Route/Network Building

From BGG News (Eric Martin): "In Pantheon, players enact the comings and goings of various peoples in the Mediterranean: Egyptians, Romans, Iberians, Germans, etc. They accumulate as many raw materials as possible to build monuments to the gods, but the ways of the gods are unpredictable.

"On a turn, a player has a number of options. He can choose to travel with his people by using the big wooden footprint piece, then smaller footpints to mark their path and block other players. He can buy materials to worship the gods: dancers, farm produce, impressive temples, or prayers. He can use these offerings to take a god token, which may grant him special abilities as well as victory points. Finally, he may build monuments that are worth victory points at the end of the game. The game lasts six rounds with two scoring periods."

In Kingdom Builder, the players create their own kingdoms by skillfully building their settlements, aiming to earn the most gold at the end of the game.

Nine different kinds of terrain are on the variable game board, including locations and castles. During his turn, a player plays his terrain card and builds three settlements on three hexes of this kind. If possible, a new settlement must be built next to one of that player’s existing settlements. When building next to a location, the player may seize an extra action tile that he may use from his next turn on. These extra actions allow extraordinary actions such as moving your settlements.

By building next to a castle, the player will earn gold at the end of the game, but the most gold will be earned by meeting the conditions of the three Kingdom Builder cards; these three cards (from a total of ten in the game) specify the conditions that must be met in order to earn the much-desired gold, such as earning gold for your settlements built next to water hexes or having the majority of settlements in a sector of the board.

Each game, players will use a random set of Kingdom Builder cards (3 of 10), special actions (4 of 8), and terrain sectors to build the map (4 of 8), ensuring you won't play the same game twice!

Hacienda has players competing for space on the South American pampas, aiming to bring their livestock to the most markets. You get three actions a turn to buy cards which then let you lay tiles to control land and herds, or you may buy extras, such as waterholes or the haciendas of the title to get bonus points.

The game has two card decks, one showing the different land types on the hex map, the other the different animals (pigs, cows, horses and sheep). Some cards are laid face up and you pay 3 pesos to buy the ones you want, or 2 pesos for an unknown card from the draw deck. You spend the cards to put your markers on land and to place your animal tokens on the board. Animals of a type go together to make a herd naturally, and each time a herd touches a market town on the board, you earn money for the size of herd and land attached. With careful hand and herd management, you can make good cash gains and also block your opponents. You need the money to buy more cards of course. 12 pesos also buys waterholes you can place next to your herds, or haciendas to go on your land or herds. If you run short of money, you can call a harvest and get cash off your land.

But the game is not about money. You score victory points halfway through the game and at the end. The more markets you are serving, the more points you get. The herds and the land get you points. The water and haciendas get you bonus points as well, which can be crucial to your success.

It should be noted, the game board has two sides: a symmetrical dog-bone shape of land types (appears in most of the photos), and a "random" more varied pattern of land types.

From far away, the adventurers have come to the island with the golden city in its center. Just arrived, they open up the first shop directly at the coast. Already it is possible to open up other ones in the villages along the street connections.

That's worth it because through that you'll get goods, keys, money, and concessions that you need for getting ahead. And finally the first is able to establish himself in the golden City and thus get the most precious trading contracts.

The Gold Trilogy

Part one of "The Gold Trilogy" (besides Valdora and Felinia)

Recommendations:

Best Family Game 2009, Åšwiat Gier Planszowych
Der Portner 2009, 5th place
Pfefferkuchel 2009, 5th place
Family Strategy Game, Honorable Mention, GAMES Magazine, 2011
Game by Game 2010, Recommendation

Expanded by:

Two player variant "the big drought"
Additional variant for "the big drought"

This is Funkenschlag (Power Grid) in a version for the power supplier EnBW with a special double sided board. Baden-Württemberg is a complete new board and the other side has a board of Germany with Mannheim deleted and Karlsruhe added.

From Box Back
Imagine, you run a utility like EnBW. You have customers you must supply power, and you have stockholders and partners, the demands and expectations of your business. And of course there's the environment that will be spared, at which energy you use? What locations are suitable for which type of energy? Is the capacity of your power plants to your customers - private as well as industrial customers - safe, reliable, sustainable and environmentally compatible supply of energy?

Two to six players from twelve years can present their strategic skills in this exciting game to the test.

EnBW wishes you the playful power suppliers luck and have fun!

Re-implements:

Power Grid

Incorporated into:

Power Grid: Québec/Baden-Württemberg (the map)