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- Kabale und Hiebe (Ruse and Bruise)
Majority control card game with a fantasy/renaissance theme.
Each player begins with a shuffled deck of identical cards,
from these taking a hand of just three. Laid out as the tops
of columns are victory point cards. On a turn a player chooses
one of his cards and places it face down at the bottom of a
column. This reveals the value of the face down card immediately
above it and also any special powers it may have, which
depending on what they are might get applied immediately or
deferred to scoring time. Scoring is a matter of having the highest
total in the column. Some of the more interesting cards
are the Beggar which gives the win to the player with the
fewest points in the column; the Prince
and Squire which win automatically if both are present; the
Musketeers which cancel all special powers; and Romeo and Juliet
who are worth much more together than separately. While all of
this seems fun at first, as one is unaware of what has already
been played, essentially this is a blind bidding system, which has
the usual consequence of frustration and annoyance that such
find difficult to avoid. Another issue is that the deck
ordering can make a big difference. If cards meant to work
together are widely-separated, the player is at considerable
disadvantage. The deck is re-shuffled once and a little bit of
it used a second time; those who get powerful cards in this
second deck also have a nice advantage. The consequences of
all of this are that it's not hard for a player or players to
get out to a big lead and for others to fall away to a point
of no longer being able to compete as there isn't really any
catch-up mechanism. Another bad idea was giving extra points
to certain cards if they match the victory point cards (which
have types for a set collection game at the end); this
increases the tendency to play just to get points and ignore
whether the player being attacked is leading or in last place.
One pleasing feature is that a round does not end until there
are at least as many cards in the a column as there are points
it offers, ensuring that the larger-valued cards are sufficiently
competed over. In addition, the card artwork realized by Christof
Tisch and Julien Delval is quite attractive, though it does
contain language-dependent text. In addition, the text on the
Kupferkessel Co.,-sized
(why is it out of print?) cards
uses a typeface and colors which could have been easier to
read. Thematically, it's fun to have the various characters,
but who the player or what the activities represent are both far
from clear. Overall, the probable goal was another card game
along the lines of the very popular
Citadels
and
Titan: the Arena,
offering big fun in a small package,
but it's really kind of a misfire that can take too long to
complete as well, especially when five or six participate.
It's barely possible that the fundamental system could be made
to work if the card powers were different, the goal cards
steadily increased in value and hand composition were treated
differently (perhaps each deck could be handicapped?), but
this cannot be recommended as shipped.
While the German title means "Cabals and Lashes" – a play on
Schiller's play "Kabale und Liebe" (Cabals and Love) – the English
version, equating a verb and a noun doesn't really work. It
does however suggest the title "Roues & Brews", which would
be something to conjure with. Someone should make a game on
that.
Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 5
Lutz Stepponat; Hans-im-Glück/Rio Grande; 2006; 2-6
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Kampf um Rom (Struggle for Rome)
The most recent installment in the apparently bottomless well that is
Catan distances itself even more from the original, even omitting
the name from the title. Here it might otherwise have been
"Barbarians of Catan" as each of the players represent such,
invading the Roman empire in its late stages.
The Settlers of the Stone Age
began the experiment of having pieces
move across the board and decide where to settle. Now this novelty is
taken further with pieces never finding homes until the
game's last third, yet providing "production" at their interim
locations. Meanwhile these armies – each player fields two –
are moving to conquer non-player forts of various strengths,
resolution being provided by simple numeric comparison. For this
they receive randomly drawn rewards which are generally balanced,
even if they have no correspondence to the difficulty of the
task. In addition, each reward has a color corresponding to which
of the five regions of the empire it's in. Collect three in the
set and the army can stop moving and become an expanding kingdom.
Resource cards are used to strengthen armies, buy wagons (which
give handy gold) and buy development cards. Coming in only four
types, they are not strongly differentiated in their functions.
Everybody needs everything and thus the usual differentiated
strategies are oddly absent. As a consequence the trading rules
have become an appendix, a leftover feature that's not really
used or needed. Some will welcome this, to be sure, but it must
be considered, after strategy and negotiation have gone, what is
on offer? Well, tactics. Trouble is, there really aren't enough
of them to keep players interested. At most, players can grab a
stronghold before someone else, but as targets are plentiful this
usually doesn't mean much, leaving as the main challenge the
mechanical one of analyzing the map to find the best route, etc.
There are at least two design paths that could have been taken.
The obvious one of increasing the tactical considerations by
permitting inter-player combat would have been very surprising
for Kosmos. The other, increasing the emphasis on theme by giving
each tribe an historical name and appropriate special powers
would have been so as well, unfortunately, and less justifiably.
But there are at least three bright spots as well. One is the
component quality, now featuring plastic pieces – these have
become the norm for Catan games in Germany, but may be strange
and surprising to us Americans who have grown to love the wood.
Kosmos have stated that they prefer the more detailed plastic for
its ability to resemble more clearly what it represents and
thereby hope to heighten the atmosphere. A second highlight is
the movement system which makes simple and fun something which in
other games can be annoying and overly detailed. This is done with
strategically placed arrows in the travel paths. Instead of
counting hex to hex, one just pays every time an arrow is
crossed. This also lets the map stay fair with compromising
Europe's geography. The last innovation is that all four
production dice rolls are doine at the start of the round and
none may be duplicated. Players who believe Catan is too subject
to the whims of dice may be pleased and this rule could well be
backported to other editions. The mechanism handling this could
be improved however, by use of a card or chit draw which would
avoid the inevitable re-rolling. So like trading, the dice become
another appendix. Another concern is that the deck of special
cards is somewhat unbalanced, especially when the different
natures of the game stages are factored in. Overall, it's not so
much that the game is bad, but rather that not enough of it is
good. What is there is simple, straightforward and playable –
for this reason it might not be too bad for the younger set. The
rest of us are better off staying with
The Settlers of the Stone Age.
Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 6
Klaus Teuber; Kosmos; 2006; 3-4
- Kanaloa
Hard-to-classify self-published game by Günter Cornett is at
least outwardly similar to his popular
Kahuna.
Players traverse a Pacific archipelago via a network of
directional fish, the clever aspect of which is that travel is
only allowed on fish of one's own color or fish that are upside
down, but using a fish turns it over. The purpose of all this
travel is to collect items which can be sacrificed to the gods of
Hawai'ian mythology which yields temples, the real competition in
the game. Temple-building is made more challenging by a scoring
mechanism reminiscent of
Euphrat & Tigris.
Layered on top of this are achievement awards
akin to those of the Longest Trade Route and Largest Army from
The Settlers of Catan,
but here the reward is not one of victory points, but of extra
capabilities which "break" the normal rules. The result is a
rather deep game which still has rather simple instructions and
short turns. What is the minimum number of points one can expect
to achieve and still win? How many powers do you need? Which is
the most important to have, and in what combinations, in the
early, mid and end games? Should you collect just a few colors in
great quantity or all colors in lesser quantity? Such questions
will bedevil and entertain players as they engage in their first,
second, third and tenth outings. Production is impressive with
quite a bit of wood, especially for a self-published effort.
