Skara Brae: When waste becomes treasure

I first discovered Skara Brae during a particularly wild game night at a friend's house. You know, the kind where you start with "just a quick game" and end up at 2 a.m. with tokens all over the table and wooden shells in your pockets. At first, I thought, "Another game where you collect stuff for points?" But around the third round, when I realized that my trash would literally become the foundation of my civilization, I had that little spark that told me we were onto something special.

Technical sheet:

• Duration: 45-60 minutes

• Age: 12 years and older

• Number of players: 1-4 players

• Author: Shem Phillips

• Illustrator: Sam Phillips

• Publisher: Garphill Games

• Distributor: Pixie Games (French version)

  
  

The art of transforming your trash into a palace

What immediately appealed to me about Skara Brae was the brilliant idea of the "midden." In real life, the inhabitants of Neolithic Orkney would pile up their waste (shells, bones, broken tools) for centuries, then dig through them and build their homes. That's exactly what you do in the game, and it's devilishly clever.

At first, I railed against the trash tokens piling up in my storage area like dirty socks in a laundry basket. They take up space, they earn negative points, and there's no way to get rid of them normally. But then author Shem Phillips had this genius idea: your trash becomes the raw material for building your roof! Suddenly, those shells and bones I'd been cursing become precious. It's like Marie Kondo explaining that your old newspapers can become the foundation of a house.

A mechanism that sticks to the skin

The storage system is particularly vicious—in a good way. Imagine a recycling bin with a sliding lid: the more resources you hoard, the higher the lid goes, and the more waste you produce with each turn. It's physical, tangible, and it creates this constant tension between "I need more stuff" and "I'm going to be overwhelmed by my own garbage."

I remember one game where my opponent had accumulated so many resources that his midden was literally overflowing. He looked like a compulsive hoarder on a reality TV show. And the worst part was, the more he tried to catch up, the deeper he sank into his own midden. It was both hilarious and tragic.

The draft that hits the mark

The draft system is clever as can be. Three stacks of cards are laid out in advance, and you can "pass" your turn in one stack to be first in the next. It's like waiting in line at the supermarket: sometimes you change lines because you've spotted something interesting coming up.

The maps themselves are a little gem of design. Dwellers give you resources but consume food and space. Utensils reduce your waste but are expensive. Roofs... well, roofs are your life insurance against accumulating garbage. It's a constant balancing act, like juggling china plates.

Workers with character

Worker placement is as streamlined as you like. One big guy who can go anywhere, three little ones who can't stand being crowded. It's as simple as pie, but the locations are varied enough to create real decisions. Cooking transforms your raw resources into food (and trash, always that damned trash). Trading sends you up a score track. Cleaning transforms your trash into usable roofs.

I particularly love the "Recruit Day Laborers" action, which gives you temporary workers. It's like hiring temporary workers for the end-of-season rush, except here it's to survive the Neolithic winter.

A theme that exudes authenticity

Unlike many Eurogames where the theme is just a dressing-up, here each mechanism tells a story. The illustrations by Sam Phillips (the author's son, that's nepotism done right!) really immerse us in this Scotland of 5,000 years ago. We smell the sea air, we hear the wind whistling, we imagine these families organizing themselves to get through the winter.

The fact that Skara Brae is a real archaeological site adds a rare emotional dimension. When I place my inhabitants on my grid, I can't help but think of these real humans who lived through exactly this situation, with the same constraints and challenges of survival.

Comparisons and positioning

If I had to place Skara Brae, I'd say it's a more accessible spiritual sibling to Great Western Trail, or a distant cousin to Wingspan but with trash instead of birds. For fans of the Garphill range, it's less epic than Paladins of the West Kingdom but more refined than Raiders of the North Sea.

What makes it similar to Terraforming Mars is the feeling of building something sustainable turn after turn. But where Mars has you terraforming an entire planet, Skara Brae has you managing a small village with its daily worries. It's more intimate, more human.

The forces that hit the mark

First strong point: the originality of the waste management system. I've never seen this anywhere else, and it's both thematically and mechanically brilliant. Second asset: the perfect tension curve. Every decision counts, but not in an oppressive way. Third quality: scalability. With two players, it's a tactical duel. With four, it's more chaotic but just as enjoyable.

Garphill's production is impeccable as usual. The wooden tokens are numerous (16 types of resources, all right!) but of high quality, and the iconography is clear once you get your bearings. The compact size of the box is a real plus for overcrowded shelves.

The little thorns in the foot

Let's be honest, Skara Brae isn't without its flaws. The learning curve is a bit steep at first. Explaining the midden system to casual players is like explaining traffic rules during rush hour: theoretically logical, practically chaotic.

The game's "messy" aspect can be off-putting. With all those resource tokens piling up, the table quickly resembles the back kitchen of a busy restaurant. Some players will prefer more streamlined mechanics.

The random nature of drafting can also frustrate players who like to be in control. Sometimes the cards you need never appear, and you have to adapt. That's life, but it can be frustrating.

Single-player mode: the other side of the coin

The single-player mode deserves a separate note. It introduces "Focus" cards that create specific objectives and constraints, simulating the hazards of community life (arguments, young people going on adventures, etc.). It's brilliant for creating artificial tension, but it loses the depth of multiplayer drafting.

I would have loved to be able to combine the two: the full draft AND the Focus cards. It would have been the perfect game for me. But hey, you can't have everything, and the single-player mode remains perfectly satisfactory as it is.

Verdict: A little gem in a compact case

Skara Brae surprised me with its ability to create memorable moments with simple mechanics. It's the kind of game that stays with you after the game, where you think, "Next time, I'll do it differently." That little voice that whispers alternative strategies in the shower the next morning.

Sure, it's not the most spectacular game of the year. There are no impressive miniatures or a giant modular board. But there's that quiet depth, that mechanical elegance that makes great games. Shem Phillips has managed to transform waste management into a memorable gaming experience, and that's impressive.

Who's it for? Modern euro fans looking for something fresh, history buffs who appreciate a meaningful theme, and anyone who believes beauty is sometimes hidden in the details of everyday life.

My rating: 8/10

An excellent Euro that proves you can make something new out of something old. And incidentally, it's the only game where throwing your trash on the ground is a winning strategy.