In UR, players represent kindgoms of ancient Mesopotamia. Although the game when set up looks quite abstract (the board consists of a bunch of tiles laid out in a grid, and the player pieces are wooden cubes), the mechanics do make sense thematically, as you'll see in a minute. I'd compare it in this sense to Tigris & Euphrates, where the theme is simulated albeit at a highly abstracted level.
This is a snapshot of game end at the online turn-based implementation of the game at MabiWeb.com (image courtesy of Jason Spears).
So the 6x6 grid of "civilization" tiles comprises the map on which the different kingdoms will be born and (perhaps) collide. Each tile is double sided and shows a different facet of civilization (read: color) on each side. For ease of play, there is a mini picture on each side that shows what color is on the other side. The astute observer of a game in progress will also notice that players each have a single civilization tile in front of them. This is because civilization tiles have a dual function- not only do they make up the map but also they will determine which actions are available to a player on his turn.
At the end of his turn, a player will exchange the tile in front of him with one of the unoccupied tiles on the board. Thus, the geography of the board is actually changed after each player turn, as what was before a blue tile over there in the corner is now a red tile. But what do these colors mean? They are the different facets of civilization (Agriculture, Politics, Culture, Commerce, War, to be exact). On the board, they serve as terrain and will have different effects when certain actions occur. In a player's hand, they represent the different actions he can take.
So when he exchanges his tile, a player not only decides where to change the geography of the board (perhaps to help himself or thwart another player), but also commits to which actions will be available to him next turn. Likewise, a player can see which actions are available to other players on their next go, based on what Civ tiles they have in their hands. If I see that player X doesn't have War on either side of his Civ tile, then I know he can't attack me on his next turn.
So what is the goal of the game? To expand your civilization, of course! In abstract terms- at the end of the game you'll score for each tile that you control, i.e. have cubes on. So your goal each turn is to either take over new tiles or get more cubes on the board in preparation to take over tiles later.
On your turn, you'll get to perform the two actions depicted on your tile (front and back). So without further ado, let's get into what these actions are:
Agriculture(Green): When you take the Agriculture action, you're gonna get 2 cubes on each Agriculture tile you control on the board. However, you'll first have to lose a cube from each tile you control that isn't orthogonally adjacent to one of those Agriculture tiles. Thus, this action is most effective when all tiles you control are either Agriculture tiles or adjacent to your Agriculture tiles. Early in the game, this is easier to accomplish; but as your empire expands, you will find yourself hard pressed to avoid controlling tiles that are not adjacent to your Agriculture ones. In thematic terms, you must at some point move beyond an agriculture-based society.
Culture(Yellow): When you take the Culture action, you get a cube on each tile you control that is adjacent to a Culture tile you control. However, other players who control tiles adjacent to your Culture tiles will also benefit by getting a cube on their tiles. In effect, culture radiates a positive effect to its immediate surroundings (this vaguely reminds me of Civilization the computer game). Culture is thus very good if you set yourself up so that your controlled Culture tiles are surrounded by other tiles you control. In contrast to Agriculture, which makes expansion difficult, Culture encourages you to expand (you'll optimize your Culture action by controlling all four tiles that are adjacent to each of your Culture tiles). However, your opponents can also benefit from your Culture actions, so you want to avoid having your Cultural "hubs" on the border with an opposing kingdom.
Commerce(Purple): When you take the Commerce action, you get a cube on each Commerce tile you own for a) each enemy controlled tile that is adjacent to it, and b) each edge of the board that is adjacent to it. The thematic idea here is that you're doing commerce with other kingdoms on the board and also with "foreign" kingdoms off the board (thus you get extra cubes for being adjacent to the edge). Thus, if a commerce tile you controlled was completely surrounded by other players and/or the edge of the board, you would get 4 cubes on it. Another example: a controlled Commerce tile in the corner of the board will get two cubes on it when the Commerce action is taken, one for each adjacent edge. Commerce tiles on the edge or at the corner are obviously good. Otherwise you'll need to be adjacent to other kingdoms to get the benefit, which has its risks (but is ultimately inevitable anyhow).
Agriculture, Culture, and Commerce help you get cubes on the board.
Politics(Blue): When you take the Politics action, you may rearrange your cubes on the board however you wish, moving cubes from one tile you control to another. This is an important action as it allows you to shift your influence from one end of your kingdom to another (even if your kingdom is split into disjoint parts, you can still move cubes freely between any tiles you control). Unlike all the other colors, blue tiles on the board confer no advantage and serve no function other than scoring at game end. Often, a Politics action will be performed in preparation for...
