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‘Traders of Genoa’ by Rudiger Dorn
Games night... January16th 2000
Dicken arrives bearing a brown parcel complete with inscription ‘Happy Birthday Steve! From ‘Booker’ Jay Spiller, Gary ‘I’m hurrying’ Dicken and Phil ‘Tiger’ Kendall’. ‘Booker’ and ‘Tiger’ are new to Kendall, but the excitement of receiving a game-sized present distracts him from passing comment. Spiller is later than he has been of late, so conversation meanders through Ragnar business (‘very quiet in board-games at the moment’ – Phil Bootherstone) and Test cricket (a bad day at the office for Nasser Hussain and the boys).
When Spiller does appear he is quick to remark on Kendall’s radical haircut - ‘The shortest I’ve ever seen it!’ Kendall explains how he allowed his youngest daughter (7) the chance to develop her interest in haircutting, how she gouged a furrow from ear to ear and how a number 3 setting on the clippers was called for to tidy up the mistake. Spiller helpfully reexamines the cut and points out the ‘tufts’ that still don’t look right.
Dicken calls upon Kendall to open his present, but is met with a refusal! Kendall’s birthday is not until next week, but as he will be away on holiday he is willing to share the event this evening - but only after tonight’s game.
‘Traders of Genoa’by Rudiger Dorn is an established regular, without being in the classic status. The rules have been mastered, but one or two elements need referral: delivering Large Orders is an action; delivering Small Orders is not an action, but requires the player to complete the action for that building; an Action must be awarded if an offer is made; the Tower player may choose whichever offer he likes; .... Important things, that don’t quite stick in the memory. It’s also a game that has one puzzling as to the motivation behind the design. Hard to imagine anyone sitting down and saying, ‘I’m going to design a game about trading in Genoa...’ But, perhaps Herr Dorn did just that. Perhaps the board is a reasonable representation of the city. Perhaps traders did go left, right and centre delivering Messages and Orders. Perhaps there was a dirty great brown Tower that appeared out of the sky and thundered through the streets and buildings.
Certainly, however, this is (also) a market-driven design, being full of possible strategies and tactics (to the extent where it feels as though anything-goes – particularly in the negotiations) beloved of the gaming public.
Spiller starts as he’s the youngest player and therefore has the ‘Starting Player’ marker. It’s also his job to move the turn marker on, but he will regularly forget this. A pity, as it’s important that this is accurately recorded so that players can prepare their finishing burst. Dicken and Kendall serve to remind him.
Beer and Dorittos tonight, with low-fat Salsa (Kendall is on a diet). Spiller tells a joke...
‘A teacher was stopped at Los Angeles airport.’ (for some reason Spiller leaves a pregnant pause – ‘Yes...’) ‘His bags were searched revealing a protractor, ruler and compasses. He was arrested on suspicion of being a member of an Algebra group and for carrying weapons of maths instruction.’
Kendall and Dicken are warmly appreciative. However, in retrospect questions have to be asked. Should it have been a Geometry group? And has this got something to do with the phrase ‘Booker’?
‘Traders of Genoa’ has been reviewed previously, so no need to go into details here. Highlights of the game were:
- Dicken reminding Spiller that Kendall’s last victory was based almost exclusively on Privilege cards
- Spiller plastering the town with ownership markers
- Kendall persuading Dicken to part with 25 Ducats for a Privilege – ‘You’ll not be laughing if I win’.
- No-one visiting Spiller’s ‘ownership’ buildings
- Spiller forcing Kendall to pay 50 Ducats for an Action
- Kendall chipping away at Spiller’s ownerships
- Spiller desperately trying to buy himself to victory
- Kendall paying another 50 Ducats for an Action
- Dicken miscalculating the value of his Privileges
- Kendall winning by a hundred ducats
- Dicken blaming Spiller for selling Actions to Kendall
- Spiller asking Kendall if he's lying about offering 10 ducats as opposed to the fifteen that it sounded like
And so to Kendall’s present. Packaged in an Esdevium box, but sent from Leisure Games, it is ‘Acquire’ by Hasbro marketed under the Avalon Hill banner. Kendall is pleased and touched that the £34.99 price tag has been left on (accidentally - ed.). The contents are perused and Dicken skims through the set-up instructions. How helpful of Hasbro to include ‘...take the contents out of the plastic bags. Throw the bags away ....’ You won’t find that in a Ragnar Brothers’ game.
Let’s hope Nasser has more luck tomorrow.
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'The Traders of Genoa' by Rudiger Dorn - 27/03/02
Kendall has dropped the game around early. Dicken has got the board out. Still, there’s plenty of time before Spiller is likely to arrive. ‘Traders of Genoa’ has been fleetingly referred to in these dispatches as being a game played three times by Malcolm. You may have noticed the mistake in the title at that juncture. This is because he hasn’t played it three times. In fact he hasn’t played it at all. What he has played is ‘Princes of Florence’ which is the sister game to ‘Traders’.
All this matters little, but that ‘..confusion is come again…’ ( Othello – set in Venice) and again and again with this game - bloody smart arse that kendall - ed. More of that later.
