Game: Cronberg

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Keng Ho — 2008-07-18T18:15:22+00:00

Bonobo Beach - all the pieces still in the bag

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Keng Ho — 2008-07-18T18:03:31+00:00

Bonobo Beach - unpunched negative tiles

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Keng Ho — 2008-07-18T18:00:01+00:00

Bonobo Beach - unpunched positive tiles

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kmiernik — 2008-03-30T14:43:26+00:00

Self-made version of Cronberg. It is tottaly water resistant since all the elements - made out of wood - are covered with water-proof paint.

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Toynan — 2008-01-07T01:00:34+00:00

Close up on the toilets

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Toynan — 2008-01-07T00:57:27+00:00

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Toynan — 2008-01-07T00:53:55+00:00

Components inside the box

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Legomancer — 2008-01-05T22:50:12+00:00

Green stakes out some territory.

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Legomancer — 2008-01-05T22:48:31+00:00

That central triangle is going to make for big scores!

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Legomancer — 2008-01-05T22:47:06+00:00

Detail of the board without tiles on it.

Thread: Re: Free version for computer

matthewoods — 2007-08-08T12:15:47+00:00

It's here! Bonono Beach PC-spiel

Thread: Re: Free version for computer

russ — 2007-05-19T14:53:09+00:00

That link is dead, and it's not clear to me whether the computer game exists elsewhere at that site now. :/

Thread: Free version for computer

kdean1 — 2007-02-08T22:37:25+00:00

Bonobo Beach is available as a free download from http://www.kronberger-spiele.de/eng/bonobo/bonobo_pc.html

English instructions are available. You can choose human or computer opponents. As noted in reviews, the game is light, but I have to say it is cute.

Thread: Re: Bonobo Beach...not impressed.

jens_hoppe — 2007-01-29T18:51:29+00:00

SamHealey wrote:
Many have said that this game is very similar to Kingdoms, by Reiner Knizia, and I agree.

The game most reminded me of Carcassonne, but a nasty, negative, "but I don't really want to play a tile!" kind of Carcassonne, mind you.

I liked it well enough, but not enough to actually keep my copy of the game. Having one's father-in-law accumulate so many negative points that his score marker slides off the beginning of the score track is only funny so many times...

Thread: Re: Bonobo Beach...not impressed.

clloyd09 — 2007-01-29T15:23:24+00:00

When I saw the post title, I thought "Hmm... I wonder if this person tried the game out because it was discussed on The Dice Tower?" Then, I saw who posted it, and had to laugh. No wonder the review sounded familiar.

Thread: Re: Bonobo Beach...not impressed.

Great Dane — 2007-01-29T13:11:51+00:00

The game was originally made as a free game to download from the publisher's website. But they received so many requests to make a 'full version' that they simply couldn't ignore it.

Thread: Bonobo Beach...not impressed.

SamHealey — 2007-01-29T11:32:35+00:00

Bonobo Beach is a game for 2-4 players, designed by The Goslar Brothers, published by Cronberger Games, and can be purchased for $20-$25. It has a rating of 6.2/10 on BGG, with 242 user ratings.

The game’s theme is one of finding the best spots on a secluded beach. There are nasty spots, and beautiful spots, and you’re in a race with your opponents to get the best spots available.

Quite simply, you have two choices for your turn, either place a tile or place one of your tokens. You’re trying to pick the best time to place your tokens. If you place it too early, you’ll get slammed more often than not, but if you place too late, you’ll miss the big point spots. If you choose to place a tile you can either make a spot more inviting for yourself (or someone else, for that matter), or try to undercut one of your opponent’s already placed tokens.

My overall impression of the game is not very high. My wife actually didn’t want to try to play the game after only two plays because she was so unimpressed with it. Many have said that this game is very similar to Kingdoms, by Reiner Knizia, and I agree. I very much enjoy Kingdoms, which makes it weird that I don’t much care for Bonobo Beach. I think the reason may have something to do with the fact that Bonobo Beach uses rhombi, and Kingdoms uses squares (rows and columns).

Strategic capabilities of this game are somewhat minimal in my opinion. I would think that this would be especially true in a 3- or 4-player game because the randomness of tile placement would be even greater. So, I would categorize this as more of a luck-of-the-draw kind of game.

We only got in two games because of my wife’s disdain for the game, and my dislike of it. I won both games in a rather dominant fashion, winning by a double-digit gap each time.

The fun factor was minimal, and for the price, you could probably make a better purchase elsewhere. I would recommend Kingdoms over Bonobo Beach any day.

Until Next Time...Sam Healey.

Thread: Re: New Version?

GaryP — 2006-08-30T03:50:58+00:00

The game is great as is. It's not a personal favorite, but I do very much enjoy playing. My GF and my mother both like it due to its simple rules and quick playing time. Although there is a significant dose of luck, the tile set is small enough to figure out what's left in the bag. The big decisions involve determining when to lock your pawns onto a positive 2x or ->+ space to prevent getting stuck with a major negative 2x st the end. A larger board would make tile counting more difficult, and more open 2x spots would reduce the need to avoid large negatives. All said, I think the game is pefectly sized as it is.

Thread: Re: New Version?

Great Dane — 2006-08-29T05:13:37+00:00

They did make a second edition.
The first edition was a free download version.

Thread: New Version?

richardtempura — 2006-08-29T02:21:49+00:00

Is it just me or does this game need a bigger board and way more tiles (with negatives and positives on them)

The thing is, it's a fast game but it's missing something.....

Tobias, Roland, please make a second edition!!!!

Thread: Re: Are Negative Scores the Rule?

GaryP — 2006-08-17T18:46:10+00:00

A year and a half later, but I'll reply for those who may be interested in this game.

If a lot of large negative tiles are placed around x2 locations, scores are likely to all be very low, possibly negative. A big part of this game is realizing when to start placing pawns on safe, positive, permanent (x2 or -to+) locations, even if they don't get you many points, just so you won't be forced to place on a hugely negative spot at the end. Certainly the game has a great deal of luck, but the key really seems to be judging the endgame based on what tiles have already been played and how many pawns the other players still have.

