DeGecko

Hey dude & dudettes,

As I explained in my [thread=686627]review[/thread] of [thing=18836][/thing] Carcassonne was the very first ‘Gamers Game’ I got to know. The board of our local youth club went on a weekend to plan the activities for the following year and after the hard work a friend threw Carcassonne on the table and explained it to us. I was sold from that moment on 🙂 . Actually, I liked it so much I actually bought it a few weeks later and after I got to know it a little better I started exploring the expansions like this one.

How did I get to know this game?
I saw it on the counter in a small gaming shop called ‘Red Dragon Games’ in Antwerp (mainly Warhammer) right around the corner of our gaming club. It was appealing and cheap so I picked up a copy, as well as [thing=18836][/thing] and [thing=12903][/thing].

What’s that theme?
The theme doesn’t change, but now the king is looking for the biggest city / castle and robbers roam along the roads.

And the components?
[thing=7707][/thing] comes in a mini-box and actually contains two seperate expansions: one for the original [thing=822][/thing]
game consisting of 7 tiles (5 new playing tiles with all new combinations, a ‘king’ and a ‘robber’ for scoring extra points) and one for the spin off [thing=4390][/thing] consisting of 5 tiles.

Right now I’ll only talk about the first one since I’ve never played the second one ;).

How does it work?
People that played [thing=13][/thing] once or twice will recognize this. The 5 playing tiles are mixed with the other tiles. The first player to build a city receives the ‘king’ tile. When another player builds a larger city, that player will steal the ‘king’ tile away and so will every next player that builds a larger city. The same goes for the ‘robber’ tile, only this happens when a long or longer road is built.

The player in posession of the ‘king’ tile receives 1 extra point per finished city at the end of the game. The players in posession of the ‘robber’ tile will receive 1 extra point for every finished road at the end of the game.

So how do you win again?
As in the basic game, you still win by having most points at the end of the game.

Any tricky parts?
Maybe a little one: You’ll have to keep track of what currently are the largest city and the longest road. Usually we do this by putting a spare meeple or another marker on a small improvised track.

So what exactly do I think about this expansion?
Well, I like it, but it has pro’s and cons of course. Let’s start with the bad news…

Con:
– It only holds a small amount of tiles.
– The rules can easily be applied without the expansion.
– If you only have one of the basic games, the other half of the expansion is quite useless.

Pro:
– It looks nice. The scoring tiles I mean.
– There are 5 new tiles that offer some new possibilities.
– If you do have both basic games it’s a nice 2-for-1.
– Well, it’s cheap…

Just check out the pictures of the tiles, maybe try the rules out and decide for yourself whether you’d spend the money on it or not.

Hey dude & dudettes,

Carcassonne was the very first ‘Gamers Game’ I got to know. The board of our local youth club went on a weekend to plan the activities for the following year and after the hard work a friend threw Carcassonne on the table and explained it to us. I was sold from that moment on :). Actually, I liked it so much I actually bought it a few weeks later and after I got to know it a little better I started exploring the expansions like this one. I even bought a second copy of “Carcassonne: The River II” because the extra split was so cool :P.

How did I get to know this game?
I saw it on the counter in a small gaming shop called ‘Red Dragon Games’ in Antwerp (mainly Warhammer) right around the corner of our gaming club. It was appealing and cheap so I picked up a copy, as well as “Carcassone: King & Scout” and “Carcassonne: The Count”.

What’s that theme?
The theme doesn’t change, but now there’s a river in Carcassonne. I’m sure you would’ve figured that out on your own, no? 😛

And the components?
This is only a small expansion with nothing more than a few tiles and some rules. However, the rules are clear and illustrated and the tiles are of the same quality as the base game.

Sometimes the color may differ from the base tiles, but you’ll have to live with that. One fun detail is that one of the two ends has a volcano on it, so if you play it with “Carcassonne: The Princess & the Dragon”, the dragon will enter the game at some point while digging the river.

How does it work?
Well, indtead of beginning with the ‘strat tile’ you open the game by laying out a spring. Keep one of the endings aside and start the game:
Players take turns extending the river.
– When the split shows up the active player places it as he wishes and following tiles are placed on either side (players choice).
– When an end is drawn the active player places it as he wishes too. Remaining tiles have to be placed on the open side.

