- T -
- Ta Yü
Abstract tile-layer and connectivity game of river construction
named after the legendary Chinese hero who saved the Realm
of the Middle Kingdom from flood by creating a multitude
of rivers to divert the torrent to a distant sea. A pricey
package, but the very high quality components are suitable for
museum display, or your coffee table when guests come over.
Quite enjoyable for those who find fun in something like Streetcar and makes a very
nice outing for competing couples. The rules are few and not
difficult, so it can even work well for your non-gameplaying
friends. Seems to work best with the "save one tile" variant
and in four-player mode where half the fun is figuring out what
your partner is doing.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
Niek Neuwahl; Kosmos; 1999; 2-4
- Table Skittles (Skittle-Bowl)
Action game in which one uses a ball attached to the
top of pole by a chain to knock over ten pins. Of limited
strategy, but high fun factor as pins crash and fall about.
[images]
- Taboo
Clearly intended as a party word game, is essentially a juiced-up
version of Password. Here
instead of the give-a-clue, guess-an-answer sequence, the clue
giver speaks rapid fire within a time limit as do the answerers,
the only limitation being five words on the clue card which may
not be used. Also similar to the old Pyramid game show.
Exciting fun, but can pale once players get too familiar
with the cards. As with most party games, loosely-defined
rules can cause a problem, especially with respect to what
is and is not a legal clue. For example, if "pencil" and
related forms of the word are forbidden, is "pen" excluded? [Buy it at amazon.com]
- Tabula - The Roman Game
Recreation of the ancient Roman version of what is
today better known as
Backgammon
and in ancient times also sometimes known as Alea. The look
of the board and components do not seem to be trying to be replicate the
ancient game except with respect to the rules, the main difference
being that both players' pieces must roll to enter the board,
akin to Pachisi,
and also that both players pieces start and end at the same space.
The net result is probably generally more hits and possibly
more influence of luck. Tokens are nicely-tactile flattened
glass marbles.
- Tactic Blue
This is a collection of six pure abstracts, all employing the same
pieces and boards. Considering the titles, I wonder that it wasn't
called "Abstract A" or even "Go With Your A Game". Included are a
colored, double sided folding board – one featuring a traditional
square grid, the other a triangular grid – and 100 round pieces
in two colors, all inside a somewhat flimsy blue box. Overall the
set is great for fans of pure abstracts and those enjoying fast,
elegant two-player games. Those who play looking for a theme can,
of course, move on; the rest may like to read about the individual
games, below. [Bambus]
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation:
Low; Personal Rating: 6
Abande, by Dieter Stein. In
this stacking game, players seek to stack over one another,
but must ensure that all pieces remain chained together. To
avoid being stacked on, players thus keep extending the chain
until the end of the board is reached, at which point the
chain tends to roll itself back up again. The win is difficult
to plan here due to a very clever scoring rule: only stacks
adjacent to an opposing stack count.
Accasta, by
Dieter Stein. This stacking game offers features most closely
resembling a theme. A player's forces are arrayed in his castle
and the winner is the first to deposit three of his stacks in
the opposing castle. There is some of the same nervousness as in
Draughts/Checkers where no
one wants to advance very much for fear of capture and so only do
so when a re-capture plan is in place. This can be taken to the
level of re-re-capture as lookahead becomes considerable. Apart
from Checkers 100, this is probably the most traditional feeling
game in the set.
Alva, by Alvydas Jakeliunas,
originator of
Hey! That's My Fish!.
This is a jumping game (as is Draughts/Checkers), but the
board starts empty. On a turn a player either must jump if able,
or, failing that, places a piece. A single jump can leap over
multiple pieces in line, rather than just one as in Checkers,
However, jumping over exactly two is not allowed. Much of the game
centers around either blocking jumps or forcing the opponent to
make one, which even though it loses a piece, leaves him in a
position where you can take more. Because of the depth of the
lookahead and need to imagine the changed situation, this is
probably the most complex game in the set, and may be too much
for many of the more casual players.
Attangle,
by Dieter Stein. In this stacking game players must move two
stacks at a time so as to converge on an opposing stack. Acquiring
three stacks of five wins. The tricky part here is imagining how
the board will look right after a capture and positioning in such
a way that the opponent cannot immediately re-capture. Finished
stacks remain on the board so the geography is ever changing. With
its quickly reversing situations, this is probably the most
visceral one in the set.
Attraktion, by Jaroslaw
Cichocki. Each checker placed on a the square grid attracts all
other pieces in its rank and file one space twoard it. By such
means a player wins when one of his pieces is surrounded by four
opposing ones. This is one of those games where the strange
way of looking at the board forces so much focus that when your
opponent casually announces that she has won, you can only look
up and say, "Really? Where?" The idea of a game that partly
plays itself – here the magnetic power – has always appealed
to me and is my favorite "high concept" in this set. There are
also interesting strategic possibilities. For example, a player
can scatter pieces widely, making it very difficult to get four
together. The opponent then needs to counter by grabbing
choice central real estate. This can lead to a number of tricky
decisions, especially on the large board.
Checkers 100, Traditional. To be supplied later.
By the way, many of the rules to these games are on-line if one
wants to first try them out.
- Tadsch Mahal (Taj Mahal)
A Knizia "large" game, but as always the flow is very
smooth. Sort of like a combination of Knizia's
Kanzler
(which features a similar card play mechanism)
with his
Imperium.
Also reminiscent of his
Attacke.
Players bid and bluff with cards
giving something of a
Poker
feel. With the results they either try to
collect sets of tiles from the board or build connectivity on the board.
There are at least three good
strategies to pursue, possibly more. Seems to be more fun than
RA,
less absorbing than
Euphrat & Tigris.
Of some concern is the tendency that a player who stumbles in the early going
often seems stuck in a rut and unable to recover. Also it permits
a single player who feels vindictive to largely ruin matters for another.
It remains arguable whether the severe penalty for losing a contest is
a design flaw or a mere matter for strategy.
Set in India by the publisher even though it
was originally designed to represent the consolidation following
the Norman Conquest of England. The original theme probably would
have worked better, but the artistic quality of Hans im Glück
is, as usual, not to be denied – overall they are best in category
really.
And, there is more than one reality. When this game was being published, there
had already been far too many recent ones set in medieval Europe – a visit to
India was a most refreshing change of scene.
A
Deutscher
Spielepreis winner.
A
- Tahuantinsuyu
Once I had a game prototype called "Magna Graecia", but when I
showed it to my friend Ed, Ed said "I don't play any games with
titles I can't pronounce." Well,
Magna Grecia
did go on to be published. Unfortunately it wasn't
mine and I haven't learned whether Ed bought it, but even if
he did, I can only imagine his reaction to the courageous title
of this one! In fact it means "the Land of the Four Quarters"
in Quechua and the topic is a new one, the expansion of the
Inca empire from its center at Cuzco. Players accomplish this by
discovering randomly distributed tribes and absorbing them into
the greater whole. In addition, they build roads via crayon to
enable further expansion as well as cities, temples, garrisons
and terraces to get more points. These activities are kept
unpredictable via "take that!" cards (some beneficial) which,
innovatively are played between two players, something not seen
since
Plague & Pestilence.
The basic problem with all games of this sort is the potential
for unfairness in the random distribution. The game partly
understands this and attempts to make each tribe internally
balanced. If it has a high labor value – labor is the money
of the game – it gives low points, or vice-versa. And the
better the tribe, the more resources it requires. This is
fine, but fails to consider the wider problem that points
and money are hardly equal. In the first half, just as in
Puerto Rico,
money is all important, but points much less so. The design
compounds this error by forcing the player with the most points to
actually hand over some of his money to the player with the least,
ignoring the likely reality that this victim may have been forced
into the situation by the nature of the tribes placed around
his position and, moreover, may be starving for money. This poor
soul will never manage to acquire the necessary infrastructure
to win and is consequently doomed to endure over an hour of
pointless activity. Positions which begin squeezed against the
narrow end of the map appear particularly vulnerable to this.
There is also a very unbalancing card – it destroys all of a
player's roads in uncontrolled areas, which is often devastating
to trailing players, just the ones who need such roads. It's
possible to lose ten roads this way, which are only re-built at
a rate of two a turn. The rules say to warn players of this,
but what good does it do – the player's only choice is his type
of demise. First timers are not likely to understand the full
implications of the warning anyway. The cards might be better
omitted lest the "I'm never playing this again" phenomenon
result. On the other hand, the card permitting road building
off the printed tracks is inspired fun. But another quibble is
that there are probably too many building types – too little
differentiates them. Terraces seem too minor to justify the
action needed to construct them unless one is blessed with an
enhancing event. Maybe this whole subsystem and its many green,
transparent pieces – from the stained glass industry? – should
have been omitted. There are similar pieces in red and yellow
for cities and garrisons as well as trapezoidal wood pieces for
temples. Tribes are stickers waiting to be applied to plastic
chips. The heavy paper board is attractive and the cardboard
sturdy and fully erasable. The corrugated box is very sturdy,
if unusual. There are a few communication design issues here and
there – mostly around how roads connect and what is enclosed
in which areas – and the the whole map is cramped, but all can
be coped with. There is sometimes some unwelcome downtime when
players take a long time to make sure they understand all that is
happening on the map. Overall this is a valiant effort on a number
of fronts, but seems to depend on a fair tribe distribution –
here's an area where a computer could really help a board game –
as well as being played in a certain kind of way to make a good
contest. So would-be empire builders should know this is rather
hit-and-miss. You might have five enthralling sessions, but
the sixth could be such a blowout that you'll wonder whatever
persuaded you to like it. If it happens, you won't mind so
much if you're intrinsically interested in the Inca exploits,
i.e. you already know how to pronounce "Tahuantinsuyu".
[Hangman Games]
- Take It Away
Sid Sackson abstract for up to four involves collecting
unowned stones of differing values by jumping them in
Halma fashion over one
another. Tricky is visualizing how the board will appear
for your opponent after you have finished your turn.
