Our Review
Drilling race to the Earth’s Core
Rockwell
Tactics below the Earth’S Crust
Rockwell by Bruno Crépeault, presented in Essen in 2013 and instantly but only nearly forgotten in the deluge of nice games - as I must confess to my shame. During dozens of games of „Nations“, „Russian Railroads“, „Lewis & Clark“ and of many other games I always had a niggling thought at the back of my head: There was something at the booth of „Sit Down!” publishers and „Plato Magazine“ that I did try at the first day of the Fair and did not completely grasp because the demonstrator, a Frenchman, tried to explain something to us English that he himself did not know much about.
As I found the idea of the game - it was „Rockwell“ interesting on that day, I did briefly ask the boss of Plato, who in turn told me the unusual story of the game designer: A Canadian, working at an airport, with lots of free time and creative idea who has already realized quite a few project: Founding a band with which he won a contest on TV, writing an opera and a book and now the game. A really “cool” background story - if it should be true.
At the Fair at Cannes 2014 I came across „Rockwell“ again and asked Dagmar de Cassan if she might have a copy of the game? Of course she had one. When we finally got it on the table, a few parts were missing and so it took quite a while till we could play. Let me say it at the beginning, the waiting was worth its while!
Topic: A virtual Mining Company called „Rockwell“ has bought up four competitors and now wants to check their productivity in a contest. The winner will be who can drill into the Earth’s crust most quickly and deepest. A rather unusual scenario for a game and thus the first Brownie point for the game. Another one is the design of the board: the individual parts form concentric rings; on the outside the entry area, followed by four concentric rings towards the middle, separated into segments. The center is representing the Earth’s core. The necessary drilling performance rises continually with drilling depth, normally none of the contestants can provide the necessary strength on his own and needs the help of the other players. So this game also offers a cooperative element, yet another advantage. If it is possible - and unfortunately it is not always possible - you will therefore “invite” an opponent (a supposedly weaker one - unfortunately screens prevent exact knowledge about the strength of other players) to assist you.
On each segment the necessary drilling power is marked; when this is reached you draw a so-called Extraction card - it lists the resources you extracted and also - less fortunate - if there will be a mining accident.
The segment tile that was extracted is then turned over which could result in acquisition of additional ores. So, it is essential to be involved in many extractions.
Resources are four different kinds of ore (colored wooden cubes): Zinc, copper, silver and gold, which also can be traded at the stock exchange (Buying and selling only, prices are fixed and do not change).
Each player - „Rockwell“ is designed for two to four players - has four groups of workers (small wooden cylinders) of strength 1 to 4, which are placed at the entrances at the start. From there they can be moved in four drilling rounds per round of the game one step (one of them four steps or each of them one step). Additional components are two Management cubes (a bit larger) in the four player colors and also two Vice Presidents (wooden meeples) and an orange wooden marker to indicate the drilling rounds as well as a lot of cardboard tiles for money, insurance, protection and mining shaft and, at long last, the so-called Achievement tiles with prestige points in different denominations, they are the actual victory points.
In addition to the screen I mentioned (“Paravent”) each player is given a double-sided company board, on which you indicate improvements that need to be paid for (Enhancement of the drilling power and the range of movement, better protection against mining accidents as well as mineshafts - they extract additional ore from turned-over segment tiles, see above). This board also offers space for the Achievement tiles - as soon as player has acquired a certain amount of them, the game ends. It also ends when a majority of players has reached the Earth’s core with a drilling crew.
A round in „Rockwell“ comprises three phases, represented by the individual boards I to III. On those you place the two Vice Presidents (VP) of each player, which marks the selection of action for the round. And lo and behold, in this game, too, we have a small worker placement mechanism, even if the workers are called Mr. Vice President here. Note the disproportion: Only two VP, but three options to choose from.
At the start of each round the first action is a secret auction (using money and/or ore) in order to determine the sequence of play for placing the vice presidents.
If you place one VP into the „control center“ - Board I - you fix the sequence of drilling, that is, the sequence of movement of the drilling crew cylinders; you also acquire the ability to bribe or to hire a subcontractor. Bribing means that you fetch a piece of an opponent for yourself after you have moved your own drilling crew. What a nice and happy coincidence when the enhanced drilling power now triggers an extraction.
A subcontractor, represented by a four-sided die, enhances your own drilling power, but costs a lot of money.
If a VP is placed at the stock exchange (Board II) you can buy or sell resources and money there. Unfortunately there is one place less at the stock exchange than there are players, which means that one player will not be able to acquire money or ore in this round.
With a VP in the „Workshop“ (Board III) you can acquire upgrades and also prestige points, that is, victory points, the price for which rises the later in the game you buy them. On this board there is room for all players, but unfortunately the fourth to arrive has only one option for an action, the third one has two and so on to the first one who has four options. You are never allowed to place more than one vice president on the same board.
When now also the sequence for the drilling rounds has been fixed, the three phases are implemented in sequence.
Phase I is the most important of the game: Each player moves his crew and extracts resources; the nearer to the Earth’s core the higher the necessary drilling power. When it is reached or topped in a segment the drilling round is interrupted and an “extraction” begins: The segment tile is turned over and a card is drawn from the respective stack (Power 3-10). Those “extraction cards” show a number of different ore cubes which are taken from general stock and distributed in equal amounts to all players involved in the drilling, regardless of how much power each of them contributed. Surplus ore cubes, which are always happening, are giving to a player with “priority ranking” who is determined by the following three criteria (1>2>3). 1) The owner of a mining shaft; if he is involved in the drill he also gets one of the equal portions; if not, he only gets the surplus. 2) If there is no mining shaft on the segment the player with the highest drilling power contribution has priority ranking, and 3) in case of equal drilling power the player who triggered the extraction is considered to have priority ranking.
