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?
Maeva! Welcome to the South Seas.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Maeva! Welcome to the South Seas. As inhabitants of the island of Moorea, you compete for the most valuable objects and the most impressive buildings. Collect wood and bamboo to build canoes and huts with them, or try to make the longest necklace of seashells. Whoever plays their cards most skillfully will win. In more detail, each player in Moorea starts with a hand of six commodity cards, with three such cards placed face up and the rest placed as a face-down deck. Lay out the four types of tools, then lay out ten product cards in a face-up display; the products are separated into two types, with the easiest to acquire coming into play first. On a turn, you must draw a face-down commodity card from the deck, then you take an action or pass, then you discard down to your hand limit, which starts at six cards. When you take an action, you can: Discard two commodity cards in hand to take one of the face-up commodity cards. Discard hand cards for a product card from the display, adding that card to your hand (if it's a hut, canoe, or stoneware) or placing it in front of you. Discard a set of commodity cards to acquire a tool card, which you place in front of you; tools increase your hand limit, use fish as jokers, draw two cards at the start of your turn, and draw from the face-up commodity cards instead of the deck. Discard one or more commodity or product cards to an appropriate store placed in front of you. If the commodity deck runs out, shuffle the discards to create a new deck. When you can no longer fill the product display to have ten cards available, each player takes one final turn, then the game ends. Players then tally the points on their product cards, tool cards, and commodities and products laid at stores, and whoever has the highest score wins.