Strategically, it seems, at least so far, that sixty points has
a good chance of being a winning score. As far as the gods go,
players often seem to postpone temple-building until they can
win the gods card, but the second place gods protection cards
are quite worthy as well. Some players
may feel a bit hamstrung by the number of movement choices
they have, especially in the case where there is exactly
one path off an island – such players should try to claim
the Kanaloa card early. Rewarding as it does the ability
to foresee the most likely risks and eventualities
at least a couple turns down the road, this is a game recommended for master
strategists. Also works well with three, the added complication of the protection
cards being omitted.
Slightly reminiscent of both
Time Pirates
and
Captain Park's Imaginary Polar Expedition
in that all feature movement to collect sets, but rather deeper than either.
[notes]
[Bambus]
- Kannibohne
This is the second two-player only
Bohnanza
offering (after
Al Cabohne).
Just as it sounds the topic this time is cannibalism,
apparently because this version is so antagonistic.
It comes with its own bean cards, illustrated by
Meuterer.
inventor Marcel-André Casasola Merkle.
There are just 33 of them and some special rules to account
for this, such as limiting hand size to just four cards,
turning the discard pile into an entirely visible queue of
cards and tracking points on paper rather than by flipping
cards over. There is no bean trading, but there is the possibility
of leaving for the opponent any unwanted beans, just as in
Al Cabohne. That game's rule of taking the top cards
from the discard is also used here. And there are a couple
other minor rules changes, but the biggest one is
that about half the cards carry extra text giving special powers
when at the top of one's bean fields. Some of these are a bit
fiddly, but others permit asking or stealing a card from the
opponent's hand or preventing him from harvesting for a turn.
Unfortunately the texts are all only in German, probably too
large an irritation for those who cannot read it. Otherwise,
this card set – made up of Cocoa, Red, Black-eyed, Barf, Bush
and Kenya beans (the first type that can be turned in for five)
– makes for a version with many new challenges,
considerations and chances to hand out some "take that!".
Uwe Rosenberg; Hanno Girke; Lookout Games; 2006; 2
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 7
- Kap Hoorn (Cape Horn, Cap Horn)
Board game about sailing around Cape Horn. Of some interest, but a bit
anti-climactic as the winner becomes apparent quite a bit before the game
actually ends. It is vitally important that each player carefully study
the activities of the player to the immediate left as it is not always
obvious when someone is about to win and whether it is the last chance
to stop that player.
- Karawane
Blind bidding game about camel racing. Easy to understand, but difficult
to win. Highlight is probably the extremely nice presentation including
four-part interlocking water gourds and nicely-made "bale of silk" tiles.
- Kardinal
Multi-colored, free-form abstract of city building for four.
Finishes in twenty minutes and provides a nice side entertainment
of watching the five-color city grow before your eyes.
Playing a good defense, i.e. limiting the opportunities
of the player to your left appears to be key, so to that
extent there may be a bit of a kingmaker situation.
- Kardinal & König (Web of Power)
Essentially a tile placement game where placement is based
on cards in hand. Cards are replenished via a limited
drafting mechanism. Ostensible theme is about placing
monasteries and king's counsellors throughout Europe –
although never stated, I believe this is inspired by the
Templars, who have become so well known from the popular book,
The DaVinci Code. There are three strategies to pursue:
long connected strings of monasteries, counsellors in connected
capitals and dominance of various countries. Ornamentally nice
graphics are functionally challenged at times, particularly
the connections between capitals, which should have been done
by drawing lines between the capitals themselves. Very quick
turns and a rather short, elegant game results in a satisfying
experience. Initially appeared to share a problem with
the inventor's
Kontor,
that if one is unable to draw the right cards there is significant
penalty, but sustained play will reveal that even when the cards
are not right for play of monasteries, there are still good
possibilities for playing counselors, even in the first round.
[Holiday List 2004]
Strategy: High; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 8
Michael Schacht; Goldsieber/Rio Grande; 2000; 3-5
The China re-issue preserves the feeling and gameplay
of the original almost entirely intact while transporting it
in space and time to the
Warring States Period in Ancient Cathay.
Of course this means a new board layout, but even this works
quite similarly to the European version. There is even a
France equivalent in the same color (Chu). What's innovative
about the board is that it's double-sided and when playing
with four or fewer, a number of the usual road connections
are omitted. The only change with respect to the cards is that
when drafting there are now four visible rather than three,
which lessens either angst or frustration, depending on point
of view. Finally, and most significantly, there is no longer a
scoring round at the midpoint of play, thus reducing the
importance of the houses by almost a factor of two. It's still
necessary to participate in houses to win, however, if for no
other reason than there are not enough emessary pieces
available to make a strategy based solely on them feasible.
But houses and roads can be made to count more if the new,
optional fortifications rules are employed. Six neutral fort
pieces are provided. One of them can be placed along with
one's house, which costs an extra action and card. The benefit
is that whenever this house participates in majority or road
scoring, the score achieved is doubled. Since these are so
valuable, it behooves each player to use his share of these
neutral items. Letting someone use more than his share may
well be permitting an easy victory. For this reason perhaps
some later rules revision may assign these to players for
their sole usage. The new setting is a clear indicator that
theme is not a major feature here, but with no
Templar-equivalents in China it's even more difficult to guess
who the players might represent. The production is quite nice,
featuring attractive yellowish shades for most of the
countries and mushroom looking pieces for the emissaries. That
the boards show how many players they accept not by printing
the number but by showing the number of figures in the corner
is cool. There are round tokens used to indicate when a region
has been scored (so that players have some idea of how each
player is doing as play goes along). In the department of
things that are slightly annoying but in the end don't matter,
these tokens seem exactly the right size to place on the
circles that indicate each country's capital. But doing so
is troublesome because then it's necessary to pick up the
advisors and put them back down on it as well as the fact that
the disks are not really large enough to securely hold these
mushrooms. Perhaps the original board is slightly more
artistically drawn, but overall this is no less a product
than the original and the choice of which to get can only come
down to rather minor and personal factors. At the time of this
writing there are also three add-ons available:
the two-player variant, China – Das Duell,
as well as the expansions China Erweiterung
and China – Grenzstreitigkeiten.
Strategy: High; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 8
Michael Schacht; Abacus/Ueberplay; 2005; 3-5
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Kardinal & König: Der Vatikan
-
is a free expansion kit for those who love the game too much. Now
counselors can be used to double any of the valuations on a
first come-first served basis. Do you jump on the opportunity
before you have the base points secured or wait and risk
someone else jumping on it before you do? This is good for
players not investing much in counselors, but those who are
need to be careful not to be caught short. This is completely
unnecessary for first time players, but if after dozens of
playings you but need just a bit of variety, check this out.
