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At the Spielewahnsinn in Herne I had the opportunity to play Uwe Rosenberg's next big boardgame. He's had some great success with his boardgames, lately. He became famous with his rather small, but fine card game BOHNANZA, in 2007 he has had another great success with the game pieces heavy boardgame AGRICOLA, which he conquered the gaming scene with. Last year, another great boardgame named LE HAVRE followed. And this year, AT THE GATES OF LOYANG will continue.
Uwe Rosenberg explains his AT THE GATES OF LOYANG in Herne - I try hard to remember all of the rules..In AT THE GATES OF LOYANG players need to establish a possibly productive field economy. Each player gets his own player mat in form of the letter "T", where you can find a shop area providing goods, and a victory point track, here called wealth track. Also, the T shows you where to place which sort of card. Your fields are placed above your player mat. You get new fields throughout the game, but each player starts with just one main field. It has the largest capacity and holds 9 goods. In your personal field stack, you've got more fields with capacities ranging from 6 down to 3. In game, the players need to sow goods on the fields and harvest them to fulfill their contracts and orders. This is how you earn money. But you can't sow every good on every field. Basically, each field takes only one sort of good. And the smaller its capacity, the greater your options. Thereto, you need to know the goods. There are 6 different kinds of goods with ascending values. The cheapest good, blue, can be bought in the shop for 3 cash. Purple costs 6 cash and is the most expensive one. Now, a field with capacity 3 takes any kind of good, one with a capacity of 4 takes all but purple.
The game starts after each player has viewed their 4 initial cards. Then each player needs to sow one type of good. The main field can take any one of the three cheapest types of goods. You take one good out of your storage, place it on the field and - plop! - all vacant spaces are filled! You take the additional goods that fill your field from the general supply. From now on, you can harvest the goods. The main field is also kind of a round counter. At the beginning of each round, in the harvest phase, you take one good from each field. Your main field holds 9 goods and after 9 rounds, after the last good of the main field has been harvested, the last round of the game begins.
A player mat at the beginning of the game: at the top - the main field, and next to it - the field stack, which you flip one card from each round and place it next to your main field. This way the number of fields grows and you can grow more crops. The shop is stil pretty much filled. At the beginning of the game, you have to purchase one good (the main field only takes blue, green or red) for the price shows above the good, and sow it - plop! All of the 9 spaces are filled!
Each player is holding 4 cards in their hand at the beginning. On your turn, you need to decide whether you place one card in the middle of the table, into the common pool, or drop out by taking two cards into your display. If you do so, you take one card from your hand and one from the pool. You'll never get two hand cards or two from the pool! If you've got two great cards on your hand, you need to take the risk and place one into the pool first in order to get it into your display, later. Obviously, the start player can't do anything but place one card in the middle as there are no cards in the pool, at the moment. A player who drops out takes cards into their display and doesn't take part in the rest of the card phase. The player who drops out last receives a large wooden marker, the player that left last but one a small one. The player with the larger marker is the start player for the action phase.
Ralph from Hall Games was kind to give me another small preview of the upcoming game material. We proudly present: the coins!!
Additionally, in the 4-player game you have to think of another aspect of the game. The start player choses a partner from the two players that didn't receive a wooden marker. In the following action phase, all of the interactive action cards can't be played on another player but your partner. This way you can either try to get the right partner or to avoid the wrong one. This clever card mechanism allows for very tactical play. Also, now the game will be split. With 4 players, you're playing two seperate 2-player games after the card phase. Admittedly, this way you won't notice much of what the other two players are doing, but this decreases the play time remarkably and allows for a more intense game experience. In my view this is a very interesting approach! On the one hand the clever card mechanism, on the other hand the focussed 4-player game. With 2 or 3 players, you play as usual one after another, of course in the order of dropping out from the card phase. Therefore, the 2-player game still is the shortest one, and the 3-player game the longest as you need to interact with two more players. We're talking here about a play time of around two hours. As the 4-player game would get out of hands otherwise, I think this is a nice idea of Uwe Rosenberg.
