Botswana Game Review

Even though I’ve been heavily into board gaming for over a decade, and I’m a big fan of Reiner Knizia, I’d never heard of Botswana (or any of its previous incarnations: Quandary, Loco, or Irish Wolf). So with great delight I opened the slim box, gorgeously illustrated by Weberson Santiago. Inside I found even more beautiful cards and large, chunky wooden animal pieces worthy of Haba’s Animal Upon Animal. If the sight of these components doesn’t get you excited to play the game, hopefully my review will.

Let me introduce you to Botswana.

Botswana Overview

Playing Botswana is simplicity itself. Play a numbered card from your hand. There are five different “suits” (lions, giraffes, hippos, meerkats, and elephants) each numbered from 0 to 5. Then take any one of the corresponding animal figures—even one that doesn’t match the card you played. That’s it.

The topmost face-up number is the current value of that animal's pieces. If the lion pile has a 3 on the top, then each lion piece will be worth 3 points at the end of the round.

However, every other player at the table has their own agenda. If you’ve got the 4 and 5 lion cards, you might think, “I’ll pick up lions on every…

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