Review - Goldbräu
First impressions
The cards, while not having a linen finish, have been well made and slide nice and easily without sticking. The fences, boss tokens and share markers are all wood, and the brewery contract markers, drunken bum and pretty waitress markers, start player token and payday token are all sturdy cardboard, and do have a linen finish, for a nice tactile feel. The money is a little fiddly, but does the job. The board is nicely laid out, also has the linen finish, and as a nice touch, the back of the board features the symbols of the 6 beer gardens on it. It's subtle touches like that, putting in a little extra work for something that no-one will really see - certainly not during the playing of the game - that shows someone really cared about the production values. The rules are clearly laid out with clear examples of play to ensure things are well understood. The artwork on everything is really very nice.
Aim of the game
Large beer gardens will earn more money both for themselves and the breweries that have the contract with them. That money is divided by the shareholders. Get shares in the businesses, grow the beer gardens, and earn the most money to win the game.
Set up (assuming the 4 player game)
Each beer garden starts with a single table. One gets the Drunken Bum, and another gets the Pretty Waitress. Each player starts with a total of 4 shares in the 10 businesses (Breweries and Beer Gardens), determined by choosing four share cards from an initial hand of 6, and two bosses, the locatiosn of which are determined in player order (Each business can only have one boss at a time). They also get a small amount of cash. The start player gets the start player token, and the player opposite them gets the payday token.
Playing the game
Each round represents one day. After 7 days, it's payday, and everyone gets paid (scores) for the current state of play. Two more weeks of play happen in the same way, and at the end of the third week, the player with the most money wins the game.
At the start of a day, two share cards are drawn from the deck, and put on display. Each player selects one of their three action cards. The cards are "beer garden expansion", "name boss/beer contract" and "acquire share". Once everyone has chosen, they reveal their selection.
Play goes in this order: "expansion" cards, then "boss/contract", then "acquire". If two or more players have chosen the same action card, then when it's time for that action, the players involved take turns clockwise from the current start player.
Beer Garden expansion allows you to incease the size of a beer garden by one space, as long as you have a boss token there. If a player is the only player to select this action, they get to do the action twice - they can either increase the same beer garden a second time, or increase a different one.
The Name Boss/Beer Contract action card allows the player to either try to name their boss to be the boss of a business or change a brewery contract. If you're not the boss of a business, but you have at lease one share there, you can attempt to become boss. As long as the current player who has their boss token there is unable to secure an absolute majority, the take-over will be successful. Share cards can be played by both the active and defending players to change the balance of power. To change a brewery contract, the active player must have a boss in both a brewery and a beer garden. If they do, they may replace the existing contract that the beer garden has with a contract from a brewery that they are the boss of. If you're the only player to select this action, you can do it twice.
The Acquire Share action means that the player can either take one of the two face up cards, or take the top card from the draw deck. If it's a face up share, it's immediately discarded, and a share cube is placed on the appropriate business. If it's a face down share from the draw deck, the player can either reveal and discard it, placing a share cube, or put it into his hand. If it's a Drunken Bum or Pretty Waitress, the player has the option to move the appropriate token by up to two beer gardens from its current location, but not to the beer garden that the other token is in.
There is a cost for this $2 if the player was the only player to play that action card, $5 if two players chose it, or $8 if 3 or 4 players chose it. A single player does not get to buy two shares, the price break is the benefit instead. Of course, if the first two players take face up share cards, the remaining players have to take share cards from the draw deck. Players are not obliged to take share cards, and indeed, may not afford it, if too many other players also took that option.
That marks the end of the day, and the start player token is moved to the next player clockwise.
Payday (scoring)
At the end of the 7th turn (Sunday), it's time to score. It's easy to remember, as it will be the second time the start player token reached the player with the payday token. Before scoring actually commences, players may play any additional share cards from their hands, and add shares to the appropriate businesses. If at any time (now, or during the acquire share pahse, or during the name boss phase), the 6th and last share card of a particualr business is played, any players with but a single share in that business loses it. So it's in your interest to have at least two shares in a business if you can. Each beer garden has a value - each regular table in the garden is worth $4, each table with an umbrella is worth $8. Having the Pretty Waitress in the garden is an additional $20, but the Drunken Bum deducts $12 from the total (though never reducing it below zero). So, for each Garden in turn, calculate it's income. Half of this goes to the brewery that has the contract, so place that money on the brewery for later. Then divide the other half by the number of shares in the Garden. The owner of each share then gets the appropriate number of bucks. If it doesn't divide evenly, and it often won't, the boss gets the left overs. Once all the gardens have been done, the money placed on the breweries gets divided in the same way. It's important that it's done in this fashion, rather than dividing the brewery money as you go, because of the boss getting the excess.