Not bad, but the ending which resembles a game of "chicken"
may be uncomfortable. Partnership rules also available.
A Gamut of Games (1992, chapter 4, page 142)
- Take It to the Limit
This is a re-development of
Take It Easy,
the multi-player solitaire game. As before, players are each
building on their own boards, but now the boards are larger,
include other areas and there is also a secondary board. There
are many more tiles (64 per set), each has four different colors
on it and also contains either sun and moon icons. Plus there are
bonus tiles. Also, there is now no longer just one way to play,
but a number of different variants. While all of this is probably
manna from heaven for aficianadoes who have played the original
to death, "Over the Limit" would, for many, be a more appropriate
title. At some point of complexity, contingency planning ceases
to be fun for human beings and enters the domain of the computer.
Several of the scenarios would appear to have found this point.
Peter Burley; Burley Games; 2006; 1-6
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: Low; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 5
- Take Off!
Racing plastic aircraft around the world on a very large
laminated world map with popular air routes in different
colors criss-crossing between cities. Players roll dice
to determine which route colors their two aircraft can use
each turn. Of interest for adults and children alike, there
is some strategy in deciding whether it is better to take any
forward movement one can get or to take a slower route but
one which provides a better chance of moving on the next turn.
[Resource Games]
- Taktvoll
This game comes as a reminder that that one of my favorite sorts
of games is sadly disappearing from the scene. "Educational" is
the wrong term for them as it puts one in mind of those trivia
and word games wholly devoid of any play features. Games like
this one from 1996 that combine play value with something you can
learn offer considerably more than that. In this case the topic
is music, in particular, reading music. Cards come in two main
types: musical notes (whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth)
and staves used to end measures. There are also three treble clefs
and three time signatures: 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4. These two items
are used to begin the three lines to which players take turns
playing a card at a time. Or if they do not want to play a card,
draw a card. Points are granted for finishing a measure by playing
a note of the right remaining size which also permits the player
to get rid of a stave card. They are also granted for either
matching the prior note or playing one which is a harmonious
chord change (i.e. a fourth or a fifth). Players get negative
points for each note card in hand when the first player gets rid
of all his cards, two for each unused stave. There is certainly
a lot of luck of the draw here, but also some calculation of
whether opponents are trying most to go out or to score a lot of points.
But regardless of this, as a free bonus, after you have understood the rules
you have also learned something not only about how to read
music, but how composition is done and how many recent
games can say that? The only one that comes recently to
mind is the rather obscure
Astromagie.
You will even learn that German musical notation does not
precisely use the notes A - G familiar to the English-speaking
world, but instead substitute H for B, a letter taken
advantage of by composer Robert Schumann in embedding secret
codes in his music.
For example, in his Carnaval series he continually uses A-flat, C and B
which in German spell AsCH, the home of Ernestine von Fricken, his girlfriend at
that time. Now there's an original way to send a love letter!
Later expanded by
Taktvoll Bass-Schlüssel
(Base Clef – was it really designed by Klaus Teuber as Luding suggests?)
and
Taktvoll Punktierte
(Dotted Notes, including hemidemisemiquavers?).
Title means tactful, but Takt is also the term used to
mean musical time.
- Tal der Abenteuer
"Adventure Valley" is Reiner Knizia's re-make of his small game
Honeybears.
This edition is much more ambitious, featuring a full-sized board
and considerably more cards. There are also multitudinous
paths to follow (through a valley) rather than just one.
But as before, the key concept is that a card played moves a
piece of the corresponding color forward, but one's score
results from one's card values in a color multiplied by that
color's board progress. Thus, apart from some wild cards,
players face the dilemma of having to discard the very cards one
values in order to get advances. Clearly this means
cooperation from other players is helpful. Also helpful is a
new wrinkle, also used in Knizia's
Keltis:
players gain special benefits by ending on various random tiles
scattered about the board. Some confer extra movement to any
piece, have other special effects or grant jewel pieces which
form their own majority control sub-game. Once a piece reaches
the goal on the front side of the board, the concluding half of the
game is completed on the other side. The illustrations are
nicely realized. The variability from the two board sides and
random tiles is generous. The jewel pieces are made with
mirror glass which under light can be rather blinding. Between
tiles and wild cards, there is perhaps too much luck for
adults, but these features make this otherwise good game
suitable for play by children or families. Once again, Hasbro
demonstrates its limited vision and class by publishing this
only in Europe.
[Ancient Egypt games]
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
Reiner Knizia; 2006; Parker Brothers; 2-4
- Tal der Könige
"Valley of the Kings" has the pyramid building activities of the ancient
Egyptians as its theme. The presentation is nice, but for its price,
one would expect a more lavish treatment. The wooden blocks for example
do not at all resemble pyramid blocks. Some of the features of play do not
recommend themselves either. Bidding for bricks is done blind with losers
still requiring to pay. When it comes to building, players write their
orders, which may include stealing blocks from others. This can degenerate
into rather ridiculous situations in which A steals from B only to have
B simultaneously stealing from A. Meanwhile C being the only one actually
building is winning the game of course.
- Tales of the Arabian Nights (Geschichten aus 1001 Nacht, Le Jeu de Mille et Une Nuits)
Four paragraph games in one in which players encounter a
wide variety of characters from the
A Thousand Nights and a Night
tales as you collect treasures and gain
status traveling across Central Asia by encountering various
individuals and places in a large programmed adventure
book. Win the game when you become the Sultan.
Geschichten aus 1001 Nacht is the German version
(French Le Jeu de Mille et Une Nuits) which adds a few
more adventures.
[more]
[notes]
[status effects]
[escaping statuses]
[skills]
[Edition Erlkönig]
- Tamsk
Second in the series of Kris Burm abstracts (following Gipf
and preceding Zèrtz
with which it may also be played as a meta-game) is a game of
surround and isolate combined with timed action. In a unique
and interesting development, the pieces themselves are sand
timers (some players have reported variance in their timers so
you may wish to compare them to ensure that neither color has
an advantage), which greatly affect what one decides to move.
Plastic rings dropped around the timers land on the plastic
board with a satisfying clatter and it is always guaranteed to
end in rather short order. Although timing may seem onerous
at first, if players first play without the feature, they will
soon realize that one quickly becomes accustomed and a whole new
strategic dimension is added as a mostly full timer should not
be flipped lest it become mostly empty. There is something rather
Zen-like in the way that game often ends, neither player able to
do anything but watch the sands of time slowly settle, the last
of which will determine the victory. There may be an advantage
to the first player, but it appears slight. More interesting
than Zèrtz on the whole and a good addition to
your collection is you like the idea of having a rather unusual
game around. On the other hand, those who don't find abstracts
fun probably won't find any special relief here.
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Tante Tarantel
This lighter offering from Doris and Frank pertains to a tarantula
trying to prevent bugs escaping its webs. Note that in real life
tarantulas don't make webs. Here the players are the bugs trying
to cross the web while the spider is a "non-player" unpredictably
controlled only by the dice. The board is quite nice and the
play elegantly simple and yet fun, including rules for "pushing"
other bugs. Mostly satisfying, although there is perhaps too much
freedom for the spider since it is not that difficult for it to
eat nearly all of the bugs very early, throwing the game into
rather an odd state. Regrettable that this one wasn't picked up
by a major publisher and the plain pawns turned into cute plastic
bugs. Doris & Frank
- Target
Card game similar to Cassino
but with more interesting card types and powers. Lacks the
theme elements of Mü
& Mehr: Safarü, however. A
- Tarot (French Tarot)
One of the earliest trick-taking card games. Probably best for
four so that it is not too easy for the contractor to easy to
dispatch the divided opponents. Besides, having to work with a
partner makes things more challenging. It needs a special deck of
cards, some of which are beautifully-illustrated. It is best to
play with a set of cards which are designed for playing rather
than those intended for divination as the latter lack corner
markings and double-endedness which make them inconvenient. As
making a hand depends on having enough cards called "bouts"
in one's hand, throw-ins (i.e. wasted deals) are perhaps a bit
too frequent.
Scoring can be a bit arcane at first as well.
- Ten Days in the USA
Moon/Weissblum spinoff of
Europatour,
itself having been spun from
Racko.
Now the setting moves to the fifty United States sans DC,
Puerto Rico or Guam. Ships are gone, but planes remain and
of course are the only ways to reach Alaska and Hawaii.
The number of discard piles is reduced to three and the
car has arrived as a new way to connect two non-adjacent states.
The map is a very nice size, but surprisingly bland – just the
states without adornment. One could almost use any wall map.
Where are the funny state stereotypes we might have expected, the
New York apple with a bite missing, the Idaho potato looking like
Mr. Potato Head, etc? The tile holders are quite nice, being made
from wood and coming in two parts. This version may be a bit
fairer than its predecessor as the map is a bit more regular,
though I sure enjoy drawing Missouri with its eight neighbors
and rarely see it discarded. But on the whole the wackier,
more colorful and more educational quixotic original is to be
preferred.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 7
- Terra Nova
No sooner do I write (in the review of
Die Dolmengötter)
that pure abstracts employing majority control are rare than along
comes another one! As in Die Dolmengötter,
players move pawns around to section off territories, having three
action points per turn to move and/or place walls on the hexagonal
grid. When a section is closed, points are scored by the majority
player only, but all pawns in the region are removed. Finishing an
area can be difficult, however, since as soon as players surmise a
region will be closed they tend to stand in the gap, preventing
completion. This tends to cause creation of yet smaller
sub-regions. Playing well in a four-player game seems to indicate
scoring about 12 points per pawn or more. Saving pawns for the end
is usually a very good idea (just as in Die Dolmengötter)
though this will depend on what others are doing. A good design
idea here is that the map is divided into various terrains so that
areas containing 3 terrains pay only 1 point per hex, but those
with only a single one pay 3 per. The best feature though is the
way players are all forced to constantly re-adjust to a common
situation which thus is always revising itself, often in
unpredictable ways. There is no real luck, not even due to the
player order, thought it pays some to target the player to the left
and avoid the one to the right. There is little thematic feeling
either, and like most abstracts it's also often very quiet and
somewhat slow as players have a lot to think about on their turns.
