Islands in the Mist Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Islands in the Mist, a tile-laying game published by Stronghold Games. In Islands in the Mist, players are on a hot air balloon ride as they explore the islands.

Here in New Jersey, the Festival of Ballooning happens every summer, with over 100 hot air balloons taking to the skies over some of the most beautiful locales in the Garden State, drifting in the wind until they come back down to Earth. If you live in the area, and perchance one of those balloons lands in your yard, tradition is that they gift you a bottle of Champagne.

The similarities between the Festival of Ballooning and Islands in the Mist end simply at they both involve hot air balloons and the vagaries of wind travel. If only this title came with a bottle of bubbly as thanks for playing it.

The goal of Islands in the Mist is to explore your individual island via airship, navigating the varying winds and managing your energy to be able to be the first to fully explore your island. By discovering contiguous terrain of similar types, your island is made more valuable, with the player at the end developing the highest-scoring island emerging victorious.

A player’s turn is divided up into a series of phases. First, random tiles are drawn and distributed to “clouds,” making them available for players to select and add to their island. Then two dice are rolled—one die showing the direction of the wind for that turn, and one die providing a bonus in the form of extra energy, tiles, or the ability to change course. All players then move their airship, using the direction of the wind and the movement value on their current tile as their base movement value, which can then be altered using energy to change flight length or direction. After ending