War(Red): When you take the War action, you may make as many attacks as desired. An attack is always from a tile you control to a tile that is either unoccupied or controlled by another player. An attack can only be made if it will succeed, so in other words the combat system is totally deterministic. You must lose 1 cube + 1 cube for each cube on the tile you are trying to attack (which in the case of an unoccupied tile is 0), and then move at least 1 cube to the conquered tile. So if you have 4 cubes on a tile and are attacking an adjacent tile with 1 enemy cube on it, you lose 1 + 1 cubes (both your 2 cubes and the enemy cube are removed from the board), and then must move either 1 or both cubes you have left from the attacking to the conquered tile. This action can be repeated as often as desired, and you may attack from a newly conquered tile. There are two special cases where you get an exemption from the initial 1 cube penalty: if the attacking and conquered tile are the same color, or if the attacking tile is a War tile (Red). So if attacking an unoccupied tile from a War tile, I don't lose any cubes, and simply decide how many cubes to move from the attacking to the conquered tile. Thus, War(Red) tiles on the board serve as great launching points for invasions, which must be considered both offensively and defensively.
A couple other rules that need mentioning...
There is a limit of 5 cubes that can be on a single tile. So for example if you perform the Agriculture action but already have 4 cubes on one of your Agriculture tiles, you'll only get 1 cube on it rather than 2. This also means that you can't just build up a gazillion cubes on one tile to launch an attack from.
Also, there is a hard limit of 20 cubes in your supply, so even if you are super-effective at getting cubes on the board, you will still hit a hard ceiling where you can't get any more.
There are also other moves you can make instead of taking the actions on your Civ tile.
* You can opt to sacrifice one of your Civ actions to simply place a cube on a tile that you already control (both actions can be sacrificed to do this twice). This obviously isn't very efficient, but sometimes you'll need to add a cube or two to a specific tile in order to reinforce it, or perhaps there simply isn't anything better to do.
* You can also sacrifice both of your Civ actions to place one cube on an unoccupied tile anywhere on the board. This is the only other way besides War to control new tiles and is also very powerful in that it lets you establish a presence anywhere on the board, even far away from where your original kingdom is (you could then on a subsequent turn use Politics to shift a bunch of cubes to the newly colonized tile and launch an attack- sneaky!)
* Lastly, you can sacrifice both of your Civ actions to build 1 or 2 Zigurrats. You can only build a Ziggurat on a tile where you have 5 cubes. Those cubes are removed from the tile and returned to your supply. You then place the Ziggurat on the tile and a cube of your color from the supply to indicate your ownership. At the end of the game the tile will still score for you, but for the time being the tile has ceased to exist, and that space is now a hole in the board. Building a Ziggurat can be useful for getting cubes back into your supply, as well as creating a barrier to protect your kingdom (sort of like disaster tiles in Tigris & Euphrates, but because of the smaller playing area even more effective). Ziggurats also count during scoring. Guess I should get to scoring, huh?
Scoring works like this: at the end of the game, you count the face up side of each tile you control. You also get to keep the tile in your hand, and can decide which side you want to count. You then arrange your controlled tiles in sets of different colors, so if I have 2 green tiles, 2 yellow tiles, and 1 red tile, I would arrange them in two sets: green-yellow-red & green-yellow. Each set scores separately based on how long it is, 1/3/6/10/15/21 for a set that is 1/2/3/4/5/6 long. Thus, it is advantageous to have conquered tiles of different colors. A Ziggurat counts as its own color tile, thus allowing you to have a set that is 6 long (all 5 colors + the Ziggurat), although the Ziggurat can also be added to sets of less than 5 colors. So in the above example I'd score 6 points for my green-yellow-red set and 3 points for my green-yellow set.
This is a very interesting twist! It means that although during the game controlling tiles of the same color will generally make your individual actions more effective (e.g. Agriculture), at the end you want to have as many different colors under your control as possible. It matters as much which tiles you control as how many (in fact, it probably matters more). Since getting that extra different color will score you an increasing number of points, it also means that huge point swings can occur when players gain or lose specific tiles. If I've got tiles of every color + at least one Ziggurat, and someone conquers my only Blue tile, I've just lost 6 victory points. Regaining control of a Blue tile will get me 6 points back, while gaining control of a tile in the color I already have the most of will just get me 1 point.
The scoring system also rewards building Ziggurats, cause they are the only way to score a 21 point set. But a Ziggurat requires 5 cubes to build, which could otherwise be used to attack or needed to defend. There is an interesting balance between expanding your civilization, defending it, and investing in building Ziggurats. Since in addition to the cubes you lose the function of the tile you build the Ziggurat on, it is not advisable to build them too early. However, they are limited (there are only 5), so you need to make sure you get in on one or a few before they've all been built by other players.
All the Ziggurats being built is one way the game ends. The other way is for all the tiles on the board to be occupied. These end-game conditions create interesting late-game subtleties that I won't get into- you'll have to discover them for yourself!
There is also a setup round before the game starts where you place your starting kingdom, and there's a lot of strategy involved there. I won't get into it but hopefully my other strategic discussions regarding the different actions have suggested some possible opening moves.
In conclusion, UR is a fantastic game that has many subtleties you will spend repeated plays learning. Unfortunately, the abstract appearance and the "what do I do?" feeling cause a bad first impression when people try it, but if you persevere you will find a gem here. I've played dozens of times and find it phenomenal. Hopefully this review will give you a jumpstart in understanding this game and getting past the learning curve.
Posted Thu Aug 21,2008 06:34 pm
