Game: Elfengold

Image

Rokkr — 2007-10-12T17:45:48+00:00

token sheet 2

Image

Rokkr — 2007-10-12T17:41:00+00:00

rule book cover - German edition

Image

Rokkr — 2007-10-12T17:38:48+00:00

hi res back cover scan - German edition

Image

Rokkr — 2007-10-12T17:29:52+00:00

hi res cover scan - German edition

Thread: Re: Will there be an English version of ELFENGOLD soon?

theconcerned — 2007-07-03T05:22:03+00:00

IMHO, it doesn't make Elfenland funnier.
That's odd, I thought it made it hilarious.

Thread: Re: Will there be an English version of ELFENGOLD soon?

Agape — 2007-06-13T12:13:40+00:00

Thanks.

I haven't play Elfenland and just ordered a copy.

Starsunsky wrote:
I don't think there was an official announcement about the English version of Elfengold.

Umm. I have a copy. I can bring it to your shop to play later.

IMHO, it doesn't make Elfenland funnier.

Thread: Re: Will there be an English version of ELFENGOLD soon?

Great Dane — 2007-06-13T11:11:36+00:00

Starsunsky wrote:
IMHO, it doesn't make Elfenland funnier.

I agree with that.
It doesn't reduce the luck and it makes the game longer.
Not the ideal combo.

Thread: Re: Will there be an English version of ELFENGOLD soon?

Starsunsky — 2007-06-13T10:50:41+00:00

I don't think there was an official announcement about the English version of Elfengold.

Umm. I have a copy. I can bring it to your shop to play later.

IMHO, it doesn't make Elfenland funnier.

Thread: Will there be an English version of ELFENGOLD soon?

Agape — 2007-06-13T09:13:13+00:00

Wanna know the publishing news. Thanks!

Image

Flix — 2007-05-08T14:17:02+00:00

Elfengold out of the box

Thread: A chance it "may" be reprinted by Rio Grande Games

JeffyJeff — 2007-05-01T03:35:47+00:00

Well I asked Jay almost 2 years ago (July 1st, 2005) the question:

Any chance RGG will publish Elfengold someday, especially given
RGG publishes Elfenland?

to which he promptly (he's good about that) responded:

I have no plans at this time. sorry.

However I guess it takes either the right person (Eric Martin) asking or a couple years to pass, but now according to BGN (http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comment...) Jay's answer is now a "little" more promising which is:

Yes, I will consider it.

I hope so!!!

Jeff

Image

itiswon — 2007-04-13T20:07:02+00:00

elfengold in my hand

Image

itiswon — 2007-04-13T20:06:22+00:00

tiles before punched

Image

4Corners — 2006-12-22T09:16:58+00:00

Image

chiputti — 2006-10-29T14:43:00+00:00

Thread: First Journey

Janiv — 2006-08-03T20:30:26+00:00

]]>
(Looking at a map of Elfenland will aid in reading this session report.)

I purchased both Elfenland and Elfengold recently and have been really looking forward to playing them. Last game night, Elfengold had not yet arrived in the mail and although some members in my group wanted to play Elfenland, I wanted to hold off on it and experience the game for the first time with Elfengold.

Allyson and Larkin invited me over for a game night with the friend Camille last night and I immediately accepted. Elfengold had arrived and Elfenland was now on my top play list. We opened up with a quick game of Through the Desert and then afterwards I drew this game out.

Immediately, everyone was impressed by the artwork of the board and cards. Unfortunately, this also mislead us into thinking that this would be a nice friendly game.

Allyson and Larkin, as always, were wonderful helpers in shuffling cards and sorting out pieces as I explained the rules of the game. We decided to play with the green cards that give you a town you need to end up in and we were good to go.

The first round people were a little unsure of what to do. Larkin and Allyson were bidding on tiles, Camilla would mostly pass being unsure what she should be doing and what tiles she needed and how the game would all work, and I was passing because we were all in the same town and I figured I might as well let someone else pay for the tiles and save my money. Someone would have to place a tile to go out of the starting town and I really didn't care which direction I was heading as long as it wasn't towards Strykhaven--my ending town.

It worked out well for me. Allyson laid down some tiles that allowed me to get to Feodor via Lapphalya and we both ended our turns there. Allyson took the gold she earned on the journey since she had spent so much on the auctions and I took two cards since I still had plenty of gold left. This turned out to be a very wise choice and taking cards instead of gold continued to help me through the majority of the game.

Larkin and Camilla both took the same path and ended up in Tiehik via Erg'Eren. Larkin had played a double gold tile on the path to Erg'Eren which earned him and Camilla both quite a bit of gold which they took.

After the first round, people caught on pretty well to the ideas behind the game. In Feodori, I was hoping to use the Unicorns or Dragons to cross the desert but none of those tiles were drawn in the second round. I had a wizard card and decided I would use it to teleport up into the mountains and land at Jaccarunda. From there I would take a cloud to Wylhien and then a raft down to Lisselen. It was the perfect plan.

Larkin ruined it all for me though! He must have known I had a good plan and so he placed an obstacle on the cloud which totally ruined my plan. I didn't have the cards to sacrifice to get paste it nor the wizard to pay my way across if I as going to teleport. Frustrated, I placed an obstacle on one of his paths and swore him as my arch-nemesis for the rest of the game--he would regret his actions.

Luckly, things worked out pretty well for me. Allyson also had a teleporting wizard and placed a cloud going from Mah'Davikia to Jxara. On my turn to move my boot, I ended up teleporting there instead and then moving Jxara. I couldn't go any further. Allyson didn't teleport to Mah'Davikia for some reason and ended up in Parundia instead. Larkin wasted a few cards going around the obstacle I had placed while Camille seemed to work just fine around it and still hit a lot of towns.

The next round lead to some intense auctioning. Two dragons came out and both me and Allyson wanted them. I wanted to use them to go through the desert and sweep through to Parundia. The auctioning was fierce though and went up into the 20's for each tile. I ended up winning one and Allyson the other. Also up for auction as a switch tile. By the time it came up Allyson had no money for it and I easily won it. I figured if Allyson placed her dragon wrong, I'd use it to get it in the right place. She realized this as soon as I bought it. What we thought was going to be a nice game was quickly becoming very cutthroat.

In placing the tiles though, Allyson placed her dragon exactly where I wanted hers and I placed mine exactly where Allyson wanted mine. We kind of looked sheepishly at each other and forgave each other for the crazy bidding war. We had no idea we would be crossing paths on our journeys and each was trying to get where the other was.