Production is of good quality, especially the collection of thick
wooden hexagons. Also supports a two-player version (untried).
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 5
- Terrazzo & Terrazzino
The board and pieces of this abstract tile-laying game are
made entirely of wood. Each tile is subdivided into five areas
in up to four colors: the four corners and a central area.
A player's turn consists of drawing two tiles at random and
attaching them to existing tiles such that at least one of its
corners matches that of another tile. By completely enclosing
an area of the same color in sufficient size, the player scores
points corresponding to the size. It is possible to score more
than one area at a time. In addition, creation of closed
corridor areas which are free of tiles also score according to
size. The main skill is spatial in nature, being able to
realize where the maximum points are. Beyond this, players
must evaluate how good an opportunity is being left for the
next player who may or may not be able to capitalize depending
on the draw. Included are variant rules which specify drawing
tiles sequentially rather than simultaneously and another
which gives extra points for creation of symmetrical patterns.
The pieces appear to be made of plywood with color nicely
applied to one side. The reverse sides are irregular which
means someone might be able to cheat by memorizing the back
side. Poobably it's best to draw tiles from a bag. Tiles which
have more that one area colored black are a bit difficult to
use as there is no line demarcating between the areas; it can
be done once one is accustomed. Only lasting about thirty
minutes, this lacks the edginess of an
Ingenious,
but should work well as a family game which parents and
children can play together, with luck playing a fairly large
role, but requiring some thought as well.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
Clemens Helldörfer;
Werksiedlung Kandern;
2004; 2-5
- Texas (Rosenkönig)
Dirk Henn-designed four-player partnership game of placing and reversing
tiles with a view to creating the largest area. Lookahead and ability
to divine your partner's intent are rewarded in this elegant game later
transported to a War of the Roses theme. Strategically, rather than waiting
until one is forced to use the special judge/knight ability, it often seems
to be a good idea to employ it proactively in the mid-game, even if the
location does not show immediate benefit but it appears that it eventually
might. In any case, you will very likely have massively ruined your
opponents' plans. May also be played somewhat less-satisfyingly by two.
[db-Spiele]
- Theophrastus
Players attempt to duplicate on their own displays an alchemical
formula which they are collaborating to create on the master
display. Theophrastus (1493-1541), more commonly known as
Paracelsus, dabbled in alchemy but is better known as a
doctor, in fact the first to prescribe mercury for syphilis.
The central mechanism, regulated by action points and card
play mechanics, is fairly original, even though one wishes for
more control. Instead, the vagaries of card draws can mean a
player is unable to fairly compete. Still, different strategic
possibilities are available. One can play cards secretly or,
more rapidly, face up where they can be affected by others. One
can try for high fidelity or simply play a lot of cards and
hope good accidents will happen. And then there is the choice
between working on one's own display versus revealing/destroying
that of others. The gradually increasing point totals available
for each successive round have been judiciously handled. On the
other hand, while some attempt has been made to balance the deck,
those special cards that allow swapping out one card for another
of the same type are hard to play, not very useful and take up
valuable hand space. Sure, a player could draw a bunch of new
cards and thus discard them, but why should the player be forced
to give up valuable card playing opportunties just because the
system has not treated him fairly? I would happily entertain
a variant permitting them to be replaced by a new card from the
top of the deck without action point cost. Another unfortunate
situation is the time-wasting mechanic in which a player can pick
up an entire deck, look through all of the cards, and choose a
favorite. Fortunately, this has been assigned such a high price
that it only rarely seems useful. A unique component is a small
pewter mortar-and-pestle. It might have been better however if
this part of the budget had been put into the card artwork which
is not particularly well realized. There are communication
design problems too as the indicated spaces for laying cards
are too small. Worse, many of the specials use the exact same
layout as common cards, forcing players to pay close attention
to their bottom halves, always the most inconvenient part of
a card to read. Full credit should be given for the list of
allowed player actions on the display, but the international
audience could have been included if the English text were
replaced with pictorial versions. While the theme works,
it is paper thin and several at our table questioned the lack
of any disasters/explosions which result from mixture of the
wrong volatile ingredients, a popular signature of this genre.
Overall, should appeal to cardplay/hand management fans, but
the random factors will probably cause adult players to lose
interest after a few outings.
- Thurn und Taxis
Karen and Andreas
(Puerto Rico)
Seyfarth game of card drafting and route placement
for two to four. Like most of the best games, this is one of
simple rules, but tricky decisionmaking. Turns consist of
just three phases: (1) draft a city card; (2) play a city card
that expands the current route; (3) possibly declare a route
complete, place corresponding markers and collect rewards. The
most interesting design decision is that once per turn any one
of these stages may be improved, i.e. two cards may be drawn or
two may be played or the route may be credited as two longer
than it is. This credit is important as a major component of
one's final score is the longest route ever completed (up to
7), though this must be worked up to, i.e. first at least a 3,
then a 4, etc. Accomplishing 7 is one way to end the game, but a
lot of points are also available by completing routes of lengths
5-7 as well as filling up each of the regions. These points are
first come-first serve and though there are multiple awards, they
gradually decline in value. This rather easygoing system proves
for a variety of approaches: (1) don't think about regions, just
try to get out as fast as possible; (2) concentrate on maximizing
points for route lengths; (3) maximize points for regions; (4)
some combination of any or all of the above. Impinging on all
of this are tactical considerations. You can see what opponents
are drafting and building. Do you want to steer clear of them
so that your picks are not disturbed or operate in the same
area and possibly disrupt their plans? It's also possible to
take entertaining gambles by drafting two non-adjacent cards
on the route you want, hoping to pick up the joining link on
the next turn. Because there are six cards to draw from, plus
the deck, and the ability to clear the draft pool if desired,
luck of the draw does not feel particularly onerous. The theme
fits okay, though it seems more likely that to be realistic
one should be building always outward from an existing
base. More information on the history is available at this Wikipedia
entry. There are some interesting city choices like Budweis
and Pilsen, presumably to excite fans of pilsners and Budweiser.
There's also one city in Poland on offer, but its region
isn't worth any points. Is this the latest form of a Polish
joke? Overall this is an unpretentious effort
that I wouldn't want to spoil for you by raising expectations too high,
but I think most will enjoy it – even on the first try as the system
tends to be forgiving, even if you just want to build up long routes
and not pay much attention to the rest. Then the ability to keep trying
various approaches should keep you coming back.
Strategy: High; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 7
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Thurn und Taxis – Alle Wege führen nach Rom (All Roads Lead to Rome Thurn und Taxis Expansion)
It's appropriate that this
Thurn and Taxis
kit goes to Rome, where the pope lives, as this
expansion forgives your sins. What sins could those be? I
think you know. You've committed them, surely. Those times
you've placed houses and inefficiently left half your route
unplaced. Or those times you've tried to complete a certain
color and fallen one short. If you've been annoyed by that,
this expansion kit is here to help. Part one is a new board
depicting the Alps and Italy down to Rome. It's kind of
accurate to actual geography. At the top each player
distributes face down chits numbered 1 through 5. These are
assumed to be riding on the adjacent and rather distinctive
wooden coach pawns, which are colored to match the five
regions on the main board. Now whenever anyone fails to place
a house, the player moves the coach for that region toward Rome.
The paths are constructed so that there are both slow and fast
ways to arrive there. A player aims to make sure his high point
chits reach the bottom, but at the right time for if an
opponent's chit of the same type arrives later, the first
arriving is discarded and does not count. It's quite possible
that some coaches do not arrive at all so this can be a tricky
business. But at least now all of the cards on a route count for
something. Part two of the expansion is tied into the
specialist helpers, those who give the extra card draw, the
clearing of the draft pool, the extra card play or the extra
length of the route. Each time a player gets the help of one of
these he takes a corresponding chit. When the supply of
a chit type is exhausted, all players must turn in a set,
ideally one of all four types, which permits placing a house
anywhere on the board. Turning in three chits grants a
victory point while turning in two gives a card draw. Now
there is an easy way to place that last, hard to find city for
a particular region and pick up its scoring chit. Of the two,
part two is the more interesting and useful, but it does
trigger more pool clearing than usual, creating greater
chaos which might be annoying for some. The Rome board
is often a matter of mere busywork, being both a rather
hazy situation as well as not affecting scoring a great deal.
Still, the expansion can have the virtue of reinvigorating
play somewhat by changing up all the usual old parameters and
considerations. This is a kit probably more for those who were
not the game's biggest fans, but liked it somewhat and wanted
more of a tactical element from it.
Strategy: High; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 7
Karen & Andreas Seyfarth; Hans-im-Glück/Rio Grande; 2008; 2-4
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Tic Tac Toe
As the outcome is always a stalemate with proper play, questionable
whether it is a game.
- Tichu
Card game of the climbing family is based on the Chinese game
Zheng Fen
is difficult to penetrate, but very rewarding once one
does so. For example, the pre-game card passing seems
merely an unnecessary bit of randomness, but with a
card passing
convention can become more interesting. The same
goes for some of the special cards such as the Dog and
the Mah Jongg which at first seem to be rather pointless
additions. The decisionmaking around the many different
ways to configure the hand make it more sophisticated than
Frank's Zoo.
