by andystaats

When the crowdfunding campaign for Rebirth launched, I was immediately interested because I love Reiner Knizia games. I was also extremely dubious about whether or not Rebirth seemed all that different from Knizia’s other tile-laying games like Samurai or Through the Desert. Does Rebirth deserve a spot in my collection as part of my Knizia Korner? It turns out the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Rebirth leans to the lighter side of complexity, with just a few pages of rules total. Even more impressive because both sides of the map have their own rule sets in the manual, but it’s still only a few pages long. The entirety of the rules can be distilled to place a tile, score the tile you just placed, pick a new tile.

*pic of game will go here, once approved in Geekmod*

But this simplicity is where my original skepticism stemmed from. Like in Carcassonne, having just one tile to choose from obviously makes the decision space smaller than, say, drawing three and playing one. However, Rebirth leaves most of the analysis paralysis potential at the door.

You have a few options of tiles to place in the appropriate spots on the board; energy farms and food farms are functionally the same. They can go on corresponding pre-printed areas of the map or in the blank spots. They both will score a point per contiguous grouping of your color. For example, your first energy farm tile will score one but placing another one next to it will score you two, and so on.

There is also a bit of area-majority regarding the castles and cathedrals/towers (depending on which map you’re playing), as well as the cities. Cathedrals and towers add additional wrinkles. Cathedrals (on the Scotland map) let you get bonus scoring objective cards. Towers (on the Ireland map) give powerful bonuses in terms of actions or points. Ireland’s objective cards are public, but the first person to perform the requirements scores more points.

It all works together amazingly and plays incredibly fast. Scotland is definitely the more basic map with very straightforward rules. Ireland feels a bit like an ‘advanced mode’ but really, its rules are about the same level of complexity. Decisions on the Ireland map do feel a bit more thinky by having the race to meet the objectives, though. Both boards are very easy to parse and navigate.

Components here are mostly a knockout. Note that I have the limited Kickstarter edition, so I think some of these components are not necessarily in the retail version. Apologies if I’m not 100% straight with what is special.

The castles, cathedrals, and scoring blimp (the blimp was exclusive) all have the detail, heft, and feel of high-quality resin but are made from RE-Wood, a recycled wood material containing no plastic. The (exclusive) faction bags aren’t the best bags I’ve ever used in games, but they make drawing tiles a delight. It’s a shame they were exclusive, honestly. They feel like they should be part of the experience.


Cardboard faction tiles are a mixed bag. I love how each faction has their own shape to them, as it makes reading the board state very easy. Apparently my version has a slightly thicker punchboard than retail but it likely doesn’t make a huge difference. However, my tiles are kind of getting beaten up edges. I completely understand the mission of the game is sustainability and anti-waste, but having these tokens be made of resin or re-wood would have been amazing.

I feel like it’s worth diving into how Rebirth stacks up against some other Knizia tile-laying games, and if it has staying power. In terms of complexity, it’s in the same ballpark as Through the Desert and a notch down from Samurai. It has a similar feel to something like a Samurai and Babylonia mashup.

The levels of confrontation are on par with all of these games, but because you only have one tile to choose from, screwing someone else over never ends up feeling very mean. Playtime is under an hour, which again, is pretty similar to most of these games (although I always find Yellow & Yangtze / Huang run long). Tigris & Euphrates is still the king of these games, but I find myself pulling Through the Desert off the shelf the most.

*pic of game will go here once approved by Geekmod*

I think Rebirth has the potential for staying power here since on the Goldilocks scale of things, it’s right in that ‘juuuuuuust right’ sweet spot for almost everything. My hope is that we see more maps that make this almost a modular game system, because the potential is definitely there. The constant dopamine hits of scoring points nearly every turn is quite the rush.

In the end, I wasn’t sure if Rebirth would stand out enough in terms of feeling or fun factor. I’m glad that it impressed me as much as it did but I will note that this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s for everyone. Some (most?) people may be wholly content with the Knizia tile-laying games already on the market. Some may want deeper decisions and a longer playtime. But for me, I like games that can be played back-to-back on a game night and still have room for something else in there.

Presentation
+ Bright colors and differently shaped player pieces make reading the board-state a breeze
+ The castles and other pieces are all amazing
+/- Cardboard tokens are very good, but will get a bit beat up after a few plays
- Some of the best stuff is from crowdfunding and I'm not sure of its availability in retail

Getting it Played
+ Extremely fast to teach and understand
+ Player bags are wonderful for setup purposes
+ Can be setup, taught, and played in about an hour
+ Both maps offer unique challenges without being too dissimilar

Gameplay and Fun Factor
+ Points are flying at you from every angle
+ Decisions are meaningful without being overwhelming
+/- Because of the tile draws, some turns feel more productive than others
+/- Can be a bit mean with player blocking

I hope you enjoyed my review! If you want more, here is the link to our site, All For One Games, which I share with two others!
Or you can see my other reviews in my geeklist or my blog
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