Betty Egan
Canada
Kingston
Ontario
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Just got my new copy of Bison (german version) and have read through the rules so thought I'd post an overview of how the game is played to give you a bit more info if you are thinking of picking up this one. (Note: I haven't actually played the game yet)
The components are all nice quality. The game consists of 21 land tiles, each of which is composed of prairie and mountian terrain separated by river. The number of tiles used in a game is dependant upon the number of players. Also included are tents and canoes (cardboard chits) with values from 1 to 4, and Indians (wooden cubes) in four colours, as well as some white wooden cubes for each player to mark on their player mats the actions they have performed each round. Once an action is performed it may not be repeted in a round. There is also a start player marker (totem pole tile).
Each player gets a player mat which has 3 rows of boxes at the top to record the number of bison, turkey, or fish, a player has. The players use 3 of their coloured cubes as markers. The player mat also shows the costs to buy indians, tents, and canoes at the "market". There is a chart that gives the costs to pay to perform an action. The cost of an action depends on the number of indians used in that action. The currency is the bison, turkey, and fish. If no indians are used the player gains an animal of his choice, if one indian is used there is no cost, if two indians are used it costs two animals, 3 costs 4, 4 costs 7, and 5 costs 10. (I don't know if there is a formula here. Mathematicians?) All costs for actions are paid in bison, turkey, or fish in any combination (move your cube down the corresponding number on the scale).
The game runs over several rounds depending upon the number of players. During each round each player in clockwise order performs one action until all players have performed 4 actions. Then there is a scoring, which is basically an area control evaluation and the players receive bison, turkey, and fish depending on their rank in each land area. The start player token is passed to the left and anothe rounds starts.
At the start of the game 3 land tiles (marked as start tiles) are laid out to start the board. The rest of the land tiles are shuffled and placed in a face down stack. Each player begins with 4 indians, a 1pt tent and a 2pt tent, a 1 pt canoe and a 2pt canoe, and 10 each of bison, turkey, and fish. The remaining indians, tents, and canoes are put in a pile to form the "market".
At the start of each round each player takes a land tile which he must add to the board as one of his actions during the round. When he plays the tile he may place up to 5 indians on one of the land types (prairie, mountains, river) on the tile. Depending on the number of indians placed the player pays with his bison, turkey, and fish. There are rules regarding proper placement of tiles and indians (much like in Carcasonne).
As the tiles are placed, similar land types that border will create larger areas. These areas are what are scored at the end of the rounds. Players will be ranked by the value and number of tents, canoes, and or indians they possess in each area.
The other actions players may perform are: erecting or enlarging a tent, building or enlarging a canoe, or moving their indians (there are 3 different possible movement actions). There are special rules covering movement and building/enlarging and everything is paid for (dependant upon the number of indians used) with the animal "currency".
A player may at any time during his turn visit the market to buy indians, tents, or canoes to add to his supply. He may also exchange one type of animal for another at 3:1.
So basically the players go about placing tiles, enlarging areas, placing and moving indians, building tents and canoes and enlarging them in a effort to earn the most bison., turkey, and fish at scoring time.
SCORING IS QUITE INTERESTING:
Each area is scored separately. All the animals in an area are totalled. The player with the most valuable tents/canoes/indians in this area will receive the total number of animals in the area, the second ranked player gets half rounded down. For example, if there are 7 bison total in a large prairie area the first ranked player gets 7 bison, the 2nd ranked player gets 3 bison. The 3rd and 4th ranked player get the number of animals that are directly on the field (piece of the whole area) on which their possessions stand (there can only be one colour per field). So it is possible that the 3rd and 4th player get nothing or maybe more than the second player, or the 4th may get more than the third.
THE FINAL SCORING IS A BIT DIFFERENT (I think this is really cool). In the final scoring players all start at "0" for all of their animals. No matter how many bison, turkey, or fish they had, they lose it all now and all markers are placed at zero. THE FINAL SCORE WILL DECIDE IT ALL!
After the scoring, the player with the most total animals is the winner. In the case of a tie, the player with the highest-lowest amount of the three types (that Knizia thing) is the winner.
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Brad Fuller
United States
Virginia Beach
Virginia
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thank for the overview I have been looking at this one
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Huzonfirst
United States
Manassas
Virginia
For the second time in five years, the G-Men are Super Bowl champs! Woo hoo!!!!!
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Betty, this sounds VERY interesting! Thank you so much for posting this. I was naturally interested in Bison, just like any other Kramer/Kiesling release, but now I'm very excited about it. It sounds like it has a bit of Tikal in it--and for me, that's a very good thing--but it also seems to have a lot of unique aspects as well. This has just jumped to the top of my most anticipated new games list (well, right after Tempus!). Thanks again!
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