ISSUE 423 -MAY 2011 ISSN 0257-361X Volume 35 THE GAMES JOURNAL www.gamesjournal.at INTERNATIONAL EDITION: IN THIS ISSUE WE PRESENT 58 GAMES OUR REPORT u INDUSTRY TYCOON IN 5 EPOCHS INDUSTRY From Bricks to Computers In 2003 a game called Industria by Michael and build factories, acquire route and ship- In Phase 1 – Income – you simply receive 1 Schacht was published at Queen Games, a ping lane contracts for bonus points. At the Taler. mixture of auction and efficient use of mon- same time you need to auction off factories ey and resources, factories, technologies or and technologies as profitable as possible to In Phase 2 new area markers a drawn, 1 per bonus tiles. earn good money – money is scarce in this player, and displayed, for a marker with a Ta- game – or secure the most lucrative items for ler symbol you receive 1 Taler from the bank. 2010 the game was picked up by Ystari, ed- yourself. Phase 3 takes to the core mechanism of the ited and published again under the name of game, the auctions: The starting player of the Industry. A round in the game comprises 5 Phases, round is the auctioneer, he chooses an eli- which are always completed by all players gible = available field and names it. A field is Again, you guide an industrial empire before a new phase begins. After each 3rd eligible when it is situated at the intersection through five epochs, from the gravel pit to or 4th round in case of four or three players of the epoch marker line and the area marker the robot factory, you represent a dynasty a change of epoch takes place. column. Starting with his left neighbor each Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 2 ISSUE 423 / MAY 2011 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 40 and 41 www.gamesjournal.at INDUSTRY / 40 LINES FOR MEEPLES t OUR REPORT player makes exactly one bid, each bid must auctioneer got the item for free if you chose surpass the previous one or you must pass. to take it himself, in a variant he only paid half When all have bid or passed the auctioneer of the highest bid. decides if he wants to buy himself or leave the bid to the highest bidder. If he takes the And this takes out that what I liked least in money he remains auctioneer and auctions Industria – the free access to good opportu- the next field. If he takes the field, he pays 1 nities for the auctioneer. Now the auction is Taler in turn to each player until the sum of challenging and must be considered careful- the highest bid is paid, and remains starting ly, because the auctioneer chooses last and player. If nobody makes a bid, the auctioneer know what the cost will be for acquisition gets the field for free, but must take it. In both and whether- especially in case of a technol- cases the next player is the new auctioneer. ogy he will be able to develop – especially The new owner of the just auctioned field when others raise the bid for an interesting field. Dagmar de Cassan For once, an auction game that I do like! The mechanism Unfortunately this plus is accompanied by an of the auction has been vastly improved as compared to acute minus, which is the – let’s keep polite predecessor Industria! – rather difficult game board. It is beautiful but very confusing and to find out, how the places one of his markers there, showing technologies and factories connect to yield the clock. bonus points very nearly is a game within the game. When all available fields have been auc- 40 Lines for Meeples tioned, Phase 4, development, starts. In turn But that is not essential in contrast to the Dagmar de Cassan, Editor-in-Chief you can develop two undeveloped fields by improvement due to the change in the auc- paying the construction costs. Technologies tion mechanism, the game for me is better The choice to give your own opinion in your are free, some fields demand discarding of and more interesting – Industria was a good own name is often lost in the world-wide resources. Those you can get from a joker, game, Industry is an excellent game! web. The contributors in WIN state their opin- from your own already developed factories ions and review games independently and or from buying from the bank for 1 Taler, [email protected] fair. Each monthly issue is put together with the bank only offers resources from previ- the help of more international reviewers: An- ous epochs. For a field that has been devel- drea Ligabue and Pietro Cremona from Italy, oped you turn the owner marker over and INDUSTRY Greg J. Schloesser from the United States, – maybe – receive victory points; for factories Stefan Olschweski from Germany or Monika only if you develop them in the same epoch Designer: Michael Schacht Dillingerova from Slovakia, to mention just a in which you acquired them. Technologies Artist: Stéphane Poinsot few. We want to be the international platform must be developed in the same epoch and Title de: ident for opinions on games. Therefore we have bonus fields yield victory points at the end Price: ca. 32 Euro amended our evaluation system and have of the game. If you developed bank or stock Publisher: Ystari 2010 added new definitions: exchange costs are lowered by 1 more Taler. www.ystari.com VERSION: This is the copy of the game that was the basis for the review In Phase 5 the marker for the starting player RULES: Here we list the languages of rules goes to the next player. When all spots of included in the game or easily available for an epoch have been auctioned, there is a EVALUATION PLAYERS: the game, very often you can find additional change of epoch and new resources become Auction game 3-4 translations on the net. available from the bank. Once in the game With friends IN-GAME TEXT: Most games feature lan- you can take out a subsidy of 3 Talers, but Version: de AGE: guage-independent components, rules are Rules: de en fr 10+ this costs you 5 victory points at the end of In-game use of language: no sufficient. A “yes” in this category marks a the game. game with language-dependent compo- Comments: TIME: Revised new edition of Industria 90+ nents, they can be multi-lingual or not; the When all epochs have been played, you re- Very confusing graphics of the game cannot be played without knowledge board of the language or assistance in translation. ceive victory points for certain combinations Rules much more interesting of factories and technologies, money, un- In case you like our WIN: Please take out a used joker cards and bonus tiles. The player Compares to: subscription, we have established a PayPal Industria and other development with most victory points wins the game. games with auction mechanisms account, so payment of € 6 for a one-year subscription is easy and safe. An edition The most interesting question is, what is dif- Alternate publisher: is made available free for all only after two none ferent as regards to Industria? First of all, the months, please check tiles representing opportunities to be auc- http://www.gamesjournal.at tioned have been changed into fields on the This also goes for the German PDF edition of board that are marked with ownership mark- WIN, a subscription is valid for both editions, ers, and you may only develop two fields per please check http://www.spielejournal.at My rating: turn instead one from each category, in any In May there is a WINXXL too, please check order. And foremost of course, the mecha- page 7 and our website for more informa- nism of the auction itself: In Industria the tion. WIN The Games Journal now also available as WINXXL with a goodie. www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check page 7 and our website. ISSUE 423 / MAY 2011 3 OUR REPORT u OFFERINGS HELP FROM THE GODS OFFERINGS Cows for Zeus Athens against Sparta, the war is raging on and Guardsman – and then you move your tive one wins the bid, the active player again sea and on land and on top of this a horrible marker forward one step for three persons of chooses 2 persons and bids. The winner of plague is pestering people. They need help your choice, these are the ones with which the previous bid must pass. When 3 pairs of from the heavens and hope to receive help you start the game. persons have been auctioned in this way or by offering sacrifices to the gods. Animals when the active player wins his auction, the must be acquired from the Peasant, must be Game play comprises rounds of 4 phases, next player becomes active player for his auc- cleaned and decorated with the help of the auction, bribes, sacrifices and revenue. tion turn. The active player can relinquish his Water Carrier and the Flower Carrier and led Auction: Each player has one auction turn. auction turn and pass. to the alter by the Temple Guardian. For this you choose two person tiles and bid At the start of the game you place your a least 1 Drachma, the others can raise the The top position in a person scale can only marker at the bottom of the scale of all seven bid or pass. If you win the bid you move your be occupied by one player, if you go to the characters – Peasant, Water Carrier, Flower markers one step forward in the scales of top, you move down a marker already there Carrier, Temple Guardian.