When we think about Hawaii, we imagine long white beaches, tanned surfer dudes, swaying palm trees, while we sipping our cocktail, a typical flower garland around our neck. The Hawaii board game confirms most of these clichés, although the players will need to work really hard before they are allowed to rest. The fact is that the players travel as village chiefs across the island, with sometimes a possible excursion to nearby islands or fishing grounds, meanwhile gathering things for establishing and enhancing their villages.

Hawaii is player in five identical rounds. Players earn points during and at the end of a round, and also at the end of the game, when all sorts of bonus points can be scored. At the start of each round the prices for all items on the main island are established. Each Hawaii tile has 1 to 3 spaces where small, round price tiles can be placed. These are drawn blindly from a bag and have a value from 2 to 6.

When the sum of the price tile is higher than the number indicated on the Hawaii tile, the price tile is not placed, but flipped over, showing a number of fish, and then put in the fishing area where it can be caught during a round. It may happen that a Hawaii tile does not get any price-tiles, making it useless for the round; nothing can be bought there. On the player order track some remaining price tiles are placed; one less than the number of players, in increasing order.

A player’s turn basically is very simple: move the chief to a new spot on the (main) island, and perform the available action there. Movement can be done in two ways: across the island, or to the beach. For movement across the island one foot per tile has to be paid. On arrival on the selected one of the available tiles must be bought, by paying the amount of shells indicated on one of the price tiles. The player takes both the tile just bought and the price tile. The tile bought is placed in one of the villages on the player’s board, according to some placement rules. The price tile is placed in front of the player.

A number of tiles are two-sided; if a player wants to pay the double amount of shells, he can place the tile in his village showing the more advantageous reverse side. As an example take the shell-hut tile: when normally placed this gives one additional shell at the end of each round. When reversed, the player gets two shells. If an Hawaii-tile does not offer this advantage, the player  can buy two tiles for the double price. Examples are the tiki tiles, which are placed at the top of the player’s board, and which are necessary to enable the end-game scoring of villages.
The second possible movement is (back) to the beach. Three actions are available here to the player: fishing, sailing, or passing. For fishing the player can take a fish tile (the reverse side of a price tile) by paying one foot.

Tiles, a lot of tiles, that is the first impression when setting up the game to play. This can be a bit overwhelming at first for the less experienced player. However, with a bit of experience or persistence it soon becomes clear that 'Hawaii', with respect to the rules, is not a very complex game. Move a pawn, obtain tile, place it in this village; next player! Where to go, and/or what to buy, these are of course the tough tactical decisions and require a good understanding of all tile functions. This understanding is very well supported by the rules, but it requires a 4 page annex to the rules to explain all tile functions.

But, when you understand all possibilities, an intriguing enfolds, where you always want more than your resources and your opponents allow you to. Immediate scoring may be an option, while building a small number of big villages, but maybe more smaller villages, with a lot of Kahunas, is better? And then you also don’t want to miss out in the end of round scoring....

A certain amount of luck is also required; the initial placement of the Hawaii tiles, and especially the price tile placement at the beginning of each round is done randomly, and it can really frustrate a player’s mid-term or long-term planning. Flexibility is a good thing when playing 'Hawaii'!