''Mombasa'' is a 2015 Euro-style board game by Alexander Pfister. The theme is the rivalry of four

trading companies Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exch ...

in Africa. Players buy

shares In financial markets, a share is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation, and can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Share capital refers to all of the shares of an ...

in the companies and expand them to their advantage, aiming to build the most valuable

portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a ...

Game mechanics In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-sha ...

include deck building and

worker placement In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-shap ...

. ''Mombasa'' won the 2016 Deutscher Spielepreis.

Game play

The game is played on a board depicting a map of Africa and runs over seven rounds. Each player has a similar hand of cards and two bonus markers. To start a round, players simultaneously select cards to be active this turn. Players then take turns either to use active cards of one type or to place a bonus marker. Turns continue around the table until all pass. The cards are of several types. Goods cards depict 1 to 4

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor p ...

. They are used either to purchase new cards or to advance along a company track to earn shares, cash and other bonuses. Exploration cards, also valued from 1 to 4, add

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

s to the map, increasing a company's

share price A share price is the price of a single share of a number of saleable equity shares of a company. In layman's terms, the stock price is the highest amount someone is willing to pay for the stock, or the lowest amount that it can be bought for. B ...

and giving various rewards to the player. Bookkeeper cards expand a player's library and merchant cards generate

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...

s, both of which count towards the final score. Initially, each player has three slots for active cards. Collecting books and diamonds can open two further slots. Share cards appear later in the game; they allow no action but increase the player's score. Bonus markers are placed on

spaces on the board to claim various benefits. Majority spaces advance the player with the most valuable goods or exploration cards along a company track. Tile spaces give an extra card for the next round. Other spaces allow a player to buy or sell cards for cash, or to claim the right to play first next round. After each round, players retrieve some of the cards they used in earlier rounds using a unique mechanic. Each active card is moved to one of several resting piles, after picking up just one of the resting piles. After seven rounds, each player values their shares, books, diamonds and cash; the richest player wins.

Release and awards

''Mombasa'' was developed by Austrian game designer as ''Afrika 1830'' and won the 2011 Hippodice Spieleclub game designer competition. It was released in 2015 by and distributed by . It was awarded first place in the 2016 Deutscher Spielepreis.

References

External links

* {{Deutscher Spiele Preis winners Board games introduced in 2015 Deutscher Spiele Preis winners Board games about history Worker placement board games