Move islands, like a demigod!

You know how the newest game you get is the “greenest” and most attractive? That is definitely the case with 🌋 Oros our newest arrival. We immediately wanted to unbox it and play it... so we did! It’s just so unique and so beautiful. 🥰

OROS was on Kickstarter in 2021 but we discovered it only last year and have been excited about it since. Then we saw it at SPIEL22, but the one table with the demo was literally always full so we had to contain our excitement until now! The German edition by Board Game Circus finally arrived at the stores, and we were lucky enough to be able to try the retail edition! Which is absolutely beautiful and has amazing quality!

In OROS you play as demigods, controlling your followers and moving islands and landmasses, making them collide to form mountains and volcanoes. Your followers can then build sacred sites on top of the mountains and gather knowledge. You also climb up the steps of a ziggurat that acts as a timer for the game.

Moving the landmasses can be quite challenging though, you really need to get the hang of the game. One of the movements is like turning a slice of a rubik’s cube, so tiles keep their distance from each other. The other one collides them with each other so their values add up and volcanoes form, which is similar to the mobile game 2048. 😁 But the edges of the map loop through and the outer regions are linked like a ring, which can be mind boggling at first. 🤯

This aspect reminds me of when we started playing Five Tribes. At first we struggled to find great combos, but as we got to play it more, we started seeing “behind the curtains” and finding opportunities, so we got better and better at it. 😉 Another game that comes to my mind is Cuzco, as you interact with and build a shared world and try to make plays as opportunities arise. 🥰

So far OROS is really extraordinary and fun, and exceptionally good looking. We really want to play this a lot more and write about it in more detail. 😊