Game: Augsburg 1520

Thread: Re: 2 players.

Partizan242 — 2008-11-02T04:49:46+00:00

It's ok as a 2 player game, but it loses a lot of the tension in the bidding. Augsburg 1520 is really fun at 4 or 5. If you mainly play 2 player, I would choose a different game.

Thread: 2 players.

Karmic_devil — 2008-11-01T21:27:09+00:00

Any good for 2?

Thread: Re: How much is the joker worth?

Jonathan Degann — 2008-08-29T00:35:22+00:00

A great thing about the jokers are that they enable you to get in on a lot of auctions with the purpose of losing and getting $100 or $50 in compensation.

The bid is 3. I have a Leo worth 8 and two jokers. I bid 3. I probably won't take the auction - and may not even want to - but I could get in and maybe come in 2nd or 3rd to get consolation money.

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roxon — 2008-08-12T20:53:24+00:00

Box cover (RGG edition)

Thread: On sale at funagain for $17

big-chad — 2008-07-29T23:20:11+00:00

Just got an email from funagain.com...

"For a limited time only, Funagain is offering the Rio Grande/Alea game Augsburg 1520 for only $17! The MSRP for Augsburg is $39.95 and Funagain normally sells it for $31.99.

This is a great deal and won't last that long. To get the special pricing please enter the code AUGSBURG1520 at the bottom of your shopping cart page. Limit 1 game per order. If you attempt to use the code and don't get the special pricing we're sorry but you're too late. Grab your copy today because this deal won't last long!"

http://www.funagain.com/redir/28232/Augsburg1520

Thread: Scientific Progress goes POP! - Pursue mayor carefully in early game.

TrekkerMJ — 2008-06-24T17:07:10+00:00

So... I'm new to this game but I can rule out one strategy for a two player game. I decided to run with the mayor slot to get my Master Builder very quickly and get the means to build a church quickly not to be bottle necked. Well.... That didn't work out too well. I did get the Mayor on the first turn but my son was able to squirrel away one important auction and that left me in a lurch. I only had assets in the mayor column and that just turned the game for my son. He got the money and he got victory points. I was trying to catch up as a poor mayor and it just didn't work. The kicker of all things was that my boy got the Mayor from me and ended up building a church before me as well as the cathedral. I made a valiant push at the end of the game but his having two rounds worth of nobility and coat of arms was just too much. I ended up with 46 points (yes I did get a cathedral) but he ended up at always having the resources to kick my butt and finished with a score around 62.

Great game and I'm still trying to figure strategy out as you can see. Don't look forward to a poor mayor approach pulling you through to a victory though!

Thread: Re: Building Church/Cathedral

Great Dane — 2008-04-29T09:28:27+00:00

Magritte wrote:
New question: Are you obliged to build a Church AND Cathedral in this way, or can you also just build a Church?

You are not obliged to build either of them. However you cannot score more than 25 points without a Church and you cannot score more than 45 points without a Cathedral.

Thread: Re: Building Church/Cathedral

Magritte — 2008-04-29T09:10:53+00:00

If you win an auction you may use any two Privileges on a card AND build both the Church and the Cathedral - if you can afford it

This was not clear from the rules. Thanks for clarifying that.

New question: Are you obliged to build a Church AND Cathedral in this way, or can you also just build a Church?

Thread: Re: Don't the values on the back give away the value of the card

SteveK2 — 2008-01-26T11:37:26+00:00

johnnyLikesGames wrote:
I guess you shouldn't hold up a single card and say, "I bid one card (or x cards)."

When making a bid, you don't have to decide which cards you would pay, you only need to announce how many cards you're prepared to pay.

You only decide which specific cards to pay if you win during the bidding, or which specific cards to blind-bid if you tied during the initial bidding.

Thread: Re: Don't the values on the back give away the value of the card

jearles — 2008-01-26T05:14:19+00:00

johnnyLikesGames wrote:
For example, one noble has several values 1 - 17, lowever values cost more. Isn't it possible that if I see the values on the back of the cards that that could influence my decision, at least as the second, third, or fourth bidder, to handle things differently? Should you hide your cards?

I guess you shouldn't hold up a single card and say, "I bid one card (or x cards)." Of course you could always hold up a card(s) that wasn't the one you're going to lay down.

1 - 7 = 200
8 - 11 = 250
12 - 14 = 300
15 - 16 = 350
17 - Joker = 400

Yes, the backs could give away a range. However the cards are small and can easily be concealed. Of course, as you point out some would even possibly see this as an opportunity to mess with anyone looking. A 300 is showing - does he/she not have anything higher?

Thread: Don't the values on the back give away the value of the card

johnnyLikesGames — 2008-01-26T04:54:49+00:00

For example, one noble has several values 1 - 17, lowever values cost more. Isn't it possible that if I see the values on the back of the cards that that could influence my decision, at least as the second, third, or fourth bidder, to handle things differently? Should you hide your cards?

I guess you shouldn't hold up a single card and say, "I bid one card (or x cards)." Of course you could always hold up a card(s) that wasn't the one you're going to lay down.

Thread: Re: How much is the joker worth?

jearles — 2008-01-26T04:28:42+00:00

johnnyLikesGames wrote:
jearles wrote:
johnnyLikesGames wrote:
I know I've missed it in the book, but I can't find it. What is the purpose of the Joker? How much is it worth for the auction and why would I play more than one of them? Thanks.

Joker can be used to form a bid for a noble. A bid must be composed of debt certificates for the noble being visited or jokers - but not ALL jokers.

I think I get it after reading yet again. First person says I bid one card for Leo. Next person says I bid two cards for Leo. The first person (two player game but same with more) says pass. The second person wins. The second person had a Leo and a Joker.

A little more analysis. The first player bid one, but his value was 14. The second player only had a Leo with 4 and a joker and won with a low card, but expensive joker.

