presentation

Daddy Winchester

Redistribution of his inheritance

Daddy Winchester was a king of crooks and swindlers and therefore filthy rich, and due to his reputation he has found an unusual way to settle his legacy. The money must stay in the family, but its distribution must be renewed. He has left a map of his real estate and starting capital for each of his offspring which now assemble for the auction.

There are 19 lots for desert, prairie, and forest, bisected by railway and river, and there is a saloon somewhere on its own. You begin with 8000 $ starting capital and two Secret Goal cards. Ship and locomotive start on any segment; Five „Open Goals“ are placed on top of stacks of money.

The active player draws a lot and then all can, in turn, bid/raise bid or pass. The highest bid wins the lot. If nobody bids, the active player must buy the lot for 1000 $. The successful bid is dealt evenly to all players in tranches of 1000$, any surplus money goes into the Saloon. The new owner of the los resolves the bonus of the lot and, for mine or ranch, receives the respective card and income. When acquisition of the lot meets one or more „Open Goals“, you take the money under those cards. When all lots have been auctioned, you win with most money from completed Secret Goals, cash and a bonus for most lots owned.

This alone would make Daddy Winchester a rather nice auction game, but the real fun is in the details: there is, for instance, the duel - once in the game you can, if you are one of two remaining bidders in the auction, use your duel tile - you and your opponent draw one duel card each; if you got the loaded gun, you win the auction! Then there are the bonus actions after a buy, represented by the bonus tiles on the lots which you pick up after acquisition: Ship/Locomotive - you can move one of them, they yield 1000$ for adjacent lots. For the Saloon bonus tile, you take the money in the saloon, albeit not the sum maybe deposited there earlier in your turn by you; this sum remains in the saloon for the next lucky one. The bonus tile “Rumor“ lets you look at a face-down card of your choice, e.g. check a “Secret Goal” of another player.

The real challenge here is to raise the bid in an auction, while you have money, and then pass  before you have to buy in order to profit from the high price paid by someone else ... unless, of course, you need the lot urgently to meet a secret goal. But then, of course again, all others can use this strategy, too, so tactics are in demand, too .... and don’t forget, quick many from an open goal is also an option. Good, cute, witty fun in Wild West with a plethora of options to come into money.

Dagmar de Cassan

Players: 3-5

Age: 8+

Time: 40+

Designer: Jérémy Pinget

Artist: Sylvain Aublin

Price: ca. 30 Euro

Publisher: HUCH! 2019

Web: www.hutter-trade.com

Genre: Auction

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de en es fr it nl pt

In-game text:

Comments:

Generic mechanisms per se

Cute, witty, well-working details

Interesting mechanisms for generating capital

Exceedingly attractive components and graphics

Compares to:

Auction games in general

Other editions:

Blue Orange (en + de en es fr it nl pt)

My rating: 6

Dagmar de Cassan:

Generic auction game, enlivened with cute and witty details, a nice story and fantastic graphic design and components

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0