The tactic with the
Dragon is to give it to the opponent whom you think will be the
last one still holding cards. If you are successful at this, you
should receive the Dragon back at the end. If you or your partner
declare Tichu and either of you has the Dog, you should give the
Dog to your partner so that both know about it. Try never to
play on your partner's play, well, almost never. There are many
other strategic considerations, e.g. to reserve Aces as a winner
on single cards, too numerous to list here. The most important
talent is to rapidly identify the best combinations in one's
initial hand. [analysis]
[rules summary cards]
[translation]
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 10
Urs Hostettler; Fata Morgana/Abacus; 1991; 3-6
- Ticket to Ride (Zug um Zug, Les Aventuriers du Rail)
In this Alan Moon effort players connect up track segments
per randomly-drawn goal cards. They receive even more points
for simply building the segements, longer spans paying off
disproportionately better. The right to build depends on owning
a sufficient number of matching color cards, some of which are
drafted on each non-building turn. About half the segments –
mostly the shorter ones – are "wild", i.e. can be built using
any single color. Something of a "catch-up" mechanism is provided
in the ability to draw extra goal cards, but it's weakened as the
draw wastes a turn and because uncompleted goals are penalized so
it may end up hurting more than helping. Negative plays such as
competing for another's color of interest or even building his
track, thus precluding him, are available remedies, but it may
be that those lucky enough to draw good cards from the outset
are unfairly rewarded. To some extent this is the multiple goal
structure of TransAmerica
combined with the occasional selfishness of Streetcar. The shared element is
the need to intuit what others are attempting and which paths
a successful track would take. Having this ability is probably
the ticket to enjoyment in this one. While it mostly clicks along
just fine, older hands will probably wish it had headed in a more
original direction.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Ticket to Ride Europe (Zug um Zug Europa, Les Aventuriers du Rail Europe)
The new incarnation of Ticket to Ride, again by Alan
Moon, takes a ride to a new continent, but much else. There
are two signficant additions. One is the ability to buy, with
victory points, a station house which permits the one of one
opponent track. The second adds randomness to track building –
randomness in card acquisition apparently not being enough –
so that building certain "tunnel" segments requires drawing
cards which can add extra expenses. So this edition sticks
pretty close to the original and will neither disappoint that
game's fans nor awaken the interest of dissenters. For those
trying to choose one of these for the first time, familiarity
with the geography is probably the overriding factor and after
that it depends on whether you prefer your trains more elegant
or with bells and whistles added. Ticket to Ride Märklin
(below) is the third entry in this series.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 6
- Ticket to Ride Märklin (Zug um Zug Märklin, Les Aventuriers du Rail Märklin)
The third design of this game employs a map of Germany and ties
into the toy trains of German manufacturer, Märklin. (Note to
Moritz: please cover the pronunciation of this one on a future
podcast). This version adds passengers which each player may only
use thrice. They are placed on segment completion turns and may
subsequently move, once, along the player's entire route from that
city, picking up special point tokens along the way. As each city
only has a few of these tokens, this version has a greater
incentive to get routes played earlier. There's another reason too:
there are more single-player routes, many of them difficult to
detour around when missed. The upshot is that runaway leaders can
occur much more easily. The tie-in causes some problems too –
confusion mostly – since cards which have the same function carry
different illustrations in order to showcase more of the
manufacturers product. Those who want a meaner game will find it
here, but why, when it will depend on luck of the draw anyway?
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 5
- Tikal
Game of archaeologists exploring the ancient Mayan jungle at Tikal
(in modern Guatemala). The by-now familiar action points system
dictates what each player may do in a turn and can sometimes cause
an excess of downtime if players are overly zealous in analyzing
their options. The board expands by placement of hexagonal
tiles which are either drawn from a deck in the basic version
of the game or auctioned in the advanced version. The latter
actually makes for a better game as skill is enhanced and luck
minimized. It does not actually add as much time as one might
think since the time one spends thinking about where to place a
drawn tile is already considered during the first auction. The
appearance of the game is wonderful. Strategically, it appears
wisest to avoid major back-and-forth battles with other players;
instead, try to carve out a private area and fill it with good
tiles. Being the first to "excavate" the only level 10 and
level 9 pyramids is a good idea however. Having extra workers
available in a central area for when the scoring tile appears
and then grabbing points opportunistically can be a workable
strategy as well. Torres,
also by designers Kramer and Kiesling, is a similar system in
some ways, particularly the action points and the possibility
of capitalizing on what others have done before you. A Deutscher
Spielepreis winner.
A
In an interview, Wolfgang Kramer gave variant rules for those wishing
to speed up play:
Provide a one-minute sand timer and 4x6 chips (in the four
player colors). Each player receives the six chips in his color.
As soon as the active player places his tile, the timer is started.
If a player runs out of time, he turns in a chip and flips
it again for another minute, etc. At the end of the game, any
remaining chips are worth three points.
- Timbuktu
Nicely-presented nearly abstract game by Dirk Henn about desert caravans
proceeding to Timbuktu. While it is true that there are
some not particularly onerous memory elements, deduction
(seeing two "5" cards eliminates the possibility that any
other rows have thieves on space "5") and observation of
the activities of opponents play just as important a role.
When one adds in the concept of bluffing so as to misinform,
it really becomes just too much fun.
[db-Spiele]
- Time Pirates
While the setting is not much like
Time Bandits
– a dreamy film which would seem to appeal to gamers –
they do share the idea of going back into history to collect and then
sell artifacts for big profits.
In this Alan Moon and Aaron Weissblum design players
acquire points which are then used in competitions
to score bonus points. A bit reminiscent of Murphy in the way players move
about the board and of RA and many
others such as Moon's own Reibach
& Co. in the way that tile draws from a bag spell out
an uncertain end to the rounds. There is a definite ability to
ruin the chances of others by setting the time police on them.
As in Andromeda, the
chaos factor appears to be a bit higher than many of the games
of its type, but there is definitely a feeling of fun. Not
without decisionmaking either as one must decide whether to get
scoring markers early before the round ends or hold out hoping
for a larger-sized marker. Unfortunately, as with several other
Moon games, there are several different versions of the rules
swirling about. I much prefer the one which grants the player
three actions for being willing to draw from the bag. However,
this makes it even more imperative that there be fewer than five
players.
[Holiday List 2004]
[Pirate Games]
- Time's Up!
Party game of guessing the names of celebrities, the first time
fully-described, the second time described by one word with
gestures and the third only through gestures. The mind stretching
part is to think up gestures that uniquely identify famous names,
but it must be admitted that memory plays an important role.
Of about the same interest as most party games in which the point
is to get players to escape their inhibitions and display some
truly ridiculous behaviors. Known as Celebrities prior to
publication.
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Tin Soldiers
Trick-taking card game, the tins being those of corn, tomatoes
and other kitchen comestibles. Wrinkles are (1) cannon cards which
serve no function other than to cancel one other card played; (2)
à la Stratego the
lowest card can win if it is played on the highest; (3) players
have three unknown cards that can be played at any time; and
(4) taking a "3" permits examination of one of someone's unknown
cards. Cards have point values à la Mü or Der Flaschenteufel to provide scoring plus
unplayed unknowns are worth double. This may be one of those
trick-takers which appeal to those who do not normally like the
form because aficianadoes will find this system entirely too murky
for more than one reason. First, there is no telling what kind
of unknowns one has and what should be done with them; second,
there is no telling what others will be doing with theirs;
third, there are so many ways to avoid following suit that
there is no deducing anything about anyone's hand; and fourth,
play of a random unknown can have such a large effect in either
direction that it mostly renders pointless any strategy which
preceded it. That said, if the admittedly cute illustrations
please you, the four player partnership version must be the most
scientific. Now your plays have a greater chance of making sense,
the flag card set collection subsystem has a better chance of
working and the cannons are more useful as they can preserve
a win for your partner. This is another noble attempt from R&R Games, but more is
hoped for in future. Unusual packaging puts everything into a
metal canister of a style usually used in the United States to
sell bandages.
- Tinners' Trail
Martin Wallace continues to plumb British history with this
game of tin and copper mining in Devon and Cornwall. He also
departs his heretofore Warfrog label to create the first
publication in the new Treefrog line. No reason
has been given, but it seems very unlikely that any publisher
or game with "war" in the title will ever win the huge prize
that is the Spiel des Jahres (German game of the year) award.
Not that this one is nlikely to do so anyway. The map depicting
the southern peninsula is divided into areas, about half of
which are seeded, by rolling special dice, with cubes representing
copper, tin and water. This is a nice feature in that every
playing will differ, some boards being more challenging than
others. The number of water cubes indicates the cost to mine a
single cube; each turn spent mining adds another such cube.
Players also use actions to add technological developments
like pumps, port facilities,
adits,
special workers, etc.
which do things like reduce the amount of water, increase
the number of cubes or increase the removal rate. These are
all free in terms of cash, but using a system similar to that of
Thebes,
have action costs that put player pawns further down a track
so that others may get multiple turns ahead of them. It's also
possible to prospect in the vacant areas of the board, using
the dice to determine what's available. In any case,
obtaining a mine is always via an auction. Since adits span a
pair of areas, it's a good idea to gain adjacent ones, at
least as long as the limited number of adits hold out. There
is a lot of determination of exactly what items are worth here
and some strategic variability, e.g. in what to acquire and
how much to prospect. But there is also a great deal of luck
as the market has no feedback loop but changes from turn to
turn based entirely on dice rolls. If, say, on turn two
a player manages to acquire a great number of commodities,
sells them at the maximum prices and then prices fall to the
bottom and never recover, then pretty much the entire second
half will have been played in vain. This may make some
thematic sense, but others choices really don't, such as the
fact that earned money doesn't count for itself, but must be
spent to obtain nebulous VP awards (which is a competition).
These awards don't even have any thematic representation,
e.g. baronetcy, yacht, and so on, which could have been easily
done. This is a knock against it winning the game of the year
as does the fact that this is still more a railroad-style game than
anything else. But for fans of that genre, some of the
deficits in theme may be a turnoff. Another problem is the
limited player range which must be either three or four. The
wooden bits including tall mine and worker pieces are nicely
made and even an unnecessary pawn showing the auction site is
included (it's just as easy to lay a mine piece down until the
purchase is complete). It would have been good if more water
cubes had been included as these are constantly running out.
(Use the blue player's cubes when necessary.)
