Reviews

"The history of Down Under goes hand in hand with the history of Bambus." Read the whole story at:

Prototype2Publisher: DOWN UNDER by Jeffrey D. Allers (September 25, 2008 - www.berlingamedesign.blogspot.com)

"The game play is simple and straightforward ... Strategically, you want to connect your path to as many neutral tiles played by your opponents as possible. But if you use too many curved path tiles too early, you will definitely be limited in your options later on. ...

Like a lot of good abstract strategy games, Down Under has a pleasant underlying tension where you want to play offensively and defensively at the same time, all the while trying to maximize your score with the highest possible quantity of animal sets. You have a good, but not overwhelming number of decisions to make when you play a tile: Are you blocking off the expansion of an opponent’s path? Are you connecting to open neutral paths your opponents have played? Are you wasting any of your colored segments?

Since the board layout is not preset before the game, you can affect the other players by expanding the board in a particular direction. I like tile games that do this because it adds a variability—and sometimes a viciousness—that you don’t get in a tile game where the playing area is pre-printed on a board.

Gameplay in Down Under is surprisingly quick, so that it feels like a meaty filler.


Sturt’s Stony Desert is much more of a brain burning exercise than Down Under. Between the two, I think Down Under is the better game, but it is a nice to have the option. "

(Scott Tepper: Complete review at www.boardgamenews.com)