Ora et Labora will be Uwe Rosenberg's 5th "big" game. It's based mechanically on Le Havre and set in the Medievals. Each player is head of a Monestary that gains land and constructs buildings, little enterprises that will gain resources and profit. The goal of each player is to build-up a working infrastructure and manufacture prestigious items, like books, ceramics, ornaments and relics to gain the most victory points at the end of the game.Le Havre fans will recognise many well-known mechanics like loads of different two-sided resources with a basic side that can be upgraded (turned) to something more useful. Also, the game will introduce buildings from time to time that can be constructed with building material that players may take as one of their possible actions. The other possible action is to enter a building with one of your workers.What's completely new about the game is a clever Rondell mechanic that introduces the resources. Agricola and Le Havre might be very fiddly from time to time as you were constantly moving stuff on the board and off. This is no more in Ora et Labora. The Rondell shows numbers that refer to the amount of resources in a given Rondell segment. There is one resource token of each kind on the Rondell. At the beginning of a player's turn, the Rondell is moved by one segment. This adjusts the amount of resources for all available ones with a single move - extremely clever.Another big difference to its predecessor is that players now really build something in front of them. Each player starts with a little board that might remind you of Agricola, and places their start buildings (now tiles, no cards) on the board. Every new building has to be placed on that board. However, like in Farmers of the Moor, the board starts with some wood and moor tiles that hinder your development. By taking wood or peat from the Rondell, you remove a wood or moor tile, respectively. Once they're gone, they're gone. If you want more wood and moor, or more space to expand, you can buy extra terrain as an additional free action during your turn.Another main difference - and we won't got too much in detail here about the smaller ones - is that you start with more than one worker piece. If you enter a building, you place your token in the building where it stays until you've placed all of your tokens. However, you can only enter your own buildings this way. If you want to enter another player's buildings, they'll have to move their token into their building for you! Of course, you'll have to pay them to do this. The terrain tiles add another layer to the game. The times are gone by, where you've just entered a Building Firm and got what you wanted if you could pay the resources. You know have to build cleverly on your board as this effects your overall score. Also, some buildings have restrictions where they are allowed to be placed.Also, player interaction has been improved. You now can screw your opponent - by entering their buildings with their tokens. You need to pay more attention now. The game has some new layers, but still doesn't take longer to play. It's a completely new, upgraded Le-Havre-like experience!Uwe's next hit will be published soon, maybe in 2011. Stay tuned!
mmmm... ¿entonces es una revisión del Le Havre? ¿Como el Age of Industry lo es al Brass?
Pues a mi esto que leo me recuerda a algun escritor o cantante que le "obligan" a sacar un trabajo nuevo, pero que en resumidas cuentas es lo mismo. Que si, que si te gusta AGRICOLA y LE HAVRE esta claro que con este tambien disfrutaras, pero yo creo que teniendo estos dos juegos y existiendo tantos y tantos juegos como existen es mejor inversion comprase algun juego diferente e igual de bueno. Seguramente este opinando muy pronto pero es que como no aporte nada nuevo ( excepto la ambientacion ) no le veo el sentido....solo intentar sacarnos el dinero, asi de claro.
¡Que bonito! Estamos asistiendo al nacimiento de un Hype
120 minutos con mecánicas similares a LeHavre...en un Monasterio (esto huele bien).paciencia... que todo llegará
Ummm... primero Knizia, luego Wallace... y ahora "hambriento" Rosenberg...Qué mal vamos....