Friends
Alter
Spezial
HELP FROM THE GODS
OFFERINGS
Cows for Zeus
Athens against Sparta, the war is raging on sea and on land and on top of this a horrible plague is pestering people. They need help from the heavens and hope to receive help by offering sacrifices to the gods. Animals must be acquired from the Peasant, must be cleaned and decorated with the help of the Water Carrier and the Flower Carrier and led to the alter by the Temple Guardian.
At the start of the game you place your marker at the bottom of the scale of all seven characters – Peasant, Water Carrier, Flower Carrier, Temple Guardian. Priestess, Briber and Guardsman – and then you move your marker forward one step for three persons of your choice, these are the ones with which you start the game.
Game play comprises rounds of 4 phases, auction, bribes, sacrifices and revenue.
Auction: Each player has one auction turn. For this you choose two person tiles and bid a least 1 Drachma, the others can raise the bid or pass. If you win the bid you move your markers one step forward in the scales of those persons. If another player then the active one wins the bid, the active player again chooses 2 persons and bids. The winner of the previous bid must pass. When 3 pairs of persons have been auctioned in this way or when the active player wins his auction, the next player becomes active player for his auction turn. The active player can relinquish his auction turn and pass.
The top position in a person scale can only be occupied by one player, if you go to the top, you move down a marker already there by one position.
Bribes: If you have a marker in an active position with the briber you can, beginning with the player whose marker is highest in this scale, bribe an opponent’s person, if you have more Bribers than the opponent has Guardsmen. You move your marker forward by one position in the scale of this person and move your opponent’s marker one position backwards. One player can only be bribed once in a round. Persons of a player in top position there can only be bribed by a Briber in top position.
Sacrifice: All players now offer sacrifices to the gods. You determine the kind of animal depending on your position with the farmer, take a number of animals according to the position with Water Carrier and Flower Carrier, chose an Alter according to the Temple Guardian scale and place your marker on this alter, another marker there is replaced and given back to the player. To be able to offer a sacrifice at an altar already taken you must sacrifice the same number or more of the same or more valuable animals. In this way you can also use an altar taken by yourself for a second time. For each sacrifice you immediately score points, number x value of the sacrificed animals plus points according to the location of your marker on the Priestess scale. Those Priestess points are scored even if you do not make a sacrifice.
Revenue: At the end of the round you receive 10 Drachmae and can keep eventual rests from previous rounds, but you cannot own more than 25 Drachmae.
When a sacrifice has been mate at least once at each altar or a player tops the score of 100 points the altars are scored and the player with the highest total score wins the game.
Offerings is a beautiful game, a well-made game, an interesting game. No but? No not really, with the exception of a few small remarks. One is the handling of the marker discs on the scales of the different persons. You must take exceptional card not to relocate or shift markers, any other way to mark the positions would have been better, because most of the action happens on those scales. A feasible solution would be that in addition to marker you note your positions on a piece of paper, 7 columns where you note down the number of your position. Another question, but really a question only: Why three game boards? The only reason I can fathom is that you can adapt the game more easily to different table sizes, there is no reason for three boards in the flow of the game. But this brings me to the big positive aspect of the game: Each player as the active auctioneer has the means to raise the price for persons and choose the sequence in which he auctions them. And as you cannot afford to totally ignore one of the characters, you must use your money carefully and plan well in which order you bid for persons, especially as regards to the one-marker-only rule at the top of the character scales and at the alters. This takes me to a feature that is not to every player’s taste – the order of play, which strongly influences my plans. It is important if I am last in being the active player and the others have spent most of their money or if I am the first to consider what I want to do! And the priestess is another feature on which opinions differ. At the start, the points she has to offer in the Sacrifice Phase without one having to make a sacrifice seem very enticing, but concentrating on her can cost valuable points elsewhere, so one should not spend too much money on her. But do not underestimate the power of the Briber, he can massively influence your score. All in all the game offers challenging interaction in a very alluring setting.
Dagmar de Cassan
Spieler : 3-5
Alter : ages 13+
Dauer : ca. 90 min
Autor : Cédric Lefebvre
Grafik : Pierô
Titel : Offrandes
Preis : ca. 35 Euro
Verlag : Ludonaute
Genre : Auction game
Zielgruppe : With friends
Version : en
Regeln : de en es fr nl
Text im Spiel : nein
Kommentar:
Another unusual auction mechanism
Auction is the dominant game mechanism
Game order heavily influences the game
Very attractive game design
Vergleichbar:
Basically all auction games, auction mechanism is new
Meine Bewertung: 5
Dagmar de Cassan:
Offrandes by all means is a game that is worth a try! If you like auction games, you will love Offrandes.
Zufall 1
Taktik 2
Strategie__ 3
Kreativität
Wissen_
Gedächtnis
Kommunikation 3
Interaktion 3
Geschicklichkeit
Action