Game Review – Thurn and Taxis

Thurn and Taxis
Number of Players	2 - 4
Play Time	60 minutes
Ages	10 years and up

This week I am reviewing another game that is a great option for players that are new to Euro games:  Thurn and Taxis

Thurn and Taxis is a network building game that uses set collection game mechanic.  Based on the the real Thurn and Taxis of the 16^th century, the theme of the game is about the development of postal routes in Germany and some cities in the surrounding countries.

Game play is relatively simple.  The players develop routes by collecting cards that represent the cities on the map from a tableau of six cards on the board.  The tableau is refreshed after a card is taken from it.  The player then places a card from their hand face up in front of them.  This card represents the route that they are trying to build.  Each turn after that they player must add a card to either side of the route to extend it.  The city card added to the route must be able to connect to the city in the route as shown on the map on the board.  If the player cannot a city to their route then they must discard the route and gain no points for it.  If after they have placed a card and the route is at least three cities long, the player wants to claim the route they may.

In order to claim a route the player places postal house on cities in their route.  The player has one of two options when placing their postal houses.  They may place postal houses in the cities in on region or they may place on postal house in a city in each region that their route covers.  Any city that the player places a postal house in must be one of the cities in their route.

In addition to the basic rules above there are special abilities that a player may use during their turn.  They may use only one of these special abilities during their turn.  The special abilities are:  take two city cards from the tableau, add two cards to their route, replace all of the cards in the tableau, and artificially extend their route by two cities.

Victory points are awarded in the game for completing four routes of increasing size from a minimum of three cities in length to a minimum of seven cities in length.  In addition to the basic victory points that are awarded for having postal houses in all of the cities in a region, a postal house in each of the regions on the board, and the first people to complete a five, six and seven city routes.  At the end of the game the players lose a victory point for each postal house they have left in their play area.  The person with the most victory points wins.

As I had mentioned at the beginning of the game, Turn and Taxis is a great game to use to introduce players to Euro games.  It plays well with any number of players and the game play is relatively quick after the first few turns where the players are getting used to the game.  The only time that a player can get into trouble in the game is if they do not manage the collection of their sets correctly.  You cannot count on a card being in the tableau when you get your next turn.  If you need to count on a card being there it is better to claim the route before ending your turn.  If you have to discard a route without claiming it, you will most likely lose the game.

If there is any drawback to the game it is that you can only play with up to 4 players.  Sometime it is good to have a game that plays five players especially when you need a introductory game.  This is not a bad thing it just removes it as an option in those situations.

Some one that is looking for a networking building game and is tired of all of Ticket to Ride being their only option should pick up Turn and Taxis.  It is a refreshing change of pace and is so long that you would be committing a whole night of gaming to it.