Game: Kupferkessel Co.

Image

Angry Duck — 2008-11-17T22:50:15+00:00

pawns displayed with turn cards

Thread: Re: Bruxinha bonitinha da vassoura de capim, a portuguese review

xandolino — 2008-11-10T12:55:36+00:00

Bem legal!

Estou atrás deste jogo, mas tá difícil!

abraços

Thread: Re: Funagain has Kupferkessel in stock for only $21.

wwscrispin — 2008-10-30T23:26:26+00:00

BTW you will also need to pay shipping.

Thread: Re: Funagain has Kupferkessel in stock for only $21.

JeffyJeff — 2008-10-30T19:42:44+00:00

kittyangel wrote:
It's interesting. New for $21, but used for $33.
also interesting is that you and the base poster truncate instead of rounding the price... it's $21.95 new, $33.95 used... rounded that's $22 and $34. I know not a big whoop, just an observation and I guess why marketing folks will price products at like $199 vs. $200 and consumers will buy saying "it's under $200"

Thread: Re: Funagain has Kupferkessel in stock for only $21.

kittyangel — 2008-10-02T20:57:48+00:00

wwscrispin wrote:
A favorite game that is too hard to find is currently in stock at Funagain.

It's interesting. New for $21, but used for $33.

I am surprised they even have this in stock. It has long been out of stock everywhere, at least in US. I traded fro a copy and liked it a lot.

Thread: Funagain has Kupferkessel in stock for only $21.

wwscrispin — 2008-09-20T02:15:40+00:00

A favorite game that is too hard to find is currently in stock at Funagain.

Thread: Bruxinha bonitinha da vassoura de capim, a portuguese review

Stein — 2008-03-15T05:37:14+00:00

My purpose is help the portuguese speakers community with some material of games not so famous. Sorry for any inconvenience or a lack of an abstract in english.

Queria trazer a baila um jogo simples, ideal para casais e crianças, sem deixar de ser aquilo que é um jogo é para todos os seus participantes: divertido.

Basicamente somos bruxas acumulando ingredientes num caldeirão. Os ingredientes são bem bacanas: morcegos, musgos, cogumelos, cipós, olhos de alguma coisa, etc...

O set-up é rápido, basta organizar as cartas num quadro de 6x6 e distribuir uma carta aberta para cada jogador. Esta carta contém um número que será o valor de movimentação.

Os jogadores andam pela borda do quadro de cartas e no local que param escolhem uma carta da fila e esta trará o número do próximo. Carta comprada, carta reposta e é a vez do seguinte.

O lance é que devemos fazer uma coleção de cartas procurando montar conjuntos de cartas iguais, pois no final do jogo (quando uma linha qualquer fica sem carta), faremos pontos das mais diversas maneiras:

negativo para ingredientes que eu possua um único exemplar; zero para dois ingredientes de um tipo; a soma para 3; a soma mais 5 para todos os quatro e alguns outros bônus, mas basicamente é isso.

A dificuldade é que quando compramos um ingrediente ele fica por cima do anterior e, em nenhum momento podemos consultar o nosso "caldeirão". Este é o componente memória.

A pontuação diversificada é que incentiva o planejamento e algumas cartas tem um símbolo com um poder especial (jogar novamente ou explodir o ingrediente que está por cima do caldeirão do adversário), o que também acrescenta um tempero no jogo.

Em suma, é um jogo simples, de fácil percepção para as crianças, sem maiores confrontos, o que, em geral, agrada nossas parceiras e permite a nós passarmos momentos agradáveis com crianças e parceiras, enfim, une o útil ao agradável, é daqueles jogos que realmente integram, com a vantagem de cada partida durar uns 15 min.

Thread: Re: Where can I find this?

1Wif — 2008-02-29T13:11:15+00:00

Thanks so much for the suggestions everyone. I've put this information in the very capable hands of my husband, so I'm hoping to see it soon (maybe even wrapped up with a bow.)

Thread: Re: Where can I find this?

MonkeyMagic — 2008-02-28T01:07:02+00:00

Ebay is always a good source, usually sellers in Europe with reasonable shipping prices. That's where I got mine from.
For example, there is a copy in stock at:
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/spielewelt-96149

Thread: Re: Where can I find this?

Sifu — 2008-02-27T00:56:33+00:00

You could find one on the shelf in my study.

Just do a search and see who has it up for trade. Most people would sell it to you instead of trading it if you offered a fair price.

Thread: Re: Where can I find this?

jearles — 2008-02-27T00:27:38+00:00

Hi Julie,

Take a look at the Users Trading section on the Kupferkessel Co. game page (currently 10 trading). You can also look at the Marketplace section on the same page (there are currently three copies available there for sale - in the US, France and Italy).

My wife and I were lucky enough to find a fellow Geek who was willing to trade us a copy.

It is a very nice little game. Good luck...

- John

Thread: Re: Where can I find this?

GeoMan — 2008-02-27T00:19:47+00:00

1Wif wrote:
I DESPERATELY want this game, does anyone know where I can find it?

Germany: http://www.milan-spiele.de/advanced_search_result.php?keywor...

It is currently out of stock (yellow van). The yellow van also means that they will restock the game in the near future.

Thread: Where can I find this?

1Wif — 2008-02-27T00:06:22+00:00

I DESPERATELY want this game, does anyone know where I can find it?

Thread: Re: At last, a visit to the Copper Kettle Company!

wwscrispin — 2008-01-27T13:35:05+00:00

A game with some simple mechanisms that seem fairly average. It really seemed like a kids memory matching game at first. The only thing it has going for it out of the box is awesome card art. When I started playing this it was really good. Games are quick and tense. Everyone I have introduced this to really likes to play it. It is too bad that it has such limited availability in the US.

Thread: Re: At last, a visit to the Copper Kettle Company!

kittyangel — 2008-01-27T04:48:34+00:00

where can I find a friend like yours??? Jack is great!

Anyway, I agree with what you said about the game. We got this game through a trade, and we have been playing it a lot ever since.

Don't know why no US publisher picked up this game yet. I wish some day there will be a wide release so everyone gets to enjoy this game.

Thread: Blank Goal Card Suggestions?

kittyangel — 2008-01-26T23:44:17+00:00

There are 4 or 5 blank goal cards. I was wondering what other people put on there as their custom goals. Thanks!

Thread: At last, a visit to the Copper Kettle Company!

TimothyP — 2008-01-26T20:46:02+00:00

To read this review with images and links, go to my original posting at Games on the Table.

My good friend Jack recently blessed me with his kindness. For Christmas, he went the extra mile and acquired for me a copy of a game I've been eying for a long, long time: Copper Kettle Company, commonly known as Kupferkessel Co. Kupferkessel Co is a game which has no English version, so it is hard to find in the US. Only one or two online sellers ever carry this game, one of them being Fair Play Games. I had made it known to friends and family via wishlist that Kupferkessel was available at Fair Play Games. Why had I not acquired it for myself? First of all, the game was rarely in stock, and had a tendency to sell out pretty quickly. Second of all, I never buy games at Fair Play Games. All of our game group orders have been through Thought Hammer or Boards & Bits. I didn't want to take the step of ordering a single game and paying full shipping fees.

