new. But this impression is deceptive. Because during the game you have to make difficult decisions over and over again, which can cause some downtime, especially in the last rounds. Small errors can cause the engine to stutter noticeably. What keeps this game alive in the long run: Always want to improve the device and eventually find new ways to score points.

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Good as a game of solitaire or as a single game

Atiwa - Box - Image via Lookout Games

Since Atiwa is entirely solitaire apart from the usual placement conflicts on the shared game board, it can also be played as a single game. Single mode remains simple. You can block these actions for the next two rounds by placing your Meeples, so you need to think carefully about when to use the action that works best. In the base game, you have to reach at least 120 points at the end, which is really fragile. Those who have achieved this can devote themselves to other goals. For example, 40 flying foxes and 100 points are required at the end of the game. Or you can reach 100 points without the landscape showing a sign of contamination.

Ateiwa has a decent standard in a good area

All in all, this doesn’t make Atiwa an overkill, but a good connoisseur game with replay appeal, which you can also get on the table once a week due to its manageable playtime both in group and solo mode. Which definitely stands out because of the theme. Even if one or the other would probably prefer to let flying foxes fly on Mars or another planet in the vastness of the galaxy.

Information about Ativa

  • Address: Ativa
  • Publisher: Overwatch Games
  • Author: Uwe Rosenberg
  • Number of players (from to): 1-4
  • Age (from or to in years): 12
  • Duration in minutes: 30-120
  • Atiq: 2022