Review Naenia Cantor: fantasy is the protagonist

If you like to invent and tell stories, then Naenia Cantor is the game for you and you shouldn't miss this review

Today I am going to introduce you to Naenia Cantor, a game by Little Rocket Games that goes from 2 to 6 players and whose games last about 40 minutes. In this game you need to be skilled storytellers or at least not lack imagination, because these two characteristics will give you the chance to achieve victory.


Content | Review Naenia Cantor

The packaging is already very particular, because we have a kind of dust jacket (if we can define it that way) of the box itself. The components of Naenia Cantor are:


  • 6 tokens of different colors and shapes: a blue fish, a black duck, a white snail and sheep, a yellow rabbit and a pink pig
  • 1 six-sided die with numbers ranging from 1 to 3
  • an hourglass
  • 1 scoreboard
  • 120 story cards
  • 40 mission cards
  • Review Naenia Cantor: fantasy is the protagonist
  • Review Naenia Cantor: fantasy is the protagonist
  • Review Naenia Cantor: fantasy is the protagonist

Narration cards

The narrative deck is made up of 120 cards which are divided as follows:

  • 30 character cards: they are red in color and have three narrative strands: tree, star and light bulb
  • 30 location cards: they are green in color and these are also divided into the three narrative strands tree, star and light bulb
  • 20 epilogue cards: they are brown in color and apply to any narrative strand
  • 30 event cards: are blue, they are also divided into the three narrative strands tree, star and light bulb
  • 10 bonus card: they are yellow in color and have a variable score

The narrative strands are only useful in order to complete the missions, in case they require it



Mission cards

The mission deck consists of 40 cards, these missions require specific things regarding the construction of the story, such as:

  • create a story with at least 3 event cards. Bonus +7 / Malus -4
  • create a story with at least 3 character cards. Bonus +6 / Malus -4
  • creates a story with a single narrative strand. Bonus +5 / Malus-5
  • create a story of at least 7 cards with 2 narrative strands. Bonus +7 / Malus -4 

The mission cards, if used correctly, give you bonus points, while if at the end of the game you have used them badly or you still have them in your hand, they give you penalties that make you go back on the scoreboard.

Setup | Review Naenia Cantor

First of all we place the scoreboard in the center of the table, then shuffles the narration deck and they give themselves 6 cards per player, the remaining cards are placed in the center of the table and become the draw deck. If the players don't like the cards that make up their hand, then they can discard them once by placing them at the bottom of the deck and drawing more from the top. Then mix the mission deck and you three cards to each player that after seeing them he will decide how many to keep (it is a must to keep at least one), the discarded cards will be placed at the bottom of the mission deck which will be placed near the narration deck. Both story cards and mission cards cannot be seen by opponents. In the end each player chooses a pawn and the game can begin.


How to play | Review Naenia Cantor

The matches are held clockwise. During their turn, a player can perform one of the following three actions:


  • you can draw a card from narration deck and you can hold up to 10 cards in your hand. In the event that a player already has 10 cards in his hand and still decides to draw a narrative card, he must choose a card to discard. The discarded card is placed face up in the discard pile. In the moment in which the discard pile is formed, the players can choose whether to draw a card face down from the narration deck or the one face up at the top of the discard pile
  • it is possible to draw 3 cards from mission deck. Also this time you can choose how many cards to keep, it is always mandatory to keep at least one, and those discarded must be placed at the bottom of the mission deck
  • can be tell a story. First of all you need to declare how many cards the story is made of and if you use a mission card (you can only use one per story). Then the dice is rolled and the number that will come out will show us how many hourglasses of time we have to tell a story, each hourglass lasts 20 seconds, therefore if the number 1 comes out you have 20 seconds to tell the story, if the number 2 comes out it you have 40 and if the number 3 comes up you have 60. After telling the story you have to count how many points you have made and for this you have to follow the basic scoring table, then add any points from the bonus cards and the bonuses from the mission card to them and move the marker on the scoreboard. Used cards are discarded and can no longer be used. NB If you have not managed to tell the story in the allotted time or your story has been poorly structured (this based on the judgment of the opponents) you do not get points and in case you have used a mission card, you have to move your marker back on the base. to the malus points marked on the card

Who win

The game can be concluded in two ways:



  • immediate victory: happens when a player reaches the end of the scoreboard, it doesn't matter if the other players still have cards to play or if the winner has some mission cards he hasn't used yet
  • whoever is further ahead on the scoreboard wins: if the story deck runs out and if the players can no longer create stories with the cards in their hand, then whoever has the token furthest ahead on the scoreboard wins. Warning! If you have any unused mission cards in your hand, they count as malus

How to build a story and score table | Review Naenia Cantor

The stories you create must necessarily be structured by at least 1 character card, 1 event card, 1 location card and only 1 epilogue card. The cards that make up the story can range from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 10. The stories can be concrete or imaginary, the important thing is that they must be well structured and each player must be honest about the judgments he makes on the stories of others. Additional elements that are not present on the cards can be added to the story, but this does not give extra points. The bonus card they cannot be used to replace those character, event, place or epilogue.

Story base score

The numbers on the left in the table correspond to the number of cards used to create the story, while the number on the right refers to the points obtained:

  • 4 cards = 4 points
  • 5 cards = 6 points
  • 6 cards = 7 points
  • 7 cards = 8 points
  • 8 cards = 9 points
  • 9 cards = 12 points
  • 10 cards = 15 points

In the count of the number of cards are included: character, place, event, epilogue and bonus. The last two cards give extra points and these are marked on the card itself.

Conclusion

Those who love Dixit cannot help but love this game, because Naenia Cantor seems almost an evolution; we don't stop only having to find a title for a card, but here you can really give vent to your imagination by inventing the most disparate stories. As a structure of the stories it reminds me of the Stardust game, even in that there is an obligation to maintain a certain order among the elements that make up the story, but while in that game the parts of the story are already written on the cards, in Naenia Cantor we are we decide everything. As components we pass from the resistance of the pieces, to the easy wear of the cards that are too finite. Perhaps it is a game for a few, because you need to have a good dose of creativity to make the games beautiful, fun and captivating.

Review Naenia Cantor: fantasy is the protagonist LITTLE ROCKET GAMES Naenia Cantor for intrepid storytellers - Board Game 34,99

Technical details

  • Name: Naenia Singer
  • Author: Giampaolo Razzino
  • Publishing house: Little Rocket Games
  • Players: 2-6
  • Age: 8+
  • Duration: 40 minutes
  • Price: 34,90€
7.5 Free rein to the imagination!

Points in favor

  • It gives space to creativity
  • Durable pawns, dice, hourglass and game board

Points against

  • Cards wear out easily
  • A game for a few
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