Bonfire Review

When I think of bonfires, I think of s'mores. Stefan Feld thinks of gnomes. Bonfire from Pegasus Spiele has players controlling a group of gnomes attempting to relight the bonfires that have been extinguished but first they must learn how to do it from the ancients. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the lore because it's a lot. On your turn, players will use their actions that were selected from the fate tiles that are added to your city boards. Essentially, there are 7 actions:

1. Move to an island.

2. Pick up a task from an island. Here is where you gain the knowledge to light bonfires and bring them back to your board.

3. Bring back a guardian.

4. Move guardians around the outside of your city board or into your city via portals.

5. Add a tile to the outside of your board for the guardians to move on.

6. Pick up cards that can provide persistent effects or end game scoring bonuses.

7. Rotate the main bonfire to gain resources, portals, or bonus actions.

When a player has completed a task on their board, they will flip it in order to light the bonfire. Tasks range from very simple to complex with point values that reflect this. When you complete a task, you move one of your novices to the outside of the main bonfire for a powerful bonus. The endgame triggers when there are set number of these novices. Once this happens, there are 5 rounds left and the game will end. The player who has the most points is the winner.

The Good: This is my first Feld game. I've played a lot of games at this point but never one of his. It won't be my last. For a game that looks so busy, it's surprisingly streamlined. I never once felt like I was overwhelmed or confused by the actions and how to do anything in the core game. I loved the overall look of the game, that was my initial draw to it to begin with. It's a game that gives players a lot of options but never forces them to do the same things. I'm not particularly good at the game but it's a game that I continually want to go back to to improve my score and learn other intricacies for.

The Okay: For some people, this could be too busy of a game. There's a lot of little details to be aware of. For example, guardians can only move clockwise on your player boards but when you pick up a portal, it needs to go counter clockwise from the other side. It's a minor detail but it could be frustrating for some. This goes for plenty of other parts of the game.

The Not So Good: If I'm being totally honest, I didn't care for the theme at all. The game is absolutely strong enough for me to overlook it and ultimately has no effect on the fun factor. I loved the artwork but I didn't care for that overall lore aspect to the game.

Final Thoughts: Bonfire is a phenomenal game. It truly is. When I opened the box initially, I had no idea what to expect. When I punched it, I was even more confused. When I played it, everything clicked immediately. That's honestly what impressed me the most about the game as a whole. It's a rarity to be able to set up a game like this and read the manual once or twice and be able to pick it up without any issues. I highly recommend Bonfire. I cannot wait to play it again and with the Trees & Creatures expansion coming out soon.

Thanks to Pegasus Spiele for providing me with a review copy.