Game: Mesopotamia

Thread: Re: 5 Variants that we won't play the game without...

SABATAI — 2008-10-05T18:21:55+00:00

What rating do you give the game if you play by this variant?

Thread: Re: Looking for German Rules

ekted — 2008-09-27T13:37:27+00:00

Right where they should be. In the files section of this page:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/13201/Mesopotamia...

Thread: Looking for German Rules

Lgb-JohnDoe — 2008-09-27T13:23:20+00:00

Can anybody help?

Thanks.

Thread: Re: Translation of Mesopotamia cards

Grildensnork — 2008-07-28T21:10:24+00:00

Not a great pic but I could make out the text: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/162237?size=original

Expulsion: You may move 1 people piece (but not any resources carried) or one hut (plus it's offering marker) of an opponent up to three hexes

Stamina: You may use 3 additional movement points during your movement

Fertility: If you choose the "Giving Birth to new clan people" action, you receive 2 new people at one hut (instead of 1)

Mana Theft: You immediately take 1 mana from any 1 opponent of your choice.

Teleport: You may move 1 wood, 1 stone, or 1 people piece (together with any resource it bears) to any other hex tile (except the temple field)

Holy Stone: Immediately move the cylinder on your mana scale up to 2 boxes to the right (up to your maximum allowance)

Land: During a discovery, you may look at 4 hexagons, choose 1, and the put it on the table. Shuffle the other 3 back into the stack.

Priest: You receive double the normal amount of mana from one holy place of your choice for one turn

Thread: Translation of Mesopotamia cards

markf — 2008-07-28T20:48:30+00:00

Hi,
I have the German version of Mesopotamia game.
I would appreciate for someone to publish here the translation (or good picture) of all 8 different game cards.
Thank you in advance.

Thread: Re: TRANSLATION PROBLEM

ektorakos — 2008-07-22T07:29:18+00:00

Thanks for your help.!

Thread: Re: TRANSLATION PROBLEM

Moviebuffs — 2008-07-22T07:15:43+00:00

Two Player Game:

- Put 6 Plains tiles back in the box.

- Put the cards with the "3 heads" graphic back in the box.

- Movement points in Round 1:
- Player 1: 2 points
- Player 2: 5 points

Three Player Game:

- Put 4 Plains tiles back in the box.

- Movement points in Round 1:
- Player 1: 2 points
- Player 2: 3 points
- Player 3: 4 points

Four Player Game:

- Movement points in Round 1:
- Player 1: 2 points
- Player 2: 3 points
- Player 3: 4 points
- Player 4: 5 points

N.

Thread: TRANSLATION PROBLEM

ektorakos — 2008-07-22T06:42:45+00:00

Guys please help.

I got the game in german and I don't understand the constraints subscribed in the 2 sheet manual regarding setup.
The main rulebook said sth about having to exclude fields etc.
Can anybody quickly explain the constraints to me for 2,3, or 4 players?
Thanks in advance because I know that someone will!!!

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mrswooey — 2008-07-09T11:46:43+00:00

Frustration building for MR Wooey & the Pobs as they realise MRSWOOEY may well be winning!

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yakos — 2008-06-21T22:54:57+00:00

Mesopotamien played at "Pionek VII" in Gliwice, Poland (June 7-8, 2008)

Thread: Mesopotamia hits the table at our game group

ikiru — 2008-06-03T15:51:11+00:00

Mesopotamia is one of those games that has hit the table at our game group gatherings for the past 2 gatherings straight, but for some reason, every time it does, I get stuck playing something else. Well, this time, I made it a point to participate. The group consisted of:

Jason H - The most experienced of the bunch. Played maybe half a dozen times. Eurogamer.
Melissa - Played once before. Light Eurogamer.
Lisa - Never played. American style party gamer.
Me - Never played. Eurogamer (who likes the occasional war/ameritrash game)

After brief explanation of the rules, we were up and running in no time. The downloaded player aids that helped explain our options were very well received.

The game started with everyone spawning new tribes and sending their odd tribe exploring. Melissa was the first to head off and grab wood. My strategy was to mass as many tribes as possible and wait for the other players to discover things. I felt that being centrally located, it would be easy to deploy my "army" of tribes to do...whatever it is that they do.

As people explored, there seemed to be a long run of plains. In fact, I don't think we saw a forest tile until pretty late in the game. It seemed that Melissa had an advantage since she got wood early.

My mass tribe strategy seemed to be doing ok, but I realized that it was of limited advantage due to the fact that it makes it hard to coordinate movement with only 5 movement points spread over my "army".

Over the time of the game, Melissa, Lisa, and I were slowly bringing offerings to the pyramid. For a small bit, I had an advantage because I was able to bring multiple offerings...however, getting enough mana was difficult.

In the end, Melissa was able to bring in her last offering. We missed an opportunity to delay her a round by failing to steal a stone from one of her tribes. However, I don't think that it would have made a difference as the closest player (me) had at least 2 more rounds to go.

Overall, an interesting game. Not too heavy. A little high on the "turn angst" scale, but not unbearable. I think that I would play this again.

-ikiru

*enjoy the sauce*

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volnon — 2008-04-10T02:49:42+00:00

A two player win.

