Kategorie: Spieleabende

Autor: Moritz

am Tisch: Hans, Aaron, Andrea, Peter, Walter, Moritz

auf dem Tisch: Cosmic Encounter, Heimlich & Co., Bluff

1. Cosmic Encounter
   Es ist bekannt, daß dies eines meiner Lieblingsspiele ist, leider kann ich die Kollegen selten zu einer Partie überreden. Der Versuch mit der neuen und sehr schicken Avalon Hill-Edition neue Spieler zu gewinnen scheiterte an der Tatsache, daß diese nur bis zu 4 Spieler versorgt, und das ist für Cosmic einfach zu wenig (das versprochene Expansion Set für 5-6 Spieler ist nie erschienen).

   Cosmic Encounter ist ein Chaos-Spiel – „the more the merrier“ ist sicherlich die Devise. Worum geht es?

   Jeder Spieler verkörpert eine außerirdische Macht, die 5 Planeten und 20 Raumschiffe (4 pro Planet) ihr eigen nennt. Jeder Spieler hat ein Planetensystem der eigenen Farbe, der Spielplan wird modular zusammengesetzt, je nach Anzahl der Spieler. In der Mitte ist der „Warp“, eine Art großes schwarzes Loch, in dem vernichtete Raumschiffe landen. Wenn ein Spieler dran ist, dreht er eine Karte des „Destiny“-Decks um – diese hat nun entweder die Farbe eines fremden Planetensystems, oder des eigenen. Wenn es ein fremdes System ist, muss er mittels des „Cone“ (eine Spielhilfe, auf der angreifende und verteidigende Raumschiffe platziert werden) den Spieler dieser Farbe in seinem eigenen System angreifen, und zwar mit 1-4 Raumschiffen die beliebig von anderen Planeten abgezogen werden. Zeigt die „Destiny“-Karte seine eigene Farbe, darf er Planeten, die in seinem eigenen System von anderen Spielern besetzt sind, angreifen.

   Nun lädt der Angreifer bestimmte Spieler zum Angriff mit ein, danach darf der Verteidiger dasselbe für die Verteidigung tun. Jetzt entscheidet sich jeder Spieler reihum, ob er (wenn eingeladen), angreifen will (ebenfalls mit 1-4 Raumschiffen), oder verteidigen will (auch 1-4). Nachdem alle Spieler ihre Raumschiffe gesetzt haben, spielen der angreifende und verteidigende Hauptspieler jeweils eine verdeckte Zahlenkarte (Werte von 6-40, mit Mittelwerten um 12 herum). Diese werden aufgedeckt und zu der Zahl der Angreifer bzw. Verteidiger (Raumschiffe) hinzugezählt – die höhere Summe gewinnt! Wenn der Angreifer gewonnen hat, erhalten er/sie und alle Mitangreifer das Recht, auf dem Planeten zu landen, die Raumschiffe verwandeln sich dann quasi in eine „Basis“. Die Verteidiger gehen mit all ihren Schiffen in den Warp. Gewinnen die Verteidiger, erhält der Hauptspieler nichts außer der Ehre, seinen Planeten verteidigt zu haben, die Mitverteidiger jedoch erhalten für jedes „riskierte“ Raumschiff eine zusätzliche Handkarte. Auch hier müssen die Verlierer in den Orkus, sprich Warp. Da es keinen Spielmechanismus gibt, der einem Karten „schenkt“, ist letzteres eine der wenigen Möglichkeiten, an Karten zu kommen!

   Bei einem Kampf können auch „Compromise“-Karten gespielt werden – der Spielende verzichtet hierbei auf den Sieg, zieht aber für jedes seiner verlorenen Raumschiffe dem Gegner eine Karte aus der Hand. Spielen beide eine „Compromise“-Karte, müssen die Verbündeten nach Hause und die beiden Hauptspieler müssen einen „Deal“ aushandeln (meistens Basentausch). Wird das Zeitlimit von 1 Minute für die Verhandlungen überschritten droht eine drakonische Strafe (Verlust von Raumschiffen und Karten).

   War der Spieler am Zug mit seinem Angriff erfolgreich, darf er gleich noch mal eine „Destiny“-Karte aufdecken, nach dem 2. Zug ist aber Schluss.

   So geht es reihum, bis ein (oder mehrere) Spieler 5 Basen erreichen (der Gruppensieg ist möglich, wenn mehrere zusammen angreifen), woraufhin mit „sudden death“ der Sieg folgt.

   Dies ist die Basis von „Cosmic“ – allerdings liegt hierin nicht der Spielspass. Dieser ergibt sich aus den knapp 100 (mit allen Expansion-Sets) außerirdischen Spezialkräften, von denen jeder Spieler eine hat. In unserem Spiel waren dies zum Beispiel der „Zombie“ (verliert nie Raumschiffe, ist also quasi immun gegen den Warp), oder der „Mirror“ (vertauscht die Zahlen auf den gespielten Zahlenkarten – aus 16 wird also 61), oder auch der „Filth“ (vertreibt durch seinen eigenen Gestank alle anderen Raumschiffe von seinem Planeten). Diese Kräfte setzen immer bestimmte Regeln außer Kraft, und sind meist sehr mächtig. Jeder Figur hat also ihre eigene Strategie, und die immer neuen Kombinationen erzeugen immer neue, meist sehr lustige Situationen. Man kann „Cosmic“ hundertmal spielen, und dennoch immer wieder überrascht werden – sicherlich ein großer Reiz.

   Natürlich gibt es auch Ereigniskarten – die wichtigste hiervon sicherlich „Cosmic Zap“, die für eine bestimmte Spielsituation die Macht eines anderen Spielers negiert, aber auch Karten die allen Spielern nützen, wie z.B. „Mobius Tubes“ (Alle Raumschiffe werden aus dem Warp befreit).

   Schon an der Spielbeschreibung sieht man, dass Glück eine große Rolle spielt, eine Kenntnis des Spiels und seiner Karten ist dennoch sehr nützlich und erhöht die Siegchancen beträchtlich, man wird also schon mit der Zeit zum „besseren“ Cosmic-Spieler, eine Gewinngarantie ist das allerdings nicht. Dennoch macht es Spaß, verschiedene Aliens auszuprobieren, und das meiste herauszuholen. Man muss auch die Anwendung der Fähigkeiten der anderen Spieler quasi vorausberechnen. Dennoch sollte man hier ehrlich sein: es ist kein Spiel für gewiefte Taktiker, sondern ein sehr unterhaltsames und kommunikatives Gruppen-Erlebnis, das manche begeistern, manche abstoßen wird. Ein Problem des Spiels ist sicherlich, dass recht schnell eine „Deadlock“-Situation entsteht, in der die meisten Spieler 4 Basen haben, und Zug um Zug das Erlangen der 5. verhindert wird…bis halt einer die besseren Karten hat (ein Problem, das z.B. auch das Spiel „Kill Dr. Lucky“ hat).

   Gerne wird aber auch die historische Bedeutung von „Cosmic“ unterschätzt – immerhin war es das erste Spiel, das variable Spielerkräfte einsetzte. In den 70er Jahren war dies eine neue Idee, heute ist es uns aus Spielen wie „Ohne Furcht und Adel“ oder „Puerto Rico“ wohlbekannt (das Neue bei letzteren Spielen ist natürlich, dass die Rollen jede Runde neu gewählt werden können).

   Auch muss man feststellen, dass „Cosmic“ bis heute gespielt wird, obwohl das Spiel fast immer vergriffen und schwer zu bekommen ist. An diesem Abend haben wir übrigens die „Mayfair“-Edition gespielt, die in 2 Schachteln alle bis dahin beim Urverleger „EON“ erschienenen Expansionen zusammenfasst und erweitert (wir spielten die Basisversion, ohne „Flares“ und Monde). Die Mayfair-Version ist verdienstvoll, aber nicht besonders schön (Hellblau UND Dunkelblau als Spielerfarben zu nehmen ist auch nicht unbedingt eine gute Designentscheidung), immerhin ist sie die vollständigste aller Cosmic-Versionen, und daher auch sehr gesucht.

   EON verarbeitete die Grundideen von „Cosmic“ in „Dune“ weiter, sicherlich ist „Dune“ auch das perfektere Spiel, denn hier kommt tatsächlich der „Skill“ der einzelnen Spieler mehr zur Geltung.

   EON ist sicherlich eine der einflussreichsten unabhängigen Spielefirmen gewesen – fast jedes ihrer Spiele ist ein Klassiker, so eben auch „Cosmic“. Wer es gerne ausprobieren möchte, kann auch bald eine erneuerte Online-Version spielen, die von den Söhnen der alten Erfinder programmiert wurde (Link). Es steht auf jeden Fall fest, daß dieses Spiel nicht totzukriegen ist, ich selber werde es sicherlich immer wieder gerne aus meinem Spieleschrank auf den Tisch bringen.

