Expert
Alter
Spezial
PRIME TIME FOR GUILDS
Strasbourg
Functions for family members
Soon we will have played our way all across Europe, in our time travels to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance we have visited a lot of cities and have meddled in local politics in the guise of burghers of princes, noblemen or merchants and have tried to acquire power, influence and wealth. This time our time machine has landed us in 15th century Strasbourg, the politics of the town in those days were heavily influenced by the guilds. Players represent resident families of Strasbourg and want to achieve positions within the guilds for their family members. To succeed you need influence and money, because in the Middle Ages one had to pay for an apprentice position. And – not unexpected – we need to reckon with Nobility and Church.
When we take a look at the board we note on it three permanent areas: First, the so called Council of the town with 8 Seats for Nobility, Church, five Guilds – Smiths, Vintners, Butchers, Bakers and Shoemakers - and the Merchants. Each of those Seats is attainable by one of your family members, of which you have 15 all in all. Whenever you can place one of your family members onto one of those Council Seats you return a family member that is already in this position back to its owner.
The second big area is the City area, with spaces for the guilds. The spaces of a guild are arranged irregularly in groups of linked spaces for each guild, and have different values. Already at this point you should take a close look at the City, because the spaces of the different guilds are of varying values, those of the Smiths are the most valuable ones, followed by those of the Vintners, the Shoemakers, the Butchers and last those of the Bakers.
The third permanent area on the board is the Prestige point track around the edges of the board, numbers ranking from 1 to 80.
The most important and interesting area of the board is the one that will look different in each game, the area for the Round Cards. Those Round Cards are laid out randomly next to each other in this area and are the key to the game, on which hinge all the other actions. Each of these Round Cards shows a space for Nobility/Church in top position A, followed by alternating spaces for 3 guilds and 3 merchants in Position B to G. Position H is always a space for the action Build Chapel and Position I is always a space for the action Build Edifice. It is absolutely necessary to always keep in mind the each Round Card only offers three of the five Guilds and that each Guild is only present 3 times all in all on all Round Cards and not in any regular distribution. At the end of each Round Card one of the five edifices is placed randomly and face-up.
Before we get back to those round cards, let’s take a quick look on the other components: Each player receives a set of so called Influence Cards, comprising 4x the values of 1 to 4. Then there are coins, privileges, edifices and goods tiles and a screen for each player, a round marker and a marker for the starting player. Each player starts with his 15 family members, his set of influence cards, the screen and coins of value 5 behind the screen.
All we lack now to start on the not really simple details of the game is a quick look on the general way the game is played: Strasbourg comprises five rounds, and each of these rounds is made up from three phases, Planning Phase, Action Phase and Council Phase.
At the very beginning of the game, before the first round, we somehow agree on a starting player. He gets the marker for the starting player and places one of his family members into the Nobility Seat of the Council, his left neighbor places a family member in the Church Seat.
Then the Task Cards make their entry. Similar to Ticket to Ride players are dealt task cards, 5 of them in this case, you look at them and decide how many you want to keep. It is mandatory to keep one card and you can keep all of them, you also keep hidden the number of cards you keep. Tasks that you can fulfill earn you Prestige Points at the end of the game, but if you cannot fulfill a task you lose Prestige Points. These task cards relate to positions of your own family members in the City, either in relation to edifices, guilds or the outer wall of the city, or you must own goods, own the starting player marker or have the majority in family members in the City or own more coins than anybody else– these tasks are deemed to be not fulfilled in case of a tie between players.
A word of caution here, especially in your first game: The game play is that intricate and interlocked that you cannot reasonably give an estimate whether you will be able to fulfill a task or not, so don’t risk too big a loss of points.
Now we are ready to begin play:
In the Planning Phase we use our set of Influence Cards, this can be done by all players simultaneously or in turn. These cards are shuffled and stacked face down in front of each player. You can draw any number from the stack at the start of each round, but you must keep in mind that you only have a total of 24 cards for all 5 rounds of the game, that is, you have an average of under 5 cards for each round. You draw the cards individually, one by one, you can look at each card and then decide whether you want to stop or draw another card. A little information is gained by what we draw, information is more fact and less guess with each round, but often too late for good use of this information. When you have drawn your influence cards for the round you divide them into as many stacks as you want, you can make up stacks with 1 card only or put all cards into one stack, just as you like.