Jack, knowing all of this, worked behind the scenes to acquire a copy of Kupferkessel Co. for me, running a game order without my knowledge. Before I go on, I'll share the interesting story Jack shared with me. He happened to order the game when it was in stock at Fair Play Games. To Jack's dismay, the game order never arrived at his house - UPS had lost it. So, for Christmas, he handed me an image of Kupferkessel Co. and told me the tale of the shipping mishap. Fair Play Games had courteously sent him replacements for every game except for . . . Kupferkessel, which was now out of stock. Then, in mid January, Jack showed up at my house with Kupferkessel in hand. Fair Play had finally obtained and shipped out a new copy.

For what it's worth, Jack assured me that Fair Play did everything they could to make the situation satisfactory for him, offering discounts, free shipping, price matching, etc - everything they could do to rectify the situation. Go, Fair Play Games!

My First Impression

By the next day, my wife and I had played Kupferkessel 4 times. It turned out to meet all of my hopes and expectations. The experience was improved by the efforts of two helpful BGG users:

Nick Pitman (MonkeyMagic): He designed an English rulebook downloadable as a PDF. It has the exact same format and size as the actual manual. When you print it out on your printer, it pieces together to form a booklet. There would have been NO WAY for us to learn this game without this wonderful contribution from MonkeyMagic.

Michael Weston (delta1119): He designed a quick reference page that explains everything briefly on a single page, front and back, which fits in the game box. This page was invaluable for our first few plays.

These helpful fellows made this German game easy to learn and play. So, on with the review.

Things my wife and I liked right away:

* The game is quick: about 20 minutes
* The components are great: big, easy to move pawns; wonderful art by Franz Vohwinkel
* The rules are easy to understand
* The mechanics are original, reminiscent of Mamma Mia

How the Game Works

The game board is made up of a 6-by-6 grid. The grid is created by placing square-shaped cards from a shuffled deck, so the board is different every time. Each card depicts a wooden cubby hole containing ingredients. What kind of ingredients, you ask? Why, the ingredients necessary for witches and wizards to complete magical potions. There are 14 types of ingredients, with 4 of each type, valued 1 to 4 points each. The ingredients include (as far as I can tell):

1. Roots
2. Mosses
3. Pumpkins
4. Raven Feathers
5. Bats
6. Whiskers
7. Mushrooms
8. A Chest Full of Snake Scales(?)
9. Eyes of Newt
10. Vines
11. Frog Slime (?)
12. Cobwebs
13. Ostrich Egg Inscribed With Arcane Symbols (?)
14. Dragon Blood (or maybe it's just steaming red wine?)

One player uses a white pawn, the other player uses a black pawn. The pawns are about 3 inches tall, made of wood, and shaped somewhat like a figure wearing a witch or wizard hat. The mechanics are simple: you move your pawn around the board a number of spaces (determined by the top card of your cauldron) and then take a card from the row your pawn is next to. Refill the now-empty slot from the draw pile and it's the next player's turn.

As you accumulate cards, you put them on top of your "cauldron", which is just a stack of cards. If you have played Mamma Mia, this is much like the oven. You are not allowed to look back in your cauldron. Instead, you are required to remember what you've placed in your cauldron, which is actually quite easy to do, so don't run away just yet.

There is a scoring reference card for each player than reminds you of how to score your cauldron at the end. This is the interesting part of the game. The designer has devised an interesting scoring method. Knowing how scoring works is what empowers you to make good decisions as you pick up cards.

The game also comes with a small stack of recipe cards. These are an additional way to gain points. Again, these behave like the recipe cards from Mamma Mia. When you are going through your cauldron stack at the end of the game, if you meet the conditions on your recipe cards, you get the points for them. These are part of the variant game, included in the rule book. We played with recipes from the beginning. They are simple enough that you need not leave them out. They help to give you something to work for, so I recommend using them.

Commentary

My wife and I have played this game a handful of times since acquiring it, and I have only won one time. I thought my wife would like this game, and she does. And she's good at it. I have lost too many times to blame it on luck. For some reason, playing this reminds me of playing Lost Cities with my wife. It's something about having cards with points on them, and making useful combos out of those cards. My wife is talented at this particular type of thinking.

Despite my losses, I keep coming back for more, inviting another play. The process of play is enjoyable enough to offset any losses. First of all, the game is short. In about 20 minutes, we're done. It's kind of fun to imagine walking around the magic shop, browsing the shelves for ingredients. Second of all, the game is easy. You move your pawn, you take a card. This decision is typically quite simple because you have in mind a specific set of things you want to collect. The only difficult decisions will be deciding between two or more cards you need from a single row. I realize that this makes the game sound like it's very luck based. Yes, there is certainly some luck and randomness, but you always have the sense that you are deciding the best course of action. For instance, the card you draw determines how many spaces you will move on your next turn. So, you can theoretically try to arrange your number selections in a way that maximizes your efficiency in moving and taking cards.

Let me leave you with a couple more observations.

1. When in doubt, collect your own color. Each card has a number and a color on it. There are a few different colors to choose from. Included among these are black cards and white cards. Black cards count as double points for the black player, and the reverse for the white player. The only caveat is that if you only get 1 of a card type, it counts negatively. If it is a card of your own color, the negative points are doubled.

2. Not all recipes are equal. More complicated recipes don't necessarily earn you more points. There is a recipe which requires you to collect a whole bunch of plant ingredients. This one is only worth 10 points, while the 15-point recipes are actually easier to complete. You will need to keep your recipes in mind as you play, making decisions about how much effort you want to apply to the recipes. There is no penalty for failing to complete a recipe, so don't be afraid to just bail on a recipe that isn't working out. Go for sets of 4 of an ingredient instead - especially in your own color.

I recommend this game to anyone who frequently plays 2-player games. This seems like a great wife game to me - partly because it has been successful in my case, but also because it just has the makings of a wife game. Sure, that's a subjective claim, but that's my vibe - do with it what you will.

Unfortunately, the game is not easy to obtain, at least not for US residents. This game is an import for us. The components have no language on them, so the English rules are all you'll need to download from BGG. Keep your eye on the online sellers like Fair Play Games. Then, when they get their stock in, nab a copy before they're all bought up!

Designer: Günter Burkhardt
Publisher: Goldsieber
Players: 2 (with a 3-player variant)
Playing time: 15-30 minutes

My rating at the time of writing: 8 (rated after 6 plays)

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TimothyP — 2008-01-19T19:01:29+00:00

A bunch of Kupferkessel cards.

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TimothyP — 2008-01-19T19:00:32+00:00

The front and back of the scoring reference card.

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TimothyP — 2008-01-19T18:59:42+00:00

Here's what's in the box!

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TimothyP — 2008-01-19T18:58:33+00:00

Box size comparison. I had imagined the box to be bigger. The size is just right.

