YORKTON – The year is almost over, and that means it’s generally when The Meeple Guild is putting together our individual top-fives.
Some of us had the review top-five written even.
And then we meet on a Sunday afternoon in early December, crack the cellophane on Tolleno and very quickly at least this writer realized a top-five edit would be required.
Tolleno, by designer Gilles Turbide, artists Anthony Moulins, and Paolo Puggioni, and publisher Sit Down! is a game that is admittedly a bit difficult to categorize.
Tolleno is a one-part tile layer, overlaid with something at least akin to a worker placement element, which result in sort of an area control feel, which in the end has a bit of a ‘point salad’ ending with points adding up from a bunch of different things.
Each player receives their own set of building pieces, a boat, and some starting victory points based on turn order.
On each turn, players have a range of actions to perform, explains the publisher. They can expand the city by placing a new tile, construct buildings by stacking their pieces on valid spaces, or enhance their strategy by placing market tiles, which grant immediate points. Additionally, once their boat is unlocked, players can move it across the board to relocate building pieces or block opponents from expanding into key areas. The interplay of these actions creates a dynamic and interactive experience as players compete for control of the city.
At first blush the rules read like the above mishmash which might be overly complicated, and yes there’s a fair bit going on with lots of in-game decisions to make, yet a few turns in the core mechanics were easily grasped.
That is not to say a clear understanding of ‘best move’ on a turn was obvious. In fact, Tolleno feels like a game the more you play the better you will understand strategies. That is a good thing in terms of replayability.
There is also a stack of ‘contracts’ which can be used by players – two-to-four here – and each as an icon which relates to how it scores. These will send you to the rule book for just how each works – there are too many to even suggest player cards. This means options, but is a bit unusual in the sense the rule book will need to be handy.
The ‘point salad’ scoring at game end also takes a bit of time, and since you gather point tokens, there’s a lot of trading in five ones, and a five for a 10 going on. That leaves one at least wondering if score sheets might have been a better option, but that is a small concern set against a game we all liked a great deal.
So it all comes together well with Tolleno – even the box art is very nice. The result is this is as easy a game recommendation as there has been in 2025. Definitely a wise choice for any holiday cash if you are a gamer.
In Canada check this one out at Ilo307.com
