Nova Luna Board Game - Worth the Spiel des Jahres Nomination?

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Recently the Nova Luna Board Game was nominated for the 2020 Spiel des Jahres. I’ve always looked at the award nominees for game suggestions for my family game nights… and often I’ve been really happy with their selections. Somehow Nova Luna slipped under my radar when it was first released, which is a bit odd since we have a number of Uwe Rosenberg’s games in rotation- Patchwork, Cottage Garden, Bohnanza, and even Feast for Odin (which I solo). Nova Luna is a beautiful game that deserves its nomination, and a lot more love.

Buy Nova Luna HERE–> Nova Luna Board Game

Nova Luna a little Background

The story goes something like this... Uwe Rosenburg played Corne van Moorsel’s game Habitats, and really enjoyed it, but wanted to make a few changes. So he called up Corne, and together they worked out Nova Luna. To me though, Nova Luna is far more streamlined.

Nova Luna Boardgame

Nova Luna is a Tile Laying set Collection Race. Phew. Basically, you collect tiles from the wheel, and add them to a spot on your tile array where you can satisfy the best set collection requirements. And why is it a race? There are no points, no scoring… the player who manages to place all of their tokens on completed set requirements first wins.

How to Play Nova Luna

Set up the Lunar Wheel with a face up card in each spoke. Place a token for each player on the full moon. Now put the Half-moon Standee in the the top spoke. First player takes one of the 3 face up cards in front of the moon standee (a nod to Patchwork), and adds it to his/her collection. Then the standee is moved forward to the empty space, and the players token is moved forward the number of spaces indicated on the card. The player who has a token in last place goes next (which means you can take a low number, stay behind everyone, and get a second turn). Should the tiles run really low, you replace them randomly from the pile of unplayed tiles.

When placing a tile, you are trying to satisfy the requirements that are in circles on the other tiles. So if a tile has a circle with 2 blue and one red dot on it, you want to place 2 blue tiless and a red tile adjacent (orthogonal) to your tile. Got it? Then cover the circle with a token.

First person to use up all their tokens, wins.

In the image above- The yellow tile has 2 circles covered: one for teal and blue the other for 2 adjacent teal cards. Below it, the teal card has satisfied the teal and yellow requirement.

Quick Tip (and we learned this the hard way) When you Take a Tile from the wheel… IMMEDIATELY move the moon standee into the space. It doesn’t seem like it, but you would be amazed how often we lost track of where the tile came from.

What we Thought about Nova Luna

This game hits my sweet spot. Tile laying abstract with 30 minute playing time. Plus, I LOVE the look of this game… beautiful art and colors is always a draw for me… but it’s how the game plays that makes me want to pull it off the shelf again and again.

The concept is relatively simple, and it can be taught quickly, but like so many simple games, there is some depth. Trying to complete multiple requirements with a single tile takes some mind bending. We’e played it several times now, and every time it went a little better. (Annoyingly for both of us, I played better “quarterbacking” his moves than I did on my own spaces).
Strategy and planning fly out the window when you play with more than two people. It’s almost impossible to work out what pieces you will have available to you before your turn rolls around. Sure, this can be frustrating, but if it’s too annoying, stick with 2 players.

Indie Boards and Cards Nova Luna

Nova Luna Boardgame Componants

Like many Uwe Rosenberg games, the insert is non-existent. The game comes in a box with a few oversized baggies to store the player tokens. (I replaced the bags with some smaller ones I had in my stash.)

The cards are solid, and will hold up to a lot of play.
The wheel is the same thickness.… but because it’s empty in the middle, it feels less substantial than it should?
The player tokens are TINY. I heard that after demoing the game at Cons, they were supposed to make them bigger, but these are still pretty small. They work… but I don’t max out on dexterity, so I whine.
My only other gripe is the Moon Standee… I failed at putting it together the first time. (Bend, fold, slide in the slot…) Nothing a little glue couldn’t fix.

The artwork is absolutely LOVELY, and the Moon theme follows through the whole game. It really is wonderful to look and play. Does the moon theme really affect play? Not really, like most abstracts, it’s a nice way to lure you in. It would look boring if the game was just blue, teal, red and yellow… so I’m glad they made the effort.

Who can Play Nova Luna?

The box says the game is good for 8 and up. Naturally, some kids who play a lot of games will be able to pick it up at a younger age. I also see this as a great game to bring to my parent’s house. A game for all ages.

The game supports 4 players… but as I mentioned before, to ME it plays best with 2. There is also a solo mode with a slightly different rule set.