Mint Delivery is the second 'game in a mint box' published by Five24labs and designed by Justin Blaske. In Mint Delivery players take on the role of a mint delivery truck driver, picking up mints, driving around the city, delivering mints and fulfilling contracts. Mint Delivery is a pick and deliver game packed into a small mint tin.
Gameplay
Set-up
The Mint Delivery map is made up of a 3x3 grid of cards laid out in a specific order. The order deck for each of the four towns are set-up and each player begins with a truck full of mints and a certain number of orders. Two orders are revealed from each of the four order decks and all players start off in the middle city, Mintopia City.
Turn Sequence
On a player's turn they can take up to two actions in any order and can perform an action twice. Players must collect mints, convert them into other mints and deliver the required mints to a town depicted on the corresponding order. The actions that can be taken are:
- Move your truck one space on a connected road.
- Load/Unload a truck based on the mints depicted on the relevant space.
- Take an order from the order deck of the corresponding town that you are in.
- Upgrade mints. Three classic (white) mints can be upgraded to a cinnamon (red) mint and two classic mints can be upgrade to a sugar free (green) mint.
Players can also fulfil an order at the correct town as a free action.
In a two-player game of Mint Delivery, when an order is fulfilled an order is discarded from a neighbouring town and a new revealed. The new order has a classic mint placed on it.
Game End
Play continues this way until one of the two end game triggers are met. The end game is triggered when any two towns have zero orders available in the order supply, or four towns have no orders left in the order deck. The players count up the number of points on their completed orders and the player with the most points win.
Final Thoughts on Mint Delivery
Small box games with a decent amount of gameplay always get my vote. Mint Delivery (and Mint Works before it) comes in a small mints tin, however there is a decent amount of game packed in to this tiny package. Mint Delivery is a simple pick up and deliver game. Set-up is easy and the rules are light and easy to understand. The gameplay is quick and all this fits in to a small tin that you could pop in your pocket. It is a perfect game to travel with, or to keep on you when you have a 10 minutes to spare.
The game comes with advanced gameplay variants such as player abilities and road conditions. These add obstacles and road closures to the map. There is also a pretty decent solo mode. Whilst waiting for others to arrive, I can see myself playing Mint Delivery at a game night. Or during a game night when I am waiting for another group to finish. A lot of game packed into a small box that can play solo or up to five players in under 20 minutes.
Mint Delivery is a refreshing (pun totally intended) game. It shows you don't need big, grandiose, chocked to the brim mini game to have fun. Of course, minis are fun, but so is Mint Delivery.