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Der Palast von Eschnapur
Auteurs: Inka & Markus Brand
Uitgever: Amigo
Jaar: 2009


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We are more than glad that the setting of this game in which it is common use to bribe officials turn after turn and on a regular basis lies in a far and exotic country; one could hardly imagine such practise in our civilized society! This obscure and illegal practise aims at the completion of the palace of the maharadja for our own benefit, but when six of the eight parts have been completed, we find we have done enough and we swiftly checkout. We bribe with gold, but when we settle the account we are content with points we nowhere can convert into cash; in this respect the fairy tale rather peters out.
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Each of the players has a small board that is used to place the gold cards for the consecutive phases. In a round, players first secretly choose two building segments where they want to build; these cards are placed face down until they are revealed during the building phase. From the initial amount of gold cards that players are dealt, they take five and also place them face down at the various phases/actions; this is the influence players want to take on the otherwise fictitious civil servants, where the highest amount wins the right to perform the corresponding action. This varies from taking bricks to rearranging the player order, or announce a construction stop for a specific segment.
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Further, another player can be hindered by placing a blockade marker on one of his gold cards; that player is not allowed to perform the corresponding action this round. All played unblocked gold cards are discarded at the end of a round.

In the construction phase, in player order players place one or more of their colured bricks in the earlier chosen segments, neatly starting at the bottom and from left to right. When a segment is completed it is scored and all players who participated in the construction get points for the highest occupied field plus the amount of own placed bricks in that segment. Above this, gold gets paid, a welcome addition to the diminishing supply of bakshees it costs to get the construction going. At some point during the construction of each segment a square gets occupied that pays a minimal three gold to each player that sofar assisted in the construction of that segment.
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When revealing the bids for the officials the outcome often is a tie. This is broken by the next lower not tied bid that may perform the action. The gold has not been placed in vain; its value is converted into privilege points from which at some point privilege cards may be bought.
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These privileges, varying in cost from six to fifteen privilege points, offer a player various advantages such as determining the player order, ignoring a construction stop, or playing gold cards from his hand when the cards of the other players already have been revealed.

After the sixth completed segment - in a three player game five, and with two players four completed segments - the unused privilege points are converted into victory points, and the player with the most of these has won the game.
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At first sight ‘Der Palast von Eschnapur’ seems like a nice majority game, but all too soon players are confronted with setbacks they have no hand in. Ties when bribing officials are of daily occurrence, which makes this phase a very random one as opposed to the delicate and sufficient administration of money in the real - but far away and exotic, mind you! - world that would change a given situation to a players advantage.
This also goes for the construction stop and for the blockade marker; players are hurt disproportionate hard when they cannot build in a round. Tactical considerations are of little use when chaos rules.
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The blockade marker travels from one to the other player, and actually only between two actions where blocking the brick-taking is the most popular and, when a segment is nearly completed, the action where the last placed brick in a segment is replaced, is the second most used.


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The rule that privilege cards may be bought only when they are used immediately, is partly unclear but also gives unnecessary nervousness when players are confronted with a new situation and have to decide, first, before other players do, wether and if they want to counter or confirm this with a privilege card they have to buy first. Having the privilege markers on the same track as the victory markers also does not really help for the overview.
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After a first play the game left us behind in confusion. Repeated play gave it at least some appreciation, but it was the obligation, not the liking, that the game was played still so much. Actually this is the third game in a row from these authors that initially appeals for some nice elements or a cleverly found mechanism, but when playing it just falls flat. That was the case with ‘Guatemala Café’, it was the case with ‘Im Schutze der Burg’ / ‘A Castle for All Seasons’, and, alas, it also is the case with ‘Der Palast von Eschnapur’. This all is too bad, because the game is very thoughtful produced, with nice and moody artwork by Dennis Lohausen.
© 2009 Richard van Vugt

Der Palast von Eschnapur, Inka & Markus Brand, Amigo, 2009 - 2 to 4 players, 10 years and up, 60 minutes


The many blockade actions are frustrating and slow down the game
Too dependent on the destructive actions by other players
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