Orléans (game)
| Orleans | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | Reiner Stockhausen |
| graphic | Klemens Franz |
| publishing company |
German : dlp games , French : Matagot / dlp, Japanese : Arclight, Chinese : Swan Panasia, English / American : Tastey Minstrel Games / dlp, Italian : Cranio Creations, Dutch : White Goblin Games , Russian : GaGa Games, Portuguese : Meeple BR Jogos, Polish : Baldar, Spanish : Arrakis Games |
| Publishing year | 2014 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 2 to 4 |
| Duration | 90 minutes |
| Age | from 12 years
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| Awards | |
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Orléans is a board game by German game designer Reiner Stockhausen , which was published in 2014 by his publisher dlp games . It is a worker placement game that is about the domination of the various guilds and locations around the French city of Orleans Medieval.
The game was nominated for Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2015 and was ranked second in the German Game Award . In addition, it received the Austrian game award “Game Hit for Experts” in 2015 and was nominated for the International Gamers Award . In 2017 it also received the Dutch Games Prize and the MinD Games Prize of the Mensa Association in Germany , each in the expert game category.
Background and game material
Thematically, Orléans is set in the European Middle Ages and the players try to achieve the supremacy of their guilds in various areas such as goods production, trade and development in the region around the French city of Orléans . The game runs over 18 rounds, each round being divided into seven phases. The player who got the most points from the sum of his achievements, goods and monetary values wins the game.
In addition to the game instructions, the game material consists of:
- a large game board with a representation of the area around Orléans and several scoring bars,
- a small game plan for "blessed works",
- four player boards,
- four cloth bags,
- four dealer figures in the four player colors,
- 7 wooden dice each in the four player colors,
- 10 offices in each of the four player colors,
- 16 technology tiles (gears),
- 104 character tiles (monk, farmer, craftsman, captain, knight and scholar),
- four marked person tiles (followers) in each player color,
- 14 citizen tiles,
- 18 hour glass cards and a bright pilgrimage card,
- 90 goods tokens for grain, cheese, wine, wool and brocade,
- Location maps in two categories (I and II),
- 47 coins in denominations of 1, 5 and 10,
- a starting player marker, and
- two overview maps
Style of play
Game preparation
At the beginning of the game the two game boards are placed in the middle of the table and equipped with the person tiles, the citizen tiles, the technology and goods tiles and the hourglass tiles according to the rules. Each player chooses one of the four player colors and receives a cloth bag, 5 coins, a player board, 7 wooden dice, a trader figure, 10 offices and the followers in his player's color. The wooden cubes are distributed in the appropriate places on the game board and the player figure is placed on the city space of the city of Orléans. The followers are placed at the bottom of the player board, on the market, and the offices and coins are placed in front of the player. Excess coins are placed next to the game board and the location cards are shuffled according to category I and II and also placed face down in the middle of the table.
For the game with only three or two players, in addition to the unused materials in the unused colors, some other resources are sorted out according to the instructions.
Game flow
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Phase per round
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7 phases are played within each round of the game. Before the first round, a starting player is determined (according to the rules of the game, the youngest player) who receives the starting player marker. That player turns over the top hour glass card that names the event that will take place at the end of this round.
In the second phase a census is carried out and the player whose marker is highest on the pawn track and who therefore has the most pawns receives a coin from the money supply, while the one at the end has to discard a coin. If there are several players in front or behind, for example at the beginning of the game, this does not apply. Then each player draws as many tiles from his followers' bag as indicated on the knight track; At the beginning of the game there are 4 people and with each knight that a player adds, the number increases by one. The tiles are placed on the player board in the market, and the market must never be overfilled.
