OUR REVIEW
GEMS LOCATED NEAR DIAMANTINA
DIE GNOME VON ZAVANDOR
PROSPECTING Permits FROM THE MIGRANT GNOME
As ZEPTER VON ZAVANDOR is one of my absolute favorite games I was looking forward very much to the new release of THE GNOMES OF ZAVANDOR.
The cover of the dark brown box shows a gnome who writes complicated formulas and graphs on a board or wall.
When we open the box we find: 1 Board for marking the gem prices, another board made up from 6 parts, 15 cards showing jewels, 12 cards with artifacts, 6 cards for a trader, 80 cards with gems, 6 joker gem cards, 10 discount markers, 2 migrant gnomes, 1 start player marker and 1 alternative start player disc. This is something new, the game holds 2 different markers for the start player, you can use either the oversized gnome for a marker or only the disc that goes by the attribute „alternate“ start player marker. You definitely need only one of them.
The 64 gold cards come in values of 1, 2, 5, 20 and 50 gold talers. The 80 gem cards are made up from four varieties, diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds, for each variety there are 14 cards showing one gem and 6 cards showing 4 gems. First of all, if you pay with a card of 4 gems, you are given back the difference!
The 6-part board is placed in the middle of the table. The board for marking the prices for gems is set next to it.
A migrant gnome is placed on its spot on part number 1 of the 6-part board.
24 prospecting permits are shuffled face-down and placed into their intended spaces on the 6-part board.
Artifact cards show either I or II on their back. The artifacts are sorted accordingly and shuffled separately; then you first place the II cards and put the I cards on top. From this stack you turn up the first three artifacts and lay them out.
The backs of the jewel cards show numbers I, II and III and are the cards are also sorted and shuffled according to these numbers, then stacked from I to III from top to bottom and the first three cards are turned up and laid out.
Jewel cards and artifact cards show numbers for victory points in the right hand top corner and their cost to be paid for them in gems in their top left-hand corner.
The artifacts either give additional actions to the player, reduce costs for jewels or earn him additional income.
The 6 traders are also laid out next to the board.
The markers for the gem prices are placed on the special board for gem prices on the starting spots for each variety, the start price for diamonds is 5, for rubies and sapphires it is 4 and 3 for emeralds.
For each variety of gems there are two columns. One shows the current price, the other marker shows the tendency and, further into the game, the target price for the variety. As the prices and tendencies change very frequently, you should name a market administrator for each game, as is also suggested in the rules. He alone can adjust prices on the gem tracks.
Finally, each player is given gold cards of value 23, all in all.
The game is played in rounds. Each round comprises two phases. Phase 1 of the round is an action round; phase 2 of the round is the prospecting round.
In each action round each player has a total of 3 action, but you can buy artifacts which can grant you an additional action.
An action round is played like this: The start player takes his first action, then all other players follow in clockwise direction and take their action, this is continued around the table until all players are done with their actions in this current round.
You can choose from the following actions:
In our game my husband Walter, my sister-in law Gitti, my brother-in-law Gerhard and I were playing.
Walter was start player, he also took the job of marked administrator, I took the job of administrating the bank, Gerhard looked after the movement of the migrant gnome and Gitti did administrate the jewels and artifacts, handing them out and replenishing the display.
Walters’s first action was to buy 2 emeralds. One buy raises the marker for the target price by 1 step, regardless of how many gems of this sort have been bought. In one action you can only buy gems of one kind. Walter paid 6 gold, as the basic price for emeralds starts at 3; then he moved the marker for the target price of emeralds to 4. The price for gems is always at a minimum of 1 and can rise to a maximum of 15.
Then it was Gitti’s turn. She started by paying one gold and looking at a prospecting permit. This action can be taken anytime, it is independent of the turn actions, but you have to pay 1 gold taler for each tile that you look at. This you can do before each of your actions.
For her action she then bought 3 rubies and paid 12 gold. Walter moved the marker for the target price of the rubies up by 1 step.
Gerhard paid 2 gold talers and looked at two prospecting permits, then for his first action he took the trader exchanging diamonds to emeralds.
Now it was my turn, I also looked at two prospecting permits, one showed an emerald, the other a ruby. I bought 4 emeralds and paid 14 gold talers, 12 for the emeralds and 2 for looking at the tiles. Walter adjusted the target price for the emeralds by one step to 5.
Now it was Walter’s turn again, he bought 3 diamonds for 15 gold talers and adjusted the target price for diamonds by one up to 6.
Gitti now bought two emeralds and paid 6, and Walter raised the target price for emeralds by 1.
Gerhard in his turn now bought 4 emeralds, paying 12 gold, and Walter raised the marker for the emerald target price once again by one.
I did buy 2 rubies for 8 gold and was left with 1 gold taler. Walter adjusted the marker for rubies by 1.
Walters’s next action was to buy an artifact, which cost him 3 diamonds and 1 emerald, so he was left with 1 emerald. The artifact immediately granted him one additional action per round, already in this round he had one more turn at his disposal. A new artifact was displayed immediately.
Gitti now bought a prospecting permit, which she paid for with 3 rubies and 2 emeralds, which meant that she spent all her gems. Her prospecting permit, which she displayed face-up, showed 1 ruby. The markers for the target prices for rubies and emerald were moved up by Walter accordingly, the target price for rubies raised by 3 steps and that for emeralds by 2 steps.
Gerhard now used his trader and and changed the two emeralds to two diamonds.
