John Farrell
Australia
Aspley
Queensland
Averagely Inadequate
Buster Keaton from 'Go West'
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I love old maps. There's just something about pink and green shaded territories with obsolete names that gets me excited. And few maps are more exciting than old maps of Germany - the names Prussia, Baden, Slesvig, Wurttemburg, Bayern, Braunschweig, Thuringen, particularly written in that old Gothic script, get my history sense tingling and remind me of battles and bloodlines echoing through ages. I know I'm not alone because many games have tried to capture that feeling. For me, Rheinlander is one which succeeds.
The term "kleinstaaterei" refers to the political organisation of Germany for hundreds of years until the arrival of Bonaparte and Bismarck. The Holy Roman Empire was split into hundreds of tiny states ruled by rules of assorted exotic titles - duchies, principalities, counties, bishoprics, free cities and margravates. Wikipedia has a map from 1648: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Holy_Roman_Empire_1648.sv... and here's a list of the 1800 states of the Holy Roman Empire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_in_the_Holy_Roma.... I read somewhere (i.e. I can't find a reference) that when Napoleon's Grande Armée went east through Germany there were 372 states, and when they went west there were only 35. The organisation of the Holy Roman Empire was replaced by the Confederation of the Rhine.
Enough of the history lesson. It is in this period of conflict and consolidation that Rheinlander is set. The board depicts a winding segment of the Rhine divided into 54 regions, each of which consists of 2 or 3 spaces. Some spaces are in 2 regions. Players have an army of 17 (for 5 players) or more knights who will gradually be placed into the spaces. There is a deck of 54 cards plus a shuffle card, and players hold 5 cards in their hand. On their turn they choose one of those cards and place a knight from their stock onto a space in the numbered region. Alternatively, a player may discard any card to reinforce into an empty space as long as he has a knight next to it and nobody else does.
When there is a contiguous group of 2 or more knights a duchy is formed. If a player has a majority in that duchy, they may place one of their dukes in it.
Castles, churches and cities are attached to some spaces on the board and have various effects. The owner of a duchy containing a castle gets to place a knight on it for free. The owner of a duchy containing a church becomes a bishop, and whoever has the most bishops gets to be the archbishop. A duchy containing a city is worth more points. In addition, each player has 3 bastions which can be placed to just occupy space, and prevent knights from taking that space.
The excitement comes when duchies merge, or threaten to merge. The knights are counted to determine who has the majority in the merged duchy and the losing duke is removed from the board. The owner of the duke is paid some of the victory points that duke would have received at the end of the game, but not all of them - hence conflict damages your opponents and not yourself, and there's incentive to participate.
For me, the beauty of the game is in the rules about duchies merging. As already mentioned, you can't reinforce into a space next to an opponent's knight, so you usually need exactly the right card to mount an invasion. Furthermore, your opponent may place a bastion in the way. However, it's also possible to play knights on the river spaces, as long as both spaces on the bank are occupied, so this happens towards the end of the game. So as the game nears its end it's possible that the two long duchies facing each other across the river will merge, IF the right player gets the right card to come across the river. Bastions can't be built on the river, so the best defence is to expand on your own side, putting other duchies of other players under pressure. The last third of the game is spent in fear, placing bastions to block obvious threats while hoping your opponents won't notice the devastating plan you're working on yourself... if only you could draw the right card.
As I write this, Rheinlander is ranked 566th, making it Knizia's 37th best game. That seems vastly under-rated to me. Even with slow players this game lasts 45 minutes, and it provides excitement and tension for that whole time. However I do recommend it with exactly 5 players, as with 4 there seems to be too many quiet spots on the board. We haven't even played with 3. However, a quick and good 5 player game is an asset to any collection.
Finally, some words on the different versions. There's the German version pictured above, and the English version:
There are some slight differences in the maps, but they are essentially the same. The other components are very different. Here are the important differences:
* English edition has wooden tokens as knights, but German edition has cardboard shields. German looks better, but English would last longer.
* German dukes look like dukes, English dukes look like knights on horses - win for the German.
* German bastions are tiles which look just like the castles, English bastions are wooden blocks which leave no ambiguity - win for the English.
* German archbishop is a big tile, English archbishop looks like a sex aid - win for the German.
* German VP counters look like money, English VP counters look like VP counters - win for the German.
Having said that though, I find both versions suffer from a little bit of "red and green should never be seen", and the board gets crowded and it can be a little bit difficult to see what's going on - you might sometimes miss a threat because there are so many things to look at on the board. That doesn't make the game unplayable, just less than optimal.
Rheinlander is one of my favourite games, and provides a very interesting implementation of an unusual theme. I hope that word spreads about it, and more people come to appreciate this hidden gem.
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peter mumford
United States
Somerville
Massachusetts
ceci n'est pas une pipe
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Friendless wrote: I do recommend it with exactly 5 players, as with 4 there seems to be too many quiet spots on the board. We haven't even played with 3.
Nice review. I agree, Rheinländer is an under-appreciated game. And I like the history lesson.
But I think it works very well with less than five players. Just declare a few regions on one or both ends of the board out-of-play, remove the corresponding cards and you scale it down. I think there is a thread under variants..
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Darrell Hanning
United States
Jacksonville
Florida
Love women in action movies and shows. It all started with Diana Rigg, in the Avengers.
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I never understood the lower ratings for this game, either. It isn't Taj Mahal, but it's still a very good game.
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dan schnake
United States
Indiana
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Yeah, this is definitely a "more the merrier" game, and it's just excellent for its playing time.
My theory on the bishop is the US version is that someone had a warehouse sale on miniature bowling pins.
The map art is terrible.
Got a new copy for 8 bucks on clearance at the FLGS. Top 5 in my gaming bargains.
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Bill Eldard
United States
Burke
Virginia
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DarrellKH wrote: I never understood the lower ratings for this game, either. It isn't Taj Mahal, but it's still a very good game.
I totally agree, Darrell. Lately,Agricola, Stone Age, Race for the Galaxy, Glory to Rome, Railroad Tycoon, Airships, and Puerto Rico dominate the table time), so it's difficult to get Rheinlander back to the table. But when it does, more people are willing to play it than not.
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