Dede Kurnia Kardiman
Indonesia
Batam
Kepulauan Riau
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Elfenland is a classic Alan R. Moon’s games, published in 1998. It was my first boardgame, a game which later turned me into a geek (and I’m proud of it).
This review doesn’t cover the rule to play this game, but more on my and our gaming group opinion of the game from 14 different aspects (with maximum rating of 5), as described in my guideline: Reviewing a Game in Easy 14 Steps
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/20788
For the complete English translation rule, can be downloaded from this link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/fileinfo.php?fileid=3539
1. Theme  (strong)
I think Elfenland has a strong theme, which is well supported by its component, artwork, and mechanics.
Taking place in a fantasy world of Elfenland, each player represents an Elf Prince, who has to visit as many cities as possible in order to be crowned as the next Elf King. There’re 20 cities to visit, excluding the starting city, the capital city of Elvenhold. To travel between cities, players use various types of elves transportation vehicle: Dragon, Unicorn, Giant Pig, Elf Cycle, Troll Wagon, Magic Cloud, and Raft.
The game is played in 4 rounds; each round consists of 3 phases. In the first phase, each player clockwise will take a transportation tile till each player has get 4 tiles. In the second phase, each player clockwise will put the transportation tile on the road on the board. And in the third phase, each player play his/her cards to move his/her position, which is represent by a very nice wooden Elf Boot from one city to another city.
2. Cost  (ok)
The English version with MSRP of $39.95 is still acceptable for my pocket. One of my friends bought the Scandinavian version for only$20... what a lucky guy, considering that this game is language independent.
3. Quality  (superb)
All the game parts are high quality. The game board is a standard 4 side folded thick board with high quality printed map. The rulebook is color printed. The cards are all printed in high quality thick paper. The tiles are also great, printed in thick board. And there’re 120 wooden town cylinders and 6 cute wooden elf boots, painted in 6 different colors. No complaint at all …
4. Artwork  (marvelous)
The box is in my favorite blue background color, with impressive artwork of an elf riding a flying dragon over the Elfenland. The board has this impressive ‘eye catching’ artwork. You see it... You love it! Still the best boardgame’s map I’ve ever seen. Along with the board, you’ll get a colorful rulebook that explains the game rule in detail with some examples. The wooden parts are painted in 6 attractive colors: red, yellow, green, blue, back, and purple. The wooden elf boots that used to mark the current position of each player fits the theme perfectly. I can even imagine Elves ‘walking around’ the board as we move the boots.
5. Learning  (very easy)
It’s very easy to learn Elfenland. I only need to read the rulebook once. And after 1 game, we don’t need the rulebook anymore. Everything is there in our head. I really recommend this game for introducing a boardgame to a new gamer as it’s easy to learn.
6. Weight  (medium)
Elfenland is a light-medium game, which requires some of brain activities. Some, not much … However, if you play with the Destination City Card variant, then it becomes a medium weight game, which requires some planning as you need to plan the best routes for your elf. Remember that there’re only 4 rounds, and there’re 20 cities to visit. Furthermore, you should reach your destination city at the end of round 4.
Our gaming group prefers to play with the Destination Card variant for a more challenging game.
7. Luck  (quite high)
Luck factor is quite high in Elfenland. At the beginning of each round, your hand will be replenished up to 8 cards, and you have no control on what cards you’ll get. It’s pure luck. Another bit of luck factor comes in play when each player takes transportation tile, choosing 1 out of the 5 open tiles. It would be really bad if after the tile taking phase, you ended up with un-match cards and tiles. If this is happening in the final round 4, most likely you’re doom.
8. Interaction  (some)
Not too much interaction, but there are some, which mostly are negative one. Arrghhh … why did you put that dragon on my road! … Oh no, I’ve made a wrong move! … Oh my God, why did you put that %^&# cloud on the forest!! … and other similar tones which are fun to hear
But, sometimes there’re also positive comments… Thanks for the unicorn! … Gladly you put that elf cycle on the forest! …
Some help from other players is important, as it’s almost impossible to win this game just by yourself. Since you only have 4 transportation tiles each round, it means that in 4 rounds you can only travel to maximum 16 cities. So, in order to travel to all 20 cities, you need help from the others… but, make sure that the others don’t know what help that you need… if they know, for sure they will block your way … ho ho ho …
9. Waiting  (quite long)
Waiting time in Elfenland could be quite long, especially if playing with new gamers. This waiting time happens during the transportation tile placement on the board. Normally a player needs about 1 minute to think for the best move, and could take more if he/she needs to re-route his/her journey. With 5 players, the waiting time is between 5-10 minutes.
10. Length 
Even though the waiting time is quite long, but due to its limited rounds, the game will only takes about 90 minutes with 4-5 players, and maximum 2 hours with 6 players. This is already considering that 1 or 2 players are new gamers. With 2 players, the game runs fast, and only takes 1 hour or less to complete.
