Game: Confucius

Thread: Re: Emperor's Reward: Bribery

Alan Paull — 2008-08-26T09:46:28+00:00

Coca Lite wrote:
What, exactly, is the functionality of the Bribery reward cards? The text on the cards, duplicated on page 14 of the rulebook, seems to contradict the player aid.

In my own words, the cards/rules tell me that I can either place an unsecured marker on an official for free or replace someone else's unsecured marker with an unsecured marker of my own for the cost shown on the tile. The player aid tells me that I can either place an unsecured marker on an official for free or place a secured marker on an official for the cost shown on the tile. Which is correct?

coca lite: you are correct; there is an error on the play aid. It should say: "Cash on official = replace unsecured marker". Thank you for identifying this error. We'll include an errata slip in future copies.

Thread: Emperor's Reward: Bribery

Coca Lite — 2008-08-24T22:42:27+00:00

What, exactly, is the functionality of the Bribery reward cards? The text on the cards, duplicated on page 14 of the rulebook, seems to contradict the player aid.

In my own words, the cards/rules tell me that I can either place an unsecured marker on an official for free or replace someone else's unsecured marker with an unsecured marker of my own for the cost shown on the tile. The player aid tells me that I can either place an unsecured marker on an official for free or place a secured marker on an official for the cost shown on the tile. Which is correct?

Thread: Re: Confucius now on sale

duchamp — 2008-08-23T12:27:07+00:00

I received mine today! It looks gorgeous, considering the comments somewhere here, especially for a small publisher!

Thanks to Alan, who sent this directly to me because I helped with the German translation - hope, other people having pre-ordered / ordered it, will get theirs in the near future!

Now to some playing and customizing ...

Thread: Re: Confucius now on sale

DavidNorman99 — 2008-08-20T08:59:37+00:00

As Charlie says, there have been production problems which means that there is only a limited number of copies available. JKLM Games will shortly be receiving a small number of copies from Surprised Stare, which will allow us to fulfil our pre-orders, and will be sending these out within the next 1-2 weeks. If you have already pre-ordered, there is no need to contact us.

David.

Thread: Confucius now on sale

TabbySunLion — 2008-08-16T10:06:58+00:00

Surprised Stare Games has now received a limited number of copies of Confucius, our new board game set in Ming China. We have only 30 games for sale now. These are available exclusively from Surprised Stare Games’ web site http://www.surprisedstaregames.co.uk/Buy.htm on a strictly first come, first served basis.

Delivery of our main stock has been held up owing to production problems beyond our control. We hope to have our full stock available from our web site from mid September. At that time we will also be supplying retail and wholesale outlets. We will be selling Confucius at Essen Spiel ’08 in October.

If we are not able to supply you with the game from the small numbers we have now, we will take pre-orders at the advertised price. We will not ask for payment until we have stock.

If you have pre-ordered from JKLM, please contact them http://www.jklmgames.co.uk/gamessin.php?game=426 to obtain your copy. JKLM will not have further copies for fresh orders until we are in receipt of our full stock.

Thread: Re: Rules available online - German, too

duchamp — 2008-07-18T14:26:17+00:00

Since today the rules are also online available in German. Now all we all need is the game ...

Thread: Re: Confucius - a review

Mike_Head — 2008-07-13T20:51:58+00:00

Well, this did appear at Halesowen Boardgamers, I was one of the players, and sadly I was disappointed. Forget the learning curve, it's the planning curve that really hits you. The Junta-style variable money is bad enough, but once there are a few gifts given or ready to be given, all your plans become a long 'if..then..else' statement as you have to reconsider every option depending on whether the obligations will change during the turn. I've played a few of what I would call "Sons of Caylus", all introduce random elements but have wildly different success rates with them. Age of Empires III gets it right - the random stuff like the Natives strength actually fits the theme and feeling of the game, here the 'funny money' and intricate gift consequences make it too random for my taste.

Thread: Re: Delivery delay

strangecolours — 2008-07-11T09:09:46+00:00

I've just had an email from JKLM:

Confucius will not be available before september due to problems with the wooden pieces, however there will be some available before september only on direct purchase due to limited numbers.

http://www.jklmgames.co.uk

Image

Redneon — 2008-07-02T13:47:05+00:00

Confucius being taught by designer's wife, Charlie

Thread: First Play and thoughts

DaveD — 2008-07-01T20:03:44+00:00

Played at Halesowen Boardgamers on 25 June 2008

We continue to try out the new stuff from Games Expo, in this case Confucius, which Dave was lucky enough to acquire one of the few copies of. Dave had played before at home (see his report here), I had been given a run down by one of the guys at Surprised Stare at the expo and had downloaded and read through the rules, while Mike was coming to the game completely blind.

