3 Spellcasters and a Dwarf
  • Home
  • Special Effect
    • Special Effect
    • Return of The Indiana Jones Charity Globe Trot
    • Bard's Tale Challenge
    • Fighting Fantasy Challenge
    • The Indiana Jones Charity Globe Trot
    • Mirkwood Charity Walk
    • Middle-earth Charity Walk
    • Dungeon Daze
  • Games
    • Beach Patrol
    • The Surrendered Lands
  • Game Blogs
    • RPG Blog
    • Gaming Blog
  • Painting Blog
  • Contact

Gaming Blog

Orleans

23/1/2019

0 Comments

 
22nd January 2019.

Another game night at 'The Sovereigns', err wait - they were shut for the night so we relocated to the 'The Wheatsheaf' for the evening.

So... another game night at 'The Wheatsheaf'.

Orleans is a worker placement game set in medieval France. In most worker placement games, your 'workers' are generic. In Orlean, they are not. This games differenciates itself from other games in this genre by giving you different types of workers.

During gameplay, each player has their own board. To activate an option on your board requires 2 or 3 workers to be placed on the relevant spaces on your board, depending on what it does for you.
 
Example: Activating the 'villager' action requires you to place a farmer, fisherman and craftsman in the relevant spots. This allows you to recruit a fisherman, craftsmen or a nobleman.

If you cannot (or choose not to) place all the required workers to activate an option, then the workers remain placed on your board until all the required spots are filled by your workers. Whereupon they are removed from your board and placed into a bag (more on this later).

When you recruit a worker, you move your marker down the relevant track (there's a fisherman track, craftsman track etc).

When you move down a track, as well as gaining the worker, you may also gain an additional benefit. Moving down the craftsman track gains you a 'technology wheel', going the fisherman track gains you extra money  and so on. When all the workers of a particular type are recruited, no one else can move down the track.

Even though you acquire lots of workers, there are limits on how useful they are.
Firstly; all workers not placed on your board are placed into a bag (1 bag for each player).

Secondly; at the start of the turn, you draw 4-8 workers from you bag (depending on how far along the 'knight' track you are.

This can limit your options, because you won't always draw what you want. But also provides you with some intriguing choices in order to maximise your strategy.

The game also contains a mechanic to rid yourself of workers for a one-off benefit, if you feel that you've acquired too many or they've become obsolete.

The game also has a central map that represents the region around Orleans which you can travel around and acquire trade goods and allows you to build guild halls in other locations, (all done by worker placement activation).

Winning the game requires earning points by collecting trade goods, collecting influence markers, building guild halls and accumulating money.

The setup and explanation of the rules took a while (it's not too complex, but you have a lot of choices you can make) and We didn't manage to finish a full game. But it has a bit more depth than most worker placement games in my opinion and a bit more to think about. It will require a couple of plays to know what you're doing.

I enjoyed it and look forward to playing it again.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I play, I paint.
    ​This is where I talk about what I play.

    Archives

    February 2023
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019

    Categories

    All
    2 Player Only
    50 Fathoms
    Abstract
    Annual Quiz
    Area Control
    Asymmetrical Play
    Auctioning
    Black Hack
    Bluffing
    Board Game
    Campaign Play
    Card Game
    Clockwork & Chivalry
    Cooperative
    Cthulhu Hack
    Deck Builder
    Deduction
    Dice Game
    Drafting
    Engine Builder
    Hand Management
    Hidden Role
    In Darkest Warrens
    Legacy
    Merry Outlaws
    One Vs Many
    Oubliette
    Programming
    Push Your Luck
    Real Time
    Renaissance
    Resource Management
    Roll And Move
    Roll & Write
    Route Builder
    RPG
    Savage Worlds
    Set Collecting
    Storytelling
    Team Based
    The Year In Gaming
    Tile Placement
    Trading
    Traitor
    Trick Taking
    Wargame
    Wasted Hack
    WFRP
    Word Game
    Worker Placement

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Special Effect
    • Special Effect
    • Return of The Indiana Jones Charity Globe Trot
    • Bard's Tale Challenge
    • Fighting Fantasy Challenge
    • The Indiana Jones Charity Globe Trot
    • Mirkwood Charity Walk
    • Middle-earth Charity Walk
    • Dungeon Daze
  • Games
    • Beach Patrol
    • The Surrendered Lands
  • Game Blogs
    • RPG Blog
    • Gaming Blog
  • Painting Blog
  • Contact