Last night, I played two 3-player games. In the first, only one player finished (barely) positive due to many x2 negative spaces. In the second game, all were positive with approximate scores of 45, 38, and 25. The overall scores depend a lot on the tile draws, but good play seems the most significant factor in your ranking.

Thread: Re: [Review] Bonobo Beach

djlg — 2006-03-30T01:38:07+00:00

Actually, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking.

Well, what I was thinking is that King's Gate & Bonobo are both about placing tiles around "a point" for scoring (the point being a vertex with a pawn in Bonobo and a character tile in King's Gate). And where the tiles are placed will affect other scoring "points" too.
Whereas Kingdoms has this whole grid scoring thing going on.
But really, if each column or row in Kingdoms is seen as the "point" and its surrounding tiles, its all the same.

And its all minor compared to Bonobo & Kingdoms both being:
Claim a place for your scoring pawn OR draw a random +ve or -ve value tile and place to affect everyone's score.

My bad.

Thread: Re: [Review] Bonobo Beach

TomVasel — 2006-03-30T00:46:54+00:00

No, I certainly don't mean King's Gate at all.

In Kingdoms, you have the choice to place a tile or one of your castles.

In Bonbobo Beach, you have the choice to place a tile or one of your pawns.

It's very, very similar.

They are very different games, but everyone I've taught the game to sees the similarities. I don't see the similarities to King's Gate at all - in which players place their tiles around other tiles.

Thread: Re: [Review] Bonobo Beach

djlg — 2006-03-30T00:40:34+00:00

TomVasel wrote:
If you look over the comments on the game at www.boardgamegeek.com, you'll find that they quite often mention the game Kingdoms. And indeed, Bonobo Beach is very similar to that Reiner Knizia game.

Tom, I think you mean King's Gate. Cronberg/Bonobo is very similar to KG, but not very similar to Kingdoms (which is the release of Auf Heller und Pfennig) at all.

Thread: [Review] Bonobo Beach

TomVasel — 2006-03-28T23:14:03+00:00

Lost Valley is one of my favorite games, an exciting thematic game of exploration and gold mining. I was therefore very interested in any further games designed by the Goslar brothers, and therefore was glad to get my hands on and play Bonobo Beach (Kroneberger Spiele, 2003 - Roland & Tobias Goslar). Bonobo Beach is intriguing in one aspect, because the company released two games at the same time (this one and Cronberg) that have the exact same mechanics with different themes. Cronberg is about building a castle, while Bonobo Beach is about finding the best spots on a beach.

If you look over the comments on the game at www.boardgamegeek.com, you'll find that they quite often mention the game Kingdoms. And indeed, Bonobo Beach is very similar to that Reiner Knizia game. For myself, Kingdoms is a great filler game, and Bonobo Beach certainly falls in the same vein - a very enjoyable game that is as fun for four players as it is with two. Games are quick, have some luck (from tile draws), and offer some rather agonizing decisions that are rare in games this short and simple. I love the theme, the gameplay, and am certainly glad I got my hands on this rhombus-filled (a Goslar trademark) game.

A board depicting the island of Bonobo is placed on the board, made up of a grid of connected triangles. Each triangle is either a dune (showing a "x2" on it), a toilet, or a sun shade. Each player is given four tokens of their color, and a score marker of the same color is placed on a scoring track. A pile of twenty-eight rhombi are shuffled and placed down next to the board, and the youngest player goes first with play proceeding clockwise around the table.

On a player's turn, they have two choices. They can either place one of their tokens at an unoccupied spot (a juncture between triangles). This spot has to be next to at least one unoccupied triangle, one that is not covered by a rhombus. The other choice a player has is by drawing the top rhombus and placing it face up on top of any adjacent two uncovered triangles.

When all the triangles that are adjacent to a token are covered, that token is recovered by the player owning it and scored, earning the sum of the points on the rhombi (whether positive or negative). As tiles are placed, it is also possible that a toilet triangle become "active", which means that the rhombi are placed in such a fashion as that it can no longer be covered. An active toilet causes any adjacent tokens to be returned to their owner without scoring.

Play continues until all players can no longer place a token or rhombus. One player may have to pass while the other players finish placing the rest of their tokens. After this, final scoring occurs. All tokens on the board are scored just like before, except that sun shades and dunes affect the pieces around them. A token next to a sun shade converts all the negative numbers adjacent to it to positive numbers. A token next to a dune doubles the values of all the numbers adjacent to it, next to two dunes quadruples the values, and next to three dunes (which I've never seen!) multiples the values by eight. Scoring tokens are adjusted, and the player with the highest score is the winner!

Some comments on the game…

1.) Components: The Bonobo Beach board is very nice, showing an island that is one large beach, with thin lines drawn on it to show the triangles, as to not mess up the look of the island. Each tile shows artwork of something you'd like to be next to (like a lifeguard or an oasis) or something that makes a poor neighbor (like dead fish or trashy sunbathers). All tiles have numbers clearly marked in each of their four corners, and the negative tiles have a darker background than the positive one, helping to differentiate between them. The artwork on the entire board and tiles is very well done, and for some reason, using rhombi is more interesting than squares; it allows for clever placement and just has a very different feel to it. The tokens are tall, thick wooden cylinders in yellow, green, red, and blue and provide a stark contrast to the board. Everything fits inside a flat, square box, which is very aesthetically pleasing, showing a motor boat speeding towards the beach island - but mostly ocean.

2.) Cronberg: I've played both versions, and they are virtually identical, except for the theme. Bonobo Beach is the more unique theme, so I would recommend that version.

3.) Rules: The rules are well formatted, managing to show color illustrations and still fit onto two sides of one sheet of paper. The game is easy to teach, although I spend some time showing exactly how each of the triangles works when activated. Teenagers and adults quickly figure the game out, while those who've played Kingdoms before pick the game up in a flash.

4.) Critical decisions: When do you place a token down? If a player places a token down early, they may get an excellent spot, but they may also leave themselves open for other players to place negative tiles down next to them. Sometimes the best spots are next to a toilet, but the player risks the chance of having their token sent back to them. I haven't seen the toilets ever be too devastating, since most players are too chicken to place their tokens adjacent to them. A player who waits too long to place their tokens may be forced to, near the end of the game, place their tokens on spots that give them only a few points, or even negative points. In one of my early games, I ended with a final score that was negative (not sure what that says about my skills). One excellent spot can win a player a game, which makes placement very important, and also promotes playing multiple games in a row; players can simply leave their tokens on the track.

