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the same type of good. Completed shelf rows are worth extra points; but unfor- tunately, you have to start with the least lucrative row. Storing goods at the ware- house not only gives you a possibility to accelerate the circulation of your own goods tiles, but you can generate more than half of your victory points there, actually, provided you deposit enough goods tiles.
Corn, offered on the road, makes it easier to fill the shelf rows. The square corn tiles are not put in your container and then in your bag but are immediately stored at the warehouse, preferably on an already-started shelf so that you
might be able to complete that row.
You should not underestimate the warehouse effect, i.e., to increase your chance of getting the right tiles from the bag. But it would also be nice to be allowed to draw more than the initially four goods out of your bag – and that is
another advantage that the con-
structing of roads provides. Up to eight tiles are possible, and that is especially desirable if your bag is filled with many different goods.
I Exclusive options
Once you have more tiles at your dis-
posal, thanks to the road, your next logical goal is to have more spaces to place them. For this purpose, there are extensions available at the market. After buying an extension, you adjoin it to your own action board, thus activating an exclusive new or improved option at one of the seven locations for receiving or trading goods. And one extension even gives you some control as to which tiles you draw out of the bag. However, inter- esting extensions don’t remain on offer infinitely, especially since they become cheaper and cheaper and, if nobody has bought one, are finally removed at the end of a round.
Other options come with order cards, house cards, and boat cards. If you are at the market and have an order card,
you may place one or more of the goods required on it. In the end, completed orders score a good number of points. Each house is worth four victory points and increases the score for each card of a specific type of good you own. The boat bonus is simple: Each boat gives you an immediate ben- efit of a certain good and two victory points at the end. The nice thing about the orders, houses, and boats is that you have full control; when you acquire such a card, you
may pick the order, house, or boat that is most fitting for you.
Generally, Altiplano doesn’t hold back information: Although the drawing of tiles is
random, you may check anytime what goods are left in the bag. This makes this bag-building game with a spatial component very appealing to all those who prefer a clever mechanism for the realization of their own plans and also like to be aware of the chances that what they want will actually come to fruition.
As soon as all goods from one location have been taken or there are not enough extensions left for a refill, the end of the game is triggered. By either slowing or forcing the acquisition of extensions or the production of goods, a player can influence the duration of the game to a certain extent. But even if all play- ers force the pace and are experienced, Altiplano takes at least two hours, usu- ally three and more – a time that is not exactly loaded with inter-
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