Game: Urland

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teabo — 2008-02-08T04:15:24+00:00

Unpunched, unopened contents.

Thread: Re: Language dependence?

GSReis — 2008-01-06T22:11:56+00:00

Actually, last time I played, there was a slight doubt on gene actions being used more than once, but we ruled it correctly. Thanks!

Thread: Re: Language dependence?

Kiboko Hippo — 2008-01-06T21:25:17+00:00

No important mistranslations, just clarifications such as: (1) Gene actions can be used more than once like normal actions in a turn. (2) Examples to clarify the difference between co-existence and competition scoring. You probably didn't miss anything.

Thread: Re: Language dependence?

GSReis — 2008-01-05T02:26:31+00:00

A separate errata sheet was also included for a few mistranslations in the English ruleset that came in the box.
I don't have that. Is there any important rule mistranslated? Anything on the card descriptions?

Thread: Urland compared to Ursuppe

Kiboko Hippo — 2008-01-04T23:54:01+00:00

Urland is the follow-up to Doris & Frank's Ursuppe (or Primordial Soup). In Urland, the ichtyosauri ("ichtos" for short) from the seas move up to occupy dry land. Each player tries to increase the dominance of their ichtos on lands especially but also in the sea. Like Ursuppe, the game proceeds in phases, contains gene mutations that allow a player's species to acquire special abilities, and players score victory points as a species becomes more dominant.

I'll cover key features (but skip some details) of the rules and gameplay, making use of GeoMan's excellent graphic below that shows the early stages of a game. Click http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/74887 if you'd like to thumb his useful picture.

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The gameboard in Urland is divided into three clusters of islands and five ocean regions. Ursuppe, on the other hand, is all in the sea (or soup). Players start with 19-20 ichtos (depending on the number of players), mostly in the seas, and a few on land. In a game, a player can generally expect to fluctuate between 10-27 ichtos on the board. This is different from Ursuppe where you're responsible for between 1-7 amoeba, and usually have 2-5 on the board at any one time. Perhaps that's why I'm much more attached to my individual amoeba (each having their own individual number) in Ursuppe, than to the ichtos in Urland.

While in Ursuppe all players have the same actions every turn, in Urland players take one of three roles per turn. One player is the Environment player who has 3 chits (from a possible 12 since there are 12 islands) and chooses one to be scored that turn. The next player is the Dummy player who does nothing, but receives the 2 chits that were not picked by the Environment player. All remaining players take actions to increase the dominance of their ichtos. These include moving their ichtos from one ocean to another, breeding more ichtos, and moving ichtos on to land. This means that the players who can move their ichtos and improve their scoring chances have to do some guesswork as to which island the Environment player (who can't move his or her own ichtos) has chosen to be scored.

After all moves are made, the Environment player reveals the chosen chit. The island is scored based on who's ichtos have the strongest presence. The weakest species are eliminated and players who have remaining ichtos on the board score victory points. At the bottom of the board is a Victory Point track. You can see three half-green squares in GeoMan's image. Whenever a player's score hits (or passes) those squares, mutations take place in the form of an auction for the available genes (usually 3-4 are available at a time in a typical game). This is unlike Ursuppe where players may, if they have enough biological points, acquire new genes each turn. There are only 11 gene cards in Urland. You can see four of these in the lower left of GeoMan's image. Some are a little more powerful than others, in my opinion, but they're generally interesting and useful. In Ursuppe, there is a much wider choice of genes available, and some just never get used at all.

After scoring takes place, the Dummy player becomes the new Environment player, adds one new chit from the draw pile to the two acquired from the previous Environment player and a new turn takes place. The previous Environment player is now the last player to take ichto actions. This makes the gameplay very different from Ursuppe. After the first few turns, there is some narrowing of knowledge of which areas are likely to be scored. Therefore the first few turns are chaotic and unpredictable. The remaining turns (until the area chits run out) require guesswork, watching what everyone else does, and then planning out one's moves. It takes a while for new people to grasp the rather strange strategic options.

In an earlier review, nessi (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/197816) likened this aspect of the strategy to Bruno Faidutti's Citadels card game, which I think is an appropriate comparison. To this I would add that the game also has an area majority aspect to the strategy. Ursuppe, on the other hand, concentrates on the overall survival (and sometimes appropriate sacrifices) of one's amoeba, and is to some extent a "manage your resources and cut your losses" game.

Once the scoring chits run out, volcanoes erupt in the last two areas thus ending an epoch. A volcano essentially merges two islands on the same cluster together. (Most of the ichtos are eliminated by the volcano too!) The chits are then shuffled and the new Environment player starts with 3 of these. Thus, in the next epoch there are fewer areas (and hence increased competition). The game lasts 2 or 3 epochs and ends when a player lands or passes the 30-point marker (the red square on the Victory Point track in the lower right of the board). There is also a "Panic" chit shuffled in that could result once per epoch. In a Panic, ichtos on land in the largest occupied area run away back into the seas. I personally think the volcano mechanism is neat in the way it changes the gameplay for the subsequent epoch. Ursuppe does not have a similar mechanism, nor does it divide the game into epochs. Rather it is one continuous stretch of keeping your amoebae alive. (There is of course the cycle of life and death for your amoebae!)

Finally, Urland has easy player-aid cards that help new players. The "blue sheets" that came in my Ursuppe set were rather unwieldy.

My personal take:
I think the volcano mechanism is clever, I like that most of the genes come into play (and I enjoy seeing how different players use them strategically), and I like the theme of the game. I also like the epochal feel of the game. However, I find the game chaotic at the very beginning and it takes a few turns to settle. It also has a higher learning curve for new folks than Ursuppe, at least in my experience of teaching and playing the game with newcomers. The range of genes in Ursuppe is more interesting although not all of them get used. I've found Urland to be slightly shorter than Ursuppe. Urland typically clocks in at 1.5 hours while Ursuppe takes closer to 2 hours in my games. Finally I have a nagging feeling that the balance in Urland is off-kilter combining the strategic and random/luck/guesswork aspects of the game. I'm not sure why. Maybe I haven't played enough games. In fact I've only played five games in the last five years. I've played Ursuppe close to the same number of times in the last five years, but I played Ursuppe a lot more when I first got it maybe 8-9 years ago. Urland did not get as much play initially, and hence every time I pull it out, I have to re-read the rules. Ursuppe, on the other hand, I know very well and can teach smoothly.

My final analysis is that I'm glad I have Urland and it will have a space on my shelf for a while. It won't get played often, but once in a while, I'll enjoy it. (That is, unless, some of my friends really like it and want to play it more.) I prefer Ursuppe, but I'm fine playing Urland.

Thread: Re: Language dependence?

Kiboko Hippo — 2008-01-04T20:48:22+00:00

I have the game, purchased in the U.S. (maybe six years ago). There are indeed two sets of gene cards, one in German and one in English. The rules summary/player-aid cards were bilingual with German on one side and English on the other. My box actually has two sets of rules, the German and the English. A separate errata sheet was also included for a few mistranslations in the English ruleset that came in the box. Everything made sense. I didn't even have to go on the web to look up anything.

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chezzilla — 2008-01-01T21:34:25+00:00

Thread: Re: Language dependence?

LankyEngineer — 2007-11-23T11:41:14+00:00

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Thread: Re: Language dependence?

GSReis — 2007-11-23T01:31:33+00:00

I own the game and confirm it comes with two sets of cards, in German and English. It does not include English rules, but you can download them.

Thread: Re: Language dependence?

Grimwold — 2007-11-23T01:15:17+00:00

LankyEngineer wrote:
In this photo, the cards have English text. Are these customized?

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No, I think those are English cards... Unfortunately I'm working from memory, since I don't own the game.

Actually I've a feeling that the game might come with English cards as well... it's definitely billed as a bi-lingual version on the publishers website...

http://doris-frank.de/GamesUrland.html

Sorry I can't be more definite.

Thread: Re: Language dependence?

Moviebuffs — 2007-11-23T01:10:23+00:00

I'm pretty sure this is the case:

The box includes two sets of cards: English and German.

But the rules in the box are only in German.

English rules are readily available, however.

N.

Thread: Re: Language dependence?

LankyEngineer — 2007-11-23T01:04:58+00:00

In this photo, the cards have English text. Are these customized?

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Thread: Re: Language dependence?

Grimwold — 2007-11-23T00:58:56+00:00

Can't confirm whether you get English rules, but the gene cards do have text on... good thing is, there are only a few cards used in a game, and they are all public, so you can have a crib sheet, and discuss what the cards mean. They're pretty easy anyway.

Thread: Language dependence?

LankyEngineer — 2007-11-23T00:25:49+00:00

To what extent are the components of this game language-dependent?

Does it come with an English ruleset? Do cards have German text?

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keith hunt — 2007-10-21T19:07:48+00:00

The volcanoes

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keith hunt — 2007-10-21T19:06:56+00:00

Environment chips

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keith hunt — 2007-10-21T19:06:12+00:00

English gene cards

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keith hunt — 2007-10-21T18:04:12+00:00

A happy pile of ictos

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spearjr — 2007-10-07T03:15:26+00:00

Online Interface on Ludoholic.com

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dracoPL — 2007-09-04T09:01:20+00:00

Educational inset

Thread: Out of the sea came the ichtos

nessi — 2007-08-21T13:59:50+00:00

The executive summary:
Urland is a delightfully illustrated, well produced game with some unique mechanics. The classic area-majority core is spiced up by double guessing, bizarre turn order and an auction like no other. In the course of the game each player acquires special powers (in the form of genes) which while being well balanced on the whole, provide for a wide variety of strategic options.
If you like the chaos of Citadels (with at least 4 players) and the strategic vision of Princes of Florence, then this game is for you.

