Game: Im Reich der Jadegöttin

Thread: Re: Jade Goddess compared to Entdecker

Great Dane — 2008-10-20T16:00:39+00:00

sbarrera wrote:
Great Dane wrote:
sbarrera wrote:
All in all, if you like Entdecker you will like Jade Goddess.
Im Reich der Jadegöttin is very much a simplied version for family gamers.
Im Reich der Wüstensöhne is more for competitive gamers.

That's interesting. The description for the latter game says "ages 8 and up."

Is it published already?
It was published 6 months ago.

Both games are family games with the same difficulty level.
However, in the first one a player can benefit from another player joining "his" ruin as it will be closed faster, and he will most likely be better rewarded. Although everybody will get the "money" (gold)

The desert game is more nasty as "money" (water) is scarce and a second player joing the oasis will make one of them pay for a treasure or leave empty-handed.

Thread: Re: Jade Goddess compared to Entdecker

sbarrera — 2008-10-20T15:40:14+00:00

gheintze wrote:
The real question is, "Where can you get these games in the US?"

Geoff

Somehow it ended up on the prize table at TBGT. I guess you just have to get lucky.

Thread: Re: Jade Goddess compared to Entdecker

sbarrera — 2008-10-20T15:38:26+00:00

Great Dane wrote:
sbarrera wrote:
All in all, if you like Entdecker you will like Jade Goddess.
Im Reich der Jadegöttin is very much a simplied version for family gamers.
Im Reich der Wüstensöhne is more for competitive gamers.

That's interesting. The description for the latter game says "ages 8 and up."

Is it published already?

Thread: Re: Jade Goddess compared to Entdecker

gheintze — 2008-10-20T12:52:46+00:00

The real question is, "Where can you get these games in the US?"

Geoff

Thread: Re: Jade Goddess compared to Entdecker

Great Dane — 2008-10-20T09:50:47+00:00

sbarrera wrote:
All in all, if you like Entdecker you will like Jade Goddess.
Im Reich der Jadegöttin is very much a simplied version for family gamers.
Im Reich der Wüstensöhne is more for competitive gamers.

Thread: Jade Goddess compared to Entdecker

sbarrera — 2008-10-20T02:14:16+00:00

Im Reich der Jadegöttin is based on Entdecker, and comes from the same designer, Klaus Teuber. The name means "In the Realm of the Jade Goddess."

It plays in a similar fashion to its inspiration - everyone takes turns exploring, placing a marker on the tile they explore if they wish, and trying to complete groups for scoring based on who has the most markers placed. Of course, there must be some differences, or why would this be a new game? Let's look at these differences here.

A new theme and board style

One obvious difference is that the layout as it forms depicts an archaeological expedition in a jungle, instead of an archipelago at sea. Instead of water you have the jungle, and instead of parts of islands you have parts of "districts of the forgotten city." As you lay out the tiles, these districts are completed in the same way the islands are in Entdecker. An example of what this might look like can be seen in this image of unpunched tiles:

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If you know Entdecker, you recall that the board is a rectangular grid on which to place the tiles. In Jade Goddess, you start with a cross-shaped central axis, placing the tiles within the four quadrants defined by the cross. Like so:

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Different rules for where you start exploring

Entdecker has a common ship piece to place on the tile where a player's exploration is starting. Anyone can start anywhere, but has to pay gold if they choose to start on a tile which has another player's marker.

In Jade Goddess, each player has their own Jeep piece, which trundles about the jungle turn by turn. On your turn, you can move your Jeep any distance along the white dotted lines, as long as you end in a tile that doesn't contain another player's Jeep. Note: you can end up where someone else has a marker for scoring, no problem.

Now look carefully at the first image above. Where two tile sides depicting the forgotten city touch, there will be a brown dotted line connecting the centers of the tiles. You are allowed to move your Jeep along a brown line, but then your movement ends. This would be like hauling the Entdecker ship onto land across one of the islands!

The Jeep movement rules make it possible to explore from within a district that is forming, and also make it possible for there to be a greater variety of tile patterns than in the original Entdecker. More on this later. The rules also mean it is possible for a Jeep to wander too deeply into rough terrain, costing a player time later. It is good to be able to zip around along the white dotted lines on each turn.

Different rules for how you explore

Once you move your Jeep to where you want to start exploring, you must pick the specific direction in which you will explore. Then you get to draw one tile, and if it fits, you must place it. If it's an all jungle tile, you advance your jeep and draw again. But once you place a tile with part of the forgotten city on it, you are done.

