HANIWA

When I first laid eyes on the box of HANIWA, Noble and also Spaceman, I thought, “Kind of a strange, long title and I have no idea what kind of game this is. But isn't that one of those things from Animal Crossing?”. In any case, my interest was piqued, in this review we're going to see what the game has to offer....

Yes indeed that is such a thing from Animal Crossing. For those who have already lost me by now: Animal Crossing is a series of video games from Nintendo. That video game and the board game HANIWA do not have much else in common, except that it is abundantly clear that they are Japanese-made. Haniwa are an important part of Japanese culture. The first two pages of the rulebook summarize the origins of Haniwa, the Nobles (Gozoku), Kofun and Spaceman (Dogu).
The only thing I was curious about: what again do spacemen have to do with Japanese culture.... And what turns out: nothing at all, except that the Dogu look like astronauts and are apparently very mysterious.

How is HANIWA played?

Enough about crazy spacemen and characters from video games. Time to look at the actual game.
In essence, HANIWA is nothing more than a simple tile placement game. It's really built to be played with two players, but it can also be played with four (in two teams of two) or solo.
The four Gozoku tiles, along with their corresponding dice, are placed in the center of the table. Both players place their three Dogu tiles below each other, with the side on which the “eyes” are closed facing up. This creates a 4 x 3 grid of its own for both players. In this grid, players will place Haniwa tiles.

On your turn
When it is your turn, do the following in the order indicated:

1. Place a Haniwa tile in your grid.
2. When you have placed a Haniwa tile in the Gozoku column of the same color, you increase the value of the corresponding die by as many steps as indicated on the tile. In the process, the die goes “round,” so from 6 back to 1. When this happens you may take a Kofun tile. These tiles earn you 1 point at the end of the game and you can use them as an ordinary Haniwa tile.
3. Next, check the Dogu: once there are four Haniwa tiles in a row, you must add up the values of these tiles. Is this exactly 8? Then turn over the Dogu tile in this row (you get two points). However, if the sum is higher than 8, you will be “cursed” by the Dogu and that can cost you a lot of points at the end of the game!
4. Take a new Haniwa tile.

The game ends when both 3 x 4 grids are filled with Haniwa tiles. And then it's time to start counting the points.

Scoring
With the scoring, I myself lost the thread several times and had to reach for the rulebook. It's not extremely complicated or much, but also not entirely logical.
For each column (Gozoku/color), we need to see who is the “strongest” in that particular column. First, the values of the Haniwa tiles are added together. These tiles can have a value of 1, 2 or 3 and therefore there is a good chance that both players will end up with the same total. If that is indeed the case, only the values of the Haniwa tiles in the same color as the Gozoku are considered. If it is still the same, then the one who has the most Haniwa in that color wins. But note that the tiles themselves do not determine how many points you get! You simply get as many points as the value of the die in that column.

But then you're not there yet. If, in a column you have won, you have three Haniwa in the correct color, then you get a Smile bonus: the Gozoku is extra happy with you and you get 2 points extra. As mentioned earlier, you also get 1 extra point for each Kofun tile.

Now only the points for the Dogu remain. Each opened Dogu earns you 2 points; if you have all three, you get a total of 8 points. Each “cursed” Dogu cancels one of your won columns, starting with the column with the highest value.

What do I think of HANIWA?

For a simple game in which you basically do nothing more than place 12 tiles, there should be no need to refer back to the rulebook. Not only during the scoring, but also for other rules of the game, I had to go into research mode from time to time. Somehow it all just didn't stick. I can still understand the dice to determine the actual score, but many other aspects of the game seem to have been tacked on randomly.

This is also reflected in the variants included in the game. In the four-player variant, you play exactly the same game, only with one less tile in your hand. There is also a variant that says play two games in a row. Make those two games in a row a little more advanced and in the second game use the tiles you still had in your hand at the end of the first as your starting hand. Again, these are additions that do not benefit the game and bring nothing extra. The modifications are too minimalistic and small to be labeled a “variant” of the game.

It is possible in HANIWA to apply some tactics, however, this does not make the game more interesting and it is often not worth thinking about what is smart to do. Keeping the values of the dice as low as possible when you know your opponent is going to win a column is about the only thing you can focus on. To win the game, at least, you don't depend on having luck. There is only a luck factor when taking the tiles, but since a hand of four tiles is very broad, that luck factor has little to no impact. Re-playability is low, as you do exactly the same thing every game. After a few games you've really seen it all.

HANIWA is suitable for children ages six and up, and I think that is really the target audience here. The game looks fun and colorful and for kids it is a fun math exercise (although they definitely need some help with the scoring).

Final Verdict
HANIWA is a fairly boring game. For how little you actually do, there are many rules and extras that hardly add anything to the essence of the game: placing twelve tiles. What's more, you can apply very few tactics in the process to make the game more interesting. The so-called “variants” do not add anything and therefore could not save the game.
However, the game looks cheerful and is quickly on the table. The components are of fine quality. It is imaginable that this game will appeal more to the younger audience. For them HANIWA might be a nice way to practice some math.