Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) Mariposas Board Game, Play The Monarch Butterfly Migration, Learn About Nature, Ages 14+, 2-5 Players, 45-75 Min, Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)

So I’m back with some thoughts on one of my most recent pickups for the family shelf. I generally try to keep these games at a pretty basic level so all of my family members (daughters 12 & 8, Wife - 43, and myself-50) can access it...also keeping in mind my wife and my 13 year old aren’t big game fans. Just to give you an idea of what they tend to enjoy...their top picks are Azul, Ticket To Ride, Camel Up, Wingspan, and Everdell (we LOVE wildlife and critters in our games!!). So my latest shopping spree on Amazon saw Mariposas pop up...a game from Wingspan creator Elizabeth Hargrave. I figured this would be a no brainer for my family shelf. Just from reading the description and looking at the pictures it hit several checkmarks...simplicity, a designer we already loved, and wildlife!! ADD TO CARTThe game arrived on a Sunday morning and we broke it out for gaming that same evening. The rules are well laid out, easy to read, and well illustrated. The game itself was so easy to pick up that my 8 year old was off and running in just 5 minutes. I’m not going to outline all the rules...other folks have done that and do a much better job than I, but a brief overview may help to illustrate why my level of gamers here on the homestead loved it.The premise of the game revolves around the Monarch Butterfly’s migration from Mexico to Canada and back. You will begin the game with a single level 1 butterfly. You’ll reveal a Season Card that shows the season’s objectives...things like score a point for each butterfly above Atlanta or to the east of Houston. You’ll play 1 of the 2 movement cards you possess, move your butterfly; landing on and collecting flower tokens, and then drawing a new card to add to your hand. If you happen to land adjacent to a milkweed icon you can spend your flower tokens to spawn a new butterfly of the next level to the board (you have level 1,2,3,4 butterflies). You’ll repeat this process for a preset number of turns each season...collecting your points at the end of each season for objectives you were able to complete. The game ends upon completion of the Fall objectives. You’ll add points to your final score for each level 4 butterfly that made it back to Mexico...high score wins. That's pretty much it...very simple.My family really enjoyed their stay with Mariposas. Its a beautiful game visually...but very different than Ms. Hargrave’s other game...Wingspan. Its simplicity makes it very accessible, and it teaches a little about the butterfly life cycle. The other bonus to its simplicity is that it never overstays its welcome...a 4 player game of new players only took 45 minutes to complete...and that was with a rules review for everyone.My only criticism of the game is the use of the waypoints. There are various tokens on major cities spread around the United States, and you get a card when you land on them. These cards are randomly assigned to each city, and you are encouraged to complete sets in order to get bonuses. We found it very very tough to take advantage of the waypoints. You are in such a frantic race against time to get your Monarchs upgraded to level 4 and back to Mexico that you never truly have time to seek out those city tokens. Its a great idea, but it doesn’t play out as intended in our experience. Now, keep in mind, to date we have only played Mariposas three times, but in each of those we have not been able to capitalize on these bonuses.Summing up Mariposas, play a card, move a butterfly, collect a flower, cash in flowers for new butterflies, get back to Mexico. Simple, fun, beautiful and educational. Elizabeth Hargrave does it again...not quite as good as Wingspan, but a wonderful experience on its own merits!

This week the game that came out on our table for the first time was Mariposas. This is the second game by the game designer Elizabeth Hargrave (who designed the award-winning Wingspan). Mariposas is a game following the life cycle of the Monarch Butterflies. In the game, the butterflies will be flying from Mexico north to spread across the US and Canada, and then returning to Mexico by the end of the game.The game is played with 3 separate seasons, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Each season will have specific goals for you to accomplish during that season. For instance, you might have a goal to have 3 butterflies north of Atlanta. You might also have a goal to have butterflies on specific color hexes on the board at the end of the season.Gameplay is pretty straightforward as you will always play one of 2 movement cards that you have in your hand. Each movement card will tell you to move a specific number of butterflies a set distance. As you move the butterflies you will gain flowers which will allow you to breed the butterfly to the next generation of butterfly when you are next to a milkweed feeding station (which btw is the only food the Monarch caterpillar eats). You can also end up going to cities and uncovering cards or special moves for your butterfly. The cards are sets of the life cycle of the butterfly which can give you points or other bonuses.Aesthetically, this is an Elizabeth Hargrave game, so it is going to be colorful and pretty. I would say after playing it, the board seems a little busy with the kinds of flowers almost blending into each other. However, the theming and design is top notch. The butterfly pieces are printed to show which generation they are, but the number is a bit tiny, so be prepared with your reading glasses to make sure you’ve got the right butterfly. By the time the game is over, you do feel that you’ve really watched the migration of the butterflies.Two drawbacks that I noticed on the game is that you don’t really need to focus on returning your butterflies to Mexico to win (as a matter of fact all of us who played only got one butterfly token back), and if you focus on the season goals instead of the game goal, you can come out ahead. The second drawback to me is the life cycle cards. Not a single person in our game was able to collect a complete set, and no one got the big bonus for any of them, although each card does give you a single point, it felt off not to be able to complete a full set. This is mainly because their locations are secret at the beginning of the game and only once a butterfly lands on a city does that specific token flip upright for you to see it and try to make your way to it.Overall, the game was enjoyable. It is not Wingspan, it is a lighter game with each turn you only have to decide which butterfly to move in response to 2 different cards you have in your hand.My rating: 7.0/10

We enjoyed Wingspan which has the same designer as Mariposas. My daughter likes birds and Butterflies so this was a great game with advanced mechanics that could keep her interest.Immediately upon completion of our first game, we all realized there were different strategies that we should have utilized which would have increased our score. The same happened with our next few games. Employing different strategies made for great replayability.My one suggestion would be that some of the wooden butterflies are hard to see since the board is so colorful and the colors are very similar.Overall it is a solid game.

I gave it one less star because it can be really frustrating. There's a lot that goes into this game, but once you figure out a strategy that works for you, it is fun. It took my husband and I several weeks to figure out what that strategy was for each of us. It's a gorgeous game, though.