Neuland is a strange duck. Or goose, since it is similar to Roads & Boats (where each player starts with a goose). Players build up a country, gaining victory points for completing tasks. This is an full information abstract, with two twists:

1. Players do not own the buildings. If you build a smithy, anyone can use it.
2. The action point/turn order sequence.

The first part is straight out of Roads & Boats (that's what I hear. I've never played). Once you plop something down on the board, it's communal. Player's pieces on the board represent goods. So, a pawn in a lumberyard represent lumber. If you move that pawn from the lumberyard to the papermill, it's paper. There are a few tokens to indicate distinctions (a smelter may refine iron, silver or charcoal), but the location tells you what it is.

Each building only holds one good, though. So if you use a smelter, nobody else can use it until your next turn. At the beginning of your turn, all of your pawns get placed on their side, and only stand up if they progress (to the next type of good). If you don't move them, they are removed ... at the beginning of your next turn. So you can block, but not indefinitely.

The other twist is the clock. The player who has used the fewest actions goes next, with all of the players marching around a circular track. A large, El Grande-ish turn pawn marks the current player. Each 'step' a good takes on the board costs an action. The player cannot end on another player or make a full lap, but is otherwise free to take as many or few actions as desired. Then the timing pawn moves around to the next pawn. So turn order is very fluid. Sometimes you want to take a quick turn, other times you want to spend all your actions. Careful planning can let you take a quick turn, block one player, then go again before any of the other players.

You can find the full rules on the geek.

My one (and only) game took about two hours with the rules, which wasn't bad. I really wanted to play this, because I've always wanted to try Roads and Boats or Antiquity, and Neuland apparently represents the distilled essence of those two.

If that's the case, I'm happy to have tackled the shorter game first. Neuland isn't bad, but I'm not burning to play again. When it's not your turn, you can walk away from the board. If several people play before your next turn, planning is difficult. It's Java, Tikal and Mexico with a more interesting action point system. Given that I don't care for the other three, the fact that I'm lukewarm shouldn't come as a shock. On the other hand, if you like those type of games, you'll probably like this.

A good game, not my style. I'd play again, but I'm not desperate to own this one.

I find this true with four player games only. With three player games it is at best marginally true, and then only ocassionally: game state changes much less between turns, but enough that the other player's turn times can be profitably used for logistic analysis.



FWVLIW I'm not particularly a fan of any of those, particularly not Tikal. I am however a big fan of the last of the set: Torres. Then again I consider Neuland the best game of 2004 (with Reef Encouter an extremely close second).

I should be clear, I prefer Neuland to any of those games.

I think you are correct in that with less players you can probably spend time profitably. I would imagine if you came back while the player before you was taking their turn (in a 4p game) you could also analyze profitably.