2. Heimlich & Co.
   This always enjoyable game has already been reviewed by us (Link), so this is only a short report. It was interesting to watch the different tactics used by the players this time. Hans went for a very open strategy, exposing his yellow pawn very early in the game (he was promptly giving EVERYBODY else 5 points for guessing this correctly), but accumulating enough points by brash „cash-in“ moves to get to third place in the end. Everybody else accomplished to hide his/her identity pretty well, and so little points were gained through guesswork. In the end Andrea fared best and won convincingly.

   It might be interesting to play an additional variant – every incorrect guess on other players makes you LOSE points, so hiding your identity would be tactically more important. Or having the player which identity was revealed successfully lose points instead of giving points to the ones who guessed right. Has anybody ever tried that?

3. Bluff
   Our usual „ender“. No special occurrences here, but it was interesting to see the players winning the last game always come last in the next game. (proven in 3 successive games).

English version

Autor: Walter

am Tisch: Hans, Günther, Andrea, Moritz, Peter, Walter

auf dem Tisch: Outpost, Bluff

1. Outpost
   Um mit dem Ende anzufangen: Als nach vier Stunden Spielzeit gegen Mitternacht der Sieger feststand, war die Stimmung immer noch genauso sachorientiert und aggressionslos wie am Anfang. Peter verzichtete auf Kostproben seiner gesammelten Antinomien und ohne Abschweifungen konnten wir das Spiel über die Bühne bringen. Etwas wohlwollend vergaben wir die Gesamtnote 6,8.

   Was ist Outpost für ein Spiel? Der ganzen blumigen Sprache in der Spielanleitung zum Trotz ist es lediglich ein ganz normales Wirtschafts- und Auktionsspiel. Dass die Szenerie in den Weltraum verlegt wird, und wir zu Kommandeuren einer Außenstation im Weltraum ernannt werden, ändert nichts am Spielprinzip: Jeder bietet um Aufbaukarten (AK), kauft Fabriken, macht damit Erlöse und reinvestiert seine Einnahmen solange, bis der ersten Spieler eine bestimmte Menge an Produktionsmitteln erworben und damit das Spiel gewonnen hat.

   Die AKs besitzen natürlich (wie bei Civilization) eine gewisse interne Abhängigkeit: Sie geben Bonuspunkte beim Erwerb bestimmter weiterer AKs, sind Voraussetzung zum Kauf von bestimmten Fabriken oder erweitern den Spielraum von Restriktionen, denen jeder Spieler unterliegt, z.B. die maximale Anzahl der in den Fabriken beschäftigten Mitarbeiter oder die maximale Anzahl der in der Hand zurückbehaltenen Geldscheine.

   Die Geldscheine stellen den Gewinn dar, den eine Fabrik erwirtschaftet, d.h. pro Fabrik erhält der Besitzer einen Geldschein. Je teurer eine Fabrik ist, desto höher ist der Betrag auf den zugeordneten Geldscheinen. Allerdings ist dieser Betrag nicht jeweils feste Zahl, sondern er streut um einen Durchschnittswert herum. Wer Glück hat, zieht für seine Fabriken hohe Geldscheine, wer Pech hat, eben nicht. Dieses Zufallsprinzip als „clever mechanic“ zu bezeichnen (wie es Mark Green tut), ist schon eine sehr freundliche Kommentierung. In meinen Augen fördert es lediglich etwas Chaos.

   Auch sonst sind der totalen Berechenbarkeit ein paar Riegel vorgeschoben; z.B. stehen pro Spielrunde nicht alle AKs zur Verfügung, sondern sie werden in einer bestimmten Spielphase jeweils erst ausgewürfelt. Wer in seinem Spielplan auf das falsche Pferd setzt, kann seine anvisierten AKs evtl. mehrere Runden lang nicht kaufen.

   In welcher Reihenfolge die AKs und die Fabriken optimal ersteigert bzw. gekauft werden müssen, ist noch nicht ermittelt. Gott-sei-Dank. Wenn es anders wäre, könnte man das ganze Spiel ja sofort vergessen. So kann jeder immer noch nach seiner eigenen besten Gewinnstrategie suchen. Peter sparte von Anfang an eisern auf die Titan-Fabrik. Als er sie sich dann leisten konnte, war er in bezug auf Anzahl seiner Produktionsmittel schon soweit im Hintertreffen, dass er die braven Wasserwerker nicht mehr wesentlich ausstechen konnte. Auch Brian Bankler schreibt in seiner Analyse, dass diese Strategie sich nicht auszahlt. Immerhin wurde Peter noch Dritter.

   Moritz hatte auf die AK Scientist spekuliert. Diese Karte ist nicht sehr teuer und bringt seinem Besitzer pro Spielrunde einen Extra-Geldschein ein. Leider kamen in unserer Runde die Scientists nur sehr spärlich auf den Markt. Moritz landete mit den anderen Newcomers Andrea und Walter auf den hinteren Plätzen.

   Ich hatte gemeinsam mit Günther und Hans die naheliegende Wasserwerk-Strategie eingeschlagen, d.h. wir bauten für erschwingliche Investitionen unsere Wasser-Produktionsanlagen aus und konnten damit schon bald recht gut verdienen. Irgendwie habe ich einmal vergessen einen Bonus nicht in Anspruch zu nehmen und einmal habe ich mich beim Bezahlen zu meinen Ungunsten geirrt. Schließlich habe ich mich dann auch noch beim prophylaktischen Ausweiten der Restriktionen verzettelt und es verpasst, mich um höherwertige Fabriken zu kümmern. Zu viele Fehler, um auf der Siegesstraße zu bleiben. Hans wurde immerhin Zweiter.

   Günther – der das Spiel am besten kannte – konnte im Endeffekt unangefochten den Sieg für sich verbuchen. Er fing mit den Wasserwerken an, übersprang dann die Titan-Phase und war mir-nichts-dir-nichts im Besitz von mehreren New Chemicals, die ihm soviel Einnahmen gewährten, dass er schon mehrere Runden vor Schluss als Sieger feststand. Green’s Behauptung, „the game is remarkably well balanced with the lead changing hands every turn“ triff absolut nicht unsere Erfahrung. Exponentiell steigern sich die Einnahmen und wer vorne ist, kann auch mit vereinten Kräften nicht mehr eingeholt werden. Problemlos konnte Günther beide Moon-Bases ersteigern, sobald sie ausgewürfelt wurden und mit 84 Victory Points das Spiel gewinnen.

   Westpark Gamers Bewertung: 6,8

2. Bluff
   Zum Ausklang gab es noch zwei Runden Bluff. Keine spektakulären Details, Hans konnte sich zweimal mit relativ viel Masse im Endspiel durchsetzen, einmal gegen Andrea und einmal gegen mich.

   Bemerkenswert ist nur, dass unser Dauersieger Moritz sich nicht mehr so leicht tut, seit Andrea nicht mehr unmittelbar hinter ihm sitzt. Kann er seine Frau etwa leichter beeinflussen als den Rest der Westpark-Gamers? Schaun mer mal!

Deutsche Version

Author: Walter

at the table: Hans, Günther, Andrea, Moritz, Peter, Walter

on the table: Outpost, Bluff

1. Outpost
   To begin at the end: around midnight, when after four hours‘ play it was clear who had won, the atmosphere was just as objective and free from aggression as it had been at the beginning. Peter spared us a sample of his collected paradoxes and we were able to get on with the game without any diversions. We rather generously gave the game an overall rating of 6.8.

   What sort of a game is Outpost? Despite the flowery language in the playing instructions it is just an ordinary business and auction game. The fact that the scenario has been transferred to outer space, and that we are made the commanders of a space station, doesn’t change the basic principle of the game: each player bids for Upgrade Cards (UCs), buys factories with which he makes a profit, and reinvests his income until the first player has acquired a certain quantity of the means of production and thus has won the game.

   Of course there are certain interdependencies between the UCs (just as in Civilization): they award bonus points for the acquisition of certain additional UCs, they are conditions for buying certain factories or else they reduce the restrictions which each player is subject to (eg. the maximum number of workers employed in the factories, or the maximum number of production cards retained in the hand).

   The production cards represent the profit that a factory produces, that is, the owner gets one production card per factory – the more expensive the factory, the higher the value of the corresponding production card. This value is however not in each case a fixed amount, but is distributed around an average value. If you are lucky you draw production cards with high values, if you are unlucky then you don’t. To call this random factor a „clever mechanic“ (as Mark Green does) is a very friendly remark. In my opinion the effect is simply somewhat chaotic.

   There are some more obstacles in the way of total predictability, eg. not all the UCs are available in any given round of play. Instead this is determined by a throw of the dice in a particular phase of the game. If someone backs the wrong horse when making his game plan, he can quite easily be unable to buy his intended UCs for the duration of several rounds.

