BoardGameGeek Recent Additions (articles)

Castle for all Seasons - Resources Limited?

JoffW — 2009-01-06T10:41:03+00:00

I am sure i've read it in the rules, but upon reading them again I cannot find it!!!

Are the resources limited in this game?

Thanks

Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! - Russia 1941-1942 - Protecting Components

nheather — 2009-01-06T10:22:40+00:00

I'm relatively new to boardgaming and the games I've played before CoH have all been euro gateway games with solid robust components.

I received CoH and the 'Marsh' expansion as a Christmas present and I'm concerned that the trackinginfo sheets and the cards are less robust than I'm used to.

Just wondering what lengthes, if any, you go to protect your game components.

Do you laminate the sheets?

What about the cards - I've seen sleeves but have no experience with them. I had assumed that they were just for collections (like pokemon stuff) and that you wouldn't really be able to use or shuffle the protected cards.

Cheers,

Nigel

Combat Commander: Pacific - Artillery Denied Marker

qubilai2001 — 2009-01-06T10:14:24+00:00

O24.1 step b) says that something must be chosen if I play a communication established asset request even if that is the artillery denied marker

Question 1)

If I select (or have no choice) the artillery denied marker as I right assuming that this prevents me from using artillery for the remainder of the scenario?

Question 2)

The marker affects me and not my opponent?

Question 3)

Is there any way to get rid of the marker?

Sorry if these questions sound a bit dumb but I cannot find any indication what this marker actually does anywhere in the rules other than 24.1

Fortress America - Help!

StealthDonut — 2009-01-06T10:07:05+00:00

I have some problems. My folks got me a copy of "Fortress America", which I have yearned for for the past 20 years or so. I've had it several months and read the instruction book but it appears to be somewhat vague in places, at least to me. So if anyone is able to help me with this I would be greatly appreciative. I learn better by seeing the game played than by reading what happens in an instruction manual, and I think this is the root of my major issue.

Footnote: I am playing this for the first time with my 2 brothers and nephew this coming Friday and want to have some rudimentary knowledge of how this works, because they sure don't. And if they don't "get it" within an hour or two it'll go back on the game shelf for God only knows how long, and I really, really want to play this game. So for now I'm having to try and solo this thing...

1. Bear in mind I'm thinking in Axis & Allies gameplay, and I'm using that as a point of reference for FA. First Movement I can move only aircraft over hostile areas. Helicopters I can actually land in an unoccupied enemy area (for instance, the empty zone directly west of Seattle), but Infantry cannot do this, correct? So if I wanted to attack Seattle directly on the very first turn I could do so with mechanized units moving into the empty zone directly west of it (if I'm reading this correctly) and air units, but not Infantry?

2. A helicopter can, during First Movement use it's "special 1st move" feature and land in an empty, enemy occupied space. But the penalty is that if it does this it's more or less forced to sit there for the duration of the rest of the turn, right?

3. Combat continues approximately one round. Defender picks off a few attackers, Attacker hits with what's left, and then it's done? It doesn't go on ad infinitum like A&A until one side is destroyed or the other retreats?

4. Second Movement is basically equivalent (plus or minus a minor quibble here or there) to the Non-Combat Phase from A&A, correct?

5. Concerning Lasers. I'm assuming that the US can basically only build a maximum of 12 Laser Towers since there's only 12 Laser Markers in the box, yes?

That's it for now...though I'm sure I'll have more as gameplay progresses. Again, please forgive my line of questions...I know to some of the more experienced among you I may be coming across as a bag of hammers right now, but I'm trying to learn this puppy solo and if I do that I'll have access to another game to play with my group. Any help is appreciated!!!

Arkham Horror - patrol wagon - movement points?

drone9 — 2009-01-06T09:38:06+00:00

While it seems pretty obvious we had an argument about this one, so I decided to post a question:

If you choose to make use of the patrol wagon's special move, do you still receive movement points for the purpose of i.e. reading a book?

The argument was that reading a book is not exactly movement and might therefor not be subject to '...instead of your normal movement'. My interpretation is that the phrase '...instead of your normal movement' should be read as '..instead of receiving movement points'. It's probably a question of whether or not the patrol wagon comes with a driver...

Memoir '44 - Memoir '44 card draft?

cferejohn — 2009-01-06T09:25:14+00:00

An idle thought I just had: what if you did a deck draft in Memoir '44.

Something like: Draw 4 cards, each player picks one, two are removed from the game. Alternate who gets to pick first until you've gone through the whole deck. Each player now plays with only their own set of command cards.

