Mandala Board Game | Challenging Two-Player Game with Beautiful Abstract Art | Strategy Board Game for Adults and Kids | Ages 10+ | 2 Players | Average Playtime 30 Minutes | Made by Lookout Games

Outstanding and unique abstract two-player suit-building game with an unusual theme, played on a printed piece of linen with colorful square cards. Easy to learn but filled with tactical nuances that build tension throughout 20-minute (average) games. Players must balance between playing cards to win the "mountains" (payoff pools), or seed the mountains with cards of value to them. At the same time, they must keep an eye on what their opponents are doing (it's all in the open), and make on-the-spot tactical decisions based on ever-changing hands, with two payoff areas being simultaneously built up and contested. When mountains are cleared and payoffs distributed, the losing player also has a chance to take cards, which adds yet another layer of tactical complexity. Each new suit becomes more valuable as the game progresses, which also ramps up the tension and can make for some great come-from-behind victories. Unless you're playing poorly and just don't "get it", you're in the game.After a few games, the "a-ha moments" will start to come and the game's underlying complexity will begin to emerge. However, this is not a geeky Euro game with a thicket of rules and special ability cards that let some players discover and then exploit certain strategies and be (obnoxiously) consistent winners. I would compare it to the classic two-player card game Hanamikoji: i.e., a simple game system with lots of tense tactical decision-making that makes for excellent replayability. As you get the hang of it after a few games, you'll soon be playing best-of-3 or -5's.One minor negative: there is a good sized deck of square cards that do not lend themselves to typical blackjack shuffling. The cards MUST be well-shuffled between games (otherwise, you'll hear about it during gameplay). For this, I have found that a "wash" shuffle in which all cards are spread out on a table and moved around as in a washing machine works best.All in all, a game that won't wear out its welcome and that will appeal to lots of people. Lots of fun; highly recommended.

Highly recommend. I play a lot of board games and this has a great balance of luck and skill. It’s almost as fun and strategic as chess occasionally on a certain decision point and yet easy to learn and play and it travels well. Light box. Good simple go-to game.

Great quick 2 player game with easy rules but challenging decisions. The components are nice - it comes with a cloth playmat that shows you where to set up and play your cards. The artwork is colorful. On your turn, you either play one card to the center of one of the two mandalas, or play as many cards of one color as you want on your side of one of the mandalas. A mandala is complete when all 6 colors have been played in or around that mandala. At that point, the cards in the center of the mandala are divided between the players. Players will collect cards during the game and each color will be worth a different amount of points at the end. Lots of thinking and lots of fun!

My BF and I play this weekly. It’s a fast game but involves a lot of strategy. I gifted it to my visually impaired friend as well since it’s easier for her to play than most card games since there it are no small icons, just colors. She loves it too

Mandala is a GREAT two-player abstract strategy game! Players compete to complete mandalas for victory points. A mandala is made up of a 3x3 grid of cards, one of each of nine colors. The board is made of cloth (real cool) divided in half by a line called 'the mountain.'Players play cards onto either their side of the board or on 'the mountain' line, trying to complete a mandala. There are TWO mandalas being made at the same time. You can play multiples of the same color, but each color can only be represented once in each mandala (I.e player 1 plays 3 red cards on his side; player two cannot play red cards on that mandala.). When a Mandala is scored, the player with the most cards on HIS/HER side wins and can choose which cards to score....but only from the 3 cards on the 'mountain line.'. The winner get to choose 2 of the three card colors to score, the loser gets the left over card.What's interesting is that the value of each card (based on color) is going to be different for each player. The value of color cards is on a sliding scale from 1-9 points. The point value is determined by how early a player chooses to score that color.For example, player 1 wins the first mandala and takes a red and black card. He places the red card on the 1 point slot and the black card on the 2 point slot. From now on, whenever player 1 scores red and black cards they are worth 1 and 2 points. Player 2 wins the second mandala and chooses the green and orange and places them in his 1pt and 2pt slots. For the rest of the game green and orange cards are worth 1/2 points for player #2. Player 2 then wins the next mandala and takes a red and black card. With his 1-2 slots filled, he places the red card on the 3pt slot and the black card on the 4pt slot. From now on black and red cards are now with MORE to player 2 (3-4 pts) then to player 1. This goes as each player score different colors at different values as they place new color cards higher up on their score slots.This makes for insane levels of strategy, bluffing and screwage! Mandala is not a passive zen game....it's a deep, mean and even ruthless game of scoring points....and it's GREAT!

We play quite a number of games for two, and this is our favorite. It's the perfect balance of strategy and luck, it's artsy/fun to look at, it's a pretty short game so it's easy to play a quick game after dinner, and you can develop in strategy and skill. We've gifted it to some other couples, and they love it too!

I’m a big fan of this game! It’s easy to learn but there’s so much depth as you get to know it better. It’s also small and easy to travel with.

Quick, easy to teach and learn, little bit thinky, can pkwy multiple games in a short period of time -it’s that quick, but still fun. Live that it ch ones with the cloth mat.

Strategies for winning are not readily apparent and it will take a few games to get a feel for the best tactics.

We often buy games and then put off playing them because they look complicated. A quick video on YouTube and we were off. Once you play, it's actually surprisingly straightforward, particularly if you play games a lot.We really enjoyed playing it and it's become a form favourite

Gorgeous game that’s easy to learn but has a lot of depth.

Juego para dos, con un diseño muy chulo y una buena producción. Me gusta mucho el tablero de tela. Y el juego en sí, me ha gustado bastante.

Gave as a Christmas present