Archive for the 'Langfinger' Category

Langfinger was one of my favourite games (initial review) at Spiel 09 – simple, cute, fun and small. 

Further plays reveals that there are definitely tactics to the game.  The placing of your cubes which will determine you actions and their order  offers some interesting decisions and quite a lot of trying to work out what the other players will be up to too.  Mentally crossing your fingers that they won’t take the spot you want adds a nice excitement.

Also, the fencing of items (which is how you convert most goods into points) is really key as it can be a complete bottleneck.  Having lots of hot stolen goods is (literally) pointless if you can not fence them. Read the rest of this entry »

Never heard of Langfinger?  It would have been easily missed at Spiel 09 but it’s one of my favourite games from this year.

Players are thieves who collect tools to steal loot (paintings, statues, gold) which they then fence for points.  First to 20 points wins.  Each player gets three actions per turn and there are five actions to pick from: Get tools (City),  Steal loot (Villa), Swap tools (Ruin), Steal loot (Museum), Fence loot to gain points (Harbour).

Players must select their three actions for the round first and then the actions get resolved in order.  To claim an action, players take turns placing one of their 3 markers on the relevant action location.  More than one player can perform the same action but the first to claim an action will go first when it is resolved.  This is a critical element as what you want may not be there when it gets to your turn.

This is the first interesting game mechanic.  Read the rest of this entry »