Nothing I've tried yet, but just curious if anyone has tried something like this and if so how it worked?

Endeavor - Release date?

silvanus321 — 2009-01-06T09:09:25+00:00

Any news?

I like the theme and the art work.
The mechanics seems new and interesting to me.
Thanks for your efforts in developing this game.
Must buy.

Combat Commander: Europe - solo

MS_IGLOO — 2009-01-06T09:00:48+00:00

Hello
Just curious does anyone play solo
whats the best way to do this
it seems to be a bit difficult
thanks matt

Snow Tails - Expansions?

luniki — 2009-01-06T08:39:56+00:00

Will there be expansions to Snow tails? Some additional track parts would be fine... What is the Lamont Brother's policy on "fan art"? Is it allowed to create high quality track parts and upload them here?

Lord of the Rings - Friends & Foes - is F&F OOP?

cw67q — 2009-01-06T08:30:48+00:00

(apologies if this gets duplicated, I thought I sent a similar post yesterday, but can see no sign of it).

Hi Folks,

I bought the base game for my 7yo daughter at xmas and she loves it. I was considering picking up this expansion, but cannot find any copies for sale online in the uk.

Does anyone know if it is OOP? and if so how likley that is to change (e.g. I know FFG's AH expnasions regularly go in & out of print).

I saw a couple of copies for sale from the US, but I'm not in a big enough hurry to shell out for international postage just yet.

Thanks in advance & best wishes - Chris

Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm - Request for a victorious solitaire session report on hard difficulty

morningstar — 2009-01-06T08:04:48+00:00

I played a few solitaire games over the New Year's Day long weekend, and I was either lucky or I've gotten better. I consistently beat the robot on medium difficulty. I think a big step in getting better vs. the robot is learning that it's not the same game as multi-player Race for the Galaxy. So now I've switched to hard difficulty. And I have yet to win one.

I couldn't find any session report of a solitaire game on hard difficulty. Is there one I missed? If not, can anyone reading this beat the robot on hard difficulty? Care to post a session report?

Cuba - 2p: Products are king

morningstar — 2009-01-06T08:02:43+00:00

Since getting this game for me for Christmas, Julie has been nice enough to play several two-player games with me. I've pretty well settled into my overall strategic idea. The execution changes from game to game, in major ways that I wouldn't definitely call strategic, but the main idea is this:

Products are king.

Previously, most of my plays of this game were with five players. Almost all goods shipped were shipped on the boat worth 2 points. By the time a boat got to the 3 slot, if it ever did, it had maybe one space left. It wasn't really worth using an action most of the time to get just the 3 points.

In a two-player game, there are just as many boats, but less capacity for growing products. The result is that we usually ship on the 3-point boat. This makes shipping the dominant concern. In a five-player game, shipping is one of many viable strategies. You can win without ever shipping anything.

There are two things you can ship: products and goods.

In a five-player game, it's good to be able to generate some goods if you're planning on making shipping a major part of your strategy. Even on the 2-point boat, there's a lot of contention and the spots for the easy-to-produce products. If you're not agile, you won't get those spots. If you're the only one with a rum Distillery or Cigar Factory, on the other hand, you have a near-monopoly. Often you can take it easy and still get the spots on the 2-point boat. If you work a little bit harder you might even manage to stall until you ship on the 3-point boat.

On the other hand, in a 2-player game, there's often little incentive to make goods. Most boats have at least 60% product slots. Some boats have 100% product slots. You can stay ahead of your opponent even if you just focus on dominating the product slots and ignore the goods slots entirely.

The most critical building to this strategy is the Dam. You want to maximize your output of products. There are spaces on the board that align with four products. You often want to take those spaces, and use 2 water to produce all four. The Dam keeps up your supply of water nicely.

The next most important strategic consideration is what to do with all those products. It's great to produce four products in a turn, but unless you do something with them, they'll rot at the end of the turn. Of course sometimes you intend to ship them with the Mayor. However, it's better to have your products lined up to ship in your warehouse the turn before the ship reaches the 3 slot. Otherwise, your opponent might get the jump on you and ship before you. The Tradeswoman is an outlet for your goods that's always available, but often pretty weak and sometimes very weak if the supply-increasing Market Act is or has been in effect.

The remaining ways of disposing of your products involve buildings. One building, the Warehouse, you start the game with. Storing your products allows you to use them at the opportune time. However, the Warehouse doesn't align with the best places to put your Worker to generate products. If you have other buildings that you want to use every turn, you won't be able to use the Warehouse.

