Ohne Furcht und Adel Review

Review by William Keech

The basics
A beautiful little card game that incorporates equal amounts of luck, strategy and bluffing. This review is based on the original German release by Hans im Gluck.

Goal
Build a city that is worth more than your neighbors. Speed counts but then again so does style.

Gameboard
There is none, but as the various cities take form a sort of game field is created.

Game components
The artwork is exquisite, highly detailed, colorful and clean printed on above average faux linen cardstock. Unfortunately my copy has
seen so much gameplay that the character cards are starting to show wear and tear, I suggest buying card protectors for these eight cards (as they will bear the brunt of your gameplay use, misuse and abuse)

The gold pieces are little plastic disks that look a lot like butterscotch candy (one guy damn near choked finding that out). I understand that the American printed version, Citadels by Fantasy Flight Games, substituted cheap cardboard cutouts, a shame really. Luckily, man was graced with opposable thumbs and the gift of abstract thought. So this little set back can be easily and cheaply overcome, with a quick trip to the local craft shop. Anything coin like will do, each "coin" denotes a single gold piece.

How to play
Initially each player is dealt a hand of 4 district cards and a bankroll of 2 gold pieces.

The eight character cards are shuffled and a certain number are either set aside face up or face down (dependent on the number of players) The first player takes possession of the crown card (this signifies the current king) and the remaining character cards, chooses one and passes the rest to his left, that player chooses a card and passes the remainder to his/her left, so on an so forth. Each of the characters posses unique powers that the player can take advantage of during his turn, they also denote turn order.

Once everyone has chosen a character, for that round, the player with the crown card calls out each character in assigned order (if the king changes during the course of the turn the new king takes possession of the crown card and continues with the turn calling)

During a players turn you may do one of the following; either take two gold pieces from the pot or draw two more district cards, choose
one and discard the other. The player may then play one district card in front of him by paying the building cost. But lets not forget those special powers each character possesses, these may be used at anytime during that players turn.

Once all of the characters have been called and there turns either completed or forfeited (remember, some characters were discarded and others may lose there turn due to another characters power. Beware the Assassin!) all of the character cards are reshuffled and a new turn begins. Once a player completes his eighth and final district the turn finishes out and points are counted. He with the richest city wins!

My opinion
In a nutshell... this is a must have! A game destined to become a classic, lets just hope it stays in print that long.

Number of players: 3-7	Complexity:	Strategy:	Luck:
Playing time: 1 hour	Manufacturer: Hans im Gluck