Reviewed by Herb Levy
(Hans im Glück/Rio Grande Games, 2-4 players, ages 10 and up, 60 minutes; $24.95)
As nice as it is to be winning the Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year Award), such accolades can cause problems. The biggest problem is, of course, how do you follow such a great success! The answer, for designers Karen & Andreas Seyfarth, seemed fairly simple – bring out an expansion – and they did – with Thurn and Taxis: Power and Glory. Once again, players are delivering the mail but now find ourselves covering a different part of Europe – with a few twists.
Thurn and Taxis: Power and Glory is not a complete game unto itself. You will need the original Thurn and Taxis to play as the original supplies the necessary wooden pieces. (Or, of course, you could scrounge around your game collection and come up with a suitable army of wood to do the job.) What you will find within the box is a new gameboard, 4 carriage cards, 69 city cards (3 each of the 23 cities on the board) and 39 bonus tiles.
The expansion plays essentially as the original does. (For a reminder how Thurn and Taxis plays, you can refer to our feature in the Fall 2006 GA REPORT.) But there are some interesting differences.
The new board takes players north as the geography has changed. Mail delivery now includes areas outside of Germany including Holland, Belgium and a bunch of “free cities” (independent of regional affiliation): Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck and Frankfurt. The large central area of Thurn and Taxis has its counterpart in Preussen but here it is divided, separated by the presence of Hannover and Göttingen, making traveling around and connecting the area just a bit more challenging.
Cards may be used as us
ual in placing pieces in different areas but, besides naming a place, the cards contain another piece of information: horseshoes. One, two or three horseshoes appear on each card. The front of the card displays the usual information AND displays horseshoes; ALL card backs are the same EXCEPT for a display of one, two or three horseshoes.
Cards may be played as usual OR they may be played FACE DOWN to create a “train of horses” pulling the player’s carriage. When a player decides to complete a route, he MUST have enough horses (i.e. horseshoes) pulling his carriage as there are cards in his route. Once scored, the regular cards AND the horseshoe cards are discarded.
As in the original, players gather points by placing houses throughout regions, cashing in long runs of cards etc. The game ends, as in its predecessor, when all of a player’s houses have been placed which allows anyone who hasn’t had an equal number of turns to make a final attempt to snatch a few more points before totals are computed. The player with the most points wins.
(And for those who simply can’t get enough of this game, be aware that the October (5/06) issue of Spielbox magazine included a small expansion for the game called Thurn and Taxis: The Messenger of the Princess which included 28 tiles (“notable letters”) and a “messenger of the princess” token. With this expansion, players receive a noble letter when placing the first house in an area. Noble letters can be used to give a player essentially extra actions in a turn. The messenger token goes to a player who does not receive a new carriage because the route it too short. Ownership of the messenger reduces the cost of using noble letters for actions but this token can change from player to player as the game progresses with the player controlling it at game’s end getting a one Victory Point bonus added to his final score.)
Thurn and Taxis: Power and Glory is a bit more forgiving than its predecessor and that makes it more popular among some players. Since you now have a second and important use for all cards (that is, creating a string of horses to power your route travel), the option to flush away the tableau of available cards tends not to be used as much. Also, by being able to see the horseshoes on the back of the cards, even cards of cities that are completely worthless to you take on value as horses. The presence of independent cities provide easier opportunities to earn bonus tiles although, only one bonus tile is available per city and you can only pick up one of these bonus tiles per route.
Thurn and Taxis: Power and Glory is a strong companion piece to the Thurn and Taxis world and certainly a worthwhile addition for those thousands of gamers who have enjoyed the original design. – – – – – – – – — – -Herb Levy
Summer 2007 GA Report Articles
[In this issue, we welcome Jeff Feuer to our pages. Jeff is a new reviewer for us and a relatively new member of the European style boardgaming fraternity. As Jeff explains: "I've been computer gaming since the Atari days (including having played many of the incarnations of Civilization as well as some Railroad Tycoon and the Age of Empire series) but, except for some ...