I suggest buying some other building that makes use of products. You can alternate between the use of this building and your Warehouse. For example, you could place this building in the bottom right corner (4,3), and place two buildings you want to use every turn at (2,1) and (3,3). Then you can alternate between placing your worker at (3,1) using your Warehouse and two others, and placing at (2,3), using all of your buildings except the Warehouse. This gives you some flexibility to Work for different resources and products as tactically necessary, while still generating a lot of products without letting them go to waste.

The Distillery and Cigar Factory are two candidates for this building. You use them mainly to preserve your products, rather than with any specific use of the good in mind. Eventually a ship will probably come along demanding that good, and that gives you an extra couple slots to fill while you're already shipping a lot of products. Or, you can just sell the good using the Tradeswoman if you need some quick cash.

Building a second Warehouse might be good, although I haven't tried it yet. It doesn't give you any additional capabilities, but it gives you flexibility in where you place the Worker while poising products for a quick ship or other flexible use.

The Product House is good, although limited, because it only lets you convert 1 product to money. You might want to combine it with another of these options.

The Monastery might be good. It converts products directly to victory points. I haven't tried it yet.

Late in the game, a Golf Course is a natural build. Although I think using your water to generate extra products is a better path to victory, with the Dam even despite your best efforts you might not be able to use all your water for making products. The leftover easily buys the Golf Course and then turns your remaining water into points in one or two turns.

Domina 4 - Explaining the SETUP rule

n_r_a — 2009-01-06T07:41:30+00:00

A geekuser asked me about the setup rule. Does this rule benefit the white player?

Thanks for asking!

The answer is 'no'.

As the SETUP phase takes place BEFORE determining the players colours, both players try to create the most balanced board.

On the other hand, the 'white player goes first' rule might benefit the white player, but by now, the results are near 50-50 in the playtests.

Néstor.

Battlestar Galactica - Forced Jumped Timing and a few random rules questions.

Poster_Idol — 2009-01-06T06:47:32+00:00

Page 20 states that "There are no "Activate Cylon Ship" and "Prepare for Jump" steps during a revealed Cylon player's turn. Does this mean that if the Cylons action step, he chooses a crisis card to play, any icons at the bottom of the card including "activate raider, Basestar etc and 'prepare for jump' icons are ignored?

Also, if a character activates the forced FTL as his action, is it immediate, so you would clear the board of all ships, make a roll to see if population is lost, draw destination cards and THEN play a crisis card, so that there could immediately be Basestars etc in the location you jump to, OR, do you take the action, play a crisis card and THEN jump as it where a standard auto jump?

Last one is, if it is for example, Helos turn, and he draws a skill check card which needs say red and yellow to pass, can ANOTHER player play a card which allows blue cards to be positive? In combat can a players who isn't in their turn, play a pilot card to help a pilot in combat on their turn (Like the skill card which allows re rolls for attacked vipers? I guess what Im saying is, can you play skill cards that dont say ACTION: on another players turn?

Thanks heaps.

Risk Express - Extra Dice?

andrews777 — 2009-01-06T06:16:07+00:00

Argghhh.

I had a mishap the other day and one of my dice has gone missing.

Any source for extra dice?

Brad

Playing Gods: The Board Game of Divine Domination - Playing Gods Rulebook now available in German and Portuguese

Ben Radford — 2009-01-06T05:52:54+00:00

The Playing Gods Rulebook is now available in German and Portuguese on the Playing Gods Web site, www.PlayingGods.com. The rules are available for free in PDF form. Other languages, including Spanish, will be ready soon.

Agricola - Solitaire: too lucky with Minor Improvment/Occupation draw? (66 pts!)

familygaming — 2009-01-06T05:39:14+00:00

First, my Agricola cred: I have played Agricola 12 times -- 3 times solitaire. The first time I played Solitaire, I got 48 pts. The second game (with one carry over Occupation from the first game) I scored 52. I felt like I made too many mistakes the first two games and wanted to start over. I saw how beneficial it was to let spaces build up over time (especially animals and wood) and realized my approach to the game would have to be quite different to do well. As well, my first two solitaire games were my 8th and 9th playings of the game, and I felt like I was just starting to get the hang of how to use the Minor Improvement cards and Occupation cards effectively.