That seems very limiting compared to Entdecker, but there is a new wrinkle that signifcantly changes the game. If the tile you draw doesn't fit, you place it face up in front of you. When exploring, you actually do not have to draw a face down tile from the supply. You can use one of your face up tiles instead. In fact, if you have three face up tiles at the start of your turn, you must use one of those to explore if possible.

This new rule means a bit more predictability in finishing the scoring districts. Instead of paying a bunch of gold to draw as many tiles as possible in the hope of drawing the tile you need, you can try to concentrate on districts you will be able to finish with the tiles you have been collecting. You also have to pay attention to what tiles the other players have, noting how they might be able to complete a district after your turn.

Actually, Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons has rules for exploring with face up tiles, but apparently they are in a shared pool and cost gold to place.

Slightly different rules for placing markers

Gold is more limited in this game, and less is needed to place the markers for scoring, which are your archaeologists. Everyone has three archaeologists which are worth 1 and are free to place, one which is worth 2 and costs a gold to place, and one which is worth 3 and costs two gold to place.

In Entdecker, if you run out of pieces to place, you are allowed to move one of your lowest valued pieces off of another tile. The higher valued pieces are stuck until the island scores. In Jade Goddess, you can, instead of placing a marker, take one off the board. So you can recover markers at the cost of a turn.

New scoring rules

In Entdecker, islands were worth points based on their size, and there were some extras involving special tiles and resource chips. In Jade Goddess, when a district is complete and scoring happens two things are collected - artifact tiles from a face down supply, and gold.

The number of artifacts drawn is the number of blue heads in the district (see that first image again), with the player having the most value in archaeologists in the district getting that many draws, the player with second most half as many, and so on. Ties are friendly.

The amount of gold collected is the number of gold coins in the district, and everyone gets that much, no matter how many pieces they have. This is good, because this is the only way to get gold.

Other things depicted on the tiles are decorative. Only the blue heads and gold coins mean anything. As in Entdecker, after scoring all pieces are recovered. That part of the board is over and done with.

New tile patterns and rules for finishing districts

Because players can drive their Jeeps through a district as it is forming, there are tile patterns that were not possible in Entdecker. They resemble the odder city tiles from Carcassonne. For example, tiles showing the forgotten city on all sides, but split down the diagonal by jungle.

Also, there is a virtual board edge; tiles are never placed outside of the quadrants defined by the central cross. A district is considered complete and scores even when it has forgotten city sides along the virtual edge.

A final important difference is that there is no supply of tiles for placing in a an empty spot that is completely surrounded, something which made sense in Entdecker because only one tile type would fit once a spot had tiles all around it. In Jade Goddess, a surrounded empty space might never be filled during the game.

Different uses for gold

As in Entdecker, gold is used to place markers for scoring, but not nearly as much is needed. This has already been explained. Gold can also be used for exchanging artifact tiles with the pool, which might be useful since there are bonus points for collecting sets of artifacts.

One other thing that is allowed is to pay one gold for a bonus turn! Helpful for finishing up a district before another greedy player gets the chance. Only one bonus turn is allowed.

More on scoring

Scoring is actually simplified in this game. The artifact tiles collected are worth one point each at the end of the game. Each one represents one fourth of a complete artifact, and if you collect all four parts of an artifact, you get a bonus of three or five points, depending on the quality of the parts.

Collected artifact tiles are kept on a rack so that they are hidden from the other players. Here's what this might look like:

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So what's the verdict?

I think I've covered the game fairly comprehensively. If I missed anything, someone else who has played can comment. Personally, I like how the new exploring rules change the game, creating some possibility for planning. I also like the scoring, being personally fond of hidden set collecting.

I don't think the changes make this game vastly superior to Entdecker. I have never played New Horizons, the Entdecker upgrade, so I can't compare Jade Goddess well to it. It would be interesting to hear from others if any of the changes made for New Horizons might have inspired this latest version.

All in all, if you like Entdecker you will like Jade Goddess. I would play either one with no particular preference. It's good to see that Teuber has been able to extend his orginal design and that Entdecker has joined the likes of Caracssonne and Settlers in having new variants published. We should all look forward to the forthcoming games which will complete the "Entecker Realms" trilogy.

