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Main Catalogue | BOARD GAMES & CARD GAMES | Czech Games | League of Six

League of Six

Price: £22.99

Board Game; 3-5 Players; Ages 12+ by The Czech Games Company The year is 1430, a time of unrest and upheaval in the whole of Europe. Nearly 100 years have passed since the founding of the League of Six - a group of wealthy Lusatian towns that banded together to defend their commercial interests and preserve stability and order in the region. You have been sent to this embattled land in the role of tax collector. As a young, ambitious aristocrat, you hope to stand out so that you will be given a position in the court of Sigismund. The tax collector who brings in the most revenue for the king, while simultaneously gaining the support of the estates, has the best chance of finding himself by the side of King Sigismund. The game consists of six turns representing six years. Each player takes the role of a tax collector visiting one of the six cities. The goods collected are placed in the royal stores or estate stores, thus giving the players influence in the court of King Sigismund. The player who gains the most influence wins. ++++++++++++++++++++ Counter magazine review ++++++++++++++++++++ 3-5 players, 60-90 minutes designed by Vladimir Suchy reviewed by Greg Schloesser I always enjoy when a game is historically based, and the background story provides a history lesson. I can remember eagerly reading the historical notes of the old Avalon Hill war games, devouring the information contained therein. European-style games rarely provide such detailed historical information, but even the few paragraphs that are occasionally provided are much appreciated. The latest game from Czech designer Vladimir Suchy is based on the League of Six, a confederation of six ``wealthy Lusatian towns that banded together to defend their commercial interests and preserve stability and order in the region\'\'. Before receiving this game - appropriately titled League of Six - I had never heard of that group. It wasn\'t something that we studied in high school history classes. I\'m not sure if that is a case of the League being relatively insignificant historically, or something that just wasn\'t of great importance to most students in the United States. In either case, I\'m sorry I hadn\'t previously learned of the association. In the game, players represent tax collectors, balancing the need to raise funds for the king along with the need to get commodities to the royal and civic stores quickly. The player best able to accomplish these tasks wins great influence with the civic leaders and, most importantly, the king. The game is played over the course of six turns. Each turn, players each select a city to visit in order to collect taxes. When selecting a city to visit, players must pay attention to the potential benefits they will receive when taxing. These benefits may include commodities, guards, horses or civic leader influence. Each city has a small hexagonal tile depicting two to five directional arrows placed upon it. When a player taxes a city, he may turn the tile so that the arrows point to the benefits he desires, but he will be forced to make choices depending upon the direction and number of the arrows on the tile. Due to these arrows, not all potential benefits will be realized. The process of selecting a city to tax can be extremely competitive, and is reminiscent of the placement methods utilized in games such as Evo and Amun-Re. Each city has a scale of ``guards\'\' ranging from zero to twelve. On the first turn, a player simply moves to the city he desires to tax, placing his marker on one of the guards, usually the ``zero\'\' space. If another player desires to collect taxes at that city, he must offer more guards by placing his pawn on a higher amount. The two competing player can continue to outbid each other until one player opts to accept the offer of guards from his opponent and move on to another city. Players can even surrender influence point to acquire new guard cards, as needed. The key difference in this bidding mechanism between League of Six and Evo / Amun-Re is that the player winning the bid pays the winning amount - in this case guard cards - to the player who concedes. This redistribution of resources plays a critical role in the game. Guards also must be paid in order to move from city to city. After the first turn, players must pay guard cards to move to a city based on the distance traveled. Even if a player opts to remain at his current location, he still must pay one guard card. Securing a steady supply of guard cards is an important consideration when taxing a city. Otherwise, one\'s options will be limited. Further complicating matters is that depending upon the number of players, one or more cities will not be available each turn, as they will be busy fending off the rampaging Hussites. Thus, players cannot count on specific combinations of resources and other benefits being available on every turn. Once every player is alone at a different city, resources can be collected in priority of the players who spent the most guards. The order of collection is important, as some resources may deplete, leaving players at the rear of the turn order in a precarious situation. Players adjust the tiles and collect their resources in order of the number of guards they bid. Ties are broken in order of the value of the cities, each of which has a unique number. These factors must also be considered when selecting a city to tax and bidding guards. Once resources are collected, players keep any guard and civic leader cards earned. Commodities, however, must be delivered to the two storehouses. Each storehouse has four rows, each depicting a specific number and types of commodities it can store. The player who collected the most horses is the first to choose a row to open. Each player, in clockwise order, must deliver any goods they have that can fit in that row. Players earn from 1 to 3 influence points as goods are delivered. If a row fills, the player who opened the row receives a bonus of either influence points if it was in the royal store, or a civic leader card if it was the civic store. After the first row is complete, the player with the next fastest team of horses selects the next row, and this process continues until all goods are placed or there are no further rows to open. Players must discard goods they could not place. Being able to select rows to open is a powerful ability, and the earlier a player can go in the turn sequence, the better. Thus, there is a strong incentive to concentrate on collecting horses. However, this always involves a trade-off, as player must decide between commodities, horses, civic leaders and guards when taxing a city. This often involves painful choices. So just what are these civic leader cards and why are important? There are three types of leaders: clergy, aristocracy and burghers. Each card depicts from two to five leaders, and at the end of the game, bonuses are earned in each of the categories. These bonuses range from a high of nine points to the player who collected the most, to a low of two points to the player in fourth place in a category. These points are very significant, so players should attempt to be in the top tier in as many of the three categories as possible. After each round, new arrow tiles are placed on the cities, two new storehouses are revealed, and new civic leader cards are made available. Six rounds are conducted in this fashion, with bonuses earned after the final turn for civic leaders. The player with the greatest total influence wins the favor of the king and the game. League of Six is a prototypical European-style game. The various mechanisms are closely intertwined, and there are tough choices to be made throughout the game. Players must balance a variety of factors, and must struggle with the limitations the system imposes upon them. Although lifted from other designs, the bidding mechanism fits very nicely here, and is the catalyst for some exceptionally tough choices. There is an interesting dynamic involved as a player is outbid, but collects guard cards from the victor. The player may then move onto another city, armed with a fresh war chest of guards. It is quite possible that the player may extort even more guard cards from other opponents at different cities, and return to the city of origin and oust the player who originally forced his departure! Fascinating stuff! After numerous playings, I am still intrigued by League of Six. Indeed, of the dozen or so games I\'ve played that were released at the 2007 Spiel in Essen, it is my top choice. It is both challenging and tense, and filled with an abundance of those tough choices I relish in games. The design is solid, and there are a variety of strategic options to investigate. While I lost out on learning about the historical League of Six while in school, I\'m happy I can learn a bit about it from the game it spawned.

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Main Catalogue | BOARD GAMES & CARD GAMES | Czech Games | League of Six

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