So tonight I sat down for Generation One (first game) in a Farming campaign, my 12th playing of Agricola (3rd solitaire). I used E deck only and amongst the cards I was dealt was the Baker and the Millstone. I look at one then the other; back to the first then returned to the second. Could it be as good as it sounded?

It was. To get the food I needed for the first Harvest, I used Day Laborer for 2 and the Fishing hole for 4. I used the rest of my actions to get set up for grain farming (2 Plow + 2 Grain + Sow). Before the second Harvest I built the Clay Oven, and then the food engine went crazy. Without even having to use a Bake Bread action, I was generating 7 food every Harvest automatically (at the cost of one Grain). This allowed me to basically go nuts on the board. I Plowed, Grained, Vegged, Sowed, Built, Renovated, and - on the last turn -- grabbed 14 Sheep, 7 Wild Boar, and 4 Cattle, finishing the game with 66 POINTS!

You could say that my play improved considerably. But - as much as I'd like to take credit for it - it seems obvious to me that I got dealt an amazing 2-card combo. I still enjoy the flow of play in Agricola, and the challenge of every game, but I was surprised to see how much easier the Solitaire game is depending on the starting cards. There are some cards that are just not great for Solitaire (for example, the Occupation card that gives you an extra Wood every time you take Wood from a space -- since Solitaire is about letting spaces build, this card is almost..."dead wood" if you'll excuse the pun.)

I'll still play the game multiplayer, but I may give up Solitaire. 66 pts in game 1? Seriously? That's 8 food for the start of next game. That's insane. 48 points was frustrating; 66 pts is barely less so. It felt too much like the cards wone, and not my play.

Thoughts?

Ghost Stories - Green's power on a neutral board?

junesen — 2009-01-06T05:35:17+00:00

If green is a neutral player, does the green's power affect the tormentor's on its boards (or any left curse effects of ghosts placed on the board)?

Dice Games Properly Explained - OOP and very expensive now

bookgnome — 2009-01-06T05:29:05+00:00

Okay so I was looking for another copy of this great book of dice games by Dr. Knizia. I searched all my secret book finder services and there are like no copies of it available. The only one I found listed was on Amazon.com and it was priced at more than $180.00!!! I couldn't believe it! I got my copy several years ago and it is in Very Good condition, but I wouldn't sell it. If you have a copy or know who has a copy, read it and write down the rules for your favorites. It has a bunch of classic dice games from around the world and their various names, like Pig, Farkle, Yahtzee, Mexico, etc., as well as probabilities and strategies for play. Amazing and very readable. If you can get hold of a copy, you've got a gem!

Battlestar Galactica - Ideas For Character Rebalancing

SevenSpirits — 2009-01-06T05:27:48+00:00

I think if people pick characters with an eye towards winning, you'll end up with some always being picked, and others never. Obviously I'd prefer this wasn't the case, so here are some thoughts I've had about it.

Boomer (no one should pick her as is):
Remove the part of her drawback that sends her to the brig. She still has the drawback of being likely to become a cylon at the wrong time, and the other players may just brig her anyway. Additionally, she already has the drawback of being the only character who doesn't draw green (and she doesn't get yellow either). I think with this change she's approximately on par with Starbuck (3-4 player) or Apollo (5-6 player).

Roslin (she's probably the best choice if you want to win):
- In order to use her Visions, she must discard a card.
- Replace her drawback with Apollo's (she has to discard randomly).
Yes, discarding one card at random every turn is worse than discarding 2 cards when you use locations. I also find it thematic that she now actually uses the President's Office and Press Room, doesn't like to travel to the Galactica and back, and is a slightly crappy president due to Water and Food Shortages.

If you're using this, it's annoying that Apollo now has the same drawback as Roslin, so you can instead change his drawback to:
Principled - When making a choice on a crisis card, you must choose the skill check if there is one and the bottom choice if there isn't one (on almost all cards, the second choice is the more "selfless" one).
I like changing his drawback thematically because he was previously a really crappy president due to the random discards and wanting to be on Galactica. He's now a fairly good choice for the humans to elect because he always has to choose the discard option on Food and Water Shortages. This change is really only for aesthetics and not for balance.

Tyrol:
I really think he's too weak, but I haven't thought of a good way to fix him. Any ideas?

Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! - Russia 1941-1942 - Group Activation

Rakeman — 2009-01-06T05:17:46+00:00

I don't understand how group activation works. Is it as simple as the following:

-On your turn, you can spend 7 APs. You can spend these to give any units an action, but after doing so, all units that used AP are marked as used.-

?