Thread: Re: First-time thoughts from a gamer girl: Mesopotamia

mvettemagred — 2008-04-09T23:54:39+00:00

My wife and I and another couple still enjoy this game, as it's not too complicated, but still rewards planning ahead. And the bits are really nice.

Thread: Re: First-time thoughts from a gamer girl: Mesopotamia

Sexy Amy — 2008-04-07T21:24:06+00:00

I used to love this game. In fact, it was one of my favorites. Unfortunately, it did not hold up for me over repeated plays.

Thread: First-time thoughts from a gamer girl: Mesopotamia

historysteph — 2008-04-07T18:40:22+00:00

I’ve been playing games my whole life, but it was mostly Connect Four and Life until I was introduced to Settlers in Jan. 2006, Carcassonne in July 2006, and found BGG in Nov. 2006. From there… well, you know the story. I enjoy mostly Euros—games that have strategy but also simple rules—although I will play other games. This is technically a session report but also includes some review-type information. It’s a two-for-one.

This game was actually on my wishlist (because of the cool temple building), but I didn’t remember that until I went back to look it up. I played it at the Indianapolis game day with Todd, Ross, and Mike, all of whom are big into strategy—and while I enjoy thinking about strategy, I won’t analyze all of my moves minutely; I prefer to have fun instead.

Session Report

Ross took the first step as an explorer, turning over several plains and a quarry. Both Todd and Ross explored frequently throughout the first half of the game, and we had an abundance of wood available; unfortunately, it was all the way across the area—I had to pass the temple. I took advantage of the quarry and delivered several stones to the ziggurat to increase my mana level, built a holy place, and finally a hut. At one point I took advantage of the wood across the way and teleported to the other side, where a spouse and plains tile were waiting.

My game mates’ offering tiles had cute little images like fruit and goats on them. Mine, however, had bloody hearts, arms, and other appendages and organs recently ripped from bodies for sacrifice. Still, my meatier sacrifices did not help my quest. Maybe the god is vegetarian and just used the goat as a pet.

Toward the end, stones were scarce. There were a few over in Mike’s area, but we had to go around several volcanoes to get there, a long way to travel (especially if one is toting a stone on their head, which is rather uncomfortable). Instead, I explored further and got a quarry on my first try, toting the stone to the temple to get my last mana.

By the end of the game, I was exhausted. Carrying stones, timbers, and offerings on your head is no easy task! My efforts were in vain, however, as Todd won with the fourth offering. Both Mike and Ross would have had theirs in their next turn, while I still had two turns to go.

Review-type information

It took me a turn or two to understand the difference between movement and action, but after I thought through it, everything made sense. I didn’t have much of a strategy at the beginning (and the others mentioned similar thoughts), but after playing, I wish I would have thought further ahead. I would usually think two turns ahead but was once left with an extra movement I didn’t use. I should have picked up more cards, but it always seemed necessary to either build a hut, reproduce (this was most common), or a holy place. Next time I’ll focus on building two in the same action to save myself time. Both the cards I had were teleport cards—one was very helpful as I was transported across country, the other only slightly helpful toward the end of the game.

It was a fun game, one I’d like to try again. The rules were easy to understand (this was all of our first times playing, as Mike had recently picked it up. Both Mike and Todd had read the rules beforehand).

Thread: Re: The Magic Forest

fubar awol — 2008-04-05T05:58:39+00:00

This sounds like a great addition to the "Mesopotamia variants" pantheon.

Bravo!

Thread: Re: stone replenishment variant

fubar awol — 2008-04-05T05:55:36+00:00

I think this is unnecessary, I've never seen it happen.

Thread: The Magic Forest

Thrylos — 2008-03-17T22:02:31+00:00

There is more wood in the game than what is needed. To remedy this "inefficiency" and add more conflict in the game, one of the existing Forest tiles has become a Magic Forest (just draw some art to discriminate this forest from the other forests).

When you explore and you discover the Magic Forest, no wood is added anywhere. Also whenever a Forest is discovered, no wood is placed on the Magic Forest.
At the beginning of your turn, if any of your tribes is in the Magic Forest and holds Wood, then this wood is transformed into Stone. Make this transformation only at the very beginning of your turn before any movement.

The Magic Forest minimizes Wood in the game (since upon its discovery no wood is introduced). And it makes Wood a more strategic resource since now it can be transformed into Stone. My experience is that it improves the game a lot.

Some of my friends call this variant as the "Petrified Forest" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrified_Forest) but I prefer the name "Magic Forest".

In addition we play with the 3 blank hexes as wormholes (see http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/93146), and with the additional rule for introducing Stones and Wood in case any of them has been depleted from all tiles (see http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/112329).

Enjoy,
Paul

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Festivus — 2008-02-28T04:03:17+00:00

Mesopotamia Player Aid, Turn Summary

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Festivus — 2008-02-28T03:44:37+00:00

Mesopotamia Player Aid, Game Setup

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Festivus — 2008-02-28T03:40:17+00:00

Mesopotamia Instruction Manual (Front Cover)

Thread: Re: Waiting at the central temple with an offering?

Fledermaushaus — 2008-02-10T15:41:16+00:00

Quoting from the Mayfair rules:

If you do not have enough Mana to pay for the offering, you may not deliver the offering marker! You must return the tribe and the offering marker back to the tile from which it entered the Temple Field.

