Hamlet: The Village Building Game

Hamlet is a medieval city-building board game that ends with the hamlet becoming a village upon the construction of the church. To achieve this, players will construct other buildings, produce and refine resources, and deliver the necessary goods to the church construction site. Although the game is competitive, the hamlet is a community after all, so all goods on the board are shared between villagers. Use them before your opponents do and you could win Hamlet: The Village Building Game.

My Thoughts

• First play can feel a bit aimless as you try to put everything together and figure out what to do. Guide included with modified starting setup for smoother first games.
• Gets better on repeated plays with lots of different strategies to explore.

• Unique pick-up and deliver mechanic, where there is no picking up resources.
• Shifting the donkey network into place was not as much of a puzzle as expected and never had any bearing on my decision-making.

• The game encourages very defensive play with players avoiding leaving any resources on the board. Not a deal-breaker for me, but can be less satisfying wasting actions on your turn.
• Nice wooden components and an eco-friendly inserts that organizes the game well.

• Solo mode AI, Botric, is very manageable. Not a ton of upkeep or setup.
• Simple to carry out Botric’s turns, with the exception of the construct building action. Tons of places a player could place a building, Botric’s decision steps for this are slightly confusing.