Is this essentially right?

I think didn't get that you don't show the values of the cards unless all the bidders call - they all bid the same amount of cards, in which case the highest value actually does matter.

Correct... the value of the cards does NOT matter unless more than one player bids the same number of cards.

Thread: Re: How much is the joker worth?

johnnyLikesGames — 2008-01-26T04:23:22+00:00

jearles wrote:
johnnyLikesGames wrote:
I know I've missed it in the book, but I can't find it. What is the purpose of the Joker? How much is it worth for the auction and why would I play more than one of them? Thanks.

Joker can be used to form a bid for a noble. A bid must be composed of debt certificates for the noble being visited or jokers - but not ALL jokers.

I think I get it after reading yet again. First person says I bid one card for Leo. Next person says I bid two cards for Leo. The first person (two player game but same with more) says pass. The second person wins. The second person had a Leo and a Joker.

A little more analysis. The first player bid one, but his value was 14. The second player only had a Leo with 4 and a joker and won with a low card, but expensive joker.

Is this essentially right?

I think didn't get that you don't show the values of the cards unless all the bidders call - they all bid the same amount of cards, in which case the highest value actually does matter.

Thread: Re: How much is the joker worth?

jearles — 2008-01-26T04:19:10+00:00

johnnyLikesGames wrote:
I know I've missed it in the book, but I can't find it. What is the purpose of the Joker? How much is it worth for the auction and why would I play more than one of them? Thanks.

Joker can be used to form a bid for a noble. A bid must be composed of debt certificates for the noble being visited or jokers - but not ALL jokers. Since the person who bids the most card will win multiple jokers can help, but in the case of a tie the highest value card will win (and jokers have no value in a tie).

Thread: How much is the joker worth?

johnnyLikesGames — 2008-01-26T04:08:36+00:00

I know I've missed it in the book, but I can't find it. What is the purpose of the Joker? How much is it worth for the auction and why would I play more than one of them? Thanks.

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fabricefab — 2008-01-20T16:22:12+00:00

Augsburg 1502 in the box

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Partizan242 — 2008-01-14T17:17:00+00:00

The starting board for a 4 player game

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Partizan242 — 2008-01-14T17:15:03+00:00

The available privilege tiles in a 4 player game

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Partizan242 — 2008-01-14T17:13:08+00:00

The price of debt certificates are printed on both sides

Thread: Re: Timing of Promissory Note purchases

Great Dane — 2007-12-25T17:20:13+00:00

I haven't seen it as a big deal in any of the games I have played, and I have tought the game to quite a few.

However the rules are precise and easy to follow: cards are dealt in seating order, beginning with the Start player. So everyone has a chance to notice the values of the cards dealt to each player.

Then each player must decide which cards to keep and which to discard. All discards are returned simultaneously, so no-one will know exactly which values the other players will keep.

If you are anal about it, everybody should keep their discards in a hidden stack and return them to the discard pile at the same time - but in practice does it not matter, and we simply dump the cards face up in the discard pile as in any other game - and I don't think anyone have ever been able to get a *significant* advantage from knowing the top card from the first players to dump. And if they had, they were essentially 'cheating' or at least going against the spitit of the rules - and I don't think I know anyone who would knwoingly do that.

Thread: Timing of Promissory Note purchases

ekted — 2007-12-25T07:43:24+00:00

It seems that knowing the quality and quantity of cards purchased by one player might affect the choices of another. The rules seem a little cavalier about the timing of this phase. Do players just split up their newly-acquired cards into keep and discard piles simultaneously? Is this not really a big deal in practice?

Thread: Re: who goes first per auction?

SteveK2 — 2007-12-15T12:56:01+00:00

bradstock wrote:
The English rules that come with the game make it clear that the player who won the previous auction bids first in the next auction.

Good to know. Where is this stated?

Thread: Re: 'Augsburg 1520' review: a new midi-boxed Alea

bradstock — 2007-12-15T12:30:03+00:00

James is correct. Say an auction ends with high bids of 4 cards. All players who bid 4 cards then reveal. Of those players, the one revealing the single card with the highest value wins. The player with the second highest value takes 100 money. The third highest takes 50.

One aspect of the game that I have not seen really discussed is the fact that the winner of the first auction in the round gets to choose which of the five privilege cards he wants, giving him a great strategic edge. The winner of the next auction only has four privilege cards to choose from, etc, until the winner of the last auction in the round must take whatever privilege is left.

Thus, although all cards of equal values cost the same to buy, the cards of the 'earlier' nobles in the auction rounds are more valuable in effect of play -- thus, Phillipe cards are 'worth' more in effect than Marie cards. This adds a whole layer of strategy to the game. One does not necessarily want to buy the highest cards one is dealt. One may rather by two lower (cheaper) Phillipe cards than one high Marie card, since the two Phillipe cards make it more likely that you will win that first auction and get to choose the privilege card that best helps you (giving you two key actions that you exactly need).

Of course, this is also balanced out somewhat by the fact that winners of later auctions may be able to steal away the highest privilege tile you just won (e.g., the 12 Prestige tile). So timing is also important.

Thread: Re: who goes first per auction?

bradstock — 2007-12-15T12:22:05+00:00

The English rules that come with the game make it clear that the player who won the previous auction bids first in the next auction. This is reinforced by suggesting that after the Maximilian auction (the last in the set), the winning bidder takes the token for marking the auctions and holds it while the interim activities take place (money, scoring, cards) to remind everyone who will bid first on the next auction (Philippe).

Thread: Re: A Brief Look at Augsburg 1520

bradstock — 2007-12-15T12:19:05+00:00

I think the auction format is quite different and makes it harder to get the feel for the game -- it is so innovative in that way. But I think the game is worth the effort. We found that on our third play, the game was very balanced, even for me -- who had almost all 200 and 250 value cards. Strategy allowed me to keep up and I ended up losing only by 1 prestige point. But it is very frustrating sometimes to bid $ cards and still lose, or to be outbid because you don't have enough cards to keep up even though you have high cards. But that is because we are so used to high cards winning auctions. Whereas this game allows many low cards to win the auction -- which is what makes it innovative and unique and in some ways minimizes the luck of the draw, since the lower cards are cheaper to buy.

