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PACK YOUR SWIMSUIT
Luna
Go for a swim with moonstruck novices
Stefan Feld is a master craftsman as regards dilemma or deficiency games: so many possibilities, so much to do, but only a minimum can or may be achieved. This basic feature he usually combines with refreshing ideas and inventive game mechanism with the result that experienced games always look forward to one of his new games. LUNA has been published by hallgames, whose first appearance as a publishing company happened with “Vor den Toren von Loyang” by Uwe Rosenberg. It seems as if they publish games which – despite a renowned designer – are not accepted for publication by other companies. For Luna the reason probably was – to say it positively – the rather idiosyncratic background story: A Moon Priestess called Luna wants to choose her successor. To this purpose each player is head of a religious order and sends his novices to implements certain actions on eight islands, so that Luna can make her game-winning decision – after six rounds.
After reading the rules you feel like a mooncalf left at the foot of a mountain and try to answer the three big “W” questions: „Who is supposed to be interested in that?” “Who cooks up something like this? And especially „Why should I play this game?“ The reason for those questions is not the very well formulated and structured rulebook, but the fact that at first you have no clue what and why you should do. Even after the game had been explained to me for the first time the mechanisms still appeared to be extremely top-heavy and the background story still sounded extremely contrived and very fanciful.
However, any game by Stefan Feld is always worth to be given at least one try, so finally I dared to play it. Stripped down to essentials, the main element and mechanism of the game is collecting victory points. These victory points are awarded for building „Shrines“, which are small buildings represented by nice wooden markers, by relocating „novices“ in the guise of figurines from the islands to the main board situated in the middle, and for majorities in buildings and figurines at the current position of the moon priestess. The Moon Priestess orbits the main board once in each round, somewhat reminding me of a gerbil in its treadmill and maybe this is the reason why she is looking for a successor. This main board is supposed to represent a Temple Island and is placed in the middle. Around this main board there are seven islands, arranged like moons around a planet, the so called Holy Islands. On these islands we implement our actions with our novices and can set up our buildings.
Despite at first coming across like another specimen of the now already abounding worker placement games, Luna is presenting us with a fanciful version of this mechanism. At the start of the game all players already have 8 figurines mooching about on the outer islands. To implement an action you must always use 2 figurines, which are rendered inactive by taking the action and must be placed next to the island, lying down in the water. This not only sounds somewhat weird, but is weird. It would surely have been more plausible to have the active figurines standing upright and the inactive ones lying down (because tired after action?), but would maybe be a little more unclear and might be confusing in case of a figurine accidently falling over.
So the two novices - after having done a little work - are splashing about in the water till the end of the current round, more or less idle, unless you use a favor mark by the name of “Healing Herbs”. With this favor both novices come out of the water and can be used for another action. The rules explain this with brewing a potion using the healing herbs (while swimming in the water?), which helps the novices to recuperate (naughty naughty you if you are reminded of illegal invigorating substances).
On each of the seven smaller Holy Islands you can acquire a special favor marker when you activate two novices for the acquisition. Each of these favor marks allows you a special application which you should integrate as usefully as possible into your plans. In addition to the “Healing Herbs” there is for instance the favor of “Shrine”, which is necessary for the construction of a building. But the favor marker alone is not sufficient: You also need the character of “Master Builder” to be present on this Holy Island. The Master Builder moves in each round – similar to the Priestess – a certain number of islands in clockwise direction. To construct a Shrine you need the corresponding favor marker, the working power of two novices and the presence of the Master Builder on the intended island. This not only gets you a building and scores you the corresponding victory points; on islands with your own Shrine you can implement certain actions with only one instead of the usual two novices.
Two novices are always necessary for the action of “Recruiting”: For two novices which are rendered inactive and go swimming in the waters you receive a third one. The rules call this “an infidel has gained faith”. But not only since playing Stone Age a procreation of figurines, especially in a lush night with a full moon, reminds one of the most natural thing in the world
To empower the figurines to implement actions on other island the game rules provide several means of movement and transport, thus enabling you to use the characteristics of the other six Holy Islands. To reach the Temple Island in the middle with a novice you must try to combine – as clever as possible – several actions. The reward for it are theoretically the highest available number of victory points but coupled to the risk that a novice of another player, arriving at a later time, replaces you own novice.
All in all you could rather call the events on the islands worker displacement instead of worker placement. The basic ideas in Luna and all the details of the rules probably only become clear during or after your first trial game. At the beginning the round dozen of possible actions might overtax you. Soon however it will become clear how you can best interlock these actions, but these choices will also provide some disappointments here and there because lots of things do not come to pass as you have planned them – after all, this is a dilemma or deficiency game. Strategies spanning several rounds are possible, especially as the movements of the Priestess and the Master builder are easy to calculate and predict. A lot less easy to calculate are the moves and plans of your fellow players; due to missing element of chance in the game mechanisms some players might all the same try to use extensive brooding to be better positioned than his fellow players.
Some emphasize and praise are due to the excellent short rules of the game provided in Luna, without which an acceptable way to master the game would probably not be possible. The rest of the components and the art are rather well done too, and support the mastering of the game. The novices are made from wood and have a different and prettier shape than usual figurines as usual. Especially when you compare the components of Luna with the components from the most recent alea release of “Die Burgen von Burgund” (see also WIN 421), which is also a predominantly abstract game by Stefan Feld with negligibla and neglected background story. In “Im Jahr des Drachen” it might have been moderately in accord with the theme to combine the mechanisms with rather paltry components, but with “Macao” and “Glen More” I more and more begin to get the impression that alea wants to try how small and fiddly components can be.
Spieler : 1 - 4
Alter : ages 12+
Dauer : ca. 90 +
Autor : Stefan Feld
Grafik : Klemens Franz
Titel : Luna
Preis : ca. 35 Euro
Verlag : Hall Games
Genre : Deficiency and optimization game
Zielgruppe : For experts
Sprache : de
Regeln : de
Text im Spiel : nein
Kommentar:
Dry topic which is hard to get into
Trial game is recommended
Basically an abstract game, upgraded by art
Very good interlocking of game mechanisms
Potential for brooding, because no element of chance
Excellent short rules
Vergleichbar:
Notre Dame
Die Prinzen von Machu Picchu
Meine Bewertung: 5
Harald Schatzl:
The rather forced pseudo-religious topic is more confusing than helping players to immerse themselves in the game mechanisms. The lack of ambience and background story is more than balanced by the very interesting and very well-working ideas.
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