Ingenious - Review

Tile laying games are nothing new. From Chicken Foot to Mexican Train,
games involving dominoes as the tiles remain popular for young and old
alike. It is somewhat surprising that more designers have not attempted an
update to the classic game of dominoes. Well, the brilliant mind that
brought us Loco, Samurai, and Fish Eat Fish has once again given us a
fantastic game that is summed up well in one word: Ingenious.

Ingenious is an American reprint of a German game by Reiner Knizia called
Einfach Genial (literally “Simply Ingenious”). The game comes with a board,
120 tiles in a cloth bag, four tile racks, four score cards with scoring
markers, and the rules. The tiles are two hexagons (six sides) joined on
one side with a “suit” on each portion of the tile. For example, a tile
might have a blue star on one half of the tile and a red sun on the other.

On a player’s turn, they select a tile from their hand and play it on the
game board. To score their play, they look at each half of the tile and
count the number of matching items that fall in a straight line from each of
the five sides. For example, if Bob placed a tile with a blue star, he
would count the number of blue stars that fall in a straight line from each
side of the tile. It is a bit confusing to explain without the game in
front of you, but the rules do a great job of showing you how you would
score a tile. After determining the score, Bob moves his blue scoring
marker forward the number scored.

Quite reminiscent of dominoes, the goal is to have the best score at the end
of the game. What makes this a bit different is that having the highest
score does not necessarily guarantee you victory because your lowest suit is
your actual score of the game. If a player’s lowest suit is green circles
with a six, then they score six in the final game scoring. The player with
the highest score wins the game.

It is this unique twist that makes Ingenious so, well, ingenious. The need
to focus on all the suits means that a player cannot just focus on one suit
to win the game. It also means that a major scoring play for one player
does not necessarily eliminate everyone else playing. Since the game isn’t
over until the last tile goes on the board, it keeps everyone playing and
interested throughout.

Fast paced, a two-player game with a fair amount of analysis takes only
around 30 minutes. My wife and played for the “County Championship” one
evening and easily played three games in about 90 minutes, including breaks
between the games. (For those of you keeping score at home, I won two games
to one!) I imagine that a four-player game should take about 45 minutes as
the box suggests making this a great game to pull out after dinner for the
family.

In addition, the game is one of a handful that scales well between one and
four players. That’s right, the rules contain instructions on how to play a
solo game. Along with that, the game board comes colored slightly
differently to indicate the playing surface for a two, three, or four player
game. Additionally, the rules contain directions on playing a four player
partnership game along with the aforementioned solo rules. Again, this is
nice to have so many options spelled out for players right out of the box.

The components are nice, but nothing spectacular. Especially nice is the
bag that comes with the game as it makes it easy to randomize the tiles.
Made of sturdy plastic with vibrant colors, the tiles themselves are both
nice to look at and easy to work with. The board is standard for a board
game with nothing particularly special or disappointing. Clearly written
with good examples, the rules make this an easy game to pull out of the box
and play right away.

If there is one thing regarding the components that is a concern, it is the
placement of the orange and yellow scoring tracts next to each other on the
player’s cards. While the tiles are quite clear (the shapes help), it would
not take much to mistakenly move the wrong marker when scoring. It is just
puzzling that Herr Knizia would not notice that and put something
contrasting between them. Despite that small concern, it certainly isn’t
something that should keep anyone from picking up this game.

Once again, the good doctor Reiner Knizia shows us why we still love a good
game. In particular, those who enjoy dominoes should stop and look at this
game, as they will find game play familiar yet decidedly different. Quite
simple to learn and play, yet with a level of strategy and decision-making
found in few games, Ingenious offers a great time to anyone who picks up the
game and plays. And in the end, isn’t that why we play?