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I’m a philistine. I’ve been to (well dragged round by my art appreciating wife) Momo, Tate Modern, and a few other torture chambers masquerading as temples of culture . It all has the same effect - I get a head ache looking at all those swirls, colour explosions, pictures that look like nothing more than the pavement after a particularly drunken night out. . I just don’t get it. It got so bad that half way round a Brigit Reilly exhibition I had to leave the gallery to lie down - I was just about to throw up.
Go one stare at this for two minutes and see if your lunch stays down
Give me a picture with real things in, people and landscapes, even a bowl of fruit. I can look at one of those for at least ten minutes with out sweating and reaching for the Tylenol .
That’s the same way I feel about Masters Gallery vis a vis Modern Art. I admire Modern Art as a game design and I want to like it but I’m terrible at it. I suspect any game that has inspired geeks to write mathematical valuation formula that makes Black-Scholes look like the two times table is something that is going to be beyond me. So the news that a de-auctioned version of Modern Art was being released with pictures of old masters intrigued me. My initial reaction was ‘Ha, Modern Art for Dummies!’. And whilst Master’s Gallery takes the rocket science out of Modern Art it adds a great deal of game play and not only for the Modern Art challenged. It turns an auction game into a set collection game.
Master’s Gallery is a recent release in the treadmill of Gryphon bookshelf games. It comes in a small box that fits nicely along side the other games in the series. It consists of 100 cards, five place holders for each of the five ‘masters’ (Vermeer, Van Goch, Degas, Renoir and Monet) and ninety five cards divided unequally between the five starting with 21 Van Gogh down to 17 for Vermeer. The cards are made of good quality stock, though I would recommend sleaving them as mine are showing small sings of wear after ten games. The rule book is well written and easy to follow.
Game play is deceptively simple. The five place holder artist cards are placed on the table, Two to five players are dealt a stating hand of 13 random cards and an artist card is drawn and placed face up on the table. Each player takes it in turn to place a card from their hand on to the table in front of them. The round ends immediately when a sixth artist card is played on the table with the initial random draw counts towards the six. Cards are then scored, and a new round starts with players receiving more cards (except for the fourth and last round when no more cards are dealt) and another random card from the draw pile placed on the table. The game finishes after four rounds with the points being tallied and a winner decided.
Some of the cards allow special plays. One allows the player to immediately lay as second card of the same artist face up, the second allows a second card of any artist to be played face down (., another allows the player to draw a card, another has all players simultaneously playing a card from hand to the table and the last allows a 2 point award token to be added to one artist (and each artist can only have one of these tokens place on them).
The scoring at the end of each round is simple. The face down cards are turned up and the artists who has the most cards played (tie breaks are broken in favour the artist which have the fewest cards in the deck) receives a three value token the second a two and the third one. Players then multiply the artist cards (that came in the first three) in front of them by the total value of the points tokens for each artist. Tiles points on the artist place holder cards are cumulative and therefore some artists become more valuable than others as the rounds progress.
Key to success in the game is planning ahead, and trying to draw other players into scoring artists that you can score in later ( and more valuable) rounds. The ‘special’ cards add some spice to the game and timing when to play them can be crucial though I have seen some one win without drawing any throughout the game.
In a few areas Master’s Gallery falls down compared to Modern Art, first the table banter is missing from Master’s Gallery, players don’t talk up the value of their hideous pictures. You can get the hideous pictures in Master’s Gallery’s sister game Modern art the card game (and its a few bucks cheaper). The other area is that you can win in Modern Art without buying many pictures, just selling stuff at inflated prices. In Master’s Gallery you have to play a card each turn. Another concern I have is scalability the game is great with three or four players, Ok with two and poor with five. With five players the rounds finish so quickly you do not have time to play many cards and try and influence the outcome of the ranking. Despite these reservations I whole heartedly recommend the game for families and those who like the idea of Modern Art but not the valuation.
Comparisons with Modern Art are inevitable howeverthese are two different games that share a theme and some mechanics. Master’s Gallery is set collection and manipulation Modern Art other is a valuation and arbitrage game. Both have their place, though if both are on offer I will be found, wearing my dunces’ cap, sitting at the Master’s table.
Showing posts with label family game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family game. Show all posts
Our Favourites : Eine Frag Der Ahre
I have read the title translated in to English about four times and the explanation twice as many times. It’s a pun in German I don’t get it. But then as some one (probably an English man) once said 'A German joke is no laughing matter'. It has been explained in the forums on the geek. The game was going to be going to be called ‘Heartland’ and from a thematic and sales (to an English speaking population) point of view might have been a wiser choice.
However, Germany is the top board game market so a game about farming in the mid west got saddled with a pun (no pun intended). Not that it effects game play at all it’s just that unless you are a lover of Germanic sounding games you might let this slip under the radar, which would be a pity because it is a good game. The game box only has German text on it, however English rules are included in the box and the game is language independent.
