Stephen Sanders
United States
Henderson
Texas
25% Scottish, 25% Dutch, 18% English, 15% Irish, 9% German, 5% French, 3% "Black Dutch" (?) = 100% American!
-
The Geek stars are aligned: 1212 plays, 212 game comments, and 12 fandom games! It's time for my first review.
Of my 12 fandom games I'm picking Aladdin's Dragons first, because it starts with the letter 'A,' though I was having problems spelling Alladin Aladdin correctly.
The Box Top Says: that the number of players is 3 - 5, though I have only played with 4 and 5. It does well with both number, with 4 players completing the game within the 60 - 90 minute time frame, and 5 players going beyond. Richard Breese is the designer of Keydom, of which Aladdin's Dragons re-implements. The game is called 'Morgenland' in German, one of the easiest German words I have ever tried to pronounce.
Components: The Board
I like the fairly large board (28 1/2 in. x 20 1/2 in.), and how the 15 rooms are arranged in 3 sections, which allows for easy turn progression.
Treasure pieces are my favorite components, but probably look a lot like candy to toddlers. Chits and artifacts are bright colors, and cards have nice artwork. Player boards have summaries on their back reminding players of the artifacts special powers.
Overview of Play: Players use their treasures to purchase the all important artifacts. Each artifact is worth one point for the end game scoring, and also provide a special power during the game, or in case of the scroll artifact, it functions as a tie-breaker at game's end. Additional treasures will be accumulated by winning bids in the dragon treasure rooms. These rooms are stocked anew at the beginning of every turn by random card draw. The second tier on the board includes four city "rooms," directly above the dragon treasure rooms. Each of these provides the winning bidder a special reward, including the Aladdin's Lamp room, where the Magic Cards can be drawn and later played. Finally, the third tier on the board includes the Palace Rooms where lie the artifacts. After all bids have been placed one at a time in player order, then each room is tallied, starting with the left most dragon room moving to the right, then up to the second tier with the city rooms tallied right to left, then up to the third tier, with the guard room first, then the palace rooms, left to right.
Key Mechanic: The Blind Bidding
At the beginning of each turn, players will use the eight chits available to them every turn to place power (bid) on rooms where they want to gain something. The chits are numbered 1 - 9, with the number 3 being omitted. There are usually about 12 rooms that will be available for bid placement, making for some difficult decisions as to where to place power.
Some are turned off by this feature of the game, due to not having open information. I actually enjoy this part of the game the most. There is an element of bluffing that is inevitable with the blind bidding. But the leverage one has to bluff is actually limited. To gain the treasure for purchasing artifacts, larger tokens (chits) need to be placed in the dragon rooms, or the player will find himself short of money. In the palace rooms where artifacts are bought, the larger the token, the more the player has to pay. The player must match his payment (i.e., 4 treasures) with his power token (4). Careful planning is needed to make sure one doesn't waste a bid.
After the players have placed all their bids, then rooms are revealed and tallied one at a time. In this example, all dragon rooms have been revealed for illustrative purposes.
The red room is tallied first. Chits are revealed and Red wins the bidding with a total of 11 and takes the top treasure niche, resulting in 5 red treasures (large=3, small=1 each). Green was second with 8 power, and takes the second niche resulting in 3 treasure for him. No one takes third. The rest of the dragon rooms are tallied in same manner.
City rooms can be valuable depending on the circumstances. The Alladin's Lamp room allows the winner to take a magic card.
Here, blue has won the bidding with his 9 power token. He draws 2 cards, keeps one and then gives the other card to the red player, who was second with the 8 power token. Yellow gets nothing.
The other three city rooms provide winning bidders other advantages, as in 1) the Djinn House, playing a second artifact during the turn, 2) the Market, trading in 1 treasure for 3,and 3) and taking the camel, or first player marker. Going first can be important in this game, as he is the tie breaker - and ties come often in this game.
Finally, players move up to the third tier to purchase artifacts. They must first resolve the Guard House. They do this by placing a power token in the guard room that equals or exceeds the guard's random power token (1-9), revealed only when the room is tallied.
Here, the green player's 5 power token is not enough, so he pays an extra 3 treasure piece to bribe his way in to bid on the palace rooms, where he has tokens committed. Otherwise, he loses the power of those tokens. Red is two short, and pays 2 one value tokens; blue is only one short, so he also opts to pay one treasure. Yellow has no token committed, but is fortunate to have purchased the Key artifact, thus giving him access to the Palace rooms.
Finally, the Palace rooms are tallied, left to right, for those valuable artifacts.
In the third room, green will get to purchase the Key artifact (above the room) for 4 treasure of the same type - assuming he still has the money. The first room on the left is actually tallied first, and is won by blue, and he pays two treasure for his artifact (not pictured, above room). In the second room, there is a tie between red and blue, but red has the camel, so wins the tiebreaker and pays one treasure for his artifact.
I enjoy playing this game and give it fandom rating for the way the blind bidding mechanic provides suspense. It offers a different way to make decisions, without a lot of open information. The game is quite tactical, yet common sense must prevail in placing bids that will maximize your return to the fullest extent, and not wasting bids trying to get things too cheap, or overspending when another player has raised the stakes with a weak token.
Finally, a word about the Magic Cards. They can be disruptive to your opponent's plans if timed right. They can be played at any time a player uses his Aladdin's Lamp artifact, so they present a threat while held. Yet, they are not that overpowered, as any other player holding the Counterspell artifact can play it to stop the card's power. Also, if the player plays his Aladdin's Lamp artifact, he can no longer play another artifact during his turn, including two of the most effective: the magic carpet, which can fly into any bid being tallied to immediately add 3 points to the players bid, and the double artifact, which, obviously, doubles the score of the player's bid for that room.
There are lots of options, lots of fun, and lots of suspense. Go to Morgenland!
EDIT: Sorry those first two pics didn't turn out so well.
-
Bruce Glassco
United States
Charlottesville
Virginia
-
This has been one of my daughters' all time favorites since she was about eight. It's an excellent game. At first it may seem like, if you fall behind, it's hard to catch up. However, if you don't get treasures at the beginning, then it's likely you have more treasure saved up which will allow you to bid more for treasures later on.
-
Stephen Sanders
United States
Henderson
Texas
25% Scottish, 25% Dutch, 18% English, 15% Irish, 9% German, 5% French, 3% "Black Dutch" (?) = 100% American!
-
That's neat Bruce that your daughter enjoys the game at that age. My 11 and 12 year old sons like it too, as well as older kids.
One thing I didn't mention in the review is that kids seem drawn to it, but it is a medium depth game (some would rate medium-light), in that careful attention is needed in the bidding on the rooms. The progression from dragon caves to palace rooms requires planning so money is available for the artifacts at the end of the turn. It's not overwhelming, but requires enough planning that the kids (and adults)must pay attention to their power token placement during bidding, or they will not get to buy artifacts and waste their bids in the palace.
-
Kdad the Muck Dweller
United States
Kirkland
Washington
-
caltexn wrote: Of my 12 fandom games I'm picking Aladdin's Dragons first, because it starts with the letter 'A,' though I was having problems spelling Alladin Aladdin correctly.
LOL! I too struggle with the spelling of Alladdin Aladin Aladdin...
Good review. I'm looking forward to getting my kids to play it. My son (almost 7) is almost ready, but I think I might wait just a bit before springing it on him. I think he's very close.
Great review of one of my favorite games.
-
|
|
25% Scottish, 25% Dutch, 18% English, 15% Irish, 9% German, 5% French, 3% "Black Dutch" (?) = 100% American!
