- Publisher(s) : Mazaza Games
- Designer(s) : Matt Brown, Zara Reid
- Artist(s) : Matt Brown
- Players : 1–5
- Playing time : 40 - 60 Min
- Weight BGG : 2.29
What's this?
What if your next board game required you to build a nature reserve while juggling biodiversity, species protection, and funding for scientific projects? That’s precisely what Kavango offers , a game by Matt Brown and Zara Reid, illustrated by Matt Brown and published by Mazaza Games.
In Kavango, each player takes on the role of a biodiversity conservation specialist tasked with developing a nature reserve in the Kavango-Zambezi region. The objective is simple on paper: build the most efficient ecosystem possible and accumulate as many victory points as possible.
How do you play?
A game consisting of three rounds
A game of Kavango takes place over three rounds of ten turns each .
At the start of each round, four new research projects are placed on the main board. Players then receive a hand of cards which will circulate progressively around the table.
All players play simultaneously. Each turn always follows these four steps:
- Choose a card from your hand.
- Play the chosen card.
- Participate in research projects and invest your money.
- Pass your turn to the next player.
This process is repeated ten times before moving on to the next round.
The draft: choose a card and pass your hand around.
At the start of a round, each player secretly chooses a card from their hand and places it face up in front of them. The remaining cards are then passed to the player on their left.
Action cards
Action cards have immediate effects that can change the course of the game. They are played before Producer and Animal cards.
Developing its ecosystem with producers
Producers form the basis of your ecosystem. They do not directly award victory points, but they are essential for being able to house certain animals.
Introducing animals into his reserve
Animals are the main source of victory points.
Each Animal card has two types of prerequisites:
- food prerequisites ;
- protection prerequisites .
Participate in research projects
Research projects constitute your main source of income.
Four projects are available on the main board each round. They generally require fulfilling certain criteria related to the species present in your reserve.
Investing in Protection
You spend your dollars to step up your individual protection ( Habitats and Anti-poaching ) or collective protection ( Climate ).
End of game and scoring
The game ends after the tenth turn of the third round.
Is it good?
Kavango offers fairly classic mechanics of drafting, objectives, and badge collection to build your ecosystem in the form of a card tableau. The game quickly brings to mind Meadow in its gradual creation of an environment where producers feed animals, which in turn allow you to raise larger ones. It’s classic, but it works quite well.
The draft also relies on a well-known system, with hands of cards circulating around the table. However, the simultaneous selection allows for a very fluid pace, with virtually no waiting time between turns.
Money management adds a bit more depth to the game. Earning money through research projects is essential for investing in various protections and thus unlocking certain endgame animals, which are often much more rewarding in terms of points. The climate protection system also adds an interesting, albeit small, collective dimension.
But it’s precisely in its originality that Kavango struggles to convince. The game remains fairly conventional and can feel like it’s on rails from beginning to end, without any truly surprising mechanics or major moments of tension or plot twists. The animals, in particular, would have benefited from offering more individual effects or allowing for genuine combos to give more personality to the development of one’s ecosystem.
Ultimately, Kavango remains an enjoyable and effective game , skillfully blending drafting, card layout, ecosystem building, and objectives. However, despite its coherent premise, it lacks that spark of originality or powerful mechanic that would truly set it apart and make it a must-have in the genre.
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Kavango review
Positives
- A coherent ecosystem construction
- A smooth draft
- Interesting money management
- A logical progression towards the most profitable animals
- Classic but effective mechanics
Negatives
- A lack of originality
- A progression that is sometimes too linear
- No combos or interactions between the animals
- A game that can seem a little flat over time
