Kulkmann's G@mebox - www.boardgame.de

PACKET ROW

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Authors:
Ase & Henrik Berg

Publisher:
PEGASUS 2013

No. of Players:
2 - 5

EVALUATION

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Gamebox author Marco Klasmeyer writes about the game:

Packet Row is settled in the harbor of New York in the 19th century. Ships with goods from all over the world are coming and leaving. Due to the steady stream of goods and packets waiting to be transported to or from the docks this part of New York harbor was called Packet Row. The players take the role of successful trading companies. They have to fulfill delivery contracts of shipping various goods mainly to Europe to gain money. By cleverly combining goods, ships and destinations to fulfill the contracts you try hard to outdo your opponents. A few character cards may help you in managing your tasks and make the one or other delivery much easier. But making money is not the only goal of the game. In order to win the game you need victory points and therefore one must spend the money for the benefit of the city of New York and the citizens and buy buildings and improvements for the city. Money will also yield victory points at the end of the game but by far not as much as the various buildings may achieve.

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Packet Row is a fine planning and composition which plays best with a cast of 3 to 5 players, and although it is possible to play with just two players I would not recommend it. Short term tactics and shifting previous plans is more honored than a long term invariant strategy. But let me briefly summarize the rules first. There are four small game boards Guild House, Docks, Marketplace and Bank. Each game board has an own set of cards, separate fields for the draw and discard pile and for the current and the future supply fields. Depending on the number of participating players the current supply contains 2 to 4 cards. The future supply always contains two cards. The future supply will become the current supply in the following round so all players know what will be available next time (at least partly). In the course of the game the players can purchase cards from the current supply of the four game boards, e.g. merchant-ships or a captain from the Docks, money or a banker from the Bank, various goods or a merchant from the Marketplace and trade contracts or an assistant from the Guild House. The main goal is to earn money by fulfilling trade contracts. Converting a trade contract into cash means having the required goods displayed on the contract card and owning a merchant-ship heading to the destination of the trade contract. Some special cards can help fulfilling these trade contracts by changing either the type of the required goods or the destination of a merchant-ship. Trade contracts can be converted into cash at any time in the course of the game as long as the conditions are met. Money is mainly needed to purchase valuable cards from the supply, and especially the different kinds of available buildings will yield the victory points which are needed to win the game. Buildings are contained in all four decks, but acquiring cards from the supply is not as easy as one might think.

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Each round one player is the Harbor Master, and his tenure is represented by ownership of a wooden token. The Harbor Master selects a game board from which the other players may choose first to purchase a card from the current supply. Each player can only take one card per round. If a player takes a card he has to pay the amount of money displayed on the card (only few cards are available for free) and place a marker on that game board. Then this player has to pass all possible remaining turns for the round. So if a player does not want to or cannot pay for a card from the selected game board he can skip his turn and hope for another turn. The Harbor Master always makes his choice as last player, but instead of having to take one of the remaining cards of the previously selected game board he can also choose a new game board and start another turn for the other remaining players, who have not already taken a card. However, when the Harbor Master takes a card, the round immediately ends, regardless of some players missing out this round. Thus, the Harbor Master's disadvantage of being the last player to draw a card is balanced with the power of selecting the game board all others have to choose a card from and letting the round end as soon as he takes a card. This is a neat tactical element of Packet Row for the Harbor Master: What is the best way to get a specific card for oneself and not leave it to the other players? In which order shall the Harbor Master select the game boards in order to tempt the other players to pick up cards so that he finally gets the desired card of his choice? How to prevent the others from taking cards they desire and make it more difficult for them? These are all things which might need to be considered by the Harbor Master.

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Once the Harbor Master has made his card choice and the round has ended, all cards from the current supply of all involved game boards have to be discarded and the future supply is moved to the current supply for the next round. In case of 4 or 5 players 1 or 2 additional cards have to be taken from the normal draw pile to fill up the current supply. Please note that game boards which were not selected by the Harbor Master this round must not be changed and remain equipped as they are for the next round. Thus, it is also possible for the Harbor Master to preserve cards of a game board for the next round. Finally the rounds ends with the player sitting left of the current Harbor Master becoming the new Harbor Master.

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The game ends when the current supply of a number of game boards (1-3 - depending on the number of players) cannot be filled up again. Now all players count their victory points from the buildings and the special character card of the banker which yields 0 to 3 points at the end of the game. Remaining money is simply changed into victory points on a rate of 10 to 1. The highest score of course wins Packet Row.

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After reading the rules two times I did not have a clue how this all works together in the course of the game. It seemed obviously clear that you have to get money by converting trade contracts as much as possible. Should be easy - get a ship, get some goods and a contract - done. But immediately after starting a round with three players it turned out that I completely underestimated the influence of the Harbor Master. So getting at least three cards from three different game boards can be quite difficult if not impossible. Normally it will take several rounds - more than initially thought - to fulfill one trade contract. If you are tempted or forced to take cards you have not planned (just to get at least a card before a round ends), you might run out of money too early. But for picking up goods or buildings from the supply you need money! Thus it is a good tactic for the Harbor Master to select game boards some players cannot pay for the cards and thus it is more probable and safe for the Harbor Master that he can get his desired card from such a game board. Having played some rounds the whole cards distribution mechanism turned out to be a really good tactical game. It is not about pure luck but more estimating and evaluating the other players' intentions in order to achieve the best for oneself. An interesting variation of the more or less common bidding mechanisms found in other games!

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