Page 34 - Spielbox_Special_2021_gesamt_EN

Current. Fall Preview 2021
tastic business year. To keep things going in the same way, they have now released the German localization of Fantastic Factories, by Joseph Z. Chen and Justin Faulkner, originally published in the USA by Metafactory Games two years ago. The one to five players build factories. Workers come in the form of dice. You can place them in order to get blueprints for new, efficient buildings, produce ener- gy or get metal out of a mine. By buil- ding more factories, you get fancy new spaces for placing workers, and the cards you have built give you additional victo- ry points at the end of the game. At the beginning of each round, you can hire a contractor whose special abilities will add momentum to your factory. After a good hour, the game ends when one player has built ten factories or has managed to pro- duce 12 or more goods within one round. Overall, 74 different factories provide va- riety. (sd/sbw)
Curators.
Worldshapers
In Curators, all see to it that their muse- um is attractively equipped so that many visitors are drawn to it. To this end, the carpenter builds new museum wings that — Tetris-style — consist of up to four spac- es. There, the restorer wants to exhibit ob- jects of one color that the archaeologist previously excavated and the collection manager bought at the auction house. Fully equipped museum wings generate visitors for whom the financial manager gets money.
These works are depicted on five ac- tion disks; after using them, you turn them over to their back, so that one of the other actions appears. The trick is that you can carry out an action twice if you have two of the same symbol in front of you. In the end, you score points for completed contracts that require certain patterns and contain suitable objects, as well as for fully stocked museum wings, exhibited works, and money.
The appeal lies in the micromanage- ment of the action disks, which you need to activate at the right time. The real
valuables on the contract cards are quite charming, such as the Roman Dice Tower at the Bonn State Museum. The indi- vidual turn is short, as is appropriate for an upscale family game; the game is over
after less than an hour. What‘s great is how el- ements of contemporary game design have been curat- ed into a work that can be described as middleweight and that pleasantly stands out from the overabundance
of overloaded and long-winded heavy- weights. (cc/sbw)
Z-Man Games
In Cryo, players are on an icy planet, try- ing to save themselves in caves. To this end, the active player sends a drone to specific locations of the crashed colony ship to collect or trade resources, acquire or play a multifunctional card, explore the cave system or settle in a cave. When all three drones are in use, at the latest, you have to recall them, and then you benefit from supplies or transformations that you have previously compiled on your player board. At the same time, you trigger an incident — possibly a sabotage that de- stroys certain pieces. Of course, you try to make your opponents suffer from that. But since such an option can be antici- pated, those who are potentially affected can take precautions.
The cards, easily underestimated by new players, deserve special attention, even though only one of the three func- tions can be used. Either the upgrade makes everyday business easier. Or they function as vehicles, without which you are unable to reach the caves. And as a third option, completed missions give you a good number of victory points at the end and can significantly improve your score for caves and majorities there.
Tom Jolly and Luke Laurie‘s Cryo is a classic middleweight Eurogame with a relatable thematic integration, using drones as workers and combining the principle in another new way with respect to resource management and majority control. What makes it appealing is that you need to set the right priorities at the right time, while trying not to be left be- hind in the caves at the end. (cc/sbw)
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32 spielbox special
Photo: Worldshapers