This is in the secion 'Making an Offering' on page 4.

Thread: Re: Waiting at the central temple with an offering?

xombe — 2008-02-10T15:20:52+00:00

frogmind wrote:
As far as i understand it if you make the trek and are missing the required mana at the temple space, you are pushed back out into the field (hex) you entered from. So I believe the answer is no, you can not sit in the temple space and wait till you get the mana.

where does it say this in the rules? We were digging for the exact same answer in our last game and could not find a reference to it not being allowed, therefore we allowed it. Having the guy sitting there with the offering meant he wasn't helping with anything else, which is a waste of resources, so it didn't seem to be breaking anything.

Thread: Re: Waiting at the central temple with an offering?

mvettemagred — 2008-02-10T14:22:02+00:00

Sonja wrote:
So you're saying you have to wait in a hex adjacent to the central temple and on a later turn spend 1 move point to enter. As opposed to spending the move points ahead of time and sitting in the temple hex in order to save you a move point in the future if you can afford to put the tribe there earlier.
This is correct. The temple is a "no parking" zone. You need to plan your APs so you have enough left to deliver the offering.

Thread: Re: Waiting at the central temple with an offering?

Sonja — 2008-02-10T06:52:51+00:00

So you're saying you have to wait in a hex adjacent to the central temple and on a later turn spend 1 move point to enter. As opposed to spending the move points ahead of time and sitting in the temple hex in order to save you a move point in the future if you can afford to put the tribe there earlier.

Thread: Re: Waiting at the central temple with an offering?

frogmind — 2008-02-10T05:11:16+00:00

As far as i understand it if you make the trek and are missing the required mana at the temple space, you are pushed back out into the field (hex) you entered from. So I believe the answer is no, you can not sit in the temple space and wait till you get the mana.

Thread: Waiting at the central temple with an offering?

Sonja — 2008-02-10T04:09:37+00:00

If my meeple is holding an offering for the main ziggurat thingy and has enough movement points to get there, but not enough mana points to actually make the offer, can I bring him to the temple?

And then on a future turn (when I do have the required mana), I won't need to spend any movement points and can simply deliver the goods (and sacrifice the tribe permanently) as a free drop-off action?

Thread: Re: German Priest card description?

Fledermaushaus — 2007-12-03T17:53:15+00:00

Irgendjemand, irgendwo, irgendwann ???

I'd really like to know what the German Priest card text is. It just seems likely that it refers to 'eigene Kultplätze' (your own holy places) rather than 'ein Kultplatz' (one holy place). Otherwise, it seems weaker in every way compared to the Holy Stone card (which gives 2 mana at any time during your turn as opposed to one mana during the mana phase only).

Thread: Re: A Brief Look at Mesopotamia

fubar awol — 2007-11-03T13:28:36+00:00

Larry,

Next time you play, try this:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1285609

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hoojii — 2007-08-24T20:03:31+00:00

Master got me working...

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hoojii — 2007-08-24T20:02:31+00:00

2 player game, early stages

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henk.rolleman — 2007-07-07T12:27:25+00:00

Thread: A Brief Look at Mesopotamia

Larry Levy — 2007-06-04T04:22:13+00:00

Since I’ve seen this game described as Tikal Lite more than once, it was an automatic purchase for me. Light it is — our three player game played very fast. Positioning yourself to carry out the actions efficiently requires some thought and the ending was very close (we were all in position to win on our next turn). And the game really looks terrific and is more than a little overproduced (real stones; interlocking hexes; the totally unnecessary, but very nice, temple; not to mention the dynamic picture of Greg Schloesser on the box cover).

But in the end, the game is somewhat disappointing. The biggest problem is that there seems to be just one path to victory. Everyone has to dunk four stones into the temple to get their max Mana level up to 7; everyone has to build four more huts to get their offerings into play; and everyone then has to add 15 more Mana so that their offerings can be delivered. After that, it’s just a matter of birthing enough babies to get things done, performing multiple actions simultaneously whenever possible, getting your huts and holy places nearby if you can (to minimize movement costs), and getting lucky with your tile explorations and card draws. The latter wouldn’t be such a big factor except that there’s so little else to differentiate your relative progress in the game. The order in which players do things varies, so it looks like everyone is following different strategies, but as the game reaches its climax, you realize you’ve all wound up following the same paths and reached the final destination at about the same time. As a result, the closeness of the game feels decidedly artificial. Don’t get me wrong, this is a pleasant game and I wouldn’t mind playing again, particularly with a group that likes lighter designs. But it lacks a necessary spark. Maybe if there was another way of spending your Mana, something that would give the game another dimension and allow for an alternate victory path, I’d be more enthused. But the game in the box doesn’t feel like a keeper. I guess I’m just not a big fan of Klaus-Jürgen Wrede (although Mesopotamia is certainly far better than his dreadful Krone und Schwert). I rate this a 6.5, by no means bad, but headed for the trade pile unless future games reveal further depth.

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GeoMan — 2007-05-10T23:28:45+00:00

Close up

Thread: A medium filler?

citylife — 2007-04-19T00:20:06+00:00

Mesopatania is fun, really it is. It reminds me of Settlers especially the cool two player variant where the nature of the tile is not reveled until you reach the tile. The mecahnics are really simple, easy to understand and even quicker to play. Even our group, that regular suffers from over analysis, was happy to forge on and play turns relatively quickly. This is not so much to do that you can't do it quickly I love it.

