Fountains Review

"Fountains is a tile drafting and placement game that cascades between strategy and accessibility. The theme lends itself beautifully to learning the game. Gameplay is simple and easy to pick up. A central basin board holds three pawns which, when moved up to three open spaces, allow each player to draft a tile from the corresponding pile (there are 6 plus small bonus tokens). Water must flow from a jetted fountain or else a pool becomes stagnant with pond weed."

"Each of the pawns also corresponds to one of three scoring or reward mechanics on the basin board- gain points by building multiple pools, lily pads, or stocking koi. The higher a player builds the fountain, the more points rain down. Players continue gameplay by taking turns moving the pawn of their choice. When a player lands on a space that corresponds to the pawn, they trigger scoring for the feature for all players."

Fountains combines tile drafting and placement with a pawn movement system that controls which tiles players can draft and when scoring triggers occur. A central basin board holds three pawns; moving a pawn up to three open spaces lets a player draft from the corresponding pile. Tiles form pools, lily pads, and koi, and water must flow from a jetted fountain to prevent stagnation. Each pawn links to one of three scoring or reward mechanics, triggering scoring for all players when landed upon. The game ends when a tile pile is emptied, followed by final scoring and optional scoring cards for variability.

Read at Board Game Quest