Camille though was seeking to win! Her face-down tile was a route switcher and she moved my Elf Bike that was going from Jxara to Dag’Amura with a Troll Wagon seeking to slow me down. Luckily, I had just won a route switcher tile this auction that I had planned on using to get a dragon into the right place but didn’t need. I now used that tile to switch back the Elf Bike.

The journey that resulted was amazing. I couldn’t have planned it better. I was only trying to get to Parundia but Larkin was also on the move. He was placing unicorns down and clouds next to Parundia that I was planning to take excellent use of. Then, since Larkin was my arch-nemesis, I placed an obstacle right on his starting path. This ruined his carefully planned journey and he ended up not moving at all that turn. I, however, ended up crossing the desert to Parundia as I had planned and then was able to continue my journey to Usselen via Grangor and Yttar for a beautiful six town route.

The left side of the board was empty of my purple markers except for the one in Kihromah and I was ready to start heading back home to Strykhaven via the northern mountains. My next turn ended me up at Thromanni via Wylhein and Jaccarundia. Larkin and I crossed paths here and we each delayed playing our tiles to see if we could get the other to play a tile on the mountain paths instead that we could take advantage of.

In the next drawing phase, I really, really needed a raft card. I wanted to go to Rivinia to Tiehik via raft and then down to Erg’ern and hopefully into Elvenhold so I could then continue to Beafa my next turn and sweep up the final three towns down there before the game ended. A raft card came up in the face-up pile but Larkin took it before it got to me. I could not have a better arch-nemesis. Frustrated, I took the card on top of the draw pile and got a wizard. I got another wizard as my next card as well. I figured I could use one to teleport me across the river instead of taking the boat and then save the other wizard to get to Strykhaven if I got in trouble next turn.
As the tiles were laid down, Camilla was out to get me. She was in second place and needed to do everything she could to stop me. She placed an obstacle on my route going from Tiehik to Erg’ern. Allyson also sought to stop me by placing a cloud going from Erg’ern to Elvenhold. Instead, all this did was help me.

When it was my turn to move, I went down to Rivinia and then used my wizard to teleport to Tiehik. I would have had to stop here because of Camilla’s obstacle but instead decided to take a risk and used my other wizard to bypass it and then traveled from Erg’ern to Elvenhold to end my turn.

We had one turn left and I had to work it perfectly. Camilla and I were neck and neck. Allyson was doing okay and Larkin had been shut down so hard he had less than 10 towns to his name.

Larkin started the round and drew one of the face-up cards. In its place fell a wizard. Perfect! I grabbed it up just in case as they had served me well so far. The auctioning for tiles this turn was fierce. On the board was a route switcher tile and I knew I had to win it or it would be used against me. The bidding went up to 28 gold at which point I had to step out in order to still purchase the other tiles I needed to use to complete my master plan.

I managed to get a dragon and placed it on the path between Virst and Strykhaven. This was my most important route and I needed it to work. Next round I put a bike down between Strykhaven and Beafa. Camille tried to stop me from getting from Elfenhold to Beafa by placing a troll wagon on that route. It was perfect and juts what I needed. It was so nice for everyone to help me. Larkin continued to be my arch-nemesis though and used the route switcher tile that he had won to switch my dragon out with a cloud. My plans were dashed! I needed that dragon. I looked at my cards and tried to figure out how I could get this to still work. I needed to end up in Strykhaven to win with 19 points because I was confident that Camilla was going to be able to reach 18 points this round.

It all fell into place. I would travel to Beafa by the normal Troll Wagon. I would then teleport to Virst with my Wizard and then my last three cards as a wild caravan to get to Strykhaven. It wasn’t the normal route I had planned on taking but it worked.

I ended my first game having reached 19 out of the 20 towns and ended perfectly on my final town I had drawn from the green deck. I had also managed to crush my arch-nemesis Larkin at the same time. I couldn’t be happier.

Everyone else had also done really well in the game I thought and everyone ended in their final town. The game ended with the following scores:

Russell (Purple) – 19 points
Camilla (Blue) – 18 points
Allyson (Green) – 16 points (maybe 17? I forgot)
Larkin (Black) – Don’t remember but he was dead last and had a ton of pegs left on the board. Oops

The game was a blast and a big hit. I thought it would be a friendly game but the bidding, route placing, and other magic spells turned a game that seemed friendly into a very fun, cutthroat game. Larkin and Allyson rated it a 7 out of 10 and I’m leaning towards an 8. It took a lot more thinking and planning that I had imagined it would. Elfengold makes the game.

Thread: Gold is hidden from opponents?

Barkam — 2006-07-25T01:00:12+00:00

Am I obliged to tell my opponents how much money I have?

Thank you for your time.

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

ixnay66 — 2006-06-18T18:27:10+00:00

Think of it this way too:

The game Elfengold is really $80 or more since you need Elfenland to play it. So you need to ask if Elfengold is worth $80+.

Thread: Re: Using King of the Elves cards/coins to make Elfengold?

whatdasnell — 2006-06-12T14:34:06+00:00

After countless attempts to acquire Elfengold from ebay, I finally bought KOTE and tried your suggestion. It actually works pretty good. I still need to make some city marker chits. I am using little papers with numbers on them for now.
I played it once last night (2 player) and I am hoping to try it again with more players today.

If you don't have fifty bucks to drop on the expansion, this is a great alternative.

Thread: Re: Using King of the Elves cards/coins to make Elfengold?

shawn_low — 2006-04-21T10:15:32+00:00

giochiusati wrote:
And doe's It work ?
Ciao
Ann

Yes it worked. It's not pretty but it works.

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

DavidT — 2006-02-21T02:54:32+00:00

Having played Elfenroads (which is apparently what Elfenland + Elfengold approaches, yet doesn't quite reach) and also King of the Elves...

I'd say avoid all the headache and just grab King of the Elves. I've wanted to acquire either Elfenroads (or an Elfenland/gold combo) forever, having quite enjoyed King of the Elves. But, finally playing Elfenroads let me lay this obsession to rest. Elfenroads is definitely a better game than KotE, but it's certainly not worth sweating over. They're similar enough to not make much of a difference--or, at least, not a huge enough difference that the going price for these OOP version becomes worthwhile.

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

whatdasnell — 2006-02-21T01:29:29+00:00

I was referring to the expansion. Thanks for the advice.

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

qzhdad — 2006-02-20T22:25:24+00:00

I was indeed commenting on the expansion.

For the White Wind, I'd pay $50 for almost any of them that I didn't have. Maybe not Fishy or Mush or Rainbows, but I loved the rest of them. (Yes, even Tricks, that's one of my favorites.)

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

EvilTimmy — 2006-02-20T22:16:42+00:00

dakarp wrote:
Incidentally, their are two Alan Moon games called Elfengold. One is the expansion to Elfenland that everyone is talking about. The other is an unrelated stand-alone game.
D'oh! Quite right. It seems we all assumed it was the expansion.