[Spiele aus Timbuktu]
Strategy: High; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium;
Personal Rating: 6
- Kardinal & König: Das Duell
-
is a cut and play
expansion enabling a two-player situation. This is accomplished
by addition of a virtual third player, the king, who has his
own cards and whom the players take turns taking turns for. The
king does not gets own points, however, but instead grants them,
per color, to the player who has played the most cards in that
color. In addition, each player receives three chits by which
the normal rules of the game can be broken, once. A three-person
playing of this game already sees quite a lot of the board unused;
here the effect is even more dramatic, the more so since cards
are constantly being removed from play in order to track the
five dominance races pertaining to the king. This also makes the
game go rather quickly, probably too much so as there isn't time
to develop all one would like. But the king's presence changes
strategies quite a bit and old hands will need to revise their
approaches in order to do well here, a healthy challenge. For
example, few points are available from chains since the king
can always be used to easily cut them off. On the other hand,
card dominances are very important. The old ploy of getting down
three cards every turn is dramatically weakened since only one
card per turn may be saved for dominance contests. While this
is not an ideal two-player game and something done from scratch
with this in mind would probably be better, this offers sufficient
interest for repeat play.
[Spiele aus
Timbuktu]
Strategy: High; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium;
Personal Rating: 6
- Kardinal & König: Das Kartenspiel (Richelieu)
Web-published card game version of
Kardinal & König.
Each country location is represented by a card, all of
which are randomly dealt out in a face up 14x4 grid.
Players take turns drafting a card or two from the long edges, trying to dominate
some regions and get a lot of points by being second or third in lots of others.
Although the visual fun of extending roads is gone, this is probably more
strategic as it's no longer necessary to depend on luck of the draw to determine
where one can play. Rewarded instead is a healthy ability to look ahead and guess
what others will do before one's next turn is rewarded.
Recommended for times when more than two players want an challenging strategy
game which is not too long.
The professionally published Richelieu depicts the struggle between
the notorious cardinal and Queen Marie de Medici for control of the mind of King
Louis XIII and is intended for only two players, which seems the least interesting
option. In this mode, any good opportunity not taken is a gift to the opponent
so many choices become meaningless. Victory is only a matter of tiny shifts
and luck in chit draws, reducing interest considerably.
[Spiele aus Timbuktu]
- Kathai
Multi-player card game is about trading commodities in old Cathay.
About collecting and trading cards and deciding the best time to turn
them in for points. Offers at least two possible strategies, one of
achieving a large, valuable collection, the other of turning in several
smaller collections, but rather quickly. Of course which one to use
greatly depends on what the other players are doing. Definitely worthwhile
for just about all players.
- Katzenjammer Blues
Quick Knizia set collection card game. Of some interest, but over
too quickly for the taste of many. Try it with three or fewer players
to address this.
- Kaufleute von Amsterdam, Die
(De Veilingmeesters van Amsterdam, Les Marchants d'Amsterdam)
Knizia game about merchants in Amsterdam and around the world.
Glorious game with a single, but very glaring flaw. The graphics are
simply gorgeous including a wondrous historical-looking map depicting
Amsterdam and various exotic trade locations around the
world. Around the border is a time track which is that rarity,
both historically significant and tightly integrated into the play
of the game. Not to mention a large, faux marble spring-loaded
ticking clock. Play of the game is also a fascinating challenge
for game players as they may try to navigate their way to victory
via three separate strategies. But on to the problem. This clock
is meant to simulate a timed Dutch auction, meaning that the
auction winner is the first one to smack the clock on its top.
Not only do I have no desire to relive childhood days of playing
Slapjack, but a game with real-time features does not
strike me a desireable or cerebral form of entertainment. It
might also be mentioned that at the time of this writing, when the
game has just begun to be played, already at least two different
reports of clock malfunctions have appeared. Plays just as well
without the gaudy gadget if you used in-the-fist bidding and count
down from 200. Use player order to resolve ties in this case.
All titles translate to "Merchants of Amsterdam".
- Keltis
This is Knizia's multi-player board game using the fundamental
idea of his
Lost Cities
card game. Essentially players are receiving a steady stream
of random cards in five suits and do their best to play a lot
in the same suits, in sequence, without playing any in the other
suits. Each card played advances the player's pawn on the track
corresponding to the suit. The more progress, the more points.
One of the pawns is extra tall; its value is doubled.
Distributed randomly on the tracks are tiles that confer extra
benefits, e.g. extra movement for any pawn, rocks that
participate in a set collection sub-game, etc. For those
familiar with Lost Cities, the board means that the
card values do not matter anymore and so they may now be
played in either ascending or descending order, which relieves
some of randomness. Another change is that it's now not
sufficient to just play the hand; it's also necessary to play
the board. In particular, one track is generally a "fast
track" and players who receive a lot of cards on this one are
going to be happy Kelts. Theme does not appear to assert
itself here at all, but the look is quite attractive, with plenty of
green and Celtic motifs. Somehow game play isn't as fun as the
memories of playing Lost Cities, when the world was yet
new. Perhaps the game would have been great had not its
predecessor already existed, but as it does, more innovation
was needed this time around. On the other hand, it's neither
taxing nor long, the end usually coming faster that one
expects. Apparently an English-language version is to appear,
but re-themed back to the Lost Cities concept. No doubt
this will have the benefits of being more thematic and
capitalize on the previous success of the original, but
considering the number of copies of this one – which is
language free – already sold, and that it's already
September of 2008 and it
has yet to appear, can this really make up the difference?
Also, since this version has won the German Spiel des Jahres
(game of the year) award, will the re-themed one be entitled
to carry the award sticker? Also, now that it has won there will no
doubt be expansions and spin-offs. "Under the Kilt" anyone?
How will these be re-themed? Maybe success isn't always such a
good thing. It would be a great irony if after years of not winning
the award that when Knizia finally does, he's not in the position
to take full advantage of the American market.
Reiner Knizia; Kosmos; 2007; 2-4
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Kerplunk!
Game for children builds a lattice with sticks and then watches marbles
fall through the gaps. Not of interest to serious players.
- Kette von Saba, Die (Das Kollier der Königin von Saba)
Game ostensibly about the re-assembly of a necklace supposedly given to
to the Queen of Sheba by King Solomon is close to pure abstract.
Seems unfortunate that the necklace design is determined so early
and strictly as perhaps more creative plays would otherwise be possible.
Auctions seem to go rather predictably as, contrary to all expectation,
best value for a jewel is very often achieved by immediate placement
rather than delaying until a judicious moment. Finally, luck of the draw,
especially bad luck in drawing worthless tiles seems to swamp most of the
skill. It's all a bit unfortunate as there are interesting, elegant
ideas here and nice-looking artwork. Though not by Rudi Hoffmann,
slightly reminiscent of his
Café International
and
Maestro.
