Disclaimer:
I’d just like to point out that I am writing this review based upon the prototype unpublished version and so there could be small differences between this game and the finished article.
Overview:
Fagin’s Gang is a medium-weight strategy game for 3-6 players involving resource management and trading. The game is set in Dickensian London with each player taking control of a small group of street urchins who are trying to ensure they make enough money to safely return to Fagin. The winner is the first player to successfully return three of their five urchins to Fagin.
Components:
As I have been playing a prototype I can’t give a full review of all the components but I will give my thoughts on what I have seen so far. The board is fairly large and I assume will fold into four when the game is published. It is arranged with a central circle representing Covent Garden Market and six location ‘tracks’ representing different locations around London. Each track has a box representing a warehouse next to it in the same colour. There is a track running around the outside of the board to represent each player’s current total of money in shillings.
The player pawns representing the urchins come in different colours to the six location tracks and there are also 6 pawns representing policemen who walk the beat around each of the six locations. One of the urchin pawns is used on the shilling track around the outside, meaning each player has 5 urchins to use in the game.
The game also comes with 180 commodity cubes in 6 different colours matching the six location tracks. These are small (same size as in Caylus) but work well for the game. There is also a First Player marker, a Market Player marker, a Market Price Wheel and a D6.
Rules:
The rulebook I received was colour printed onto A4 sheets so I can’t comment on the actual quality of printing on the final rulebook. In terms of the content of the rulebook, it is a relatively short set of rules (only 7 pages) and very easy to follow. There aren’t many examples but I didn’t feel that there needed to be as the rules were so straightforward. In my first game we had a couple of questions but I was always able to find the answer quickly and easily. Since then I haven’t needed to refer to the rulebook at all.
Gameplay:
The game plays in ‘rounds’ with each round consisting of 4 ‘phases’, which I will come to shortly.
Game set up – The number of commodities in each warehouse will depend on the number of players. The market is filled with cubes from the warehouses. The market price wheel is placed on the market and the D6 rolled, rotating the market price marker the number of spaces indicated in order to randomise it’s starting position. The policemen are randomly placed, one on each location track, according to two rolls of the D6. Each player takes one set of urchin pawns and places one on the 20 spot on the shilling track. Each player takes one of each type of commodity cube from the warehouses. The D6 is rolled to determine the first player and they are given the First Player Marker.
Rounds – As mentioned, each round consists of 4 phases:
1) Player action
Players take turns in clockwise order from the first player to choose one of the following actions:
a) Urchin Movement
b) Commodity Cube Income
c) Cash Income
d) Go to the Market
2) Policemen movement
Move policemen on occupied tracks only
3) Market Forces:
i) Reduce commodity cubes in hand to 20
ii) Re-fill market only if completely empty
iii) Rotate market price wheel by D6 spaces
4) Move the First Player Marker
Pass the marker to the player on the left
The bulk of the action obviously takes place in phase 1 with each player taking their action. The urchins move onto and then up or down the tracks by paying commodity cubes back to the warehouses. The cost to move on a track is fixed according to what each track is (for example the cost to move on the fruit track is two fruit cubes per level of movement). Each level on the track has an amount of commodity cubes that are obtained if that urchin chooses to collect Commodity Cube Income, and likewise an amount in shillings if the chosen action is Cash Income. This works so that the higher the level, he better the Commodity Cube Income, with the inverse true of cash Income.
In order to return to Fagin and Urchin must move off the top of the location track by spending the appropriate commodity cubes, but must also then pay 15 shillings to Fagin, so it’s important to keep a balance of both commodity cubes and shillings.
Also, when moving or collecting income (of either kind) a player chooses up to three of his/her urchins to activate for this, so it’s important to decide which will give the most benefit.
There is also some ‘jostling for position’ as each level on the track can only hold one pawn. If a player lands on another player’s urchin then they are able to ‘bump’ the other urchin out of the way, either up or down the track. Likewise the policemen also ‘bump’ urchins out of the way (either up or down depending on which way they were travelling. It is possible to be bumped off the end of a track and in this instance an urchin is not allowed to return to Fagin so you must be careful not to allow this to happen and have all your previous efforts in getting up the track wasted!
