Jeremy’s Gaming Gratons: KATHMANDU (first impressions)

Board Game Gumbo is pleased to present another game night recap with Jeremy Dobler. This time, Jeremy gives us his first impression of Kathmandu, a 2024 game designed by Stefan Feld, and published by Queen Games. Here is Jeremy with his initial impressions after his first session:

It’s only been two years since Kathmandu landed on my shelf and I was afraid to table it thinking it would be a daunting task to learn it, mostly because my only familiarity with Feld is Castles of Burgundy, Marrakesh, and Civolution, all of which can be weighty, and/or have a lot of little rules to remember.

Happy to report Kathmandu is none of those things, in fact, I was able to teach and play the game to the wife in under an hour, playing the Short Game.

In Kathmandu you’re making a trek towards the titular city on your yak, along the way gathering resources, potentially pit-stopping in Markets to buy goods, Temples to gain map tiles, meeting resistance from mountains, or tough terrain which might require careful navigation.

Over the course of 6-8 days each player selects one of their 6 rolled dice, gaining a resource associate with the matched color die, before moving their yak a number of spaces in a straight line equal to the die pips. Then taking a number of bonus actions in the space they end their move in. Ranging from simply flipping over a yak terrain tile if it matches (you want to flip this whole stack by the end), buying a good for coin if you end in a market (plus the unique good for an extra coin either from the supply or another player), dropping an offer token on a temple to gain a map tile (you want to pair A and B of the same color for points), buying either equipment or animal paintings, or landing in Kathmandu to end your participation in the game.

That last one doesn’t usually happen until near the end. It’s a race to Kathmandu, but want to maximize what you’re doing along the way, while also trying to outrun a storm that may be moving towards the end of the board.

The wife stomped me, but I definitely enjoyed the game and can’t wait to play again. Next time we will absolutely play the Long Game and with Asymmetric Player Powers and maybe the Queenie 3, which adds little cities to the board that give you a powerful one time bonus.

Jeremy is an omni-gamer from Lafayette, Louisiana, who games at home with his wife and young son, but also can be frequently hosting or visiting game nights with friends all over Acadiana. Jeremy loves games about nature, IP games involving turtles and batmen, and games appropriate to play with his young son, but expect lots of different games discussed here each time.  All photos courtesy of Jeremy Dobler.