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

peacmyer — 2006-02-20T22:15:59+00:00

Good point, Daniel.

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

dakarp — 2006-02-20T22:14:31+00:00

Incidentally, their are two Alan Moon games called Elfengold. One is the expansion to Elfenland that everyone is talking about. The other is an unrelated stand-alone game.

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

peacmyer — 2006-02-20T22:02:35+00:00

For gamers, it's a vast improvement over Elfenland, but $50 is pretty expensive!

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

Thommy8 — 2006-02-20T22:00:57+00:00

Elfengold is very high up on my own wishlist, but personally I wouldn't be willing to pay $50 for it. I'd probably pay up to $30, but not more, meaning I'll probably never get it unfortunately.

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

EvilTimmy — 2006-02-20T21:42:37+00:00

Only if you really like Elfenland and want to make it a more challenging and interesting game.

I have decided to just ditch the lackluster base game rather than waste the additional money on Elfengold to make it interesting. I don't think the result would be $70+ worth of fun.

Thread: Re: Is Elfengold worth $50?

qzhdad — 2006-02-20T21:37:24+00:00

Do you think that your group will enjoy a more challenging version of Elfenland? If so, it's probably worth it. It's not a completely new game, but does significantly change the game.

Thread: Is Elfengold worth $50?

whatdasnell — 2006-02-20T21:27:10+00:00

I have the chance to get Elfengold from an ebay auction. Is it worth $44 plus the $9 for shipping?

Image

arzman — 2005-10-16T15:48:29+00:00

Inside of the box

Thread: Re: When did it go out of print, and will it ever be reprinted?

Teemu Salohalme — 2005-08-31T14:35:49+00:00

It does add depth to the base game, but makes it genuinely hard to play too. It is exceptionally prone to analysis paralysis, irrespective of the group you play it with.

We haven't had this kind of problem, the games of Elfenland+Elfengold have been played in under two hours even with newbies. It's excellent expansion, I won't play Elfenland without anymore.

Thread: Re: When did it go out of print, and will it ever be reprinted?

cymric — 2005-08-31T07:54:30+00:00

Although there is something attractive about OOP games, in case with Elfengold I'm not so sure it's worth getting. It does add depth to the base game, but makes it genuinely hard to play too. It is exceptionally prone to analysis paralysis, irrespective of the group you play it with.

But I know what it's like to track down a hard to reach game... Don't bother asking 999 Games (http://www.999games.nl), they are out of stock. Some stores in the Netherlands still have a 'dusty copy' lying around, but it will take quite a lot of phonecalls to track those down.

That said, making your own copy is really not that hard. I've just uploaded two pictures of the game components---which to my great surprise were not yet available---and you will find a breakdown of how much you need from every part here: http://www.bggfiles.com/viewfile.php3?fileid=118 . You can pilfer the money from King of the Elves, and use a another copy of that particular game (it's not that great anyway) to recreate the square playing pieces. Don't worry about the money cards having a different feel from the rest of the deck; in my official 999 Games edition that is the case as well .

Good luck, and take your time when playing: Elfengold gives the ole' gray matter a very good run for its money.

Thread: Re: When did it go out of print, and will it ever be reprinted?

clearclaw — 2005-08-31T05:20:25+00:00

Elfengold is readily available in Germany and on German EBay.

Thread: When did it go out of print, and will it ever be reprinted?

JeffyJeff — 2005-08-31T03:49:12+00:00

I'm curious how long this has been out of print, and if anyone has heard anything about a reprint?

I see it was published by Amigo originally, and also by 999 Games. I found the Amgio website, http://www.amigo-spiele.de/ but I don't speak German. None the less I entered elfengold into the search box and found the rules in German, and a mention of it either winning an award or having had been released in 1999.

Even less luck with 999 Games... can't even locate a web site for them

I had tried contacting Rio Grande Games, since they have published Elfendland, if they have any plans on publishing Elfengold, and Jay told me no

I do see some copies for sale here on BGG, but I'm not up for paying more than double the price I paid for the base bame, for an expansion

Maybe someone has had luck making a home made verson of the expansion? Something of only last resort, but given the bits won't match, I'm guessing one would have to make a whole new set of cards (plus the ones for the expansion), and a whole new set of tiles?

Jeff

Thread: Re: Using King of the Elves cards/coins to make Elfengold?

giochiusati — 2005-06-08T14:31:14+00:00

And doe's It work ?
Ciao
Ann

Thread: Re: Using King of the Elves cards/coins to make Elfengold?

shawn_low — 2005-06-02T07:39:45+00:00

dougadamsau wrote:
I'm thinking on the fly here, but you need some numbered counters to place on the cities, which is the payout for visiting them.

There is also rarity introduced into the chits, but I cannot remember if you get enough from the base set and King of the Elves. You also need extra chits (Sea Monsters, exchange, etc).

I think the main thing holding you back are the numbered chits for the cities.

Ah good ole Doug to the rescue.

I have downloaded the rules from BGG and looked at it. The numbered counters I can jury rig.

The cards can be recycled from King of the Elves (I need 7 gold cards but KOTE has only 3. I have to use the robber card instead. I think the chits can be used as well. KOTE comes with 20 or more chits.

Will put it all together and see if I can breathe life into Elfengold.

Thread: Re: Using King of the Elves cards/coins to make Elfengold?

dougadamsau — 2005-06-02T00:53:55+00:00

I'm thinking on the fly here, but you need some numbered counters to place on the cities, which is the payout for visiting them.

There is also rarity introduced into the chits, but I cannot remember if you get enough from the base set and King of the Elves. You also need extra chits (Sea Monsters, exchange, etc).

I think the main thing holding you back are the numbered chits for the cities.

Thread: Using King of the Elves cards/coins to make Elfengold?

shawn_low — 2005-06-01T07:34:34+00:00

Hi,

I was just thinking: perhaps King of the Elves (which I own) can be cannibalized to make the Elfengold expansion.

The money is definitely the same. I need to jury rig some coin markers. I suspect the cards are the same too or perhaps the cards can be made to look the same since they are made of the same stock (same size too!).

Plus I sleeve all my card anyway, so adding a slip of paper to make a proxy shouldn't be a problem.

What do people think?

Thread: Re:2 cards or gold?

arzman — 2005-03-15T09:42:44+00:00

Kisa (#86740),

You draw two cards following normal rules (from face down deck, face up cards, or gold pile) as confirmed by the designer (see article #87659 on this same Elfengold page).

Enjoy!

