Spotlight on Games
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1001 Nights of Gaming
- N -
- Name der Rose, Der (The Name of the Rose)
In games like
In the Year of the Dragon,
Notre Dame
and
Roma
this inventor has shown an uncommon interest in
the underlying themes of his works. The
original novel
by Umberto Eco,
and subsequent
film,
are enticing inspirations for a logical deduction game with
plenty of atmosphere: a medieval Italian monastery, a murdered
monk and a Holmesian detective with assistant trying to determine which
of many suspects did it. In fact, it has
already been made as a game
at least once, though without the author's approval. This is a
different sort of game, however. Here each player takes on the
role of a particular monk who is also a suspect. But only the
player knows which of the monks he is playing and any monk may
be moved by anyone. The main activity – achieved via cardplay
– that teleports monks, detective and assistant to various
locations around the monastery, is to stick suspicion on
the various characters. By the end, the player having the
least attached odium probably wins. There are some bonuses for
being able to predict exactly which character each other player
is, but this tends to be negligible as players generally score
about the same amounts. Physically, the production quality is
good with largish pawns and a large, illustrated board.
Unfortunately there are some communication design issues.
It's rather difficult to quickly find locations
as they all look too similar to one another, especially for
those viewing the board upside down. Also it's
probably a good idea to take notes during play, but nothing
is provided. Play can be frustratingly repetitive; you plant
suspicion on someone, someone else plants it on you,
and so on ad finitum, with play never really developing in
any new ways, even though there are special "scorings" at
the end of each round. Ending the round is a nice advantage
for someone, but that privilege generally just goes to the
player lucky enough to draw a high-numbered card. The design
is at cross purposes as well. In terms of the deduction
aspect, the more players the better, but in terms of downtime,
fewer would be preferable. Because what players can do depends
on where the monks are, and their latest scores, there is only
so much planning that can be done when it is not one's turn,
leading to waiting more desultory than it should be. A
five-player outing can last two hours or more, rather much for
this simple situation. Players interested by this topic should
stay with
Mystery of the Abbey.
LMMM5 (Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 5)
Stefan Feld; Ravensburger/Rio Grande; 2008; 2-5
- Nanuuk
Nearly-abstract game by Günter Cornett depicts Inuit hunters after
fish, seals, whales and walrus. The winner is the player who brings in
the biggest haul, but complications arise because each time a hunter
moves he creates cracks in the ice which cannot be crossed, unless he
can earn a kayak. Also available are huskies and sledges to move faster.
Also to contend with are polar bears which deprive a hunter of
his harpoon, but allow displacing the bear so as to disprupt
another's plans. As there is no luck, a game which rewards
careful planning and estimation of others' plans. Finishes in
less than thirty minutes. Designed for four, but works well as
a tough two-player contest also. Less interesting for three.
Four player partnership game is a very accessible and interesting
challenge for team play.
Includes nice wooden pieces, especially the polar bears and a
booklet of background information on the life of the Inuit.
Has appeared in two editions – the above refers to the second edition.
I wrote nearly-abstract, but if you get a chance, see the dramatic movie
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner,
where even the ice cracks form a dramatic element.
[Two vs. Two Games]
Günter Cornett;
Bambus;
1998; 2-4
- Nascar Champions
Auto-racing game by Milton Bradley (a Hasbro label) meant for
ages 8 and up. Players compete in two races trying to get
their own car, and those in which they acquire an investment,
over the checkered line earliest. Movement is via dice rolling,
each die having the same number for each car. It may be impossible
to move one's own car on some turns or to sometimes move it more
than once. Blocking is possible and some rolls yield chance cards
which cause special effects, generally in favor of the drawer,
although some cards clearly help the last place car. Strategy
is usually fairly obvious and the secret investment cards offer
only a little room for bluffing, but the rules are clean, play
is fast and components decent.
- Nautilus
Games of discovery and exploration are a difficult
proposition. Some, like
Age of Exploration
solve the basic problem by putting in plain sight what can be
found – the problem then is managing resources to reach and
exploit it. While this approach can make for a viable game, it
can work against the player who wants to feel he is sailing into
the unknown willing to be surprised by what is out there. This
then leads to the tile flipping sort of game where one sets out
and only upon arrival makes a discovery. Not all tiles are of
equal value or else there would be no winner unless the game is
only about who can collect the most, in which case interest in
the identities of the tiles themselves plummets quickly. But if
some are more valuable than others, luck in finding these good
tiles is often going to outweigh skill of play. So making a
fair game while preserving the discovery aspect appears to be
an impossible task. Thus I was very curious how Brigitte and
Wolfgang Ditt would approach it in this exploration of the
undersea world. What they have actually done is create two
games in one. There is a game of finding objects in a solo
submersible with all of the already cited attendant problems.
Then there is a game of buying, placing and moving about in
research and habitation stations. As each has doors on only
three of four sides and there are two types of
doors, a thoughtful connectivity game begins to develop. Only
begins because it feels that this particular game could have
been developed even further (but probably there was no room
considering the amount of "space" required for the other game)
and even form a challenging standalone competition. A player's
final score then is based on multiplying together his scores
in the two games, meaning that to win he needs to be lucky as
well as good. As the two games appeal to two different types
of players, it's difficult to say who will like this one except
that parakeets will find a great deal to love in this glorious
Franz Vohwinkel and Kosmos plastic bits effort. Beyond these,
the game looks to fans of
experience games
to savor its pleasures, even though the station mechanics seem
somewhat unthematic. It doesn't feel right that so much should
depend on ability to walk about a station, but there does seem to
be a good joke on those obsessive scientists who once they enter
a lab become so fascinated they never leave. The two games are a
solution, but for master strategists is probably still not ideal,
not that any game so far is. (Reiner Knizia's
Africa
may come closer.)
I suppose anyway that those concerned with a fair game can
consider they have a moral victory if they dominate the station
game and who knows what will happen under the sea as the results
can vary so widely. Yes, ameliorating factors such as the hidden
victory goals have been built it, but they don't necessarily help
as it's entirely possible to never even find any of these items.
Perhaps it would help if sonar weren't so expensive to use.
Kudos to the communications design: there are no serious language
dependencies apart from the instructions. An interesting tidbit:
this was originally a space game, but Kosmos' prior publication
of another space game, Die
Sternenfahrer von Catan, caused the change of topic for
market saturation reasons.
- Navegador
For some reason the sea explorations of Spain and Portugal
have been popular lately,
Vasco da Gama
and
Magister Navis
constituting other examples. The 500-year anniversary of
da Gama's voyages
may have inspired a traveling exhibition or television
documentary that in turn has inspired all this. This one is a
rondel game by the inventor of the mechanism, though not
published by the usual source. It may be the best though, not
only rondel but also on the voyages and colonization theme.
