Yi Ting Chen (Jeffrey)
2nd card game
Condottiere is a card/board game designed by Dominique Ehrhard and Duccio Vitale.
The game was first published in 1995 by Arclight and was sold in many countries.
Condottiere is a highly ranked game on boardgamegreek.com and has won several
awards in the past. The picture on the left
is the actually look of the game. This game
can have a total of 2 to 6 players and the
game time is around 60 minutes. This
game is quite easy and there are not many
strategies that players can use. Basically, to
win the game, a player has to occupy 5
disconnected
provinces or
3 connected provinces. The actually map of the game is
shown on the right. To occupy a provinces, players bid
on it with a hand of cards. Each cards has its own
special effect and the highest bidder of a round
occupies a provinces.
I played this game with four other
people and we had a great time
playing it. However, as the
game went on, I felt like this game is very unbalanced.
First, I think heroine is way too strong in the game.
Heroine is valued 10 points and it is not affected by
any special cards such as winter or drum. If a player
gets two or more heroine cards in a round, he is
almost guaranteed to occupy the provinces. To
make it more balance, it is better to reduce the
points of heroine cards or create a new
special card to deal with heroine. For
example, there can be a card that brings back
heroine card to the player's hand.
Second, I think Scarecrow Cards are useless in this game. Playing a Scarecrow card
allows a player to retrieve one of his own Mercenary cards from his battle line back
into his hand. literally, I do not know who will use this card in the game. If a player
already play a Mercenary card from his hand, why would he want to retrieve the card?
Also, I think there are too many Scarecrow cards in the deck. Designers should
reduce the number of Scarecrow cards from 16 to 5 or less. In addition, Scarecrow
should also be able to retrieve enemies' card to their hands. This will make
Scarecrow cards more useful and there will be more strategies involve with this card.
Third, this game is a heavily based
on luck. A person with a luck can
start with a hand of special cards or
cards with value 10. Whereas,
players with no luck can end up with
many low value Mercenary cards. I
don't think there will be a chance for
players to win a round with a hand
of value 1 cards. Therefore, I think designers should find some solutions to fix the
problem because this game is too "luck" based.
Compared to the last board game I played (Puerto Rico),
Condottiere is a more easy game I think. There are more
strategies involve in Puerto Rico than Condottiere.
However, I think Condottiere can be more popular as a
game than Puerto Rico. This is because the simplicity of
Condottiere make the rules easier to read and
understand. People typically go for a easy-read-rules
game than a harder one. Overall, I enjoy playing these
two games and I am looking forward to play another
board or card game in the future.