Thread: Re: Availability in USA

Dathkadan — 2008-07-30T06:28:47+00:00

I just got my copies of the first two games in this series, ordered from Spiele-Offensive back in March. I had given up on them ever getting here. Apparently there is some kind of weird problem with these games concerning U.S. customs restrictions. I couldn't get any more info than that, however--and my games did finally arrive!

Thread: Re: Availability in USA

cfarrell — 2008-03-19T17:46:07+00:00

www.spiele-offensive.de stocks this game, and has the next one in the series in later this month. They ship to the US (mine apparently just went out, I'll let you know when it arrives ). Their site is all-German, however.

Thread: Re: Availability in USA

Jeff Paull — 2008-03-02T21:37:52+00:00

it's possible to find on e-bay.. just search 'world-wide'

--JP

Thread: Re: Availability in USA

gamemark — 2008-02-26T05:40:03+00:00

Henry Rhombus wrote:
My understanding is that the three titles in the new Entdecker series will be sold only in a limited number of department stores and toy stores in Germany and won't be available through online retailers (or published in other languages for that matter). I saw a copy of this at a toy store in Munich in October 2007, for example, but saw no copies at any dealer at Spiel that same year.

Who knows? Maybe another edition for the general market will appear down the road...

Eric
Editor, http://www.BoardgameNews.com

Eric, I can't find copies of Jade Goddess from online retailers, but I can find Desert Sons listed. (Milan spiele, for example).

Thread: Re: Availability in USA

arielle — 2008-02-26T04:24:45+00:00

That's rough, I hope you are wrong. Thanks for the info though.

Thread: Re: Availability in USA

Henry Rhombus — 2008-02-26T04:20:24+00:00

My understanding is that the three titles in the new Entdecker series will be sold only in a limited number of department stores and toy stores in Germany and won't be available through online retailers (or published in other languages for that matter). I saw a copy of this at a toy store in Munich in October 2007, for example, but saw no copies at any dealer at Spiel that same year.

Who knows? Maybe another edition for the general market will appear down the road...

Eric
Editor, http://www.BoardgameNews.com

Thread: Re: Availability in USA

gamemark — 2008-02-25T22:49:22+00:00

arielle wrote:
Anyone have any idea when/where I can get this game?

Ditto!

Thread: Availability in USA

arielle — 2008-02-10T17:24:49+00:00

Anyone have any idea when/where I can get this game?

Image

garyjames — 2007-10-28T08:10:18+00:00

Thread: Re: English Rules?

tgbruiser — 2007-09-29T17:01:06+00:00

I just submitted an unofficial translation of the rules, so they should be available within a few days. There are no illustrations in the Word file, so one will need to refer to the original German rules for the references made. The text is in the exact same location as the German text, so it should be fairly easy to refer back and forth.

I did make an English replica of the rules, complete with illustrations, etc., for my own use but I do not think Kosmos would like it being posted.

Thanks for the help, folks!

Thread: Re: English Rules?

tgbruiser — 2007-09-28T18:07:49+00:00

Thanks, folks! This is a great start. I'm going to try to cobble together an English version of the instructions and the player aid.

Thread: Re: English Rules?

