{"id":3616,"date":"2005-07-30T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-30T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2005\/07\/30\/louisxiv\/"},"modified":"2005-07-30T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-07-30T10:00:00","slug":"louisxiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2005\/07\/30\/louisxiv\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis\nXIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louis
\nXIV<\/a><\/h2>\n

reviewed by Moritz Eggert<\/i><\/p>\n

This new game by Alea was the buzz at last year’s Essen fair. There was only one
\nprototype to play with, but even then, it already appeared on many “Top Games”
\nlists. Unfortunately, I was not able to try it out, so it seemed a must to give the now
\npublished game a go.<\/p>\n

Alea has certainly come up with a hefty tome as a rulebook this time, but
\nunderstanding the game is not as difficult as it seems at first glance, as the rules are
\nextremely logical and leave little doubts once you have understood the signs on the
\ncards.<\/p>\n

Players are nobles who work out intrigues at the court of the king, but this is not as
\nstrong an apparent theme as one would hope for, as this is a rather abstract, albeit
\nextremely clever game of action management. It plays a little like an advanced version of
\n“El Grande” with many original and new ideas on offer.<\/p>\n

Twelve nobles are on display as tiles, each using nice original portraits of the
\nperiod. Players go through four rounds, which consist of several phases. Each player
\nmanages a handful of influence pawns that are placed on the various portraits for various
\nbenefits if you have the majority (and also if you don’t). One can acquire
\n“symbols” that come in handy when fulfilling “missions” (more on that
\nlater). Or “intrigue” cards, that enable a player to add to his own number of
\ninfluence pawns AFTER all pawns are placed. Or additional “influence cards”,
\nthat give you an extra go at the end of the 4 turn influence round (as you can imagine in
\na game about majorities placing last is a BIG advantage). Or one can “beam”
\ninfluence pawns to somewhere else, either before or after they are “counted”
\n(it is possible to leave pawns for the next round, thereby already having a majority
\nwhich might discourage other players). Or “insignias”, which count as 1 VP and
\nmight reap additional VP’s at the end of the game. Last but not least you can go for
\nmoney only (also important). All Tiles fall in three “counting” categories.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. “1st place tiles”. These tiles are the trickiest, as only the player who
    \ntruly has the most pawns will win the prize; the others go home empty handed.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  2. “Exchange tiles”. These are safe but costly; placing the necessary number
    \nof pawns brings you the benefit without worrying about majorities.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  3. “Money Tiles”. If you have the most pawns you get the prize for free, the
    \nothers can also get the prize, but have to pay for it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"board\"\/<\/p>\n

    Players work with two piles of influence pawns, like in “El Grande”. One is
    \n“your own” and active, the other is the reserve. Moving the pawns from the
    \nreserve to your court counts as an action. Winning a prize means that the pawns you use
    \nwander into the reserve, but if you buy or trade prizes, your pawns will be immediately
    \nactive again, so sometimes it is actually desirable to be second place. There is also a
    \nmoving “Louis” figure, which means that being first in the designated tile
    \nenables you to reap additional prizes.<\/p>\n

    All this sounds complicated at first and needs some getting used to, but it plays very
    \nlogically. Placing pawns brings in a tactical element: You play influence cards that
    \ncorrespond to tiles. Only there can you place your pawns and “move” them on the
    \n“board” via diagonal connections. Usually you place 3 pawns, and each move
    \nmeans you have to leave one pawn there, so the maximum of tiles you can
    \n“influence” is usually 3 per card played (playing jokers means you only get 2
    \npawns).<\/p>\n

    After the influence round is over the tiles are “counted” in numerical
    \norder, giving prizes to each player in turn. After you reap the prizes, the most
    \nimportant phase begins: fulfilling missions. Each player has two mission cards (in three
    \ncategories: easy, 1 defined and 1 “any” symbol, medium two defined symbols, and
    \nhard, 2 equal symbols). Fulfilling the missions means expending the prizes (symbols) you
    \nmanaged to get. To fulfil one mission per turn is a must, fulfilling two or more is
    \nideal. Each mission gives five VP at the end of the game, so these make up the majority
    \nof VPs at the end, but more importantly, they give you special abilities that give
    \nadditional benefits like extra pawn placement or insignia income. The harder missions
    \ngive better benefits of course, but the game only has 4 turns, so going for the one-time
    \nbenefit of a hard mission in the last turn might not be a good idea.<\/p>\n

    \"board\"\/<\/p>\n

    After the final turn, the insignias (who come in various designs) come into play when
    \ncounting VPs. Now a majority in each design gives an extra VP, so a player collecting
    \nlots of insignias can make many points more through such majorities. This was perceived
    \nas the weakest part of the rules, as there is no way to influence the majority in
    \ninsignias during the game, it is just pure luck of the draw. In a game which mainly
    \nconsists of careful planning this jars a little, but one can easily leave away this
    \nrule.<\/p>\n

    “Louis XIV” is a very challenging game that lends itself to many strategies.
    \nGoing for insignia is sometimes easier than going for missions, but gives less VPs and no
    \nspecial abilities. But neglecting any aspect means failure, you carefully have to balance
    \nwhat you expect to gain and act accordingly. The turn order is important (the starting
    \nplayer changes, of course). If you come late, you can go for the risky prizes, if you go
    \nearly or first you should plan a failsafe move, preferring “money” or
    \n“exchange” spaces. It is especially gratifying to place last when some tiles
    \nare still completely empty, actually this can happen quite easily if the other players
    \nare not careful. Nevertheless, “Louis XIV” is far from being a multiplayer
    \nsolitaire game. Although it is impossible to hurt other players in unfair ways like
    \nstealing pawns or moving them around, it is very much possible to place them in a very
    \nannoying way. But the complexity of the calculations and interactions makes kingmaking
    \nvery difficult, and also undesirable in a way.<\/p>\n

    Our judgment? We were very impressed with this new Alea game and applaud R\u00fcdiger Dorn
    \nfor another great design. While certainly not a game creating a funny beer-and-pretzel
    \natmosphere it will keep you engrossed throughout, a true gamer’s game.
    \nRecommended!<\/p>\n

    Explaining the Rules (carefully): \u00bd hour<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Louis XIV reviewed by Moritz Eggert This new game by Alea was the buzz at last year’s Essen fair. There was only one prototype to play with, but even then, it already appeared on many “Top Games” lists. Unfortunately, I was not able to try it out, so it seemed a must to give the … Louis
    \nXIV<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":6,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}