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[ sings ] Good luck... Good luck...
the foreman comes..
and he has his bright light at night...
already lit... already lit.
Hello friends of analog entertainment.
Today with "Glück auf" (aka Coal Baron).
Yes, a mining game as you have already guessed easily.
From two veterans of the German board game scene, namely Kramer and Kiesling.
Tikal, Torres, Tikal 2, Asara, The Palaces of Carrara and God knows.
A lot of other things too.
This year with "Glück auf" on the show (Essen 2013).
Publisher Eggertspiele, distributed by Pegasus.
Playable from 10 years, 2-4 players ,
with a pleasant playing time of 1 hour.
Basically, "Glück auf" is a worker placement game,
which is relativly easy to play concerning the mechanics.
I have a handful of workers,
which I can place on different fields of action.
And of course I want to dig up as much coal as possible.
First I can get myself some additional
order cards to my starting contingent.
The order cards are also made up easily.
At the top, the number of victory points. Here the corresponding coal I need, in this case 3 grey pieces.
And at bottom the type of shipment, in this case it is shipped with the locomotive.
Then I can get myself money in the bank.
And with that money I can buy lorries at the lorry factory,
in order to expand my pit.
Each player has such a beautiful, small pit tableau.
With the pit frame, the pit cage and 4 mining floors.
At the top is the yellow coal,
which is then worth the least at the end.
At the bottom is the black coal, which is of course the most valuable.
With the next action field, the pit frame
I buy conveying steps for my pit cage
with whom I get the the coal out of my pit.
To deliver it then with the last variety of fields of action,
namely the shipment of the order cards.
First, the fields of action are of course empty, and since it is sufficient
that I may place one single worker in order to trigger the action
now if someone else would like to do the same action,
the field is not blocked
it just costs one worker more than there already is,
to place workers there and perform the action.
This would move my worker to the canteen
- what I find a very funny idea -
where he now remains until the rest of the shift.
and that can go on as long as I have workers.
That said, I can perform actions three, four times
they are just more expensive then.
"Glück auf" is played in three rounds,
that are called "shifts", which is quite nice.
Here below we see a shift clock.
There is the morning shift, the day shift and the night shift.
And after each shift, there is a score.
And each score involves a little more than the previous one.
In the first score
only the delivered coal gets you victory points.
The second shift
the delivery symbols of the order cards are added.
And the third score
how many lorries of the corresponding color
I have installed in my pit are counted in.
I myself was a little "disappointed", a little bit.
Because when I saw the package for the first time,
I thought a mining game - right up my alley!
But I had somehow expected something a bit different.
I had expected, we dig deep into the earth.
And my pit can collapse, and there is flooding! Or I have to improve ventilation anyway!
And so on. But "Coal Baron" unfortunately doesn't satisfy in this manner.
Because it is in the strict sense not really a mining simulation,
but a mining industry simulation!
And that means it's actually an economic game.
You can recommend "Coal Baron", for all who love to play an entry- worker placement game.
For frequent players, who have a clue of worker placement games, I would say,
there are other games that have more depth
and motivate simple better than "Coal Baron" in the long run.
But, as I said, very solid, very nicely done,
therefore, there is still a thumbs up from me.
The most fun for me,
comes from your own little pit tableau.
And with the pit cage going up and down, to the individual floors,
and you really load the coal into the pit cage.
drive it back up to daylight and then load the coal onto the order cards.
I think that really is beautiful implemented.
This digging into your own pit thing.
Pit cage up - pit cage down.
You must also be careful that you do not dig too deep into one direction
Otherwise the pit is getting an imbalance,
for what you will get punished with a few victory points.
And I find that quite nicely solved.
So you have to always watch, where to dig even more.
And which type of coal I need for the next turns.
Pit cage up - pit cage down, pit cage up - pit cage down.
No ... no ... you have to specifically ...
Can not even crash!
Yes, but do I deliver my trucks now?
Or should I get another horse cart order?
Will I be able to finish it? Not that it will be too expensive ...
Where is the pit collapse? Where is the pit collapse?
Yes, you wanted the collapsing pit...
Granted, but just that I do not need one and a half hours,
to explain the rules to my teammates,
and then three games in order to understand and implement tactics
is indeed an advantage! - Definitely.
I really can unwrap this under the Christmas tree
And on Christmas Eve play with my parents!
It's a bit capitalistic ... with the workers
they have to go to the canteen ... they need to work hard.
Yes, but, after they have worked they are ALLOWED to got in the canteen!
In which worker placement game workers were ever treated so well?
On the other hand, there are not so many good economic worker placement games.
Some people still play Monopoly .
Yes exactly, considering this it is of course far ahead .
So we recommend, you check it out.
It is definitely worth a look .
And we see us next time. Til then.