Once the scoring has been done, the start token is moved like with a regular day, and the payday token is moved on place anticlockwise, to mark the end of the second week. Scoring will happen again at the end of the 2nd and 3rd weeks, and then at that point, the winner is the player with the most money.
Thoughts.
The rules are simple and easy to understand. The hardest bit is the mental arithmetic for dividing up the earnings, but there's a chart at the back of the rules for the mathematically challenged. The choices, however, are not so simple. Often you are doing something to help another player, sometimes clearly so (by increasing a beer garden in which they too have shares), sometimes less obviously (by them having shares in the brewery that has the contract for the beer garden you're expanding). With so many options, trying to figure out what your opponents might do, and trying to bluff them (so you an take advantage of the bonus for being the solo player with that action), and the potentially 10 different revenue streams, there's enough going on to make the game really interesting every time it's played. Each day/round goes by really quickly, so don't let the lengthy instructions put you off. Once you get into the swing of things it doesn't take long at all. Try not to let the beer garden you have lots of shares in get blocked off. Try to get your garden big enough to still give income even if the Drunken Bum is there. Take advantage of getting rid of single-share players by getting the 6th share card played.
This is a great game - some complex decisions to be made under simple rules, but choices limited enough that analysis paralysis shouldn't be a problem. There's even the opportunity for a little backstabbing to satisfy your evil side. It's a game I'll happily play under most circumstances, and will even suggest it.
9/10
Thanks to Rio Grande for donating this game to the St Louis Boardgame Meetup Group for review.
Boardgamegeek listing for Goldbräu
The cards, while not having a linen finish, have been well made and slide nice and easily without sticking. The fences, boss tokens and share markers are all wood, and the brewery contract markers, drunken bum and pretty waitress markers, start player token and payday token are all sturdy cardboard, and do have a linen finish, for a nice tactile feel. The money is a little fiddly, but does the job. The board is nicely laid out, also has the linen finish, and as a nice touch, the back of the board features the symbols of the 6 beer gardens on it. It's subtle touches like that, putting in a little extra work for something that no-one will really see - certainly not during the playing of the game - that shows someone really cared about the production values. The rules are clearly laid out with clear examples of play to ensure things are well understood. The artwork on everything is really very nice.
Aim of the game
Large beer gardens will earn more money both for themselves and the breweries that have the contract with them. That money is divided by the shareholders. Get shares in the businesses, grow the beer gardens, and earn the most money to win the game.
Set up (assuming the 4 player game)
Each beer garden starts with a single table. One gets the Drunken Bum, and another gets the Pretty Waitress. Each player starts with a total of 4 shares in the 10 businesses (Breweries and Beer Gardens), determined by choosing four share cards from an initial hand of 6, and two bosses, the locatiosn of which are determined in player order (Each business can only have one boss at a time). They also get a small amount of cash. The start player gets the start player token, and the player opposite them gets the payday token.
Playing the game
Each round represents one day. After 7 days, it's payday, and everyone gets paid (scores) for the current state of play. Two more weeks of play happen in the same way, and at the end of the third week, the player with the most money wins the game.
At the start of a day, two share cards are drawn from the deck, and put on display. Each player selects one of their three action cards. The cards are "beer garden expansion", "name boss/beer contract" and "acquire share". Once everyone has chosen, they reveal their selection.
Play goes in this order: "expansion" cards, then "boss/contract", then "acquire". If two or more players have chosen the same action card, then when it's time for that action, the players involved take turns clockwise from the current start player.
Beer Garden expansion allows you to incease the size of a beer garden by one space, as long as you have a boss token there. If a player is the only player to select this action, they get to do the action twice - they can either increase the same beer garden a second time, or increase a different one.