   It has not yet been established what the optimal order is in which one should bid for or buy the UCs and the factories – and thank heaven for that. If this were the case we could forget the game entirely. As it is each player can still search for his own best winning strategy. From the start Peter saved up determinedly for the titanium factory. When he was able to afford it, he was already so far behind the field regarding the amount of his means of production that he was in no position to seriously hinder the modest water-workers. In his analysis Brian Bankler confirms that this strategy does not pay off. Nevertheless Peter finished in third place.

   Moritz based his speculations on the scientist UC. This card is not very expensive and provides its owner with an additional production card in each round of play. Unfortunately the scientists very seldom came on to the market in our game. Moritz finished up among the also-rans, along with the other newcomers Andrea und Walter.

   Together with Günther and Hans I decided upon the more obvious waterworks strategy, that is, we built up our water production facilities for an affordable price and so were able to start earning fairly well fairly quickly. Somehow I managed once to forget to claim a bonus and another time I made a mistake in payment to my own disadvantage. Finally I wasted time by reducing my restrictions as a precautionary measure, instead of concentrating on more valuable factories – just too many mistakes to keep me on the road to victory. Hans however managed to finish in second place.

   Günther, who knew the game the best, was able to chalk up a win without any effective challenge. He began with the waterworks, then skipped over the titanium phase and then before anyone could blink an eye he was in possession of several New Chemicals. These provided him with so much income that it was clear he was going to be the winner several rounds before the end. Green’s claim that „the game is remarkably well balanced with the lead changing hands every turn“ does not correspond at all to our experience. The income increases exponentially and whoever is in the lead can’t be caught by the others even if they join forces. With no problems Günther was able to win the auction for both the Moon-Bases as soon as the throw of the dice made them available and won the game with 84 Victory Points.

   Westpark Gamers‘ Rating: 6.8

2. Bluff
   To complete the evening we played two rounds of Bluff. There were no spectacular details. Twice Hans started the final with an preponderance of 4 vs 1 dices, once against Andrea und once against me. He had no problems to bear the palm.

   What seems remarkable is that Moritz, who used to win continually, doesn’t have such a clear run now that Andrea no longer sits in the position immediately following his. Could it perhaps be that he can influence his wife more easily than the other Westpark-Gamers? We will just have to wait and see!

Hersteller: Creations Chaos (erhältlich)

Autor: J.-F. Hamel

Getestet: Basisspiel (erschienen 2000)

Tester: Moritz Eggert

Szenario: In einer nicht näher definierten Fantasy-Welt stoßen mächtige Magier und ihre Zaubersprüche aufeinander. Wer als letzter übrigbleibt, gewinnt!

Das Spiel: Jeder Spieler repräsentiert einen Magier, und versucht die anderen Spieler aus der Arena (oder wo auch immer dieses Gemetzel stattfindet) zu werfen. Ein Spiel zu zweit ist möglich, der Autor empfiehlt jedoch 3-10 (!) Spieler. Jeder Spieler hat immer 5 Karten auf der Hand (mehr, falls die verschiedenen Expansion-Sets verwendet werden), die mit zum Teil etwas konfusen Computergrafiken recht aufwendig gestaltet sind (bei schlechtem Licht oder schlechten Augen nicht gut zu lesen, allein in unserem Spiel schaffte es Walter mehrmals, die falschen Karten zu spielen, oder wichtige Karten zu übersehen – was allerdings seinen Erfolg nicht beeinträchtigte!). Alles Fantasy-übliche ist vertreten: magische Ringe, Zaubertränke, Feuerbälle, etc.. Es gibt 10 Kategorien von Karten – auf jeder Karte ist angegeben, welche Gegensprüche oder Rettungswürfe verwendet werden können. Apropos Würfe: Es wird unglaublich viel gewürfelt – Jeder Zauberspruch hat seinen eigenen Schaden, der anhand verschiedener „polyhedral dice“ ausgewürfelt wird, meist mit dem „Power-Level“ des Magiers multipliziert. Also ist es vorrangig wichtig, diesen anhand bestimmter Karten so schnell wie möglich zu erhöhen. Der Schaden wird immer von den Lebenspunkten abgezogen (deren Anzahl ständig, zum Teil dramatisch wechselt). Wer 0 Lebenspunkte hat, ist draußen, und spielt nicht mehr mit …und kann gelegentlich stundenlang warten, bis die anderen sich auch endlich massakriert haben.

Spieldauer: Regelerklärung ca. 10 Minuten (das Spiel wird nur durch die Wirkung der Karten kompliziert, der Spielablauf ist ansonsten extrem simpel), Spieldauer: Nun ja, wir brachen nach 2 Stunden ab. Es hätte noch eine weitere Stunde dauern können, denn es waren noch 3 Magier übrig, die sich verbissen bekämpften…

Ähnliche Spiele: MagBlast, Plague & Pestilence, Honour of the Samurai, Lunch Money

Kommentar der Westpark Gamers: Dies ist eins der Spiele, in denen viel gelacht wird, viel Schadenfreude aufkommt…und die letztendlich doch nicht wirklich gefallen oder gar zum Wiederspielen anregen. Das Glückselement ist sicherlich hoch, wäre aber bei einem Spiel dieser Art nicht so schlimm, wenn nicht auch die Entscheidungsmöglichkeiten so gering wären. Im Grunde ist die Auswahl der zu spielenden Karten gering, und das Spiel wird schnell repetitiv, denn obwohl die Karten unterschiedliche Namen haben, ist die Wirkung doch ähnlich („wie viele Würfel soll ich jetzt nehmen?“). Das größte Problem ist jedoch der willkürliche Charakter des Spielverlaufs – Wer durch irgendwelche Aktionen auffällt (meist ist man gezwungen, irgendjemanden anzugreifen, weil man halt keine anderen Karten hatte), wird sofort von allen anderen angegriffen. Wenn man dann erst einmal kurz vor dem „Ende“ ist, gibt einem schnell jemand den Rest. Angriffe entstehen meist spontan, ohne tiefere Strategie. Für ein kurzes Spiel wäre dies noch ok, „Emmerlaüs“ ist jedoch einfach viel zu lang….Lustig war’s aber dennoch!

Moritz‘ Bewertung: 5 von 10 (wegen der „Lustigkeit“)

Westpark Gesamtbewertung: 4.0

Weiterführende Informationen:

Homepage von Créations Chaos, verfügbar in Englisch und Französisch

Author: Moritz

at the table: Walter, Aaron, Günther, Andrea, Moritz

on the table: Emerald, Puerto Rico, Bluff

1. Emerald
   This game has been around for some time, but gets additional exposure in German gaming circles right now as it is part of the 4 games to be mastered for the German championship in boardgaming 2003 (the other games are „Sticheln„, „Medina“ and – what else could it be – „Puerto Rico„).Inclusion of this game has been a matter of discussion, as it is a very light family game with only very shallow tactical elements, also dependent on luck a lot (usually the games in the selection are less luck oriented). The game board consists of a single track starting in a city and leading to a dungeon of sorts, occupied by the unavoidable dragon. Players get a number of knight pawns dependent on the number of players (with 5 players 4 for example), and try to collect gem (worth 1 VP each, 4 extra points if you are the first to collect all 4 colours, 4 VPs for each majority in a colour at the end of the game) and gold cards (1 to 5 VPs) on the way to the inner sanctum. Movement is very simple and known from other games as a routine: The number of spaces you can move is determined by the number of pawns in your space, including your own. This means that you try to reach populated spaces to advance quickly, making your way alone will take a long time. At some point you reach the dungeon – landing on a dungeon space gives you the choice to take one of either the open gold or gem cards (or none, if the stacks are empty). But beware of the dragon – its movement is actually one of the ingenious mechanics of the game. There is a „dragon stick“ which marks the 4 spaces the dragon is searching at the moment. Every time a player lands a pawn in one of these spaces, the dragon moves by means of a die roll (1,2 or 3 spaces), and is „reflected“ by the border of the stick if it would go beyond it. At the same time the stick is moved one space to the right until it reaches the end of the track, where the dragon will guard the entrance to the treasure hoard. After the dragon moves, it will „eat“ one of the knights that are standing on the space it lands on (if there are several the moving player decides which), but if the knight sacrifices a treasure card (gems don’t interest the dragon for some reason) he will survive. As the game is basically about gaining VPs through cards it sometimes absolutely okay if you let your knight die – giving up your 5 VP card might be worse. Therefore it is also good to have low VP cards handy- each player will encounter the dragon at some point or another!The first 4 pawns that reach the treasure hoard get 5 bonus points each, the fourth one to reach it ends the game. Another possibility for sudden death is that one player loses all knights but one – if you have many VP cards you can enforce the end in this way a little: „let them be eaten!“.

   We played the game 2 times to get some feeling for the strategy, or what little there is. As you have only 4 pawns in a 5 player game, you make 2 choices out of 4, sometimes less if choices might be obviously awful and to be avoided, and also because taking cards always ends your turn – you can never take two cards in a row! Movement is mandatory, you cannot go less spaces than you have to. Usually you will try to concentrate on 3 knights and get them to the good cards as quickly as possible. The other knights will wither away at the starting space.

