In Botswana, players are dealt nearly all cards from a 30-card Animal Deck. There are five total species of animals, numbered from 0 to 5. A player's turn is dead simple: play a card from their hand, and take an Animal Meeple. The card played determines the score for that animal species at the end of the game, and which Animal Meeple is chosen gives that player a chance to score that animal.
This brings us to today's review of Vivo from Allplay. This trick-taking game is where players play cards and try to follow the harmony cards to score points, and after two rounds, the player with the most points wins. Vivo is for 3-4 players only; it plays in about 20 minutes or less. Is Vivo another great trick-taker? Read on!
In Fight 5, players battle their opponents for control of five lanes of cards. Each lane is decided via a clash (with five clashes making up a single Bout, or round), which is essentially a tug-of-war where whoever has the bigger number wins. Each player takes a deck representing an element (air, water, fire, earth, or light). Someone shuffles the Clash Deck. Deal out stacks from the clash deck, with each player having 5 individual Clashes to play on.
They then perform foot stomps to ward off evil spirits and throw salt across the dohyo to purify it and to ward off injury. They then clap their hands to call upon the gods to show them favor and to show their opponent that they are unarmed. They finally stare each other down, hoping to gain the mental edge over their opponent before charging one another, trying to force each other out of the dohyo for victory.
