Antoine Bauza’s Hanabi has long been a staple in most people’s games collections. It won the Spiel Des Jahres in 2013 and consequently/subsequently sold in its millions. For all those who don’t have a copy, or want to enhance their card-based pyrotechnic experience, Cocktail Games have announced the release of a premium big box edition, Hanabi: Grands Feux.
What We Know
Grands Feux (literally translated as big fires) is a deluxe version of the original game. It features slimmer fireworks cards and stands to hold a player’s cards, making them easier to see. There are also plastic tokens to replace the cardboard Fuse and Information tokens, which will also have their own little storage pouch.
Gameplay remains the same. Players cannot see their own hand, but can see the other players’ hands. The idea of the game is to lay cards of the same colour in ascending order. In their turn, a player can either give information to another player on the colour or numbers of their cards (at the cost of an information card), discard a card from their hand or play a card. Every time a run of five cards is completed successfully, the players regain an information card. Every time a card is laid incorrectly, a fuse is lost. When the fuses are gone, the game is over.
The new big box also contains:
- Avalanche of Colours – 10 multi-colour cards that count as any one of the five other colours.
- Black Powder – 10 black cards that must be laid in descending order.
- Five Flamboyant – Six bonus tiles that are revealed, in turn, every time a successful sequence (one to five) of fireworks are completed. These abilities include the chance to give players extra clues or to return cards form the discard pile back into the game.
Hanabi Grans Feux - Coming Soon
Hanabi: Grands Feux will be released in November and cost around £25.
This premium box is separate from the second deluxe edition that's due to be released (Deluxe II, curiously enough). This replaces the original cards with mah-jong-style tiles. The expansion, Master Artisan, is included in this release and, though no date for this is available at this time, is also due for release this year.