Our Review
The Lord’s house
Domus Domini
Monastery as a commercial Enterprise
Monasteries have a certain fascination for many people and are tourist attractions in many countries, let me name only Clonmacnoise in Ireland, the Meteora Monasteries in Greece or the Shaolin monasteries in Asia. And you could also call Austria a country of monasteries, she once was home to more than 120 monasteries. Today, about 20 of them are left, run by 14 Orders.
So it is no surprise that once again the motto of „Ora et labora“ has been used as basis for a game.
Domus Domini is the second game by designer Heinz-Georg Thielmann, after his „Planet Steam“, published in 2008. It is not known what made the owner of a games shop in “the capital of games, Essen” pick up the topic. Maybe he spent time in a monastery for quiet and self-discovery – which would be fitting.
The game was published, assisted by Crowdfunding, by “franjos”, a publishing company founded in 1987 by Franz Josef Herbst and celebrating its 30 Year Anniversary and having published that number of games. The list of his designers reads like the Who is Who of the games community – from Hoffmann, Knizia, Randolph and Sackson to Solomon. Twice, one of his games managed to make the recommendation list of Spiel des Jahres, “Buzzle” and “Billabong”. “Black Box”, “Can’t Stop” and “Husarengolf” are other famous names of games to be found in the company range.
Well, which monastery did the designer choose as a model for his game? It is the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded in 910 with 12 monks, and reaching the heyday of their existence in the 12th century with 400 monks. Cluny was answerable only to the Pope, was a center of care for paupers and possessed, till the Basilica of St. Peter was build in Rome, the biggest church in Christendom. The celebration of All Souls Day on 2nd of November was an initiative of Cluny. Several other monasteries were controlled by Cluny and were obliged to pay dues or tributes to Cluny – at this is the point where the game takes over.
The cover of the Kosmos-size box shows the close-up of a praying monk and several other monks working in the fields, with the monastery in the background. We will encounter both occupations in the game.
Over now to the contents. First I would like to give special praise to the fact that „Domus Domini“ is geared to six players, contrary to the usual bad habit of first publishing a game for four people and then cash money again with the publication of an expansion for 5-6 players. Equally laudable are the instructions in four languages on extremely sturdy paper as well as the big-sized summary sheets that get you through the game without text. Why other publishers are tempted to reduce such auxiliary means to the size of stamps (Irony!) will keep puzzling me. The saving on paper is probably not the reason.
The general game board for all shows a road meandering in serpentines and showing the monastery grounds at its upper end; running around the perimeter of the board is a Kramer track. On the road players should take the food they produced to Cluny and be rewarded with Letters of Indulgence for victory points. If your production was low, you receive Denarii to do better next time – so contrary to many other game concepts weaker players are not penalized but are given an inducement for improving.
Six monastery cards of various values and showing the respective house colors are used to determine the starting player and to resolve ties in the later course of the game.
The individual monastery board of each player can deliver three kinds of products, which are cheese, beer or herbs, featured on two production cards for each product. 18 Cellerars of values 1 to 18 are the Masters of Production and vary in their cost according to their abilities in supporting the production. 42 Lay Brother tokens and 36 Vegetable tokens enliven life in the monastery. Furthermore there are 18 Dog House cards and 12 Watchdogs, I will get back later to their roles in the game. 24 Chapel Expansion cards are provided for expanding the monastery in four levels. And of course, there is money in the guise of tokens worth 1 and 3 denarii. Three special cards – the Cattle Herder, a Vegetable Barrow card and the Drunkard – enter events in the game after the first round. And finally, there are 6 wheelbarrows for playing pieces, as we want to transport our goods to Cluny.
The game includes an expansion for a variant, it comprises four trees and 11 event card. You use only four of these event cards for a game, which provides nice variation for the game.
Each player has his board on the table which shows three tracks to indicate the progress in agriculture, cheese making and beer brewing. The monastery is represented by six “cells” for monks. The same number of cases is reserved for food and there is also a case for depositing the Cellerar card. A Money Lender invites you to be thrifty and save money and two Lay Brothers can be send out from the Monastery to work in the fields.
Let the game begin: You start with three monks and six vegetable tokens plus – depending on the number of players – between 9 to 13 denarii.
The game is played in five rounds of seven phases in a round.
Phase 1 comes for the most part into play only in Round 2. At start you only determine the starting player in phase 1. This function is not always the cat’s pajamas and you can therefore buy yourself off by paying one denarius. This allows you to watch the actions of your fellow players and respond to them. But, of course, the next player can do the same, until the number of denarii accrued in this way convinces one of the players to take on the job of starting player. The next decision taken is on the type of production that is the preferred one of the round and thereby promises extra points.