Meeples can not be placed on the river. You can, however place your meeples on the river tiles on the cities, roads and meadows. The river does close meadows.

So how do you win again?
Same as in Carcassonne, only more fun ;).

Any tricky parts?
Maybe one: The river can not make U-turns!!

So what exactly do I think about this expansion?
I like how it immediatly opens up the board and the split in the river helps shaping it up a bit. I bought a second copy, what do you think? :D.

First off let me start by saying that, until about a year or two ago, I was a very active competetive ‘Magic: The Gathering’-player. Of course I liked the game as a whole, but my favourite format was drafting, which happens to be the main mechanic in ‘7 Wonders’!

How did I get to know this game?
Recently a friend at our local gaming group brought ‘7 Wonders’ saying it was a light, fun and short game. As we have to split up the group most of the time (we’re with about 8 or 9 people on good nights) we needed such a game to pass time while waiting for the others to finish their game. And right he was! The box says 30 minutes and we played the game (including explanation!) in about 45 minutes while 2 of us where first time players.

What’s that theme?
In ‘7 Wonders’ every player tries to build 1 of the 7 wonders of the world. Well, I was one of the lucky few that got to play with 8 wonders, but more about that later .
The game is beautifully illustrated. Too bad the cards are really thin (and I mean really thin!) and the wooden coins are quite ugly, but hey, you can’t have it all…

How does it work?
The game is quite simple. The building of your wonder takes place in 3 ages. In every age each player recieves 7 cards and each age consists of 7 turns. In each turn you choose 1 card from your hand to keep, and pass the rest off the cards to the player next to you, thus you recieve the cards from the player on your other side.
With this card you can do a few things:
* Build a building: Buildings give you resources that are used to build other buildings, offer military advantages, scientific progress or economic advantages letting you buy materials from other players cheaper. Building costs you a few resources and some early buildings let you build other buildings for free later in the game. If you lack resources you can always buy them from your neighdouring players. They can’t refuse and they get money for it.
* Build on your wonder: When certain conditions are met you can place a card face down on a stage of your wonder, giving you the everything mentioned on the wonder card.
This goes on for 6 turns and the 7th card is placed on the discard pile.
When all cards of a round have passed, scoring takes place and the next round begins.

In ‘7 Wonders’ there are a few paths you can follow, depending on the cards you use. The game is extra user friendly as the different kinds of buildings all got their own colour:
* Brown cards: Provide you with basic resources (wood, clay, ore and stone). Most are free or cost 1 gold, depending on what you get from them.
* Grey cards: Provide you with luxurious resources (glass, loom and papyrus).These are used for special buildings so these cards ost more to build.
* Yellow cards: Markets and economic buildings which allow you to buy resources from neighbouring players for only 1 gold instead of 2 or just give you some extra pocket change.
* Red cards: Military buildings give you power. This will come back when scoring at the end of each round.
* Blue cards: Get you points. Just points.
* Green cards: These have 3 symbols that stand for different scientific progress. These also come back when scoring, but only at the end of the game.
* Purple cards: These are guilds. They only appear in the third round and give you points for cards your neighbouring players have built during the game.

So how do you win again?
Scoring happens 4 times in the game: Once at the end of each round and once at the end of the game.
– After each round your military strength is evaluated and you get points according to it. If your weaker than your neighbour you get -1. If you’re stronger you get 1 point in round 1, 3 poitns in round 2 and 5 points in round 3. This is counted for each of your neighbours, so it’s perefctly possible to get -1 and 5 (making a total of 4) in round 3.
– At the end of the game a series of points are counted:
* Points you earned at the end of each round are counted.
* Points received from blue, yellow and purple cards are added to that.
* Points for green cards are counted as follows: each of the 3 symbols is counted exponentionally (e.g. 3 of the same symbols => 3*3 = 9 points) and a set of 3 different symbols makes 7 points. Symbols count for both kinds of sets.
* The money you have left is counted too and for every 3 gold pieces you have left you get another point.

Any tricky parts?
Well, you can’t build the same building twice, so you really have to pay attention to the NAMES of the cards! If someone notices you have a certain building twice, one of them is harshly discraded. (In case of a green card this can make a difference between 16 or 25 points!!!)

