Daniel Danzer
Germany
Stuttgart
southwest
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This is my first attempt in writing a review, but in the recent days, this game became a bit seen here, and some people might find it helpful to get some more info about the actual game, so I`ll do my best.
Edit: Eine deutsche, kürzere Version ohne Bilder [PEEP] dieses Textes findet sich unter http://www.spielbox.de/phorum4/read.php4?f=1&i=194922&t=1949....
1. OVERVIEW
“Die Aufsteiger” is the third game by the small publisher Chili-Spiele, established by Klaus Zoch (well known for his Zoch Verlag), who realized, that some of the game he and a couple of colleagues had in mind, didn`t fit into the Zoch program and decided to give them a kind of special home.
This game by Holger Lanz is about building, re-building and climbing as high as possible on an ever-changing tower. It might look like childrens` building bricks at first glance, but there is much more in it, if you get into the game. It is for 2 – 5 players, aged 8+ and lasts approx. 45 min.
2. COMPONENTS
Inside a red, sturdy medium-sized box (28 x 16 x 8.5 cm - approx. 11" x 6.3" x 3.3")you find two layers of massive wooden blocks, nicely cushioned, so they don`t scratch at each other. Additionally, two small plastic bags with ladders, pawns and some round stones are included, also wooden. If you have any children, you probably have a hard time to keep the stuff together. All in all, the beast weighs 4.8 lbs (2.2 kg).
Open box
The 35 blocks are the heart of the game. They come in four sizes: 12 half cubes, 12 cubes, 9 double cubes, all coloured in the same pattern, and two grey ones with the size of 3 cubes. To estimate the size: the edges of the cubes are 4 cm each (1.6"). The colours are arranged like this on each block: on opposing sides you find yellow and red, dark and light blue, purple and grey, which is important to remember during the game.
So: No board, no cards, no dice, no plastic.
All components - Carc meeple for size comparison
3. RULES
I find the 6-paged rulebook structured a bit confusing, although you will find out with components in hand and playing around while studying the rules, that everything is quite easy and intuitive. You find some info a bit strange before you have read some later part, but many pictures outweigh this, clarify everything. Keeping in mind, how difficult it is to describe positions and aspects of blocks moved around and on top without any board, I think, the rules are still okay.
4. GAMEPLAY
The game starts with each player getting the material of one colour (one pawn, one blocking stone) and one short and longer ladder. Then all players build all coloured blocks randomly around the two upright grey ones, so these become completely hidden. The game can start now.
Building the starting tower can end up with very different buildings. Each Player starts with the same material.
On his/her turn, each player can do the following:
1. May climb higher with the pawn, if possible (not very probable).
2. take one block from the building and put it somewhere else, staying in contact with the building.
3. May climb higher with the pawn, if posible (more probable).
Climbing:
a) The pawns can only clamber on an adjacent block without a ladder, if this is half a cube higher than the one the pawn is starting from. If it`s higher, you have to use one of your ladders: The short for a height of a cube, the long one up to the height of two cubes. After using your ladder once, it is taken out of the game, so you have to be careful not to use it too soon! Better build carefully a step-by step stair upt ot the top!
b) The pawns are only allowed to climb on or across surfaces of their own colour or grey.
c) On grey surfaces, there may be more than one pawn, maybe co-operating as a “rope team” (but never using an opponents` ladder) – collaborating is recommended! But the space is limited: on the surface of a cube you can place a maximum of four pawns. To illustrate the principle, imagine a grid of squares on the surfaces (one side of a cube divided into four) and you get an idea of how many pawns find their place on a given surface.
d) A pawn can move on as far as possible in a turn, climbing across several surfaces, but always have to end up higher than at the beginning of the turn.
e) If you wish, you can use ladders or your blocking stone. This excludes a block of your choice for the whole next round from any action – very useful for “take that”-actions, and is also taken out of the game afterwards.
There are some more detailed rules, but you`ve got an idea at this point.
Moving a block:
a) On a turn, one unoccupied blocks can be taken and placed somewhere else, in any rotation. Only the last block moved is a no-no.
b) Blocks have to be built in an appropriate manner: If you imagine that grid of squares mentioned above (a cube`s surface having 4 of these), you have to build them in a way, that always at least one square is perfectly in contact with a square of an adjacent block. This sounds a bit complicated, but is quite intuitional.
c) No gaps or overlapping blocks are allowed: their bottom surfaces have to rest completely on blocks underneath.
d) You can push pawns on a surface you want to build upon, if they have enough space afterwards.
