Expert                

Alter                   

Spezial                

Opera

Build opera houses, Perform operas

Players represent noble families in supporting the art of opera. You make use of one of six different characters to build opera houses and support six composers. If you manage more performances you attract more audience and you earn enough to be able to perform the most renowned operas. Nine rounds represent the epochs Baroque, Classic and Romance. In a round you determine the budget, have character actions, receive income and administrate the end of the round. To determine the budget you bid ducats and move your marker on the budget table accordingly. This also determines order of play. While your marker is on top of the budged table it is your turn. You choose a character and have one action; the cost is deducted from your budget. A character can only be chosen once per round, but some of them can then be used by all players. Characters are either employees - Impresario, Architetto and Signora – or experts – Maestro, Critico and Esperto. Employees can be used also by all other players to buy a piece of music, construct part of building or sell a piece of music to the palazzo. In the income phase you are paid ducats for pieces of music in buildings. At the end of one of the three epochs scoring for victory points is done, a composer earns you a bonus and new buildings become available for the next epoch. After three epochs the player with the highest total score wins.

A pure abstract finance management game with unusual topic, at the beginning money is scarce. All in all you cannot make to many mistakes, especially in bidding for budget, as the order of play is essential.

Spieler         : 2-4

Alter            : ages 12 and up

Dauer           : approx. 90 min

Autor           : Hans van Tol

Grafik          : Volkan Baga, Arenca Kunkeler

Titel englisch          : Opera

Preis            : approx. 37,00 Euro

Verlag          : Huch & friends 2009

www.huchandfriends.de

Genre                    : Build-Up game

Zielgruppe             : With friends

Mechanismen         : Choose Charakter, set actions

Kommentar:

Co-production with The Game Master

Attractive if rather dark graphics

Very tactical, rather dry

Game experience necessary

Vergleichbar:

Puerto Rico for choice of character, otherwise all paucity games including dominance of order of play

Zufall                            1

Taktik                  2

Strategie__                  3

Kreativität          

Wissen_

Gedächtnis         

Kommunikation  

Interaktion                   3

Geschicklichkeit 

Action