Family
Alter 12
Spezial _2
Be GOdFATHER once!
Der Pate
Rise your influence or eliminate an opponent?
There can only be very few people around who do not know Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic masterpiece. The cast of this film made in 1972 reads like the „Who is Who“ of the film business of those times, from Marlon Brando to Al Pacino and James Caan, to only list a few of the cast members. As I enjoyed the film very much, I naturally was very curious about the new Kosmos Game “Der Pate” which would be “Godfather” in English.
When I pick up the box, I am immediately reminded of the most famous scene from the film, where Marlon Brando sits in a chair and strokes his white cat while listening to reports from his lieutenants and to petitions addressed to him. Will I feel like a grand Mafia boss when playing the game? I am looking forward to so and this puts me into the right mood for playing!
In the game players represent the Mafia families Corleone, Tattaglia, Barzini and Stracci. They are the godfathers of their clans and pull the strings trying to enhance their fame and influence through illegal gambling, smuggle and protection racket and at the same time to get rich fast in the process.
To sum up at the start: Influence and fame are very important in the course of the game, but you can only win the game if you are the richest player!
On opening the box we find lots of different components:
1 game board, 4 small boards for placing dice and depicting the mafia families, 1 gangster car, 10 event cards, 13 tiles „friends of the family“, 12 grey action tile „fame“, 12 red action tiles „influence“, 1 red, gray, white and black die each, 1 red and 1 gray marker for the event track, money in several denominations, 4 markers for each of the 4 player colors for use on the development tracks, 7 family members in each of the four player colors and also 5 debt markers for each player in his color.
As usual, you start the game by placing the board on the table, aligned with the seating positions of players so that each player faces 4 development tracks at his side of the board. The middle of the board shows a part of New York, split into four separate quarters, a prison and the Hudson are marked on the board, too. Then each player takes his 7 gang members and places each of his 4 markers at the start of each of his four development tracks. These tracks keep records of influence, fame, income and favors. The red and gray markers are placed on the top spots of the event track. Each player places 3 different gray tiles “fame” and 3 different red tiles “influence” on the corresponding spots marked on the respective development tracks. The 10 event cards are shuffled and 3 randomly drawn cards are returned to the box without looking at them, the remaining 7 cards are stacked face down.
Finally a starting player is determined; the rules suggest the oldest player. The role of starting player does not change during the game. The player to the right hand of the starting player chooses a quarter on the board and places one of his family members in each of the shops in this quarter; he now is in control of these shops. Then he places the gangster car on any car spot he likes. In counter-clockwise direction all remaining players choose a quarter and place family members into each shop. A starting capital of 10.000 dollars is given to each player.
The game is played over 7 rounds; each round follows the same steps:
Receive Income
In the first round players cannot receive income, as they have no fixed income marked on the income track at the start of the game. In the course of the game you can acquire income between 1.000 and 4.000 dollars as a result of a dice placement on the “banker” spot on your dice board, which is paid out at the start of a new round.
Turn up an Event Card
The starting player, who keeps this job throughout the complete game, has the task to turn up the top event card from the stack in each round. The event card shows a white X on either a red or a gray background. Corresponding to the background color, either the red marker or the gray marker is advanced one step on the event track. When one of the two markers has been moved four times it has reached the K.O. spot. The color of the marker on this spot determines the development track which a player must have completed at the end of the seven rounds to win the game. If the marker of a player did not reach the end of this track the player must quit the game before the winner is determined, he cannot win.
As the nexr action at the start of the round the starting player moves the gangster car according to the number of steps given on the event card. When the car is located in a quarter all shops in this quarter are protected. Then the starting player reads out the text of the event card. According to this text players are forced to take actions or can choose to follow instructions.
Roll and implement dice
The starting player begins this phase and then all other players follow in clockwise direction. Each player in his turn is deemed to be the active player and starts his turn by picking up the four dice.
The dice board of each player is divided into 4 rows. The active player takes the 4 dice and rolls all four at the same time. Then he decides which of the dice he wants to place into the first row of the board. In this Row 1 of the board only the number of dots on the dice surface is important, the color has no influence. In this top row five spots are marked with 1 to 5 dots, and so a “3” on a die must be placed on the spot marked with “3”. The die dots are multiplied by 1.000 and this determines the shops which will earn income for their owners in this phase of the turn. All players, not only the active one, who own shops marked with this income number receive this income. Each individual shop on the board is marked with an income amount.
If the active player puts the die on the spots for 1.000 or 2.000 dollars, each player owning such a shop may – in addition to receiving the income - move the marker on the development track for fame in case of a 2.000 dollar result or on the influence track in case of a 1.000 dollar result. The last spot in the 1st row is marked “Press” and enables the player to advance both the markers for fame and influence one step each. The die can only be placed on this spot when the result of the throw shows the “puppet hand”. Each of the dice is marked with the numbers 1 to 5, the 6 has been replaced with “puppet hand”. This spot for “puppet hand” is also available in rows 2 and 3.
