Page 26 - Spielbox_2_2020

REVIEW
Yukon Airways is not a fluffy adven- ture whose qual- ities are immedi-
ately obvious. Nevertheless,
I like it, not only because I enjoy logistic games. In the introduction, the author raves about his per-
sonal meaning for the cube colors, but he ultimately fails to convey it. But I do not see the weak thematic reference as a shortcoming. I appreciate games even if they do not have a close connection
to reality. The clear attraction here lies in the optimization of a flight. In my dozen or so games, no one managed more than
two flights a day, but I am not giving up hope. Things get excit- ing when one pilot snatches dice or cubes from another who had
counted on their use. Whoever pulls that off triumphs, while the underdog has to come to terms with the fact that his decisions were too risky and not planned
all the way through, which can be frustrating.
I enjoyed my involvement with Yukon Airways and took the time to explore it with passion. It was a pleasure without regrets. Christwart Conrad/dm
Title: Publisher: Designer: Artist:
Players: Age: Duration: Price:
Yukon Airways Ludonova
Al Leduc
Eric Hibbeler, David Prieto
1–4 (for two: ➚)
about 12+ years
about 90–150 minutes about 50 €
Reviewer Playing appeal
Christwart Conrad . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Matthias Hardel* . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Christian Klein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
* In a pleasant way almost old-fash- ioned laid-back, yet straightforward, but anything but trivial.
24
Little Town
Perfect Fit for the Coat Pocket
Japanese game designers are minimalists. They get by with sparse components and few rules; just think of Love Letter, Troika, or Deep Sea Adventure. Compared to those Little Town is big, but not by general standards.
Within an hour, a small town is created employing worker placement. The workforce gathers resources (wood, stone) or food (fish, wheat) or generates money. These ingredients are necessary for victory points, and for getting building tiles for trading during city development. The workers have to be fed to avoid losing victory points. This will sound familiar to worker placement experts. In this game category with hardly any limits regarding complexity, Little Town is more or less entry level.
Players have five workers each, which are placed on the empty square meadow fields on the board in turn. On your turn you can collect, activate, or build.
If one of the
eight adjacent
squares has a
tree, quarry, or
lake symbol,
those resources
are available
and can be
used later to
buy one of thirteen buildings or feed the workers. Buildings are placed on any empty space and are marked with a token of the player’s color. From that point on, the site can be used by adjacent workers; how- ever, the right to use someone else’s building costs a coin.
I Actions and resource management
The tactics in Little Town are shown
by gaining the right buildings and by using resources and money properly. The initial set up varies from game to game. Wheat fields are always
available; which of the other build- ings show up is dependent on the selected game variant. You can shuffle all 24 buildings, draw 12 of them at random, and lay them out. In that case, you have to work with what you get. Planning, however, is at a premium when all 24 buildings are handed out, each player picks one,
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