My Island – review and test of the old campaign game

My Island is the spiritual continuation of Legacy my city Written by Rainer Knizia from 2020 (Cosmos). As the name suggests, it is now an island that will be explored in several successive games. For this older game, I decided to once again do a retro review detailing the campaign.

My city becomes my island

The game system is the same; You draw a card that applies to all players and tells them which piece they should place next on their playing board. If you would like to read it in more detail, you can do so at Review of My City by Jörn Frenzel. This time, each player's 28 pieces are shapes consisting of two to four hexagons with different types of landscapes and small houses. They must be combined in such a way that they always fit into at least one adjacent landscape.

Since the island needs to be explored first, the tile space is initially limited to the beach and areas near the beach. Only gradually in the games does the interior of the island open up to explorers.

Nice start on my island

In the first few games the mission is still very straightforward. It is more about making optimal use of the available space to cover the entire bank as much as possible, because open bank areas are considered minus points. But there are bonus points if you build a house on the beach. In each game, whoever scores the most points wins. Gain 2 victory points for campaign ranking. The second person gets another point. Everyone scores points on their player board, which remains their personal game board.

The last player in the game benefits from the reward, which usually consists of a sticker that they manipulate with their board. This way, the player has a small advantage in the next match and does not fall behind early.

After every three matches, players are allowed to open an envelope that reveals new game rules, new materials, and/or new objectives. This unlocks the legacy experience. From now on, the goal is no longer just to explore the area as fully as possible, but also to score points with certain combinations of landscapes.

Is my island fun?

My Island game rules are complete and clearly explained. Additional game rules that can be found in the envelopes are quickly combined. The material is of very good quality and is attractively illustrated by Michael Menzel.

My island starts out very shallow. In the first three games, the mission is familiar, but relatively unappealing. This only changes when the first additional objectives are activated. However, since the game takes less than 30 minutes to begin with, you play these games more or less quickly in order to internalize the game mechanics and recognize and correct errors from the first game that caused significant gaps in the presentation. – As much as the drawn cards allow. While the game outcomes initially differ by only a few points, the various points also gain momentum. This does not change the lack of interaction. As is the case with my city There are no points of contact between players. So everyone puzzles their island together.

Up to this moment, my island has not yet generated the curiosity that, e.g Ticket to Ride Heritage Already in the first matches. You start at a very low level, which seems a bit quiet at first. But now that we have 21 games and seven other envelopes, let's allow ourselves to be surprised, inspired and perhaps even obsessed with what's to come.

Legacy Update I – Games 4 and 5

There won't be many changes in the next two matches. Paths, which should be built if possible, become roads, which means nothing more than that the row of tiles you're supposed to place in order to score points should be longer. Field, village, and wall tiles must now also collect points, and are then marked with small dice. The area to be built on the island has not yet increased. Anyone who is behind in the final score of the game can get another sticker, now also on the tile.

Otherwise everything stays the same. This is not surprising, but it is not inspiring either. Looking at the remaining 19 matches, there is some hope that this will change in one of the upcoming matches.

Information: This review will continue after further stages of exploring the island. Stay tuned!

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