Gorinto Preview
- Designer: Richard Yaner
- Publisher: Grand Gamers Guild
- Players: 1-4 (Solo expansion needed for solo play)
- Age: 10+
- Time to play: 30-45 Minutes
Hey folks! I was recently able to meet up with Marc Specter of Grand Gamers Guild to play the prototype of Gorinto. This was at a convention he was running a gaming table at. I was so excited to try Gorinto, that I only got a handful of photos. I apologize for that. Gorinto is currently on Kickstarter. There are 7 days left of the Kickstarter to get onto it. Link Here <——
Gorinto is an abstract strategy game. It has tile placement, tile gathering, and engine building.
Note – This is a prototype and the components and rules might change before the final product is released.
Set Up
You set up the board by randomly selecting the tiles from the bag and creating a landscape on the board.
The game board is a 5×5 grid and paths. To create the mountain, randomly seed from the bag and form a stack of 4 tiles that goes in the center. Then around that are 3 tile stacks followed by 2 tile stacks.
Around the top and left side you’ll seed randomly from the bag the starting tiles for each row and column. These are known as the path.
Each game will also have two random goal cards that you’ll score at the end of each round.
Each game will have two random element cards that you’ll score at the end of the game.
Game Play
The game is played over 4 seasons or rounds.
On your turn, you pick one of the tiles and follow the row or column and place it. Depending on the tile placed, you will gather other tiles to place on your player mat.
Tiles come in 5, or 6 with the expansion, different styles.
- Void – Gather tiles diagonally adjacent to the tile placed.
- Wind – Gather tiles orthogonality adjacent to the tile placed.
- Fire – Gather tiles vertically from the tile placed.
- Water – Gather tiles horizontally from the tile placed.
- Earth – Gather tiles under the tile placed.
- Dragon – Wild. Choose one of the 5 elements and preform that action. When gathering, you place it anywhere on your player board.
This is where the engine building comes in.
Understanding in the game is the amount of tiles you must gather when placing a tile.
The tiles you gather equal to 1+ the matching tile on your player mat. So if you have a stack of 2 wind tiles on your player mat, then you take the wind tile action, you’ll gather a total of 3 tiles.
The maximum you can ever gather is 4 tiles.
Gathering Tiles
- You can never gather the tile you placed, or the tile under the tile you placed.
- You cannot take twice from the same stack.
- Unless you’re using the Earth tile. Earth tile likes you talk multiple from the same stack and the tile you placed.
After each player has taken a turn, if there are fewer tiles than players in the path, the season ends. At the end of the season, you’ll score according to the goal cards. You’ll do this for each season, then after four seasons you’ll score the key element cards.
In the game I played, the goals were stacks that had odd number of tiles and each stack that had a different height than other stacks.
Here is my player board mid-second season. If the season ended here, this is what I would score.
I score the following according to the goal cards.
- Wind, Fire, and Water are all the same height and even, so I don’t score those stacks.
- Void, I score it twice. Once for being an odd number, and once for being a different height from the other stacks. I get three points for each goal, ending up with 6 points.
- Earth, I score once for being a different height. I get two points for the stack.
I end up with 8 points for this season. Not the best, and if I had Wind, Fire, and Water either odd and/or different heights I could have scored more. I do have stacks going for Wind and Water that would earn me end of game points though.
In my game, I past the 50 point mark at the end of Season 3. It’s all about the strategy and planning out what you’re scoring at the end of the round and game.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it. A quick preview of Gorinto. It’s currently on Kickstarter and the end product looks promising with the interlocking tiles. The game I played was a prototype. The components look a little fiddley, and they were. Just another reminder that this is the prototype and the final product won’t look the same.
What I enjoyed in the game play was the options you had on your turn. I wasn’t only looking at what tile to place, but what was opening to my opponents after I gathered. Yeah, I could go with this move, but it would expose the tiles my opponents needed. Do I really want them to build their engines?
That’s another aspect that I really enjoyed. The engine building. The more tiles in your stacks, the better those tiles would do. The caveat, as you build your engine you have to take that many tiles. In my game, I had to be cautious of this when trying to score the end of a season. See my measly 8 points. If I planned it out better, I could have gotten those stacks different heights or even odd.
The dragon tiles still sounded like they were being play tested. Currently they count as all around wilds. It sounded like they might try using them as spendable abilities to be able to ignore the sticking to your row or column.
Over all, this game impressed me. I’m a fan of abstract strategy games, and I could see this one becoming one of my family favorites. I have no doubt with the finish product, that this game will have a great tactile feel and game play to match. It sort of reminded me of Azul meets Splendor. You’ve got the nice chunky tiles and that satisfying engine you build. This one hits the nail on the head for strategy, ease of play, table presence, and all around fun. Take a look, let me know what you think.
Everyone and their Grandmother Games 