Review: Lanterns by Christopher Chung

Lanterns: The Harvest Festival - Foxtrot Games

My initial reaction to hearing about this game was exactly like my daughters - "Lanterns? That doesn't sound very exciting." But I followed the kickstarter, I love Canadian games, and decided to take a chance on a game that looked like it might be fun. Yesterday I came home to my second kickstarted game in a week (I'll post a review of Space Junk soon). As it was Monday I knew the boys were coming over so I reviewed the rules. The game is quite simple, elegant even. You place tiles in order to gain and give out coloured lantern cards allowing you to score victory points. So the main mechanic is set creation, which is a staple of great card games. However, the generous nature of the game, when I gain cards I also give cards to the other players, makes this game so gentle and friendly. We played it a couple of times at the beginning of the night and finished off the night with it as well. I would normally wait a bit to review the game, but this is a solid addition to my collection, and I can see this hitting the table a lot.

Likes: Great theme, tranquil game, close scores each time, beautiful wooden components. 

Dislikes: The cool first player token seems superfluous, only four players (but this is a limitation of the tile shape). 

Fun: There is a lot of strategy possible but even without that just placing the tiles is great fun. In fact I'd go so far as to say this is one of the more relaxing games I've played.
Quality: The paper components are average quality, the wooden components are wonderful. The mechanics are simple and easy to teach.
(re)Playability: It is still early to say, there are no components that one would get tired of seeing, such as tiles with special abilities. It has the makings of a modern classic.