Pyramid Review
Oregon
Published by Rio Grande Games
Designed by Åse and Henrik Berg
Full-color boxed game with 60 farmer tokens (in four player colors), 50 landscape cards, 28 building cards, 28 building tiles, eight player tokens (four each of extra turns and jokers), 21 coal tiles, 21 gold tiles, and rules; $39.95
Gone are the days when the struggle for a new America was won with blood and sweat, and victims might be claimed by the measles or dysentery before The Oregon Trail floppy disk was popped out of the drive and the user went to dinner. Although having no direct no relationship to the popular computer game from the 1980s, the board game Oregon still brings all the excitement of exploring the new territory to the tabletop.
The object of the game is to acquire the most points. The average playing time for two to four players is 45 to 60 minutes.
The map shows an abstracted view of Oregon and its various terrain features. It's overlaid by a grid with symbols along its top and left side. Each player has a hand of four cards, representing buildings and landscape, and a set of pawns in his color called farmers. The landscape cards show one of the five symbols from the map edges, while the building cards display the various structures the settlers can construct.
To place a farmer pawn, the player puts down two landscape cards; where those two symbols intersect on the board, that's where the pawn is set. Since the same symbols run along the length and breadth of the grid, this usually . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: February 22, 2008
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