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Description
Santa Maria is a streamlined, medium complexity Eurogame in which each player establishes and develops a colony. The game features elements of dice drafting and strategic engine building. The game is low on luck and has no direct destructive player conflict; all components are language independent.
In the game, you expand your colony by placing polyominoes with buildings on your colony board. Dice (representing migrant workers) are used to activate buildings; each die activates a complete row or column of buildings in your colony. The buildings are activated in order (left to right / top to bottom), then the die is placed on the last activated building to block this space. It is therefore crucial where you put new buildings in your colony, and in which order you use the dice.
As the game progresses, you produce resources, form shipping routes, send out conquistadors, and improve your religious power to recruit monks. When you recruit a monk, you must decide if it becomes a scholar (providing a permanent special ability), a missionary (for an immediate bonus) or a bishop (for possible end game points). The player who has accumulated the most happiness after three rounds wins. The available specialists, end game bonuses and buildings vary from game to game, which makes for near endless replayability.
Year Published
2017
Transcript Analysis
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 5
This page: 5
Sentiment:
pos 4 ·
mix 1 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–5 of 5
Video OX1rhDo-xxE
Unknown Channel top_100_list at 6:11 sentiment: positive
video_pk 11811 · mention_pk 34611
Click to watch at 6:11
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- deep strategy for a medium-weight euro
- replayability
Cons
- theme can be controversial for some players
Thematic elements
- dice drafting, polyomino placement, exploration
- colonial-era New World settlement and development
- historical strategy
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice_drafting — Draft dice to determine actions on your turn.
- engine_building — Developing buildings to improve scoring and options.
- polyomino_placement — Place polyomino buildings on a grid to score points.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Rising Sun is absolutely fantastic.
- La Havre broke the cycle of Agricola clones and gave us something brand new.
- Ra was given a deluxe reprint not that long ago.
- The Voyages of Marco Polo is a dice placement game.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video KE96zhqWpp8
Unknown general_discussion at 29:45 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 10281 · mention_pk 30347
Click to watch at 29:45
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
- easy to teach and accessible for newcomers
- depth in dice management and planning
- tightly themed and visually appealing
Cons
- not a lot of interaction between players
- may feel less thematic for some players despite solid mechanics
Thematic elements
- settling colonies with resource management
- colonial era exploration and settlement
- puzzle-like euro with dice-driven tension
Comparison games
- Avenue
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice placement and activation — white dice are universal, blue dice activate rows, players activate buildings to gain resources
- resource management and track-based scoring — you ship goods, upgrade buildings, and manage multiple tracks to maximize points
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a very simple conceit there's not many rules and you're straight into discussing what happened
- I think this is a great game if you love Marvel then the theme really comes through
- I would compare this to something like catch the moon because it also has the desire to place your pieces at the highest most point
- it's incredible how this game simulates a tower defense puzzle
- not that interactive but very satisfying in terms of decision making
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video LkLlnqhP3ks
The Dice Tower top_100_list at 2:59 sentiment: positive
video_pk 5796 · mention_pk 17114
Click to watch at 2:59
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Clever blend of dice drafting, tile placement, and engine-building
- Satisfying strategic puzzles with multiple scoring routes
Cons
- Thematic veneer can feel thin to some players
- Rules can be dense for new players
Thematic elements
- Resource management, exploration, and engine-building puzzle
- the Caribbean colonial era with a focus on trade and exploration
- Strategic puzzle with a modular action selection and tile drafting
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice_drafting — Players draft dice from a common pool to activate actions
- engine_building — Active tiles provide ongoing abilities and scoring opportunities
- tile_placement — Tiles are drafted and placed to build a production/engine network
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- The joy of Power Grid comes from the economic planning and watching what the other players are doing.
- The better you're doing, the later in turn order you go.
- One of the key gameplay mechanisms for me is I always have to be anticipating the future actions and making my board ready to take full advantage of it.
- The game does an excellent job of blending dice drafting, tile placement, and engine building into a satisfying strategic puzzle.
- This game is a feast for Odin.
- The engine building and kind of a deck builder. The theme is pretty shaky for this one.
- What sets this game apart is the time aspect.
- The joy of this one is seeing what cards you have to work with and coming up with a long-term strategy, but being agile enough that if you get cards that may be a better engine or scoring, you can pivot midame, maybe even pivot several times during the game to figure out what's best for you.
- The dice drafting is not just about luck. It is a layer decision-making puzzle.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video sM-6WWFdC8I
Unknown Channel top_100_ball_games_list at 3:59 sentiment: positive
video_pk 4395 · mention_pk 12837
Click to watch at 3:59
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Bare bones but highly replayable
- High variability due to many buildings and scoring opportunities
Cons
- Theme presented as minimal or abstract
- Potentially niche appeal for some players
Thematic elements
- Dice-placement and settlement optimization
- Colonial era, voyage and colony building
- Bare bones thematic feel, high replayability
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- conquest and religious power via monks — Various tracks drive scoring and victory potential.
- dice-placement — Dice select, activate buildings, produce resources and progress on the map.
- resource production and routing — Players build routes and produce goods to score and expand influence.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Race for the Galaxy is a fantastic card game
- it's a real pain in the ass to learn/teach because it's got a rather bamboozling icon system
- it's a really rewarding game made even better with a couple of the expansions
- I love Puerto Rico I love the feel of it and it's just a classic game
- Captain Flip is such a simple promise
- Carnival zombie is a rip roaring rolicking romp
- this game is basically chaos in a box
- it's a deck building racer
- Royals is effectively a que pushing game
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video uUqHMQPJn0U
Corporate Cardboard general_discussion at 1:26:12 sentiment: positive
video_pk 4358 · mention_pk 12733
Click to watch at 1:26:12
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- tight, highly refined euro gameplay
- pacing and engine-building feel very satisfying
- compact footprint with long-lasting strategic depth
Cons
- availability and expandability can be limited depending on edition
- some editions require care to manage tokens and scoring
Thematic elements
- economic engine building, route optimization
- renaissance-era exploration and colonization planning
- classic euro with sharp decision points
Comparison games
- Glenmore II Chronicles
- Cascadia
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice drafting / action selection — players draft actions to execute building and trading efforts
- scoring through contracts & goods — end-game scoring based on fulfilled contracts and produced goods
- top-row placement / engine building — building actions and contracts trigger on a layered board
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- this game has like hundreds of miniatures and metal components galore that were all unlocked via the Kickstarter
- the biggest thing that surprised me is every time a game comes into our library i try to learn it as soon as possible
- nemesis lockdown is wonderful for that and the contingencies really add a new layer of tension
- the mirror effect... I haven't seen before; it's distilled; it's simple
- Sleeping Gods is the best adventure game—it's 10 out of 10 for me
- Calico is the crunchy, punishing one; Cascadia is more open and forgiving in terms of pathing
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–5 of 5