Board game review of Alpino: Mountains made of Domino

Building a landscape out of polyominos is popular in board games. Kingdomino perfected this concept to the point of being awarded the title of “Game of the Year”. The special polyomino form of dominoes used there also forms the basis for the family game “Alpino”, which was published at the beginning of the year by the Austrian publisher Piatnik. We tested the game.

The exact origin of the domino game cannot be determined with certainty. It probably comes from China (possibly Egypt or the Arab countries) and probably found its way to Europe via Italy. Northern Italy is also home to a region that fits the theme of the game, which fills dominoes with special animals. The family game Alpine takes place, as the name suggests, in the Alps, which include the Italian Dolomites in the south.

Familiar game concept

Not only people who Kingdomino will understand the game concept of Alpine have understood.

The person who has the starting tile chooses one of the tiles on display and places it in their own area. When laying out a tile, at least one type of landscape (background color) must always be placed on a suitable landscape that is already in place. If this is not possible with any of the available tiles, one of the tiles can be turned over. This gives you two water points that can border any landscape.

Now everyone takes turns to select a tile and place it. The person with the starting tile can then place the remaining tile (or one of the two remaining tiles, depending on the number of players) under one of the point tiles. Only a stack can be selected whose animal species can also be seen on the remaining tile.

Then the next round is prepared. The display is filled with new tiles and the starting tile is passed on to the next person.

Gentle climb to the (point) summit

If the display cannot be refilled at the end of a round, the game ends. Now everyone can place their secret tiles in turn order. These show two types of animals on any landscape that are particularly valuable, for example to connect separate groups.

Now, for each animal species (ibex, lynx, buzzard, marmot and alpine longhorn beetle) and for the watering holes, a comparison is made to see who has formed the largest connected group. The person receives the number of animals in their largest group multiplied by the number of tiles in the points pile as points. In the event of a tie, everyone receives the points. Whoever has the most points after all animals have been evaluated wins the game.

In addition to the multiplayer game, Alpine It also has a solo mode. This can be found on the Piatnik website can be called up. Four or five tiles are revealed alternately per round. After you have chosen the first tile, the two tiles furthest to the left are discarded. The last tile can be placed under a points pile. In rounds with five tiles, the second to last tile can also be placed in your own area. If you reach at least 50 points by evaluating all animal species at the end, you win. During the game, you also have to make sure that you form the required constellations of the secret tiles, five of which you have to complete during the game.

Information about Alpino

Conclusion

Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical after reading the rules. The gameplay parallels to other games with domino-like tiles were pretty obvious and the scoring mechanism seemed a bit strange on paper. Even a solo version in which it's "only" about reaching a certain point value didn't exactly excite me.

But here the first impression was very deceptive. Even the solo games showed that puzzling the animal species has its own charm. The challenge of reaching the required points mark and at the same time fulfilling the five constellations of the secret tiles is not that easy to overcome. I never got more than 54 points here. It requires really clever planning and a bit of luck in the distribution of the tiles to master the solo challenge.

Even in multiplayer games it quickly became clear that Alpine has more to offer than another theme compared to other “domino tile games”.
The game's unique appeal lies in the points mechanics. You always keep an eye on what the other players are building and then decide which tiles are a worthwhile expansion for your own area.

Due to the importance of the tiles that remain for the point piles, the game tends to be easier to plan with two or three people than with four. Regardless of the size of the group, you will have no problems sticking to the stated playing time of 20 minutes. This makes the game perfect as a nightcap or "gap filler" in between. In the long term, people who play a lot will probably find this a bit lacking in variety. However, the really short playing time means that this is bearable.

The game is not particularly thematic. Apart from the animals used, nothing suggests an alpine setting. The backgrounds are designed quite abstractly. This ensures clarity, however. The game material is exactly as you would want it. The tiles (there are no more) are a reasonable thickness and size. With an estimated price of €21 and "Made in Austria", everything here fits together in terms of quality.

Alpine does not reinvent the wheel. The well-known mechanism that you know from games like Kingdomino has been simplified somewhat (no size restrictions on the area, no “pre-drafting”) and expanded to include its own interesting points mechanics. As a family game with an alpine touch, Alpine his claim very well.

Preview	Product	Rating	Price
	Funtails GmbH FTGFTK1D - Feed the Kraken – Basic Edition*	Currently no reviews	59,89 EUR

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