In Phase 2 you acquire/buy Cellerars. You can choose from a range of 18 cards, and here it is an advantage to be early, as the wanted candidate might be gone quickly and only unaffordable ones remain. When the Cellerar corresponds to the production card that is on display, you can earn special bonuses. The Cheese Cellerar, furthermore, reduces the costs of Chapel building and for expanding the Cheese Dairy. The Garden Cellerar provides two vegetable tokens and the Brewery Cellerar gives you additional commodity points. At the end of the game each Cellerar scores points depending on his value/price. In this phase you can also buy two vegetable tokens for one Denarius, which does not make sense in the first round as you do not yet have room on your commodity track.
Phase 3. At that point you can invest in the expansion of the three production lines. The costs need to paid for with denarii. The further you advance in one of the lines the more revenue in commodities you can accrue in scorings. You can now also acquire von Chapel part per round. Those Chapel parts also score points when a monk is within for prayers. With the help of vegetable tokens you can acquire additional monks provided that there is enough room in the monastery. As it is allowed to shift monks by detailing them to work in the fields or to prayer in the chapel you can make more room. In a round you can, in this phase, also acquire Watchdogs at the cost of one vegetable tokens. For a Watchdog, however, you need to build a Dog House for the rather cheap price of one denarius. Finally, you can place money with the Money Lender, which will give you interest in the next round. For three denarii you get 33.3% interest, that is, one denarius. The maximum sum you can deposit with the Money Lender is nine denarii. Now you determine how many food commodities you can take to Cluny – Production, Cellerar, Chapel – if occupied – as well as possible bonuses provide the total result with which the respective wheelbarrow is placed on the path to Cluny.
Phase 4 is reserved for interaction. Players can now send their monks in the monastery – if present – out to beg against other players‘ wheelbarrows in front of them on the track. This forces the player who is accosted by a begging monk to retreat by three steps. The begging monk must be discarded, but earns one victory point. Now the watch dogs can do their job by fending off this attack and must then be returned to stock and – if desirable – be bought again. The Drunkard can force any marker – even your own – back and the Cattle Herder can be used for defense measures.
Phase 5 can also result in a change of ranking on the victory points track. For each vegetable token that you discard you can advance one step. The special card Vegetable Barrow brings an advance in your position of three steps.
In Phase 6 monks remaining in the monastery must be fed. They are very frugal because three of them make do with one vegetable token. But if they do not even receive that they leave the monastery. Monks that have been detailed to work in field feed themselves as do monks that are praying in the Chapel.
Phase 7 deals with the interim ranking. Each player receives as many letters of indulgence, that is, points on the Kramer track as correspond to his position. Then money is paid out. Beginning with the player in last position, all receive denarii, the one in last place gets seven and the others, in ascending order, five to one denarius. Besides the refunding of money if you return a Cellerar and the income of interest on money saved, this is the only way to acquire money.
In Phase 1 of the second round a new production card is revealed and a new starting player is determined. The money lender pays out interest. Two monks in the fields deliver one vegetable token to the monastery and special cards are assigned for the first time. Whoever is in front in one of the three production lines, receives the corresponding card. The Brewery gives you the Drunkard, the Cheese Dairy the Cattle Herder and the Garden the Vegetable Barrow.
After Round 5 a final scoring is done. Monks remaining in the monastery score two points each, as do the dogs, the highest expansion level of your chapel and the value of the Cellerar that you hold as well as the respective score for the production line in case you achieved the highest level.
In an expansion rule for a variant you plant trees that cost two denarii for those that are next to a tree in Phase 7, due to hidden robbers. For defense measures you need two dogs or one dog and the Cattle Herder. The event cards that come into play at the start of the 2nd round are of special interest as they exercise a heavy influence on the game.
The game is driven by the dilemma to either pay attention to Letters of Indulgence, that is, victory points, or to take care that you have enough money at your disposal, because Cellerars are expensive. Do I defend myself against those annoying beggars with dogs or will I be the one you takes care that my fellow players don’t get too far ahead?
One more word on the equipment which is simply exemplary. Once again I need to emphasize the value of the Info summaries which make it easy to access the game. Components are excellent, there is even a plastic box for the card sets. Franz Vohwinkel has correlated topic and design marvelously, the design never comes across as forced. Depending on the number of players you can expect up to two hours of playing fun. For me this game ranks very high in the vintage of 2015 and I can recommend it without reservations.
Rudolf Ammer
Players: 2-6
Age: 10+
Time: 150+
Designer: Heinz Georg Thiemann
Artist: Franz Vohwinkel
Price: ca. 45 Euro
Publisher: franjos Spieleverlag 2015
Web: www.franjos.de
Genre: Economics
Users: With friends
Version: multi
Rules: de en fr nl
In-game text: no
Comments:
Excellent design and components
Games is easily accessed
Offers a variety of strategic and tactical decisions
Interesting mix of mechanisms
Compares to:
Worker placement games
Other editions:
Currently none
My rating: 6
Rudolf Ammer:
The game offers something of everything – strategy for planning for the final scoring, tactic for acting in the individual rounds, the little pinch of luck in event cards, a bit of annoyance and all that happening in a historic setting. What more could you want?
Chance (pink): 1
Tactic (turquoise): 1
Strategy (blue): 1
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 1
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0