The map is attractive in a stark sort of way, but the money
track, requiring a base 20 orientation is going to be
confusing for many to use. There would have been space for a long track
or if this was objectionable for some reason, let's have base
10 please. If you're good at putting a price on anything and
don't mind some large helpings of luck despite a playing time
over an hour, give this a try.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 5
Martin Wallace; Treefrog Games; 2008; 3-4
- Titus
Uwe Rosenberg-designed card game in which player players attempt
to collect cards in series. Cards depict coins having values
from 1 to 19 —
it is far from clear how they connect to the title. In an
innovative mechanism, a player draws a card from the deck or from
another player's completed series. If it is numerically adjacent
to another card, the player may take another turn. But cards
taken from another's series are first flipped over to reveal a
new value, which will be at most two values away from the showing
value. Completion of a series confers a victory point card which
are granted in gradually declining values. Although pleasant,
like some other games by the same designer, apart from some rather
minor considerations of what cards others are seeking, seems to
play itself. May work better with a maximum of three players.
- Tom Tube
Two player tile placement and movement game in an outer space
setting. Turns are very simple as a player either (a) moves or
(b) draws and places a single tile. Tiles are rhombus-shaped and
contain paths usable by the player, the opponent, or both. The
goal is to retrieve two of one's own items from across the board,
plus as many of the randomly-appearing cubes as possible and
return home first. As in
Lost Valley,
isolation of a triangular
opening permits placement of a special piece, which is here
even more important as the triangles come from one's own supply
and tend to be very helpful connections. At its best there is
tantalizing choice between taking a tile and moving, reminiscent
of Quoridor. Part of taking a tile includes having a plan
for each type you might draw. Part of moving includes where
the opponent is and if you were both to start moving now, where
he will end up and what he can grab unless you get there first.
This creates a series of little sub-games and the advantage tends
to shift back and forth as new tiles appear and their order makes
games different every time. Occasionally things don't go so well
since if a player can luckily draw a number of straight or simply
very appropriate path'ed tiles he can be very hard to stop. It
should be noted that pawns block one another too so that is
another tactical consideration. Collected cubes afford special
movement abilities like moving on the opponent's tube or even a
short jaunt without any tube at all. If not careful, an astronaut
can wide up lost in space! Overall it's that rara avis:
a German science fiction game and a good one at that, at least
most of the time. If you play, make time to do so a few times
since even though the instructions are easy, learning how to
use all of your options and play well is not.
[Kronberger Spiele]
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 7
- Tonga Bonga
Game set in the South Seas has some intriguing mechanisms.
Players first decide how much they are willing to spend to
attract sailors for their ships. Then they supply sailors of
randomly-determined quality for these contracts and here players
have a conflict of interest between making money and not speeding
up their competitors too much. Unfortunately the end game is thus
fraught with kingmaking phenomena. Its brilliant ideas still
not fully exploited, this realization can only be recommended
for children.
- Tongiaki
Game of the Polynesian dispersal across the south seas for two
to six. Finely sculpted wooden ships are placed on the beach
spaces of hexagonal tiles. When a beach group is filled, a new
tile is drawn and the ships either sail to a new island
or are destroyed, their chances being proportionally helped as
more players are involved. The winner is usually the one who has
managed to spread to the most islands, but exclusivity may be a
useful alternate approach. The island names follow the real ones
so it feels somewhat thematic, although there is no difference in
player abilities. The tiles are nicely made, not true hexagons,
but artistically curved and yet still able to fit together. The
artwork is appealing with minor communication design problems –
the slightly too large ship foot print can obscure the beach and
the beach launch points can be hard to distinguish. Like any
"turn up the tile and see what you get" game, the vagaries of
luck can ultimately become a frustration, but this one does
inspire repeat plays just because the turns are so short and
rules so simple. The fill-up-the-beach mechanism from first
time inventor Thomas Rauscher is fairly innovative too, or at
least hasn't been used much lately. War game players may enjoy
this more than other society games because the probability
measurement aspect is also important here.
- Too Many Cooks
It's strange to realize, but only in 2002 did Reiner Knizia,
creator of so many games, publish his first trick-taking card game
(unless there were some in his book Kartenspiele im Wilden
Westen). This one shares a title with another game published
in 2001 and the kitchen events topic with Tin
Soldiers. As we might expect from a non-trick-taking
designer, the tricks are rather unusual. Although suit is still
followed as normal (usually), taking the trick has nothing to do
with relative card strengths, but only with having the cards add
up to ten or more. Players try to collect as many cards from
the suit they have bid before the hand and to avoid some other
suit or type of card, usually the chili peppers (others being
mushrooms, onions and peas). The chili pepper suit does not share
the same distribution as the others and also has the side effect,
when played, that for the rest of the trick following suit is not
required. The game consists of five hands during which each player
will bid one of the four different suits or the fifth possibility,
taking no tricks: "No soup today" (shades of Seinfeld).
Because one's forced bid may have no bearing on the actual state
of the hand, Too Many Cooks probably will not gain a
strong following with trick-taking fans, but should be pleasant
enough for many who don't normally go in for this sort of thing.
It seems this is the publisher's target audience since not even
the usual pen and paper are required: little discs containing
stars are provided to track the score instead. The attractive
graphic design is loud and cute, but some cards may be easy to
confuse at first. Some icon indicating their special meanings
really should have been added to the chili pepper and bouillon
cards as in the heat of haute cuisine they are too easy to forget.
Also, players are forced to fan their cards in only one way as
the index number is not provided on both sides. But except for
the too large packaging, this is the best entry I have seen from
R&R Games to date.
- Top Car Races
Auto racing game for children of ages 4+ is in the form of a
gigantic twelve-page book, each spread of which shows a different
race track. Four nicely-made plastic cars are provided, but
beware the detachable wheels which could get lost or swallowed.
The form of the race is roll-and-move, but instead of a die a
built-in electronic spinner lights up and makes sounds. Most of
the race courses have spaces which, when a car ends on them,
causes something to happen, i.e. move back, move forward,
lose a turn, etc. This requires that at least one player be
able to read. The courses are dramatically illustrated and at
least there is plenty of excitement, even if no skill. It could
be of value in getting young players interested in reading. [Books Are Fun]
- Tor
Knizia game for two players depicts a soccer match.
Each player has an identical set of cards à la
Raj
and tries to correctly outguess one another to score goals. Amusing
for a few plays, a game probably lasts all of five minutes.
- Torres
Game about medieval Spain from the same team that produced
Tikal.
Title means "Towers" in Spanish. Pretty
much a gamer's game with plenty of lookahead requirement
and nearly without chaos, apart from that introduced by
the other players that is. Has an uncommon three-dimensional
element as players hop up levels to be the greatest knight
in their castles. I have usually played using the basic
rules but giving each player their own color cards as a
shuffled deck. Cards are chosen by drawing the top three
off the deck, selecting one of them, and placing the
remaining two at the top or the bottom of the deck as the
player prefers. A good game apart from two possible
pitfalls: (1) the analysis inherent in the action point system
(also found in Tikal)
means that some players can spend twenty minutes taking
their turn; (2) theme and game actions are not well matched.
Java
by the same design team is a third entry in this series.
A
- Total Depth
Subtitled "An Oil Man's Game", this 1984 game for 2-5
players aged 12 and up by Orc Production Corp. of Dallas,
Texas explores the world of oil drilling. As in
Monopoly,
players roll
dice to move around the outside board edge. Other similarities
include an extra turn when doubles are rolled, two decks of cards
("Production" and "Exploration"), income tax, income upon passing
the start space and even incorporation of the unofficial "Free
Parking" variant, here called the Slush Fund. Different is
an interior board path and an elevated 6x6 drilling board.
Landing on an outer board space usually offers the chance to
lease a plot on the drilling board if not already leased. Travel
on the interior board, possible only by landing exactly on its
entrance or possession of a plastic permit token (obtained
by landing on other spaces), permits drilling once one has
a drilling company. This is very much a costly hit-and-miss
affair, especially when drilling without any other proven oil
fields nearby. But if the player does not go bankrupt, eventually
his plots should be populated with a lot of black plastic pegs
indicating gushers rather than the yellow ones which signify
dry holes. Then each time a player passes the start, he is
paid based on the number of barrels he is pumping. Unlike Monopoly, the idea is not to
drive others into bankruptcy, but to be the first to reach one
million dollars. Some of the rules are a big obliquely-worded.
The intention is that each roll for drilling costs $5,000 for
example, but this is not explained where one would expect. How
to use the drilling completion sheets is not very well explained
either, but the idea is to keep
a running total of all production on the righthand columns. Drilling may occur
anytime the player ends a turn on the interior track. The Production
deck seems to get exhausted very quickly, but the Exploration deck is hardly
ever touched. A nice rule with these cards by the way is the ability to bury
some types of cards back in the deck if not to the drawer's liking. Other cards
are incredibly devastating however, e.g. one which causes a player to lose
his entire drilling company, something which is incredibly difficult and
expensive to acquire. In fact, while there is a good atmosphere of real
drilling situations, there is so much chaos in the dice, cards and spinner that
many players will feel their skills are not properly rewarded. A good idea
is the Audit space which requires the player to reveal his cash data. A nice
touch is a space reading "Blow Out - Call Red", an inside reference to real-life
oil firefighter Red Adair.
- Touché
Parker Bros. game published 1979 uses magnetism, which seems strangely
underutilized in games.
The plastic gameboard has a white border surrounding a grid on which
move cone-shaped clear acrylic pawns. Inside the pawns are
metal disks, colored white on one side and red on the other.
When a pawn is moved the tokens across the game board the
disks flip over due to magnets attached below the board.
These were re-arrangeable between games.
The aim is to align four pawns in a row in your color.
While fun to see the discs flipping up and down, a rather flavorless abstract.
Requires a good memory.
- Touring
Seminal card game invented 1906 was good enough to get patent no. 836532
on behalf of the Wallie Dorr Company. It was purchased by Parker Brothers
and published more or less continuously, with modernizations in artwork
and terminology over the years, until 1975. The property was subsequently
acquired by Hasbro along with the rest of the Parker line.
This was really the progenitor for all of the later "take that" card games
in which players have holdings and play "event" cards to try to ruin those of
others. The thats of this game are rather mild, probably because players are
trying to build up their holdings at the same time and combination with strong
events would have been unworkable. Even so,
the deck distribution seems to be overheavy
with disasters and sometimes players seem to spend most of their time doing
nothing but waiting for the right card.
