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one heart disk). With a gift symbol, as it is shown on two sides of each die and on some disks, you turn the tables and call for one of the other players to reveal a disk. The last player to survive wins this simple game of luck. It is intended for three to five players; but with the maximum num- ber of participants, those who are already out of the game sometimes have to wait and watch for quite a while. -cc/sbw
In Don Carlo, each player uses an identical set of cards in his color. The cards show numbers with values from 0 to 6. You send the cards to countries with such evocative names as Absurdistan or Squadronia, the objective being to have the most agents there in the end. In this case, you score the victory points for the countries where you have a majority. Since you earn points also during the game for new agents in a country, you need to take many notes. On your turn, you use one to four of your hand cards to create a number combination that doesn’t yet exist in a country, and place the cards there. The more agents that are already there, the more points you get. The problem is that each country requires a specific number (or range of numbers) to allow agents to become active there. Consequently, there are fewer and fewer possibilities over the course of the game. The game ends as soon as somebody can no longer send out cards; therefore, it is advisable not to always combine three or four cards from the beginning. Otherwise, your 25 cards will be used up very soon – and you’ll be left out in the cold. -sd/sbw
Nürnberger Spielkarten-Verlag
It was bound to happen: After The Mind (released in 2018) got players to lay out cards in the right sequence without say- ing a word, now there is the next chal- lenge coming up. Contact allows space flights to distant planets – solely driven by kinetic powers and requiring the right timing. Initially, 24 planet tiles are spread on the table, and the joint rocket of the travel group is placed on the earth tile in the center. One player, the so-called Source, sends out signals that the others, the Crew, have to decipher. Prior to that, the Source has secretly looked at one of the face-down Target cards so that he knows exactly where the Crew is supposed to go. Then the Source plans a route in his mind, plus the locations for stopovers. Ideally, the flight segments should be of
different lengths. Flying is signaled by lift- ing the flat hand from the tabletop, land- ing by knocking on the table. One or two repetitions of the sequence are allowed; and unless the Source has swallowed a metronome, the imprecisions among the three flights will probably drive the Crew mad.
The first victim of this is the player to the left of the Source; without commu- nicating, he has to point at one of the planets. If the guess is correct, players just continue playing, collecting points or completing a mission consisting of mul- tiple cards. Otherwise, a failed attempt costs one barrel of fuel, and the next player has to take a guess. Once the fuel has been used up, the game is lost. Good that there are special cards that can be activated as one-time aids. Contact con- tains a beginners’ version and a variant for advanced players. And it comes with a sealed envelope – but don’t expect too much of that.
The Game has also gotten a sequel. As the original, The Game - Quick & Easy allows at least a limited level of commu- nication. The name, however, turns out to be a dirty trick, since the game is by no means that easy. You shouldn’t expect a children’s variant just because the box is green and the skull on the cover looks a bit friendlier. However, it can at least be considered a beginners’ version; now players put cards onto only two discard piles, one of them in ascending order, the other in descending order. There are cards in five colors with values from 1 to 10. Again, the game is cooperative; again, players may not talk much; and again, the
game is lost if somebody is not able to o
discard a suitable card. How can you try y
to prevent this? This time, you may play any card on a discard pile if they are of the same color, no matter whether it’s the ascending or the descending pile. That’s all, aside from the fact that there are now only half as many cards in circulation as in the original game. So it might be quick – but easy? Here also, players first need to become familiar with the game; and when it’s over, they will discuss how it should have proceeded. And then play again. If you know the original, you don’t need this new game – unless you buy it as a training tool in order to specifically prepare begin- ners for your favorite game. -sd/sbw
Pegasus
If you are neither an esoteric person nor an expert of World of Warcraft, you’ll get to know a completely new item in My Farm Shop: the herb pouch, here called Burlap Bag. It serves as a kind of joker for modifying dice-rolling results. And it doesn’t take up any space in a ware- house but can simply be placed between the house and the barn, so it is obviously weatherproof. Therefore, you can’t have enough Burlap Bags if you want to be- come the richest organic farmer. After rolling the three dice, you put one of them on the market stall with the correspond- ing number, take the card from there and put it on your own Farm board. Then each player at the table may add up the two other dice – and even change the values by using his Burlap Bag jokers – before carrying out the action of the applicable space of his Farm board. This way, players
CONTACT: It was bound to happen...
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