Neuland Review by Derek Carver

Some games come to our attention as a result of a flurry of rave reviews but then inexplicably disappear from public awareness no more than six months later. “How can this happen?” we ask ourselves. “Why did we all rush to buy this game yet now nobody wants to play it – not even a single bid when put on eBay!” We’ve all been there and as I write this I can see a host of examples on my shelves that I’ll refrain from listing!

But there are other truly excellent games that sort of creep into our awareness. Hardly anybody mentions them on the various boardgame sites. It is as though they never happened, yet as the months – even years - go by more and more people get talking about them. Three immediately spring to mind that I’ve no hesitation in naming. One was ‘Die Macher’, another was the cardgame ‘Der Flaschenteufel’, and the third is ‘Neuland’.

‘Neuland’ has just been reprinted (which is why I am writing this piece) in a much more colourful format. But interestingly enough it was because it looked so terribly dull in its first publication that I bought it. Not that it was badly made. It was simply extremely dull to look at. But with so much competition to get a game published, I thought, a game looking as dull as this must be really special in order to have found a good publisher! So I bought it. And how pleased I was that I did. I have always regarded it as being one of the two best games of its year (2004) and I couldn’t understand why people weren’t raving about it.

What I didn’t know at the time, of course, was that only a very few copies had been printed – somebody told me 500. So it wasn’t surprising that it was little known. (I seem to remember that this was the number of the first printing of ‘Die Macher’, which also wasn’t reprinted for several years.)

But now the demand for ‘Neuland’ has grown sufficiently to justify a reprint. When I commented on this to a well-known German reviewer he said how delighted he was because this was one of the very few games that in his review he had ranked 10 out of 10.

There is no point in taking up space with a detailed explanation of how it is played because this information is now available elsewhere. But if you are familiar with the Splotter ‘Roads and Boats’ you will instantly recognise a similarity (although ‘Neuland’ plays in a far shorter time). In both games players can build manufacturing facilities but these facilities, once built, can be used by any player – not just the builder. And unlike games such as ‘Caylus’ the builder of the facility derives no benefit if others make use of it. What is more – and here I’m back talking about ‘Neuland’ – since only one person can occupy the facility at a time you’re a fool if you build the thing and then fail to have any action points remaining that turn in order to place one of your pieces on it.

In a nutshell it is a game of progressive development. You start off with some basic commodities that you then use to convert to something higher up the scale, which in turn – and in association with other commodities – convert into something even better. The aim is to finally acquire the more abstract concepts of a civilised society and so win the game. And if, like me, you are getting fed up with felling timber to build your hut to house your cow, to sell your milk, etc. etc., don’t be put off; you’ll find ‘Neuland’ rises above this now rather tired concept. There is also a very clever and most original ‘movement’ system, which you’ll discover if you play the game.

At first sight the aim seems to be so very daunting you can’t ever imagine getting there without a considerable amount of brain-ache. Certainly a degree of brain-ache is involved but nothing excessive (after all, my brain has now been round a very long time but it can still cope with ‘Neuland’ OK). In fact, if you enjoy a challenging game you’ll be delighted. A few weeks back I introduced it to a player who is known as being “not easy to please” to put it mildly and he instantly placed an order for the upcoming version, proclaiming it as being the best game to come his way for a very long time. So there you go.

It is for four players maximum and it plays equally successfully with three – maybe better because your turn comes round more quickly. I’ve not played it with two so can’t comment.

I suppose it is important to stress that all of my comments relate to the original version. The reprint, which is due to arrive in the UK any day I’m told, has added more colour to the components and might or might not incorporate some changes – we’ll need to wait and see. But the game was so excellent that I can’t imagine it has been radically changed in any way.


Derek Carver