OUR REVIEW

DOWN THE SHAFT!

Glück Auf

Playful Hommage to RUhrgebiet

„Ey Günni, sit down at the table, there's something for you! You went down the shaft yourself in your time as a miner in Ruhrpott!" A sentence like this or a similar one could be the introduction to a game of „Glück Auf“, at least when one is a child of the Ruhrgebiet as I am. And therefore the new creation of the Kramer/Kiesling dream team was a must on my agenda. It does revive memories of the good old times, when in our region mining was flourishing, till today old shafts, miners' communities and pithead frames bear witness to the once-upon-a-time most important economic source of Ruhrgebiet. So let us travel back into Essen in the late 19^th century, when coal was still dirty and life of miners was dangerous. If they really did mine coal cubes of different colors is really difficult to imagine, but we will store this under poetical freedom of the designer duo. Otherwise story and graphical design fit together excellently, the mechanisms of the game introduce themselves harmonically without giving off a forced feeling. So, what are we looking at?

Place miners

Core element of the game for up to four mine owners is a classic worker placement mechanism on a nice and small board. Or, to explain it to Günni: "You put your dollies on the board and they can do something there". What they can do there exactly is determined by the spots where you can place them, and their use is cleverly resolved: No area is ever blocked, but if you are the first one there you secure the action for yourself with only one miner; if you want to access the spot later you must place at least one pawn more than there are already on the board.

Miners that have done their job wander straight to the canteen, where they await their assignment in a later round and look after their stomachs in the meantime. If you save workers you potentially have more turns than other players, before the first of three so-called shift scorings happens.

Each player has his own pit frame plus shaft beneath it, which is carrying a mobile pit cage mining basket which is invested with an immense stimulative nature and which offers a first-class simulation of belowground coal mining. Or to let Günni tell us " Man, that’s like being slaving away yourself down there!"

But before we can really start mining we need something to mine, and that's what the placement squares on the board are there for, until the command of "Down the shaft" is given.

First, there are the tunnels or lorries filled with coal, up to eight are laid out, depending on the number of players, and which can be acquired by worker placement and payment of money. Those lorries are placed instantly into your own shaft, on the level determined by the color of the coal cubes and either to the left or the right of the pit cage, decided by the lorry/tunnel tile being equipped with lamps or being left in darkness. If you do not want to do something or cannot do something because you are hit by the rather permanent scarcity of money puts his worker into the bank and is consoled with one Mark. On the bank spot there is no limit to the number of workers.

If you expect more money than one Mark you can place your worker also onto a money square, the one with the highest value provides you instantly with six Marks.

Mined and delivered

This bunch of efforts if employed to fill orders which are the second central element in „Glück Auf“ and earn you victory points, the usual means to decide the outcome of the game. Those orders can also be acquired, in addition to those that we were given at the start of the game - from the board by payment and are then placed next to your shaft to be filled. You need to pay close attention to the individual elements of the order cards, because they not only tell you how many coal cubes in which color you need to fill the order but also which which means of transport the cubes must be employed to transport the coal for delivery. Be it barrow, carriage, Motorcar or Engine - all is possibly in theory. If you then have what you need in your shaft you finally can set about to mine.

This point in the game is the most fun, because if you own a mining square, aka "pit square", you can really dig in: Depending on the value of this square you are allocated a certain number of action points, which you can use for movement of the pit cage, for loading and unloading of coal and to place coal on the order cards.  Thus for instance your pit cage moves down three levels, loads two cubes, goes up one level, loads another cube into the cage and stores the cubes on the surface either in an interim storage space or on an order. This movement using action points reminds me a little bit of "Tikal", but has been integrated very neatly, seamlessly and harmonious without providing a game within a game.

As it would be boring to simply hand in order cards filled with coal, you have to acquire a permit for this on the central board by using one or more of your miners plus money - and then you are still restricted to a certain means of transport. If you are only able to deliver with carriages must leave completely filled orders that can only be used with lorries to stew at the side of the pit.

 „Man, that's complicated, man" - well, yes, but only in a provisory way, as all elements fit harmoniously together, the worker placement system as the main mechanism is quickly grasped and there seems to be no clear winning strategy, which in turn always provides a close head-to-head race without the drawback of a small mistake at the beginning ruining your chances to win the game.

Another extra mile is provided by the three "shift" scorings which happen when nobody can place workers any more. With each round more aspects are incorporated in the scorings. While you only score points for most deposit spots in the respective coal colors on filled orders, you later score for majorities in means of transports used and finally for empty lorries in the tunnels. This is very near to a Knizia-esc effect, but works excellently.

Oh, yes: At the end there are a few victory points available for left-over money and unmined coal cubes, while incomplete orders and imbalances of tunnel/lorry tiles earn you penalties. And the game ends and you win with most points.

Resume

Thrillingly, „Glück auf“ provides more than the sum of its individual elements. Players who at the start could not make much out of the topic or the basic idea were more or less enchanted after the first games. Despite the limitation of interaction to the worker placement part on the main board you are always fully involved, keeping track of who mines which cubes when and gets them out of the shaft to surface and of who might try to follow which strategy. In addition, a turn is done quickly and a game never takes more than 90 minutes, so that there is never boredom or a phase of running idle - a decided quality mark for a tactical strategy game that practically works without any element of chance!

The works excellently with any number of players and is simply fun - or, to leave the last word to Günni "Hey, man, that's really swell!"

Stefan Olschewski

Players: 2-4

Age: 10+

Time: 75+

Designer: Wolfgang Kramer, Michel Kiesling

Artist: Dennis Lohausen

Price: ca. 35 Euro

Publisher: eggertspiele / Pegasus 2013

Web: www.pegasus.de

Genre: tactics, worker placement

Users: For experts

Version: multi

Rules: de en fr nl

In-game text: no

Comments:

Topic harmoniously implemented

Mechanisms fit together marvelously

Graphics are wonderfully supportive to topic and mechanisms

Compares to:

Various worker placement games

Other editions:

Gigamic, Lacerta, Ludonova, R & R Games

My rating: 7

Stefan Olschewski:

Full marks, and that not only due to emotional reasons - being a child of the Ruhrgebiet, Glück auf would have been a must for me anyway, but as a game by itself it is very harmonious and sold, which lots of stimulative character, despite not being full of innovative elements.

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 3

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0