From: "Jens Hoppe, Post Danmark" Subject: Opinions wanted & a (long!) review Hi all, It's "opinions wanted" time again! Have any of you played any of the following games? How is the quality of the components, how does the game play, realism, size, time to play, etc...? - 3W's "Give Me Liberty" - 3W's "Ancients" (who has used the DBA-inspired advanced rules available on grognard?) - "Alexander at Tyre" (can't remember who made it - Thunderhaven??) Did Clash of Arms ever publish the Peloponnesian War monster game that they advertised at one point? Thanks! In return I have a review of a game I tried last week: It's called "Svea Rike" and is a simple multiplayer game about Sweden's history from approx. 1500-1800. The game is Swedish, which means that the *language* used in the rules and on cards is Swedish. The map shows Sweden divided into a number of provinces. Most of these are Swedish, but some start the game under the control of the neighbouring countries. Most of the Swedish provinces start under the control of the players who in this games represent noble families in Sweden. In addition to provinces the map has a number of off-board locations; Denmark, Russia, Prussia, Poland (the four potential enemies in the game), and a couple of Swedish colonies in Africa and America. On the whole the map is beautifully made. Each province has a corresponding province card. It shows how much income the province yields each turn (represented by a number of crowns, 1 to 3, on the card), the number of regiments that come with the province (again; 1 to 3), and the cost to buy the province in the first place (1 crown provinces cost from 5 to 8, 2 crowns cost 12 to 15, and 3 crowns cost 15 to 21). There are other types of cards too: History cards are resources the players can buy. These include castles (more income), military cards (increases your war strength), queens (income and prestige), scientists/scholars and other famous personalities, and various resources (extra income). At all times 4 of these cards are available to be purchased. If a player buys a card, another is turned up and becomes available. There's also a deck of event cards. Each player starts with 4 event cards and draws another each turn. Event cards can be played at all times (unless the card says otherwise). Each player has a number of generic tokens that are used to mark province control. These tokens are also used to represent trading interest with other countries. When used in this way, the tokens are placed in the foreign country's box. The number of tokens allowed in each box is limited (usually limited to "number of players + 1", or thereabouts). Each turn represents the reign of one Swedish monarch. The turns are divided into three epochs, each consisting of 5-6 turns. The distinction between epochs influences a couple of rules: First, history cards are color coded for each epoch. When a new epoch starts, available (non-bought) history cards from the previous epoch are removed, and 4 cards from the deck of the present epoch's history cards become available. Secondly, the result on the regent card (see below) varies from epoch to epoch. Also, the two "colony" provinces become available in the 2nd epoch. The turn sequence is as follows: 1. Turn up a regent card to see what "happens" during that turn. 2. Draw player chits from a cup. As each chit is drawn that player takes his turn. The card turned up in (1) yields a number of possible "situations" for that turn: means the turn goes on in the usual way. means the usual turn is replaced with a special "war turn". and influence the money players get from farming. gives players trading abroad a bigger income. The regent card's result depends on the current epoch: During the first epoch, for instance, wars are pretty rare, but in the second epoch (the Swedish "great power" epoch - starting with Gustav II Adolf) the chance of war goes up considerably. If the turn is not a war turn, each player gets a player turn. First, the phasing player draws another event card. Then, the player can choose between three actions during his turn: 1. Farming. The player gets income from his provinces (one money "token" per crown symbol on the province cards) and from any castles he owns. The player can then buy another provinces among those available (not owned by other players or countries). 2. Trading. The player may place a trader token in a foreign country box, or move an existing trader from one box to another. The player then gets income from his traders, as well as from any queens he has. Concentrating many traders in one foreign country pays well: 1 trader pays 2 money, but 2 traders pay 6, and having 5 traders in one country pays 21! After receiving income from his traders, the player must pay upkeep for his regiments; 1money token for each regiment symbol on his province cards. 