Nunatak: Temple of Ice| Strategy Game | Boardgame | Competitive Game| 2-4 Player Game | Ages 10+

Table presence gets a 10 out of 10 with rewarding mechanics and interaction making it a highly competitive game

You end up building a giant ice castle. Good looking game

Our family really enjoys playing this game (even mom will play!). Our youngest is 6, and she has no problem understanding the rules. She doesn't really grasp the all bonus combos yet though, but she has a lot of fun building the pyramid. Sometimes our 8 year old forgets to play an ice block after swapping tiles, but she often wins even when that happens.It's a quick game and the pace increases as you build more levels. The components are nice and chunky and the artwork on the cards is fun to look at.

Super fun game, easy to learn, great pieces, whole family enjoyed playing.

Scoring is confusing.

This game is unique and different to what you may have played in the past.It's heavier on the strategy side to find the best ways to bump your score up.I wouldn't recommend playing this game with any youngins who can't focus on connect the dots on how to win.Overall, this is a unique experience and could be a great edition to your wall of board games.

I own several games by Thames and Kosmos and I've never been disappointed as they usually have fun mechanics and good quality. Nunatek is definitely no exception and is an awesome addition to our game collection.The game components are all very high quality. You get a series of cardboard pieces (that you have to punch out from a sheet the first time you play) along with a number of plastic blocks that act as the corners for the pyramid layers. The artwork and construction of the cardboard pieces is definitely high quality with nice vibrant colors and they are made of a thick durable cardboard. I have no doubt the pieces will stand up to lots of use.One of my favorite things about all of my Thames and Kosmos brand games is the instructions. They seem to put a lot of effort into making the rules as easy to learn as possible, even for more complicated games. Nunatak is no exception. Along with the detailed instructions book, there is also an app that gives you animated examples and walks you through how to play step by step. It's very well done and a great tool for learning how to play the first time. Along with those 2 resources you also get a little companion card cheat sheet that you can keep with you while you're playing so you can remember all the important info.The game play sounds complicated at first, but really isn't that bad and it certainly makes for some entertaining and strategic play. You're striving to build and complete pyramids and you do that by placing blocks into four corners and then adding a cardboard tile to form a new base layer. The three-dimensional aspect of the game is the first one I've tried and it was a unique and fun format that adds multiple layers of strategy. It's a lot of fun.Overall I'm very happy with Nunatak. It's $38.63 at the time of this review and in my opinion that's a great value for a game of this quality. I would definitely recommend Nunatak.

Nunatak is a collecting, matching, resource management, and race-to-the-top game! Familiar and fairly simple elements but a great design and fun atmosphere.The 2-4 players are collectively building a Temple of Ice but this is in no sense a cooperative game: while you can make use of other players' ice blocks on the modular board, you're placing blocks for your own competitive scoring opportunities. And even though the "Temple" is the game's most striking feature and gives it an immediate presence, much of your scoring will be from the cards you collect during the course of the game.Gameplay is straightforward enough for Nunatak to be treated as a 'gateway' game for players who are new to the expanding world of board games . On your turn you draw a building card from those in the market display. You add this card to your individual setup, matching those with similar icons, and you place one of your ice blocks on a tile in the Temple that has the same icon as the card you drew. There are special-action cards that you an draw too, like the Builder or Elder card that change the layout of the Temple, or effect end-game scoring.As the Temple is built, there are opportunities to score points for completing groups of blocks and starting new levels. Additionally, there are scoring bonuses available for completing rows and columns in the Temple. These advance you on an Architects track which becomes a end-game multiplier for all the Architect cards you collect during the course of the game. Nunatak's design seamlessly melds the abstract area control strategy game with a satisfying set collection card game. Get the synergy right between those two elements and you can rack up an impressive score!The game is listed as for 2-4 players, ages 10 and up. I think 12 and up is better, not because the ideas are complicated (they're really not), but because this tends to be a bit of a "thinky" game, with a little patience and forethought needed. Also, If you play with two players you need to incorporate a dummy player. There are other modifications to be made if you play with four. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with Nunatak as a two- or four-player game, just that three players would seem to be the sweet spot.With art from Kwanchai Moriya, game publisher Kosmos have done a great job with the production of Nunatak, from the game's stackable tiles and plastic blocks to the attractive cards. Don't wait for the grip of icy winter before you check this one out.