- Key Harvest
The latest entry in the Key series starts out looking like an
SUV, but turns out to be a roadster. For starters, players
have lots of items to play with. Each gets a board
showing a labeled hex grid, a smaller "show window" board,
a screen to hide item cubes which come in five colors, a
set of worker tiles and a player aid card in English and
German since options and scoring are complicated enough.
With all of this one is already expecting a substantial game.
Now add to them a main board which holds a number of neutral
workers, board tiles on offer which have been randomly drawn from
the cloth bag and the event tiles drawn so far which
constitute a ticking clock measuring the length of play.
Victory points are achieved by constructing two large groups
of tiles. This isn't that easy since every tile is labeled for
only a single location, meaning several players may want it
The other main source of points is in placing workers,
especially the neutral ones. These have requirements about the
number of tiles they must touch and so one needs to acquire
surrounding tiles for this purpose. Acquiring tiles is a
strange process. One of the actions is to take tiles from the
main board and place them in the show window, setting a price
using one's own items. It's as if a store owner wishing to
charge $10 for an item had to put out a ten dollar bill as an
example. Then too, setting prices is a tricky business. If one
wants the tile, it's necessary to give every other player a
shot at it first, so how high should it be priced to scare
them off and yet not cost too much? If instead the idea was to
make a sale and earn some items, how low does the price need
to be and what are the correct types for the hoped-for buyer?
Not mentioned yet is the fact that placing workers has useful
side effects and also that placing a tile on a worker's space
lets the worker be immediately placed anew, re-triggering the
side effect. But just when all of this starts to look like
it's at the
Die Macher
or
Reef Encounter
level of complexity, the random events and neutral workers
start showing up. These include things like stealing tiles
from other players, being forced to give a tile to the
righthand neighbor and receiving one from the left. In effect,
whatever elaborate plans have been made are very much subject
to change. Some may feel that this trips up a highly
analytical exercise while others may find that the system
overly complicates an essentially simple situation, but either
view is to fail to embrace the improbable rollercoaster ride
that this is. Maybe allowing only a single action per turn would
have been a win since it would have simplified the rules and
many actions generate so many side effects, but we'll trust
Mr. Breese that this was necessary. It would have been nice if
the apple products were represented by red rather than orange
cubes. But these are minor points. Hiding here is an enjoyable
family-style game once one has managed to wade through its
rules and systems.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 7
Richard Breese; 2007; R&D Games; 2-4
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Keydom
Innovative allocation system in a fantasy kingdom is interesting but seems
to suffer from repetition and kingmaking in the endgame.
[more]
- Keythedral
The ecclesiastical chapter of Richard Breese's "Key" series (see
Keydom) is concerned with ownership
of those precious front chairs, no doubt representing the highest
social positions, within a cathedral. The way to obtain them is
by purchase and the way to acquire the funds is at the heart of
the game. The production system looks as if it started with
The Settlers of Catan,
changed the hexagons to octagons and put the ownership markers in
the resulting square-shaped gaps. The analogy even carries further
as these ownerships may be doubled much as Catan cities
are. But it's in its method of distribution, being diceless,
that it shows innovation. Here players take turns going first
and deciding which category of markers will produce, the key
being that each "land" only produces once per round and first
come-first served applies. This leads to all kinds of cascading
effects which may be worth study as taking a land away from an
opponent may later force him to take away something even more
valuable to you. This makes the pre-game setup decidedly strategic
as players can approach it in different ways, e.g. reducing the
left hand neighbor's output, avoiding the right hand neighbor,
avoiding all neighbors, maximizing surrounding lands, etc. For
the strategist this process is probably the height of interest,
the remainder being mostly tactical as it's a question whether
anyone can win without a policy of building up production as fast
as possible. Trying to buy the the cheaper chairs early doesn't
seem to pay off and buying the special effect "law" cards –
because a law is anything that lets you do something the king
does not want? – are rather hit-and-miss. (They can be rather
frustrating to others however and render completely meaningless a
couple turns of careful planning.) Other factors such as duration,
accessibility and graphics are fine. As workers, pawns might have
been easier than tiles to pick up without disturbing the map,
but would not have been as aesthetically pleasing. It might have
been nice to print game information on the inside of the player
screens, but maybe the text would have ended up too small to
read easily. Most of all it would have been nice to have a game
centered around its most innovative idea, the world building,
but what we have is mostly logistical and tactical after the
pre-game and somewhat random. It is also in the Anglo-American
tradition, there being plenty of chance to mildly ruin the day
of one's fellow cathedralgoer. Succeeding in what it attempts,
Keythedral is that unusual beast which doesn't fit cleanly
into any single genre or audience, but succeeds at combining
bits from several.
Personal rating: 6
- Khronos
At least one insight is something every novel should have. Of
course the best of them include many. But finding insight in
a society game is much rarer. That's why it's so special to
find that this game of time travel makes the nice realization
that in the Age of Might religion and civic institutions were
subservient to military power, that in the Age of Faith religious
institutions were paramount and that in the Age of Reason the
focus became the city, with the castles and monasteries of former
ages becoming valued as relics for tourists. The technique is
to represent the same region on three identical boards, one for
each of the ages. Players lay tiles on any of the boards based on
cards in hand. They may create a new building or enlarge one of
their existing ones. Buildings which reach a certain size are
duplicated in the same locations in the later ages, possibly
obliterating something else should it be in the way. Similar to
Euphrat & Tigris,
each group of buildings is a kingdom and when they are joined, there
can be disruptions. But her players do not get to play hand cards to
affect it, however, and there are no leaders to remove. Instead, the
issue is that there can only be one largest building of a type and any
others must be reduced. This system leads to the interesting novelty
that conflicts now now occur not just from kingdom joinings, but
also from break-ups. As in Euphrat & Tigris, as well,
there can be some frustration in that it's difficult to always
build what one wants. For one, the player's time traveler pawns
must be in the right age an dmoving them costs money. Second,
saving cards between turns is not allowed – one is stuck
with the four received. The ability to pay to discard and re-draw
is probably a foolish hope in most cases. As a consequence, a
good player will probably set up ongoing projects of all three
types. On the other hand, the board gets crowded, especially with
five players, so it will be useful to specialize in a particular
era. Production is handsome and functional. Some might wish for
grid numbers on the boards to facilitate time rippling effects,
but really the rivers provide sufficient landmarks to make these
superfluous. A card summarizing play might have been nice. The
deck is small – only twenty-nine cards – which leads
to lots of re-shuffling, but this helps to prevent wildly-skewed
hands. (I still remember too well playing a game of Euphrat
& Tigris when for four turns in a row I could draw nothing
but river tiles.) The game misses an opportunity by not tying its
map to some real world location, but probably makes up for it just
on the strength of its concept. Downtime and chaos might be a bit
much here for five players, but otherwise this is both worthy
and fun.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: High; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 7
Ludovic Vialla & Arnaud Urbon; Matagot; 2006; 2-5
[Buy it at Amazon]
- King Lui (King's Breakfast)
Childrens card game of repeated drafting by Alan Moon and
Aaron Weissblum. The breakfast dishes that players draft
are essentially treated as stock shares. Then, similar to
Paris Paris, the card not
taken is added to the king's table to strengthen this particular
"stock". This alone would be pretty interesting as one must
always think in two different ways at the same time, first to
find the most valuable card, second to worry about who will be
helped most by the one which is left over. But added to this
are two further wrinkles: (1) dragon cards – thematically
something seems lacking in this – which are used to delete
two items from the king's table and (2) that collecting more of
a stock than the king yields one nothing. Just as in Paris
Paris, can be frustrating and perhaps a bit unfair if the card
selection and rotating turn order do not work out to advantage,
but at least it's short enough that few will mind overmuch.
