Isle of Skye: From Chief to King

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Isle of Skye: From Chief to King
Game data
author Andreas Pelikan , Alexander Pfister
graphic Klemens Franz
publishing company Lookout Games
Publishing year 2015
Art Board game
Teammates 2 to 5
Duration 60 minutes
Age from 8 years

Awards

Isle of Skye: From Chief to King is a board and placement game by the game designers Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister . The game for two to five players, ages eight and up, was published by the game publisher Lookout Games in 2015 and was named Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2016.

Theme and equipment

The game thematically deals with the struggle of different clans for supremacy on the Scottish Isle of Skye , which is achieved by building up your own clan area and trading for the most valuable pieces of land. The game is a placement game in which, similar to the Carcassonne game, landscape tiles have to be laid out on the gaming table and connected to form a landscape.

Alexander Pfister (right) and Andreas Pelikan at the international game days SPIEL 2016 in Essen.

In addition to the game instructions, the game material consists of:

  • a double-sided game board
  • 5 landscape tiles, each with a castle as a starting card and 73 other landscape tiles in a cloth bag
  • 16 scoring tokens
  • Coins worth 1, 2, 5 and 10 (gold)
  • a starting player tile
  • a wooden round marker
  • 5 pieces to mark the victory points
  • 6 discard markers
  • 6 screens

Style of play

In the Isle of Skye game, players try to get the highest possible ratings and victory points by negotiating and placing landscape tiles for a clan area. The winner is the player who has the most victory points at the end of the game after a given number of rounds.

Preparations

At the beginning of the game, the game board is placed in the middle of the table, with the number of players deciding which side of the game board is played. Four randomly drawn scoring tiles are placed on positions A to D on the board, the round marker is placed on the first round marker and the players' pieces are placed on space 0 of the scoring track. Each player also receives the landscape tile with their own castle, a screen and a discard marker. The castle tiles are placed face up on the table as the starting space for the respective clan area, behind which the viewing screen is set up and the discard marker is placed.

All landscape cards with the exception of the surplus castles are placed in the cloth bag and then shuffled thoroughly, the starting player receives the starting player marker.

Course of the game

Game phases per round
  • income
  • Draw tiles and set prices
  • Remove the plate
  • Buy tokens
  • To build
  • End of round and scoring

Isle of Skye is played over 5 rounds with 5 players or 6 rounds with 2 to 4 players. The individual rounds each consist of 6 phases and end with a scoring, at the end of the game there is also a final scoring.

At the beginning all players receive their income, which results from the already displayed landscape tiles and depending on the round from the position of the token on the scoring track. At the beginning all players receive 5 gold pieces for their castle, later one gold piece is added for each landscape tile with printed whiskey barrels that is connected to the castle via a path. From the third round onwards, the players who are further back on the scoring track receive additional coins for each player who has more victory points.

After each player has received his income, all players draw three landscape tiles from the cloth bag and place them face up in front of their screen. Now, behind the screen, place the discard marker behind a tile that you want to discard and an amount of gold from your own fortune behind the remaining two tiles, which must be at least one coin. Once this has happened, all players take their screen aside at the same time and show all their ratings to all players. The tokens marked with discard markers are removed and placed back in the cloth bag. Beginning with the starting player, each player can now buy exactly one tile from a fellow player and must pay the specified amount of gold for this; the provider receives the amount and his own gold that he has assigned to the tile back. The purchase is not mandatory, the player can also pass. When the purchase phase is over, all players receive the tiles that are still in front of them to expand their clan area and pay the gold amounts back to the common supply.

In the next phase, all players add the tiles they have received to the clan area, making sure that adjacent cards have the same landscape. Roads do not have to be continued, but the players make sure that on the one hand the areas grow in such a way that they drop more gold (whiskey barrels), and on the other hand that they get as many points as possible in the upcoming ratings.

Ratings and end of game

At the end of each game round there is a scoring based on the scoring cards displayed and the specifications on the game board. Scores can relate to various aspects of the cards, such as the number of cattle and sheep, the number of ships or towers. Closed areas, the number of 4 tiles that belong together to form a square or the amount of gold can also be included in the scoring. Each player receives victory points according to the scoring and moves his marker forward accordingly on the scoring track.

Another scoring takes place at the end of the game, during which the scrolls printed on the landscape tiles and the players' gold are converted into victory points. Whoever has the most victory points at the end of the game wins the game; in the event of a tie, the player who also has the most gold wins.

