Page 9 - Spielbox_2_2020

petition to the market-leading product. -cc/sbw
eggertspiele
ALMA MATER: Academic three hours
dents. Not only the playing time makes this three-hour game something obvi- ously for experts. -sd/sbw
Fantasy Flight Games
This space adventure has already been in existence for more than 40 years; and since 1977, connoisseurs have been fiercely discussing which of the numer- ous Alien powers in what environ might be the most promising ones. The one thing all players agree on is that Cosmic Encounter isn’t much good as a two- player game. Actually, some editions list a minimum number of three players; in any case, it’s most fun with four or five participants.
Anyway, it has been high time to remedy this shortcoming, and that’s what the stand-alone game Cosmic Encounter Duel is there for. The story and the objective remain the same: to be the first to control five planets with your faction. Twenty-seven Alien species are in the game. Each player gets 17 so-called Plan cards with different number values, 20 spaceships (five of which are initially placed in the Warp and need to be freed from there), and a Ship dial that is used to secretly set the number of ships you intend to send into the battle for the next planet. Once a Discovery card has been resolved, it also indicates whether to immediately reveal the next card or whether to draw an Event card or Refresh card. This makes the games proceed very differently. In a
According to the will of the
Italian authors collective Acchittocca, players of Alma
Mater are university head-
masters at the time of the Renaissance. Prestige needed
for the win can be gained by
recruiting the best scholars
in four disciplines, done by
tutors serving as workers. The
lectures by the teaching staff
are prestigious enough in
their own right, but they also
attract students. These gentle-
men (remember, we’re in the Renaissance) provide special
effects – and mathematics
students even give you victory
points in the end, since they
are good in arithmetic, after
all. A very nice element is that
not only does money func-
tion as a currency, but also
little books do; they exist in
colors and as bright yellow dictionaries for special actions. By paying in the form of books for lectures, you also determine the prices for subsequent competitors. Therefore, it is advisable to mainly pay in your own color, thus forcing the oth- ers to acquire books of this color through separate actions. You put the books in
your own storage or on your player board, where they are sorted and shelved in a library and moved on from there. So they become part of the university’s inventory and give you income at the beginning of each round.
Almost half of the instructions consist of symbol explanations and of the special abilities of the professors and the stu-
spielbox
8 - 99
2 20 min
the player
Are you ready?
Fenix is a strategic highlight with a special twist: If your king is taken, he can rise again like Fenix from the ashes. The king is dead? Long live the king!
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