Attractively cute illustrations leaven the experience. This is
another of those precious few which can be played by children
and yet still enjoyed by adults. [Holiday List 2003]
- King of Siam
Majority-control game set in the Thailand of 1874. Other than the
starting cube
locations and player and scoring orders, there is no randomness.
Players all hold the same sets of cards which permit adding cubes to
the board, swapping cube locations or changing the scoring order.
Playing a card has the side effect of allowing the player to take a
cube from anywhere on the board. There are only three factions
– in the primary colors – and no player is intrinsically
attached to any of them (although each begins with some leaning).
Rather, the player tries, by the end, to have taken the most cubes in
the color which ends up controlling the most provinces. In case too
many provinces end in a tie, the Imperial British are considered to
have taken over and the player with the most diverse cube collection
wins instead. The physical and artistic qualities are very good. The
cards are successfully iconic once explained. As with
Clans
this one is for fans of the elegance of the nearly pure abstract. But
for theme fans there is hardly anything at all. Factions do have names
and areas of concentration, but nothing else to differentiate them.
It's unclear who players are supposed to represent as well. All of
this is a real shame as not many games have this setting. In terms of
mechanisms, the elements have been seen before, though not quite in
this combination. Victory most likely depends on the number of times
one can take just the cube color needed and still have that color win.
Of course the more a color is taken the less its chances since it
leaves the limited supply of cubes which can enter the board. With
four players this is played in partnership which is fairly weird as
it can be quite difficult to tell what the partner's plan is and
whether he is indeed trying to pursue one or is simply attempting to
help oneself.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 5
Peer Sylvester; Histogame; 2007; 2-4
- Kings Progress
In the days of yore, the kings kept moving around, not just to
keep an eye on things, but also because feeding that court
could get damned expensive. Why not visit a vassal and let
him pick up the check for a few weeks? Sure it's a subtle
form of taxation, but it worked made to look like an honor, it worked.
This is the situation we have here as Henry VIII pays a visit
to three different castles over as many rounds. Meanwhile,
courtiers scramble across a representation of the roads and
towns of England to be the among the first five to welcome him
there. Player turns consist of three basic activities:
drafting cards, playing cards and moving courtiers. Each card
corresponds one of the eight courtiers and playing the highest
card value (calculated from the rank of the showing card plus
the number of cards in that color) gives "major control" of a
particular courtier. It may be said that no man may serve two
masters, but here the player with the second highest card
value receives "minor control" of the character. Once control
is established, it's time to move the courtier toward the king
as nice rewards await, including the chance to draft cards
used in a majority control contest at the end of the round.
Tricky here is the fact that control may be lost en route,
and also that the board has choke point towns which prevent more
than one courtier from ending on them – some of
those courtier entourages must have been unexpectedly large.
Keeping the situation dynamic is the fact that at the end of
each round the top cards controlling each courtier erode
away. The end of the game adds special scoring for each major
control, which is one of those gotchas as it never happens
during play and is thus easily forgotten until it's too late. This
scoring often tends to decide matters, however, as a system
which rewards both major and minor control and both first and
second place tends to generate rather close scores. There are
lots of choices to make here, but sometimes there is the
irritating feeling that nothing can be accomplished as either
control of the courtier one has been moving is lost or control
is only established when it's too late. In both this and in
the need to pay close attention to the hidden goals of others,
there is clear similarity to Phalanx's
Maharaja.
As observed above, a lot of the theme doesn't make much sense,
but the card illustrations are attractive, as are board and
pawns. There can be some confusion distinguishing the pink and
purple pawn locations, but it's surmountable. Physically the
materials are not as sturdy as the top of the line
German productions. May be better with three rather than five
as the system may run out of cards. This is mainly a tactical
affair of creating possibilities and seizing opportunities.
A good memory for what others are drafting won't go amiss either.
And maybe someone with such a memory can figure out who misplaced
the title's apostrophe.
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
Steve Kingsbury;
JKLM Games;
2005; 3-5
- Kingsburg
Dice and economic engine game set in a medieval fantasy time frame.
It's unclear who put out the memo, but dice games in which one
rolls to claim something seem to be breaking out all over (see
To Court the King
for another attempt).
Each turn all players simultaneously roll three dice and then take
turns, lowest roller to highest, assigning them to various
locations on the board, based on number of pips. Each
location has a unique personality offering a different
combination of items including gold, wood, stone,
victory points, military power, military scouting and the
ability to alter rolls. If players don't allocate all of their dice
in the first go they may place the rest later, leading to some need
to figure out what others are doing. The raw materials earned are
used to construct buildings, of which there are twenty depicted on the
player's personal tableau, each of them offering a different
special ability. Interest is added by forcing buildings in the
five rows to be constructed from left to right. Players have
the choice of being a generalist or specialist, each row having
its own theme – one for improving the engine, one for
war, one for free items, one for getting points right away but in
a vulnerable condition, etc. Vulnerability comes in during the
winter when menacing raiders (goblins, zombies, demons, etc.)
threaten in the form of a card. Each player adds his personal
war abilities to a common die roll. Exceeding the raider
number provides a reward while falling short causes losses as
specified by the card, sometimes even a building and its
associated victory points. Most of this works fairly well, but
certain factors combine to the detriment. Two stand out. The
first is a lack of engagement. Because choice of a board
slot locks out all other players, it's practically impossible
to plan one's turn as one doesn't know what choices will be
available. Meanwhile, player turns take longer than they
otherwise would. The downtime, especially with five, can be
noticeable and annoying. The other issue is that it's
difficult to stop a runaway leader. There is a catch-up
mechanism provided which helps to prevent a fallaway loser,
but the battle mechanism which was probably meant to stop a
runaway can easily fail, depending as it does on a die roll.
