- \n
- <\/a>Stephensons Rocket<\/a><\/b>
![\"Stephensons](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen\/strocket_t.jpg\")
\nStephensons Rocket is game by Reiner Knizia, my favourite game designer. My favourite
\ngame of his is Euphrat & Tigris. At the first glance, you might think that those
\ngames resemble each other. At least, that’s what I thought. In fact, they don’t
\n(at least, that’s what I think now). I do adore Euphrat & Tigris, but I am not
\ntoo fond of Stephensons Rocket. I’ll expound this.<\/p>\nAs Euphrat & Tigris, Stephensons Rocket is highly cybernetic, i. e. there are lots
\nof different gaming mechanism that interlock like gears in a sophisticated device.
\nI’ll try to explain some of them so that you might get an idea what I’m thinking
\nof.<\/p>\nThere are different railroad lines. Whenever you build one tile for them (like in 1830
\nor most other railroad games), you get one share (yes, shares are recompenses for
\nbuilding – you don’t buy them). Whenever you try to build other players might contest
\nthe direction you’re trying to build to. The decision is which the railroad advances
\nis determined by bidding shares. This means two things: Whoever has done most building
\nwork on the railroad has better odds to determine its further course. But when you force
\nyour will, you pay with your shares, and this will make things easier for other players
\nwith shares.<\/p>\nHowever, shares are not only used for determining the direction of the railroad line.
\nWhenever two lines merge into one big line, players with shares for the lesser lines get
\nwinning points (called “dollars” in the game, and available in sets of 1.000 –
\nthis reminds of arcades game times when shooting an alien spaceship gave you 10 or 100
\npoints, never 1). Players count the cities connected by the lesser railroad, and the
\nplayer with most shares immediately scores as many (multiplied by 1.000 of course)
\nvictory points, the second player half of that. This means: Force your way, and you
\nwon’t get victory points.<\/p>\n![\"Stephensons](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen\/strocket_b.jpg\")
There are three kinds of cities: Those that act as
\n starting points of the different railroad lines and which have no further meaning.
\n Then those that trigger a scoring when reached. You get as many points as in the
\n case of a merger (i. e., number of cities x 1.000), but first and second are
\n determined otherwise: This time, its not about the number of shares but about the
\n number of railroad stations of your colour which are on the track. Stations are
\n built in your turn instead of advancing a railroad line. Of course, you’ll try
\n to merge your line with many of your stations in the biggest line available in order
\n to get a majority there (or, if not possible, try to avoid such a merger at all
\n costs). More and more railroad lines merge and whoever has the majority in the big
\n lines has good chances to win the game. This resembles of course the growing
\n kingdoms of Euphrat & Tigris.<\/p>\nAnd things are even more complicated than this. The third kind of city has three markers
\neach. Those markers have two meaning: First, whenever such a city is reached by a
\nrailroad line the players with markers score a modest amount of victory points. Second,
\nthose markers represent different goods. At the end scoring, players get rather many
\nvictory points for majorities in the different types of goods.<\/p>\nThings intertwine at such a rate that every single action has more impacts than anyone
\ncould probably track. At least, I cannot. I am not a bad Euphrat & Tigris player, and
\nI could always tell you how the other players are doing. In all Stephensos Rocket games
\nwe had so far, no-one was right about the approximate winning order. The rules say that
\nplayers don’t show their money (i. e. points scored so far) to the others. But even
\nif you do, this won’t change much since players get so many points in the final
\nscoring that the intermediate results don’t matter that much. In every game we had so
\nfar the player taking the last move decided who wins, not because of malice but because
\nof necessity. Things get crowded at the end, and finally it’s your turn and you
\neither merge line A to line B, or line C, or avoid the merger. This might have hardly any
\nimpact to your personal score but it decides the game.<\/p>\nJust one example: In a game I played at a boardgame club, I was the only player who knew
\nthe game and had a plan. One player understood what I was doing and did his best to
\nthwart my schemes. He was last. I was third. And I was the one to decide with my very
\nlast turn which of the other two players should win. Both of them did not have any
\ndiscernable strategy for the first third (or half) of the game but were lucky enough to
\nhave their lines advanced by others.<\/p>\nVerdict: There is no dice rolled, no card drawn yet the game hardly controllable. You
\n(or at least, I) cannot even approximately keep track of how you and others are doing.
\nThe final scoring submerges all previous game play like a deluge. Since its result
\ndepends on mergers which are decided at the very last moment, it can hardly be predicted.
\nStephensons Rocket is highly recommended to any player who complains about luck in board
\ngames. There is no random factor at all yet experience won’t improve your chances of
\nwinning the game very much.<\/p>\n\n
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