11. Replayability  (high)
The Destination City Card variant increases this game’s replayability. Since there’re 12 destination cities, you need to plan a different route each time you play. And even if you get the same city as the previous game, your route will be different as you need to follow the others, use a bit help from the others to complete your mission visiting all 20 cities, and depend on your cards/tiles in hand.
Unfortunately there’s no other expansion map ever released. The only available expansion set is Elvengold, which add the ‘money’ aspect into the game to bid on the transportation tile that we want. I heard it’s a good expansion to the game. I haven’t played the expansion myself, so I can’t comment much on it.
12. Extra  
There‘re 2 extra credits and one negative point that I must give to Elfenland.
(+) It’s an attractive game for beginners, just by showing the ‘eye-catching’ colorful map, their interest to play this game is increased. The game is also easy to learn and to teach. Less than 10 minutes to explain this game to beginners, and they can get into the game just after 1 round.
(+) It’s one of the games that still good for 6 players, but still within 2 hours game length.
(-) Not a good 3 players game and even worse with 2 players only. It becomes a solitaire game… you go that way, I’ll take this way… no interaction at all … no grin, no sigh … no fun …
13. Overall  (very good)
Overall, Elfenland is a very good game for 4-6 players, but not for 2-3 players. It’s a light-medium game, easy to learn and to teach, and very attractive. A good game to attract newbies to the boardgaming world. A must have for any gaming group collection!
14. Comparison
For comparison, I would like to compare it with Ticket to Ride (TtR), also by Alan R. Moon, published in 2004. The main reason I picked TtR is because it’s also a good game to introduce boardgaming to newbie, easy to learn, easy to play, 60 minutes game with attractive map and parts. Compared to Elfenland, TtR has better point for waiting time as it’s only about 1-2 minutes before your next action. However, in terms of interaction and fun factor, our gaming group prefers Elfenland than TtR. Here is the complete rating for Elfenland compared side-by-side with TtR.
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Mitch Willis
United States
Kathleen
Georgia
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ddkk wrote: Elfenland is a classic Alan R. Moon’s games, published in 1998. It was my first boardgame, a game which later turned me into a geek (and I’m proud of it).
Nice review. Elfenland was my introduction into the geek world as well and it's still my favorite game...
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Dede Kurnia Kardiman
Indonesia
Batam
Kepulauan Riau
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otha62 wrote: Nice review. Elfenland was my introduction into the geek world as well and it's still my favorite game...
Thanks.
Elfenland will still be one of our gaming group favorites for years to come... and it's my wife's number one!
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Joe Grundy
Australia
Sydney
NSW
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Re: Elfenland – A Review in 14 Easy Steps
We play Elfenland 2P and enjoy it.
You can choose to go separate ways, or you can jockey for riding the other player's transports and getting in their way. It's up to the players.
Even if you go your own way, especially with the "home town" variant, you'll bump into each other a couple of times during the four turns. And you've got the obstacle tiles. You still have to keep your eye on running interference and what your opponent is doing.
And you don't have to be going the same way to play the "expensive" transport in your opponent's path at a critical moment.
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Dede Kurnia Kardiman
Indonesia
Batam
Kepulauan Riau
-
Yup ... prone to AP for newbies .. that's why I rate this game:
9. Waiting (quite long)
To minimize this AP, we usually help the newbies for the best placement of his/her transportation tiles, even though this could hurt ourselves, blocking our own route.
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Dede Kurnia Kardiman
Indonesia
Batam
Kepulauan Riau
-
Glad you like the review ... and hope you will like the game too
Cheerss ... 
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Jason Young
United States
Peoria
Arizona
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Does the last bit of the review indicate that if one has Ticket to Ride there's no reason to have Elfenland?
I love Ticket to Ride, but have very limited storage space for games and tend to stay away from the games that are too similar in mechanics. I never got a Ticket to Ride vibe from what I've read of Elfenland, but sometimes reading about something doesn't get the whole feel of a game across.
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Dede Kurnia Kardiman
Indonesia
Batam
Kepulauan Riau
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Yes, you still have reason for getting Elfenland. It's a completely different game compared to Ticket to Ride. The game mechanic is totally different, except that both use card drifting mechanic.
Elfenland is a bit deeper game, as you need to work out the best of the 8 cards that you have in hand. You need to choose and place the transportation tile wisely in order to get better route and in the same time make it harder for your opponent to use that route.
For us (my gaming group), we only play Ticket to Ride with new people to introduce boardgame to them. But if we want to play a light-medium game, we will pick Elfenland. My wife likes Ticket to Ride, and loves Elfenland. As for me, I follow my wife ha ha ha
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Jason Young
United States
Peoria
Arizona
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Well played sir. I do the same, which is why I never get to play Settlers of Catan (the misses hates it).
Thanks for your reply, Elfenland is back on my wishlist.
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Posted Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:34 am