Thread: Re: In-depth review

bradstock — 2007-12-15T12:13:32+00:00

Maik, your review caused me to try the game -- and you were right. It is fun. It is a little frustrating to learn and feels a bit 'scary' when you aren't winning multiple auctions in a row. But in our third play (3-player) everyone ended up around 60 points, within 1 to 3 points of each other. So VERY balanced. And I mostly had 200 and 250 value cards most of the game. So the lack of 17s can definitely be overcome. And quite interestingly, my wife having chosen the largest VP tile actually cost her the game, since it was stolen away (by me) on the last move. I forget what her alternative was, but it would have been the better choice, although it appeared inferior at the moment -- but she would have had 3 more VP and tied for first.

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offwater — 2007-12-08T22:49:47+00:00

contents

Thread: Re: Can you build directly a Cathedral?

Firmous — 2007-11-03T10:07:59+00:00

Sorry. I amend my last quote:

ddubin wrote:
Firmous wrote:
Of course, but if the cathedral allows to move beyond 45, does not mean that also allows to move beyond 25 and, therefore, is unnecessary (and more expensive)to build the cathedral and the Chapel, than build only the ~~chapel~~ Cathedral?.

My (English) copy of the rules seems quite clear on that point:

In order to move his scoring marker past 25 on the scoring track, the player must have erected a Church. [...] By building just a Cathedral, a player does not eliminate the need for a Church.

Oh thanks Dave. This explicit clarification is not on my english translation of the rules.

Thread: Re: Can you build directly a Cathedral?

ddubin — 2007-11-02T21:19:49+00:00

Firmous wrote:
Of course, but if the cathedral allows to move beyond 45, does not mean that also allows to move beyond 25 and, therefore, is unnecessary (and more expensive)to build the cathedral and the Chapel, than build only the chapel?.

My (English) copy of the rules seems quite clear on that point:

In order to move his scoring marker past 25 on the scoring track, the player must have erected a Church. [...] By building just a Cathedral, a player does not eliminate the need for a Church.

Thread: Re: Can you build directly a Cathedral?

Firmous — 2007-11-02T20:46:50+00:00

Of course, but if the cathedral allows to move beyond 45, does not mean that also allows to move beyond 25 and, therefore, is unnecessary (and more expensive)to build the cathedral and the Chapel, than build only the chapel?.

Thread: Re: Can you build directly a Cathedral?

Werbaer — 2007-10-04T23:58:15+00:00

In theory, yes; but it really doesn't make any sense, since you can't have more than 25 points if you don't have a church. Building a cathedral doesn't help you to cross that line.

Thread: Can you build directly a Cathedral?

Firmous — 2007-10-04T23:42:43+00:00

Can you build directly a Cathedral, without to build a church?

Thanks

Thread: Re: Step 4 Tile

aceraxon — 2007-09-20T02:15:59+00:00

Don't forget, you may also when an office auction and not have enough money to build that church or cathedral. This ensures that when you have money later and win that you'll get to build it.

Thread: Re: A Brief Look at Augsburg 1520

johnnyLikesGames — 2007-08-13T17:11:22+00:00

Do you think the auction mechanic is what got this game below a seven? Thanks.

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Werbaer — 2007-06-11T22:06:13+00:00

components (promotion image from publisher, used with permission)

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Werbaer — 2007-06-11T22:00:32+00:00

shelf view (alea edition) (promotion image from publisher, used with permission)

Thread: A Brief Look at Augsburg 1520

Larry Levy — 2007-06-04T03:59:49+00:00

The players are all rich financiers vying to loan money to impoverished nobles. The reason for this curious behavior is that when the I.N.’s invariably are unable to repay their debts, they lavish royal favors on their benefactors. Evidently, this was what made life worth living in the sixteenth century.

The game is nothing but auctions, but before you go screaming into the night, let me say that the auction mechanic is a very nice poker-like one which gives Augsburg a different feel from most auction designs. The game is played with a deck of cards with values in four suits (one for each noble). Most of the auctions are limited to one noble. Players bid the number of cards of that noble's suit they wish to play. Other players can match this number, fold, or raise to a higher number. The players around at the end of the auction then play the number of agreed cards from their hands and the one with the highest single valued card wins. This leads to some interesting tactics, as both high-valued cards and long suits of mediocre cards can be used successfully. Among the items the players are bidding for are increases of the money, number of cards, and victory points received each round. Players must buy the new cards they want from the new ones they receive (cards with higher values cost more), so there are both money and card management issues. It’s also possible to steal increases from other players. Finally, there are two points on the scoreboard where you can't increase your VP total unless you own certain tiles; naturally, these tiles can be acquired in the auctions. These two natural bottlenecks add a lot of tension to the game and provide much of the story arc.

All in all, the game plays very nicely and I've enjoyed it every time I've played. The auction mechanic is what makes the game, but there are the usual nice refinements you’d expect from an Alea design. There is a bit of a luck of the draw issue and the concern is that it could conceivably dominate the game. But the more I've thought about the design, the more ways I've seeen how to get around most of the problems fate could send your way. I do believe the game is more subtle than it first appears. This is yet another fine mid-size Alea release.

As an aside, the game’s designer is Karsten Hartwig, who also created the excellent Chinatown, as well as the less loved Lucky Loop. This means that Hartwig now has three published designs and two of them are Alea games! Not too shabby!

