AMYGDALA is the new abstract strategy game from Kramer & Kiesling, two designers who have a proven track record with games like Azul, Paris, Renature and many others. Game Brewer is launching a Gamefound campaign for Amygdala next week, on June 13, and we were lucky enough to play the game on a prototype provided by the publisher.
2-4 players, age 10+
Playing time: 60-90 minutes
Designers: Michael Kiesling & Wolfgang Kramer
Artwork: Anastasia Cartovenco
Publisher: Game Brewer
Campaign link: https://gamefound.com/projects/gamebrewer/amygdala-exclusive-edition
In Amygdala, players unlock emotions to place them on the different regions of the game board where they compete for majorities.
🟣 On a turn, you perform one of 3 possible actions:
▪️ Buy resources from the main board.
▪️ Unlock emotion tiles by moving your thought marker on your player board and spending the required resources. You place the emotion on the game board next to its source or next to one of your previously placed tiles depicting the same emotion. In addition to the majorities scored at the end of the game, this will be the main source of your points and also unlocks valuable bonuses such as claim tiles, wild resources, etc from your player board.
▪️ Place a claim token in a region on the main board, this is required to score points for majorities at game end.
🟣 For each of these actions, you have to consider the location of your mood marker on the main board; you may always move it clockwise, but each time you pass the circumstance token you must pay 1 coin.
🟣 All of your resources, coins, claim tokens and other bonuses have to be placed in your memory bank; there are only 10 slots which is really tight so you’ll have to plan carefully in order to avoid wasting them!
Expectations were high, but Amygdala fully lived up to them; Kramer & Kiesling once again deliver a straightforward design with accessible rules, but gameplay deep enough to make your brain burn at times.
A smooth design that contains multiple tactical layers: each game there’s a different puzzle on your player board, and it’s always a search to optimize your actions taking into account your limited storage capacity, as you certainly don’t want to waste those valuable resources. There’s also the fierce competition on the main board where you interact with your opponents, trying to control the different regions. You certainly want to place those claim tokens on the board as in the end, points from these really can make the difference!
Please note that what you see in the pictures is a prototype; the deluxe edition offered on Gamefound will come with upgraded components.
Tabletopping 