Possible activities include sailing, establishing colonies,
recruiting , buying ships, selling plantation produce,
refining produce, buying royal privileges and building
factories, shipyards or cathedrals with a lot of coopetitive
elements. For example, selling produce makes the price go
down, but makes the refining income for it rise. Or, the
player who explores a new region likely gives another player
the first chance to colonize it. Almost everything confers
victory points, but the main source is one's specialized work
on the five column privilege board. This gives rise then to
individual strategies such as building factories, building
cathedrals or acquiring privileges. While all of this is
great, there are caveats for some. This is a complex, heavy affair
which will probably last two hours or more, at least at first,
with many sweat-inducing decisions. It's one in which money tends
to be tight at the start, but becomes plentiful later. The
value of discovered colonies, randomly-determined, varies by a
factor of nearly four which is perhaps too much for a game of
this length. It can also be rather confusing the first couple
of times since some things are paid for with ships, some with
workers, some with money and sometimes instead one actually
receives money for doing it, e.g. with the privileges. The
whole way that the market changes when selling and refining
will definitely take getting used to. There is also the
suspicion that the different strategic approaches are not
balanced, but this will take more playings to ascertain.
Thematically, though this is probably the best rondel game so far.
The presentation, employing an effective color scheme is quite good.
Tactically, an ideal start is probably to explore Africa,
get a lucky discovery value, then use the cash earned to buy an
extra worker and thus be the first to get a cathedral, perhaps
with help of a refinery or two. Once achieving this one can
regularly buy two workers at a time, cheap.
HHMM7 (Strategy: High; Theme: High; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 7)
Mac Gerdts; PD-Verlag-2010/Rio Grande-2010; 2-5; 120
Amazon
- Néfertiti (Nofretete, Nefertiti)
The sculpture of Nefertiti, which some say represents the most
beautiful woman the world has known, resides these days in
Berlin, having been bought by German excavators. Of course,
just like the Trojan treasure, the Amber room and the
Parthenon frieze (aka the Elgin marbles), the country of
origin is asking to have it back. But just as with the Ishtar
Gate and
Euphrat & Tigris,
this situation seems to be good for game fans as its presence
in Europe may have helped inspire a new game. This one is
essentially an auction affair with a set collection outcome,
but the auctions are done in a rather unusual way. The board
depicts four pairs of "markets", but only one of each pair is
available at a time. A market typically shows ten
increasingly-numbered locations on which player pawns may
stand. A turn consists of a player claiming sole ownership of
such a location and possibly triggering the market if its
conditions have been met. Each one has a different condition,
e.g. pawns total over a particular number, three pawns in a
line, the number of pawns is greater than a die roll, etc.,
and when it occurs the player on the top numbered location can
pay that amount to buy any pair of cards associated with the
market or the card at the top which comes with a seal.
The money is paid into the market and so succeeding players
have the option of either buying a remaining card or taking
half the money in the market. Then this half of the market
closes and one half of another fully-closed market opens,
creating a series of openings and closings throughout play
that remind of a Chinese puzzle box. All of this promising
variety in the auctions falls down somewhat in the
set collection component as it's just the old idea of trying to
collect the most cards possible of the same type. If others
hold cards of the type, each of yours loses value. There
is some novelty in the seals which permit players to purchase
various special ability cards which do things like let players
force card trades, turn them in early for greater value or
perform other tricks. The theme suggests players are
representatives of Pharaoh acquiring collections for his queen.
But it comes out much more in the artwork – full of
attractive Egyptian styles and motifs – than the mechanisms.
There is also a nice cardboard ankh piece which is not strictly
necessary for play, but actually tends to help flow as it
conveniently remembers the last player at a time (market
closure) when a great many things are going on. The most
interesting decisions here are figuring out where others are
likely to place, when to place for acquiring cards and when for
money and what an item is worth. Play is considerably
different with only three as there is much more likelihood of
multiple players holding the same types and of auctions
triggering due to someone running out of pawns. But in both
players need to consider when to acquire cards just to spoil
another's monopoly. In general this is a bad idea as it hurts
only the two players involved to the advantage of others, but
does make sense in a few skewed situations. On the other hand,
there's fragility since some may not take this point of
view and delight in unfair and possibly biased easy spoiling.
[Ancient Egypt Games]
Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 5
Thomas Cauet, Jacques Bariot & Guillaume Montiage; Matagot/Heidelberger Spieleverlag/Rio Grande; 2008; 3-4
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Neue Spiele im alten Rom (New Games in
Old Rome): The Catiline Conspiracy
Knizia seems to be a bit out of his depth in this, his
only logical deduction game. Mainly it seems to be a
matter of having luck in asking the right questions
to the right players earliest. One wrinkle is that
speculation is given a greater chance, but only to a very
minimal extent.
Black Vienna
is more satisfying for this type of game.
L
- Neue Spiele im alten Rom (New Games in Old Rome): Circus Maximus (Rome: Circus Maximus)
Knizia's very elegant chariot racing game is nonetheless
fairly true to its topic. Each player runs three teams in a
once around. Each has cards numbered 1 through 5 and allocates
up to three per team. The cards represent the number of spaces
a team moves in a straight line. As a chariot is not allowed
to pass through another, one must usually swing wide to pass
which requires more use of cards. To compensate it is necessary
to come in to force the same penalty on those following,
perhaps forming a wall with other teams to force the issue.
There is some guesswork too in looking at what cards others have
remaining and what their moves are likely to be. Is there a slight
advantage for the player who gets to set up in front and move
first? Really more of a tactical exercise than a strategic one,
but short enough to not overstay its welcome. The version in the
GMT three pack Rome features specialized wood blocks with
illustrated stickers.
- Neue Spiele im alten Rom (New Games in Old Rome): Hannibal versus Rome (Rome: Hannibal versus Rome)
Knizia game for two is the most abstract of all of the many games on this
topic (Second Punic War).
There is no real hidden information and it is mostly a matter of
opportunistic tactics, but it is surprising how interesting this game of
maneuver can be. Each player begins with slightly different forces, but
with an identical set of cards which are used to resolve combat by
simultaneous choose and compare. Engrossing for a few plays.
- Neue Spiele im alten Rom (New Games in Old Rome): Imperium (Rome: Imperium)
Secret allocation game for up to five in which players try to dominate
the empire. Actually the theme doesn't fit very well. Players each have an
identical set of cards as in
Raj
and once again it is good strategy
to try not to be overly ambitious, but this tends to happen as
the last scored provinces are the most valuable. Interesting
for a play or two, but highly unpredictable depending on the
thought processes of the players. New edition published as
part of GMT's Rome three-pack adds three special cards:
(i) a one-time chance to score the next province as well, (ii)
a one-time chance to re-select cards after seeing what everyone
else chooses and (iii) a chance to double one of the other
allocations. In addition, a region winner can keep a token in
the location for the next time around and earn extra points if
also triumphant in a physically (vice chronologically) adjacent
region. These are good innovations and the physical presentation
is nicer, but the basic nature of the matter remains the same.
- Neue Spiele im alten Rom (New Games in Old
Rome): Seven Hills of Rome
Knizia card game for two. There is no map, the fight for
the seven hills is represented by seven cards à la
Schotten-Totten. Players compete for them by allocating
cards from identical decks something like in Raj. The
tricky issue is that cards are secret until both sides have
allocated to the same hill in which case these cards
become visible. Lacks flavor, but interesting for a play or two.
Variants are also provided.
- Neue Taktikspiele mit Würfeln und Karten: Complica (Complica)
Early abstract for two from Reiner Knizia needs a lot of lookahead
ability. Players fill up four rows with chips and whoever can first
line up four in a row wins.