Thread: Mistake in translations / aids!

arzman — 2005-02-20T21:50:52+00:00

Fellow Geeks,

Arising from a question by another user in this same game page, I have noticed that most of the player aids and translations for Elfengold contain a mistake/imprecision regarding an important rule in the game.

When a player has finished his movement he may choose between getting the gold earned at each visited city or taking two cards. Most translations mention taking two cards FROM THE DECK (face down). This is wrong.

The correct interpretation is actually that players can draw two cards FOLLOWING NORMAL RULES: they can choose between the top card from the deck (face down) OR one of the three face up cards (immediately replaced with the top card from the deck) OR the entire gold pile.

Drawing a gold card from the deck also follows normal rules: it is added to the gold pile and EITHER a replacement card is drawn OR the entire gold pile is taken.

The difference is important because players do not forfeit the gold in exchange for a couple of random cards, they can choose face up cards they might need or the entire gold pile.

This is the version translated from the original rules of the Dutch edition (999 Games) and kindly confirmed by the game designer himself via a mega fast email (thanks Alan!)

Thread: Re:2 cards or gold?

arzman — 2005-02-19T10:58:11+00:00

Kisa (#86740),

I have the Dutch version by 999 Games, although I can´t read Dutch. The textbook literally says about this gold-or-cards choice:

"Hij heeft daarbij weer de keuze uit de gedekte stapel en de open liggende kaarten. Trekt hij daarbij een goudkaart, dan gelden de regels, beschreven onder "goudkaarten". "

Using an online translation webpage, this comes back as: "He has thereby the choice from the covered pile and the open. He draws thereby a gold card, then the rules apply, described under "gold cards". ".

So I think your first option is the correct one. Enjoy!

Thread: Re:2 cards or gold?

Kisa — 2005-02-17T10:05:43+00:00

I have looked at the translation and the summary that are posted here and they have a slight, but important, variance in this rule. One says that you may draw two cards which sounds like it would be the usual type of card draw where you can draw from the face-up transport, gold pile, or facedown deck. The other simply states that you draw two cards from the deck which would seem to indicate that you get two random cards from the facedown deck. The later hardly seems like a fair trade for a turns worth of gold or not moving at all. Can someone who can read the German test clarify this?

Thank you,

Kisa

Thread: Re:Are the components language independent?

clearclaw — 2004-11-19T17:14:04+00:00

tloomis (#66443),

Just for the rules. All the components are language independent.

Thread: Are the components language independent?

tloomis — 2004-11-19T06:23:11+00:00

I am wondering if there is any reason to purchase the English version if the German version is available.

Thanks,

Tim

Thread:

toguopp — 2004-04-23T17:54:11+00:00

If money still isn't tight enough, raising the cost of caravan moves to 6 gold apiece should create the desired effect.

Thread: carvans and gold variant/game-fix

toguopp — 2004-04-23T17:06:17+00:00

When I first played Elfenland with Elfengold, we all had a blast. The only flaw, however, was that getting gold didn't seem that important. It seemed that everyone was flushed with gold. Towards the end, it seemed that it was always better to get more cards into your hand rather than to collect gold. Whatever defficiencies you might have in the tiles you could get, you could more or less offset that by getting a large enough card hand.

Here's my suggested fix to the problem and it's very simple: All *caravan* moves now cost four gold apiece.

This should make money much more tight and you'll be faced with delicious dillemas of when to spend gold, and when to collect gold or when to collect cards.

I have tried various different options to make gold more valuable, such as auctioning off trouble counters or wizard cards. But that took off some of the fun suprise element that is in the game. I really think it's best to just play with the rules as written, but with the new rule that caravan moves now cost four gold apiece. Besides, someone needs to pay those caravan drivers!

Also, when we played that first game, we played without home cities and without wizard cards. Playing without home cities can actually be more strategic and interactive in this version of Elfenland, but home cities have their merits too.

If playing with wizard cards, I would suggest that the cost of using a wizard card to bypass an obstacle should be 5 gold and the cost of using a wizard card to teleport should be 10 gold. They're very powerful, and the higher gold cost would give more interesting decisions about how to manage your gold.

Thread: Re:Session Report

stray_flux — 2003-11-04T16:23:44+00:00

stray_flux (#7579),

Note: this game was not played with the expansion and I unfortunately miss placed this session report. Sorry for the confusion.

Thread: Session Report

stray_flux — 2003-04-14T13:31:08+00:00

It was a quiet evening of procrastination for me so I figured why not play a game rather than doing something else to pass the time.

I enlisted my roommates to play a couple games. The first was Elfen land.

Players: Mike (me), Dave, and Al

It was Dave's first game. He was totally into it and I thought he was a non-gamer (silly me). It was also Al's first game with the real rules. I had been taught the wrong rules by a friend of mine and had quickly bought the game and taught the game to 24 of my friends on a get away weekend. (It's amazing how fast the wrong rules can spread.)

I'm going to call the wrong rules Mike's two player variant: You leave the route markers on the paths at the end of the round so as the game progresses the board fills up. It doesn't work with more players because the board fills up before the 4th round.

On to the game. Al started off well heading south around Mare Magnum and following the river down stream all the way to Grangor. That had been my plan and Al had placed a rogue dragon in my way not having any dragon cards I detoured around the dragon picking up Lapphalya on the way which turned out to be pivotal. Dave not having played before crossed his wires a little and had a slow start northward up to Jaccaranda.

The second turn saw us all fighting our way through the forest north of mare nebulae. Al placed his obstacle in his own path in an attempt to screw me following him. Dave also got in the spirit and placed a tile that we thought was insane but was actually quite good, potentially screwing me helping him, just A LOT farther than I thought he would get. Unfortunately Al's obstacle got in Dave's way while I avoided the trap again. Al ended up in Jaccaranda one city space ahead of me in Wylhien. The whole game he thought he was ahead of me in city markers but we were tied Dave in Mah Davikia. (I was really glad to see Al use his obstacle knowing that he generally uses it effectively)

The third round Al and I worked the desert and Kihromah and Dave worked the south-western corner and we all ended in DagAmura, for what would be a long, forth, placing round. I had five left, Al six and Dave nine.

Everyone took there time planning there routes and looking for the most optimal locations. Dave used his obstacle on a critical route on both Al and my paths because we both had basically the same cities left. (Very nice play I used mine to block the solution route that Al played in response to the first obstacle. I had planed on placing my obstacle on the route Dave did and so I had already accounted for it. I went first and could end with all twenty or 19 and four cards left but I decided to take twenty and leave it up to Al. Dave unfortunately miscalculated and didn't have the Elfcycle card corresponding to the first tile he laid, oops. The obstacles made it impossible for AL to get them all.