Dark blue as a "climbaway leader"
That`s about it. The end is triggered, if all players consecutively are unable to let their pawn climb higher. Then the first player has a second chance – if he still is not able to do so, the game is over.
The winner is – you guess it! – the one whose pawn stands topmost. Ties are broken by who came last.
Red wins on the left
5. IMPRESSIONS
I played it several times now, only with 3 and 4 players, which already makes a difference, since the surfaces are more crowded and rope teams occur sooner and more often with more players. To me, this is not a highly strategic game, but 3D tactic fun! I very much like the feeling of creating a unique building each time, the walking around the table to detect the block you need NOW – and the surprising changes, if situations, seemingly without any possibilities, turn, and a leading pawn is instantly cut off to climb further – a fat chance for the followers.
I don`t know, if this is playing well with 2 players - more of a race probably, and I can imagine the crowded 5-player tower as kind of a bit chaotic, for there is very much going on while you wait for your next turn. But I admit - I don`t know.
This seems to be the right game to warm-up for a game night or as a gateway game for children, and right you are, but also beware! Since what I also like, is how the game adjusts to several gaming groups. I played it in a round of four grown-up gamers after some family sessions of pure light-hearted fun, and it felt like teeth-grinding, backstabbing and intrigueing inside a global player syndicate, striving for presidency. I lost, being the most “experienced” player, but the one who took it too lightly!
Replayability is awesome, since the competition is so fascinating. Although there seems to be no theme at all, the contrary is correct, IMO: The components are actually climbing higher, leave each other behind for real, block opponents on their way up with stones on real stairs, maybe walk down and find a better way to get up the tower, which becomes more and more like a skyscraper, started as a clumsy building. So, there is no “theme”, but a more “metaphorical” approach here, fitting perfectly together and creating a gaming experience of intuitive, interactive tactical competition to get “on top of the world”. There are not too many games with an approach like that, I guess.
6. NEGATIVE POINTS
There are some minor points in the rules, that are not explained, occuring while playing the game, so have to make up your mind about the possibilities of the ladders or if it should be alowed to watch under blocks to see, which colour appears underneath. Don`t expect the rules to cover each and every single situation and question that might occur, esp. if played with children (“Can I use my long ladder as a bridge?!”) And we changed the start like that: First build the whole thing, then allot the colours. Otherwise, the players will have too much an eye of their colour while building!
Red has an advantage in the beginning - my son is so clever! (He won, see pic above)
7. CONCLUSION
Although there are some more “real 3D-games” out there ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/13727) “Die Aufsteiger” has a completely fresh feeling for me. I give it a solid 8 and am looking forward to more sessions – also more “seriously”, checking better, what others can do and keeping my ladder until the end! Man, it is so seductive to use them right in the beginning!
If you NEED dice, cards, a boards, economic simulations or air combat, better leave it. 
If you`d like Villa Paletti with pawns and ladders, Axiom with colours and this skyscraping excitement, Blokus 3D without height limit and more going on - try to check more gamers and save some of the scandalous shipping fee from the German parcel service. 
Edit typo and additional gameplay photos
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john-michael
United States
Tuscaloosa
Alabama
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Very well written and excellent pictures. Makes me want this game pretty bad.
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Jason Stone
United States
Atlanta
Georgia
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Hear hear!
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Daniel Danzer
Germany
Stuttgart
southwest
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I asked designer Holger Lanz about the rules, and he answered, considering this as a more freestyle-game as one might think. The rules need some additional FAQs or whatever, I guess. So, here are two major points:
You can move your figure freely on the table, on your own coloured or grey surfaces (as long as you keep on the same level or change to one only a bit higher) whenever you like. It doesn`t even has to be your turn! So, at your turn, you can (more specifically):
1. Use your ladders or blocking stone while moving around, if you wish,
2. take a block from somewhere and place it anywhere else (even at the same spot, differently orientated),
3. again use your ladders or blocking stone while moving around, if you wish.