- Neue Taktikspiele mit Würfeln und Karten: Dubito
Early Knizia-designed card game for up to four which is
quite similar to Lost Cities without discards. Highly
recommended, especially if one adds a single discard pile, from which
subsequent players may draw cards.
A little surprising that it so far has only appeared in a book.
A possible explanation of the title is that
In Italian, the word "subito" means "at once, immediately!", a
useful term for foreigners to know when demanding the bill at
restaurants in Italy by the way. So I think Dubito was meant
as sort of a double pun, since it is similar to Italian "dubitare"
or "to doubt", as in the game you don't want to do anything
immediately, but instead are in considerable doubt as to what
is the right thing to do.
- Neue Taktikspiele mit Würfeln und Karten: Goldrausch (Goldrausch)
Early Knizia card allocation game ostensibly about Old West
mining. The usual difficult dilemmas are there and it is
a fun way to pass time, if a bit chaotic.
- Neue Taktikspiele mit Würfeln und Karten: Kanzler
Knizia card bluffing game. The system is similar to the card bidding
and bluffing part of the later Taj Mahal. Here
players are trying to get their party elected in four different states
of Germany as well as to win the Chancellorship. Not without interest,
but perhaps a bit too subject to luck of the deal.
- Neue Taktikspiele mit Würfeln und Karten: Kartenjagd
Early Knizia card game seems to be an early version of his Ohio
but here the goal is to play the highest rather than the lowest card.
Ohio is likely the better version.
- Neue Taktikspiele mit Würfeln und Karten: Mr. President (Catena)
Early Knizia card game is of the
Raj
type in which each player
has the same deck. In this it is also similar to his
Tor
and
Hannibal versus Rome.
Here even the geography of the
board has been mostly removed although not so far as that of Raj.
Would have been more interesting if the same system had not been
used in so many different titles.
- Neue Taktikspiele mit Würfeln und Karten: Sono (Prisma)
Knizia card game in which players essentially try to form the
best poker hands in a square, one player working from top to
bottom and the other from side to side. Challenging and
requiring a fair amount of thought.
- Neue Taktikspiele mit Würfeln und Karten: Swap (Um Speis und Trank)
Knizia dice game is a very simple version of a market.
Four types of items are on offer and while their ranking value is
constant, their relative value changes because each is determined
by a die. When dice get re-rolled, the values change, so sometimes
it is best to trade up and at others to trade down. A rule which
permits each type to participate only once in a trade further
restricts options. Players must navigate between having the most
value vs. always having at least one of each type lest a really
useful opportunity arise. The game is won when the first player
manages to double his original stake.
Quick and yet with interesting tactical decisions. Works best
using the Sway Swap variant which offers slightly finer
control. Later published as the separate game
Um Speis und Trank.
Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 7
- Neue Taktikspiele mit Würfeln und Karten: Turmbau zu Babel
Early Knizia card game is of the Raj type in which each
player has the same deck. Here the cards are played in hopes of
erecting the Tower of Babel. Would be more interesting if the
same system had not been used in so many different titles.
- Neuen Entdecker, Die
Apparently unhappy with the original Entdecker, Kosmos and Klaus
Teuber decided to have another go with "The New Discoverers",
in the process incorporating a form of some of the more popular
home-grown variants (open tiles). While production has become
bigger and better, it is nevertheless still more a tile-laying
than an exploration game. The new and curiously flat native huts
containing hidden prizes add a lot of chaos; strategists will want
to cut their value in half. Those who have the older game may like
to swap it for the new, but owning both is not warranted. Despite
the title and atmosphere, really won't work as an experience game
and is best saved for fans of tricky tile-laying. Between the
two versions of this game there also appeared the similar
El Caballero,
which has less luck and more emphasis on defensive play.
- Neuland
The "house that Jack built"-style game appears to be a popular trope of
late and this is a minimalist treatment of the idea. Not much more than
a nod is given to its vaguely medieval theme. Its plain, cardboard bits
are nothing to e-mail home about either. But you will find two rather
clever innovations in this compact package. The first is baked into the
board itself. As players operate under action point restrictions that
are increased by distance, it was important to keep distances low lest
play become too long/difficult. On the other hand there is the need
to pack a lot of items into the space and for the same reason. These
conflicting goals were solved by fashioning the cardboard items in such
a shape that three of them neatly fit into each hexagon. The second
bit of cleverness is the handling of unused actions. Other games, e.g.
Mexica, give players with unused
action points a compensation token to be used later. In this "New Land"
what obtains instead is a circular track. Each point used advances the
player's pawn on the track. Players who use fewer are more likely to
have their turn again sooner, sometimes immediately following their own
(but then often not for a while after). It's quite a clever subsystem,
one that will challenge, frustrate and delight. The game itself may
be best played by computer and thus best appreciated by logisticians.
The only problem is that this group also tends to like a nicer looking
game to add luster to their collection, although perhaps the low
price and footprint of this package are adequate compensations. The
artistic-minded and intuitives will find less here to interest them at
present, even if there is much to admire from a design point of view.
[Eggertspiele]
- New England
Moon/Weissblum auction and tile placement venture set in the
historic American northeast. Players represent early families
expanding their holdings. Two innovations provide some new
ways to approach play. The first is that the current player
decides how many tiles to draw from the bag, where there is a
side consequence that the missing number will be made up with
cards. Judging what is best considering everyone's holdings
is a tricky problem. Once the items have appeared, a second
problem is deciding how much to spend acquiring them. In this
new auction system, each player chooses a unique amount from 1
to 12 which will determine the order of choice and placement as
well as the cost of each of the two actions. As the most frequent
activities are turning over one's tiles, expanding one's tiles
or placing something on one's tiles, the board seems to change
verrry gradually during play. Actually, what's changing are that
developments are being closed off (at least in the endgame),
victory points cards are being used up and races are being won,
but all so placidly that it almost sinks beneath notice. Playing
well, besides the usual evaluation skill, is often a matter of
timing and order. It may look great to fill up one's tiles and
score a lot of points, but if you haven't also held back a bit and
placed more tiles, you'll soon find yourself being outstripped by
opponents as you no longer have enough space for ships, barns and
pilgrims. Speaking of these, the theme is really only apparent
to readers of the instructions. To others it is just a matter
of bidding and placing with the reason each item behaves the
way it does appearing rather arbitrary.
Overall, this is a sophisticated game of making small
gains over a long period to eventually triumph, but some
may find it a bit drab both visually and in terms of the
rate of change. Probably fans of the previous Moon title,
Wongar,
will also appreciate this one.
Alan R. Moon
- New England Railways
This edition of the system first introduced in
Lancashire Railways
seems better realized. There appear to be more vital links
to consider during play. Moves right along and
there are some interesting purchasing and shipping decisions
to make. An interesting game balancing mechanism
called "inflation" tends to keep leaders in
check. Strategically, taking an early loan is usually a good idea.
Later, deciding how much of a loan to take is a major question.
Usually, taking enough to be assured of buying a card is a good idea.
The next in this series is
Volldampf.
