Family
Alter 8
Spezial 2
City at the quayside
DIE Speicherstadt
Ships, lofts and fires
The lofts at the quays of Hamburg a renowned sight, the famous buildings still let you fell their importance in an earlier age as a central market place for coffee, spices and other wares. Stefan Feld’s game tries to catch the flair of days gone by and to let players achieve economic success in the role as head of one of the big merchant houses.
Players must win shiploads in auctions, sell wares and fill demands, often hindered by fires that happen in the lofts. So you need to invest in a private fire brigade to avoid damage to your enterprise.
To prepare the game the trade cards are separated according to their backside in the four season stacks spring, summer, autumn and winter. The autumn cards are shuffled and places face down on top of Fire Card 4, then you shuffle the summer cards and place them face down on top of the autumn cards, followed by the spring and winter cards – the game starts in winter and ends in the autumn of next year.
The commodity cubes for the commodities coffee, tea, saffron, carpets and rubber are placed in the bag.
Each player starts with a market hall card, four workers and five coins, the rest of the coins is set aside as bank. The board is placed on the table and equipped with trade cards according to the number of players, clearly marked on the board. One worker of each player is set on the 0 spot on the scoring bar.
A nice idea, but not always feasible, is the way how to determine the starting player, the role goes to the player who has been in Hamburg most recently.
The game is played in rounds, and each round comprises five phases:
1. Supply
2. Demand
3. Acquisiton
4. Loading
5. Income
Supply
The board shows 6 water spots for trade cards. Depending on the number of players the cards are placed from left to right on the water spots, 3 cars for 2 players, 4 cards for 3 players, 5 cards for 4 players and finally 6 cards for 5 players.
The earliest time for ships to come into play is spring. Ships have room for 3 commodity cubes. If a ship is laid out in the supply phase the starting player draws three cubes from the bag and places them on the ship card.
Demand
This phase starts when placing of the trade cards has ended. Above each card are 8 positions where workers can be placed for the auction. Beginning with the starting player in turn all players place a worker on the first free position above a trade card. Where you place a worker is entirely your own choice. When all workers are placed, there are rows of different numbers of workers above each trade card, and of course, if you like, you can place several workers in a row.
Acquisiton
This phase is done in order of the trade cards, from left to right of the board. The player owning the first worker in the row above the first card is asked if he wants to buy the cards. And here it gets interesting – because the price is equal to the number of workers in a row! So the price can be between 1 and 8 coins. Here I have to note that lack of coins is a standard situation in the game!
If you pay the price you take the card and all other workers in the row go back to their owners. If you do not pay the price you take your worker back and the player owning the next man in the row is offered the card. For him, the price of course is one coin less than for you. This is continued till the card is sold. Should no one be interested the card goes out of the game.
When all cards have been dealt with this phase ends. Should ships have been among the trade cards, the player also gets the commodity cubes on the ship card.
Loading
This phase can happen first in spring, as there are no ships in the Winter trade cards. If ships were offered and sold, players who bought those ships and / or players who have commodity cubes from earlier rounds can place them on demand cards, the storage barn or the market hall or sell them.
Demand cards are trade cards that have been bought in the acquisition phase, the can earn you 5, 8 or 11 victory points, but only, if you have placed all commodities depicted on them at the end of the game. For 5 victory points you need 2 commodities, for 8 points 3 and for 11 points for commodities, of course in the corresponding colours.
The moment you have placed commodities on demand cards, you cannot take them off any more and if you cannot complete the demand these commodities are lost. The market hall you received at the start of the game, allows you three possibilities: 1 - You can store 1 commodity cube for later use on demand cards or sale. 2 – you can exchange any 3 commodity cubes for 1 selected cube or 3 – you can sell 2 commodity cubes for 1 coin.
If you did buy the trade card “storage”, you can store 4 commodity cubes there for later use. If you have cubes left in storage at the end of the game they score 1 victory point each. For each commodity there is also a card that lets you sell single commodity cubes.
Cubes that you cannot sell and not place on demand cards or the market hall go out of game, they do not go back into the bag. Sold commodity cubes also go out of the game. When all players have distributed or disposed otherwise of the commodities, the loading phase ends.
Income
Each player receives 1 coin from the bank. If a player could not buy a trade card in this round he gets an additional coin. The starting player marker is handed on and a new round starts with placing trade cards. If one season is used in the middle of laying out cards you simply go on with cards from the next season.
Evaluation
So far we have neglected the Fires. They turn up once in each season stack and interrupt play immediately, and there is a fire at the end of the game. Firemen are also available from the trade cards and you should try to buy at least one. When a fire turns up it is scored: The player with the highest total of firemen points scores the value of the fire – 1, 2, 3 or 4 points for the final fire. The player with the least total of firemen loses the same amount of victory points, nothing happens to the players with firemen of values in between the two extremes.
It is not necessary always to have the best fire brigade, but it is disastrous to lose all four fire scorings – this costs you a total of 10 victory points and definitely any chance to win. So keep your eyes on the fire brigades of your fellow players!
During the game victory points for the players can vary wildly as only completed demand cards score victory points. The basic mechanism of the game works very well, the auction mechanism is interesting and new – but you cannot really estimate or plan which trade cards you will able to acquire. So the game is all tactics and not much strategy, with one exception – keep your eyes on the fire brigades! But take care – always having the best brigade might not be sufficient to win!
One good possibility is to focus on the placement of your last worker and to use the first two to rise prices for the other players. Some demand cards already come up in winter, but the first ships appear in spring, so acquiring early demand cards is mainly a question of luck as you cannot determine that early if you will have a chance to meet these demands. It is certainly a tactical possibility to crab what you can get cheaply and see what you can do with it.
The one thing that really needs planning is management of your coins – how many do I want to spend and how many do I need to keep for next round, when I am starting player and so have first choice – which also can be a drawback as the others can rise my price. In that aspect the last player of the round has a distinctive advantage.
The graphics of the game are okay, noting special, but work well for the game – the flair of the game is nice and really lets you imagine being a trader in old Hamburg. The game play for 2 works exceedingly well, it is a lot more tactical and strategic as well, because you can estimate far better your chances to get a certain card.
Resumee
A well made game with nice components, the time to play is short and the rules are simple and quickly explained. It is not primarily a game for strategists or tacticians, but is fun to play and I recommend it to all players interested in new and uncommon mechanisms. Due to the simple rules, families can play as well.
Discerning players like it too, because after a few games you know roughly which cards to expect when and can try to save your coins for the really important cards like the storage barn.
Maria Schranz
Spieler : 2-5
Alter : ages 8 and up
Dauer : approx. 45 min
Autor : Stefan Feld
Grafik : Michael Menzel, Harald Lieske
Vertrieb A. : Berg Toy
Preis : approx. 25,00 Euros
Verlag : Eggertspiele 2010
Genre : Auction game
Zielgruppe : For families
Mechanismen : Bid for cards, meet demands
Kommentar:
Good and functional components
Short, good rules
Very good for two players
Gets more interesting with each game played
Vergleichbar:
Medici, Dschunke
Atmosphäre: 4
Maria Schranz:
Die Speicherstadt offers a very interesting bid/auction mechanism that you should try for yourself!
Zufall 3
Taktik 2
Strategie__
Kreativität
Wissen_
Gedächtnis
Kommunikation
Interaktion 3
Geschicklichkeit
Action