Premise and Theme:
The players control a tribe of ichtos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyostega) and try to colonize volcanic islands situated in a large ocean. Successful colonization is rewarded with victory points. However, not only panics and volcanic eruptions (fusing two islands) decimate the number of ichtos, but fierce competition can also make a dent in the growing tribes. During the ages, the tribes may undergo mutation to acquire enhanced or entirely new abilities. Naturally evolution is not always smooth, so this also results in a few dead ichtos.
Although the theme of ichtos conquering the land and undergoing mutations is not the only possibility (a classic area-majority theme like El Grande would have worked as well), it works well with the rules. The graphics in the by now classic Doris style do the rest to convince me that I'm not just playing an abstract.

What you get (Components):
The game contains a large folded board depicting twelve islands within a large ocean. Each player has 28 wooden ichtos (the colors are red, yellow, purple, [BGCOLOR=#000000]white[/BGCOLOR] and black) and two cardboard '2 extra actions' tokens. Two spare ichtos for each color are thoughtfully provided for those with cats, toddlers,...
12 thick cardboard discs are numbered 1 to 12 plus a disc marked with a P.
There are also 11 beautifully illustrated gene cards as well as rules summary cards for each player. The full rules are printed in black and white on thick A4 paper.
All this comes in a large sturdy box whose graphics picks up all the elements from the game components (and of course the Doris and Frank hedgehog).
All language dependent components (rules, cards) came in both English and German in my version which I ordered directly from the Doris and Frank website http://doris-frank.de/.

The Rules (pertinent features):
At its core, Urland is a classic area-majority game. You have to first get ichtos on the board, then into scoring regions and finally get these regions to score. What makes it unique are the following features:
Turn Order: On each turn (changing clockwise) player is the environment player who only chooses (secretly and before everyone else has made their move) which island (area) will score. His left neighbour is the dummy who does nothing. Everyone else gets to do two actions after which scoring takes place. Although this feels slightly weird at first, it necessitates good forward planning and flexibility. Most of the time two of the three options of the environment player are known by his right hand neighbour (and at least one, maybe two by the next player to the right), which introduces an element of double guessing and psychology. Note that during each epoch (the first epoch is 9 turns, the second 7, the third 5) all but one island will be scored exactly once.
Procreation: The way to get more ichtos on the board is to procreate in the water. However, if one player chooses a water area to procreate (3 ichtos are needed to add one ichto to them), every player gets to procreate in that area. It is thus important to choose the time for procreation wisely or (even better) piggyback on someone else's choice of procreation.
Scoring: As in Primordial Soup occupied spaces on the scoring track are ignored. This makes large jumps and comebacks possible and also provides for a usually close finish as the leader cannot jump anyone else.
Genes and Mutation: When the lead player reaches a certain scores, mutation may take place. Players secretly bid a number of ichtos from their hand (i.e. those not on the board). In descending order of bids (ties are in favor of the lower scored player) up to three out of four available genes may be bought (at most one by each player). However, these have to be paid by ichtos on the board (in short: Bid with your hand, pay with the board.). Payment is equal to the bid plus the number of genes already owned. The highest bidder has to buy a gene, the others have the option of buying a gene. Note that usually not every will have the chance to buy a gene during a mutation.
The genes generally improve a standard action or enable the player to perform entirely new actions. As with Primordial Soup, some of the genes are aggressive, others defensive, and others geared towards flexibility. The genes are nicely balanced in that the more flexible ones generally provide a lesser reward but are usable in more situations. The auction then does the remainder of balancing quite nicely.
Deadlock Possibilities: Since the ichtos can only procreate in the water (except with the appropriate gene) but there is no action allowing one to move ichtos from land into water, it is possible that one cannot put more ichtos on the board. With experienced players this situation should not arise (unintentionally), but with children or less experienced players this inability to do something can lead to frustration.
Shrinking Board: At the end of an epoch, two volcanoes erupt, fusing islands. If there are too many ichtos in the newly formed islands all but one of each color die.
Game End: The game ends, once the leader reaches 30 points. That means that most games last two or three epochs and that the game end can be controlled by the choices of the environment player. After game end, the most ichtos (3 points) and the most ichtos on land (2 points) get scored. Whoever has most points wins.

Decisions and Problems:
Urland is a tight game. Every action matters and one always has too little of them. This can lead to the feeling (especially when trailing) that the situation is hopeless and that one cannot do anything productively. Although this is very often a false perception (and the various mechanisms to catch the leader rarely mean that a situation is hopeless), it can affect the fun some player have (frustration).
The selection of which areas to score (by the environment player) is of course crucial. This leads to the possibility of kingmaking, especially since sometimes the environment player simply doesn't have a good choice for himself. However, this also means that amongst alert players, the leader will have a hard time extending his lead (hence forms a nice catch-up mechanism). Similar to Citadels, the players to the right of the environment player usually have some information about his choices. This leads to 'cycles' of play where you try to set up a flexible position when having little information and hope to score (big) when having a lot of information. Since every player is at a different stage of the cycle, this makes the play during a turn quite varied.
It may happen that two players get into a kind of bidding war, where each of them in turns tries to dominate the same island. This is generally bad for both, so should be avoided. In this sense cooperation (aiming for a shared majority) is better, but of course more risky, as the opponent might just move in an additional ichto at the last moment. Again flexibility is key here. It rarely pays to invest more than 3 ichtos on one island (especially since the volcano might kill most of them off at the end of the epoch).
The mutation phase and hence the blind bidding seems crucial at first. Some genes certainly have a large impact on the game. However, the three mutation phases tend to happen very close after the other, so that winners in the first mutation are unlikely to get a great pick (if one at all) in the second mutation and likewise for the third. On the other hand, it is fairly easy to evaluate the usefulness of most genes (simply count the number of equivalent actions it would take to get the same benefit), so the blind bidding is not too random. Also, the Bid with your hand, pay with the board. mechanism means that there is no strategy which ensures to win all auctions while remaining in a competitive position. Having said this, since the genes for the next mutation are revealed immediately after the last mutation (or at the beginning of the game for the first mutation), one is able to plan ahead and adapt ones strategy to what is available.
A common mistake is to keep too many ichtos in the water for fear of extinction (see above under Deadlock). Ichtos in the water are good for nothing but procreation (except a possible three points after the end of the game). Hence one shouldn't be afraid to move all of them out of the water when the game draws to a close.
Urland plays very differently and in my opionion worse with only three players, since before each scoring only one player has the ability to actually change the state of the board. I think five players works best for this game.
The game has a decidedly non-linear feel to it. Although one does build up a position, it gets torn down sufficiently often that no real dominance can be established. If rapidly changing situations and setbacks are not to the liking of the players then there are other better choices. Playing defensively, it is possible to keep the setbacks to a minimum, although it might be hard to win using this strategy.
Downtime can be a problem if some players try to work out the absolutely best move. This is normally pointless (or even impossible) anyway since the game situation changes so quickly and one is very dependent on the other player's choices. Also, since each player has only two actions, the game should move at a reasonably fast pace. And, if you should be terminally bored, you can always discover new details in the graphics and illustrations.

Conclusion:
Urland is a great game of double guessing, cooperation and confrontation, and blind bidding. It allows the players to explore many paths to victory and encourages them to stay flexible. That said, the amount of hidden information, luck of the draw and chaos introduced by the choices of the other players, makes the game less of a brain burner than some other games of similar lengths. If you are looking for a five player game somewhere between Citadels and Princes of Florence, Urland is the game for you!

P.S. Did I say that I love the graphics? They alone make the game worth owning and playing!

Thread: URLAND. RESEÑA EN ESPAÑOL

Maeglor — 2007-06-15T15:51:11+00:00

Urland es un juego de 3 a 5 jugadores y que se juega en unos 90 minutos.

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Es un juego diseñado y publicado por Doris y Frank, que también hicieron Ursuppe, de estética y temática parecida; en este caso queremos pasamos de mover Amebas a mover Ichtios (diminutivo de Ichtiostega, un protoreptil).

De los juegos nuevos que he jugado últimamente es el que más me ha gustado con diferencia, así que me he decidido a hacer una minireseña.

Urland es un juego que se puede jugar por web en www.ludoholic.com. Lo recomiendo; el interfaz está muy bien y el juego se adapta perfectamente al formato.

El juego consiste en pocas palabras en poblar de Ichtios la tierra. Los Ichtios empiezan y se reproducen en el mar, y se mueven poco a poco hacia las áreas terrestres, que se van puntuando una a una.

El sistema de juego a mí me parece muy ingenioso. Hay un jugador ('environment player') que elige el área que se puntuará, que es precisamente uno de los que no moverá. Otro jugador se queda sin hacer nada ese turno, es el 'dummy'.

El resto hacen sus dos acciones, que pueden ser moverse por mar o hacia tierra o reproducirse en el mar, básicamente. Por lo tanto, gran parte del juego consiste en adivinar qué área es la que se eligió. Se tiene parte de la información, ya que las áreas se van rotando.