The game itself is easy, and I would call it a medium filler. A filler because it is not long and medium because it requries a choice from multiple actions, not just two or three. I would put it along side Ysphan in this respect and I enjoy both of them as relaxed games that are not intense. This is definitely not a game where you show off your prowess for deep thought and calculation. Yet it fills the gap perfectly for the happy go lucky gamer in for the gaming ride.

Our session was particularly close and suffered from a couple of rules calculations. When you play a game for the first time the quodos goes to the person who picks up the skill elements quickest,. This was definitely King ludo, Zirak himself, as he quickly shoed us up by populating huts with one move and then craftily finding his own zone for building. In the end his huts were really close to the temple and he played everything really really well. He derved to win. Still it looked for a moment like he would not, would he be pipped by a single square for the victory. A card was played that moved the hut just beyond reach and he was going to fall one short. but then it mattered not as he pulled a cunning card from he hand and moved some extra spots for the victory.

Mesopatania is a medium filler, that is fun, easy to play once you learn and never the same. Now if I can only trade a play of this for a play of something really heavy that I like.

Thread: Re: Q: holding 2 different resources while building

Great Dane — 2007-03-02T08:41:36+00:00

humeral wrote:
But that's talking about offering markers in the tile, not about whether a guy holding something can breed (or build). It's saying that if the marker isn't on the ground it doesn't prevent breeding in the tile. I don't see that it's saying that a person holding an offering can be one of the parents.
On the other hand does it not say that you CANNOT do anything else while carrying a resource!
You are inventing a rule which is not there!

Thread: Re: Q: holding 2 different resources while building

Fledermaushaus — 2007-03-02T07:05:08+00:00

Mik is correct.
I've got the English version but have now had a look at the German rules as well to see if they are any different - they aren't. It was a question that came up when I first played but the rules, though they could be more explicit, are clear enough. You can build or reproduce whilst carrying an offering. As well as the rule referred to by Mik on page 6, further confirmation is given on page 4 under 'Make an offering.' The 'Important' note states that a tribe carrying an offering marker cannot carry any stone or wood. It doesn't say it cannot reproduce or build.
As for the 'why' of the rule, I can only suggest that it seemed sufficiently limiting to have it the way it is. You cannot use a hut for reproducing if the offering is still under it (or even under an opponent's hut on the same space) and if your tribe pick it up that tribe will never be able to carry anything else.
I guess some of the confusion is because the way the game is played seems 'counter-intuitive' at times.

(Perhaps the fall of the great Mesopotamian civilisation, famed for their ability to do two things at once, came about as a direct consequence of this ability. Whilst being able to reproduce whilst carrying wood or stone, it resulted in the womenfolk going off to find men who brought more interesting 'sextoys' to bed than a boulder or a tree trunk).

Thread: Re: Q: holding 2 different resources while building

humeral — 2007-03-01T22:03:27+00:00

But that's talking about offering markers in the tile, not about whether a guy holding something can breed (or build). It's saying that if the marker isn't on the ground it doesn't prevent breeding in the tile. I don't see that it's saying that a person holding an offering can be one of the parents.

Thread: Re: Q: holding 2 different resources while building

Great Dane — 2007-03-01T21:45:52+00:00

humeral wrote:
Could I ask how you know they can build or reproduce while holding resources or offerings? I can't find anything in the rules or FAQ about it one way or the other, and my thought before reading your post was that they couldn't.

Read the rules, page 6: C) Population Growth.
Important: It is not allowed to expand your population on a tile that contains offering markers! Exception:Offering markers already carried by tribes do not prevent this action.

Thread: Re: Q: holding 2 different resources while building

humeral — 2007-03-01T19:32:32+00:00

Could I ask how you know they can build or reproduce while holding resources or offerings? I can't find anything in the rules or FAQ about it one way or the other, and my thought before reading your post was that they couldn't.

If they can reproduce while holding offerings, isn't the restriction that they can't reproduce on a tile with an offering on the ground rather weak? They could just pick it up first. I realize that they can't put it down again so it is still some restriction, but it doesn't seem worth the extra rule.

I just got the game and haven't played yet, so maybe I'm missing something obvious.

Thread: 5 Variants that we won't play the game without...

fubar awol — 2007-01-19T16:24:04+00:00

Mesopotamia - Preferred Variants

Reduce the # of Cards Available

Setup: One card of each type is removed from the deck. If using the expansion deck, use only one of each card type.

Discards: Once a card is used by a player, it is removed from the game.

Exchange Cards for Movement Points

Optional Use: Instead of using the text, cards may be discarded in exchange for additional movement points. The player receives a number of movement points equal to double the number cards discarded minus one. Therefore, 1 card can be exchanged for 1 movement point, 2 cards for 3 points, 3 cards for 5 points, etc.

Pay 1 Move Point to Pick up an Offering

Extra movement cost: Picking up an offering counter always costs a movement point; even when it is initially picked up from beneath a hut.

Remove a Tribe that Ends Move on the Temple Tile

Tribe Removal: Tribes may end a turn on the Temple tile but if they do, they are removed from the board and returned to the player’s supply.