Extraction can also be triggered by bribery - the player to trigger it is the one did the bribing and not the one that was summoned - or also by taking on board a subcontractor.
When the extraction card shows a danger symbol, each player must discard ore cubes in relation to his drilling power, unfortunately the more valuable ones must go first (for instance, you extract 3 zinc, 1 silver, 1 gold and is involved in the extraction with a strength of two; he must discard two cubes and therefore only receives three cubes of zinc).
Cautious fellows can take out insurance against such bad luck before the first drilling: You can exchange any number of ore cubes for insurance tiles (1:1). For instance: You acquire two insurance tiles with two zinc cubes of value 800 and can avoid the loss of one gold and one silver cube of value 1800 by discarding those insurance tiles. It is convenient that those tiles can be kept for future rounds (not every extraction ends with a mining accident). On the other hand, I would like to direct your attention to a safety upgrade (must be paid for) which, if acquired, offers permanent protection in three levels: Loss of one cube, loss of three cubes or loss of all cubes. Unfortunately those and other improvements are only available in phase III when one drilling phase has already been played.
When the ore has been allocated the drilling phase is resumed. Then, as the finale of Phase I, owners of mining shafts on already revealed segment cases can mine the ores depicted there. A footnote: Shafts can also only be acquired in Phase III (a total of three), like all other improvements, so - to put it bluntly - you are relatively naked in the first round of the game. Advantages of mining shafts are: 1) Repeated revenue at the end of each drilling round. 2) Automatic advantage in extraction for the surplus ore cubes.
Phase II: Now each player, who has placed a VP here, may buy or sell ore, but not both, as each resource may only be traded once per round; you also cannot trade different kinds in combination. DO not forget, there is always one player who cannot participate in Phase II.
So far so good - but her I must deviate a bit in order to clarify what is the real purpose of „Rockwell“: „Prestige points“, that is, victory points which you can accrue by reaching respective targets („Realizations“), the purpose is not to acquire money or resources. Money is necessary to acquire upgrades or to hire subcontractors; resources gain you money on the one hand but also prestige; one of the goals, for instance, is to own 8 zinc and 8 copper, because this allows you to place the corresponding Achievement tile on your own player board; you do not have to discard the ore cubes for this“ They can later be converted to money.
Those Achievement tiles have a ranking, the first player to achieve one will receive more prestige for meeting a target then the following players will receive for the same target. There are nine “Realizations” - those are depicted on the player boards, where you place the tiles that you acquired face-down to hide the number of prestige points on them. Other targets are, for instance, to own three drilling crews of strength 2 or to reach the Earth’s core. There are nine such Achievement tiles; when a player has acquired a certain number the game ends at the end of the current round. Additional victory points can be bought in Phase III, albeit by discarding of resources. For this the principle of “first come, first served” is invoked. Wealth that you accumulate is not completely worthless, at the end of the game victory points are awarded for most money and for most ores, scored individually, in case of three players for instance 2 points for most gold, 1 point for the second biggest amount, nothing for the player in third place. Therefore, you should begin rather early to try to complete “Realizations” in order to collect prestige points, as there are usually only “peanuts” to be had at the end of the game.
This winning mechanism enables you absolutely to catch up on fellow players who you believe to be far ahead. In one of my first games I thought my friend was too far in front to be caught - he had masses of money, resources and upgrades - so I tried to meet “easy” targets, and, lo and behold, in the end I was surprisingly ahead, albeit by a small margin. In the long run it is not a big catastrophe not to be involved in Phase II.
Phase III. (called „industrial progress“): Now you can acquire mining shafts, improve drilling crews - drilling power and range - and enhance safety permanently. Do not forget - this is the moment to buy, albeit only a few, victory points by discarding ore.
A game of „Rockwell“ takes about 120 to 150 minutes to play, once you have mastered the game. This is not too difficult, if you skip the pages 2 and 3 of the rules after setting up the game - unless you love spotting puzzles: 36 numbers are distributed unsorted on pictures of the components that are much too small - and begin instantly with “A round of the game”. From there on the rules are nicely worded and easily understood and illustrated with unequivocal examples. The terms used in the game, for instance Vice president, management and control cubes, mining shafts, etc., are explained will in the order of their appearance in the game. The rules take up, inclusive lots of pictures and examples, only seven complete pages, are very clear and very well structured so that there are no questions left unanswered.
This game is an interesting and rewarding addition to a games evening, a mixture of a bit of worker placement and a dash of - sometimes unwilling - cooperation. Tactic and strategy balance each other, maybe strategy is a touch more important. The absolutely original scenario and its felicitous graphic implementation must be applauded. Please note the small details - for instance, the number of players is indicated on each board by family pictures on the desk.
Christoph Proksch
Players: 2-4
Age: 14+
Time: 90+
Designer: Bruno Crépeault
Artist: Yuio
Price: ca. 37 Euro
Publisher: Sit Down! 2013
Web: www.sitdown.be
Genre: Worker placement, area control
Users: For experts
Special: Many players
Version: multi
Rules: de en fr
In-game text: no
Comments:
Good mixture of different mechanisms
In some phases lots of interaction
Thrilling to the last minute
Mistakes can be corrected
Compares to:
Unique game, maybe a few similarities to Village
Other editions:
Currently none
My rating: 6
Christoph Proksch and Uschi Vlk:
A not too complicated game with lots of options, very interactive, with the charm of a relative unused scenario, it is fun and offers high replay value.
Chance (pink): 0
Tactic (turquoise):1
Strategy (blue): 2
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 1
Interaction (brown): 2
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0