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König der Elfenoriginal German edition of King of the Elves
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Product Description
The elven king is dead. By tradition, a new king is chosen from the elven princes. In their quest for the crown, the princes leave their castles to tour the villages of Elfenland using the unique modes of transportation available in Elfenland. They first visit the villages in their own realms and then travel to the villages in other realms. In each village, the princes receive a few gold coins as tokens of their visit. To thwart their opponents in the quest for the crown, the princes can place thieves and obstacles along the routes. The prince who collects the most gold in his journeys, will be crowned the new king.
Product Information
Designer(s):
Alan R Moon Publisher(s):
Amigo Artist(s):
Doris Matthaus Year: 1999
Players: 2 - 6
Time: 45 minutes
Ages: 10 and up
Weight: 469 grams
Contents:
- 120 cards
- 75 gold coins
- 24 heraldic tiles
- 1 dragon with stand
Product Reviews
Average Rating: 3.8 in 14 reviews
This is the card game version of Elfenland+Elfengold. The components are similar and the travel cards are identical to those in Elfenland and the coins to those in Elfengold.
The play time is a little shorter but it is not as fun just seeing the cities. You don't get the feeling like you're going to ride a dragon across the desert.
If you really like Elfenland and would like a shorter game with less set up time, then you will enjoy it.
The King of the Elves is a good game - it involves a lot of decision making and some sprinkles of strategy. I would only rate a 5 to what I believe to be a 'perfect' or 'pretty damn close to perfect' game, so below are what I believe to be the game's negatives :
- Your 'strategy' is initially dictated by the cards randomly dealt to you in the opening hand, and so a player who starts off with an excellent hand might still defeat someone else who plays the game better than everyone else, yet who has a handicap of having useless cards to begin with.
Similarly, there is too much luck with the draw 3, replace 4 action as well.
- There isn't true interactivity between players in the game. I think it would be possible to play this game without anyone uttering a single word (not that we do of course, but I hope you understand my point!).
- As has been mentioned, the gold card seems to be too powerful. A variant that we proposed (which we haven't fully playtested yet) is to make the amount of gold earned when playing the gold card equal to the village value - 2. So the higher priced villages (where the gold card would predominantly be played) still pay more than lesser priced villages, but not outrageously so as is the case with the current rules, whereby the gold card pays double the village value. Also, you only get the gold card bonus the first time you pass it, and cannot acrue the bonus again if you journey back to the village using a reverse card.
Anyway, the game has its merits and is a worthwhile investment, but there are certainly better games out there worth consideration.
You might be wondering why I say that it is one of the best, when it is so easy to abuse the rules, and break this game? Well if you make some minor rules adjustments, the strategic possibilities of this game are fantastic. Here are the rules tweaks that I would reccomend:
1. After the first turn, deal 8 cards to each player, but have them discard down to a maximum of 10 cards. That way, they get some advantage by keeping cards, but not an undue advantage.
2. Only allow the gold doubling bonus to occur the first time you land on the village.
The first two rules are pretty much necessary, but this third rule is optional:
3. Playing a thief on a village with another players gold card cancels the effect of the gold card instead of giving the player 2 gold for that player. All other players who land there must still give the thief 2 gold.
The fact that you can add and remove villages, buy cards, exchange cards, play obstacles, and thieves, makes for a very challenging and exciting game. Also, the theme of the game, the artwork, and everything else make this game a winner, despite its susceptibility to abuse.
This game plays much better than Elfenland, and has more strategic possibilities. It is also easier to set up and take down.
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