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going
out first and are calculated
by comparing your hand to the scoring card. This game rewards
patience; the successful player does not go out at the first
opportunity, but rather develops higher scoring hands.
TA YU (Rio Grande): 2-4 players.
TA YU is a tile laying game where players are attempting to
connect rivers to opposite sides of the board while preventing
their opponent from doing the same. The components are of very
high quality. The tiles have a similar feel to MAH JONGG tiles,
although TA YU tiles are longer and thinner. The 4-player
version is played with partnerships. The 3-player version is
unique in that the 3rd player tries to stop both of the other
players from connecting to their respective sides of the board.
ELFENLAND (Rio Grande): 2-6
players. ELFENLAND won the prestigious 1998 Spiel de Jahres.
Players take the role of an Elfen Prince or Princess, attempting
to journey around the kingdom, visiting as many of the kingdom's
20 cities as possible. Players use various means of
transportation, such as troll wagons and elf-cycles to speed
them on their trip. Players must be careful, for other players
can place hazards to slow travel. The winner is the player who
has visited the most cities during 4 turns of play. Although the
game is designed for 2 to 6, I feel that a minimum of 4 players
is needed for the game to work well.
BOHNANZA (Rio Grande): 3-7
players. Bohnanza or as it is commonly called, "the bean
game", is a card game with the loose theme of planting and
harvesting beans. Each turn a player draws 2 bean cards. A
player may then trade bean cards with other players in an
attempt to match beans he already has, but at the end of the
turn must "plant" his bean cards in his rows. A player
may only have a maximum of three different rows and may only
plant beans of the same type in a row. Players score more points
by planting more beans in each row before "harvesting"
them for points. Trust me, the game plays much better than it
sounds.
HERA & ZEUS (Rio Grande): 2
players. Please see my review in Game Notes #7 for a more
complete treatment of this game. In this attractive card game,
players take the role of Hera and Zeus and engage in combat with
the other. Players play cards to 3 columns with a depth of up to
4 rows. Players can use their front cards to attack the enemy's
front cards. Special cards modify the basic rules. There are six
different ways to win this game, giving Hera & Zeus good
replay value.
Larry
has been an avid gamer for nearly 30 years and a playtester
for over 15. He enjoys both wargames and eurogames. He is currently
playing Master Labyrinth, Mhing, Apples to Apples, Battleline
and is learning to play For the People II. He lives in South
Carolina with his wife, Melissa.
RANDOM MUSINGS
by Bill Krasner
Back in the late 70's, I had a
friend who owned a wargame shop. He was thoughtful (and naive)
enough to provide a gaming table in the center of his store. We
spent many a day crowded around that table, oblivious both to
the owner and his paying customers.
Mostly I have fond memories of
those days and our marathon gaming sessions, but there are a few
exceptions.....which, of course, will be the subject of this
article.
We were playing THEIR FINEST HOUR
by GDW. We left the game set up with the intent to finish it off
the next day. We were unable to make it the next day, so the
play continued with substitute players. When I did return to the
shop (some two days later), I was greeted with the following
spectacle: not only did the substitute players mark off the
original naval hit sheet in ink, but they had grown bored with
the game and set up a smaller one on top of mine. This wouldn't
have been so bad, but they taped the new map onto the maps for
my game. I tried to be careful, but when I peeled the offending
game map off of mine, I left some very noticeable damage.
Grrrrrr.
Different day, same location, same
culprit(s): left SPI's WAR IN THE EAST set up over a weekend.
Returned to find chocolate fingerprint smudges in the rulebook
and all over the Production charts. Jeez, guys, this is a $50
game. Show a little respect. New rule: No eating at the game
table.
Playing a miniatures game
simulating a meeting engagement between Soviet tanks and US
armor "somewhere in Germany". The owner of the rules
(and the minis) led the Russian team. Certain that he was going
to lead his team to victory over the Americans, he got really
pissed off as his tanks were being knocked out as soon as they
appeared on the field of battle. He decided that the fault was
in the game system (and not his tactics), so he commenced a
re-write of the rules as we were playing. So every turn, rules
were tweaked, bent or outright jettisoned until the Russians had
the edge he so desperately sought. Some people hate to lose.