In the next phase of the game, the players plan their actions by distributing their followers to the various available action spaces on their player board and to location tiles that are added later. These are person-group-specific and may only be filled with the respective types of followers. Unused people can remain in the market for the next round. After all players have planned their actions, they carry them out, whereby only actions are activated whose action spaces are completely occupied. This happens in turn starting with the starting player, whereby one player always carries out an action in any order until all actions have been carried out and no player can or wants to carry out any more actions (pass) The possible basic actions are in detail:
| place | action | Effects | needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farmhouse | Take the farmer's tile | When activating the farmhouse, the player takes a farmer tile from the supply and places it in his followers bag. In addition, he moves his marker forward one space on the farmer track and receives the corresponding commodity tile from the supply. By advancing the marker on this track, the player improves his position in the "Census" phase. | Skippers, craftsmen |
| Village | Take boatmen, craftsmen or traders | When activating the village field, the player takes either a boatman, craftsman or trader tile from the supply and puts it in his followers bag. Skipper: If the player chooses a skipper, he advances his marker on the corresponding scoring track by one space and receives as many coins as is shown on the respective space. |
Farmer, boatman, craftsman |
| university | Take scholars | When activating the university space, the player takes a scholar token from the supply and places it in his followers bag. In addition, he advances his marker on the corresponding scoring track by one space and is allowed to advance the specified number of development points on the development track. | Farmer, craftsman, trader |
| Castle | Take knight | When activating the castle space, the player takes a knight tile from the supply and places it in his followers bag. In addition, he advances his marker on the corresponding scoring track by one space and thus increases the number of available followers per round to the specified number. |
Farmer, boatman, trader |
| monastery | Take monk | When activating the monastery space, the player takes a monk tile from the supply and puts it in his followers bag. In the future, the monk can replace any person tile. | Scholar, trader |
| ship | Travel by water | The ship can be used to navigate waterways. The traveler can be moved on to a location on the map if it is connected to the current location via a waterway. If there is a commodity on the way, the player may take it; if there are two commodities, he chooses one of the two. | Craftsmen, boatmen, traders |
| dare | Travel by land | Land roads can be driven with the car. The traveler can be moved on to a location on the map if it is connected to the current location via a land route. If there is a commodity on the way, the player may take it; if there are two commodities, he chooses one of the two. | Farmer, trader, knight |
| Guild house | Establishment of a guild house | The guild house enables the player to build an office in the village in which he is currently located. Only one office may be built in each village. An exception is Orléans, where one office in each color can be built. | Farmer, craftsman, knight |
| Scriptorium | +1 development point | By activating the scriptorium, the player may advance one space on the development track. | Knight, scholar |
| town hall | Dispatch of followers to the benevolent works | By depositing followers in the town hall, they can be used for “beneficial works”. To do this, they are used on the corresponding game board on an action space that corresponds to the person, and the player receives the respective bonus indicated. When a work is completed, the player who placed the last person receives the citizen tile located there. In the case of the “beneficial works”, no people may be replaced by other tiles, such as monks. Your own color-coded followers may never be placed in the town hall. | up to any 2 followers |
The followers who were used for the actions, with the exception of the people in the town hall, are returned to the followers bag. Whenever a player advances on the development track through an action in the scriptorium or in the university, he can receive a bonus (coins or citizen tokens), and at the same time he increases his level of development according to the requirements.
After all actions have been carried out, the event specified by the hourglass card is carried out. There are 3 cards each with the events of pilgrimage, income, harvest, taxes, trading day and plague:
- Pilgrimage: No monks may be recruited during this round.
- Income: Each player receives coins according to their level of development.
- Harvest: Each player surrenders a food item (grain, cheese or wine trading tile) or pays a 5 coin penalty.
- Taxes: Each player pays one coin for every three goods tokens.
- Trading day: Each player receives a coin for each of their own trading offices.
- Plague: Each player loses one person from his followers bag, who is drawn blindly. Your own color-coded followers cannot be lost, if one of these people is drawn, the corresponding player does not have to give up a person.
If a player cannot pay a penalty, he must pay the corresponding number of coins through offices, followers, development steps, goods, location cards or technology tiles (“torture”).
As the last step of a round, the current starting player passes the starting player marker, clockwise, to the next player who begins the new round.