Fledermaushaus — 2007-09-28T08:11:18+00:00

To get you started, I can guide you through Pro. Easy's German guide which you can follow at http://www.profeasy.de/Jadegoettin/
To move through the guide, first click on 'los geht's' ('let's go!')and from then click on each of the red 'weiter' ('further'). The numbers below refer to the screen page numbers.
1. The tiles are placed face-up in front of you.
6. Move jeep any distance (or stay in place) along white lines. Red car moves to an 'interesting' spot as on each side there is a part of the 'forgotten city'.
7. After moving jeep on to new tile, you can place one figure on it.
9. Click on the new tile to rotate it until it will fit.
10. A single archaeologist is free to place. Placing the double figure costs 1 gold, and the triple figure costs 2 gold to place.
11. Siegfried’s tile won’t fit so he must place it in front of him. His turn ends or he can pay 1 gold to take a second turn. You cannot buy a third turn.
14. If you have 3 tiles in front of you, you must use one of them and cannot draw from the piles. The green cross on a forest tile (which you have just placed and moved on to) allows you to move your jeep again (or stay in place) and explore again. Siegfried chooses to keep the jeep where it is and explore again from there.
16. He then pays for a bonus turn and places another figure to get the majority in the area.
17. Turn summary: Move jeep or not. Can explore, with a tile from your own supply or from piles. If it fits, move jeep on to it, and can choose to place one figure (single, double or triple). One gold for a bonus turn.
18. Trying to complete area. Can travel any distance along white lines but must stop after one brown segment. Cannot place on an already placed tile so Marlene must pay for a second turn.
19. Now excavate the completed area.
20. There are 5 artefact symbols in the area. Your artefact tiles are kept secret on your stand.
21. The player with the most archaeologists (Marlene) gets as many artefact tiles as symbols in the area (5). Siegfried has second most and gets half (rounded up). 3rd place gets half of 2nd, rounded up (which will be 2 here). Marlene tells Vicky she did well since she only paid 1 gold so far.
22. Gold is then distributed. There are2 coins in the area. Everyone with at least 1 archaeologist in the area gets gold equal to pieces shown in area (2). The archaeologists in the area are then returned.
24. You can move over other jeeps but the only space where 2 can be stopped together is the start/exchange space. Marlene pays 1 gold for an extra turn. By ending a turn on the start/exchange space, you can swap one of your artefact tiles for a face-up one.
26. Artefact tiles have gold or black letters. Each tile is worth 1 point, a completed statue made of all black letters or mixed gets 3 bonus points, one made up of all gold gets 5 bonus points. The winner is the one with most points at the end.
27. Instead of swapping, you can pay 1 gold, take 2 face-down artefact tiles and then put 2 back face-down into the supply.
Click on the new tile to show its possible alignments. Tiles cannot go beyond the frame.
28. Area is complete as edge of playing area counts as a border for city sections.
29. If there is only 1 artefact symbol in an area only the player with most archaeologists gets an artefact tile.

Thread: Re: English Rules?

garrylloyd — 2007-09-28T07:50:36+00:00

There is a tutorial for the game in German at (I think) www.profeasy.de (the address is probably also shown on the box)

If you run the page through babelfish, it's fairly easy to follow, particularly if you've previously played Entdecker.

Garry
http://www.trickylight.co.uk
http://www.spiel.co.uk

Thread: Re: English Rules?

tgbruiser — 2007-09-28T04:40:02+00:00

Sorry. She got it while she was in Germany. The store was in Goppingen.

Thread: Re: English Rules?

NateStraight — 2007-09-28T03:52:56+00:00

Where did she get the game? I didn't think it had hit the States yet.

Thread: English Rules?

tgbruiser — 2007-09-28T03:47:59+00:00

My lovely wife just brought back a copy of this game. No instructions in English though.

Does anybody have an English translation available?

Thanks!

Thread: Re: A description of the game

Great Dane — 2007-08-22T09:30:50+00:00

It was released 2 weeks ago.

I bought mine directly from www.catanshop.de
at a price of 42 Euro (320 Dkr) including EU-shipping.

Thread: Re: A description of the game

jens_hoppe — 2007-08-22T08:06:49+00:00

That's exciting news, Mik. When's the game coming out?

Thread: Re: The Entdecker trilogy

Great Dane — 2007-08-21T17:00:27+00:00

Hi Nate,
I was also very excited - which is why I instantly bought the game when I heard about it. The rules contained pics of the two other games (boxcovers) so i have uploaded them in a separate news post.

Thread: Demons + Sons of the Desert boxcovers

Great Dane — 2007-08-21T16:53:23+00:00

[INLINEIMG]http://brettboard.dk/pics/Entdeckertrilogy.jpg[/INLINEIMG]

Thread: Re: The Entdecker trilogy

NateStraight — 2007-08-21T16:38:22+00:00

Even from such limited information this set of games sounds incredibly awesome. Klaus Teuber is one of my favorite designers.

Thread: The Entdecker trilogy

Great Dane — 2007-08-21T16:01:53+00:00

Obviously will it be interesting to know more about the two next games in the trilogy
(which are sceduled for 2008), so I have asked Fritz Gruber from Kosmos
- and here is his answer:

Hi Mik,
without revealing too much I dare say that the second part of the Entdecker trilogy
will exceed the first in complexity.

Also there will be elements that go further beyond the hitherto known Entdecker feeling.

The third part finally will go even further, as Klaus has a scenario in mind that is
- to put it mildly - not exactly the always more or less historizing kind of adventure game.