Thread: Re: Some Rules Questions

ondja — 2007-07-17T06:39:04+00:00

I see...well, the problem is our different understanding of the term row...in my understanding, the game is simply arranged in 6x6 grid (eg. 6 horizontal rows, 6 vertical rows)... You say, that there are 4 verticals and 4 horizontals of six cards and outer edges (your arguments can be found above, so I won't repeat them here), but your explanation is based on the sentence "once a movement is complete, the active player must take a card from the row which his pawn is next to" and I just don't think, that this sentence defines and distinguishes some specific "rows" and "outer edges", it merely says "take one card from the line of adjacent cards next to your pawn". Then the rules say "if, at the end of a movement, pawn is next to a Corner card, that player doesn't get to take an Ingredient card and his turn is finished"... And my question is, if your pawn is next to a Corner card, you are not allowed to take an Ingredient card because the outer edge doesn't count as a row (as you say), or because you would have two rows at your disposal (which is my opinion)?? And I think that this can be explained both ways, the rules are not 100% clear on this...someone will say that you're right, someone will say I am... maybe original German rules could help (unfortunately, I have only English version , so I can't compare them and in my experience, English translations tend to be inaccurate)...if anyone could post it here on BGG, it would be really great...thanks

Thread: Re: Some Rules Questions

robmderrick — 2007-07-17T00:06:34+00:00

ondja wrote:
Ingredient card from "outer edge" can be removed by simply taking the card directly next to your pawn...but that's probably neverending discussion and I agree that rules are somewhat unclear on this and both explanations are possible...but we like playing it this way ...

We may or may not be talking about the same thing here, but when I said "find any situation where an edge is also a row from which you may remove a card", the above does not answer that question.

For example, given the board as described below (I capitalized the top edge for emphasis), the pawn is on row 2, and may therefore remove any card from row 2, which includes cards also on r5-8, and the bottom edge.

[c] pawn
c1 R1 R2 R3 R4 c2
r5 r1r5 r2r5 r3r5 r4r5 r5
r6 r1r6 r2r6 r3r6 r4r6 r6
r7 r1r7 r2r7 r3r7 r4r7 r7
r8 r1r8 r2r8 r3r8 r4r8 r8
c3 r1 r2 r3 r4 c4[/c]

Now, in order for that edge to be considered a row, you would have to show a position for the pawn where your choice of card to remove would be from the group "R1 R2 R3 R4". No such position exists, therefore the edge is not a row. Therefore, if it is emptied, it would not end the game since the "game ends when a player takes the last card from any row."

Furthermore, should the game progress to this point:

[c] pawn
c1 c2
r1r5 r2r5 r3r5 r4r5
r1r6 r2r6 r3r6 r4r6
r1r7 r2r7 r3r7 r4r7
r1r8 r2r8 r3r8 r4r8
c3 c4[/c]

... by the interpretation that if an edge card is gone, then that position is skipped by the pawn, then the game has no end. The only points that the pawn can now occupy are the corners, and no further cards can be removed. Therefore the game cannot ever end because no player can ever take the last card from a row.

Now, can this possibly be what the game designer intended?

Thread: Re: Some Rules Questions

ondja — 2007-07-16T07:27:01+00:00

Ingredient card from "outer edge" can be removed by simply taking the card directly next to your pawn...but that's probably neverending discussion and I agree that rules are somewhat unclear on this and both explanations are possible...but we like playing it this way and you're right Rob, if the explanation of rules suits you, then go ahead and have some fun, it's just a game ...so let's gather some mushrooms and spiderwebs

Thread: Re: Some Rules Questions

robmderrick — 2007-07-15T19:24:16+00:00

ondja wrote:

No, you simply can't reach situation with only Corner cards and no Ingredient cards cards on outer edge, because when there are no Ingredient cards left between two adjacent Corner cards, then it's empty row (since Corner cards can't be removed) and the game ends, am I right?

I don't think so. There are 8 "rows" in the game -- in the common parlance, 4 rows and 4 columns, but in the game definition, a row is the region of six spaces that stretches from your pawn to the other side of the board. Therefore, the edges, which contain only 4 cards, are not rows, therefore, when one of these empties, no row has emptied, therefore, the game continues.

I anticipate someone saying that since the rules don't exclude the edges as rows, then I have no justification to say they are not.

But, a row is by the game's own definition a group of cards in a line stretching from your pawn across the "board" to the other side. Therefore, when you stop your pawn, you are able to remove a card from a row. Now, try to find any situation where an edge is also a row from which you may remove a card. Since no such situation exists, an edge is not a row. QED.

Of course, as always, you can play it as you wish, and if you like your version better, you can change the rules to anything you want.

Thread: Re: Some Rules Questions

ondja — 2007-07-15T18:18:58+00:00

Quote:
Moving pawns
On his turn, a player must move his pawn clockwise around the outer edge of the card grid. Pawns must be moved exactly as many spaces as the number shown on the topmost Ingredient card of that player’s Magic Kettle. Each Ingredient card in the outer edge and each Corner card counts as one space.

This does make it more strategic once the draw pile is exhausted. And it is possible that some inner cards will be unobtainable if the edge cards from its horizontal and vertical rows are all empty.

Rob, is this your understanding of the Movement Rule?

- Mike Arms

Well, I think Mike's right. According to rules, each Ingredient card in the outer edge and each Corner card counts as one space, which makes the final stage of the game much more tactical, since by removing Ingredient cards from outer edge you can both control your opponent movement and make some inner cards (that your opponent so desperately needs ) less obtainable (and vice versa, of course )

I would say no. Inferring rules from outlying and marginal data is the essence of scientific discovery, but for game rules, it is just bad rules writing. If the designer of Kupferkessel, Günter Burkhardt, had wanted this to be the rule, I would hope that he would have seen that such a radical departure from the movement rules would and should be covered, at least, even if briefly, in the section of the rules where it would arise, the end game. The rules do list the one exception to the movement rules, in the paragraph immediately following the one above:

... If a pawn comes to a space with the opposing player's pawn, it skips over that space without counting it for movement.

Nowhere else in the rules is a movement exception implied.

Since the rules go to the trouble to explain this exeception, I would hope that they would also consider explaining a much more insidious exception, since that exception could conceiveably and rather easily put the game into a situation where it had no end. If only interior cards were left (which could arise with as little as only 4 cards left on the table), the only movement allowed would be on the corners, and therefore the game would have no end.

-- rob

No, you simply can't reach situation with only Corner cards and no Ingredient cards cards on outer edge, because when there are no Ingredient cards left between two adjacent Corner cards, then it's empty row (since Corner cards can't be removed) and the game ends, am I right?

Thread: My wife triumphs - 2P

wwscrispin — 2007-05-19T21:45:06+00:00

I picked this up a couple of months ago and printed the English rules out from here. I had read them and my wife had wanted to play but for some reason it had not hit the table yet. So after introducing another light game to my wife, I pulled this out, figuring we could play at least one game and get the game-play down.

My wife and I played a set of three games in the afternoon. The first game was a learning experience and not great fun but we got the rules down and did not make too many mistakes. Our biggest mistake, which I see others have made, was to move on the outer edge cards instead of outside of the outer edge. Once I understood that a bunch of questions resolved themselves for the second game.

We did not play aggressively, more just learning how to score and complete sets. I did not take many negatives but I did not score any completed sets and lost several sets with only two cards. My wife complained that there was too much for her to remember and took 14 negative points but she completed 3 sets.

The final score:

Wife: 47
Me: 43

In the second game I was careful to collect my in-color sets and 3 others. I did not really make any mistakes in this game and ended up with only 1 negative point while completing 2 in-color sets and 2 others. I also scored for most ones. My wife scored well with 2 in-color and two other full sets but did not score anything else. We were starting to figure out how to maximize our scores and exploding kettles were played but it was still not too aggressive.

