Game(s) played:
Hansa Teutonica
Player(s):
Kenshin
LS
Anon (Note: Name hidden to protect anonymity until permission is given)
Nitsuj
It has been quite some time since I last met up with Kenshin & LS for a gaming session, the last time probably being at Anon’s place where we played Grass which was a long time ago.
I brought a slew of games with me but finally settled on Hansa Teutonica since they’ve never played this hidden gem before (That and anything that involves major screwage attracts Kenshin like Elmer Fudd to Bugs Bunny). So here’s my simple review of the game:
Edit: I spent some time writing this review and when I was approximately one paragraph away from my conclusion, I realize I had regurgitated the entire rulebook which I realize is not my intention. My purpose is to help you, in light of the rising inflation in Malaysia, make a choice as to whether this game is for you and your gaming group. So I went back and redid it again LOL
This game is… …:
About getting the highest number of victory points through:
- establishing toll booths (the game calls it “offices" but Malaysia toll booths seem more apt),
- controlling towns by having the most toll booths in a town,
- establishing a connecting chain of towns with your toll booths,
- having fully upgraded abilities,
- collecting bonus markers (that confer a onetime bonus), and
- placing on special bonus point track (called the “Coellen Table" in the game)
*gasp* *gasp* As you can see, it is so not possible to explain how the game can be won in a single breath, or even two breaths for that matter.
What do you get in the box?
1. An elaborate gameboard
This side is used if you have 2-3 players. The map is supposed to depict Lower Germany (according to the rulebook) or the coast of Northern Europe (according to good ol’ Wikipedia) where an alliance of merchant guilds dominated in trade way back in the 1300’s. On the flipside…
… you have the 4-5 players side which is actually very similar to the 2-4 players side with the exception of an additional two roads at two very key towns and the size of some towns are different. As a caution you really need to make sure that the surface of your play area is clean, clean, clean otherwise you might end up staining or scratching one side of your gameboard.
2. Five player boards
Player boards are differentiated by colour (blue, yellow, green, red and purple) and the quality of the artwork as well as the cardboard is excellent. Like the gameboard, the player boards are printed on both sides except that both sides of the player boards are identical so you can use either side.
3. Bonus markers, 16 to be exact
These bonus markers are collectible during the course of the game and can be used to confer a onetime bonus to the player. There are five different types of bonuses available, three are screwy in nature, one lets you level up one ability for free and one gives you more actions per turn.
4. 155 Coloured cubes (31 for each colour) & 1 special black cube
The game must of course come with cubes, lots of cubes… okay to be fair it comes with 135 cubes and 20 cylinders. Caution: As with all Euro games, keep an eye on your three year olds if they’re hanging around your play area. They might mistake the bits (especially the colourful cylinders) for vitamins and the worst could happen… Your significant other could ban Euro games from your home forever. The cubes (called ‘Traders’) & cylinders (called ‘Merchants’) serve two purposes:
i. As markers in building your connection between towns
ii. After completing the connection, they serve as markers to indicate you have a toll booth in the town to collect toll (victory points)
The black cube simply serves as a marker to indicate how close it is to the game end condition being fulfilled.
5. 1 Meeple and 4 soldier counters (2 player game only)
I won’t go into detail about the 2 player game option as I have only played it once. The 2 player game does work but in my opinion there is just one drawback that is you really need to play against someone who is quite as adept at the game as you are otherwise it’s a slaughter fest.
How is it played?
Hansa Teutonica is a game about options, lots of different options to gain victory points as seen from the listing above.
Here’s the gist of it. Each player starts with a number of Traders (depending on turn order) and a Merchant in hand with the remaining being in his supply. Note: Its awfully important to distinguish between Traders & Merchants that are in your hand and in your supply and here’s how I have done it:
In hand are those out of the plastic box whilst those in the box are the supply.
I have never seen how other people make this distinction but you can use your imagination to figure it out. For those interested in my solution, do check out this post.
The game system is similar to that of Fallout where you have Action Points which can increase as you upgrade them during the game. Each turn a player can take one action for each Action Point they have (replenished every turn) and basically try to establish toll booths at key locations around the map. This is done by placing their Traders / Merchants along the entire route between two towns and claiming the route to establish the toll booth. Once a route is claimed, all the Traders / Merchants placed on the route return to the player’s supply, leaving the route open for other players to claim and establish their toll booths to jockey for control of the town.
Only players who control the town have the privilege of collecting the toll (victory points) and control is determined firstly by number of toll booths, followed by the person with the rightmost toll booth if the number is tied. As the number of toll booth spaces for each town is limited, it is very much a first come first serve affair (although bonus markers can screw with this).
Players are allowed to move their pieces already on the board to reposition themselves, kick other players’ Traders / Merchants off a route by paying a penalty thereby thoroughly encouraging blocking other players’ completion of a route and just be a pain because they simply want to be.
As there are a host of ways to earn points in the game, players’ strategies often vary and can change during the gameplay itself. Rather than run through the many different paths to victory, I’ll talk about the strategies employed during the game with Kenshin, LS & Anon which I believe gives a good idea about what you can do during the game.
Play ends when a player gets 20 victory points during the game or the tenth town is fully occupied by toll booths (I have yet to see this happen in all the games I’ve played so far) then the end game points are awarded to determine the winner.