And of course, my favorite story
from this era:
The most insufferable little twit
I have ever known showed up with a copy of SPI's WAR IN THE
PACIFIC (which even then was an expensive game), which he had
purchased from the hobby shop at the mall. Seems one of their
clerks had
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mistaken
WAR IN THE PACIFIC for Avalon Hill's VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC and
marked them at $9.95. One of us (I don't remember who) called
the hobby shop to see if there were any copies left (there
weren't). Grrrrrr.
Not too many years later, the shop
went bankrupt, the owner went to jail and we all went our
separate ways. I think about those guys every once in a while
and, you know, I still hate their guts.
Bill
Krasner, who will be 114 later this month, plays and sells games
in Vancouver, Washington.
BATTLE LINE
by Walt O'Hara
BATTLE LINE is a revised version
of an earlier card game by the talented and prolific Dr. Reiner
Knizia. That game was SCHOTTEN-TOTTEN (published by ASS-Spielkartenverlag
of Germany). The subject of that game is a giant brawl taking
place between rival gangs of Scottish Highlanders, each clan
trying to "go over the boundry" into his opponent's
camp. In Schotten-Totten, the players start out with a deck of
"clans" represented by five groups of "clan"
cards with differently colored borders, numbered 1 through 10.
The players deal out a hand of cards that are gradually laid
down on the table in a long line (facing the opposing player's
line). Each player may lay down up to 3 cards at nine different
"boundry stones" (cards). These three cards make
certain groupings called "groups"... and the order in
which they form groups is hierarchial, in this fashion:
1st Group: Ordered Clan - three
cards of the same colour with consecutive values
2nd Group: Scottentot Team - three
cards of the same value
3rd Group: Clan - three cards of
the same colour
4th Group: Ordered Group - three
cards with consecutive values
5th Group: Wild Rabble - any other
set of three cards
Groups oppose groups, a poker-like
hiearchy, and the "highest" group on either side takes
the "boundry stone." Formations, or Groupings, usually
beat out a higher score (thus, 3 number 10 cards (totalling 30)
of different colors can be beat by a group of number 1, 2, and 3
cards of the same color, even though they only add up to 6)
BATTLE LINE is almost exactly the
same, with a few important exceptions; The artwork is now by
Rodger MacGowan, using the art from GMT's GREAT BATTLES OF
HISTORY series (for Skirmishers (value 1) through War Elephants
(value 10). The formations have different names, like
"Phalanx", "Battalion Order", "Hoarde"
etc, but they retain the hierarchial nature of Schotten-Totten.
The boundry stones have been replaced by 9 plastic
"flags" or pawns you lay out in a row. Where BATTLE
LINE really shines, however, is the addition of ten tactics
cards. I won't go into how these affect play, other than to
mention that they will screw up the best plans of mice, men, and
Ancient Military leaders. The addition of Tactics cards makes
what was a simple and fun game become a simple and fun game
laden with strategic subtleties. Knowing WHAT tactics cards have
been played, how many your opponent holds, and the inevitable
card-counting become the predominant tactics used in Battle
Line.
The components are excellent-- the
cards feature the formentioned MacGowan artwork; are sturdy and
laminated and printed with different backs for 'troops' (the
cards numbered 1-10) and 'tactics'. The Rulebook is a 1 page
fold-over which is more than suitable. The little flags can be a
pain if you have small children (keep them in the ziploc bag
thoughtfully provided by GMT at all times!). All of this in a
nice plastic counter tray in a sturdy but small box about the
size of the GDW old '120' series (about the size of a trade
paperback). Playing time was less than 1 hour the first time I
played it, down to about 45 minutes since (and this with a very
slow player who thinks too much between moves!). I've had some
success teaching BATTLE LINE to my six year old daughter, Annie,
though I omitted the tactics cards and reduced the number of
colors in play to four. We've played several games, and she's
won not a few of them. BATTLE LINE is definitely what I would
define as a 'family game' in the same vein as KING OF THE ELVES.
One variant I would suggest to
lunch time players. Get a one-minute sand timer from Chessex or
some other Chess supply store. Executing each move in the space
of a minute changes the entire nature of the game!
In summary, BATTLE LINE is a great
update to a fun game, with tremendous added value with the
tactics cards. At 20 dollars, the game is priced only a little
more than some of the more "throwaway" games in our
hobby... but I doubt you will throw this one away any time soon.
Walt O'Hara lives and games in Virginia.
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