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Kahuna: every award it has won

As d'Or 2000

Box art for Kahuna
As d'Or

1998Günter Cornett

6.6

Rating BoardGameGeek

10,379 ratings

Players
2
Duration
40 min30–40 min
Complexity
2.1/5Light
Age
10+
  • Abstract Strategy

1 award

All of its awards

BoardGameGeek

About the game

"Who will rule the South Seas? Two Kahuna - ancient sorcerers of the Pacific - compete for dominance on an archipelago consisting of twelve small islands. Using their magic and wisdom, they struggle for control of the islands. They anxiously await the cards handed to them by fate. But when the time is right, they move to capture one, two, or even more islands, trying to gain the upper hand. At the mercy of the magical powers of the South Seas, they quickly realize that even the best magic is no good without strategy."

Originally published in 1997 as Arabana-Ikibiti by the designer's own publisher Bambus Spieleverlag, then reprinted by Funagain in the U.S., Kosmos' Kahuna – part of its Kosmos two-player series – is the best known implementation of this design.

It's a two-player game, played on a board depicting twelve islands. Players use cards to place bridges between these islands or remove opponent's bridges. If you get the majority of bridges around an island, you place one of your marker stones on it and also remove any of your opponent's bridges to that island – which might cause them to lose a bridge majority on an adjacent island and lose a marker stone there.

The game is played in three rounds. A round ends when all cards from the face down deck and the three face up cards have been taken. Then points are scored for the islands with a marker stone on them. The game can also end sooner when one player has absolutely NO bridges left on the board.

The Kosmos edition has excellent graphics and nice wooden pieces and plays very well.

Reimplements:

Arabana-Ikibiti

Reimplemented by:

Kanaloa

Mechanics

  • Area Majority / Influence
  • Hand Management
  • Multi-Use Cards
  • Network and Route Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Sudden Death Ending
  • Tags
  • Take That