Mississippi Queen

	From: Gold Sieber (available from Rio Grande Games) Cost: $27 ($40 retail) Players: 2-5 Playing Time: 60 minutes Type of game: Family Complexity: 2 Skill level: 8 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 4.4 (16), Fall 1997
	Also available: The Black Rose expansion Add a 6th player, tiles with new features, and The Black Rose herself Cost: $14 ($20 retail)

My, what a difference a year can make. Last year the Spiel des Jahres jury awarded the coveted Game of the Year prize to Hans im Gluck's chaotic and very gamey El Grande. The decision met with wide approval from gamers who welcomed the shift away from fluffier winners past. This year's Game of the Year, Gold Sieber's Mississippi Queen, rides the pendulum on the backswing. Prevailing over main rivals Lowenherz and Bohnanza, Mississippi Queen floats straight down the center of Family Game River. Fortunately, appealing to the masses in Germany doesn't mean rehashing the same tired themes and mechanics, so what we get is a pleasant 45 minute race game with little depth but an interesting mechanic or two and plenty of aesthetic appeal.

The milieu is the Mississippi River circa Mark Twain, when steamboats plied the waters as the Amtrak of the river. The river is simulated by a series of tiles, each of which is divided into hexagonal spaces showing water or land. The tiles are cleverly jigsawed so they can be connected at each end in three possible directions, allowing the river to bend unpredictably and with a different topography every time the game is played.

Each player captains a steamboat with a (very) limited amount of coal, and a charter to pick up and deliver two passengers to the dock at the end of the river. Boats all start at a speed of 1 and can accelerate or decelerate one notch for free each turn. Each boat also gets one free 60 degree turn. Each additional speed change or course correction costs a coal.

The game begins with only two tiles' worth of river visible. When the first boat crosses to the second tile, a new one is added to the front of the line. A die roll determines which direction (left, straight, or right) the river bends. Theoretically the river could loop in on itself, but this Escheresque paradox poses no problem to gameplay if you just remove the tail end of the river as the last boat leaves it.

Prospective passengers await on islands throughout the river, and it doesn't matter which two you take on board. To pick up a passenger, a boat must end its movement on the island's dock space at a speed of 1. This requires some foresight (or coal usage), and plans can be thwarted if an opponent rams you and bumps you to an adjacent space. Boats can only moor at the final dock at a speed of 1 as well, and the first to do so with two passengers on board wins.

Strategies seem few: grab passengers early and then motor to the finish line, get out in front and pick up passengers later, or travel and pick up passengers whenever they're convenient. Since the lead boat has no idea what the river ahead looks like, the frontrunner strategy seems inherently more difficult.

The boats are nifty, but oddly have insufficient room to carry two passengers! Player interaction is pretty much limited to ramming other players and nabbing a passenger before a rival, so the game has something of the feel of solitaire. That's not unusual for a race game, but I expected more from a Spiel des Jahres winner.