For example, if you had 2 rifleman squads with 2 empty spaces in between them. Pretend each movement cost is 1. Could you spend 1 AP to move Rifleman Squad A one space closer to B, 1 AP to move B one space closer to A (closing the gap), then using group movement to move them one forward, costing 1 AP and one CAP (as they are in different hexes), but group move them into the same hex, then simply move them forward at 1 AP/hex?

It seems that, once a group is broken (for example, the rulebook shows a line of 4 units, one in the middle gets killed), the two smaller groups can each use the AP individually to move, but this AP is drained from a collective pool. So I suppose my question is, how do you know if a unit is eligible to take AP from a collective pool, or are all unactivated units eligible, at the price of becoming used at the end of the activation? If that is the case, are you allowed to add units to the group sharing the AP pot in the middle of the turn, or once you choose your group activation, is it set in stone? Furthermore, would a unit be marked used if you declare it for group activation, but never actually spend AP on it?

Finally, if you use, say, a Molotov Cocktail, can you group-use it? As in, adding 1 for the firepower of units in that hex?

I hope I am making sense... thanks.

Pandemic - Movie scenario 3: 12 Monkeys, 1995

silvanus321 — 2009-01-06T05:05:54+00:00

Initial setup:

Use New York instead of Philadelphia, Atlanta instead of New Orleans, San Paulo instead of Rio de Janeiro

Use the following two characters, two special events, and one epidemic cards
]]>]]>]]>]]>]]>

Put one mental institution in New York (instead of Philadelphia). Every pawn in Philadephia loses one action, except for the psychiatrist.
]]>
Put the bioterrorist marker in San francisco. Character with pistol card can kill the bioterrorist by moving to the same city.
]]>

When you draw the 12 Monkeys card, follow the instruction listed on the card.

You can find other scenarios here:
Movie scenario 2: I'm Legend, 2007
Movie scenario 1: Outbreak, 1995

Princes of Machu Picchu, The - Two Rules Questions/Clarifications

sheepdog — 2009-01-06T04:34:55+00:00

1) Can you only get to the Watchman's Hut by paying a llama? Or is the Hut adjacent to those (Southernmost) districts which are sitting on the same road that dead-ends into the Hut?

2) Am I right in assuming that the gray Temple Stone Cylinders are returned to the Supply/Bank (so that they can be reused at Night) immediately after the current/moving player's Scout climbs up the appropriate Incatrail steps, and are not actually kept by the player? The Rules say "the player takes all the temple stones", but never addresses what to do with them.

Asia Engulfed - Jungle Attrition and Strat Moves

SLouis39 — 2009-01-06T04:28:53+00:00

Rule 6.72 says that cadre level units do not get destroyed by attrition. What about garrison units?

Can the Chinese strat move using one or more the American ones? If yes, either Nats or Coms?

Thanks.

Fantasy Rules! - Some dumb questions about the rules

byteknight — 2009-01-06T04:13:56+00:00

I'm not getting combat in this game.

It's unclear to me how the number of figures per unit affect combat.

1) If two units melee each other, do I add each CF x the number of units to the d10 die roll?

e.g 5 mob figures on a base would total (5x1CF each) + d10 roll?

2) Missile combat. It seems that only a maximum of 4 bowmen in a unit can engage another unit. For example, I have 6 skeleton bowmen figures on one base. 4 of them can attack, say, 5 enemy dwarves figures on their own base. I make one d10 roll to determine if all 5 dwarves are destroyed or demoralized?

Also, the other 2 skeleton bowmen then must target some other enemy based unit? It doesn't make sense that I can't mass as much arrows as possible on a single unit. In a mass formation, I imagine a leader can tell all the bowmen to target specifically. Why only 4 out x number of figures, I don't know.

3) Artillery combat. If I roll a high enough D10, then my cannon can destroy theoretically a unit of 1 or, say, 10 figures found on a single base? Where does the enemy armor come into play against artillery? Doesn't the enemy player make some roll of some kind??

I wish the authors put in example rolls. It would make things easier.

Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm - Toughest / easiest solitaire opponent home worlds?

morningstar — 2009-01-06T04:11:42+00:00

Does anyone think certain solitaire opponent homeworlds are harder or easier to beat?

I think Old Earth and Earth's Lost Colony are pretty tough. They usually beat me by really getting up their economy size and then getting x2s.

On the other hand I find Ancient Race pretty easy to beat on medium difficulty. All its Trade robot action is good for is getting its credit up, and that's not good for much other than buying 6-cost developments. When it uses up those two, it pretty much runs out of steam.