[6-player Games]
Martin Wallace;
Winsome; 2000
- New Orleans Big Band
German game on a very American theme, assembling jazz bands. The
rather large board is a gridded representation of New
Orleans. Face down cards are laid out and players spend their very
quick turns moving their pawn and claiming cards. This very simple
activity sounds almost childish, but actually has interesting
dimensions as it's a challenge to gauge what others will do and
what is the best move to minimize the number of turns in which you
are unable to collect cards. Perhaps another game will do more with
this one day. Anyway, the cards received are either musicians,
specials or events. A lot of the events can be rather negative,
such as lose a turn, and this is one aspect which can be rather
unfair should a player be unlucky enough to draw a lot of them.
Musicians are classed by instrument(s) played and to score a player
needs to have an artist in each of five categories. Each one is
rated for ability which will eventually tell whose band is best,
and victorious. But it is not simply a matter of collecting all
of the best. That would be much too easy. No, these artistes
turn out to be a bunch of diva personalities. Virtually every one
of them has some kind of condition attached to his participation.
Some snobs won't play unless someone else in the band is rated at
least 75 or more while glory hounds won't play unless everyone else
is worth less than 25. Because having two such musicians in your
band spells doom, there are frequent trading rounds, probably run
something like the baseball trade meetings. The negotiations get
both amusing and convoluted as all the strange conditions start to
emerge. Also thrown into the mix are the specials like the Golden
Trumpet which can augment the value of its player or, best of all,
cards that remove the conditions of a difficult drummer. This may
sound like a lot of negotiation, but those who dislike the mechanism
shouldn't fear this because the details are mostly already dictated
by the cards. This simple and light hearted game might get repetitive
if played too often, especially if the cards become too
well known, but has a fascinatingly different look and feel
which should make it worth returning to from time to time.
If only it had the ability for players to create their own cards
or a way for the cards to be substantially different each time, it
could be a real winner. Maybe someday a computer implementation or
computer-aided device will do this job, always making sure that a
decent mix of performers is available.
- New York
Nice, light Sid Sackson game about expanding Manhattan holdings
orthogonally by play of cards. Elegant system seems underappreciated
by many. Previously published in more primitive form as
Property in
A Gamut of Games.
- Niagara
Pick-up-and-deliver game for up to 5 which has nothing to do with the
Marilyn Monroe classic
That shares its name. It doesn't seem to have much to do with
the upstate New York waterfall either as I really don't recall
hearing about any lucrative gem ferrying business there. But
this is interesting and innovative enough in itself that such
considerations don't matter. The high quality board features
a double layer which permits creation of a central track: the
river. Placed within and filling up the width of the course
are clear plastic discs: the water. These discs demarcate the
movement of player boats as they travel about (powered by a
Raj-like system), picking up,
stealing and delivering jewels. All is well upon the river,
except that after each round the discs are pushed so that a
number equal to the
lowest movement rate fall off the edge (not good if your boat
is on one of them). What's fascinating here is the fork just
before the falls, which has been cleverly designed so that
discs alternate between moving left and moving right. But
not always! Maybe 1 in 10 will unexpectedly follow their
immediate predecessor and if so, watch out! There is a definite
push-your-luck element to good play. It's good that one can tell
in advance which way the disc currently at the fork – Goat Island
in real life – will go, so no memorization is required. I have
no idea whether this system was easy or difficult to devise and
would love to know if it is based on some theory of physics,
but as an extremely simple alternative to getting randomness
from dice or cards, I find it brilliant. This game really
shows publisher Zoch
at their best, producing games that straddle the worlds of both
strategy and clever action. Component quality being top-notch,
the only downsides here might be fragility – can it withstand
a player who only wants to maliciously sink everyone's boat? –
and replayability, i.e. is there enough in the system to bring
it out again and again? On the other hand, this is definitely a
showy crowd pleaser that will be great for large gatherings as
well as being accessible to the not-yet-addicted game player.
[Spiel des Jahres Winner]
[Holiday List 2004]
- Nicht die Bohne!
A card game about avoiding taking certain bean cards has a
title "not the beans" which could also be construed as a bit of
self-deprecating humor by publisher Amigo on their own ubiquitous
and oft-expanded Bohnanza.
Will Kosmos be publishing Nicht die Siedler soon?
This game of very elegant mechanics has very little to do with
trading as in the canonical Bohnanza series, but instead
is mostly a matter of lookahead, not to mention luck of the
draw. There is considerable ability to sink the positions of
others by forcing an unwelcome card. At least as interesting
as anything in the original series, if not more so.
A good choice when a quick game for six players is required.
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 6
Horst-Rainer Rösner; Amigo; 1999 3-6
- Nichts als Ärger!
-
This deck of cards is an innovative idea and an unusual
product: an expansion not just for a game by a different
company, but in fact for a whole set of games by many
companies. It modifies any version of the simple race game
known various as Pachisi,
Aggravation, Mensch
Ärgere Dich Nicht, etc. similar to the way that
Cosmic Encounter layers a
number of special abilities onto a basic mechanism. The cartoon
artwork of the cards is cleverly done and very humorous, as is
the entire experience. As is typical with systems of this type,
there are a few ambiguities so the players need to keep in mind
that the main purpose is pure fun. There some pretty wild effects
too, e.g. players changing sides in the middle of play. Indeed,
sometimes it seems a miracle if any piece reaches at the goal
in the normal way. The cards are accompanied by extra rules
for improving play even if the cards are not used, mostly to
help ensure that everyone has at least one piece in play and
that they stay in play. The only real problem here is that the
cards contain significant text untelligible to readers without
German. [translation]
[cards translation]
- Nimms Leich
Card game version of Liar's Dice
using cards depicting five different Goldsieber card game titles
instead of dice. The Goldsieber promotional game, different
than the later Nimm's Leich by the same company, is cute
and quick, if not particularly satisfying as too often luck and
memory play an overlarge role.
- Nine Men's Morris (Mill, The Mill Game)
Traditional abstract already found in Ancient Egypt is a game
for two in which players seek to place and move tokens to form
three in a row thus giving permission to remove one of the other
player's token, but not one which is part of a three-in-a-row.
Interesting challenge, but difficult for a player to catch up
once falling behind.
- 1960: The Making of the President
This look at the Nixon-Kennedy election is reminiscent of
one of the designer's previous works,
Twilight Struggle.
The map shows a control box for each of the fifty states which
are grouped into four regions. Cubes are employed (rather than
chits) to indicate control. Also available for control are
media for the four regions as well as three global issues.
As before players alternate playing cards, choosing either
event or the operations points which permits adding cubes.
Each player is limited by a candidate pawn which dictates
where operations may occur. Movements within a region are
easy, but changing to another region more costly. When a
player attempts to affect a state that the opponent controls,
placement is not direct. Instead, the cubes randomly come out
of a bag (which is added to each turn), the player hoping that
those of his color appear. Probably even more than in
Twilight Struggle, a foreknowledge of the cards is
vital. Certain cards, such as one that permits changing about
five southern states at one blow if the media conditions are
right, can suddenly overturn the game. An awful lot depends on when
the cards appear – saving them rarely being an option –
and they are not separated into epochs as in
Twilight Struggle. On the other hand the
cards are quite fun and include plenty of historical nuggets.