Final scores
Mike 20
Al 19
Dave 15

I find that only having to get five markers each round isn't very hard and often one or more people get all 20. I think we will definitely play with the optional destination town rules next time.

Also I look forward to the Elfen gold expansion arriving in the mail.

I rate the game a 7 I think the expansion will improve the rating.

Thread: Re:2 cards or gold?

loon — 2003-03-23T22:55:51+00:00

The first one is right: You may take two cards instead of ALL of the gold for all cities you visit that turn.

Thread: 2 cards or gold?

massimiliano.san — 2003-03-23T18:13:27+00:00

I own the German edition and I don't know German. I had read the English translations, but I have one doubt: After movement, I can either take the gold OR take 2 cards. Is this choice about the end of the movement turn or does it apply to every single city? It seems to me that the right one is the first one, but I am not sure...

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2003-02-04T13:53:42+00:00

Second verse, same as the first: It has been a long, long time since we played the Elfengold expansion to Elfenland. Indeed, we’ve only played it once, and that was way back in 1999. I’ve had the yearning to play it again lately and even tried it a few weekends back while I was visiting my good friend Craig Berg’s home in frozen Ohio. Sadly, we misplayed a critical rule, so abandoned the game after two rounds. Sigh.

Well, the opportunity was ripe to play it again and I was joined by Lenny, Michael, Joey and Keith for a journey around the mythical land.

There is no doubt that the Elfengold expansion certainly makes Elfenland a “meatier” game, filled with even more tough choices and decisions. Managing one’s limited hand of cards is even more critical and the auctions, although quite a few of them, can often be quite heated. Sadly, all of this added depth and decision-making comes at a price: considerably more length added to the time required to play the game. Our game took over 3 hours to complete and I honestly never felt we were dragging too much. It’s just that all these added features and mechanisms add considerable length to the game.

The Elfengold version also makes it a LOT easier to interfere with the plans of your opponents. In fact, it is reasonably common to be “stuck” and unable to move at all on a turn. This happened to each and every one of us at least once – and Lenny and Joey twice! Lenny made up for his first turn of inactivity by visiting five and three towns on his next two turns, but was then once again completely shut down.
In the end, it was Keith and I who were neck-and-neck, each finishing the game with 15 towns visited. However, I managed to complete my journey on my destination town, while Keith was one space away. A narrow victory!

Finals: Greg 15, Keith 15 – 1 = 14, Joey 13 – 1 = 12, Lenny 12 – 1 = 11, Michael 10

Ratings: Greg 7.5, Keith 7.5, Lenny 7, Joey 6, Michael 6

Thread: General Comment

BoardGameGeek — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

After a couple of plays without and a couple with the Elfengold expansion, my general feeling is that Elfenland is better off with E-gold... except for the Wizards, which have played a major role in deciding the outcome of the games (and a too great role at that). We've played both with and without auctioning the wizards... and from now on we'll play without wizards at all.

Thread: Session Report

derk — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

When I first heard about the release of Elfenland, I was very excited. I mean, anybody who’s collected German games has heard of the much sought-after Elfenroads. And this was to be a new release of this widely loved classic. However the first playings definitely left me wanting. While it was a decent game, it was too simple for me to really enjoy. I got re-excited when Elfengold was released.

The game started off better than I expected. My initial analysis of the rules made me think that cards would be at a premium, and if anyone got more than three cities in one turn, they’d be doing very well. So when my first turn was going to net five cities, I was very pleased. Of course when Ken and Tim both duplicated my feat, I was rather deflated. And poor John only got one. I felt bad about that, but that would be short lived.

The second turn was much like the first, with each of us gaining three or four cities. But Ken and I were enjoying a rather nice gold advantage, and tended to dominate the bidding. Tim had recently run out of gold and John was rapidly gaining money by taking gold cards and gold for reaching destinations. Ken had had a rather lackluster movement phase and I thought it would be between Tim and I. This worked for me as I had a gold advantage over Tim. But during this time, Ken and John had been storing up cards and each had a sizeable mitt-full.

During the third turn, all those cards that John and Ken had stored would push them within reach of a game-ending move next turn if all went well for them. John laid out a fair number of transport tiles and Ken did likewise. However by creative use of elfenwizards, they were both able to use their collective tiles to great effect; each visiting about eight cities in this single turn. Meanwhile, Tim and I each only added few city cylinders to our pile.

The fourth turn would be quite interesting. We all assumed that Ken would reach all twenty cities, but he wouldn’t be alone. John also would finish up this turn capitalizing on the sizeable hand he still retained. I likewise would be able to eek out a twenty-city tour with one card to spare. Here’s where I messed up. When I originally explained the rules, I had said that the tiebreaker for number of city tokens would be the number of transport cards you had left over at the end. Instead we should have used gold. But we stuck with the first way as we’d all played from that perspective. Therefore we awarded the game to Ken and his truckload of transport cards.

I really liked this game. It adds a much-needed strategic aspect to a fairly decent game. We used the variant rules for the elfenwizards, and I liked the effect of these cards. However it made getting in and out of cities a little too easy. And it also made ‘piggybacking’ someone else’s route fairly easy, especially once Ken and John had a hand of 20+ cards. However this problem was minor compared to (and probably worse because of) another error on my part; the rules did say to use the rules from Elfenlands, which would include hand-size limitations (the rules explicitly talk about discarding tiles, but not cards). With the corrected rules, the economics of the game would totally change: fewer cards means more demand for corresponding tiles, which means more need for gold and less need for cards. I’m very anxious to try this again, and I will the next time I get four gamers in one room.

Ken: The first game of this we played was pretty goofy, because we were picking up cards on a per-city basis, and all of us had whole mitt-fuls to work with. Later games were vastly improved with by using the correct rules and by auctioning off wizard cards and powerful tiles. Rating: 4/7

Thread: Session Report

derk — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00
Tim, Marissa, Ken, Derk

Well, after I had supremely butchered the rules the last time we played this game, I was very keen to try it again with the right rules. This time my insistence that cards would be hard to come by would be true. Ken and Tim quickly converted it into a mantra: "Cards will be rare, Cards will be rare!" Oh well, that’s the price I pay for making such a monumental mistake. After explaining the correct rules, we launched into the game.

The first turn I did fairly well picking up four cities, while Tim and Marissa each traveled to three. Ken had some card issues and was only able to visit one city. We each took cards for the turn, because "Cards will be rare." The second turn would see the return of Ken when he picked up four cities, while still maintaining a sizeable hand. Tim was kicking serious butt in the gold-poor east forest by taking 5 city markers. Marissa and I were doing ok with three and two city tokens respectively this turn, both ending in the desert city. We all decided on gold at this point: Ken with 24, Marissa with 23, Tim with 16 and myself with 14. Very odd considering, "Cards will be rare."