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

   Although this is a fun game for the whole family and even for „non-gamers“ I don’t think it will hold the attention of any true freak for a long time. The big plus is that games are very short, around 45 minutes, and can be played out of the box, with little preparation.

   Slightly recommended – forget the fantasy theme, though, the game could also be a about making your way through Camden Town, the dragon then being a bobby searching you for illicit drugs or something.

2. Puerto Rico
   Some strategy tipsP.R. is one the best documented new games on the web right now – we have already reviewed it, so I will try to give some strategic advice based on my now considerable experience with the game. Hopefully I can add a grain of wisdom to the immense material out there!I have become a bit disillusioned with the game recently. Although I still think it is great, I have my doubts about how much of a „strategy“ can be applied successfully (like in „Princes of Florence“ or even „Settlers“ where you basically follow a semi-solitaire strategy). But on the other hand this is one of the charms of the game, and adds to its replay value, whereas games of „Princes of Florence“ have recently turned into clashes of pre-set strategies. I haven’t yet decided which I like better.What every player of P.R. must learn is that there is no valid „building“ strategy, for example. No combination of buildings that you plan ahead is of any use, even if they are ingeniously devised. I have seen each strategy win and fail in equal measures, but what you want is a strategy that gives you a good chance to win, not one that you simply think is clever. In fact, I would argue that there should be no strategy in P.R. at all, rather „advanced tactics“ depending on turn order, strategies deployed by other players and sometimes even luck (selection of plantations is a huge luck factor).

   P.R. is totally dependent on the choices that other players make. It is therefore in nature a very chaotic and unpredictable game. The other players make the game and they ruin your plans… usually. The beauty is that they can also help you, if you foresee what they will do.

   Here are some tactical rules that will definitely help you win:

   1) Don’t come into the game with ANY strategy.
   It won’t work, believe me. Watch what the other players do, and act accordingly. Be constantly on the watch for their strategy – basically you want to be in the middle of it: If the player to your right goes for quick victory points you should do the same. For example, leaving one player alone with a certain strategy is usually a bad idea, especially if it’s the „end the game quickly with as many VPs as possible“ strategy. If you follow a similar tactic and succeed this particular player might think twice about ending the game quickly as you might have an equal or even bigger number of VPs. On the other hand, if the player is already „imitated“, don’t do it – three players following the same route will usually cancel each other out. Any combination of buildings can be the winner in a certain game, it just depends on the players and their actions.

   2) The LEFT PLAYER RULE
   Rick Heli brings it down to a simple point in his excellent short description of the game at „spotlightongames.com „…When deciding what crops to grow, the workings of the ship and the trader make it wise to avoid what your right hand neighbour grows and to strongly consider growing what your left hand neighbour does….“

   I would call this most important advice. Why? Growing the same crops as your left neighbour is one of the few ways in which you can actually play aggressively against a player, and your left neighbour is your best victim. This is because of the turn order, which is always 1,2,3,4, then 2,3,4,1, then 3,4,1,2 then 4,1,2,3 for example. If you are player number two you will be ahead of player number 3 (your left neighbour) 3 times out of 4 when roles are selected, which means you have a pretty good chance of shipping/selling goods before her or him.

   This of course also explains why you should avoid the plantations of the right player – who is of course possibly after you as you are after your left neighbour.

   Try to copy your left neighbour as closely as possible, but only in plantations and factories. Apart from that your tactics should be the absolute opposite of the left player. Why? See the „RIGHT PLAYER RULE“ below!

   3) The RIGHT PLAYER RULE
   The right player will go before you ¾ of the time (in a 4 player game). Which gives you the possibility to see what s/he does, and then somehow imitate it (not the plantations, see above). With somehow I mean „not exactly“. Of course you should rule out imitating dumb moves, for a start (I have seen weak players win games of P.R. against the top-pro’s because they had an equally weak right neighbour). But the buildings the right player builds should be closely watched. If your right neighbour buys a building that is triggered by the „settler“ phase, you should consider building it as well (if possible), or another building that is triggered by the same phase. Chances are s/he bought it for a reason, and will possibly play this role on her/his turn – and you will profit from it as well! I have closely followed this rule in my last experimental games, even sometimes buying buildings I thought I had little use for, or which seemed weird in my specific setup (getting the right feel for this is the closest this game comes to „skill“). I never regretted it – sure enough I always profited from my right player taking certain roles which I also benefited from, and then I was free to take roles that only benefited me afterwards! The game usually rewards the second player, especially when shipping for VPs!

   Watch closely, and most importantly: be flexible!

   4) The SAVINGS RULE
   This is a more obscure tactic that doesn’t seem obvious at first. The rule is: „When you buy buildings in the builder phase, already consider what you are able (not what you „want“) to buy in the next phase – it might come sooner than you think!“. This means sometimes buying „cheap“ buildings when you could actually buy more expensive ones. I see it happening very often that good players trigger phases that as few as possible other players can benefit from (a basic rule of thumb that is mostly followed). Usually it happens that one player triggers the builder phase, all players dump their money into expensive buildings, and then the player who has the most money will immediately become builder again next turn (this might even happen directly afterwards, when the turn ended with the builder phase) to buy another building with his savings, whereas the other players just dumbly stare. Don’t let that happen – try to always buy a building in the builder phase. Even the meagre „1“ building might be worth many more points with certain large buildings. If only buildings are available that you don’t think fit into your strategy, change your strategy. When you are always able to buy buildings and never miss out a phase, you will have an edge on other players, believe me!

   Always save some money, if possible! Always consider taking the gold digger, even if it’s only worth one buck.

   5) The FIRST TURN
   What should you do when you’re first? It’s not easy to „imitate“ when there is nothing there to imitate. I personally think there is only one answer: take the settler and take a free quarry. Quarries always come in handy in any game (although one might argue how many you need – I think you’ll be fine with no more than two, personally), nobody else will be able to get one, and you will have an edge when „imitating“ a quarry strategy of your right player later on. If there are too many maize plantations lying around you might consider taking the gold digger instead, though, but that case will be rare. Also, if you’re lucky, somebody might play the „mayor“ and give you the possibility to populate the quarry before the first builder phase, therefore giving you the same edge that the builder role would have brought you at the start.

   These tactics can form the basis for a more serious delving into the game. Guenther, our most successful P.R. player certainly knows them well – he always uses them and wins 80 percent of the time!

   Good gaming.

3. Bluff
   Strange that the two gaming groups „Westbank“ and „Westpark“-gamers have one affliction in common: the call of the dice (or, shall we say, the SCOURGE of the dice?). Since we experimented with different seating orders (usually we always sit at the same places of the table) results have varied wildly, this time Andrea won twice in a row, whereas Walter, who very often wins, came always in last. PETER, IF YOU READ THIS…..COME BACK!

 

Author: Aaron

at the table: Walter, Peter, Moritz, Andrea, Aaron

on the table: T-Rex, Linie 1, Bluff

1. T-Rex
   After some debate about the first game of the evening Peter finally succeeded in convincing us to agree to T-Rex. Peter had played the game several time before and enjoyed it a lot whereas especially Moritz didn’t like it too much on his first try.

   T-Rex is a card game where all players use an identical set of 17 cards and try to win dinosaur eggs. These eggs come in 4 different colors and each egg is worth the total number of eggs a player owns of that color at the end of the game, resulting in a possible exponential growth of victory points.

   The player cards come in five colors with 3 cards of each color numbered from 1 to 15 plus 2 special cards. Before the first (of a total of 12) round of the game commences each player shuffles his/her deck and draws 7 hand cards to start with. Additionally, 2 dino eggs are revealed from the dino egg draw pile and two color cards are placed on the table to indicate the highest and lowest ranking card color for this round.

   Players in sequence play one of their hand cards placing it in front of them – there is no need to follow suit. Each card carries a symbol (cards or a comet) which either enables the player to draw additional cards from the draw pile or it signals the beginning of the „end sequence“ of that round. When the first comet card has been played the round immediately ends once that player has played another turn and no other player has played a higher ranking comet card. Card ranking goes by the card’s color followed by the number on the card.

   Whoever has the highest ranking card in front of him/her selects one of the two dino eggs; the second egg goes to the player with the second highest card. As a small, but important, bonus the player having the lowest ranking card may replace one of the two color cards that indicate the color rank for the next round. Then each player permanently discards either the top card from his/her draw pile or the card last played in this round. Then the remainder of the cards played this round are placed under the draw pile.

   The first two or three rounds of T-Rex are usually heavily luck based as it is completely unknown which cards are held by the other players. After a while most players have gone through their draw pile at least once and usually have collected a set of cards that suits their tactics. Especially players with a good memory now have an advantage if they remember which cards are permanently out of the game and which cards or at the bottom of the draw piles.