Los turnos se van sucediendo hasta que se acaban las áreas y se puntúan todas (mejor dicho, casi todas), las áreas. En cada partida habrá dos o tres épocas.

Hay tres circunstancias especiales que se van disparando y dan variedad y más sal al juego:

- Al acabar cada época dos volcanes entran en erupción, cambiando la topología del tablero y eliminando parte de los Ichtos que haya.

- Una de las losetas de área es de 'Pánico', y cuando se roba desencadena el terror en el área con más Ichtos, que huirán al mar (con lo que cuesta hacerlos ir a tierra).

- En tres ocasiones durante la partida se produce una mutación, y entonces se subastarán genes que añaden o modifican habilidades de tus Ichtos. Hay disponible una ampliación de nuevos genes, que todavía no he probado.

Puntos fuertes:

- jugar con Ichtios. Un juego con Ichtios no puede ser malo.

- los genes; son chulísimos, ninguno es igual al otro y permiten mucha variedad. Las subastas por ellos son cruciales.

- el sistema de juego; en concreto la rotación de turnos. Original y funciona muy bien, especialmente con tres jugadores.

Puntos no tan fuertes: (Realmente no he visto fallos de calado en este juego).

Se me acaba rápido. Cuando tengo ya los genes alguien llega a los 30 puntos y no los puedes usar. Lengua

Ha habido partidas en las que un jugador se ha destacado mucho y no ha habido manera de cogerle. Tampoco es un problema para mí, pero puede serlo para otros. Además, si se juega más 'a pincho', o sea mejor, me da la impresión de que esto debería desaparecer.

Puede, y digo puede, que sea poco rejugable y acabe cansando. De momento no ha sucedido, pero no lo he jugado lo suficiente. Si es así ya os lo diré.

Bueno, y esto es todo. Os recomiendo que lo probéis si tenéis ocasión. Gran juego.

Thread: Re: Check out the Play By Web version!

Maeglor — 2007-05-24T07:26:32+00:00

Urland at Ludoholic is no more a beta, but a fully tested game as Bugladen has announced.

http://www.ludoholic.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=76&start=0&

I really like the game and recommend the online version.

I'm currently playing some games and I'm willing to play some more. Come join!

Thread: Re: 'Evo' by any other name?

Great Dane — 2007-03-17T12:25:33+00:00

Exellent suggestions, both of them, Jamie!

Thread: Re: 'Evo' by any other name?

jatang — 2007-03-17T12:15:37+00:00

Not that you're asking but Ursuppe is an excellent multi-player game & is similar to Evo in that each amoeba type has different genes. You might also enjoy Trias if you like the dinosaur theme & that does play with 2. Urland is interesting as a 3 player game.

Thread: Re: 'Evo' by any other name?

Pallet Ranger — 2007-03-17T10:46:58+00:00

Thanks guys....

Saved me spending my cash on something other than I thought..

I have an account at ludoholic, so guess I'll take a look at it there.

Thread: Re: 'Evo' by any other name?

snoozefest — 2007-03-16T16:16:40+00:00

Evo and Urland are similar only in their themes -- both are evolution-type games. In Evo, your species differ from each other based on the things you buy in the auctions (parasol, fur, tail, teeth) and the mutation (or whatever they're called) cards. Urland uses a mechanism similar to Ursuppe: genes (which are also acquired by auction, but it's an odd style of auction). You collect genes slower -- likely to end the game with only 2 or 3 -- but there are many different combinations you may end up with. Game play is completely different: Urland is area control, but with no direct conflict (except for certain genes), no dice rolling. Movement is severely restricted, limited mostly to breeding (putting new guys out, like Evo) and landing (moving from water to an adjacent land area). Scoring is semi-random: players have varying amounts of knowledge about which area will be scored at the end of each round. Randomness occurs in several things: starting positions, the order in which areas are scored (semi random), the timing of a Panic event (forces most tokens off 1 land area), and the final scored area at the end of each epoch. The beginning starts out feeling fairly random, but this decreases as you move further along in the game. It's an interesting game, with some very odd twists. You can try it online at ludoholic.com.

Thread: Re: 'Evo' by any other name?

Great Dane — 2007-03-16T15:27:29+00:00

Urland is not all like Evo. In fact Urland is unlike any other game (that I know of).

And no, the game cannot easily be made into a two-player version as the whole concept requires 3 roles in which the players will gain different knowledge of the future enviroment.

You may of course use the components to create an entirely new game, more along the lines of Evo, but it would no longer be urland.

Thread: 'Evo' by any other name?

Pallet Ranger — 2007-03-16T15:13:47+00:00

I have a couple of questions about this one...

Firstly, I'm a big fan of 'Evo', but despite trying for a while now, have been unable to locate a copy easily. Is this game similar? It certainly would seem so from the various reviews...

Secondly.... Is there a two player variant, or if not, could one easily be accomodated?

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BugLaden — 2007-03-15T19:59:19+00:00

Proper Box Cover Art

Thread: Re: Check out the Play By Web version!

BugLaden — 2006-11-16T14:20:12+00:00

Urland at Ludoholic is now in open beta. So anyone can come and play. See you there!

Thread: Check out the Play By Web version!

snoozefest — 2006-11-07T15:52:43+00:00

It's still in Beta (more testers needed, apparently) but it should be ready to go soon!

www.ludoholic.com

(Also available: Capitol)

Thread: Re: Turbo Gene

BugLaden — 2006-10-20T21:13:41+00:00

I also ran into this question while developing the online implentation for Ludoholic, so wrote Frank Nestel about it.

Two Ichtos land in an adjacent land area from the source Ocean. You don't get a choice of moving 1 or 2. If you only want to land 1, use a Landing action for that.

Thread: Re: Turbo Gene

Novelty — 2006-10-13T16:10:24+00:00

There are two different parts to this card.

If you are moving from a water area to a land area, then instead of moving one Ictho, you get to move two Ictho from the same water area to the same land area.

If you are doing a water movement action (heh, that sounds funny), then instead of moving Ichtos to adjacent water areas, you can move them to any water areas.

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Kiko_Senda — 2006-08-20T23:42:22+00:00

Thread: Turbo Gene

snoozefest — 2006-02-26T22:58:09+00:00

We just played this last night and we had a question about the Turbo gene: the gene allows you to use 1 movement point to land 2 ichthos instead of just 1. Do the 2 ichthos need to come from the same sea area, and do they have to go the the same land area?

Thread: good possibility, tactical farting lizards...

heinrichsteven — 2005-11-14T05:49:44+00:00

I played this game for the first time tonight with our local gaming group. I have to admit that I wasn't too keen on it, after having read all of the other things posted about it. However, I'm always willing to try something new.

Basically, you are little lizards that are trying to "evolve" and take over land masses.

My biggest gripe, is that there are 12 islands (less after each "round" since the last two that have not been "scored" get connected by volcanos). You have 5 positions, three that get to play pieces, and then one who gets to pick which island gets to "score" and then the person after them who has to sit there, gets to see which two islands (out of three) that didn't get picked to score and can't do diddly...I found that VERY annoying...basically it seems to be a way to speed up play, without having to fine tune the design of the game...lazy designing.

Anyways, the five positions rotate after each person has played their part and it starts all over until there are only two islands left that haven't scored. What annoyed about the 12 islands, is that after a while it just seems to come down to too much luck. If you are on an island that scores, then you little guys are stuck there, unless you got (or get) lucky and have enough extra pieces on the board to bid on an evolution card to get them to other islands.

What a waste.

If you have none in the water you can't create more, which leaves you with pretty much nothing to do.

At one point I couldn't move the little handbags with legs, and I couldn't breed more, so I used the only evo power I had...I farted...yep, that's right, my little lizards had the power of the mighty wind. Which meant that I could kick off all of the lizards of an opposing player off the island I was on. So I booted everyone off my islands. Then the next player came back on land and ate me. so much for that evolutionary branch....

I was trying to utilize strategy and it ended up coming back to bite me in the butt....literally.

I still came in third, even though I evolved myself right off the board. There are only three times you can evolve and you have to have auctions to do so, and there are some hard core combinations that can give a player heavy duty power, especially if you add in the expansion pieces that I saw.

The game seems to be a very rough concept. I almost felt that it was rushed to production and that had they taken the time to fine tune it a little more, it could have been a truly great game. Evolution is just something that is bought at the expense of your lizards on the board so that you can jack with the other players.

I give it a 4.5 out of 10. I think that with some tweeking or perhaps an expansion that turns it a bit more towards evolution, it could be really good.

Thread: Tao of Gaming Review

Bankler — 2005-06-23T21:48:55+00:00

This review was originally written in 2001. -- Brian

Toto, I don't think we're amoebas anymore.

(I spent all weekend trying to be that clever. To be fair, I was tired, sick and drunk. Hey, it's not like you pay for these reviews, so you have to suffer).

Anyway, Urland is the semi sequel to Ursuppe. Battle of the Lizards. (They call them something else. Ichtos. Well, they are lizards). Apart from theme, it's an entirely different game.

The board shows 12 land areas and 5 seas. After setup, a turn works as follows:

* The 'environment player' chooses which of three possible areas will score, and passes the remaining two markers to the next player.
* The next player (aka the dummy, as in Bridge) doesn't get a turn.
* Every other player gets two actions.

