Propolis
- Board's Eye View
- 10 hours ago
- 2 min read
In the rulebook, AEG and Flatout Games describe Propolis as 'a worker placement, engine building, area control and tableau building game'. Blimey, that covers the large majority of eurogame mechanics. And add to that the fact that the game is themed around the antics of sentient 'Medieval bees'! Fearing that it might be unduly complicated, we approached the game with some initial trepidation. But tho' there are multiple mechanisms, the gameplay is fairly straightforward and, as you might expect from the very experienced design team of Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin and Shawn Stankewich, Propolis is a clever and accessible game.
There are additional components and rules for solitaire play but, with 2-4 players, you're placing 'beeples' (not so cleverly named wooden bee meeples) out onto terrain cards to collect resources (types of pollen) and additional bees. It's on the rows of terrain cards that you're competing for area control bonuses, including the right to take back your bees, which would otherwise take up a turn.
In a slightly bizarre extension of the bee colony theme, you are using the resources you collect in order to pay the construction cost for buildings (cards in the buildings market display). Most of the buildings contribute to your end-game scoring but the large majority also provide 'permanent' resources (ie: pollen that you can use to pay for more buildings without it being consumed, as opposed to the consumable resources tracked on your player board). And you can only use permanent resources to acquire a Queen's Palace card to add to your tableau.
Propolis is attractively produced. The cards are double sided so that they function as buildings on one side and terrain on the other. Very efficient. Resources are neatly tracked on individual player boards which have punched out compartments that hold the wooden tracking markers firmly in place. The bee meeples aren't quite as well thought through, however: whether they are standing upright or laid flat is significant because it indicates whether or not they have been 'fortified' (claiming more resources but reducing the value of their contribution to determining area control). Unfortunately, a slight jog to the table will all too easily knock over a bee so that it looks like it's been fortified when it hasn't. When we realised that this had the potential of ruining our plays, we decided to add our own tiddlywink counters as markers to indicated the fortified status rather than having to rely on whether or not the 'beeples' were upright. It's an easy modification to make. With it, Propolis is an enjoyable if curiously themed game that. despite its multiple eurogame mechanisms, can be comfortably played in 20-30 minutes.
