'Silberzwerg' by Deininger / Michaelis
Games night 13th February 2003
Spiller and Kendall arrive at Dicken's house simultaneously with comments on the tidiness of the porch. Dicken has spent considerable energy transforming a wild, used packaging, storage area into something with which his wife can live.
The table is laid in readiness for tonight's main game, 'Silberzwerg' (Silver Dwarf). This is a good looking game, in terms of components - card shields, wooden counters, masses of coloured glass 'gems', cloth bags, attractive board and 'job' cards. The only criticism that can be reasonably levelled at the production values is the disappointing box artwork. Take a look at the 'Dark Dwarf' in particular - more like a bear or a smudged dwarf - Lord of the Rings this aint.
The game itself concerns the 'filling' of 'jobs' i.e. supplying gems of various colour combinations, depicted on the 'job' cards, in order to amass wealth (points on the score track). But (there's always a but isn't there?) there are several other options that allow you to earn, buy and sell gems ( and score points) plus being able to sabotage your opponent's plans and even steal from their gem store.
Kendall gets the 'rub of the green' from the outset in terms of the high value of his randomly drawn 'job' cards. Spiller and Dicken are not amused by their 60's and 40's in comparison to Kendall's 120's. Kendall immediately becomes the tall poppy with Dicken and Spiller making no fewer than 12 attacks on either Kendall's job cards (they can be reduced in value) or his dwarf actions or his gem store.
Kendall sees the writing on the wall early and loudly counts off each succeeding attack, much to the merriment of Dicken and Spiller.
Beer and the welcome return of Hot and Spicy Pringles see the gamers into their usual chat mode during the game and the inevitable debate about 'Our Sven' arises. Dicken describes Sven's decision re the England 'v' Australia match as the worst piece of judgement since Pete Best decided that being a Baker was a better idea than being in the Beatles. Spiller declares himself to be of the opinion that Sven's mind is elsewhere and not just on the delectable Ulrika. What a chance in front of goal that must have been! (steady.. Ed.).
Anyway, despite repeated attacks on Kendall - Spiller sending his 'Dark Dwarf' to steal gems ( is there a racial stereotype here?), Dicken reducing those juicy job values etc. Kendall is still out there, his little legs pumping furiously to keep him in the lead, until the last few jobs are available. It is at this point that Dicken makes a killing blow. Having bought blue gems cheaply the previous turn he now engineers a sale of 11 gems at their highest possible value (10). Spiller and Kendall are slack jawed in amazement and Kendall cranks up the damage control 'spin' machine to max.
Apparently it is now obvious that Dicken will win but still Spiller fires in one more attack on Kendall - 2 more gems disappear from Kendall's meagre supply and he is not able to 'fill' the job he had hoped. Dicken downplays his chances of winning and Kendall denounces Spiller for 'playing for second place' - an ultimate Ragnar insult.
Game ends as the last jobs disappear from play and indeed Dicken has won but not by much. Both Spiller and Kendall are close behind which is usually seen as a sign of a well balanced game. However, not necessarily in this game as without the blitzkrieg against Kendall throughout the game his fortuitous turn of the job cards would have seen him romp home far too easily.
The game is clever, well produced and liked by the group but a player may be favoured by 'lady luck' to too great an extent. We also adopted a house rule with regard to trading in sets of 3 job cards for 50 bonus points. In the rules you need 3 job cards with the same 'devices' displayed i.e. axe, hammer or pick axe but this is exceedingly difficult to achieve so we changed it to 3 of a kind or 3 different ones. This is probably a more open game with four players.
The evening is rounded off with coffee and 'Carcasonne'. Spiller and Kendall eschewing a dislike for the expansion tiles and declining their use. A close game for 1st and 2nd place with Spiller edging it over Kendall. Again luck playing a significant part with Spiller and Kendall sharing the Monasteries between themselves. Dicken is left standing in front of the locked gates only able to wonder at what perverted practices might be taking place within those cloistered halls.
It's not all like Cadfael you know. Bye.
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'Silberzwerg' by Deininger / Michaelis
Games night......7th March 2002
Despite a streaming cold, Kendall has managed to get 'Silberzwerg' all set up and ready to go. Dicken arrives, gives Kendall a wide margin and embarks on a rambling tirade about the Ragnar accounts. It appears his mind has been wandering, so much so that the Ragnars are in danger of understanding how the tax system actually operates. The land of Profit is on the horizon. Alas, it will probably be a one year phenomenon, a Marie Celeste experience.