A French adaptation,
Milles Bornes,
added the tactic of holding the safety (Coup Fourré)
card until a judicious moment.
There have been many, many imitators, including a recent one by
by Hasbro called On-line (not described here).
[Take That! Card Games]
- Tracks to Telluride
Railroad game set in 19th century Colorado features an
unusual board construction mechanism, apparently patented:
four sheets are joined each at one corner and rotated out
to fully display. Crayons are used to draw narrow- and
standard-gage track on the hex map. Income is acquired by
contracting mines and by first entry into cities. Interaction
is provided in the form of lawyers, whose injunctions can
stop opponents from blasting their way through difficult
mountain passes. This is the biggest issue as a player
who is lucky and gets through his pass quickly can be hard
to stop. Also, if players gang up on someone with their
lawyers they can prevent him, seemingly forever, from
getting through the pass. Some players don't mind this;
others find it unfair and very annoying.
The untried Advanced Tracks to Telluride
possibly addresses this, but is said to lengthen duration to six hours.
Otherwise plays well and lasts about the right amount of time.
[review]
[Winsome]
- Traders of Carthage
This is technically a board game, but featuring one of the smallest
boards you'll ever see. All it shows are six movement spaces from
Alexandria to Carthage along the southern Mediterranean Sea, the last
two spaces indicating pirates. Ships are moved by players spending
their hand cards to buy other cards of the same type which have been
laid out as a purchasing pool. A player not buying instead draws from
the deck to get more purchasing power. Purchased cards become holdings
that pay off if the ship of their color reaches the goal first, but
cards matching a ship in pirate waters at that time are lost instead.
Successfully selling a ship earns a chip in that color, making that
good more valuable at the end – thematically this can stand for
developing a specialty in a particular commodity. Points are
determined by multiplying the number of cards sold by that of the
highest value sold (2, 3 or 5). And this is the whole game apart from
some minor ameliorations such as the ability to remove a card from the
purchase pool and the ability to use a hand card of the same color to
save a pirate-threatened one. But while play is simple, decisionmaking
is complex as one must consider specialization vs. opportunism, buying
vs. leaving it for the next player and looking ahead to see what
others will do. And yet it tends to move right along with not too much
downtime, packing in a high number of difficult choices in a short
amount of time. Production is adequate, including square-cut cards and
wooden pieces. At the time of this writing it seems that new licensees
will bring out more elaborate versions to the market soon.
The 2008 Z-Man Games edition is well-realized, preserving
all the existing rules and changing the graphics from the cartoonish
to the rustically beautiful. The latter are undeniably attractive
without overshadowing the original, which also felt fine given the
light nature of play for this card game. The only complaint about the
new version might be that the appearance of the board is a bit dark.
Possibly the intent was to depict a sea captain's aged map, but it's
more as if seen through a gauze that won't wipe away. Physical card
quality and size are noticeably improved.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 7
Susumu Kawasaki; Kawasaki Factory; 2006; 2 - 4
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Trailer Park Gods
Card game involves Greek gods trying to attract
worshippers in modern trailer parks. Akin to
Nuclear War
and
Plague & Pestilence.
in the sense that players use cards to build up their holdings and reduce
those of others. The theme is not very attractive, the
black-and-white card art definitely not so, and the rules
do not permit a balanced game. Instead, a player who is
already in the lead is rewarded with more cards and thus
the rules actually encourage runaway leaders.
[Take That! Card Games]
- TRAiNSPORT: Austria
First game in the TRAiNSPORT series covers Austria and bordering
regions. Players build track to complete valuable contracts and
be the first to reach the monetary goal.
Uses crayons on a laminated board to show which track has been built.
Challenging decisions on which provinces to build and how quickly abound.
A little bit subject to luck of the draw and one's position with respect
to the start player, in general a rather satisfying experience. The lack
of pawns means it should be easy to play on a train!
[Winsome]
- TRAiNSPORT: Switzerland
Second in the series is not really different apart from a different map
which is a bit more expensive to build on due to more mountains. A good
source of variety for fans of the original.
[Winsome]
- Transsib
Trios of Russian mafia roam six cars of a Trans-Siberian
train, legitimately selling at various stops, but also
squeezing for rubles, committing thefts and even murdering
one another. Player compartments begin stocked with various
commodities – electronics, tools, jewelry, etc. – each
of which has a different fixed price at each major station,
thereby concentrating player attention on different wares for
each stop. This is one of those systems where one needs to be in
six places at once – to protect, squeeze, steal or sell – but
has only three operatives. While one is away, others will play
until one can get back an try to salvage matters. If contesting
players happen to both be present, the matter is resolved by
blind bidding using victory points. The catch-up mechanism gives
the losing bidder the difference in the bid. Because an item
once protected can still be stolen or squeezed many more times,
accurately evaluating its worth is very difficult. Even worse,
if both players manage it and come up with the same number,
they both lose because neither gets it and both have to go to the
dining car. This gets kind of humorous if there's a tie in a duel
to the death. One can imagine the conversation: "Hey! you just
tried to kill me! ... Dinner?" The dining car, by the way, is
the linking car in the middle of the train, but isn't particularly
well presented, imagining the train as a horseshoe. Communication
design is rather poor in general – commodities are confusingly
given player colors – and the English instructions for the Winsome edition are even
worse because they twice fail to establish the general rule before
going into confusing examples. This edition also uses some unique
components: 35 metal washers adorned with color stickers. So,
while there are some interesting beginnings here, chiefly around
positioning, there is so much randomness – besides the bidding,
turn order is determined randomly, on the spot – and lack of
strategy that this really cannot be recommended. The closest
area of interest might be for players who just want a wild and
wicked ride. But for others, just consider this: each turn one
has only 2 actions, but very frequently one doesn't even want
to use them all. This is a far cry from the many far richer
systems in which there are many options to take and one must
choose only the best subset.
- Traumfabrik (Fabrik der
Träume)
Reiner Knizia-designed game about Hollywood movie producing
(title is "Dream Factory") is another in the system which
produced Medici and RA. Here the main innovation is the
"communist" monetary system in which all of the other players
share equally in the coin given up by the player winning the
acution. The system begins to wear out its welcome as what
strikes most forcibly, now more than ever, is the chaos of
the clumping of the lots and the significant inability of the
player to do anything about them (except perhaps keep the number
of players down to three). Side notes: all of the directors
and stars are dead (with the exception of "guest star" Reiner
Knizia, his first actual appearance in a game as far as I
know). This fact probably does not help the theme for many players
who may not remember directors such as Michael Curtiz. The theme
is not that strong in the first place as players tend to only
be concerned with packing bins rather than thinking about the
actual people that the tiles represent.
- Travel Buff
Trivia game based on the idea of worldwide travel includes
questions on the world's geography and similar data. Board is
a large circle which
players traverse by rolling a die to pass through various regions, getting
a question about that locale. As in
Trivial Pursuit,
players must accumulate points in diversity. It is possible
to choose the difficulty level, and thus the payoff, of
questions, but sometimes the levels seem inappropriately
chosen. Unfortunately marred by too many giveaways of cash
which permit avoiding questions. Will disappoint both
strategists and trivia masters alike.
- Trendy
Knizia card game about the fashion world resembles his
Modern Art
stripped way down. Playing cards featuring parodic names
of famous haute couturists, players must decide whether to
join the current trend or buck it and thus
start their own. Played over several hands, is very
simple to explain and understand and yet intriguing to play,
at least in part because of the need to size up the playing
styles of the opponents, surprisingly more important here than in many
other games. At the same time, one feels there is one further
development twist missing which would have made it truly
addictive. Certainly, numerous variants suggest themselves, e.g.:
not re-dealing but saving hand cards after each hand, removing the
value 3 cards in five-player games, devising a special rule for
what happens when a supermodel (doubler) card makes the total exceed the goal
(perhaps it is never attainable for the rest of the round?), having
players all secretly choose their card at the same time, having "Out"
cards also affect cards in the hand, having "Out" cards terminate
a designer for the rest of the hand, etc. A good bet
for introducing non-gamers to the hobby. Rated for ages eight and up.
- T-Rex
Card game of the climbing type. The theme sounds just like
that of Dino. Each player runs a science team,
travelling to the past to steal dinosaur eggs, taking care
to return to the present before meteorites strike the earth,
which ends the game. On each turn, the players choose to
play high cards to collect eggs or low cards to be able to
direct future collecting efforts. The winner will be the
player who collects the most points in dinosaur eggs in
the twelve rounds of the game. A mix of trick-taking, card
counting and bluff. As in most games of the climbing type,
a good memory for what cards have been played is an essential
ingredient to success.
- Trias
"Triassic", which I jokingly like to call "Dinosaurs on Holiday",
depicts in an abstract way the events of the Triassic Epoch,
the time when, simultaneously the first dinosaurs appeared and
the world continent, Pangaea, began to split up, eventually
to form the still-moving continents we know today. There are
really two games going on, one of continents, represented by
small hexagon tiles, splitting up and another of dinosaurs
trying to dominate as many of these continents as possible. The
rules by which the super-continent gradually fritters away are
amazingly elegant and usable. In addition, everything else
like the length, scoring, allowed actions and their costs is
very cleverly adjusted. Because of the random, modular setup,
will be different every time and it takes several times before
all the possible tricks and strategies are discerned. Some
players may feel a little lack of control due to the cards which
force the type of tile which must drift, but this is probably
necessary to keep the game moving and make matters just a little
bit predictable. Those whose taste runs toward abstracts and
fans of Doris & Frank Games will probably like this one more
than most. Two-player version, quite a donnybrook, is mostly
concerned with carving out and dominating the largest continent.
With artwork by Doris Mätthaus this is a publisher to watch.
[Gecko Games]
- Tribun (Tribune)
This is
another of the pawn placement games, of which
Pillars of the Earth
may be the best known recent example.