5.) Tiles: As I said before, I think it's neat that the tiles are rhombi. I also think it's a clever mechanic to have the board itself play a function in the game and have triangles that aren't covered play a role in scoring. The tiles are split evenly - with half of them negative - making the game a bit harsher than some, but still fun. I've seen players give their tokens negative points, just to cover the board up in such a way that an "x2" space is activated, and this kind of "active board" makes the game very interesting.

6.) Fun Factor: It's a lot of fun to score big with one of your tokens, and players who like tile placement games are going to enjoy this one. Sure, it's basically an abstract game with a theme placed on top of it (evidenced by the fact that two completely different themes work equally as well). Still, I enjoy the theme, and it does work well; and I found that because the game is so quick it doesn't matter.

I like Bonobo Beach as a quick game to start off an evening of games with, or something to play quietly with my wife - something that's fun and interesting to play, while allowing idle chatter. It has a unique theme, fast fun play, and is intuitive to teach and learn. Once again, the Goslar brothers have produced a fun game, one of the best of the tile-laying genre.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.tomvasel.com

Thread: Re: "Jail" Variant

Thomas_de_Monet — 2006-03-27T04:35:21+00:00

Oops, forgot to say what happens at the end of the game:

3)Game end: any men left in jail at the end of the game cost the player -8 points each (this rule is to stop people from getting their men "jailed" in order to not have to place them in a bad position during the end of the game).

And that's it.

Let me know what you think please.

Thread: Re: "Jail" Variant

Thomas_de_Monet — 2006-03-22T04:47:11+00:00

...run to the ocean to wash off the sopping result of your less-than-brilliant plan...

Oh man... that's just too funny....

Thread: Re: "Jail" Variant

GaryP — 2006-03-22T01:51:18+00:00

Heh heh. I'm not sure I want to translate how this rule would work thematically for those of us with the Bonobo Beach version. In Bonobo Beach, there are outhouses instead of guards.

"Place the pawn on the outhouse, as you have gotten yourself locked inside. Lose 2 points to humiliation and wait a turn for someone to help get you out. Otherwise, slam against the wall, knock the whole thing on its side, and suffer a 4-point loss of machismo as you run to the ocean to wash off the sopping result of your less-than-brilliant plan."

Thread: "Jail" Variant

Thomas_de_Monet — 2006-03-21T18:04:30+00:00

While waiting for another player to take his turn the other day I noticed the little courtyard/castle in the bottom right hand corner on the Cronberg board and had a thought.....

Cronberg "Jail" Rules

When a Guard Triangle is activated, instead of players getting their little man back, he goes to jail - the little courtyard in the bottom right hand corner of the board.

On a player's next turn he/she can get their little man out of jail in one of the following two ways:

1) Pay the jailer 4 points (go back 4 points on the scoring track) which pays the fine and you get the man back AND you can still play your turn.

2) Spend time bribing the guard at the jail and end up spending 2 points for the fine (go back 2 points on the scoring track) and you get the man back BUT your turn is now over.

Please try this out and let me know what you think. Most of the people I have tried this with think its pretty evil....

Thread: Cronberg

batman — 2005-10-19T21:10:11+00:00

As promised ~~threatened~~ I brought a collection of print and play games that I had made to Borders. Jeff B. and Jeff L. were interested in trying some of them so I brought out a quick tile laying game, Cronberg. This game was published not long after the publisher made the files available on their website.

I had played this as a two player game with my wife a long time ago and remembered it being rather good. I wasn’t disappointed with it as a three-player game. Each player has four scoring markers and there is a pool of rhomboid tiles to draw from. The board is sectioned into a collection of triangles. Each tile can cover two of the triangles and they can be played in such a way that single triangles are left uncovered. In fact, it is the play of the tiles in leaving just the right triangles open that is a key to success in this game.

A player can either place a tile or place one of their scoring markers on the board. That’s it. You have exactly two actions available to you. Of course it is the timing and exact placement of these tiles and markers that makes for some tough decisions. The tiles are divided by positive numbers and negative numbers and the triangles on the boards have one of three effects; change negative scores to positive, double scores or prevent scoring all together (the musketeer). Markers are placed on the intersections of the triangles and score the sum of all numbers it is surrounded by. If a marker is completely surrounded by tiles it is scored immediately and returned to the player to use again. If there is a vacant triangle next to a scoring marker is stays on the board until the end of the game. This is another area where clever play can be used to trap some of your opponent’s markers so that they have less scoring opportunities.

The game plays at an excellent pace and, I daresay, reminds me of a good novel. In the beginning players are usually placing tiles without too much thought for its effect much akin to character development. Only this time it’s board development. To place a marker in the early stages is inviting your opponents to place negative point tiles next to your marker so it’s a very risky venture. The game ramps up after a few tiles have been placed and attractive scoring areas start to appear. Players must decide if a scoring area is attractive enough to risk your opponents’ abilities to give you negative points or lock your marker down for the rest of the game. After everyone has placed at least one scoring marker then the game really ratchets up as it becomes really tough to decide if closing out scoring for you is worth more than reducing the effectiveness of your opponents’ markers. There are many options at this point and about 4/5 of the way through the game it climaxes. As the tiles continue to be played the number of options dwindle and it becomes a scramble to find the best scoring areas before they all disappear. Soon enough the game finishes and most may be surprised to find that only half an hour has passed.

In our particular game I was able to take advantage of some of my opponents’ tile placements that created some big scores for me. They were placing tiles that boosted some of their markers but left open some juicy spots that I eagerly claimed. Jeff Baker was unfortunate to have one of his earliest placed markers locked down for the whole game in an area that eventually netted him zero points because of the musketeer. I imagine that if we had played again that I wouldn’t have been as fortunate because they would have been more aware of how tile placements affect the rest of the board.

I really like this game. It offers an incredible array of options in a short 30 minute time span.

