xxxx

Kabale und Hiebe (Ruse & Bruise)
page 2
x
x
Properties that only apply at the end of the round include the look-alike, which is worth the same amount of influence points as the card below it, or the dragon, that decreases the value of all other cards in the row by 2. And then there is Romeo; he is worth 5 points, but if the Julia of the same colour is also present in the same row, he suddenly adopts some unexpected qualities and scores 15 points! The musketeers cancel all the special properties of other cards in that row, the wizard removes all cards with a value higher than 10 from the row, and if the beggar is present, the player with the least number of influence points, instead of the most, wins the goal card.

If you read about all the special properties of the characters, you suspect endless possibilities in this game. In practice, however, this is not the case, since you only have three cards at a time to choose from. If you want to get your Romeo and Julia in the same row at the same time, you need a certain amount of luck! With only three cards, it is not an option to keep Julia in your hand for a long time and wait for Romeo to come along, since this leaves you with only two cards to choose from, and that limits your other options too much.
It will often happen that the situation arises that you can think of a specific card that would come in handy, but you don’t have it at the moment. And when you finally get it, the moment has passed and you don’t have any use for it anymore. The tactical options that the game seems to offer with the large number of different special properties therefore do not really work out in practice; you largely depend on the three cards that you happen to have in your hand.
x
Since the value of the goal cards is doubled if you possess one card of each of the six categories, it seems attractive to aim for that. With smaller groups (2-3 players) this doesn’t really work. The number of goal cards placed on the table each round is equal to the number of players, and with 2 or 3 players so few cards are placed that there’s a big chance that at least one category doesn’t even enter the game. Then it seems wiser to just aim for the goal card with the highest value, irrespective of the category it belongs to.
x

'Kabale und Hiebe' is not a long game, and the theme is nicely implemented with pretty illustrations and creative special properties of the characters. Because of the small number of cards the players have in their hand, however, the options are too limited and the special properties are not used to their full extent, which is a pity. This makes the game a more one-dimensional card game where the element of luck plays a big role. As a final note, 8 years seems a bit young for this game that occasionally needs some higher level of thinking.
© 2007 Barbara van Vugt
Kabale und Hiebe (Ruse & Bruise), Lutz Stepponat, Hans im Glück (Rio Grande Games), 2006 - 2 to 6 players, 8 years and up, 30 minutes
x
x
x