I just noticed that all reviews of this game are lukewarm to outright negative. No wonder that I hesitated to buy this for so long! The lack of positive reviews, combined with the general confusion surrounding rules changes/problems with the new Zman version have probably discouraged a lot of people who otherwise had been keeping their eye on this reprint for years. I know I was one of those people, until recently I caved in and bought it despite my misgivings.

I'd like to clear the air so that other people don't miss out on this unique gem.


Rules Confusing/Complicated?

Sadly, the rulebook is convoluted in some places, and muddles what are really VERY SIMPLE rules.

There are only TWO things you ever do in Neuland: erect a new building or place one of your workers on an existing building.

The most basic buildings simply give you a resource when you place your worker on them. For example, you place one of your workers on an existing building that produces 1 food, and now your worker on that building represents 1 food (there are no actual resource tokens in the game- your worker on a resource building IS the resource).

However, most buildings require an "input" in order to be able to place a worker on them. For example, the building that produces 1 wood requires an input of 1 food. Thus, you must spend your food (remove your worker from the food building) in order to place a worker on the wood building. The cost in action points equals the distance (in hexes) between the building where you had the food and the building where you are spending it in order to get the wood. The rulebook needlessly complicates this concept of distance, but it really is that simple. The only exception arises from the fact that there can be several buildings in a same hex, so it's possible the distance would be zero; in this case you still pay 1 action point. So in a nutshell- cost = distance in hexes, but always at least 1.

So there is basically a hierarchy of resources, e.g. food turns into wood, wood turns into stone, stone turns into swords, etc... if the buildings that perform these conversions are already on the board cause someone else built them earlier (and no one else is using them right now)- great! If not, you'll first have to erect the building yourself so you can use it. The buildings at the top of the hierarchy convert the most sophisticated resources into VP, e.g. swords turn into 2 VP. The first player to a certain # of VP (which varies depending on # of players) wins.

It really is that simple. Erecting buildings works the same way, except the cost is a little cheaper: the distance in hexes minus one.

There is a twist though that makes everything much harder: your workers don't get to stay on the resource buildings forever- if you don't use 'em, you lose 'em! Basically, your worker will be removed from the building (thus you'll lose the resource) at the end of your next turn. Thus, players must coordinate so that they can spend their resources within a turn of getting them.

This is deliciously stressful, as you are basically on pins and needles trying to work your way up the hierarchy of resources all the way to getting VP, without the whole thing falling apart. To add to the tension, the VP buildings are one-time use only, so if two players are working towards using the same VP building one of them is getting shut out!

The interaction on the board is multi-layrered: players compete for space to erect buildings, use of ones already of the board, so on..

There is another layer that really takes the game to the next level though- the turn order mechanism. If you've played Thebes or Tinner's Trail, you should already be familiar with the concept of "time-based" turn order. Basically in Neuland on your turn you can spend up to 10 action points. If you spend less than the full 10 however, it will be your turn again sooner, as players are all moving along the same action point track, and whoever is furthest behind (i.e. has spent the least # of action points) will get to go first. This mechanism is interesting and works OK in those other games, but in Neuland it fits perfectly like a glove. A player can position himself on the turn order track so that he gets longer turns less frequently or several shorter turns in sequence. But no matter how long or short your turns are, your workers are still going to walk off the buildings at the end of the turn after you place them. Add to this the interactive nature of erecting and using buildings and the race to the single-use VP buildings and it's enough to satisfy the true meat-hungry gamer!


New Rules/Old Rules?

It's true- the rule changes in the new Zman version are terrible. But! It is VERY EASY to play the new game with the old rules. Just for reference, here are the changes, courtesy of Lou Seelbach:




So Would I Like This?

One thing's for sure- this is a true brain-burner. There's been a popular trend lately of games that throw little tactical decisions at you in rapid succession, with individual player turns taking only a couple seconds (many worker placement games come to mind). Neuland is not like that. Neuland is HARD- it is mentally exhausting. This really appeals to some and really turns off others.

In my personal experience so far, I haven't had the downtime issues with Neuland that typically come up with other action point games like Tikal. It feels more like Princes of Florence, where I need the downtime to think about what I'm going to do. In the end though, downtime and analysis paralysis are player issues, not game issues. You shouldn't mix someone who has to optimize his every move with someone who plays from the gut, regardless of the game.

The things I enjoy most about Neuland are:

1) It is a challenging game about making plans and executing them. In many Euro games you just make tactical decisions as the game's narrative moves on; it can feel like the game plays you. Neuland is in many ways open ended and requires the player to develop his own path and carry it to fruition.

2) Neuland is unique and elegant. I haven't played Roads and Boats, which I hear is also a logistics game, but in my collection personally there is no other game that even closely resembles Neuland. It is elegant in how the mechanisms really make sense together. The time-mechanism here really enhances the logistical aspect.

3) Although the interface could have been better, the Zman edition is really beautiful. Well worth the price.