Game: London Game, The

Image

JoffW — 2008-10-01T12:17:46+00:00

20th anniversary edition with colour stickers on destination cards

Image

JoffW — 2008-10-01T12:14:49+00:00

We placed stickers on our destination cards to make it easy for newbies to find their destinations easily

Image

Meat — 2007-10-09T23:44:04+00:00

Travel Edition - Front

Image

Tim Synge — 2007-06-02T21:11:58+00:00

Cards from the 30 card edition - scan 5 of 5

Image

Tim Synge — 2007-06-02T21:09:58+00:00

Cards from the 30 card edition - scan 4 of 5

Image

Tim Synge — 2007-06-02T21:08:33+00:00

Cards from the 30 card edition - scan 3 of 5

Image

Tim Synge — 2007-06-02T21:02:39+00:00

Cards from the 30 card edition - scan 2 of 5

Image

Tim Synge — 2007-06-02T20:59:38+00:00

Cards from the 30 card edition - scan 1 of 5

Image

DaveD — 2007-04-21T12:03:01+00:00

20th Anniversary Cards & Pawns

Image

DaveD — 2007-04-21T12:00:35+00:00

20th Anniversary Board

Thread: 4 player game

blueboo — 2006-10-06T09:32:43+00:00

My family play a game together at least once a week. This week it was The London Game as suggested by our 9 year old son. A game which has been long forgotten about at the back of our cupboard.

The four tourists (Brian, Adele, Liam and Charlie) are allocated the six tourist attractions that needed to be visited and set off in two pairs. Me and Adele start at Victoria, Liam & Charlie from Waterloo. We then closed the stations around the surrounding areas which gets the game off to a very slow start. After waiting for some sixes to be rolled, which allow you to pass through the stations; we all make steady progress and visit 1 or 2 attractions shortly after.

But then play slowed down considerably as hazard cards (penalty for changing lines) sent either one or all of us to the edges of London. This in addition with eight closed stations on the board cause us lots of frustration and made any planning almost impossible. Eventually, with a little luck, I managed to visit all six tourist attractions and needed to get to Victoria station to win. This prompted the other players to close not only Victoria station but the surrounding stations causing me to just sit and wait until I roll a six.

At this point, we all hoped that the game would finish shortly. Liam then succeeded in visiting his six attractions and set off towards Waterloo in an attempt to win the game. I did manage to roll a six and arrived at Victoria to win, but this close finish excitement only masked what was a long and frustrating game for us all.

Thread: Re: It also comes in a Magnetic Pocket Edition too

railroader — 2006-08-20T14:19:02+00:00

For the same reasons I got my magnetic edition at Hamleys in 2000, but it's a pain to play on with 4 people: too small.

Thread: Re: Need help confirming components in The London Game

Gomez — 2005-06-03T07:40:54+00:00

Maybe you should have asked me - Mark's copy is here

It contains 25 chance cards (the buff coloured cards I assume)

You are missing "Tower of London". I'll sell you Mark's copy of it

R.

Thread: Re: Need help confirming components in The London Game

Julian.Simpson — 2005-06-02T17:23:27+00:00

Martin,

Not sure I can give you a full answer but can perhaps get you part of the way there.

I have the 20th Anniversary Edition which is clearly different from the version that you have. In my version there are 30 Souvenir cards and 30 Hazard (Chance) cards.

Of the 30 Souvenir cards 25 are equivalent to ones in your list (though they are not necessarily called the same).

The four on your list that do not appear in my set are:

Billingsgate Market
Discovery
Royal Opera House
The Times

The five in my set that do not appear in yours are:

Bank of England (Bank)
Broadcasting House (Aldwych)
London Transport Museum (Covent Garden)
Monument (Monument)
Tower of London (Tower Hill)

If you don't get a better answer from elsewhere you may be able to work out what you're missing from the tube stations. I suspect that the London Transport Museum is equivalent to the Royal Opera House - both being served by Covent Garden tube station. I'll leave the rest to you, but my guess is that it's the Tower of London that you're missing.

Hope this helps.

