OUR REVIEW

NO CHILD’S PLAY

Die Brücke am Rio d‘Oro

3d TREASURE HUNT WITH A RISK

With „Die Brücke am Rio d’Oro“ Amigo enters into competition with games featuring three-dimensional game set-ups, that usually are found with publishers like Kosmos and enchant especially children. Therefore a first glance at the backside of the box, where the set-up ready for play is shown, suggests that Frederic Moyersoen’s latest game might also be a children’s game. But that’s far off the mark!

Echoes of Indy

In the best manner of Indiana Jones we are tasked with crossing a wobbly plank bridge in competition with up to three more treasure hunters, to reach the mysterious treasure cave and start on the way back to camp, laden with gold and jewels. The set-up on the table is quite impressive. The box inlay mutates into a deep canyon with a roaring river at its bottom, crossed by a three-dimensional plank made of sturdy cardboard, on the which the planks rest only loosely – and some of them are already cracked deeply. One wrong step and you journey downwards accompanied by all your treasures.

Beamed back to Camp

As „Die Brücke am Rio d’Oro“ defines itself in the end as a family game, our man is not lost when tumbling into the canyon and his life not lost; only the treasures that we carry in our backpack – up to three are possible – fall down into the canyon and are buried in the waters (at least in our mind!) We ourselves obviously always manage a courageous jump to reach the edge of the canyon and to drag ourselves back to camp with the last dredges of our strength from where we set out again boldly in the next round. On top of this, all is handled politically very correctly, which does not mean that there is no tension in the race for the most treasures.

At the start of the game four planks on the rope bridge are cracked and are placed with the cracked side showing accordingly. Equipped with one man each it is the challenge for all amateur Indys to cross the bridge and carry up to three lovely glittering glass jewels back to camp in their backpacks. Governing movement are three dice that show certain numbers of feet and special symbols. While the green dice offers a somewhat slow but considerably safe trip you can make same great leaps with the help of the red die, but you risk to provoke a dangerous situation and to tumble into the canyon together with your treasures.

When we are not carrying jewels we are free to use all three dice, we can roll all of them and then decide if, and when so then which or how many we want to use. When the rolled side of a die has been completely implemented, we do the same for the next one. But: All is possible, nothing is a must! Despite the luck of the roll we are forced to take decisions, which sometimes are not so easy to make as regards to the fact that we are racing each other for the most treasures.  

That each transported treasure, which we did place on our backpack card, reduces the selection of dice by one is yet another factor enhancing the dilemma for our decisions. The backpack is emptied only when the man has reached camp, then all dice are available again and the jewels are safe from loss.

Steal and shove

Especially with the full complement of players it is rather full on the bridge and so we shove blocking men in best RoboRally tradition one plank forward in direction of our movement. This can lead to chain reactions that often cause an unintentional dive into the river, because if you are shoved into a gap you fall. And how do gaps happen in the bridge? For this and for some other nasty little tricks, which Designer Moyersoen has dreamed up to enhance interaction among players and the aggravation level, too, the already mentioned additional symbols on the dice are responsible. If you decide to implement a dice result, you must not only use the footprints, but also the additionally pictured actions. So you might be able to steal a jewel from another man you joined on a plank, before you shove him forward. Or you can repair a cracked or missing plank, if necessary; the plank is then placed on the bridge undamaged side up. A lighting symbol means danger and that you must roll the danger die to know which danger is looming. In half of the rolls nothing happens, but you might lose one of your jewels or the plank on which you stand is damaged and cracks. If is was already cracked before that, it is removed from the bridge, the treasures are lost in the water and your man may try his luck again next round, setting out again from the camp.

Those few but definitely not trite rules are sufficient to provide an astonishingly tactical and rather turbulent family game for your table, with a very realistic flair of adventure. You keep counting other people’s treasures, deliberate with yourself while carrying a full backpack whether to go back slowly and safely step by step or to take a full risk and have the rug pulled out from under one’s feet quite literally. Players obstruct each other nicely and have nothing to spare for each other, especially no jewels!

You win if you are first to bring a given number of jewels into the camp, or to have most jewels in camp when the treasure cave at the other side of the bridge has been emptied of its jewels.

Resume

The question posed at the start of the game, whether this is a children’s game, can be answered with a clear „no“! Because adults too, and especially adults catch the adventure bug quickly and bring out “Die Brücke am Rio D’Oro” as a warm-up game or end-of-evening game after taxing strategy games, even when their offspring is absent. The game is solidly produced, nicely illustrated by Michael Menzel, as is only to be expected from him, and provides classy components in the shape of glass nuggets, big wooden men and very sturdy cardboard parts, so that users will enjoy the game for a long time. The nice duration of sometimes not even 20 minutes, the compact packaging and the moderate price will, that is my prediction, pave the way for„Die Brücke am Rio d’Oro“ onto many a games table.

Stefan Olschewski

Players: 2-4

Age: 8+

Time: 30+

Designer: Frederic Moyersoen

Artist: Michael Menzel

Price: ca. 20 Euro

Publisher: Amigo Spiele 2011

Web: www.amigo-spiele.de

Genre: Roll & Move with risk

Users: For children

Users: For families

Version: de

Rules: de

In-game text: no

Comments:

Compact packaging

Dice results can be tactically implemented

Interaction is a bit player-dependant

Compares to:

Other roll & move games with a risk factor

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Stefan Olschewski:

An astonishingly tactical dice game with some aggravation potential for children, families and friends, too! Challenging, with attractive looks and nice hap tic sensation, and not nearly as banal as the first impression might suggest!

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 3

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 2