The 'two actions' form the core of the game. The typical actions are:

* move a lizard from sea to (an adjacent) land,
* move as many lizards as you want from one sea to an adjacent sea, or
* start a breeding frenzy in one sea. During a breeding frenzy, each player gets to add one lizard to the sea, as long as they already have at least three lizards there, or two lizards if they have six.

Once everyone (except the environment player and dummy) have taken two actions, the start player reveals which area scores. If everyone (who is on that island) has the same number of lizards, they each get two points. Otherwise the player(s) with the fewest lizards get removed from the board, the player(s) with the most remaining lizards get 3 points, and anyone else with presence gets two points. [Note that the german rules are quite specific about this. As long as someone died off, then if everyone else is tied, they get 3 points. The english rules are a bit opaque on this point. Thanks to Steve Sidore for the translation.]

If that were just it, Urland would be somewhat interesting. The dummy mechanism means that (in a 5 player game) you only get a turn 60% of the time! And you have to guess which island the start player would score. Usually an island he scores on, but then all of the other players would rush to that island and kick him off...

But Urland adds three mechanisms. Firstly, one of the scoring disks is a 'panic' When the panic is drawn, it is instantly revealed and the most populous island panics, meaning that all of those lizards rush back into the ocean. Secondly, when there are only two islands left, one of them scores but both form volcanoes. Volcanoes merge two islands into one, and then kill off excess population on the resulting island (each player can only keep one lizard). And finally, the genes.

Unlike Ursuppe, you don't just get to buy genes. There are three places on the scoring track that trigger auctions when the lead player lands or passes them. Each player bids using dead lizards. One cute twist is that if the auction is coming up, you can put other player's lizards on the board (by breeding in an ocean where they are), lowering the most they can bid! However, the winning bidder must pay for their bid by killing lizards! In addition to the bid, players must kill an extra lizard for every gene they already have.

And that's it. Once one player hits 30 points, you have the final scoring. which is a bonus for most living lizards, and a bonus for most lizards on land. However, one player cannot win both bonuses.

Having played this game three times, I feel safe in saying that I'm going to buy this game, Urland is good, and I am torn.

The board and cards are beautiful. If Doris isn't the best artist in boardgaming, please tell me who is better. The gene cards contain the whimsy you expect. The lizards are, well, lizards. No pegs in shapes. This isn't chess, but you have to make choices and intuitive logic (which chit did the start player pick? Why?) Having to skip 2 turns in a row is painful, but you can plan for it. In a weekend full of new games, I played this one three times, rather than try other games.

But I'm partially unconvinced. Each game has felt different, to be sure. Having to auction the genes means that playing for combinations is tough. Someone gets left out, making for tense auctions (unlike Evo). [However, to be fair, Urland uses "in the fist" bidding, which isn't very tense.] The problem is that there are only 12 genes. I'm not sure if this is enough variety. Since (at most) 9 genes are purchased in a game, it certainly is reasonable, but I'd be happier if there were 15 genes. Or at least enough so that more than 1 would be missing from each game. (Assuming 3 genes are bought each auction, only 1 will remain in the deck, with no chance of purchase). Of course, if there were 15 genes, I'd be complaining that it was too few, but I'd have less reason to.

Like Ursuppe, I don't think that runaway leaders are a problem; but it is definitely easy to just get knocked out of the game. A careless player can easily find himself headed toward extinction, since you need lizards in the water to breed, but can't voluntarily head back into the water. Finally, the scoring mechanism is open to luck. The environment player may get to choose between three places, none of which help him. If each one helps a different player, and those players are roughly equal, how to choose? One of those players will benefit through no skill of their own. Now, reacting and planning to these events is a skill, but the random element may certainly drive some players batty. Sometimes you know that the start player will avoid one (obviously bad pick) and you are left with the other disk you passed them (which you know) and the one they drew (which you don't know, but there are only a few choices). So it's just a guess. In my most recent game, I constantly guessed wrong. For some players, that may be a turnoff. Right now (having played 3 times), I think that the skill/luck ratio is reasonably high; but, Urland may be a game (like Settlers) where chance plays a bigger part than initially thought.

Still, many people have called Urland the hit of Essen '01 (not counting the unpublished Puerto Rico ), and I'm inclined to agree.

Updated Jan 23rd, 2002.

Having bought this and played it again, I still see the flaws of the game; and I love it anyway. Of the three games, one had a runaway loser, but that was still a good game. The guessing/kingmaker issue showed up, but not often. One game had the last turn begin with the players at 29, 28, 27, & 26 points. Good stuff.

I've played 10 or 15 times by now. Not recently, to be sure.

Thread: Urland

DarrellKH — 2005-05-24T15:58:58+00:00

Making a game based on life’s first steps onto land probably isn’t a big deal in Germany. In America, however, some would have us believe we must enforce equal representation between evolution and creationism. That being the case, I’m wondering when the counter-barrage from the Christian right will come – the game Creation, The Game. I can picture it already. One opens the box, opens the game board onto the table, places the creatures counters in the board space marked “Limbo”, and rolls one die. On a roll of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, the players get to watch in beatific awe as the game system (aka God) creates all life in one pass of a Godly hand. The players then place the creatures on the board where indicated, and proceed to (reverently, mind you) put the game back in its box. The lid of the box will, of course, contain a picture of the Creation game box eating the URLAND game box, which will be demonstrable proof to even the most sophisticated that the Creation game is a far superior game. I’m certain it will sell like hotcakes, surpassing even such gaming immortals as NASCAR Monopoly, Harley-Davidson Monopoly, John Deere Monopoly, Regis Philbin Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit – the Jerry Springer Pregnant Teenagers Edition.

Until then, we will have to fill our time with games such as URLAND. Shucks. Doris Matthaus and Frank Nestel, makers of URSUPPE, have provided us with something of a sequel in URLAND.

No longer are amoebas the focus of our attention – amphibians are the pre-history creatures for this year. As in real life, amphibians are probably more streamlined in URLAND, than amoebas were in URSUPPE.

No longer is life restricted to stumbling around in one, scum-infested pond. The “ichtos” in URLAND emerge from oceans, and slide smoothly onto continents. Yes, Virginia, they can still eat each other, grow legs, ears and such, but they are not obsessed with finding the best sources of fecal matter. Whew.

URLAND can be played by 3, 4 or 5 players, with a 3-player game differing in feel from the 4- or 5-player game, for reasons I hope to make clear. There are 5 sets of player pieces – 28 “ichtos” each, in black, purple, white, yellow, and red. (You actually get 30 of each color; 2 extra are provided as spares.) The game board displays 12 islands, in 3 groups of 4 islands each, surrounded by 5 ocean areas. Each island has a unique number – from 1 to 12 – and a corresponding token showing its number on one side. A thirteenth token is labeled “P” for Panic. More on that later. There are also 7 volcano tiles, which are used to “merge” islands. Additionally, each Player gets 2 “Extra Move” tokens, each of which can be used during the game to get 2 more actions during their turn.

At the beginning of the game, 1 island token is drawn at random, and that island is considered “merged” with the island next to it, which is indicated by placing a volcano tile so as to span the water between them. This tile covers the number of the island indicated by the token, which causes its land area to become part of the island next to it. If the token for island 11 is drawn, for example, a volcano tile is placed so as to cover the number 11 on that island, and merge that island with island number 10. For the remainder of the game, there is no island 11. This will happen again, at the end of every epoch, as explained later. Each player starts by placing 3 of his ichtos in each of the 5 ocean areas, and 2 of his ichtos on the 2 islands matching the 2 island tokens he was randomly given. Each player then gives one of his tokens to the person on his left and on his right, causing the placement of 2 more ichtos on islands by each player. The tokens are then collected (excluding the one drawn for the initial island merge), 3 tokens are drawn by the starting player, and play begins.

URLAND differs from most games in that, during each turn, two players will not even participate in play. The first player is known as the “Environment Player”. He selects one of the 3 tokens he has, keeps it unknown to the others, and passes the other 2 tokens to the person on his left, who becomes the “Dummy Player”. I can only guess that this moniker doesn’t translate well from German. The Environment and Dummy players do not get to play during the turn – the remaining players are the “Ichto” players, and they do get to play. There is an advantage in being inactive, however, as both the Environment player and Dummy player know what the other 2 tokens are. In addition to this, the Environment player is the player who selects the one token for the island that will be scored this turn. Once the Ichto players have completed their actions, scoring for the selected island occurs, and the Dummy player becomes the next Environment player (drawing a third token at random), and the player to his left now becomes the Dummy player. In this fashion, who gets to play and who gets to pick islands rotates through the players. With 3 players, this makes for a very strange game, as only one player actually gets to do something each turn. (The rules permit that player to conduct an extra action, in the 3-player version.)

