Thurn & Taxis

I managed to play Thurn & Taxis today, and I'm really glad that I did. I enjoy this game very much, and I think it'll have a place on my gaming table for a long time. I think this game balances very well between a family friendly game, and a more gamers' game. It can appeal to beginners, and still offer enough challenge to a seasoned player.

There have been comparisons to Ticket to Ride, and I can most definitely see where that would come from. However, I think Thurn & Taxis is more suited to those who have previously found Ticket to Ride a little too 'light' for their tastes.

In this game, you are trying to building routes for postal services across Germany, and this game is set in the late 1800s. You build routes by playing city cards from your hand, with the condition that the next city card that you play must be adjacent, on the game board, onto the table and next to the city that you had played in the previous turn. One key thing to remember is that you cannot insert a city card in between any of the cards that you had already previously placed on the table. You set the cards in a row, and each new card can only be placed on either side of that row. City cards are designated with a colour to represent the region they belong to. This is important for scoring points.

You draw cards each turn from an open set of 6, which are placed on the actual game board. You may choose to pick any one of these cards and add them to your hand. You must also lay one city card onto the route that you are currently building. If you are unable to do so, you must remove all the cards that you had played previously and discard them.

If you are able to complete a route (3 cards in a row or more), you will now place postal houses onto the game board. You may decide to claim the route at any length, as long as it is more than 3. You can decide to build up to 7 or more if you felt crazy enough. Placing the postal houses can get a little confusing. You can choose to either place 1) 1 house in all the cities of 1 colour, or 2) 1 house in 1 city of each colour. Placement of these houses are important because they affect the manner in which you claim bonus points. You can score certain regions once you have 1 house in every city of that colour. Others only allow you to score once you have houses in all the cities of 2 different colours.

Every time you complete a route, you may be able to pick up a carriage card. The carriage card is both a bonus and a liability. There are carriage cards for 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 card routes. When you claim a route of a particular length for the 1st time, you may pick up the corresponding carriage card, provided that you have already taken the preceding one in a previous turn. If you want to claim the 5 route carriage card, you must already have claimed the 4 route carriage card. Each carriage type has a certain score, but it must be pointed out that the scores are not cumalative.
Each new card is laid over the previous card, and your score will be similarly overlaid. Each bigger carriage card has a bigger score.

One of the most intriguing parts of the game is the special abilities that each player may employ once each turn. Each player has a choice of 4 abilities. 1) Pick up 2 cards and add to your hand, instead of the usual 1. 2) Place 2 city cards onto your current route instead of the normal 1. 3) Discard the open set of 6 cards and deal a new set of 6. 4) Pick up a carriage card up to 2 more than your current route (route must be at least 4 cards long).

I mentioned above that I felt that this game may appeal to the more seasoned player better, and I say this because I find that each turn for the player offers more choice and decision making oppurtunities. If you do not have a card to play onto the route you are currently building, you will have to scrap it. And because of this, each player to forced to plan ahead to ensure that the current route is not wasted. Each player is also given more choice in ensuring this through the use of the special abilities, which allow the potential to change the draw of the card to their benefit. And thus, I felt that each of my turns were more purposeful during my game, because even though there was a random element to the game, I was able to mitigate that through the use of the special abilities. It was often a case of taking a chance, in either changing the set of 6 open cards or drawing two cards, but the choice of taking that chance is one that I am able to make myself.

I really like this game on my first play, and I think it's a worthwhile addition to my game collection. My first impressions are usually spot-on, and if a game doesn't impress me the 1st time round, it usually is quite difficult to change that impression. I'm glad to say that Thurn & Taxis makes a very good first impression.