Pyramid Review
Thurn and Taxis
Published by Rio Grande Games
Written by Karen & Andreas Seyfarth
Full-color boxed game (two to four players) with map, 80 wooden houses in four colors, four company cards, 20 coach cards, 66 city cards, 30 point tiles, four rules summary cards, rulebook; $32.95
Thurn and Taxis has its origins in the 15th century when the Kaiser commissioned someone to carry his correspondence across the Holy Roman Empire -- his own little Pony Express, of a sort. By the time you get to take a hand in matters, it's two centuries later and you have a family reputation to uphold as the government asks you to formalize the postal system.
The object of the game is to produce the most successful (read: high-scoring) mail-carrying service in Austria and surrounding lands.
Each player plays a descendant of this famous, favored family. Two to four heirs get their own company to create a postal service that runs through as many cities as possible. The map shows the towns you'll cater to, from Freiburg in the west to Linz in the east, and the roads that interconnect them. A deck of city cards shows the urban centers, and these are the currency on which the game runs.
Eight of these cards are set face-up on the side of the map. On his turn, an entrepreneur must draw at least one city card, either one of the revealed cards or taking his chances with a blind draw if none of those appeal to him. Then he has to play at least one city card from . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 21, 2006
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