Setting up at the start the foreign invasions were (in order) were Korea, Manchuria and Annam. The distant lands saw Africa and the Spice Isles worth 4 points each. India was 3, while Arabia and the Americas were 2. The points for the ministries were Bingbu 7/5, Hubu 8/5 and Gongbu 7/6. We were playing the basic game so there was no petitioning of the emperor. There now follows an overview of the play, note the events mentioned are not necessarily in the order they happened.

Dave was selected as first minister for the first turn and the general tendency (I don't quite recall if it always happened was for this to be passed to the right, presumably on the basis that the outgoing minister would get first action in the next turn, that was certainly my reasoning). I spent the first turn giving Dave a gift and buying my 3 cost gift, together with gathering income, while the others went straight to the bribing of officials.

Over the next few turns, we all did a bit of bribing and buying of junks, followed by setting sail to foreign parts. Mike was first to visit Africa, while I followed up with a visit to the Spice Islands and Dave went to India, all picking up Emperor's reward cards. Mike got a free gift and of course took his 6 value one, which he then gave to me, while Dave got a free bribe. I held onto my free army, for a short while as there seemed to be no action on the military front.

The first ministry to be resolved was Hubu, which Mike took 4/3 over Dave, I also had a single official and would have been obliged to support Mike in the resolution, but took the opportunity to transfer my influence before the resolution, cancelling Mike's 6 value gift in the process. In the other 2 ministries I was able to get ahead, through use of the imperial examinations, replacing one of Dave's officials in Bingbu and Mike's in Hubu, then displacing an unbribed official in Bingbu to force the resolution for me 4/3 over Dave. Gongbu was resolved at the end, again in my favour over Dave, who unexpectedly (to me) displaced Mike for second. Dave took the extra point for first minister at the end of the game.

As has been said there was not much action on the military front, Korea went by with no one placing any armies. The invasion of Manchuria failed as I was the only one who sent an army (which was free), placed to gain the emperor's reward card, yielding a free bribe to help me in Bingbu. Mike and Dave supplied the 2 armies to invade Annam at the end, Dave taking the 4 points and Mike 3 and the emperor's reward. I built one more army to take the extra point at the end as General. I wonder if there would be more action in this area with more players, since (barring emperor's rewards) it costs 1 action to raise a single army and then another action to send a single army to war. Even a small invasion is going to take 4 actions to complete and I suspect that more players committing more actions would make this area more viable.

In contrast there was plenty of action in overseas voyages. As mentioned before we each made one of the early voyages, while Mike started another and I finished a voyage to Arabia at the end for 2 points and an emperor's reward of a free bribe, which helped in Gongbu. I took the extra point as Admiral. In this case you can buy multiple junks as a single action and then send multiple junks to sea, also as a single action. Admittedly the points available are not as high as those potentially available from military action, but you can do it all yourself, rather than being potentially reliant on the help of other players.

In the end the final scores were Dave C 24, Dave D 22, Mike 15.

This was after a recount. Having awarded the game to me on a tie break at 22 all, I went home and worked through it in my head and came up with the above. In this game the scoring possibilities are set in advance and there are not so many of them that you can't remember who got what when. The key to Dave's victory I think was having a share of each ministry resolution which in turn gave him the point for first minister at the end.

What do I think? Well on the evidence of 1 play I would give a qualified thumbs up, even on this play I saw an interesting game with scope for varying strategy. I was able to make good use of the Imperial examinations, by triggering them when I had the only candidate; this is particularly useful in combination with the Imperial favour because no one can then comeback at you. I say qualified because I think that it would be better with more players for the reasons I mentioned about the military path. Additionally with more players you would have more options with your gifts, with three to get 5 actions you need to have given a gift to each of your opponents and received one back (or given one and received 2) and to make this work you need one of your opponents to have given back one of equal value creating mutual obligations. With more players there is more scope and I suspect this would mean more players with the full 5 actions, meaning more gets done.

The one problem I found with the game has nothing to do with the game play, it concerns the way the imperial favour is marked with a cube on the same display as the actions that have been performed. Throughout the game I was looking at the cubes on the display thinking that many actions had been performed and getting confused because one of the cubes represented an action which hadn't been performed. This may say more about me than the design, but I feel it would have been better to have a card to represent the imperial favour, which could be given to the first minister who could place the cube on the card rather than placing it on the display and confusing poor souls like me.

Anyway just to repeat, an interesting game which I hope to play again soon with more players.

Thread: Re: Delivery delay

Crockerdile — 2008-06-24T14:21:51+00:00

FunAgain Games

Thread: Re: Delivery delay

doubtofbuddha — 2008-06-24T13:10:17+00:00

Mark, what retailer?

Thread: Re: Delivery delay

Crockerdile — 2008-06-24T12:22:27+00:00

I've pre-ordered this from an American retailer. Am I covered, or does it have to be ordered directly from Surprised Stare?

Thread: Re: Delivery delay

Alan Paull — 2008-06-23T10:56:22+00:00

Update from Surprised Stare Games:

Surprised Stare Games' latest release, Confucius, was launched at UK Games Expo '08. Unfortunately only a small number of copies were available at that time. We will be taking delivery of further copies by the end of June and our final stock in July.

