Review by William Keech

The basics
A superb card game that plays like a boardgame. The best of both worlds, what more could you ask for? Its like Elfenland with out the board.

Goal
Collect the most gold by visiting the most villages in the realm.

Gameboard
Because this is a card game, the board is actually built as the game progresses.

Game components
High quality boardstock is used for both the gold pieces and the coat of arms pieces (used to denote ownership). The cards themselves are the highest quality I have ever seen. Be careful, due to the laminate, these cards can be quite slippery. The artwork is very attractive and quite diverse. This is one hell of an attractive and sturdy game.

How to play
Depending on the number of players you have, the game consists of 2-5 rounds. Each round consists of the following phases;

1. Deal cards (10 for the first round to each player, 8 in subsequent rounds)
2. Planning
3. Journeying
4. Ending the round

The cards are broken down into three basic types

• Village cards: (six different kinds with values between 2 and 7, each type has a specific kind of terrain where the village is located. i.e. forest, desert, lake, mountains etc.
• Travel cards: (representing the seven different modes of transportation available) These cards are used to transport the player to the various villages in the kingdom. For example, to visit a village in a forest a transport card with a forest icon must be used, sometimes more than one is required. i.e. You would only need one of the following transport cards to visit a village in the forest;
  • Giant pig (forest,plain)
  • Elfcycle (plain, forest, mountain X2)
  • Unicorn (forest, mountain, desert X2)

But you would need two of the following cards to make the same trip;

• Magic cloud (mountain, plain X2, forest X2)
• Trollwagon (plain, forest X2, desert X2, mountain X2)
• Dragon (plain, desert, mountain, forest X2)

The seventh transport card is a raft (river, lake X2) and doesn't help you here at all.

As you can see, some modes of transportation are better than others. This, of course, all depends on your destination. i.e. Taking our last example, I would need two elfcycles to get to a mountain village but only one dragon.

• Special cards: (six different cards with various effects) Thieves, obstacles, sea monsters, change direction etc. These can either be played on the planning or journeying phase. The cards themselves denote which.

On to the planning phase. This is usually the longest of the phases. Each player is allowed one action on each turn. The following are your six choices;

1. Play a village card
2. No village card! (If you have no village cards in your hand, you must first show your hand and then you get to search the deck for the village card you want, once chosen that player must discard one of their cards. The deck is then reshuffled.
3. Draw 3 cards and discard 4
4. Buy a card (1 gold coin for the first, 2 for the second and 3 for the third). You may not buy a 4th card in any given round.
5. Play a special card (gold, thief or obstacle) on any village on the table
6. Remove one of your villages and all special cards that may have been played on it. The cards are discarded and the player must pay 2 gold for the village and 1 gold for each special card removed.
7. Pass. This can only be done if you have at least one village in play. This does not end your planning phase, you may still take normal actions on subsequent turns. When all players pass in turn order the planning phase ends.

Now begins the journey. Each player, in turn, uses his transport cards to visit as many villages and collect as much gold as he can, starting with the villages in front of them. He may also use certain special cards to overcome obstacles placed in his path by the other players. All villages must be visited in turn, no skipping, if the special card Reverse Direction is played he turns around and may visit the same villages in reverse order. If the player is unable to make it to the next village or can not overcome an obstacle his journey ends. If he is able to visit all of the villages on the table he gets a 10 gold piece bonus and may continue to travel as long as he is able to. An obstacle affects everyone except the player who placed it. This is where the Coat of Arms token come into play (each player is limited to 4).

Once all players have completed there journeys and collected their gold the round ends. All of the Coat of Arms tokens are returned to the players and all cards are returned to the deck and reshuffled. A new hand is dealt and the game continues with the next player starting off. The game continues in this fashion until the required number of rounds have been played. Whoever has the most gold, wins.

My opinion
I love this game! It has a near perfect balance of luck and strategy. If your a fan of Alan R. Moons other elf games like Elfenland this is a must buy. Aw, what the hell, this is a must buy for anyone.

 

Number of players: 2-6	Complexity:	Strategy:	Luck:
Playing time: 45 minutes	Manufacturer: Amigo / Rio Grande

From the box:

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.