   Once a comet card is played in a round this type of information can be vital for winning a dino egg because at that point it is important to be able to judge which player is able to play higher ranking comet cards thereby extending the round. Exact timing is what make winners here as it is important to play the highest ranking card in the last turn of a round and in fact it can be very annoying if a round is extended by another comet card and one has to play another card, which more often than not is a lower ranking card, destroying any hope for winning an egg.

   For my liking T-Rex rewards good memory too much (old age, I guess). This combined with the usual uncertainties of what tactic another player will apply provides me with too many unpredictability. Interestingly, Moritz, who said he didn’t like the game because of the strong memory effect won the game by far and Walter, our Bridge playing card game wizard came in last.

2. Linie 1
   Linie 1 – or Streetcars as the English version published by Mayfair is called – was our second game of the evening. We played this already once a couple of years ago with not too enthusiastic memories and we wanted to give it another try.

   The task of the (up to five) players is to connect the terminal stops of their streetcar line which are located at opposite borders of the game board by building tracks between them, a principle which was employed already by Twixt may years ago. To make things not too easy players get their streetcar line dealt secretly out of the six available lines and additionally they have to include two (or three in games with less than 4 players) of the many intermediate stops that are placed throughout the board. Also these stops are dealt secretly.

   The game is played in two phases. During the track building phase a player places two new track tiles anywhere on the board or upgrades already existing tiles. Tiles may only be placed if they legally connect to tiles already placed and can only be upgraded if existing track is maintained. As soon as a track tile is placed next to a stop location a stop sign is placed on that tile. No additional stops are possible at this location.

   Players therefore are faced with the difficult task of making sure that the stops they must pass are located in such a way that they caneasily be integrated into their own network and on the other hand they must try and avoid revealing their intentions and line identity too early. Line 1 allows all sorts of nasty track laying making it possible to create long detours for other players once one knows their intentions. Even endless loops are possible (see the left terminal of line 4 on the photo) making it impossible to use a piece of track in both directions.

   The second phase of the game begins once a player has completed the required route. The player announces this to the other players and indicates the route on the board. The rules state that this must be done so that all players are able to verify that a valid route exists. And in fact, it happened twice during our game that a player announced a valid route which in fact did not exist! Once the route has been verified the player starts travelling with a streetcar starting at one terminal, along the two (three) intermediate stops to the terminal at the opposite side of the board. The „motor“ of the streetcar is a die with numbers 1 to 4 and two „H“ signs. The player rolls the die once per turn and moves the streetcar the number of track tiles indicated on the die or to the next stop if an „H“ has been rolled. Here it becomes obvious why a short route is so important.

   While some players have already started their streetcar other players may still be building their route. The point in time when to start the streetcar needs to be carefully judged because sometimes it can pay to optimize a route further rather than starting the car on a hopelessly long route.

   Moritz came in first closely followed by Walter, who in fact had the shortest route of all players. My chances of winning came to an abrupt end when Andrea („unintentionally“, as she said, believe it or not) blocked my intended starting location by a loop construction.

   Line 1 in my opinion is a strange mixture of a game: on the one hand there is the rather complex track building race amongst the players followed by a dice rolling war in the second phase. My feeling is that the players who like the track building will not be too happy with the second phase and vice versa.

3. Bluff
   This evening we had sufficient time left to try some experiments with our usual final game of the evening: Bluff. After Moritz had won the first game of Bluff (making this a very good evening for him) we decided to change player position at the table to find out if that has any influence on the game results. Doing so we managed to achieve a clear win for each player – a result we never had before. Which leaves us with the question: does the seating order really have in influence on the Bluff results? If so, what exactly is the cause of this influence?

Author: Moritz

at the table: Hans, Walter, Aaron, Peter, Moritz

on the table: La Città, Bluff

1. La Città
   For some reason we hadn’t had a games evening for quite a while – this is why the general mood was especially friendly. In fact, we never had a games evening with so little bickering and quarreling in a long time. Might it have been the bottles of wine that Walter and Aaron freely distributed (it was a belated celebration of Aaron’s xx^th birthday – I’m not allowed to say, which…[Did I say that? Looking at Marcus Barnick’s „Who’s Who“ website my age appears to be public knowledge! Aaron])?

   We decided to play “La Città” – Walter had been given this game as a present, and had apparently completely forgotten that we had already played this game ages ago, when it was newly published. Back then the game hadn’t impressed us greatly, but this time we really had to admit that this is a great game (which shows, that the good game reviewer “always has to play twice”).

   Kosmos published this game as a planned successor to “Siedler” – it is a lush edition, with absolutely fabulous game material, even for German standards. It probably wasn’t the big commercial success they hoped for, but this is a “gamer’s game”, like “Puerto Rico”, a treat for addicts like us.

   The huge map depicts an empty Tuscany landscape, that players hope to fill with prosperous cities. Certain landmarks are placed on the map before play (the setup described in the rules gives each player about the same starting position, and is highly recommended for the first games). There are “farming” (adjacent cities and farms get food markers, they range from “1” food to “3” food – a city/farm can touch a maximum of two of these tiles and earn the sum of the tiles they touch), “water” (give the possibility to build the all-important “fountain” tiles that hugely increase population capacity) and “mountain” tiles (each mine touching them gives money, it is very important that you build them early, like in “Puerto Rico”).

   Players start with two cities each, hoping to expand them and to achieve a huge population.

   For this it is important to know the “will of the people” – people are interested in 3 traits: “culture”, “education” and “hygiene”, each symbolized through a colour. Each round 4 “will of the people” cards are drawn: one open, the other three are secret. At the end of the round the dominating colour will be found out by looking at the hidden cards (in case of a draw, both traits are “prominent” and the players can choose which one to activate with each of their cities). Now all cities within a certain distance (2 hexes) of each other will compete for the extremely fickle and easily bored population. If the neighbouring has city more cultural buildings than you, and culture is “in” at the moment, it will draw away one population figure (which look suspiciously like hobbits, by the way). You usually want as many people in your city as people – first they bring points at the end of the game, second city expansion tiles need people to work- if they have no people on them, they are “torn down” – the city shrinks!

   But there is also a drawback: people need to be fed, and if you have more people than food markers (described above) the game system will punish you heavily with having you miss out a turn next round, and also reducing your victory score in the final round severely. Peter, who has played this game more often than us, had warned as about this fact, and we all played very carefully in this respect, but still people starved, as the board and the expanding neighbours limit your access to food tiles severely.

   A round consists of 5 actions – you have 3 cards that you can always play, they allow you to build basic buildings, get gold or start new cities. If you want to build the larger coloured buildings (that give you more of an edge in the populace competition) you need money and the abundant “open” row of action cards, that is constantly renewed from the deck. This means you can have a maximum of 3 “self-decided actions” , the other actions come from the deck – with a selection. Some of these cards have other functions – they give you free extra food for the round, or strengthen your “traits” for the competition. The most important card is certainly the one that allows you to predict to or more of the hidden cards “will of the people” – played early this will give you an edge in planning your turn!

   Cities are limited to 5 citizens and therefore tiles. A “market place” gives you one “gift” citizen and the possibility to reach the populace of 8, a “fountain” removes even this limit (this is why the water spaces are extremely important – the winner needs two large cities, possibly more, no doubt about that). Each round ends with the mutual removal of citizens from the cities, then you check if you can actually nourish them.

   The game rewards good planning – If you pump up the traits of the cities (the symbols for these traits look suspiciously like “McDonalds”-M’s, by the way :-), you might get a larger population than you hoped for – starving is bad news, as you lose an action next turn.

   You also want diverse cities – cities with all traits present get bonus points. It is also a good idea to build last ditch cities in the final round (although there is very little room on the board for additional cities) – each citizen gives you one victory point – and new cities come with 3 “free” citizens!

   Turns are quick as the decisions are limited but important, very similar to Puerto Rico. Watching the board and planning your expansion is strategically very demanding – when will you cross the safe border of 2 hexes to other cities by building new buildings? Can you be sure to beat them in traits this round? If not you might lose more than you get.

   Cities can actually be completely destroyed by draining them of all cities, so beware!

   If you have farming land close by you should build as many farms as possible, they come in very handy for the end game, when you suddenly build new cities to garner VP’s. The same is to be said for mines – the good buildings can be very expensive, and money is very rare. A tactic that usually works is to have a “money city” and a “farming” city, both with different goals.

   All in all this is a very nice game – not too complicated, but with lots of nail-biting decisions to make. Although it is – like “Princes of Florence” and “Puerto Rico” essentially a solitaire game played by a group, the competition between the cities is THE all-important element of the game. The board is small, and the competition is not sleeping. The game time is longer than the usual German game, I would say around 3 hours for newbies.

   Thumbs up to “La città”!

2. Bluff
   After a “perfect” victory in “La Città” my strange lucky streak didn’t stop – the two “Bluff” games we played were won with almost no problem, the dice rolled where they should, and twice I beat Walter with extremely lucky rolls that he just couldn’t believe.

