OUR REVIEW
Family
Alter 8
Spezial 1
OUR REVIEW
QUickly completed Landscapes
Mondo
Animals, volcanoes, lakes
Games evening, Barbara walks in, general hello and pecking of cheeks. Dagmar, already playing a game: „I brought a game that has just arrived, I believe you will like it. It’s called Mondo.”
Barbara: „Really? In that case I’ll have to try it immediately. Who else wants to play?”
Christoph agrees and goes off to fetch the game. The box holds 4 boards and lots of tiles.
Bernhard arrives. Another round of hello and greetings.
Barbara: „We are trying something new? Want to play?“
Bernhard: „For sure!“
Barbara picks up the rules: „Well, each player receives a board, water side up. As we are three players, we take numbers 2, 3 and 4 of the round bonus chips and stack them in ascending order, so that 4 is on top. The volcano marker and the timer are placed to be at hand and finally each player receives a scoring sheet.”
Bernhard: „Should we turn the tiles over?“ He does so with four of the tiles. “Hey, they have all different back sides!”
Barbara turns back to page 1 of the rules and tells him: „It seems that the landscape tiles have 2 different sides, one monochromatic one in 4 different colors (water, desert, steppe and forest) and one showing several landscape types, some of them even showing animals and / or volcanoes. The tiles are loosely heaped in the middle of the table, the must within easy reach for all players.“
Bernhard changes his seat to have better access to the tiles.
Barbara: „One of us must set the timer to 7 minutes while the others shuffle the tiles and on a command we all start to play. All search simultaneously for tiles. Each player places the 1st tile on any space of his board. Each additional tile must be placed to border one or more tiles previously placed. It is possible to place tiles where borders do not correspond to borders of adjacent tiles.“
Christoph: „Ok.“
Barbara: „Each player may only use one hand to search. Oh well! Here is says that you may move the tiles on the table but rummage among them? Please, where is the borderline between moving and rummaging?”
Bernhard, dryly: „Well that will be the excuse for a lot of discussions in some rounds.“
General laughter.
Barbara: „Turning tiles over is allowed, but you must not pick up more than one tile at the same time. You can put the tile back or place it on your board. Placement is final, that is, any tile placed on your board cannot be discarded, turned or moved anymore, and of course you can only place a tile on an empty square and not on top of another tile.”
Christoph: „Ok.“
Barbara: „You can end your current turn anytime while the timer is still running, even if there are still empty squares on your board. If you stop, you take the top bonus chip and sit idle for the rest of the turn.”
Bernhard: „Understood!“
Barbara: „The turn ends, when all players have stopped or the timer runs out. When the timer runs out you display the bonus chip you might hold. Should you still be searching you put a tile that you might hold back. For scoring your board you work your way down the scoring sheet. Each animal scores 1 point. Each finished and correct landscape – with the exception of water – scores 2 points, regardless of its size. A bonus chip scores its value in points. Special scorings and additional tasks are not used in the basic game. The player with most active volcanoes on his board scores -1 point for each volcano. Should there be a tie in active volcanoes all score minus points.“
Bernhard: „The other player don’t score minus for volcanoes?“
Barbara: „No.“
Bernhard: „That’s a nasty rule!“
Barbara: „A bit, yes. Well, in any case, all empty squares and all connecting mistakes score you -1 each, too.“
Christoph: „All understood.“
Barbara: „Now it get’s even nastier: The player who scored most points in this turn receives the volcano chip. In the next turn for him the inactive volcanoes score negative, too. After three turns the player with the highest total score wins.”
Bernhard: „Ok, let’s try it!“
Barbara sets the timer for 7 minutes while the others shuffle the tiles.
On a signal a hectic search for useful tiles begins, accompanied ever so often by comments like „hey, you can only use one hand“ or „if you cannot place the tile you must put it back!“
Barbara is desperately searching for a special tile with 3 different sides and turns over all monochromatic tiles, murmuring „this must exist! Again, the wrong way round! Come on, where are you!“ A quick glance at the timer. Enough time left. The frantic search continues. She finds another tile she likes and places it at the border of the board.
Christoph: „You cannot do this, it’s not bordering another tile!“
Barbara: „Damn!“ She takes the tile off and goes on searching. At last, she finds a fitting tile and then quickly finishes the rest of the board. Meanwhile all tiles have been turned over, but Christoph – searching for a monochromatic desert tile – turns a lot of them back over again. Barbara gives up on trying to find a tile with 3 water sides and 1 desert side, takes one that finalizes the desert and takes the bonus chip #4.
Christoph, who is ranting under his breath, finally finds his desert tile, places it on his last empty square and takes the chip #3.
The timer sounds and it is Bernhard’s turn to rant, as his board is not yet complete.
