Saturday, March 31, 2012

#70: Lowenherz (Mark's 100 - 2012)

Lowenherz

Mark's Ranking
  • 2012: 70th
  • 2010: 26th
  • 2005: 10th
  • appeared on all three lists

BoardGameGeek

  • rank: 296
  • rating: 7.17

Print Status

  • OOP

Why It's On The List

  • One of the nastier Euros out there - you are princes dividing up the kingdom by force & by guile. Negotiation is vital - as is reading your opponents' intentions.

Tips & Tricks:

    • You can lose more points from having one of your kingdoms cut into pieces than you gained for claiming it in the first place - be very careful the shape of your expansion. Don't let a castle or a mine tempt you into building an unprotected finger of land.

    Extras

    • Sadly, I don't think this game works well with any number EXCEPT four... which explains why it's dropped from list to list.
    • I have not played Klaus Teuber's redevelopment of this game, Domaine - based primarily on my irritation with his redevelopment of the original Entdecker.
    • Here's what I wrote about Lowenherz for The One Hundred.

    2 comments:

    huzonfirst said...

    Lowenherz is brilliant and has been in my all-time Top 10 for a decade. We just played it and it has aged very well, possibly because it IS so nasty. It's easily my favorite Teuber and very different from the rest of his output.

    I agree that it only works with 4, but that doesn't diminish it in my eyes. We have lots of games to choose from and we play with all numbers of players. There are many games that only come out with a particular number of players. Flexibility in numbers is better, of course, but the opposite isn't a black mark for me.

    As long as you aren't expecting another Lowenherz, I think you should try Domaine, Mark. It's quite a good game and contains some nice ideas. It's sufficiently different from its parent to make both games worth owning. There's no question which I prefer, but I think you would enjoy Domaine as a different game experience.

    Mark (aka pastor guy) said...

    I need to try Domaine... I think my problem with Neuen Entdecker was that it made Entdecker more complicated (and, weirdly enough, more random) while reducing the joy of the experience by forcing players into predictable paths. (I know, I know - that doesn't completely make sense... but if you've played them, it does. A full explanation will have to wait for when - hint, hint - at least one Entdecker-related game shows up on the Top 100).