OUR REVIEW

After a Norman Raid

TOURNAY

How to rebuild a town

It is amazing to see how many games use the name of existing towns: after Carcassonne, we got Caylus, Strasburg, Troyes, etc. and now it is up to Tournai , a Belgian town on the river Escaut founded as a Roman “castrum” (Tornacum) in the third century and then passed under the Franks domination: destroyed in the year 881 by a Norman raid, Tournai went under the French domination in the 12^th century, then under the Flanders, and again France, Austria and France , until it became a Belgian town (very close to the actual border with France).

The game TOURNAY starts just after the 881 Norman raid and ask the players to help to rebuild the town: the players that liked TROYES (the first game from Pearl Games) will surely like also Tournay. The two games have in common a similar graphic (that give a good “medieval” feeling all along the game), some concepts of work placement (allowing you, for example, to pay for the use of workers of other players), colors, etc.: but do not think to find a “clone” of Troyes as the two games are quite different.

Tournay in effect is a card game combined with workers placement (to purchase and/or activate the cards).

When you open the nice box of TOURNAY you will find a small double sided mini-board that shows the center of the town (on the front side) and the Victory Points (VP) track (on the back): it is placed in the middle of the table and it used for the set-up of the cards and to host some extra workers. You also find 90 cards for the basic game (in three colors, RED for Military, WHITE for Church and YELLOW for Commerce, as in Troyes), 18 cards for the expansion, 33 workers in three colors (again red, white and yellow, but each type as a different “shape”, nice touch …), 4 scoring markers (to be used at the end of the game to mark the VP), 15 Event cards, 20 round markers (showing gray workers or building damages), 6 Players Aids in three languages (French, English and German as it is the Rules booklet) and a handful of Deniers (1,5, 10).

Each player takes 1 Plaza card (used to host the available workers), 6 workers (2 per color) a scoring marker and 6 Deniers.

Then the 90 “action” cards are sorted per color and per “level” (I, II and III) and are placed in 9 small decks (covered) in a 3x3 grid below the mini-board: the players will take cards from those 9 decks and will place them in their own “district” (also a 3 rows by 3 columns grid).

Cards belong to one of the following categories: Buildings (found in Level I and II), Characters (Level I and II) and Prestige Building (only at Level III). A small icon helps players to understand to which category each card belongs. Each deck also has a “town crier” card with a specific task that we will examine in detail later.

A few “icons” are printed on the cards: on the top left corner there is the cost to build the card (in Deniers) and the VP that it will grant at the end of the game (if any). On the bottom there are other icons that explain the use or the characteristics of that card: when you play for the first time you will surely encounter some problems in understanding those icons and you need to constantly refer to the Player Aid Chart, but after a few games everything will be easier.

When your turn arrives you may do two things:

– Play a card from your hand (optional): you pay the amount of Deniers printed on the high left corner and you place the card on your District. Some Prestige Building may require an extra “offer” in order to be used (sacrifice a worker or discard another card). You may play a card on top of an existing one, if necessary: if the cards have the same colors the old one remain on your district (cannot be activated anymore but gives you its VP at the game’s end), otherwise the old card is discarded (and placed under its original deck). It is important to remember that once placed a card cannot be moved anymore.

 - Perform ONE action (mandatory): you may freely use your workers or you may pay 2 Deniers (per worker) to use your opponents’ ones

Workers allow you to do one of the following actions:

– Draw a card: you pay the same number of workers of the card’s Level and the same color of the deck that you want to use. For example to take a Red Level II card you just have to “lay down” near your Plaza TWO Red workers. If you use one or more workers from your opponents you pay them (2 Deniers per worker) and you lay them down near their owner’s Plaza. After having placed the workers you take the first TWO cards of the selected deck, you look at both, take one and put the other (exposed) on top of the deck. If a card is already exposed on top of a deck you may take it in your hand: otherwise you discard it (under the same deck) to take the following two. If one of the cards is a Town Crier you show it to everybody, then you place it under the deck and you take another card: the game immediately pauses to resolve the Events (see later).

– Activate one of your cards: you put one of your workers in your District, on top of one of the “unoccupied” cards of the same color and you perform its effect. If you want to use an opponent’s workers you lay it down near his Plaza and you place a round marker (showing a GREY worker) on your card as a memory that it has been already activated.

– Combat an Event: this is done in two different ways, as explained by the icons printed on the Event card (either using 2 workers of the same color or 1 worker and 1 Denier): the workers are lay down near their Plaza and the money goes back to the bank. The Event must have already at least 1 Denier to be attacked. You keep the card in your hand (from now on it becomes a WALL, as indicated on the back of the card) and replace it with another one from the Event deck.

