Mister X - Escape through Europe

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Mister X - Escape through Europe
Game data
author Gabriele Mari
publishing company Ravensburger
Publishing year 2009
Art Cooperation game
Teammates 2 to 6
Duration 50 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Mister X - Escape through Europe is a board game and the successor to the popular Scotland Yard game . It is based on the same strategic and cooperative elements of its model, but is equipped with more strategic elements, which makes it even more interesting to play for older players. The hunt no longer takes place in the center of London, but has been spread across Europe.

Game objective

As with the prototype, the aim of the game is to grab the fugitive Mister X or, from his point of view, to escape. One of the players takes on the role of the fugitive, whose goal is to escape his pursuers, the enemy agents. To do this, he must get from a starting point on the game board to a destination point without his pursuers arresting him by ending their turn on the same space as himself.

Game flow

The gameplay shows the biggest changes to Scotland Yard . If Mister X is determined by the group, the five agents are evenly distributed among the remaining players, so that the same number of agents is always played in order to achieve a balanced game. Now Mister X chooses his starting point. He can choose between places marked in green, yellow or red on the game board. The goal for him is to get from these starting points to identically colored target points, whereby the difficulty of this task is reflected in the color coding. In the case of the green route, the map only needs to be crossed in width, whereas the red route runs diagonally across the entire map. Mister X tells the agent the color of his mission, then the agents are randomly placed on the game board.

Another difference to the original is that the game no longer ends automatically after 24 moves. Mister X only carries out the first 25 moves undercover, only by naming his means of transport. If he has not reached his destination after the 25th move, he places his pawn on the board and has to play the rest of the route face-up, but still has the chance to win.

Mister X now uses tickets for car, train / ferry or air travel as in the model in order to move around the game board. The opponents are only told the type of transport and the route is noted on a hidden piece of paper. What is new is that every ticket, which is filled up to a specified level by drawing in each round, has special special abilities printed on it for Mister X and the agents, which are expressed by corresponding symbols. When dropping three tickets with certain identical symbols , Mister X has the option of making a hidden move without naming his means of transport. Discarding three other symbols allows him to make two moves in a round and avoid possible capture.

Another innovation is that Mister X no longer shows itself automatically after a certain number of trains. At the end of each move, the so-called “spot check” is carried out. If one of the agents ends his turn on a space that Mister X has entered within the last five turns, he marks this space with a cardboard marker, which also reveals the number of past turns. The agents must now use this information to identify the possible routes Mister X could have taken since then and start tracking. The agents benefit from their special skills.

For this, the agent players can lump tickets with corresponding special symbols in a pot in order to use them together, but each player can only contribute as many tickets as he controls agents. Depending on the number of combined tickets, the efficiency of the special skills changes. On the one hand, the agents can force Mister X to mark one of his last whereabouts on the game board. If five corresponding symbols are collected, then Mister X must reveal his position before two moves, with four symbols the before three moves and with only three symbols the before four moves. The agents' other special ability is to let one of them make another move. The type of usable means of transport also depends on the number of symbol tickets used. Five tickets allow you to travel by air, four to take a train or ferry ride, and three to allow you to travel further by car. The agents cannot use their special abilities until the 5th turn.

strategy

The strategy has changed slightly due to the lack of Mister X's "automatic appearance" . The agents now aim to get a positive "spot check" from Mister X as quickly as possible in order to get on his trail. In addition, the agents should start collecting the symbols required for an automatic spot check from Mister X as early as possible , in order to be able to force him to do so if the occasion arises, should they lose his trail. Since Mister X no longer knows when he will be forced by his opponents to reveal one of his previous locations, it is necessary for him to have at least one special ability on call, if possible, after a positive "spot check" to quickly cover one's track with a hidden move, or to drastically increase the possibility of new locations with a double move. Unusual traits, such as B. the exclusive driving with the car, or similar strategies, which are already suitable in the example to confuse the opponent, can for the most part continue to be used. The multiple use of hidden moves, which is now possible, is extremely effective, but needs a little luck when collecting the special symbols on the tickets.

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