If you like your tiny wooden resources, then do I have a game for you. Skara Brae features a staggering sixteen types of resources. Yes, sixteen! All lovingly crafted and varying wildly in how easy they are to pick up and move. If you’ve ever thought jinkees, this game could really use at least ten more resources, you’ve come to the right…ancient trash heap.
And ‘ancient trash heap’ is not a dig at the game. It’s the setting. The game takes place in neolithic Northern Scotland (Orkney Islands), about 5000 years ago, where you’ll play as a thriving community gathering and managing resources throughout the year. The people of Skara Brae used to save their shells, broken tools, bones and other waste to form mounds of earth over hundreds of years. Eventually they began digging into these piles of “midden” and creating rooms and tunnels to shelter from the wind and cold winter months. It’s a bold lifestyle choice, but if the alternative is freezing, I also might consider curling up in a trash cave.
Resource management is the heart and soul of Skara Brae, and you’re trying to keep your inventory as lean as possible. The game spans four rounds, each with three turns. That probably doesn’t sound like much, and it feels tight, especially in the early game.
Each turn begins with card drafting and then moves into worker placement. The cards you draft will be your settlers, who will provide you with resources, but you’ll also be required to feed each of them at the end of a round. Or you might also draft several other cards that make life easier as the game continues, such as roof cards which lower the feeding requirement each round.
In the worker placement phase, you start with one lonely worker, and add one more each round. By the final round you will have a full squad of four. The limited actions in the first half reminded me of The White Castle, which is great company to be in.
The later-game freedom is satisfying because it allows players to chase more varied paths to victory, but it does ease some of the tightness that makes the early game so compelling. It’s an interesting game arc, though it almost makes your first play a tad frustrating. Just as you’re getting a handle on how things work, the game hits the gas. Suddenly you’ve got all these workers and ideas, but not nearly enough time to carry them out. It’s a four-round game, after all. It flies. The full game wraps up in about 45 minutes (initial game takes closer to 60-70min).
As you play, you’ll get more and more settlers in your village, which means you need more food to feed them and this will ultimately generate more midden. On top of that, every piece of midden is worth -1 VP, and the higher your inventory slider is, the harsher the end-game penalty. You need to balance when to hoard (maybe never) and when to streamline (maybe always).
Generally, I think Garphill’s games have a slightly shorter lifespan for me because there aren’t great amounts of variability, but at the same time, I always end up playing them more than I expect and more than many other games I own. They have a “just one more game” quality and clock in at a length that makes that feel like the right decision. Skara Brae is no different in that regard. It is compact and easy to replay several times in a row without burning out.
They are also so good at breathing new life into “the usual suspects”. I’ve seen resource management a million times before, but this time it’s treated with a bit more delicacy. The sheer volume of resources is bumped up, which increases the tightness of the game. It forces you to make hard decisions and adds a finicky sort of charm.
Another detail I would be remiss not to mention: the turn order. Your player pieces are stacked in turn order. On your turn you can choose to take your actions or pass. Passing doesn’t end your turn. It just means you’ll go last this round, which puts you on top of the stack for the next one. It’s clever and it’s also basically the only point of player interaction in the game. Everything else is pretty solitary. This is nice because once you’ve drafted a card, the next player can start their turn while you’re still placing your workers. It’s part of what makes the game so quick.
Because of that structure, I think it’s good at all player counts. The solo mode is super simple to run. It doesn’t even have a separate section in the rulebook. There’s just a few solo rules highlighted throughout but it’s largely quite similar.
Let’s make it really practical to help you decide: If you’re choosing between Legacy of Yu and Skara Brae for solo play, I’d still give the nod to Legacy of Yu. The replayability is stronger. I compare those two because they scratch a similar itch. But if you’re deciding between The Anarchy and Skara Brae (released at the same time) it’s a different conversation. They’re very different games. Skara Brae has a lower mental burden, which means I’m more likely to pull it off the shelf on a whim. It’s on the same “thinky” plane as Legacy of Yu, but a bit less punishing.
In the end, Skara Brae offers multiple viable paths to victory, but I think I’ve started to see a bit of a strategic groove forming. It’s not wildly variable. And in the (hopefully very distant) future, when Garphill’s legacy gets hammered out, I think Skara Brae will probably be seen as one of their more minor works.
But don’t get me wrong. It’s a lot of fun. I played it four times back-to-back, and several more after that. Between plays, I wanted to play it again. It just didn’t blow the doors off anything. It did what it did well.
Which is, you know, fine. Not every game has to be wildly innovative. Some just need to be solid, thoughtful fun. Skara Brae has provided many evenings of diversion and I’m completely happy with that.
And in case you doubt me, I went to Scotland once, you guys, so I know from whence I speak.
Thank you to Garphill Games for the review copy.