The actions from which the Ichto players get to select are simple – move an Ichto from the ocean to a land area, breed, move from one water area to an adjacent water area, or remove Ichtos from the board to the player’s “reserve”, in front of him. Each player may only select two actions, normally. Twice during the game, they may use one of their Extra Move tokens, to take 2 more actions. Three points are awarded to the player who has the most Ichtos on the island secretly selected by the Environment player (2 each, in case of a tie), so moving Ichtos onto land is paramount. Breeding, however, gets the user a large number of Ichtos to work with, but has a drawback. Breeding can only occur in an ocean area, and all players in that ocean area get to Breed, whenever one player selects that area for Breeding. (Breeding does require a minimum of 3 Ichtos, and 6 or more Ichtos will get you 2 offspring instead of one, so one can mitigate how much other players gain from a Breeding action, with judicious area selection.) When Water Movement is selected as an action, the Player is permitted to move as many of his Ichtos as he chooses from one ocean area to an adjacent ocean area, so this is a good way to set up some serious Breeding.

So, the game progresses in much the way you would expect - with the Ichto players trying to guess which area will be scored during the turn, and the players most recently being the Dummy and Environment player having the slight advantage of knowing a couple of the tokens eligible for scoring. Of course, this advantage rotates around the board, along with the token selection process. Ichto players jockey for “land superiority” on the various islands while looking for advantageous breeding opportunities and the right time to play their Extra Move tokens. If this was all there was to URLAND, it would make for a light, abstract game that – while adequate in its own right – would be considered by most to lack something. But for those who have played URSUPPE, you just know that Doris and Frank wouldn’t touch a game on evolution without adding some pizzazz…

…and that pizzazz comes in the form of “Mutations,” “Legs,” “Warm Blood,” “Teeth,” “Ears,” and 7 other genes. These confer various advantages on those Ichto players having them. Having Warm Blooded Ichtos, for instance, grants them an extra action every turn – very helpful. “Muscles” serve as a tie-breaker when counting Ichtos for control of an island. “Flying” permits that player’s Ichtos to move from one land area to another, increasing the options for scoring opportunities. Most of the genes will feel familiar to fans of URSUPPE, and – again – blank cards are thoughtfully provided in case you want to try out some of your own ideas. Doris’ delightful drawings are in color this time, too.

At three points during the game (when the lead player has reached an indicated space on the scoring track), Mutation occurs. This is a bidding process, handled by having each player secretly select a number of Ichtos from his reserve, and all players revealing their bids simultaneously. High bidder gets first crack at the currently available genes, and ties for high bid go to the player lower in current score. The highest bidder must purchase a gene; the remaining players (in decreasing size of bid) have the option to purchase a gene. Why wouldn’t you want to purchase one, you ask? Because while you bid with the Icthos you have in reserve, you pay with Ichtos you have on the board. This is why Breeding is important, and this is also why “Over-breeding” must be avoided. If you breed to the point where you have no remaining Icthos in reserve, then you can’t bid. If you don’t breed enough, then you’re potentially ruining your chances of winning when paying for your bids. And pity the poor soul who bids too much, and finds himself with insufficient Ichtos on the board with which to continue breeding. This is also where the “Retreat” action begins to make sense, as a means to get Icthos off the board and into your reserve, prior to bidding.

While it is possible to put up a jolly good fight without buying a gene every chance you get, you probably can’t afford to miss two chances to buy one. Having no genes while everyone else has 2 is going to leave you seriously “out-gunned”.

The other kicker in the game is the Panic token. When this token is drawn by the new Environment player, the island having the most Ichtos is affected, and all Ichtos on that island scurry back into the ocean, presumably frightened out of their wits by thunder, fire, rumbling volcano, or some such. The holder of the Ears gene may choose to keep his Icthos on land (although it seems they would have more cause for panic than deaf Ichtos).
At some point, there will be no third token for the new Environment player to take. This represents the end of an “Epoch”. When this occurs, one of the two tokens he is holding is randomly selected for scoring, then the islands representing both tokens get Volcano pieces, causing them to merge with the nearest islands, and reducing the number of islands in play for the next Epoch. All Ichtos in excess of 1 per player are removed from these islands and placed in the players’ reserves.

The game ends when the first player reaches 30 points in scoring. At this time, the player with the most Ichtos on the board gets 3 additional points, and (if this isn’t the same player) the one who has the most Ichtos on land gets 2 additional points – bonuses for those most intent on prolific procreation.

URLAND is a delightful game. It will never be confused with sterner, more sobering German fare, and it isn’t meant to be. It fits its niche in a pleasant, comfortable way, without any pretense towards a loftier plane of cogitation. While the box and rules claim a recommended minimum age of 12, I can see a lot of 10 year-olds loving its graphics, pieces, and game play, as was the case with URSUPPE. URLAND, too, makes for a good family game, while having enough tough decisions to satisfy the older crowd. While a lot of the European games in my collection would give me pause, I wouldn’t hesitate to whip out URLAND in order to woo a newcomer to the hobby. Unless, of course, that newcomer would want to toss URLAND on the Harry Potter book bonfire, in which case he can take NASCAR Monopoly with him, instead.

Thumbs up, Doris and Frank, and keep them coming.

Thread: Session Report

snoozefest — 2005-01-04T16:02:08+00:00

This was the last game of the year (2004) for us! Mary (M) and I had played before, and Chad and Marlena were new to the game (Marlena fairly new to gaming, in general). M and I had played a 3er game recently, and were looking forward to playing a 4- or 5-player game. After going over the rules with the newbies, we began.

C was the first environment player, followed by me then Marlena then M. Marlena spent her actions breeding, trying to set up for later turns. M got lucky - or maybe she just read C's mind. C had chosen to score an empty region. Well, it started empty, but M moved an Ichto into it during her turn. So she jumped into an early lead. The rest of us sort of muddled along, with Marlena trailing - it took a while to get comfortable with this game. In the first Mutation phase, I bought the Stinkglands, C got Assimilation and M got Turbo. The next phase, which came soon after, resulted in M adding Muscles, Marlena got Wings, and I got Ears. 3 of us were jockeying for position, and C fell well behind of the pack while M started expanding her lead. In one crucial move, I guessed Marlena's scoring region correctly and stunk M's muscle bound dino off the region (giving me a monopoly). Unfortunately, she had kept the wrong tile and flipped it over! So instead of me scoring 3, I lost my dino to competition and M scored 3! Also, everyone now knew one of the tiles being passed around. M kept the lead for pretty much the rest of the game. She kicked off the 3rd Mutation phase, where she did not buy anything (I got Teeth, C took Legs and Marlena took Eggs). C was not able to use Assimilation very often. He tried to make good use of Legs, but he unfortunately targeted my region - I stunk him off, and ate M's dino. M's muscle proved to be a very strong gene - unlike other genes which only affect single regions (and cost action points), muscles work everywhere all the time! In the final round, Marlena chose to score a region with M in it, probably not realizing that she was at 27 pts and a win would trigger Final Scoring. M won by a huge margin, with the rest of us clumped back (I was second, C 3rd and Marlena 4th).

Fun game, better than the 3-er game. Definitely needs to be repeated after everyone is comfortable with the rules!

Thread: Session Report

snoozefest — 2004-12-30T14:49:34+00:00

First game for all of us: me, Mary, and David. We had all played some other evolution games (including Evo, Ursuppe, Wildlife and/or Trias) with mixed levels of enthusiasm. But I recently traded for this game, and M and I have been wanting to try it for quite some time.

I had read the rules ahead of time, and they are pretty straightforward - it didn't take us long to go through them (although it remained confusing for some - M - of us right up until the end!). Briefly: after setup (which we did wrong, by placing 1 extra ichto on the board), 1 player secretly chooses an area to score, from a choice of 3 tiles. The next player sits out. Player 3 takes 3 actions (breeding, moving dinos from water to land, from water to water, or from board to reserve - which no one ever did). Then, you score the chosen region: whoever has fewest dinos in land area loses them all (back to reserve); highest number gets 3 pts, other players get 2. If all tied, all get 2. Then, roles rotate - former Dummy draws a 3rd tile and choses a new region, former active player is now Dummy, and former tile chooser now takes actions. Continue until someone gets to 30 points (leapfrog scoring). Interspersed are 3 auction rounds, where 2 people get to buy genes - cost paid by removing dinos from the board. At end, final scoring: 3 pts for most dinos on board, 2 for most on land (split pts if tied). High score wins.

I was first, M second, D third – which meant I started at 1pt, D at 2, M at 3. We stayed clumped close to each other the first few rounds. In the first auction, I bought Eggs, hoping to breed my way to victory (gotta love that breeding). D bought Assimilation (just like it sounds – convert 2 other dinos to 1 of your own). M was ahead, and I chose to score a region giving her 3 pts (she was the only one there). Why? Well, I had poor choices, and I wanted to force a gene auction round. Unfortunately, I didn’t bid high enough – D took Teeth (kill another dino) and M took Legs (get from ocean to land faster). M made great use of her sexy Legs, and managed to expand her lead by getting a whole bunch of creepy crawlies to make their way out of the ocean and onto lands that were going to be scored soon. When the first epoch ended, D managed to play it so that M scored some more pts (I think he did, too), but both M and I lost a whole lot of dinos to the fiery hell of the 2 volcano eruptions.