Thread: In future games I’ll take out the truly bad tiles

ValJor — 2005-10-10T13:30:20+00:00

Date: October 8th, 2005

Game: Cronberg

Players: Isabela, Jackson, Nicolas and Valdir (myself)

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Dinner would be on soon, so we did not have a lot of time, therefore we had to go with a fast game. After having visited the tourist attractions in Paris Paris and established our points of sale in La Strada, it was time to rebuild the city of Cronberg, destroyed by a big fire in 1726. I explained the rules and off we went putting our markers and tiles.

I mentioned that one thing I don’t like in this game is the "hurt yourself" race at the end of the game. I told them about my previous try of this game, where everybody except the owner of the game ended in the negatives, so they knew that the scores would not be anything to be proud of...

The first to be hit by the negatives was Jackson: Isabela got one of the bad tiles (-4/-8) and placed it on one of his pawns, sending him below zero right at the beginning of the game.

The game wasn’t overly nasty, but the negative tiles were showing up too frequently, so there was not much we could do about them. I explained how the activated parks and coats of arms would affect the endgame scoring and how the guards throw away the scoring pawns right away. There was some confusion on how the scoring would work, but after a few examples, everything was cleared up.

Final Score
[c] Player: Points
Valdir: 25
Nicolas: 9
Jackson: -15
Isabela: -25
[/c]My daughter Larissa arrived (from the museum she had been visiting with a friend) very close to the end of the game. Isabela is very fond of Larissa, so she went with her upstairs, we lost a player... But it was the end race to find the not-so-bad spots anyway, it didn’t matter much, we did the moves for Isabela.

Jackson was happy enough that he was still in the scoring board by the end of the game... Isabela was left with two scoring pawns when everybody had placed theirs, so we had to place them in spots that took a lot of points from her.

After the game I decided to separate the very bad tiles (-3/-6 and –4/-8) so that they won’t be in future games unless absolutely necessary. It’s terrible to play a game and have a score of –10 or –20 when the winner is around +20.

Thread: Cronberg in the Classroom

steveoliverc — 2005-09-22T02:16:18+00:00

It was time to bring in a game with addition and subtraction of positive and negative numbers, so Cronberg was at the top of my list of games to bring in and let the 5th graders try out. I enjoy playing this game with adults and was hoping the students would enjoy it as well. And get in some math practice.

First group -- Things started off friendly enough with 4 positive tiles being drawn right off, but then things got ugly as a -8 was placed next to an opponent's family member. Two of the students kept up a grudge match the entire game, meanwhile another student quietly built up high-point intersections which led him to a huge victory of 82 to 36 to 29 to -1.

Second group -- we ran a little short on time so we only played 3 or 4 rounds, but Marie jumped out in a clear lead by placing a building so that the Coat of Arms ( - > + space) was locked in, and turning a -8 into +8 and 16 points for the intersection. Nice work!

I noticed that the kids played a strategy I haven't seen in adult games, which is that they will place a family member onto an empty intersection, figuring that's better than any of the intersections with buildings without any good choices. It worked out a few times, but sometimes the result was predictably that another player placed a negative number on them.

Cronberg exceeded my already high expectations as a fun yet educational math game. The students asked to play it again next week, which is high praise indeed.

Thread: Re:Are Negative Scores the Rule?

RoGo — 2005-04-30T19:13:44+00:00

Hi Jay,
when many negative tiles are laid in the beginning the game is some times awful, but that's random.
If you play with 3 or 4 real gamers, I higly recommended to go for a fixed amount of victory points as winning condition - say 75 - you will be playing 2 or 3 rounds to get there.
Greetings
Roland

Thread: Are Negative Scores the Rule?

quarks — 2005-04-30T13:44:42+00:00

I've played Bonobo Beach twice. In my first play, all three of us were gamers, and everyone's final score was negative. In my second game, it was me and three thirteen year old boys (who, not surprisingly, were quite taken with the topless mermaid tile). The winner had a final score of thirty or forty; the rest of us were negative. I want to like this gane, but based on these two experiences it seems pretty painfully defensive. I can't remember enough play by play of either game to invite any real analysis, but maybe someone can suggest some tactics for making the game a little more constructive.

Thread: Session Report

Andrew York — 2005-01-26T17:50:22+00:00

Second up for the coffee table crew was Cronberg. Despite owning the only copy in the group, Oggie is not a huge fan of this, claiming he just doesn’t get it.

Andy took the risky choice of playing a couple of very early dobbers. Obviously Oggie and Tel did everything in their power to stitch him up, eventually finishing his first dobber off with a total of -2. This was the only dobber he got back in the whole game. Tel and Oggie on the other hand were reluctant to place dobbers onto a very unfriendly looking board. Eventually they both cracked and put some onto the board. Tel got one chased off by a guard, and got one returned to him for -3. Oggie fared a little better with his first dobber, scoring the first positive points of the game. Andy had found a couple of places were he was ensured of positive points at the end of the game. We were now faced with an unusual situation, with a few rhombi left to be played along one edge of the board, Tel and Oggie both had most of their dobbers still to play. Hence we suddenly found dobbers were being played on totally empty vertices, in the hope that something good came up. Most of the last played tiles were positive, but there was only 1 big scorer. The last tiles forced more of Oggies and Tels dobbers back to their hands. After the last tile was laid Tel still had to place 1 dobber (settling for a -4 spot) and Oggie had 3 to play (for a total of about -24). Andys early aggressive play paid big dividends as he run out a comfortable winner.

Scores : Andy 34, Tel 12, Oggie -11
Ratings: Andy 8, Tel 8, Oggie 6
Winner(s): Andy

Thread: User Review

steveoliverc — 2005-01-01T16:22:17+00:00

CRONBERG
This is a nifty tile-laying game for 2 to 4 players which plays in less than half an hour. The designer/publishers (Roland and Tobias Goslar) mentioned somewhere that this game was influenced by Knizia’s Auf Heller und Pfennig which I haven’t played.

BITS
You can buy this game in two versions: Cronberg, and Bonobo Beach. Or you can download and print out a copy of Cronberg from the publisher’s web site at http://www.kronberger-spiele.de/eng/cronberg/cron.html which is what I did, so I can’t comment on the quality of the pieces for the purchased versions. I can say that the artwork is clever and functional. You play with a map of the walled city of Cronberg which is shaped like a hexagon, and broken up into 54 triangles which are divided by streets. The triangles are each one of three types: a park, a coat of arms, or a musketeer.

