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Dos Rios (English Edition) Price: £39.99 Board game, 2-4 players, ages 10+, by Mayfair Games Two mighty rivers wind their way down from the mountains. The fields through which they flow are fruitful, bringing wealth to their owners. The rivers are the lifeblood of the land. With skilful placement of dams, you can alter the course of the rivers and bring prosperity to your land. That which was dry will now produce, that which was productive may now be barren. The one who best controls the rivers will control the valley, for the flow of the river carries fortune\'s tide. ++++++++++++ Counter review ++++++++++++ 2-4 players, 60 minutes designed by Franz Benno Delonge reviewed by Alan How Following up a success in the Spiel des Jahres must be a pretty difficult task. Perhaps the best way is to move far away from the well-known game and into a different subject matter, and that is what Franz Benno Delonge, famous for having both Transamerica and Big City in his locker, has done. This game arrives in a square package, the same size as such recent ones from Kosmos/Mayfair as Domaine and the Siedler series. The modular board allows for multiple options in its set-up, although each will fit within a framework of two rivers falling from the mountains into terrain that leads to the lakes down below. The main changes are in the type of terrain that the rivers might flow over. Production values are very much along the lines of previous Kosmos/Mayfair games, which is what the games punter has now come to expect. The object of the game is for each player to erect their 5 buildings. This requires money, which is obtained by raising crops successfully. This in turn means having ownership of a hex through which a river flows when the market crop card is used. The trick of the game is that the two rivers can be dammed, which will divert the river below the dam to other hexes, ideally away from your opponents and towards your own crops. Each player has a set of men (called campesinos) to patrol the terrain and seize ownership of the fertile areas. After the set up phase, each player has 6 action points to move their men across the land in any combination of moves that they like. Also during this phase, players can dam the rivers and erect their buildings (two types - casas cost 5000 and haciendas 1000) and each of these options can be carried out in any order to maximise flexibility. It is key to own the areas that are about to score (100 per area), and as each hex can only be controlled by one player, you can chase opponents\' campesinos away by having a large number of your own appear on a hex or by getting them to appear from higher ground. This sends the fleeing campesino back to the bottom of the board to be reused from the city base. When this phase is complete, the next visible market card is carried out and each player with ownership of a hex receives 100 money per hex. Usually there are no more than 5 of these active, so if you could not construct a situation where you received the majority of the money arising, you do have the option to defer the market to a later time. Generally though you\'ll want the money for your buildings. The cheaper ones provide ownership of a hex but do not prevent movement through them by other players, while the single hacienda prevents movement through and also allows you to start your campesinos from this hex for 2 of your action points. The rivers are easy to divert to begin with; then more difficult as you may run out of resources (logs) to dam the river; then more difficult still as options are decreased later in the game. Once dams are created they are not destroyed, so the options to move a river while allowing a legal route down the valley decrease. At some stage then, you\'ll probably want more logs which are earned from mining forests with your campesinos when a river market card is used that runs down one of the rivers, causing all manned areas to receive resources. You don\'t want to do this too much as campesinos on logging duty cannot earn cash and it is only cash that allows you to build the game winning buildings. I found the balance of decisions pleasant to consider. With all action point games, especially when there are multiple options, there is a risk of severe downtime. I thought that there was less chance of this in Dos Rios as there are usually some obvious actions to take and the balance of points available will restrict your selections. Nonetheless, there may be some groups who play an analytical style of game and this would make the game drag on unnecessarily. It should fit into an hour without too much trouble. In my first game there was some concern about how the dams might be changed - perhaps some fear that the rivers would constantly move all over the countryside. This didn\'t happen and the rivers tend not to move too much, resulting in some stable incomes and clear decisions to take. I could see that a more aggressive game plan would involve damming the river(s) in many places early on in the game, which would mean that the rivers were quickly diverted from their original course. The players who keep their powder dry tend to save up logs for key moments. I think there are more in my regular games group than ``go for it\'\' characters. Overall I enjoyed this game more than I expected to. I think the main reason is that there was less down time than I thought here might be and the options were easier to follow than I thought from looking at the components and reading an outline of the rules. While this game will not win any prizes, it is good and one of the second tier of games produced in 2004. More ...

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