Naturelich Games

Having played a two-player game of Thurn und Taxis today I wanted to share a few first impressions. From what I have seen, I will need a little time before I can write a full review but so far, I believe this game to have some real potential this year.

Thurn und Taxis was published in Germany at the beginning of March by Hans im Glück. Andreas Seyfarth, the designer of Puerto Rico has been joined by his wife Karen in creating a game with elements of hand management, card drafting and transportation. But to say it right away: Thurn und Taxis has almost nothing to do with Puerto Rico (except for a role-selection mechanism). In fact, it is much lighter and can be enjoyed by new or casual gamers. What struck me most about this game is one thing: theme.

The Princely House of Thurn und Taxis is a German family that was a key player in the international mail and postal services in Europe in the 16th century (check Wikipedia for more info). And that's basically what players need to do: build a transnational mailing system. Well, this actually means a postal service between Munich and Salzburg, or Munich and Stuttgart or Zurich. In the 16th century, Europe consisted of many many small countries, each ruled by their own principal. And the board depcits the cities and the geography of that period nicely. In fact, I consider the game board and all the material to be top notch. Frankly, I was totally stunned, after opening the game box. The map is so beautiful, and the illustrations and cards are extremely atmospheric. Michael Menze has managed to recreate the flavor of that time period. Together with the mechanisms it all falls into place.

The rules are quickly summarized. Basically, players establish routes between the cities on the board by drawing city cards. Each player has exactly one active route to which city cards may be played. The tricky thing is to ensure that the cards played are valid, i.e. the map depicts a connection between the two cities. If the player is happy with the lengths of the route or if there are no valid cards available the players can voluntarily close their routes. If the route was long enough the player's stagecoach will get upgraded (read: will score victory points). In addition, this might also enable the player to place little buildings onto some of the cities in their route. If this is done cleverly more victory points can be gained. For example, if all cities in one country get serviced by your company you will receive a country-specific bonus score.

While this should be enough for a brief overview of the rules, let me go into the turn order itself. Each player can execute three actions each turn (the first two actions being mandatory): draw a city card; play city a card and optionally finish their active route. Once each turn, a player may also select one character or role to support his endeavors (this is the one little similarity with Puerto Rico). The Postmaster lets you draw two instead of one card. The Postal Carrier lets you play two city cards instead of one, while the Administrator enables you to replace all 6 city cards in the display with a new set. Finally, the Cartwright allows you to improve your stagecoach more quickly (a mechanism to basically end the game earlier). The game ends if a player gets the best stagecoach or if a player manages to place all his buildings on the map.

The Thurn und Taxis rules are pretty easy. No hidden agendas. However, the tactics and the strategy are a little bit deeper when it all plays together. I won't elaborate now, but during my first session there were already some rather unfriendly Administrator's getting in the way. We also discovered the first few pitfalls in the design of the city connections (starting in Lodz was not a brilliant idea).
For me, the game is a lot of fun, I'd say somewhere in the light-medium range. Although it plays under one hour there is certainly more depths to what meets the eye in the first session. I am looking forward to the next few sessions and I believe this game will easily make to my personal Five & Dime list this year.

It's just an instinct (and I will be wrong, but just imagine I wasn't) - but Thurn und Taxis will be a hot candidate for Spiel des Jahres 2006.