Each player has a token called the head of the family which is used on the scoring track (the wall of the city), and four tokens used on the game board called family members.

There are 28 diamond-shaped (rhombus) tiles which fit over exactly two of the triangles in the city. Each tile has a number at each of its four corners. Half of these tiles have negative numbers, the other half positive.

SETUP
Each player takes their four family members and places the head of the family at zero on the scoring track. All of the tiles are mixed face down and set off the board.

RULES
On their turn, a player may either place a tile, or place a family member. Players alternate turns until one player can do neither (either no place for a tile or a family member, or they’ve run out of family members).

You can place a tile on any two triangles that are vacant.

You can place a family member (if you have any still available) on any intersection as long as the intersection still has at least one vacant adjacent triangle, and is not adjacent to an active musketeer (explained shortly).

If you place a tile so that any triangle on the board becomes “locked-in” or completely surrounded by tiles, that solitary vacant triangle becomes “active.” An active park and coat of arms will affect the end of game scoring (explained later). An active musketeer “drives out” any family members in any adjacent intersections, and prevents any future family members from being placed at intersections which the musketeer is adjacent to.

I downloaded the rules book so I don’t know if it is the same as what is included in either of the purchased versions. The rules for Cronberg that you can download are concise and to the point, with a graphic example that perfectly explains the scoring. I did find myself going back a couple of times to make sure I understood how the triangle activation affected scoring, so possibly that section could have been expanded, or included some examples.

SCORING
You can score at the end of any turn, and at the end of the game.

At the end of any turn (yours or any players) where one of your family members is completely surrounded by tiles or the edge of the board, you score that family member and remove it from the board where it can then possibly return later in the game. To score, you add up the numbers on the corners of the tiles which are at that intersection. This might be negative or positive, and you move your family head score counter along the city wall scoring track according.

At the end of the game, you score any remaining family members. There are some additional considerations however, because now you might have family members at intersections which are also adjacent to a park or coat of arms. For each park that is adjacent, multiply the sum of the tile corners by 2. So for two parks, that would quadruple your total, etc. And if your total is negative, then you’ve doubled a negative number, which will really hurt your score. However, if you are adjacent to a coat of arms, then any of the negative numbers become positive, and then you sum the total. If next to a park and a coat of arms, first remove the negatives, then sum, then double.

The player with the highest score wins.

STRATEGY
Player interaction is the key to this game, so any strategy you might attempt ends up being turn-by-turn tactics wherein you try to maximize your best opportunity for that given move, considering the current tile configuration. The other players have too much control over tile placement for you to enact a strategy and see it through. But that’s not to say that each turn doesn’t present a lot of tension. Almost as soon as the game gets going, you’ve got to decide: do I place a tile that will help me score, or do I play a tile that will hurt my opponent? Or do I try to create a park or coat of arms? Or do I take the chance of placing a family member in the hopes that the other players won’t hurt my score by playing a negative tile next to it? This is what makes the game so enjoyable to me is that each turn presents a new challenge with a new decision for me to make.

You want to set up places where you can score big points at the end of the game, but you also need to score points during the game since you can’t expect the end game to win it for you. With only four family member markers, you’ve got to balance where you think you can score points at game end (and tie up those counters) against scoring during the game which gives you back the counter for another future scoring opportunity. This reminds me of the tension in Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers where you balance placing a hunter in a meadow where it sits until the end of the game, versus placing a gatherer in a river or forest for an end-of-turn score.

There are few of the musketeer triangles on the board and it’s rare that I’ve seen them used to drive away family members. Likewise, getting a park established near your high-number tiles can be a challenge as the other players will be more than glad to lay a negative tile over it.

Towards the last few turns of the game, players usually try to place all of their family member counters wherever they can.

The game has the feel of a beginning (free for all tile placement), a middle (which is most of the game and the majority of the decision-making), and the end where the counters are place to pick off any remaining points.

THEME
I think that the theme here works. I won’t say it’s a perfect fit between the game mechanics and the theme, but it’s a far cry from calling it pasted on (even if it is – after all, there are two different themes published). When I sat down to play, it made sense that family members stand at corners, parks improve the value of the nearby real estate, and musketeers tell people to go back home.

I like that the game was released in two themes (Cronberg and Bonobo Beach). I haven’t played Bonobo Beach but it’s supposed to be exactly the same game with another theme. I think it’s a useful idea for publishers to put out multiple themes so players have a choice of a theme that suits their tastes. Personally, I wouldn’t bring the Bonobo Beach version to my school game club given the graphics it uses, so the Cronberg theme works for me. And even that theme comes in two versions: if you look at the images here on the ‘geek, you’ll see that published version’s map is different from the free PDF print and play version you can get from the publisher’s web site. I actually like the free version’s map the best! It reminds me of the game board in Carcassonne the Castle. The printed version does include a nice path for scoring negative points, however, which would be nice to have on the free map as well.

2, 3, or 4 PLAYERS?
The game plays 2, 3, or 4 players. (You can download the PC version from the publisher’s web site and try these for yourself.) After having played each a few times (with PC and human opponents), I’d say that all three levels are enjoyable but the three player is my favorite. I think that the four player goes too quickly given the size of the board and the number of tiles to place, while the two player version just doesn’t have enough variety of choices given that there is only one other player to block or be blocked by. The three player version has the best balance of tension, interaction, and enjoyment, in my opinion. All three levels play about 15 to 30 minutes.

PLAYING WITH CHILDREN
I’m going to be running an after school game club soon at my daughter’s elementary school, so lately all the games I play have been with an eye towards, How will this work with kids? Any hidden educational value here? Cronberg is definitely a game I will take to the game club. First of all, it’s easy to learn and fun. Second, it plays in half an hour or less. And on top of that, it provides practice for students in adding negative and positive numbers, and doing multiplication with negative numbers. The children will need to do some quick math on every turn which means there will be a lot of repetition in the math (very important) but the game is fun enough that this is not a game they will spot as an attempt to teach them anything.

