Umbrella: Make the umbrellas twirl

Friday 10th January 2025 05:24 PM

????Umbrella: the 2024 favorite that reinvents strategic investment! Intense 30 minute games where every move counts.

alinerig

She works in the psycho-social field. She fell very young into the pot of gaming in all its forms (board, video games, escape room, murder). She particularly likes investigation and deduction games, language games and team dynamics. Writing on the blog allows him to discover new games and share his real favorites.

Umbrella

⚠️ Warning : In the interest of transparency towards our community, we would like to point out that this article reflects our personal opinion on the game. We have not received any compensation from the game publisher. We have independently acquired and tested the gamewithout commercial link with its publisher. The reviews presented here represent our honest and unbiased analysis of the game, based on our own experience.

In short:

A placement game using umbrellas as playing pieces
Quick 30-minute games for 1 to 4, accessible from 8 years old, with surprising tactical depth
Excellent replayability thanks to different difficulty levels and varied boards, despite a choice of colors not suited to color blind people

It’s raining umbrellas in New York, but this time, it’s you who orchestrates their tactical choreography.

Umbrella, le pitch : A crowd of umbrellas crowds the streets of New York! Seen from the sky, the colors dance. Perform compulsory tricks and score as many points as possible.

Benoit Turpin, the creator of the Welcome To series and The Art Project, teamed up with Flavien Dauphin to twirl umbrellas in the rainy streets of the Big Apple.

The aim of the game is to slide umbrellas of four different colors onto your game board to complete required figures. Be careful of the shortage of colors in your waiting areas! Proper planning of your trips will be the key to success.

Umbrella is a movement and strategic optimization game for 4 players aged 8 and up, offering games lasting around thirty minutes.

Come dance in the rain with us by discovering our review of Umbrella.

Each player receives an individual game board including a Stage on which the umbrella ballet will take place. This scene is filled at the start of the game with umbrella tokens of 4 colors, according to an imposed pattern that is different for each.

Tokens of four colors are then placed on the individual waiting area at the bottom of the stage as well as shared waiting areas to the left and right of each player and in the center.

At the top of your board are two starting figures to be created using four umbrellas of the same color.

In turn, you will choose an umbrella token from one of the waiting areas (left/right/center and personal area) and drag it onto your stage to the side of your choice, which will have the effect of moving the token on the opposite side of your stage to the nearest waiting area.

For example, a token taken from the center area (top) will push a token from your scene to your personal space (bottom), a token taken from the left area will push your rightmost token from your scene to the right area, etc.

As soon as one of your figures is completed, you pass it to your neighbor on the left and mark a point on your score board, in the color with which you performed it. When a color is no longer visible on your score board, you can no longer validate a figure with it and do not earn any points.

Only one figure can be performed per round. If you complete several, you will have to wait for your next turn and a new swipe to validate them.

The game ends when all the score tokens have been placed, when a player no longer has a tile on their board or when someone has filled their entire score tile.

The last round is then completed and the individual scores are counted by adding the points obtained by the score tokens won, the bonuses from the score board and those linked to the personal zone (bonus or penalty).

The player with the highest score wins the game.

The game includes several scoreboards of four different difficulty levels as well as a single-player mode.

Umbrella, verdict ?

Umbrella is my favorite for this fun end of year 2024.

Behind the rules that are very simple to understand and therefore accessible to as many people as possible lies a real strategic placement game which requires anticipation, programming and vision in space. If, like my older daughter, you excel at Ricochet Robots, you will definitely shine in this game as well.

Vincent Dutrait was able to aesthetically magnify the equipment with very good quality components: wooden tokens, rigid cardboard trays which hold the pieces well while allowing them to slide easily, as well as functional score board inserts.

The shared zone system allows for good interactions with your playing neighbors, particularly when playing figures where, in 2-player games, you can choose the side offered to your opponent. Too much delay is difficult to catch up and can even lead to a hasty end to the game, due to not being able to transmit a figure to your neighbor on the left. The shortage of colors brings an interesting tension that must be anticipated or circumvented.

Replayability is high thanks to the different difficulty levels and individual boards with a varied distribution.

The games are fast and fluid, rarely exceeding 30 minutes, even with 4 players.

The only negative point I could raise concerns the unwise choice of colors for the comfort of color blind people.

We liked:

The fluidity of the mechanics as refreshing as summer rain ☔
Accessibility which does not prevent real depth (like an umbrella ultimately!)
The speed of the games which gives you time to get out even in the storm

We liked less:

The choice of colors not very “friendly” for our colorblind friends
The impossibility of catching up with a significant delay (like an umbrella turned over by the wind)

It’s more for you if…

You like games that exercise your brain without giving you a headache
You appreciate fluid and innovative mechanics
Looking for a family game with depth

It’s probably not for you if…

You hate rain (even in-game)
You prefer games where you can come back from very far away
You are colorblind (unfortunately)

A game that will delight experts and beginners alike, fast, efficient, competitive and enjoyable to play. You’ll want to deploy it every time rain is forecast.

Excellent !

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

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Label Dé Vert : No ! To find out more about the Dé Vert label, click here.
Creation : Benoit Turpin, Flavien Dauphin
Illustrations : Vincent Dutrait
Edition : Lumberjacks Studio
Number of players : 1 to 4
Recommended age : From 8 years old
Duration : 30 min
Theme : Umbrellas
Main mechanics : Tiles, placement To find out more about the different game mechanics, click here.

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