PeltaPeeps Review

I couldn’t really come up with a good intro or exciting story to set the mood for this game. But in the original email form Pelta Games, there was a brief on the game and the company. The latter which made me smile and make me connect with the company more, so I thought I’d add that as the intro.
‘We are a small indie company that’s a family affair (2 generations). Our games are designed and made to order by us in Panama City, Florida. We don’t use offshoring because of the exploitation that’s involved as well as associated wasteful transportation impact on the environment.
When we’re in control of how our games are made, we do our best to make that process as environmentally friendly as possible. The pieces of our 1st game are UV printed, laser cut acrylic. This means very low power consumption and VOC free inks. And this results in a durable game that’ll last a very long time vs. most other materials. Our games are made to be enjoyed for years – even generations to come.’
There are 2 versions of PeltaPeeps which are PeltaPeeps For Two (2-player) or PeltaPeeps Core and Full games, both of which are 4 to 6 player.
GAME PLAYS as follows for the 2 player game:

1st player must place a round piece in the middle of play area.
Each player takes turns in 3 Parts
- 1st must place a new round piece by fitting it into any piece or pieces in the play area. If a new round piece can’t be placed- player must place a new Bone/Arrow piece.
- Must place a new Bones or Arrow piece by fitting it into any piece or pieces in the play area. If a new Bones & Arrows piece was played in Part I of their turn- a new round piece must be placed instead.
- May choose to move or flip other player’s piece already in play.
- If a player chooses to move another player’s piece:
  - It’s only done after all placing of new pieces
  - It must fit into at least one other piece already in play.
  - The move result cannot disconnect any piece or pieces completely from the connected group of pieces in play
  - When flipping a piece in place, it must fit all adjacent pieces.Players cannot move or flip one of their own pieces, ever.
  - Players cannot both move and flip another piece in the same move.

When a player ends the game, if it is the player who placed the 1st piece ends the game, the 2nd player can take their turn to finish the round.
Players count up their score from their pieces in the play area and those not played. All scoring is done at end of game as follows:
- Players count each of their playing piece interfaces occupied (a connection) as 1 JOIN point (includes all Bones & Arrows pieces).
- Player gets 1 BONUS JOIN point for each time there is a same team Join (the connection to another one of their own pieces is only counted once, not for each piece sharing the Join).
- Player gets additional points for each of their pieces FaceUp (showing the design side):
  - The PeltaDragon Egg gets 1 point.
  - The Big PeltaPeep gets 3 points.
  - All other smaller PeltaPeeps get 2 points each.
- Player gets minus points for every piece that did not get placed in play based on their FaceUp value.
- Bones & Arrows playing pieces score only Join & Bonus Join points. There are No FaceUp pts & No end of game unplayed minus pts apply.
- The Immoveable Circle of Peltan has no FaceUp side, but gets 1 point for being in play plus all Join pts. The Circle gets 1 minus point if not played by the end of game

The Core and Full Game plays slightly differently as there are no bones or arrows in those sets.

As the intro explains, PeltaPeeps is made up of UV printed, laser cut playing pieces. Each piece is cast acrylic around 3.2mm thick & 38 mm in diameter. They’re extremely strong and I believe what they said in the intro, these pieces could quite easily last generations. The build quality is amazing and though the pieces are quite thin; they feel strong and tough. We actually dropped the pieces off the table quite a few times while playing the game, and event and there wasn’t even a scratch on them.
Enough about the components and onto the gameplay. The Gameplay of PeltaPeeps was awesome; it reminded me of Dominos dialled up to 11. It is quick to play, easy to learn and yet hard to master. I say this, as you really have to read the play; understand what your opponent might do and think several moves ahead yet keep several back plans just in case. At first glance, I thought PeltaPeeps was going to be an easy quick relaxing game with very little to it, but after playing several games it really isn’t. Yes the rules are easy, place a piece then move a piece but this game has a beautiful complexity to it. As though the game is only 2-3 steps, it is the mind game between players that is where this game becomes so intelligent. Hence why I said hard to master, as like a game of chess, you play the opponent as much as you play the game and I feel PeltaPeeps has that same skill set.
Add in several more players and this game steps up to the next level. We played a highly stressful 6 player game, which had the intensity of a Euro game, but was over in probably 15 or so minutes. As when there are that many of you involved, you can’t plan as much and playing the opponents just becomes so much harder. The number of times you think you are pulling ahead and over it all worked out, a single move can throw the whole game. It is amazing. I know in the 6 person game I seemed to win or come dead last (ok I won once and came dead last the other 6 games but shhh), no in-between. And yet in the 2 player game, I was undefeated.
PeltaPeeps is actually one of my biggest surprises this year. I thought it sounded interesting and fun but would be quite light and possibly get a little boring after a few playthroughs. But this wasn’t the case at all, it was a mind game that’s simple complexity was next level for me. Being a mind game is also probably the only real downside to this game too because the gameplay is only as good as you and your opponent/s. As you could quite easily play this game quick and loose and not even think about it too much, but if you do that I feel like you are play it wrong. As this game excels when you play with well thought out moves and plans.
If you would like to get a copy of PeltaPeeps, which I highly recommend as the game is awesome, the components are amazing and not to mention environmentally conscious. You can check out there store here (https://peltagames.com/shop/)
As PeltaPeeps has just launched they are offering all goto.game readers a 30% discount on their already very reasonable prices (see below) with the promo code “GOTOGAMEPROMO “
Here’s the price list of the current offerings (without the discount applied and in US Dollars):