Anybody who has spent time at my house in the last two years knows that I love board games. My boardgame story is alot like many others. As a kid I loved board games. I played all sorts of games, but mainly the family classics like Risk, Monopoly, Clue, Sorry, etc. My parents did have a few cool games from the 70's from the 3M bookshelf series. These were games that all came in the same sized case and looked like book spines. I even played some RPG's in middle school, and a few special board games in college, but pretty much just knew about Risk and its friends.
Then, our friends Collin and Amanda introduced my wife and I to a game called The Settlers of Catan. This was a really cool game. The board was made up of Hexagons that were dealt out every game, so the board was constantly different. It was a beautiful game, nice pieces, and alot of fun. We had to have this game for our collection, so we went out and bought it at our local game store. While researching Settlers I found out there is a whole world of board games that are well made, very challenging, and fun to play. The foundation was set for my addiction, and I have gone on to start a nice little collection. To date, I have about 30 games that I have added to the collection.
The most recent addition is Elasund: The First City of Catan, the newest game in the Settlers series. I had played this game once at a board game night here in town, but the explanation was a bit short, and I was really just filling in the 4th spot. I got pounded. But it was a good game, so I decided to buy a copy. I'm always on the look out for good two-player games that Kris and I can play together, but that can be played with more when our friends are over. Also, a small learning curve is nice, because if you sit down with some beers at 10pm, you don't want to spend 30 minutes explaining the game and two hours plowing through a brain burner that you only understand when you re done.
So, Elasund hit the table. First of all, right out of the box, its a quality game, with beautiful pieces, and lots of wood bits whenever possible. The quality you expect out of Kosmos and Mayfair Games. The board is basically a grid. Running down the left side of the grid are numbers 2-12, skipping 7. There are up to four players, and each player has 10 wooden point cubes, four buildings of their color, and everyone starts with 3 gold and an influence card. Influence cards are just cards in three different colors (red, blue, green) that you collect throught the game and let you sometimes bend the rules. The size of the board changes depending on the numbers of players in the game, using the wall corners to show the borders of the city. The object of the game is to get all 10 of your cubes on the board first. The first person to score 10 points wins. But how do you get those points on the board?
You put out buildings. Most buildings let you put out a cube to show that its yours. The more buildings out, the more points you score. Each player starts with two buildings on the board. The buildings have either a gold coin in the corner, or an influence symbol, and most buildings let you put out a Victory Cube (those 10 cubes you have in front of you). Buildings can cover from 1 to 6 spaces on the board. At the start of a players turn, he rolls the dice and moves the wooden ship to corresponding number on the side of the board. If any player has a building on that number row, they collect either gold or an influence card, depending on what their building gives them. Now, it doesn't take long to figure out that two isn't going to be rolled very often, but 8 and 6 get rolled alot. Therefore, the center spaces become very valuable.
In order to get more gold and influence, players need to put out more and more buildings. Each building has a cost. Buildings require a certain amount of gold, and a certain number of building permits. Throughout the game, player put out numbered building permits to claim land that they will later build on. This is what gives the game its real challenge and fun. Building permits have differing value from 0-4. If you put out a permit of, say, 1, and your opponent puts a permit 2 next to it, they can use your permit to construct a building, since they have a bigger permit. You can also build larger buildings over smaller buildings, taking away not only your opponents chance to get gold and influence, but taking away points. Of course, they can build over your buildings too, so it takes some strategy and smart placement to protect your buildings from demolition.
Another nice thing about this game is the variety of ways you can score points. While buildings are your primary source of income, you can also get points building a wall around the city, building pieces of the church, and building on Trade Land (the little windmills). If you just focus on one thing, you won't win. Variation and adaptation are needed to score all ten points. Kris and I played a two player game, and later played a three player game with my sister. It was relatively easy to learn from the instructions. Even though I'd played once before, we went through the whole booklet. Total learning time is about 10 minutes. Teaching my sister took about the same amount of time. My sister even ended up winning the game, showing that it can be taught relatively quickly.
In the end, I would give this game an 8 out of 10. Beautiful board will be attractive to gamers and non-gamers alike. It scored high on the wife scale too, which is nice. Some really abstract or aggressive games sometimes turn-off Kris, but this was just the right amount of in-game conflict I think. Also, once you know the rules, playing while drinking will be no problem, as a few silly mistakes won't take you out of the game. This is a game I would highly recommend for anyone who wants to add a game with a little more challenge to their collection. It is a bit on the pricey side, even for a German game, so you might buy this one online and save a little bit. We usually can't wait and just buy them at the local game store.
Rating: 8 of 10
Players: 2-4
Playtime: 60 minutes
Retail: $49
I'm sure this site is breaking all sorts of copyright laws, but they have posted 100 original 8-bit NES games for your enjoyment. The greats are there, like Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania, along with more nostalgic fare such as Paperboy 2 and Excitebike. There are also lots of games you never got to play as a kid, because your parents were facists who struggled to take down the capitalist system by not buying them for you. Now, the games, and the kids, are free at last.
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