Cost: $40 From: Schmidt Designer: Sid Sackson Players: 3-6 Playing Time: 60-90 minutes Type of game: Family Complexity: 5 Skill level: 8 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 3.3, Summer 1995
It's great to know that Americans haven't completely lost it. There are still game designers in this country who can put together a good game with clever mechanisms. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any American companies to publish such games, so they keep showing up in Germany instead. Case in point: Sid Sackson's latest effort, Kohle, Kie$ & Knete (Booty, Bucks, and Bread).
Like Intrige and Rette Sich Wer Kann, this is a game where negotiating skills play a major role in success. Unlike those games, however, the basis for those negotiations are much more tangible, and even if you're inclined not to make a deal with another player you may find yourself doing so anyway.
And making deals is what this game is all about. Everyone is assigned one of six possible investors, each the leader of a different family. Remaining investors are placed on the table, possibly to be claimed later in the game. The board shows sixteen deals which might be made during the game. Each deal has three parts: the number of "shares" it pays, the number of investors required to make the deal, and which families those investors must come from. A marker is placed on one of these deals.
Each player on his turn has the option to try to make the current deal. If he declines, he rolls the dice and moves the marker the indicated number of spaces to another deal, which he may then choose to attempt. If he declines again, he draws three cards and ends his turn.
The decision to try to put together a deal is irrevocable once made, even if the deal fails. Other players are not allowed to influence a player's decision to try for or pass on a deal. Once a player decides to go for it, negotiations begins. That player becomes the "boss" for that deal— he'll try to assemble all the necessary investors. He does this— how else?— through bribery. Perhaps that's a tad inaccurate. What he really does is offer to split the proceeds of the deal amongst the players involved in it. To be involved, all you have to do is lend your investor to the boss so he can make the deal.
Each deal is worth a certain amount of shares. Shares are worth one million each at the start of the game, but increase in value as deals are made until they're worth five million by the game's end. If the boss acquires all the necessary investors for a deal, he earns cash equal to the number of shares that deal is worth times the current share value. From this money, he then pays off the players who helped make the deal possible. Regardless of whether the deal flew or not, play passes to the next player.
Deals are most often divvied up in shares, as in, "I'll give you two shares if you'll lend me the two investors I need to complete this deal." Exactly how those shares get split is, of course, the most common bone of contention. The boss might argue that a player's investor is only worth one share, but that player could counter by pointing out that if he doesn't give the boss his investor, the boss won't be able to make the deal at all.
However, this is not always true thanks to the cards players hold in their hands. As mentioned earlier, each investor is the leader of a family. Other members of that family, represented by cards in the deck, can come into play simply by a player laying down that card in front of him. Now that relative can take it's family's seat at the bargaining table. If the deal concludes and the relative wasn't part of the deal, its owner takes the card back into his hand and can try again on another deal later. If a relative is used in a deal, it gets discarded afterward. Relatives allow you to get in one a deal which doesn't require your investor, or to negotiate a higher payment by providing more of the families needed for a deal. Playing a relative of your own investor can also preserve your stake in a deal after your investor has been sent on vacation.
Investors and their relatives can be sent on vacation by playing the appropriate cards. If an investor is sent on vacation, it is merely set aside and can't be part of the current deal. A vacationing relative, on the other hand, is immediately discarded. Typically, these cards are played on an opponent's investor or relative, but you could play them on yourself if you wanted to weasel out of a deal you'd already agreed upon.
Recruitment cards let you permanently steal an investor from someone, but you must play three of them at once. That is, to steal an investor, you must play three recruitment cards. Yes Virginia, this means you can wind up without any investors at all, while other players have three. Recruitment cards allow you to take control of the extra investors from the start of the game. They can also be used on relatives, but this is rarely useful since relatives get discarded once they've participated in a deal— you're usually better off taking that family's investor instead.
If you don't like the way the terms the boss is offering and think you could do better yourself, you can get your chance by playing an "I'm the Boss!" card. This immediately makes you the boss, giving you control over negotiations. Other players can stick to their previous agreements or negotiate new terms. Multiple Boss cards can be played during the same deal, with the last one played seizing control. Some of the most amusing moments in the game have involved watching control of a deal bounce all over the table in a rapid series of Boss cards. When the deal ends, play continues clockwise from the final boss.
To make things even more lively, Stop cards allow players to prevent the effects of Vacation, Recruitment, or Boss cards from happening— very much like Zaps in Cosmic Encounter.
The amount of money players hold is kept secret. The advantage of this is obvious— if you've got more money than everyone else, nobody's going to want to cut you in on their deals. Like many games coming out of Germany, the end of Kohle, Kie$, & Knete is variable. Starting with the tenth deal, after each deal is made a die is rolled. If the value on the die is equal to or below a certain value, the game ends. The value starts at one and increases with every deal, becoming more and more likely to end the game. The player with the most cash wins.
Cards are very important, as is choosing which deals to attempt. Each turn you have a choice between drawing more cards and trying a deal. If the deal fails, you don't get any cards. In fact, you may have wasted cards in the attempt (but so might other players). Resist playing cards whenever possible. If other players are involved in the deal, let them use their cards to make it happen. If you can get yourself into a position where you're holding more cards on your turn than your opponents, it's usually wise to attempt a deal. Other players will be less able to interfere with you, and you may be able to claim a larger share for yourself. If you can put together all the required families by playing cards from your hand, you can make a lot of money.
Which is not necessarily good. I've found that getting off to an early lead can be very bad in the long run. Your opponents will get it into their heads that you're winning and will exclude you from their deals. Often they continue to exclude you long after your holdings have dropped behind the pack's. Remember too that deal values increase as the game goes on, so that getting a few shares later is better than getting a lot early.
When two or more players offer the same investors needed to make a deal, it's a buyer's market and the price offered for them tends to decrease. This is annoying to the sellers, who face the prisoner's dilemma. If they both hold out for more money, the buyer either has to increase his offer or let the deal collapse. On the other hand, if the deal is going to be made anyway and someone's going to get a piece of it, you'd much rather that someone be you.
If players aren't alert, there's definitely the potential for the rich to get richer. If you know you're ahead and a rival offers to join a deal for two shares, you might undercut his offer just to keep him out of the deal. The boss wants to keep as much money for herself as possible, so even if she knows you're winning, it's awfully tempting for her to cut you into the deal anyway because it gets her more money. Your rival's only choice may be to offer even less than you did. Either way, you're happy— either you get money or your rival gets less money. Of course, if you're not careful, you could wind up fattening the boss's pockets to the point where she surpasses you.
Kohle, Kie$, & Knete is a lively and amusing game. It is somewhat repetitive, since it consists of repeatedly doing essentially the same thing. But the nature of each deal is different, as are the cards played to influence it. It's also one of those games where the early rounds are merely preamble to the later ones. As mentioned above, doing very well early isn't very important if you don't get involved in later deals, but someone who doesn't join early deals can still win if they make a few sweet deals later on. I generally dislike this in a game— it's a major reason why I don't care for Galopp Royal, one of the newer games from Germany— but so far it hasn't really bothered me in this one.
It's a shame Sackson couldn't find an American publisher for this game, but it's hardly surprising (I doubt he even looked). Despite the subject matter (the game involves US dollars, not German marks), its style is far more German than American. It will undoubtedly sell better in Germany than it would in the United States. And in the end, that's what the game business is all about— kohle, kies, and knete.