Roads & Boats

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roads & Boats
Game data
author Jeroen Doumen, Joris Wiersinga
graphic Herman Haverkort, Tamara Jannink
publishing company Splotter Spellen
Publishing year 1999
Art Board game
Teammates 1 to 4 (up to 6 with extension)
Duration 240 minutes
Age 14 years and older

Roads & Boats is a board game by the Dutch game designers Jeroen Doumen and Joris Wiersinga, which was published in 1999 by Splotter Spellen . The game deals with building a civilization and focuses in particular on the highest possible efficiency of the transport system. Starting with the same number of raw materials and a starting space, the players must try to build buildings with raw material producers and processing companies whose goods are needed elsewhere. A special feature is that a plastic sheet is placed over the playing field on which you can draw the streets and bridges that will be built in the course of the game with a pen.

The game can be played alone as a solo puzzle, or against each other with up to four players. With the extension & Cetera it can also be played with up to six players. The playing time is given as four hours, but it can also be significantly longer. With the sheer huge depth of play, the game is clearly aimed at frequent gamers. The game is published in a German / English edition, whereby this only refers to the instructions and the game aids, the game material itself is completely language-neutral. In the summer of 2019, a new edition was released under the title Roads & Boats: 20th Anniversary Edition , which already includes the expansion.

Theme and equipment

In Roads & Boats each player builds a civilization, whereby this does not happen through warfare, population growth or city building, but the players build the most efficient transport possible. You develop your infrastructure starting with a basic set of three donkeys, five boards, a stone and two geese. Interactions between players arise from the fact that buildings are used by every player and raw materials can, under certain circumstances, also be used by other players. In addition to an unusually large box measuring 51 × 32 × 7 cm, the game consists of the following components:

  • 1 rule book and a scenario book, each in German and English
  • 140 hexagonal playing fields in six landscape designs
  • 120 wooden means of transport from donkey to steamer in the four player colors
  • 75 walls (wooden sticks) in five different colors (four player colors and white neutral)
  • 4 research boards
  • 29 discovery stones made of glass
  • 1 two-part wonder of the world game board
  • 193 miracle stones made of cardboard in five different colors
  • 18 wooden mine markers with pouches
  • 1 starting place in each player color
  • 2 wooden discs in each color of the players
  • 115 cardboard markers for the companies
  • 600 cardboard markers for the different goods
  • 1 plastic sheet
  • 1 water-soluble pen

construction

The game does not consist of a game board in the strict sense of the word, instead the game board is put together from the numerous hexagonal playing fields before each game. Any playing field can be set up by the players or one of the numerous variants suggested in the scenario book can be used. Each playing field shows one of six possible landscape forms, forests (dark green), pastures (light green), rocks (gray), mountains (brown), desert (yellow) and the sea (blue), on which rivers can also be depicted. A plastic sheet is placed on the folded playing field and this is attached to the table with adhesive tape to prevent the game from slipping away. In addition, the pen is laid out, with which the built roads and bridges are drawn on the plastic plan to make them recognizable for the game. Finally the wonder board is set up and the players' wooden discs are placed on it. Then each player chooses a starting field and places his starting field marker and his basic equipment of three donkeys, five boards, a stone and two geese on it.

Style of play

Each player builds a civilization that is further developed starting with a basic stock of goods and transporters. The existing raw materials are used to build production buildings, the products of which can be refined in other companies. A woodcutter, for example, cuts tree trunks, which are processed into boards in a sawmill, which in turn can be used to make paper. The value chain ends with the production of coins, which are made from gold extracted from mines, and stocks, for which the player receives victory points at the end of the game. Since only a single building can be placed on each playing field, the transport of goods with the vans plays a major role. If you only have the option to move with donkeys over undeveloped fields and to transport the goods at the beginning, you have to build roads in the course of the game on which carriages or trucks can drive, which, however, still have to be researched at the beginning of the game . Alternatively, you can also go with boats and ships either over rivers or over the sea fields and transport goods. Since all goods that are not carried by a player's transporter are considered neutral and existing businesses can also be used by any player, the only way to prevent other players from using their own businesses is to build walls. To do this, you create enough stones for the field you are looking for and then place one of your colored wooden sticks on the relevant spot. These fields can only be crossed by your own transporters as long as the walls have not been destroyed by other players.

The players can also invest the goods produced in wonder building blocks from which all players can then build a wonder together. Finally, at the end of each round, a neutral miracle building block is placed. Each player also receives victory points for the miracle building blocks they have erected. The game ends either after the completion of the miracle or when all 33 neutral miracle bricks have been installed, the winner is whoever has the most victory points.