BTW, what are those cards that we try to get? Market stands and persons are placed on the left side of the player mat. Market stands take three resources that can be traded for 1:1 or 2:1 depending on the market stand. Persons allow you for special actions which some of them interact with the other players. You'll make the big money on the other side of the mat. Contracts are placed at the top. They force you to deliver a set of two goods for 4 rounds which you get money for. If you don't manage to deliver, you'll need to be afraid of a punishment. Orders, which are placed below the contracts, give more money, however, they will differ in the long run. Orders can only be delivered once, but whenever you like. There is no punishment. Once delivered, you lose the order and need to get another one which will need a different set of goods, which you'll eventually need to get from market stands again. And growing takes its time. This is why contracts are more plannable in the long run. Here you have to deliver the same set of goods for 4 rounds. You can prepare for such.
The game starts after each player has viewed their 4 initial cards. Then each player needs to sow one type of good. The main field can take any one of the three cheapest types of goods. You take one good out of your storage, place it on the field and - plop! - all vacant spaces are filled! You take the additional goods that fill your field from the general supply. From now on, you can harvest the goods. The main field is also kind of a round counter. At the beginning of each round, in the harvest phase, you take one good from each field. Your main field holds 9 goods and after 9 rounds, after the last good of the main field has been harvested, the last round of the game begins.
A player mat at the beginning of the game: at the top - the main field, and next to it - the field stack, which you flip one card from each round and place it next to your main field. This way the number of fields grows and you can grow more crops. The shop is stil pretty much filled. At the beginning of the game, you have to purchase one good (the main field only takes blue, green or red) for the price shows above the good, and sow it - plop! All of the 9 spaces are filled!Each player is holding 4 cards in their hand at the beginning. On your turn, you need to decide whether you place one card in the middle of the table, into the common pool, or drop out by taking two cards into your display. If you do so, you take one card from your hand and one from the pool. You'll never get two hand cards or two from the pool! If you've got two great cards on your hand, you need to take the risk and place one into the pool first in order to get it into your display, later. Obviously, the start player can't do anything but place one card in the middle as there are no cards in the pool, at the moment. A player who drops out takes cards into their display and doesn't take part in the rest of the card phase. The player who drops out last receives a large wooden marker, the player that left last but one a small one. The player with the larger marker is the start player for the action phase.
Ralph from Hall Games was kind to give me another small preview of the upcoming game material. We proudly present: the coins!!Additionally, in the 4-player game you have to think of another aspect of the game. The start player choses a partner from the two players that didn't receive a wooden marker. In the following action phase, all of the interactive action cards can't be played on another player but your partner. This way you can either try to get the right partner or to avoid the wrong one. This clever card mechanism allows for very tactical play. Also, now the game will be split. With 4 players, you're playing two seperate 2-player games after the card phase. Admittedly, this way you won't notice much of what the other two players are doing, but this decreases the play time remarkably and allows for a more intense game experience. In my view this is a very interesting approach! On the one hand the clever card mechanism, on the other hand the focussed 4-player game. With 2 or 3 players, you play as usual one after another, of course in the order of dropping out from the card phase. Therefore, the 2-player game still is the shortest one, and the 3-player game the longest as you need to interact with two more players. We're talking here about a play time of around two hours. As the 4-player game would get out of hands otherwise, I think this is a nice idea of Uwe Rosenberg.
BTW, what are those cards that we try to get? Market stands and persons are placed on the left side of the player mat. Market stands take three resources that can be traded for 1:1 or 2:1 depending on the market stand. Persons allow you for special actions which some of them interact with the other players. You'll make the big money on the other side of the mat. Contracts are placed at the top. They force you to deliver a set of two goods for 4 rounds which you get money for. If you don't manage to deliver, you'll need to be afraid of a punishment. Orders, which are placed below the contracts, give more money, however, they will differ in the long run. Orders can only be delivered once, but whenever you like. There is no punishment. Once delivered, you lose the order and need to get another one which will need a different set of goods, which you'll eventually need to get from market stands again. And growing takes its time. This is why contracts are more plannable in the long run. Here you have to deliver the same set of goods for 4 rounds. You can prepare for such.
Miriam takes it with gallows humor that she's one step away from a great defeat. Good hosts! I'm still brooding in the card phase which cards to take and which ones to place in the middle...Still, there's one problem with orders. To prevent that players only take orders, there's some kind of punishment for far too one-way behavior. If you've got more orders than contracts, your orders are worth two cash less than printed. This kaes contracts stronger. Ambitious and elaborate planning will be rewarded.