Pay 1 Move Point to Steal a Resource on Opponent’s Turn

Players may steal resources during the opponents turn by paying 1 movement point which may either be paid immediately by discarding a card or by deducting it from the players next turn's movement point allowance even if it is obvious that someone will win the game before that player gets another turn. This is typically done as the opponent is moving onto the stealing player’s tile.

No Population Growth when a Resource is on the Ground

Restriction: Players may not do population growth on a tile where there is an offering beneath a hut or lying on the ground – regardless of who owns the offering.

Magic Forest

One of the existing Forest tiles is the Magic Forest. Indicate this by drawing a small mushroom or some other discriminating mark on it.

Placement: No wood is ever added to the Magic Forest Tile.

Use: A tribe that holds wood and is on the Magic Forest at the beginning of its turn, may transform that wood into stone.

Wormholes

The three extra blank tiles each represent a "wormhole". Indicate this by drawing a big twilight-zone spiral on each one.

Placement: When drawn, a wormhole hex is placed on any board-edge except the location where the player originally intended to place it. After it is placed, the tribe that discovered it is placed on top of it and may continue movement normally or immediately teleport to another wormhole hex at no additional cost.

Use: A wormhole represents a fixed teleport location that players may use to teleport a tribe to another wormhole tile at no movement point cost. Use of the teleport feature of the wormhole is optional; however, if a tribe enters a pre-existing wormhole and then exits the SAME wormhole during the same turn, it costs them an EXTRA movement point to do so. The effect is to increase the cost of traversing a wormhole to 2 movement points unless it is used to teleport. A tribe that starts its turn on a wormhole is not required to pay any additional movement cost to leave it – so ending one turn on a wormhole and then starting the next turn there is the only way to avoid paying the extra movement point for traversing it.

Restrictions & other effect: Villages and Holy Places may not be placed in wormhole hexes. Resources that are dropped by a tribe while on a wormhole are removed from the game.

Here is a link to a printable file containing these rules:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/fileinfo/33613

Thread: Re: 3 blank hexes

fubar awol — 2007-01-19T16:22:05+00:00

Here is how we use the extra hexes... this has gone through several generations and significant playtesting. It really adds a lot to the game.

Wormholes

The three extra blank tiles each represent a "wormhole". Indicate this by drawing a big twilight-zone spiral on each one.

A wormhole represents a fixed teleport location that players may use to teleport a tribe to another wormhole tile at no movement point cost. Use of the teleport feature of the wormhole is optional; however, if a tribe enters a pre-existing wormhole and then exits the SAME wormhole during the same turn, it costs them an EXTRA movement point to do so. The effect is to increase the cost of traversing a wormhole to 2 movement points unless it is used to teleport. A tribe that starts its turn on a wormhole is not required to pay any additional movement cost to leave it – so ending one turn on a wormhole and then starting the next turn there is the only way to avoid paying the extra movement point for traversing it.

When drawn, a wormhole hex is placed on any board-edge except the location where the player originally intended to place it. After it is placed, the tribe that discovered it is placed on top of it and may continue movement normally or immediately teleport to another wormhole hex at no additional cost.

Villages and Holy Places may not be placed in wormhole hexes. Resources that are dropped by a tribe while on a wormhole are removed from the game.

Thread: Re: Mesopotamia Expansion

GeoMan — 2006-12-17T10:26:32+00:00

Rubble98 wrote:
Any news when this will be available??

The English version is already available in Germany.

Thread: Re: Mesopotamia Expansion

Rubble98 — 2006-12-17T03:04:20+00:00

Any news when this will be available??

Thread: My Take on Mesopotamia

rayito2702 — 2006-11-28T05:12:00+00:00

My Take on Mesopotamia

Klaus-Jürgen Wrede designed Carcassonne, which I’ve quite enjoyed. More recently he designed Mesopotamia. Everything I heard about this game left me uninterested.

However, in my haste to get rid of Star Wars Stratego (I can’t stand keeping games around the house that I don’t like) I listed Mesopotamia in my list of wants in a math trade, and I got it. Go figure.

The Components
Each player gets a pile of wooden bits including a beam, pawn, tribe markers and huts. There are also boards to track mana on, holy place disks, offerings (4 per player), cards, little pieces of wood, real live rocks, a stack of tiles that make up the board (composed of volcanoes, forests, quarries, and plains), rules and a rules summary/quick set up guide. Last, but not least, the game comes with a big and completely superfluous wooden ziggurat that is placed in the middle of the board. It’s not necessary for game play but it sure looks cool.

The components are high quality. All the wooden player pieces are as big as they can be without being too big. The tiles that make up the board are nice and large, though they do have interlocking boarders which I find completely unnecessary and complicate game play and take down. The cards are a good sized and linen finished. The wood pieces are like the roads in Settlers of Catan with natural coloring. And the rocks are, well, rocks. Kudos to Phalanx games for including such a cool bit, however, the rocks rub against each other and generate quite a bit of dust. I had to wash mine off before playing the first time. So far I haven’t had to wash them again, but I suspect that if I moved the game around a lot the rocks would have more opportunity to grind against each other.

The Game
To win you need to be the first to bring all you offerings to the ziggurat. To bring your offerings to the ziggurat you need mana.

