Giants is a worker placement game set in the Easter islands where your tribe are racing to complete as many heads (Moaïs) and erect them (yes all the appropriate jokes were made) on the best scoring spots (ahus)(Gesundheit) before anyone else can. Furiously rushing to a conclusion where everyone dies of starvation but you get to look at some really keen heads with snappy hats before your painful expiration

It’s fairly standard stuff. There’s a bit of bidding. There’s worker placement. There’s a certain amount of cock blockery. What it does though it does in style. The game is beautifully presented. The map is well made, the pieces are nicely rendered. The whole thing reeks of quality. I particularly liked that everyone’s models look different. So everyone has a unique looking chief, witch doctor and workers. What nailed it for me was I picked this up for a song in a game shop last summer so win win. I only got around to playing it recently though I had played it a few years back with someone elses copy and was intrigued by it

There’s a number of mechanics at work in the game as you would expect from a worker placement game

First up is bidding where you all bid workers and tribal markers to grab the finite set of stone blocks and build statues. The more markers you bid the more likely you are to grab blocks ahead of your opponents and the more workers you bring to the party the bigger the heads you can carve. There is of course a catch. Workers used to carve cannot be used later on this turn to transport the heads to their final destinations.

Once decided you place your tribe around the map to form chains you can pass the heads along to their final destinations like crowd surfers at a rock concert. The further you transport them from the starting quarry spot and the bigger they are (they come in three sizes) the more points you’ll get at the end. This is where cock blockery reins supreme as you (just like a German tourist with sunbeds) try and reserve spots to stop others from raising their statue there.

While your normal mooks can only pass stuff over along the witch doctor is the one with special abilities. He can recruit more workers, build natty point scoring hats for the heads, cut down trees to make rolling logs, and a few other bits that help your growing economy. Your chief who’s super strong at lifting stuff acts as a sort of minor witch doctor and can do witchey stuff when he’s broken a few tablets, possibly in anger.

I’m not going to go into all the rules but the jist is you build heads. Transport them and erect them and score points. Like all worker games it’s a juggling act between building your economy and scoring points.

There’s a lovely warm fuzzy feeling about this game (like peeing in a dark suit). every bit of it feels complete and integrated. There’s no bits bolted on. It functions beautifully as a whole

It’s an unusual theme as well which is no harm and the theme is also not bolted onto the mechanics, it all feels just right. All in all I really like this game. It’s simple. It plays out in about two hours. I’d rate it up there with Catan and Puerto Rico. If you see it cheap it’s a worthy edition to your collection. If you don’t then it’s still a worthy addition to your expensive collection.

Now that we’ve ironed out the rules it’ll make a proper appearance at the next Knavecon

Huzzah!

Vic