Thread: Need help confirming components in The London Game

Darthlord — 2005-06-02T14:38:38+00:00

If someone who has a complete game could help, I'd like to know a couple of things:

1. How many Chance cards should there be?

2. There should be 30 souvenir cards, but my newly acquired set has only 29, which are listed below (alphabetically). Please confirm what I'm missing.

Arsenal FC (always my favourite card)
Billingsgate Market
The Boat Race
British Museum
Buckingham Palace
Canonbury Square
Discovery
Harley Street
Harrods
Hatton Garden
Houses of Parliament
Imperial War Museum
The Law Courts
Lords
Piccadilly Circus
Portobello Market
Post Office Tower
The Round Pond
The Royal Hospital
Royal Opera House
St. Paul's Cathedral
Sherlock Holmes
Soho
Speakers' Corner
Trafalgar Square
The Tate Gallery
The Times
V&A Museum
The Zoo

Thanks for your help.

Thread: User Review

mschlat — 2005-02-08T17:47:27+00:00

If you like transit maps and finding optimum routes, The London Game is a good choice for some light gaming. You play on a map of the London Underground. Each player is given six souvenir cards at the beginning of the game with each card stating a destination the player must visit. Souvenir cards are not made public and are not duplicated, so each player has a unique itinerary. The goal of the game is to visit your six destinations and return to your starting point before anyone else. Each time you visit one of your destinations, you show the souvenir card face up so everyone knows how much progress each player has made.

Movement on the Underground is simple: you roll a six sided die and then move up to that number of stops on the line you are currently on. However, your progress is complicated by two aspects of the game.

First, every time you change lines, you must draw a hazard card and follow its instructions. (Apparently, changing lines is fraught with danger in London!) Since your intended destinations are all over the map, you have to change lines often. Unfortunately, a common consequence of a hazard card is to send you to another stop. (Example: “Go to 10 Downing Street and present a petition against cruelty to spiders to the Prime Minister. Station Westminster.”) While this may prove to be a help, especially in the early stages of the game when you have a choice of destinations, it can be a real pain at the end of the game and frustrate those who do not like luck to be a large influence. Other Hazard cards allow you to move other players, cause you to miss a turn, or tell you to open and close a station.

The closing of stations is the other aspect of the game that complicate movement. At the beginning of the game, each player closes two stations (marked with small blue dots). You cannot travel through a closed station unless you are within six stops of the station on your line and roll a six on your turn. In that case, you open the closed station and immediately close another of your choice. Some Hazard cards will allow you to do the same. Closing stations is the primary way players interact with each other – a common tactic is to close a station when one player is near the end of it, thus stranding her until she rolls a six. And of course, a station you closed at one point in the game can thwart your movements later!

When playing, you will probably need some house rules. My version (from 1988) focused more text in the rulebook on tourism and history than on gameplay, so some questions remained unanswered. (For example, some stations have several open circles. Does playing a closed station marker on one circle close the entire station or just one of the lines passing through? You make the call!) But the joy of the game is not deep strategy, but the fun of finding your way around a complicated system when the other players may place obstacles at any time.

Thread: Session Report

Gregarius — 2004-06-17T03:09:24+00:00

Next up was a light-hearted game from Peter that he and his siblings used to play back in jolly old England. It's called The London Game, and the board is just a big map of the London Underground system. Each player has a hand of places they must visit by rolling a die and traveling the Tube. By changing lines, you can cause random events, which more often than not hurt people. This is where the real fun is. Of course you can close stations to block (or even trap) other players, but it doesn't bring the same joy as moving every player down to the Oval station for a football match. Let's just say there was not a lot of love floating around during this game. Despite all our efforts, Paul won this one by drawing a card that allowed him to abandon the rail system altogether and hop in a taxi for the win. Players: Paul (W), Steve, Greg, Peter.

Thread: It also comes in a Magnetic Pocket Edition too

Karlsen — 2003-09-27T21:11:13+00:00

In fact until looking here I didn't know there was a proper board version.

I have only seen the magnetic pocket edition, which was a lot easier to bring back to Australia than the full size one would have been.

The pocket edition was 4.95 pounds back in 1998 from Harrods.