SUMMARY
I really like this game. It’s tile-laying, it has a theme that works fairly well, it plays quickly, it’s easy to explain, and most importantly it’s fun. I’m almost feeling guilty that I downloaded this for free! Almost….  But I do have Tom Tube on my list of games for my next order so I’ll make it up to the Goslar Brothers that way! Hmmm, come to think of it, Lost Valley looks like a lot of fun as well…

Thread: All newbies ended up below zero!

ValJor — 2004-08-23T19:22:37+00:00

Date: August 21st, 2004

Game: Bonobo Beach

Players: Luc, Rami, Valdir (myself) and Yves

This past Saturday (Aug 21st) Pierre-Luc (dwarf here at the BGG) invited Ivan and I for an afternoon of German boardgaming. Rami, Luc and Yves were also there. We played TransAmerica, Ricochet Robot, The Settlers of Catan - 5-6 Player Expansion and Bonobo Beach. I won’t comment on the first three games as Pierre-Luc has already written session reports on them, so this is just my report on the Bonobo Beach game.

After the long game of Catan with six players, it was almost time for Ivan and I to go home, so we couldn’t play anything too long. We thought about trying another game of TransAmerica, this time with the "choose your cities" variant that I read here at the BGG. But Pierre-Luc wanted to play Chess, so he and Ivan took out his LotR set and started battle.

Luc told us that Bonobo Beach was a quick game, so we (Luc, Rami, Yves and I) sat down for a nice little day at the beach. Luc was the owner of this game and the only one with any experience on it. So he taught us the game, explained the little details about bathrooms and umbrellas and off we went.

At the end of the game many rhomboids laid unused outside the beach and many triangle spaces on the board were empty. The one thing that I didn’t like about this game was the obligation at the end of the game to place your markers on the board. This forces the players to start scoring negative points, which hurts a lot...

I liked the game but it was a bit depressing. All three newbies ended up with negative points. Luc was the only one who wasn’t in the red, he won the game with 15 points. Yves had –1, I got –18 (!) and poor Rami ended up somewhere near –35!! I told them that for next time we should all start at 30 instead of at 0...

Thread: Cronberg worthy successor?

db3000 — 2004-08-18T20:11:37+00:00

A recent gaming session featured the following titles: Hansa, Big City, Airlines and Cronberg. A good mix of games. Anyway, Cronberg was new and i couldn't help but compare it to Auf Heller und Pfennig. Cronberg, fortunately, was not my purchase and wasn't really a game on my want list per se, but i was curious. Cronberg is a light tile placement game that can be played rather quickly. We decided 2 rounds was enough for our 3 player outing. If you've played Auf Heller then Cronberg will seem very familiar territory(although there are differences between the two). The main differences are: the tile shape
and special multipliers on the Cronberg board verses none on Auf Heller. Again, this is a quick comparison and not a detailed review. Getting back to Cronberg, it plays quickly and is light and fun but if you own Auf Heller then i don't really think Cronberg is all that necessary. It's pretty derivative stuff. I'd rate Cronberg 6.5/10

Thread: Session Report

dwarf — 2004-08-09T04:25:03+00:00

The last game of the night (at least for me) I played Cronberg. Valdir and Ivan had left. Yves was showing some of his games to Rami. Towards the end of my game of Goa, my brother got here. So I played Cronberg with Luc, Marc and my brother Gilles.

At first we took many tiles and place them instead of own cylinder thing. Many negative tiles we drew first. On the map, there was only an umbrella, the rest was covered. That was very useful for Gilles which had 19 points for his cylinder for the spot of the umbrella.

I had some difficulty concerating about the middle of the game. I was starting to feel sick for some reason.

Don`t recall who won but do rememeber finishing in the negative points and finishing last.

Thread: Session Report

jens_hoppe — 2004-05-06T02:30:18+00:00

The final game of the evening was my newly purchased Cronberg. Participants were Sune, Rasmus and I. As has been described elsewhere, Cronberg is a tile laying / token placing game vague similar to Carcassonne, but with some significant conceptual differences too.

The board consists of triangular spaces. In a player's turn, he can either place a token at a free intersection between triangles, or he can draw and place a rhombe-shaped tile on the board (where it covers two triangles). If all triangles adjacent to a token are covered with tiles, that token is scored (adding up the numbers of the adjacent tiles) and returned to the owner.

Triangles come in three types: parks, guards and shields: If at any time it becomes impossible to cover a triangle with a rhombe, that triangle is activated: Activated guards immediately send off any tokens adjacent to them. Activated parks and shields are only used at the end of the game.

When no one is able to place either more tokens or tiles the game is over. Any tokens still on the board are now scored, although being adjacant to activated parks or shields may modify the score: Each activated park doubles the score of the adjacent tiles, and an activated shield turns any negative numbers into positive ones.

Our first game was very confusing! Since placement is mandatory, the endgame is often characterized by players being forced to place tokens or tiles at a disadvantage. The game is very much a lightweight game, but fun all the same - and fast!

Our first game ended with Rasmus the clear victor (32 points to Sune's -1 and my -9!!). In our second game, Sune won, with me close behind and Rasmus, er, less close behind me.

Thread: Re:Preview

RoGo — 2004-04-10T10:00:10+00:00

Hi Greg,
thx for your nice review.
Just one thing: If you are doing it again with some gamers, try to play for a fixed amount of 75 points. It becomes much more tactical.
Roland

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2004-04-09T22:40:27+00:00

Bonobo Beach is the same game as Cronberg, only re-packaged with a “day at the beach” theme. I hadn’t played either version until Gulf Games 13, when I pestered Kevin Gonzalez to teach me the game. I found the game to be decent, but nothing I just had to have. However, when a copy was still available on the prize table in a later round, I was happy to secure a copy.

The board depicts an idyllic island, just ready to be populated by sun worshippers. Prime bathing locations are depicted by an abundance of triangles, arranged in a loose hexagon pattern. Most of these spaces are “dunes” which can ultimately double the score of adjacent tokens. Others contain shady huts, while others contain biological necessities … toilets. Ringing the very edge of the island is a score track, cleverly depicted by footprints.

