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Ladies and gentlemen, step right up — the carnival is coming to town! In The Grand Carnival, players compete to create the most impressive carnival this town has ever seen. You'll need to carefully plan your carnival's layout, build attractions, hire staff, and manage the crowds, all while learning a few tricks of the trade.
Each turn, players cover a number on their player board, then select an action. The covered number determines the effectiveness of their action — and won't become available again until the next round — so players need to think carefully about which number to use. Possible actions include:
• Place a Foundation Tile: Select a foundation tile to place on your fairground. The higher the number you cover, the more tile options you have. Each tile is a 2x2 grid and is made up of construction sites and walkways. Attractions can be placed only on construction sites, whereas guests can move only on walkways, so place your tiles carefully.
• Build an Attraction: Select a polyomino attraction and place it on the construction sites on your fairground. The size of the attraction you can select depends on the number you cover. Larger attractions can collect more tickets (and can be worth more points), but can be difficult for guests to move around.
• Move a Guest: Select a guest token and move it along the walkways on your fairground. The distance a guest can move depends on the number you cover. If a guest moves next to an attraction, place a ticket token on that attraction. If you move enough guests, you can hire a carnival barker; barkers help guests move quickly through your carnival, but take up precious space in your fairground.
After taking your action, see whether you qualify for any of the three "Tricks of the Trade" cards. Each trick has a requirement that must be met before you unlock its unique ability. Once a player unlocks a trick, each of their opponents has one turn to meet the same requirement or lose access to that trick for the rest of the game.
After seven rounds, the game ends. Players earn points from sets of the same size attractions, sets of each size of attraction, carnival barkers, guests that move all the way through your park, and their tickets. The player with the most points wins!
—description from the designer
- Gorgeous looking box with amazing artwork
- High quality components
- Plenty of variety in attractions
- Box is packed efficiently
- Not enough bags to fit all the tiles
- building your own carnival
- Patchwork
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- grid placement — It's sort of a grid placement, you're building your own carnival essentially.
- tile placement — You're placing a foundation which are I'm assuming are these. These are the foundation tiles and then you're building an attraction and the attractions are the actual polyamino shape tiles.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is a really gorgeous looking box with this amazing artwork.
- This is the most punch boards I've ever seen in an unboxing.
- This is a heavy box because of how many different designs we have in here.
- This box is packed to the brim, I mean they used every bit of space in here.
- The artwork is amazing.
- It plays a single player, you know in a world right now where single player games are more desirable than ever.
References (from this video)
- efficient puzzle with clear rules
- thematic art and cartoony style
- multiple scoring paths
- rules simple but could feel bland
- solo mode not great
- space constraints and setup
- you can get stuck easily
- polyomino rides and park management
- theme park construction
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — perform up to five actions with varying strength and one-use-per-round tokens
- tile laying — place polyomino ride tiles on a park board
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is definitely one of the most dramatic rolling rights I seen
- I like the fact that they've actually paid attention to the theme when doing this
- it's a fantastic party game
- generates a lot of laughs
References (from this video)
- tight, tense decisions with meaningful push-your-luck
- strong flavor and thematic cohesion
- scoring complexity may require a later pass to fully grok
- setup can be lengthy
- area control and push-your-luck ticket collection
- Carnival/fairground with a period-flavored aesthetic
- thematic flavor text with a heavy emphasis on crowd dynamics
- Rooftops of Paris
- Escape from the Dark Castle
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- push-your-luck draws — draws determine which rewards you may grab; choice with risk
- score via tickets and barkers — score tracks for tickets, barkers, and top-level attractions
- storage/hand management — manage fur resources and stored cards for scoring and bonuses
- tile/board placement — place foundation tiles to build attractions; expand the fairground
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is escape.
- Gorgeous artwork and wonderful flavor text.
- Eight rounds or less to gain bonus XP.
- Bones are wild.
- The roofs of Paris.
- To the fold and beyond.
References (from this video)
- grand spectacle/social
- Carnival/festive spectacle
- festive
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- we're going to make a board game Advent calendar
- randomly assign them to different envelopes without knowing what's in
- this would be super fun if anybody wanted to do it at home
- we will play all 24 of these games before Christmas
- join me for this fun little craft project
- we leave December 4th until the 10th so packs unplugged happens
References (from this video)
- Carnival construction, attractions, crowds, and ticket-based competition.
- Summer of 1937, a carnival train arrives in the rail yard of Littleton town and stays for seven days.
- Instructional and procedural with goals and ongoing bonuses.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — On each round players place one of their action pawns onto an unoccupied numbered space; the number indicates the power level of the action, not a direct action itself.
- Attraction tile placement — Build attractions on your fairground using tiles up to the action's power; tiles can be rotated or flipped and must fit on construction squares.
- Barker tokens — Carnival Barker pawns populate the fairground paths; they have strategic placement implications and are not moved once placed.
- end-of-round scoring — After seven rounds, scoring occurs using multiple categories (sets of attractions, tickets, Big Top occupancy, Barker counts, etc.) via the scoring pad and board.
- Foundation tile placement — Take foundation tiles from the board (face up or face down) and place them on your personal board; placement must fit empty squares and adhere to board boundaries.
- Guest movement — Move guests along pathway squares, orthogonally (no diagonals), with movement limited by action power and Carnival Barker presence; tickets may be earned when ending movement adjacent to attractions.
- Ticketing and crowd management — When guests end movement adjacent to attractions, tickets are placed on attractions; attractions hold a number of tickets proportional to their size.
- Tricks of the Trade + goals — Satisfy goals on Tricks of the Trade cards to gain ongoing bonuses; activating a card imposes its goal on others' next turns.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The game consists of seven rounds tracked by this marker here on every round players alternate turns
- the higher the number the more powerful the action
- guests move entirely on pathway squares and other guests or Carnival barkers block the selected guests movement
- after one player activates a card all other players must accomplish that card's goal
- the player with the most victory points wins the game