What was this thing about that 8th wonder again?
Right, almost forgot. In Essen Repos Production handed out aa special gift to all who bought ‘7 Wonders’. I’ve been told ‘Spielbox Magazine’ wil also give them with an upcoming issue (probably when the first expansion comes out sometime around May of this year and I even heard it will be available on the BGG-site. I didn’t check these rumors out, but hey, keep your eyes open huh .

Back to the actual 8th wonder: Keeping in mind that Repos Production is a Belgian company, the 8th wonder of the world was ‘Manneke Pis’, the little peeing boy that lures thousands of tourists to Brussels (and some to Geraardsbergen for the experts ) each year. One of the sides of this wonder card has only building 1 stage. You need 1 of each resource and it gives you 7 coins, 7 points, 1 military strength and a beer from the winner. Too bad I won the game myself. Buying yourself a beer isn’t all that special

So what exactly do I think about this game?
I hope I managed to write an objective review as I’m am a true fan of this game. Not only the main drafting mechanic, but also the different possibilities the game offers (you can win by sheer points, or by going the scientific route, or by earning a lot of money to boost your score a bit. Even playing military can get you 18 points between rounds!) are great. Especially if you think about the fact this all fits in a 30 minute game!!

I won’t dedicate a whole evening to this game, but while waiting for those 2 or 3 late comers or in between bigger games, this is one of my favourites. Two thumbs up!

Hey dudes & dudettes,

As I work in shifts and I have too many hobbies I just can’t find the time to start reviewing some big ones. But when I find the time I’m happy to review some smaller games for you guys. This one could even become a small series as it’s about a game with a bunch of expansions: ‘Bohnanza’.

How did I get to know this game?
As some of you might have read in other reviews I often visit big toy stores in addition to the specialized gaming stores. Bart Smit is one of these and that’s where I saw this game for the first time. It was always calling out for me from the shelves and when my brother asked me to make a list of things that I’d like for christmas I put ‘Bohnanza’ on there amongst a bunch of other games.

I mean, come one, the box art is appealing, no?!

What’s that theme?
In ‘Bohnanza’ you’re a small farmer planting, harvesting and eventually selling beans on a limited space. You compete with other farmers to sell not only the most, but also the most expensive beans. You won’t be surprised when I tell you this is one of Uwe Rosenberg’s earlier games .

And the components?
As this is just a small card game there’s not much more in the box than, ehm… Well… Cards!

These cards, however, are of good quality. And that’s a good thing too, considering they’re for double use. More on that later .
Also the artwork in this game is right up my alley. Love the style!

Another big plus (for me anyway) is that Uwe Rosenberg and artist Björn Pertoft share a sense of humor that I can certainly appreciate. For example: You can find ‘Bohnanza’ artwork on cards in Agricola.

And that’s not the only easter egg .

How does it work?
Each player starts with 5 cards in hand. It’s very important you DO NOT rearrange your cards. Cards are played in order, so you have to draw them on by one and keep ’em like that!

At the start of the game you have 2 fields to plant beans on. You can only plant 1 bean family per field. Through the course of the game you can expand your farm by 1 extra bean field.

Every turn is played over 4 phases in order:
1. Planting beans: First, you MUST plant the first bean card in your hand and you MAY plant the second one. If your first card is a bean that you haven’t already got on one of your fields, you have to empty a field. If possible you may harvest ’em, if not they’re lost and you start over with the beans you have to plant. Important detail: If there’s only 1 bean card on one of your fields it’s protected and you have to use the other one, otherwise you choose which field you use.
2. Trading: Second, you turn over the 2 top cards from the draw pile, these become the ‘market’. Players may bid on these (paying with cards from their hands) or you may keep them for yourself, but they HAVE TO be planted in the next phase. If you really don’t want them and players don’t want to pay for them you can always give them away, but if the receiving player doesn’t accept your ‘gift’, you’re stuck with it and still have to plant them yourself!
3. Planting more beans: This is a short phase in which you just plant all the beans you acquired in the last phase. You choose the order, but all other rules and restrictions apply.
4. Drawing new bean cards: At the end of the turn you draw 3 new bean cards from the pile. You draw these one by one and add them to you hand at the back! If the draw pile is emptied you shuffle the discard pile and use this as a new draw pile.

