PLAYED FOR YOU

Bison

Confrontation in the plains

Buffalos threat an Indian village on the prairie; the Chief tries to save the village with the help of his four dogs.

One player embodies the buffalos and tries to cross both rivers; the other player as Indian Chief tries to capture the buffalos or stop them. Eleven buffalos are lined up at the base line behind one of the rivers, the chief starts on the middle square on the other side of this rivers, flanked on both sides by two dogs each.

Players alternate in moving one of their pieces, the buffalo player begins. Buffalos move one square per turn, only straight ahead; they can cross rivers but cannot attack the chief or dogs. Dogs move any distance across empty squares, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. They cannot cross rivers and cannot capture buffalos, but can block buffalos by stopping in front of them. The chief can move one square in any direction, cannot cross rivers, but can capture buffalos. To capture a buffalo, the chief must move onto a square occupied by a buffalo; this captures the buffalo and it is taken out of play.

When a buffalo crosses the second river and reaches a square on the other side, the buffalo player has won; when all buffalos are captured or blocked, the Indian Chief player has won. Then players switch roles and the winner of the game is who wins once as buffalo player and once as Indian Chief player.

41 years after its first edition the game is as thrilling, challenging and tactical as then, sophisticated and yet suitable for families; earlier editions also came with a suggestion for a handicap system in case of differing player’s experience, using variations in buffalo numbers.

Players: 2

Age: 7+

Time: ca. 30 min

Designer: Alex Randolph

Artist: not named

Price: ca. 23 Euro

Publisher: Piatnik 2016

Web: www.piatnik.com

Genre: abstract, placement

Users: For families

Special: 2 players

Version: multi

Rules: cz de en fr hu it pl sk

In-game text: no

Comments:

New edition

Very good game for two

Simple rules

Lots of tactics

Compares to:

Fuchs & Henne and other asymmetric games for two players

Other editions:

Currently none; lately at Winning Moves France, 2000, and Piatnik, 1999, earlier ones at Schmidt and Lakeside, first edition 1975 as Prärie at Pelikan

Chance (pink): 0

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0