The Name Boss/Beer Contract action card allows the player to either try to name their boss to be the boss of a business or change a brewery contract. If you're not the boss of a business, but you have at lease one share there, you can attempt to become boss. As long as the current player who has their boss token there is unable to secure an absolute majority, the take-over will be successful. Share cards can be played by both the active and defending players to change the balance of power. To change a brewery contract, the active player must have a boss in both a brewery and a beer garden. If they do, they may replace the existing contract that the beer garden has with a contract from a brewery that they are the boss of. If you're the only player to select this action, you can do it twice.
The Acquire Share action means that the player can either take one of the two face up cards, or take the top card from the draw deck. If it's a face up share, it's immediately discarded, and a share cube is placed on the appropriate business. If it's a face down share from the draw deck, the player can either reveal and discard it, placing a share cube, or put it into his hand. If it's a Drunken Bum or Pretty Waitress, the player has the option to move the appropriate token by up to two beer gardens from its current location, but not to the beer garden that the other token is in.
There is a cost for this $2 if the player was the only player to play that action card, $5 if two players chose it, or $8 if 3 or 4 players chose it. A single player does not get to buy two shares, the price break is the benefit instead. Of course, if the first two players take face up share cards, the remaining players have to take share cards from the draw deck. Players are not obliged to take share cards, and indeed, may not afford it, if too many other players also took that option.
That marks the end of the day, and the start player token is moved to the next player clockwise.
Payday (scoring)
At the end of the 7th turn (Sunday), it's time to score. It's easy to remember, as it will be the second time the start player token reached the player with the payday token. Before scoring actually commences, players may play any additional share cards from their hands, and add shares to the appropriate businesses. If at any time (now, or during the acquire share pahse, or during the name boss phase), the 6th and last share card of a particualr business is played, any players with but a single share in that business loses it. So it's in your interest to have at least two shares in a business if you can. Each beer garden has a value - each regular table in the garden is worth $4, each table with an umbrella is worth $8. Having the Pretty Waitress in the garden is an additional $20, but the Drunken Bum deducts $12 from the total (though never reducing it below zero). So, for each Garden in turn, calculate it's income. Half of this goes to the brewery that has the contract, so place that money on the brewery for later. Then divide the other half by the number of shares in the Garden. The owner of each share then gets the appropriate number of bucks. If it doesn't divide evenly, and it often won't, the boss gets the left overs. Once all the gardens have been done, the money placed on the breweries gets divided in the same way. It's important that it's done in this fashion, rather than dividing the brewery money as you go, because of the boss getting the excess.
Once the scoring has been done, the start token is moved like with a regular day, and the payday token is moved on place anticlockwise, to mark the end of the second week. Scoring will happen again at the end of the 2nd and 3rd weeks, and then at that point, the winner is the player with the most money.
Thoughts.
The rules are simple and easy to understand. The hardest bit is the mental arithmetic for dividing up the earnings, but there's a chart at the back of the rules for the mathematically challenged. The choices, however, are not so simple. Often you are doing something to help another player, sometimes clearly so (by increasing a beer garden in which they too have shares), sometimes less obviously (by them having shares in the brewery that has the contract for the beer garden you're expanding). With so many options, trying to figure out what your opponents might do, and trying to bluff them (so you an take advantage of the bonus for being the solo player with that action), and the potentially 10 different revenue streams, there's enough going on to make the game really interesting every time it's played. Each day/round goes by really quickly, so don't let the lengthy instructions put you off. Once you get into the swing of things it doesn't take long at all. Try not to let the beer garden you have lots of shares in get blocked off. Try to get your garden big enough to still give income even if the Drunken Bum is there. Take advantage of getting rid of single-share players by getting the 6th share card played.
This is a great game - some complex decisions to be made under simple rules, but choices limited enough that analysis paralysis shouldn't be a problem. There's even the opportunity for a little backstabbing to satisfy your evil side. It's a game I'll happily play under most circumstances, and will even suggest it.
9/10
Thanks to Rio Grande for donating this game to the St Louis Boardgame Meetup Group for review.
Boardgamegeek listing for Goldbräu
Labels: boardgame, boardgames, game, games
posted by Timotab @ 10:34 PM
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