Game Salute GSUH1320 Keyper Board Games

This is a great game. It is fairly complicated so I would only recommend it to fairly heavy gamers.

Great

Keyper is a one to four player worker placement game that has the unique board that folds to show different spaces for each of the four seasons. The game ends after four seasons and each player will do one final scoring to see who has won.Setup for a four player game of Keyper requires the four country boards be flipped to their designated starting side (spring) with appropriate player count. Spring country tiles will be placed in the cloth bag to be drawn from with a starting set of eight placed in the play area. All other season county tiles will be placed to the side to be added later. The 6 boat tiles will be shuffled and 4 will be placed on each country board's water area. Each player themselves will obtain a player board, designated starting meeples (8 total), player colored markers and keyper, and a player keyp tile. They will also receive starting building tiles of their color to be placed next to their board to be built later. Finally, players will gather 3 finished goods of each type (brick, stone, wood), and receive one fair tile belonging to spring, summer and fall. Start player is then chosen randomly.Players turn:A player's turn will primarily consist of playing a meeple or following another player. The two kinds of meeple playing are the standard meeple or a player's keyper.A keyper allows a player to claim a country board. When a player plays their meeples to the different country boards, those meeples are no longer owned by that player. When a player claims a country board, they will be taking that board and all meeples that have been played on it.Playing a meeple regularly can be done on a player's personal board or one of the country boards. Playing on a country board comes with several rules about placement. Placing a meeple on a location will give one action, but if the color of the meeple matches the colored boarder it will give an additional action. A meeple is not allowed to be placed in a location that already has two meeples, or on another players personal board. When a meeple is placed another player may join that placement. This begins with the player to the left who has the option to follow, and it will continue unless all players pass. When a player joins another they must follow with the same colored meeple, and doing so will give each player an additional action.If a player is out of meeples, and has played their keyper, than they will begin lying down meeples that are on their own board, or the country board they claimed, for one action. For country boards, matching colors will grant an additional action, and if two meeples are present they both can be laid down for two actions.End of Round:A round will be continue with each player playing their meeples/keyper until the last player plays their final meeple/keyper, and all other players will get one last chance to lay down any pieces they have. Players will now display any resources or animals they needed to complete the currents seasons fair tile. Players will now check to see if all animals have a proper farm buildings to house them on the player board. Any animals that cannot be housed are returned to the supply. Players will retrieve their chosen country board, and remove all meeples and keyper. The country tiles still remaining in their designated area will be removed from game. (end of spring will have all country tiles set aside be placed into the black bag.)Start of Next Season:A new set of country tiles will be drawn, the 6 boat tiles reshuffled for 4 to be placed, and players will now choose what will be displayed on their country board (the designated season symbol must be shown). Players will also place any extra meeples, beyond 8, in their supply onto their Keyp tile for additional supplies later.End of Game:Winter country tiles will be scored, building tiles, upgraded tiles, and fair tiles.Keyper is very simple, but their are so many nuances to how the game works that it is easy to forget something or for a new player to be woefully left behind. That is really the only negative thing about the game, the rules can be overwhelming, and bad playing by other players can give a player a tremendous lead. The place and follow aspect of the game is easy, but then there are rules like placing a worker on a personal building in order to build it. Understanding the symbols in the game are easy, but people can forget or misunderstand. Then the placement of meeples and keyper can swing the game. If a player gains more meeples it gives them the option to obtain animals or resources for free in the next round. This mostly occurs during a player's first game. It is the second game where players will really see if they like the game. The reason being is they will now understand how the game flows and what needs to be done to keep another player from obtaining too many meeples. Also, knowing what end game scoring tiles there are will allow a player to prepare for the end game. Keyper may seem a bit odd, or overwhelming, but there is a good worker placement with mechanics that really make an individual think about what actions they want and what they are giving their opponents.Teaching the game: Recommend players breakdown the game by going over the obvious and easy things players should know first with complicated rules introduced during the game. Emphasize how the keyper works and how giving too many meeples to another player can hurt them. Also, make it clear that the resource trading spaces will go away by the end of the game. Players will usually have to develop their own building space to continue gaining finished resources.