{"id":3877,"date":"2003-07-30T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-07-30T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2003\/07\/30\/spielbericht-review-30-07-2003\/"},"modified":"2003-07-30T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2003-07-30T10:00:00","slug":"spielbericht-review-30-07-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2003\/07\/30\/spielbericht-review-30-07-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"Spielbericht & Review 30.07.2003"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spielbericht & Review 30.07.2003<\/h2>\n

Author<\/b>: Peter, Hans<\/p>\n

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

on the table<\/b>: Andromeda, Tutanchamun, Bluff<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/a>Andromeda<\/a><\/b>\"Andromeda\n

    At the time of writing, Andromeda is on sale at Adam spielt<\/a>. For a bargain price of a mere 5 Euros, you can get
    \nthis beautiful game. Thus Aaron bought not only his game but another one to be offered as
    \nincentive for writing the Andromeda review. As it turned out, I was desparate (greedy?)
    \nenough to accept the offer.<\/p>\n

    The main gaming mechanism of Andromeda is using the Gate. Physically, The Gate is an
    \nashtry-shaped plastic device. Players get little wooden cubes in their respective colors
    \non the seven planets on the board. So each planet has an assortment of little cubes in
    \ndifferent colours. When you use the Gate, you cover all cubes with the plastic tray, put
    \na finger on the exit and make it rattle so to mix the cubes up well. Then you open the
    \nexit and slowly draw the Gate in one direction. The cubes will exit one by one. When a
    \ncube of another player’s colour is drawn, it is sent back to planet Earth (giving
    \nyou, needless to say, better odds). When a cube of your colour is drawn, it occupies one
    \nof the scoring fields of the plant. Each planet has three of them. As soon as all of them
    \nare occupied, this planet loses all interest to the players.<\/p>\n

    The rest of the playing mechanisms basically provide the framework for the getting the
    \ncubes on the planets in the first place and, of course, for bringing the Gate into
    \naction. Both of those actions are paid (as are “the technological advances”,
    \nwhich basically modify certain rules for the player who attained them) by sets of
    \nidentical cards which match the different planets. A set of three lets you send one cube
    \nor draw once at the matching planet, a set of four or five lets you send two or draw
    \ntwice, a set of six or seven lets you send three or draw three times. Whenever you play a
    \nset of four or better, you get a wildcard for free which gives you bonus points as well
    \n(and a wildcard for playing five has a higher point value than a wildcard for playing
    \nfour, that’s why it makes sense to play sets of five if should have wondered).<\/p>\n

    \"Andromeda At the start of each turn, you complete your card hand to 9
    \n cards (or more, depending on technological advances). As you can guess by now, the
    \n winning strategy of this game is (apart from shaking the Gate in a way that your
    \n cubes exit) drawing identical cards of the planet you are interested in. Okay, there
    \n is a way for trading cards between the players. However, it is highly formalised.
    \n The starting player of each turn offers one planet card. All other players must
    \n offer him a different (i. e., different from his offer) planet card in return. Then
    \n he offers a second card, and the others must offer another card which neither
    \n matches his first or second card. This can be repeated once (or twice, with a
    \n certain technological advance). The starting player now has to change this offer
    \n with the one of another player, who in turn can accept the starting player’s
    \n offer or turn to another player’s offer instead and so on.<\/p>\n

    Of course, this procedure favours the starting player very much. Even worse, the
    \nstarting player gets three actions (exchanging cards or playing out sets of cards)
    \nwhereas all other players only have two.<\/p>\n

    I do like the basic ideas of game play. The Gate is some kind of two-dimension
    \nW\u00fcrfelturm (you know Zeichen des Kreuzes or Wallenstein, don’t you?), and since drawn
    \ncubes of other players are removed, you always get something in return whenever you
    \npaying for drawing. The formalised trade is annoying at times, but on the other hand, you
    \ndefinitely can develop tactics (“if I offer my wildcard, the starting player might
    \ntake my offer, and I can get those planet cards player C offers”).<\/p>\n

    But don’t be fooled into believing this game could be controlled. It cannot. If the
    \nplayers present do intellectually understand even the most simple concepts of tactical
    \ngameplay, it is all about luck. What bothers me most is that the oldest player or the
    \nnext one in turn order tends to win. That’s how the rules establish the first
    \nstarting player – if you prefer, say that the very first draw (i. e., who’s the first
    \nstarting player) might decide the game.<\/p>\n

    Therefore some proposed rule amendments to make Andromeda more agreeable to seasoned
    \nplayers:<\/p>\n