In my last review of a farming themed game, Finca, my only gripe was that it was not as colour blind friendly as I would like. I have no such problems with the art work of Eine Frage. The tiles for the different vegetables are coloured in distinct earthy tones with the five different products of the earth drawn accurately drawn the potatoes don’t look like the beets’ and the corn looks like corn and not wheat. Like Finca 'Eine Frage' has top production values; the tiles are made of thick card stock, and the board is attractive and satisfyingly solid.
Eine Frage is a 2 -5 player game about farming in the mid west my wife describes it as cross between dominoes and 3d Carcassonne and if you add in the, obligatory, multiple path to victory thrown in in the form of barnyard technology with a choice between instant points or longer term gain then you have the game in a nut shell.
The solid and good sized board is divided into two areas, the barnyard and the fields. Unlike the fallow fields of Agricola there are crops all ready growing on the board and ready for harvest. The field half side of the board is a, roughly, hexagonal grid of squares with the five crops (potatoes, Corn, Wheat, Beet and Rapeseed) spaced evenly on the board, rather like a rooty patch work quilt.
The other components include 60 large tiles divided into two halves, on each half is one of the crops some of the tiles have the same crop on both halves of the tile. These tiles are shuffled and each player gets three random tiles as their stating hand. They also get a set of five single tiles, each tile depicting one of the five crops. These tiles have two tech advancement symbols on them, the larger tiles might have two, one or none on each half of the tile. Each player also gets five markers to record their advancement up the barnyard tech columns and two farms which they may use later in the game given sufficient barn yard tech.
The barn yard is five columns wide by seven rows high and at the top of each column is placed three tiles; a chicken at the bottom, a pig tile in the middle and a cow on top. Each of these tiles is worth a random number of victory points, the chicken from 1 -5, the pigs 6-10 and the Cows 11- 15.
Next to the tech advancements column is a column for the players farms, depending on the number of players the farms are placed on different rows, for example in a four player game all the players first farms are on the third row and the second on the fourth row.
Six of the double halved tiles are mixed with a tile that signals the last round and then everyone is good to go.
Player turns are pretty simple. You play a tile , either one of your three big tiles or one of your five small tiles. How you lay the tile depends on what you want to with it. If you want instant victory points you lay your tile so that one or both of the halves add to exiting fields of the same crop. On the first turn the layout of the board means you could create one area of three and another of two. You would then score for each half of the tile you have laid, one point for each orthogonally connected square. If the tile laid has the same vegetable on both halves you score the same area twice. In my first two player game this led to some very large crop areas being created as it seemed too good not to go for the points on offer. However, this is a dangerous tactic because if one of your opponents has a double tile they can score mega points with one move.
There are some restrictions on placing the tiles. They can not be placed so that either half of the tile is placed over the same type of crop and they must be able to lie flat on previously placed tiles or the base board. To be able to create a flat surface for a tile you can use one of your small tiles turned over as a leveler. Handy if you want to create a huge harvest area for scoring but using up a precious tile that can be used to further your progress up the barn yard tech tree. There are other restrictions on placing tiles on your own or other players ‘farms’ but more on this later.
The second action available to players when laying your big tiles is to not score the area you have created and to use the symbols on the crop to advance your market up the respective crop column in the Barn yard. You can do this for either or both sides of the large tile, or the small tile (which always has 2 tech symbols). By taking this action you are forgoing immediate victory points for the ability to create a farm and claim one of the animal victory point tiles at the top of the barnyard. For each tech symbol on the tile allocated to the barnyard you move up a row on the respective crop column. When all of your five markers have reached or passed your farm you may immediately place the wooden on a tile on the board. This area is now yours and can never be claimed by another player. Moreover, at the end of your turn (and every turn thereafter) you score points for the number of squares covered by the area in which sits your farm. So farms provide a permanent source of income for no more actions. However, they don’t last for long as expanses of open fields. Whilst, both you, other players can not add to your farm area and score victory points they can (and will) lay tiles on it to cut down the size of the farm and create new crop areas for instant scoring. You can’t add to your farm and nor can other players score the area by adding a tile adjacent to it.
If your tech marker reaches the top of a barnyard column you remove the market from the game and claim the top animal tile.
And after playing a tile you draw a new one to bring your hand size up to three.
The game enters it’s last stage when the main pile of face down tiles have been drawn, then players draw from a pile of seven shuffled tiles, one of which is the end of game tile. The current round is finished, players reveal the point’s values of their animal tiles and add them to there score. Most VPs is the winner.
At heart 'Eine Frage' is an abstract game, a genre I’m not normally a fan of. However the fantastic quality of the components (not to mention the game play!) gives it a sufficient veneer of theme for me to enjoy playing it and I enjoy it a lot; it plays in about 30 minutes. It is moderately challenging, provides different routes to victory and rewards good timing. It has proved very popular with the younger gamers in my family (Ages 8 to 11). To win you have to play break up other people’s farms so gamers who don’t like a little mild take that might not be so keen. I would thoroughly recommend this as a family game and for gamers who fancy a night away from the heavy stuff.
However, Germany is the top board game market so a game about farming in the mid west got saddled with a pun (no pun intended). Not that it effects game play at all it’s just that unless you are a lover of Germanic sounding games you might let this slip under the radar, which would be a pity because it is a good game. The game box only has German text on it, however English rules are included in the box and the game is language independent.
