In the 16th century, Russia began to expand eastwards to develop the vast expanses of Siberia. This phase in history is closely associated with the name "Stroganov".
In the game Stroganov, players try to collect the best furs to gain wealth and fame as they move across the vastness that is Siberia. They will journey through Siberia in spring, summer, and autumn before returning home each winter. After four years (rounds), the player who has best utilized their actions and collected the most victory points wins.
Each year, the players must move eastward across the landscape. They can spend horses if they wish to travel further. Once they have advanced, they may take a basic action, such as trading or collecting furs or coins. Lastly, they may take more advanced actions such as visiting a village, setting up a yurt, taking a Tsar's wish (card), setting up a hunting lodge, or buying a landscape field. All of these actions — combined with exploring and some storytelling along the way — earn players victory points at the end of the game.
Every winter, players return home to Tyumen to prepare for a new year.
After four years, the game ends, then players score victory points based on having collected the right landscape tiles, fulfilled the Tsar's wishes, built hunting lodges, collected furs, and more.
- Appealing cover
- Promising thematic premise
- driving hunting party to victory
- Siberia
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "I will be buying this"
- "it's really nice right i'm superficial enough for me to be in"
- "sign me up"
- "pained me every time i watched an eric martin video on board game geek"
References (from this video)
- strong production quality and a favorable designer
- compact euro with modular exploration feel
- hunt for furs over four rounds in Siberia
- Siberia exploration
- Hanson to Tonica
- Goo Gong
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action Points — point-based actions with area movement and map edition
- multi-round exploration — four rounds of exploration with branching decisions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "it's heavy but it only has one resource and that's money"
- "it's fully cooperative and you all play as robots that are trying to essentially take down the human corporations"
- "this is now a multiplayer experience it's not just two players"
References (from this video)
- Tense decisions and long, enjoyable play
- Thematic and strategic depth
- Longer playtime; heavy game for some groups
- hunt, trade, and survive in a rugged frontier
- Siberia fur-trade era
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Movement — Move around Siberia to collect fur and resources.
- area movement / route planning — Move around Siberia to collect fur and resources.
- resource trading / production — Trade and manage fur and resources for points.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I played more Dominion with this app than I have in my entire life.
- The app is really good. The animation's really nice and it does all the nonsense for you.
- Padme in the Senate—that's what this game is.
- I would absolutely do it again.
- It's a cozy game to end all cozy games; it's very satisfying to play.
- We had a glorious victory in Bullet.
References (from this video)
- Remember liking it
- Never gets played again despite wanting to
- Has been on the shelf for years
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Girl I never got around to play. When I tried to getting into solo, I don't remember when it was like a couple years ago. I try thinking I'm gonna make a solo series because that's going to be a good idea and I didn't enjoy myself too much because it felt like work.
- It's one of those where it's a very clever game. It's very good. It's just a little bit dry and a little bit long for what it was.
- I feel like I played it enough because we got to play this a couple of times, a few times uh when we got it.
- Legacies was for me too much work for the fun I had. It is a little convoluted. It's it's a it's a cool game, but it's not my kind of game.
- In a crowded market of so many tile drafting, tile placement games, we have like we have harmonies, we have spectacular, what else do we have? Cascadia, we have still have Baron Park, we have King Domino, like we have ASU, we have so many games in this category.
- But I think I would have chosen to play for example Spectacular over it.
References (from this video)
- Beautiful aesthetic
- Interesting designer pedigree (Andreas Steding)
- High price and shipping considerations
- Noted as a personal fence due to cost
- Historical strategy with set collection and action economy
- Moving Cossacks to location tiles to unlock actions
- Hanzo Teutonica
- Goong
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Asymmetric hero actions, set collection — Collect sets and gain end-game points; dice are used for actions
- Seasonal rounds over four years — Four seasons per year; winter as cleanup
- Tile/location tile drafting and collection — Moving Cossacks to tiles to unlock actions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- i'm really intrigued by bandata i'm just
- it's visually really stunning game
- not coming to retail this is a kickstarter exclusive
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the only constant is change
- jungkus games is my full-time career
- i want to make this digest of all games i've talked about on the site
References (from this video)
- ambitious concepts
- overly thematic with complex mid-game actions
- suffers from being out of sync with the reviewer’s preferences
- Acon y
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area control with heavy interaction — A complex game about expansionism with a Russia theme, heavy rules.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is the list of games that I got rid of this year.
- I try to view one to two games a week, logically about 80 games come in every year and games going out this year I think is in the 40s.
- Frost Haven is Gloomhaven on steroids; it is a serious commitment.
- Moon breaks drafting momentum with interrupt mechanics that slow the game down.
- Marvel Dagger is a photocopy of a photocopy of Arkham Horror Second Edition.
- I prefer Legendary Encounters and I prefer the IPS of The Matrix and Aliens as well.
- Stroganov is a ginormous pain in the butt to teach as well; utterly nightmarish to tell people how to play.
References (from this video)
- classic Euro-feel with depth
- over-engineered and fiddly action selection
- confusing flow
- time-tracking engine with drafting elements
- traditional Euro-style design with contracts and resource management
- structured economic puzzle
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- contract fulfillment / scoring — fulfill contracts to score points
- resource drafting / collection — plan and collect resources and abilities
- Time Track — advance along a time track driving actions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- there's no super Superfluous rules there's no fiddliness so it's quite nice and pure
- this one stays true to what hidden role or hidden movement game should be
- I think this one is still my favorite one as one person takes the role of Jack the Ripper
- I absolutely hated this game I did not like anything about it apart from the visuals very stylish and I'm deluxified looking game
- the colorblind-friendly at all and me and my brother are both quite badly colorblind
- not colorblind friendly at all and me and my brother are both quite badly colorblind
- the ketchup mechanism in this game
- one of the nearest misses I've ever played
- therefore it's just not subtle