I bought myself a prospecting permit, too; this showed an emerald. I paid 2 rubies and 3 emeralds for it, which left me with 1 emerald.
Now it was Walters turn again, as he was the only one allowed to do four actions in a turn. Walter took 4 gold talers.
This ended the action round and the first prospecting round started. Walter had no prospecting permit and did not receive gems.
Gitti received one ruby for her prospecting permit, which moved the marker for the target price of rubies one step down, it now rested at 10.
Gerhard did not have a prospecting permit either, so he did not receive any gem. I got 1 emerald and Walter moved the marker for the target price to 11.
The marker for the diamond target price was now at 6 and the marker for the sapphire target price remained at 4.
At the end of the prospecting round the prices for gems are now adapted to the target prices: So in round 2 diamonds will cost 7 gold, rubies 10, sapphires 5 and emeralds 11 gold talers.
In round 2 there is a one-time money allocation from the bank, each player receives the value of the most costly gem. As the highest price was 11 for emeralds we all received 11 gold talers from the bank. The start player marker moved to Gitti. The Migrant Gnome was places on number 2 of the 6-part board. This was possible, because prospecting permits were bought in the previous round. Those prospecting permits can either be bought in Diamantine which is the center place of the 6-part board, or at the tile on which the Migrant Gnome is situated. Should no prospecting permits be bought in a round, the Migrant Gnome stays in place.
For her first action in round 2 Gitti took up up two face-down jewels and put one of them back under the jewel pile, the other one she added to her hand. In the course of the game you can always hold only 1 secret card, either 1 jewel or 1 artifact; if you want to take another secret card you must reduce the number to one card after taking the new one, you can of course also decide to return the card that you just picked up. Cards always go back under their respective stack. To activate the secret card you need the action “Buy artifact or jewel”, which means that you must pay the number and kind of gems depicted in the top left-hand corner of the card.
Gerhard now sold 2 emeralds and received 22 gold talers; the marker for the emerald target price was moved one position lower by Walter to 10.
Gitti bought 3 sapphires and 1 sold one emerald for 11. Walter moved the target price markers for Sapphires and emeralds accordingly.
So the game continued for 5 rounds until Gerhard was starting player for the second time; in this round I reached a total of 16 victory points which meant that our game would end in this round. Unfortunately, Gitti managed to buy a jewel that she held in hand to reach 18 victory points and win the game.
The game offers a great many tactical and strategic possibilities, especially via buying artifacts, which render additional strategic and tactical actions useful. There are 3 artifacts which enable a player to take an additional action; 2 artifacts earn the player who acquires them 5 discount tiles which drastically reduce the gem prices; there are also 3 artifacts which earn a player an additional income of either 10, 12 or 18 gold talers in each prospecting round; another 2 artifacts earn the player once in the game either 3 or 2 joker gem cards, which can be used for any kind of gem.
A very special kind of artifact is the Scrounger; this artifact acquires for the player owning it one gold taler per gem in a prospecting round from each player who is prospecting. As you receive 3 rubies for 2 ruby tiles when prospecting, you must pay 3 gold to the Scrounger, as you are receiving 3 Gems. The special feature is that if you cannot pay this amount of gold, you only can prospect the number of gems that you can pay to the Scrounger.
The jewels show 2-6 victory points; the artifacts feature 1 or 2 victory points. The cards with the I on the back side feature the most valuable jewels with most victory points. In general, the higher the number on the back of the card the lower the number of victory points that can be obtained from the card.
You can win the game in a lot of ways. This variety produces a long-living tension in the game that carries on to the end. Additional games have shown that it is very nearly impossible to predict a winner. The game does not introduce any real new or innovative mechanisms or actions, but the allover composition of the game and the great variety of actions it offers provide an unusual and very entertaining fun game.
The graphic design of the game is very attractive and supports players in understanding the rather complex rules.
Basically, the game comprises a pure economics simulation and therefore the topic of mining and gnomes is not really picked up by the mechanism and remains rather aloof. All the same, the high tension level and the dramaturgy of the game provide lots of interest and pleasure in the game.
Due to its complex structure and the manifold tactical and strategic possibilities in the game I cannot recommend the game for families and would rather recommend if for friends, that is, seasoned players. And, of course, all real experts will also fully enjoy the game.
The game is a more than worthy representative of the Zavandor games line from Lookout Games and should strongly appeal to all players who are familiar with other games from the series. I can only repeat my recommendation to all players that are interested in a plethora of tactical and strategic possibilities to take a look at this game and try it out.
My resume: A very good game offering lots of tactical and strategic possibilities.
Maria Schranz
Players: 2-4
Age: 10+
Time: 90+
Designer: Torsten Landsvogt
Artist: Klemens Franz
Price: ca. 20 Euro
Publisher: Lookout Games 2011
Web: www.lookout-games.de
Genre: Economics simulation
Users: With friends
Version: de
Rules: de en
In-game text: no
Comments:
A very attractive and well-working design enables easier approach to the game * a rather abstract economics simulation despite the topic * many tactical and strategic possibilities
Compares to:
The Mines of Zavandor
Other editions:
The Gnomes of Zavandor, Z-Man Games
My rating: 6
Maria Schranz:
I am sure that this game will be given a place of honor in the games collections of many expert players or those who are seasoned gamers in what we call a group of friends.
Chance (pink): 0
Tactic (turquoise): 3
Strategy (blue): 3
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 2
Interaction (brown): 3
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0