Alan Paull
Surprised Stare Games
alan@surprisedstaregames.co.uk

Thread: Re: First Session

chooi — 2008-06-20T23:24:34+00:00

no worries. I have yet to play a new game, especially a more complex one like this, without getting something wrong.

Indeed, any players can play as many as they want, hence why if you get your opponent to only play for you via Gift obligations, you have a good chance of winning as you can throw in a few yourself.

As to turn 9, only way for mutual obligations is if both gifts have equal value (only setting which both gifts allowed to stay in play or else the lower gift is always discarded between a pair of players)

Thread: Re: Imperial Examinations

Crockerdile — 2008-06-13T12:10:18+00:00

As I suspected. Thanks for the answer (and the game I've pre-ordered). The question was really a preemptive strike against some of the rules lawyers I play against sometimes.

Thread: Re: Imperial Examinations

Alan Paull — 2008-06-13T09:03:06+00:00

Thread: Re: Imperial Examinations

Alan Paull — 2008-06-13T08:56:11+00:00

Brass Jester wrote:
Alan, can you clarify a rule for me please.
Under Imperial Examinations it says 'each player may play one or more Confucious cards to support a student (italics mine). Now, by playing two extra cards (up to three in total) you may cancel a Gift.
I took this to mean that you can only play more than one card if you are cancelling a Gift. If you are not cancelling a Gift then you may only play one card (of any value), and you are obliged to play if you hold any cards. Is this correct?

Brass Jester

Sorry for the delay. I suffered a computer failure that stopped me in my tracks for a while! I'm up and running with a laptop again. Now all I have to do is get a new desktop machine ... argh :-)

I can confirm what others have indicated already. If you have at least one Confucius card when the Imperial Exams are held, then you MUST play at least one Confucius card in support of one and only one student; if you have gifts from either of the players with students, this support MUST be given to the student of the player who has given you the highest value gift. You MAY play more than one card; but note it's only in support of one of the students. If you play 3 or more cards in support of the player who has given you a gift, the gift is cancelled.

BenthamFish

Thread: Re: first thought while reading the description

Crockerdile — 2008-06-11T23:18:11+00:00

The board looks fine, and nobody will have any excuses about how they couldn't tell what was what. The board is very "clean", and for all intents and purposes is merely a vessel to keep track of your actions.

Thread: Re: Imperial Examinations

Crockerdile — 2008-06-11T13:26:43+00:00

You can only stockpile so much (4 card limit).

I'm a "use 'em or lose 'em" style player, so I'll amend my comment to "It's a minor miracle if I have 3 cards available for the examinations".

Thread: Re: Imperial Examinations

Henry Rhombus — 2008-06-11T13:04:47+00:00

Crockerdile wrote:
This is important. If I decide to play 3 cards, does the gift immediatly get cancelled...allowing me to support either candidate in that examination? Or am I still required to support the candidate to whom I'm obligated, in that particular examination...then remove the gift after that examination?

From page 16 of the rules:

"If you have received a gift from a player with a student and you have
any Confucius cards, then you must play at least one Confucius card
to tutor that student. You may play an additional two Confucius cards
to tutor that student, in order to cancel the gift; remove it from the game
and take the marker off the Gift Tracker Box."

So you're still under obligation to that player until after you play three cards.

Crockerdile wrote:
Actually it's a minor miracle if anyone has 3 cards in his hand by the time the examination is held.

Really? Maybe we suffered from poor first game play, but all the players in my first game worked to stockpile cards for future rounds.

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

Thread: Re: Imperial Examinations

Crockerdile — 2008-06-11T12:52:22+00:00

This is important. If I decide to play 3 cards, does the gift immediatly get cancelled...allowing me to support either candidate in that examination? Or am I still required to support the candidate to whom I'm obligated, in that particular examination...then remove the gift after that examination?

Maybe this will help prevent John (who knows as much, or more, about this game than anyone on the continent), from getting hosed in the examinations.

Actually it's a minor miracle if anyone has 3 cards in his hand by the time the examination is held.

Thread: Re: First Session

Brass Jester — 2008-06-10T21:21:54+00:00

Chooi
Thanks for the insights - It was our first game and I was trying to keep an eye on the other two, take notes and play all at the same time
Turn 7: We were playing that each player only played one card in the Exam; the only time you played two extra was to cancel a Gift. See other thread I posted - it now appears I misinterpreted this rule and you can play as many as you want.

Turn 9: Not sure what went wrong here? I'm sure I checked and both players had mutual obligations; obviously I wrote it down differently. Maybe someone didn't discard what they should have done; or kept the wrong Gift and it wasn't noticed.