The three issues are presented as value-free with the game taking
no position on right or wrong, the goal being simply to have put
in more effort on it. Like most election games, it's a numerical
challenge to know which side is winning, or even how close the
race is. A computer with a spreadsheet to summarize all this
data could be of great utility here. At minimum some
Poker chips to help count up all the 537 votes
(normally 535 but two extra votes were temporarily added due
to the recent additions of Alaska and Hawaii) can be very
useful. While many playings of Twilight Struggle can
terminate early, this one always goes the full 90-120 minutes
– the election can never happen before November. Between
the two games, probably Twilight Struggle has larger
accessibility, strategic possibilities and scope for action.
On the other hand, this one for many will have the more
interesting topic and is probably the most intriguing of
any American election game tried thus far (cf.
Road to the White House,
Campaign Trail,
Mr. President,
Landslide).
Let's hope that using these components other elections can be
represented using expansion kits.
Jason Matthews & Christian Leonhard; Z-Man Games; 2007; 2
Strategy: Medium; Theme: High; Tactics: High; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 7
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Ninety-Nine
Trick-taking card game a bit similar to Oh Hell featuring
the rare quality of playing well with three. The cleverest bit
is the way in which the amount of the prediction is based on
the suits of the cards used. Has a tendency to often have one
hand completely visible to all players which
may not be to everyone's taste. Also, luck of the draw can be a significant
factor in playing to a total as low as 100 points.
To get around this problem use the original rules which provide that nine hands
are played.
- Nippon Rails
The Empire Builder system game set in Japan is very tight.
Best for two players unless you don't mind running on others' track
constantly. System innovations are volcanoes and a long tunnel.
[Italian Rails]
[Crayon Rails series]
[Traveling Merchant Games]
[chart]
[variant]
[chart]
- Njet!
Trick-taking card game in which the players decide the rules before
play begins by negating various possibilities, hence the title.
Fascinating in the way that the players thus negotiate
to create rules which are ideal for no one, but are somewhat
acceptable to all. Sort of an instructional guide to the way
Congress operates. The conceit is that we are all
soldiers at some Siberian outpost in Soviet Russia and the cards
are delightfully illustrated with trompe l'oeil marks of
being dirtied and taped up. Unfortunately there are some slight
problems at the end which are addressed by
this variant.
Subsequently re-published in an omnibus edition of several card games
called Mu and Lots More. See
that review for comments on the revised
version.
[Two vs. Two Games]
Stefan Dorra;
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Nodwick
Frank Branham turnless trading card game related to
Pit,
Zaubercocktail
and
Wheedle.
This realization is both less pure and more strategic. Players
collect components to build six different body parts, which in
turn comprise a henchman. Play continues until a majority of
the players have completed this task upon which all score points
both for the quality and speed. The only downside is that most
of the time no one has or is willing to trade the cards one
wants. The only remedy, reminiscent of
Tamsk,
is a sand timer which flips from player to player to earn a deck draw.
Thus frantic activity and luck of the draw tend to overbalance
strategy or tactics. There can be added physical difficulty if one
accumulates more cards than hands can comfortably hold. Overall,
it has retained the idea of trading more than Wheedle has,
but players must accept a lot of physical fiddling. Whether you
like the artwork probably depends on your feelings about the
original comic book on which it is based.
[Jolly Roger Games]
- Notre Dame
-
Multi-player game for Alea from the inventor of
Roma
and Rum and Pirates.
Nominally about contesting for prestige in 15th century Paris,
the theme is not very important to play, but at least it's
something more than the usual generic medieval – and there is a
at least sort of a hunchback (the beggar king). The game is best
understood via two main features.
The first is card passing similar to that found in
Die Sieben Weisen
and
Fairy Tale
in which the player draws three cards – from his own identical
deck – and passes two to the left. Of the two he receives, he
again passes one of them on to the left. The cards themselves, of
which only two are played, correspond to districts on the player's
individual board. Here the idea of positive reinforcement is at
work so that the more one plays in a district, the more one earns
there, cubes being used to "remember" the previous plays. There
are also ways to change the "memories". There are various
approaches one can take, such as the coach game which permits
moving a coach around the boards to claim point tiles, the game
of claiming points by putting cubes into the cathedral, etc.
Some, such as the hotel, seem weaker than others, probably because
of the limits of integer rewards. There can also be difficulties
in following a desired stategy if the cards don't arrive right –
it's more a matter of playing the cards opportunistically (and keep
an eye on the focus of the player to your right to see what you
may get). Resources are fairly spartan in this rather numerical world
so that so that even if one happened
to get the cards to invest in the same thing in each of nine
turns it's probably not feasible – necessities like coin and
influence tokens will probably run out. After a turn each player
bribes one of three randomly-drawn officials receive some
benefit. These cards also contain varying numbers of rats, the
totality of which invade each player's district. This is a bit
different than the usual approach of having each player be
affected only by the number of rats associated with the card he
has chosen. In any case, avoiding a surfeit of rats is another
player preoccupation. As in games like
Fossil
and
Emerald,
there
is a certain fragility here since an inexperienced player might
pass a too-valuable card instead of eating it. Also, while it's
like other German games in length and complexity, it is rather less
forgiving. There isn't much of the usual safety net. If things go
poorly, it's possible to pretty much fall out of the running by
the end game, though scores are secret to hide the fact. On the
positive side, the game looks good, features challenging dilemmas
and can move along with little downtime. Against all expectation,
it even works well for two. Caveat: the German edition specifies
that if gold runs out it is taken from the player who has the
most while the American edition omits this.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 6
Stefan Feld; Alea; 2007; 1-6
- Nur Peanuts
-
"Only Peanuts" is "only" a dice game in the same way that
Monopoly
is. But here the player has a choice of which dice to use,
either a three-sided (don't ask me how), a six-sided whose
value is reduced by 1, or two of the latter. The goal is to end
on a high-value space and one can keep rolling to achieve it,
but there is a catch: to re-roll one must pay the property's
value to the owner. After each player has had a shot, the high
finisher is paid by the others the difference between their
properties and his, unless they have managed to reside on their
own, in which case it's free. Then the round winner purchases
another property and it repeats. There are interesting decisions
in this press-your-luck affair, e.g. which dice to wield,
how much to press, whether to buy cheap or expensively, but
there can also be runaway leaders. Just as in Monopoly,
a player blessed with early success is better situated for more
success while those lacking property are likely to be slowly
whipsawed into holdings worth only, well, peanuts. At least the
game ends when the first, rather than the penultimate player
goes flat. Can't Stop or Exxtra are probably fairer choices
in this genre, but for the malicious-minded, both lack something
this one does not: the opportunity to land on the opponent's perfect space and oust him from it.
- O -
- Oase (Oasis)
Moon & Weissblum auction and placement game is nominally set
in Mongolia. The way some of these games work reminds me of those
areas of mathematics like imaginary numbers and dimensions beyond
four that were discovered before any real life concrete examples
were known. Just as with string theory, perhaps one day a real
life equivalent for this system will also be found. Until then,
it seems closest to some of the potlatch rituals of the American
northwest in which individuals give away as much as they can
and attain status in return. Here the giveaways
are cards conferring various placement abilities,
gained by a simplified version of that used in Andromeda. When someone takes
your cards, you receive their position in the turn order. There's
plenty to consider here: which cards are you willing to leave for
opponents? what choices can you force because a player may not
choose his own? how important is it to go early next time (would
be interesting if there were a one-turn lookahead on this)? etc.
