Games Session
|
|
| Date: |
26th November 2004 |
| Game Played: |
Im Schatten Des Kaisers |
|
|
| Players |
Result |
Win |
Ratings |
| Garry |
16 |
P |
7 |
| Mark K |
13 |
|
6 |
| Nige |
11 |
|
7 |
One
of the games I’ve been looking forward to trying since Essen is this new
game from Ralf Burkert and released by Hans im Gluck (a Rio Grande version
is on the way). HiG have a reputation for picking good gamer games and
this one certainly fits the bill.
The
game is set in Germany in the late middle ages and players compete to
acquire victory points through taking over control of regions, being
Emperor and building cities. Five rounds are played and in each round,
players purchase the right to carry out various actions, with a view to
moving their followers into the positions of power in the various regions.
The controllers of each region will then be entitled to vote for who takes
the position of emperor, if the current emperor has been challenged,
following which the appointed emperor gets some victory points and extra
actions. Power within a region is dictated by the nobles and knights
within a region and cities situated there. Nobles can become married which
increases their power and over the course of the game they will age and
eventually retire. The person who has accumulated most VPs by the end of
the game wins.
There
is a lot going on here and plenty to try and work out. Consequently, the
game started off fairly slowly as we were feeling our way as to how best
to achieve our ends. Early on, Mark K and I both married off nobles in
regions where the head position could only be taken by an unmarried
person, preventing us from winning the region. We all made mistakes
because of the huge range of options available and it was pretty hard
watching your own position without trying to work out what other people
were planning. We decided to cut the game short after just three rounds,
by which time I had recovered from some early setbacks to take the lead.
This is one we will play again soon and I would expect it to move much
quicker having become accustomed to the rules. Mark’s I think rating
reflected the slow progress we made.
