Every year in the Spring people come together to celebrate Holi in India at one of the most vibrant festivals in the world. Participants throw gulaal powder on to each other and the crowd as they share joy with each other and enjoy their celebration. Throwing the powder means you need to aim high, let it fall and cover as many people as you can. Let’s dive in to a game that seeks to give the players this amazing experience!
Holi is designed by Julio E. Nazario and illustrated by Vincent Dutrait. It is published by Floodgate Games for 2-4 players.
Overview
In Holi, players gain points as joy by throwing their colors and getting them placed at different heights as well joy for getting it on other players on the board. Sweets can give players points as well, and Rivalry cards can change the game and way joy points are scored. The player with the most joy wins the game!
The game is setup with the main 3 level board placed in the middle of the play area and each player takes their supplies. Reveal 3 Rivalry cards face-up so all players can see them. Sweets tokens are placed around the board as well on the first and second levels.
Gameplay
Beginning with the first player, each player performs one or more actions and then fills their hand to 3 cards. Actions may be performed in any order but cannot be repeated. The actions are:
-Throw Color
-Move
-Climb Up
Throw Color: Here players will play a card to place Color Tokens on the board. Tokens are placed where they are in the filled-in spaces of the card you play. You pick a card and fill the colored spaces with either your character or one of your color tokens. The card can be rotated and positioned however you like so that all of the colors are on the board. Some cards have a required place for your character token when you place it.
If a color token hits a character it placed in their supply and the thrower get one point on the score track immediately. You can hit characters on different levels as well. Each color token you have in another player’s supply is worth 2 points for you at the end of the game.
Players may also play a card face down to place one color token anywhere on the level they are on. These cannot go on another player. No color tokens can ever be on top of another color token either.
Move: Here players have the option to move anywhere on the level they are on. If you land on sweets or another color token, you pick it up and put it in front of you. Any of your own color you grab can be replayed to the board in a later turn.
Climb Up: This is also an optional move a player may take on their turn. If you are surrounded on all four orthogonal sides by any color token, you may chose to move one level up and start to play there. Once a player has climbed to the next level they cannot go back down. If there is a player above your spot, you cannot move up.
Once you are up another level, your color starts to fall through the board when you throw it. If there is no color token in the space below it, it drops down as far as it can. If there is a player on the space it falls on their head and they take it to their supply.
The game ends when all players have played either all of their color tokens or cards. The players may end at different times, but when they personally run out of one of those they are done. Scoring is given for 1-3 points for each color token based on the level you are on (1 point for level 1, 2 points for level 2, 3 points for level 3). You also score 2 points for each color token in another player’s color supply and 5 points for each player you have more sweets tokens than. The game ends with the player with the most points being declared the winner!
There are also rivalry cards that can be played to change the game by adding different scoring effects, modifiers to what some of the tokens do and other things to add some variety.
Impressions
Holi is a beautiful three-dimensional game board that is the first and most stunning thing you will see when you look at this game. It is roughly 2 feet tall and really stands out in the middle of the play area. I love the size and stature of this thing and I definitely think it is what you will notice first about it. Props to Game Trayz for this amazing design.
The gameplay is simple to understand but does take a few lays to start to get a hang of the strategy behind it. Do you move up the board quickly? Do you stay down low and get all the sweets? There are a few different ways to go in this game and it is fun to explore them all. I found it to be a simple game for both gamers and non-gamers to explore and find ways to enjoy the strategy it opens up to each play.
Theme wise, this is a solid representation of a festival that is enjoyed in the Hindu culture. I really appreciate the fact that Floodgate Games took the time and effort to not only share information about the festival in the written information provided but also provided insight into their design process. I am happy to see that they are sensitive to the culture and made every effort to do this the right way.
Overall Holi is a fun and beautiful area control game with a wonderful theme tying it all together. Floodgate Games has produced once of the most colorful and stunning looking games of 2020 with this production and I fully expect this to get a lot of playtime with family and friends in the near future.
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