Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Each round in La Macarena, the four elements (fire, earth, air and water) are available, and at the end of it, the player who has collected most cards of a given element will earn the corresponding element token.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Each round in La Macarena, the four elements (fire, earth, air and water) are available, and at the end of it, the player who has collected most cards of a given element will earn the corresponding element token. When a player has all four different tokens, they can exchange them for an amulet to win the game (two amulets are needed when playing with 2 or 3 players). On a player's turn, they first draw a card, then may pass or discard one or more cards to one of the seven cards on the table. To do the latter, the cards need to have the same value or the same color and a value of one more or one less than the current cards. If a player can form a chain of cards that follows these rules, they can put all the cards except for the last one into their personal collection. Each card exists twice, and by playing a card on its twin, a player blocks the space to all other players (until he or she has to pass, then the blockade is lifted). This gains the player an additional turn with some privileges. When a player runs out of hand cards or the draw pile is used up, the round ends and element tokens are handed out. If nobody fulfills the winning condition by then, a new hand is dealt.