Oregon Board Game Review

Game Overview

Oregon is a western based themed game. We are back in the year 1846 when entire families left their home countries and headed west in search of a new start. Despite its western theme, you won’t find violence at all in Oregon. No shooting, no cowboys, and no sheriffs. You have to deal with other players in peace, relying on your planning and investment skills.

The game board is a map of Oregon, divided into five columns and five rows. Both in the columns and in the rows we find the same five images (wagon, bison, settler, eagle, campfire). The goal of each player is to skillfully place buildings and farmers on the board to score the maximum number of points. Each player starts with a hand of 4 cards (3 landscape cards and 1 building card), 14 farmers of their color (15 is placed on the scoring table), two tokens (extra turn and joker), and one tile of beginning. On a player’s turn, he must place at least one of his farmers or build a building on the board. To place a farmer, two of his landscape cards must be played and the farmer must be placed on an empty space (except water spaces) located at the intersection of the row and column corresponding to the symbols depicted on the cards (the player decides which card represents the row and which the column). If he decides to place a building, he must play a landscape card and a building card. The landscape card determines the row or column in which the building can be placed and the building card determines the type of building. He then takes a corresponding building tile from the supply pile and places it on any empty space in the column or row determined by the landscape card. Of course, no building can be placed anywhere on the map, but only on a space with the corresponding background color. Thus, the port, for example, must be placed adjacent to a water space and mines (gold or coal) can only be placed on a mountain space. By placing farmers and buildings, players earn points. If they place farmers, they earn points for each building their farmer is adjacent to (diagonally doesn’t count) and they also get 5 points if they manage to form a group of 3 adjacent farmers (in this case, diagonally doesn’t count). If they place buildings, they earn points for each farmer the building is adjacent to (other players’ farmers also earn points). After playing the cards, a player can decide whether he will use his extra turn token (if it is on his active side) or end his turn. If his turn ends, he must restore his hand to 4 cards (as long as he has at least one building and one landscape card in hand). Then it is the next player’s turn.

The game ends as soon as all farmers of a player’s color are placed on the board or a number of building piles are depleted (depending on the number of players, from 2 to 4). The final round is played to the end, until all players have had the same number of turns.

First impression

Oregon is a quick and easy game to learn, but it requires good planning and close attention while playing. You have to be very flexible in your strategy, because there are times in the game where you may need to change it in order to get the maximum advantage of the way the buildings and farmers are placed on the board. He must also always be ready to seize opportunities for himself and deny opportunities to rivals.

Components

I think that hans im gluck, As a publisher, it guarantees a good level of component quality. And Oregon is no exception. Good quality box, well drawn board, nice cards (both building and landscape), building tokens, coal and gold tokens, 60 wooden meeples in 4 colors (15 each) and 8 large tokens (extra spin and wildcards). 7/10

how to play

Oregon combines a few different mechanics nicely. Chip placement, worker placement, area control, card selection and why not hand management, because you can decide if you can use some cards in your hand this turn or keep them for the next round. It is both easy and complicated and in each round you have to make decisions about the best actions. 8/10

Learning curve

Easy to learn. The rule book is well written and a player with average experience will find it easy to start playing. It can be played at any time and by any group due to its short playing time (45′-60′) and medium weight. 8/10

Theme

Well, okay… it’s a eurogame. So the issue is not your advantage. West in this game is not what you have always imagined. On the other hand, the map does a good job of reminding you of the theme and so do the images on the cards or the meeples with their huts. You don’t feel like you are in the real Oregon, but you can feel like a cowboy at times. No gun of course… 6/10

replayability

No game is the same. I’ve played over 50 games so far, either with a group of friends or the online version. There are different things to do in each game and different challenges. 8/10

Fun

Each game that is quite easy but requires a lot of strategic decisions and challenges and is played in one hour at the most, I find it fun… 7/10

Advantages:

  • Easy to learn but challenging enough.
  • time to play
  • It can be played by different types of players.
  • nicecomponents
  • a

Cons:

  • Not connected to the topic. Fans of western-themed games may be disappointed.

Overall: 7.3/10

Find more about Oregon at:

http://www.boardgamemaniac.com/Games/By-Genre/Family-Games/Oregon-l111.html

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