Mayfair MFG3509 Isle of Skye From Chieftain to King Board Game

Product Information

The first round is scored according to the criteria on the tile in position 'A', the second round on the tile at position 'B', and so on for later rounds. Each provides a different way to score points, and which window they appear in can make a huge difference. The screens have to be assembled each game, but this isn’t a big deal–they are sturdier for it–and they have a helpful player aid on the back of them. In attempting to give it a pasted on aesthetic they’ve gone for the simplest and least imaginative twee representation of a complex country.

This variety adds to an already delightful game that works at every player count and is worthy of a place in any collection. It’s a game that I would rate as being more enjoyable than Carcassonne without actually being better. The Agricola-sized box already includes the family-friendly Druids expansion as well as the Tunnel Tiles mini-expansion and offers hours and hours of gameplay. I love playing it at two players, it really works nicely when you are duelling it out for supremacy. So even if ships aren’t worth anything in the main scoring conditions, if a player has a ship scroll, tiles with ships will be worth more to that player.The lack of available expansions which really add to the base game is also a shame but hopefully something that can be rectified in the future. The game is played over five rounds: after each round you are scored according to one, two or three of the victory tiles drawn at the start of the game. The journeyman markers act as some sort of connector between and to the landscape built by the players.

All photos on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4. If you believe board game accessibility is important and can support our Patreon you'd be helping make sure the site can continue with this valuable work. Last but not least: So far I have only played it as a 2-players' game (it can be played by 2-5 people) and I have to say it has been excellent fun, despite some reviews saying that 2-player variant is not that great. Isle of Skye is a tile laying game with an auction mechanic which pits you against your opposing players to see who will finish the game with the most victory points and take the step from chieftain to king.In his list of "Best 15 board games for adults in 2021" for GamesRadar+, Benjamin Abbott states that Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King is "one of the most enjoyable board games for adults". Depending on which round of the game you are on different combinations of the 4 criteria are scored so it’s important to lay your tiles in a way that is going to score either that turn or in the future and not focus on a criteria which has already been scored. If there’s a downside to Isle of Skye, it’s that it is best when played swiftly, and for whatever reason, the decisions in the game lock some players up.