Footprints

Footprints is a lot of game in a small package: Variable player powers Modular board Hand management Worker placement Open sandbox world 1-6 (!) players In Footprints, you play as a proto-human clan at the end of the ice age. The snow is melting and you need to leave the valley and migrate to the mountains collecting resources to build etchings and a cave painting along the way to leave your mark and collect victory points in the form of footprints. Game play is tight. Each clan gets 13 cards plus 2 leader cards. The cards are double use allowing you to move and/or increase your skill tracks. Footprint cards give you end game scoring points. Fire cards give you a bonus in the form of movements and/or increasing skill tracks. Skill tracks increase your movements and/or gives you resources. Each clan has a different distribution of movement cards (and reminds you of the distribution for that clan on each track board), and each set of leaders has special movement. Each player also gets a turn order/scoring card for reference. Each clan has a unique track board to keep track of skills and etchings/cave paintings. You only get 14/15 cards. You have to plan your path in order to collect enough resources to put out the etchings. At any one time, you only see 4 movement cards, but you do know your distribution of movement cards by color (representing plains, forest, ice, mountain) so pay attention. At the beginning of the game, everyone is given one footprint card that gives you end game points if completed — and loses you points if you don’t. Along the way, you can collect more footprint cards to increase your end game scoring potential. You earn points by putting out etchings, a cave painting, leftover resources, leftover fire cards, completed footprint cards, and if you’re lucky, cairn points. Game ends when all cards are played by every player or if one player reaches the end of the board to a cairn. At that point, every player gets one more turn until each player has played the same amount of turns. What I DON’T Like: The resources are represented by cardboard discs with pictures of the resources on them. The artwork for these are just meh. The etchings have subpar art as well. These could have been better. The card art somehow seems to “work” better, however, it is extremely hard to see the difference in color between the plains and stone track art. And actually, the icons on the board are sometimes hard to distinguish, too. Especially between the footprint and the fire card icons. You have to do A LOT in only 14 turns. While not a downside, you do have to adjust your thinking/pacing to play this game. You won’t have 2 hours with seemingly endless turns and cards, but being a sandbox game, you’ll feel like you should. But you don’t. What I DO Like: I really like the game play of this game. In Footprints decision making is tight! The modular board and variable clan powers lend to replayability. The clan boards are double layered and easy to use. (Looking at you Terraforming Mars!) Gameplay is simple to learn. The movement cards are double use — and you have to choose between using the top half for movement, or the bottom half for increasing your skills track (which lets you move further). Turns start slow, but as you collect resources, you’ll have more you can do and farther you can go. There can be a little AP towards the end as you try decide what path to take to get all the resources you need to complete an etching or cave painting — or up your skill tree one last time before the finish. Every aspect of the game works well together. Final Thoughts: This game is delightfully “crunchy” in a small package and short time period. The theme works within gameplay. At some point, euros can flip in your brain to just completing the abstract puzzle of the game. In this game, you still feel like you’re in the game as a Neanderthal clan. It’s easy to learn and thoughtfully designed. My gaming group has played it half a dozen times so far at 2-4 player counts. Even at 4 players, Footprints gets done in an hour! That’s a lot of a game in a short time frame! And you can also play solo — though I have not done so yet. Footprints is a fun quick game that tests your brain!

Plays quick. Lots of interesting decisions. Lots of points if you get to the end. But you can score well without getting all the way to end of the path and still win.