The game can be played by two to four players. For every number of players there are suggestions for setting up the game in the enclosed scenario book, the publisher also offers numerous other scenarios free of charge on its homepage. However, there are also rules and scenarios for a solo mode, in which the player tries to optimize his infrastructure and transport system in order to get as many points as possible. The playing time is about four hours, but it can also be significantly longer.

With this game idea Roads & Boats is often compared to the computer game series The Settlers .

Course of a round

Phase 1: production and propagation

In the first phase, existing companies either produce new raw materials (lumberjacks, clay pits, quarries, drilling rigs, mines) or process existing ones into new goods (sawmills, paper mills, brickworks, charcoal mills, minting, stock exchanges). If a field is separated by a river, all goods must be on the same bank or a bridge must exist on this field. Produced goods can be available on a transporter or loaded onto a transporter. In addition, in this phase either new transporters can be built and animals can be produced. Likewise, if enough resources are available, a new ability is researched.

Phase 2: Movement and Transportation

In the second phase, the players move their transporters and use them to transport their goods across the playing field. Except for donkeys, all land transporters need a previously built road on which to move. Donkeys have the opportunity to move the transported goods over uneven land. Watercraft can be moved across rivers and out to sea. Goods can be exchanged between different transporters, but they can only be moved once per round.

Phase 3: Build

In the third phase, the players can build buildings, roads, bridges, walls and mine shafts, but only one building is allowed per playing field. Many buildings can be built unconditionally, others either require a specific subsurface or must be explored first before they can be built. Roads and bridges that have been built are drawn on the plastic plan with a pen and thus identified. Except for walls, no structures can be destroyed. When a mine is built, you place one of the mines on the mountain space and fill the corresponding bag with the respective raw materials.

Phase 4: Wonder building

In the last phase, each player has the opportunity to help build the miracle with raw materials that are on his starting field. At the end of the phase, a neutral wonder stone is placed on the next free space. When the miracle is finished or all 33 neutral miracle bricks have been installed, the game ends. The winner is then whoever was able to achieve the most victory points.

Conflicts

In most cases, all steps can be carried out by the players at the same time, since especially at the beginning each player works remotely from his fellow players on the construction of his infrastructure. However, if at some point two players want to make the same move, the existing conflict is resolved according to the current turn order. The turn order can be checked again before each phase. Each player then has the opportunity to influence the turn order by investing his piety.

Extension: & Cetera

The game was followed in 2001 by the first small expansion called "Planes & Trains", which, in addition to game material for a fifth player, also introduced planes and trains into the game as a further means of transport. In addition, there was the possibility to drop bombs with airplanes in order to demolish buildings again. The extension was initially produced in a very small edition. Due to the success it was decided to reissue and enlarge the extension. In 2003 the idea was finally taken up again and published again with several other ideas under the name & Cetera.

The expansion & Cetera contains game material for a fifth and sixth player and many additional scenarios. Two additional landforms are added to the game. On the one hand, there are polders, which, depending on the course of the game, count as land fields and sometimes as sea fields, and on the other hand, cities on which two buildings can be erected. It introduces power plants that generate electricity that can be used to make resource producers produce more. In addition, managers can be trained to make further processing companies work more efficiently. It is possible to build art studios that can produce works of art. If these are brought to the starting field of the other players with special transporters, additional victory points can be generated. There is also the opportunity to trade with fellow players. Finally, in the game there is also the possibility of transporting goods with planes and trains and destroying buildings with bombs.

Game development

Roads & Boats is one of the oldest games by the two Dutch game authors Jeroen Doumen and Joris Wiersinga. In the year that their publishing house Splotter Spellen was founded , when the first games were presented at the international match days in Essen in 1997 , a prototype by Roads & Boats was shown. However, due to the numerous wooden individual parts, the game was not considered to be sensible. For the 1999 fair, the game was released in a hand-made small edition of 30 pieces, at that time in a much smaller game box than the newer versions that had already been sold before the fair began. Due to the success of the company, it was decided the following year to have a further edition of 500 copies professionally produced, which could be completely sold on the gaming floor in Essen. Since then, the game has appeared in a large box. A third edition finally followed in 2003 and an unchanged new edition in 2006. In 2013, the fourth edition finally appeared, which came up with small changes compared to the previous one. Markers were printed on both sides and the game came with a foldable plastic sheet instead of a rolled one. In January 2019 the publisher announced a new edition under the title Roads & Boats: 20th Anniversary Edition for summer 2019. The fifth edition was an unchanged reprint of the fourth edition, but also included the extension "& cetera".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ history of the company Splotter Spellen their own homepage

Web links