He also liked the idea of using the ladders in creative ways, so there might be a new, more broad than specific, rule for the ladders like:
"You might connect the block with your figure on to any other block, horizontal, almost vertical, crossing gaps and other blocks or whatever, as long a the ladder is standing or laying by itself. Obviously, you may overcome only the height differences according to the rules (2, 2 - 4)."
This building and running around can become real weird with that! 
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Zero Stinky
United States
Research Triangle Park
North Carolina
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Duchamp: Your compelling pictures and thoughtful review made me buy the game.
I have a friend in France who is bringing it home with him. Saved me $17 versus shipping directly to the US.
The folks at Chili were exceptionally pleasant to deal with, and worked very quickly to get the game to my friend before he returns to the US. If I have the times right, Klaus Zoch went to a French post office to ship it within 5 hours of my inquiry.
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Tom Russell
United States
Massachusetts
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Quick question:
You say that one should imagine a grid of four "mini-squares" on the face of a cube where the pawns can stand.
But it appears from some of the photos can that you can stand a half-height cube on its end and so the "face" could only have 2 spaces at most. Also, you could take a double-height cube and lay it on its side. Now you'd have 8 spaces on the "face".
Is that the correct interpretation? Or can you only arrange the blocks so as to present a 4-space "face"?
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Daniel Danzer
Germany
Stuttgart
southwest
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I meant, in the case of a cube, there are four squares. In case of a "standing half cube" there are only two, so only two pawns can be placed on this surface. If you lay down a large one, you have enough place to get eight pawns on the surface, which doesn`t occur - well, wait for the first expansion: "Crowded Climbers" ...
I used "face" (maybe incorrectly) only as a synonym for "surface" or "side" ...
I hope, this helped.
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Tom Russell
United States
Massachusetts
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Thanks, I think when the example said "4 squares" I just locked into that idea of a "face".
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Leonardo Martino
Spain
Milano
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I waiting for my first game and I have doubts about turn sequence:
duchamp wrote:
On his/her turn, each player can do the following:
1. May climb higher with the pawn, if possible (not very probable).
2. take one block from the building and put it somewhere else, staying in contact with the building.
3. May climb higher with the pawn, if posible (more probable).
Pdf of rules by Strategic space available on the geek says instead:
Quote: 1) First move a block
2) Second, move your climber
3) Third, you may at the end of your turn place a blocking stone
while english version of the rules posted with permission by Chili says:
Quote: 1. Move his pawn and climb higher, if possible (optionally using a ladder),
then
2. take a block and place it somewhere else (or rotate it), after that
3. move / climb higher again, if possible (again, optionally using the
ladder) and finally place his blocking stone.
I AM CONFUSED...
Is the order of action available in the turn fixed or not? Strategic space makes you move only once while Duchamp translation of german rules and the review itself makes u move twice in a turn (to be clear I am not refering to the simultaneous movement phase between turns). Can u clarify my doubts???
Another little doubt: is the choice of pieces during building phase (before starting the real game) by random?
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Daniel Danzer
Germany
Stuttgart
southwest
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Well, these version differ just because there is a long time between them ...
The first (mine) translation were trying to translate the German original, with the help of some "native" speakers. Designer Holger Lanz had some more "open" ideas for the game, though, which I got into the rules, too.
The new translation for the upcoming American market is a new one done by Strategic Games in collaboration with Holger and Chili, too, AFAIK, so I would go for the new one now.
If you look closer, the possibilities are the same, just different words
My "A turn basically consists of moving a block and usually the attempt to
move your pawn higher directly before and/or after that" describes the same process.
The blocking stone doesn`t matter, when in your round to place, since you are not allowed to move the block with it, nor having a pawn on a block with the stone on it. So, if you place it first, during your move or last, doesn`t matter. It is removed after one round before your next move, that`s all.
And regarding the choice of blocks at the building phase: Do as you like, I`d say. It can be some strategy in this building, but if you want to play more "lightly", just pick one and place it somewhere. Best take the larger ones first and build them around the grey ones, then the smaller ones ...
Hope, this helps ...
Have fun!
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Dhiraj Pallin
Australia
Taringa
QLD
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Hmm they're clearly not the same.
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Posted Fri Jun 6, 2008 9:29 pm
