Customer Reviews

Masons

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I like Euro games and have pretty much downloaded every rules PDF I can find. Had never heard of this one and have to be honest, I was impressed initially by the very low price. The photo's implied a quality constructed game and it was from Rio Grande. I couldn't resist.

Two trial games later, with instructions opened and read as we went along, I was hooked. It's a fun little game with a unique rule set. The game piece colors have nothing to do with individual players. But you'll figure that out soon enough.

If you have experienced Euro games and the traditional quality of Rio Grande, you will most likely like the diversity this game adds to your collection.

Masons is a fantastic game of trying to barely control chaos. In Masons, you are seeking to fulfil scoring cards by manipulating the placement of walls, towers, and houses on the board. The trick is, the only decision that is completely in your control is where to place a wall. The color of the tower(s) and houses you must place is determined by the roll of three specialty dice. Sometimes you get to choose the color, but most often it's legislated to you by the dice.

As you place walls, you can place them in such a way that they complete a "city" (an area completely enclosed by walls). When this happens, it triggers scoring. Players can turn in up to 2 cards for points. The points are based on the features of the just-completed city or other elements on the board that are not (yet) part of a completed city. Instead of scoring, a player may discard a card and draw two new ones. The player in last place after each scoring round can discard any number of cards and draw an equal number of replacements.

The challenge of the game is in trying to manipulate the growth of the elements on the board so you can turn in cards for a high score. Because you can only impact certain elements, you're forced to "make do" with what the dice provide and what your opponents do. This is an exercise in trying to control chaos or "herd cats" so to speak. But there is a lot of room for clever play "at the margins" where a few points can be the difference between victory and defeat. Knowing when to forego scoring and instead dump a useless scoring card is also very important.

Masons is lightweight and has a lot of chaos and random elements, but they are very well balanced into a whole that is intriguing - the better player wins most often. Highly recommended for gamers who enjoy lightweight games that are a bit deeper than meets the eye, or someone wanting to move on past the monotony of Monopoly and find a game that's simple, quick-playing, and fun.

I'm an avid boardgamer, and this one is definitely in the medium-level strategy category, and is always fun. It's a game of choices and area control, with the handicapping feature of giving most people points when each person scores. It's a fairly quick game, taking usually not more than 45 minutes to an hour. For much more info on this game (this is NOT an advert!), check out:
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