Designed by Johannes Goupy and Corentin Lebrat, and published by Bombyx, Elawa is a light small-box card game with stunning and engaging art by Elsa Roman. In Elawa, the 2-4 players assemble their prehistoric tribe by recruiting new members around a figurative fire that is also the game timer, with each new member providing new resources and scoring opportunities.
Players draft cards from five available stacks. When selecting a card, players get the number of resources listed on the card. The more powerful the card the less resources the player gets... Straight away players feel how difficult some decisions are. Do you go for more resources or the card that can net you the most points? Add to this the fact that only four resources can be kept between plays, although players can play any number of cards from their hand on their turn as long as they can afford them.
Next to each card stack there’s another stack with five resources, when a stack is depleted players get an extra resource from the centre stack (campfire) that works as the game's clock: once that's depleted players finish the round and tally their points. Different cards score in different ways: they can provide straight up points, points for cards of a certain type or colour, and for the number of same or different resources stored on them.
Elawa is a solid family-friendly set collection card game that's easy to teach and play. There's only limited variation from game to game but Elawa feels thematic and has enough meat to make it interesting for both new and experienced gamers.
(Review by Rui Marques)