Thread: Re: In-depth review

ropearoni4 — 2007-04-07T06:39:38+00:00

Yep, this is one of those games waaaay down the line, someone will play it out of pure boredom, and suddenlycall it a game flying under the radar. Or if alan moon plays it, everyone will jump on his bandwagon and find a fun game, but until either of those things happen, just be happy that you found out before the masses will find out. Perhaps it will take a new box-look or a complete makeover before it stands out as a game to be reckoned with.

Thread: Re: In-depth review

apotheos — 2007-03-09T03:56:08+00:00

We finally got Augsburg to the table last Friday, and we were all taken aback by its subtle combinations of so many simple things. By the end of the game we'd all figured out the trick with the bidding, but early mistakes lead to an amusing finale where two players collided at 45. Knowing that this is always a distinct possibility puts a lot more tension around that first and most expensive church.

Fantastic game. People need to take another look at this.

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Ceryon — 2007-02-27T21:54:22+00:00

Game in play

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itiswon — 2007-02-27T16:18:15+00:00

personal board

Thread: Re: Building Church/Cathedral

Great Dane — 2007-02-24T16:53:50+00:00

The Baumeister will allow a player to build the Church and the Cathedral without using a purple Privilege - as long as the player have won ANY privilege.

In other words: If you win an auction you may use any two Privileges on a card AND build both the Church and the Cathedral - if you can afford it.

Thread: Re: Building Church/Cathedral

patat8020 — 2007-02-24T16:36:58+00:00

You can build a church or cathedrag when you choose the violet privilege. What is the function of the Bauwmeister. You don't need this 'person'?

Thread: Re: In-depth review

sparr0 — 2007-02-13T19:19:59+00:00

Both my plays of this game so far resulted in my loss due to not buying a church soon enough. First game I bounced against the 25-point ceiling for a debilitating 17 (out of 21 that round) points. Second it was "only" 11 points that I lost. I swear I'll get it right next time. I definitely like the game, and will play it again given the chance. I have played with 3 and 4, so I havent reached either extreme of the bidding scenarios yet, but it seems to work pretty well. First game was a pretty even fight. Second game a single player sat back while the rest of us fought over the 2nd and 3rd upgrades in each color. He amassed cards and then took every favor for the last round (after taking 3/5 in the next to last) resulting in a decisive win. I am not sure how to successfully counter such a strategy, and will be trying it myself in the near future.

Thread: Augsburg 1520

jeffjwatts — 2007-02-07T23:54:46+00:00

On Monday February 5th three of us Bob, Bill and myself (Jeff) played two games of Augsburg 1520. The rules were either a bad translation
or just poorly written, so it took us over 30 minutes to get the board laid out and to get started. Once we got going it was a pretty decent
bidding and collection game. The basic play of the game is unusual and is as follows:

First, each player is dealt a hand of cards of different suits and values. Then the player has to Buy! his cards from his starting money
(1500 guilders) and the cards are expensive (200-400 guilders). All of us spent almost all of our starting money and generally couldn't
afford all of the starting cards. In addition to buying our starting cards each player was given a couple of Jokers which act as wild cards.

Secondly, we started 5 rounds of bidding. Each round of bidding is by number of cards (not Value) in a given suit. There are 4 rounds of
bidding in each of the 4 suits and then a 5th round at the end that a player can bid with all of his cards.

During a round of bidding players bid by the number of cards in the suit. Players can Call and that means they have that many cards in the
suit. Then all the players who did call the bid show their hands. At this point the card values come into play and the player with the
hight card of the suit wins the bid.

The winning player get to pick a Privilege card, the second place hand gets 100 guilders and the third gets 50 guilders. The most important
point here is that the 'losing' bids do not use their cards and since a losing hands get paid cash, it entices everyone to be in as many
hands as possible. This is a great use for your jokers, since you can set a pair of jokers up with a low value card and not win the bid, but
not use your expensive jokers (400 guilders each) and still collect some money.

Thirdly, the winner of the bid will select a priviledge card and perform two of the three possible actions on the card. The actions
fall into 3 categories: Finance, Nobility and Office (officialness?). Finance increases long-term income or gives you an immediate 500
guilder, nobility increases long-term victory point income or gives you an immediate 6-7 victory points, and lastly the Office section
increases the suit cards you are dealt (which you must buy) and/or gives you 1 or 2 free cards.

In addition the Office section allows you to buy a church and later a cathedral. The church and cathedral are a unique mechanism that are
required to obtain victory points past a set level. A church is needed to pass the 25 victory point level and a cathedral is needed to pass
the 45 victory point level.

In our first game Bill managed to get 20 victory points while sitting on the 23rd victory point spot and not building a church. This
resulted in him bouncing on the 25 victory point spot and losing 17 of the 20 victory points he obtained in the round.

Important safety tip: Make sure you have enough money to buy a church when you are approaching the 25th or 45th victory point level.

After the 5 bidding rounds are done we perform end of turn actions. We each collect the money according to what level of Finance we are at,
then we score victory points according to our Nobility level, and finally we are dealt a number of cards according to our Office level.

We repeat this 5 times and score at the end. The number of turns is increased by 1 for each additional player. This was a really good
game, but I'm waiting to play at least one 4 player game to make a final judgement.

After playing the game the first time, we decided to play another since the game actually played fairly quickly. Both games were
enjoyable and the scores were fairly close.

Quick Notes:
Both our games ended with the winner in the low 50's, just past the cathedral level.
Saving money to buy a church and a cathedral is critical.
You'll probably be buying a church on either the 3rd or 4th round and a cathedral on the 5th round.
Saving at least one card of each suit is very useful to play with jokers to allow the player to win a second or third place and pick up
extra money.
Use all you money buying cards on the first two rounds.

Thread: Re: A question regarding history and theme (or else translation)

Simon J — 2007-01-19T12:52:20+00:00

Definitions of Factory include:

(formerly) an establishment for factors and merchants carrying on business in a foreign country. Origin: 1550–60;

The RGG translation is much more thematic (assuming you are aware of this definition).