When the active player has placed his first die he picks up the remaining three dice and rolls them again.
In the rows 2 to 4 on the dice board the spots are color coded and only a die of the same color may be placed on a spot. As the player has already used one color in the first row, one spot in each of the remaining row is already closed.
In Row 2 the active player can enhance his fame by placing the gray dice and enhance his influence by placing the red die. If he chooses the black die he can move the gangster car and thus empty shops owned by other players. He returns the family member to its owner or he can occupy an empty store with one of his own family members. If he decides to place the white die in Row 2 he receives income of die roll times 1.000 in dollars.
When the decision has been made for placement of a die in Row 2 the active player now rolls the remaining two dice again and chooses the die he wants to place in Row 3, then he immediately places the 4th die on the corresponding color spot in the 4th row.
In Row 3 the active player can use the black die to take over a shop from another player; when doing so he sinks the family member in the Hudson and places one of his own family members into the shop. For the family member in the Hudson the owner receives a debt marker from the active player. If you place the grey dice in Row 3 you return all dept markers to their owners and receive payment of die roll result times 1.000 for the debt.
If you use the white die in Row 3 you can acquire a “friend of the family” who later can be used to demand favors. These favors can be to take back a family member out of the Hudson into stock, take back one debt marker without payment from any player or advance 2 spots on the development tracks for fame or influence. If at any time you reach a spot with a tile on the influence or fame track, you pick up this tile, it gives you an action, either immediately or later during the game.
The red die is used in Row 3 to initiate a FBI raid, which sends all family members from shops where the raid takes place into prison. Take care, this goes for your own family members, too.
In Row 4 only the color of the die is of importance, the number of dots is irrelevant. The gray die enables you to take over an empty shop on the board. If you decide to place the red die you can get all your own family members out of prison back into stock. When you use the black die you can remove an opposing family member from a shop and put him into prison. The white die can be used to advance the marker on the development tracks for income and favors which enhances the income paid out to you at the beginning of a round or allows you to demand favors from other players.
Most players approach the game with the motto of „the higher the income the better the current move“. But this is only true in a restricted sense, as you can achieve optimum income with some planning by enhancing the income at the start of each round. The winner at the end of the game is the player with the most money.
The mechanism that you must choose a die for each row which cannot be used anymore in the following rows is innovative and results in some intense tactical and strategic considerations. We have found in our games that you should plan the actions on the dice board very carefully, whereby direct income should be considered as more important than the taking over of shops or the eviction of opposing shops.
We also found that the mechanism takes some getting used to and is severely underrated even by experienced players in their first game, or at least not evaluated correctly, which results in the fact that it sometimes takes two or even more games to understand the niceties of the game. Exact planning before placing your first die of a round should be your first priority so that you have the necessary dice available in the following rounds, notwithstanding the tactical decision whether you keep to your original plan or deviate from it due to a special result of a dice roll during the round.
In any case, a steady improvement of the income at the start of a round can be considered to be of paramount importance, carrying the penalty of not being able to use the white die for other actions in a round.
Of course, first and above all, the game hinges on the result of the dice rolls. Nonetheless, experienced players who only played once and have decided that it is merely a simple dice game are wrong, as it is always possible to achieve good or at least acceptable moves with a bad roll.
The game can be recommended as a good family game, also to experienced players, and has enough variance in the game play to guarantee repeated and ongoing fun when playing the game.
As already mentioned, the game features this innovative mechanism which should be entertaining and appealing to all kinds of players.
The art in the game is attractive and perfectly transports the mood of the Hay Days of Godfather Mafia activities. There are moments when the flair of the game feels like an abstract economy simulation, but in other moments you makes you really feel like a Godfather in New York or Chicago.
The topic of the game could be a deterrent for women to buy or play the game, but as brutal actions are largely missing despite the mafia background – the family members come back out of the Hudson – even this group should take time to take a closer look at the game.
Maria Schranz
Spieler : 2-4 players
Alter : ages 12 and up
Dauer : circa 45 min
Autor : Michael Rieneck
Grafik : Michael Menzel, Harald Lieske
Titel english : ident
Preis : approx. 25,00 Euro
Verlag : Kosmos 2010
www.kosmos.de
Genre : Dice game with economics topic
Zielgruppe : For families
Mechanismen : roll dice, use dice to plan actions
Kommentar:
Mixture of economy simulation and Mafia feeling
Exact planning necessary for use of dice
Innovative mechanism for use of dice
Topic well implemented
Vergleichbar:
Kingsburg, Im Wandel der Zeiten Würfelspiel, Alea iacta est
Maria Schranz:
A very good game that can be recommended to families as well as to expert players due to the very interesting mechanism
Meine Bewertung: 5
Zufall 3
Taktik 3
Strategie__ 2
Kreativität
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Kommunikation 1
Interaktion 3
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