I’m posting about a game every day in September! Here’s a link to yesterday’s post.

I was bummed when I missed the Oaxaca Kickstarter last year. I loved the theme and I’m a fan of dice-chucking games, but for some reason I didn’t back it. Thankfully, my buddy Ben was kind enough to trade a few games with me and Oaxaca was one of them.

In Oaxaca you’re a craftsperson making goods to sell to the tourists. You do this by rolling dice and either gathering raw materials or to crafting goods. When you gather, you’ll draw cards that match the good you’ve rolled. When you craft, you’ll get one step closer to crafting a good that gives you victory points and either ongoing or one-time abilities.

This is a light dice-chucking engine builder and tonight I solo-ed it for the first time. I appreciated the different ways you could mitigate dice rolls by either using a special ability or by using two dice to set one to the side you want.

The solo game caught me off-guard with how fast it played. It’s no more than a 15-minute game that adds a few solo mechanisms while keeping the game play intact from the multi-player game. Some people don’t like the beat-your-own-high-score style of solo play, but I’m fine with it. While the game isn’t a brain burner, it is certainly a solid engine-builder that should appeal to a bigger audience.