In the second (and last) Epoch, M continued to proliferate faster than the rest of us. Well, I bred a lot, but M managed to control the areas that would actually be scored! We soon had another gene auction, triggered again by M. Again, I lost – D continued to evolve an overly aggressive species of dino by making them warm-blooded (extra action per turn); he would use that to assimilate or kill my peace-loving sex-happy species. M gave her dinos Wings (fly from one area to another), although I don’t know how they could do it with those long sexy legs. D continued to assimilate and eat, but he primarily targeted my dinos instead of M’s, hoping to take control of regions and score more points for himself. Unfortunately, that also resulted in letting M keep her lead. She rushed to the 30 point mark, triggering final scoring before the end of the 2nd epoch. I had the most ictos on the board, giving me 3 more pts. D had the most on land, giving him 2. All for naught – M crushed us!

Comments
Having played those other evolution-type games (esp Ursuppe, also from the same designers), we’d all gone into this one expecting a long game. It was surprisingly fast – probably even faster once everyone knows the rules. It takes a little effort getting used to the role rotation mechanic – when you choose a tile to score, the person who is taking actions has seen 2 of your 3 choices, and can move dinos (ichtos) around and mess up your plans. There’s a good bit of second-guessing going on. This was an interesting game, but did not grab hold of any of us. However, it was so fast that I’d much rather try this again, than repeat a long drawn-out game of Ursuppe. But I do think that it would play better with 4 or 5 players. For now, after one play, it’s a 6/10.

Thread: Session Report

batman — 2003-09-19T13:23:28+00:00

Our next game was Urland. In week's past we had started to set this game up several times only to end up playing something else. We finally got to the game, and it's a good one. Jeff rushed out to an early lead followed by Tim and I. We left Ed in cloud of primordial dust. Ed let us know that there was no way he could win. We weren't convinced. Jeff triggered the first gene auctioning phase. Tim won the auction and chose to become warm-blooded. We weren't convinced. In game terms this gave him an extra action every turn. Jeff took that assimilation gene, which he promptly, and proudly, declared as the Borg gene. I took the egg gene which let me propogate on land. I was planning for the future hoping to get a gene that would work well in tandem with this one. Ed was, again, left out of the fun.

After the genes came out we had a pecking order of Jeff, me, Tim and then Ed. We kept this order through most of the game. Jeff again triggered the second gene phase. This time Ed was determined to get a gene and it was Jeff who was left out. I managed to the get a gene that complemented my earlier one. I got legs which let me move from land to land instead of just from water to land. Now I could propogate on land and then move to the next island. This sounded really good in theory, but in practice I didn't use it that much. Just prior to entering the final stages of the game Jeff and I had a large lead on Tim and Ed. To get this lead took a lot of our resources and it didn't take long for them to catch up. At the end of the game we were all bunched up together just a stone's throw from winning the game.

At this point we finished the second round of scoring chips and were starting on our third. It was my turn to choose the island for us to score. I had one island off to itself with no other nearby competition. I had two dinosaurs on it and the only person who could anything about it was Tim who had the flying gene that allowed him to move one of his dinosaurs to anywhere on the board. As luck had it I was able to choose this island to score. If Tim didn't move in to compete I would score enough points to win the game. Tim was going last and had five actions to use because he had saved his extra two actions chip. I was very low on resources and if I didn't win here I wasn't going to win. This was my last chance. I was very nervous as Tim deliberated his move and finally chose to leave me alone on my little island. I had won. Apparently we forgot to do the final scoring. I don't know what this means but Tim said I would have won after that anyway. I cheered.

Thread: turn sequence and strategy

tarot — 2002-08-25T19:11:03+00:00

I agree with the designers in that the turn sequence works well. For example, look at the turn order in a 3-player game:

(square brackets = choose chip to be scored)

[A]C[B]A[C]B[A]C ...

Instead of PR's turn order where there is a long gap ater one becomes first-player, here we are essentially playing counter-clockwise, alternating between choosing a chip and an active player's turn.

Also, look at the 4-player turn sequence if we do not have a dummy:

[A]BCD[B]CDA[C]DAB[D]ABC[A]BCD ...

Given the nature of the game play in Urland, in which a player who plays after an oponent in a round usually has an advantage because

1. he can choose his play after seeing the opponent's,
2. if he outnumber an opponent in an area, the opponent can't do anything about it,

the above turn sequence gives us a slam-your-right-neighbor game. Look at C and D : D plays after C two times in a row, and when C picks the chip, D will naturally want to play to outnumber C in an area so that his pieces can't be eliminated in the scoring. So everyone will always play to outnumber his upper seat (his right-hand neighbor).

With the dummy:

[A]CD[B]DA[C]AB[D]BC[A]CD ...

D plays after C only once in every cycle. Also, when C picks a chip, D doesn't play, so it's a time for C to hit D back. This system also gives the chip-chooser some reserve, when not everyone will be playing after he chooses the chip. Otherwise, he gets screwed too easily.

The dummy doesn't really mean that anyone is missing turns, it just means that the turn sequence is refined so that scoring rounds occur more frequently (as demonstrated in the 3-player game).

As to strategy, I think it is important to get the genes which are useful for your current position. Because of the random elements in the game, you will get into different kinds of situations. I think the genes are a lot more balanced than many players may think! The point is to get a gene useful for your current board position, and also to adjust your play style to make best use of the gene.

For example, the ears is in fact quite useful (despite often being under-estimated by novice players). It allows you to safely concentrate your ichtos in a few areas instead of spreading them out. A major difference between this game and many other incluence-type games (such as El Grande and Web of Power) is that in Urland, Ichtos can easily get eliminated in scoring (for being the fewest in an area). So spreading thin can easily get you lots of losses. By concentrating, your Ichtos are safe and your opponents' are more easily eliminated. I won my last game decisively after getting ears for my first gene. The scores were pretty close when we were around the 21-point mark, but with my long-term strategy of concentrating and avoiding losses, in the last rounds I dominated most of the areas yet to be scored, and the opponents couldn't stop my dash to the goal line.

Warm Blood seems very powerful at first glance, until we look at the normally available actions: swimming is useful only occasionally, breeding often helps the opponents as much as yourself, and if you use the extra action for landing, it's not especially faster than Legs or Turbo (which can be used twice in a round to land 4 ichtos). So Warm Blood is a versatile, flexible gene, but not especially powerful unless you also have other genes to make better use of the extra action.

Care of Young not only allows you to bleed more, it also allows you to bleed with 2 instead of 3. This means that you can leave only 2 in each sea and still be able to bleed. In the early and mid-game, this means that you can afford to land an extra ichto from each sea. This can be quite comparable to Warm Blood!

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-07-25T06:48:32+00:00

The other group was still playing Cartagena, so Jeff, Shari and I pulled out Urland. This was the first game for Jeff and Shari – I had played it once before.

We then started to evolve our Icthos. I pulled into the lead and held it for most of the game. Shari overtook me close to the end for the big win.

Score:

*Shari* - 31
Rick – 28
Jeff – 13

Ratings:

Shari – 7
Rick – 6
Jeff – 6

We all felt the game was a bit uninteresting with only 3 players. With only one player moving in each turn, it turned into basically a guessing game as to where the scoring was going to take place – there wasn’t as much strategy possible. I liked it better the last time I’d played when we had 4 players – I think it would be best with 5. Jeff liked the mechanism and also thought it would be better with 4 or 5 players.

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-06-20T12:55:46+00:00

Thanks for that report, Dan. This is now Rick reporting on the rest of the gaming that took place Monday night.

While the rest of the troops were busy buying and selling Modern Art, Joe, Toby, Bonnie and I sat down to learn Urland. This game is sort of a sequel to Ursuppe, but a fair amount simpler and shorter. Each player is responsible for a number of ‘Ichtos’, little creatures that inhabit the oceans and are just starting to move onto land.

The board has 3 continents each divided into 4 zones yielding 12 land zones. The continents are surrounded by 5 ocean zones. Each player starts with a number of Ichtos in the ocean zones and on the land zones. Every turn one of the land zones is scored the player with the most ichtos in that zone scores three points, while the rest get two points (the player with the least ichtos in that area get no points and his ichtos are returned to the player).

So how do you get your ichtos onto the islands to score? Well, during your turn you can do two actions. Each of these actions can be one of four things, you can either:

- Move an ichtos from an ocean area to a neighboring land area
- Breed the ichtos in an ocean area
- Move a number of ichtos from one ocean area to another ocean area
- Remove a number of ichtos from the board

Moving and removing are fairly straightforward. Breeding (or Propagation) is where you can get more ichtos on the board. If you have three to five ichtos in an area, you get one more. If you have six or more, you get two more. The thing is though, every player in the ocean area breeds, not just the current player!

The way the turn works is fairly interesting. Each of the land zones has a corresponding chip, numbered one to twelve. The first player takes three chips and chooses one, giving the remaining two to the next player. Those two players will not play in this round. The other two players (we played a four player game) take their two actions a piece after which the chosen chip is revealed – that is the land zone that is scored. After that, the next player adds another chip to the two he has and chooses one, starting the process again.

There are a number of other mechanics at work. Among the land zone chips is a Panic chip. When that chip is chosen, all the ichtos on the most populous land zone must evacuate it back into the ocean.

After all of the land zone chips have been chosen the epoch ends. At this point, two volcanoes break out – each one merges to land zones and kills off all except one ichtos of each player. Also at the end of the epoch, a number of gene cards are auctioned off – these cards give the owning player special abilities such as the ability to fly a number of ichtos from one island to another or giving a player an extra action.

The game lasts usually two or three epochs. When one player reaches 30 points, the game ending scoring takes place which gives bonuses to the player with the most ichtos on the boar and the most ichtos on land. After that, the player with the most points wins.