One type of prize is the ability to place in one of four different
categories, the general aim being a large, orthogonally connected
group. These are scored only at the end by multiplying with the
other type of prize, a multiplier which is not placed. This
system has already been seen in New
England, but works better here because the areas are far
more constrained, with important bottlenecks available to someone
who merely wishes to block. Graphics have been attractively
realized by Vohwinkel with only a minor communication issue
on the visibility of grassland areas. The wooden camel pieces
demonstrate once again that plastic is not required for great
figures and Schmidt Spiele has been in the forefront on this (e.g.
Cairo). Boiling Andromeda
and New England down to their essences succeeds better than
either of the predecessors and this should appeal to most players.
The only complaint might be that it can get a little repetitive
and probably goes on a bit too long. Fewer spaces to shave off
fifteen minutes would not be wrong. It would also reduce the
somewhat onerous scoring – when they exceed 100 a scoring pad
works better than a track. Of course, this varies depending on
the number of players and play feels quite a bit different with
three as compared to five, particularly in the auction phase.
Alan R. Moon
- Octi
Two-player abstract on a chess-like board with plenty of options
due to players being able to equip, i.e. program, their pieces
during play.
Similar to Ploy (not described here), but the programming
takes matters one step further.
For players who like two-player abstracts, probably
one of the best in the category. Board comes rolled up and
does not unroll well.
[Two vs. Two Games]
- Octo
Dice game originally published in 1990 and more recently in the book
Dice Games Properly Explained
is of the type Reiner Knizia calls "jeopardy games" in which the player
may roll again, but at the risk of losing everything already gained.
Some of its relations are
Fill or Bust (Volle Lotte),
Can't Stop and Knizia's
own Exxtra. Very
simple and probably finishing in ten minutes, it has a few
interesting decisions, but not as many facets as most of the
above. Suitable as an easygoing closer after a long evening of
games. The book's full statistical discussion of the various
decisions is interesting material for analytical types. A
- Odins Raben (Odin's Ravens)
Two player card game posits players as Hunin and Munin, raven
familiars of the Norse god Odin. Each player has an identical
deck and begins with a randomly-determined subset. The race course
consists of a series of double-ended tiles, each possibly showing
a different terrain. Advancement is a matter of playing a card
matching the terrain. If unable to usefully play up to the limit
of three cards, extras may be salted away in an "auxiliary hand"
(on the table) for later use. In addition cards may be used
to acquire matching Magic Way cards, the player winning this
"race" earning extra points. Moreover, there are special action
cards permitting players to break the usual rules. Apart from
Cape Horn, inventor Thorsten
Gimmler is more known for his games for children and there is
certainly nothing very complicated here. At the same time,
feeling somewhat shackled by one's cards, there can be a lack
of tension and excitement as well. Physical quality is good,
artwork average. Overall an average entry in the Kosmos
series. Be sure to get the post-publication errata.
- Oh Hell
Trick-taking card game in which players must predict the number
of tricks they will take. With each hand the number of cards in
hand is reduced by one. Challenging game with rather a lot of
luck in the latter hands has inspired a whole raft of imitators
including
Rage,
Wizard,
Ninety-Nine,
Wimmüln,
Double, Volltreffer, Canyon
and Grand Canyon. The original game is also known by a
number of other names including Blackout, Elevator,
l'Ascenseur, Bust, Boerenbridge and 10
op en neer, sometimes with variations in the rules.
[6-player Games]
- Oh Pharao! (Oh Pharaoh)
Instrinsically a take that!
card game, in this one the "thats" are well muted in both
effect and number. Cards are numbered
1-9 with fewer of each type as the rank ascends, there being
thirteen 1s, but only three 9s. There are also three jokers
which can serve as any rank. Players use cards to construct
pyramids in which rank increases by one at each level and
number of cards decreases at each level, e.g. a
pyramid could be formed of three 1s, two 2s and one 3. At the
start of each turn the player can decide to turn in the
pyramid for scoring, earning points (on paper) equal to the total
of the ranks multiplied by the number of levels. One reason
would be the possibility of an opponent using a thief (five of the
ninety cards) to steal a pyramid card, reducing the
pyramid value and forcing any no longer supported cards back
into the owner's hand. Note that the deck also includes two
tax collectors who steal a random hand card and three pharaohs
who can cancel either of the above two. The second method
players can use to catch up to a leader is to trade cards with one
another and not the leader. A common problem with this sort of
game is that it can become too much of the same thing for too
long. Often the solution is to just cut matters short, but
here another solution is applied: the three part arc. Each
time a pyramid is scored, a token is moved along a track. A
third of the way along, a new rule comes into play: a player
may have more than one pyramid working at a time. With two-thirds
progress, scoring a pyramid is not possible unless it has at
least three levels. These simple variations cause subtle
changes in decisionmaking and work well to keep matters
fresh. The final twist is that the ending is a matter
of some surprise caused by inserting a special card into the
deck once the end of the track is reached. There's not a
great deal of strategy as at the end of the day one has to
play the cards one has drawn, but there is a definite level of
decisionmaking. Theme may or may not be present, depending on
one's imagination. The production is well realized, with clear
board and cards and rather amusing cartoon illustrations. But the
real story is that the "take that!"
trope has been successfully brought into the modern level of
good gaming and the trick has been pulled off with a minimum of
twistage, though no doubt a lot of testing to get everything
balanced just right. Advanced players: pay close attention to
the use of wild cards, which if out can be "borrowed" from
others by swapping with the card they represent (as in
Cafe International),
but then be played to represent something else entirely.
[Ancient Egypt Games]
Thilo Hutzler; Kosmos/Uberplay; 2004; 3-4
LMMM7 (Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 7)
- Ohio
Reiner Knizia card game of the climbing variety, except that
here one wants to play cards lower than the opponents. The
ostensible theme is about collecting electoral votes. The fact
that every player begins with an identical hand makes it not a
bad game of group think. Seems to be a more developed version
of Kartenjagd.
- Old Maid
Not really a game as players have no real options in this exercise
in cards.
- Old Pacific, The
Simple auto racing game made "to order" by a museum
features interesting background material but does
not really offer any strategic or even possibilities.
[more]
- Old Town
-
Do you realize that Germans love the American Old West? Maybe
it's the wide open spaces that are so different from forested
(and crowded) Germany or maybe it's that in childhood they all
read the Wild West novels of famed adventure author Karl May.
