Every spring, millions of monarch butterflies leave Mexico to spread out across eastern North America. Every fall, millions fly back to Mexico. However, no single butterfly ever makes the round trip.
Mariposas is a game of movement and set collection that lets players be part of this amazing journey. Mariposas is played in three seasons. In general, your butterflies try to head north in spring, spread out in summer, and return south in fall. The end of each season brings a scoring round, and at the end of fall, the player with the most successful family of butterflies — i.e., the most victory points — wins the game.
Paul Maloney –
A beautiful game with good mechanics that allows multiple ways to win. Tracking your butterflies around the board and working out which one to move is a bit overwhelming on first play but once the rules are better understood the game becomes easier to play.
The season cards add a good twist of scoring mechanics that means it can be beneficial to not return your butterflies to the end goal.
Competitive multiplayer is fun, especially when one player reveals a particular city token and other players have to decide whether to try and reach it for a bonus or carry on their existing path.
The rules provide good and relevant overview of the lifecycle of the Monarch butterfly so you also learn as you play.