Sand

I've mentioned before in my Mistwind write up that I don't really have coverage of Pick-Up and Deliver as a mechanism in my board game collection. Perhaps its not something that interests me, or rather it hasn't been featured in games that I tend to favor. But I wouldn't want to completely write it off just yet. I've heard that Devir is well regarded for their small box games so I picked up Sand. I really like the art and theme, it gives me very Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind vibes with the sand worms that you ride.

In this game you'll be travelling with your giant worm across the sands to deliver various goods between cities, camps and the port for points. There's 6 to 5 rounds depending on player count and in each of those rounds each player will have 3 turns. On your turn you'll plan what actions you can take by using your action tokens, the trick here is that carrying goods takes up a spot where an action token would be assigned, so depending on how much you carry you'll have to make do with less actions. Not only that but the action disks are color coded for certain actions as well as tied to dice that are rolled and set for the entire round. There's ways to manipulate the result but there's definitely some "make do with what you have" that you'll encounter.

One recurring comment/downside is the rulebook. While it certainly feels comprehensive, it makes it hard to understand the game. I applaud the effort to try and ease the player in with the first half trying to teach concepts of the game to the player, however I think they dove too deep in that section and because of that you'll be flipping back and fourth between the two halves for the relevant information you want to look up. I think a better implementation of that is seen in SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, where they do a quick concept overview of what you're doing in the game, but then actually go deep into the rules and mechanics later on.

A great example of this was during my first time trying solo, while I felt somewhat confident in how I was doing my actions, I didn't quite get how the solo player was meant to operate just on the slim instructions. Looking on the forums I found a thread that pointed out the rule that I was missing which was that you can't deliver plants to cities, only to camps. This was touched upon on the concepts area but not in the delivery action area. It's almost like the rules expect you to retain everything when you first read it.

Another similar instance was regarding the actions system, that after delivering something, since the action token flipped, couldn't I just then use it again? Well, turns out taking actions is a bit more methodical than that. I had incorrectly assumed that you move the action token down to take it. Instead, what you should be doing is before you take a turn, you move all action tokens down that you intend to use, then place them back to the top row once you take the action. A subtle but very important difference in ensuring your action economy is actually affected by the goods your carrying.

I don't think the game is difficult, and from my first pass through the rules and flipping back and forth between the pages, that initial learning play wasn't too far off the intended play experience. But this is definitly a game that the rulebook ought to be improved in order to teach the game better. Thankfully there are video tutorials, like this one from Meeple University, that are a great resource and helped fill the gaps of my understanding.

But it does feel annoying that there isn't a full FAQ, you have to keep looking at the forums for clarifications that the rulebook doesn't have, such as the harbor and solo mode, or even just general wording such as using the acolytes. From the rulebook I would have thought it was just a special bonus action but now reading from the designer themselves it takes up an action.

After playing and learning how to do things proper, I think this is one that I will need to revisit. I actually did enjoy the puzzle it presented and I don't mind the action system here once I wrapped my head around it. The one thing that seems a little obtuse to me is the whole Abandoned Goods. It seems like you want to pick up and hoard the basic plant goods but then toss them out to use them as bonus actions within a turn. And I never got to make use of the Song token mechanic or the Shelter building. So I think there's possibly more to explore, especially with the mix and match of asymmetric traveler abilities.