In my last review of a farming themed game, Finca, my only gripe was that it was not as colour blind friendly as I would like. I have no such problems with the art work of Eine Frage. The tiles for the different vegetables are coloured in distinct earthy tones with the five different products of the earth drawn accurately drawn the potatoes don’t look like the beets’ and the corn looks like corn and not wheat. Like Finca 'Eine Frage' has top production values; the tiles are made of thick card stock, and the board is attractive and satisfyingly solid.
Eine Frage is a 2 -5 player game about farming in the mid west my wife describes it as cross between dominoes and 3d Carcassonne and if you add in the, obligatory, multiple path to victory thrown in in the form of barnyard technology with a choice between instant points or longer term gain then you have the game in a nut shell.
The solid and good sized board is divided into two areas, the barnyard and the fields. Unlike the fallow fields of Agricola there are crops all ready growing on the board and ready for harvest. The field half side of the board is a, roughly, hexagonal grid of squares with the five crops (potatoes, Corn, Wheat, Beet and Rapeseed) spaced evenly on the board, rather like a rooty patch work quilt.
The other components include 60 large tiles divided into two halves, on each half is one of the crops some of the tiles have the same crop on both halves of the tile. These tiles are shuffled and each player gets three random tiles as their stating hand. They also get a set of five single tiles, each tile depicting one of the five crops. These tiles have two tech advancement symbols on them, the larger tiles might have two, one or none on each half of the tile. Each player also gets five markers to record their advancement up the barnyard tech columns and two farms which they may use later in the game given sufficient barn yard tech.
The barn yard is five columns wide by seven rows high and at the top of each column is placed three tiles; a chicken at the bottom, a pig tile in the middle and a cow on top. Each of these tiles is worth a random number of victory points, the chicken from 1 -5, the pigs 6-10 and the Cows 11- 15.
Next to the tech advancements column is a column for the players farms, depending on the number of players the farms are placed on different rows, for example in a four player game all the players first farms are on the third row and the second on the fourth row.
Six of the double halved tiles are mixed with a tile that signals the last round and then everyone is good to go.
Player turns are pretty simple. You play a tile , either one of your three big tiles or one of your five small tiles. How you lay the tile depends on what you want to with it. If you want instant victory points you lay your tile so that one or both of the halves add to exiting fields of the same crop. On the first turn the layout of the board means you could create one area of three and another of two. You would then score for each half of the tile you have laid, one point for each orthogonally connected square. If the tile laid has the same vegetable on both halves you score the same area twice. In my first two player game this led to some very large crop areas being created as it seemed too good not to go for the points on offer. However, this is a dangerous tactic because if one of your opponents has a double tile they can score mega points with one move.
There are some restrictions on placing the tiles. They can not be placed so that either half of the tile is placed over the same type of crop and they must be able to lie flat on previously placed tiles or the base board. To be able to create a flat surface for a tile you can use one of your small tiles turned over as a leveler. Handy if you want to create a huge harvest area for scoring but using up a precious tile that can be used to further your progress up the barn yard tech tree. There are other restrictions on placing tiles on your own or other players ‘farms’ but more on this later.
The second action available to players when laying your big tiles is to not score the area you have created and to use the symbols on the crop to advance your market up the respective crop column in the Barn yard. You can do this for either or both sides of the large tile, or the small tile (which always has 2 tech symbols). By taking this action you are forgoing immediate victory points for the ability to create a farm and claim one of the animal victory point tiles at the top of the barnyard. For each tech symbol on the tile allocated to the barnyard you move up a row on the respective crop column. When all of your five markers have reached or passed your farm you may immediately place the wooden on a tile on the board. This area is now yours and can never be claimed by another player. Moreover, at the end of your turn (and every turn thereafter) you score points for the number of squares covered by the area in which sits your farm. So farms provide a permanent source of income for no more actions. However, they don’t last for long as expanses of open fields. Whilst, both you, other players can not add to your farm area and score victory points they can (and will) lay tiles on it to cut down the size of the farm and create new crop areas for instant scoring. You can’t add to your farm and nor can other players score the area by adding a tile adjacent to it.
If your tech marker reaches the top of a barnyard column you remove the market from the game and claim the top animal tile.
And after playing a tile you draw a new one to bring your hand size up to three.
The game enters it’s last stage when the main pile of face down tiles have been drawn, then players draw from a pile of seven shuffled tiles, one of which is the end of game tile. The current round is finished, players reveal the point’s values of their animal tiles and add them to there score. Most VPs is the winner.
At heart 'Eine Frage' is an abstract game, a genre I’m not normally a fan of. However the fantastic quality of the components (not to mention the game play!) gives it a sufficient veneer of theme for me to enjoy playing it and I enjoy it a lot; it plays in about 30 minutes. It is moderately challenging, provides different routes to victory and rewards good timing. It has proved very popular with the younger gamers in my family (Ages 8 to 11). To win you have to play break up other people’s farms so gamers who don’t like a little mild take that might not be so keen. I would thoroughly recommend this as a family game and for gamers who fancy a night away from the heavy stuff.
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