Thread: Re: First Session

chooi — 2008-06-10T16:23:33+00:00

Brass Jester wrote:
Following Games Expo 08, Me, Ben and Lisa settled down to play ‘Confucius’. I was yellow, Ben was green and Lisa (of course) was purple. This is an in-depth account, to give you some idea of how this brilliant game plays.

Turn 2:
Purple gave the Gift/2 to Green.

Turn 4:
Green then Transferred Influence from one of their Ministers in Gonghu to Purple, thus cancelling the Purple Gift/2.
Green gave Gift/2 to Purple

Turn 7:
Purple Forced the Imperial Examination; Green Nominated a second Student, (this would have triggered the Exam anyway, but Purple couldn’t take the risk).
Green won the Imperial Examination on a tiebreak (watch where you place your candidate!), and placed a Secured Minister in Bingbu.

Turn 9:
Purple Nominates a Student (for Hubu). Green Nominated a student..
Purple gave Gift/3 to Green.
Exam: Green won
[Very bizarre: due to Obligations, Purple HAD to help Green and vice versa.)
Hubu was resolved; giving Green 5 VP and Purple 4

Final scores Chief Minister : Green Green 21
Admiral : Yellow Purple 16
General: : Yellow Yellow 15
So ended our first game. In hindsight; I (as Yellow) tried to do to much in too many areas. All of us enjoyed the game and it is on our Top Ten of games.

Congrats on 1st session report! Nice for us whom know how to play to read it. I especially liked the fact that players used the "Transfer Influence" to cancel Gifts, not something done in many of our playtest sessions.

Regarding the Green-Purple obligations as summarised above,

in the 1st Imperial Exams between them at turn 7, Green only won on a tiebreak. Just checking you did realise Purple was obligated to play Confucius cards for Green in that exam. Did other 2 players play as many cards for Purple to force a tiebreak?

in turn 9, Purple's Gift/3 to Green would have automatically cancelled out Green's previous Gift/2 to Purple. A higher Gift always cancels out a previous lower value Gift. Mutual obligations only exist when gifts of equal value (which do not cancel gifts) are given. Purple could have won this exam as Green had to play for him as well unless other 2 players were against him and played more cards.

However I doubt the single point difference would have changed Green's victory

Thread: Re: Imperial Examinations

chooi — 2008-06-10T15:48:16+00:00

John is correct.

Any player may play as many Confucius cards as they wish in Imperial exams.

All players are obliged to pay at least 1 card if they hold any cards irregardless of Gift Obligations but they must pay this card(s) towards the player whom they have the highest obligations to.

Most of the time only the players whose candidate is in the exams will be the ones paying more than 1 card but others even without gift obligations may do so too if they meant the 'other candidate' did not win for a certain Ministry.

Thread: Re: Imperial Examinations

Redneon — 2008-06-10T00:04:47+00:00

As I read the rules, you may play as many cards as you wish in support of a student. Playing 3 or more will cancel a gift. If you have any cards, you must play at least 1 of them in support of a student.

We had a game where everyone played all their cards in support of the students and were all taking the tax action to get more cards to do anything the next turn.

Thread: Imperial Examinations

Brass Jester — 2008-06-09T22:46:16+00:00

Alan, can you clarify a rule for me please.
Under Imperial Examinations it says 'each player may play one or more Confucious cards to support a student (italics mine). Now, by playing two extra cards (up to three in total) you may cancel a Gift.
I took this to mean that you can only play more than one card if you are cancelling a Gift. If you are not cancelling a Gift then you may only play one card (of any value), and you are obliged to play if you hold any cards. Is this correct?

Thread: Re: Confucius - a review

denverarch — 2008-06-08T21:14:48+00:00

Good review and much better (easier to udnerstand) than the session report

Yes a broad diverse strategy will not help you here. Do 1.5 things well in the this game, and don't compete too much if you can help it. With limited actions, any thing erased or wasted is huge!

Good comment about the learning curve. Not sure what it was about the game as it's actually very simple, but our playtest group had a hard inital time too. I think you need to see a game or two unfold to grasp what you should be doing. It felt difficult to really handle/control the gifts if there are 4 players and you only have a couple actions per turn. It is unqiue and I hope to play it soon with some people interested in the game, and I think there is some innovative and interesting thing to explore.

Thread: Re: First Session

Brass Jester — 2008-06-07T18:02:45+00:00

rplea wrote:
So...who won?
Sorry, it didn't post very well at the end
Green was Chief Minister
Yellow was the General
Yellow was the Admiral

Green won with 21 VP's
Purple was second with 16 VP's
Yellow was last with 15 VP's

Thread: Re: First Session

rplea — 2008-06-07T17:15:37+00:00

So...who won?

Thread: Re: First Session

duchamp — 2008-06-07T17:00:50+00:00

I alredy pre-ordered weeks ago ...

However, reading the rules may wet your appetite additionally!

Thread: Re: First Session

Brass Jester — 2008-06-07T13:14:05+00:00

duchamp wrote:
You sure have to played this yourself or need the rules at hand to understand!
http://www.surprisedstaregames.co.uk/Confucius/Rules.htm

Great game session - more a decent record of a whole game - thanks!

