We talk to Flaminia Brasini and Virginio Gigli of Acchittocca about making, big and crunchy Eurogames designed to make you squirm over your choices

DOWN BY THE RIVER

Words by Christopher John Eggett

“Who’s turn next?” is the phonetic Italian joke of Acchittocca (“A chi tocca?”) – the question we’ve all passed around the table of a games night – usually after something very complicated has happened within the machinery of a large Eurogame. Acchittocca is also the name for something of an Italian supergroup consisting of Flaminia Brasini, Virginio Gigli, Stefano Luperto and Antonio Tinto. Together they’re behind the likes of Nile bothering and pyramid building game Egizia and painting assistant management game Leonardo da Vinci – both of which were received well by the Eurogamer community. Their next outing takes us back to historical Italy, or more accurately, prehistorical Italy.

“We think the real challenge for primitive man was that they often didn’t know what they would find beyond the horizon,” Virgino Gigli and Flaminia Brasini tell me over email. This, then, is Terramara, the new heavy Eurogame which had some queuing up at Essen 2019 in the ‘Hot Games’ section. Players take the role of clan chieftain of a bronze age village in Terramara – a lakeside community along the River Po. As the leader of this tribe you have tough choices to make, “The farthest territories are richest, but the explorers need more time to come back,” says Gigli and Brasini. This mechanic is one of many where committing your resources (sending someone from your village on a distant mission in this case) means they won’t return to you until later rounds, when the board state may be entirely different.