{"id":3713,"date":"2007-09-30T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-30T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2007\/09\/30\/league-ofsix\/"},"modified":"2007-09-30T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-30T10:00:00","slug":"league-ofsix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2007\/09\/30\/league-ofsix\/","title":{"rendered":"League of\nSix"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"cover\"\/<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
designer<\/td>\nVladim\u00edr Such\u00fd<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
publisher<\/td>\nCzech Games edition<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
released<\/td>\n2007<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
number of players<\/td>\n3-5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
playing time<\/td>\n60 minutes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rating<\/td>\n\"pic\"\/ \"pic\"\/ \"pic\"\/
\n\"pic\"\/ \"pic\"\/
\n\"pic\"\/ \"pic\"\/
\n\"pic\"\/ \"pic\"\/ \"pic\"\/<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
\n
\n

<\/p>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

League of
\nSix<\/a><\/h2>\n

previewed by Aaron Haag<\/p>\n

At the time of the Hussite
\nWars<\/a> in Bohemia six towns of the Upper Lusatia<\/a> region allied in order to protect themselves against the robbing knights
\nand to retain their wealth and the stability of Lusatia during the times of war.<\/p>\n

The game “League of Six” uses this setting and three to five players take the role of
\ntax collectors for King Sigismund. Their task is to attain the highest favor at the court of the
\nking of Germany and Hungary by delivering valuable goods to the king’s stores while
\nsimultaneously gaining the support of the civic leaders.<\/p>\n

The game is played over six rounds, each representing one year. In every round all players use
\ntheir tax collector to visit one of the towns and select which goods are to be paid as taxes. Then
\nthey transport these goods as fast as possible into the royal stores or the stores of the civic
\nleaders.<\/p>\n

What sounds like one of the many well-known resources management and route optimization games –
\n“Notre Dame” or “Thurn and Taxis” come to mind here – is a completely new,
\nrefreshingly coherent game due to some surprisingly innovative game mechanics. Let’s look at
\nsome of them in more detail.<\/p>\n

The Countryside Board<\/h4>\n

At the beginning of the game the six town tiles are places around the countryside board in a
\nrandom order. \"\"\/A circular road on the board connects the six towns. It is used by the tax
\ncollectors to travel to a town of their choice to collect the taxes. On the countryside board we
\nfind two important features: a movement order track used to define the order in which players
\nselect the town they want to visit with their tax collector and a bidding track for each of the
\ntowns.<\/p>\n

Players indicate on the bidding track how many guards – the “currency” in the game –
\nthey are willing to pay to be allowed to stay in the town and collect taxes. If a player enters a
\nstill vacant town, he places the tax collector pawn on the “zero” field of the bidding
\ntrack of that town; thus initially paying nothing. As soon as another player enters an already
\noccupied town, the newcomer must offer a higher amount as already indicated by the current occupant
\nin order to be allowed to remain in the town. The two players concerned increase their bids until
\none player passes. This player then receives the amount of guards bid by the other player, then
\nleaves the town and immediately enters another one, paying a distant dependent fee for traveling on
\nthe circular road. Here, the bidding process starts over if the town is already occupied by another
\nplayer.<\/p>\n

As the towns offer different kinds and quantities of goods some towns are more valuable than
\nothers. This is where the movement order track comes into play as it specifies which player may
\nfirst select a town to travel to. Those players who paid fewer guards in the previous round are now
\nthe first to select a town. This elegant mechanism most of the time ensures that the player with
\nthe least attractive town in the current round will select first in the next round.<\/p>\n

The whole bidding phase needs careful consideration by the players as it offers sufficient
\npossibilities to waste money by careless travel and bidding. With some experience players will be
\nable to use a multi-hop approach to their target town by traveling to intermediate towns first in
\norder to save on road fees while at the same time collecting sufficient guards to win the bidding
\nin their preferred target town. We found this part of the game design very challenging and one of
\nthe best parts of the game.<\/p>\n

The Town Tiles<\/h4>\n

Each town tile indicates which resources are available in the town. \"\"\/Basically, each town offers up to four different types of resources:<\/p>\n