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AT A GLANCE
Treelings
Once again, Edition Spielwiese, from Berlin, opened its com- pany office to new authors. The
winners of the stipend for young authors (financed by the “Spiel des Jahres” jury) especially have been welcomed with open arms, among them Sophia Wagner (Noria) and Richard Haarhoff (Memorinth).
Now it is “Spiele-Paul”’s turn, as the psychology student Paul Schulz is called in his community in the Baltic city of Greifswald. As a sideline, Schulz even organizes well-frequented game evenings at the theater. Grand theater also takes place in Treelings. The annual firefly fes- tival is coming up. Whoever wants to get a good place for that has to sit down not in the front but as high up as possible. The treeworker guilds do overtime; they provide complete construction sets in the form of cards showing box seats in purple beer barrels, red tents, and green clay huts. All of these are attached to trees and can be reached via steep wooden walkways and ropeways.
Two to five builders use the 108 Guild cards in six colors to erect the highest possible viewing platforms in their city district. Everybody starts with three cards that they put face up in front of them (cards of the same type are laid out overlapping). The Firefly Festival card is shuffled into the last 20 of the remaining cards; when this card is drawn, it triggers the end of the game. A display of five tree
sections is laid out face up in the middle of the table to form the marketplace.
On your turn, you take either all the cards of one color or the cards from all the guilds that are present at the mar- ketplace with only one card.
You put the tree sections in your own district. While building the color towers, it is important for you to watch what your neighbors are doing; but besides this, you should also consider the internal symme- try of your own structure. Once placed, a color column may no longer be moved; so you can add new cards only on the right or the left of that column. Crucial to keep in mind during the card-taking is that only those viewing trees that are at least as tall as the two neighboring trees score in the end.
Treelings is easy to understand and proceeds quickly. The smart scoring mechanism makes the game thrilling. You can take some influence on your outcome, but this influence is limited by the good or bad luck of the revealed cards. You can weaken your neighbors by growing tall outermost trees on your left and right; at the same time, such a weakening affects the interior of your city
district. Since the rivals constantly try to outdo one another, you can never be sure whether you’ll win the battle, and conse- quently, you might waste building energy. If you are strong as you act inside your own district, you try to present yourself as weak towards the outside but grow your trees as equally as possible on the inside.
Paul Schulz’s first game provides proper entertainment, which is perfectly reinforced by Michael Menzel’s attractive forests for viewing the firefly festival. In addition, he has drawn five small greeting cards that are enclosed in the box; and if you like, you may even give one of these to somebody as a lucky charm.
Wieland Herold/sbw
Treelings (Edition Spiel-
wiese) by Paul Schulz; for
2–5 players, about 8+
years; duration: about 10–20 min- utes; price: about 10 €.
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