7 tiles are used to set up the game: the ziggurat tile, a forest tile, a quarry tile, 2 volcanoes and 2 plains. The set up is slightly different depending on the number of players, but the ziggurat is always in the middle flanked by the 2 volcanoes. The plains start out on one side and the quarry and the forest on the other. Players start out with a hut and three tribes on one of the plains tiles.

A turn is quite simple. You get to move a total of 5 spaces, then you take an action. Finally you get mana if you are on a holy space.

When you move your tribes you can have them pick up wood and rocks, explore new tiles by moving off of the board, steal other players’ goods, carry goods around and make offerings at the ziggurat.

The actions you can perform are to have your tribes procreate thus generating new tribes, build new huts which is how your offerings come into play and they make procreation easier, build holy sites which generate mana, or you can pick a card which gives you special powers.

My Take
In order to win you need to at least to the following: 1) make 4 offerings of rock to the ziggurat to increase you mana limit to 7, 2) procreate one new tribe so you have 4 tribes to make the 4 offerings and 3) build 4 huts thus bringing your four offerings into play.

Will you win if that’s all you do? No!

Mesopotamia is fundamentally a race game, but you have to build up infrastructure. You need wood for huts and rocks for holy places and ziggurat donations. You need new tribes to run around exploring, collecting stuff, generating mana, building stuff, making donations to the ziggurat and mugging you fellow players’ tribes of their stuff.

It is a game of getting your tribes in the right place so you can maximize their 5 movement points.

There is a lot of tactical play in the game because you don’t know what tiles will come up when. And new tiles are the only way to bring more resources into the game. Cards are very useful and the earlier you get them the more useful they are likely to be. The problem is your opponents can fill up the primo real estate while you’re picking cards forcing your huts into more isolated positions.

A couple of the main strategic aspects of the game are where you place your huts and holy sites and how to position your tribes to best take advantage of the production spaces. A neat twist is that you can use your opponents’ holy sites for generating mana. It’s also important to keep in mind that rock can be used up quickly and be in short supply by the end of the game so you don’t want to postpone your rock needs for too long.

Mesopotamia takes about 30 to 45 minutes to play and makes for a short and intense pick-up-and-deliver game with some interesting chrome.

Thread: Original Rules for Mesopotamia

cmessenger — 2006-11-17T23:59:00+00:00

Can anyone tell me where the designer's original rules can be found?
Thanks,
Karen

Thread: Re: First time with a good idea of what to do-still got whom

sedjtroll — 2006-11-07T22:15:31+00:00

RecklessJester wrote:
Yeah, we realized too late that we were playing wrong.
Too late, like the next day.

Thread: Re: First time with a good idea of what to do-still got whomped

RecklessJester — 2006-11-07T22:08:00+00:00

Yeah, we realized too late that we were playing wrong.

Thread: Re: First time with a good idea of what to do-still got whomped

mvettemagred — 2006-11-07T21:42:45+00:00

I glad you guys are enjoying Mesopotamia. It's one of our group's favorites. A couple of observations of your session report:
- Having each player have 5 Movement Points in turn 1 defeats the balancing effect of the earlier players having less points. Because this is normally a very close game (as your 4-player game demonstrated), going first is a distinct advantage. You don't want to give the first few players an additional advantage. I strongly recommend using the graduated Movement Points on the first turn.
- Not "sacrificing" the tribesmen who delivered the offerings can have a profound effect on the game. Managing your quantity of tribemen is an important strategy. It makes you use your turn action to birth tribesmen more than you otherwise would have to. In one game, my wife nearly took herself out of the game by not birthing enough tribesmen.

Have fun with the game!

Thread: Re: Mesopotamia - A Review with a lot of rules

hederj — 2006-11-06T17:33:11+00:00

I thought it would be something like that.

Thread: Re: Mesopotamia - A Review with a lot of rules

RecklessJester — 2006-11-06T16:58:48+00:00

In a two player game each player is on a different plains, along with a neutral hut on each.

Thread: Mesopotamia - A Review with a lot of rules

hederj — 2006-11-05T09:18:40+00:00

A long time ago, a friend introduced me to a computer game Civilization, a turn based game where a player attempts to go from the Stone Age to the Space Age, while attempting to conquer the known world – or at least to not be conquered by others. Its graphics and interactions were simple, and it could take several hours to complete. Yet I liked it. I have since played other computer games like it but still remember that game with some fondness. I have played a few civilization building board games, that remind me of that game and others, and Mesopotamia is the latest. While it doesn’t advance to other ages or have the war element, when I read it, it made me think fondly of the old computer game and I wanted to play it. I’ve been able to play twice now and wish to write this review.

Game Mechanics (what happens) – tile laying, resource gathering, structure building, and goal completion for victory.

Game Components (what gets played with) – 1 temple with temple tile, and multiple tiles of four other types, plains, forests, quarries, and volcanoes; Huts, natives(tribesman, villagers, dudes or whatever you want to call them), holy places, sacrifice tokens, mana counters, with indicators, lumber, stone, and cards.