If the roll is always high in the latter turns, the leader
can easily skate home to victory. Lesser quibbles are that
making an extra, but different special thing happen every turn
is more annoying than charming and breaks up flow of play. These
could have easily been done all at once. Moreover, the turn
track which indicates these is poorly illustrated and thus
difficult to use. The artwork in general is rather garish and
cheesy-looking. There are some strange features as well, such
as the fact that gold, which one would think the rarest
commodity, is actually the easiest to come by. Well perhaps
it's a very small amount of gold indeed, and maybe should have
been represented as coins. Another oddity is that the queen,
at 17, appears to provide more valuable rewards than the king,
at 18. Finally, and perhaps significantly, at just 15 rolls of
three dice each, there may not be enough rolls for things to
balance out statistically. But overall, most of these issues
can probably be fixed with a judicious variant and if played
with fewer than five. This done, players will probably find this
easy to learn ndenjoy exploring for several replays the various
building paths. Note that with small numbers of players neutral
dice are added to make matters more challenging, so it may not be a
good option for two-player play either.
Strategy: High; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 6
Andrea Chiarvesio & Luca Iennaco; Mario Truant Verlag/Elfin Werks; 2007; 2-5
[Buy it at Amazon]
- King's Gate
Reiner Knizia multi-player tile layer, set in a medieval
city amid a few fantasy elements. This is a revision of
his earlier Der Herr der Ringe: Die Gefährten das
Kartenspiel and also has features familiar from his Samurai. Here each
player has an identical set of square tiles and works with a
randomly selected subset. On a turn they place one or more of
these adjacent to the current rectangular scoring tile, which is
complete when surrounded by ten tiles. The players with the most
surrounding points receive victory points while the completeing
player gets to place the next scoring tile. Some scoring tiles
provide special powers in the form of a wizard or sorceress
or similar. Another fantasy element is the dragon tile which
permits removing another's. The artwork probably is
overbalanced in favor of communication as the tiles are quite
readable, but the backgrounds so busy and monochrome that they
leak aesthetic appeal. The game itself should work better than
it does – this may be a rare Knizia
misfire. The ideas (1) that one person gets points and another chooses the location
and (2) that what was previously played on the board for a wholly different purpose
now matters again are very good ones, but the bonuses for winning just seem
to be too much. Too often a payer just builds on this success leading to an
unstoppable rich-get-richer steamroller.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Low
- Klunker
Another card game from Uwe Rosenberg, designer of
Bohnanza
and one which is arguable more intricate. While appearing simple,
it can be deceptive trying to look ahead and figure out what all
of your opponents are doing and how to beat them. The idea that
you don't want to accrue too many extra goods saw an earlier
work out in the original version of
Bazaar.
The title is German slang term for jewelry
that was never translated for the English-language version.
[analysis]
[variant]
Strategy: Medium; Theme: High; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
Uwe Rosenberg; Hans-im-Glück/Lookout; 1999; 3-5
- Knatsch (Knights)
Dicing contest for up to six players. Not so different from
Fill or Bust
really apart from the addition of being able to affect other players.
Dissatisfying aspects are lack of general strategy, considerable downtime
and too many opportunities to pound down a leader, leading to the experience
outlasting its welcome, all with luck of the dice being over-dominant.
- Knights of the Rainbow (Im Schatten des Sonnenkönigs)
Very disappointing 1999 card game in a fantasy setting has almost no strategy.
German re-issue of 2002 means "In the Shadow of the Sun King" and transfers
setting from fantasy knighthood to the court of French king Louis Quatorze.
The new version succeeds in increasing tension by means of many more special cards
which are auctioned off and once owned, permit either enhancing one's holdings
or lessening those of an opponent.
The other change in this regard is an uncertain ending.
The result is like
Union Pacific
sans board and with dominance of a stock conferring special powers.
But to truly understand how the new game plays,
imagine several people building up structures
with wooden blocks. When you're not looking, an opponent goes over and knocks down
most of yours. "Hey, stop that!" you say, at the same time knocking over someone
else's. And on and on until Mom comes in the room to stop you. Whoever's
blocks are highest at that moment wins.
This virtual video clip does not show the tendency of the rich to get richer,
but I think does make clear that the only way for the weak to catch up is to
gang up on the strong and the very live inherent kingmaker possibilities.
This game of immediate gain is not for long-term strategists as there is little
to plan. The audience is clearly players who enjoy the sudden tactical strike.
The artwork is nicely realized although some might have preferred wood or plastic
to cardboard for the gold and strength markers.
Unlike
Bang!,
no attempt has been made to internationalize the many cards so readers without
German will need at least a couple of cheat sheets, unfortunate because
this is the type of game which needs to be played quickly to really enjoy.
- Koalition
Euro-political card game features quick play and some interesting decisions.
Could really use a spreadsheet so that each player
has ready access to the current situation. Or perhaps a white board.
Luck of the draw tends to make the party points at the end difficult
to come by reliably. It feels like strategy would have been rewarded had
cards been retained between hands.
Length-wise, recommend that three hands are probably sufficient to resolve
matters.
- Kogge
Andreas Steding invention about Hanseatic trade on the Baltic Sea for up to four.
The first difference one detects from the usual travel-and-trade vehicle is
that adjacencies change all the time. While we saw a bit of this in
Fische Fluppen Frikadellen,
here it is ubiquitous and profound; in fact it's often possible that from a
given point A it's impossible to get to B. Moreover, these variable routes
are controlled by the players who swap out directional chits for replacements
whose identities only they know. The second difference one notices is how tightly
everything is integrated. These same chits are also used in a
Poker-like
auction system that determines turn order and the chits have the side effect
of producing goods for trade in each of their corresponding cities. But we're
not yet done with all the uses of chits as they may also be spent to get extra
moves, to buy a raid opportunity from the guild master or to get a good.
Goods on the other hand, besides being traded for other goods, can be used to
buy chits, trade offices and even better special advantages.
While the concepts are relatively simple and nicely explained by the help sheet,
the best way to win is far from clear. For one thing, there are two sets of
victory conditions. One involves purchase of five offices in which case the
game ends immediately, but this is a difficult road which often involves
weakening one's position as the offices are both expensive and lower one's
chances for the timed ending. The second is based on victory points granted
mostly for purchased special advantages and goods holdings.
Production is good for a small press effort. The rather large wooden
cogs of the title are better than could be expected and there are plenty of
wooden cubes for trading. The cardboard chits are serviceable, but perhaps a
bit fragile. Fortunately extras are provided in case of accident. The hardback
board features an attractive pale sunlight view of the Baltic, probably
color laser-printed.
This is not a light affair; it will probably require a little over two hours
and its systems and considerations are so novel that most will want to play more
than once just to be sure of understanding the strategies and tactics and to
learn to play it well. Wanting to try out the different advantage markers as
well as advanced rules for taxation and combat will provide more plays.
