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

Battle for Hill 218 Review

Battle for Hill 218 review by Count Zero

Battle for Hill 218 is the latest offering from Your Move Games, there most popular game so far has been the Battleground series but I think things may change now.

For your money you get a single deck of cards in the standard cardboard box, similar to a deck of Magic cards. Opening the box you get a small paper instruction manual, two decks of 26 cards one set blue and the other is green. Finally there is the Hill 218 card.

Each player has the same set of 26 cards; these are split into the different troop or equipment cards that make up your army. These are infantry, heavy weapons, tank, special op's, paratroopers, artillery and final air strikes.

Setup of the game is very easy, the hill 218 card is placed on a table. It's more of a marker and serves no real purpose in the game other than as a visual aid. Each player then takes there two air strike cards and places them on their side of the table. There deck of cards is then shuffled and five cards are drawn. From these five two are discarded.

Player one now starts, he draws two cards from his deck and places one of his 5 cards. The first placement needs to be on his side of the Hill 218 card. You have to imagine that the board is made up of a grid of spaces. Each space being able to take one card. The spaces on opposite sides of the Hill 218 card represent your base. Your objective is to place one of your cards in your opponent’s base space. Sounds easy, but it can take a bit of effort.

Player two now takes his turn, he draws two cards from his deck and places two on the table. From this point on, both players take turns to draw two cards and place two. These can be either from their hand, or one of their two airstrike cards. The rules of placement are simple; each card has an image showing its supply route. This is represented as arrows running from a square. Cards can only be placed if they can trace a line back to your base. So for example, an infantry card will show supply routes North, South, East and West. You could place another infantry card next to this card in any of those spaces. Most of the cards have this same supply rules except for paratroopers who can be dropped into any space on the board.

Once a card has been placed it has the opportunity to attack. Again a small image will show the attack directions that this card can use and whether it can destroy a card or will need support to help it. The bigger unit cards such as tanks and artillery can destroy cards. So for example a tank can destroy a card to its North, South, East and West. So place it in front of an enemy card and it will destroy it. Most of the other cards need help to destroy your enemy’s cards and this is where the support rules come into place.

The final image on the card shows what support that the card can play, it will again have markers pointing North, South, East, West or in all directions. If a card is placed that requires support in order to destroy the enemy card the cards next to it are checked. If they can offer support then the enemy card is removed. Sounds a bit complicated, but after your first game you will get it.

The final type of card is the airstrike; by playing one of your two airstrike cards you can instantly remove one of the enemy’s cards from the board. You only have two of these so you need to use them wisely.

First player to place one of their cards into the opponents base square wins the game. It's a quick game that last about 10 minutes, so you will be playing multiples of the game or usually a best of three games to determine the winner.

I have found that the player who starts second seems to have a bit of an upper hand. But I am expecting this to even out after more plays. Hill 218 is a good quick game; it's one of those games that will surprise you with its unexpected complexity. From the start it seems pretty easy, but after a couple of games the strategies start forming.

As a bonus, your move games have put a free java version on there web site. It's easy to install and allows you to play the game without spending any money.
The link is here http://www.yourmovegames.com/pages/hill218.html

Summary

Presentation
Card stock is good with a nice shiny finish. 8/10

Clarity of Rules
Rules are pretty clear, after a game you will not need them again 8/10

Game Length
Games last about 10-20 minutes, so you can play a few quickly 8/10

Value
It's a pack of cards 7/10

Overall
An abstract game with a WW2 theme, quick to play and allot of fun (8/10 not an average)