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Oasis
From the Publisher...
You are the head of a Mongolian family, intent on becoming the most powerful in the land. Use your resources wisely to take control of fertile steppe lands to raise horses, which will bring prestige and honor. Build Ovoos to pour the blessings of luck into your life. Raise camels to build wealth. Control the beautiful oases to improve the quality of life for you and your family. The player with the most points at the end of the game will be anointed the Noble of the Oasis.
Our Comments...
This Mini-Review by Mike Petty originally appeared in the June 9, 2004 newsletter:
Oasis is another fun game from Alan Moon and Aaron
Weissblum. Considering some of their other releases like San
Marco and New England, Oasis bears their mark of combining a
unique way of acquiring resources with a fairly fresh way to use
them in scoring. This time the result is a game that clips along at
a nice pace offering plenty to think about and lots of player
interaction.
Players compete to acquire resources of two types. One type is
tiles or camels that are placed on the board. The other type are
rectangular tiles that serve as multipliers for those resources you
place on the board. To acquire resources players essentially
-pay- with turn-order tokens. By offering a nice set of resources,
a player hopes to receive a turn-order token that allows him to
take an early turn in the next round. As you might imagine, an
early turn probably means you'll be able to choose the best
resources. The problem is you're not completely in control of
what you offer, only how much you offer. Also, since you have
no idea what will be offered in the next round, it's never quite
certain how valuable an early turn will be. This adds up to some
tension and risk taking. Even though I haven't won the game
yet (always second place!), I find all these decisions of what to
take, what to offer and where to place it enjoyable. Some may
complain that the luck of the draw is too much to overcome.
While I feel that way sometimes, it seems there is considerable
room for thoughtful actions.
With the usual quality of components you'd expect from a game
produced in Germany, loads of choices each round and a
playing time of 60 minutes or less, many groups will find this game
to their liking. I know I'm looking forward to my next game and
hopefully my first victory!
 Read
more information at the Board Game Geek website
Customer Raves - Write your own Rave about this game!
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Lee Kok Khing
| Quite an easy game to explain to first-timers and the game flow is really smooth. The only thing that is slightly out of control is the flipping over of cards for offering, however, the result can be compensated for by the right pick and good tactical placement of your areas. Games can finish in about an hour, which is good for a medium weight game. |
| Oasis makes a great first impression. The components are really nice (I particularly like the camel pieces in different colours) and the rules are clearly and comfortably presented. Upon playing it, you realize that there are a lot of different things going on, and in particular that you need to keep an eye on what your opponents are doing as well and develop your own territory. Oasis has great components and a couple of innovate mechanisms that really make it stand out - a great game for any group that likes a bit of cutthroat competition. |
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