Filosofia Reprints

A Medieval game of trade and commerce, Die Händler is set in Europe, where trade wagons carry wares between six cities on the board. Essentially, players buy goods, load them onto wagons and send them for maximum profit in other cities.

The whole game looks very inviting. The medieval cities depicted on the board, together with the player crests, cardboard coins, money pouches, sticker decorated wagons and wooden commodity pieces, immediately creates the right atmosphere for the players.

There are six cities - Paris, Cologne, Brugge, Gent, Vienna and Genoa - which are interconnected by roads. Three wagons carry goods from one city to another. No-one owns the wagons or controls any of them single-handedly, and in principle a player can put commodities on any transport. There are six different commodities - salt, iron, wine, silk, cloth and food - all of limited supply.

The goal of the game is to make money by delivering goods to the towns, and use the money to buy increases in status. The game ends after a certain number of deliveries have been made and the winner is the player with the highest level of status.

Reiner Knizia's auction game about producing movies. In four rounds, players bid on chips representing genuine directors, actors, camera, effects, music, guest stars and agents. These all get placed on players' film-strips, to complete the movie production. So one movie might need 2 actors, but no music or effects and so on. As films are completed, the points value is marked and another film-strip taken. There are two parties each round where players get to pick from offers without paying anything. There are bonus points for first films completed and best films, best directors, even worst film.

The auction is a basic rising offer with passing until one winning bid remains. Players pay into the pot with contracts as money, and the rest of the players share the pot each turn. So it's a closed economy with players trying to time to bid on what they really need to complete films.

See Movie Comparison - Traumfabrik for listings of movies and actors in each version.