There are a fair amount of mechanics at work here, but at it’s most basic level, you are trying to have the most ichtos in a land zone when that zone scores. There are many strategic aspects to the game, and you have to keep them in mind as you maximize your chances of scoring.

As this was our first game, we did get a rule or two wrong, but otherwise got through the game pretty well. It was maybe three or four turns before we all got the hang of it. I took an early lead but was unable to hold onto it as the other players started scoring land zones which I hadn’t populated yet. Later in the game, Bonnie got the Stinkgland and Turbo genes which made her quite formidable. Joe’s Muscles gene made the difference in a quite a few scoring rounds towards the end of the game. In the end, Bonnie kicked our asses and won the game.

Score:

*Bonnie* - 34
Joe – 28
Rick – 25
Toby – 21

Ratings:

Bonnie – 7
Joe – 6
Rick – 7
Toby – 7

Bonnie commented that the game was like a “cross between Evo and El Grande”. Joe wasn’t sure about the game, he thought that the gene cards made the game a little too chaotic. For the first half of the game I was a little hazy about whether I liked it or not, but towards the end I started seeing all the possibilities and ended up liking it. I think this is one that I’d like to try again next week to see what it’s like when played a second time.

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2002-03-01T19:05:32+00:00

The second game of Urland in two weeks for the Not Just Stampers! Although the much missed Tony couldn't make it we had a good turn out with five of us this time.

The first few scoring turns had the curious result of keeping everyone on adjacent scores albeit in a different order to the starting order. Richard paid huge amounts more than the rest of us for his genes and ended up with three. Holding on to his extra action tokens until late in the game Timothy eventually made a clean break from the pack and made a dsh for the finishing line just as Richard's genes kicked in and he made a strong recovery. It was Richard who made it to the target of 30 points first. Unfortunately this occured in a scoring round where the chaos from the volcanic eruptions gave Timothy the bonus points he needed to edge past Richard.

Timothy 31, Richard 30, Keith 25 David 24, JamesII 23.

For the record Urland was preceded by a game or several of Fluxx whilst waiting for others to arrive.

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2002-02-22T01:17:08+00:00

This is a delightful game and we had great fun playing it. I wasn't a fan of Ursuppe. It seemed too dominated by the gene cards. If you didn't appreciate what they could do and if you don't keep track of who had what cards then you get stuffed in Ursuppe. And the mechanism of putting little wooden blocks on a rectangular grid just didn't capture the spirit of evolution at all. These lessons have been learnt in Urland. The board has a seas, islands and volcanoes. And the pieces are little dinosaurs (even if it isn't cvlear which way up they should be stood!). More importantly in Urland there is a much better balance between placement of pieces and the effects of the gene cards than in Ursuppe.
The mechanism in which two players have little to do in a turn won't be to everyone's liking. But it makes for a very different game to any other you will have played.
Give it a go and I'll be surprised if you don't add it to your next list pf purchases. I know I did!!

And how did the usual bunch of villains in Wycombe do with this game - unfortunatley I've lost my notes of the session. But I do remember we enjoyed it!!

Thread: General Comment

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

This game is what Evo should of been! I was very excited when I first heard about Evo but upon playing it, I found it to almost play itself. Urland IS what I was excited about when I heard about Evo. Urland plays like a deep strategy game, where you have to plan a few turns ahead. Very fun.

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-12-18T21:13:54+00:00

I witnessed this new Doris & Frank title being played in prototype form
earlier this year during Alan Moon's Gathering of Friends, but I never
had the opportunity to get involved in a game. It did appear quite
interesting and received some favorable comments. Thus, I was excited
when I learned it was being released at Essen and I promptly ordered a
copy.

When my copy finally arrived, I eagerly opened the game and was ready to
devour the rules. Unfortunately, my copy arrived without English rules,
so I had to a wait a bit longer. Finally, due to the generosity of
several gamers, I was able to obtain a copy in time to learn it for our
game night.

The game is clearly influenced by Doris & Frank's earlier work,
Ursuppe. That game was very popular for awhile, but, sadly, doesn't hit
the table too often. I'm not quite sure why as the various combinations
of genes and the tension created by them and the unpredictable ozone
layer makes the game quite enjoyable to play. Plus, in what other game
can you kill, eat and poop out your opponents?

Urland progresses the concept of evolution a tad further than Ursuppe.
Now, players guide a horde of ichtos (nicknamed 'ickies' by Emma
Labranche) as they attempt to struggle onto land and live out of the
water. Survival, however, is tough, and strength is in numbers. The
idea is to get more ickies than your opponents on as many land areas as
possible. Of course, this problem is compounded by the fact that there
never seems to be enough ickies in the ocean to accomplish this, and the
fact that you have only 2 actions per turn. So, you'll have to pick and
choose the regions you wish to attempt to dominate and hope that they
generate scoring at the proper time.

The large and colorful map depicts 12 ancient land masses, several
different ocean areas and a scoring track reminiscent of Ursuppe. The
really neat component, however, are the hordes (do you call a group of
ichtos hordes?) of little ichtos. I'm not really sure what ichtos
looked like, but these pieces look like tiny little dinosaurs. This is
a nice touch as opposed to the over-used wooden blocks.

After a rather complex and involved set-up procedure, the game begins
with a rather unusual mechanic regarding which players are active on
each turn. The start player (known as the 'environment player') selects
at random three area chips, which are numbered 1 - 12 to correspond with
the 12 land regions on the board. After studying these chips, he
secretly selects one of them and passes the others to the player on his
left. This player is known as the 'dummy' and has the easiest task of
all that round: he does absolutely nothing. The remaining players, in
clockwise order, then take their turns, which consist of 2 out of a
possible 4 actions:

1) Landing. Move ONE of your ichtos from an ocean onto an adjacent land
area.

2) Breeding. Baby ickies! The player chooses an ocean area and babies
are born. Each player having 3 - 5 ickies in that area produces 1 new
ichtos, while players having 6 or more ickies in that area produce to
new ickies.

3) Water. A player may move as many ickies as he desires from one ocean
area to an adjacent ocean area.

4) Retreat. The player may remove as many of his own ickies as he
desires from the board and put them back into his stockpile.

The problem is that 2 actions simply isn't enough to get much
accomplished. The turn feel as though it is over before it begins. I
just don't feel that the rules give you enough actions to perform on a
turn.

To be fair, each player does have two 'extra turn' chits. These can be
surrendered to immediately take another turn; i.e., two more actions.
However, once used they are gone, so the proper timing of their use can
be critical.

Once all 'active' players have performed their actions, the environment
player reveals the chip he originally selected. That land area is now
scored. The scoring can have one of three possible outcomes:

1) Competition. If the area contains different numbers of ickies from
different players, the player with the least ickies on that land area
must remove them and return them to his stockpile. The player with the
most ickies receives 3 points, while all other players with ickies
remaining in the area receive 2 points.

2) Coexistence. If there is an equal number of ickies in an area, then
all those players receive 2 points.

3) Monopoly. If only one player has ickies in the area, then he
receives 3 points.

The mechanism for keeping score is identical to that used in Ursuppe;
i.e., occupied spaces are not counted when moving a score marker.
"Leapin' Lizards", so to speak.

Once a round is complete, the players alternate roles, with the Dummy
becoming the new environment player. He will choose one chip to add to
the two that were passed to him by the previous environment player.
This entire process is repeated until a new chip cannot be drawn by the
environment player to bring his hand to three chips. At this point, one
of the two remaining chips is chosen at random and that area is scored
as described above. Then, two volcanos erupt on these two areas.

So what happens when a volcano erupts? Usually, devastation. A volcano
tile is placed on the appropriate area, linking the area with the
adjacent island. Thus, instead of two neighboring islands, there now
exists one large island. Every player who possessed ickies on either of
these islands must remove all but one of their ickies and return them to
their stockpile. The two affected area chips are removed from the game.

There's a bit more spice involved in the game, including Mutation and
Panic. Let's discuss panic first.

In addition to the 12 area chips, there is one Panic chip which is mixed
in with these chips. When the Panic chip is drawn, play comes to a
temporary halt until the situation is resolved. The land area with the
most ickies on it is struck with panic. I guess that these developing
creatures hear rumors of icky-eating monsters, so they flee in panic
back to the relative safety of the water (into an adjacent ocean). If
more than one land area has an equal number of ickies present, the
player currently in last place on the scoring track gets to decide which
area is affected.

Mutation is a bit more involved and the saving grace of the game. Three
spaces on the scoring track are marked with a mutation icon. When a
scoring marker is moved onto or beyond one of these spaces, the little
ickies begin to mutate. Genes, which convey special, super-icky powers
upon the little creatures, are auctioned. In the first mutation round,
four such genes are auctioned, while only three are auctioned in each of
rounds 2 and 3.

The auction is quite clever as the 'money' being bid is derived from the
ickies remaining in each player's stockpile. Players take as many
ickies as they desire to bid from this stockpile and reveal them
simultaneously. The player bidding the most ickies gets the gene card
of his choice, but must remove a number of ickies from the board equal
to the amount he bid. Then, in order of the amount bid, the other
players MAY take one of the remaining gene cards and remove the
appropriate number of ickies from the board. Of course, at least one
player will be left without the opportunity to secure a gene card in the
first mutation round, while more will be left wanting in the final two
rounds.