Whatever the reason, this is a love that continues in this
archaeologically-themed game of rediscovering a lost western
town. This one appears to have invented the anti-deduction
game (followed by
Who Stole Ed's Pants?
a year later)
in which players "discover" facts not by sourcing cards until the
absent one is deduced, but by playing them, which adds to
the set of known facts until there is only one possible
solution. Thematically players are trying to recover the
layout of the town, i.e. which buildings, e.g. hotel, smithy, bank,
saloon, were where. Clue cards represent newspaper articles,
land registry records and old traditions which boil down to
statements such as "The bank was on Dalton Rd" or "The church
was visible from the cemetery". Some cards don't specify the
building, but leave it up to the player to apply to any
building desired. There are 18 different buildings, but only
16 spaces. Each also comes with five markers used to indicate
possible building locations. Some cards describe four possible
locations, some eight. For balance, players receive an equal
number of each type of card and then draft buildings based on
these, it being advantageous of course to work on buildings
for which one has cards. The general idea is that as claims
are made, markers are placed out to represent them. But as
further claims are made, some markers represent speculations
proven false because the new claim makes them impossible.
These markers represent knowledge gained and therefore are
claimed by the player who eliminated them to count as points.
One slightly problematic rule is that at the end of any
player's turn anyone can shout "STOP" and take any markers
that the current player has failed to realize he can
eliminate. Something like this rule is certainly necessary to
ensure that players keep on top of the current state of
knowledge, but it can be a problem if more than one player
shouts at the same time or if a player claims he wasn't really
finished, etc. Although not a huge problem, it might be better
if the task were just left to the next player to have a turn.
On the other hand, if too much knowledge were to be built on
bad information it might be too difficult to unwind the errors.
This appears to be a handmade production, but even so there is
nothing really to object to in component quality. One could
wish the simple artwork were more attractive, but as with many such
indie productions it has its own charm. Helpfully each card
shows a miniature version of the map making it easy to
see what the card claims, the texts of which appears
in both English and German. The map and what is adjacent and
so on can be a little confusing at first. The real challenge,
though, is as it should be, figuring out how to play well,
which card play gives the most bang for the buck and which
building to draft next. This should be great fun for
archaeology fans as well. A curious artifact of the "make as
needed" approach of this publisher is that from time to time
the game's rules are revised, but without any apparent notice
or versioning. Some players have noticed, however, and have
been seeking out different copies to see just how the game has
evolved. Just imagine: a game about archaeology has spawned an
archaeological investigation of itself. It doesn't get cooler
than that. It's amusing also that this publisher's name and
logo are based on the 1970s Clackers toy in which two acrylic
balls suspended on strings were struck together. This toy
no longer exists because eventually the balls would break and
tended to shoot plastic shards into eyes.
MHMM8 (Strategy: Medium; Theme: High; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 8)
Stephan Riedel; Clicker-2000; 1-4; 45
- Olé!
Card game of the climbing games type, reminiscent of Crazy
Eights or Uno. Here not only is the rank of the card
important, but also the color since one color will be stronger
than another, which can be a mindbending consideration at first.
Innovative idea lets the cards be rotated 180 degrees to provide
the complete reverse color relationship. Rules are worded as
painfully as possible. Instead, players should simply keep in
mind the mantra "beat the number or beat the color." Plays well
and is one of few that can actually accommodate eight players,
but sometimes suffers a bit from bad luck in the draw. Be sure
to play a whole series of rounds to try to address this a bit.
[6-player Games]
- Oltremare: Merchants of Venice
Uwe Rosenberg probably doesn't know what to feel about
this game. For a while now he has been trying to translate
the basic mechanism of the simple and award-winning
Bohnanza
to a more complex board game, but with mixed results at best
(La Isla Bohnità,
Bean Trader).
Now along comes Emanuele Ornella whose "Overseas" has achieved
just that quite nicely. I think he should feel flattered, however,
as it shows the mechanism he invented is one of the great ones,
worthy of being used again and again. Actually, this too is
mostly a card game with but a small puzzle map to hold pieces
and chits to collect, but even so it adds considerably to the
thematic feeling. In addition to trading and collecting cards
as in Bohnanza, players must also cope with side effects
printed on these same cards, such as requirements about hand size,
the number of cards which must be played on the next turn, number
claimed by pirates, amount of income and other matters. It's
a byzantine task trying to arrange everything perfectly –
impossible really. At best players can only pick the poison that
seems to hurt least. The game is not exactly science as luck
of the draw plays a role, but navigating the conflicting goals
can be a lot of fun in a "managing the inbox as best you can"
sort of way. There are a couple of caveats. One is that even
though this is a trading game, individual turns usually take
longer than in, say,
Settlers of Catan
and less of it is spent interacting with others. I suspect this
can be reduced, by the way, at minimal cost by having players
delay drawing new cards until the very end of their turns. But
more generally, you may wish to keep the number of players to
three or fewer. This small package game is no longer as simple
as Bohnanza or
Settlers of Catan and so is too much for a general
audience, but its varied goals and vicissitudes should offer a
feeling of fun that appeals to just about all players of more
complicated games.
Games of the Italian Renaissance]
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Olympia 2000 (v. Chr.)
Card game about ancient Olympics is a light and quick affair
of mostly-blind bidding, but there are interesting strategic
possibilities in controlling which competitions are held and
which will never be. Plenty of humor is involved in the various
levels of athletes, some heroic, others pathetic.
Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 7
Stefan Dorra;
Hans-im-Glück; 1994; 3-5
- Opera
The soaring melodies of Verdi. The famous leitmotifs of
Wagner. The classic arias of Puccini. Right? Wrong. This is
a game on the business of opera, for what else could it be.
Sort of unthematically players represent aristocratic families
who build opera houses in the European capitals and put on
operas in them. The most important precursor is
Puerto Rico
which provides not only the ideas of role selection (architect,
impresario, maestro, critic, etc.) and variable phase order,
but also the ability to "sell" operas to the emperor, which is
reminds of the Trader. Another significant influence is
Tinners Trail
and its idea (borrowed in turn from
Thebes)
of using actions until one is no longer the one with the
most remaining. The quantity here is named the budget point
which players bid for simultaneously. This isn't really an apt
analogy thematically, but works well and interestingly enough
as a mechanism. Always bidding high tends to give the most
flexibility, but if one can bid to reach exactly the amount
one will uses, there is a monetary reward. Maybe the size of
the reward should have been increased though as it almost
always seems better to get the flexibility. Constructing opera
houses is represented by buying large cardboard tiles that
count either as main or additional halls. These are all
labeled by city and tend to be divided up in different sizes in
each. Play itself is divided into three ages – Baroque,
Classical and Romantic – and there are two composers for
each: Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi and Wagner.
Despite this they are nevertheless represented as co-eval.
Their works are represented by matching-colored chips, not
naming any of them. Money is present and very important, but
the goal is the acquisition of victory points which is
achieved by building opera houses, getting opera in every
hall, employing the great maestro and having the critic in
one's town. The production is nicely realized, including many
tiles, usable ducats (though the supply can run short) and
player screens. There is a completely different set of opera
houses for each number of players. The artwork is attractively
realized. The instructions are ultimately usable, but could
have done a better job in organizing and explaining. The small
details of the various roles are inelegant and thus difficult
to remember. The solution for both of these problems is to
download the FAQ and player aides one can find on-line.
It takes about two hours for this fat lady to sing.
