Games can have a wide variety of different themes. Some focus on dungeon crawling while others on managing a town or deducing a player’s hidden identity. “Drop Site” is a game about delivering and coordinating humanitarian aid shipments, of all things. Not that I’m complaining mind you, it’s just…well, different. In this game, players will be dropping parachutes of AID toward different drop sites and the person who is better at it strategically, wins the game!
Drop Site: 2-4 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 5-10 Minutes Per Round
Components
The game includes 52 cards and a rulebook. The big blue number on the cards are for scoring purposes only. The smaller number on the left of the cards is the actual value of said card.
Setup & Gameplay
The deck is shuffled and five cards are dealt to each player to form their starting hand. One card is dealt and placed face-up next to the deck to form the first drop site. The oldest player goes first.
On a player’s turn, they’ll do ONE of two things:
1. Play a card face-up on a drop site (the face-up piles in the middle of the table). This card must be lower in value than the one beneath it. You could also start a new drop pile using any number. Remember, the value of the card is the smaller number on the left, not the big blue one on the middle/bottom of the card.
A zero card indicates that humanitarian aid has landed on the ground. When that card is played, the drop zone is turned horizontally and a new pile may be started on top of it. The top card of that new pile, along with the zero beneath it, are used for endgame scoring. Playing another zero on top of an already horizontal pile makes the entire pile null and void, meaning no more cards can be played on it.
2. Play a card face-down onto their debt pile (the area in front of them). Players may not look at their debt pile until the game is over.
Once a player does either of these things, they’ll draw a card from the deck to bring their hand back to up five cards. The round immediately ends when a certain number of drop sites are made (depends on the number of players). Players then reveal all the cards in their debt pile. The goal is to have cards values in your debt that match the cards currently showing on the drop site. A correct match of the smaller numbers earns that player the point value in blue (plus the point value of the zero, if present). Players receive -2 points for each card in their debt that doesn’t match anything showing in the drop piles.
Players start a new round and continue playing until someone reaches 100 points. The first person to do so, wins the game!
Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.
The Review
The game is best served as a filler…that is, something that can be played relatively quickly in between longer play sessions or just so that you can get your gaming fix on in under a half hour. As such, I think the game overstays its welcome when played to 100 points. I’d honestly recommend 30-50, maybe even 25 depending on how much time you have. It’s nice that players are free to experiment and adjust the victory point goal as necessary to suit their needs.
Gameplay itself isn’t terribly complicated, though it will get you thinking as to how to play your cards. You can stack your debt pile pretty high with a variety of values to ensure you score something, but this strategy can be hit or miss as you’re penalized (-2 points) on how many cards you don’t match at the round’s end. There’s also the fact that you’re not allowed to look at your face-down debt pile, forcing you to memorize what you have there when trying to change the values on the drop sites.
It’s not a bad game but like I said, I can only really recommend it for casual gamers or for those needing a filler as some may find it boring over the long haul. You can get it for under ten bucks on the official website (link below), making it easy to recommend assuming you’re the right crowd for it.
Final Verdict: 6/10
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Purchase “Drop Site”:
https://bellwethergames.com/product/drop-site/
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