Spiller is on time, relatively speaking. He sits opposite Kendall and then moves a chair to the left. Dicken stops mid-flow and breaks into the more familiar and calmer waters of Fantasy Football. Dicken's 'Chosen Men' have been performing splendidly, scoring 50 + points last night and Dicken wishes to share the good news, that he is about to take the lead away from Nick 'Frodo Lives' Child. Nick is not only a robust gamer (table top, collectible cards, board-games), but is also the good soul, organising FF this year. He took the honours for the first half of the season, despite having a team of fairly boring players - this is Kendall's opinion, a man whose entire team is balanced on the knife's edge that is Thierry Henryand whose other lost souls are not performing very well at all - ed..
Kendall and Spiller are floating near the bottom of the league, so .. onto 'Silberzwerg'.This will be its second time of playing, having been a late (but, admirably generous - £33 !!) Christmas present for Kendall, from Dicken. It comes in an unusually deep box - 9.5 cm - and has lots of those coloured glass beads that are encountered in Pokemon card collecting etc. Part of the game mechanic involves spinning square cards positioned on the playing board. Altogether, it's peculiarly pretty and strangely satisfying, in an autistic kind of way. Best of all, each game comes with four (!) cloth bags - draw-string at that.
A coloured bead of each colour is put in a bag and drawn to determine first player; the yellow being the designated colour. Kendall draws green, Spiller blue and Dicken red. Probably a Ragnar mistake, which Dicken resolves by saying green is closest to yellow. There is a collective sigh of relief, because the rules are translated courtesy of www.gamingdumpster.whatever. Very good (and thanks for the help guys), but very much down-loaded, A4, no graphics material.
Kendall starts, but Spiller can't remember what to do. As this game has large amounts of simultaneous play, the gears grind and the rule 'book' comes out.
'Silberzwerg' is themed on dwarves mining for gems. Each player has four Miner dwarves who mine for the four gems (beads) - players choosing which ones each turn. Two other dwarves, Silver and Black, are available to do a whole host of other things depending on where they are placed on the player's turn cards. Herr Silver is essentially a good guy who finishes 'Jobs' and does a bit of buying and selling, whilst Herr Black is a thug.
Kendall starts again and the first turn fairly barrels along. Spiller and Dicken do a fair bit of buying, but it's Kendall who manages to finish the first Job. This entails collecting the right combination of eight gems for any one of the square cards mentioned earlier. Players have a Job each of their own and there are a couple of Public Jobs to go for. After each round the value for completing a Job is reduced (hence the spinning of the cards).
Now last time, it wasn't so easy. In fact completing Jobs became second option to a bit of buying and selling (this is very much a Stocks and Shares game). There is a momentary pause, a few seconds of deliberation . and then, turn two begins with everyone playing exactly the same tactics.
Dicken is enjoying the very crisp crisps and can't stop himself going into another reverie about his Fantasy team. Kendall however, feels the season is too long and that the fun goes out of it after Christmas. Spiller accuses Kendall of being a sore loser - and he should know.
Meanwhile Kendall is winning down in the mines. He's fairly snuffling into his draw-string bag, finishing his own Job every turn and seeing his score hurtle round the score track. It does begin to look all too easy. Bang four Miners dwarves into one colour of gem (forcing the price down), place a Silver dwarf in the same shaft to buy up yet more of the same colour (and surplus to requirements), and a second Silver Dwarf to complete the Job. Of course you need a bit of luck with the Jobs coming out - but Kendall's found a rich vein.
Spiller tries to break the momentum with a joke. It concerns Brooke Shields on a golf course. It's rather rude, but the punch-line is, ".it's a gimme!" Fair enough. But why Brooke Shields? Wasn't she a fantasy figure of our teenage years? And we still play golf.
600 points (a nice BIG number) needed to win the game and the only way to stop Kendall is to use the malicious Black Dwarf. This character is depicted rather obscurely, with just a hint of the film 'Lord of the Rings' about him - the cartoon version. It also feels just a bit under-strength in the three player version, with just not quite enough benefit for not using the 'honest' Silver chappy. Consequently, Kendall gets to within spitting distance of the finish line before Spiller heaves into him. To no avail, Kendall has a card cancelling the effect of a Black dwarf - it's a gimme! - I am sure that this game will be better with four players and I would think pretty poor with just two, still very pretty to look at. ed.
Unusually for the Ragnars, we made an amendment to these rules, and you might be interested. Cards bearing axes, hammers, shovels can be collected as three the same OR three different (a la Risk). Still worth a 40 point bonus. There again, you might not give a Brooke Shield's.
Dicken has found Kendall's box of wine and declares it most unusual for combining three grapes. Will he start to sniff the packaging or is it a ruse to try a glass? The latter, of course. - rather bland however. That's what you get for over blending. - ed.
A quick 'real' coffee is followed by a quick 'Lost Cities' - which Kendall wins handsomely. - I'm sure he's sold his soul to the devil - ed.
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