Thread: Re: In-depth review

ropearoni4 — 2006-12-31T04:17:56+00:00

This is the exact case that I've seen in the games from beginners versus the veterans (or as I will call them, "Those who like the game"). If the bidding is very low, it is easily over-matched and taken away from the owner of the 17 who isn't willing to add to the bid or can't. If you play more cards, usually wildcards are a must to do this (one reason they cost so much), you will have better odds at winning. From one game, we had some beginners that simply did not understand the bidding, and in doing so ruined the game near the end by making bids of 8-10 cards because they had so many from so many failed attempts. It did not catch them up at all. Bidding 4 cards in a 4-5 player game feels about right, and I will tell my group this next time we play so they will understand why they did not win anything in 2 rounds. Thanks for the very good review of a hidden gem I think more players would enjoy if they didn't read all the bad reviews given it by those who did not "get it". A similar happening took In the Shadow of the Emperor down to obscurity. So that is another I will have fun playing while others will wonder what they missed, yet again. I feel this game deserves more credit than it has been given. I'd play it any day over Palazzo or Louis XIV, 2 others in the smaller Alea box-sizes.

Thread: In-depth review

Maik — 2006-12-28T20:57:30+00:00

Schizophrenia and an Overview

All players are Jakob Fugger, but some players are more Jakob Fugger than others. This, in a nutshell, is the premise of the newest game in the Alea series, and a very serious contender for silliest theme ever. At least for games that do not set out to be silly from the beginning. In spite of this, Augsburg 1520 has become one of my favorite games of 2006, and in this review I'll try to nail down what makes it such a good game. In the course of that, I'll also try and debunk a few myths about its alleged weaknesses (namely, too much luck and one-sided strategies) and look at the one weak point it actually might have, which would be a smattering of arbitrariness.

But first, let's have a bit of an overview of what the game is about: You, as head (or one of several competing voices in the head of the head) of a trading house are doling out money to impoverished monarchs, which gives you influence over them in the form of IOUs. This influence can then be used to get privileges from them to increase your income, your influence and your prestige - the latter is a.k.a. victory points. This might sound like more thematic weakness, but is actually a pretty good condensation of the business strategy that made Jakob Fugger the most powerful man in Europe, certainly more powerful than the nobles whose castles, armies and pocketmoney were paid from his purse.

In a game round, this basic idea will unfold in these steps: First, all players get requests for money from four different monarchs, marked by the card color, in the form of IOU cards. Apart from the respective noble, these IOUs are characterized by an influence value which goes from 1 to 17, and a price in ducats, which is tied to the influence value and goes from 200 to 400 ducats. You decide which of the requests you want to comply with, pay the ducats for these and add them to your hand. The rest gets discarded.

Then, you are bidding with your IOU cards five times to get privileges from the nobles. Five, I hear you say? Yup, five - there are four bids where you have to bid a certain card color, but the last noble (Maximilian) seems to be less picky, so he gets a rummage bid where you can mix up cards from the other monarchs for your bid. I'll have more to say about the bidding process below.

If you win the bid, you can pick one of initially five privilege cards, so winning an early bid gives you a wider choice, while the winner of the Maximilian garage sale has to take what's left. Each privilige card offers three benefits, of which you can pick any two. This is probably the point where it all begins to sound terribly complicated, but bear with me, since it isn't quite as bad as my attempts to explain it might indicate, and thanks to the excellent game components the actual game plays like a breeze. And we're also almost done, too.

The benefits you gain by winning the auctions mainly serve to advance in the three categories mentioned above: money (keyed to the color yellow on the privilege cards), prestige (orange) and influence (purple). Each categorie has four levels of advancement that are tracked on very neat player tableaus, and your standing determines the goodies you'll get at the end of a round. At the beginning of the game, all players are at first level throughout, which gives an income of 600 ducats, 3 prestige points (or victory points) and 4 new IOUs to buy every round.

If, for example, you are taking a privilege card that offers two yellow and one orange advance, you could either increase your income to 900 ducats and your prestige point gain to 5, or go yellow all the way to increase your income to 1200 ducats. There are some privilege cards which offer instant gains (like 500 ducats cash on hand) and a few more bells and whistles which I'll deal with further below, but this is what basically happens: you buy IOUs to bid on privileges, which will in turn either increase your ability to get more IOUs later on or increase your victory points.

Which probably sounds pretty underwhelming - there's certainly no dearth of Eurogames where you bid on stuff to get stuff which gives you more stuff to bid on stuff again, and coupled with the whole multiple personality theme, Augsburg may not appear to be something the gaming world was waiting for. So what makes it different from its many predecessors?

Unusual Scoring

At first glance, Augsburg has the same old most-victory-points goal (and the same old Kramer track winding around the game board) as a host of other Euros have, so there seems to be very little newness here. Two changes stir up things quite a bit, however. The first one is rather subtle, the second one less so.

First, there is only one source of victory points - the orange advancement track - and it's immediately clear to all players how well everyone's doing. There's none of the "I'll get five points because I have a majority here, and another five because I have collected a set of this, and some more because I have some money left" that is inherent to quite a lot of boardgames. And, indeed, inherent to quite a lot of games I dearly love, like Taj Mahal or Goa or Puerto Rico, but it does make for a refreshing change of dynamics when there is only one motor to power your victory engine. This is not entirely true, as you can forfeit privileges for a flat reward of 2 prestige points, but since this will usually only see use in the last round, it does not have too big an impact.

Having only one source of victory points is the little twist, and here's the bigger shake: there are caps on your maximum prestige that can only be overcome by sponsoring first a church (to get beyond 25 prestige points) and then a cathedral (to get beyond 45 prestige points). These buildings will cost you a purple privilege and a hefty sum of ducats, which decreases the more players have already built before you: the first player to get a church pays 900 ducats, the second one pays 700, third one 500 and so on.

