|
Cost: $39
From: eg Spiele
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 45 minutes
Type of game: Family Strategy
Complexity: 4
Skill level: 6
Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 4.4 (16), Fall 1997
|
I keep waiting for him to screw up. Every time one of his games crosses my desk, I wonder if it will be the one. Will this be the game to spoil his record? Surely his deal with the devil has expired by now. But somehow Reiner Knizia always comes through with the goods. His latest effort, Palmyra, is no exception.
In typical Knizia fashion Palmyra is a light affair playable in 45 minutes or less. Its mechanisms are simple, and we had some debate as to how much control a player really has over his standing. The fact remains that we've played it quite a bit lately and hunger to do so again.
The game is essentially a stock market system thinly disguised beneath a Grecian veneer. Rather than trading in shares of stock, players trade in red, green, and yellow amphorae (a style of vase or urn). These amphorae are nicely modeled in lightweight colored wood, but because they're tall and narrow they have a tendency to fall over.
Everyone starts the game with an amphora of each color. The rest are arranged on color-coded tracks with spaces numbered 2 (Palmyra) to 30. Players also receive a hand of five cards. A turn consists of trading or passing, and then playing a card.
Players have two choices when trading: buying or selling up to one item in each color, or two items in a single color. The rules are unclear on this point, but the designer has confirmed that you do not have to utilize each of the three colors if you select the former option (eg, you may sell a red, buy a green, and do nothing with yellow).
When you buy, you remove an amphora from the head of the line at the low end of the track and subtract the amount on the amphora's space from your score (moving your marker along a scoring track, ala Medici). Buying reverses the procedure, adding an amphora to the head of the line and increasing your score by the corresponding amount.
As play progresses, the value of each color fluctuates. When bargains appear you often find yourself wanting to buy more than you can afford. Likewise, when you see a color peak you want to sell more than you're allowed in an effort to beat the rush. The dynamic created by the system works well, and is helped tremendously by the addition of the cards.
Cards come in a few flavors. Modifiers in the range of -3 to +3 alter the price of a specific color at the end of each round. Up to four contracts can appear for each color, rewarding players for each amphora they own of that color. The contracts pay off exponentially (1, 2, 4, 8) as more appear, so a bandwagon in a color can send the market into a tizzy. Mirage cards cancel the effect of any single card of the matching color. Finally, tax cards assess a penalty of 2 for each owned amphora of the color being taxed, plus the taxer can play another card.
The game consists of three rounds of play, with each round ending after a certain number of cards get played. At that point contracts are paid off, prices of amphorae are adjusted, cards are shuffled and the next round begins. After the third round, everyone sells off their holdings one amphora at a time. Managing your stock in the final round with an eye towards this final selling spree can mean the difference between winning and losing. The price drops less rapidly on a color only one person is selling, letting that player get a better value.
Palmyra is a bandwagon game, where the winner is the one who can best identify and manipulate group-think. Buying low and selling high is the order of the day, but contracts encourage you to ignore price and hold onto what you've got. The rounds are frustratingly brief (you won't get more than 4 turns), which can cause players to feel like they had little control over what happened. There is certainly an element of chaos involved here, as the actions of other players can have a dramatic impact on your own success and there might be little you can do to thwart them. Given the brevity and light nature of the game, I tend to think this isn't a problem.
Palmyra's gotten quite a bit of play here., I've enjoyed every game and usually want to play again straight away (often vowing to sell earlier, or hold longer, or...). And the other players usually agree. This one's a winner.