Thread: Re: A description of the game

NateStraight — 2007-08-21T15:58:17+00:00

Sounds awesome. This is a "must have" for me, for sure. Sounds like it has a really neat fix to the clunky spinning for gold / buying tiles mechanic of the original Entdecker (I've never played the "new" Entdecker).

Thread: A description of the game

Great Dane — 2007-08-21T15:55:19+00:00

Entdecker: Im Reich der Jadegöttin is the first of 3 games using Teuber's classic Entdecker system. The other two will be published in 2008. They all share a common 'Entdecker' logo:

Entdecker: In the Land of the Jade Goddess
Entdecker: In the Land of the Demons
Entdecker: In the Land of the Desert Sons

The first game (this one) is a simpler version of the original Goldsieber game. You have Jungle instead of water, Lost Cities instead of Land, and a Jeep instead of a ship. But there are some changes to how the game plays, so it isn't just a remake:

Instead of a frame does the 11x11 grid begin with a cross of jungle tiles in the center, leaving a 5x5 square to be discovered in each corner. All Jeeps begin in the center tile, which is featuring a "T" (for Trade). Whenever a player is here may he trade one of his artifact pieces with the pool, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Each player begins with a Jeep, 8 Archeologists*, 5 Gold and a random, open Discovery tile.
(*: these are actually 3 single men, 1 double man, and 1 tripple man - much like the original)

All Discovery tiles has a dot (space) in the center with a trail of dotted lines going in the four main kompas directions. White lines in Jungle and brown lines in the Lost City areas. A jeep may move as long as it wants along the white lines, but must stop when using a brown line.

As usual may you draw a tile and hope that it fits in one of the empty slots around your current position. If not must you add it to your display, which can hold 3 tiles. Instead of drawing a random tile may a player use one of his own tile, and if he already has 3 tiles must he place one of these.

Placing a tile Jungle tile, the Jeep will move onto it and the player may place another tile. Placing a

If the tile fits will he move the Jeep onto the tile. If it is a Jungle tile must he draw another tile. If the tile contains parts of the Lost City (the non-green area) may he place one Archeology-marker in one the City areas. Each city tile may hold a marker, even when other Archeologists are already present in the same city - so no "Carcassonne-style" merging procedure is necessary here.

A Lost City is scored when it is closed (an imaginary border closes those cities that would otherwise expand beyond the 'board').

Some tiles feature a Stone Head. The player(s) with the most Archeologists in the city may draw as many Artefact tokens as Stone Heads in the city. Any player(s) with the second most pieces will receive half the number of tokens (rounded up), those in 3rd place will draw half of that again, and so forth. So everyone present will receive at least one Artefact token.

The City also feature Coin symbols, and this is the only way of getting new gold. Anyone present will receive 1 gold per coin symbol - regardless of the number of Archeologist present.

A player may spend 1 Gold to take a second turn after the first (but only one extra turn).

Artefact tokens are kept in a clever little cardboard shelf display with room for 24 tokens, so a player can easily look at them without showing them to the other players.

Each token features a quarter of a statue in one of 3 colors. And each token has an identifier (A-D) making it easy to see which parts of the statue you have collected. Letters comes in two colors: statues in good condition have a red letter, those in poor condition a black. A statue made entirely by good pieces are slightly more valuable then one containing one or more poor tokens.

When a player ends his turn in the central Trade center (the central cross) may he trade one of his Artefact tokens with one from a public display of 5 tokens. Or he may, for 1 Gold, draw two random tokens and discard any two tokens face down to the pool.

The game ends when all tiles have been placed (discovered) or when the last Artefact token has been taken.

Each Artefact token is worth 1 point. Each complete set of four is worth a bonus of 5 points in good condition, or 3 points if one or more tokens are in poor condition.

As expected is this variant of the classic game easier to play and easier to explain. It still offers some interesting play even if it is 'friendlier' then the original.

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Great Dane — 2007-08-21T15:07:31+00:00

The rack for storing Artefacts secret from other players

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Great Dane — 2007-08-21T15:06:22+00:00

a frame of tiles

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Great Dane — 2007-08-21T15:05:18+00:00

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Great Dane — 2007-08-21T15:04:25+00:00

Setup - this time a cross instead of a frame

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Great Dane — 2007-08-21T15:03:40+00:00

Box - contents in place

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Great Dane — 2007-08-21T15:02:56+00:00

Box - backside

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Great Dane — 2007-08-21T15:02:17+00:00

Boxcover