In the action phase that comes right after the card phase, each player has a variety of options. You can sow crops, deliver goods for contracts and orders, use market stands to trade for other goods, buy and sell goods in the shop, take loans or buy additional cards. Finally, you can use the various action cards you have. The game comes with 20 of those person/helper cards. They allow for special actions, can make goods cheaper, let you deliver goods for your opponent's contracts, enhance your harvest, and many more.
After you've finished your actions, you want to grow your wealth. There are 19 spaces on your wealth track - from 1 to 20 (with the 2 missing). Each round, the first space on the wealth track costs 1 cash, each following space costs the printed value. You'll find out quickly that the first steps of the track are the cheapest ones. At that time, however, you don't have enough money as you need to invest in your economy. If I go many spaces early, I'll cut myself from my options. Later, however, those spaces will cost more - a dilemma that makes fun!
At the end of the 9th round, the player who has got farthest on his wealth track wins the game. Loans are paid back very expensively - they cost you one step back! Loans want to be properly thought about. You can't pay them back during the game!
Overall, I'm downright pleased with AT THE GATES OF LOYANG. It's not as complex as Le Havre or Agricola, however, it's that intuitive like the latter, unfortunately. You need a high degree of providence to become wealthy in this game. It's missing the dilemma you know from Agricola or Le Havre to take an offer space that has accumulated a lot of goods. The goods come on their own if you sow them. With the interactive cards and the card phase there is definitely some interesting interaction in this game that you certainly need to consider. The main game, however, consists of playing on one's own display and so AT THE GATES OF LOYANG needs to put up with voices that say you're playing a solitaire. I don't mind the little interaction in the action phase. This games lives from developing one's own production. This is very appealing to me.
In the action phase that comes right after the card phase, each player has a variety of options. You can sow crops, deliver goods for contracts and orders, use market stands to trade for other goods, buy and sell goods in the shop, take loans or buy additional cards. Finally, you can use the various action cards you have. The game comes with 20 of those person/helper cards. They allow for special actions, can make goods cheaper, let you deliver goods for your opponent's contracts, enhance your harvest, and many more.
After you've finished your actions, you want to grow your wealth. There are 19 spaces on your wealth track - from 1 to 20 (with the 2 missing). Each round, the first space on the wealth track costs 1 cash, each following space costs the printed value. You'll find out quickly that the first steps of the track are the cheapest ones. At that time, however, you don't have enough money as you need to invest in your economy. If I go many spaces early, I'll cut myself from my options. Later, however, those spaces will cost more - a dilemma that makes fun!
At the end of the 9th round, the player who has got farthest on his wealth track wins the game. Loans are paid back very expensively - they cost you one step back! Loans want to be properly thought about. You can't pay them back during the game!
Overall, I'm downright pleased with AT THE GATES OF LOYANG. It's not as complex as Le Havre or Agricola, however, it's that intuitive like the latter, unfortunately. You need a high degree of providence to become wealthy in this game. It's missing the dilemma you know from Agricola or Le Havre to take an offer space that has accumulated a lot of goods. The goods come on their own if you sow them. With the interactive cards and the card phase there is definitely some interesting interaction in this game that you certainly need to consider. The main game, however, consists of playing on one's own display and so AT THE GATES OF LOYANG needs to put up with voices that say you're playing a solitaire. I don't mind the little interaction in the action phase. This games lives from developing one's own production. This is very appealing to me.
Some first few cards - two market stands, two casual customers (in the prototype called orders) and three helpersThis game won't be published by Lookout Games, as many of you probably know already. This two-men publisher is busy enough with the succes of AGRICOLA and the current game LE HAVRE. Therefore Uwe and his partner have created the new publisher Hall Games. The graphical desing will, again, be done by Klemens Franz, who already has beautifully illustrated AGRICOLA and LE HAVRE. The first published illustrations at Boardgamegeek let every fan of the other two games jubilate again!
P.S. Many, many Thank You's to Grzegorz Kobiela for the translation. You will find more information and discussion around the game in english language here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/39683
P.S. Many, many Thank You's to Grzegorz Kobiela for the translation. You will find more information and discussion around the game in english language here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/39683
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