OUR REVIEW

Infrastructure, environment and industry

Prosperity

Urban development

The French game publishing company „Ystari“ has a preference for game titles that include „y“. Since 204, the year when Ystari was founded, there have been 15 games which showed this trade mark - let me name only a few of them: Olympus, Myrmes, Spyrium and especially and foremost Caylus. This last one is still among the top 10 of my personal list of best games, despite it celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year.

Prosperity is the design of a renowned pair of designers - one of them is Sebastian Bleasdale, whom we know from “Keyflower” and “Black Fleet”, the other is none less than Dr. Reiner Knizia. Allow me to remind you that he has published more than 600 games, representing a market value of 10 million Euros. He was placed  in the Top Ten of Deutscher Spielepreis sixteen times in the period of 1990-2008 and e has won Deutscher Spielepreis four times. The Austrian Games Award Spiel der Spiele was awarded to him five times, he did win Spiel des Jahres in 2008 and countless other international awards. So this raises expectations considerably on any new game bearing his name and with those expectations I did approach this review.

The title of the game, „prosperity“, derives from „to prosper“, which means to grow, to flourish and to be successful, and, in its noun form, represents success and wealth. Success and prosperity are also the goal of the game’s urban development .Over six decades, that is, from 1970 to 2030, 2-4 players try to achieve the best result, that is, the most prosperity within 36 stages, taking into account energy, ecology, research and money.

Let’s begin with the box cover. An overhead railway runs across an ecology landscape, approaching a futuristic town on the horizon. This represents the aim of the game, to achieve balance between technology and ecology.

The content of the box comprises a large research board, four individual double-sided player boards and 5 wooden cubes in player colors, as well as 35 impractical, tiny banknotes in the format of 8x4.5 cm. The reason for the miniature format: Euros were meant to be the currency and to avoid misuse, the notes were extremely miniaturized. It would have been better to use DKT-sized money.

There are also 64 black discs, representing environmental damage, and - a central element of the game - 64 tiles, 24 of which are used in the basic set-up of the game. The remaining 36 tiles are distributed among the six decades, five tiles each go to five decades and six tiles go to the last, sixth decade. Individual tiles differ in the year noted on them and in the different number of seven possible symbols that they are showing. Symbols represent positive and negative energy, positive and negative ecology, capital revenue, research output and prosperity points which finally decide the winner.

Player boards show a track for energy and a track for ecology and also 12 cases for placement of tiles; depending on the chosen level of difficulty (front or back side of the board) some of those cases are already marked with plants, inventions or projects. Those placement also determine the starting level, which shows a balanced or a slightly positive energy balance and a slightly negative ecological situation. Eight environmental damage discs drastically demonstrate the current situation.

The main board shows one research track each for energy and ecology, in six segments, which are sub-segmented into different levels. Starting tiles are placed to the left and right of this track, as regards to the number they display, from the first to the last and sixth number. Those tiles can be acquired, that is, bought, in the course of the game and placed on one of one’s 12 cases on the board to improve one’s result- The costs for those tiles vary, depending on the research level. Tiles that are placed next to the research level you achieved, cost 100 €, for levels above the price rises for 100 € per level, levels below cost you only 50 €.

Above those tracks you find another track in each of the player colors to mark prosperity of players

The course of the game is as follows: You begin with a starting capital of 100 €. The first face-down tile of the decade, 1970 at the start of the game, is revealed and triggers one of the five scorings of each decade. This is indicated by a symbol in a white frame. In each decade each of the different symbols becomes effective once. The tile is placed, according to the number it shows, to the left or to the right of the research tracks. Then the active player has the choice of two out of four optional actions:

1. Revenues - Improve your income by taking 100 € from the bank.

2. Environmental cleanup - Remove one of the environmental damage discs.

3. Research - Invest into research by advancing on one of the research tracks.

4. Acquisition of one of the tiles to place it on your own board. You need to pay attention to the fact that the background color of the tile must correspond to the color of the case on your board.

Then you immediately adjust the markers on your own energy tracks, if applicable, and then the turn passes to the next player.

As soon as the last of the 36 tiles has been implemented, a final scoring is applied. In this scoring energy and ecology are scored twice. 300 € yield one prosperity point each. The player in first and second place on the research track receive 3 and 1 additional prosperity point each, after which the final result is known.

What do I need to keep in mind? Your energy balance should, if possible, always be positive so that you earn money. This money is necessary to buy additional tiles and to invest into research in order to acquire projects more cheaply and to be in first or second place on the tracks for the final scoring, because only then will you acquire the prosperity points that are necessary to win. At the same time you must not neglect the balance between ecology and energy. If you do excessive environmental damage you will acquire no prosperity. From this point of view the game achieves connections to the actual time and reality. Care of the environment takes pride of place here. However, long-term planning is nearly impossible in the game. The scorings in the various decades are entirely governed by chance and only after three scorings I can be sure which ones are still about to happen. Bad luck for me, if my turn is over at that point and I am not able to do anything further in this round.

The game itself works without a hitch, a fact that was only to be expected, considering the two designers. The rules are also clearly structured and present good examples.

But now I have to mention a few negative points. The minimum age of 13 given for players is definitely too high; surely I can get it across to a 10 year old that reckless investments without any thought for environmental protection do not offer a chance for profit. As to the graphic design, I would rather not name them, because I have not yet come across a game in which the tiles were designed as careless, even as ugly as in Prosperity. Which projects the tiles are meant to represent has not been named on the tiles, the projects are only listed in the rules. Thus, in the course of the game, you can only work with the symbols and thus have no idea what you are actually wishing upon your city at that point. I also believe that the four tracks for the players are superfluous, a column next to the research tracks would have been sufficient. It is a pity, that the editorial team did not deem a good visual presentation essential for the game. The saying that “one also eats with one’s eyes” for me is also applicable to a game.

To end this review on a positive note I can say that the game, despite the deficiencies I mentioned, has been judged absolutely positive. So, if you do not mind visual impressions, I can absolutely recommend it.

Rudolf Ammer

Players: 2-4

Age: 13+

Time: 60+

Designer: Reiner Knizia/Sebastian Bleasdale

Artist: Arnaud Demaegd, Neriac

Price: ca. 20 Euro

Publisher: Ystari 2013

Web: www.ystari.com

Genre: Urban development

Users: With friends

Version: multi

Rules: de en + fr

In-game text: no

Comments:

Good mix of ecology and technology

Works well

Sub-optimal graphic design

Compares to:

Other urban development games

Other editions:

French Edition, Ystari

My rating: 5

Rudolf Ammer:

An urban development game that nicely balances technology and ecology, the rather unlucky design prevents a better score.

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0