Playing
The game ends after 18 rounds, whereby turning the last hourglass card heralds the last round of the game. At the end of the round, the victory points of the individual players are determined from:
- the number of remaining coins (1 point each)
- the values of the commodity tokens owned by the players depending on the information
- the sum of the offices on the map and the number of citizen tiles received multiplied by the value of the development status on the development track
The winner of the game is the player with the most points. In the event of a tie, the player who has advanced the furthest on the development track wins. If there is still a tie, several players share the victory.
Variants and additions
invasion
Orléans: Invasion is a collection of extensions for Orléans that was developed by Reiner Stockhausen together with Inka and Markus Brand . These are several modules that influence the game in different ways and expand it as a cooperative game ( The Invasion ) or as a 2-player duel ( The Duel ), among other things . In addition, with The Dignitary , The Capital Vierzon and The Merchant, three scenarios are included for a solo game.
As additional game material, the expansion contains several new scenario tableaus and additions to the existing tableaus, various new card sets, new figures such as the carpenter, as well as new location cards, hourglass cards and other material that can also be used for the basic game.
Trade & intrigue
The Orléans: Trade & Intrigue expansion also includes several options for modifying the game. It contains order cards to get additional victory points for fulfilling orders, new hourglass cards, a new game board for blessed works and a game board for intrigues as well as new location cards. Especially with the intrigue, new options are created to influence the game of the other players more strongly.
Further additions
In addition to the two named official expansions for the game, several mini expansions were released in the form of promotional materials (“promos”), an expansion for a fifth player and a fan kit. Some of the items released as promos were later included in the official expansions.
Expenses and reception
Orléans was developed by Reiner Stockhausen and was published in 2014 for the international game days (SPIEL'17) by its publisher dlp games in a version in German and English. In the following year it was also published in Japanese by Arclight, in French by Matagot, in Chinese by Swan Panasia and in another German / English version by Tasty Minstrel Games. This was followed over the next few years in Italian by Cranio Creations, in Dutch by White Goblin Games, in Russian by GaGa Games, in Portuguese by Meeple BR Jogos, in Polish by Baldar and in Spanish by Arrakis Games.
The game was nominated for Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2015 and was ranked second in the German Game Award . In addition, it received the Austrian game award “Game Hit for Experts” in 2015 and was nominated for the International Gamers Award . In 2017 it also received the Dutch Games Prize and the MinD Games Prize from the Mensa Association in Germany , each in the expert and complex game category.
In a detailed analysis of the game by Alex Harkey, the latter classifies Orléans as a bag-building game in a larger group of “pool builders” and analyzes the game design for the game in particular and for bag-building players in general. Harkey also analyzes the various elements of the game and highlights the special importance of the craftsmen and knights as the engine of the game.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Official rules of the game for Orléans ; accessed on November 26, 2018.
- ↑ a b Official Rules of the Game for Orléans: Invasion ; accessed on November 26, 2018.
- ↑ Official rules of the game for Orléans: Trade & Intrigue ; accessed on November 26, 2018.
- ^ Versions of Orléans in the BoardGameGeek database; accessed on November 26, 2018.
- ^ Orléans on the website of the Spiel des Jahres eV; accessed on November 26, 2018.
- ↑ Prize Winner of the German Game Award 2018 on the website of the International Game Days ; accessed on November 26, 2018.
- ^ Dagmar de Cassan: The Austrian Games Prize 2015: The winning games 2015 , June 29, 2015; accessed on November 26, 2018.
- ↑ International Gamers Award: 2015 nominees on the International Gamers Awards website ; accessed on November 26, 2018.
- ↑ Expertprijs 2017: winnaar at the Nederlandse Spellenprijs, 10 November 2017; accessed on November 26, 2018.
- ↑ The winners of the MinD game award; accessed on November 26, 2018.
- ↑ Alex Harkey: Game Design Analysis - Orléans. Article on Game Precipice, June 18, 2017; accessed on November 26, 2018.
Web links
- Orléans at dlp games
- Orléans in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English)
- Orléans in the Luding games database