Some details:
* End of the game: When the draw pile is emptied for the third time the active player finishes his turn and the game is over.
* Harvesting beans: When you (have to) harvest beans you count the number of beans you have on a field and match that to the number of coins that amount of beans is worth. You turn that number of beans over to the coin side and put them on your money pile. The rest goes to the discard pile and waits to become draw pile again.
* Getting an extra field: “An extra field? How about fields?”. Nope, you only get ONE extra field, use it wisely! You can purchase this extra field whenever you want (it doesn’t even have to be your turn) and it will cost you 3 coins. You may choose which coins to use to pay for the field (so you can get those expensive beans back into the draw pile!). Paying happens by putting the chosen cards from your coin pile face up on the discard pile.

So how do you win again?
Quite simple: You sell beans for coins. The player with the most money at the end of the game wins.

Any tricky parts?
Absolutely!
– A field with only 1 bean card on it is protected and CAN NOT be harvested UNLESS ALL your fields house only 1 bean card.
– I keep repeating it: you CAN NOT rearrange the cards in your hand!!
– You can give away cards you don’t want, but the recipient doesn’t have to take them.
– You can buy ONLY ONE extra bean field. That’s why they only say ‘Third field’ and there are no ‘Fourth, fifth or more’ fields available.
– You CAN trade hand cards in the trading phase. Even if not for market cards.
– …

Just keep up when counting and trading and … A mistake is easily made .

So what exactly do I think about this game?
Honestly, I like it. It’s fascinating to see how much fun and tension one can put in a small and seemingly simple game like Bohnanza.

Actually, I love all of Uwe Rosenberg’s games for as far as I’ve played them. They seem to always have a great balance between lovely art and fun on one side and great mechanics and player interaction on the other.

This is another one of those games to which I wouldn’t dedicate a whole evening, but I will often play it on a loose night or in between.

A bunch off spin-offs and expansions are available. I have several, but haven’t played all of them. I’m quite curious actually . If you’ve played spin-offs like ‘Ladybohn’ or ‘Al Cabohne’, go ahead and let me know ;).

Hi dudes & dudettes,

People who know me know that I like Catan games like the original ‘The Settlers of Catan’, but also spin offs like ‘Catan Card Game’ and ‘Catan Dice Game’. Recently I discovered that a new Catan game was coming up, so I checked it out and I really liked the fact that it’s playable with up to 4 players, or even up to 6 when you have 2 copies.

A few weeks ago I finally got it in the mail and immediately tried it out with my girlfriend.

Now let’s see

How did I get to know this game?
Quite accidentally actually. I was browsing the 999-website to check out the newest ‘Carcassonne’-expansion(s) when I came across this little game. The description was promising so I ordered it.

What’s that theme?
It’ a Catan game, what would the theme be?!
Oh well, here we go: The players are settlers that try and collect resources to build up a settlement andupgrade it into a great metropolis.

And the components?
This is a simple card game that doesn’t involve dice or counters or any such things. The cards however are beautifully illustrated.

How does it work?
You’ll be using another set of cards per number of players to balance out the game.
First off you take the top 5 resource cards and put them open on the table. This is the market.
Each player starts with a street (A-side up) and a village and 3 resource cards.

Each player’s turn consists of 3 phases:
* Trading resources:
– If you have no streets with the A-side up you can only trade 1 resource card and only with the draw pile.
– Per street with the A-side up you can trade 1 resource card with another player or with the market.
* Building things: Depending on the resources you have available you may build anything you can or want.
– You can build villages as long as there are villages on the stack.
– You can upgrade your village to cities.
– These cities can be expanded as long as expansions are available.
– Streets and knights can be built or trained. When the stacks are empty you can simply take one away from another player. This other player will be the next player according to the arrow on the direction card. The direction of the arrows can be changed after a player builds a village.
– While building you can use any 3 equal resources to trade for 1 other resource you need.
* Drawing resource cards:
– You draw 2 cards from the draw pile plus 1 for each knight you have with it’s A-side up.

So how do you win again?
The first player to get 10 points wins. Simple as that.

Any tricky parts?
– Well, you have to keep in mind that streets and knights come into play A-side first, B-side second, after that A-side again and so on.
– While building you can build anything you want, but only 1 of each!!

So what exactly do I think about this game?
It’s a fun game and I’m eager to try it out with 4 and 6 players. I like it as a chill filler and it will probably see a lot of trips and festival campings.