   That this was a lucky streak was proven 2 days later at the “Spuiratzn” – I lost every game, and always came last!

Author: Aaron/Walter

at the table: Peter, Günther Walter, Aaron

on the table: Fische Fluppen Frikadellen, Mogul, Imperium

Fische Fluppen Frikadellen
„Fische Fluppen Frikadellen“ is this year’s Essen release of the man with the green hair and creator of the F games: Friedeman Friese. This time players have the task to acquire goods (fish, fags and French fries would be a good translation although Frikadellen are in fact hamburgers, and in addition to the title: fusel and fennel) and trade them in for fetishes. The player who acquires his/her third fetish wins the game.The game board is set up by randomly placing 12 kiosks on the designated spaces. Kiosks come in three types: one type sells one of the F goods or buys another type of goods. The next kiosk type trades a type of good into another type of good and the last type is the kiosk trading in goods for fetishes.

Kiosks are connected with pathways and waterways and players have three movement points per turn to negotiate their route to the kiosks of their liking. Waterways usually provide shortcuts between distant corners of the board but they require the usage of a raft which sometimes needs to be called to the footbridge which costs movement points and money.

Players start with a defined amount of money (now guess what the currency is: Florints of course) which they mainly use for buying goods at the kiosks. Once a player lands on the field of a kiosk that sells/buys goods s/he may buy any amount of goods that the kiosk has in stock at the current market price (there’s a rebate for buying more than one unit). At the start of the game each such kiosk has 2 goods in stock. Alternatively, a player may sell any amount of the good the kiosk can buy. These goods are returned to the bank. A consequence of selling goods is a decrease of the market price of that good.

If a player arrives at a kiosk which trades goods s/he can trade in up to two goods of the kind kiosk accepts and receives 2 other goods for every good turned in. These 2 for 1 deals are very important in the course of the game.

Each transaction at a kiosk triggers up to three secondary actions indicated on the kiosk’s tile: either the market price of a good is increased or the player may exchange the stock of two kiosks or a particular type of good is being produced and the stock of the appropriate kiosk is increased.

Players also have tokens which they can use during their turn. A token provides a one time special ability like having more movement points or being able to exchange a good of one type for another type, and, very nasty, closing a kiosk for one complete round. Each time a player acquires a fetish s/he get an additional token.

The game started rather fast paced with all players rushing to kiosks which have goods for sale. Unfortunately, I was the fourth player in the first turn and was faced with the situation that no such kiosk was in easy reach. In fact it took me quite some time to be able to acquire my first goods as I was not willing to spend money on calling rafts for a faster access to far away kiosks. Not a good tactic, I soon realized. At the time I had reached a kiosk with goods, prices had already gone up and I had to spend too much money for too few goods. Walter at that time was already far ahead with 4 or 5 goods and in reach of his first fetish.

Günther seemed to follow a strategy of acquiring lots of goods at low prices and only exchanging them for a fetish once he reached the holding limit of 7 goods. Peter’s strategy was to go for optimal good runs and to exchange/sell goods at favorable prices. Soon I found myself left with very little money and only a few goods because all too often were kiosks sold out or prices had gone up to prohibitive levels before I could reach them. I therefore had to revert to an exchange strategy changing goods on a 2 for 1 basis. Luckily, I was able to find a good run between kiosks for this to work.

Walter was the first to have two fetishes as well as sufficient goods to exchange them for the third one and we thought that this would end in a clear win for him. Quite to my surprise Günther was able to play one of his special ability tokens that allowed him to buy a good from Walter leaving him one good short for his final exchange. At that point it became clear that by cleverly playing against Walter we would most likely have a chance to steal victory from him. This in fact left me with a slight chance to win the game myself: in the meantime I, too had acquired two fetishes and had sufficient goods to get the third one. However, my goods mix was not right (you need 5 goods in total, 3 of one kind and 2 of the other) which prevented me from becoming a target for countermeasures of my fellow players. The one thing they did not know was that I had a special ability token which would allow me at any time during my turn to exchange one good for another type and that would yield the required combination for my third fetish. So I moved forward to the fetish kiosk and only needed one more turn when Peter decided to stop playing aggressively against Walter and allowing him to make his final winning move. That was close…

I think that „Fische Fluppen Frikadellen“ is one of the better games of Friedemann Friese. It provides a lot of scope for different strategies. On the other hand, in our game I felt that most of the time I was playing with minimal interaction with other players. Once you have found out what strategy the other players are following you can adopt you strategy accordingly and do your thing. There is also this effect of bashing the leader close to the end which I do not like so much as you do not have sufficient time (moves) to prepare for this appropriately.

One thing I did not mention about the game: it is a 3 to 5 player game but can be played with up to 15 players if you buy the complete set of three games (type A, B and C). They differ in board layout and tile mix as well as providing different colored pawns and players are able to move their pawns between board. Provided you have sufficient table space and players this is certainly worth a try.

Westpark Gamers‘ Score: 7.0

Mogul
Mogul is a stock trading and auctioning card game. Players start the game with one share and 6 money and their goal is to acquire victory points by selling shares.Auctioning is done in a very interesting though sometimes nerve wrecking way: the top share is drawn from the draw pile, revealed and put up for auction. The start player (the player who acquired a share in the previous turn) starts the auction by placing one coin in the middle of the table. The next player has the choice of continuing the bidding by also placing one coin or to drop out of the auction. Here the interesting bit starts: whenever a player drops out s/he collects the coins in the middle of the table into his/her own pocket. The next player then bids again (1 coin) to stay in or drops out as well (collecting 0 coins!).The last remaining bidder has the choice of either taking the share or to sell shares of the color indicated by the border color of the share currently up for auction. The last but one bidder then executes the option not taken by the last bidder.

Selling shares is the only way to receive victory points and there is one victory point granted for every share of that stock on the table at the time of the sale, including the shares of the other players. Since at the end of the game unsold shares count no VPs at all and money is exchanged 5 coins for 1 point it is absolutely necessary to sell shares at the best possible time. The game ends immediately when the CRASH card is being drawn which has been shuffled into the draw pile among the last four cards.

The bidding mechanism is so unusual that it does need some time to get used to it. Already in the first round I found myself in the position that Günther sitting in front of me decided to drop out and take the money and I had the choice to also drop out (for nothing) or placing the first coin again. I decided for the latter only to be faced with the situation that now Walter dropped out (now in front of me). Again I placed a coin and Peter dropped out and I decided to take the share since there was no possibility to sell shares. The result of the first round was that I owned two share now but only 4 coins, all others had one share with Peter owning 5 coins, Walter 7 coins and Günther 8 coins. Günther seemed to have liked the possibility to make easy money and he decided to drop out again when it was his turn in the second round, leaving him with 11 coins! Only too late did I realize that I would end up in the unfortunate situation that I had to drop out of the auction because of lack of money at a point in time when there where no coins in the pot!

Fortunately, there is a rule which allows a player to exchange 2 victory points for 2 coins at the beginning of a round. Since I was broke I had to take that option which, in the end, turned out to be so devastating that who ever has to do this will almost certainly lose the game. This insight came to late for me and I did not have a chance to even come close to the leader throughout the rest of the game.

Although very much based on luck elements the game is full of suspense: will there be coins in the pot when it’s my turn to drop out of an auction? What is the right time to sell shares? Will there be another possibility at all to sell shares of a particular stock? Some of these questions can be answered by closely observing the number of shares of stock still in play. Other, like the possible reaction of the other players are much harder to determine or predict.

As a fast paced, short (45 mins.) game with elements of „Schadenfreude“ Mogul can be highly recommended.

Westpark Gamers‘ Score: 7.0

Imperium
Anstatt den Spielabend mit 6-nimmt oder Bluff ausklingen zu lassen, nahmen wir uns auf Günthers Empfehlung noch eine Runde Imperium vor. Angeblich dauert ein Spiel 20 Minuten. Das war dreimal soviel Zeit, wie Peter bis zu seiner letzten U-Bahn übrig hatte. Bei den Westparkern geht aber auch ein triviales Auktionsspiel nicht so schnell über die Bühne. Peter hatte Glück, daß er sich nach 50 Minuten Spielzeit – als Sieger – auf den Weg machen konnte.Das Spielbrett läßt zunächst mal eine überlange Spieldauer befürchten: es ähnelt ganz dem klassischen „Civilisation“, das wir noch nie unter 4 Stunden beendet hatten. Auf einer Landkarte rund um das Mittelmeer sind Länder und Provinzen eingezeichnet, die von ferne ein bißchen die Vision des Geographieunterrichts in einer altrömischen Grundschule aufkommen lassen. Daß Athen ohne „h“ geschrieben wurde, und daß das Dörflein „Cannae“ zu einer ganz Unteritalien umfassenden Provinz aufgewertet wurde, ganz zu schweigen von der Plazierung Ägyptens an der lybischen Küste und ähnlichen Unschärfen, sollte einen großen Geist natürlich nicht stören.Das Spielgeschehen hätte man auch viel einfacher plazieren können, und es damit sogar noch durchsichtiger gemacht. Denn das geohistorische Brimborium verdeckt nur das doch recht lineare Spielprinzip. Man denke sich die Zahlen 1 bis 8 irgendwie zufällig in einem Kreis auf dem Tisch verteilt, und schon hat man die Aufgabenstellung hundertprozentig adaptiert. Es geht darum, möglichst viele, möglichst hohe und möglichst nebeneinanderliegende Zahlen (Länder) in Besitz zu bringen.Wie macht man das?