However, on hard difficulty, Ancient Race becomes pretty strong. It pretty much guarantees a baseline of 27 points from getting all three 6-cost developments.

Android - Canceling Actions

DuckAndCower — 2009-01-06T04:00:46+00:00

I'm a little confused as to how canceling actions works in certain situations. For example, Louis's "Sara was always the smart one" says:

Play when Louis uncovers a piece of the conspiracy. Cancel that action."

What exactly is canceled? Is the lead still moved as per the normal rules for following up a lead (since the lead is already "followed" by the time you get to the "Uncover a piece of the conspiracy" step) or is it as if Louis had spent 1 Time for nothing to happen?

Additionally, does this apply when Louis decides to "Dig Deeper" instead of drawing and placing a puzzle piece?

Any ideas?

Android - Removing Evidence

DuckAndCower — 2009-01-06T03:52:11+00:00

Some cards allow you to remove evidence from a suspect. So here's a simple question whose answer I couldn't find in the rules: is the removed evidence shuffled back into the pile or tossed back into the box?

Monopoly - Monopoly Helps WWII POWs Escape

sodaklady — 2009-01-06T03:49:46+00:00

My husband received an email with the following story:

-- Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British airmen found
themselves as the involuntary guests (POWs) of the Third Reich, and the
Crown was casting about for ways and means to facilitate their escape.
Now, obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end was a useful and
accurate map, one showing not only where-stuff-was, but also showing the
locations of 'safe houses', where a POW on-the-lam could go for food and
shelter.

Paper maps had some real drawbacks: they make a lot of noise when
you open and fold them, they wear out rapidly and, if they get wet, they
turn into mush. Someone in MI5 (similar to the FBI in the USA) got the
idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be scrunched-up
into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise
whatsoever.

At that time, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain that
had perfected the technology of printing on silk, and that was John
Waddington Ltd. When approached by the government, the firm was only
too happy to do its bit for the war effort. By pure coincidence,
Waddington was also the U.K. licensee for the popular American board
game, Monopoly.

As it happened, 'games and pastimes' was a category of item
qualified for insertion into 'CARE packages', dispatched by the
International Red Cross, to prisoners of war. Under the strictest of
secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible old workshop on the
grounds of Waddington's, a group of sworn-to secrecy employees began
mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy
where Allied POW camps were located. (Red Cross packages were delivered
to prisoners in accordance with that same regional system). When
processed, these maps could be folded into such tiny dots that they would
actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece.

While they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington's also
managed to add: A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass,
and a two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together. Useful
amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and French currency
were hidden within the piles of Monopoly money!

British and American air-crews were advised, before taking off on
their first mission, how to identify a 'rigged' Monopoly set - by means
of a tiny red dot, one cleverly rigged to look like an ordinary printing
glitch, located in the corner of the Free Parking square!

Of the estimated 35,000 Allied POWs who successfully escaped, an
estimated one-third were aided in their flight by these rigged Monopoly
sets. Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy indefinitely, since the
British Government might want to use this highly successful ruse in still
another, future war. The story wasn't de-classified until 2007, when the
surviving craftsmen from Waddington's, as well as the firm itself, were
finally honoured in a public ceremony.

At any rate, it's always good when you can play that 'Get Out of
Jail Free' card. --

A little "googling" found this article:

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/monopoly-game.

which seems to corroborate the story with the exception that the maps were simply of the area without showing "safe houses".

I thought it was interesting enough to share with my fellow game geeks, even if it isn't totally true. But I hope it is. Any Brits out there know anything about this "public ceremony" mentioned?

Thurn and Taxis - Closing and Scoring Routes

PlayMe1 — 2009-01-06T03:46:48+00:00

2 questions:

I. I believe I have been playing the rule on closing routes wrong. I have played, for example, that a route of 5 can be any 5 connected cities. But, in re-reading the rules, it seems that all 5 cities have to be either in the same province (which could only be Baiern) or in 5 different provinces (ex: 1. Carlsruhe (Baden) -> 2. Stuttgart (Wurttemberg) -> 3. Nurnberg (Baiern) ->4 Pilsen (Bohnen) -> 5. Lodz (Polen). Is this correct?

II. When closing a route of 5, for instance, that includes Munchen where I already placed a post office previously, I need 5 cards, but I only place 4 new post offices, but I get credit for a route of 5. Is this correct?

Thanks!