Barbara meanwhile has found only one pencil, so this is handed around for scoring. After a short discussion what is deemed to be finalized and correct, which can be resolved with the help of an example in the rules, the outcome is quickly determined. Bernhard has placed many animals and few volcanoes and scores 22 points despite two missing tiles. Christoph has no mistakes and no volcanoes but his landscapes are too big scoring him only 20 points. Barbara must deduct 6 points for her volcanoes and 1 for the connection mistake, but scores 25 points all the same, because she has laid out many small closed landscapes.
Christoph hands Barbara the volcano chip. “Have fun!“
Barbara: „Why am I so stupid to score so many points?”
Again the others shuffle the tiles while Barbara sets the timer and the frantic search for tiles starts again. This time all try to optimize their board, nobody is taking note of the time and nobody has finished when the timer runs out. Christoph proves to be very creative in inventing new swearwords for timers that run too fast, which sends Barbara and Bernhard into fits of laughter, infecting Christoph, too. Still laughing they start the scoring and then start the 3rd turn.
After the final scoring Barbara wins with a narrow margin from Bernhard and Christoph.
Dagmar stops by: „How do like it?“
Barbara und Bernhard in unison: „Very well!“
Dagmar: „We want to play Rails. Join us?“
Christoph instantly agrees, while Barbara looks at Bernhard and says, „I would like to try both the advanced version and the expert version of Mondo.”
Bernhard: „Me, too!“
Dagmar smiles and says: „I told you that you might like this!
Barbara, smiling: „You know me too well!“
She picks up the rule sheet again. “Shuffle the 5 grey tiles and turn up the top one. This sets a special scoring. The player who best complies to the conditions of this special scoring scores 4 points, the worst must deduct 4 points. Furthermore, we only have 6 minutes time.
Bernhard, dryly: „All is lacking now is an explanation of the grey tiles!”
Barbara, smiling: „Well there are: Most finished landscape, most inland lakes, most water animals, the largest inland lake and the largest forest. Largest means the highest number of tiles, not the biggest area.
Bernhard turns up a tile and says „Let me guess: The most lakes!“
Barbara laughs „Exactly. A lake is of course correct and finished and completely surrounded by land.”
Bernhard: „Ok, let’s start.“
Another frantic search begins. Both are easily done before the timer runs out.
Barbara: „6 minutes are still rather long, when you know the game.“
Bernhard: „I would never have believed that I could win that scoring with only two lakes.
Barbara: „Well, in case of 2 players in reality this means 8 points for you, that hurts a bit.” She laughs. “But that gives you the volcano chip now!”
Bernhard, who pays a lot more attention to volcanoes than Barbara: „Never mind, you have more them all the same!“
Barbara, smiling: „Probably!“
Das 2nd special tile, which demands the most landscapes, is greeted enthusiastically by Barbara, who likes to build many small landscapes, and she wins this special scoring easily, which puts her in the lead rather distinctly.
Barbara: „Somehow this seems to be not really well thought-out. For many landscapes you score lots of points anyway. Why are you rewarded again for them? The other special tiles earn you points for something that you basically do not need for a high score!“
For the 3rd scoring most water animals are turned up and both end up with the same number.
Bernhard: „What happens now?“
Barbara: „If there are several players equally good or bad, all score or lose the points. When all players score the same, nobody is awarded extra points.
Bei mehreren, die gleich gut oder schlecht sind, bekommen alle immer die Punkte.
Bernhard: „Then you have won again? What’s new in the expert game?“
Barbara: „The white tiles are called additional tasks. Shuffle them and draw double the number of players. Now you may, after you have placed a minimum of 3 tiles on your board, take up to 2 additional tasks. If you completed these tasks at the end of the turn you score the additional points as stated. If you did not complete the tasks you took you score negative points accordingly. Furthermore, the time is limited to 5 minutes now.
Bernhard: „Ok.“
Barbara: „You can score 3 points for ending your turn first (taking the #4 chip) or for finishing on time (completely filled board within the time frame, mistakes are allowed). 5 points are scored for finishing on time without mistakes. There are three ways to score 7 points: all different animals at least once in the same and correctly completed landscape, one per landscape. 6 tiles offer 9 points for: 3 animals of a kind in the same finished and correct landscape.”
Bernhard: „How many animals are there of each kind?“
Barbara searches the rules: „4 x!“
Bernhard: „And we need three of them! Have fun!“
Barbara: „That needs to be well considered if you pick up that tile!
Bernhard: „How true!“
They turn up 3 elephants, all 4 steppe animals, finished without mistakes, finished first and the most lakes for the special scoring.
Barbara: „All 4 elephants?“
Bernhard: „Hurra!“
The search starts once again.