The final score:

Me: 106
Wife: 80

In the 3rd game my wife used the exploding kettle against me with great effect. I lost two cards from my in-color sets which I was hoping to complete to four. She used them late enough in the game that both cards were discarded and did not go back on the draw pile. She preyed on a couple of "my" sets and then cleared a row to end the game fairly early. I was left with several sets with only two cards. I was ready to use my now improved skills to rack up a high score but it was not to be.

The final score:

Wife: 80
Me: 32

My wife rated this highly and I expect we will be playing it again soon. This is a game that deserves more exposure. It is more fun than it first looks. I do not really consider memorization to be a fun game mechanic but I did not feel that it was at all overwhelming here once you realize how to play.

Image

ennio_lombardi — 2007-04-25T17:27:23+00:00

Set - up

Thread: Re: Kupferkessel Co. - Memory-based Set Collection Fun for 2

Brad Oliver — 2007-04-10T17:03:40+00:00

Excellent review. I agree with your assessment; my wife and I find this very enjoyable.

In fact, I'm a little surprised that no one has picked this up for an English edition and/or distribution here in North America.

Thread: Kupferkessel Co. - Memory-based Set Collection Fun for 2

jearles — 2007-04-10T16:09:21+00:00

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Back Story
Over the course of a year living on BGG you occasionally see images for a new (to you) game and think, "That looks really cool!". Then you go look it up, only to discover... it's a German-language only game or it's not available here (and sometimes both).

During a recent dipdragon contest the Dragon Egg image for Kupferkessel Co. appeared and took my wife and I hunting, first to find the game this image belonged to and later trying to track down a physical copy of the game.

Was all the effort worth it? You bet your Cat Whiskers!

Overview
Designed by Günter Burkhardt and published by Goldsieber, Kupferkessel Co. (Copper Kettle Company, for those of us who need everything translated to English) is a seemingly simple memory-based set collection game for 2 players. I say seemingly simple because behind the easy-to-learn game mechanics there are subtle tactics, planning, and strategy elements.

A store display is laid out containing 32 ingredients. Two opposing Witches/Wizards are moving around the store, shopping for the most valuable collection of ingredients. As they move they jostle for position, skipping over the others position, and try to avoid poor table locations. Obtained ingredients will create a stack only showing the top ingredient. They must be careful to remember the other ingredient types obtained and how many of each have been purchased.

At the end of the game ingredients are scored with a clever value hierarchy that will benefit the player who best collected larger sets or managed to obtain ingredients that were especially useful to them.

Components

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This is a small box game (less than 8" x 6" x 2") with similarly small components. The box contains:

56 ingredient cards (14 different types with values 1 - 4),
4 corner cards,
2 overview cards,
13 recipe cards (see the Variant section),
2 player pawns (black and white),
1 rules booklet (in German only)

The cards are square and slightly larger than 2.5" on each side. They are a little bit thinner than I would like (given the amount of handling the cards get) but are nicely linen textured and are easy to shuffle. The 14 different ingredients are easily distinguishable and contain no language dependent text (using colors and icons instead). The pictures are wonderful and contain such classics as Cat Whiskers and Eye of Newt.

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The pawns are HUGE, a full 8cm (a little over 3"), and are therefore easy to grab and move around the display.

The board is made up of a 36-card ingredient display; 32 ingredients with the four corner cards positioned. The white and black pawn starting positions should be at diagonally opposing corners.

One point that will probably serve as a barometer of different gamers. The corners are meant to be rounded and have cut here lines. Thus far my wife and I have opted to retain the square look, not wanting to cut our cards. We can't be the only ones... can we?

Gameplay
From the deck of 56 ingredients a store display is laid out containing 34 ingredients; the remaining 22 are set aside as a draw deck. The pawns are placed on their respective corners. Each player will draw one starter card; if the drawn card has a white or black symbol that card is placed on the bottom of the deck and a new card is taken. White goes first.

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Each player takes turns moving their pawn clockwise around the display. The number of spaces to move is based on the value (in the bottom right corner) of the top ingredient card. If one pawn has to move past another pawn it skips that spot and continues counting.

When a pawn has stopped the player must choose a card on display in the row or column they are positioned next to; this ingedient is added to the top of their ingredient stack. If the pawn has stopped on a corner, the player may not choose an ingredient. The empty ingredient spot is then replaced with the top card from the draw deck.

In addition to the value symbol, ingredients also may contain an action symbol (in the bottom left corner). This symbol indicates an action that a player who chooses this card may invoke:

* Exploding Kettle - Your opponent must remove the top ingredient card from their stack and return it to the bottom of the draw deck. If the draw deck is empty the card is removed from the game.

* Magic Wand and Hat - You may take an extra turn. Note that each player may only perform this action once per turn (i.e. two plays per turn maximum); you are free to choose a second ingredient with this symbol!

This sequence (choose card, replace card) continues until the draw deck has emptied. At this time play continues as normal with no replacement of cards. This will result in empty spaces appearing in the display (note that empty edge spaces still count in player movement). When a player chooses to take a card that will result in any row or column completely empty of ingredients this triggers the end of the game. The final card may either be added to that players ingredient stack or discarded.

Scoring
Each player sorts their collected ingredients, by ingredient and then by value (1 on top).

Scoring is what really makes this game. Ingredient sets are scored with rules that place an emphasis on collecting a variety of ingredients in bulk; single ingredients are penalized.

Most Value 1 Ingredients = 5 points (if tied, no points are awarded)
Ingedients in Own Color = 2x (double the Value of the card)

1 of 4 Ingredient Cards = -X (minus the Value of the card)
2 of 4 Ingredient Cards = 0
3 of 4 Ingredient Cards = +X (Sum of the Values of the cards)
4 of 4 Ingredient Cards = +X+5 (Sum of the Values of the cards + 5 point bonus)

Note that you need to have at least 2 cards of an ingredient type to break even and if you happen to only gather 1 Ingredient Card it will result in a negative. Ingredients of your own color are also prized as they will result in double points; take care though a single ingredient card of your own color will be a double negative.

Strategy and Tactics
No one will ever confuse Kupferkessel Co. with Chess, but the game does allow a good amount of planning and tactics for this style of game.

The amount you move is determined from your top card. This allows forward planning in card selection (if I take this card I'll get to move 3, which will let me take that card). Additionally the use timely use of the Extra Turn action can allow you to finish off a set or start a new set and obtain the 2 cards needed to break even. Exploding Kettles can be used to remove a key ingredient from the game or to force your opponent onto a corner square slowing them down.

The scoring mechanism led my wife to note similarities to Lost Cities in the concern that should be taken in deciding to start a new set. I can see that, as I have felt that angst when deciding which card to take. It's even worse here as you have to add in the memory factor; have I started collecting bats yet? Yes, I did that a few turns ago... Um, I think.

Variants
Two variants are included:

* Recipe Cards - The 13 recipe cards are shuffled and each player will draw 2. These are hidden goals that will be rewarded at the end of the game. This seems like it would add an extra dimension to the gameplay, as players have to balance set collection with their secret tasks. Having not played this variant I am not sure if this adds significantly to the game experience or not. If any one has experience please let us know.