Ken lined up for another massive run with a dragon tile in the mountains southwest of the desert. I was in the desert and wanted to take advantage of his dragon tile, so I answered with a dragon tile of my own and then played a sea monster at the start of his route. He was still able to visit five cities that turn, but it finally pared down that mammoth hand he’d kept for the last couple turns. Marissa used my dragon tile to escape from the desert and proceeded around the river to the west side of the map.

We were all lining up for the home stretch. City token scores going into the fifth turn: Ken with 16, Marissa with 16, Tim with 14 and me with 15; so it was anyone’s game. The fifth turn was rather slim pickings as most of us had gotten through most of the cities and we each had to mop up the little bits and pieces we’d missed earlier in the game. I picked up another three cities, Ken and Tim each touched a couple and Marissa was able to visit one new city. Everyone took cards (remember, "Cards will be rare") except for me. I needed gold badly, as the dragon tile that I won and used last turn had cost me dearly (thanks to Tim, the bastard!).

The last turn would prove to be quite interesting (as most last turns tend to in good games). I was in Elfenhold and only needed to visit two cities: the city just east of Elfenhold and the much avoided ‘Dead-end’ city. I had had to take gold last turn so that I would have even a remote chance of winning a tiebreaker, so I only had one card (conveniently a wizard) plus the three cards I would receive this turn. Luckily, I was able to get a pig card to match my pig tile, combined with the fact that I was the first player, the only way I’d lose was if someone logged me. Or so I thought. I moved to the first city and then teleported into the ‘Dead-end’ city and took fifteen gold worth of cards. Ken got really crappy cards and wasn’t able to complete the twenty-city tour. Then Marissa stepped up and knocked out all twenty cities with some very creative caravanning. And then Tim made a last ditch effort, and was able to connect to four cities on this last turn and took the gold for all the visits. Three of us entered into the tiebreaker. But Tim was able to narrowly take the victory by having thirty-seven gold compared to my thirty-five and Marissa’s eight. But the consensus was that the game was very good (made even better with the correct rules), and that "Cards were rare!"

Tim: Good, but not as good as expected. Rating: 6

Thread: Session Report

derk — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00
Neil, Elizabeth, Derk

This would be the first time that our fledgling group had enough players for a session that we could break into two groups. Our group was expanding, and it was very exciting: while Ken, George, John, and Tim played Settlers with the Cities and Knights expansion; Neil, Elizabeth and I played Elfenland with the Elfengold expansion (our group was expanding, get it?). This would be my second shot at this game in as many days, and I didn’t mind at all.

The game started out fairly normally for Elizabeth and me; we each took four city markers. She and I used about the same route, only I did it backward by using a wizard card. Neil stayed in Elfenhold because he thought the transport tiles wouldn’t be cleared after each round. I’m not quite sure why he thought that, but missing one turn in this game isn’t fatal so we continued. In the second turn, I wasn’t able to get very good tile/card agreement and was forced to use another wizard card to get any movement at all. Meanwhile Neil woke up and captured four cities and Elizabeth knocked out a couple. Elizabeth had been taking gold for the last two turns and was amassing a sizeable pile. With the game becoming a bidding war, each of us was forced to take gold just to keep up with her.

At the start of the third turn, Elizabeth and I were both lost in the desert, desperately searching for a way out. I had three raft cards and wanted to use them efficiently, so I teleported (again) out of the desert to the next town and looped around the southwestern river path picking up five cities. Elizabeth ended up remaining in the desert for lack of adequate cards. Neil picked up another three cities. At this point, the end of the third turn, I was kicking some serious butt. Mostly because I had been extremely lucky by drawing three wizard cards, I had twelve city markers while Neil and Elizabeth had seven and six respectively. However my reign of terror would shortly come to an end.

My route planning up to this point had been turn by turn advantageous, but I was on the far west side of the board surrounded by cities that I had already visited. Plus I’d used most of the wizard cards in the deck to do it (admittedly, not the greatest plan in the world). For the fourth turn, I had planned a fairly decent route through the desert by taking advantage of Neil’s dragon tiles, but he ended up logging my route at the head. Thinking I’d rather be stranded in a forest instead of a desert (more options), I remained in the city for that turn. Neil collected four cities and ended his turn in the same city as me; however he was having to take gold for almost every turn to pay for his expensive taste in transport tiles and this would hamper his overall strategy. Elizabeth was politely moving around, keeping to herself and knocked out another five cities in the process. The scores were much more even now: Neil and Elizabeth each with eleven and I had twelve.

The fifth turn, I was forced to take the longer, less effective route over the northern mountains to get back to the east side of the board to some cities I could actually score. Neil was spending money like it was going out of style, and was making pretty good headway in the process. Neil ended up logging my path out of the city I was sitting. But I refused to waste any more time and burned seven cards to travel to four cities, of which only one earned me a city token. I probably should have taken gold so that I could bid more for the up coming auctions, but I opted for cards so that I would have more options.

The scores going into the sixth turn were Neil with 15, and Elizabeth and I each had 13. The sixth turn was awful, at least for Neil and me. I thought the game could be mine if I could pick up six cities or so and combine that with the fairly decent supply of gold I’d been saving. I had saved some useful tiles and I had lots of cards. I laid out a moderately decent route covering five cities. But after some extremely careful plotting, Neil decided that that would be visiting too many cities and logged the first leg of my route. For the third turn in a row! Meanwhile, Elizabeth looked to be randomly throwing tiles out on the board with no apparent goal in mind. When Neil moved, he was able to pick up two more cities bringing his total to seventeen for the game. I spent nearly all my cards to visit five more cities, which gave me a total of eighteen. And then Elizabeth proceeded to use two wizards and all of her cards to capture an additional seven city tokens, which gave her a perfect score of twenty! Sigh. It was still a great game!

Neil: Fun resource allocation and placement. Cool components and plenty of strategies to offer. It would be higher if there were some "Elfenwars" supplement to really make it shine. What's the point of competing factions in a fantasy world if not to slaughter one another? Rating: 7

Thread: Session Report

derk — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00
Ken, John, Tim, Derk

After several games of this, it remains one of my favorites for this year. Many people aren’t very fond of the wizards in this game. They tend to think that it makes the game too easy, but I like them a lot. However I’m not a big fan of someone winning the game simply because they happened to draw more wizard cards than the person next to them does. Others have also mentioned that the special spell tiles are unbalancing. So I thought perhaps I had a solution. Each time a wizard card is drawn, it would be placed in a pile next to the available cards and another card would be drawn to replace it. After the next tile auction, all the wizard cards would be auctioned off one by one. Plus when any special tile was drawn, it also would be set aside and another would be drawn to replace it. These special tiles would replace a like number of the tiles to be auctioned in that round. There was some worry that it would add too much additional time to the game, but I was very satisfied with the results. It only added about eight more auctions to the game (I think about eight wizards got auctioned). And these were very hotly contested, so it didn’t add very much ‘perceived’ time.

