WiTH FRIENDS
Chieftains for MAnagers!
Glen More
Scotsmeen, sheep and liquor!
Kid
Family
Friends ein
Expert
Alter
Spezial
A game for true Scots or rather something for hard-core thinkers? As possibly already in an earlier Scottish past, one has to stand out as a snob in this scenario.
History tells us that the earlier island Celts only had themselves to use as enemies. That may be as it was, if only until the arrival of the Romans. And since Britannia we know that Scots, Picts, Caledonians and many more did not even set eyes on the Romans.
More than enough reason to occupy oneself gainfully and not to have to improve the world – from the start on this game only concentrates on victory points.
Who drinks the most whisky (nice name for an evil drink; in Ireland and USA – mostly Irish descendants – it goes by the name of Whiskey), who can assemble the most alpha-animals or can explore the most honour-yielding landscapes?
If you need it, the game offers a lively background story: The player assumes the role of a clan chief and organizes the cultivation of the local land.
…. But let’s keep things in order!
Everybody has to start small! As chief of a Scottish clan you can decide how to develop your land. You start from a single village square holding one clan member and soon develop other regions and get your economy going. You build, produce, buy and sell. Independently from your fellow players you enlarge your domain by villages, corn acres, sheep or cow pastures, woods, pubs, distilleries etc. … always with the intention to gather as many victory points during the game as possible, especially in the three scorings.
Of course, possibilities are restricted, but that is because we have arrrived at the central elements of the game:
Game Round:
The designer has decided on simple but effective mechanisms: Landscape tiles are laid out in a kind of nearly circular row. The active player is always the player whose man stands at the end of this row, designated by the empty spot! He chooses one of the landscape tiles before him and must place it into his own domain. He can choose the nearest one or maybe one further away but more effective. The further away he chooses a tile, the further moves his man and the longer he has to wait before it is his turn again. Fair enough, and reminds me a little of “Through the Ages”.
Placing of landscape tiles:
Tiles are placed according to these rules:
-) a new tile must border an already placed tile, landscape details must correspond
-) a new tile must border a clan member in a 9x9 surrounding
-) in the village only one vertical river and one horizontal road may exist
-) road and river cannot be interrupted or another tile placed in their stead.
To add to our domain we need our clan members. New tiles can only be placed next to them, albeit also diagonally. Newly placed tiles activate tiles adjacent to them. Activated tiles provide actions that can be used to produce or sell and so – in the end – generate victory points.
But don’t worry – your landscape is not without end, you will not lose control! Each tile has special characteristics. All of them provide a one-time use, depicted by a symbol in the right-hand bottom corner, most of them also the activating action. For instance, the distillery demands discarding one grain to get a whisky barrel. So a distillery next to grain field can be rather handy!
Later in the game you can allow higher costs for valuable tiles, a stone maybe for a village or a clan member for a special location.
Generally the rule is: Activations can occur in any order, by a first placement and further placing of a tile in a 9x9 neighbourhood a tile is activated once in your turn. Grain tiles produce yellow resource cubes, sheep pastures white cubes, villages move clan members, even diagonally or over the border of the domain, and convert them to chieftains.
Resource cubes are placed on the tile, up to a maximum of 3, and the stock of resources is limited.
The middle of the display board lists the different kinds of resources: At the beginning the spots for 1, 2 and 3 are empty and thus 3 cubes available in each kind of resources. Buying and selling of resources is possible only in your own move. Buying only then when you need one or more resources for acquiring or activating a landscape tile. In the 17th century there was no Wall Street. We bought only what we needed! You pay the price stated by placing the coins on the corresponding square and so buy the resource or sell a resource and take the coins.
Scoring:
As soon as the last tile of Phase 1 is placed, the first scoring happens:
Players compute their achievements by counting
1.) Whisky barrels;
2.) Special locations;
3.) Total of chieftains and bonnets
and comparing your total with the lowest value in the category. The display board lists how many victory points you score for what difference.
And who wins?
At the end of Phase 3 we compare for the 3rd time our whisky barrels, our special locations and our honour, represented by chieftains and bonnets, and have hopefully achieved a high score. The winner is the player with the most victory points. But there is a BUT: In the end we count all the tiles we placed and compare our count with the count of the player with the fewest tile AND then we deduct three victory points from our score for each of our surplus tiles. Thus: The fewer landscape tiles the better! Scots should be thrifty!
Final remarks
Glen More is a relatively short game, the designer planned for 60 minutes. So it would not be fair to expect a complex or substantial game and we are rewarded with a simple rulebook. So far so good!
The game for two or three offers thinkers a short, challenging game. The game for four or five is still offering some variety, but gets progressively unpredictable. Especially in the last phase it can get chancy to grab a good tile. It seems a bit unfair when the last tile in the last round changes the outcome dramatically. So keep cool!
Basically it is a nice idea, this circular row! Good tiles appear at the most unexpected moments and force you to evaluate them on the spot. But you are not alone in this dilemma. Get a good tile once and try to activate it often and use it extensively seems to be a good plan.
To call Glen More a puzzling game would be a bit too strong, despite a player being the sole master of his game. The last round in contrast is luck-heavy and introduces gallows humour like „the one who comes late is punished by life“. But the mechanisms leading up to that resigning remark work well and especially the game for two has a beautiful flow. And there are strategic possibilities to make for differently flavoured games.
Roman Heinzinger
Spieler : 2-5
Alter : ages a10 and up
Dauer : ca. 60 min.
Autor : Matthias Cramer
Grafik : Harald Lieske, Loïc Billiau
Vertrieb A : Heidelberger
Preis : ca. 22,00 Euro
Verlag : alea / Ravensburger 2010
Genre : economy and development game
Zielgruppe : With friends
Mechanismen : Buy tiles and use them
Zufall : 4
Wissen/Gedächtnis : 2
Planung : 6
Kreativität :
Kommunikation : 4
Geschicklichkeit :
Action :
Kommentar:
Well-working mechanisms
Little interaction
Individual game processes
Well-structured rules
Vergleichbar
Carcassonne, Settlers, Through the ages
Atmosphäre : 4
Roman Heinzinger
And now for a direct statement: When can a scotsman economize? He will never concede a victory point to a fellow player voluntarily!