Tuesday 18th - Raubritter and Shear Panic

Raub-Ritter
Originally uploaded by coljen.

So the first session since Essen, and Steve chose the new Rudiger Dorn game Raubritter, or Robber Knights. Basically it is a tile laying game with dobbers a la Carcassonne. Each player has their own set of tiles, some are lettered on the back, A to E. You arrange the tiles in a stack with all the E's on the bottom, then D's and so on so the A's are on top. You always hold 2 tiles in hand, so you play one then draw one. On the tiles are Castles, Villages, Towns, Mountains or lakes. The Castles, Villages or Towns can be on the plains or in the forest. When you lay a Castle you have the option to place up to five knights (ie dobbers) on the Castle and then move them off in a straight line orthogonally. The restrictions are that you must leave at least 1 (on plains) 2 (on forests) and 3 (on mountains). Lakes are impassable. There is a maximum of 4 dobbers allowed on any one tile, the tiles are scored at the end of the game. The knight on top scores as follows: Castles 1 point, Villages 2 points and Towns 3 points.
The playing area is restricted to a 10 x 10 square, so you are laying tiles and dobbers trying to score, and protecting that score and trying to limit the scoring opportunities for your opponents. I liked it even though I came last. The colours on the board ebb and flow during game as one player gets an advantage then it changes completely as another player lays a line of his knights covering all yours (doh!).
Final Scores
Richard 34, Steve 22, Garry 20, Colin 15