Extensions

Since 2015, the game has been supplemented by several mini expansions (promos) and two larger expansions.

Mini extensions

The mini-extensions are as follows:

  • Board game advent calendar, 2015: The mini expansion in the board game advent calendar 2015 from Frosted Games consisted of two new scoring tiles . Points can be scored with three horizontally adjacent scoring tiles as well as with all parts of the landscape that show a scroll.
  • Kennerspiel des Jahres Promo, 2016: This mini-expansion was released in response to the award for Kennerspiel des Jahres and consists of a single additional landscape tile with two whiskey barrels and a beef.
  • Peças Promocionais, 2016: The two mini add-ons for the board game advent calendar 2015 and the Kennerspiel 2016 were issued again together for the Brazilian version of the game in 2016.
  • Neighborhood Scrolls, German Game Award Goodie Box 2016: This expansion, which was added to the goodie box for the German Game Award 2016, consists of six landscape tiles, each showing a scroll. These scrolls give points for adjacent spaces.
  • Tunnel tiles, 2017: This expansion contains six tunnel tiles that can be used to build tunnels in the mountainous regions, as well as whiskey barrels that give points instead of income. The extension appeared in the magazine Neues vom Ausguck # 09/2017 and in the online shop at Lookout Spiele .
  • Tunnel tile 2, 2018: In 2018, six more tunnel tiles appeared in the magazine “Neues vom Ausguck” # 12 (10/2018) and in spielbox 6/18.

walker

In 2017, Wanderer was the first major expansion for Isle of Skye . It contains new player boards that show the progress of other players in terms of strength, wealth and popularity. Since prerequisites must be met for each step in progress, the personal player boards affect the sale and placement of game pieces. In order to claim the next level of development and receive potential rewards, a new character must travel the kingdom and activate the tokens. There are also new scoring tiles for hikers.

The druids

The Druids is the second expansion for Isle of Skye . It was released in 2018 and can be played alone with the base game as well as with the Wanderer expansion. The expansion divides the buying phase into two buying sessions, whereby the players can buy a token in the usual way in the first purchase and buy a token from the dolmen board in the second purchase phase. The additional "Druid" parts are normal landscape parts, but they often have a stone tablet or a scroll. Stone tablets grant special powers that players can use until the end of the game, and scrolls give points in the scoring according to the basic rules. There are also additional scoring tokens.

Reception and evaluation

reviews
Meta page rating
BoardGameGeek 7.5 out of 10 points
brettspielbox.de 8.1 out of 10 points
brettspiele-report.de 15 out of 20 points

Isle of Skye: From Chief to King was developed by game designers Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister and published in 2015 by the game publisher Lookout Games . According to Pfister , the idea of ​​locating the game in Scotland came from the publisher and the graphics were developed by Klemens Franz . In 2016, the game won the jury award Kennerspiel des Jahres from the jury of the year , it was also recognized as the Game of Games : Games with Friends 2016 and was voted 7th in the German Games Award 2016. In 2015 the game was published in an English-language version by Mayfair Games , and in 2016 editions were also published in Spain, Poland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, China and Brazil. In addition, several additional cards with a special print for the game were published as promotional material.

The game was mostly positively discussed in various reviews. In the BoardGameGeek game database , Isle of Skye had an average rating of 7.5 (out of 10) with more than 7000 reviews (as of January 2017). The portal brettspielbox.de rated the game with 8.1 out of 10 points and rated the game material and the quick start to the game very highly (9 points each). According to the criticism, the game is a "great game for a family game evening in the upscale area." At brettspiele-report.de the game achieved an overall rating of 15 out of 20 points and here too, in addition to the very good game instructions, the quality of the game material is next to the long-term fun stressed.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Isle of Skye on the Game of the Year pages ; Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b Austrian Game Prize 2014 awarded. spielepreis.at, June 30, 2014, and The winning games 2016: Spiel der Spiele 2016. spielepreis.at; Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Game Instructions Isle of Skye ; Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  4. ↑ Interview with Alexander Pfister on brettspielbox.de, October 17, 2015; Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  5. ↑ Versions of Isle of Skye in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  6. ↑ Expansions from Isle of Skye in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  7. ↑ Ratings & Comments for Isle of Skye in the BoardGameGeek game database ; Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  8. ↑ Isle of Skye on brettspielbox.de, March 10, 2014; Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  9. ↑ Isle of Skye on brettspiele-report.de, November 27, 2014; Retrieved January 25, 2017.

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