Next we turned our attention to Kanaloa, the multi-player version of Kahuna. Although I got this when it first came out, it had never made it to the table at the club. It’s very similar to Kahuna in that you are building bridges between islands in an attempt to take control of those islands by having a majority of the bridges. We played the expanded version, which introduces tokens to be won by the first player to control an island and these tokens give an extra benefit in the second round.

With three players, the game follows a pattern whereby whoever takes a lead gets picked on by the other two. We all suffered this fate but Mark K got completely hammered about three-quarters of the way through the game, first by me and then by Mark G, and was unable to recover. I had managed to get four of the special tokens early in the game and was able to use these to good advantage. Although I was first to play in the final turn, Mark G was left with no useful cards to peg me back and Mark K was also unable to do anything to stop me, so I was able to register a second win of the evening.

We all thought Kanaloa was just ok and went on a bit too long for what it was. We also had a few issues with the rules although I think we probably resolved them correctly. Mark K thought there was a big advantage going first as you ought to have the best opportunity to claim the tokens (which are very useful). However, going last also has some benefit as you get to maximise your position immediately before the two scorings. I’m glad to have got this off the unplayed list but would probably rather play Kahuna, which is a cleaner design.