GRUNN
Co-author: Arjan van Houwelingen | Illustrations: Emma Wilson | Ages: 8+ | Players: 1-6 | Playing time: 45 min.
Links: Review 1 | Review 2 | BoardGameGeek
Why does the landscape in Groningen look the way it does today? How have humans altered the landscape of this province, reclaimed and colonised it? In this game you are a Groninger pioneer. You raise wierden (artificial mounds for habitation in wet areas), reclaim bogs and grow grain in new polders. You dig waterways and build farms. You cut down forests and sell milk. And through your actions, the landscape of the province changes step by step…
Build your own Groningen province by strategically placing tiles in arrangements that yield the most victory points. Make sure the wierden are surrounded by other types of areas, create a straight strip of bogs, expand your grain fields or become the largest cattle farmer in the province. Construct canals, build villages, churches, milk factories and farms.
Grunn was an assignment of National Programme Groningen. Launched in 2022, there was an immediate run on the game in the province of Groningen. An easy-to-learn tile-playing game with some interaction in the auction, but in which players mainly puzzle to build the ideal province with the smartest combination of landscapes and buildings. A game in which you also learn something about the landscapes of Groningen while playing.
Game rules
In Grunn, via an auction system in which you have to pay for certain combinations of tiles and action cards, you receive a tile each turn. You place that tile, which represents a Groninger landscape, adjacent to previously collected tiles, to form a province of 4 by 4 tiles after 12 turns. How the tiles are placed in relation to each other partly determines your final score. The action card allows you to develop certain landscapes each turn, and on once developed landscapes you can build villages, churches, farms and turf huts each turn, or build waterways between the tiles/landscapes. The buildings also give you points at the end of the game.