Each player receives four tokens which will be placed onto the board during the course of the game. Completing the components are a collection of tiles depicting a variety of beach scenes, including water coolers, rafts, palm trees and, of course, sun bathers. These tiles are shaped like a rhombus. Hmmm. If you are like me, I’ve long since forgotten most of the things I learned in high school geometry, so a trip to the dictionary was in order. I re-learned that a rhombus is an “equilateral parallelogram”. Well, that’s easier. Yeah, right. How about this: the tiles are shaped roughly like diamonds. Sort of. How about this: put two triangles together at their base and you’ll have a rhombus. These “rhombs” are sized so that they will cover two triangle board spaces when placed. There is a value on the four corners of each tile, with half of the tiles possessing positive values and half possessing negative values. These tiles are shuffled together and placed face-down to form a draw pile.

A player has two options on his turn:

1) Place a token on a spot. Tokens are placed at the spot where the corners of at least two triangles meet. At least one of these adjacent triangles must not already be covered by a tile. Further, a token may NOT be placed adjacent at a spot adjacent to a toilet if the triangle depicting the toilet cannot be covered by a tile. You’ll see why this rule exists in a bit.

Once a token is placed, it will remain on the board as long as there is at least one free adjacent triangle … unless the uncovered triangle contains a toilet. As promised, more on this later.

2) Place a rhomb. A rhomb is placed in any orientation so that it covers two board spaces. After placing the rhomb, two things MIGHT occur:

a) Intermediate scoring. When all triangles adjacent to a token are covered, that token is scored. Total the numbers on the rhombi immediately adjacent to the token and adjust the score marker of that player accordingly. It is possible to score negative points, particularly when your opponents are being nasty. In any case, the token is returned to the player.

b) If by placement of the rhomb a triangle becomes isolated – that is, a rhomb can no longer be placed on it, that triangle is activated. If the triangle depicts a dune or hut, the effects will be calculated at the end of the game. If, however, it depicts a toilet, any tokens that are adjacent to that triangle are driven away and returned to their owners. Who wants to sun bathe next to an outhouse?

Players continue to place tokens or rhombi until NO player is able to make a placement. At this point, a final scoring is conducted, with each token on the board being evaluated.

As in the intermediate scoring, tally the numbers on the rhombi immediately adjacent to the token. If the token is adjacent to a hut, all negative numbers are converted to positive numbers. If it is adjacent to a dune, double the sum of the numbers. Being located next to multiple dunes can quadruple or even octuple the score. Once all tokens have been evaluated, the player with the highest cumulative total becomes “Baron of the Beach”.

The game is quite simple to explain and play. It is also very quick – playing in 20 – 30 minutes. As such, it should prove to be a good candidate for the family gaming environment. However, don’t let that discourage you from playing it with your gaming group. There are decisions to be made, not only in terms of where to place a token or rhomb, but particularly in regards to timing. Placing a token early may result in it being bombarded by negative rhombs placed by your opponents. Waiting too long, however, can result in having the best spots scooped by your opponents, leaving few, if any, advantageous locations on which to place your token. Since the game doesn’t end until ALL players can no longer place rhombi or tokens, the last several turns are usually characterized by players being forced to place their remaining tokens, often at a disadvantage. Rarely are there locations available at the end of the game that will afford an abundance of points. Thus, it is usually wisest to place your tokens before the final turn or two, taking advantage of locations that will yield sizable points.

Take advantage of those dunes whenever possible … provided your total will be positive. If you are able to score positive points and have that total quadrupled, that can be an unbeatable combination. In the same vein, be vigilant to make sure your opponents don’t score such a coup, placing negative rhombs next to their tokens whenever it appears that they might be able to reap a bountiful harvest of points.

Although there are some decisions to be made, there is no escaping that the game falls firmly into the “light” game category. It will likely be used as a “filler” as our game group, and see more table time when visiting with my wife’s family or enjoying a weekend outing to the beach. In that venue, Bonobo Beach will be a pleasant way to wile away a bit of time.

Keith, Jason, Jim and I jostled for the best locations on the beach. Jim seemed to be scooping the best spaces, consistently scoring positive points and taking a healthy lead. However, I managed to quadruple one of my locations, scoring an astonishing 56 points from that one spot! This was enough to vault me past Jim for the victory.

Finals: Greg 66, Jim 57, Keith 54, Jason 15

Ratings: Keith 8, Jason 7.5, Jim 6.5, Greg 6.5

Thread: Preview

gschloesser — 2004-04-09T19:54:23+00:00

Thread: Session Report

telbert — 2004-03-04T22:22:54+00:00

The small box evening was concluded with Cronberg.

Only the second time we've played this, but similar tactics on display both times. Some players going for regular points by trying to get their pieces back and others tying their pieces in so they get positives but dont come back. Pauls aim was to lock all his pieces onto the board for as many points as possible, and didn't get a single token back during the whole game. Andy was going for getting his pieces back and for a large chunk of the game was the only person to score. He managed to return 3 pieces before anyone else got 1 back but only 1 of these 3 scores was positive. Tel did get 1 piece back towards the end of the game however it scored zero. Oggie also got a couple of pieces back for a combined total of -5. Tels was delighted to place his last 2 pieces for a combined total of -10, this was because he'd managed to avoid the 2 death spots of -20 and -42!!!! Andy and Oggie shared these to ensure they both finished negative though Andy was relived to remain on the score track. Pauls tactic came up trumps as he run out a comfortable winner.

Final Scores
Paul 47, Tel 24, Andy -13, Oggie -27

Ratings / 10
Paul 7, Tel 8, Andy 8, Oggie 7

Thread: Session Report

telbert — 2003-12-10T14:24:35+00:00

This is another tile laying game. The board is a large hexagon made up of lots of small triangles with an circle large enough for the playing pieces at each point of the triangles. The tiles are rhomboids the size of 2 of the triangles. Each rhomboid has points assigned to its 4 vertices ranging from -8 to 8. On his turn a player either places a randomly drawn tile onto the board or places one of his 4 playing pieces. When playing a tile it must cover 2 of the triangles on the board and must not overlap other tiles. When placing a piece it must be adjacent to at least 1 non-covered triangle. If a piece becomes completely surrounded by tiles it is scored then returned to the player for later use. The player scores points equal to the sum of all the numbers adjacent to its position. If an uncovered triangle becomes isolated such that a rhomboid cannot be placed to cover it then it becomes active. There are three types of triangles, 2 are used in scoring, but the third is a musketeer. When this becomes active it immediately forces any pieces at its vertices to be returned unscored to the players. These vertices are then out of bounds to any players pieces. Play continues until nobody can place a piece or tile. All remaining pieces on the board are then scored. Scoring is as before by summing all adjacent numbers however uncovered board tiles now may come into effect. A piece touching a yellow triangle has all its negative numbers made positive. The green triangle doubles the score (multiple triangles have a cumulative effect so 2 green triangles multiply the score by 4). Whoever scores the most points wins the game.