There may be too much negativity for some since raids can be used to take half
another player's holdings, but otherwise
fans of thoughtful, challenging games should find plenty to chew on here.
Rules and information are provided in both German and English, including
on-line at
MOD Games.
[JL & KM Games]
[Traveling Merchant Games]
- Kohle, Kie$ & Knete (I'm the Boss)
Sid Sackson game of many negotiations. In turn, players either draw cards or
initiate a "deal", the value of which is determined by combination of the topmost
tile and the space landed in. The board space also indicates which cards,
and thus which players, are entitled to be in the deal. The dreaded "I'm the Boss"
card about which I'd heard so much in advance actually does nothing more than
guarantee that its owner is in the deal, if there is one at all. For it may be
that players cannot agree on how to share out the proceeds and in this case nobody
receives anything, which is often a net loss as players will have shown some cards
and lost others in the course of it. You should be getting the idea that with this
one we're not in Kansas (or Knizia country) anymore. Things can happen which are
totally unfair and they don't even depend on anything as impersonal as a roll of
the die, but on the whims of one's fellows. Another issue which can rear its ugly
head is the excessive downtime that is the inevitable result of two or more obdurate
negotiators who refuse to conclude, but nevertheless continue to go on and on and on ...
This becomes especially prevalent toward the end when no one knows for sure who's
winning because holdings are private, yet everyone holds a different suspicion, or
at least claim about it. The moral of the story is to choose players carefully, but
on the other hand, by the end of play you may discover qualities about them you never
knew.
In terms of good play, it's never a good idea to start a negotiation without power,
which probably means holding a full hand, or at least more than the opponents. When
your hand is full, preferably including "I'm the Boss", "Stop", most of the colors
and a steal ability, feel free to start a deal, but in doing so, try to hold back
playing cards until it's truly necessary and advantageous. When everyone else is playing
and you're still holding, you're in the driver's seat, if not for this deal, probably
for the next. Of course it's also a good idea to mentally track where the money is
going and avoid inviting into deals those already doing well. The American I'm the Boss
edition has some presentation issues, especially the travel cards which look too similar
to the personality cards. Keep a close eye on the card corners to avoid mistakes.
The design feels almost as if it grew out of dissatisfaction that nobody was playing
Monopoly
as intended – unowned properties are supposed to be auctioned. This game's ideas were
groundbreaking when it first appeared in 1994, but it feels too wild today, as if proper
safeguards have not been installed. At least players could receive some compensation for
a deal gone bad, for example. In the negotiation games field,
Chinatown
makes for a more intelligent situation due to the tactical decisions on the board while
Republic of Rome
offers a deep theme and much more structure. If you're up for a no holds barred contest
in which anything may happen, you artistes of the deal, this is your game; most others
are advised to stay well away. It's interesting that the idea from
Mah Jongg
was used here, and wisely so: the current turn moves to follow the last to play of
an "I'm the Boss" card.
German title is a reference to three slang words for money, e.g. it could be translated
"Dough, Chips & Bread".
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium
- Kollier, Das
Card game about auctioning jewels to construct the most valuable and symmetric
necklace may remind some of
Das Kollier der Königin von Saba.
All about close calculation and timing, it is surprising that such a small
package has such a relatively large learning curve. In addition, takes on
a rather different character depending on the number of players.
To improve competition, probably a good idea to have purchased
jewels openly displayed rather than hidden in the hand.
The rules, at least the English rules, fail to cover the situation of a jewel
failing to receive bids during the start-up portion of the game.
They also mention a "refund" — I believe this would have been better
translated as "overpayment".
Title means "The Necklace".
- Komme Gleich
Uwe Rosenberg card game on the popular restaurant theme
(cf.
Café International,
Café International - Kartenspiel,
Restaurant,
Lord of the Fries,
Lord of the Fries De-Lux).
Play is quite simple. Five different menu items are openly lined up.
One player chooses a hand card to change one of them and then all players
can either relocate one of their cards or draw and discard one. Anyone
who can fill the order by matching a sequence of at least three cards
shows them and stores the cards. This is done simultaneously, not as a race, but
simply because what one player does at this stage doesn't really affect another.
Accumulation of ten cards gives a tip (victory point). Matching
all five cards at once yields a point immediately instead.
Play until all the point cards, or point chips (which are curiously not
mentioned by the rules), are used up. Much as in
Klunker,
there are a couple of different strategies to pursue, either quality or
quantity, but less successfully here because frequently it's impossible to
fill any order at all. Most players will thus probably prefer Klunker or
Bohnanza.
There is one amazing technical innovation, however. Just as in Bohnanza,
the card order in the hand is critical and normally may not be changed. But how
to enforce this?
Each player is given a waiter card indicating either Left or Right. This
is the card fanning order the player must use throughout the game and any
who fails to do so, will be immediately noticed by his opponents.
No more worrying whether the opponents are playing you fairly.
Card artwork is average or above, but the application of color rather
arbitrary. Why should salad be yellow? More seriously, the baguette is a powerful
wild card, but is far more bland than either lobster or soup of the day.
Title means "Come Quickly".
- König der Elfen (King of the Elves)
Essentially a card game version of Alan Moon's
Elfenland.
Instead of a board, over a series of rounds players in effect build (and de-build)
the board by playing cards representing different destinations and then
when all is complete, peregrinate using travel cards à la the original
game. As in Elfenland, cast in a negative way — plays which hamper
others are the ones most rewarded. More seriously, breakable by
simple expedient of collecting, but never playing any cards until the final round.
- Kontor
Two-player tile-layer using cards set in the waterways of
Amsterdam. The important thing is to use all of the advanced
rules. It seems the publisher was hoping to position this
game for a wide market (which didn't work), but for experienced
game players, it doesn't get interesting unless all of the rules are
used. I suspect that a lot of the early comments on the
game only used the basic rules and were disappointed to
find what is basically a kid-level game. But if the full
rules are used, the game looks nice and is quite challenging
actually, especially the tactic of running the other player
out of cash. There are also four-player partnership rules that
don't work out very well. Usually such games work because there
is a set hand and each partner knows what role to play, but
here either player can take on either role and also the hand
is changing all the time. It's chaos, and not the "good kind".
Update: In 2008 Tilsit announced plans to re-publish
this as Amsterdam.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
Michael Schacht;
1999; Goldsieber; 2, 4
[variant]
- Konzern
Business takeover game based on rolling dice. What's nice is that the
rules provide a whole host of options on how to count the dice and
to what use to put them. The endgame conditions can create tricky
considerations as well. By the way, according to the designer, when
placing a new market segment, choose it randomly. Also, legal, but
not spelled out in the rules, is the ability to discard as many of your
cards as you like during your turn.
