OUR REVIEW
Noblesse oblige
NOBLEMEN
Who wins elisabeth’s favour?
I’m planning to visit the Valley of the Loire in the 18th century in the near future, but today I direct my time travelling machine across the Channel into 16th century England, the reign of Elisabeth I. As a former consumer of Sisi films (Yes, I admit it and am properly ashamed) I am really predestined to review a game featuring the Virgin Queen. As a certain Mister Friedrich Schiller also picked up the topic in this drama Maria Stuart I consider myself to be in excellent company.
Let me start with the cover of the game that shows two English aristocrats. This definitely is not my taste and - for me - is more a deterrent instead of enticing me to buy the game. The title itself is not too felicitous, either. My first thought was that a legasthenic did write something about problems; it took a while for my synapses to snap into “English” mode and to realize that I am looking at the English word for aristocrat.
Anyway, 3-5 members of the English aristocracy fight for the favour of the said Virgin Queen using prestige and influence which is expressed in the form of victory points. As those people in those times were not really enamoured with working this is acquired by enlarging one’s estates and by constructing magnificent buildings. The Church was another very influential player in those times, so that it was very useful to stay in her good books, too. Finally, bribery and capitalizing on scandals were „part of the game“, too, and useful tools. (Funny, why am I reminded of something - I must have encountered something like this somewhere, sometime). All this is used to win the favour of the queen and to accrue most victory points.
My first impression, when the postman delivered the box: „ A heavy game“. The box weighs more than 2˝ kilos and is filled to the brim with games components.
Believe it or not, 14 boards and a main game board in two parts fill the box to the edge, and then there is a deck of cards and a black luxurious velvet bag with components, already pre-sorted into Ziploc bags (Tüten for for our German friends). And there are even empty bags for the parts that come from the die cut sheets. Whoever was responsible for that equipment: Please step forward and take your accolade. When I compare this to some sham packages from the supermarket - and unfortunately from some game publishers, too - I could shed some emotional tears!
Let’s turn to the game board which is printed on both sides, and to the rule book. The shape of the board resembles the floor plan of a castle instead of being simple a rectangular board. This again shows you the painstaking love of details used here. In addition to the usual Kramer track we use a second, parallel track for keeping track of our prestige points. And then there are six areas on the board which are clearly laid out despite their number. In the middle you find the track for the game rounds, which is used to monitor the three decades of the game and also features three scoring areas.
On the first double pages of the rule book you find a list of the game components and instructions for how to prepare the game, structured into 16 steps. This also leaves nothing to be desired. As I usually am more prone to criticize instead of praise my enthusiasm is a bit embarrassing. In case someone is asking - no, I am not paid by Pegasus (unfortunately), and I am not related by blood or marriage to the designer, Dwight Sullivan, and do not even know him personally.
Let’s take a look at the course of the game itself. The game already received an award back in 2009, when it achieved 1st place in the Hippodice Designers’ Competition. Let’s check if it has turned into the oldest story in the book or if Pegasus has dug up some treasure.
First of all you set up screens that are rather stable and - for providing additional assistance - have the sequence of scoring printed on the inside for all possible scorings. Due to the double-sided print on the headers showing the different aristocratic titles you can adapt the screens to the gender of players. At the beginning you receive 10 pounds; the advantage of the starting player is mitigated by giving all following players in clockwise direction on Pound more than their immediate predecessor. In addition, every player is receiving two tokens for Acquire Land and Tax; I will get back to their function later. Your future personal estate will be made up from four different kinds of landscapes: First, the Fields which earn you money (1 Pound) when such a tile is placed; second, the Woods, which assists you to acquire another additional tile, which is drawn randomly; third, the Fountain, which earns you prestige when the Masquerade Ball is scored, and, fourth, the Meadow, which is used as a land plot for constructing buildings. At the start of the game each player has the possibility to choose 0 to 3 pieces of such landscapes; then the difference to 12 pieces is made up by randomly drawn pieces. With the exception of the Meadow, the other landscapes have an additional advantage: For more than 4 fields that you place (= farm) you get 2 pound Bonus, for more than four Woods you get 2 extra tiles and for more than 4 fountains (=garden) you receive the Queen piece. The owner of the Queen is responsible for advancing the marker for the rounds and receives a victory point in each turn. (The Queen piece reminds me more of the Venus of Willendorf than of a Royal Highness).
Now the game really gets going. Each turn allows you one action only and that’s where the dilemma starts. You have seven choices and - as is normal for such games - you would prefer to be able to do them all at the same time. Regardless of your choice of action you can, in your turn only, trade landscape tiles in a ratio of 2:1 for other landscape tiles and, should you happen to hold a Scandal Card, play them.
