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News from the North: Notre Dame by Stefan Feld (2007).
The Ragnars have assembled in March as is their wont in early September. Jason is host, Phil and Slade descend from the far North, Dicken and Kendall arrive from London with Charles (London) and Simon (Lanzarotte) in tow, whilst Dave pops in from just around the corner (well, from 45 minutes away which is regarded as just around the corner in Cambridgeshire).
Games are played, large quantities of alcohol consumed (given the number of cans and bottles in evidence on the Sunday morning, read ‘prodigious quantities’), and Jason comes up with the splendid wheeze of trying to book the England-Andorra game on Setanta without the use of a credit card. What fool would be willing to lend someone their credit card? Slade has a lot of explaining to do when he gets home.
Come Saturday afternoon and following on from the surreally entitled ‘Eric the Red Shift’, Phil, Jason, Kendall and Slade settle down to a game of Notre Dame. This is one of those games that has only the flimsiest connection to reality. Players represent the Heads of the influential families of Paris at the turn of the 14th century. The game board comprises the city surrounding Notre Dame. The winner is the player who manages to gather the most prestige during the course of the game, but to do so he also needs to make money, gain influence, make contributions to the upkeep of the cathedral and run the hospital (necessary to keep the rats – and the resultant plague – under control). If the latter sounds slightly tenuous, an even more curious action is to arrange for a carriage to drive around the city collecting messages; quite why these glitterati should feel the urge to do so is unclear, but it does make for a nice little subplot. Alright, let’s be honest - the aim of the game is to collect victory points (a.k.a. prestige) and there are lots of ways of doing so.
And so to the board. Now the board is rather clever. There is a section for each player participating and, depending on whether there is a triangle, square or pentagon in the centre, these sections fit together to create playing space for three, four or five players. What will clever boardgame designers think of next??! Then there is a ‘robber baron’ each, lots of cubes, nine action cards per player, a set of personality cards allowing bonus actions, lots of money and prestige markers, and that’s it.
Play is driven by the action cards. As said, there are nine of these and each one allows a different action. Each player’s board has seven sectors, and seven cards are linked to those sectors – basically place a cube and then carry out an action there. This is rather neat, because the more cubes you have in an area, the more you achieve. For instance, if you place a cube in the bank, and you then have three cubes present, you take three pieces of gold. Knowing where to mass your cubes is an important tactic in the game. The other two cards allow a donation to the cathedral (but lose the cube) or place the robber baron (or ‘special friend’ as it is curiously known – perhaps he who wants the messages collecting???) which is basically a sort of wild card cube placement and action.
Creating your hand of action cards provides another neat twist. First you take three cards, then pass two of the cards to your left, then take two cards from your right, pass one of those cards to your left and take one from your right. I agree. It does take a lot of getting your head around. On a second playing it’s fairly straightforward, but there is an initial sense of total bewilderment. Oh, and you only play two of the cards in each round, so one of the cards gets discarded.
So there you have it – play through the six actions of the turn, adjust the rats marker, hire one of three other personalities and that’s it. Three turns and it’s the end of the game. Very clever, lots to think about, and some nice interaction.
It would be nice to say that the Ragnars take to it like ducks to water (or fleas to a rat). As it actually happens, the first game rapidly turns into a ‘let’s play it and see what happens’ game. Phil contrives to end up with no influence at one point – fortunately other players allow a rewind – no influence means you can do nothing, and is fatal. Running out of money is another easily engineered disaster – those personalities are too chunky to not use. In the end the game is abandoned halfway through – too many players have made a hash of it.
However, good news! Sunday morning there are plenty of takers for another try. Charles and Gary are new to it, and Phil and Jason are only too happy to share their words of wisdom. “Whatever you do – never allow yourself to run out of money and influence.” So off the players go. Jason seems to have developed a sort industrial suction pump of a carriage which hurtles around the board hoovering up mountains of messages. Rules are consulted and – it’s groundhog day! the Ragnars have misread the rule – so it’s clear the board and start again. “That’s good,” says Phil. “It will give you a better idea of how to play it.”
Fast forward ninety minutes. “I really don’t like this game, “ opines Charles. He has used up all his money and influence. Several gimmes keep him in the game, but Dicken gazumps him for the points in the cathedral at the end of the game and that’s just enough to push him over the edge. Charles, though, is ever the courteous one. “I can’t say I enjoyed it as an experience, but it’s a very clever game.”
Jason actually wins by 5 points from Dicken (piles of early prestige), despite accusing the rest of the world of being ahead of him and, other than Charles, the players rate it highly. Indeed, Phil goes as far as to say it’s his favorite game of the weekend. A true accolade, and well worth a borrow north. Shame that Dicken has collared it for the south…
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