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Noblemen
Author: Dwight Sullivan
Publisher: Pegasus Spiele
Year: 2012


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During the second half of the 16th century, queen Elizabeth I ruled over England. She was loved by her subjects, but that was all, love-wise: she never married, her nickname became 'the virgin queen'. As a logical consequence, she had no children, which led to a politically interesting situation: there was no heir to the throne. The British aristocracy started daydreaming about crowns and sceptres, and followed the queen around like a puppy dog to win her favour. To achieve influence and prestige, they surrounded themselves with splendour and riches, palaces and land. On the traditional masquerade balls, they competed for titles: the higher the title, the higher the status. The players also take a chance and try to climb up the nobility ladder from baron to viscount to earl, to marquess and finally duke. At the same time, they try to extend their estates and make them as impressive as possible. Elizabeth sat on the throne for a fair number of years, so we have three decades to accomplish our goals.

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The central game board depicts a typical English garden, containing the building supply and the victory- and prestigepoint tracks. Players receive a screen with the title of Baron and several land tiles. Everybody starts with a mini-estate consisting of a meadow tile containing a castle. In his turn, a player performs one action. The most important actions are extending the estate by adding new tiles from behind their screen, and building structures. There are four different land tiles: meadow, wood, field and fountain. A player may place up to three tiles in his turn. For each wood tile he receives a new tile from the bag, and for each field tile a coin. If he forms a group of four wood- or field tiles, he receives another two tiles/coins. He doesn't receive anything for meadows and fountains, but when a group of four fountain tiles is formed, he gets the Queen-figurine.

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Buildings can only be constructed on meadow tiles, and two identical buildings may never be adjacent. A castle scores victory points in the scoring phases, and an adjacent chapel increases the number of points. To score even more points, the castle can be upgraded to a palace. When placing a castle, a player may additionally place a knight on the estate of an opponent. The knight must be positioned at the intersection of four identical tiles. From that moment on, the owner of the knight can use the special ability of this intersection (additional income or prestige points), while the owner of the estate can not. When building a chapel a player additionally receives three scandal cards and keeps one of them. These cards can be used for different types of attractive bonuses, like money, prestige points, tiles or an additional turn. When upgrading a castle to a palace, the player receives the queen-figurine.

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Once per decade a player may use the actions 'acquire land' and 'collect taxes'.  The player then receives tiles for the wood tiles in his estate and for knights on the wood tiles of other player's estates, or coins for the field tiles in his estate and for knights on the field tiles of other player's estates, respectively.

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When the player possessing the queen ends his turn, he immediately receives one victory point, and the round marker moves one step forward. Since the queen can travel from one player to another as a result of various actions, the round marker can move very fast. Twice per decade, whenever the marker reaches the corresponding symbol, a masquerade ball takes place.  Players count their prestige points (not to be confused with victory points!!) and receive a new title based on the outcome. Each fountain tile in the estate counts for one prestige point, an intersection of four fountain tiles yields another two points, and so does each knight on the fountain tiles of another player's estate. Each palace scores two prestige points. Players are allowed to play scandal cards to increase their score. The duke, the highest title, requires 14 prestige points, and the viscount, the lowest in rank, only two points.
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But there is only one duke and one marquess available! Therefore it is possible that a player has collected enough points to be awarded the title of marquess, but still receives an earl or viscount, because other players with even more points have already claimed the marquess. If no title is available, you remain a baron. What is the use of these titles? All titles except the baron score victory points. And in addition, the duke, marquess and earl get a discount when buying buildings. The players keep their title until the next ball: then, the prestige points are counted again (starting at 0!) and the titles are distributed accordingly.
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When the round marker reaches the final space, victory points are scored for castles, chapels and palaces. After three decades the game is over, and the player with the highest score wins the game.

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Let's get straight to the point: Noblemen is a great game! Everything is just right: the game offers interesting choices, there is interaction, excitement, transparency (almost everything is visible to all players), but also some unexpected surprises (mainly in the identity of scandal cards).  The game is challenging, yet simple, resulting in a swift and supple gameplay. Despite this swiftness, Noblemen can't be classified as a short game, but you don't notice that while playing: time seems to fly. The design has an attractive atmosphere, and the iconography is self-explaining. The screens are also very nice: the screen itself depicts a male or female body, and the idea is to place the corresponding head of the newly acquired title on top. If you want some fun at the table: try placing a male head on a female body!

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The knights are an unusual element of the game. While the interaction between players is otherwise of an indirect nature, like buying a building that somebody else also wanted to buy, or making the round marker to move faster than desired by taking the queen, placing knights is more 'personal'. It is a big investment to place four identical land tiles, and if the corresponding bonus is quickly taken over by another player this is a very unpleasant experience. Especially if a player is plagued with many knights in an early stage of the game he can seriously fall behind.

A knight may only be placed after building a castle, and this requires money as well as space, so it is not always possible to place your own knight in order to get back your bonus and to return the favour to the knight-placing opponent. Why bother at all with these groups of four identical tiles, if you seem to be doing it mainly for somebody else? Probably because the bonuses are so strong. Especially the prestige points you receive for a group of four fountains are crucial, if you want to have a go at the title of Duke or Marquess. But especially if you do this early in the game, you take a serious risk!
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A very nice element is the queen figurine, which causes the round marker to move. If the queen figurine remains with the same player all the time, the marker moves only once per round. But if the queen goes from one player to another, the marker moves a lot faster! As a result, the masquerade balls can take place a lot earlier than you anticipated. Therefore you have to be flexible, and be prepared to accept a lower title every now and then. You can then safe your prestige-point-containing scandal cards for a round where they can help you to get one of the highest titles. Actually all the scandal cards are very strong. You receive one when building a chapel, and at the start of each of the three decades.
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The charming thing about Noblemen is that actually everything is strong: the scandal cards for the bonus actions, the castles for the knights, the palaces for the prestige- and victory points, the chapels for the scandal cards and victory points, smart design of your estate for extra income, high titles for discount and victory points, and so on. There are so many strategies to try out that the game won't get boring or predictable after a couple of times. The playing time on the box might scare some people off (75-120 minutes), but an experienced group won't need that much time. As a side note: in real life it was not a (relatively) poor but smart, hard working baron who inherited the throne: those things only happen in fairy tales. The lucky winner was James, who was already King of Scotland at the time. But that won't spoil our fun!
© 2013 Barbara van Vugt

Noblemen, Dwight Sullivan, Pegasus Spiele, 2013 - 3 to 5 players, 12 years and up, 75-120 minutes


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