I wrote it like that to whet people's apptite for the game.

Thread: Re: First Session

DaveD — 2008-06-07T11:32:37+00:00

Interesting report Dave, I've no idea what most of it means of course, but I'm sure I'll find out in the near future.

Thread: Re: First Session

duchamp — 2008-06-07T08:03:58+00:00

You sure have to played this yourself or need the rules at hand to understand!
http://www.surprisedstaregames.co.uk/Confucius/Rules.htm

Great game session - more a decent record of a whole game - thanks!

Thread: Re: Delivery delay

Crockerdile — 2008-06-07T03:31:57+00:00

Apparently there are only 2 copies of this game in the USA, both here in the Metro Detroit area, just this week brought back from the expo by a globetrotting friend of mine. And just a mere couple of hours ago, I had the pleasure of trying Confucius out(4 player). It's one helluva game.
There is a lot to absorb, initially, but it all falls into place after 3 or 4 turns (at least for me). I can't wait to play it again. (I lost by a point).

Thread: First Session

Brass Jester — 2008-06-07T01:34:18+00:00

Following Games Expo 08, Me, Ben and Lisa settled down to play ‘Confucius’. I was yellow, Ben was green and Lisa (of course) was purple. This is an in-depth account, to give you some idea of how this brilliant game plays.

After setup, the VP’s on offer were Bingbu (army) 8/5, Hubu (Finance) 5/4, Gonghu (Public Works) 7/6
Foreign Lands 5332, 443 and 432; Distant Lands 23344

Turn 1: Yellow was Chief Minister. Everyone got 3 Actions (no Gifts given or received). Purple invested in the value 2 Gift and Purple gave a Gift/1 toYellow. Yellow bribed a Minister in Hubu (thus getting a discount on all future bribes), whilst Purple bribed into Bingbu (gives a discount on recruiting armies). Green gave a Gift/1 to Yellow, then bribed a Minister in Hubu (thus stopping Yellow from bribing any more in Hubu). The remaining Actions were spent getting income. Yellow used the Imperial Favour (granted to the Chief Minister) to bribe a minister in Gonghu.

Turn 2:
Gifts: Purple: Given 1 Received 0 = 4 Actions
Green: Given 1 Received 0 = 4 Actions
Yellow: Given 0 Received 2 = 4 Actions
Yellow chose Green to be Chief Minister, meaning that Yellow got first Action. Yellow bribed in Gonghu. Purple gave the Gift/2 to Green. Green recruited an army. Yellow bribed again in Gonghu (a two-cube Action). Purple took Commercial Income and Green bought their Gift/2. Yellow used their last Action to Tax, Purple bribed in Bingbu; Green and Purple used their last Actions to get income. Green used the Imperial Favour to buy three Junks.

Turn 3:
Gifts: Purple: Given 2 Received 0 = 4 Actions
Green: Given 1 Received 1 = 4 Actions
Yellow: Given 0 Received 2 = 4 Actions
Purple was Chief Minister. Green invaded Manchuria (5332) and selected the ‘3’ space with the Reward card on it. Yellow bribed in Bingbu and Purple bribed in Gonghu (thus halting Yellow expansion). Green took Tax and Yellow gave a Gift/1 to Purple (thus blocking Bingbu). Purple and Green took Tax and Income and Yellow nominated a Student. Green started a voyage with three junks; the remaining Actions were used for income. Purple used the Imperial Favour to bribe in Hubu.

[Turn Three: things are getting complex, with obligations now having a real effect]

Turn 4:
Gifts: Purple: Given 2 Received 1 = 5 Actions
Green: Given 1 Received 1 = 4 Actions
Yellow: Given 1 Received 2 = 5 Actions
Yellow was Chief Minister. Purple bought four junks, Green bribed in Gonghu and Yellow forced the Imperial Examination. Purple Taxed. Green then Transferred Influence from one of their Ministers in Gonghu to Purple, thus cancelling the Purple Gift/2. Yellow took Tax and Purple bought one junk. Green was now able to bribe in Hubu. Yellow took income, Purple completed a voyage to the Americas (4 VP’s and a Reward card). Green gave Gift/2 to Purple and Yellow bought Gift/4. Purple took Income. Yellow used the Imperial Favour to give Gift/4 to Purple (cancelling Purples’ Gift/1).
Yellow succeeded in the Imperial Examination and gained a Secured Minister in Gonghu. The invasion of Manchuria failed but Green gained a Reward card.

