OUR REVIEW

Terry Pratchett: Discworld

Ankh-Morpork

Long live the Patrician!

Ankh-Morpork, biggest City of the (Unnamed) Continent of Discworld, offers a lot of objects of interest.  Who would not like to dine at one of the countless banquet feasts of the Unseen University of Wizards, visit the Opera House on the Isle of Gods at Ankh (the posh half of the city) or traverse the Brass Bridge with its legendary statues of hippos (that are said to flee immediately, should Ankh-Morpork be in danger) ?  In some likelihood, foreigners, after having been robbed in some rather unpleasant quarters of Morpork (the OTHER half of the city) in all likelihood, will end up in Tanty, the main prison of Ankh-Morpork – yet another hot spot contained in every city guide of the discworld.  Almost all authors of guide books to Ankh-Morpork have been there, rather seldom of their own free choice, though.

The game on that city out of the amusing fantasy novels by Terry Pratchett (since 2008 Sir Terence, OBE) was created by Martin Wallace (“Age of Steam”, “Rise of Empires”), and begins on yet another day the dictatorial ruler, Lord Havelock Vetinari (or simply called “The Patrician”) is missing.  Up to four players take on the roles of candidates (drawn secretly out of a choice of seven, amongst whom, by the way, is also Lord Vetinari as well as not a single female character) to fight for the power in the city state.  Using action cards (held in hand) and sometimes event cards, players attempt to meet their victory conditions (that should be kept secret as long as possible from their fellow players).  In most cases this means to control more city districts than the other players, but one character wins owning the largest amount of glod (of course counted in Ankh-Morpork-Dollars), another one wins as soon as there is chaos in eight districts of the city and yet another character wins as soon as the deck of action cards is empty.  Possible actions printed on the cards allow conjuring up demons, taking control over trolls and more of that funny nonsense typical for the Discworld.

What players have to do to win the game therefore depends on their randomly drawn secret identity.  Most of these characters, as stated before, aim to gain the biggest influence in a majority of districts.  To get there, they cunningly place their supporters (Minions) as well as erect buildings of their color.  Buildings secure influence in the district and enable the character players to relocate their minions to cause mischief or act in another way for their boss elsewhere.  Buildings can only be removed afterwards by a flood or a similar natural event (caused by, quite logically, Event Cards) or if the owner chooses to tear it down again to rebuild it in another part of Ankh-Morpork.  In order to leave the competitors in the dark as long as possible, characters with other winning missions (e. g. prevailing through maximum chaos) should partake in turf wars as well.  The main action of the game is to play Action Cards that come in two categories – blue or brown framed; most of the blue cards are dealt to players at the start of the game.  By playing Action Cards (there is a hand limit of five, exceptions to this rule are not uncommon, though, as matches a game set in Terry Pratchett’s world) you may place minions (usually followed by a maximum of one Trouble Marker into the same district), put up a building (unless there is a Trouble Marker in that part of the city), gain income, remove opponents’ minions under certain conditions (there has to be a Trouble Marker in that district), call in the Guard (remove one Trouble Marker), follow the instructions printed on the Action Card, draw another card, prevent fellow players from taking actions in this game round, or draw an Event Card (mandatory).  Events may for example call Demon or Troll pieces onto the game board.  These blokes are treated usually like minions, and almost always bring additional Trouble Markers into the game.  But Demons in a city district prevent characters from taking control over that part of town as well, whereas normally “control” means having most playing pieces (minions and buildings) of your color there.  On the other hand, Trouble Markers do not hinder characters from exacting control in a district.  The twelve-sided (D12) die’s sole function in the game is, by the way, to randomly choose districts when events like the Flood occur.

In a game of two participants, simply remove some of the cards as written in the precise and agreeably short and well organized 8-pages rules booklet.

These easy-to-learn (and apply) rules guarantee for a simple, entertaining game that can be enjoyed even without knowing anything about the creations of Terry Pratchett’s.  Whoever knows their way around the Discworld, mounted on the four elephants Berilia, Jerakeen, Great T’Phon and Tubul (the fifth elephant has been lost, of course), that on their parts ride upon the carapace of the World Turtle A’Tuin through the multiverse, or even feels at home there, will meet many old acquaintance in “Discworld: Ankh-Morpork”, may travel to locations filled with recollections of hours of happy readings and eventually may get involved in the strive for power in this most interesting city under the shadow of the colour of magic.  For adepts into this really rather peculiar area of fantastic literature this novelty by publishers Treefrog Games / Kosmos holds a surplus value, even more so when considering the nicely illustrated playing cards and the city map gaming board.

Martina & Martin Lhotzky, Marcus Steinwender

Players: 2-4

Age: 10+

Time: 60+

Designer: Martin Wallace

Artist: Peter Dennis, Solid Colors

Price: ca. 35 Euros

Publisher: Kosmos 2011

Web: www.kosmos.de

Genre: Placement game for majorities

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de en es fr gr pl

In-game text:

Comments:

Based on the Discworld novels

Of special interest to fans of those novels

Basically simple rules

Pretty components

Flair of the novels perfectly transported

Compares to:

All placement games for majorities

Other editions:

English, limited deluxe edition at Treefrog, French edition at Iello, English at Mayfair, others at Kaissa, Phalanx Polska, Devir

My rating: 5

Martina, Martin & Marcus:

This is a very beautiful, easy-to-learn, easy-to-play game, certain to bring lots of fun to admirers of the Discworld novels.  For addicted gamers and friends of epic fantasy games it will be rather too simple, though.

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0