[errata]
Fanfor
- Kreta
In this multi-player contest for dominance of 14th
century Crete, Stefan Dorra has created a game decidedly unlike
any of his previous efforts, yet strongly reminiscent of the
many majority-control efforts of others. Each player has an
identical set of cards and their play controls units in five
different types – peasants, abbot, village, fort, ship. There
is also a king card which repeats any one of the functions and
most powerful of all, the castellan which triggers scoring and
resets all of the hands. But this is not the end of its powers
for its player may also veto the next site to be contested –
only 11 of 26 are – and draw its replacement at random. It's
likely that a variant preventing the leader from simply using the
card every turn to trivially maintain his lead could be useful
here. There is a slight logistical side game as to earn the
right to build a village, a player must cause a product to be
shipped. Maybe this was once more central to play, but now
feels like it may be too many rules for a minor feature. The
general feeling here is of a wrestling match as one constantly
looks for opportunities, often not finding much as certain areas
will be already too sewn up. Sometimes the next two areas to be
contested – both are known – are adjacent and if the player
is weak in both, it's rather deflating, and probably best to
trigger scoring immediately so as to be able to have something
to work on. The abbot is a powerful piece which excludes others'
peasants so it's probably wisest to keep him centrally-located and
avoid visiting the map extremes as he may be trapped out of the
action. Presentation includes a beautiful map of the long island
and wooden pieces in several interesting shapes.
Overall this should appeal to neo-war game fans who will relate to
the territorial nature of the contest. From a design perspective,
it feels a few years old and maybe we have seen too many of its
type already. Even the card system was used for
Lunatix Loop
back in 2000 – there with simultaneous play which adds excitement
(at the expense of science), which might have helped here.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
- Krieg und Frieden (Charlemagne)
Mostly a card game set in medieval times, using wooden pieces
to track statuses and keep score. The design grows out of the
interesting idea that in early, pre-coinage times there was no
ability to "make change" and thus exchanges might not always be
equal. Unfortunately, players must be chosen carefully because the
too-flexible system permits a single player who feels vindictive
to largely ruin matters for another. Called Charlemagne
in its first, low print run edition which included wooden tiles,
probably a better name than its current one whose meaning,
"War and Peace" has nothing to do with the Tolstoy novel and
at the same time kept it out of consideration for the Spiel des
Jahres for sounding too militaristic.
- Krone & Schwert
"Crown & Sword" is the multi-player game by the inventor of
Carcassonne. Tiles are
placed on geomorphic boards delineated with octagonal spaces.
Placement depends on having the right cards, their acquisition
and playing regulated by an action point mechanism. This system
can be a source of imbalance as one can never build, for example,
any of the countermix-limited cathedrals if not lucky enough to
draw a cathedral card. The idea is to acquire victory points,
mostly by evaluation of holdings when "Wertung" cards
appear à la Venture
or Union Pacific. But
there is also the possibility of being king which permits
a taxation each turn. When others tire of it, they may,
Junta-style, declare a
revolt. Each then secretly decides which side to support and
may even play extra cards in support. The system provides a
built-in bias toward rebellion so that by the end it becomes
rare for any king to last more than a single round unless he has
luckily drawn the right special cards preventing revolt. So there
is lots of card conflict and a bit of outflanking on the board,
that is, a lot of tactics, but not much strategy. Revolts become
commonplace, their fun decreasing with their novelty. Considering
the level of chaos, this might work best for a group of military
game fans in need of something shorter, that is, about two hours.
Others are likely to be bothered by the randomness and repetition.
Includes generously-large wooden castle and cathedral pieces.
Personal Rating: 5
- Kuhhandel (You're Bluffing)
Card game of horse – and other barnyard animal –
trading revolves around around an innovative mechanism not much
used before or since. Players are trying to acquire an entire
set of animals all of the same type and do so by each offering
the other a hidden amount of cash. The high bidder gets the
animals. The bluff and psychology involved in figuring out the
correct values is very reminiscent of the process of arbitration
in real life and presents a constant challenge throughout. One
possible downside is that the entire game is basically this
mechanism whereas it would have been even more fascinating had
it been built into a larger context of decisionmaking. Another
is that some players may be knocked entirely out of contention
quite a bit before the end, leaving them only the chance to
play kingmaker. Duration for this light outing is about an hour.
Comes in two versions, one from 1985 and a re-publication from
1998. Although I have not tried the early version, the later
one is fortunately said to be the better of the two. Update:
re-published 2002 as You're Bluffing.
- Kula Kula
Beautiful game about sailing around the Solomon Islands collecting shells
based on a real-life game which has been played in the Solomons
Milne Bay area for thousands of years. Men
sail from island to island giving and receiving elaborate arm shells
and necklaces. Arm shells travel counterclockwise while necklaces travel
clockwise. Outwardly a ceremony of exchange, it is also considered
partly magical, the power (called mana) of the items growing as
they travel from person to person. Each has its own name, pedigree and
personality and yet is not owned by anyone.
Unfortunately, like restaurants with views, with such games it is the rare
one which also delivers high quality. Here the wooden ships strangely sail
in only a clockwise direction either slowly, or faster if a duel with a deck
of cards is dared. But all too often it results in the appearance of an idol
which spells no movement at all. This also entails use of a nice-looking, but
easily-toppled and difficult to read spinner which distributes
new shells to the board. Yes, the game comes with actual shells,
cowries and puka-pukas. Collect three of the latter and you can
get one of the former. Acquire four cowries and return to your
home island to win. You may manage to acquire some of them by
bumping others boats along the way. There seems to be a bit
of a problem with the movements of two boats which are quite
close to one another. Neither wants to take the lead so both
will tend to just keep drawing cards so as not to move creating
a stalemate situation. But then this problem is dwarfed by the
very large degree played by Lady Luck. Well, at least by the end
all players will have learned something: the difference between
a puka puka and a cowrie as there is no playing without knowing
that much. With such nice components, perhaps someone will devise
a nice variant? A pickup-and-deliver style game perhaps?
- Kupferkessel Co.
Two-player card game for children of collecting sets of colorful
magic items. These are laid out in a grid, the edges being
traveled by the player pawns. The cards are dual use so the
decision of which card to extract from a row pertains both to
what the player is collecting and what the next move will be.
A few cards feature special effects such as forcing a player to
discard their top card. Bonuses are given for large and complete
sets with penalties for odd lots. Interaction is limited and a
good memory helps, but the rules are simple, play elegant and
a good ability to look ahead definitely rewarded. Thus, it
works fairly well as a quick game even for adults if one wants
something not too serious. Inventor-supplied web variant makes
play possible for three with simple addition of another pawn.
One oddity, especially in this version, is that if a player
takes a card indicating a move of four and ends on a corner,
if other players can continually get in the way, he will always
simply hit the next corner, meaning he is unable to take any
points nor even escape from his situation. It's not quite clear
whether this is a bug or a feature. Title means "Copperpot Co.".
[Holiday List 2002]
Strategy: Low; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
Günter Burkhardt; Goldsieber; 2001; 2 (3)
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