Old London Bridge – Family game review, Backgammon review

The Old London Bridge designed by Gabriel Popola and Leo Colovini (Queen Games) takes us back to 1176. In the role of lead builder Peter de Collichurch, we have the task of replacing the ruined wooden bridge in the British capital with a new one. of stone. The special feature of this bridge was that it was not only used to cross the Thames, but also many buildings were erected on it, as the beautifully designed cover drawing shows.

How does Old London Bridge work?

A maximum of four players each receives a bridge in two sections made of sturdy cardboard, providing a total of twelve construction sites for various buildings. Six groups of buildings (chapels, bridge gates, inns, grocery stores, guild houses, and parks) were placed on the game board in groups, four of which relate to specific areas around the edges of the game board. In the center is a rotating disk that rotates a variable number of spaces in each of the twelve rounds.

The task of the master builders is now to build on their bridge in such a way that the neighboring buildings are built with decreasing house numbers. The highest house number in the game is 60, and the lowest is 1. House numbers are mixed and printed on five types of buildings, only gardens do not contain any number. In five buildings there are also individual coats of arms of four different colors on top, only the guild houses show all four coats of arms.

At the beginning of each round, you bid first with your six hand cards for the privilege of being the first to place your player character on the middle turntable. Hand card values ​​range from zero to four, with zero being the only card we return to our hand after being played. All other card values ​​are stored in the inn building area.

The small intricacies of the Old London Bridge

Of course, being the first is an advantage, because the places on the turntable have different values ​​and you can get to the desired building type. Fields give us 1-3 coins once we put our character on it. A field is blocked per round and may not be entered. It is a shame that you run into exactly the masonry tiles that you urgently need. However, there is a possibility to place the letter in the middle of the turntable. For this you have to part two of your coins. It’s also the only action in the game that costs us anything. With the number in the middle, I can take any building on display, including the blocked one. However, since the rule also applies here that only one character is allowed on each field, players who have moved recently have only limited options.

Apart from the house number that matches your bridge, some buildings also bring certain advantages to the player, which relate to the above game board areas. Chapels affect the track of the same name, in which there is a token for each player. The leading position in this cycle decides any tie in the game path z. B. When bidding a hand of equal value. In addition, you can collect money when you move forward in some fields and even get ten coins if you reach the end.

Bridge gates have a similar function. There are also offers here, but there are no coins to earn, only bonus tiles. These bring – if you use them – advantages to the player. If you don’t use it, you will get 1 coin for each tile for the final score at the end of the game. These squares allow us, for example, to place a piece next to another on the turntable, to pick up cards that have been played, to advance two more steps in the cycle, and a number of other advantages.

The general store is responsible for the income. There you get coins, which are equivalent to victory points in this game. With the hostel premises we can refill our cards. There are four groups with card values ​​from one to four.

Is Old London Bridge board game fun?

The challenge is that there is a compulsion to build in each round, but there is not always a proper house number displayed so we can continue our building series in descending order according to the rules. If none of the buildings shown match the order of the house numbers on the bridge, you have two options: either demolish an existing building and replace it with a suitable one, or build a garden instead. Since gardens do not have house numbers, you can always build them on the bridge, where the current row of buildings is terminated and you can then start a new series of house numbers.

As already mentioned, colored coats of arms were depicted on all buildings. The strength of the construction work is determined by the number of heraldry. Example: If I put a chapel with a certain coat of arms on my bridge, I limit the number of these coats of arms on the bridge in total, and thus move my cross forward in the path of the church. The same applies to bridge gates. If I take a shopkeeper’s building, I receive coins in the corresponding number of coats of arms, in the inn I can take hand cards of this value. Because of the four layers of weapons printed on it, the Guild Houses have the Joker function, which always increases the power of the builder’s work by one.

When the round is over, the next circular tile is flipped over and shown how many spaces the turntable rotates clockwise. Then the bidding starts again and everything is played for a total of twelve rounds. The scores printed on the game board at the end give us points for those who made progress in the two tournaments, who still had cards in their hand with the highest total value, and, above all, who built the most buildings on the bridge. If the construction sites are left empty at the end of the day because the buildings had to be demolished during the course of the game, this can be very costly. And since money equals victory points here, it’s best to have a bridge built completely. However, for more games, you can also place tiles with variable scoring conditions on the board, which leads to the use of completely different tactics.

convinced from the start

Old London Bridge is a great family game that won me over since the first match. It provides (also due to the excellently regulated rules) a very low entry hurdle. The graphics are clear and lovingly executed according to the medieval theme. Just distinguishing the colors of the green and blue coats of arms is rather difficult depending on the lighting conditions. As usual, the material is very stable and sustainably manufactured by Queen Games. However, so far, at least one player has complained that the turntable is not attached to the board with a pin or something similar. He grabs and slips when you keep his heart on it. Game mechanics are quickly absorbed and allow for different tactics to get as much money as possible. It is advisable to keep an eye on other players’ bridges to force them to use strategic moves to demolish buildings again. The game is best played with four players, as individual actions tend to get in the way of each other.

Incidentally, Peter de Colechurch did not live to see the bridge completed in 1209 after 33 years of construction. The builders at Old London Bridge do it a lot better with a playing time of around 45 minutes.