2 players, ages 8+
Playing time: 10 minutes
Designer: Claude Leroy
Artwork: Tom Delahaye
Publisher: Cosmoludo
https://www.cosmoludo.com/
To begin the game, you place the 19 wooden pieces on the table in the shape of a wavy snake. Each player picks a color, either black or white, that comes with 9 scales of their own: 3 of each with the markings 1, 2 and 3. There’s also one golden coloured neutral scale. The game’s objective is to be the first player to control a stack consisting of 7 pieces.
The markings on each scale indicate its movement value; on their turn players simply move a piece of their own color onto another piece or stack of pieces, and if you want to move from a stack, you are only allowed to move the top two pieces at most.
Instead of doing this, you also have the option to swap two of your pieces or stacks you control with each other.
Like in many other abstract games, the rules of Pantareï are very simple to learn, but this doesn’t mean the game isn’t filled with meaningful decisions. As the game progresses, your options get narrowed down, and a moment of sloppiness can be ruthlessly punished by the opponent. There’s no luck involved, everything is open information and thus players will be able to predict their opponent’s possible moves and anticipate them.
Since Pantareï only takes a snap of the fingers to set up and plays quick, the game calls for a couple plays back-to-back and since it doesn’t take up a lot of space, also can be used as an ideal travel game!
Tabletopping 