There is also the option, when taking commodity cube income, of exchanging cubes in hand for cubes from the warehouse. This is done at a ratio of paying 4:1 and each 4:1 exchange is done instead of using one of the three urchins to take income on a track. Thus a player could take income on three tracks, or two tracks and exchange 4:1, or take income on one track and perform two 4:1 exchanges, or just perform three 4:1 exchanges.
The market is a way to buy/sell cubes and therefore a way to obtain both cubes and money in just one action. It’s also the only action that allows all players to be involved at once. The player that chooses to go to market takes the Market Player Marker and they then have the option of buying or selling either 1 or 2 cubes at whatever the current prices are on the Market Price Wheel. Then going anti-clockwise each player takes it in turns to buy or sell 1 cube or pass. This continues going round until everyone has passed, with the player having the Market Player Marker always able to buy or sell 1 or 2 cubes compared to everyone else’s 1. This is compensation for the fact that they are effectively sacrificing their action for the turn. There is limited space in the market so a player can only buy or sell if there is the appropriate commodity or empty space there.
The game ends immediately when a player returns their third urchin to Fagin.
Review of Gameplay:
As mentioned the bulk of the gameplay lies in the Phase One with the players choosing their actions. At the beginning of the game this feels a little scripted as the options are limited but once it gets going it can become an interesting decision as to what to do. I often felt like I wanted to do more than one action but you’re limited to just one so you have to hope your plans aren’t scuppered before you get another turn. Phases 2-4 are merely housekeeping tasks and don’t take up much time or effort so the game plays quite quickly with little downtime. Usually you’ll be thinking about what you want to do on your next action anyway.
The first time I played it all seemed a little random and chaotic and I didn’t have much of a gameplan. The second time I had a much better idea of what I wanted to do, which urchins I wanted to advance up which tracks, which urchins I wanted to use to collect different kinds of income etc.
The random element of the policemen seemed to work a little strangely to me though. Thematically you would expect the policemen to always be bad for the urchins but it’s possible for them to actually help by ‘bumping’ an urchin in the direction they want to go. This didn’t sit quite right with me but for the purposes of the game it adds a little random element that can make you re-evaluate and change your decisions.
Overall:
My first impressions were that this was a nice looking game with an interesting mechanic that I liked. The theme isn’t one that drew me in but neither was it one that turned me off either. After my first play I was a bit unsure. It seemed like there was a good game in there somewhere but I hadn’t quite grasped it. The problem with policemen potentially helping the urchins, as mentioned above, was apparent and caused a little consternation. After another couple of plays, however, the game clicked far better with me. I was able to see more clearly what I was trying to achieve and how to go about it. Being able to plan ahead a bit better meant I enjoyed the game a lot more.
I must admit to being a little sceptical over the theme now though. The commodity cubes degenerated from ‘fruit’, ‘pocket-watches’ and ‘silverware’ into ‘green’, ‘yellow’ and ‘black’. The location tracks weren’t ‘The River Thames’ or ‘St Paul’s Cathedral’, but ‘The Blue Track’ and ‘The Purple track’. The fact that the policemen can help the urchins didn’t fit the theme. Also, the idea of paying commodities to go up and down a location track seemed a little strange to the theme.
I also think it can be a little dry and mathematical, working out how much cash you need, or how many of this or that cube you need.
Overall though I would say that I’ve enjoyed the game more each time I’ve played. It’s very easy to teach and easy to play. It says about 20-30 minutes per player and that’s probably about right. When teaching it’s about 30 minutes per player but I have no doubt the time will come down after repeated plays. It is also listed as 3-6 players but I played with 2 players and it seemed to work just fine.
Scores:
Components: Extrapolating for what I expect the finished article to be like 8/10
Rules: 9/10
Gameplay: 7.5/10
Fun: 7/10
Overall: With the current edition 7/10, with a few rules tweaks and changes to artwork, components etc. I'd 'bump' (pun intended
) it up to an 8/10
Posted Sun Aug 27,2006 12:43 pm