Any two of strategy, theme or
tactics should have had more of a role. It's difficult to pursue an
individual strategy; everyone needs to buy lots of opera
houses, get the operas of the most popular composers in them
and get critical acclaim. More could have been done
thematically as well. The composers could have represented six
different individuals during each age. Opera titles could have
been printed on the tiles. There is no representation of the
various opera stars. Etc. In terms of tactics, there isn't
even much ability to plan a big play. What there is, is plenty
of evaluation, deciding how much each option is worth and what
is the most valuable thing to do at any given moment. If this
alone can make a game for you, and you're already an opera
fan, this must be one you've been looking for. Quick
suggestion: a player is only supposed to participate in three
roles a turn, an inelegant limitation requiring the players to
track game state. Thus a suggestion for tracking it: after a
player has used his first role, flip over his disk; after the
second, place one of the black cylinders under it; after the
third, place the black cylinder over it.
LMLH6 (Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Low; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 6)
Hans van Tol; Huch & Friends; 2009; 2-4
- Operation
Dexterity game for children in which one tries to successfully
remove various body parts from the board without touching the edge
and thereby setting off an electric buzzer. Of passing interest.
- Oregon
Ah, the Oregon Trail, the path of the wagon train to the West.
Just think of that trip in the covered wagon sans map or GPS.
Every day there's a new challenge: rivers, mountains,
rattlesnakes, grizzlies, buffalo, hailstorms, floods, Indians
– circle the wagons! Alas, this is not that game.
Apparently the message is that all of that bor-ing!
and instead we're to focus on settlements. Digging
mines and building ports and churches and post offices, now
that's what gets our Wild West juices flowing. Right? Right??
Ah well, let's have a look at this tile-layer anyway. The map
is a square grid with groups of rows and columns labeled, not
with helpful numbers or letters which would have made them
easy to find, but with icons so that they're not. Each
coordinate corresponds to a card type which controls where
a player can place one of his wooden farmer pieces. Or if he
has a building card a corresponding building tile may be placed
instead, with certain restrictions – the harbor goes near
water, etc. The idea in placing is to complement the
surroundings. A new farmer scores based on the number of and
types of adjacent buildings. A church offers a variable return
depending on the number of farmers bordering it. Mines offer
either coal or gold tokens which have random values à la
Lost Valley.
On the other hand, new buildings seek to complement existing farmers,
either the player's own or sometimes all of them. In addition
there are a couple of "trick plays" around the joker tile that
enables any location and the take-an-extra-turn tile that can only be
accomplished through use of particular buildings. Effective
use of these often gives the edge that leads to victory. The
overall system requires some time to learn how to exploit
well as good opportunities can be tricky to spot and
understanding what opponents will both take from you and leave
to you requires experience. There is a fair degree of
randomness in the card draws, though at least locations and
buildings are divided into different decks and the player can
choose the hand mix, though at four cards the hand is small.
Some planning is possible, but probably not more than a turn's
worth, especially as opponents tend to radically change the
situation between turns. Opportunism is the rule of the day.
There is some feeling here of
Hacienda,
but probably less planning than in that one. Graphically the
cards and components are attractive in this Franz Vohwinkel
effort; it is mainly the communication design which is
bothersome. Besides the aforementioned issue of the icons,
some of the buildings tend to resemble one another rather too much
as well. For this reason it's ironic that it is on this of
all games that Vohwinkel, one of the premier artists in the
field, is honored on the box side. Well at least the meeples, which
look more like cowboys with their oversided hats, are fun.
They contribute at least a little bit to the theme even if the
rules do not. This odd little system with its little tricks
and techniques is certainly quirky and might appeal to some
as a less lucky
Carcassonne
alternative, but for most probably does not break enough new ground to
really engage interest.
Ase & Henrik Berg; Hans-im-Glück/Rio Grande; 2007; 2-4
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 5
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Orient Express
Deduction game whose topic is, after the Agatha Christie story,
murder on the famous luxury train traveling to Istanbul. Consists
of a number of pre-programmed cases that players must solve
by visiting various persons and locations and reading various
paragraphs to extract clues and record their implications on
their deduction sheets. There is even the possibility of jumping
off the train at certain stations and sending a telegram. It is
also possible to interrograte one's fellow detectives. Ends when
someone takes a chance and tries to solve it or the train arrives
in Istanbul, a rate which is variable. Very atmospheric and
enjoyable. At least two expansion kits offer more cases.
[6-player Games]
LMLL7 (Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Low; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 7)
Jeff Smets; Just Games-1985; 1-6; 60
- Ostindien Company
Game about clipper ships racing back to Europe with
valuable exotic goods. Players have secret interests in
various ships and play cards to move them. Nice theme
and not entirely without strategy, but rather repetitive.
This variant attempts to
address this. Not to be confused with the rare and apparently
more ambitious Ostindiska Kompaniet (not discussed
here). [analysis] [variant]
- Ostrakon
(Following describes the basic game.) Party game of that
type, like True Colors,
which is designed to let players open up and reveal something
of themselves. On a turn one player is given a general topic
like Science or Paris or Delay, from which he must formulate an
either-or question. Then each player simultaneously reveals his
vote in response, including the querent, whose vote constitutes
his guess of what the majority will answer. If correct, he
receives points equal to the number of minority votes
cast. This rule neatly captures the goal of the game, asking a
question on which the audience is evenly divided, which reminds
of another successful party game,
Barbarossa,
in which players must sculpt mysterious figures which must be
neither too hard nor too difficult to guess. Presentation is
attractive and fits into an admirably small package. This would
be easy to carry in a pocket and break out after, say, a dinner
party. Even the scoring track is made up of cards and there is a
rather clever system for choosing questions. Thematically it rides
on the ancient Greek practice of deciding popular questions by
writing one's decision on a pottery fragment, by which unpopular
figures were ostractized. Overall this is an outstanding example
of its type, even if it lacks the elements to get strategy fans
to cross over.
[Party Games]
[amazon.com]
Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Low; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 7
daVinci Games
- Outburst
Party game in which players must try to shout out the top ten
answers for a category, similar to the television program
"Family Feud", but more raucous. Hasbro has also released
revised editions Outburst II and Ultimate Outburst.
[Party Games]
[amazon.com]
- Outpost
Each player directs a colony on a new mining planet, all racing
to attain seventy-five technology points and thus acquire
exclusive rights. Initially, production is limited and players
have the dilemma of whether to acquire more production or
more technology or some of both. The clever mechanism is that
production cards vary in value, e.g. ore cards range from one
to five and water cards range from four to ten, meaning that
yields are only partly predictable, which can upset planning. A
further consideration is that no change is giving for purchases,
altering acquisition strategy in a challenging way. Fairly free
of chaos, it is in the empire-building category that fans of,
say, Civilization,
enjoy. One downside is that it can be difficult for trailing
players to catch up; this is exacerbated by the fact that games
often last three hours. Experienced players always seem to use
the official Expert Game rules (version 1.32).
[6-player Games]
- Overthrone
Card game set in France around the period of Dumas'
The Three Musketeers novel. Although an intriguing
concept, more dictated by luck of the draw than strategy,
particularly
concerning certain unbalancing cards. The rules are rather
skimpy, even on such fundamental details as what constitutes
a suit. Artwork is mediocre, at least to my taste. While
designer Frank DiLorenzo and co. deserve praise for
undertaking this project, it is hoped that future efforts
will improve.
R&R Games
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