FOR FAMILIES

Lübeck

Cogs SAILING FROM LÜBECK TO LONDON

Kid                       

Family          ein    

Friends                 

Expert                           

Alter            8       

Spezial                 

Lübeck - medieval Hanseatic City and in those time one of the most important trade centers in Europe – players are invited to get rich in Lübeck, too. The first surprise comes with reading the infos on the box – an economics game in 30 minutes – curiosity rises!

Preparations are simple: Lay out the board and set out one cog more than there are players and a man for each player on the counting track, the rest of the men go to their owners. Then shuffle the cards and deal three to each player. Which cards? There are Trade Cards cards, showing a city name, the image of a storehouse and a number stating the value of the card, and Extra Cards. ExtraCards are: Trade Trip for the cities Stettin, Danzig, Riga, Visby and Helsingborg to be used as an alternate starting port to Lübeck, x 2  again for the cities Stettin, Danzig, Riga, Visby and Helsingborg and finally the cards Pirates and Change Ship.

We are in the first round and start with forming the display. Cards are laid out in so cold packages, 2 cards to a package, 2 packages more than there are players. Then players in turn chose a package and take it up. The last player taking a package determines whether he himself or another player has the first action. Players have one action in turn until all players have passed.

These actions are the core of the game. You can start a trate trip in Lübeck, use card action, pass or discard a card. To start a trade trip you take an empty cog, place it next to the Lübeck crest and place one your man into the cog. Or you simple take on of your man and place him in a cog already in Lübeck. Or you play the action card Trade Trip and start a cog in the city specified on the card.

The cards yield many more possibilities. You can play a Trade Card when a cog with your man is in this city or in the city but one. If the cog is one city before the city you played the card for, you move the cog into this city. In both cases you immediately score the value of the card played and advance your man on the scoring track. Each player with a man on a cog can move the cog. Special cards x2 are played like Trade Cards, you place them on the table and score double values for each card you play for that city in this round.

The special card Pirates ends the trip of the cog, she goes back into stock and the men are handed back to their owners. The special card Change Ship lets you relocate a man between cogs.

Your last option is to pass. This you may do if you a maximum of three cards left, and cannot do anything else in this round. If you cannot pass and cannot play a card regularly, you must discard a card and pay for this either the value of the Trade Card or with 1 point for a Special Card, both by moving your man back on the scoring track.

When all players have passed, the round ends. Cogs that stand in Reval, London and Brügge will be unloaded. Men go back to their owners and cogs into stock. At this point each player canif he likes take back men from cogs still on a trip, Then the packages for the next round are prepared: Unused packages stay on the table, for each package necessary to fill the display up to the required number of packages (one more than there are players) one card is placed on the table and then one card is added to each package. So, from round 2 on, there are packages with different amounts of cards in the display.

If the card deck has been used twice, a card display for the final round is laid out. If necessary for this last display the discard pile is reshuffled to have enough cards available. At the end of this final round all players must deduct the values of cards still in their hands from their score and then the player with the highest score wins.

Designed as a family game by the author, Lübeck absolutely works fine as a family game, rather at the superior end of the range. If you want to succeed, you must think carefully about choosing your packages, plain greed does not help at all. A good memory, on the contrary, can be of good use, because you have one action, then have to wait till other players had theirs before you can play a card again. So look at and remember the packages other players took to make sure that your neighbor will not move the cog out of Stettin before you have played your second card there. Also take good care not to have to discard a card too often, the penalty is heavy and unnecessary. Luck plays a minor role, since all cards are visible. Good card management decides the game, play the more expensive card first if you have two cards for a city, the ship might not be there for your next card. Also note the different card amounts in the packages and try to plan..

Despite all that, try to plan is the motto, action of fellow players destroy your plans more often than you will like. The game offers interesting details and is a nice family game as regards to playing time. Experienced players find that imponderabilities are too dominant.

Dagmar de Cassan

Spieler         : 3-5

Alter            : ages 8 and up

Dauer           : ca. 30 min

Autor           : Reiner Stockhausen

Grafik          : unstated

Vertrieb A.   : Heidelberger

Preis            : ca. 20,00 Euro

Verlag          : dlp-games 2009

  www.dlp-games.de

Genre                    : Card and placement game, economy topic

Zielgruppe             : For families

Mechanismen         : Take cards and use them

Zufall                     : 4

Wissen                  :

Planung                 : 6

Kreativität              :

Kommunikation      : 7

Geschicklichkeit      :

Action                   :

Kommentar:

Topic nicely implemented

Simple rules

Good memory for cards can help

Vergleichbar:

Other games with card management

Atmosphäre: 4

Dagmar de Cassan:

Noble restraint is the name of the game in Lübeck! And full attention for your fellow cog owners and their card selection. Then you can score high with clever card management.