Ganz einfach: Jeder Spieler ist mit einem Kartensatz mit den Zahlen 1 bis 8 ausgestattet. Davon wählt jeder jeweils drei Karten, sprich Zahlen, aus und bestimmt damit die Zahlen im Kreis, auf die er einen Spielstein der eigenen Farbe zu legen gedenkt. Alle Spieler decken gleichzeitig die gewählten Karten auf und legen dann die entsprechenden Spielsteine auf die Zahlen im Kreis. Das wird bis zum Spielende wiederholt und so verteilen sich allmählich die Spielsteine der Mitspieler je nach Vorliebe oder Taktik unterschiedlich auf den Zahlen im Kreis.

Nach jedem Setzenvorgang wird eine Zahl gewertet: Der Spieler mit den meisten Spielsteinen auf der Zahl im Kreis hat die Zahl in seinen Besitz gebracht, d.h. er erhält den Zahlenwert als Siegpunkte gutgeschrieben. Der Spieler mit den zweitmeisten Spielsteinen erhält, je nach Zahl, die es zu werten gilt, 1 bis 2 Punkte weniger, der dritte 2 bis 4 Punkte weniger und der vierte und letzte 3 bis 6 Punkte weniger. Es gilt also, auf der Zahl, die gerade gewertet wird, eine Mehrheit zu erringen. Das geht natürlich nur beschränkt. Jeder Spieler muß seine Auswahl auf bestimmte Zahlenkombinationen konzentrieren, um wenigstens dort dominieren zu können.

Nach der Wertung wird das Zahlenfeld geräumt: alle Spieler müssen ihre Spielsteine wieder an sich nehmen. Nur der Spieler mit der Mehrheit darf einen Spielstein als „Prokonsul“ auf der Zahl stehen lassen. Der steht dann schon mal für die nächste Wertung da, denn nachdem alle 8 Zahlenfelder gewertet wurden fängt die Wertung wieder bei der ersten Zahl an.

Der „Prokonsul“ hat aber noch eine weitere „einnehmende“ Bedeutung. Der Spieler, der bei einer Zahlenwertung die Mehrheit errungen hat, bekommt zusätzlich noch einen Siegpunkt für jeden eigenen Prokonsul in einer benachbarten Provinz (Zahl). Dies ist ein Grund, warum man zusammenhängende Zahlen (Provinzen) favorisieren sollte.

Peter hatte sofort erkannt, daß das unattraktive Zahlenfeld 1 neben dem maximal lukrativen Zahlenfeld 8 etwas unscheinbar an der afrikanischen Küste lag und so dem Blickpunkt der Mitspieler entgehen könnte. Er spekulierte darauf, daß er relativ unbehelligt die 1 belegen und sich mit Körpereinsatz dann auch noch die 8 aneignen könne. So kam es dann auch: Er konnte das 8er Feld dreimal erobern bzw. behalten und kassierte dafür noch zweimal mit seinen lausigen Prokonsul auf der 1 einen zusätzlich Siegpunkt. Das reichte insgesamt zum Sieg.

Ich hatte mir die Zahlenreihe 3-7-2 an der illyrischen Küste ausgesucht. Es gelang auch, auf der 3 Fuß zu fassen und dann noch die 7 zu erobern. In den nächsten Runden mußte ich aber sehr viel zur Verteidigung der 7 investieren. Als ich dann noch mit Störmanövern auf der 8 versuchte, den Kriegsschauplatz auf Peters Besitztümer zu verlagen, hatte ich unnötig Pulver verschossen. Aaron machte mir mein 3er Feld wieder abspenstig und es reichte in der Endabwertung nur zum zweiten Platz.

Obwohl Imperium im Grunde ein einfaches Auktionsspiel ist, hatten wird doch deutlich unsere Freude daran. Vielleicht lag es auch allgemein an der – durchaus nicht selbstverständlichen – allgemeinen Harmonie in unserer kleinen Vierer-Runde.

Westpark Gamers Wertung: 5,5 (von 10)

 

Autor: Moritz

am Tisch: Andrea, Hans, Aaron, Basti, Moritz

auf dem Tisch: Advanced D&D First Edition: „The Tomb of Horrors“

1. The Tomb of Horrors
   Nach dem Erfolg der letzten Rollenspielrunde war es diesmal relativ leicht, die Gruppenmitglieder zu einem weiteren Besuch in der Gruft der Schrecken zu bewegen. Diesmal sollte die Erforschung allerdings nicht so glatt vonstatten gehen wie letztesmal…

   Die Gruppe befand sich nach wie vor in einer langen Halle mit Wandmalereien, von denen einige als Geheimtür zu verschiedenen Gängen führten. Den einen Weg wollte man erst einmal nicht einschlagen – irgendwie machten einen die aus der Wand schiessenden Energiepfeile nervös. Den anderen hatte man schon erforscht (die 3 Truhen) und beim dritten war man misstrauisch (die Pforte der magischen Nebel). Blieb also nur der lange Gang, der in einer Wand endete – Bastis Magier Rizarden vermutete nicht zu Unrecht dort eine Geheimtür. Da man zu faul war, danach zu suchen, wurde wieder einmal kurzerhand die Wand in Schlamm verwandelt, dies riss jedoch Rizarden gleich selber durch die Schlammmassen in den nächsten Raum, ein mysteriöses Heiligtum mit Zombieszenen an den Wänden, jedoch auch guten Symbolen hier und dort. Ein Skelett wies mit der Hand auf ein weiteres Nebelportal, ausserdem lockte ein grosser Altar. Man machte sich allerdings zuerst an die Erforschung von zwei vollkommen langweiligen Urnen, so langweilig, daß Aarons Borsac sich kurzerhand auf den Altar schwang (warum, wissen nur die Götter). Dies löste einen Energieblitz von beträchtlichem Ausmass aus, der Borsac leicht versengte, für die 2 im Weg stehenden Fackelträger Kaspar und Bully jedoch den Desintegrationstod bedeutete.

   Die Gruppe war aber immer noch nicht vorsichtig genug geworden – man öffnete fröhlich die Betbänke und wurde von einer schwächenden Giftwolke überrascht. Hierauf sprangen Elrican und Darriell erst einmal vor Schreck in das Nebelportal….und tauchten geschlechtsumwandelt und böse wieder daraus auf!

   Das war erst mal wieder zuviel, die Gruppe musste erst einmal 2 Tage verschnaufen…weiteres Experimentieren mit dem Nebelportal ergab, das die Ausrichtungsänderung rückgängig zu machen war, die Geschlechtsänderung jedoch nicht. Elrican blieb also Elricana, konnte dafür aber wieder heilen (als gute Priesterin). Darriell(a) dagegen blieb lieber böse…und nervte fortan mit äusserst chaotischem Verhalten!

   Nach der Rast entdeckte man durch Andreas stets gut gezielte Suchsprüche einen Schlitz in der Wand – Hans war der Erste, der auf die Idee kam, diesen mittels des vorher gefundenen Ringes in eine zu öffnende Geheimtür umwandelte. Vorsichtig stieg man eine tiefe Treppe herab, und stiess auf eine Folge von drei Türen, jeweils mit einer fiesen Falltüre dahinter. Andrea misstraute dem langen, um die Ecke führenden Gang, und suchte die Gruben erst einmal ab- Bingo: Ein weiterer Geheimgang! In diesem stiess man zuerst auf einen recht ereignislosen Gang, der mittels einer weiteren Türe zu einem ereignislosen Raum mit 3 grossen Fässern führte. Nun, sieht man mal von der Riesenamöbe in einem der Fässer ab! Ausserdem fand man 2 Teile eines Schlüssels, die auch gleich zusammenpassten.

   Da man irgendetwas von ZWEI Schlüsseln ahnte (siehe Acereraks Gedicht vom letzten Mal), nahm man an, doch in dem langen Gang eventuell etwas zu verpassen. Dieser führte zu eine Tür, die Borsac kurzerhand zerhackte. Leichtfüssig schritt die Gruppe einem schrecklichen Schicksal entgegen, auf einem in einen Lavastrom kippenden Fussboden! Nicht alle konnten sich schnell retten – Wurgan kämpfte sich mühsam mit mehreren Geschicklichkeitswürfen wieder zum Eingang, während er den Tod hinter sich wusste!

   Nun, dann doch lieber den anderen Gang entlang!

