I honestly can’t think of even a single negative thing to say about Atiwa. The game play is top notch and the components are excellent. They even gave me plenty of plastic bags inside the box, so I can’t even grouse about that. It’s just an all around fantastic game. In fact, I think that out of all of the new games I’ve experienced over this past year, it’s probably my favorite one.

In Atiwa you develop a small community near the Atiwa range. You will create housing for new families, share your knowledge of the negative effects of mining and the importance of fruit bats in the environment. You will need to acquire new land, manage animals and resources and develop your community.Lorna– 1 play I thought it was well done, there’s not much to say about the new Rosenberg. It feels like a Rosenberg from the start. I appreciate the change of theme and learning a bit about fruit bats. There are interesting decisions. It’s on the lighter side. The random pull for gold out of the bag feels like it was added to make it family friendly. I’m happy to play and see if I’m wrong but unlike Dale, I don’t think it will supplant my favorite midweight Rosenberg which is Nusfjord. ATIWA is a 1-4 player “advanced level” game based in the ATIWA region of Ghana and revolves around, you guessed it, building a new community! But this one has a fruity twist! You have seen a nearby area prosper as a result of harnessing the crop reseeding (aka pooping!) powers of the indigenous fruit bat population, and you want some of that action! You will therefore be tasked with establishing a village that exploits the eco-friendly relationship between fruit bats and farmers. Reforestation for roosting! Preservation for population growth! Poop for profits! And that all sounds grand – especially the prodigious pooping! But there’s always a trade-off. With limited space, the bats can’t have it all. You’ve got to factor in the needs of your people. It’s no use having lots of fruit bats but no village to house them. So you’ll be focussed on offsetting the negative effects of mining and bushmeat hunting by creating a bat boom whilst, of course, simultaneously enabling your newly founded settlement to thrive.

Players then receive trees, fruit and fruit bats based on the number of resources removed from their supply board.Each player takes an action, then play passes to the next player. This process continues until each player has had 3 worker placements. Then there is a bit of maintenance. I have now played Atiwa as a solo experience, with 2 players, and at the max 4 player count. At all levels, the game moves along briskly and is easy to teach due to the straightforward iconography and included player aids. I really liked the fixed economy that each player has on their personal boards and how moving one item off and onto your cards opened up income of another type during a later phase of the game. Breeding – look at the current round space on the main board where there are 3 icons. If you have at least as many things as shown, gain exactly one more of that type. The perfect balance between flying foxes (another common name for fruit bats) and the growth of the farm is the key to success and thus victory in this classic worker placement game!

Players must then feed their families based on the difference between the number of goats removed from their supply board and the number displayed on the family row. Goats, wild animals, fruit and gold can be used for food. So, here's a bit of a rarity for this blog: an actual REVIEW! ... as in: a fully-baked opinion that isn't based on mere first impressions, and has been written after I've got a decent number of plays of the game in question under my belt! The Atiwa Range is a region of southeastern Ghana in Africa, consisting of steep-sided hills with rather flat summits. A large portion of the range comprises an evergreen forest reserve, which is home to many an endangered species. However, logging and hunting for bushmeat as well as mining for gold and bauxite are putting the reserve under a lot of pressure. There are a couple of criticisms here as well. After several plays, it feels like the possibility of discovering new strategies is low. I fear that after a few more plays that this one may be relegated to being “solved” and become a bit samey. The solo mode scenarios should help with this at least. I also don’t love the graphic design choice of the main board and the terrain cards. It’s a long-running joke that Euro games can be all beige, but in Atiwa, various shades of brown and green really do the heavy lifting in the art department. I wish they had opted for some more vibrant art befitting the beauty of the Atiwa rainforest. That being said, I have enjoyed my time with Atiwa, but worry that the theme will overshadow the gameplay after a few plays. I can’t help but think that maybe Uwe Rosenburg meant it to be that way. Good to know: A single colony of 150,000 fruit bats (AKA flying foxes) can contribute to the reforestation of 800 ha of forest within a year!The Atiwa Range is a region in southeastern Ghana, Africa, made up of steep-sided hills with relatively flat tops. Much of the range includes an evergreen forest reserve, which is home to many endangered species. However, logging and bushmeat hunting, as well as gold and bauxite mining, are putting great pressure on the reserve.

The game will proceed this way for seven rounds at which point players gain victory points for gold, terrain cards, resources removed from their supply board, trained families and fruit bats. Points are deducted for missing food. The player with the most points is the winner. Final Thoughts Set in a unique region of Ghana, Atiwa challenges players to manage a player board full of resources and build up their personal play area with new location and terrain cards to store these resources. At first glance, Atiwa’s main board will remind players of an earlier Rosenburg game, A Feast for Odin, with its myriad of worker placement spots. It can be overwhelming at first, but the choices here are simpler, much to the game’s credit. For a bit of variability, 6 of the worker placement spots are randomized at the start using tiles, which also slide to the left each round to cover up old spots and open up new ones. In the game, you'll develop a small community near the Atiwa Mountain Range, creating homes for new families and sharing your new knowledge about the negative effects of mining and the importance of fruit bats to the environment. You must acquire new land, manage your animals and resources, and grow your community. The player who finds the best balance between the needs of their community and the environment wins. Theme(s)Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Kibi, the mayor is causing a stir by giving shelter to a large number of fruit bats in his own garden. This man has recognized the great value the animals have in deforested regions of our planet: Fruit bats sleep during the day and take off at sunset in search of food, looking for suitable fruit trees up to sixty miles away. They excrete the seeds of the consumed fruit, disseminating them across large areas as they fly home. A single colony of 150,000 fruit bats can reforest an area of up to two thousand acres a year. The Atiwa Range is a region of southeastern Ghana in Africa consisting of steep-sided hills with rather flat summits. A large portion of the range comprises an evergreen forest reserve, which is home to many endangered species. However, logging and hunting for bushmeat, as well as mining for gold and bauxite, are putting the reserve under a lot of pressure. It’s a lovely core mechanism. And you really feel the pain of taking actions with sub-optimal timing. Overall, I think Atiwa is a fantastic game. It is high up in my ranks of Uwe games. I think the theme is appealing, the management of your supply board interesting and the solo mode is great.