RETTE SICH WER KANN
Publisher: Walter Müllers Spielewerkstatt
Author: Ronald Wettering
Tester: Aaron Haag
Game Tested: 1993 edition (OOP)
Scenario: Having fought for hours with heavy seas the crew of the Santa Timea
finally gives up and abandons ship. The last words of the captain still ring in their
ears as the crew boards the lifeboats: “Rette sich wer kann” (trans.
“Every man for himself”). While they watch the Santa Timea sink officers and
crew suddenly realize that the years of negligence pay their toll as the first leak
springs: the boats are not at all suitable for a long journey! Luckily enough, three tiny
islands are visible in the distance and fighting with the heavy waves seven boats try to
reach the safety of their shores.
The Game: The game begins with the crew boarding the life boats. Three to six
players in turn place one of their officers and sailors into a boat that still has seats
available. Once boarding is completed players are faced with a random selection of
sailors in these seven boats. Each of the boats only has to move three spaces to reach
the safety of an island but movement as well as all other decisions are strictly based on
democratic majority votes. All votes are open so there is ample possibility for
diplomacy, back stabbing and revenge. An important role is given to the turn leader, the
man “with the stick”, as he will break any ties. So timing is an issue when
planning a coup.
Voting is performed by selecting the desired color (boat or crew) secretly on a little
wheel and revealing the vote simultaneously with all other players. Each player has three
times the possibility to solely decide the outcome of a vote, overruling all of the other
votes, by selecting the “captain’s hat” instead of a color on the little
wheel. There is a nasty catch to this though: if more than one player decides to use this
“wild card” they cancel each other out.
Each round begins with deciding which boat is to spring a leak. If the boat decided
upon by the majority still has vacant seats one of these vacancies is filled with a blue
“water” token. Every now end then players select a boat with no vacancies in
which case one of the men aboard has to leave the boat immediately and is replaced by the
leak. This again is resolved by a majority vote but this time only those players having
men in the boat in question are allowed to vote. Each sailor has one vote, each officer
two, so its good advice to avoid having minority in a boat. Its also a good idea to
“support” your valuable officers with at least one sailor in case you have to
select one of your men to leave a boat.
After the leak has been placed the boat is checked for safety: it will immediately
sink if there are more leaks than remaining men aboard who will provide ample food for
the waiting sharks.
The next decision the players face is which boat should move? Again all players
secretly select a color (or the hat) and the vote is resolved as explained above. After
only three moves a boat reaches the shores of one of the islands and all men aboard jump
to their safety, yielding victory points for their players.
Now comes the final phase of each round, which adds spice (and chaos) to the game.
Starting with the turn leader each player has to take one of his men off one of the boats
if possible, since it is not allowed to take more than one man out of each boat. Then,
beginning with the player who last made one of his men jump out this player decides into
which boat his man should climb back into. It is not allowed to climb into the same boat
the man had just left. This again may lead to a situation where a crew member is unable
to re-board leaving him to instantly drown. If this happens all boats are checked for
their safety again, i.e. whether there are at least as many men aboard as there are
leaks. Even unattractive boats with many leaks suddenly become the only option to prevent
one’s man from sure death – a bird in the hand …
After about an hour’s play all boats have either sunk or reached an island and the
game ends.
Playing Time: The rules are explained in less than 10 minutes, the game plays
in about 60 to 90 minutes depending on the “negociation skills” of the
group.
Similar Games: Flusspiraten (Klaus Zoch, Walter Müller), Intrige (Stefan Dorra), Adel verpflichet (Klaus Teuber)
Westpark Gamers’ Opinion: The game is real fun if you don’t take things
too serious. Negotiations can be swift and players who like double crossing and revenge
will have the time of their life. Sometimes it may be hard to stop those two players who
decided to gang up on the others and who constantly help each other. Due to the clever
mechanism of changing boats in the last phase of every turn there is however sufficient
opportunity for the other players to break the alliance by having these men end up in
boats with mainly “hostile” crew.
More often than not your are faced with the proposal to sacrifice one of your
“hat” votes just to prevent the leader(s) to move a particular boat. As hard as
it may sound but this very often is the only chance to prevent early victory of a player.
The problem is: will the group reward this sacrifice later on or will they kick your men
overboard at the next opportunity? (“Oh, sorry about that – yes, you’re
right, you did us a favor earlier. We shouldn’t really have done this!” …
followed by an evil grin). Alliances shift constantly and back stabbing and revenge are a
predominant element of the game.
As you can imagine this game needs the right set of players to enjoy. No hurt feelings
here or the game will not be enjoyed. Some tactical whining comes in handy though
(“Why me again, I’m last anyway…” as Moritz likes to say) just to
be able to prepare for the winning coup later on. Saving those valuable “hat”
tokens for later can be a tremendous advantage, too – so take all your negotiation skills
and convince the other players that someone else should vote with the “hat”.
All in all it is better to not expose oneself as the early leader giving all other
players a clear choice of whom to kick out of a boat next round.
Like all games from Walter Müller’s Spielewerkstatt the game components are of
excellent quality. Ships, men, “leaks”, hat tokens and turn leader log are of
high quality colored wood; only the voting “wheel” is a bit cumbersome to
assemble due to the double sided selotape used (I’d recommend taking a very close
look at how this is intended to be assembled as it is hard to correct any mistakes).
Aaron’s Rating: 6 (out of 10)
Westpark Gamers’ Rating: 6.5
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