{"id":3853,"date":"2003-01-22T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-01-22T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2003\/01\/22\/session-report-22-01-2003\/"},"modified":"2003-01-22T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2003-01-22T11:00:00","slug":"session-report-22-01-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2003\/01\/22\/session-report-22-01-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"Session Report 22.01.2003"},"content":{"rendered":"

Session Report 22.01.2003<\/h2>\n

Author<\/b>: Moritz<\/p>\n

at the table<\/b>: Walter, Aaron, G\u00fcnther, Andrea, Moritz<\/p>\n

on the table<\/b>: Emerald, Puerto Rico, Bluff<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/a>Emerald<\/a><\/b>\"Emerald
    \n
    \nThis game has been around for some time, but gets additional exposure in German gaming
    \ncircles right now as it is part of the 4 games to be mastered for the German championship
    \nin boardgaming 2003 (the other games are “    Sticheln<\/a>“,
    \n“    Medina<\/a>” and – what else could it be – “Puerto Rico<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

    Inclusion of this game has been a matter of discussion, as it is a very light family
    \ngame with only very shallow tactical elements, also dependent on luck a lot (usually the
    \ngames in the selection are less luck oriented). The game board consists of a single track
    \nstarting in a city and leading to a dungeon of sorts, occupied by the unavoidable dragon.
    \nPlayers get a number of knight pawns dependent on the number of players (with 5 players 4
    \nfor example), and try to collect gem (worth 1 VP each, 4 extra points if you are the
    \nfirst to collect all 4 colours, 4 VPs for each majority in a colour at the end of the
    \ngame) and gold cards (1 to 5 VPs) on the way to the inner sanctum. Movement is very
    \nsimple and known from other games as a routine: The number of spaces you can move is
    \ndetermined by the number of pawns in your space, including your own. This means that you
    \ntry to reach populated spaces to advance quickly, making your way alone will take a long
    \ntime.<\/p>\n

    \"Emerald At some point you reach the dungeon – landing on a dungeon space
    \ngives you the choice to take one of either the open gold or gem cards (or none, if the
    \nstacks are empty). But beware of the dragon – its movement is actually one of the
    \ningenious mechanics of the game. There is a “dragon stick” which marks the 4
    \nspaces the dragon is searching at the moment. Every time a player lands a pawn in one of
    \nthese spaces, the dragon moves by means of a die roll (1,2 or 3 spaces), and is
    \n“reflected” by the border of the stick if it would go beyond it. At the same
    \ntime the stick is moved one space to the right until it reaches the end of the track,
    \nwhere the dragon will guard the entrance to the treasure hoard. After the dragon moves,
    \nit will “eat” one of the knights that are standing on the space it lands on (if
    \nthere are several the moving player decides which), but if the knight sacrifices a
    \ntreasure card (gems don’t interest the dragon for some reason) he will survive. As
    \nthe game is basically about gaining VPs through cards it sometimes absolutely okay if you
    \nlet your knight die – giving up your 5 VP card might be worse. Therefore it is also good
    \nto have low VP cards handy- each player will encounter the dragon at some point or
    \nanother!<\/p>\n

    The first 4 pawns that reach the treasure hoard get 5 bonus points each, the fourth one
    \nto reach it ends the game. Another possibility for sudden death is that one player loses
    \nall knights but one – if you have many VP cards you can enforce the end in this way a
    \nlittle: “let them be eaten!”.<\/p>\n

    We played the game 2 times to get some feeling for the strategy, or what little there
    \nis. As you have only 4 pawns in a 5 player game, you make 2 choices out of 4, sometimes
    \nless if choices might be obviously awful and to be avoided, and also because taking cards
    \nalways ends your turn – you can never take two cards in a row! Movement is mandatory, you
    \ncannot go less spaces than you have to. Usually you will try to concentrate on 3 knights
    \nand get them to the good cards as quickly as possible. The other knights will wither away
    \nat the starting space.<\/p>\n

    It doesn’t make much sense to avoid the dragon – although there are moves which put
    \nyou at higher risk than other moves at some point you will<\/b> have to face the danger
    \nof being eaten, and whether that happens or not is pure luck, not skill. Of course you
    \nwill be safer when travelling in numbers and having a low score on hand, as the dragon
    \nmoving player will then gobble up the weightier player (in points, not pounds). To a
    \ncertain extent you can foresee the moves of the other players and make your decisions
    \nbased on that, but basically you are played by the turn order and the moves of the other
    \nplayers. We found that the starting player always won, and always was the first to cash
    \nin the extra VP cards of the treasury.<\/p>\n

    Although this is a fun game for the whole family and even for “non-gamers” I
    \ndon’t think it will hold the attention of any true freak for a long time. The big
    \nplus is that games are very short, around 45 minutes, and can be played out of the box,
    \nwith little preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n
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