From Tigris & Euphrates to Robot Master and the exploitation of the ingenious „Highest lowest score” idea by Reiner Knizia
Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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Yes, Reiner Knizia does revisit some of his ideas time after time. The question is, is that a problem if he can add something new to the idea again and again?
This time I look at the "highest lowest wins" idea most known from Tigris & Euphrates and Ingenious: in the games below, you have a few different scores in the end (mostly represented in different colors) and your final score is the lowest number of these (also, in case of a tie, the tie-breaker score is the second lowest number and so on).
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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The last game of the book is Manitu, a variant on the game Sitting Bull also explained in the book. Sitting Bull was based on a game called Sono (that was already published in magazines before it made into the 1990 Knizia book Neue Taktikspiele mit Würfeln und Karten - As I don't have the book I just don't know if the highest lowest scoring variant was already published there or not).
The basics of Sono and its variants are rather simple: two players alternate placing cards in a 5 times 5 grid. One of you scores for the rows and the other one for columns. The player with the highest score wins.
In Manitu a novel scoring is added... Only the lowest-scoring row/column counts...
(Blazing Aces! also lists a variant for a game where you are collecting two sets of poker hands and only your hand with the lower value counts.)
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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Dragon Master (published in Korea) is clearly the same game as the ones before. This time you have dragon cards.
image by ntrolls
Number of tiles: 30 tiles in 6 colors (=numbers). Here you have 5 cards in hand at the same time. Scoring is done according to a simplified poker scoring (5 of the same number > 4 of the same number > 3 of the same number > 2 pairs of the same number > 1 pair of the same number > all different numbers).
Compare the weakest row with the weakest column to find the winner.
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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Robot Master is supposedly based on Dragon Master, but is actually like any of the games above.
Xou have 36 cards (6x6 cards in 6 colors) but use only 25. Both of you have 12 cards in hand from the beginning. Scoring is a bit more fitting to the game than any version before: a card (number) in itself is worth its face value, 2 cards of the same value is worth 10 times their face value, 3/4 cards of the same value is worth 100 points; 5 cards of the same value is worth 100 points plus 10 times its face value.
Highest lowest wins.
(The game includes rules for 1-player game and 4-player teamplay as well; I wouldn't be surprised to learn these are more or less like the games Unisono and Kooperatives Sono from the 1990 book)
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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The book is from 1999 but it mentions Criss-Cross as an 1992 design.
Its variant Criss versus Cross is practically Sono, played with dice. So there is no "highest lowest" scoring. Criss-Cross is a game where each players have a 5x5 grid where they place the same numbers rolled but show their 'solution' to others only in the end. In this version the player scores for the columns and rows alike.
But in the variant Criss and Cross you compare your "rows score" result to your "columns score" result and the lower result is your score - and it's once again the "highest lowest" effect seen here.
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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But let's have a look at the other games that use the "highest lowest" scoring!
image by jgrundy
In T&E you collect points in 4 colors (and some jokers). The number of points in your lowest color is your score.
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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As this one is a card game version of T&E, the basics remain the same: you collect points in 4 colors (and some jokers). The number of points in your lowest color is your score.
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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In Ingenious you collect points in 6 colors. The number of points in your lowest color is your score.
image by Terraliptar
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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The same rules as above. Almost the same game as above.
image by simonh
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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Quite different game from the other Genial/Ingenious titles, there is at least one thing in common: you guessed it, it's the scoring!
image by LucyJo
You collect points in 4 colors. The number of points in your lowest color is your score.
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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A collection of the three games below, each of them using the same scoring system (and same scoring boards).
Differences from the original Ingenious scoring:
1. The game ends when a given score is reached in each color for a player - when a player accomplishes this that player wins.
2. In the card game and the dice game you have scoring restrictions as the scoreboard is separated into four areas (column 0, columns 1-3, columns 4-6, columns 7-10). You can never advance your scoring peg into the third area if you still have scoring pegs in the first area and never advance into the fourth area if youo have scoring pegs in the second area.
This variation puts an even stronger emphasis on scoring each of your colors all the time during the game.
image by mrkaf
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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The winner is the player who collected 7 (5) tiles of each color. The rest of the players are ranked according to their weakest color(s).
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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Here the end conditions are linked to your lowest score: "The first player to move all colors to 7+ points wins.
image by baychang
However, there are two barriers that cannot be passed by any color unless all colors have passed a certain amount of points - which forces the players to push their colors evenly."
Still, the scoring is still based on the usual principle; the rule that says the first player to move all colors to 7+ points wins is just an end condition added to the rule.
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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With very similar rules to the card game, this version has dice... and the same scoring.
image by Daniel Danzer
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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As "collecting sets" is easier to explain than "getting the highest number of points in your lowest color", in the junior version you are collecting sets to feed your penguins in a strange but funny manner.
Image by RacingHippo
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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Saying that (4-item) sets are worth 10 points and the rest of the collected items are worth 1 points each is almost the same as saying the highest lowest wins - only the tie-breaker is not as sophisticated.
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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It's almost the same. You collect meeple in 4 different colors (and praefect favors which are actually jokers). Whenever you collect 4 different colors (or less with enough jokers) you change them to a decurion token. In the round someone collects 5 decurion tokens (which is almost the same as having 5 as the number of meeple in the lowest color) the game ends (but as a slight difference, here the tie-breaker is simply the number of other meeple and jokers; their color does not matter).
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Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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Even The Hobbit (2010) has a variant where you score bonus gems based on your lowest characteristic at the end of the game.
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18.
Board Game: Ilium
[Average Rating:6.18 Overall Rank:5369]
Laszlo Molnar
Hungary
Budapest
Hungary
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Another "collect full sets" entry:
In this game you collect 5 colors, I mean 5 different types of artifacts. You get 10-point bonuses for having majority in any color AND (this is the larger part of your score) you get 10 points for each complete set of 5 different types (colors). In other words, you get 10 points for each artifact in the color you have the fewest artifact of. The ingenious layout you collect these artifacts makes it easy to count your score.
this image by Doug Adams shows 40 points for the highest lowest scoring
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