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NOBLEMAN on the Delivery run

MILLE GRAZIE

Cops and Robbers among the cypesses

„Hands up and out with your money“

Alongside fragrant lavender fields, picturesque alleys lined with cypresses show you the way – straight into the hands of marauding bandits. In the serpentine canyons of the gorges and under cover of shady pinewoods, sly outlaws are lurking for the purpose of urging moneyed noblemen, together with their irritated courtesans, out of their well-cushioned travel coaches in order to re-distribute their possessions.

Therefore, experienced aristocrats take long detours and hire expensive escorts in order to avoid the daylight robbers. But the eloquent bandits are no fools. They besiege the byways also, and so, from behind inconspicuous curves, the thanks of the light-fi ngered crooks might be heard unexpectedly as they call out, “Millie Grazie.“

After such an enticing introduction one get’s curious about the game:

 „Mille Grazie“ is a simple game for one to four noblemen and robbers and has been published by Zoch.

At the start of the game each player draws an order card to determine the city where his nobleman begins his journey. Four more cards are laid out open-faced on the board into the cities marked at the top of the card. In clock-wise direction in each turn another player embodies the nobleman. He must try to execute order tiles by bringing them from the source city, where they are laid out, to the destination city stated on the tile without being laid up by robbers on the way.

To do so he may decide whether to travel with an escort or without an escort.

If he decides to use an escort, he uses his ambush compass to determine the road on which he wants to be protected by the escort and then moves his marker over a distance of four cities. He can enter a city twice if it seems appropriate to him. If he decides to risk travelling without an escort he may extend his move to five cities. If the nobleman reaches one of the stated destination cities he scores the victory points noted on the tile and discards the tile.

If he moves through or into a city where an order tile is available, he may take this along provided he does not own more than two order tiles.

After that a new order tile is turned up immediately and placed into the indicated source city (if there is already a tile there the new tile is put back and another one is drawn).

While the nobleman is thus trying to reach his destinations the robbers try to ambush him. To do so the use their ambush compass. Before the nobleman moves they mark the letter of a road which they suppose will be one the nobleman will use in his travels. The robbers may confer in the presence of the nobleman, but need not stick to their agreements. If a robber should be successful and the nobleman moves along the road marked on the robber’s compass, the robber shouts “Mille Grazie” and reveals his ambush compass to prove his ambush. Should the nobleman be protected by an escort on this road, he in his turn now reveals his ambush compass and nothing happens. When the nobleman is unprotected by an escort the robber receives 3 victory points and the nobleman looses – depending on the color of the road - 1, 2 or all 3 order cards in front of himself, they are places on the discard pile

The game ends, when one or more players reach or surpass 30 victory points at the end of round. The player with most victory points has won the game.

A few tips on tactics for the game:

In the role of a nobleman one should try to accumulate order cards with different destinations, because then it is rather difficult for the robbers to guess at the probable route the nobleman will take. The most direct route can rarely be recommended. The robbers in their turn should take care neither to ambush the first part of the road nor the most expensive one because there the nobleman will most probably be using the escort. Better to choose a path somewhere in nowhere far from the well-trodden paths where the surprise is much bigger when the robbers appear!

And now good luck and lots of success in raking in the points, and maybe you will be able to discover the hidden allure of the game, because it remained hidden to me. There is not much more I can say about it, I do not know why I do not like it at all, it simply is no fun, and works rather mechanistically and with lots of pre chance. If you manage to ambush the nobleman, so far so good, if not, nad luck! More emotions are not involved. What a pity that the introduction promises more than the game can keep, at least for me.

Christoph Vavra ( g.vavru@aon.at )

Spieler : 2 - 4

Alter   : ages 8 and up

Dauer : 30 – 45 Min.

Autor  : Dirk Hillebrecht

Grafik : Alexander Jung

Titel   : ident

Preis   : ca. 20,00 Euro

Verlag : Zoch 2010

            www.zoch-verlag.com

Genre           : Game of chance with a psychological moment

Zielgruppe    : For families

Mechanismen : Guess at location, move marker Raten und Figur ziehen

Kommentar    :

Nice components

Harmonious introduction to the rules

Too much of a „I‘ being played here“ feeling

Christoph Vavru:

„A game that does not inspire me to play it again – it works well but is no fun. If you like to guess at other players‘ intentions you will like it and have fun with it.

Meine Bewertung: 3

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