* 3 player Game - While the base game was designed as a 2 player game, if you can find a third pawn (not included in game) that matches one of the other game colors (purple, brown, green, or grey) you can include a third player into the fun.

The Verdict
This is a wonderful little game that deserves much wider recognition and play. It is quick (averaging 15 minutes, maybe a bit longer if you plan more) and easy to learn and play. This is an ideal filler game to start or end an evening, or great for those lazy work evenings. The memory aspect is great for giving those brain cells a bit of a workout, and you can either play the game in a nice and easy style or get more aggressive with player interaction.

I give this game a solid 7.5 and my wife gives it an 8.

Kudos
Finally, I'd like to give kudos and props to two BGG users without whom we would not be playing and enjoying this great game:

* MagicMonkey - As stated Kupferkessel Co. has "German only" Rules. Well image our surprise when not only did the files section contain a translation, but it is an awesome booklet with images and rules that basically parallel the original. This booklet not only allowed us to familiarize ourselves with the rules, but it also actually sold my wife on wanting to own this game. Two thumbs up and for Nick Pitman and his initiative in uploading the wonderful Kupferkessel Co - Rules Booklet v1.1.pdf. Thank You!!

* Michael Becker - After searching locally in futility my wife and I decided to search for BGG users who were willing to trade Kupferkessel Co. After a few unsuccessful interactions we hit on Michael. He owned two copies of the game and was willing to do a PayPal transaction to sell us one copy. The transaction went though and we (im)patiently waited the few days it took Canada Post to deliver the package. It arrived in great shape and we were playing within a day or three. Thank you!!

People like these is one of the reasons why BGG is the greatest gaming community site in the world!!

Image

dipdragon — 2007-02-19T22:25:44+00:00

Kupferkessel Ingredient Card

Thread: Re: Thanks BGG

enricodandolo — 2007-02-10T12:40:30+00:00

Great review. Thanks. One thing: I believe that the player with the most value 1 ingredients gets the extra five points.

Thread: Re: Thanks BGG

Sifu — 2007-02-09T21:00:23+00:00

Thank YOU for the review! Try the variant where you are also trying to complete recipes. It's a lot of fun.

Thread: Thanks BGG

YellowLab — 2007-02-09T19:12:15+00:00

I don't remember exactly how I came across this title. Maybe it was in a Geeklist talking about two player games or someone asking questions in a forum. However, I do know if it wasn't for the 'Geek, this little gem would never have been found.

My wife and I have only played the basic version and is based on the Goldsieber version of the game.

Components:
The components are simple: 56 ingredient cards (14 sets of 4), two large wooden pawns (one black, one white), 4 corner cards, and 13 recipe cards. There are also some blank recipe cards to create your own recipes. The cards are of typical playing card stock and are about 2" square in size. The pawns are oversized and heavy.

I have a couple of beefs with the components. First off, there are four corner cards that have a white dotted line where you are to cut them in order to make them round. I wish there was another way to denote this so the cards didn't have to be cut. While you don't have to cut the cards, the dotted lines are a little distracting. Secondly, the box is about 66% too big for the components. All the components, as they are, could easily fit inside a box 2/3 the size of the current box. And by shrinking the pawns, it could easily fit into an even smaller box.

Rules:
The rules come in German. So, if that is a problem you will need to visit the file section. There is an excellent rules translation booklet uploaded by MonkeyMagic here on the 'Geek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/fileinfo.php?fileid=19775). The booklet, when printed double sided on card stock, fits nicely into the box and is laid out similarly to the originally published rule set, including pictures and illustrations from the original rules. Nice job.

Cards are laid out face-up into a six by six grid, with the four corners replaced by the corner cards. Each player is given one card face up to start their copper kettle (English translation of KupferKessle). Each ingredient (there are fourteen) has a number 1-4. This is the number of spaces that you can move your pawn around the edge of the board. When you stop, you must pick up an ingredient from the row or column that your pawn is in. This goes on top of your kettle. You can not go through your kettle at anytime to refresh your memory as to what pieces are there. Play ends when the last card is removed from a column or row. Scoring is relatively simple: if you only have one card of a given set, you get negative points equal to that card's value; two cards results in zero points; three and four cards result in a positive sum. However, if you have all the cards in one set you receive a bonus of five points. Cards that are of the same color as your pawn count double, both positive and negative. There are five bonus points available for whoever has the least cards of value 1.

There are two special symbols that give the person who picks them up an optional power. One is a bomb which allows you to remove the top ingredient from your opponent's stack. The second is a witch's hat which allows you to immediately take another turn.

In addition, there are advanced rules which add the recipe cards for bonus points. These add different conditions to be met at the end of the game in order to receive the bonus points.

Time:
Games play quickly. Matches between my wife and I last between 15 and 30 minutes. She doesn't like to play too many back to back because she gets confused as to which sets she is currently collection. She requests this when we don't have time to play her favorite game, Mr. Jack.

Gameplay:
At first glance, the game appears deceptively simple. It looks like you can plan several moves in advance. However, the bombs can change your plans in a heartbeat. In addition, pawn placement can be crucial. By keeping directly opposite of your opponent, you can potentially pick up ingredients they are collecting. Be getting in your opponent's way you can force unplanned moves. This is because you do not count the space that your opponent is on when moving. For instance, if you are two spaces in front of your opponent and your opponent has a three in their kettle, they will actually move four spaces around the board, skipping over your pawn. Forcing them onto a corner piece will reduce the number of ingredients in their kettle as you cannot pick up an ingredient if you are on the corner.

Plays become a balancing act of determining where you want to be in a couple of moves and what are the best ingredients to pick up along the way. And then hoping your opponent doesn't foil your plans.

Tilt:
This is classed as a children's game; however, my wife and I have had a lot of fun with this. There is some strategy to playing well that younger children probably couldn't grasp.

It is a little more difficult to find since there isn't a distributor in the US. However, I picked mine up through the marketplace and Boards and Bits has copies for sell.

The game plays quickly and has a little bit of confrontation and strategy that keeps it enjoyable. Thanks BGG for bringing this gem to light.

Thread: Boy-Oh, Boy-Oh, I'm in trouble

YellowLab — 2007-01-25T21:04:24+00:00

After my wife and I finished a game of Mr. Jack, I wanted to try out our new copy of Kupferkessel Co. (Copper Kettle Company). The rules are fairly straight forward and I explained them to my wife. The goal of the game is to acquire spell components from the local store and keep them in your kettle. The store is represented by a six by six grid of cards and the kettle is a pile of cards in front of each player. There are fourteen components from eyeballs to batwings and everything in between. Each component is repeated four times with a number 1 to 4 in the corner. You move your pawn around the outside of the grid and pick up a card in the row that your pawn lands on. This card is important in two ways. First, the object of the game is score points by collecting sets of components (one of a set results in negative points, two of a set is zero points and three or four will result in the sum of the components). Second, the number on the card is the number of spaces that your pawn can move during your next turn. You may not sift through the components in your kettle (pile) so there is a little memory aspect involved as well. There are a couple of other special symbols on the cards. Only two are used in the basic rules: one lets you go again a second lets you destroy the top card on your opponent's kettle stack. There are some advanced cards that use the other symbols, but we did not play with these rules.

