Bruges (game)

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Bruges
Game data
author Stefan Feld
publishing company Hans im Glück Verlag
Publishing year 2013
Art Board game
Teammates 2–4 (5 with extension)
Duration 60 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Awards

Bruges is a board game by the German author Stefan Feld that was published by Hans im Glück Verlag . The game, recommended for ages 10 and up, takes about an hour and can be played by 2-4 people.

Although the game never won a first prize, it was among other things on the recommendation list for the 2013 Kennerspiel des Jahres, won 3rd place at the 2013 German Game Prize and was nominated for the Gamers Choice Award in the same year.

The theme of the game is the action in the Belgian city of Bruges in the 15th century. Typical medieval themes such as building houses, gaining political power or influencing politics in the game are influenced. The box, the game board and the maps are decorated with medieval motifs.

Bruges is a game of cards and dice . There are numerous ways to gain victory points, for example character cards, building houses, advancing in the town hall or building canals. In each round the players try to use their hand cards for different actions.

Game equipment

  • 1 game board
  • 4 50/100 tiles
  • 6 statue tiles
  • 165 cards
  • 50 henchmen
  • 20 1 guilder tiles
  • 24 3 guilder tiles
  • 45 threat tokens
  • 40 channel tiles
  • 4 large player seals
  • 4 small player seals
  • 8 pawns
  • 12 majority markers
  • 9 overview maps
  • 1 starting player crest
  • 5 dice

Game flow

Game preparation

The game board and tiles are laid out. Each player receives a few guilders and henchmen as starting capital.

Actions

Each round is rolled with 5 dice. After that, each player can move up in the town hall, whereby the numbers on the dice indicate how many guilders are to be paid for it. Then threat markers are distributed to the players, depending on which numbers are rolled. Threat markers cause disadvantages for the players. The numbers on the dice indicate how much money the players can take in this round. Now the players draw new cards and can then trigger the following actions one after the other:

  • Take henchmen: These can be exchanged for other special bonus cations or used to build houses.
  • Take guilders : You need guilders to play person cards, to build a canal and to climb the town hall.
  • Replace threat tokens : The player may replace threat tokens.
  • Canal construction : The player may build a canal tile for guilders.
  • Build a house : The player can build a house in exchange for a henchman.
  • Play person : A person text is printed on each card. He can play the person for guilders and receives the corresponding advantage.

Colours

The game uses 5 different colors. Each card has its own color. With a color, only henchmen of the corresponding color can be taken, threat markers of the corresponding color can be put back or channels of the corresponding color can be built. These colors are not to be confused with the player colors.

Victory points

There are many different ways to get victory points:

  • Character cards , bring the next to the aforementioned advantage also different VPs
  • Houses , 1 point for each house built.
  • Advantages of people : Some people give extra victory points depending on what else the player has achieved during the course of the game.
  • Majority marker : If the player has built a particularly large number of canals or houses compared to the other players, this gives additional points.
  • Canal : There are victory points for built canals.
  • Promotion : Victory points are awarded depending on how often the players have advanced in the town hall at the beginning of the round.

Gameplay

Since you don't know which cards you will draw in the next round, Bruges is less about long-term planning. Rather, it's about optimizing the current game situation as well as possible.

Extensions

Bruges - The pets

In 2014 the mini-expansion The Pets appeared . It introduces the new group of people, pets, so that each house can now be inhabited by one person and one pet. The expansion consists of 17 pet cards and four majority markers and was available exclusively at SPIEL '14 in Essen , but is now also regularly available.

Bruges - The city on the Zwin

In 2014, the major expansion Bruges - Die Stadt am Zwin was released . The title refers to the Zwin , a sea arm created as a result of a storm surge in 1134, which extended to Bruges and which provided access to the sea via canals.

The extension consists of four different modules, which can be used individually or in combination:

Module 1 - New Citizens
This module expands the game with 22 new character cards and also introduces a new group of characters called “travelers” (17 new cards).
Module 2 - 5th player
With this module, the game can now also be played with five players; the additional cards from module 1 are required for this.
Module 3 - The Zwin
This module makes sewer construction more attractive and enables the player who builds a sewer section to buy an additional function immediately. The available functions change every round and are shown on the newly introduced ships.
Module 4 - The Stock Exchange
With this module special stock exchange cards are introduced. They improve the known six possible actions of the basic game, but can only be used to a limited extent.

Web links