This mechanic introduces another connection between the three advancement areas - concentrating solely on the orange advancements (and a corresponding lead in prestige early on) without keeping a careful eye on your money will have you running into the church wall for one or even two rounds - pretty important in a game that only has four to seven rounds in total.

It also emphasizes good timing as a crucial part of any winning strategy, since the ideal plan will have you buying church and cathedral right before you reach 25 or 45 points, but after as many other players as possible to get a big slash in the price. Getting this right is far from easy, since you need both the money in hand and a purple privilege - we've had some games where nobody at all managed to get the cathedral and almost all everybody got stranded at 45 prestige points (in which case the first player who erected a church is the winner).

All this is spiced up by making the advancement tiles a limited commodity – while every player can get to the second stage in each of the three advancement areas, the third level is more rare, and there’s only place for one player at the top of the heap. If you want an advancement that’s no longer available, you take it from another player, who gets a (small) recompense of either 100 ducats or a prestige point.

With four or five players, this introduces some arbitrariness into the game, since the rise to third level in any advancement area means that you’ll have to decide from which of two or three other players you’ll rob the advancement from. While I doubt whether it amounts to an actual kingmaking problem, this element of freely picking a victim is, in my opinion, the only substantial wrinkle of Augsburg. Apart from the silly theme, that is.

That said, I do like the different strategic approach enforced by a game where you cannot necessarily hold on to your gains, but have to plan for the contingency that they will be taken away from you. This is enriched by the last little rule detail that I’ll explain now before – promised – we’ll get to the bidding system: apart from the linear advancements, you are also allowed to branch out into optional bonus stuff.

These optional advancements, called “rights”, are available at higher advancement levels. The third orange level (becoming a Count, worth 8 prestige points every round) does, for example, bring the right to take a family crest, which is another source of prestige points that can, importantly, never be taken away from you. So if you’re already a Count and get another orange privilege, you’ll have to decide between going to the top of the line, which increases your prestige points per round to 12 and confers another right (getting a letter of nobility), or taking a family crest, worth up to 4 additional points per round and permanently yours.

On the yellow (money) track, executing your right just gives 300 cash irrespective of your advancement level, which is not great but sometimes necessary for a last-minute church or cathedral. The purple track is more varied: here you can enlist a master of the mint, which nets you a free IOU card every round or the architect, who allows the erection of a church or cathedral as an additional action after any other privilige you get. The architect will not save you any money directly, but the flexibility he bestows by making the buildings independent of getting a purple privilege can be crucial in winning the game.

Unusual Bidding

So how come that quite a lot of folks here on the Geek do not see the rich strategic smorgasboard of opportunities and possibilities that I see in Augsburg, instead calling it mono-strategic, driven solely by luck and only dependent on whether you manage to snatch one of the almighty 17 IOU cards? I’m tempted to cackle “Because they are fools! Fools, I say!” and just leave it at that, but since this would neither be friendly nor particularly enlightening, let’s get to what I suspect to be the root of the problem. And, at long last, to the bidding system, because my guess is that the reason behind a majority of the less enthusiastic responses to the game is that people were bidding too low.

A bid for favors from one of the five monarchs is composed of one or several IOU cards of that monarch, bolstered by any number of wild cards. Winning depends on the number of cards you bid – the actual value of the IOUs is only important for ties, and in that case, the single highest number wins. This means that, for example a bid of 17+1+ two wild cards will beat a bid of 16+15+14+13. This mechanic is what gives rise to the myth of the overpowering 17, which I’ll debunk any second now. The players who lost keep the IOUs they were bidding and get some monetary recompense: The second highest bid gets 100 ducats and the third highest bid gets 50 ducats.

Bidding owes some details to poker, since on your turn, you can either pass, match or raise the number of cards everyone has to bid. And, quite importantly, you can’t raise your own bid again, which means that bidding is over once everybody passes or just stays in. An example might help here: Let’s say that a table of four players, A to D, bids on the favors of Leo, the blue monarch. Player A starts with a bid of two cards, Player B passes, Player C stays in and Player D raises the bid to three cards. Player A matches that bid, while Player C is unwilling or unable to muster a total of three blue and wild IOU cards and passes. This ends the bidding round, even if Player D might have wanted to raise some more. Player A and D both simultaneously show three cards (only blue and wild cards), and A wins the bid with a 16 to D’s 14.

This whole mechanism needs some getting into, because the instinctive approach to bidding is to start cautiously to avoid overbidding. And this approach can hurt you quite a bit in Augsburg: Let’s say you’re starting the bid with a nice, juicy 16 in your hand, and since you’d like to get your privileges as cheaply as possible, you’re only bidding a single card. Bid goes round the table, everybody passes up to the player on your right who cheerfully announces that he’ll match that bid, and his 17 gets him just what you wanted to have, which is a privilege for just on single card. And even though you get 100 ducats as balm for your wounds and your 16 is now definitely the highest card in that particular color, this might seem more than a little unfair.

And obviously did, to many folks. To whom I’m saying, don’t bid so damn low and make people pay for what they get in case you don’t win the bid yourself. A low starting bid will either have the first player with more sense than you raise it to a number he likes better, or a player with a higher card will trounce you and get his royal favors cheaply. The only good time to start with a single card is when everbody else has so few cards in hand that they just might all be blank in that color or if you are positively sure that you possess the highest card in play.

What this overly low bidding does, beyond and above feeding silly ideas about how overpowering and broken the 17s are, is to throw the whole balance of money, prestige and influence out of whack and make the orange advancement track the be-all and end-all of the game: if a privilege can be got for just one or two IOU cards, the selection of four new cards every player automatically gets each round will be more than enough replenishment even without buying all of them, so there is no real need to increase either the purple track, which increases that selection to five and six cards, or the yellow one to improve your finances.