Spiller has arrived. He rounds on Kendall and Dicken when quizzed on why he is late. ‘You boys with your anal tendencies….’ Gamers ..? Anal..?
To Spiller’s credit he has been preparing supper for his good wife. Christina has been working a latish shift at the hospital. For her troubles she can enjoy pancakes stuffed with fried vegetables. Spiller rates them as ‘…brilliant!’ But he comes with a flatulence warning.
Kendall has re-read the rules whilst taking his wife to her hospital shift earlier in the day. Major errors have been detected from last time, and last time was itself an improvement on the first outing. Phil bought the game for Kendall, for Christmas. Game one was pretty disappointing, largely because the set-up was cocked up. Players should receive four ‘game cards’ to go with their 130 ducats. Failing to get these meant plodding around Genoa like three deluded barrow boys.
Game two was played last week and was good, although much moaning ensued over the board layout. The four Villas can’t be reached orthogonally from the street and therefore the ‘Owner markers’ can’t possibly be placed so as to get seven adjacent buildings! Why can’t people design these things right?
Why can’t people read rules properly? The Owner markers have got nothing to do with the adjacent buildings bit of the rules. That’s the job of the ‘Privilege Cards’. It’s all becoming clear now.
On with the game. Spiller, being the youngest player goes first. He gets to roll two dice to give a start reference and then moves the ‘Tower’ its five spaces. Is there some significance of a ‘Tower’ in Genoa. Pisa springs to mind, but Genoa…? Who cares. The Tower moves (as towers are want to) and various Actions can be taken at different buildings visited. Spiller can only do one action, but can get offers from other players for actions in other buildings visited. Spiller can then choose the offer he likes best and coins the money or whatever being offered.
This is the other major bit that has been misinterpreted. For a start it’s not an auction (but we like auctions !!) and it doesn’t have to be an offer of money (it could be cards or ‘Wares’). Kendall explains this carefully and then the game proceeds for the rest of the evening with only auctions happening and only money changing hands. Old habits die hard.
Spiller is a keen collector of Wares. There are eight Wares two each of metals, fabrics, grains and spices - or rather …. black cubes, white cubes, grey, blue, pink, off pink, brown and light brown. ‘You need a miner’s lamp to tell the difference’ (adopt heavy, German accent). Ragnar games are always getting criticism for this sort of thing, so why not dish it out to those who can afford to use little wooden blocks?
And another thing…. there’s not much humour in this game. Very few words that inspire, very few that generate good puns.
Other than that …… it’s coming up as a damned good game.
Kendall is delivering Messages, Dicken collects Privileges, whilst Spiller heads off for the ‘Large Orders’. Top price for offers is about 25 ducats, but in a three player game it’s not uncommon to get away with slipping someone a fiver. ‘Special Cards’ (inspiring terms eh?) include ‘1:1 trades’, ‘1 further action’, ‘Any start space’ …. You get the picture? - nnh huh. I met him at the candy store… - ed.
There’s lots that can be done each turn. Choices…fresh choices …get your lovely choices…..
It’s a good job no-one's mixing their auctions up with different commodities. Some turns get so bogged down that Dicken is repeat bidding for actions like a man waking up in Sothebys.
Dicken tells a joke. It’s about Sean Connery, which gives him opportunity to use one of his better impersonations. The punch-line is something to do with ‘tenish’ being mixed up with ‘…tennis’. If you don’t know it, you’ll probably recognise it when you eventually hear it (it’s been going round for years) - I heard it courtesy of 'The Tangerine Terror' ( a PBM zine ).- ed. Spiller’s joke is slightly better, but only because he enjoys telling it. Kendall tries to put him off by asking him to repeat bits which he ‘…didn’t quite catch…’ to no avail…. The newly married old couple have sex about four times before revealing that the chap can't remember the last three times … the telling was it's saving grace - ed.
Half way through. Dicken and Kendall have just had a minor set-to over moving the Tower and using a ‘1 further action’ card. It’s agreed that there should be a pause for food.
Dicken has been away in France, so it’s crackers and French cheese. Very nice too. The bottled Bass beer sports a label reading ‘Imported from England’, though Dicken got this from his Dad in Burton-on-Trent.
‘Traders’ must be better with four or five players, but it provides a close contest with three. Plenty of inter-action, a good deal of bluff and uncertainty as to whom is winning. Kendall is sure he is not winning and tries to impress this upon Spiller and Dicken. They’ve heard this sort of whinging before … - damn right - ed.
Spiller wins with 660 ducats, Dicken is second with 615 , Kendall is third with 540. Having finally got the hang of it, it is agreed that Malcolm should be invited for a game (general rubbing of hands).
Carol arrives home and joins us for a quick game of ‘Carcasonne’. Dicken monopolises the central farm lands, but misses out on the Monasteries - not a one! - ed. Kendall rages at the domination of the farmer. Spiller tries his luck on the Northern fringes. Carol has a go here, there and everywhere. It’s a low scoring game, but Kendall wins out, despite never having more than five men on the map at any one time. Good to see it working a little differently.
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