Lingua (game)

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Lingua (game)
Game data
author Simon Braude
publishing company Ravensburger ,
bookmark
Publishing year 1969, 1972, 1976, 1982
Art Board game
Teammates 2 to 4
Duration 30-120 minutes
Age from 9 years

Lingua is a board game for two to four players that was originally published by Ravensburger in 1969 . The author of the letter game is Simon Braude. The aim is to alternately place letter tiles on a board in the manner of a crossword puzzle. In contrast to the similar Scrabble game principle , the letters have different colors that determine the point value. The clever use of colors determines who will get the most points in the end. The first token must be placed on the top left of the starting field. The game ends as soon as a player occupies at least one of the four target squares in the lower right corner.

According to the publisher, the distribution of the letters is based on their frequency in the German language.

equipment

Count to the content of the game

  • a game plan
  • 132 letter tiles in four colors
  • 4 letter banks
  • 1 scoring block
  • 1 bag
  • the rule of the game .

regulate

Lingua and Scrabble have a lot in common when it comes to the rules of the game. Each participant first draws 12 letters, the lot decides who starts. The players take turns placing words on the playing field that follow on from words that have already been placed. After each move the number of letters used before is drawn from the bag. A Lingua game can end before all of the letter tiles in the bag have been played. As soon as a player reaches one of the target fields with a new word, the game is over. The winner is whoever has scored the most points.

Laying is allowed horizontally and vertically. Combinations of several words by laying rows of letters on top or next to each other are allowed as in Scrabble (e.g. AXT over the already laid LIFE, where the a in ax together with n in life forms AN in addition). Proper names, acronyms and short forms ( aluminum instead of aluminum ) are prohibited .

Point system

The point system in particular differs from the Scrabble principle. First of all, the color determines the value of a letter.

colour Points
yellow 1
red 2
turquoise 3
purple 4th

These form the basic value of the word placed. If you first put the word MONEY, whereby each letter has a different color, the player is awarded 10 points (1 + 2 + 3 + 4).

There are also color words and aces. Color words are words that are laid out with only one color. For MONEY in purple, the player receives not only the 16 basic points but also 25 counters for each letter: 25 * 4 + 16 = 116. Even short words like this can earn a high number of points depending on the color placed.

At the same time, there are diagonal rows of colors on the game board that correspond to the colors of the letter tiles. For example, if a yellow letter is placed on a yellow field, the player is also credited with an ace. For aces 1 to 9 there are 10 additional points per letter placed, from 10 to 14 20, from 15 to 19 30 and from the twentieth ace 40 onwards. To reduce bills during the game, aces can be ticked on the scoring pad. The total number of points is given there and added to the other points at the end of the game. For 9 aces there are accordingly 90 points, for 17 280 (9 * 10 + 5 * 20 + 3 * 30) and for 28 already 700 (9 * 10 + 5 * 20 + 5 * 30 + 9 * 40).

The number of aces also determines the basic value of the word placed. From the tenth ace there is a doubling, from the 15th a triple and from the 20th a quadruple. If you put the word GELD as a purple color word with 24 aces on the account, this would correspond to 164 points: (4 * 4 * 4) + (4 * 25).

Finally, there is a target bonus for reaching one or two target fields (yellow 25, red 50, turquoise 75, purple 100). If the final letter is an ace, the target bonus is either doubled, tripled or quadrupled using the ace key described.

Due to the size of the board, played on 289 (17 * 17) fields, the initially complex point regulation results in a certain tactical depth. There is a balance between collecting points and aces. The intermediate score decides whether a player forces an early end to the game or, in the case of a deficit, delays the end.

Trivia

Although it is not allowed to use proper names, they can be found on the sample diagram that can be seen on the playing cover: LINGUA and IRIS. The i of Lingua is followed by the homonymous iris , which describes the iris in the eye, but is also known as a female first name and stands for a goddess of Greek mythology.

Web links