Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
Even though I’ve been heavily into board gaming for over a decade, and I’m a big fan of Reiner Knizia, I’d never heard of Botswana (or any of its previous incarnations: Quandary, Loco, or Irish Wolf). So with great delight I opened the slim box, gorgeously illustrated by Weberson Santiago. Inside I found even more beautiful cards and large, chunky wooden animal pieces worthy of Haba’s Animal Upon Animal. If the sight of these components doesn’t get you excited to play the game, hopefully my review will.
Let me introduce you to Botswana.
Botswana Overview
Playing Botswana is simplicity itself. Play a numbered card from your hand. There are five different “suits” (lions, giraffes, hippos, meerkats, and elephants) each numbered from 0 to 5. Then take any one of the corresponding animal figures—even one that doesn’t match the card you played. That’s it.
The topmost face-up number is the current value of that animal’s pieces. If the lion pile has a 3 on the top, then each lion piece will be worth 3 points at the end of the round.
However, every other player at the table has their own agenda. If you’ve got the 4 and 5 lion cards, you might think, “I’ll pick up lions on every turn, drop the 5 of lions, and make out like a bandit.” But Sophia sees you picking up lions like they’re on fire sale and decides to get in on the action by taking some herself. Then you notice she also has hippos, which are sitting at a pretty 4 points each. “No, Sophia,” you think to yourself, ”That will not do.” . So you decide to play your 0 of hippos to tank their value. All the while Mason is watching you both fighting over lions and hippos, as he scooping up meerkats.
But all good things must come to an end, and the game is over immediately at the end of a turn in which all 6 of one animal cards have been played.
And then you realize that quiet little Mary Kate has all 5 giraffes, and they’re worth 5 points apiece.
Why You Should Buy Botswana
Sure, that scenario is ginned up, but in every game I’ve played, some form of it has happened. You go into each round with the best of intentions, sure in your belief that your cards will let you make out like a bandit. But, you know what they say about best laid plans—or in the words of Mike Tyson—“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”. And at the end of the round, you’re literally just happy to have gotten a handful of points.
On the surface Botswana, is a set collection card game, but its veneer hides a devious push your luck and social deduction puzzle, with a heavy emphasis on timing. Earning lots of points is definitely possible, but you have to pay attention to what other players are doing. And you have to suss out just the right time to play a card. If you play a high card to jack up the value of an animal too early, you reveal your hand and give other players time to sabotage your plan. But if you wait too long, someone else might play the last card on a stack and leave you with a pittance.
As I already mentioned, Botswana is gorgeous. Not only do the cards perfectly capture the essence of each of the animals, but every card in a suit is unique, giving 6 different perspectives. From the lion’s mighty roar on the 5, to the underwater grace of the hippo on the 0, to the family of meerkats on the 2. Weberson Santiago shows his mastery of light and color.
My only gripe with the game is the scoreboard. It’s laid out in rows of 10, but the art team chose to have the rows snake back and forth instead of running purely from left to right. More than once, we moved our scoring markers to the wrong position. Not only was this hard to remember, it meant that you couldn’t just move your piece down one row if you have a 10.
If you’re looking for a shorter card game that’s not lightweight in strategy, then Botswana would be a perfect addition to your collection.
Botswana details
- Designer: Reiner Knizia
- Artists: Charlie Bink, goo, Piotr Sokołowski, Weberson Santiago
- Publishers: 25th Century Games, AMIGO Games, AURUM, Inc., Eagle-Gryphon Games, Esdevium, Fantasy Flight Games, Midgaard Games, Milton Bradley, Muduko, New Games Order, LLC, Nexus Editrice, PS-Games, Swan Panasia Co., Ltd.
- Release Date: 1994
- Player count : 2 - 5
- Age range : 7+
- Time range : 20 - 30 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Commodity Speculation, Hand Management, Open Drafting, Stock Holding
- BGG Geek Rating: 6.82683 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
- More articles about Botswana.
