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When we first saw Strategeti, we expected something pretty light. Animal miniatures, warm colours, Serengeti theme… you kind of assume it’s going to be a relaxed family strategy game where everyone builds lines and politely pretends they totally saw that move coming.
Yeah… not really.
Strategeti turns into a much more tactical and direct little duel than we expected. Lions eat pieces, elephants shove entire groups of animals across the board, zebras sprint around looking useful for about five seconds before becoming lunch, and gazelles jump halfway across the map when you least expect it.
What clicked quite quickly is how natural the rules feel. Lions hunt. Elephants push. Gazelles jump around nervously like they drank too much coffee. You learn the basics fast, but after a few turns the board becomes surprisingly competitive.
And for such a small game, it creates a lot of situations where you just stare at the board thinking, “Well… this is now a problem.”
👥 2 players, ages 7+
⌛ Playing time: 10 minutes
📝 Designers: Ignasi Ferré
🎨 Artwork: Filip
🏢 Publisher: FlexiQ Games (review copy provided by Asmodee Belgium).
Gameplay overview
The goal in Strategeti is simple. You win by making a line of four of your own animals, by eliminating five enemy animals, or by blocking your opponent so they cannot make a legal move anymore.
Each player gets two lions, two elephants, two zebras, and two gazelles in their colour. During your turn, you either place a new animal onto the board or move one that is already there. The board has two sides. On the standard side, you cannot place animals in the four corners. On the advanced side, the blocked spaces move to the centre instead. It sounds like a small difference, but it changes the opening more than we expected.
The animals are really what make the game interesting. Lions move one space horizontally or vertically, but only if they can eat a zebra or gazelle next to them. They take that piece’s place after attacking. They cannot eat elephants or other lions, but weirdly enough they can eat their own team’s zebras and gazelles. Team spirit is clearly not a thing in the Serengeti.
Elephants also move one space horizontally or vertically, but only when they can push another animal. Entire rows of connected animals can get shoved backwards together, including your own pieces if you are not careful. If something gets pushed into the river or ravine, it is removed from the game. Elephants cannot push other elephants though, so they become these immovable roadblocks later in the game.
Zebras are the easiest pieces to understand. They move in straight lines horizontally, vertically, or diagonally across any number of empty spaces until something blocks them. Gazelles work differently. They jump over one adjacent animal into the first free space behind it. They can also jump over two animals if there is still room to land. If another jump is possible afterwards, they can keep going during the same turn.
After a few turns, you realise none of the animals really work alone. Lions need prey nearby. Gazelles need pieces to jump over. Elephants need something to push. Zebras need open space. The board keeps changing constantly, and one move can suddenly make several pieces stronger or completely useless.
Artwork, components, and visual design
Let’s be honest, the miniatures are probably what catches most people first. Strategeti could easily have used simple wooden pieces or abstract symbols, but instead every animal has its own sculpted miniature. The elephants look heavy and stubborn, the lions look aggressive, and the zebras and gazelles are thinner and easier to recognise immediately during play.
The board itself looks nice without becoming too busy. The warm colours fit the Serengeti theme well, and the river around the edge is not just decorative since pieces can actually get pushed off the board into them. Which happened to us… a lot more than expected.
The dark green and white pieces also contrast really well, so even when the board gets crowded, it stays readable. Once the board fills up, you really appreciate being able to read everything quickly.
Without the animals and miniatures, the game would probably have been less memorable. Underneath the animal theme, it is still very much an abstract strategy game, but the theme gives it personality and makes it easier to get people interested in trying it.
That said, not everyone is going to love the miniatures. They look good, but because they are slightly oversized, the board can feel crowded once most pieces are in play. It never became a major issue for us, but some players will probably prefer a cleaner board state.
Our experience
The biggest surprise was how quickly the game changed once the board started filling up. The first turns feel fairly open. You place animals, move around a bit, and mostly try to understand what each piece can actually do. But after a few rounds, the game becomes much more about positioning and timing.
What we liked is that the animals never really work in isolation. Lions need prey nearby. Gazelles need pieces to jump over. Elephants need something to push. Zebras need open lanes. Almost every move changes the options for several pieces at once, so you constantly adapt to the board instead of following one fixed plan.
The elephants became the centre of the game very quickly. Their movement is limited, but their ability to push entire lines of animals completely changes how you look at positioning. We had several moments where someone spent multiple turns carefully setting up a line of four, only for an elephant to casually ruin the whole thing in one push. After a while we started respecting the elephants more than the lions.
I also liked that elephants cannot push other elephants. It sounds like a tiny rule, but it matters a lot because it creates stable points on the board. Without that restriction, the whole game would become much messier and harder to read.
Gazelles really opened up after a few plays. Early on, they almost felt secondary compared to the other animals, but later they turned into some of the most flexible pieces on the board. Once several animals are grouped together, gazelles start finding strange jumping routes across the map that are very easy to miss if you are not paying attention.
The lions are strong too, but in a controlled way. Since they can only move by attacking, they sometimes become stuck if there is no prey nearby. That restriction forces you to think ahead before moving them into position. And yes, the fact that they can eat their own zebras and gazelles created a few ridiculous moments during our games. The Serengeti clearly has very different workplace rules.
Zebras ended up feeling like the safest and most reliable pieces overall. Their straight-line movement makes them excellent for reacting to threats or building toward a row of four. At the same time, because lions can hunt them so easily, they never feel completely protected either.
The first game was mostly us trying to remember what every animal could do. After that, we started noticing small tricks and setups we completely missed earlier. The short playtime helps a lot because mistakes never feel too punishing, and rematches happen naturally.
The advanced side of the board also worked better in the long run. Restricting the central placement spaces makes the opening feel less straightforward and creates slightly more interesting starting situations. Matches can definitely slow down once both players start analysing every possible move though. Especially late in the game, we had several moments where both of us just stared at the board trying to figure out what disaster the other person was planning next.
Our thoughts
Strategeti probably works best for players who enjoy direct interaction and shorter two-player games where both players stay involved from beginning to end. It lands somewhere between a family game and a more traditional abstract game, which is probably why it worked so well at our table.
One of the game’s biggest strengths is how naturally the theme explains the rules. Even people who normally avoid abstract games will probably understand this one quite quickly because the animals behave in ways that simply make sense. That connection between theme and gameplay makes the whole system easier to remember and easier to teach.
We also liked that you never focus on just one thing during the game. A match can suddenly stop being about making a row because somebody is now one piece away from an elimination win instead. Or you realise too late that half your animals are blocked and you suddenly cannot move anymore. The game constantly asks players to pay attention to different kinds of problems.
At the same time, the game does have limits in terms of long-term depth. Because the board is relatively small and the game is fully deterministic, experienced players may eventually start recognising familiar openings or repeated patterns after many plays. The advanced board helps with that a bit, but it probably will not replace deeper abstract strategy games for players who mainly enjoy analysing systems for years.
Some families may also be surprised by how aggressive the game feels. The presentation looks friendly, but the gameplay is full of disruption. Pieces disappear constantly, plans get ruined, and players spend a lot of time blocking each other or pushing animals off the board. For us, that made the game much more entertaining, but it is worth knowing before going in.
Still, we ended up liking Strategeti more than we expected. It is easy to get to the table, the rules stick surprisingly fast, and the different animals help the game stand out from a lot of other abstract games we have tried lately. Also, any game that lets an elephant casually ruin five turns of planning deserves at least some respect.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Asmodee Belgium.