– Earn Deniers: you use one or more of your workers of the same color (laying them down near your Plaza) and you take 2 Deniers from the bank for each of them.

– Gather your workers: all your workers (those on the cards and those lay down) come back to your Plaza STANDING. You may also discard any round markers (grey workers or damage) that you have on your cards.

EVENTS are triggered by the Town Criers, as we have seen: play immediately stops and 1 Denier is placed on each Event card (if there are still empty circles). Then for each Denier on each card the players are affected once and must “pay” the consequences (laying down workers, losing money, putting a damage marker on their cards, etc.) or take a benefit (if you have the most cards and workers on the listed color you gain 3 Deniers) . The only way to defend against an Event card is to play a WALL card from your hand. Each used Wall Card will give you 1 VP.

The Game ends in two ways:

– When TWO players have completed their District (9 cards visible) with at least TWO Prestige Building (PB).

– When ONE player has completed his District and a certain number of Town Criers already appeared (one more than the players)

You first consider the Bonus VP granted by the PB: there are two numbers on each PB, the first is applied at the card’s owner and the second to all the other players (For example the Yellow City Hall gives 2VP per yellow worker to the card’s owner and 1 VP per yellow worker to the other players).

Then you add the VP granted by each card of your District and 1 VP for each Wall that you used during the game (not the ones that you still have in hand).

Victory goes, of course, to the players with most points

TOURNAY is a simple game, looking at the mechanics, but the real problem is getting acquainted to the “effects” of all the cards: this will take at least 3-4 games, after which you may finally have a better idea on which strategy to use, based on the first cards that you took from the decks. Initially it is suggested to get Level I cards that gives you some extra money (the yellow Quarry or the white Hospital, for example) because they are cheap to place (1 Denier) and you need to make some “reserve” in order to pay the cards of level II (that cost 3 Deniers) or level III (5 Deniers). Also remember that the Characters’ “bonus” is activated only if you place or activate a Building on the corresponding row or column, so if you find a “good” Character (Journeyman, Councilor, Priest, etc.) place him in a good available position in your District in order to use it many times.

After having collected a couple of “good” Characters and 2-3 building cards try to acquire a Level III Prestige Building (PB) as its bonus may decide your final strategy: if, for example, you find the White “Saint Brice” PB you know that you have to take as many cards in different colors as possible because Saint Brice will grant you 4 VP for each group of 3 cards of different colors. If you got the Red “Pont de Trous” you have to collect cards that will allow you to purchase extra workers (the best is the White Level II Monastery card that will allow you to purchase a worker of any color when activated) as you will get 3 VP for each group of 3 workers of different colors, etc.

Once you have an idea of your strategy you have to search the necessaries cards in the right decks so don’t lose time in decks that will not grant you what you need.

Of course the more PB you have, the more VP you may collect at the end, but remember that each PB must be played on your District and will occupy the space of another card, so I think that 2 PB are usually enough to prepare a good winning strategy.

And do not forget that a card can be superposed to an old one (a mistake that is often done in the first games): this is especially effective when you have a card that is very useful at the beginning (for example the Yellow Level I Farmhouse that gives you 1 Denier for each “unoccupied” space of your District) and that becomes very poor later. Always try to superpose cards of the same color, if possible (in our example the best will be Level II Tollbooth over Level I Farmhouse, because it will give you 1 Denier for each “occupied” space in your District …), as the VP value of ALL the cards in your District is counted at the game’s end.

TOURNAY therefore is not a game for the casual gamer or for families (and you need to play it a few times just to learn how to properly use the cards), but it is a nice game and if you accept to test it deeply you will be well rewarded later, coming back to it many times.

Pietro Cremona

Players: 2-4

Age: 12+

Time: 60+

Designer: Sébastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges, Alain Orban

Artist: Alexandre Roche

Price: ca. 25 Euro

Publisher: Pearl Games 2011

Web: www.pearlgames.be

Genre: Card management game

Users: For experts

Version: multi

Rules: de en fr

In-game text: no

Comments:

Not easily accessible, needs several trial games to get familiar with the game

Very nice implementation of the Worker Placement mechanism

Several different winning strategies are possible

Compares to:

All Worker placement games with card activation

Other editions:

Currently none

My Rating: 6

Pietro Cremona:

Tournay provides a nice and intriguing game if you take the time to play it more than three or four times

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 2

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0