[Green has no obligations to anyone]

Turn 5:
Gifts: Purple: Given 0 Received 2 = 4 Actions
Green: Given 2 Received 0 = 4 Actions
Yellow: Given 1 Received 1 = 4 Actions
Green was Chief Minister. First Action by Yellow and Purple were to Tax or Income. Green bought two junks. Yellow bought four junks, Purple bought Gift/4. Green bribed in Bingbu . Yellow bought Gift/3. Purple used a Reward card to bribe in Hubu. Green bought Gift/3. Yellow and Purple Taxed or took Income. Green used the Imperial Favour to sail to Africa (4 VP’s and a Reward Card).

Turn 6:
Gifts: Purple: Given 0 Received 2 = 4 Actions
Green: Given 2 Received 0 = 4 Actions
Yellow: Given 1 Received 1 = 4 Actions
Purple was Chief Minister. Green Taxed. Yellow gave Gift/3 to Green (cancelling Green’s Gift/1). Purple gave Gift/4 to Yellow. Green bribed in Gonghu. Yellow bought 1 junk. Purple bought Gift/5. Green used a Reward Card to bribe in Gonghu (replacing an unsecured Purple Minister). Yellow sailed to Arabia (3 VP’s and a Reward card). Purple took Income. Green bought one junk. Green Transferred influence in Hubu to Yellow, cancelling Yellow’s Gift/3. Purple used the Imperial Favour to give Gift/5 to Yellow, cancelling Yellow’s Gift/4.
Gonghu was resolved, giving Yellow 7 VP’s and Green 6 VP’s

Turn 7:
Gifts: Purple: Given 1 Received 1 = 4 Actions
Green: Given 1 Received 0 = 4 Actions
Yellow: Given 0 Received 1 = 4 Actions
Yellow was Chief Minister, Purple bought four junks, Green and Yellow Taxed; Purple then took Income.. Green bribed in Bingbu, Yellow took Income. Purple nominated a student (for Bingbu), Green took Income and Yellow bought four junks. Purple Forced the Imperial Examination; Green Nominated a second Student, (this would have triggered the Exam anyway, but Purple couldn’t take the risk).
Yellow used a Reward card to get income, then used the Imperial Favour to recruit an army.
Green won the Imperial Examination on a tiebreak (watch where you place your candidate!), and placed a Secured Minister in Bingbu.

Turn 8:
Gifts: Purple: Given 1 Received 1 = 4 Actions
Green: Given 1 Received 0 = 4 Actions
Yellow: Given 0 Received 1 = 4 Actions
Green was Chief Minister.. First Actions were to get income. Yellow invaded Mongolia ( on the 3 ER space). Purple, Green and Yellow took Income. Purple bribed in Bingbu. Green gave a Gift/3 to Yellow, the used the Imperial Favour to bribe in Hubu.
Bingbu was resolved, giving Purple 8 VP’s and Green 5 VP’s
The invasion of Mongolia failed. Yellow gets a Reward Card from the Emperor.

Turn 9:
Gifts: Purple: Given 1 Received 1 = 4 Actions
Green: Given 2 Received 0 = 4 Actions
Yellow: Given 0 Received 2 = 4 Actions
Yellow was Chief Minister. Purple and Green Taxed; Yellow finished a voyage for 3 VP’s and a Reward Card. Purple Nominates a Student (for Hubu). Green traded. Yellow used ER card to get a bribe in Hubu. Purple bought Gift/3. Green Nominated a student.. Yellow used Reward Card to recruit an army. Purple gave Gift/3 to Green. Green Secured a Minister in Hubu. Yellow Taxed, bought Gift/6 then used Imperial Favour to give Gift/6 to Purple.
Exam: Green won
[Very bizarre: due to Obligations, Purple HAD to help Green and vice versa.)
Hubu was resolved; giving Green 5 VP and Purple 4

Final scores Chief Minister : Green Green 21
Admiral : Yellow Purple 16
General: : Yellow Yellow 15
So ended our first game. In hindsight; I (as Yellow) tried to do to much in too many areas. All of us enjoyed the game and it is on our Top Ten of games.

Thread: Re: Delivery delay

duchamp — 2008-06-06T20:45:11+00:00

It somehow fits, that the blue ships were missing -

If I think of the financial loss for you because of that, I am really sorry for you.

Thread: Re: Interview with Alan Paull

gamesbook — 2008-06-06T19:30:54+00:00

earthquake wrote:
You can hear the interview on the 'Meeples & Miniatures' podcast - episode #34. The interview is 52:20 into the podcast
Any chance you could extract out just that portion for those of us with more limited bandwidth - thanks.

Thread: Re: Delivery delay

Alan Paull — 2008-06-06T17:21:53+00:00

doubtofbuddha wrote:
Any idea when this will be released in the US?

Our distribution is through JKLM, so please have a look on their website for suitable outlets - as duchamp has said, thanks.

I'm not certain how long it will take copies to reach the US after our main stock is available in the UK. Our past experience is that it would reach distributors within two to three weeks and may take another couple of weeks from then to reach shops.

Thread: Interview with Alan Paull

earthquake — 2008-06-06T09:24:10+00:00

I recently interviewed Alan Paull about COnfucius at the UK Games Expo.

