A three-level tactical game around the Holi festival

2 years ago

The Color Festival

This game had been on my list for soooo long! Last Friday, I finally found it at games shop Het Lab in Utrecht. And recently you can also buy it online.

Holi is een Hindu festival celebrated annually around march. The festival is celebrated with music, dancing, tasty snacks and coloured powder is sprinkled.

I knew that coloured powder from the Color Run, the event that ‘borrowed’ the sprinkling of colours from this celebration. The makers of this game don’t want to borrow anything, but rather want to draw attention to the fest: ‘Our intention for this game is to spread the joy that comes with the Holi festival, and allow more people to connect with this ancient Indian tradition through a different lens.’

The makers make this game a party anyway. Not only does it look very colourful, but picking up points in this game is called ‘gaining joy’. Who doesn’t wish their fellow player to collect this.

A game that gives cause to exchange about culture, festivals and traditions!

A game that takes to the air

Holi is a three-dimensional game that you play with 2 – 4 people. The rules of the game are not complex, but it requires strategy and tactics to win.

You start at the bottom and climb up one level at a time. The floors are transparent. If you climb to the top and stand on a space where nobody is standing, you will (logically) fall another floor down. So look very carefully. As an aid, there are coordinates on the sides so that you go from D3 second floor to the right place: D3 on the third floor.

The game reminds me a bit of chess. Maybe because you move playing pieces around the board. But Holi is, of course, much more colourful. Moreover, you can also play it with 3 or 4 people.

How to play?

First, you assemble the game board (can I call it that…. if there are 3 floors?). Then on the first and second floors, you put the candy chips.

Each player chooses a playing piece of a colour + corresponding chips representing the colour powder. Each player also gets a stack of cards with patterns.

Per game, you turn over two cards that apply to everyone. These are general rules/goals that you can take advantage of during the game or earn extra points at the end of the game.

Per turn, you may do three things (only step 1 is mandatory):

1) throw colour – you choose one of the three pattern cards from your hand and place the chips in your colour in that pattern on the board

2) move your pawn – for example, to the sweets scattered around the board that score points at the end of the game

3) move your pawn to a higher floor – be careful when you do this, because you may not go down again. Your pawn may only move up one floor if it is flanked on four sides by colour chips.

At the end of the game, the chips on the first floor are worth 1 point, on the second 2 points and on the third 3 points.

We played it twice immediately after buying it. Of course, once a ‘learning round’ and then fully into the strategy, thwarting each other and taking as many points ourselves as possible.

General information on Holi:

number of players: 2 – 4 people
time: around 45 minutes
from:the box says 13+ I estimate: 10+ especially if children like abstract games
price: around € 44

Buy Holi