reviewed by Moritz Eggert<\/p>\n
“S\u00e4ulen der Erde” is based on Ken Follett’s book “The Pillars of the
\nEarth” and is yet another Kosmos game based on a literary licence. Some of you may yawn at
\nthis thought, even if you liked Knizia’s “Lord of the Rings”, but the biggest
\nsurprise here is that this is a true gamers’ game. What could have been an average family game
\nfor the mass market has been transformed, by the excellent work of the Kosmos team, into a true
\ngamers’ game, something that astonishes when looks at the very few successful book\/film tie-ins
\nthat are out there (and especially Kosmos’ speckled history in that respect, even though
\n“The Little Prince” and “Sophie’s World” aren’t necessarily bad games,
\nthey are just uninteresting for gamers).<\/p>\n
Players represent clans of cathedral builders who work over decades, or rather six rounds
\nlasting roughly 90 minutes, to build a cathedral. I think gamers got the better deal compared to
\nthe guys in the book which took I think a century to finish the darned thing!<\/p>\n
| Summary<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n | |
|---|---|
| Explaining the rules:<\/td>\n | 15 minutes (some concepts need to be repeated to your group to make sure they understand \nthem)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| brain activity:<\/td>\n | required<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| rich game material to gawk at and play with while you wait:<\/td>\n | existent (the cathedral!)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| beautiful board to explore with your eyes:<\/td>\n | existent<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Meeple-men to line up before you:<\/td>\n | some<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| resource cubes:<\/td>\n | plenty<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| downtime:<\/td>\n | practically none<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Religious feelings hurt:<\/td>\n | yes, if you think the idea of building a cathedral for VP’s instead for god is \ndetestable<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| single black worker meeple that will result in cries of racism on Boardgamegeek \nand incite endless discussions:<\/td>\n | it’s there, folks, but you know – it only happens to be black. It’s not a black person, \nok? The colour is just a symbol. It’s a white person working at the cathedral that you can hire \nas an extra worker. This meeple is not exploited, whipped or hurt. It is a happy meeple. We love \nthis meeple. Peace!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n First comes a selection phase in which players either hire new craftsmen with new abilities or Then a very interesting phase happens – one by one the three master craftsmen of each player is Then the different activity spaces are dealt with in order. There are event cards which affect The game mostly avoids a close representation of the book, which is limited to some flair text By the way – there is some German texts on the cards, but it is not much, and all the cards are This is simply a very delightful and challenging game, with more than a passing resemblance to But seriously – if you like involved but not too heavy games with lots of beautiful bits and Very recommended!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Die S\u00e4ulen der Erde reviewed by Moritz Eggert “S\u00e4ulen der Erde” is based on Ken Follett’s book “The Pillars of the Earth” and is yet another Kosmos game based on a literary licence. Some of you may yawn at this thought, even if you liked Knizia’s “Lord of the Rings”, but the biggest surprise here … Die S\u00e4ulen der |