You can hear the interview on the 'Meeples & Miniatures' podcast - episode #34. The interview is 52:20 into the podcast

www.meeplesandminiatures.co.uk

Thread: Re: Delivery delay

duchamp — 2008-06-06T06:54:31+00:00

JKLM games has two retailers in the US - I would give them a try, mailing them at the end of june:

http://www.jklmgames.com/shops.php

Thread: Re: Delivery delay

doubtofbuddha — 2008-06-05T17:52:54+00:00

Any idea when this will be released in the US?

Thread: Confucius - a review

Brass Jester — 2008-06-05T14:03:13+00:00

Purchased this at Game Expo 08 after a long chat with Alan Paull ( the designer).
Overall theme is to gain power and prestige (= VP's) in Ming Dynasty China. There are many ways this can be done.
The game is attractive, come in a sturdy box with period artwork. There are several sets of thick card tiles, a large deck of cards and several smaller decks, a set of wooden pieces for each player (3-5 players, a set of wooden junks, the board, player aid cards and the rules (24 pages, back page is a comprehensive index).

The board is split into three main areas. At the top is the Action Box display, the Imperial examination display (where 'Direct Entrants' are sponsored), the VP track and the Gift Tracker (to keep track of who is obligated to who). The middle part is the three Ministeries, Army, Finance (= HR) and Public Works (= Navy). Each has spaces for 7 Ministers ranked 1-7 in order of seniority, spaces 4,5 & 6 start with a random official tile in them. The bottom area is split into two, Distant Lands/Shipyards, where you assemble and conduct voyages of discovery, and Military Colonies/Foreign Lands, where you launch invsions. Yes, there's a lot going on!

All VP's are displayed on the board at the start, by random draw. There are no hidden VP's - you know exactly what's on offer and where.

Resources are handled by the large card deck and is split between licences and cash. Each card shows a mix of both as follows: 1 cash/3 licences, 2 cash/2 licences or 3 cash/1 licence. No change is given when these are spent. Different actions have a different cost in cash or licenses, but there are no Actions where a mix of the two is needed. This makes an interesting balance to be maintained. For example; to build junks uses cash; to sail on a voyage uses licenses. Conversley, to recruit armies uses licenses but to use them to invate a foreign power costs cash. Each player starts with a 1, 2 and 3 cash card.

The Turn is as follows:-
Count Gifts: You get a number of Actions based on the Gifts ou have given and received (tracked on the Gift Tracker) The base is 3 (= 0 Gifts), the maximum is 5. This usually goes up, but can go down later in the game if you neglect your social responsibilities.

Chief Minister: At first, determined randomly; thereafter the previous Chief Minister must select another player. This determines the Turn Order. Also, the Chief Minister MUST select the Imperial Favour action immediatley, using one of their available Action cubes.

Actions: In Turn order, use an Action Cube on the Action display to select and carry out an action. The first time costs 1 cube. Second and subsequent uses of the same action cost 2 cubes. Thus, you could do the same action up to three times in a single turn.
Actions are:-
Bribe Official (so they are loyal to you)
Secure Bribed Official (= make them yours always)
Nominate student (if they pass, then they get into a Ministery secured to you)
Force Imperial Examination (to make sure your student passes)
Buy junks (to explore)
Start a voyage ( to get VP's. When you get there, you pick an available VP chit, usually the highest. You also get an Emperor's Reward card, with gives a one-off special action you can do. Some of theses are powerful; reward cards are worth having).
Recruit an army (to launch an invasion)
Invade (to get VP's. Invasions take time; it is possible you won't be able to do it in the correct period and it will fail. More than one player can join in though to get VP's)
Buy Gift. (You start with a free Value 1 gift. This action allows you to buy any one of your avaiable Gifts and put itready for use)
Give Gift (Give an available gift to another player. This puts obligations on them until they cancel the gift by giving you a better one (amongst other ways). For example; they cannot have more bribed officials in a Ministery than you; they must support your student etc.)
Commercial IncomeResources are tight! Pay up to four cash and get cash + 1 cards back. You can only do this one per Turn)
Tax Income: Draw two cards
Pass: Do nothing (still costs a cube though)
Petition the Emperor (Costs 2 cubes and a Gift; range of powerful results depending on the value of the Gift. Not recommended by the designer until you've played a few games)
Imperial Favour: Taken last of all by the Chief Minister. Allows them to take any action at no cube cost; even if they have already done the action earlier in the turn. Very useful.

The Great Wall: at the end of each Turn, a wall tile is placed. This is a timer, once the 9th is placed the game is over. Also. it triggers the Invasion resolution at fixed intervals, if the invasion isn't ready then it fails.

New Ministers are placed, one per Ministry. If it's full and everyone is bribed/secured then it is scored. Whovever has the most Influence (= bribed officials) wins the higher VP's. The second lowest gets the lower VP's. If there are more than two players in the Ministery, then the lowest Influence must give it up to another player. This is where Gifts come in again. They must give it to the player they are most obligated to. This cancels the Gift (hence Gifts given can go down!). This is repeted until there is a clear first/second.

