Page 48 - Spielbox_2_2020

REVIEW
For the Plastic Recycle Bin?
Is plastic a sin? This question has divided gamers at least since the wooden components in The Settlers of Catan were replaced by the (admittedly more beautifully modeled) plastic pieces. In Roll through the Ages, wood was once the dominant material but now plastic has taken its place, even though houses in flashy colors conjure up anything but medieval flavor.
you have buildings that are too close together.
More important for the mechanics of urban develop- ment are the buildings that bring with them additional dice. A player who can roll eight dice a turn, which
is not at all unusual, can naturally do significantly more than a player stuck with their initial stock of four. But the dice all also want to be fed. This requires grain symbols, which forces you to use
the associated yellow
cubes to create more
farms. Balancing
costs – which take
the form of space
on the board,
resources and
actions – against
the various benefits is one of the challenges in Era - Medieval Age.
In theory, you could just let your land- scape grow and look forward to the increased possibilities and the inherent victory points. It would be more clever, however, to enclose part of your board with walls and towers. The single tower and three walls that you can place for free at the beginning of the game, while nice, are not enough if you’re going to completely enclose an area of any real size. It’s worth it, though, since you score double victory points for doing this.
Not everyone will succeed in closing off a walled area. It quickly becomes apparent that you need not only the long pieces, but also the short ones, and all sizes are available only in limited num- bers. If at the end you wall sports the tini-
est gap, you’ve wasted a lot of effort
I
wooden board. Now, cities made of drab grey walls and towers, along with color- ful houses have emerged on the bright yellow plastic tableau. And so, in just under an hour, you actually create a tiny, three-dimensional town on the aforemen- tioned board, and, once you get used to the colors – light blue town houses, orange markets, brown universities and farms et al – it is quite nice to look at. I have to admit that the new color scheme does allow players to clearly distinguish the different building types, which would otherwise be basically impossible.
You start the game equipped with four dice, three yellow and one gray. Taking turns, you roll the special dice a maximum of three times and then collect resources such as stone, wood and food, as well as
trade goods and culture points. Small pegs advance along the relevant rows of holes on your personal board. But fate is fickle, and the skulls, which are not re-rol- lable, can cause great trouble. Depending on how many there are, there is a risk of losing diffi-
cult-to-obtain resources or valuable space in your city get be occupied by scorched areas. Even existing buildings may need to be demolished. That is anything but nice and can set you somewhat. On the other hand, the tension remains high, especially since your opponents can also be affected if you roll even more skulls.
I Roll, build, repeat
What happens on your own turn is
simple: Roll up to three times, collect resources and spend food for each of your dice. If you can’t do the latter, your disaster peg advances one step and you score minus points at the end. Then you have to deal with the skulls, which bring with them a risk of disease, treachery, fire, attacks and revolts, both from your own dice and those of others. The Middle Ages must have been a pretty tough time.
Finally, you can build whatever suits your fancy. You need to roll a hammer symbol to do this, but, depending on the number of hammers and available resources, you may even build several times a turn. In the end, the population of your city – with the exception of the city walls – is generating victory points, but buildings bring you advantages during the game as well. These can take the form of additional resources, which are very welcome but other benefits can also be very handy. For example, the hospital pre-
vents plagues caused by two skulls when
n the original edition, you rolled dice and marked off spaces on the scor- ing sheet or, resp. moved pegs on a
e
ding empty-handed. If your wall is
en
nd
no
ng to be finished anyway,
n
in
ot
t g
g go
oi
it
y off to build as
i
ay
t m
m mi
ig
gh
ht
t p
p pa
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m
s
an
a
t
ny
y t
towers
s s a a a as
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Era - Medieval Age
spielbox