The Buntu Circus

The Buntu Circus was independently published by a group of UK gamers calling themselves The Buntu Circus. It is an abstract strategy game for 2 to 4 players. The board is divided into a 14 x 14 grid. Each square has a combination of one of eight colours and one of twelve symbols, arranged in a symmetrical pattern on the board.

A deck of cards has one card per square on the board, matching colour and symbol. Each player gets a hand of eight cards and a set of counters and rubber hoops in their own colour. These are metallic colours, distinct from the board colours.

In turn each player draws and then plays a card from their hand, placing or removing a counter on one of the appropriate squares on the board - each colour and symbol combination appears in two places on the board, and has two cards which can match.

The idea is to get a number of linked rows of five counters in your colour, orthogonally and/or diagonally. The target number of rows depends on the number of players - five in a two player game and less if there are more players. Once a row has been formed, it is designated by placing hoops over each of the counters in the row.

There are couple of further wrinkles. Most importantly are the "power" colours. At the start, each player has power in a single board colour, determined randomly. This allows the player to use a card of that colour to move an counter on the board (their own or another player's) either to an adjacent square of that colour or from a square of that colour to an adjacent square. Creating a row of five gains the player power over the colour of the middle square of the row - this is marked by removing the central counter from its hoop and placing it on one of the power colour markers to the side of the board. In this way players gain power over new colours. If another player already has power in that colour, their power is removed - but the player who gained power merely displaces them - they do not gain power in the colour. Gaining power over a colour in which you already have power reinforces power in the colour. The player "hoops" the power counter and this prevents any other player from gaining a row that would give them power in that colour. In effect they have a "lock" on that colour. A final wrinkle comes with the discard piles. Played cards can be discard to one of four face-up piles. Once one of the four "draw" decks is exhausted, the adjacent discard pile is turned over - but not shuffled. This allows long-term strategies of "stacking" the deck with particular colours or symbols.

The quality of the components is superb. The board is big and colourful, the symbols clear and distinct. The player's counters are chunky plastic discs which come in little cannisters like pill-boxes. The hoops are rubber-like rings which come in individual cloth bags. Very satisfying to "hoop" your rows with.