Once the Wall is built, or all three Ministeries are scored, or the School runs out of candidates then the game is over. There are bonus points for whoever recruited the most armies, had the most junks etc. The winner is the one with the most VP's.

I think this game is excellent; ther's a lot going on and lots of routes to victory. It has got a steep learning curve; not due to the mechanisms (which are simple and elegant) but due to the number of possibilites. However, It's perhaps best to pick a strategy and go for that; you can't do everything (as I found out - see session report). I'm sure this will go down well at Halesowen Boardgamers.

Thread: Delivery delay

duchamp — 2008-06-05T06:37:51+00:00

For all the others who pre-ordered or just wait for this to be available somewhere:

At the UK Expo on 31st odf May / 1st of June they sold all 30 (I heard) copies available. It was impossible to finish more because of blue ships missing - a delay by a supplier ...

(It makes me angry to hear that! I mean, these people create a game with fresh mechanics, invest all their time, a lot of money and their hopes into this and I guess, they counted on the money selling this at this convention, right? And this main UK convention sees 30 copies, sold after a couple of hours! I guess, Alan Paull could (or will) take these suppliers to court! My deep sympathy to Surprise Stare Games. )

I asked JKLM games, who sell the game, what is about the availabiity (and my pre-order) and they gave me a quick reply:

"We expect the remaining ships to arrive within two weeks
so will be sending out soon after this."

So, another time to stay patient ...

Thread: Re: Release date?

Alan Paull — 2008-06-04T17:23:19+00:00

To confirm what chooi said...

We had a successful launch of Confucius at the UK Games Expo, but we're very disappointed that we only had a limited number of copies available. This was owing to circumstances beyond the control of our company. We sold out of those that we had received.

We apologise to everyone who had expected to be able to pick up a copy of the game at the UK Games Expo or immediately afterwards. We are working very hard now to make our main stock available to our customers, to our friends, play testers and reviewers, and to retailers and distributors, as soon as possible. We will provide more information about the delivery date as soon as we have it.

Alan Paull
For Surprised Stare Games
alan@surprisedstaregames.co.uk

Thread: Re: Release date?

chooi — 2008-06-01T21:20:37+00:00

was sadly very unfortunate the extremely limited copies available at Confucius at UK Games Expo, which were sold out by lunchtime on the 1st day. Still, many others whom playtested it seems to enjoy it. Should not be much longer a delay in general availability.

(COI: have helped playtest this game and has credit in Game Development)

Image

Mulan — 2008-05-31T23:31:49+00:00

Tile backs

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Mulan — 2008-05-31T23:30:28+00:00

The five Foreign Lands tiles

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Mulan — 2008-05-31T23:27:26+00:00

Box back

Thread: Re: Release date?

andyl — 2008-05-31T20:42:19+00:00

Spoke to Charlie (TabbySunLion) at the UK Games Expo today as I picked up my copy. Apparently they only had about 30 copies present as there has been a delay in getting the blue ships (sorry but they don't look like junks to me) from the German wooden bits supplier. Hopefully it will only be a short delay for the rest of you.

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Mulan — 2008-05-31T20:31:52+00:00

Entire box content

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Mulan — 2008-05-31T20:16:45+00:00

Emperor's Reward Cards batch two

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Mulan — 2008-05-31T20:14:59+00:00

Emperor's Reward Cards batch one

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Mulan — 2008-05-31T20:11:21+00:00

Counter Sheet Back

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Mulan — 2008-05-31T20:08:49+00:00

Counter Sheet #2 Front

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Mulan — 2008-05-31T20:03:55+00:00

Player Aid Back

Thread: Re: Rules available online

denverarch — 2008-04-29T17:57:47+00:00

As a playtester I must say the rework to the rules is excellent and they look beautiful to boot. I can now easily find all the information I need much quicker than before. Well done!

Thread: Re: Release date?

duchamp — 2008-04-29T17:27:06+00:00

It can also be pre-ordered at JKLM games and is scheduled now for the 31st of May.

Thread: Rules available online

mimi2 — 2008-04-29T16:46:29+00:00

The rules have been posted online at the Surprisedstaregames website: http://www.surprisedstaregames.co.uk/Confucius/Rules.htm

First thoughts after a quick read through: the gifting mechanism is quite novel and there's lots of trade-offs to consider. Some rules seems a bit odd, e.g how the Minister of Hubu is appointed Chief Minister if there is tie amongst the players with the most ministry markers, and similarly for the Admiral and General. Overall, the rules have definitely piqued my interest, looking forward to the release of the game!

Thread: Re: first thought while reading the description

wolver — 2008-04-20T23:41:38+00:00

This is to easy Ron. You'd rather have a miserable game with mediocre art?