We got off to a quick start moving our pawns and picking up components. Then I picked up a component that had an exploding bomb symbol and promptly destroyed my wife's top component. She was miffed as this was part of a set she was actively collecting, but on top of that this forced her pawn to move differently than she anticipated. In fact, she ended up on the corner which didn't allow her to pick up a piece on her next move. Now, she started to slow down and look a little more closely at the moves. I could see that she was looking a little further into the game. I moved around the store and picked up another bomb. Ka-Boom! Another piece of hers disappeared - foiling her plans again. I could see she was trying to figure out how she could capture an exploding bomb. Near the end of the game, I picked up yet another bomb and said "Sayonara" to another one of her pieces. The end score was very close: 61 to 57 in my favor.

Maybe I shouldn't have been so aggressive with my use of the bombs because I know that the rematch will teach me a lesson. This is a great tactical strategy game for two. You can plan ahead, at least a little until someone plants a bomb in your kettle.

Thread: Re: Kupferkessel Co.--excellent 2 or 3 player game!

trojandoc — 2006-11-18T01:42:05+00:00

Agreed, I enjoy this with 2 or 3 players, especially with my kids.
I think translating to "Copper Kettle Company" has a nice ring to it.

Thread: Re: Kupferkessel Co.--excellent 2 or 3 player game!

Milarky — 2006-11-18T00:10:46+00:00

huzzah another convert!
apart from the unspell-able name! copper cauldron i think is the english translation
my fav two player game so far..

Thread: Kupferkessel Co.--excellent 2 or 3 player game!

Sprydle — 2006-11-17T19:15:06+00:00

Review of Kupferkessel Co.

Wow! I picked this game up as a game to play with the kids in our group and ended up discovering a brilliant game with short rules, quick playtime, and surprising depth.

First let me dispell a myth--this is NOT what a gamer would normally consider a kids game, even though it has somehow acquired that label in its listed attributes. Yes, the theme makes it appealing to kids and Harry Potter fans of all ages, but if you play it with your kid(s) you will probably need to tone down your gameplay SIGNIFICANTLY, unless they are already skilled and fairly agressive pre-planners in other games. This game is deep and without any direct luck--although there is card drawing, it is only to replace a card you already took, and in most cases it is not one you'll even be able to pick up for several turns. The game really takes planning at least a few turns ahead, as well as fundamental math. It is amusing that this is labelled a kids game--there is direct player confrontation through cards which can break opponent's sets and movement-plans, as well as simply acquiring low-value cards to block opponent-scoring.

With that out of the way, on to the review itself....

This is a 2-player game (although it works great with 3 players as well) with a randomized board of 32 alchemical ingredients and 4 corner spaces. There are 4 copies of each ingredient (numbered 1 through 4). The ingredients also have color indicators, most of which, in the primary game are not important except the black and white ingredients. One player takes the black GIGANTIC witch meeple, and the other takes the white GIGANTIC witch meeple. There is a draw deck of ingredients and each player takes 1, face-up, to start with. The turns proceed very quickly as follows. Look at the number on top card in front of you, move your meeple that number of spaces around the outside in the ingredient board--then take any 1 ingredient card from the row your meeple stops in, and replace it with a card from the draw deck. Place the ingredient which you took on the top of the stack in front of you, covering the previous card completely. You're not allowed to look back in your stack, this will become your movement amount on the following turn. You will find yourself plotting movements based on ingredient values several turns in advance. Your opponent will be looking to foil your plans when they can. If you land on a corner you get to take nothing, effectively making it a lost turn. Once the draw deck is exhausted, you continue to play until 1 entire row is depleted of ingredients, at which point you tally scores.

There are a few special cards in the deck which have either a symbol with an exploding cauldron, or a witches hat and wand. Respectively, if you pick one up, your opponent must discard the top of their cauldron stack, or you get to immediately take another turn. You cannot ever go more than twice in a row, so you cannot exploit the witches hat cards more than once per turn. Using either of these extra attributes on the card is optional--sometimes you want your opponent to keep whatever that top card is on their cauldron stack.

That's it!

A whole game can be played out in around 15 to 20 minutes. The brilliance of the game comes in the scoring, and the strategies you begin to see after scoring a game or two. In the scoring, it is to your benefit (usually) to acquire ingredients in your own color (black or white) because they will score double. However, you can ding your opponent because, like in Lost Cities, negatives will score double as well! The scoring works out that if you have only 1 card of a particular ingredient, it will score the negative of its point value (the same number used for moving btw). If you have two copies of the ingredient, you get zero points. If you have 3 copies, you get the sum of the point value. And if you have all 4 copies of an ingredient, you get the sum plus 5. So your max ingedient score would be a set of 4 in your color, for a total of 25 points--the sum of the point values, or 10, multiplied by 2, with 5 added as the set bonus.

The game comes with only 2 meeples, but by simply choosing something (meeple from another game, bottle cap, Cheetoh) of the same color as another of the card sets, say blue or orange, you can simply start the third player on one of the two open corners. They will, obviously, get points for collecting their own color. Because the game ends quite a bit quicker with 3 players, we tweaked the 3 player rules slightly and played that the game ended when two rows had been depleted--it makes it a little trickier for keeping track of movement on the empty row, but as long as you keep your rows and columns neat, it isn't a problem. We found that playing this way tends to keep the score commensurate with the 2 player game (the scores for everyone are much lower if you just play until one row is depeleted).

After many plays now with 3 players during lunches at work, we've found this game to be one of the strongest 3-player games around--has a similar tension to a game of Lost Cities, with just enough direct screwage to keep it very interesting and tight. The lack of any pure luck really makes this game shine in both the 2 player and 3 player environments.

Thread: Re: Question about 3 person variant

Sprydle — 2006-11-17T18:52:41+00:00

Also use the bombs to your advantage--remember it takes the top card from both of the other players in a 3 player game. Often you can sabotage the color set with those fairly easily.

As a note, we also play until 2 rows are depleted when we play with 3 players. Played this way, we've found Kupferkessel to actually be one of the strongest 3 player games out there, especially for its quick playtime!

Image

mcross — 2006-10-10T19:05:20+00:00

English translation of the rulebook

Image

mcross — 2006-10-10T19:05:12+00:00

German Rulebook

Thread: Re: More Rules Questions

MonkeyMagic — 2006-06-22T23:03:01+00:00

shilinski wrote:
2) I don't understand this recipe card: "You must have at least three cards from both ingredients in this color. Bonus = 15 points." Does it mean I must have at least 3 in the color, so it would work if I had 3 cards in just one ingredient? Or does it mean I must have three cards with at least one card from each ingredient? For example, 2 cards in 1 and 1 card in the other? Or does it mean I must have at least 3 cards in each ingredient (at least 6 cards total then)?

I agree that this Recipe means that you must have 3 cards of each ingredient. The score for completion is 15. This is quite a lot of points to gain and is equivalent to the number of points you would get for collecting a complete set of 4 ingredients.

Thread: Re: Exploding couldron card

cktjharris — 2006-05-30T19:51:44+00:00

I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but here's how the expolding cauldron card works...
Maybe it will help you.

