Review
Jean de Valette
Valletta
Grand Master builds fortifications
For all those among you for whom geography has not been the favorite subject in school - Valletta is on Malta and is the smallest capital in the EU. Her name goes back to Jean de Vallette, the 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta, who did plan the defense structures of the city in 1566, one year after the city had been besieged by Turkish troops for three months. Those fortifications are still one of the main tourist attractions of the town today. The game Valletta from Hans im Glück Verlag features this main see of the Order of Malta. I am sure I do not have to say anything about this publisher; nine awards Deutscher Spielepreis and six awards Spiel des Jahres as well as countless other awards clearly speak for themselves.
So, therefore, let us turn to Stefan Dorra, the designer of the game. Since 1992 he has published more than fifty games. Nearly everyone of us has one of his games in their collection or has at least played it. Unfortunately, the real big triumph has eluded him so far. In 1995, his “Linie 1” took second place behind “The Settlers of Catan” at Deutscher Spielepreis and in 2001 his game “Medina” met the same fate against “Carcassonne”, a near miss on both occasions. On the other hand, he was listed very often with „Alles in Eimer“, „Intrige“ ,“Razzia“, „Gum Gum Machine“, „Yucata“ and many more on the nomination and recommendation lists for Spiel des Jahres.
And now, let’s take a look at his game.
The game is set up as follows: A road - divided into 25 segments - is used for a victory points track. The road is placed in the middle of the table and each case is equipped on the top edge with 25 barrel tiles, which show gold, stone, brick or wood on their back sides, resources that we will urgently need later in the game. Then, depending on the number of players, 20 to 30 building cards out of 37 are set out above and below the road in rows of five cards each. Those cards are printed on both sides; the front side shows, on the left, the number of resources that you need to buy the card; at the bottom right, the number of victory points is marked that you will accrue at the end of the game. The back side of the card serves as upgrade and shows double the victory points on the front side. A small letter indicates which character card showing the same letter must then be placed on the respective corresponding building card; this is a somewhat laborious start of the game.
At the beginning, each player receives eight personal character cards in his color, a victory point marker for the road and one each over every resource, which I have mentioned already with the barrel tiles. Surplus resources are set aside as general stock. In total, there are 30 of each of the building materials and 42 cold coins. Finally, each player receives eight wooden houses of his color and a personal board, which has room for a draw pile and a discard pile and for three action cards. A wooden piece represents Jean de Vallette and begins the game next to the row of barrels. So, you begin with eight personal character cards that offer the same options for all players. You shuffle them and draw five of them for your hand, the rest is your draw pile on your board.
In your turn, you have three actions. You must select three cards from your hand and then place them from your hand on the action spaces of your personal board and then implement the instructions on the card. Used cards are placed on your own discard pile case and you replenish your hand to five cards. When the draw pile is empty, you shuffle your discard pile for a new draw pile.
Now, let me explain the effects of the eight personal cards you received at the start. “Lumberjack”, “Shopkeeper”, “Stone Sculpter” and “Brick Worker” give you one resource, corresponding to the profession, from stock.
The “Maid” gives you a choice, you select one of the four resources.
The “Apprentice” copies the previously used card function, so it only makes sense to play him as a 2nd or 3rd card.
The “Builder” is an essential card. He enables you to construct buildings or to buy buildings and, with this, collect victory points for the final scoring. To build or buy, you have to discard the resources depicted on the left side of the building card. A missing resource can be replaced by any three others. If you have collected enough resources and gold for your intended project, you take the character card off the building card and place one of your houses on the building card. This is the way how you build your deck of cards. If you choose the same building again, it is upgraded. For such an upgrade, you pay the indicated resources once again, an upgrade however, is cheaper all the same, as you do not have to pay the gold price again. You do not get a character for an upgrade, but the building card is turned over and yields double its victory points at the end. When the new building is immediately adjacent to another one of your color, the price is lower by one gold, this however. Is valid only for the areas immediately above and below the road.
The last one of the eight starting cards show Jean de Vallette himself. If you play this card, you advance his marker above the road and take the respective barrel tile with the resource depicted at the back. Furthermore, you can either discharge a character from your hand or hire new character. At the start, there are four neutral builders on display and available. This lets you improve your deck by discarding weaker cards, as the character cards that you acquire with buildings offer far better options and opportunities than the cards received at the beginning- There are, for instance, additional building option from the “Bricklayer” or the “Stone Mason”, etc. Even a multiple receiving of resources is provided. With cards like “Mendicant” or “host” you can get resources or gold from other players. At that point, I also need to mention the four personalities connected to the history of Valletta, who are meant to intensify the connection to the town, or else any other town would have sufficed for a topic. One more thing needs to be considered for Jean de Vallette: If he stands exactly above or below of a building card within range of sight, you earn two victory points if you buy it and advance your marker on the road accordingly.
And now we play! You collect resources, buy buildings or upgrade the ones you already bought, and also improve your draw pile until the following happens:
Jean de Vallette has reached the end of the road and has turned over the last barrel or your own pawn or that of another player has reached case 25 of the road or somebody has built the last of his eight houses. Now, the second and last phase of the game begins.
Hand cards of all players are taken out of the game. For each player, discard pile and draw pile are shuffled together and used for a new draw pile until the last card has been used for an action. The scoring is done: You count the points from the road and from the building cards and also add two victory points to the total for any three goods in your own stock.
My conclusion:
First, on the components - as usual in games from Hans im Glück it is perfect and leaves nothing to desire. A sufficient supply of Ziploc bags and a graphically matching interior of the box earn a special mention. My initial worries that the smaller character cards would be sliding on top of the building card have proved to be groundless. All you need is a bit of time to assign the cards to the buildings at the start of the game. Setup description and rules are exemplary and I cannot fathom why other publishers do not take a leaf out of Hans im Glück’s book for that matter. You cannot do this any better, in my opinion. A novelty for me was the presentation of illustrator Klemens Franz and his wife Andrea Kattnig on the inner box.
A real surprise was the last page of the rules, showing an advertisement of the Maltese Tourist office, obviously an additional symbiosis between publisher and Tourist office, probably in the hope for additional financial (?) advantages.
Second, the game: „Valletta“ is a worker placement game, combined with a deck building mechanism and was very well received in my games groups. It is probably too demanding for a family game, I see it rather as a game with friends. The time frame of 20 minutes per player is correct, especially after a first introductory game. The age group of 10+ is correct too, especially for youths with a bit of gaming experience- All in all a game that will not accumulate dust on the shelves, but will be played often and with pleasure.
Rudolf Ammer
Players: 2-4
Age: 10+
Time: 80+
Designer: Stefan Dorra
Artist: Klemens Franz, Andrea Kattnig
Price: ca. 35 Euro
Publisher: Hans im Glück 2017
Web: www.hans-im-glueck.d
Genre: Deck building, worker placement
Users: With friends
Version: de
Rules: de en
In-game text: yes
Comments:
Attractive components
Nice mix of standard elements
Exemplary rules
Compares to:
Building games using worker placement
Other editions:
Z-Man Games (en)
My rating: 5
Rudolf Ammer:
The game offers an attractive combination of two very different game mechanisms, worker placement on the one side and deck building on the other side, with some additional details.
Chance (pink): 0
Tactic (turquoise): 0
Strategy (blue): 0
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 0
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0
Zufall (rosa):1
Taktik (türkis): 1
Strategie (blau): 1
Kreativität (dunkelblau): 0
Wissen (gelb): 0
Gedächtnis (orange): 0
Kommunikation (rot): 0
Interaktion (braun):1
Geschicklichkeit (grün): 0
Action (dunkelgrün): 0