Greenland: How do I win?
If you missed last week’s segment, feel free to check out the backstory first.
As much as I love playing board games, describing the theme sometimes just confuses first time players. While I’m trying to create a nice atmosphere for the game, certain games definitely skim over the strong thematic need for a backstory. Like Dominion. That game is a ton of fun to play, but what’s the theme? You are some type of royalty and you are trying to collect more land than your rival royalty? What? Something like that. I don’t even go into the theme when I describe the game. I hope that people will describe the theme to new players, because I think it’s part of the fun (and will hope for a small bit of roleplaying for those interested).
Anyway, for those not interested in a theme the first thing they might care about is “How do I win the game?” which is pretty important to know. In a lot of the (euro-style) games, the answer is “Get more victory points than the other players” and then expands out to something like “Create the most diverse Farm” (Agricola) or maybe “Control the most territory and take the most advantage of your Race abilities” (Small World).
Since GGLF is an asymmetrical game, victory points don’t really accumulate in the same way that they do in other games. Instead Greenland as the aggressor will accumulate Water Flow Points for each ton* of water that reaches two designated points on the log flume. Denmark starts with a set number amount of Flood Level Points and accumulate a much smaller amount during the course of play. Greenland must accumulate at least this amount to win.
* Volume of water hasn’t been determined yet.
The following is exactly how I have this written in the current written up rules:
Goal: As Greenland, your goal is to build a giant log flume able to collect the melting glacial caps and carry the water over 4000 kilometers (2400 miles) to Copenhagen.
As Denmark, your goal is to prevent your annihilation by disrupting the log flume. Also, you promised all the other Scandinavian countries you wouldn’t blow up anything near their countries so you can’t just drop a bomb on the flume. That and any such Actions would probably obliterate the Faroe Islands where King Christian-Frederick I has a summer home.
Posted on January 16th, 2012 by tehdiplomat
Filed under: design-notes, greenland
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