The player who chose the exploding cauldron puts the exploding cauldron card face-up on top of his own stack.

If his opponent's stack contains only one card, then the exploding cauldron has no effect on her. (She does not lose her only card!)

However, if her stack contains at least two cards, then she loses the top-most card from her stack, as follows.

If there is at least one card left in the draw pile, then the card she loses is added to the bottom of the draw pile.

Otherwise (the draw pile has already been exhausted), the card she loses is simply removed from the game.

Image

smug — 2006-05-27T22:40:28+00:00

Much better image of the Kupferkessel Co. Box top

Thread: Exploding couldron card

markrollings — 2006-05-01T08:15:37+00:00

The rules state that where a player picks up an exploding couldron card from the table, his opponent takes the top card from his stack and places it under the draw pile if it still exists or out of play if the draw pile is exhausted.

What do you do in the instance that the card in the draw pile that you are about to replace the exploding couldron from the table with is the last card?

Thread: Re: Some Rules Questions

markrollings — 2006-05-01T08:03:39+00:00

It could not work like that. What if there were no cards left on the outer edge?

Thread: First two games

markrollings — 2006-01-15T08:13:53+00:00

We played our first couple of games of this last night. We haven't read the advanced game rules yet.

After a little confusion over movement around the corners we quickly picked up the simple rules. My opponent seemed not to be considering his moves very hard and so I thought my win was in the bag. I was concentrating hard to make sure I collected at least two of everything. As it turns out, Tony wasn't taking long over his turns because he has a much better memory than me. I was stuggling and kept asking questions like "I can't remember... am I collecting bats?". I lost with a score of 18 to Tony's 76.

In the second game I realised that you need more cards of less different ingredients and I fared much better. I thought my score of 80 was going to get me the win, but Tony scored 121!

What a great game though. I'm itching to play again. It has elements of Lost Cities in it (the "shall I start collecting this set too", "will I get enough to get a positive score etc"). It has a bit of mancala too in the movement around the playing area. And it feels a little like Pairs in the look of the board in play.

Thread: Re: Question about 3 person variant

Milarky — 2005-12-29T14:14:35+00:00

if i was white i would try to collect a low point black so he could not get his full set(and bonus) or in 3 player game try to get a black and a purple another good one is look out for exploding pots to make both your opponents lose a good card.

though the above tactic is easier said then done (best doen with the hat icon so you get an extra go in)
persnonaly i think its better to take a -1 then have your opponent get a +5/6 bonus

i think a lot of new players try to concetrate on just trying to get there colours.

Thread: Question about 3 person variant

smithhemb — 2005-08-15T19:43:50+00:00

We've been playing without recipe cards and it seems as if the cumulative bonuses for collecting a complete set of one item in your own color pretty much bestow the game on the player who accomplishes this. We hadn't noticed that as a problem in a two person game -- both because it was more likely that both players would accomplish this and because each player had more other cards to score. (Because, in effect, the deck gets divided two ways instead of three.)

Anybody encountered the same problem? Come up with a fix that satisfies them (e.g. some reduction in the bonus)? Or does it disappear if you play with recipes?

Thread: Re: Some Rules Questions

smithhemb — 2005-08-15T19:37:58+00:00

I made the same assumption based on a translation posted here, but then I looked at the German rules and there was an illustrated example showing both a missing edge card and an opponent's marker being skipped in the count.

Thread: Another Thursday at Shire Games ... (and Nick wins some games!)

Moviebuffs — 2005-08-05T10:10:17+00:00

As the Chameleons were filling one table, Phil arrived and Sue challenged him to a couple of games.

First up was this one: a favourite of mine & Sue's, and one we always like to introduce to people when we can!

As I wasn;t present, details are sketchy .... If Phil or Sue would like to add anything, please do - and I will pass on the GG from the reports.

Phil professed to not having a good memory, which is a shame, as this (and the next game they played!) are essentially memory games!!

The game was played without the ingredient cards.

Unusually, neither player ended up with any minus points at all in their cauldrons, which would suggest a very non-aggressive game where each player went for their own sets and didn't interfere with what the other was after.

Phil managed to complete two sets, one of his own colour, and he also collected the most '1' ingredients to claim the 5 point bonus.

Sue also collected two full sets, but without collecting her own colour, couldn;t match Phil's total.

Final scores:

Phil - 71
Sue - 61

Thread: First Tuesday - Pirates & Power

Moviebuffs — 2005-07-20T09:13:43+00:00

The game of Isis & Osiris was even faster than we suspected it would be, we tried a three-player version of this excellent 2 player memory game.

As this was a new game to mark, we didn't use the ingredient cards.

We quickly explained the rules to Mark and I took a purple disk from I&O as my pawn, making purple my bonus colour.

We decided to disable the Special Cards (magic hats and explosions) from the purple cards to make the game fair - not sure if that is mentioned in the 3 player rules, but it seemed the logical thing to do.

Having never played three players before, I was quite surprised how few cards you get to collect. Basically, if you go for the two in your colour, you've probably only got time for one other set and some scraps.

I started with the paint pots, and went after those and the two sets in my colour. Sue and Mark had the same idea, collecting their starting set, as well as white and black respectively.

As the game progressed, it was becoming harder and harder to find the exact cards we were after, forcing us all to pick up an odd ingredient or two.

As is usual with this game, you really have only a vague idea of how well you are doing, and an even vaguer idea of how your opponents are going.

When the cards were flipped, Sue's collection looked quite impressive even at first glance.

The 5-point bonus for 1's went to Sue quite comfortably (5-2-2 I think)

And Sue's cauldron was also the only one holding two full sets (one white) which swung it:

Final Scores:

Sue - 54
Mark - 46
Nick - 46

For the second game, Sue beat the pair of us, with Mark & I tying for second.

Sue's love of the venue increased a bit more!

Never play memory games with a woman .....

Thread: Re: Some Rules Questions

robmderrick — 2005-06-26T18:18:39+00:00

Quote:
Moving pawns
On his turn, a player must move his pawn clockwise around the outer edge of the card grid. Pawns must be moved exactly as many spaces as the number shown on the topmost Ingredient card of that player’s Magic Kettle. Each Ingredient card in the outer edge and each Corner card counts as one space.

This does make it more strategic once the draw pile is exhausted. And it is possible that some inner cards will be unobtainable if the edge cards from its horizontal and vertical rows are all empty.

Rob, is this your understanding of the Movement Rule?

- Mike Arms

I would say no. Inferring rules from outlying and marginal data is the essence of scientific discovery, but for game rules, it is just bad rules writing. If the designer of Kupferkessel, Günter Burkhardt, had wanted this to be the rule, I would hope that he would have seen that such a radical departure from the movement rules would and should be covered, at least, even if briefly, in the section of the rules where it would arise, the end game. The rules do list the one exception to the movement rules, in the paragraph immediately following the one above:

... If a pawn comes to a space with the opposing player's pawn, it skips over that space without counting it for movement.

Nowhere else in the rules is a movement exception implied.

Since the rules go to the trouble to explain this exeception, I would hope that they would also consider explaining a much more insidious exception, since that exception could conceiveably and rather easily put the game into a situation where it had no end. If only interior cards were left (which could arise with as little as only 4 cards left on the table), the only movement allowed would be on the corners, and therefore the game would have no end.

