Meeple Land Board Game Review

Meeple Land is the latest game from publisher Blue Orange Games. It supports 2 to 4 players, is for ages 10 and up and plays in about 30 to 45 minutes.

In Meeple Land players will be creating their very own amusement park by purchasing a variety of attractions and services while luring in lots of paying customers.

Attention will need to be given to how things are laid out, making sure services are within reach of visitors, and paths don’t lead to dead ends.

The game ends after 4 rounds, at which point the player with the most reputation points wins. Reputation is earned from a diverse collection of attractions and services, number of visitors in the park, and lack of dead ends and stranded visitors at the entrance.

 

How to Play Meeple Land

Set up:

To set up Meeple Land, players will each take one park mat, an entrance gate, scoresheet, and money based on that player’s starting position. The first player receives the first player token and no money, the second player takes 1 coin, third player takes 2 coins and the fourth player takes 3 coins. The leftover coins are added to the supply near the center of play.

Players will now set the parking lot mat in the center of play and add the round tracker to the “1” spot. Bus cards shuffled and the number of players + 1 are added to the parking lot face up. For example, in a 3 player game 4 buses would be added to the lot. The remaining Bus cards are placed face down in a draw pile near the the parking lot mat. Each bus shows a number of meeples (“visitors”) which need to be added to each bus card. The remaining visitors are put into the supply near the parking lot mat.

There are 3 different size attraction/service tiles. Players will shuffle these piles and create face up rows of 5 services, 5 medium attractions, and 3 large attractions. The remaining tiles are placed in facedown draw piles near the rows of the matching size tiles.

Finally the extra entrance gate tiles and plot extension tiles are placed near the play area for later use in the game.

Players are now ready to begin.

Play:

The game is played over 4 rounds.

Each round (except the 4th round) begins with players receiving a grant. The amount of the grant is shown on the parking lot mat near the round tracker.

On a players turn they will do one of the following:

• Buy a Tile
• Advertise
• Pass

Buy a Tile

Players must buy ONE of the tiles from the center market spot. This includes services, medium and large attractions, an extension plot or a second park entrance. The purchased tile is then placed into that player’s park following the placement rules laid out below.

Placement Rules: Services and attractions can only be placed if at least one path connects to a path on an existing adjacent tile and it fits completely within the player’s park mat. Extensions can be placed anywhere around the player’s park mat as long as it touches the existing park mat and aligns with the grid. Finally, the extra entry can be placed on any side of the player’s park mat or extension mat.

Advertise

Players may choose to advertise on their turn by paying the amount shown on the back of the small service tiles and collecting the visitors also shown there. The tile is then returned to the bottom of the pile and the player will add the new visitors to their park or entrance.

Pass

A player may pass on their turn if they have no money or decide to not spend anymore. When a player passes they will take the bus card of their choice along with the visitors on it. The card is put back into the box (or discarded) and the visitors are added to that player’s park or entrance.

 

End of round:

Once all players have passed, the round is over. Players will now receive $1 for each visitor in the park and $2 for any visitors that are in special spots (noted by the yellow flag). Special visitor spots with concession, gift, or bathroom icons can only be filled, and scored, if the correct service is immediately adjacent and connected by a path. Visitors outside the gate will not earn you income this round.

Players now advance the round tracker and take their next grant, if applicable. The leftover bus is moved up and new busses and visitors are added. The player with the least amount of money will now be the first player.

 

 

Once the final round has been completed, players enter the final scoring phase. Players will earn points based on the number of different attractions they have in their park (the more the better), green and blue visitors earn 1 point each while pink and yellow visitors earn 2 points each.

Visitors outside the park are worth negative 1 point for blue and green and negative 2 points for pink and yellow.

Any paths that dead end are also worth negative 2 points.

Note: only paths that dead end to another tile (not the exterior of the park mat or an empty space on the park mat) count.

 

The player with the highest score wins!

 

What we liked about Meeple Land

The Theme

I now have three different games with an amusement park theme; Meeple Land, Imagineers and Steam Park. All three play differently despite their identical themes which is good news for me–I can keep them all. My preciouses…

The Mechanics

The main mechanic of this game is “set-collecting” which comes in the form of buying as many different attractions as you can and luring sets of visitors into your park (pink and yellow earn the most points). This mechanic really fits well with the theme as you would never want to go to an amusement park with 20 identical rides. In this case, one ride doesn’t fit all.

The Quality

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Blue Orange Games is one of my favorite publishers. Their board games always seem to fit the gaming needs of our family which are fun game play without being too complicated. Their titles cover all age groups, a wide variety of themes and varied mechanics. Meeple Land is another great arrow in their quiver.

The Artwork

The artwork is fantastic and the final product looks amazing on the table. The component quality is amazing which is something I have come to expect from Blue Orange Games. And I really do love their inserts (when they add them).

 

 

How does Meeple Land score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Meeple Land is certainly a game we’ll be playing over and over. The set up is fairly simple and the game play is straight forward, so it’s easy to learn/teach and get to the table. Games last about 30 to 45 minutes which is perfect for a light weight game like this.

My kids (6, 8 11, and 13) all picked up on it quickly and were able to be competitive after a few rounds. This means they’ll be willing to play it with me again.

The theme also appeals to many players — including my wife, who doesn’t like all the fantasy games I have on the shelf.

 

About the Author

Dane is an Advertising and Layout Manager for a national magazine by day and a husband, father of four, and board gamer by night (and mornings). He has a passion for board games and believes board games help bring families closer together while providing kids a unique way to learn many diverse skills. And he thinks they are downright fun!!!

We’d like to thank Blue Orange Games for a review copy of Meeple Land.