To reiterate, the nifty decision of, on the one hand, your victory point motor (orange advancements) and, on the other hand, the money and influence (yellow and purple advances) you need to stay competitive in later rounds that I’ve enjoyed will just crumble into a rather drab and luck-driven affair if everbody assumes that bidding singles is a good thing to do, all the time. I guess that Settlers would play rather skewed if everbody assumes that the spaces with 12s and 11s are much better than those with 8s and 6s, because higher numbers must be better than low ones, but I’d hardly blame the game for that.

But instead of starting to rant and rave about folks who choose to give up on a new game after their first attempt, and how accomodating your strategies to a new game mechanic might be more rewarding than the other way round, I’ll try and give some rough estimation of what a sensible bid might be, after putting all the blame on overly low ones. For that, we’ll have to take a quick look on how Augsburg scales with several players.

Unusual Scaling

Regardless of the number of players, a round in Augsburg always consists of five auctions, one for each of the monarchs. What does change is the number of rounds in a full game, which goes from merely four for two players to seven for five players. Since an individual auction will take some more time the more players participate, this boils down to a steeply changing duration of play; the 25-75 minutes indicated on the box are actually pretty good estimates of the extremes at both ends, which does not make this information any more useful. This would have been a good occasion for giving play durations dependent on the number of players, but, alas, Alea apparently wanted to stick to their usual layout.

But I digress. What this scaling means is that a sensible bid in a two player game will be quite different from good bidding with more players. Let’s take a full five player game as an example, and to keep things simple, we'll aim for a steady level of IOUs in the players’s hands, so that whatever is lost in the five auctions of a round gets replenished before the next round. Your choice of IOUs initially consists of four cards, and we’ll just say that everybody will be able to afford all of these, so the IOU “income” per player and round is four cards. With five players and a steady IOU level, this just means that the average bid should be four cards.

And in a five player game each player should, on average, win one auction per round. To turn this statement around: if you did not get a privilege and you were bidding less than four cards throughout, you’re not doing good. And your opponent who got his second auction win cheaply is doing very good, indeed. A starting hand, by the way, consists of two wild IOUs and five to seven other IOUs, so everybody is able to make a bid of four cards for at least one monarch.

With two players, on the other hand, a bid of four cards is very high, and probably too high in most situations: ideally, you want to win three of the five auctions, but even if you were to win only two (and let your opponent get three), bidding four cards for both of them would deplete your hand almost completely, at least during the early rounds. Bids of two or three cards is more normal here, and it’s not even unusual to get sweet royal favors for a single IOU.

All this means that Augsburg is several rather different games that share the same material and rules: with two, you have a vicious little razor dance with equal parts tactics and planning, playable in half an hour or less. The more players you add, the more you’ll have to accomodate your plans to what everybody else is doing, and strategy becomes less important than bluffing and reading your opponents. With any number of players, all our games managed to zone in on 45 prestige points by the last or next-to-last round, but not everybody managed to get the Cathedral everytime, and not a few early leaders had to watch more cautious (and affluent) players pass them by at the very end.

Verdict

I’ve enjoyed Augsburg more and more with each of the – up to date – ten games I’ve played, and I’m fairly sure that it is a vastly better game than its reception here on the Geek would indicate. Once you disconnect yourself from the sillyness of a multiply personalied Jakob Fugger and just get into the method of getting rare privileges from royals by financing them, but in so roundabout a way that it does not smack of anything as vulgar as payment , it manages to stick pretty well to this theme.

There’s some bluffing, some planning, and more than a few nailbitingly tense moments, especially if you’re like me and like to stave off buying that all-necessary church or cathedral until the very last moment. And, occasionally, until after that. There is, alas, also some arbitrary take-that involved in four or five player games, but that’s a toad I’m willing to swallow – it’s my favorite Eurogame of 2006 and a definite high point in the Alea line-up.

Thread: Re: Last round scoring...

Colorado_Jeff — 2006-12-25T15:37:01+00:00

Remember, you get 2 prestige reports for each action you do not exercise after winning an auction.

I completely missed that rule. It will definitely make a difference. I first read the rules a couple nights before showing it to my wife. When I taught her, I relied on the marginal notes, rather than re-reading the main text completely. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

Thread: Re: Last round scoring...

Psauberer — 2006-12-24T17:30:38+00:00

Remember, you get 2 prestige reports for each action you do not exercise after winning an auction. So, in the last round, you want to make sure that you are loaded up on cards to be able to win as many auctions as possible both to gain yourself points and deny them to your opponents.

The only reasons that you should have money left going into the last round are if you need to build a cathedral (a church had already better be bought at this point) or you played poorly and didn't have enough cards to spend your remaining money on.

If you start awarding points for leftover money or cards, that is rewarding poor play and will throw off the game balance.

Thread: Last round scoring...

Colorado_Jeff — 2006-12-24T15:48:23+00:00

Played our first game last night (two player) and we both liked it, though it seems more players will be better. My wife beat me 51-50, and it was close all the way.

The last round seemed a bit less interesting than the others, as only prestige points counted. We were thinking perhaps giving end game value of some sort, to the money and cards left, as Caylus does with its resources might make that round a bit more competitive.

As a thought, maybe award a prestige point for every 100 guilders left over? (every 200? 300? Haven't played enough to know how much money is left over at game end. Seems to be tight.) And perhaps a prestige point for each of the four character types you have in hand at game end (regardless of how many of each...so a maximum of four additional prestige points.)

We'll be playing a 5 player game later today, so we can get other players views, and see if these ideas help the last round.

Any thoughts by those with more experience with the game would be appreciated. Thanks.

Jeff

Thread: Re: 2-player variant to spice things up/even things out

Sexy Amy — 2006-12-10T19:41:38+00:00

Yes, the luck of the draw seems very important in a two-player game. I'll try the variant you recommend.

Thread: Re: OK, now that the Euromasters competition is over...