All of this because the designer intended that you infer a significant rule's exception from the two lonely words "outer edge"? I hope not.

Yes, I know it wouldn't be the first time that such a thing had happened in a game, but in one so simple, I just can't imagine it happening here. I can more easily imagine that the simple interpretation was considered to be so obvious that it needed no clarification. But of course, a 2nd edition of the rules, seeing that this had caused confustion, would now read something like:

Each Corner card, and each space where an Ingredient Card lies in the outer edge, whether or not an Ingredient Card is still there (see "The End Game") counts as one space .

Of course, Günter Burkhardt would be the final authority.

-- rob

Thread: Re: Some Rules Questions

marms — 2005-06-26T03:50:37+00:00

zzini wrote:
themore5@earthlink (#17594), try the variant we now use regularly; as end of row cards are not refilled you DO NOT count those as a row when counting spaces with your pawn. in other words you only count edge cards as spaces to move to. this sets up some interesting play at the end as you can control the movement of the other pawn by removing edge cards and also some cards that you desparely need are now very hard to acquire as they may only be available for the taking from 2 or maybe even 1 side. we feel this adds alot to the end game.

According the English translation of the rules, this is not a variant but rather is the real rule for movement. The boldening below is my emphasis:

Moving pawns
On his turn, a player must move his pawn clockwise around the outer edge of the card grid. Pawns must be moved exactly as many spaces as the number shown on the topmost Ingredient card of that player’s Magic Kettle. Each Ingredient card in the outer edge and each Corner card counts as one space.

This does make it more strategic once the draw pile is exhausted. And it is possible that some inner cards will be unobtainable if the edge cards from its horizontal and vertical rows are all empty.

Rob, is this your understanding of the Movement Rule?

- Mike Arms

Thread: Session Report

BilboAtBagEnd — 2005-02-19T16:12:45+00:00

Quiet gaming Saturday evening after much toil (yes, even on a Saturday), as I feel out the game tastes of the Azalea Blossums.

At first it was just Rozella and I, playing a game of Kupferkessel Ko. I had been practicing my game explanation skills (I need to improve on the progressive overview approach, which seems the ideal way to teach games), and though Kupferkessel Ko is a fairly simple game it has a few interesting points. Plus Rozella had read through the English translation, and so demonstrating the rules of the game was easy....

First we played without the special icons (exploding charm boiler to put your opponent's top cauldron card under the ingredient stack, and hat/wand making you lose a turn), and the game was tidy enough. Rozella won with 80 points to my 73, and though we neglected to count in the extra points for most number of 1-point cards, it wouldn't have changed who won.

The second game, we played with the special icons, and the points pull was much lower, by about 20 points each---this time I won, 52 points to 48 points. We also got meaner about grabbing the black/white cards of each other, which tended to add more negative points, reduce set sizes, increase ingredient spread in the cauldron, and also take away scoring opportunities from the other player.

Rozella liked the game, and next time we'll probably play with the prescription cards (secret missions a la Master Labyrinth, which Rozella would probably also like).

Thread: Session Report

jlowe — 2004-07-21T19:19:43+00:00

Michelle headed home after Ticket to Ride, leaving Chris and I looking for a two player game. Chris picked Kupferkessel Co., and I was more than happy to play this little gem again.

We played the first game with the basic rules. Chris used the exploding kettle actions most effectively, costing me mucho points on more than one occasion. Man, it's so painful when cards are blown permanently out of the game after the ingredient deck has run dry.

My only consolation at the end of the game was Chris getting stuck into a funny situation involving movement. He had a 4 at the top of his kettle and was sitting on a corner square. (Yes, he *really* wanted that 4 card.) I ended up passing him on my turn. This meant he went straight from one corner to the next, because he had to skip my position when counting squares. I think he lost two turns in a row due to this corner-to-corner effect.

I got the 5 point bonus for the most 1's, but it wasn't enough to catch Chris.

Final Score: Chris 74, Jason 69

We had quite a bit of fun after the first game, so we decided to play another. This time we added the recipe cards for additional goals and scoring. Lots of tension during this one as we kept blowing critical cards off of each other's kettles. I knew I was falling behind as the game went on, but I got really lucky at the end. Chris picked an ingredient card and looked well set for the next turn. I ended up passing him on his turn, causing him to move an extra space he didn't anticipate, and he landed in the corner. I then blew the card off his stack, revealing a 4. I was able to stay just in front of him for the next three turns, forcing him to jump from corner to corner without selecting any cards. In the meantime, I was picking up exactly the cards I needed to catch up.

Chris and I had both met our recipe goals. Chris had less magic hat/wand cards than I did and he also had the necessary 3 cards in two sets. I had the three plant cards in three different plants and the necessary three cards in two sets. I again won the 5 point bonus for the most 1's, and that was the difference as I won by 2 points. Talk about a lucky break at the end. Well, I guess it's not luck if you saw far enough ahead what could have happened, but neither of us saw the corner purgatory Chris was headed for until it had already started.

This is one of my favorite two player games. Not too heavy but enough strategy and planning to make things interesting.

Thread: Re:More Rules Questions

fofluff — 2004-07-18T11:38:40+00:00

clearclaw (#35740),

Thanks, clearclaw!

Thread: Re:More Rules Questions

clearclaw — 2004-05-10T17:51:04+00:00

fofluff (#35618),

We play with the 6-card interpretation. It works well.

Thread: Re:More Rules Questions

fofluff — 2004-05-09T11:54:56+00:00

Dear shilinski (#35602), my interpretation of the rules:

1) One white card with a value of 3 scores a -6 (you score -3 because it is a single card in that ingredient and then you double this -3 score because you are white for a total of -6). I printed out the English rules and compare them to the colored German rule booklet for clarity. However, I believe that the picture on Page 3 of the German booklet is incorrect (or confusing at the least)...play moves clockwise so I changed the arrow points to the opposite ends of the arrow lines, I changed the numbers on the outside of the grid (the 4 should be a 1, the 3 should be a 2, the 2 should be a 3, and the 4 should be a 1), and black ends up next to the blue "2" on the grid (where the lighter-colored black pawn is in the picture) and takes from that row, and not from the row below that where the "x"ed ingredient card is marked in the picture).

2) We havent' played with the recipe cards yet so I can't answer this question from experience. I interpret this card to read, "You must have at least three cards from each ingredient in this color." Since it is such a large bonus, I would think you'd need at least 6 cards (at least 3 in each color). What do you think?

Thread: More Rules Questions

shilinski — 2004-05-09T00:33:58+00:00

1) The way the English rules are layed out, it sounds like scoring black/white cards is a separate step, but that's probably not right. Say I'm white and I capture only one white card (a white 3). Do I get 2x3=6 points for the white card and THEN -3 for having one card, or is it -6, -3 for one card, doubled because I am white?

2) I don't understand this recipe card: "You must have at least three cards from both ingredients in this color. Bonus = 15 points." Does it mean I must have at least 3 in the color, so it would work if I had 3 cards in just one ingredient? Or does it mean I must have three cards with at least one card from each ingredient? For example, 2 cards in 1 and 1 card in the other? Or does it mean I must have at least 3 cards in each ingredient (at least 6 cards total then)?