Thurn and Taxis board game

by Shelley Stuart
(Upstate NY)

Game:
Thurn and Taxis
Board game Manufacturer:
Hans im Gluck/Rio Grande games
Number of players:
2-4

Quick Verdict

Never was a game about delivering mail more fun!

The game and gameplay

Players vie to create the best postal routes between cities in Germany.

You accumulate victory points by building post offices through the provinces of Germany. You can accumulate victory points by creating long routes, dominating regions and establishing post offices in all regions of the board.

Each turn consists of at least two actions; adding a city card to your hand, and playing a contiguous city card in your play area to create your postal route. You have the option of soliciting support from an official, allowing you to alter the number or types of cards collected or played.

If you have enough cards in your postal route (or you think you won’t be able to expand your route any longer) you can score your route.

At this time you collect victory points for having post offices in all of the cities of a region (out of a total of five), having postal routes of five or more cities, and collecting mail carriage cards equal to the length of your postal route.

Once any player picks up the first "seven" carriage card (representing a postal route of seven or more cities), the game ends on that turn. Gameplay can also end if one player places all of her post offices on the board.

Players add all victory points collected, then subtract one point per post office they were unable to place on the board.

Designed for four players, Thurn and Taxis board game took just about the advertised sixty minutes to play, after a short rules instruction period.

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Pros and Cons

Thurn and Taxis is balanced, and keeps players engaged with each other as the game progresses.

With victory points visible on the board, players can gauge how well their strategies work and adjust if necessary.

Young and novice gamers should have no problems learning the game.

The Verdict

The combination of a modest three pages of rules and the "Spiel des Jares 2006" award pretty much guarantees a fun time. A quick play at one hour, Thurn and Taxis board game is a great filler between longer games, or a nice short game to cap out a long evening of gaming. It’s also a good game to coax the Monopoly set into trying a new kind of adult family game.

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