Umbrella Board Game Review

I previously wrote on the site that I wasn’t very excited for the game Umbrella, and that the components were the only reason I was giving this game a go. You can read my components review article right now but how does the game itself actually play. Was it more puzzly-then-game as I assumed it would be? Let’s take a look.

Umbrella is an easy to teach, easy to play game that is really nice as a filler on board game night. It’s great for before your big game for the evening, or a fun post-game social experience. In Umbrella, players will move umbrella pieces from various boards directly adjacent to you onto your own board, pushing other tiles off and attempting to complete colored patterns. Players begin the game with a couple little puzzles to complete, which all amount to needing all of the same colors in specific spots around your board. For example, you might be required to have all of the same colored umbrellas in the four corners of your board.

The puzzle here is that when you push a new tile into your board – either from the left or right, top or bottom – you are pushing another tile out the other side. So your board is constantly changing, and you need to decide which pieces need to be slotted in where. Think Labyrinth, but much more complicated.

The trick here is that you only have access to tiles in a few places. To your left and right, from the center of the table, or from your own personal supply at the bottom of your board. That means you are competing for central tile boards with everyone, and the left and right boards with players adjacent to you. The only board you can guarantee that the umbrellas are yours is on your own personal board, but each umbrella on your board at the end of the game is worth 1 negative point. So you need to balance that as well.

As you complete patterns, you will get to mark off that color on your score track, potentially unlocking more points. Creating patterns of the same color too often, however, won’t help you as there are only so many colored scoring spots to place a marker on. While this does feel like a larger puzzle that you need to figure out, it wasn’t too puzzle for me.

I think there is a good number of people who won’t find any enjoyment here. This isn’t really a traditional board game as you might think of it. There is no worker placement, no drafting, no cards, no deck building or bag building, etc. It’s just a puzzle, but a puzzle that can be thrown into disarray if other players snag tiles you need.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Umbrella. Since we are always looking for more filler games for our board game evenings, I think Umbrella is a game that will stick around for a while on our shelves. And that is high praise, since we keep way less then we move out from the collection!