Maik — 2006-12-08T09:11:01+00:00

Chrisboote wrote:
.. has ANYONE found a strategy to beat cash/VP/Kirche/Dom, ignore the Purple column completely?

We practiced it extensively, then it was played in the competition, and as far as I can find out only one player who went heavily into purple won

My competition game is a startling example of what I mean

Hi Chris,
generally I'd say that the importance of the orange (VP) track relative to the yellow and purple (cash and cards) tracks mainly depends on the average number of cards bid on a privilege. With high bids, cards will become a scarce and more valuable commodity, especially since you want to avoid being blank in one of the card colours, and it's going to make quite a difference whether you can take your pick from 4, 5 or 6 cards.

With that general remark out of the way, let's have a look at your competition game. Thanks for including such a detailed round-by-round breakdown of the game, by the way - it's really helpful when discussing strategy. My gut feeling is that this is more of a startling example of playing a game against folks who are fast asleep, and here's why:

First turn, 1200 cash up to 8VP (two wins) +8VP

Seven turns means that you were five players, and nevertheless you managed to get two out of five privileges here, which means that somebody did not get anything at all. Which also means that you should have paid at least three cards for that second privilege, but obviously did not have to, because:

Second Turn, 4 VP Wappen & church (one win) +12VP

How is this possible? How could the others players let this happen and not completely trounce you in later rounds? I'll try to how why this leaves me wondering what was going on:

Usually you'll be starting the game with two wild cards, five or six other cards and around 100 ducats. Let's assume that the other players were extremely lenient and you got your two auction wins for a total of four cards. This leaves you with a maximum of four cards and roughly 1400 cash at the end of the first turn.

In round two, you had to pay 900 ducats for the church, unless somebody was a total dunce and bought one before you in spite of your lead in victory points. So there was no way you could afford more than two new cards, and still were able to snag one win with a measly hand of six cards. Shouldn't have happened, wouldn't have happened with competent adversaries. And it gets worse:

Third turn, up to 12VP and 5VP 'Recht (one win) +21VP
Fourth Turn, back up to 1200 cash, & Dom (one win) +13VP (lost the 8 & 12 VP card)
Fifth Turn, back up to to 8 VP and then to 12 VP (one win) +21VP
Sixth turn, 500 cash, back up to 12 VP (one win) +21 VP
Seventh turn, +2 VP (instead of cash) back up to 12 VP (one win) +23VP

Final score 119VP

Although only getting a new selection of four cards at the end of turn two, you get the double orange privilege and can take the Fürst and the 5VP Adelsbrief in one sweep. And still afford the 1200 ducats Dom in turn four
From then on, it's just three turns of clear sailing - even if one of the other players would have woken up by then, they could not have done anything to stop you.

and that seems to be the case in a lot of games I've played

Is there any alternative tactic?

Were you always plaing against newbies? And did this also happen in games against more experienced players?`

From what I can see after several plays, Augsburg is a very intricate and well-balanced game, and there are definitely lots of ways the game can go. I'm not sure there are any real strategies, though, since a well-played game seems to be so fluid that clinging o a fixed battleplan will make you lose. I am pretty sure that I'll never see a winning score of 100+ VP, unless I'm playing against very, very small children

Cheerio,
Maik

Thread: Re: MSRP for game?

ropearoni4 — 2006-12-02T16:12:03+00:00

I got it for $35 from a local retail store, minus a trade or two of magic cards which brought it down to $15 actually. But it seems all RGG prices have gone up by $5 recently.

Thread: Re: OK, now that the Euromasters competition is over...

ropearoni4 — 2006-12-02T16:07:25+00:00

So far in every game the player who adhered closely to purple track was the player who won. Card advantage is nice. Sometimes the cards are against you, and having that extra freebie doesn't hurt at all, especially for the last guy in the row who takes any cards.

Thread: Re: Step 4 Tile

Great Dane — 2006-12-02T16:00:32+00:00

Or said in another way:

you can only build a Church or a Cathedral instead of using a purple privilege to take the Guildmaster, Councillor, Mayor, Mintmaster or Master Builder.

Since the Master Builder will allow you to build twice in addition to whatever privilege you are gaining, you are in fact gaining one free action. Plus it gives you the security that you no longer need to win a suitable purple privilege to build.

Thread: Re: Step 4 Tile

larryjrice — 2006-12-02T07:16:48+00:00

Incorrect. The rules specifically do state that you receive the step 3 tile back in return if your step 4 is stolen in addition to you choosing either 1 prestige point or $100.

the master builder basically allows you to save the action to use as an extra action if/when you win another auction later.

Thread: Step 4 Tile

Jim_P — 2006-12-02T06:32:17+00:00

If I lose a Step 4 tile to another player, the only compensation that I get is either $100 or 1 Prestige Point, I do not get back the Step 3 tile, right?

One other question... if I can build a Church or Cathedral at any time, what is the point of the Master Builder? I don't get it.

Thread: Re: 'Augsburg 1520' review: a new midi-boxed Alea

James_Sanheim — 2006-11-27T04:58:08+00:00

As I understand the rules only those tied for presenting/offering/bidding the most cards receive compensation.
They pick their cards back up and the person with second highest card gets 100 florins and person with third highest card gets 50 florin.

Thread: Re: OK, now that the Euromasters competition is over...

Psauberer — 2006-11-26T16:13:49+00:00

Chrisboote wrote:
So it just comes down to luck who's got the longest run of or highest number in the Red cards?

I think that what it means is that you have to time your auction wins and adapt your strategy to what everyone else is doing. You have to pay attention to your opponents and not just play solitaire.

If everyone is trying to follow the same track then no one will be able to pull it off successfully because of the shortages. This means that you will have to time steals and figure out when the proper time to use the purple track comes around. Also, winning an auction defensively to deny others the use of the actions becomes viable.