Oggie had a distinct advantage having played the PC version of Bonobo Beach (the same game re-themed). Everyone decided to place a tile in the first round, which turned out to be a wise move as all 4 tiles were negatives. Tel then claimed the centre spot which had avoided all 4 tiles. Most players followed suit, such that after the third turn everyone had 1 piece on the board. This is when players strategy diverged. Oggie decided on a playing pieces strategy and soon got all his pieces on the board. Paul and Andy both got 2 or 3 pieces on whilst Tel just consolidated his original piece. Paul and Andy both got a piece back just before Oggie managed to get all 4 pieces trapped such that none were going to return. With still a third of the game to go all he could do was try to minimise other players scores. With most of the board populated Tel lay his 3 remaining pieces on consecutive turns. Paul took a risk by placing his last piece in the only unpopulated area of the board, lucky draws for Andy and Oggie saw a potential 32 points for Paul transformed into a spectacular -16. Final tallying found Tel and Oggie (the 2 players that didn't get any pieces returned during the game) claiming first and second. Andy claim in third with Paul only just managing to stay positive.

Fairly quick game coming in in about 30 mins. One comment made by one of the group is that the downtime between turns, although fairly short, is downtime. You can't really plan your next move as you don't know if you'll be drawing a tile or placing a piece and that'll be decided by what the player to your right does. Despite this I quite enjoyed it and am looking forward to more games.

Final Scores
Tel 45, Oggie 37, Andy 27, Paul 3

Ratings / 10
7's all round.

Thread: Re:Session Report

RoGo — 2003-09-03T21:41:44+00:00

Cheesegeek (#18888),
a funny session. Just try it again with three and never set a token first. I would have doubled the money after your first moves.
Nice dice
Roland

Thread: Session Report

Cheesegeek — 2003-09-03T19:31:20+00:00

Four players : D. C. P. S.
Every player seems quite afraid of showing to the others their goals therefore everybody placed two poppels before any rhomboid.
C. starts on on othe side of the game and places a second one in the at 3 intersections, in the middle , the others remain, close to the middle.
Then, (for some unknown reason (the result of the last game )), C. ,P. & S. agreed on the fact that D. placed in the middle should be attacked first, therefore he is soon surrounded by red tiles, without havng the time to protec himself (lots of negative points).
There's a keen competition between S. and O. but O. has an ally since he is located between two C. positions.
C. makes a mistake is immediatly attacked by O. And S.
Finally O. And S. remains close (18 vs 20) and the last placements became the most important. The last tile (a red one) gives a final advantage to S.

Quick game rather tense, everybody wanted to be the first to mark points to protect himself and then play and aggressive game againts the others!

Thread: Re:User Review

RoGo — 2003-07-19T10:08:02+00:00

crackedlcd81 (#10680),
thx for your nice review.
As you write a 2 player game is a bit dry, 4 player maybe chaotic. In my opinion it is best with 3.
If you are interested in Tom Tube: it is available everywhere through www.adamspielt.de and in some days - as we hope - also at bouldergames.
Regards
Roland

Thread: User Review

crackedlcd81 — 2003-07-18T20:55:13+00:00

Cronberg is a free game available for download as a 7 page colour PDF from the publisher's website at www.kronberger-spiele.de. This review (my first for the 'Geek) is based on test plays of 2 and 4 player games.

First of all, I think I'd like to share some "modelling" tips with you as the game requires that you build it yourself. I downloaded the .pdf file (minus the first page) and took it on floppy disk to a local copy center and made really nice, slightly enlarged printouts of the pages. It cost around $7.00 US. I then purchased a large piece of foamboard with adhesive backing and some cardstock. I cut out the pieces with a paper cutter and pasted the rhombs onto the cardstock and the board segments onto the foamboard. The results are pretty good, and much cheaper than buying photomount spray!

The game itself is very good, and of course the price can't be beat. The designers have stated that Knizia's Auf Heller und Pfennig is a direct antecedent, and it clearly shows. Cronberg is a tile placement and scoring game first and foremost. Much like AHUP, players take turns either drawing and placing tiles with numerical values onto board spaces or placing one of their four scoring markers (in this case "family heads" rather than "market stalls".

Cronberg takes this idea into a new direction as the board is hexagonal with 54 triangular spaces with points for placing the "family heads" at each intersection. The tiles are rhombus-shaped, and such each covers 2 triangles. There are 4 numbers on each corner of the tiles, with duplicate numbers on the "long" and "short" corners. Some spaces provide special actions should they be completely surrounded by other tiles, such as chasing away other player's pieces or turning negative numbers positive. When a family head is surrounded by tiles or another tile can not be placed around it, it scores the total value of the numbers adjacent to the family head.

The gameplay is very tactical and as each piece has high and low numbers there seems to be a bit more depth than AHUP as there is the potential for more subtle manuevering to optimize your positions. Of course, there is also the potential for opponents to trash your positions with negative tiles which makes for some not-so-friendly competition.

I would probably have bought Cronberg as a commercially available release provided it was around $20 US. It would, at that price, be well worth it if you like tile laying/scoring mechanisms and would like to play something that brings a new element to this sort of game via the rhombs.

I do have one criticism- I feel the game is simply not playable as a 2 player game. A lot of the interaction is lost and much of the strategy of using the special spaces is lost. With 4 players, the game does become a little more chaotic but it's also quite a bit richer and more interesting. Perhaps a variant of playing more than one piece per turn or playing two colours might rectify this.

In sum, Cronberg is well worth your time to download, assemble, and play. I'd like to thank the Goslars for making this game available to us and I can't wait to see more from them (especially Tom Tube!)

RATED- 7 out of 10

M.