Read More
Reviewed by Herb Levy (Ravensburger/Rio Grande Games, 2-4 players, ages 10 and up, 45-60 minutes; $44.95) Arkadia (aka Die Baumeister von Arkadia in the Ravensburger edition) is the newest offering from designer Rüdiger Dorn, probably best known for Goa (Summer 2004 GA REPORT), putting players into competition as architects seeking to increase their prestige and influence as they construct a city and the castle at ...
Read More
Reviewed by Herb Levy (Days of Wonder, 3-5 players, ages 10 and up, 60-90 minutes; $50) Wolfgang Kramer is something unusual among the ranks of game designers. Not only has he created an impressive array of games on his own (Take 6, Big Boss, Expedition, Heimlich & Co., Midnight Party etc. ) but he has also found success in game design partnerships with lots of ...
Read More
Travellin' Show In the "old days" (notably but not limited to the Old West of America and other areas outside of "The Big City"), there was something called a "travellin' show". Performers of all kinds would travel from town to town introducing culture (and not so cultural pursuits) to the outer reaches of the population while making a few bucks for themselves. Some big name ...
Read More
Reviewed by Joe Huber (Cwali, 2-4 players, ages 11 and up, about 45 minutes; $41.95) Ever since the release of Isi in 1999, Corné van Moorsel has been recognized as a strong independent game designer and publisher. In addition to such popular games as Morisi/Netzwerk, ZooSim/O Zoo le Mio, and StreetSoccer, he has designed a number of clever small games such as Floriado. Even better, ...
Read More
Reviewed by Herb Levy FIRE & AXE (Asmodee Editions, 3 to 5 players, ages 12 and up, 90 minutes; $49.99) When you're renting a car and expecting a compact but end up with a luxury sedan, that's pretty nice. When you show up on a blind date and discover your date is a super model, well, that's pretty nice too. You see, EVERYBODY loves an ...
Read More
(Gamers Alliance is always on the lookout for good games. Greg Schloesser spotted and wrote about one from Ragnar Brothers: Viking Fury. With Fire & Axe, its latest incarnation, featured in this issue, we thought it was the proper time to "flashback" and see what Greg had to say about the game. This review appeared in our Fall 2004 issue.) (The Ragnar Brothers, 3-5 ...
Read More
Reviewed by Herb Levy (Pywacket LLC, 2-4 players, ages 7 and up, about 30 minutes; $19.99) From the very earliest of times and from the earliest times of our lives, human beings tend to like sparkly things. Of all the sparkly things that surround our existence, gems rank pretty high and they continue to rank high and be the focus of our attention in Gemlok ...
Read More
Reviewed by Herb Levy (Gamewright, 2 players, ages 10 and up, about 15 minutes; $9.95) The game of Nim has been around for a long time despite the fact that there really isn't much game there. In essence, Nim is a game of "perfect information" where rows of objects are available and players alternate taking (generally) 1, 2 or 3 of those objects until one ...
Read More
Reviewed by Pevans (Kosmos/Mayfair Games, 2-4 players, ages 12 and up, 2 hours; $49) Like other people, I was really taken with the way The Pillars of the Earth (known as Die Säulen der Erde in its European edition), designed by Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler, looks when I first saw it. This is due to the six wooden pieces that make up the cathedral ...
Read More
Reviewed by Herb Levy (Hans im Glück/Rio Grande Games, 2-4 players, ages 10 and up, 60 minutes; $24.95) As nice as it is to be winning the Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year Award), such accolades can cause problems. The biggest problem is, of course, how do you follow such a great success! The answer, for designers Karen & Andreas Seyfarth, seemed fairly ...
Read More
Reviewed by Herb Levy (Hans im Glück/Rio Grande Games, 2-4 players, ages 10 and up, about 60 minutes; $34.95) It seems that Vikings are the flavor of the month. Last issue, there was Midgard. In this issue, we have featured Fire & Axe, the remake of Ragnor Brothers' Viking Fury. Now, rounding out this unplanned trilogy of sorts, comes Vikings, the new game from designer ...
Read More
[Before you dive into this review of Winds of Plunder, a little disclaimer. If you look at the credits for Winds of Plunder, you'll find my name listed under playtesting. I had the pleasure of playing this game while it undertook its multi-year journey from idea to finished product.] Reviewed by Herb Levy (GMT Games, 3-5 players, ages 10 and up, 60-120 minutes; ...
Read More