Game play (how players play) – The game starts with a board made up the temple, 1 quarry, 1 forest, 2 volcano, and 2 plains). Players start with a hut and 3 workers on a plains tile. In a 3-player game a forth, neutral hut is placed limit the expansion on that tile. I am not sure what happens in a 2-player game. The number of resources placed on the quarry and forest tiles at the start of the game is equal to the number of players in the game – this is also true when new forest and quarries are discovered, but then the resources are spread out a bit. Stone goes on the quarries and lumber on the forests.

On a players turn, they may move their natives. 5 spaces is the general movement though it is less for most players at the start of the game. The movement may be done all by one native or may be split up between multiple natives.

While moving around, natives may explore to add new tiles and resources to the board, pick up resources or sacrifice tokens, offer stone to the temple, offer sacrifice tokens (which takes the native off the board – while I don’t believe that the native is specifically designated to be a sacrifice, it is removed and it is fun to think that it was sacrificed), or steal resources from another player (stealing resources may only be done with an area majority on a tile basis – if you outnumber the player that you are trying to steal from, you may, otherwise you may not).

Exploring takes a movement as your native moves to the tile that is explored. This is important as it is the only way to find new plains on which to build and it is also the only way to replenish resources. When exploring, the player draws a tile and places it where his native is moving – unless the tile drawn is a volcano, then the player may place it anywhere and draws another tile. The only purpose a volcano has is to get in the way, therefore it is a good idea to place them where they will get in the way of other players. Tiles are interlocking which allows them to not be easily moved by accident.

To pick up, or steal a resource or a sacrifice token, a native only has to pass through the tile where the resource is located. It does not cost movement points to pick up, offer or drop items – note sacrifice tokens may NOT be dropped: once it is picked up the native holding it has it until it is delivered to the temple. Sacrifice tokens are kept secret as they are placed into play and carried around.

Items picked up are placed on top of the natives that picked them up. This is a little awkward as they are easily knocked off. I have found that the sacrifice tokens work better if placed underneath the natives rather than on top. This does not work with the lumber or stone, as they don’t provide a stable base. A possible danger of placing it on the bottom is that you may forget that it is there and have that native pick up another item. If this happens you or other players must cry shenanigans on the offending player and stop the inappropriate action. Players carrying resources may move as normal, except they may NOT move through the temple with the resource. They may carry stone and sacrifice tokens to the temple, but only if they are offering the stone or sacrificing the token & native.

When making an offering to build up the temple a native only has to carry a stone to the temple. Doing this increases the maximum amount of mana a player may collect and gives a point of mana. This is an essential part of the game, as a player will be unable to deliver most of their sacrifice tokens without increasing their maximum level of mana. Therefore stone becomes extremely rare as they are grabbed up early.

When sacrificing to the temple, a player must have collected the needed amount of mana and then move a native with the token to the temple. The token is shown and is placed by the temple so that all may see who has delivered what. The value of the token is taken from the player’s mana indicator. If they do not have the right amount of mana, the sacrifice is not made and the native is shunted back to the tile from which it entered the temple. There are 4 values of sacrifice tokens – 2, 4, 6, & 7. The maximum amount of mana a player may collect is 8 so a player will have to collect more mana after each sacrifice is made.

After movement, players take one of 4 actions: Build a hut, Build a holy place, Reproduce, or Draw a card. For the first three, if the conditions are met in more than one place the action may be performed in all those places. For example a tile has 2 of a player’s huts and 4 of their natives, Reproducing will create 2 more natives. Building either huts or holy places both require 2 natives on the tile with a lumber for a hut and a stone for a holy place. They may NOT be built on the same tile. Both are necessary as building huts introduces the sacrifice tokens to the board (placed under newly built huts) and holy places allow players to collect mana (needed to deliver sacrifice tokens).

The fourth action a player may take is to draw a card. Cards give a variety of benefits, such as extra movement, extra mana. I have found that if a player is able to successfully play cards they have a great advantage, therefore ignore the cards to your detriment.

Next comes collecting mana. For each holy place a player occupies with the correct number of natives they collect one mana each. It is the number of holy places occupied and NOT the number of natives doing the occupying that determines the mana collected.

This collection, offering stone to the temple and a few cards are the ONLY ways to collect mana, and without collecting mana there is NO WAY to win! It must be done!

Victory (how to win) – a player wins if they are the first to deliver all four of their sacrifice tokens to the temple.

I like the game because it does remind me of the old Civilization game, though it is obviously vastly different. It does have some similarities – deciding where to explore, what to build, how to use resources, etc.

It doesn’t take 5 to 20 hours to play (the box says 45 minutes and that is pretty accurate).

Also I like how a player must balance what they do. To win a player must deliver their tokens, which requires the huts that they come with, natives and mana to deliver them. To build huts and gather resources you need to explore to find the resources and the plains to build on. If you don’t explore, you may get stuck with no resources or having to build far away from the temple and closer is better. To get mana you need to offer stone and build holy places. If you concentrate on one thing too much you miss out dong the other things that end up being necessary. If you ignore the cards you miss out on the benefits that will shoot others ahead of you, and if you collect to many you aren’t building or reproducing as is necessary. It requires a balance.

A few bad things were the awkward carrying of pieces, and the stones provided were a bit chalky (still cool) so rock dust can get all over the other pieces and perhaps scratch them up. Also some of the cards were useful only in certain situations and often useless in others. And stone was a coveted resource while lumber – more plentiful – was scattered around at the end of the game rather useless.