But which of the seven various actions should you decide on:
You can expand your estate by up to three tiles, will all the advantages mentioned earlier. Or you can construct a building. Buildings are already situated on the board at the start of the game. There are Castles, Palaces, Chapels and Follies (A kind of garden pavilion). Well, there is a restriction for building, which forbids you to set up a building adjacent to a building of the same kind, neither horizontally nor vertically nor diagonally. As is the case for landscapes, buildings also earn you several kinds of bonuses. Castles introduce Men-at-Arms into the game; each player has two of them. When you place them on the estate of another player the act like Robber Barons and rob your opponent of money, tiles or the Queen herself. To build a chapel is rewarded with a scandal card which you can choose from the three top ones in the stack. The palace replaces a castle already built and results in the conquest of the Queen. That leaves the so called follies. The expenses of 12 pounds for such a folly is exorbitantly high and you must have two expanded identical landscape or three different ones before you can build a folly. And you must be quick to acquire one, because you score 12 victory points for the first one that is build, and that amount decreases with each additional one that is set up. And, finally, there are only four of them all in all.
Your third choice to act could be to buy a bribe token. The price for those is 2 pounds for each and you can only buy five of them in one turn. But they do immediately earn you a victory point, and are quite useful, too, as you will see. , but for them are exorbitant with 12 pounds.
Now for the choices that each player can only make once in each decade: With the help of the Tax token that you receive at the start of the game - you remember? - you get money for each field, farm and man-at-arms in opposing farms, in effect a mini scoring of your own estate. In addition you are given 1 pound for each bribe marker that you hand back. The Acquire Land token works in a similar way, it rings you additional tiles to expand your estate instead of money, but you get money also for bribe tokens that you hand in. Which leaves Donations for the church, also possible only once in a decade. This earns you 1 victory point for each landscape tile that you hand in, with the restriction that the church is accepting only a maximum of three tiles per landscape variety. You do not want to be impudent! And finally, you could choose Leisure, that is, to pass. Even that earns you one victory points, so to say, dole of those times.
When we have dealt with the action phase and - if applicable - moved the marker of the respective decade, the marker twice arrives on a spot representing a Masquerade Ball. This triggers a reshuffling of cards. First, you lose your title and are assessed for receiving a new one. The deciding factor for your new title is your prestige. This is accrued from the facilities on your estate, represented by fountains, gardens and palaces and can be influenced by discarding bribe markers or scandal cards. The current owner of the Queen begins and then in turn all players ‘prestige is calculated. In case of a tie you must make do with one step down. Now the the titles are handed out; you need a meagre 2 prestige points for a Viscount, six points for an Earl, 10 points for an Marques and 14 points to become a Duke. As Duke and Marques are only given out once it is very important to be in front on the track. With the title being awarded you also get an award in the guise of victory points, the amount equals half of the necessary prestige points; and you also get a reduction in price for future building costs. The round marker is moved and the round continues to the left of the owner of the Queen.
One step before the end of the decade there is a scoring of buildings for castles and palaces: Three victory points are awarded to those that are encircled by land and one extra point is scored for adjacent chapels.
Before the next decade starts the building on the board are replenished, donations to the church are removed and each player is given a scandal card; those scandal cards can be used in your turn one by one, but can be used in bulk at the Masquerade Ball for prestige points, but in this case without the bonus advantage.
This plenitude of choices may sound a bit intimidating, but in reality is rather simple. E very quickly gained access to the game, and, for assistance, each player is given 2 cards which summarize all possibilities. An excellent assistance which I have often wished for in many other games. Noblemen is a game with lots of strategic choices, marvellous components and exemplary rules which in my opinion should be rewarded with „Essener Feder“. The then 1st position in the Designers Competition was definitely well-earned. One remark from my games group was: „As regards to the quality of its flair this game reminds me of Village!” and this, I think, is an accolade. What a pity that it got a bit overlooked in the plenitude of new releases, because it would have merited a lot more attention. From me, it receives a wholehearted recommendation to buy it.
Rudolf Ammer
Players: 3-5
Age: 12+
Time: 120+
Designer: Dwight Sullivan
Art: Claus Stephan, Oliver Schlemmer
Price: ca. 45 Euro
Publisher: Pegasus 2012
Web: www.pegasus.de
Genre: Strategy game
Users: With friends
Version: de
Rules: de + en
In-game text: no
Comments:
Exemplary rule book
Pretty design
Amazing components
Varied games play
Compares to:
Placement and resources management games
Other editions:
Tasty Minstrel Games, USA
My rating: 6
Rudolf Ammer:
An absolute high light of the2012 vintage of games, also suitable for families with playing experience, what more can one want?
Chance (pink): 1
Tactic (turquoise): 1
Strategy (blue): 2
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 1
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0