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HOPPLA LAMA

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Author: Roberto Fraga

Publisher: Goldsieber 2003

Awards: none

EVALUATION

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Hoppla Lama is set against the background of Peruan Indios travelling up a Volcano with their Lamas in order to find out whether there would be any dangers for their village. However, needing some convincing to go up the vulcano, the Lamas need to be lured with some food in order to dare to go closer to the vulcano.

At the beginning of the game each player gets two Lamas of one colour. One of these Lamas he places at the village place at the bottom of the vulcano, while the other Lama is not placed on the gameboard as yet. As a final preparation, a certain number of food-counters is placed into a bag from which they can be drawn during the game.

Each player's turn is divided into three basic steps: First, the starting player gets to bet on the food consumption for that turn. Next, each player secretly takes a number between 1 and 5 food-counters from the bag and after all players have drawn their food counters their draws will be revealed. And finally, some Lamas will be moved up the vulcano, depending on which player has won the bet on the food consumption for that turn.

As indicated, the active bet for the turn is chosen by the starting player, and he gets to chose between 4 different types of bets: He may bet...

  • ... that the players holding most and fewest food counters in their hand may move their Lamas (if there is a draw then these bets will be ignored).
  • ... that the player holding most food counters will be allowed to move his Lama (if there is a draw then these bets will be ignored).
  • ... that only players holding equally much food counters may move their Lamas.
  • ... the player with fewest food counters may move his Lama (if there is a draw then these bets will be ignored).

Once one or more winners of the betting round have been found, these players will be allowed to move their Lamas up the vulcano. The Lamas must take a number of steps corresponding to the number of food counters which their owner did use in the betting contest. If a Lama ends its movement on a space which is already occupied, the former occupant of that space will be pushed one step backwards towards the village space. If a Lama gets into the crater, then it immediately will run back to the village place where it can cool its feet in the river.

Some coloured spaces on the track up the vulcano indicate shortcuts on the way to the crater. If a Lama ends its move on one of these spaces, then it will immediately be moved to the exit of that secret route.

After the Lamas were moved according to the result of the betting round, the next player will become starting player and a new round will start. The game will end immediately when a player draws the last food counter from the bag, and at that time all food counters which the players may already had drawn for this' turn's betting round will be returned to the bag as well. Afterwards, the players will count how many food counters they have collected in previous turns, and the player who has collected most counters must move his Lama for an additional 3 spaces up the vulcano, whereas the player with fewest food counters must move his Lama 3 spaces downwards. The game then will be won by the player who has his Lama farthest up the vulcano.

With Hoppla Lama GOLDSIEBER had succeeded in creating a highly interactive game where a lot of communication between the players takes place due to the fact that they try to bluff each other concerning the number of food counters which they might hold in their hand. The game is relatively short to play, but it's entertainment value is high enough to guarantee a quite high number of replays.


Looking for this game? Visit Funagain Games!


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Copyright © 2006 Frank Schulte-Kulkmann, Essen, Germany