OUR REVIEW

FROM BREWERY TO PALACE

Fürstenfeld

BUILDING INSTEAD OF BREWING

It wouldn’t be Friedemann if the box wouldn’t be green and if the title wouldn’t start with an F (A reminder to all publishers, only y and f are taken so far!) – Therefore, of course, his game on agriculture, beer and palaces is called Fürstenfeld.

In this game we take on the profession of noble farmers and produce hops, barley and spring water at the start of the game and sell those raw materials for beer to breweries. The raw materials we harvest from our own private building lot board, three lots on this board are given to these raw materials at the start of the game. The breweries, on the other hand, are located on the central board, one for each player, and those breweries buy raw materials during the game in varying quantities for varying prices. The demand of each brewery is determined by a demand card at the start of the game.

Furthermore we start the game with 2 coins and a set of 26 cards, the same one for each player, this card set holds additional slots for raw materials, buildings with special abilities and six parts of a palace for use during the game. To build this palace is the aim of the game, because we are meant to get richer during the game and to send our money.

The game is played, not unexpectedly, in rounds – for this we shuffle our set of cards and stack it face down, for the basic game we take out the Travel Guide and the Trash Collector. In the game preparation stage we have drawn 3 cards from the stack and for the first round we draw another six cards, later in the game we draw cards up to a maximum of 4 cards in hand. If you have already built a Laboratory, then you can draw more cards.

This is followed by harvest time, all lots on our own board including the three fixed starting lots, yield raw materials in Phase 2. These raw materials usually are not stored, but in Phase 3 Selling of Raw Materials sold to brewery of your choice at the currently valid price at this brewery. The drawback is, as in real life, the price falls when you sell more raw materials to a brewery than is its demand, and it falls immediately, already for the next player. If you have built a bank you receive additional income from the bank in this phase. The income you earned in this phase determines the order of play for the next round.

In Phase 4 you can build in turn order, up to two cards from your hand. Building a card costs you the sum noted on the card, and you can build over each slot or building on your board, even over the fixed raw material starting production slots, as we are peaceful landowners and cannot go to war to conquer land, we must do with what we have and overbuild what we believe we can do without. The only exceptions to building over a slot are palace parts, these are necessary for winning the game and so they cannot be built over once they have been built. When each player has built a palace part, the price for the next one rises by 2 coins.

In Phase 5 we have reached the big dilemma – you must discard all cards from your hand save one and place them underneath your won card stack, you can choose the order in which you place them – the card will appear again and in theory you should know when, but the only question is, will I need it as desperately as I do now? Well, there’s nothing for it, so off with it. And it is a Town Hall, with which, if I would have built it, could have kept an additional card! To make matters worse, all left-over raw materials at that stage must be put back into general stock.

At the end of a round, in Phase 6, the prices for raw materials in the breweries are adjusted, for each empty demand spot the price raises by 1.

If you manage best to balance the production of raw materials with building, harvesting, selling and palace building, you will win – the problem is a certain coerce for certain actions; if someone starts to build his palace you must of necessity follow suit because if one player has built 6 palace parts the game ends. The round is finished, but that means you have one more turn only. If you are the only one to finish the palace you are the sole winner in any case, if several palaces are finished the winner is the player with most money remaining.

And once again we have successfully managed a game full of dilemmas and hard decisions: Short-time advantage versus long-term planning, lucrative production sites versus other buildings, and palace parts versus raw materials or privileges.

And knowing Friedman, I would bet that he introduced the time-travel incongruity of a modern travelling coach on the Travel Guide card for the expert game on purpose, so that all can be surprised and a good grin! But why oh why is it pink instead of green? The expert game demands building of the palace in correct order, and you draw 10 cards at the start of the game keep 1, sort the others to your liking and put them at the bottom of your stack.

The lure of the game is your own personal stack where you place cards not used. If you can remember the order you could have a deciding advantage. But this stack, too, introduces a rather big element of chance into the game. All the same, tactic and an ability to cope best with the changing prices in the brewery will win you the game.

Dagmar de Cassin

Players: 2-5

Age: 10+

Time: 60+

Designer: Friedman Friese

Artist: Frédéric Bertrand, Lars-Arne Kaluska

Price: ca. 35 Euro

Publisher: 2F-Spiele 2010

Web: www.2f-spiele.de

Genre: Economics game

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de en jpg

In-game text: no

Comments:

Beautiful components * simple basic rules * very attractive mix of luck, planning and tactics * especially recommended to fans of hard decisions

Compares to :

Dominion for information and chance element of the card stack, otherwise all games using resources to acquire other resources

Other editions:

In English at Rio Grande, in Japanese at Arclight

My rating: 6

Dagmar de Cassan:

A true Friedemann – economics pure and simple, a rather abstract basic structure, well balanced and with decisions to tear your hair!

Chance: 2

Tactic: 2

Strategy: 0

Creativity: 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory: 2

Communication: 0

Interaction: 2

Dexterity: 0

Action: 0