These gene cards serve a similar function as the gene cards in Ursuppe.
Indeed, it is these cards which make the game feel eerily similar to
Ursuppe. Once acquired, the power granted by these cards affect all of
that players ichtos for the remainder of the game. Here is a brief
sampling of some of the powers:

Teeth: On land or in water, the player may expend one action point and
remove an enemy ichto from that area. This is the aggressive gene.

Stink Glands (no doubt where 'impacted anal glands' in Dachshunds
evolved from): On land, a player may expend one action point and drive
the ichtos of one player back into the ocean. Pew!

Muscles: When scoring on land, add an extra one-half Ichto to your
strength. This is a VERY powerful card and really aids in the scoring
department.

Warm Blood: The player receives one extra action per turn. This is
also a VERY powerful gene.

Legs: For one action, the player can move 2 ichtos from water onto
land, or move one ichto from one land area to an adjacent land area.

You get the picture. In all, there are only 11 possible genes. This is
a bit disappointing to me as one of the neatest elements of Ursuppe was
the wide range of possible gene combinations. I wish there were more
genes as this would undoubtedly add more spice and novelty to the game.
However, I can certainly envision an avalanche of new genes being
developed by not only the designers, but gamers everywhere.

The game ends when one player reaches or surpasses 30 points on the
scoring track. At that point, two bonus scores are rewarded. The
player who possesses the most ichtos on the board (land and water)
receives 3 points, while the player who possesses the most ichtos on
land receives 2 points. The same player cannot receive both bonuses.
After these are rewarded, the player furthest along on the scoring track
has successfully evolved to the top of the food chain and is victorious.

The game works and nothing appears to be broken or flawed. However, it
just wasn't terribly exciting. Granted, I've only played once and
observed one other game in action this past weekend, but so far the
general consensus amongst all nine players who have played here locally
has been "ehh". Although I'm not terribly fond of the mechanism which
forces two players to sit out an entire round, I'm less fond of the
feeling of constraint by 2 action per turn limit. I realize that many
other games severely limit ones actions, but the actual actions allowed
in Urland don't seem to allow a player to accomplish much. Moving one
ichto from an ocean to a land area isn't all that dramatic. I dunno ...
I just get the feeling that my hands are tied a bit too much.
Hopefully, further playings will give me a better insight as to how to
properly manage my actions and give me a better appreciation of the
mechanics involved. I hope so.

I led throughout much of the game by following some simple logic. I
tried to guess which area the environment player elected to score by
assessing the areas wherein he would score points. With three chips in
his hand, there was decent chance he would be in possession of a chip
which would score an area he desired to be scored. Then, I'd use my
actions to try to get into a scoring position in that area. Another
strategy I followed was to try to get my ichtos into ocean areas wherein
they could reach the most adjacent land areas which had not yet been
scored. Nothing terribly brilliant about these strategies, but they
seemed to work just fine. Maybe I was a bit disappointed in this, too,
as there didn't appear to be much depth to the game's strategies.
Again, hopefully future playings will prove me wrong.

After Joey had secured the powerful Warm Blood ('extra action' gene), I
immediately saw the benefit of the Muscles gene and bid high to secure
it. It paid off handsomely, breaking numerous ties in my favor.

Unfortunately, I completely overlooked using my two 'extra turn' chips.
My opponents used their chips early, to great advantage. This allowed
Jim to surpass me late in the game. On my final turn, I finally
remembered to use one of my chips, but the second one was completely
wasted.

Joey managed to have the most ichtos on the board when the game
concluded, while Jim possessed the most on land. This was enough to
catapult Joey past me, but not enough to catch Jim.

Finals: Jim 31, Joey 29, Greg 27, Keith 23

Ratings: Greg 5.5, Keith 5.5, Joey 5, Jim 4.5

Thread: Preview

gschloesser — 2001-12-12T21:56:35+00:00

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-11-10T04:08:15+00:00

Played Urland for the first time with our Thursday group. There were 5 and with learning the rules from the rule book it took around 2 hours to learn and play.

The strangest thing about the game is the fact that only 3 players are active each round, with a dummy and the Environmental Player who selects the province to be scored. Of course with fewer, especially 3, you only have one active player each round. That must be even stranger.

The things I liked about the game are the way it's scored, with the Environmental player selecting one of the three region scoring chips and passing the other two. This was nice because for your first play or two after being Environmental Player you have some extra knowledge of what areas might score next and can act on that knowledge.

In fact the mechanics of the whole game seem very sound to me. I liked the way that you added new pieces through breeding, the way you bid for the gene cards was also very clever. The Attila-like scoring where the least represented colors are removed was also nice.

The gene cards seemed a bit uneven in how powerful they are, but since you can bid on them that makes them more-or-less equally available to all players. The extra move card seemed to be extremely powerful, although it didn't manage to help the player who got it as much as first thought. On the other hand, the tie-breaker card ("Muscles"), which gives you and extra 1/2, more or less won the game for Stven (along with his usual skillful play, of course). I got the stinky glands card and was able to use that to some effect, mainly in kicking Stven out of islands.

I got off to a great start and basically led the game all the way until the very last turn where Stven overtook my 30 with 31. Unfortunately I failed to breed at the right point and was woefully short of pawns at the end of the game. It was only by the luck of kicking Stven off #8 and taking over the lead when, sure enough, 8 scored that I even made it to 30.

I liked the game quite a bit. Don't know if this is true for you, but when I'm the one that bought the game I'm more inclined to get behind it simply in the desire to have spent my money on a good game. Still, I'm giving it a hopeful 7. If it actually takes closer to the 60 minutes of the 60-90 the box says than the 2 hours it took us to play it it will be a solid 8. The rest of the group expressed a willingness to play again but agreed that it needs to run shorter to be worth repeated playings.

Of course those might be metric minutes, being from Europe and all, so that might make up for the time difference ;-)

Thread: Preview

BoardGameGeek — 2001-10-30T19:01:17+00:00

This new Doris & Frank release will remind a lot of gamers of Ursuppe. Not only is the name similar, the box is the exact same size and design and during the game players can purchase gene modifications which affect gameplay. This is were the similarities end though: Urland is a completely different game.

While Ursuppe had very original gameplay, Urland is basically just another game of influence like El Grande, San Marco and Kardinal & König. It just adds a few new twists to the genre.

Players compete to have the majority of ichtos, little lizard-like creatures, on the different land masses. Players start with most of their ichtos in the five water areas, although some of them are placed randomly on land. The game consists of 2 or 3 epochs. In each epoch, all but two of the land-areas will be scored. Each epoch consists of a number of player turns in which one area scores.

One player draws three chits representing land areas and selects one of these to be scored this turn. He passes the remaining two chits to the next player, who can do nothing but look at them. The other players can perform two actions that will affect the ichtos on the board. The actions players can choose from are the following:
1. move ichtos from one water area to another
2. move ichtos from a water area to an adjacent land area
3. select a water area in which all player's ichtos reproduce. A player gets one new ichto if he has at least two in the area. He gains two if he has five or more.
After the players have performed their actions, the chosen land area is scored: the player with the least ichtos in the are has to remove them from the board. The players in first and second place gain points.
After this, the roles are rotated: the player that received the two remaining chips draws a new one and selects one of them to be scored in the next round. One of the chips does not contain the number of a land area, instead it contains a large red P. This is the Panic chip. If this one is drawn then all ichtos in the land area with the highest population dive back into the water.
If no third chip can be drawn then volcanoes will erupt in the remaing areas: all but one ichto of each player will be removed from that area. Also, the volcano will connect two land areas, making them a single area.

At three points in the game, as soon as the first player reaches a certain point on the scoring track, genes will be auctioned. These genes affect the actions available to players. One gene increases the number of actions a player can take in a turn, another allows ichtos to fly from one land area to another, yet another allows a player to combine two enemy ichtos into one of his own. To purchase these genes, all players perform a blind bid. The highest offer must select a gene and remove a number of ichtos from the map equal to the amount bid, plus the amount of genes already owned. The other players may do the same, but can decline to buy a gene.

The game ends when the first player reaches 30 points, a final scoring round is performed in which the players with the most ichtos total and the most ichtos on land gain bonus points. The player with the highest score wins.

Graphically, the game look brilliant, the map is great and has some nice illustrations of pre-historic animals. The wooden ichtos give the game a very colourful and cheerful look. The chits and volcanoes are nice thick cardboard and are colour coded, which makes it easy to see which areas will still have to be scored this epoch. The gene cards have nice colourful illustrations and come in two sets: an english set and a german set. Also included are rules reference cards in English and German.

How does the game play? When the rules are first read, it seems strange that two players have no influence in a given game-turn, and I feared big downtime issues. Luckily this fear was unnecessary. Players have only two actions each turn, and each action takes thirty seconds to perform. Total playing time is about an hour. It plays like a game of influence, although the theme is not as generic as most of the ones I know. Most of the strategy in this game is in determining which land area was chosen for scoring this round. For the first two active players, this is almost completely random, but when the player who chose first gets his first actions, he knows two of the three chits that could be chosen.
Urland does not seem to be the hit that Ursuppe was, but it is a solid game with lovely visuals. Recommended if you like lighter games of influence.