Designer: Rudiger Dorn

Artist: Franz Vohwinkel

Publisher: Rio Grande Games

It is hard to put into words the joys of playing a classic German design that has remained at the top of my personal ratings for such a long time. The issue at hand is not so much I cannot find the superfluous adjectives to describe one of my top games, but that as hobby gamers evolve with age, some elements of the game may have dimmed with time. Certainly, it is common for many of us to give top billing for games that are hot off the presses, but then a large chunk of these rating will fade over time, partly due to infrequent plays and also partly due to changes in gaming habits. Occasionally when the game is pulled out from the back of the closet, much of the enthusiasm can be chalked up to nostalgia. While this may not be entirely the case for Goa, this Rudiger Dorn classic has been in my collection for many years and I have enjoyed, and still enjoy the game tremendously. However, if I am being honest, some elements of the game feels slightly dated over the years.

The auction phase in Goa is the star mechanism for the game

A game of Goa can be defined clearly by the two phases of the game. An auction phase followed by carrying out a series of actions. These two phases are carried out 6 times in a full game. The game is also split into two halves, with both halves seeing a set of auctions being carried out for a set of tiles that provide different benefits for players. At the end of the first half, the tiles are discarded and a more powerful second set of tiles are replenished on the board for the second half. In between each round of auction, players will carry out a set of actions to improve their standing by advancing on different scoring tracks on their personal board and scoring some points. Needless to say, the most victory points win.

I think most hobby gamers would agree that the auction phase in Goa is the main driving force for the game. It is in this phase that valuable tiles with different powers, resources and benefits are auctioned off to players and the auction outcomes will determine which types of actions are available for players to perform. As with many other auction games, skillful evaluation of the relative worth for each tile is critical for winning the auction and here is where a veteran will always triumph over a newbie. This is where someone who is well-versed in the game will have a significant advantage over a new comer or the casual gamer. Perhaps this is also where the game can only truly shine when all players know how to manipulate a bidding war to ensure a fair value for the auctioned item. Just as important to note, the format of the auction is a once-around auction where players just have to give a single bid in turn order with the highest bidder winning the tile. Since the final bidder is also the auctioneer, the player can choose to buy the tile and pay the bank instead of selling the tile to generate income. It may seem that the auctioneer holds a strong advantage by having the rights to purchase the tile with the final bid, but the seasoned player will recognize that the early bids will set the tone for how much to pressure to put on the eventual buyer. This is where Goa shines as the auction is always tense and never lacking in drama. Of course the flip side for the argument is that folks who dislike auctions will find this doubly brutal in Goa. Because a once-around auction means you cannot bid low hoping to increase the bid in subsequent rounds. Failure to assess the correct tile values can lead to some imbalances that can be frustrating for new comers. Hence, if you want to introduce auction-styled games, Goa may not be the best game to teach newbies as the learning curve is steep.

Actions are performed to activate or upgrade tracks on player boards

After a round of auctions, players then perform actions – three at minimum and more if you have extra action chits. All these actions pertain to either advancing the ranks or triggering the benefits of specific tracks on individual player boards. There are five tracks in total and they are: Ships, Colonists, Spices, Power Cards and Gold. For one action, players can activate the tracks and harvest spices, collect gold, build ships, pick up more power cards or found a colony. The higher in rank you go, the more powerful each action will be when triggered. For example, at first rank, one can pick up only a single ship while at the highest rank, players can build 5 ships with each action. To upgrade or improve the ranks for each track is an action and players must give up ships and different combinations of spices to advance their cube on the player board. Advancing in ranks is important to not only improve the efficiency of your actions, but also to score points. The higher the rank for each track, the more bonus points will be scored at the end game. However, it is not possible to upgrade all the ranks for all tracks in one game session and that is where specialization is pretty crucial. Players must identify the most crucial need and optimize advancement to maximize scoring. This decision to improve tracks is also somewhat informed by the auction tiles won in the first phase of the game with some tiles directing players down specific scoring paths.

Goa scoring options may not be as diverse as initially envisioned and set collection of power cards is crucial for victory.

My initial enthusiasm toward Goa was partially due to the multiple paths to victory. With many more plays over the years, the diversity in scoring seems narrower than first envisioned. For one thing, most players will end up assembling a decent assortment of spice plantations to harvest spice required for track advancement. Associated with this effort is the founding of spice colonies to further generate plantations for spices. It is not unusual to see most players establishing all 4 colonies by the end since colonies provide not only spices but also points. The track advancement on player boards serve as one of the ways to differentiate scoring between players as most will aim to complete at least one track for maximum points. More skillful players will have multiple tracks at or near the finish line to score points and collect bonuses.

One other vital area for points that just cannot be ignored are power cards. Players draw and keep power cards for two purposes. First, the power cards themselves when played, allow the active player to claim a whole slew of benefits that bends or breaks the rule of play. For example, some power cards allow players to move up the rank on tracks by paying either only ships or spices but not both. Other cards provide gold, or more colonists to aid in founding colonies. These cards when played, has a one-time use and is promptly discarded. An equally important aspect of these cards is set collection. Each power card has a symbol and by collecting symbols of the same type, they bestow players with end game points. This set collection is pretty crucial as it is one of the few ways a chunk of points can be scored (apart from tracks on player boards and founding colonies). To ignore this means having to find a different way to make up for the points lost. This can be challenging since points are premium in Goa and there aren’t too many places to eke out points.

In summary

I have won my fair share of Goa and I think in all instances, the power cards contribute a significant chunk of end game points. That is not to say that the other scoring methodologies are not important – they also need to happen in parallel – but that points derived from power cards cannot be ignored if you want to win. Drawing power cards is also one of two places where luck is involved as you draw randomly from a face-down deck (the other being founding colonies). I believe the designer is aware of this point as a subsequent reprint of Goa saw a slightly tweaked distribution of the set collection to make it harder to earn maximum points via this route.

To be clear, I still enjoy Goa tremendously and the game still makes it to the table often enough. However, the diversity in scoring that initially drew me in is less pronounced now and I often remind players at the onset not to ignore the power cards. Fortunately, this is usually enough to make most games competitive. Coming back full circle, I do believe that the auction phase is still the highlight for Goa. This phase usually determines how much money is circulated among players and how often one needs to trigger the “gold” action to collect more gold. As actions are scarce and precious, each action to harvest gold reduces the option to do other things.

Final word: Great!