Build High Towers With River Horse’s New Board Game, Noli!

August 15, 2022 by brennon

River Horse has announced a new board game, designed by Jack Caesar and Alessio Cavatore featuring art from Chris Cæsar. Noli will have you building impressive towers and competing to win the Regata-dei-Reoni!

Noli // River Horse

Here is some background on the wonderful town of Noli...

"In the Middle Ages, Noli was a flourishing maritime town under the benevolent 'patronage' of the powerful republic of Genoa. This sun-baked fishing community has a rich history of independence, commerce, and competition.

Every September, in order to determine the fishing rights for the following fishing season, the gozzi (typical Ligurian fishing boats) of the four districts of Burgu, Ciassa, Màina and Portellu run a regatta along a path of 1,600 meters, on fractions of 400 meters between the bouys."

Sounds like a situation ripe for a board game. This becomes especially so with the knowledge that each of the merchant families would compete to build tall red-brick towers!

Noli Cards // River Horse

To this end, when diving into a game of Noli you will start out by secretly bidding on four actions using your coins. The player who bids highest for each action will gain a bonus that will aid them in winning the game. Between the bidding, players will be rolling dice in real time to mimic the Regata-dei-Reoni competition.

The winner of this dice-rolling race will get to fish in the best spot whereas others will have to draw from weaker decks filled with fewer fish. You will also need to be aware of event cards like "Saracens Attack" and "Storm!" which can throw some spanners into the works! If you manage to build six floors of your tower or have the most tower floors at the end of the game, you win.

Noli Components // River Horse

The game looks beautiful and I like the mix of different mechanics here with bidding and outwitting your foes plus something frantic and wild like dice rolling. It feels like it adds an interesting tempo to the game and how it flows from turn to turn.

It will be fun to give this one a go I reckon!