Cacao
2-4 players | Ages 8+ | 45 minutes
Publisher: Abacusspiele / Z-Man Games, 2015
Art: Claus Stephan
Cacao is a tile-placement game that immerses players in the exotic world of the ‘fruit of the Gods’. As the chief of your tribe, you must lead your people to prosperity through the cultivation and trade of cacao - and to do that, you'll need to put them to work in the best way possible. On a player's turn, they place one of their worker tiles on the board adjacent to one or more jungle tiles already in play, then (if two worker tiles are next to an empty space) adds one of the jungle tiles to the playing area in this space. Their workers then get busy and deliver the results of their effort.
Cacao is tile-placement game of course inspired by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede’s classic Carcassonne, but also the area control and worker placement genres. Cacao developed from a card game I was designing where you wanted to have the majority of your cards surrounding certain other cards (similar to the temples in the final game). One day I realised that the icons on your cards could be more than just markers for majority, they could also trigger actions. This is when the design really began to emerge. I am particularly fond of Cacao because it was my first ‘big box’ published game. I remember very fondly receiving my first copies!
Awards
★ 2015 Spiel des Jahres Recommended
★ 2015 Spiel der Spiele Hit für Familien Recommended
★ 2015 Juego del Año Recommended
★ 2015 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Nominee
Also released
● Cacao: Chocolatl Expansion
● Cacao: Diamante Expansion
● Cacao: Diamante - New Huts Promo
● Cacao: Chocolatl - New Huts Promo
● Cacao: Chocolatl - New Storage Spaces Promo
● Cacao: Big Market & Golden Temple Promo
● Cacao: Volcanoes Promo
Links
➚ Cacao at Z-Man Games
➚ Cacao at BoardGameGeek
➚ Play Cacao online at BoardGameArena