The setting is the late Roman republic, as players represent leading
nobles attempting to dominate the state. Pawns are used to
claim monies, laurels and the right to contest one of the seven
categories, but mostly to claim cards. These cards –
representing patricians, plebeians, senators, vestal virgins,
gladiators, etc. – are used in card bidding
wars to establish who is tops in each category, which confers
a benefit each turn as long as the position is held, as well as
a special bonus at the time it is claimed. Cards come in
various values, the range of which is kindly indicated on the
cards themselves. They are acquired in a variety of
ways. Some are straight purchases. Some are unknown at first
and, only when revealed, purchased via blind auction. Some
offer the chance to be purchased at par value or provide that
value in gold instead. Some are purchased in sequential
faction, each player taking a card from the face down group
after the higher bidders have chosen. Many require spending
money in addition to the pawn. Besides that already shown in
the various card acquisition methods, there is also versatility
in the various game victory conditions, different ones being
available depending on the number of players and desired game
length. The victory conditions are not that strong
thematically as usually they seem to just require a hodgepodge
of various levels, but the categories themselves nicely
provide the sorts of things one would expect: legions from
gladiators and so on. Domination of both patricians and plebeians
is useful, or, alternatively, senators and vestals. What's
nice about the victory conditions is that they don't provide a
complete recipe of what must be achieved, but allow the player
to choose the most attainable subset. There are quite a few
cards and bits and all are beautifully produced and
illustrated. The cards are of the long, thin variety previously
seen in
Caesar & Cleopatra.
The only complaint might be that some text is
a bit small. Good play is all about evaluation, both of
various options and about what the opponents are going to
choose next. There is also a critical blind auction each turn
which determines which category is safe from being contested.
Although the pawn placement mechanism is getting a bit too popular
and blind bidding is never a favorite, this shows that both, in
the right context can be a hit.
Overall it's a very satisfying result that may well be the best of
Essen 2007 so far tested. The back page of the instructions
includes a variety of variants. At least two useful ones are those
which provide that on turn one only two cards may be used for
contests and that discards are face down. Also, the best number of
players is probably more three than five.
Strategy: High; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 8
Karl-Heinz Schmiel; Heidelberger Spieleverlag/Fantasy Flight; 2007; 2-5
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Tricks
Trick-taking card game by Alan Moon. Features a card drafting
system before actual card play begins. The bidding system seems
unbalanced as a player with an unlucky deck stack can wind up
having no purchases due to no fault of his own. Card play itself
seems to overly reward high bidding.
- Trigami
This trick-taking card game by David Parlett
uses the standard 52-card pack. Somewhat akin
to Hearts with
each player secretly choosing his own "pain suit"
after examining his hand, it could also be called Sticheln without trumps. As in
the inventor's Ninety-Nine,
pre-game declarations to earn extra points are available. You
may choose your pain suit randomly, say, or make a double or
nothing wager. It's also possible to score a lot by taking
every trick. All works quite well overall, diagnosis of
the hand being a particular challenge. There's also plenty
of tactical decisionmaking as players go void in various
suits and dangers mount on all sides. The removal of the
trump concept makes it slightly less confusing than
Sticheln, but
it can be just as "evil". Related to Bugami. [Rules]
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium
- Tri-ominoes (Triomino)
Dominoes variant uses
triangular pieces with three sides to match with. A bit
frustrating in that the publisher's choice of which pieces exist
and which do not seems illogical. Not every combination exists.
Luck of the draw can be too large a factor as well — tiles which
are identical on all three sides can be very difficult to play.
- Trivial Pursuit
Very popular trivia game has appeared by now in many general
and specialized editions. Even immortalized by the televison
program Seinfeld. Rumor has it that a question about
Ronald Reagan from the Canadian designers was removed in the
US edition. Are some of the answers intentionally wrong for
copyright purposes?
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Trolley Car
My own card game would probably be considered to be of the
"climbing" or "eights" variety. My goals were for it to be fast
and fun, with plenty of options (hence the large hand size) but
with some dilemmas such as the fact that the card one gambles
with is the very type of card one could use to help one's cause
as well as dissonance between getting rid of a card versus helping
an opponent. [rules]
- Trouble
Game for children is similar to Sorry, but featured the cute
Pop-o-matic gadget which permitted dice to be used in the game
without the possibility of it being swallowed. Basically another
in the Pachisi family.
- True Colors
Party game in which players cast secret ballots regarding their
fellow players, often on humorous topics. Players score points
based on guessing correctly about how the voting went for them,
whether they received all, some or none of the votes. Points are
higher for all and none, so eccentrics
may have some advantage! Humorous as long as there
are unused cards or new players. Can be good for mixing purposes.
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Trump, Tricks, Game! (Auf der Pirsch; Jagen, Troeven en Slagen!)
Trick-taking card game by Günter Burkhardt, creator of
Kupferkessel Co.
and also the trick-taker,
Volltreffer.
This one features a 52-card deck of four suits and so could
theoretically be played with ordinary cards except that the 6, 7,
8 and 9 cards contain varying amounts of footprints. At the end of
the hand each player sums these prints and multiplies them by the
number of different suits he has them in to score. Then, surprise,
the cards taken in trick form the new hand – no
re-shuffling needed! A special rule prevents uneven hand sizes by
simply limiting the number of tricks each player may take. This
leads to some unusual plays since tricks without points should be
strenuously ducked, quality rather than quantity being the goal.
Dilemmas are created when the player must choose between points and
future trumps as the next round's trump suit is always known. As a
result, one turn's weak hand often becomes the next round's strong
one. If plans go correctly, one should have the ideal hand for the
last hand where tricks are no longer limited and points are given
for taking cards in the bear and boar suits, less so for those of
wolf and mouflon (mouflon?! even in such a simple game there maybe
something to learn, if
mouflon
is a new word for you.) The last round wisely tends to be the one
which yields the most points. The game is usually quick, though it
has a slight memory element beyond the usual trick-taker (which
suits does one yet need to take?). Production and artwork are
quite good, the animals being presented in bust form. Some may find
there is too much luck for whoever has drawn the most protected 7
cards (each of which has three hoof prints), but this should not be
common. This is a good addition for trick-taking fans seeking a
little variety.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 7
- Tsuro
This abstract tile-placer supports up to eight on a board of
thirty-six squares. Each tile has eight entrances/exits connected
to the paths which cross a tile in various ways. A turn consists
of placing one of your tiles adjacent to your current position
and then moving your pawn along the new path until it ends. If
this path bridges to other tiles, the trip can be a long one and
if it ends off the board, the player is eliminated. The biggest
surprise here is the way that so many of the advances of the past
few decades are ignored. It cares so little about a balanced
start that players are allowed to set up wherever they like,
including next to one another. By this means both players, but
especially the second to place, can have a profoundly negative
effect on the other.s chances. Regular starting positions and
switchback start orders have been around for decades, so why
not use them here? It.s similar with tile draws. Perfectly
symmetric tiles are the worst to get as they offer no choice
in their orientation. Given that, probably some better method
than random draw should probably have been devised for their
distribution. It would have been nice too had more strategic
aspects been put in. As it is now, all a player can do is try to
avoid others, unless a coup can be delivered, and head for the
empty part of the board. But one thing it does well is finish
quickly so that even eliminated players need not wait long. In
fact there tends to be "one more time" feeling. This probably
works best for those wanting a light outing with a lot of luck,
i.e. mixed groups, children, those who seldom play, etc.
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 5
- Tuchulcha
For this 2-4 player game, veteran designer Marco
"Medici"
Donadoni performed research into the history of
Pachisi
and traced its surprising origin back to the ancient,
mysterious Etruscans. More importantly, he unearthed the many
original rules which have been lost over the centuries. Some,
like the fact that two dice are always rolled rather than
one, are not so surprising. That doubles permits rolling an
extra die is only a little more so. That there was no need
to roll a "6" to enter – this has always seemed, like Monopoly's Free Parking, a
later, ill-advised variant. But more interestingly, it also turns
out that the modern strike rules are but a watered-down subset
of the real ones. We all know that a single pawn cannot hit a
pair, but it turns out that a pair of tokens moving together
may take out a pair or less, but not more, and so on. Research
also turned up the previously lost terrain of the board, which
featured places of power in which a pawn's strength is doubled
or even tripled – the latter being a dilemma since they must
be vacated on the following turn. All of these are favorable
recoveries, but the most vivifying of all are the special powers
which up to two players may decide to adopt during the course
of play: Tuchulcha and Lasa. The former – sort of an Etruscan
Fury with the face of a vulture, the ears of a donkey, wings
and snaky locks – allows the player's pawns to never be hit,
to roll four dice choosing the best three and win if he can
prevent all players from reaching the goal. Lasa – sort of an
attendant or nymph in the Etruscan pantheon – never lands on an
opposing pawn and tries to instead land on the portals at the four
corners of the board before anyone else can win. Despite their
vastly different goals, the roles appear well-balanced and
generate special tactical considerations, e.g. it is probably
a bad idea to knock out Tuchulcha before Lasa since only
the former can strike the latter. Okay, time to come clean:
my story of re-discovery is only a story, but nevertheless is
one that feels true. This is a fun and challenging experience,
quite a cut above Pachisi
and especially in full four-player mode. It plays more quickly
as well. Three-player outings with one less role are less
exciting and suffer from a different board with a confusing
path while the two-player version seems to need more going on.
With neutral pieces to move, decisions are less difficult. The
(Italian) presesentation is quite good, including fancy pawns
representing Etruscan priests. Extensive background material
is included as well. The English instructions could have used
one more proofread by a native speaker and one wishes for more
disquisition of exceptional situations, but you will manage. I
would suggest one variant. Because life can be difficult for
the player to the right of Tuchulcha if he declares very early,
I would suggest that this player be given the first right of
refusal for Lasa. Recommended for game and non-game fans alike.
