Through the Desert Board Game Review
Through the Desert is a game I’ve wanted to play for a good long while now, and thanks to our friends at AllPlay, we had the chance to do that in December! We already waxed poetic about the game’s components, but good components don’t mean a good game! Did I enjoy Through the Desert as much as I thought I would? Let’s take a look.
There feels like a ton of game in this little box, but once you get going in Through the Desert, the turn-to-turn moments are pretty simple, although deep with strategy. The game is all about collecting points, either by making it to locations on the map that reward points, or closing off sections of the map with your camels, earning you all the point tiles PLUS bonus points at the end for every hex you’ve claimed this way.
Players will be leading different caravans around the desert and these are represented by coloured camels. Each player has a set of different coloured camels with riders on them, which act as the leaders. On your turn, players can select a few camels and play them out on the map, extending their caravans and attempting to earn points as described above. That’s basically all there is to it – easy to understand, yes, but insanely hard to play, especially if you are doing so with really strategic players!
See, in Through the Desert, you need to have a really good balance of which coloured caravans you want to extend, where you have the most chances of success, and even how much land you can close off for extra points. There are also points awarded to the owners of the longest caravan of each colour, so that is another thing to think about as you play the game. The game is fairly modular as you add or subtract players, although I found it must be enjoyable with 3 or 4. With 5 players, I think the central board becomes a bit too hectic, while with two players I find there is too much room to expand, and often those games result in players taking separate areas of the map and seeing who can place camels better OUTSIDE of other influences.
I like how the game has two sides to the board, so you can play this game with the day time or night time aesthetic. The game itself remains the same, but the night time side of the board has a few more natural barriers to consider such as a big river crossing the board. It’s a nice way to change up what is ultimately a really simple formula: place two camels per turn. End.
AllPlay was also nice enough to send over the Bazaar expansion that I think is a must own for fans of the game. There are a number of modules inside this box that easily go into the base game, and choosing a few of these to use each game is a fun way to slightly change things up. Nomad cards will provide scoring bonuses that players will need to achieve throughout the game, which causes them to change up their strategies. There can also be magical Djinn’s at the watering holes which will do mischief things and make getting through the dessert harder. My favourite are the bazaars that you can place around the desert, creating trade routes that can earn players extra points. None of these are crazy to add, but all of them change up the formula just enough to make it interesting game-in and game-out.
Overall, Through the Desert is a classic game that AllPlay has taken and made really beautiful. I enjoy the game enough, even if it isn’t my favourite game from AllPlay or Kinizia.
Article By Adam