[Game 1]
I tried to work a few different strategies during the game to demonstrate the options available in the game to the group. I started out by quickly establishing offices in towns connected with the ability to upgrade the number of action points and upgrade the player’s ability to place toll booths in higher level town slots. As these are the two most upgraded abilities during the game, I got a head start through toll collection when other players used the route to upgrade their abilities.
I then increased the number of Traders / Merchants I could move around through upgrades and made a surprise move to gather my scattered pieces on the board and claim a place on the Coellen Table (or special bonus point track) which gives additional points at game end. This is usually a surprise move because if you do it in one turn, other players don’t have the opportunity to block you.
Kenshin rallied at this point by upgrading his ability to place toll booths in higher slots and taking control of the two towns of the route that allows him to upgrade his action points. By having control of both towns, he gained two victory points each time he completed the route and upgraded the number of actions points he had each turn. As this was quite late in the game, going head to head with him would inadvertently give him more points so I decided to get more end game points by collecting bonus markers scattered around the map.
Anon chose to upgrade abilities that were not contested by other players in order to get end game points for fully upgraded abilities. He however got stuck in difficult positions on the board and ended up contending with me to gather bonus markers on the board.
LS had seemingly no plan (to us at least) but ended up with a decent score simply because she gained points through having control over a fair number of towns that were seemingly strategically unimportant to us.
There was a point at the very end stage of the game when we realised that Kenshin was going to try and hit the Coellen Table (which gives a lot of points) and we discussed another strategy where seeing another player setup a big move towards the end, you claim a route with the purpose of giving him additional victory points to force him over the 20 victory point end game condition, depriving him of the big move.
[Results of Game 1]
Winna: Kenshin
2nd: Justin
*EDIT* (Apparently LS wasn't last... this is what happens when I don't take pictures and rely purely on memory)
3rd: LS
4th: Anon
They liked it enough (especially the fact that it only took 75 minutes for new players to finish a game) to want to go another round and this time was far more brutal:
[Game 2]
Kenshin quickly set up toll booths across the entire upper stretch of the board, seeking to gain victory points through the three upgrade towns and establishing a long chain of controlled towns which was largely successful although Anon did try to hamper his efforts in one corner of the map.
LS was aiming for being the first to establish a connection between the two biggest towns on the map (from far left to far right) which gives an additional 7 points but was also hampered by Anon splendidly.
Unfortunately Anon didn’t do as well because of his efforts spent to hamper two different players plus his attempt to place himself on the Coellen Table being screwed by me through the use of a bonus marker that removes Traders / Merchants from the board back to the player’s supply.
I quickly took control of the town with the upgrade ability for actions and upgraded myself to 5 action points. Following which I used my action point advantage to grab as many bonus markers as I could and took control of small towns (each controlled town is worth 2 points at game end). I was trying to establish a chain of towns but was hampered by my inability to place toll booths in higher level slots since that ability was neglected and not upgraded. Nevertheless this strategy was enough for me to take the game by 2 points ahead of Kenshin.
[Results of Game 2]
Winna: Justin
2nd: Kenshin
3rd: LS
4th: Anon
What I Think About The Game:
Gameplay:
Whilst the game allows for screwage, this is adjustable depending on how your group plays. I have seen some groups where roadblocks are set up, lines are drawn and name calling starts right from the get-go and other groups whose players simply adjust their strategies in order to continue to do what other players are not doing. And the game is good in both respects in the sense that the game does reward players who carve out an unassailable advantage for themselves over the corpses of other players as well as reward those who adopt a niche strategy by being unique. In essence, the game adopts the Roman idiom, “All roads lead to victory points" and this game tends to test your ability to take risks and see what other players can’t.
I would say that there is no luck in this game in the sense that random events are very, very rarely game changers. It is very much like a game of chess that involves more than 2 players and a four dimensional board.
Quality:
The quality of the game and player boards are top notch with no warping or discoloration (I’ve had my copy for six months now). The rulebook is well written so long as you read it carefully (it tends to be easy to forget the rules or it could just be me). As usual some of the cubes look like someone took a bite out of them and I had a missing black cube but after a quick e-mail to Z-Man Games, they sent the missing bits through snail mail.
Affordability:
My affordability formula kinda works like this:
Price ÷ Recommended No. of Players ÷ [Game Length (hour) x No. Times Game is Played in a year]
The game goes for between RM180 – RM200 and if your group varies between 3 to 5 people that’s probably the best meaning you’d get to use both sides of the board. I play this once every 1-2 months usually with 3 players and the occasional 4 players.
Therefore my result would be:
RM180 ÷ 3 players ÷ [1 hour x 8 times a year] = RM7.50 / hour per player
Which is a decent amount really considering if you play more than 8 times a year the figure goes down even further and may be cheaper than your hourly rate at the cyber café. I know games technically last a lifetime but most lose their lustre after a year. However I must say that even after 2 years of being published there is no other game on the market that is even closely similar to Hansa Teutonica so it may have an extended life in your library.
Is this the game for you?
As there are no issues (at least for me) in terms of quality and affordability, your choice basically comes down to the gameplay. Hansa Teutonica is an easy game to teach, however players must always have the end in mind when playing if they want to do well. I would say this is a game of medium strategy and would go well with gaming groups that like a game that requires some thinking, involves nearly zero luck and can be wrapped up in 60-90 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment