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the river to a certain point or reach a cer- tain value on the money track or fame track. You need to set priorities. Not only do you need to accumulate money and fame, you have to ensure a continuous supply of new dice. When you get a die, you roll it and then put it – with the rolled result face-up – in the goddess’ hands. Highvaluesareadvantageousforacquir- ing province tiles but useless at the harbor, whereas specific values are required in the chambers of the palace. However, there is no reason to lament over bad dice-rolling results, since every- body has karma. Karma allows you to turn a die onto the opposite side, e.g., change a 1 into a 6 or vice versa. This uses up the karma, but the game board provides opportunities to get more.
I Easy-to-remember imagery Soon you’ll figure out which spaces are particularly useful and therefore quickly
small progress on the
money and the
fame tracks, and
are inclined to
groan, “It will
take forever
until the two
markers inter-
sect.” But then
your advancements suddenly pick up speed, for several reasons. Over the course of the game, you can upgrade the build- ings in your province, and even though this applies only to new buildings the effects are noticeable. Plus the increasing number of markets accelerates the pace of the money marker. Each player can check at any time the positions of the two markers on the tracks around the edge of the game board and who is leading in this race – because that’s what it is.
Nobody can place stumbling blocks in the leading player’s way as you cannot hamper another player. The game has no aggravation factor and thus is very well suited to families. If you are lagging behind, you still have a good chance to reduce the distance to the leading player or even pass him. Often enough, the race ends by a narrow margin. And it is partic-
ularly pleasant that the winner is deter- mined without the effort of an exten-
sive counting of points.
Regarding the game equipment, there’s
nothing to complain about. This starts with the detailed and loving illustrations by Dennis Lohausen. The meaning of the imagery of the action spaces is easy to remember; once they have been explained, you no longer need to look anything up. The game board is printed on both sides with the number of action spaces reduced for the two-player game
on the back. The Kali statue and the province board are double-sided as well. The back of the province board provides
room for more yield tiles that make for additional variety – just as the river tiles that modify the action spaces of the Ganges. And Kali has ten arms on the back of her statue as well, but only eight hands, so she can accommodate fewer dice. However, we have never fully exploited her capacities in our games. It’s just a pity that Kali’s fingertips got cut off when we punched out the statues.
Rajas of the Ganges plays briskly, since the actions can be carried out quickly. The only thing that might take time is select- ing the province tiles, but that’s some-
thing one can live with.
KMW/sbw
occupied by workers. At the palace, these are the chambers of the dancer and of Raja Man Singh. At the market place, the market for assorted goods. At this point, you are happy if you have your turn before your opponents. You can influence the order of
play by visiting the chamber of the Great Mogul at the palace and thus becoming the start player in
the next round.
In the early stages of the game you make only
Title: Publisher: Designer: Artist: Players: Age: Duration: Price:
6
Anniversary
Rajas of the Ganges HUCH!
Inka and Markus Brand Dennis Lohausen
2–4
about 12+ years about 45–75 minutes about 45 €
Reviewer Playing appeal
KMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Christwart Conrad L. U. Dikus* . . . . . . Stefan Ducksch . . . Matthias Hardel . . Wieland Herold** Alan How*** . . . . Christian Klein . . .
. ........... 8 . ........... 8 . ........... 8 . ........... 8 . ........... 7 . ........... 7 . ........... 8
* Easy-to-grasp rules, a double “Kramer track,” and a triple karma to keep the dice power in check.
** The highly praised scoring rhythm with scoring tracks in opposite directions is not new. Martin Schlegel used it for his Äpfel und Birnen (Magazine Game in spielbox 2/2006). Doesn’t match up to the narrative dimension of a game like Village.
*** A mixture of actions each of which is useful in some way. I miss the possibil- ity of modifying the dice by +1/-1.
Rajas of the Ganges is the 100th published game invented by Inka and Markus Brand. It took just eleven years to reach this proud anniversary. Their first game was released by Kosmos in fall 2006: Summertime. At least, it was this game for which they had signed their first contract. But on the finishing straight, it was passed by Das Grosse Dinosaurier-Spiel - Kampf der Giganten, a game that had already been published in spring 2006 by the same company – even though the contract had been signed later.
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