After going over all the new rules, we started. The first turn was pretty good for all of us. Ken was the top traveler with five cities (and 17 gold), with John and myself next at four and Tim bringing up the rear with three. However, I really screwed up by being the only one to not take gold. That meant I would be out of position compared to everyone else for a couple rounds. The bids for transportation tiles were quite high the next round, and I didn’t get what I wanted. I seriously thought about not moving, but ended up using a couple of raft cards and someone else’s unicorn tile to move around the southwest river. For this second turn, all of us moved exactly three cities, with Ken and John taking cards and Tim and I each taking thirteen gold. However the biggest part of the second turn was that three wizard cards got auctioned off. With all the money Ken had been able to net the last turn, he was able to snag two of them. I got one of them. The average price for the cards was fairly steep as far as I was concerned, but things would get much more interesting later…

The next turn we were all clustered around the northwestern forest, and whenever all players are in such a small area, things get interesting. Ken seemed to be the big tile winner and laid out a nice looping route to take him into the heart of the desert via the northern mountain range. Plus, Ken was able to get a gold tile on the leg going into the high-priced desert city. Ken would then go on to snag four city tokens and twenty-five gold. Tim was happy as hell with Ken’s tile placement, and totally mimicked Ken’s move: four cities and twenty-five gold. John had paid a sizeable price for his first wizard (about 13 gold), and I thought he was crazy to use it this early: he took four city tokens, which earned him seventeen gold. My turn would be paltry compared to the rest: I zipped around the northwest forest and took four cities and fifteen gold. But I hadn’t been able to capitalize on all the dragon tiles in the desert like everyone else, because I couldn’t get a dragon card to save my life (surprise, surprise, everyone took them before I could get them).

The fourth turn was pretty interesting for most of us. After the last turn, everyone was flush with money. The tiles up for auction were a rather poor selection, but there was also a wizard card. John ended up winning the wizard auction with a staggering bid of twenty-four gold! He then proceeded to use it that very same turn to visit four cities, including the infamous dead-end city. Ken was able to knock out another four cities too, and Tim took three city tokens. After agonizing for a while, I chose to not move this turn. I stayed on the border of the desert with the hope that more cards would help me travel a little more efficiently.

Before the fifth turn could commence, Ken needed to take the dogs out for a walk. Tim, John and I clustered around the board and talked about Ken while he was gone. He had done well to pick up several wizard cards early before the real auction value had been established. Plus he only had to visit four cities to win this next turn and he seemed to have the biggest pile of gold. Personally, I didn’t think he could win this turn because his remaining cities were too spread out. But we thought we should definitely stop him from moving this turn if possible. The turn seemed fairly straightforward. I ended up winning practically every tile on auction this turn, because I had some serious ground to make up. I laid out a sizeable route that went through the desert and northern mountain range. When I executed it, I netted six city tokens and thirty-four gold (I had used the gold tile too). As if that wasn’t enough, I was able to log Ken’s planned route, limiting his take this turn to a single city token. I was feeling that it’d been a pretty good turn. Tim then took three city tokens, and all was well. The confidence I was enjoying would be shattered though. John had played Tim and me during our little break. He proceeded to move through his remaining five cities and take the win in the fifth turn! What a bastard! I guess all those overpriced wizard cards weren’t so overpriced, eh? Oh well. It was a great game. And I think the rule tweaks work very well.

John: Great, well-balanced and challenging little game. Very nice system that rewards planning ahead. Rating: 8

Thread: Session Report

derk — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00
Tim, Charles, Derk

I wish I had a quarter for every time George suggested this game, because I’d have another three or four games in my collection. And I’m fairly sure Tim and Charles agreed with me, as they didn’t have any interest in Settlers either. So we pulled out still virginal copy of Um Reifenbreite, and I ran through the rules for the other two. Of course, once we actually started to play, I noticed that I didn’t have the translations for the chance cards. Sigh. After listening to the other table heckle us for a bit, we broke out Elfenland/gold. The rules didn’t take long to go over for Charles, and we began. We used a variant to auction special tiles and the wizard cards, and I think it worked well.

The first turn was quite odd. We auctioned the tiles, and moved on to the tile placement segment. As is quite common, I passed my turn so that perhaps I could use the others’ tiles a little more efficiently, which wasn’t exactly a nice thing to do to Charles on his first turn. Not knowing quite what to do, he also passed. Tim glanced at his assortment of cards, and a sly look appeared on his face. Then he too passed, which ended the tile placement round without any tiles being placed, which would make moving very difficult to say the least. During the movement round, I decided to just stay put and take my two cards. Then Charles picked up three cities with some raft cards, and Tim scooped up two cities with his raft cards.

The second turn was a little more exciting; that is, we actually played some transportation tiles. Charles had moved south from Elfenhold last turn. He wanted to continue moving to the west, picking up cities in the southern forest, but the cards wouldn’t cooperate. He would only be able to net another two cities, which forced him to take more cards (for more options next turn). Tim had moved north from Elfenhold last turn, and he laid out a nice path across the northern mountains heading west into the northwestern forest towns. I hadn’t moved last turn, but it wasn’t because I couldn’t move. In fact, I had three raft cards in my hand at the time. But I didn’t really want to use the cards if I could save them until the next turn for more impact. I must say, it worked like a charm. Tim moved west over the mountains to capture five cities and nineteen gold. I duplicated his raft movement from last turn, and then raced along the path he laid out for this turn. I almost screwed up by not having another elfencycle card, but I was able to use a raft card instead. I was able to pick up seven city tokens, and I would’ve been a fool to refuse the twenty-five gold.

The third turn was pretty grim for the three of us. Tim and I were in the northwest forest together, but my cards and tiles were telling me I wouldn’t be leaving that area this turn. Tim wanted to teleport into the dead-end city and then move around in the forest just east of there. But I would have none of that. For some reason, I had a metric buttload of pig cards clogging my hand and no transportation tiles to take advantage of the situation. I hated to do it, but I was forced to use a switch tile to take Tim’s pig tile out of the dead-end city and replace it with a very inefficient cloud tile. It was a rather minor irritant for Tim because he still picked up four city tokens and two cards, but I’m sure he would’ve liked to have picked off that city if he was going to use a wizard card. I was able to get two city cylinders and position myself at the gateway to the desert, which would work with the two dragon tiles I was saving. Meanwhile, Charles was chugging along. He had stranded himself in the desert, and was having a devil of a time figuring out a graceful way to exit his dilemma. But as the tile placement round was nearing its end, he was able to take advantage of one of Tim’s placement for a way out. He visited two new cities in the process, taking cards for the effort.