[summary]
[Holiday List 2004]
[daVinci Games]
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Low
- Turfmaster
Horse racing via card play which probably works best for about six players
for downtime reasons, although even with eight catching a hedge is
uncommon if players show the smallest amount of caution. Simple rules
make no great demands. A little long for winding down, probably best for
fans of the racing genre. Expansion tracks based on real life ones have
also been published. The review in Counter magazine seems to permit more
lane changes than the rules allow.
AZA-Spiele
- Turmbau zu Babel, Der (Tower of Babel)
Multi-player Reiner Knizia game about building the 7 (here, 8)
ancient wonders of the world. Its mechanisms remind of several
other Knizia efforts, but the picture is becoming too tangled
to cover here. However, we can say it is not related to Knizia's
previous effort using the same title.
Apparently, along with ancient Egypt
(Tutanchamun,
RA
and
Amun-Re),
he just loves the topic. In terms of actual play, what's
most interesting are the three ways of scoring, all quite
different. One holds various "build" cards and receives points
by having their offer refused by the current builder. But points
are also received for having been one of the primary contributors
when a wonder is completed. Finally, the completing contractor
receives a token which scores in a set collection end game. The
path of least resistance is to participate in all three of
these sub-games, but their widely disparate natures suggests
that probably one of them is a more reliable path to victory
than others (see
Basari).
This is a research job that few will require much inducement to
undertake. And why should they? Play moves along briskly and
everyone is always involved, without decisions being easy at
all. While the packaging is quite a bit larger than necessary –
this could have been a card game, I can understand the desire to
create large illustrations of the wonders in all their glory. The
artwork is monumentally cold, all whites, grays and pale blues,
and reminiscent of 1930's Expressionism. The only complaint
revolves around fairness in the card draws as getting a lot of
the same type seems especially powerful. Although theme fans have
only the art to entice them, most should enjoy this, especially
if viewed as the light, quick
and fun vehicle it really is, which the presentation belies.
[Ancient Egypt games]
Strategy: High; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium
- Tutanchamun
Unusual collection game by Knizia offers a
level of elegance which has rarely been matched. Line up
the tiles in any order you like. On your turn you can move
your token as far forward as you like. There are so few
rules I initially wondered if it was even a game. Some of
its ideas seemingly picked up in
Fossil
five years later. Can have a bit of a kingmaker problem.
[Ancient Egypt games]
- 12 Caesars
Card game in which players conduct a series of
blind auctions for one of the twelve Caesars named
in Suetonius' famous books of the same name.
Each Caesar has a different point value based on
his chronological order. There are also bonus points
gained for gaining a series. There is no attention
to theme whatever. Cards are rather flimsy.
With blind bidding and luck of the draw, there is
little to no stategy.
- 20 Questions
Re-packaging of a traditional pastime.
Normally the game is played by having one person
think of an object and the other(s) asking up to
twenty questions which can be answered yes or no
to figure out what it is, the object being to ask
the fewest possible questions. Here the game is
reduced to cards which contain the name of a person
and twenty clues about them. Diverting, but really
only playable once.
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Twilight (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde)
Trick-taking card game for partners.
Each team represents a pagan cult, worshippers of either
Sun or Moon. Cards represent priests, souls to collect, and temples.
If one wishes, a player may demand that another player
at the table play a card for him. Definitely innovative,
but it can be difficult to become accustomed to
this rule. 2003 Update: re-released as Dr. Jekyll &
Mr. Hyde in 2002 with very attractive artwork by Carsten
Fuhrmann. Now the cards depict Jekyll/Hyde, friends and
locations. The card notation is cleaner as well, although to
my eyes still not perfect as designations such as "F4" connote
a code whereas what one really wants is to read that the rank
of the card is F and its point value 4. Ideally the F would
appear in one corner and the 4 in the other. Of course with
play one quickly becomes accustomed. The same must be said of
the game in general. Whereas at first it appears very difficult,
with experience it becomes a delightful endeavor to try to guess
from their plays the nature of each player's hand, not to mention
trying to fake out the opponents. Strongly recommended for expert
trick takers.
[Holiday List 2003]
[Bambus]
- Twister
Apart from
Grass,
is there any game that better typifies the 1960's?
This classic party game was published in 1966.
The reason for most of its popularity is now past. Back when it wasn't
cool to feel up members of the appropriate sex in public, a game
helped make it okay, but nowadays it seems anything goes.
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Tycoon: the Real Estate Game
By Wolfgang Kramer and Horst-Rainer Rösner.
Players are building and profiting from hotels and factories in nine
of the most capitalistic cities of the world. In each, there is an
ongoing contest have the most hotels. At the same time, there
is a worldwide contest to have factories in the most developed
cities. Finally, profits are earned by diversifying into as
many cities as possible. Thus there is more than one strategic
path to take and as players may only take one action a turn,
there are many dilemmas, including what others are planning.
There is not a great deal of chance apart from the airline
tickets which control where a player may move. Strategically,
it is unorthodox, but for the first two turns of the game it is
probably wisest to take two small loans. If only the box didn't
have such a large shelfprint, this game would probably be brought
out more.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 7
Horst-Rainer R&osner & Wolfgang Kramer; 1998; Jumbo; 2-4
El Capitan
is the 2007 re-make which re-sets the action in the
Renaissance Mediterranean. Rule changes are slight. One
permitting the first placer in a city to start in the second
space helps out in the early stages of few-player games.
Disallowing taking a loan as the first action injects players
right into the board and eliminates a boring beginning. But
the headline here is that the new ship has foundered both
graphically and thematically. The great trading cities of the
period were the Italian ports Genoa and Venice, so why is the
title in Spanish? And why does it refer only to the person who
gets the ship from place to place rather than the duke or doge
who is deciding the investments? And what's the rationale for
building towers in ports? At least it's a Renaissance topic
– hardly any games have been done on that. Not.
Production-wise, wooden bits have replaced plastic, but Mike
Doyle's communication design leaves much to be desired.
Unbelievably, a decorative, calligraphic typeface depicts the
all-important city names, which are practically
indistinguishable from one another, especially for the players
forced to read them upside-down. A graphical guide meant to
help is so small and dark as to be no help at all. In fact
everything is quite dark, puzzlingly out of step with a rather
cheerful system which includes plenty of cooperation. The
"picture post cards" featured for each port, the best art in
the package, are unfortunately too small to really be
appreciated. Including the too-large box of the first edition,
this decent design has been twice betrayed now but sub-par
production. It's a fair guess that in the next decade it will
have a third chance – let's hope it's the charm it
deserves.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 5
Horst-Rainer R&osner & Wolfgang Kramer; 2007; Pro Ludo/Ystari/Z-Man; 2-5
- Typo
Word game with cards, a re-development of the numeric game,
Take 6.
As in its predecessor, each player simultaneously reveals a card –
containing a single letter –
and tries to add it to one of the existing card rows with the proviso
that he be able to say a word which contains the fragment in
question. If unable to do so, he must "eat" one of the rows. Since
just as in
Boggle
or
Scrabble
the dictionary is in effect part of the rule book, there can be
occasional problems disputing what is and isn't a word, but
balanced against this can be the fun of citing a word where
opponents thought it impossible. At the very least the mind is
stretched to see words in a new way. As play is not timed like
Boggle,
yet not long like
Scrabble,
it fairly earns its space on the game shelf. Moreover, there
are tactics available as well since a player facing problematic
words can play a card late in the alphabet hoping words will have
cleared before this turn. The typewriter theme – remember that
ancient artifact? – is nicely reflected by cards which look like
the typing of an old machine on worn paper. But don't play with
people unwilling to conclude their word searches in a reasonable
amount of time. In that case a timer may be a good idea after all.
[Cwali]
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Low
- Tyranno Ex
Memory-based game of somewhat abstract evolution.
- Tyros
Martin Wallace design about the ancient settlement of the entire
Mediterranean littoral. Players don't control a single empire, but attempt
to dominate all four. In their hands are nicely-sculpted plastic ships,
cardboard city tiles and cards in four suits which permit the movement and
construction of the above. The crucial dynamic is that each space can only
hold one city, which can be built if the ships of only one player are there.
Since a space lacking a city can only hold two ships, either a player manages
to secure the city before another's ship can arrive, or, the area tends to hold
both ships for the duration, the city going unbuilt. Since moving
to a location requires cards of the location's color and building a city
requires even more cards of this color, the composition of the ten cards one
receives each turn is very important, perhaps even too important, although it can be
improved somewhat by trade with others or with the deck. While the first
impression is one of trade, expansion and conflict, the overall feeling is of
an almost-pure abstract with many blocking moves, particularly in the second
half when players no longer trust one another enough to trade any more cards.
Very often the player feels helpless about being able to make any progress
at all and becomes resigned to the more limited goal of creating stalemates
hampering others.
In our first playing, all four empires were located in the extreme east (despite
the adjacency rule). This created a very skewed playing in which two empires could
make no progress whatever and tended to make matters rather unfair for two of
the players, as well as make half the cards in the deck useless
for all for the entire second half. While not a normal situation,
the fact that it could happen at all tends to indicate that
more development was needed. One separation from reality is the
complete absence of combat, which historically did occur, and
here maybe would have helped to break up the many dead-locked
situations. Another is that all the empires are supposed to be
based on the Phoenicians, whereas in reality the Egyptians,
Greeks, Romans and others ought to have been explicitly
mentioned. Or, the theme could have been transferred to the
mysterious "Sea Peoples" of an earlier era who settled in a
variety of areas as far dispersed as Palestine and Tuscany.
It's difficult to say what audience this game should find as
military game fans will find it too bloodless while abstract fans
may find too much luck of the draw. With this entry in Kosmos'
"Games for Many" series, one perceives a lesser success rate
than in the "Games for Two", probably reflecting the greater
difficulties inherent in development for multiple players.
- Tzuris
A trick-taking card game which feels
overcomplicated by too many rules. It would be
much better if the card selection were eliminated and the
pre-game bidding minimized. Also, although five are allowed to
play individually, it probably works much
better as a 4-player partnership game. Similar to
Twilight's
rules for asking another player to play a card on your behalf,
here the twist is that you get to choose which card from your
hand another will play.
[Laughing Gravy Games]