Well, as you like is the wrong expression, you must take into account many different facts: The positions on the Round Card are implemented one by one and you can decide at each of these positions if you want to use cards or not. Each of the positions is won by the player who uses most influence points there, the others follow in descending order of their influence; ties are decided in seating order in relation to the starting player.
All-dominant for our decision is, of course, what do I get when I win at this position? First and always the starting player marker, which is important in case of ties! Then it differs: If I win at Position A I can place a family member on the Nobility Seat of the Council, if I am second I can place it on the Church Seat. At Positions B, D or F I can influence the respective guild – with the majority of points I place a Master, with the second most a Journeyman and with third most an Apprentice. As a Master I can place a family member into the Guild Seat of the Council, take one Goods tile of the guild from stock and place a family member on a free space of the guild in the City. For this I pay the price stated on the chosen space. As a Journeyman I get a Goods tile and a position in the City, as an Apprentice I can choose between a Goods tile and a position in the City.
At Positions C, E and G you influence the Merchants. If you win the position with most influence points, you can sell goods to the merchants and – at Position G only, place a family member on the Merchants Seat in the Council.
Positions H and I are implemented without the use of Influence Cards. If you have a family member in the Church Seat of the Council, you may build a Chapel on a free white round space in the city, of course as near as possibly to your own family members. If you have a family member in the Nobility Seat of the Council when Position I is implemented, you take the current edifice off the Round Card and place it a free building space in the City, there is a total of 7 such spaces. Do not forget to take an eventual task card into account when placing an edifice .
And what if you do not manage to get anything with your influence cards despite having used them for a position? You can choose exactly one card from the stack that you used to bid for that position and place it under your draw pile of influence cards. The other cards you used go out of the game as do stacks that you did not use when all positions are done. Therefore it is always of use to bid, even if you know that it is to no avail, because you can save one card for your draw pile and so have more influence available next round. If you do not bid for a position, you have passed and cannot do any action.
This takes us to the third phase of a round, the Council Phase: Each player scores the number of prestige points equal to the number of family members in the council. If you have the majority in the Council, you receive an additional privilege. These you can use in later rounds to pass once per privilege used when it would be your turn to bid for positions A-G on a round card, you can use more than one privilege for a position.
After five rounds additional prestige points are awarded:
- One point per family member in the City+
- One point per Chapel for each family member on adjacent spaces
- The prestige points of an edifice for each family member on a space directly adjacent to the edifice horizontally or vertically
- One point for each unused privilege
- The points for each fulfilled task card, only once per card
- Minus three points for each unfulfilled task card
If you own most prestige pints you win and can be proud! You have mastered an extremely challenging game in masterly fashion. Strasbourg demands resources management on a level of its own, made even more difficult by the fact that the start of the game is regulated by the chance factor of card distribution in your stack of influence cards and also by the random distribution of the round cards. My fellow players were of two minds about these random factors, but I do believe is is proof of a player’s quality to achieve an optimum result despite the randomness at the start. You really cannot allow yourself to make a mistake, because you must have Goods to have money to be able to spend it to place family members as well as possible – one moment of lacking concentration or parsimony with the influence cards at the wrong time can ruin the whole game for you.
The first game surely will be a learning experience for most players, but that should not deter you, the game can be wholeheartedly recommended, it is tough, challenging and rewards the effort with an attractive game. And a final compliment for the rules editing, providing rather brief but concise rules for such a complex game and to the producer in general for the beautiful design and components!
Spieler : 3-5
Alter : ages 12+
Dauer : ca. 90 min
Autor : Stefan Feld
Grafik : Alexander Jung, Hans-Georg Schneider
Titel : ident
Preis : ca. 35 Euro
Verlag : Pegasus 2011
Genre : Resources management game
Zielgruppe : For experts
Version : multi
Regeln : de en
Text im Spiel : nein
Kommentar:
Nominated for „Kennerspiel des Jahres 2011“
Interlocking mechanisms
Very good rules
Vergleichbar:
Other resources management games
Meine Bewertung: 6
Dagmar de Cassan:
It is a real challenge to achieve an optimum result using the wonderfully intricate and interlocking mechanisms from a random beginning.
Zufall 2
Taktik 3
Strategie__ 2
Kreativität
Wissen_
Gedächtnis
Kommunikation
Interaktion 3
Geschicklichkeit
Action