Rauha (EN)

After millennia of sterility, life springs forth again on Rauha. In Rauha, you play a venerable Shaman entrusted with one of the system's five worlds. Your powers are divine, letting you shape the environment to turn this world into a cradle of life energy, keeper of serenity and harmony for centuries to come.

The game unfolds over 2 Ages and 4 rounds, each split into 3 draft turns followed by a scoring phase. Each turn, you simultaneously draw Biome cards from your satellite, place one on your 9-square board or discard it to the Black Hole, then activate your avatar and any Divine Entities aligned with it. Complete a row or column of matching symbols and a Divine Entity joins your world, multiplying your options for the turns ahead.

In Age 1, vegetation, terrain, and wildlife take shape under your fingertips. In Age 2, civilizations flourish on the foundations you built. This draft system, where each card you pick directly shapes what your opponents can choose next, turns every round into a tactical read of everyone's board.

Rauha is for you if you love light strategy games that pack real depth into a 45-minute playtime, if building a harmonious tableau square by square appeals to you, and if reading your opponents' choices to anticipate the best cards makes you grin. Fans of nature-themed abstract games, along with anyone into pattern building, will find a formidable playground here.

Rauha has won over the community: over 1,200 ratings and a 7/10 average on BoardGameGeek make it one of the best-received light strategy games of 2023. Its layering mechanic, where stacked cards literally reshape your board's landscape, is rare in the hobby and worth the detour on its own. The game even grew further with the Rauha: Syntyma expansion.

The game is signed by Johannes Goupy and Théo Rivière, the French-Belgian design duo also behind Nautilus Island. Goupy also designed the widely acclaimed Faraway, while Rivière's credits include Kaedama and Arkeis. Rauha's spellbinding art comes from illustrator O'lee.

BOX CONTENTS
1 central board with 2 modules
5 satellite boards
1 Black Hole board
5 double-sided player boards
80 Biome cards (65 x 65 mm)
7 Divine Entity tiles
5 avatars
5 energy tokens
45 spore tokens
52 crystals
+100/+200 tokens
1 rulebook

Number of players: 2 to 5
Playing time: 45 minutes
Age: 10 and up