   Hier stiess man ersteinmal auf unpenetrierbaren Nebel, der lustigerweise mit „Springerstiefeln“ (im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes) erforscht wurde. Eine Tür führte wiederum zu unpenetrierbaren Spinnweben, die nur durch Bastis Feuermagie vernichtet werden konnten (zusammen mit dem daranhängenden „10-foot-pole“, der vorher bei der Fallenerkennung gute Dienste geleistet hatte). In einer kleinen Kammer stiess man auf eine merkwürdige brüllende Mumie, die auch gleich angriff. War dies Acererak, das Lich? Die Mumie war auf jeden Fall schnell erledigt, sofort stürzte auch gleich JamesBond-mäßig die Decke ein. Alles Illusion, wie Andrea gleich darauf herausfand! Na, so leicht war man nicht von der Suche nach Acererak abzubringen. Sich erst in einer weiteren Sackgasse wähnend, fand man doch noch eine Geheimtür im Fässerraum. Wieder ein langer Gang – eine weite Fallgrube mit Speeren wurde recht locker mit den Spring(er)stiefeln überquert (man reichte diese ingeniös jeweils an den nächsten mit einem Seil weiter). Eine weitere Geheimtür (die einzige Fortbewegungsmethode in dem Dungeon), und man stand in einer kleinen Grabvorkammer. Diese hatte die unangenehme Eigenschaft alle paar Minuten zu wackeln, was in eine Art lustiges Zwergenkegeln ausartete. Dutzende von kleinen Truhen waren schnell durchsucht (ihr Inhalt immer Schlangen oder kleine Schätze). Andrea untersuchte mutig die seltsamen Vorhänge, als der Raum wiede mal wackelte. „Hältst Du Dich fest?“ „Ja“. „Wo?“ „Am Vorhang“. „Wirklich? Bist Du sicher?“. „Ja, ganz sicher“. Nun, der Vorhang riss, verwandelte sich in grünen Schleim und begrub Andreas arme Elricana unter sich. Erst Geschlechtsumwandlung, dann Schleimtod – wahrlich ein Freitag der 13.!

   Das war so shocking, daß die Gruppe von einer seltsamen Depression befallen wurde. Lustlos beschäftigte man sich mit dem Schleim, der sich auch gleich in wärmesaugenden Schimmel verwandelte, nachdem man mit Fackeln darin herumstocherte. Traurig suchte man das Verlies mal hier, mal da ab – es schien keinen Ausweg mehr zu geben! Fast stoisch begegnete Basti den Todesspeeren, die aus der untersuchten länglichen Fallgrube schossen, als er sie zum Durchsuchen betrat…

   Endlich entschloss man sich aber doch, doch der Serie von Geheimräumen mit Energiepfeilen nachzugehen, und voilà, es gab doch einen Ausweg! Schade nur, daß da auch ein ziemlich fieses Gargoyle stand – das bisher am schwersten zu besiegende Monster! Um den Hals herum hatte es eine Edelsteinkette…Edelsteine? Moment, da war doch noch das ANDERE Gargoyle, aus Stein, mit den seltsamen Dellen in den Händen. Ein paar statuenzerquetschte Edelsteine später war man in Besitz eines Magischen Auges, mit dem fröhlich alles abgesucht werden konnte. So stiess man auch endlich auf den Ausgang des Verlieses, direkt neben dem Gargoyleraum. Frühmorgens müde an die frische Luft stolpernd, war die Gruppe nun doch zu einer Art Happy End gelangt!

   Wie mag es wohl weitergehen?

Author: Hans

at the table: Peter, Moritz, Günther, Walter, Aaron, Hans

on the table: Age of Steam

Age Of Steam
After considering and dismissing the option to play a new title, there was widespread acclaim in this evening’s round of six (Aaron, Günther, Hans, Moritz, Peter, Walter) to have another go at „Age of Steam“. Five of us had participated in WPGs first playing of this title on November 5. Aaron was the only one new to the game and, sadly, finished last. His income did not cover the costs until well into the game session, and victory never was in his grasp. Of the other five, all did well with differing strategies, and the outcome was not decided until the last two turns. Newbies beware!

This time, we all had the impression that there was a fierce competition from the first game turn to the last, and we put a lot of thought in choosing actions, bidding for turn order, running trains, …

With six players, the game covered the evening’s session, and we all very much needed the short, relaxed round of „Bluff“ afterwards. Truly, „Age of Steam“ is a rewarding experience, but you need to take it seriously – it is serious fun!

At the beginning, all players except Hans (me) decided not to raise fresh money by distributing shares, not wanting to be burdened with dividends. This first decision of the game is already critical: A share is worth five money, and costs one money in dividends, per turn. Obviously, they are a net loss in the long run. On the other hand, if you want to build three tiles and also bid some amount for turn order, it is pretty much inevitable to do some deficit spending at some point.

Peter followed a very „cheap“ strategy from the beginning to the end, with only five shares distributed (two is the starting amount), and did surprisingly (to me) well. At the final count, he had only four track sections to his color, but finished runner-up. Hans did the opposite, building many tracks, transporting many goods, but facing a lot of costs and, decisively, the final VP reduction for distributed shares. The expansive (expensive) strategy was, however, only defeated in the last two rounds, when the goods became scarce and Hans‘ tracks sections were no longer in demand.

Bidding for turn order was cautious, Peter did well by using the „urbanization“ option as a means to build free track (a minor city tile costs money, a major city tile placed during urbanization is for free). Hans grabbed important ground in the south center portion of the map with „first build“. Most track was built there, in the first turns.

We played with six players, so there were only six game turns, and I have the impression that the game was developing in three distinct phases: opening, mid- and endgame.

During the opening game, in the first two turns, money is very much a problem. It seems necessary to increase your income by 2 per turn at least. To this end, you should try to cooperate with others on a 1-1 basis (as soon as there are „2“ trains). Build opportunistic tracks and stay near the center. Watch closely where goods are about to appear that can be easily transported. Upgrade your train soon. Use the „Locomotive“ option in order not to lose a transportation round while upgrading. This option becomes increasingly important with an expansive strategy. Use the „Turn Order“ option if you want to run a „cheap“ enterprise. Moritz, Hans and Günther made good progress in this phase. Aaron fell behind and did not recover until it was too late.

In the mid-game, it is important to have a good train in order to break even with your enterprise and cash in on longer transport routes. „Urbanization“ and „First Move“ (of goods) become very important options. During this phase, the goods are depleted at a very high rate, and the game becomes somewhat unpredictable. With fewer than six players, it may be different, but we haven’t played with a smaller round, yet. It is necessary to rely more and more on transporting goods yourself, over your own tracks, to gain profit, as more and more competing routes are becoming available. It is now a good decision to issue shares and build always the full amount of tracks regardless of the terrain. Everyone did so, and even the most reluctant players gave out shares and competed for turn order with higher bids. At this point, Hans‘ expensive strategy netted the largest profit for the first time, with an impressive income which outweighed the high costs for his „4“ train and eight shares. Moritz was handicapped by a slow „2“ train, but still had the second best profit, due to small costs and due to the income base he had built up in the starting rounds. Günther was doing okay, participating with a track section in several often-run routes and in a 1-1 cooperation with Aaron who had very limited feasible transportation routes. Walter was exploring the western map and did not have the best returns on his investment so far, however had not lost money in turn order bids, thus keeping a sound financial basis. Peter kept a very low profile, giving out only one share above the starting two and concentrated on train upgrade and on building a few crucial tracks, thus creating a highly profitable transport route from the as yet unexplored east coast „city 3“ to the board center. This was the decisive move for his outstanding endgame performance. Moritz was building for the endgame as well (in the west), but his slow train remained a problem.

The endgame saw impressive upheavals of player performances. Goods remained in good supply only in the east coast cities and in the far west. This handicapped Hans very much who had not prepared for this foreseeable event and was building tracks here, there, and everywhere (giving out shares to cover building costs) which did not return the investment. In addition, Hans‘ large income incurred the highest reduction penalties, a balancing mechanism of the game system. Peter was now cashing in in big chunks, running goods exclusively on his own few track sections. Günther wanted to do the same by linking the east cost to his track sections in the northern center, but he had to upgrade his train during a transportation round of the last game turn, which cost him second place, and he finished fourth, together with Hans. Walter finally linked the northwest to the center, and also had a track section which was often used by Peter, but it was too late in order to make more than third place. Moritz could maintain a continuous, if moderate, flow of goods, and got another win with a very even-paced, unspectacular strategy. As it seems, it was a good decision to connect his tracks with cities of many different colors, keeping open options for transportation throughout the game.

It was an exciting, close game, and we put no little effort in playing it well. There remains, however, an amount of uncertainty as to whether the random availability of additional goods (which come in each game turn by rolling dice) doesn’t give luck a too big influence on the outcome (considering the amount of planning one has to do). I had this impression in the first game, three weeks ago, but this time I didn’t think so. Next time we’ll see! I look forward to it.