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

Wurst Case Scenario

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Author:
Mathias Rossie

Publisher:
Jumping Turtle Games
2018

No. of Players:
2-6

EVALUATION

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G@mebox author Marco Klasmeyer writes about the game:

No, the title is not a typo. The game is about tiny tasty sausages (German: Wurst) which have somehow become alive and now want to escape from the sausage factory and of course escape the scary meat chopper. Don’t confuse this game with “The worst case scenario survival game” from University Games in 2001. The wordplay “wurst” – “worst” only works well in the German-Dutch-Belgium language, but that is only part of the fun the story of the game offers. The factory’s conveyor belt is inexorably moving the sausages towards the meat chopper and the only possible escape is to push the other sausages even nearer towards the meat chopper and try to survive as the last sausage and thus win the game.

Wurst case scenario is a simple family card game for 2-6 players. It consists of 8 sausages in a stand, 8 corresponding sausage identity cards, 38 action cards, conveyor belt cards and some sabotage tokens. Each player obtains the identity of one (for 5-6 players) or two (for 2-4 players) sausages and each has the mission to survive as the last “wurst” standing.

The players keep their sausage identity secret to the others. Three action cards are dealt to each player. Most of the action cards yield the possibility to move one or more sausages in or against the direction of the conveyor belt or modify the conveyor belt itself (add or remove elements). Some action cards allow to sabotage the conveyor belt with power outage or sticky jam or slippery banana peel. These events let the affected sausages either stay where they are or transport them one field closer towards the meat chopper.

The action cards are categorized into three level of possible executions: actions that must be executed completely (Mayor “Must-ard” is depicted on these cards), actions that can be also partially executed (Mister Ketchup is depicted) or actions that may or may not executed at all (Lady “May-onnaise” is depicted). Sausages, mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise – this sounds like a funny and tasty game, especially for children. When it’s their turn, a player has to play one card from theirhand, carry out the possible action(s) of the card, discard it and draw a new card. Simple as that. One may decide not to play a card and thus pass his turn, he then must discard all cards of his hand and draw 3 new cards. In the course of the game hand cards can be stolen (action card), leaving the victim with only 2 cards which is quite a restriction. Thus discarding all hand cards and draw 3 new ones is the only possibility to get rid of this restriction. Having a hand of only three cards may be seen by experienced gamers as a limitation in itself, but this is a family card game to be played with children at an age of 8 years.

Since each player tries to protect their own sausages and push the others closer to the meat chopper, the harder it is to predict what will happen the more players participate in the game. Right after the start of the game it is part of the fun to guess which sausages belong to which player, with the only hints being the action cards carried out and seeing which sausages benefit from it. It works quite well for a smaller round of 2-4 players with children participating, because they obtain 2 sausage identities and thus have a higher probability to survive with at least one sausage. The disadvantage of a larger round with each player having only one sausage identity, is that for one player the game might end too early, which can be a bit frustrating for the unexperienced new young gamer apprentice. However, a game lasts about 15 minutes, so there is always the possibility to taste the sweet revenge in a next round.


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