Still it’s a good little game that I enjoyed and would like to play again.

Thread: Re: First time with a good idea of what to do-still got whomped

RecklessJester — 2006-11-04T05:35:37+00:00

We played it again today with 4. At the end it seemed like like anyone could win, just a matter of who was that much farther ahead. If john wouldn't have finished, one of the other two may have been able to. I was 1 extra turn away.

Yes, it is fun.

Yes, I will bring it if I come, which I am planning on, but may not be able to.

Thread: Re: First time with a good idea of what to do-still got whom

rayito2702 — 2006-11-04T04:45:53+00:00

So was the game fun? I know I was talking trash about the game even though I've never played it. But now I'm kind of curious.

Are you going to bring it next week?

Thread: Re: First time with a good idea of what to do-still got whomped

RecklessJester — 2006-11-03T22:02:24+00:00

I think that this is a good assessment of why things happened the way they did. Being on my own did help out, and the 2 "increase your mana by 2" cards definately helped out. I think we all did something that we regreted afterwards or realized that we could have done something differently.

For you, it was that turn early on where you were not able to build a hut the way you did your movement, but you could have if you picked up a different wood along the path.

For Sedtroll he explored a bit too much with poor results. It would have been different if we knew the tile ratios.

I think we played the tiles wrong in that we didn't remove the 4 plains that are taken out for a 3 player game.

For me, I would have been able to have built my 4th hut to bring out my last offering a turn earlier, but I don't think that I would have been able to get the mana any earlier. That may have enabled the two of you to do something that may have hindered me.

All in all I think it was an enjoyable game and I'm looking forward to more soon.

Thread: First time with a good idea of what to do-still got whomped

hederj — 2006-11-03T18:41:30+00:00

This is one of the few games I've done any sort of research on game play and rules and such before playing. I don't do really good reading off a computer screen and my printer konked out a looonnnggg time ago, so I ususally don't do it.

However, one week ago exactly I was able to print out a translation of the rules from German (I think) and reading a couple of things, I had a good idea of what I should do when playing and how to do it. At that time I did not know that a friend had ordered it and then received it so we could play last night.

So to the session.

There were three players, Myself, Sedjtroll, and Reckless Jester (RJ)

The game was set up with my and Sedjtroll with our huts in one of the plains and RJ and a neutral hut the other plains. Both the plains were next to each other and seperated from the rock quarry and the timber forest by volcanos and the Temple. RJ was closer (not really) to the rock and Sedjtroll and myself to the Timber.

As I was the oldest I started and it was determined (in the interest of time) to all start with the regular movement of 5.

At first each of us went off in different directions. I headed toward the lumber. Sedjtoll explored in a different direction and RJ went of in a third.

I explored and set up to build a hut while Sedjtroll went off and built 2 holy places and RJ still went off on his own and built one of each. Eventually RJ spent most of the game off on his own, while Sedjtroll and I competed for space and resources on our side of the board

I gained mana by doing a couple of quick rock offerings and tried to build more huts and increase my population. Both the other two went into the card business. It took me a shile to get cards and I didn't get something really useful until my third card. RJ sucessfully gained a lot of mana with his cards and Sedjtroll had some trouble utilising his effectively.

At one point in the game, RJ voiced his wish that I hadn't picked up a rock, and Sedjtroll reminded him that he could steal - darn him. He did. And to pay Sedjtroll back for that suggestion, the rest of the game I stole from him a couple of times and scared him off of coming to gather resources near me as I had a lot of guys near what he wanted.

Sedjtroll explored a lot toward the end of the game and never really was satisfied with the tile he turned up. I explored some too and in dong that is where I made my biggest mistake.

In my head I thought I needed some more rock, but what I wanted was a place to build a Holy Place (I had allready built one but wanted more. In exploring to look for the rock I thought I needed, I wasted some movement points looking for what wasn't there and what I didn't actually need. Bummer.

In the end I don't think it really mattered. RJ was a mana machine, and being almost completely left alone, he was able to deliver all of his tokens while the other two of us only had 2 delivered.

In doing a little bit of reading afterwards, I believe we were playing one rule incorrectly (possibly more but at least one). Our sacrifice deliver guys were not offered up with the tokens, but left on the board. This could have seriously altered the game, but as we were all playing incorrectly it evened out for that game at least.

As it was, being left alone and getting the "good" cards allowed RJ to whomp us.

Thread: Re: Card

mvettemagred — 2006-11-01T14:08:22+00:00

LordT,

You are correct. The only restriction on playing cards is you can only play a newly drawn card on subsequent turns.

Thread: Re: Card

LordT — 2006-11-01T13:28:33+00:00

It has been a while since my last game of Mesopotamia, but if I remember correctly you can play as many cards in your turn as you are holding in your hands.

Thread: Card

patat8020 — 2006-11-01T10:01:32+00:00

How many cards can you play in your turn? Only one, or...

Thread: Re: Mesopotamia Expansion

Pharan — 2006-10-13T09:56:50+00:00

nnf1 wrote:
GeoMan wrote:

Can people who can't attend Essen order the expansion directly from Phalanx?

Ditto

Yes, after Spiel in Essen we will make it available to our partners as well!

Regards,
Phalanx Games