3. Arts & science. If choosing this option, the player first received income from *either* farming or trading (but not from castles or queens). Then, he must pay upkeep for his regiments, and after this he may buy one available history card. Having chosen one of the above actions, and resolved it, the player's turn is over. War turns are different. There are no player turns in a war turn: Only the war is resolved, after which the turn marker is moved to the next turn. In a war, first any traders in that country are "sent home"; removed from the country's box. Secondly, the players must decide who will participate. The players secretly choose one of the province cards: On a count of one-two-three the cards are shown. Players who do not which to participate in the war may elect *not* to choose a province and instead just show "an empty hand". Those players who did show a province get to fight the war against the enemy. First, the players must pay a double upkeep for the soldiers involved; 2 money per regiment symbol on the chosen province. Then, the strength of the enemy is determined: A number of regent cards equal to 1 plus the number of players in the game are turned up: Each of these cards show a number of regiments (0 to 4); 0 strength cards are removed, and the rest of the regent cards make up the strength of the enemy. The war is then resolved in a number of rounds: 1. Each player still in the war rolls a die. On a die roll equal to or less than the strength of his province card, one enemy card (the one with the lowest strength) is removed. 2. If any enemy cards remain a die is rolled for each of these. Each hit removes one player's province card from the war (again, the lowest strength card is removed first). These rounds continue until one side has lost all their cards. If Sweden wins the war each player who participated gets a reward. First, any provinces owned by the enemy country become the property of Sweden (they become available to be bought along with any unowned Swedish provinces). Then each player who participated chooses one of the following rewards: - A randomly drawns available province. - 3d6 money tokens. - A free history card from those available. If Sweden loses, things look different: If Sweden currently owns any provinces that originally belonged to that country, they are removed and become unavailable to be bought (until Sweden wins another war against that country). Further, if in the 3rd epoch and the enemy is Russia, all provinces in Finland are lost *permanently*. Even if Sweden subsequently wins a war against Russia, these provinces are gone. Then, each player who participated in the war loses one of their provinces. Players who did *not* participate only have a 50% chance of losing a province. These provinces are only lost in the sense that they are put into the pool of available provinces, which means they can be bought again by rich players. So, this is basically how the game works. How does one win, you may ask. Easy, the player with the most Victory Points wins. VPs are awarded for the following: 1. 1 VP for each 20 money at game end. 2. 1 VP for each 3 crown symbols on one's provinces. 3. 1 VP for each 2 regiment symbols on one's provinces. 4. 1 VP for each 3 traders abroad at game end. 5. Victory points are awarded for history cards as well: For every history card in each category (castles, queens, scientists, artists, military) beyond the first *2* cards in each category, 1 VP is awarded per card. So if a player has 4, 2, 1, 3 and 5 cards in the five categories, 6 VPs are awarded (2+0+0+1+3). The game is fast-paced and lots of fun. There is plenty of luck involved, but between "good" players, there is (and should be) a tendency to whack the player who is in the lead. The game is not necessarily very well balanced: In my first game Sweden ran into an incredible number of wars and lost every single one. In the end I (the mighty Grip family) had lost all my provinces, all my money, I had no history cards, and my only token on board was a trader in Poland! The second game went better, as Sweden won most of its wars. Only in the 3rd epoch did we lose a war (against Russia), since the player who did *not* own any Finnish provinces elected not to help... Sneaky bastard. :-) Still, all players were very strong at game end. Of course, most games fall somewhere in between these two extremes. One of the best points of the game are the war rules. These are lots of fun, with plenty of opportunity for backstabbing. The event cards are necessary to keep the game fresh: The fact that most cards can be played at all times seems quite chaotic at first, but after a while doesn't seems so bad. They certainly keep things exciting! Events range from various "good things or bad things happen to the players", and attempts to take over other players' provinces, to cards that help in wars ("Battle of Breitenfeld"), and much, much more. I have no doubts in recommending this game as an easy, fun, family-type multiplayer game. It's not much of a simulation, but the sheer amount of chrome is bound to teach players a bit of Swedish history! The components are very beautiful and definitely add to the enjoyment of the game. So, if your Swedish is strong, by all means try it! :-) Cheers, Jens "Hopsie" Hoppe