Barbara, who did not manage to get the 3 elephants and therefore must take the two small tiles, grumbles: “ you must take a lot more notice what the others are doing than before!”
Bernhard, who took the elephant from under Barbara’s nose despite not really needing it for his steppe, laughs. “All the same, you have 2 tiles and 8 points, and I do only have 7.”
Barbara: „But I could have had14!“ Sie smiles: „Could have – would have, well it was fun anyway!”
Bernhard: „None of us has lakes.“
Barbara: „Somehow it was not feasible to consider this, too. But I’m glad that you did not manage lakes as well!“
Bernhard: “It‘s really somewhat stressful to try to take care of everything”
Barbara: „5 minutes are rather short for all if this, too!“
Bernhard: „Come on, next turn!“
Barbara lachend: „Don’t rush me!“
They go on playing. The 3rd turn is running rather well!
Barbara leafs through the rules again: “There are variants listed here. We can use the back side of the board.”
Bernhard turns over his board. „Ah, all four landscapes are now depicted at the border. “
Barbara: „Landscapes including the border of the board are considered finished. Water, of course, is still not a lake!
Bernhard: „What else are they suggesting?“
Barbara: „To hide the timer so that you cannot check the time.”
Bernhard: „Most of the time you do not have time to check. And the numbers are tiny, anyway ….“
Barbara: „You could shorten the time to 4 minutes.”
They test all of those versions.
Barbara: „4 minutes are relly short, when you play with all expansions.”
Bernhard: „The back side only changes the game if you only make up squares.
Barbara: „I need to pay even more attention to avoid placing a tile at the border that is not connected to others.“
Bernhard: „Are you doing this? I really did not have time to check if you play according to the rules.
Barbara: „I think I did play correctly. But I have a tendency to do this. I must check myself constantly.”
Bernhard: „What do you think of scoring the volcanoes with -1 only regardless of who has how many of them?“
Barbara: „With pleasure!“
So they play another game.
And another one.
And they played happily ever after.
Mondo is a very nice game that seems to have been created especially for me. Unfortunately, there is a major drawback. If someone familiar with the game playes with newcomers, they don’t stand a chance. The rules suggest a handicap: The experienced player scores -1 for each active volcano. You can even enhance the handicap by scoring -1 for inactive volcanoes, too. But when the other players score in the range of 20 and I have 45, then I do not really mind a loss of 11 points for the volcanoes. But of course you can consider other additional handicaps, for instance shorting the time for the experienced player or maybe have him draw one additional task which he must complete or give him …..
I have played with newcomers who did not mind that they did not win, but simply enjoyed the nice mechanisms and were happy about the points they scored or happy about having scored higher in the 2nd turn or 3rd game they played than in previous ones. The learning curve is rather steep, too – one finds out rather soon what yields a high score, if you give the game a chance.
What I do like very much about the game is that the basic game alone is working already very well and not boring at all. Therefore you need not switch quickly to a more demanding level. And if you have familiarized yourself with it, you can vary it all the time and keep varying it. I did find a nice version on the internet: You do not turn up the additional tasks and pick them up in the course of the game but are dealt them face down, or to make them even harder to complete, face-up.
When partners of equal strength are playing I like the game better if you simple deduct 1 point per volcano and not to have to pay attention to have fewer than your opponents.
The game plays vastly different when played with two or four, but it works well in all versions.
There is even a solo version, where you do not try to score high but try to avoid loss of points: You place 4 tiles without volcanoes with the multicolored side up on the 4 marked squares of the board and try to fill the board correctly within the time frame. Each active volcano results in loss of one point, and of course each connection mistake and each missing tile.
Finally I would like to give high praise to the rules. They are short, precise and leave no question unanswered. One thing I would have liked to see is a list of tile carve-up; it is helpful to know that there are no quarter tiles with water or that there is only 1 tile of each possible one with three identical sides and 1 different side.
Barbara Prossinagg
Players : 1-4
Age : 8+
Duration : 20+
Designer : Michael Schacht
Artist : Oliver Freudenreich, Hans-Georg Schneider
Price : ca. 30 Euro
Publisher : Pegasus 2011
Web : www.pegasus.de
Genre : Searching and placement game
Users : For families
Special : 1 player
Version : de
Rules : de dk en fi fr no nl
In-game text : no
Comments:
Good rules * advantages for experienced players * quick learning effect * many game variants
Compares to:
All placement games demanding closed areas
Other editions:
Filosofia/Z-Man Games, Lautapelit, White Goblin
My rating : 7
Statements Barbara Prossinagg:
Mondo offers an attractive game for the whole family, is easily learned and remains permanently interesting due to the many variants.
Chance 0
Tactic 1
Strategy__ 0
Creativity 0
Knowledge 0
Memory 0
Communication 0
Interaction 2
Dexterity 0
Action 3