Kanban EV - An Introduction
Game Specs
- Advertised Player Count: 1-4
- *Actual* Player Count: You can absolutely play with 2, but it plays best at 3-4. I haven't played against the automa, but I'm sure it's solid enough.
- Playing Time: 60-180 minutes
- I'm more inclined to think it steers toward the longer side of this estimate, but I'm sure if folks around the table have played it enough times, it can move quite a bit faster.
- Age: 14+
- Premise: Players are workers at a car factory seeking to do standout work so they can be recognized at the big board meeting at the end of the game
The game looks really nice, but man, it is a lot to look at. It can be a little overwhelming and if nobody around the table has played it before, it can seem doubly so. There's a lot of depth and a lot going on here. So if you're interested in this at all, it helps to have a sherpa who has experience with the game or with a Vital Lacerda rulebook. If you don't, don't fear! Just steel your nerves, watch a Learn to Play or two online, and get after it. I promise it's worth it if you like games that offer puzzles to solve and strategic depth! It's technically a worker placement game, but as each player only has one pawn to place each turn, I kind of have difficulty classifying it that way in my own head. I think it's much more about resource and time management than anything else.
Each turn, you will choose where on the work floor your worker will go. You will need to pick up car prototypes so you can match car parts with designs before upgrading car models and gaining victory points. You'll want to get cars off the assembly line and onto the test track so you can score points when they cycle off. You'll be preparing for board meetings so you can speak up, share your ideas, and snag tiles that will score you even more victory points. Overall, the theme is really well-integrated with mechanics that remind you that you're playing a game and supposed to be having fun, not working in a car factory. Again: I'm totally not a car guy, but this game is a lot of fun.
I had to play through a game once before I started to get the hang of what actions I needed to prioritize and when, as well as how to efficiently unlock the bonuses each player starts with on their boards. Also, we spend textbook tokens to learn more about each area of the factory, granting us new knowledge and bonuses. And the entire time we're playing, Sandra (our factory manager) is passing through and making sure we're not slacking off. So while we're playing against one another, we're also doing what we can to ensure the game itself doesn't penalize us for falling behind!
Bottom line: The game is intimidating and I'll also be the first to say that the theme did not engage me at all. I never would've tried this game if it weren't a designer I liked and it weren't suggested by a gamer friend I respect. It can run a bit long as you're familiarizing yourself with the rules and I think it requires more than one play to feel like you even have an idea of what you're doing. But the game itself looks great on the table and I think there's a lot of depth to it. I really enjoy puzzling through the moving pieces of the game and trying to stay ahead of Sandra as well as the other players. Despite still feeling a bit lost by the end of the first play, I was really excited to play it again with a higher player count, so Chad brought it to Geekway to the West and we played it with 4 players. It was great at 4 players and while this isn't a game I can get to the table as frequently as something like Everdell or Planet Unknown, it's one that I'd like to play at least every other month or so if I can't manage to play it monthly! I want to get a couple more plays under my belt before I wrote a fully-fledged review, but I promise that I enjoy this game enough that I'm going to get to that as soon as I can!
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