Aloha from Hawaii....

No, no, I'm not in Hawaii.  Man, I wish.  But I've sure been playing a lot of it!  And I had originally thought I'd write a full review but the Opinionated Gamers have done such a good job, I think I can just direct you there for a full description.

Fact is, I'd heard of Hawaii last year but it wasn't even on my radar until I'd read the OG reviews a couple weeks ago.  Interestingly, they mention and I had already seen Tom Vasel's scathing (attempted) takedown of the game on BGG.  I like Tom Vasel's contributions but I gotta say I pretty often think he's got it all wrong (Railroad Tycoon, anyone?).  And on this game he was VERY wrong.  Feel free to disregard his review completely.  :)

This a brilliant, tricky, extraordinarily well-designed game that is quickly entering my top 10.  There are lots of pieces and setup and the rules are a bit of a chore, but once you get going the players catch on quick and the hour will fly by.  I've played with 2, 3, and 4 players, and every game has been wonderful.  The more players the better as the battle for tokens gets fierce but it seems to work well with any group.

Don't miss this one - the design is elegant and tight, the gameplay lasts the perfect amount of time, and it scales brilliantly for any number of players.   All that and it looks just freaking gorgeous.  Just an awesome medium to heavy weight game that you'll want to play again and again. Click on the pictures to look at huge images of all the beautifully produced components...

The board all set up pretty

The various place tokens

Currency!

Round tiles

Building villages tile by tile