Up to this point, Tim had been the recipient of most of my overtly evil moves; I just didn’t have the heart to beat on poor old Charles as he flailed about. My sentiments would quickly change as Charles roared back in grand fashion. He directed his elfenboot to six new cities this turn and took the corresponding twenty gold, which put my four city/thirteen gold and Tim’s two city/eleven gold efforts to shame. This is where things got weird though. As I mentioned earlier, I seemed to have large collection of pig cards and few ways to use them. I had visited most of the northern cities, and I was currently in the middle of the board. I had the choice of heading into the western mountains with their high-gold cities or the southeastern forests, which would be easier with my pig card fleet. I chose the eastern route, and it was a mistake. See, I had a three wizard cards that would enable me to mop up all the orphan cities that my tactical routing had created, but all the wizards in the world won’t help if you don’t have three gold to activate them. I hadn’t considered this when venturing into the gold-poor southeastern forest, which forced me out of the next two rounds’ tile auctions for lack of gold.

The other two laughed at my predicament (which only netted me two cities and seven gold this turn), as they each tried to finish off their elfen-tours. Tim nailed another four city tokens for twenty-one gold, but he had some fairly serious orphan city issues because he’d used his wizard cards up just a little too early. But Charles was definitely in contention. He’d only take two more city tokens this turn, but if the cards he was drew panned out, he would be able to parley his single wizard card into twenty cities.

The final turn was practically a forgone conclusion for me. I had five cities to hit and three wizard cards, which is fairly easy to accomplish in even the worst circumstances (plus, I’d taken the gold I’d need to activate my wizards and set it aside so I couldn’t fritter it away on tiles). The only concern for me was whether or not Tim would use his switch tile to take my dragon tile, because if he did, I’d only get nineteen cities. I saved my dragon tile until the very end. And right before I would be forced to play it, Tim switched out one of my other tiles. So I teleported a couple times, caravan’ed once and then finished it off with a dragon card. I had two gold and a card left over. Charles would then make me real nervous by visiting four cities, giving him nineteen total. Unfortunately, Tim’s last ditch effort to grab his remaining cities didn’t pan out, so I don’t know how many cities he could’ve gotten.

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00
After a three month absence, we welcomed back the newly married Eryk Syrdal to the Bayou Bungalow. I wonder what that sly, satisfied grin on his face was all about?

Having heard so much about the joys of Elfengold, the expansion for Alan Moon's Elfanland, I purchased it awhile back, but just never seemed to be able to get it to the table. Well, this time I wasn't going to be denied and had the game resting on the table when everyone began to arrive.

It's my understanding that the Elfengold expansion takes the game very close back to its original roots of Elfenroad when it was being released by Alan's White Wind company. Having never played Elfenroad, and reluctant to pay the $150 + it was commanding on various auctions, I was thrilled when I heard Elfenland was being released. This was made even more so as for awhile there, a few gamers were giving Elfenroad a perfect '10' and declaring it their favorite game.

I had my first opportunity to play the new Elfenland at the 1998 Gathering of Friends. Truth be told, my first experience was simply 'OK'. With all of the hoopla over Elfenroad, I guess I was expecting a game that would leave me shivering with excitement. It just didn't happen. Now, in all fairness, I think Elfenland gets better with repeated plays, and it has become one of my family's favorite games. Still, it wasn't the mecca of gaming that many were making Elfenroad out to be. Of course, I then learned that the game had been simplified so it would appeal to a larger market, which is quite understandable. Thus, when it was announced that the Elfengold expansion was going to be released and it would essentially convert the game back to Elfenroad, they had a sure sale on their hands!

Elfengold (Why, oh why, did they have to name it that? It's so confusing considering Alan Moon had released a completely different game using the same name under the White Wind label.) certainly makes Elfenland a much more intense, much more challenging game. There is a host of small changes which make an incredible difference on play. The main change is the resurrection of the auction for the transportation tokens. Each turn, players only draw two transportation tokens, and the remainder (2 times the number of players) are auctioned. Money (I guess it's known as elfen gold) is used for the auction, and is primarily earned by visiting cities or opting to choose the money stack of cards as opposed to selecting a card during the card draw phase. Thus, proper money management becomes a key element of the game.

Cards are much more limited than in Elfenland. Each round, players only receive three new cards, but they may 'draft' them from a three face-up cards, enabling one to better plan and manage his routes. A player can receive an extra two cards if he chooses not to move that round, or if he foregoes collecting the gold due him for visiting cities.

The game also has a more evil side, as there are several new tokens added. Included are two sea serpents, which are identical to the road block tokens, but used on rivers and the lakes, and two 'switch' tokens which allow a player to switch two transportation counters on the board. This last token is particularly nasty as it can totally eradicate a route which was planned by an opponent. Just ask Lenny. He was forced to remain in Kihromah (that's the city with only one route in and one route out) when Darren switched the bicycle token to a troll token. If that had not been done, Lenny had a route mapped out which would have allowed him to visit five cities on that round. As a result, he couldn't move and lost a complete turn. It ultimately cost him the game.

With some incredible good fortune, I was able to visit four cities on the very first turn, thanks in large part to the placement of tokens by my opponents. I was then able to utilize the river and lake to visit four more cities on the next turn. Unfortunately, this set me up as a target and I was hindered from thereon out and was forced to spend an entire turn cooling my boot in Wylhien. In spite of my persistent efforts to hinder John Moore's movement by the placement of trouble tokens, he was able to visit five cities two turns in a row and capture the lead. In spite of holding him to just two cities on his final turn, he managed to cling to a one city advantage and claim the victory.

The round-by-round totals:

John Moore: 3 + 0 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 2 = 18
Greg Schloesser: 4 + 4 + 0 + 4 + 2 + 3 = 17
Lenny Leo: 1 + 5 + 1 + 0 + 2 + 7 = 16
Darren Arnold: 3 + 0 + 5 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 15
Eryk Syrdal: 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 5 + 2 = 15

Ratings: Eryk 8, Greg 7, John 7, Lenny 7, Darren 6

Elfengold certainly makes Elfenland a much more challenging, more difficult game to master. I was a bit concerned by the game's length, however, which lasted right at three hours. I do think that my gaming group will accept it more readily than Elfenland. However, it is not one which would appeal to my family, who will undoubtedly much prefer the more basic and easier to navigate Elfenland.